Suella Braverman has set herself against the very values Britain fought for

From the rainy, cold Falkland skies of May 23 1982, Argentine bombers poured down horror upon British forces attempting to establish a beachhead at San Carlos Bay.

Such was the ferocity of the attack, those shores would come to be known as “Bomb Alley”. The next day, the British frigate HMS Antelope sank, its hull shattered by a bomb, nearly snapping it in two. It was, in the words of one Royal Marine onlooker, “a majestically awful sight”.

Eight-thousand miles away, back home in Britain, families of those serving sought news of their loved ones. I know, because mine was one of them.

My uncle was on Antelope. My family huddled round the radio, listening in grim silence to every update, my mum hoping not to hear her brother’s name. By some minor miracle, he and many of his fellow crewmates survived. On Remembrance Sunday, as The

Last Post is sounded and the crowds fall silent, I think of that night.

As the names of Britain’s fallen from the wars of this century and the last are read out in villages, towns and cities across the country today, we will be united in remembering the extraordinary bravery and sacrifice of our Armed Forces.

The great ideals they represent – of duty, service, putting your country first – sometimes feel as if they are slipping through our fingers; that they simply aren’t fashionable anymore.

And, if we are honest with ourselves, under its previous leadership, the Labour Party was too often guilty of not understanding their fundamental importance.

That is why, over the past three years, I have worked tirelessly to put them back at the heart of my party and everything we do. Gone are the days of Labour representing narrow, niche interests or being more interested in protest than power.

In its place stands a proudly patriotic party, one that has changed beyond recognition, back in the service of the working people and communities that are the backbone of this country.

But bravery, sacrifice, duty, service, these are not in themselves an answer to the question of what sort of country we want to be and what sort of future we are fighting for.

Here, again, we take inspiration from those we remember this weekend. At the Kohima War Cemetery, in India, where 1,400 Allied soldiers of the Second World War are memorialised – including hundreds of Indian soldiers of the British Army – the famous words of John Maxwell Edmonds appear: “For your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

Or, as one member of HMS Antelope’s crew put it at a service a few years ago: “If you need to fight for democracy, then so be it.”

That freedom that our grandparents and parents fought for is precious. But for it to mean something, it must include the freedom and the rights of those we don’t agree with.

This weekend, we have again seen protests across our major cities. Among those protests are people we should have no truck with – those inciting violence, glorifying the terrorists of Hamas or calling for the destruction of Israel. They should be dealt with firmly by the law.

But those speaking up peacefully on behalf of the people of Gaza and their horrendous suffering are not somehow in breach of the spirit of remembrance – instead, they are exercising the very rights for which people have died for this country.

Blanket calls for them to be cancelled or silenced, or to describe what they are doing in the language of “hate”, are wrong.

The fact those calls have come from the highest levels of government should trouble everyone, regardless of whether you agree with their cause or not.

There are legitimate questions over whether the current laws around hateful extremism go far enough. But attempting to include those expressing their right to protest within it is not the sign of a strong, confident government – it is a sign of ministers’ cowardice.

There is another value that has been lacking in the current debate: respect. It would be deplorable if this weekend’s protests impinged on the desire of others to pay respect to Britain’s fallen. That should be a

Few people in public life have done more recently to whip up division or sow the seeds of hatred

Labour is now a proudly patriotic party, one that has changed beyond recognition

The freedom we fought for must include the freedom and the rights of those we don’t agree with

simple matter of courtesy and decency.

Equally, the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister’s treatment of the police and protesters alike this week – coming just a few days after she shamefully described homelessness as “a lifestyle choice” – betray a total lack of respect for this country’s values and its principles.

Few people in public life have done more recently to whip up division, set the British people against one another and sow the seeds of hatred and distrust than Suella Braverman. In doing so, she demeans her office.

She also sets her face against the very values that Britain has fought for: values that the rest of the country will pay tribute to this morning.