By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-09-25 05:16:00 | Updated at 2026-09-25 06:34:32
1 hour ago
The national commemorations at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday are "incredibly hollow", a former Conservative minister has said.
Johnny Mercer said he "really struggled" watching veterans march past politicians on Remembrance Sunday in November because of the way veterans who served in Afghanistan have been treated.
Mr Mercer, who was speaking to GB News' Chopper's Political Podcast, served three tours in Afghanistan and was nearly blown up by improvised explosive devices three times.
Speaking to GB News' Chopper's Political Podcast, Mr Mercer said that the annual sight of veterans marching past the Cenotaph was "hollow" because of the way Afghan veterans have been treated.
He said: "I really struggle with it because I've always been on a particular side of this argument. The country wants to move on and forget about Afghanistan and all the rest of it.
"My cohort and my circles are people like parents who've lost their only child in Afghanistan, for whom it has devastated their life.
"Their bedroom is still the same. They don't change their bedroom. This is every day. And yet the country not only redresses veterans rights, but seems to just want to forget about Afghanistan and smudge it out of history because it all ended so badly."
He added: "You've got to choose who you're in it for. And I've always unapologetically and ruthlessly been in it for them, rather than, you know, those, um, those in London and Westminster. And I can't apologize for that - that’s not me."
Johnny Mercer said the commemorations rung 'incredibly hollow'
GB NEWS
Mr Mercer served as veterans minister several times between 2019 and 2024, latterly taking a seat in the Cabinet.
He said he was proud of the way that the Government had changed "what it feels like to be a veteran through legislation" as well as, funding health programmes as well as tackling, homelessness among former members of the Armed Forces.
Mr Mercer took aim at Reform UK for over its plans to use the Navy to tow small boats containing migrants to France. "It's insane - completely," he said.
"Do you think if that was possible, it might have been done already? I mean, literally like governments have fallen on this issue.
Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch at the Cenotaph in 2024
"And do you think no one has sat there in cabinet and gone 'why don't we deploy the Navy?' Of course they have, but it doesn't work.
"Simple solutions? There are none. You've got to work a bit harder than that."
He added that "all parties, including Reform, should probably stop treating people like they're stupid, coming up with stuff that people know is never going to happen".
Mr Mercer, whose memoir "No Way To Run A Country - An Outsider's Journey Into The Heart Of Our Broken Politics" is out this week.
