Royal Marines hero’s fury at Johnny Mercer’s deceptive assault on his service

Rishi Sunak is beneath strain to self-discipline his Veterans’ Minister after a shameless and deceptive assault on his Labour rival’s navy profession.

In an astonishing social media message Johnny Mercer claimed Fred Thomas – who’s aiming to unseat him on the common election – had “served five minutes in uniform”. In reality Mr Thomas was within the Royal Marines for seven years changing into a Captain.

Mr Mercer additionally accused the Labour candidate and TV star Carol Vorderman of main “s*** lonely lives”. Following the assault Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard, mentioned: “Johnny Mercer is rightly proud of his time in the military but to dismiss the service of others shows just how far the Tories have fallen.”

The prime Tory’s astonishing rant got here after Mr Thomas shared figures revealing an increase in homelessness amongst armed forces veterans. Mr Thomas, a former Royal Marine, mentioned he was “furious” and requested if Mr Mercer would apologise for his “abject failure”. His message was then shared by Ms Vorderman.

Mr Mercer sparked a backlash when he responded accused them of “deliberately misleading” the general public “because that makes your s*** lonely life feel better”. In an extra offended message to his Labour rival he went on: “It just shows – again – that having served five minutes in uniform, does not always mean that integrity the rest of us live by. Plymouth Labour seems a good home.”

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting mentioned: “If you’re in any doubt about the desperate, nasty campaign the Tories are planning to run, witness the appalling spectacle of the Veterans’ Minister insulting his opponent’s military service – all because Fred Thomas highlighted veterans’ homelessness figures.”

The Mirror has contacted Tory HQ for a remark. The rant got here after Ms Vorderman a submit by the Labour candidate. Mr Mercer accused them of “deliberately misleading” the general public “because that makes your s*** lonely life feel better.”

And he went on to rant at Ms Vorderman, who he has clashed with earlier than: “No one normal really cares about your view. They think you’re mad. I’m changing veterans lives. What I came into politics to do.”

His outburst sparked a backlash on Twitter, with one commenter writing: “You sir have no class and as an MP are a shocking example to the people of this country! You’ll be gone soon.” Another requested the Prime Minister if he “may wish to consider appropriate action”. He requested Mr Sunak: “Or will you just shrug your shoulders and let this man insult members of the public?”

The remarks got here after Labour evaluation of the newest quarterly homelessness statistics discovered there are round 500 veterans’ households being made newly homeless each three months – as much as 180 households a month. Labour’s Shadow Veterans Minister, Steve McCabe MP, mentioned veterans are being “let down” by the Government. Mr Mercer had beforehand pledged to finish homelessness amongst veterans by the tip 2023.

But responding to criticism, he mentioned he had solely been referring to veterans “sleeping rough”. Responding to a clip of him making the ‘finish homelessness’ pledge, he mentioned: “Even in this clip I am making it clear that I am talking about veterans sleeping rough. What most people define as street homeless.”

He went on: There is a stark distinction between being ‘homeless’ – not having your individual residence, and sleeping exterior each evening due to an absence of different choices.” And in a further tweet, he said: “But there’s a huge distinction between not having your individual residence, and sleeping out within the chilly each evening. I’m in it for many who want me who’re determined, who’ve nowhere else to show. Not those that leap up and down, make a whole lot of noise, however don’t find yourself altering a single life as a result of they’re solely in it for themselves.”