Are you even a proper veterans’ minister if you’re not on “resignation watch”? Al Carns is the current holder of that role, and he is conforming to the unspoken requirement in the job description for the minister to always be quite close to quitting in protest at the Government’s treatment of veterans.

This week, his “resignation watch” has been over how Labour plans to deal with the Legacy Act. A previous incumbent, Johnny Mercer, spent so much of his tenure on resignation watch that it was difficult to tell whether he was ever fully in the government or not.

The veterans’ minister is quite an odd role within any government: it usually goes to a veteran so that the minister has credibility and authority. The flipside of that is veterans still care more about their standing with their fellow servicemen and woman than they do about how Westminster views them, hence the 24-hour resignation watch.

The role has also had an interesting effect on other ministerial roles held by veterans of other sectors. For a good while now, resentment has been brewing in the violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector towards the Government’s commitment to its own pledge of halving VAWG within a decade.

The minister is Jess Phillips, well-known to the charities in this area. She came into Parliament having worked for Women’s Aid as a refuge manager in the West Midlands. Tackling domestic abuse and rape is clearly her main identity and source of motivation as a........

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