Supporting Valour in West London Ahead of Remembrance Sunday
Report back from Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick
Left: Andy Slaughter and Veterans' Minister Calvin Bailey. Right: The Hammersmith and Chiswick marker in the Remembrance Garden
November 6, 2026
In advance of Remembrance Sunday, the Government announced over £13 million in grants to 14 veterans’ organisations as part of its Valour project, including local west London charities Oswald Stoll Foundation and The Poppy Factory. I met veterans’ Minister Calvin Bailey to find out about Valour which will help veterans with health, housing, employment and wellbeing.
I also visited the Remembrance Garden in Parliament to plant the Hammersmith & Chiswick marker alongside those of every UK constituency. On Sunday I will attend one of the local Remembrance parades.
One of my responsibilities as Solicitor General is to promote pro bono work by lawyers and last week was the 25 th annual Pro Bono Week. Although lawyers often get a bad name, the profession is unique in the huge amounts of time and skill it gives for free to people who cannot afford legal advice and representation.
The Law Society, the Solicitors’ professional body, was also celebrating its 10 th anniversary and I spoke to representatives of some of the biggest law firms and companies to thank them for devoting resources to pro bono work. I also gave a speech to young lawyers to encourage them to sign up for with Law Works and Advocate, the organisations that find free legal advice for those in need. You can read more about the importance of pro bono work in my article for the Law Society Gazette.
With other London MPs I met the new NHS management for West and North London. A major reorganisation means we are now part of a huge area covering almost half of London. I welcome the fact that the government is directing more resource into clinical work and less into management of the health service, but it is important to hold the NHS to account when things do go wrong. I asked about how GP practices would be supervised under the new system and asked them to look at musculoskeletal services which I have received complaints about recently.
Andy Slaughter with members of the Law Society
On Friday I met the new Executive Director of the Lyric to hear about his plans for the theatre. I also visited an award-winning heating scheme newly fitted into sheltered housing in Shepherd's Bush
Best wishes,
Andy
andy@andyslaughter.com
P.S. I send a regular email newsletter to residents about local and national issues. If you would like to receive it then please email me at andy@andyslaughter.com, click this link.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |