𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Britain’s wounded war heroes will be put at the front of the queue for NHS treatment and housing under a Reform UK government.

The party’s new defence man, Angus MacIntyre, vowed to this paper that he’d deliver a better deal for veterans “from day one”.

That would include priority on medical care for the rest of their lives, and much greater support on housing for them and their families.

In an exclusive interview with the Express, the 40-year military veteran laid bare the shameful treatment of injured troops who are left languishing on waiting lists.

He told how one soldier, left in agony after being blown up in Afghanistan, now faces a five-year wait for a new hip.

Mr MacIntyre said: “They saved his legs and arms, but they were smashed to pieces and he’s been rebuilt slowly, in constant pain.”

That British hero had “one hip replacement […] and a shoulder joint replacement” but had been left “on a five-year waiting list for a hip with no priority.”

He fumed: “Somebody like that should be at the front of the queue for the rest of their lives, period, done.

“I’m not going to pick on certain groups, but there will be people less worthy of a place at the front of the queue than an individual like that. So something is wrong.”

Mr MacIntyre, who served with the Parachute Regiment before joining the RAF Regiment, said Reform would tear up and rewrite the rulebook on veterans’ care.

He said: “We will look at the Armed Forces Covenant and the whole package – what else can we do for the serving cohort, and what can we do better for veterans?”

The Armed Forces Covenant already promises veterans priority NHS care for conditions linked to their service, subject to clinical need.

But campaigners have long warned that too many former troops are slipping through the cracks.

Mr MacIntyre said Reform could look to America’s Veterans Administration as a model.

He said: “You hear criticism of how long the VA takes, but the Americans have a million men and women under arms, including the Space Force and the Coast Guard.

“We don’t need an organisation on that scale, but we certainly need something better.”

The hardened veteran also revealed how he had to step in personally to stop a young serviceman and his family being turfed into a shelter.

He said: “In 2006 or 2007 I was discharging a young man from my own organisation – him, his wife and two children – and he was offered no place on a housing list in Newcastle, where he wanted to go.

“He was told he’d go into a shelter until he got a place. We cut him a deal: he got a posting for two years where he could take his family, which probably saved him and his marriage.”

He warned: “But we can’t always do that. There will be people with families who are discharged into very unsatisfactory situations, and that’s got to stop.”

Mr MacIntyre said he was covering the entire defence brief for Reform, backed by “a huge network of volunteers, unpaid, who bring huge levels of experience”.