Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary

Chris McDonald Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris McDonald (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Victory in Europe Day in 1945 was a moment of national rejoicing. It was also the moment when Britain and the world started to count the cost of war—the human catastrophe of totalitarianism. Yet it would be hard to find anyone in the country who would say that the price was too high. I think we heard that today in the moving recitations from the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) and the hon. Member for Upper Bann (Carla Lockhart).

That greatest generation fought for our country and for freedom, but they also fought for British values of democracy and the rule of law. It is estimated that in 1941 there were only 11 functioning democracies in the world, and half of those could trace their genesis back to this mother of Parliaments. It is no exaggeration to say that democracy is Britain’s greatest gift to the world, and it is our duty to defend that gift, both at home and abroad. It is why I was pleased to see soldiers from Ukraine marching in the VE Day parade this weekend.

Our war leaders in 1945 knew that winning the war was only the first step to winning peace. They started immediately to set up a series of international organisations, including the United Nations, the European Council, NATO and the European Coal and Steel Community. Together they have protected democracy, freedom and human rights for the past 80 years. The spread of democracy across the globe has been a great success, but we must not be complacent.

Threats to our democracy are real and not all come from hostile nations. Some arise from conditions in our own country. Our society faces great challenges, with yawning inequality that is greater than at any time since the 1930s, when similar circumstances saw fascism sweep across Europe. This is not a time for hands-off government; it is a time for intervention. Just as in the aftermath of the second world war when the Attlee Government promised good jobs, high-quality homes, universal healthcare and educational opportunity for all, so the mission for this Government is to deliver that commitment anew to the British people.

On this 80th anniversary of VE Day, we have so much to be proud of and thankful for as a nation. I am in complete concordance with the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan) in that we need to take heed to protect, preserve and defend the precious gift of democracy, which was won at such great cost and selflessly bequeathed to us by the wartime generation.

I thought I would leave my final words to Churchill himself, who in his address to Parliament on 8 May 1945 added a coda that was not included in his original broadcast—he actually said these words initially to the media, so I hope he got permission from the Speaker at the time before coming to the House. Churchill said that the strength of the parliamentary institution has been shown to enable it to at the same time wage war and

“preserve all the title deeds of democracy”.—[Official Report, 8 May 1945; Vol. 410, c. 1869.]