Keir Starmer backs campaign for £1.5million memorial to 'Forces Sweetheart' Dame Vera Lynn by the White Cliffs of Dover ahead of VE Day
A campaign is underway for a likeness of the wartime singer to be created and placed near the White Cliffs of Dover, which inspired one of her biggest hits.
Organisers hope to unveil the work in Kent this summer, five years since she passed away at the age of 103.
Conservative MP Mark Francois raised the campaign, which has been supported by the Daily Mail, at Prime Minister's Question Time today.
It was initiated by the late MP Sir David Amess, his close friend who was killed in 2021.
Appealing to the PM for support, Mr Francois noted it is the 80th anniversary of VE Day next week, telling the Commons 'no one did more to maintain their morale in adversity' in wartime Britain than Dame Vera.
'They now have a stunning design, they have a site – appropriately at Dover – and they have already raised three-quarters of the funding that they would need,' he told MPs.
'So at this very special time would the PM lend his support in principle to this noble endeavour?'
Sir Keir replied: 'Dave Vera is sewn into our nation's soul for providing the soundtrack four our greatest generation, it is particularly timely, so I will support he campaign he has done so much to promote.'
Dame Vera became a symbol of freedom for the men often thousands of miles from home and songs such as 'We'll Meet Again' and 'The White Cliffs of Dover' gave them hope in their darkest hours that they would one day return to their loved-ones in Britain.
And at home hits such as 'There'll Always Be An England' gave millions belief better days lay ahead as the Luftwaffe lay siege to UK cities during the Blitz and threatened invasion from France before the Allies swept Hitler's forces aside.
While her music was a beacon of hope between 1939 and 1945, her words in 'We'll Meet Again' resonated again shortly before her death, during the coronavirus pandemic, with the Queen using them to inspire modern Britain to evoke the spirit of its wartime generation and battle through the crisis.
The song became a lockdown anthem as it again entered the singles charts with profits going to the NHS.
After her death in 2020 the campaign to build a memorial in her honour has won cross-party support from MPs.
Sir David campaigned for a tribute to the East End-born star as a symbol of strength during the Second World War and to her lifetime of charity work.
The memorial has been designed by British sculptor Paul Day, who created the Battle of Britain tribute on London's Victoria Embankment.
Appealing to the PM for support, Mr Francois noted it is the 80th anniversary of VE Day next week, telling the Commons 'no one did more to maintain their morale in adversity' in wartime Britain than Dame Vera.
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