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Every week, I enter the online ballot to ask a question to the Prime Minister (and I often try to catch the Speaker’s eye too) and last week I finally got drawn from the random ballot. I decided to use this opportunity to ask about a local war veteran, Pauline, who I’ve been supporting over the last six months. She has been completely screwed over by the system.

Staff Sergeant Pauline Cole received military compensation for injuries she sustained while serving our country. But this resulted in her Pension Credit being cut from £77 a week to just £11 a week. This is because the Government currently counts military compensation as ‘income’ (even though it doesn’t count civil compensation as income!).

Veterans like Pauline are being forced to use their compensation to cover essential living costs that their Pension Credit should otherwise be helping with. I think this is disgraceful. No veteran should be penalised for their service.

I first raised this case in the House of Commons on Remembrance Day last year, and have since met with ministers to discuss this further. Despite this, no decisive Government action was taken, so I decided to take this case to the very top, at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Keir Starmer agreed to ensure that Pauline “gets the appropriate meeting she wants and needs” - I will push to ensure he honours that.

It’s an honour to represent Pauline, who has done so much for our country. We owe her a debt of gratitude and I will keep fighting for her and all the veterans who put their lives on the line for us.

Josh Babarinde MP: Fighting for local veteran Pauline at Prime Ministers Questions