Michael Fabricant is backing a parliamentary campaign to support the proposal made by Rita Restorick, whose son Stephen was the last soldier killed in Northern Ireland, for a posthumous medal for troops killed in action. Michael Fabricant is Joint Chairman of the Royal Marines All Party Parliamentary Group.

The MP says: "The range of senior MPs, including former Ministers and soldiers, supporting the campaign clearly demonstrates that there is deep and broad support for Rita Restorick’s campaign in Parliament. I hope that the Government will soon recognise the need to support a posthumous medal for supreme sacrifice."

Text of Commons motion on Posthumous medals for supreme sacrifice:

That this House warmly supports the proposal put forward by Rita Restorick, and others such as the Royal British Legion, the Gulf Veterans, the Falklands Families and the South Atlantic Medal Association, that a posthumous medal similar to the US Purple Heart be presented to the next of kin of troops killed in action, so that it can be worn with pride on Remembrance Day; accepts that suitable criteria for such a medal need to be carefully defined and that this is best done by the MOD in consultation with the Royal British Legion and forces’ associations; but believes that servicemen and women who are killed in the line of duty have made the supreme sacrifice and deserve recognition for this in the form of a medal, as well as the government’s proposed memorial in central London.