Tri-Service
Former TA Officer Becomes Shadow Defence Secretary
Afghan veteran Clive Lewis has been named the shadow defence secretary after a weekend of turmoil for the Labour party.
Mr Lewis joined the Territorial Army after passing out of Sandhurst Military Academy in 2006.
He was an infantry officer with 7 Rifles. He also served in Afghanistan for three months during the summer of 2009.
He struggled with depression after returning from the battlefield.
He told the BBC, where he worked as a journalist, he “felt like I was being crushed by it all” and said:
“I didn't think I had the right to feel this way when there were people I know who'd lost their limbs or friends."
His recovery was aided with the help of an Army psychiatrist and his sergeant, who had also suffered from similar problems.
Mr Lewis was born in London but grew up on a council estate in Northampton before studying economics at the University of Bradford.
He worked as BBC Look East as its chief political correspondent and became a Member of Parliament last year after winning the Norwich South MP.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has made a number of appointments to his shadow cabinet following resignations from a group of his MPs, who are also calling for his resignation, following the vote by the UK to leave the EU.
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