The Sun Military Awards 2018 – known as the Millies – have recognised the true excellence of the UK’s armed forces with a star-studded ceremony at London’s Banqueting House.

The 11th annual ceremony awarded prizes to winners from the Royal Navy, Army and RAF, recognising remarkable feats of bravery, sacrifice and selflessness.

Six members of 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards won the Hero Overseas award for their lifesaving first aid response during the Las Vegas shooting last year, where 59 people lost their lives. The young soldiers bravely stepped in and used their battlefield training to aid the emergency services.

England manager Gareth Southgate attended the awards ceremony to present the Inspiring Others award to Major Scott Mills of the Royal Marines, who helped prepare the England men’s football team ahead of their historic World Cup campaign this year.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, who hosted the nominees at a reception at 10 Downing Street ahead of the awards show, said:

It was a great honour to attend The Sun Military Awards and congratulate so many of the winners and nominees in person. The incredible stories told tonight show how our armed forces protect British people and our interests at home and abroad.

Whether by rescuing civilians from conflict, helping Salisbury recover from a reckless chemical attack or standing up to the appalling use of chemical weapons in Syria, tonight’s nominees have shown the brilliance and bravery of our armed forces. I’m grateful to The Sun for helping the whole country congratulate these remarkable serving personnel and those who support them in their vital work.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier accepted the Judges’ Award for Special Recognition on behalf of the Royal Air Force for RAF100 and its success in celebrating the RAF’s centenary year.

The nominees rubbed shoulders with famous faces on the red carpet, including armed forces supporters Nick Knowles, Bear Grylls and Dame Kelly Holmes and sports stars Victoria Pendleton, Amy Williams and Thom Evans. Television stars Georgia Toffolo, Emily Atack and Vicky Pattison also attended to show their support.

The winners of The Sun Military Awards 2018 are:

Hero at Home – Individual

Commander Andrew Parkinson – for rescuing a woman trapped underwater beneath a yacht in a Hampshire marina

Hero at Home – Unit

Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Task Force – for their response to the Salisbury attack

Hero Overseas – Individual

Lance Corporal Chris May, Troopers Stuart Finlay, Ross Woodward, James Astbury, Zak Davidson and Dean Priestley – for their medical response to the Las Vegas shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in American history

Hero Overseas – Unit

HMS Daring – for withstanding danger and aggression guarding vital shipping routes around the world

Best Reservist

Corporal Isabell Hutchinson – for sensitively preventing a young woman from taking her own life

Inspiring Others

Major Scott Mills – for his training of the England men’s football team ahead of the 2018 World Cup

Overcoming Adversity

Robert Long – for his success in Jiu-Jitsu since being blinded by an IED in Afghanistan

Innovation Award

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory – for its work on a sepsis diagnosis breakthrough

Support to the Armed Forces

There But Not There – for its success in commemorating the First World War and raising money for service charities

Judges’ Award for Special Recognition

RAF100 – for its success in celebrating the centenary of the Royal Air Force and inspiring a new generation

Thank you Mr President. I may I also thank Special Representative Fall and Ms Ghelani of OCHA for briefing the Council today and for all that your respective teams are doing in what is a complicated and difficult region as you’ve both set out.

Today I will address issues that affect the region as a whole, the situation in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon and the impact of Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin. I will not address DRC, Burundi or CAR as we have the opportunity to discuss these issues in other Council meetings.

Mr Special Representative, the United Kingdom welcomes the holistic approach that you have taken both with this report and to promote peace and stability in Central Africa. An approach that covers the political, humanitarian and human rights situation and addresses root causes is crucial to conflict prevention and resolution. We also welcome UNOCA’s work to drive forward the Women, Peace and Security agenda, under UNSCR 1325.

We encourage UNOCA to continue to focus on building the capacity of regional organisations to enable delivery of their early warning mechanisms, conflict prevention and peace-building initiatives.

Mr President, I would like to focus now on a country of particular concern in the region and that’s Cameroon.

I should start by saying the United Kingdom recognises the many positive contributions Cameroon is making to stability in the region, including their continued commitment to the fight against Boko Haram and the sanctuary that Cameroon offers to refugees from Nigeria and the Central African Republic. However, we are concerned by the reality of the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.

In particular, we are concerned about high levels of displacement and take very seriously Reena Ghelani’s warning that this is now one of the fastest growing displacement crises in Africa and reports of human rights violations and abuses perpetrated by armed separatist groups and Government forces, including extra-judicial killings, other killings, abductions, restrictions of movement and access to health and education as described in the Secretary-General’s report. We must always be alert, colleagues, to the risk that the situation escalates, affecting the broader peace and stability of the Central African region, and we have already seen over 30,000 Cameroonians flee into Nigeria. If grievances are not addressed, tensions are likely to increase further.

Mr President, these concerns are not new – I raised them in the Council’s discussions in March, as did others. Unfortunately, we have not seen the action needed to address the situation and since March, it has deteriorated further.

We welcome President Biya’s recent pledge to address the situation but words alone will not improve things. We strongly urge the Government of Cameroon to take urgent action, including by:

· actively addressing the situation through inclusive dialogue with the Anglophone leadership to address the underlying issues; · undertaking confidence-building measures in order to diffuse tensions and build conditions for dialogue. This includes the release of political detainees, and implementing the Government’s own commitments on decentralisation, and the recommendations of the Commission on Bilingualism; · allowing full humanitarian access and access to human rights monitors to all parts of the country – and I would also hope and expect that our own SRSG would have access wherever he wanted to go; · and ensuring accountability for all those responsible for human rights violations and abuses.

And clearly Mr President we also call on the armed groups involved to cease their attacks on civilians, allow full humanitarian access, and access to human rights monitors, and to engage with the Government on these issues.

The UK, for its part, is committed to supporting Cameroon and I am pleased to announce today that the United Kingdom is contributing $3.1 million to the UN’s response in the Anglophone regions – that’s equivalent to 20% of this year’s flash appeal for the Anglophone crisis – to address immediate humanitarian and medical needs. We strongly encourage other Member States to fund this as an important part of the conflict prevention effort. Preventing a crisis costs significantly less than resolving one.

Mr President, we have raised our concerns quietly so far and directly with the Government and we are committed to working with the Government of Cameroon in every way we can to help resolve this situation. But I fear, unless action is taken and the situation improves, concern over the situation in Cameroon is likely to increase amongst Security Council Members and become a more prominent part of our discussions.

Mr President in addition to Cameroon I would like to raise our ongoing concern about the humanitarian and security situation in the wider Lake Chad Basin, which continues to deteriorate. The United Kingdom has played its part in providing humanitarian support, as well as significant support particularly to assist the Nigerian security forces in the fight against Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa (ISWA), but this matter needs the ongoing focus and support of the international community.

The deteriorating security situation in northeast Nigeria is of particular concern, and one I note shared by the Secretary-General. ISWA has increased the frequency, range and sophistication of their attacks and has attacked forward operating military bases in North East Nigeria. The execution by ISWA of humanitarian workers such as Saifura Khorsa and Hauwa Liman, who were both abducted while providing antenatal care to communities in desperate need is a telling reminder of the brutality of ISWA’s activities.

Let me conclude Mr President by reiterating that we have an opportunity together to prevent further conflict, and the inevitable suffering and insecurity, and I hope we can all act to do so.

Thank you Mr President.

A new free trade agreement with Japan has been approved by the European Parliament and is expected to enter into force in early 2019.

The EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will create the world’s largest free trade area, eliminating over 97% of export duties currently in place.

The agreement will help to boost trade between the UK and Japan and is estimated to increase UK GDP by up to £3 billion the longer term. This will help to create more British jobs and give consumers more choice at lower prices.

Last year, the British and Japanese Prime Ministers agreed to ‘elevate our security and prosperity partnership to the next level’ as the UK leaves the European Union. Visiting Japan last summer, International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox agreed with his counterparts to use the EU-Japan EPA as a basis for a new and stronger partnership.

The agreement agreed yesterday (Wednesday 12 December) removes significant barriers for the automotive sector and will commit Japan to international car standards, making exports of vehicles to the nation significantly easier. This is welcome news for the UK motor industry, which exported just over £1 billion worth of vehicles to Japan in 2017.

The agreement will also reduce tariffs on processed foods, agricultural products, beer, wine and whisky exports.

International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox said:

Japan is the world’s third largest economy and one of our closest trading partners, as well as being a vocal defender of free trade in the face of increased protectionist tendencies from other countries.

This is one of the world’s most ambitious free trade agreements and I welcome the benefits that it will bring to both British businesses and consumers. The agreement eliminates almost all tariffs on goods traded between our two nations and we will work with the Japanese government to use this agreement as the basis for a new, even stronger partnership after we leave the European Union.

• Japan is the second largest economy in Asia. Since 2012 goods and services trade between the UK and Japan totalled £28 billion in the year ending June 2018, an increase of just over 40% over the past 5 years. Most of this increase has been in vehicles, pharmaceuticals, machinery and finance services.
• On 25 June 2018 the House of Commons voted in favour of the UK supporting EU signature of the EU-Japan EPA.

People with disabilities are likely to face greater costs when seeking elected office due to their disability. This fund will help them to compete on a level playing field with all other candidates.

Minister for Women and Equalities Penny Mordaunt said:

“Everyone has the right to stand and represent their community – and it is vital no-one is held back.

“Empowering people with disabilities leads to better decisions and more effective outcomes for all of us.

“Unless every one of our citizens can reach their full potential our nation never will.”

The EnAble Fund for Elected Office will run until 2020. Alongside this, the government is undertaking a programme of work with disability stakeholders to help political parties to better support disabled candidates.

People can bid for a range of support, including:

• transport support for mobility impaired candidates
• specialist equipment such as screen reader software
• British Sign Language interpretation for hearing impaired candidates during election campaigns
• the transcription of campaign material into braille for visually impaired candidates

The fund, which will be delivered by Disability Rights UK supported by the Local Government Association, should help political parties prioritise this issue and take action to ensure no one is disadvantaged in the democratic process.

Further information can be found here.