UK government confirms Liberation Day plans

The UK government has officially confirmed that Liberation Day will be recognised as part of this year’s VE Day commemorations. The programme of events will include a special reception at the UK Parliament and visits to the Channel Islands by government ministers.

Stephanie Peacock, Minister for Sport, Media, Civil Society and Youth, will travel to Jersey and Sark on 9 and 10 May to take part in the Liberation Day celebrations. She will be accompanied by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, who is responsible for managing the UK’s constitutional relationship with the Crown Dependencies.

Ahead of the ministerial visits, events will begin with a formal reception in the UK Parliament on 6 May. This event will be hosted by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, on behalf of the governments of Jersey and Guernsey. Ministers from the UK government are also expected to attend.

In honour of the occasion, the flags of the Channel Islands—as well as those of the other Crown Dependencies—will be flown from the top of the Ministry of Justice building and displayed in Parliament Square.

The announcement comes after Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell raised concerns in Parliament about the lack of publicly shared plans to include the Channel Islands in the VE Day commemorations. The newly confirmed programme ensures that the Channel Islands’ historic significance and their experience during the Second World War will be properly acknowledged as part of the national remembrance.