BATTLE-hardened Royal Marines from Plymouth hosted Gary Streeter, MP for South West Devon, giving him a taste of what it takes to be an elite commando.

Mr Streeter visited 42 Commando Royal Marines at their home in Bickleigh Barracks to get a feel for what it’s like to be part of the Royal Navy’s specialist amphibious force.

The highly trained Marines have served several times in Afghanistan in recent years and are currently protecting the Royal Navy fleet worldwide, including in Sierra Leone.

The MP was given a tour of the camp and introduced serving Marines to hear about the variety of recent deployments and exercises.

42 Commando showed off some of their equipment used while providing ships protection to the Royal Navy and allowed Mr Streeter to get hands-on with one of their rapid-firing Mini Guns.

Mr Streeter said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to handle the machine guns and have come away from this visit with some fantastic memories.

”I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to 42 Commando and was impressed, as ever, with the commitment and professionalism of the Royal Marines who work here. 42 Commando are much loved by the local community and enjoy tremendous support from the people of Plymouth.“

He also met the unit welfare team who look after the interests of all personnel serving at the unit and work to keep families of those deployed updated with the latest developments on the frontline.

42 Commando Royal Marines is one of three deployable units which make up the fighting force of 3 Commando Brigade.