‘Pinstripe warriors’ are warned over cutting armed forces
PHILIP Hammond’s “pinstripe warriors” have been warned against pushing for further major cuts to Britain’s military.
Conservative former defence minister Mark Francois voiced concerns over morale across the armed forces, adding he was alarmed by reports which suggested that at one stage the Treasury floated a reduction in the regular army from 82,500 to as low as 50,000.
“It would be sheer folly,” Mr Francois told the Commons. “I only have to hope that the pinstripe warriors in the Treasury, who daily live in fear that the air conditioning might malfunction or that the tea trolley might be late, have since abandoned such a daft suggestion.”
Tory, Labour and SNP MPs also raised concerns over the prospect of other cuts to the armed forces, with a major review of Britain’s security capability now under way.
Defence minister Tobias Ellwood said the Ministry of Defence had “no intention of leaving the UK less safe”, adding that Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson would reveal more about the review shortly.
Tory MP Bob Seely, a former soldier, later said Britain’s new aircraft carriers – the £3.1 billion carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was accepted into the Royal Navy fleet last month – cannot be protected by the Royal Navy in its current form.
Mr Seely said: “In any conflict or threat of conflict with peer or near-peer nations, those carriers would go home and sit in a base because they are not protectable unless they would be surrounded by a US fleet, and they have no protection against shipbusting ballistic missiles.
“If we keep reducing the armed forces in personnel and kit, we will be encouraging violence against this nation, not deterring it.”