Forces are 'paying in blood for lack of funding'

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Forces are 'paying in blood for lack of funding'

By Aislinn Simpson, Stephen Adams and Thomas Harding

Last Updated: 3:19am GMT 09/11/2007

British troops are "paying in blood" for the Government's failure to properly fund its overstretched Armed Forces fighting on two fronts, former defence chiefs warned yesterday.

General Lord Guthrie, Admiral Lord Boyce and Marshal of the RAF Lord Craig, together with the former foreign secretary Lord Owen, accused the Government of failing the Armed Forces as they launched a new group to lobby for an increase in defence spending.

Their call came after outcries over poor compensation payouts for injured troops, revelations over the dire state of military accommodation and stories of equipment shortages on the front line.

Speaking yesterday at the launch of the UK National Defence Association, which will press for a major increase in defence spending, Lord Guthrie, a former chief of the defence staff, said: "I don't know how much longer the Services can go on like this.

"Under-funding of our Armed Forces is already having consequences, both for our overall defence capability and for our Forces at the sharp end, which are too thinly spread and being required to go to war with equipment which is often outdated and not fit for purpose."

The group pointed to the "unnecessary casualties" caused by the shortfall - such as Fusilier Gordon Gentle, whose inquest heard on Tuesday that a "chaotic" military supply chain meant vital equipment that could have saved his life was unavailable.

Winston Churchill, the grandson of the Second World War leader, is president of the association, which wants the public to join in lobbying all political parties to sign up to an increase in the military budget from around two per cent of national income to three per cent.

"During the Falklands conflict 25 years ago we were devoting five per cent of all we produced as a nation to defence," he said.

"Today that figure stands at barely two per cent yet we are fighting simultaneously the two most intense wars the UK has been engaged in since Korea."

Inadequate spending was, the former Tory MP added, "all too often being paid by men and women of our Armed Forces in blood".

"It is a shameful failure of Parliament," he said.

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