Coalition cutbacks ‘have let down our soldiers’

The Shadow Defence Secretary will today launch a stinging attack on the Armed Forces cuts that will see Yorkshire’s historic Green Howards regiment disbanded and the size of the British Army reduced to its lowest level since the Napoleonic Wars.

Jim Murphy will tell the Labour Party conference that making soldiers redundant on their return from Afghanistan is “simply wrong” and that helping veterans find new employment must be a top priority.

The Labour Shadow Minister will also savage the Government’s decision to mothball one of Britain’s aircraft carriers and axe Harrier jump jets, leaving the country with “no planes to fly off a carrier for almost a decade”.

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And as Labour tries to position itself as the party of the troops, Mr Murphy will reveal almost 500 serving members and veterans of the Armed Forces have joined the party this year after it offered membership for only £1.

This summer the Government announced the most swingeing cuts to Britain’s Armed Forces in decades, with plans to abolish a string of battalions including North Yorkshire’s Green Howards as it reduces the size of the standing army by one fifth.

Mr Murphy is expected to say: “Our country is brilliant at turning civilians into soldiers, but we are not good enough when the time comes to turning soldiers back into civilians.

“It is simply wrong for anyone who has served in Afghanistan and comes back to a public parade and heroes’ welcome, to be sacked by their Government almost immediately and then be expected to simply join the back of the queue at the local Job Centre. It shouldn’t happen – and under the next Labour Government it won’t.”

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Mr Murphy will also ridicule the Government’s shake-up of Britain’s overall military capability, and use his keynote speech to attack the Liberal Democrats for their complicity in the Conservative Party’s programme of cuts. He will also insist it is time the Coalition stopped blaming Labour for the state of the economy.

He added: “Two-and-a-half years into their Government having a catch-all slogan of “it’s not my fault” just isn’t good enough for our country or our Armed Forces.”