Decision to axe 650 Yorkshire soldiers ‘done deal’ says MPs

The Barnsley MP and Shadow Culture Minister Dan Jarvis, who spent 15 years serving as a paratrooper including active service in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Ministry of Defence (MoD) chiefs embarking on the biggest round of cuts to the military since the Second World War have already agreed one of the three regular Yorkshire Regiment battalions will go, with the feared loss of around 650 soldiers.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, who also had a distinguished Army career, says sources have told him the 3rd Battalion (the former Duke of Wellington Regiment) is to be cut despite its troops currently fighting in Helmand where five were killed in a single explosion in March this year.

Earlier this month, 20-year-old Private Gregg Stone, from Hull, was also killed while serving with the 3rd Battalion in Afghanistan.

Senior Army insiders have told the Yorkshire Post it is more likely the 3rd Battalion will be merged, while another battalion is axed altogether.

Mr Jarvis has accused the Government of waiting for a politically opportune moment to announce the decision, leaving a cloud of uncertainty hanging over soldiers and their families.

“It is my understanding that one of the regular battalions from the Yorkshire Regiment will be cut,” he said.

“That is a big mistake and bad for the Army and bad for Yorkshire.

“This is now the Government waiting to release the information at the best time possible for them.

“That is unacceptable.”

Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield which was home to three of the soldiers killed in the March bomb blast, Corporal Jake Hartley, 20, Private Anthony Frampton, 20, and Pte Daniel Wilford, 21, said yesterday he is planning to organise a cross-party group of Yorkshire MPs to meet Defence Secretary Philip Hammond.

Army sources within the regiment have told the Yorkshire Post they believe the region is being unfairly targeted by defence chiefs despite its high recruitment numbers, in order to support struggling regiments in the south of the country.

This year there have been 11,315 applications from people in Yorkshire interested in joining up, compared to 9,991 in 2007.

But despite the region supplying nearly one fifth of the entire Army, a number of recruitment centres were closed earlier this year, including Barnsley, Huddersfield and Scarborough, after the MoD outsourced services to a private company.

“It is a curious decision that the best recruited battalions of the British Army should be disbanded,” Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP for Newark, said yesterday.

“I don’t understand why, when we are at war, the Army is choosing to disband the most flexible of its combined power – the infantry battalions.”

Last week, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed whole units “inevitably will be lost or will merge” as the Army shrinks from 102,000 soldiers to 82,000 under plans which have been set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Mr Hammond said there was no question of abandoning the regimental system, but a slimmed-down Army would mean an increased reliance on private military contractors and part-time reservists, whose numbers are set to double to 30,000.

In future, the reservists would take on some tasks currently carried out by regular troops, requiring greater commitment to training and preparation.

An MoD spokeswoman said last night that work is still being undertaken and no final decisions have been made.

“The Army is currently considering re-design options as the Army reduces to 82,000,” she said.

“No decisions have been taken.

“The regimental system is fundamental to the fighting power of the British Army today and we are not going to change it.”