Grant Shapps defends troop cuts as UK troopers have a ‘can-do’ angle

Grant Shapps has defended cuts to troop numbers as he stated troopers have a “can-do” angle.

The Defence Secretary insisted the British Military remained able to being deployed at quick discover and fulfilling its position of defending the nation, no matter its dwindling numbers.

In 2021, the Ministry of Defence introduced it will lower troop numbers from 82,000 to 73,000 by 2025, its smallest measurement for the reason that Napoleonic period.

In a speech at Lancaster Home on Monday, the place Mr Shapps set out his future imaginative and prescient for the defence of the UK and its allies, he stated: “I typically discover, truly, particularly simply having conversations concerning the navy, what folks confuse and conflate are the exact variety of troops, particularly for the Military, with how properly you’re defended as a nation.”

Mr Shapps added: “There are such a lot of totally different components to our deterrent and to our navy belongings which go approach past simply pure numbers.

“I discover our navy is extremely succesful. They’re very a lot ‘can-do’ in angle. We’re getting the funding that they should do the job.”

‘Military has by no means been smaller’

Nonetheless, Lord Dannatt, the previous head of the Military, instructed the Telegraph that whereas there was “little doubt” serving personnel had a “can-do” angle, it didn’t make up for the very fact “the British Military has by no means been smaller”.

“The underside line is numbers do matter,” he stated.

“It’s a incontrovertible fact that at 73,000 the British Military has by no means been smaller and the Authorities has to just accept there’s a threat having a military that small. What occurs in future if British forces are dedicated on the bottom, can we maintain the operation for six months to 18 months?”