Dan Byles Furious with Gordon Brown over Treatment of Armed Forces

Former Army Major Dan Byles, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, today expressed his fury and disgust at Gordon Brown for not even knowing how many British soldiers are fighting for their country in Afghanistan.

The unusually strong attack came after Gordon Brown gave evidence to the Defence Select Committee on Thursday. He was repeatedly asked whether the Chief of the General Staff, Sir Richard Dannatt, had asked for 2000 additional soldiers to be deployed to Afghanistan. Brown repeatedly refused to answer the question, but what has particularly upset Dan Byles was Brown’s apparent ignorance of troop levels.

At one point, Brown claimed troop numbers in Afghanistan were 8,150. A moment later he claimed there were 9,150 soldiers deployed. Both of these figures are wrong – there are currently 8,300 British soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.

Speaking afterwards, Dan said: “I watched Gordon Brown giving evidence to the Defence Select Committee on Thursday with growing anger. There is no more serious decision by a Prime Minister than to send British soldiers overseas to fight and die for their country, but it is quite apparent that Brown is not interested in our soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.

“If Brown took his responsibility to our soldiers seriously, he wouldn’t have cut the helicopter budget by £1.4 billion at a time when we are fighting the most intense war since Korea.

“If Brown took his responsibility to our soldiers seriously, he would listen when the Chief of the Defence Staff asks for 2000 additional soldiers, instead of counting the pennies. And to refuse to give a straight answer on this to the Defence Select Committee is dishonest and despicable.

“But what I found most disgusting was this. If Brown takes his responsibility to our soldiers seriously, he would know a basic fact such as how many soldiers are fighting and killing and dying in the dust half way around the world.

“I left the Army to stand for Parliament because I was fed up with the way this government sent our soldiers to fight in Iraq on a lie and with inadequate equipment. I am now even more furious at Gordon Brown’s ignorance and disinterest in the plight of our soldiers.

“We have been in Afghanistan for longer than we fought in the Second World War – and still soldiers are dying because Brown won’t give them the equipment they need. He can find hundreds of billions of pounds to bail out the banks, but he can’t buy enough helicopters for our soldiers.

“This man does not deserve the honour of being our Prime Minister.”

Dan served in the Army for nine years and was at one point the youngest serving Major in the Army. He spent two years in 24 Air Mobile Brigade, a helicopter based force working with Chinook and Puma helicopters. He left the Army in 2005 to enter politics.