Government Puts TA Soldiers Lives At Risk

Former soldier Dan Byles, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for North Warwickshire & Bedworth, has expressed his astonishment at a Government decision to freeze all training for the Territorial Army for six months in order to save cash. Dan served for nine years as a regular soldier, and left the Army in 2005 in order to enter politics after becoming disillusioned with politics.

Since then he has been selected to stand for Parliament in North Warwickshire & Bedworth, and has co-authored a report on repairing the broken Military Covenant alongside Freddie Forsyth and Falklands War veteran Simon Weston.

An active campaigner for soldiers' welfare issues and for equal rights for Gurkha veterans, Dan maintains a close watch on issues affecting the Armed Forces. This week he was staggered to learn of the TA training freeze.

Dan said:

"I have served alongside TA soldiers on operations, and I know how much we rely on their dedication and their skills. But those skills don't fall out of the sky.

"TA soldiers provide some of our most specialist soldiers, from medics to intelligence operatives to signals specialists. Over a thousand TA soldiers deploys on operations every year in support of our regular forces.

"To arbitrarily halt TA training for six months is insane. You cannot switch skills and experience on and off at the flick of an accountant's pen. Soldiers will experience skill-fade, and their lives will be put at risk at a result.

"Also, TA soldiers can quit whenever they like. They do not serve for a fixed period like regular soldiers. If the MOD stops paying them, and stops all evening and weekend training, what message does that send? How valued will these soldiers feel? They are motivated and active people. There is a very real danger that they will find other ways to fill their time - and when the training freeze comes to an end we could find that we have lost many good soldiers.

"I cannot imagine what the government thinks it is doing. This is incompetence and mismanagement of the highest order. And as usual, it is our soldiers who will suffer."