Evidence Labour neglected Armed Forces - Swales

4.48.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 28th Jul 2010

Documents have been released that showed Labour ministers were formally warned about the need for the military to have an alternative to the Snatch Land Rover in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iraq enquiry heard this from the then -Chief of Joint Operations, Lieutenant General Sir Nicholas Houghton.

Commenting on this development in the enquiry, Ian Swales, MP for Redcar said:

''Yet again, just as we have heard in other areas of policy, it is another sign that the Labour Government has ignored expert advice.''

''Generals were telling ministers that they needed better equipment to protect their troops, which in turn would have prevented more casualties. It is not acceptable that our armed forces have been surviving with equipment that was not good enough to do their job properly.''

''Any kind of situation that leads to people unnecessarily being injured or, worse, losing their lives because of a lack of equipment is unacceptable. I hope that now we can move on from the mistakes of the Labour Government and start giving our armed forces the equipment and support that they so rightly deserve.''

Notes to Editors:

The memo by Lieutenant General Sir Nicholas Houghton, then-Chief of Joint Operations at the military's Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) to Ministers was released by the Iraq Inquiry yesterday can be viewed here: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/48680/cjo-psmin-protected-patrol-vehicles.pdf.