TERRITORIAL ARMY TRAINING CUTS "UNWISE"

4.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 15th Oct 2009

Steve Gilbert, is urging the Government to reconsider its decision to stop weekend exercises and all other Territorial Army training for the next six months in a bid to save money, calling the move "unwise at best, reckless at worst".

Prospective St Austell & Newquay MP, Steve Gilbert, is urging the Government to reconsider its decision to stop weekend exercises and all other Territorial Army training for the next six months in a bid to save money, calling the move "unwise at best, reckless at worst".

Steve Gilbert has written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Secretary of State for Defence Bob Ainsworth calling on the Government to reconsider the decision.

The move to stop TA training comes in the same week that the Prime Minister confirmed 500 more soldiers will be sent to operations in Afghanistan.

The Territorial Army currently has hundreds of soldiers in Afghanistan with approximately 1,200 troops a year deployed around the world.

Steve Gilbert said, "This is the worst sort of false economy and cutting training for the TA is a very unwise place to look for spending cuts. As a result of this six month ban, TA soldiers in Cornwall will not get paid. We have seen Cornish TA members on active service in Afghanistan on a number of occasions and the fact is that our regular army now relies enormously on the contribution of TA soldiers. It is simply wrong that we should be scaling back on their training while continuing to expect them to serve alongside full time soldiers."

Drill-hall instruction, weekend exercises and all other TA training are to stop for six months, resulting in savings of about £20m.

The size of the TA has fallen rapidly since Labour came to power, from more than 57,000 to a trained strength of around 19,000.