Nearly a quarter of soldiers and officers in the regular army cannot engage in combat without any restrictions Mark Francois, the shadow defence minister, told the Times that urgent action was needed to increase the size of the armed forces, and improve the fitness of people already serving, in the light of the figures it has revealed about the number of service personnel not fit to fight. (See 9.25am.) He said:Not only has the army now shrunk to just over 71,000 soldiers, almost 2,000 below its established strength [but] of those, almost a quarter are not medically fully deployable.This requires urgent action, not just regarding recruitment and retention but also remedial action, especially physiotherapy, to ensure our remaining soldiers are truly fighting fit. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/dec/24/uk-politics-latest-news-labour-tories-british-army
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2024-12-24 09:34:25
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More than 10,000 members of armed forces not fit to fight, MoD figures show – UK politics live
