Government defeats Tory rebellion against changes to army structure

Only 11 Conservative MPs vote for amendment delaying plans to expand numbers of reservists

The government comprehensively defeated a backbench Tory rebellion against changes to the structure of the army on Wednesday night after agreeing to make annual statements to parliament on the recruitment of reserve forces.

A mere 11 Tory MPs rebelled against the government by supporting an amendment by John Baron, who served with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers between 1984 and 1988, to delay plans to expand the numbers of reservists to compensate for cuts to the number of regular troops. The Baron amendment was defeated by 306 votes to 252, a government majority of 54.

Support for the amendment, which had been signed by 26 MPs including 22 Tories, halved after the government agreed to adopt the principles behind a separate amendment tabled by the Conservative MP Julian Brazier, who served as an officer in the Territorial Army for 13 years.

The government will table its own amendment to the defence reform bill in the House of Lords to adopt Brazier’s call for an annual report to parliament on the levels of recruitment to the army reserves.

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said the Baron amendment would set a “trip wire” for the army. It would also delay government plans to increase the number of reservists by 30,000 to compensate for the reduction of regular troops by 20,000.

Hammond told MPs: “For parliament to introduce additional trip wires at this stage would create uncertainty, undermine the message about rollout of improved terms and conditions and cast doubt about our intention to spend the sizeable sum of money, the £1.8bn, that we have available to support this agenda. In short, it would make the whole agenda into a political football.”

Baron told the Commons: “The plan was not to wind down the regulars to a certain degree without first making sure we had the reservists to take their place. Now the plan has changed. It’s a question of national priorities as to whether more money should be committed to defence, which is the first priority of any government.”

The vote came as Paul Pindar, the chief executive of the Capita recruitment firm, which won a contract to recruit reservists, explained that it was struggling to recruit soldiers because Britain faced no threat of a war.

Pindar told MPs on the Commons public accounts committee: “It is far harder to recruit into the army when the economy is recovering. That has been one disadvantage. Secondly – and I am not being flippant – but we also have a disadvantage that we actually have no wars on. Soldiers like to join the army when there is something for them to do. You can pull faces at me but actually it is factually true.”

Pindar also said that the IT system promised by the Ministry of Defence was inadequate. “I am not doing this to apportion blame. But we were to be provided with a working IT system to help us with recruitment when we started. The IT …read more