Brown denies TA funding U-turn
Updated on 28 October 2009
Conservative leader David Cameron taunts the prime minister over his "humiliating climbdown" on cuts to Territorial Army spending at this week's PMQs.
Challenged at prime minister's questions in the Commons, Gordon Brown said that having looked at all the issues he had decided it was "the right thing to do" to continue with the training budget.
Mr Cameron said it had been the "wrong policy" to cut training when British troops were fighting a war in Afghanistan, and accused Mr Brown of performing the climbdown after "weeks of dithering".
The government faced a storm of criticism from MPs and soldiers over plans to cut the TA's training budget by £20m, and performed a partial U-turn just two days ago by reinstating £2.5m of the cuts.
Today Mr Cameron seized on Mr Brown's personal intervention last night to restore the full budget, saying: "Can I welcome the government's complete U-turn on cutting £20m from training for the TA?
"Can you tell us what on earth you were thinking of when you were thinking of cutting army training at a time when the country's at war?" he demanded.
Mr Brown said there had been three important stages in the government's plans.
"We have to ensure that our regular army has the numbers necessary. That's why there has been an additional 9,300 people recruited over the last year.
"That means that army numbers are now at 101,000 and that, of course, means more money.
"The second thing was to ensure that the TA, who were sending people to Afghanistan, had those people properly trained and equipped."
