𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A former Major General who has witnessed the strain and danger faced by Britain’s soldiers serving in Iraq, Kosovo and Northern Ireland has a stern message for ministers as the Budget is finalised: “There are no prizes for coming second on a battlefield.” Tim Cross warns that if Britain wants to show military leadership on the world stage, then its armed forces must be properly equipped.

Britain’s regular Army has shrunk from 104,254 personnel in April 2012 to 73,657 in July. He believes the Army is “too small” for what is asked of it and describes the vital role of the armed forces in deterring foes. “It’s about showing a potential enemy that you’ve got the capability, the physical stuff, to actually do something if they decide to cause trouble,” he said in an interview with the Sunday Express.

Strengthening the armed forces is a key test for Andy Burnham. Now-Chancellor John Healey helped oust Sir Keir Starmer as PM when he resigned as defence secretary in protest at under-funding.

The PM and the Chancellor are facing calls to show a clear pathway to meeting the NATO target of spending 3.5% of GDP by 2035. Mr Burnham has said that national security “can’t come at the expense of social security”.

But if the Government is unwilling to cut welfare spending to fund the military, Cross asks: “Where are you going to get the money from?”

The 75-year-old said: “He is the Prime Minister of the nation who’s responsible for taking these hard and tough choices. And continually kicking them down the road, in my view, is not leadership. That is an abrogation of leadership.”

Cross is well-known for his Christian faith and argues that sin and evil are realities that must be confronted. He said: “I have watched the mass graves being dug up in Iraq and elsewhere.

“I’ve watched what people did to each other in Northern Ireland. I’ve watched what ethnic cleansing means in the Balkans. [There] are bad people around, and there are times when we have to stand up for justice and righteousness and be prepared to use force if necessary.

“Internationally, we need a capability of dealing with the Hitlers, the Stalins, the Pol Pots, the Saddam Husseins, the Miloševićs, and all the other hoods that I found myself dealing with.”