Gordon Brown visits Afghanistan as two soldiers deaths announced

Patrick Hennessy in Helmand and Sean Rayment Published: 8:24PM GMT 06 Mar 2010

Gordon Brown done dual addresses to British infantry and was well perceived on both occasions

The Prime Minister, who done the outing the day after he gave justification to the Chilcot Inquiry in to the Iraq war, voiced that the Army would get 200 new vehicles to reinstate argumentative Snatch Land Rovers.

However, he found himself confronting critique on dual fronts. Former infantry chiefs stepped up their conflict on him for allegedly dubious the open over the counterclaim bill in his justification to the inquiry, and the Tories cursed the timing of the trip, observant he was utilizing the Armed Forces as a "political backdrop".

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The dual soldiers, both from 3rd Battalion The Rifles, were killed nearby Sangin in Helmand Province, the Ministry of Defence said.

One died after being shot during a conflict with insurgents yesterday. The alternative was killed in an blast whilst on feet unit on Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, orator for Task Force Helmand, pronounced of the ultimate death: "He was on a counsel operation opposite insurgents to the south of Sangin District Centre, nearby Patrol Base Suffolk, when he was shot.

"He died resolutely receiving the quarrel to the rivalry and will not be forgotten."

Liam Fox, the shade counterclaim secretary, cursed the timing of Mr Brown"s visit. "To do it the day after he goes to the Chilcot Inquiry, when dual former chiefs of the counterclaim staff are accusing him of not revelation the total law about the appropriation of the Armed Forces, I think is intensely cynical," he said.

Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, indicted Gordon Brown of utilizing British infantry as a "party domestic prop".

"Of course, ministers should revisit the troops" he said. "But to make use of them as a cynically-timed pre-election backdrop is profoundly uncivilised carry out for a Prime Minister."

Writing in The Sundaytoday, Gen Sir Richard Dannatt, the former arch of the ubiquitous staff, says that counterclaim spending over the duration whilst Mr Brown was at the Treasury was cut by some-more than �1 billion a year.

He says, on this page, that had force levels in Helmand been higher, risks would have been reduced. "I know that the Prime Minister "gets" this now," he adds. "But no volume of rewriting story can recompense for the years when he conjunction accepted counterclaim scrupulously nor was swayed to compensate for it fully."

Earlier, Lord Guthrie and Lord Boyce, who each served as arch of the counterclaim staff underneath Tony Blair, additionally forked to the fist on spending in between 1997 and 2007.

Downing Street pronounced the Prime Minister"s helicopter discuss of British bases in Helmand range yesterday was dictated to "say appreciate you" to the infantry who took piece in Operation Moshtarak, the new large-scale descent opposite the Taliban.

Mr Brown additionally voiced a new deployment of 150 infantry trainers to Afghanistan, �18 million some-more to be outlayed on apparatus to opposite makeshift bomb inclination (IEDs) and plans to buy 200 new British-built Light Protection Patrol Vehicles a inheritor to the Snatch Land Rovers that have been related to the deaths of 36 British servicemen.

The Prime Minister told British soldiers at band of soldiers domicile in Lashkar Gar: "We will do all we can to await you with the apparatus and resources you need."

After endless briefings from infantry commanders, he described the Moshtarak operation as "one of the good success stories of the discuss in Afghanistan".

He done dual addresses to British infantry and was well perceived on both occasions.

"It is unequivocally critical to come at this theatre and see what swell has been done on this initial operation underneath the new proviso of operation in Afghanistan," Mr Brown said.

"To give the Afghans some-more carry out over their own affairs requires us to sight up the Afghan armed forces and to partner with them. It additionally requires very, really dauntless soldiers."

His revisit came just dual months prior to the approaching ubiquitous choosing date of May 6. Downing Street aides were discerning to point out that Mr Brown had done 7 prior tips to Afghanistan as Prime Minister and one as chancellor, together with trips in possibly Mar or Apr each year since 2007. No 10 pronounced the outing had been programmed "totally separately" from his Chilcot Inquiry appearance.

A orator added: "The Chief of the Defence Staff [Air Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup] was consulted on the timing and he was content."

Following Mr Brown"s counterclaim of his jot down in front of the Chilcot panel, that strong on his time as Prime Minister rather than when he was chancellor, Lord Guthrie wrote of the progressing duration in yesterday"s Daily Telegraph.

He pronounced that the MoD had "received the unclothed smallest from the Chancellor, who longed for to give the infantry as small as he could get afar with".

"For Gordon Brown to contend he has since the infantry all they asked for is not true," he wrote. "They asked for some-more helicopters but they were told they could not have any more. He cannot get afar with saying, "I gave them all they asked for". That is simply disingenuous."

Lord Boyce indicted Mr Brown of "dissembling". The Tories called on him to "apologise" for "using the Armed Forces as domestic props".

Mr Fox"s bureau forked to prior budding ministerial visits to Iraq in Oct 2007, on the day of the counterclaim discuss at the Tory celebration conference, and a "hasty" outing to Afghanistan last October, "48 hours prior to David Cameron was due".

It indicted Mr Brown of carrying cut the helicopter bill in 2004 by �1.4 billion.

A Downing Street source asked: "Would the Tories cite it if the Prime Minister didn"t appreciate the Armed Forces for their efforts in Operation Moshtarak?"