Anger greets sacking of officers in the front line

ARMY OFFICERS under fire in Bosnia will be among 1,308 officers and 5,152 soldiers told today they have been made redundant.

The redundancy announcement caused outrage in the Commons last night with warnings that it would cause a public outcry. Labour leaders warned the Government that it was making another 'insensitive blunder'.

Leading the protests, John Reid, Labour's spokesman, said: 'There will be horror among the public at the prospect that people risking their lives should be made compulsorily redundant.'

He said it was 'disgusting' that some officers in Bosnia and Northern Ireland were faced with the prospect of dying with redundancy notices in their hands.

Mark Wolfson, Tory MP for Sevenoaks, also warned of 'public concern' about the announcement and other Tory MPs looked dismayed at the news.

But the announcement was defended by Malcolm Rifkind, the Secretary of State for Defence. He said: 'The Army themselves believe it would be grossly invidious for the choice of soldiers to be made redundant to depend on whether they happened to be serving in Bosnia, Northern Ireland or anywhere else. Soldiers are constantly moving. There would be resentment if whether you were made redundant depended on where you happened to be.'

Archie Hamilton, the minister for the armed forces, told the Commons that 628 officers were being made compulsorily redundant. He said a total of 680 officers and 5,152 soldiers had volunteered for redundancy. No soldiers were being made compulsorily redundant.

A similar number would be made redundant in phase three of the redundancies, which follow the Options for Changes cuts in manpower. In the first phase, 838 officers and 2,500 soldiers were made redundant this year.

'While there have been calls in this House for personnel serving in specific operational theatres to be excluded, the Army have made it quite clear - and I agree - that we do not want any special cases,' Mr Hamilton said.

All the redundancies would be given job search training and financial briefings. But Mr Reid protested that soldiers dismissed for dishonourable conduct received three months' training while those given redundancy had only a month of training.

The redundancy terms provided for an immediate pension for those with 12 years or more service, together with a capital payment of up to 18 months' pay, tax free, in addition to the normal pension benefits. Those with less than 12 years' service received a similar capital payment and a preserved pension.

Mr Hamilton also used the debate to answer severe criticism from the Tory-dominated select committee on defence over the cuts in battalion strength, in spite of the Government U-turn when the numbers were increased by 3,009 to 119,000.

The minister said the recommendations of the committee, to reverse the cuts, would cost pounds 200m. But Winston Churchill, a Tory member of the committee, said the redundancy package for the total cuts would cost pounds 300m a year.

Mr Hamilton rejected demands by Mr Reid and Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, for a fundamental defence review. Both warned the Army would be overstretched and suggested abandoning the plan to replace free-fall nuclear bombs with Tactical Air to Surface Missiles to save pounds 3bn.

(Photograph omitted)