Strong opposition to ‘forced departure’ of head of British Army

The Ministry of Defence faces a backlash over the controversial departure of the current head of the army amid a row engulfing the military over troop cuts.

General Sir Patrick Sanders will step down from his position as Chief of the General Staff (CGS) next year, despite only assuming it in June 2022.

Senior military figures told The Telegraph that Sir Patrick had been forced out for being outspoken over the size of the army, as well as having used public speeches to warn that the Army needed more updated equipment.

Tobias Ellwood, a senior Tory MP and chairman of the Defence Select Committee, said it was “very wrong” to see Sir Patrick leave his post after just two years.

“We’ve got the sharpest CGS in a long time and he’s leaving,” Mr Ellwood told The Telegraph.

‘Our army is dangerously too small’

“At the heart of this row is the state of our Armed Forces. Our army is dangerously too small given the growing threats we now face.”

In 2021 it was announced that the number of the Army’s fully trained soldiers is set to fall to 72,500. Mr Ellwood questioned which forces Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Chief of the Defence Staff, was focusing on as head of the military.

“The Army is playing second fiddle to the RAF and the Navy,” he added. “What does Radakin care about the Army? His focus is on maritime and the global output with the Indo-Pacific tilt.”

Speaking to The Telegraph about Sir Patrick’s departure, one defence source said he had become unpopular “because he has been pointing to the need to rebuild the Army”.

“That is inconvenient for those who argue for carriers, submarines and new jets, and it’s also what the US and Nato want from the UK,” the source said.

‘A national embarrassment and a strategic weakness’

It comes as Lord Stirrup, who served as head of the Armed Forces between 2006 and 2010, told the House of Lords on Friday that not only were Britain’s Armed Forces “too small”, but that they would be unable to fight intensively for “anything other than a very brief period”.

He said: “Our own ability to field an armoured division that can fight effectively and enduringly in high-intensity conflict has become something of a national embarrassment as well as a strategic weakness.

Lord Stirrup said the war in Ukraine had “underscored the importance of air superiority”. 

“Fail to achieve it and you risk something resembling a First World War battlefield on the ground,” he added.

“Our ability to defend our own airspace, to achieve air superiority over the battlespace, and to contribute effectively to the defence and - if necessary - restoration of Nato territory are all at risk.”

‘UK lacks the resilience it once had’

He warned that the UK’s bases and infrastructure, including under sea, were “vulnerable to long-range attack” and said that the concentration of British forces in fewer locations means that the UK lacks the “resilience” it once had.

He added: “The Royal Navy, Army and Air Force are all too small but enabling our current force structure to undertake sustained operations must be our highest priority for investment.

“This is not just a matter of more money for the defence budget, we must also strengthen and expand the western defence industries that we’ve allowed to atrophy over the many years of budgetary cuts and upon which we and the rest of Nato rely for our sustainability.”

Lord Craig of Radley, chief of defence staff from 1988 to 1991, also told the Lords that the UK’s defence capabilities and strength are “not as they should be” as he cited budget cuts over more than 30 years and “poor performance” in procurement.

He later said: “Defence needs long-term attention, real growth and greater cross-party support. What we now have is tissue paper thin.”

Earlier this week Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, told MPs that the military will require a greater share of public spending and it “couldn’t be needed quicker”. 

Mr Wallace said spending on the Army is “20 per cent higher since I have started as Defence Secretary”, adding “I have made sure that a greater proportion of that spend is spent on catching up and modernising the Armed Forces that has been neglected all the way back to Afghanistan and Iraq”.