Brown cuts attacked at Iraq inquiry

LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been presented with more damaging evidence that cuts he made to the armed forces during his time as Chancellor led to a lack of helicopters for British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

John Hutton, who became Defence Secretary in 2008 and resigned last June, told the Iraq inquiry yesterday that the shortage of helicopters "undoubtedly was a factor" during his tenure at the Ministry of Defence. Geoff Hoon had already said the shortages were caused when Brown forced Defence chiefs to cut projects as a result of accounting changes.

"The military would certainly have liked more helicopters and I think the politicians would have liked to have made them available," Hutton said. "This is not a capability you can simply buy one day and the next day you've got it." He also launched a strong attack on the failure to provide troops with armoured vehicles and called for an urgent overhaul of Defence procurement. The Future Rapid Effect System was set up 10 years ago to develop the vehicles, but has still failed to deliver any.

"I think it's hard to imagine a worse procurement shambles," he said. "That is a pretty grim episode and in my view makes the case for a very urgent shake-up of the equipment procurement function of the MoD absolutely essential."

Des Browne, Hutton's predecessor as Defence Secretary, confirmed that concerns about the shortages of helicopters were raised even before British troops were sent to Afghanistan.

"There was concern being expressed. I recognised the increasing importance of helicopters from the point of view of secure transport. The more the nature of the risk adapted and changed - and it changed quite dramatically in the time that I was Secretary - the more important it became for us to be able to move in the air as opposed to on the ground."

- INDEPENDENT