Ed Balls: 'Tory cuts will leave Britain with its smallest army since Cromwell days'

 
'Small army,' says Ed Balls
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Tory spending cuts will leave Britain with the smallest army since Oliver Cromwell’s day, Ed Balls claimed today.

Police reductions would see the total slashed by 29,000 officers to the smallest size since modern records began in 1977, he said, while councils would have to scale back help for the elderly.

The shadow chancellor predicted the “extreme” cuts in a speech designed to put George Osborne under pressure to spell out how he would meet his vow to make a £23 billion surplus without hiking the rate of VAT. “This is the implication of the choice that George Osborne made last December — and which he is now trying to brush under the carpet,” said Mr Balls in a speech in central London.

Cromwell founded his New Model Army in 1645 to fight the Civil War, beginning with around 22,000 soldiers, rising in later wars to almost 50,000. A think tank report claimed today that modern cutbacks could in theory reduce the Army to a similar level.

Read more:

Labour hoped the analysis would turn the tables on the Chancellor who recently alleged a £21 billion black hole in Labour’s spending promises.

But Mr Balls said the Conservative commitments to run a surplus and cut some taxes would require “an unprecedented £70 billion of spending cuts” or undisclosed tax rises such as VAT.

“These would lead to the smallest police force since comparable records began, the smallest army since Cromwell, and over a third of older people receiving social care losing their entitlement to it,” he said.

Defence cuts are a highly sensitive topic since MPs and military chiefs warned that Britain is at risk of failing to meet the Nato target of spending at least two per cent of GDP on the military. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond refused 10 times in a weekend interview to rule out cutting defence spending after the election.

A report by the Royal United Services Institute said thousands more personnel will face the axe, whichever party wins in May. A Tory promise to protect the equipment budget would mean bigger cuts in personnel, rising to 42,000 for the forces as a whole leaving an army of 50,000, said RUSI. A Conservative spokesman said their plan would avoid “higher taxes and economic chaos”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in