Former military chief demands 'urgent' review of cuts to Army reserves

The former head of the Armed Forces has urged the Government to take an "urgent" review of its policy to cut the Army Reserves by 10% in light of the war in Ukraine.

Crossbench peer Lord Houghton of Richmond argued that reserve forces have been essential for both Russia and Ukraine in the current conflict, highlighting this as a possible vulnerability for the UK in terms of its own defence capability.

He told the House of Lords: "It’s quite clear from the ground situation that both Russian and Ukrainian ground forces are only sustained as combat effective through the massive mobilisation of reserve forces.

• Cabinet reshuffle: The ministers with links to the military
• UN urges Russia and Ukraine to agree to demilitarised zone around nuclear plant
• Dushka: The Ukrainian military's modified Soviet-built machine gun

"Compare that with our domestic situation, where the currently confirmed policy on the Army Reserves, confirmed by a minister in the Commons earlier this year, is that over the next 10 years it will be reduced by 10%."

He called for an "urgent revisitation" of this policy by the new Government.

Defence minister Baroness Goldie responded by branding the reserves an "area of opportunity".

She added that "with a new government, with the constant presence of threats confronting us, we constantly review what we think our need will be".

Meanwhile, the former head of the Royal Navy, Lord West of Spithead, raised concerns about Russian propaganda and false information coming out from the war in Ukraine and called for "Red teams" to look at the various things Russian President Vladimir Putin might do "as he becomes more desperate".

Lady Goldie responded that the Ministry of Defence has been releasing certain intelligence on social media in order to combat fake news and propaganda and will continue to do so.

She said: "The MOD has perhaps unusually been releasing intelligence and defence intelligence will continue to provide public intelligence updates on the conflict via social media.

"Now these updates have consistently challenged the Russian false narrative and they provided the public with proper transparency of the events of Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine.

"We shall continue to take measured decisions about what we can release to counter the misinformation, the disinformation, and quite simply the wilful dissemination of propaganda and we shall do that in a responsible fashion."