Lord Dannatt: Army will not cope with domestic threats due to personnel cuts

A former head of the Army has warned that reduced manpower could undermine the service's role when asked to assist with domestic emergencies like pandemics and flooding.

The re-shaping of the Armed Forces under the Integrated Review last year has left a smaller but more high-tech Army resulting in what former Chief of the General Staff Lord Dannatt refers to as "spare capacity" personnel now being "gone".

Speaking to Forces News, Lord Dannatt, now the National Emergencies Trust chairman, called for new legislation to use reservists as a rapidly deployable force during civil emergencies. 

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