Mr Brown said that this year’s Comprehensive Spending Review settlement meant the Ministry of Defence was guaranteed year-on-year real-terms increases in funding, a situation which he contrasted with 20 per cent cuts over the course of the early 1990s.
The Prime Minister was last month savaged by a group of five former military chiefs in the House of Lords, who accused him of failing to provide troops with the resources needed to do the job asked of them.
Former Chief of Defence Staff General Lord Guthrie attacked Mr Brown directly for being “unsympathetic” towards the armed forces as Chancellor.
But Mr Brown said it was “totally unfair” to portray him as being uninterested in the military, either at the Treasury or 10 Downing Street.
He acknowledged that “everybody will say that there is more we could do or should do”.
But he told BFBS: “Over the last few years, despite difficult circumstances... we have tried our best not only to give decent settlements so that there is the money to do everything necessary, but also where there is an urgent operational requirement we changed the system a year or two ago so that the equipment can get there more quickly...
“I think the evidence on the ground is that the equipment people have is a lot better than it was a few years ago. Of course, we want it to be even better in future years as well.”
Mr Brown said that Britain owed a “special debt of gratitude” over the Christmas period to armed forces personnel serving their country away from home and family.
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