Nearly 18,000 Army personnel are not medically fit to be deployed to all war zones – fuelling fears more defence cuts would leave the forces dangerously undermanned.
The British Army is meant to be 82,000-strong but has already fallen to just 78,407 as soldier and officer numbers have eroded.
And it emerged today that just 60,546 members of the Army are fully fit to be sent to the frontline – meaning the force has a fifth fewer recruits than if it was at full strength.
Tory MP Andrew Bowie, a former Royal Navy officer who uncovered the figures, said it is ‘appalling’ troop numbers have been allowed to get so low.
He warned that with the trio of deadly threats posed by Russia, North Korea and Islamist terrorism, Britain’s Army simply does not have the manpower to do everything asked of it.
The revelation piles further pressure on the Government to bin proposals to cut Army numbers even further as it tries to slash £2billion a year from its budget.
British soldiers, some of whom are pictured at Camp Bastion in 2014, have seen their numbers drop in recent years. New figures show that nearly 18,000 Army personnel are not medically fully fit to be sent to all war zones, fuelling fears that proposed further cuts would leave the force without the resources it needs to keep Britain safe
Mr Bowie MP told Mail Online: ‘It is very worrying. It basically means if we were to go to war tomorrow we would only have 60,000 medically fit soldiers to actually serve.
‘And a lot of them will not be infantrymen or cavalry, it will include logistics, chefs, and general support.
‘There are a lot of global threats – Russia, North Korea, the Islamic terrorism in the Middle East.
‘The concern is that we have full time Army of only 60,000 is simply not enough to do the jobs that we are asking them to do.’
Ministry of Defence figures released via a parliamentary question show that 7,890 Army personnel are ‘medically not deployable’ in April 2017.
While another 9,971 were categorised as ‘medically limited deployable’ – meaning they can only be sent to some areas.
The Government is considering cutting Army numbers to 70,000 and cutting Britain’s two amphibious assault vessels to slash £2billion a year from the defence budget.
But the proposals are hugely controversial among Tory MPs who have warned new Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson they will not put up with further cuts.
Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood – who battled to try to save Pc Keith Palmer in the Westminster terror attack – has reportedly threatened to quit if Army numbers are cut further.
Tory MP Andrew Bowie, who uncovered the figures, said it is ‘appalling’ troop numbers have been allowed to get so low and warned the Army risks being left so depleted it cannot do everything the Government ants it to do
A string of Conservative MPs – including Sir Nicholas Soames, a grandson of Winston Churchill – have called for an urgent rethink on the plan.
Mr Bowie, MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine in Scotland, said: ‘The concern among Conservative MPs is that the Army is too small as it is, cutting it down to 82,000 was a mistake in the first place.
‘You are always going to have people who are medically unable to serve, but in the Armed Forces it is a serious worry that we have so many unable to serve as it drives down the level of our forces.
‘It is quite clear myself and other MPs are deeply unhappy about the rumours coming from the Ministry of Defence, any further cuts to the defence budget would be unacceptable in the eyes of many MPs.’
An Army spokesman said: ‘The Army has enough people to perform its operational requirements to keep Britain safe.’
He added that 95 per cent of posts ‘are filled and in the last year we’ve recruited nearly 8,000 people into a variety of posts which will give them skills for life’.