ESSEX North MP Bernard Jenkin is leading calls for the Government to set a date for the withdrawal of the Army's Snatch Land Rovers in Afghanistan, MPs demanded today.
Graham Dines
ESSEX North MP Bernard Jenkin is leading calls for the Government to set a date for the withdrawal of the Army's Snatch Land Rovers in Afghanistan, MPs demanded today.
A cross party group of MPs signed a Commons motion, tabled by Mr Jenkin expressing their “deep concern at the vulnerability of British troops”' deployed in lightly armoured vehicles which have been criticised as a “death trap.”
Mr Jenkin, a member of the defence select committee and one-time shadow defence spokesman, called on the Ministry of Defence to “publish a date by which Snatch Land Rovers will no longer be required for British military operations in Afghanistan except as required for lower-profile, less protected operations.'”
Just last week, for UK soldiers - Intelligence Corps Corporal Sarah Bryant and SAS reservists Corporal Sean Robert Reeve, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin and Paul Stout - were killed by a roadside bomb while travelling in one of the Land Rovers in Helmand province.
Special forces troops often use Snatch Land Rovers because of their speed and mobility. The vehicle was originally designed as a cheap and quick way of transporting troops in Northern Ireland.
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