5,300 Army jobs to be cut

A leading general believes cuts to the defence budget may have helped the Army design "a better, adaptable force structure".

Major General James Everard, assistant chief of the general staff, told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "I look at the Army force structure and I think that, perhaps if we hadn't been pushed, we wouldn't have got to where we have got to, and I am very happy with where we are."

The Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy accused the Government of a employing a "carry on regardless strategy" after more job cuts were announced today.

The Labour MP told the Commons: "The Army has been cut, but the threats have increased. There will be a sense that ministers are unprepared for growing threats in North Africa and beyond."

Jim Murphy, the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, said the latest round of Army job cuts ignores "the emerging threat in North Africa".

The latest wave of Army job cuts are part of the terms of the Government's 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review:

• Cuts aim to plug £38 billion hole in the defence budget
• The Army will be reduced from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2020
• The Navy and the Air Force will each have their personnel cut by 5,000 by 2015
• Up to 5,300 jobs will go in the third round of redundancies

• 2,860 service personnel were made redundant in first tranche; 3,760 lost jobs in second tranche in June
• MoD says more than 90 percent can expect to find full-time work within six months via its resettlement programme
• Government has said reservist numbers will double to 30,000 by 2018

Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy has been granted an Urgent Question in Parliament on cuts to armed forces:

The MoD has predicted a fourth "tranche" of redundancies, with medical personnel among those affected:

The Ministry of Defence has announced that "up to 5,300" Army personnel will be made redundant in the third tranche of planned job cuts.

Those serving, about to be deployed or just returning from Afghanistan will be exempt from the latest cuts.