Eric Joyce, the ministerial aide who quit last week over Britain’s strategy in Afghanistan, has claimed ministers regard army generals as anti-Labour.
The Falkirk MP said there was a misplaced sense across government that blunt remarks by senior armed forces staff about shortcomings in the services were politically motivated.
He said the government should give its generals as much rein as their American counterparts to speak out about military strategy rather than brief against them, claiming such criticisms came across as “an attack on service personnel”.
Joyce is reported to have overheard Kevan Jones, the veterans minister, speak of gunning for General Sir Richard Dannatt, then the army chief, who angered ministers with public campaigns for better equipment for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jones denies the claim.
Dannatt stepped down after being undermined by a number of briefings against him by politicians who wanted him to stop drawing attention to MoD failings.
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Joyce, who hinted that these briefings took place at a junior ministerial level, said: “From a Labour party point of view, it really doesn’t make any sense to make such semi-veiled criticisms of the serving chief of general staff.
“It looks like an attack on service personnel. A semi overt or overt attack has a deleterious effect on people’s opinions in the MoD.
“No senior officers are being party political but in some parts of government, not just defence, people have perceived it as an anti-Labour bias.”
He added: “We’ve got a sense that our four-star generals should be confining themselves strictly to equipment and troop morale and so forth and that has to be sorted out.”
Joyce, who resigned on Thursday, also warned that recruitment and retention in the army could be hit unless the government improves the conditions faced by personnel and their families. He called for action to end families living in squalid conditions and for soldiers to be paid more.