South Dorset MP Richard Drax urges government to 'rethink cut to the army'

The government announced that the size of the Army is to be reduced to 72,500 soldiers by 2025 - a reduction from 82,000 - as part of a move towards drones and cyber warfare.

This will be combined with an Army reserve of 30,000.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said the British Army will act as an 'expeditionary fighting force' designed to be 'deployable and lethal' under new reforms.

A total of £41.3 billion was also announced for Army equipment and support over the decade.

He described the Government’s plans for the future of the Army as 'exactly what a modern war-fighting division should look like' after Labour criticisms of the troubled Ajax armoured vehicle programme.

A National Audit Office report recently published found that despite spending more than £3bn already, the Ministry of Defence still did not know when the vehicles, developed by General Dynamics UK, would be delivered.

Conservative MP for South Dorset, Richard Drax, cited Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and the prospect of larger forces needed for battles as a reason to change course.

Speaking in the House of Commons this week, he said: “From one soldier to another I ask him, he said earlier if circumstances change the policy changes and I do not excuse myself for asking again for the Government to rethink the cut to the army.

“What he referred to earlier was out-of-area type operations, we are looking potentially, God forbid, at a conventional war where mass is going to be important. We no longer have that mass and it must be retained.”

Tory frontbencher James Heappey told MPs he was unconvinced over the justification for large amounts of massed armour, such as tanks.

The defence minister replied: “(He) and I will debate keenly, I know, the future of the land battle. I’m just not sure that what I’ve seen on our TV screens over the last few weeks has been a justification for large amounts of massed armour.