Tories credit Gordon Brown of utilizing armed forces as domestic props World headlines The Observer

Gordon Brown speaks to soldiers during his revisit to Lashkar Gah, in Afghanistan, 6 Mar 2010. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

Gordon Brown was inextricable in a mad row when former budding apportion John Major indicted him of utilizing British infantry as a "party domestic prop" on a warn revisit to appreciate soldiers in Afghanistan. Major cursed Brown"s preference and pronounced he had orchestrated a "cynically-timed domestic stunt".

Giving a debate in Ipswich, he drew parallels with Brown"s 2007 revisit to Iraq, when he was deliberation job a snap election. "Once again, the budding apportion is utilizing the armed forces as a celebration domestic prop," Major said. "Two years ago, he did so on the eve of the choosing that never was, and is right away you do so again on the eve of the choosing that he cannot avoid.

"Yesterday, the budding apportion told the Chilcot exploration that the infantry were since "everything they asked for". Few people hold that. Today – less than twenty-four hours after – the budding apportion arrives in Afghanistan with nonetheless some-more promises of apparatus that should have been accessible a prolonged time ago. Nine years, and far as well most fatalities later, the infantry – and the family groups of those who have perished – could be forgiven for desiring the budding minister"s revisit is nonetheless an additional domestic stunt. Of march ministers should revisit the troops. But to make use of them as a cynically-timed pre-election backdrop is profoundly uncivilised control for a budding minister."

The Conservatives claimed the revisit had been timed to obstruct courtesy from Brown"s coming prior to the Chilcot exploration a day earlier.

"Gordon Brown should apologize for, as budding minister, utilizing the armed forces as domestic props when politically convenient," pronounced an email sent by an help of Liam Fox, the shade counterclaim minister, to reporters travelling with Brown.

Brown appeared prior to the Iraq fight exploration on Friday, denying accusations that as chancellor he had unsuccessful to yield competent appropriation for equipment.

Yesterday, former heads of the armed forces strongly doubtful his evidence. Lord Guthrie, a former arch of the counterclaim staff, settled in the Dailythat armed forces had been denied a ask for some-more helicopters, whilst his successor, Lord Boyce, told the Times that Brown had been "disingenuous".

The Liberal Democrats pronounced that the inquiry"s chairman, Sir John Chilcot, should tell Treasury papers to transparent up the row.

The email from Fox"s bureau indicted Brown of asocial timing, of unwell to yield resources and equipment, and of treating forces with contempt. But a Downing Street orator said: "In a unfortunate try to obstruct courtesy from their disaster over Lord Ashcroft, this forged unsteadiness demeans the Conservative party."

Aides forked out that Brown has been to Afghanistan at unchanging intervals, and a revisit in Mar or Apr was not unusual.

The orator added: "Would the Tories cite it if the budding apportion didn"t appreciate the armed forces for their efforts in Operation Moshtarak?"

The operation, that was launched on thirteen February, was the largest UK-led helicopter insertion in history, with 37 used to lift 1,200 Afghan and British soldiers in to sixteen locations. It is still stability but has right away entered the stabilisation phase, with teams relocating in to work on infrastructure, schools and health clinics.

Prime apportion in AfghanistanSpeaking at Camp Bastion, the British bottom in Helmand province, Brown insisted that he had been formulation the revisit for a little time. "The last 4 years, I have come here around this time only to encounter the troops, to see what swell has been made. I am here as budding apportion to appreciate the troops… for their bravery, scapegoat and professionalism."

From there, he flew by helicopter to the province"s capital, Lashkar Gah, to residence some-more than 100 troops. Standing on a height in front of a commemorative to depressed soldiers, Brown told them that the British people were unapproachable of what they had achieved.

"Three weeks ago, you proposed an operation that enclosed thousands of people in an try to retrieve belligerent we indispensable for the internal population," the budding apportion said.

Describing Moshtarak as "one of the good success stories of the campaign", he said: "I wish to demonstrate my thankfulness to all of you who have been involved. We recollect all those who have since their lives in these last couple of months. All of you will know people concerned and family groups who have suffered. I additionally wish to recollect all those who have been injured."

Brown added: "We will do all we can to await you with the apparatus required and the resources that you need."

The budding apportion additionally pronounced that murdering Taliban fighters on the belligerent in Afghanistan was creation hold up safer for those at home in Britain.

Brown pronounced he was in the nation to declare the "Afghanisation" of the process, that would see Afghan infantry and military take over security. He pronounced the contingent target was for British infantry to come home, but he would not set a timetable. "This passing from one to another contingency be charge led, not time led," he said.

Increased spending on militaryDuring the trip, it emerged that 200 new armoured vehicles will be introduced in late 2011 to reinstate the argumentative Snatch Land Rovers, that have been related to 36 deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Ocelot light stable unit vehicles will cost some-more than £100m, that would be saved alone as an "urgent operational requirement" from Treasury reserves. The vehicles are pronounced to have "unprecedented" insurance for their weight.