Nick Clegg launches "Don't Short Change Our Troops: Fair Pay for Our Armed Forces"

5.24.01pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 6th Sep 2009

Nick Clegg calls for fair pay for our troops.

We can't reward lions with peanuts - Liberal Democrats believe that we must take action now to restore the military covenant between the Armed Forces and the people.

Nobody can put a price on the sacrifices made by our Armed Forces, but recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have revealed the disparity between what we expect of our soldiers and how they are rewarded.

Liberal Democrats believe that we must take action now to restore the military covenant between the Armed Forces and the people.

As a fundamental part of this we would put service personnel and their welfare at the heart of defence policy. We will ensure that no soldier, sailor or airman goes into harm's way on less basic pay than a new recruit to the police or fire service.

There is widespread dissatisfaction over pay among the lower ranks. This has a dreadful impact on morale and retention. We will find the money to pay for this from inside the MoD. It's ridiculous that we have one civilian for every man or woman in uniform, and almost 1000 people working in communications alone.

Major reform is necessary to reduce costs within the department. Those savings should go to where they are really necessary, to the people prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The Problem : Over 51,000 (over a quarter of the Armed Forces) receive less in basic pay than a new recruit police constable or fire-fighter. The basic pay for the lowest paid Private is £16,681. 13,000 lower-ranks personnel receive under £17,000 a year basic pay. Even with operational allowances, they receive less than a new recruit to the police force.

What Our Troops Say : There is dissatisfaction with basic pay among the lower ranks, almost half unhappy with their pay (around 40%). 60% of lower ranks in the Marines are dissatisfied with their pay. Compared with only 20% of all officers dissatisfied.

Our Solution: Lib Dem proposals would bring the pay of the lower ranks in line with the hourly-rate of trainee and development-level fire-fighters, as well as new-entrant police constables. Under our proposals no service personnel would receive less basic annual pay than a new-entrant police constable or development-level fire-fighter.

For the full story see the Liberal Democrats national website at

http://tinyurl.com/myjewf