Clegg uses Prime Minister's Questions to criticise Government's treatment of armed forces

3.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 30th Jan 2008

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said that the Prime Minister "cannot even be bothered" to provide decent medical care for injured armed forces' personnel. Mr Clegg used his interventions during Prime Minister's Questions to accuse Gordon Brown of failing to invest in housing, equipment and care for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable also spoke at PMQs, raising the issue of projected figures of one million house repossessions in the UK this year.

Nick Clegg said "Does the prime minister think it is acceptable that at a time when soldiers' lives are at risk in Iraq and Afghanistan half of their living accommodation is still at the lowest standard, half of our Apache helicopters are still unfit for service and over 60 per cent of Army officers cite overstretch as the one of the reasons they are leaving the Army altogether?"