Former armed forces chief General Lord Guthrie has warned Gordon Brown that he will be punished at the polls if British troops suffer as a result of spending shortages.

Lord Guthrie was speaking at the launch of a pamphlet by Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, arguing that defence spending needed to increase by £3 billion a year for the next five years just to maintain current force levels.

In a foreward to the pamphlet, he said that the military needed more resources if Britain was to continue to be able to play a global role with the ability to deploy forces around the world.

"Many other governments have increased their defence spending in recent years very, very substantially, and our own Government has found the resources to increase other public spending programmes very dramatically," he said.

"Why has Britain's defence been left out, particularly today when our armed servicemen and women are busier than at any time since the Second World War?"

Mr Jenkin, a member of the Commons Defence Committee, said that a future Tory government should be prepared to delay tax cuts in order to ensure that the forces were properly funded.

"Defence has become the Cinderella of the public services at a time when we depend upon the blood those people shed in our name," he said.

"We must either bulk up our armed forces or get out of this global role."

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