ENGLISH MPs have accused the Coalition Government of a political fix to preserve Scottish battalions ahead of 2014's independence referendum.
Five infantry battalions are to be axed as ministers cut the size of the Army.
There had been fears that part of the Royal Regiment of Scotland would also be axed. But earlier this year, ministers confirmed all five battalions would remain.
However, the Government had also announced that the 131-year-old Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders would be cut to 100 men and given the role of guarding Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Balmoral as part of largely ceremonial duties.
That has infuriated English MPs, who said the decision was part of a bid to keep Scotland in the UK.
The comments came as MPs protested against plans to scrap 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. John Baron, Tory MP for Basildon and Billericay, and a former captain in the Fusiliers, said: "I'm a firm believer in the Union but this is not the way to achieve it. In my view, the Government's culpability is demonstrated by its reluctance to justify its decision."
He spoke as scores of veterans looked on from the public gallery. Around 400 members of the Fusiliers marched to Westminster to protest over the decision.
Mr Baron pointed to Scots battalions which he said had much worse recruiting records than the Fusiliers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article