Blow to Gordon Brown as Eric Joyce, Aide to Defence Secretary, Resigns(Cites Afghanistan)

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Source: Times Online

Gordon Brown’s attempt to bolster faltering public support for the war in Afghanistan was derailed last night by the resignation of a ministerial aide.

Eric Joyce quit as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth, with an extraordinary attack on the Government’s handling of the conflict.

It will overshadow a speech Mr Brown is to make today to restore support for Britain’s engagement in Afghanistan, which has slumped amid rising casualties and criticism over inadequate resources for troops. It emerged last night that two more soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan within 24 hours, both deaths in the town of Babaji in Helmand.

In his speech Mr Brown is expected to defend the Government’s support for British troops and insist that their mission remains to protect Britain from terrorism, but in his resignation letter Mr Joyce, himself a former soldier, calls on the Prime Minister to set a five-year timetable for withdrawal.

more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6820789.ece