PRESSURE yesterday intensified on Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, to resign, in a growing row over a British soldier killed in the Iraq war after being denied body armour.
Sergeant Steve Roberts was serving with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment when he was shot dead during an attack by Iraqi dissidents on 24 March - two days after he sent a letter to his wife, Samantha, telling of his fears about the lack of protection.
She said the diary of audio tapes recorded by her husband during the Iraq war showed how concerned he was at the lack of equipment.
In the tapes, given to Mrs Roberts on the day of her husband’s funeral, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Sgt Roberts tells how equipment which had been promised to troops had not arrived.
In one commentary, Sgt Roberts, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, told his wife the situation was a "joke". He was ordered to hand over his body armour to a fellow soldier deemed to be at greater risk.
"Things we have been told we are going to get, we’re not," he said.
"It’s disheartening because we know we are going to go to war without the correct equipment.
"It fills me with remorse really, and I think remorse is the right word because I know we have received our orders."
He added: "We are now back into one of the camps to up-armour, which again is a bit of a joke in itself because they are running out of the frontal armour.
"It will be interesting to see what armour I actually get. I will keep you posted."
Opposition parties yesterday backed a call by Mrs Roberts that Mr Hoon should resign for the good of the country. The demands were led by Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, who said Mr Hoon should take full responsibility for what amounted to a "dereliction of duty" by the government.
"I do not think there is any greater dereliction of duty for any government than to send men into battle without the proper equipment," he said.
"That is clearly what happened here. We know it is what happened. We know that the probability is that Sgt Roberts would not have been killed if he had had body armour.
"It is a very serious state of affairs. I entirely agree with Mrs Roberts in her request that Geoff Hoon should resign," Mr Howard said. "It is our job as an opposition to hold the government to account. When the government is guilty of failure, it is our job to say so. They were guilty of a very serious failure in this instance."
He continued: "When someone is killed almost certainly because the proper equipment was not made available to them because of shortages due to the government’s incompetence then I think that is a situation in which he [Mr Hoon] should resign."
At his Downing Street press conference, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said he understood the concerns expressed by Sgt Roberts’s widow, but insisted the "only proper thing to do" was to await the outcome of an inquiry by the Royal Military Police which is already under way.
The Ministry of Defence made clear it did not regard the incident as a resignation matter. "We’re trying to keep Mrs Roberts abreast of developments and he [Mr Hoon] is willing to talk to her again if she feels it would be helpful," a spokesman said.
In a statement to the Commons earlier this week, Mr Hoon admitted that not all the equipment needed for the Iraq war had been distributed.
He said some 38,000 sets of body armour were sent to Iraq, but "not all of this equipment reached every unit in theatre before the start of combat operations.
"However, the equipment that was known to arrive in theatre was prioritised for those who the commanders judged had the greatest need, ensuring that all dismounted infantry units benefited from additional protection," he told MPs.
Paul Keetch, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, also criticised Mr Hoon.
"Mr Hoon denied time and again there were problems with kit, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
"The Defence Secretary is already under great pressure as we wait for Lord Hutton to report. Today’s calls will not lessen that pressure," he said.
