Labour's neglect of the armed services and failure to act on issues affecting former soldiers could cost it 20,000 votes next week, campaigners claimed yesterday.
The Veterans For Scotland organisation and senior members of a group fighting for the right of Malayan Emergency veterans to wear a medal banned by Cabinet Office bureaucrats claim that the families and friends of those affected are preparing to punish the current ruling party.
Major Bob Ritchie, VFS convener and a former Black Watch officer, said: "Scotland's serving armed forces personnel and veterans deserve a strong voice. Scots make up 13% of the Army and 10% of the three services.
"There are also thousands of ex-service personnel out there who feel that Labour has let down Scotland and its military tradition by abolishing our historic regiments while sending our men to do their dirty work in Iraq.
"We believe our MPs and especially Labour MSPs have abrogated responsibility and hidden behind the smokescreen of reserved powers' to avoid taking a stand on emotive defence issues."
Also echoing that warning was a spokesman for campaigners trying to lift a ban on wearing the Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM) medal awarded last year by Malaysia in recognition of the sacrifice of young British conscripts in the 1950s and 60s. More than 500 British soldiers - 100 of them Scots - died fighting Communist insurgents.
Despite receiving permission from the Queen to wear the PJM in public, thousands of veterans have been forbidden to include it with their medals because of Cabinet Office red tape. The spokes-man added: "Those who fought are very proud of that service. Many of their comrades did not make it back.
"On top of reports of poor provision for wounded returning from the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the refusal to grant pensions to TA soldiers plugging gaps in the frontline, and constant cutbacks, this government is doing itself no favours.
"If they and their representatives in Scotland fail to acknowledge the debt they owe to servicemen, it will cost them dearly at the ballot box."
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