Conservative leader David Cameron last night provoked an angry backlash after suggesting that the military covenant - the unwritten deal between servicemen and the government of the day - was broken and needed a major and urgent overhaul.

The Ministry of Defence dismissed the claim while, in Scotland, Colonel Clive Fairweather, a former deputy commander of the SAS, also rejected Mr Cameron's accusations, saying that, while the covenant had become frayed, it was still intact and improving under media pressure and parliamentary scrutiny.

Mr Cameron earlier pledged to launch a Tory commission to advise him on the issue and allow his party to "fix it" when they returned to power.

The commission, chaired by author Frederick Forsyth and including Falklands hero Simon Weston and historian Sir John Keegan, is to look at how the government and society can better fulfil their obligations to service personnel who risk their lives for Britain.

Mr Cameron said more needed to be done to ensure that troops got the right equipment, better telephone and email links with family when serving abroad and the best health treatment when they are wounded.

He said: "I believe the military covenant is well and truly broken, and I am determined that the Conservative Party will fix it."

Mr Cameron was also critical of the practice of treating wounded soldiers alongside civilians in NHS hospitals.

"When our soldiers are wounded, they want to come home to a great British hospital, and in Birmingham Selly Oak they do," he said. "But when they are injured on Monday they don't want to end up on a public ward by Wednesday. They want to recuperate next to their comrades and that must mean having genuinely separate military wards."

He warned that the covenant had been broken not just by the government but by society as a whole, citing an "ugly incident" where a Surrey petrol station refused to serve a soldier because he was in uniform.

Mr Weston said he was particularly concerned about the "paltry" compensation offered to servicemen injured in action. "Some of them, they are beyond employment now," he said. "They shouldn't have to grovel and lose their dignity to get the rightful sums of money they deserve."

Both Mr Weston and Mr Forsyth insisted that the commission, due to produce its report in September, would be independent and not party political.

An MoD spokesman dismissed the claims, but admitted that more could always be done. "We strive constantly to ensure the armed forces have the best possible package of care. In the past few years we have made some significant improvements," he said.

"At Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, we have created a military managed ward, where preference is given to military personnel when clinically appropriate.

"For veterans, we are working to introduce priority treatment for all veterans with injuries linked to their time in the armed forces, and we have introduced a pilot scheme of community mental health.

"We have also improved the operational welfare package to provide more free phone calls and better internet access, introduced a childcare voucher scheme and a council tax rebate for troops deployed overseas."

Colonel Fairweather said: "Cameron has gone for the sparkly soundbite. If he's serious about helping the services, he should be campaigning for the restoration of the four infantry battalions we lost because of cost-cutting in recent years and for more helicopters on the frontline.

"That's where a real difference could be made. We have too few soldiers and too few helicopters for the jobs at hand in Afghanistan and Iraq."