Tory MP Claire Perry, the PPS to Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, has described her two-day visit last week to Afghanistan as “humbling and encouraging.”
She has five Army camps in her Devizes constituency and was alongside Mr Hammond in the Afghan capital Kabul and Helmand Province
And Mrs Perry told Spire FM in Salisbury that with a number of south Wiltshire soldiers due to be deployed to Afghanistan later this year, seeing what the conditions were really like was reassuring.
“I often meet wives, girlfriends or husbands of those who are out serving and we have a conversation about what conditions are like,” she told the radio station.
“The good news is that in many ways, the conditions are very good — there is excellent equipment, the food is very good, I had lamb curry and sponge with custard for supper in Camp Bastion, and even the conditions out in the patrol bases are very good.”
“It’s a huge contribution that we’ve made, obviously there have been some very tragic losses of life, but we should feel proud both nationally and locally about what we’ve achieved out there and what we continue to do.”
“I think we’ve got the best armed forces in the world and I saw nothing to change my mind over the last couple of days.”