Shadow Chancellor and MP for Tatton George Osborne has visited troops in Afganistan. George Osborne and Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague spent two days on a fact finding mission which included an overnight stay at the air base at Kandahar and a visit to the Interim Helmand Police Training Centre in Lashkar Gah.
The tour also included visits to the Task Force Helmand Headquarters in Lashkar Gah, a Forward Operating Base Patrol where they met the Coldstream Guards and a development project. They received briefings from regional commanders and joined service personnel for meals.
During their trip, on January 7th and 8th, the Conservative front-benchers promised to prioritise spending in Afganistan. George Osborne said “ The soldiers out here risking their lives for this country are going to get the resources and the support they need because it’s in all our interests that they are protected but also that we can built a better Afganistan.”
Mr Osborne is the first Shadow Chancellor to have gone to Afghanistan and following his trip he announced on Sunday that university scholarships will be offered under a Conservative government to all children whose parents have been killed in action. The financial support would be available to the children of all men and woman who have been killed in service since 1990, including the 108 service personnel who died in 2009.
The photograph above was taken on the way to the helicopter outside a Forward Operating Base near Lashkar Gah. George Osborne is talking to an officer of the Coldstream Guards.
Picture supplied by The Conservative Party.
