Davies apologises over kit comments

Mr Davies told MPs he had said sorry to Des Feely, father of Corporal Sarah Bryant, who was the first female soldier to be killed in Afghanistan, after Mr Feely accused him of insulting the memory of those who have fallen in the conflict.

The minister had previously described Major Sebastian Morley's accusation that the MoD was guilty of "gross negligence" for failing to provide supply better kit as a "travesty". He also said casualties sometimes resulted after commanders chose the wrong kit for operations.

His comments were seized upon by angry Tory MPs at Commons question time, with shadow defence secretary Liam Fox labelling them a "disgrace" which amounted to an "arrogant dismissal of a loyal and committed officer".

Tory former Cabinet minister Douglas Hogg said the comments were "deeply offensive" and damaging to morale, while former Army officer Crispin Blunt argued it was "unsustainable" for a minister to make such remarks.

But after former SAS officer Andrew Robathan asked Defence Secretary John Hutton to apologise, Mr Davies rose to defend himself. Mr Davies said: "You obviously don't know that earlier outside the House I already expressed to the father of one of our gallant soldiers who has died and he said, not directly to me but to the media I understood, he had been upset by my remarks.

"I apologised unreservedly to him and expressed my great regret - obviously any offence was entirely inadvertent, I hope you recognise that. If I have some reason to suppose that operational commanders had been offended by the remarks I'd made then again I would apologise to them pretty directly."

Mr Davies - who defected from Tory to Labour last year and became a minister in the recent reshuffle - made the remarks after Maj Morley had hit out at the continued use of Snatch Land Rovers in Afghanistan.

Repeated warnings about their suitability were ignored by military commanders and Whitehall officials, Maj Morley claimed, leading to the needless deaths of four soldiers.

Cpl Bryant died alongside SAS servicemen Corporal Sean Reeve, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin and Paul Stout when their Snatch Land Rover was blown up in June.