THE Commons defence committee’s call for a larger army ignores Britain’s already bloated military budget and makes war more likely, peace campaigners warned today.

The committee’s Ready for War? report complained that more people are leaving than joining the army, meaning it is unready for a “high-intensity war.”

It follows Defence Secretary Grant Shapps’s claim that we are in a “pre-war” era and may soon be in direct conflict with world powers including Russia and China, and army chief General Sir Patrick Sanders’s push for a return to conscription.