PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has personally intervened to reverse a planned £20m cut to the Territorial Army training budget, it emerged today.

Former defence secretary John Reid – one of a series of Labour MPs who challenged the cuts in Parliament – said: “I very much welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has been prepared to listen to the issues and personally intervene to make sure that the Territorial Army training budget is retained.”

Under the planned £20m cut, the TA had faced the cancellation of all routine training for the rest of the financial year.

Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell staged a partial climbdown, announcing that a “small adjustment” of £2.5m would allow TA soldiers to attend one drill night a month.

However, the concession failed to satisfy critics on all sides of the House, with a number of prominent figures on the Labour benches calling for a full re-think of the planned cuts.

Mr Reid confirmed that, after a series of conversations with Labour MPs, Mr Brown had agreed that the full budget should be reinstated.

He said: “While there was never a threat to the training of those who were to be deployed in Afghanistan or other active posting, this reaffirmation of training for the whole of the Territorial Army will come as a great reassurance to the TA.”