TORY ministers reportedly drawing up plans for the army to plug gaps in the NHS during a winter of strike action show the “absurdity of militarism,” campaigners warned today.

The Peace Pledge Union’s Symon Hill told the Morning Star that “funding the army to do work for which they’re not qualified instead of funding the NHS and paying its staff decent wages” is nonsensical.

The intervention came after Business Secretary Grant Shapps was forced to deny allegations that armed forces personnel are being prepped to replace ambulance drivers and paramedics if other NHS workers join nurses in withdrawing their labour over the coming weeks.  

The Royal College of Nursing is due to launch its biggest ever strike on December 15 and 20, as thousands of workers down tools at hospitals and health trusts across England, Wales and Northern Ireland following real-terms pay cuts and fears over declining patient safety.

Mr Shapps claimed it is “not correct” to say the military will be brought in, but conceded that Whitehall is “always looking at contingency plans.”

He told Sky News: “There aren’t any immediate plans to do that, and actually the NHS has got some pretty well-versed planning in place for all manner of disruption.”

But Mr Hill said: “The UK has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world, but [PM] Rishi Sunak and [Chancellor] Jeremy Hunt want us to think that they’re struggling to find money to fund the NHS or pay wages.

“This is the latest example of everyday militarism. The last 15 years have seen the march of militarism into more and more areas of civilian life, from the creation of Armed Forces Day to massively increased funding for cadet forces in schools.

“Deploying troops to break strikes is a blatant example of the people with power using militarism to undermine the needs of workers.”

He warned that the approach “always ends up benefiting the powerful while the rest of us lose out,” adding: “To resist this government and its poverty-fuelling policies, we need to resist militarism too.”

The Ministry of Defence, which confirmed that no formal request for help has been made by the Department of Health and Social Care, is set to see a Peace Pledge Union protest outside its central London offices this Saturday.

More information can be found here.