THE father of a Royal Marine from Ferndown who was killed in Afghanistan says he “cannot imagine” that ministers were misled over sending troops into deadly Helmand Province.

Members of the Commons Defence Committee have criticised the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for failing to warn the Government of the dangers facing soldiers when they were first deployed to Helmand in 2006 – when troops were still fighting in Iraq.

But Peter Thornton, the father of 22-year-old Lieutenant John Thornton, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2008, told the Daily Echo: “I cannot imagine the MoD deliberately misleading the Government.

“It might be that there was a little bit of optimism maybe with the ability to fight on two fronts. As far as I know we were equipped to fight one campaign, we have been for a number of years.”

Mr Thornton added that John never complained while he was out there.

“The training they had prepared them as well as they possibly could for these events,” he added.

The committee also said that pulling troops out of Afghanistan prematurely could “dangerously weaken” remaining forces and that Prime Minister David Cameron’s plan to withdraw by the end of 2014 could undermine the international coalition’s strategy.

Mr Thornton added: “What we don’t want to do is go and leave the job half done and if Afghanistan falls back into a state of anarchy with the Taliban then that would be the case.

“The idea is right, but we don’t want to rush it. It concerns me when people bandy dates around.”

Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox said while there was “still much to do”, the pull-out target was achievable.