MPs have backed calls for Britain’s troops to be better equipped to deal with the daily dangers they face in Afghanistan.

New Forest MP Desmond Swayne and Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood spoke out after an SAS commander accused the government of having “bloods on its hands” following the death of four of his soldiers Major Sebastian Morley, who resigned over the number of troops being killed in “unsafe” Snatch Land Rovers, said the Ministry of Defence was being “cavalier at best, criminal at worst.”

Mr Swayne, a Territorial Army officer who saw service in Iraq in 2003, told the Daily Echo: “We have been too slow to deal with the issues surrounding Snatch Land Rovers.

“There are far too few heavily armoured vehicles and helicopters in Afghanistan. Troops are making much more dangerous road journeys because bombs have become so much more sophisticated.

“Every British citizen is entitled to be angry that our men and women are being put at unnecessary risk. We need to provide them with the best possible protection.”

Mr Ellwood, who was a captain in the Royal Green Jackets and visits Afghanistan twice a year, said: “Snatch Land Rovers are a relic from the Northern Ireland conflict.

“It is shocking to hear that they are still being used in Afghanistan. They have no place on the insurgency battlefield.

“If we are going to put our troops in harm’s way we need to ensure they have the best equipment possible.

“Major Morley’s anxiety and anger are just the tip of the iceberg. There are some very searching questions this government is refusing to answer over our role in Afghanistan like what on earth are we doing there?

“We have tactics but there is no strategy; we have been there longer than the Second World War and there is no end game. The situation is worse now than it was three or four years ago.”

Richard Drax is Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for South Dorset. He’s running the London Marathon in aid of The Rifles, Dorset’s associated regiment which has two battalions on active operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where a third battalion is headed shortly and another two expected to follow.

The former captain who served for nine years with the Coldstream Guards, said it was vital for those “back home” to support men and women deployed in war zones, but that shouldn’t preclude a “healthy debate about whether they should be there”.