BASILDON and Billericay MP John Baron has rebelled and voted for British troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan.

Former Army officer Mr Baron was one of just 14 MPs from all parties who supported the orderly withdrawal of troops, following a debate in the House of Commons.

The motion put before MPs was “does Parliament agree with the continued deployment of UK armed forces in Afghanistan?”

By voting no, Mr Baron defied his own Government’s commitment to keep on fighting the Taleban until at least 2015.

He said: “Our involvement in Afghanistan defied all the lessons of history. We fundamentally under-estimated the task in hand and it has been under-resourced ever since.

“Our mission has been plagued by a lack of equipment, poor troop density levels, and over-optimistic assessments.”

Mr Baron insisted the bleak reality is “we are not beating the Taleban”.

He said: “The pre-conditions for a successful counter-insurgency campaign as happened in Malaya – such as secure borders, a large number of troops relative to the population, a credible government and support of most of the population – are simply not in place.

“A poor economy and corrupt government play into the hands of the Taleban.

“Kabul is depicted as a puppet government and the West as an occupying force.”

Mr Baron and the 13 other rebel MPs comprehensively lost the ballot, with 310 MPs voting for UK troops to stay in Afghanistan.

However, the MP is proud to have taken a principled stand and stressed he only supports troops withdrawing in an organised, orderly manner, following negotiations with the Afghan government.

Mr Baron said: “It is interesting to note communism has survived the longest in those countries which had engaged militarily with the West – Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and China.

“We are not winning the hearts and minds of local people, because we cannot.

“As an ex-soldier, I do not buy the line that by withdrawing we somehow let down our troops.

“We can all be proud of our troops. However, they are a stoic bunch who believe it is incumbent on leadership to realistically assess the situation. By doing so we stand a better chance of reducing casualties over the longer time.”