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A recruitment crisis and stealth cuts have reduced the British Army to its lowest level since the Napoleonic Wars.

The intake of full-time soldiers fell by 5.69% in 2016/17, meaning 650 fewer servicemen and women enlisted than 12 months earlier.

Stats were even worse for reservists, with numbers dropping by 11.5%, some 1,680 fewer year on year.

That meant just 17,920 full-time and part-timers signed up in 2016/17.

The revelations, from a written Commons answer, show the meltdown that has pared the Army to its lowest level for 200 years.

(Image: Corporal James McAllister (RLC))

Labour MP Stephen Doughty, who uncovered the data, said: “These figures expose the stealth cuts.

“While our Army takes part in increasingly diverse operations, ministers have been spreading the butter too thinly.”

Manpower has dwindled to 78,010, nearly 4,000 fewer than promised in the 2015 Tory manifesto.

Former Shadow Armed Forces Minister Toby Perkins said: “The Tory commitment to an Army of 82,000 was a cruel lie.”

An Army spokesman said: “Recruitment levels are good and the Army has enough people to perform its requirements.”​