MP Andrew Robathan rejects Arctic Convoy medal

Tory defence minister Andrew Robathan has outraged Arctic Convoy veterans by suggesting that to award them a medal for their efforts would be akin to some Ruritarian regime handing out gongs for cookery.

The MP suggested that Britain only awarded medals for 'risk and rigour'.

So nothing doing if all you did was sail across freezing seas dodging dive-bombers and U-boats to keep the Red Army supplied in its fight against the Nazis.

Mr Robathan, tucked up in cosy Whitehall with the heating turned up and a nice cup of steaming cocoa, should perhaps bear in mind that more than 3,000 UK sailors died on the Artic convoys.

Of 1,400 ships on the 78 convoys that passed through seas where temperatures were as low as -60*C, 85 merchant and 16 Royal Navy were sunk between 1941 and 1945.

Despite the Tories promising in opposition to strike an Arctic Star when they won power, ministers have so far chosen not to do so; probably too busy working out how much their pensions will be.

Russia, meanwhile, has awarded commemorative medals to the veterans – only around 200 of whom are still alive.

Mr Robathan added: 'The intention post-war was not to cover everybody in medals. Medals in the UK mean something.

'Authoritarian regimes and dictators often throw around a lot of medals. One can look, for instance, at North Korean generals who are covered in medal ribbon, or Gaddafi, or Saddam Hussein.

'Generals in the Soviet Army were covered in medals.

'We have taken the view in this country, traditionally, that medals will only awarded for campaigns that show risk and rigour. Some regimes give out very large numbers of medals wheras we traditionally do not.'

Leading Seaman Stanley Ballard, 89, from South Croydon, who served on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Cotton on Artic Convoys, said: 'To compare us to Gaddafi was as good as slapping us in the face.'