Michael Fabricant is alarmed at national press reports today (Friday 16th
July) which leak a statement to be made next week by the Secretary of State
for Defence which, if the leaks are true, will announce the end of the
Staffordshire Regiment among with other famous regiments. It is thought
that the Staffordshire Regiment, the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment, and the
Worcester and Sherwood Foresters Regiment will all merge into a Mercia
Regiment.

Michael has today tabled an urgent question asking the Secretary of State to
make a statement on the future of the Staffords. "The Staffordshire
Regiment has had a glorious past and an illustrious present. It is integral
to the life of Lichfield having being founded in the City in the King’s Head
in Bird Street. It’s 300th anniversary will be celebrated next year.
Government cuts and a desperate drive to be ‘modern’ must not be allowed to
transform the celebration into a wake" says Michael Fabricant.

In 1991, Michael was the first candidate in the run-up to the General
Election to sign up to the Save Our Staffords (SOS) campaign and continued
to fight against a proposed merger with the Cheshires in Parliament. A year
later, Malcolm Rifkind (then Secretary of State for Defence) announced that
SOS had won and the regiment was saved.