David Cameron has confirmed that defence spending is to be cut by eight per cent.

The HMS Ark Royal will be decommissioned four years earlier than planned and the Harriet jump jets will be axed. Nine Nimrod planes are also being axed, putting the fuiture of RAF Kinloss in doubt.

The RAF will lose 5,000 personnel, the Army 7,000, 100 tanks and heavy artillery, the Navy 5,000 and the MoD will lose 25,000 civilian staff over the next five years. The animal welfare advisory committee, a quango which advises the MoD on the care of animals used in defence experiments, is also to be axed.

The future of two aircraft carriers - HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales - had been in question, but Mr Osborne said these would go ahead.

The decision to decommission the HMS Ark Royal and to axe the jump jets would mean that no planes will be able to fly from the new aircraft carriers, until 2019, according to the BBC.