THE Ministry of Defence’s timing leaves much to be desired. Yesterday the MoD began a legal bid to claw back compensation awarded to soldiers injured in Iraq.

The Government’s court challenge came on the same day four more troops came home from Afghanistan in body bags and just hours after another two of our servicemen were killed in Helmand Province.

If the MoD’s challenge is successful it will see awards to two injured soldiers slashed and a limit on future payments for combat victims.

One of the soldiers facing a cut in compensation after being shot in the leg is now back on the front line in Afghanistan after two years of rehabilitation.

The Government’s case is that compensation should be based on injury and not any future disablement caused by it. Its lawyers say it wants compensation to be “fair and consistent”.

The case hinges on whether it was wrong in law for increased payments to be made to two soldiers who appealed against their compensation.

Frankly, we think the Government is mad to be pursuing this case at this time.

The public is not interested in the legal niceties. What people see is a Government scrabbling around in a courtroom to save a few grand while teenagers fighting on its behalf in Afghanistan are being killed and maimed.

God knows how much public money has been spent on bringing this disgraceful case to court.

Soldiers go to war knowing the risks but expecting their country to look after them if they are injured serving it. What they do not expect is to be treated like dirt by the desk-jockeys who sent them to war.