Boris Johnson will serve Christmas lunch to British troops in Estonia to mark their sacrifices over festive period

BORIS Johnson will tomorrow serve up Christmas lunch to British troops on the frontline in Estonia.

The PM will also eat with soldiers from the Queen’s Royal Hussars, who are guarding the Baltic state under threat from Russia.

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The trip to the Tapa military base near Tallinn will re-invoke a long-held tradition of the nation’s leaders marking service personnel’s sacrifices over the festive period. But it lapsed in recent years, while the Brexit crisis raged.

Ahead of the trip, Mr Johnson said: “The men and women of our Armed Forces serve tirelessly every single day to keep us all safe.

“While we enjoy Christmas with family and friends, they will be working hard across the world to defend Britain and our allies.

“So at this time of year we should all take a moment to be thankful for the sacrifices made by our troops, many of whom will be spending Christmas on our deployments and bases around the world – be it the Baltics, Ukraine or Afghanistan – and those in Britain too.”

DEFENCE OVERHAUL

He added: “This year our military efforts in Estonia have been immense.

“British troops form the largest part of NATO’s mission in the country.”

A total of 850 British troops are based at Tapa, as part of the NATO operation in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to protect the alliance’s eastern border.

The day trip comes as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace raised the prospect of a new defence overhaul as he warns forces chiefs they must ”cut our cloth to match our ambition”.

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It has emerged that the MoD faces a £7billion black hole in its 10-year-plan to equip the armed forces.

Mr Wallace told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast: “The best thing I can do for the men and women of the Armed Forces is to make sure that we cut our cloth to match our ambition, manage expectations and say to the chiefs that your appetite has to match your stomach.

“By doing so we build our credibility with the Treasury and Number 10 to say ‘Look, we have sorted out our house, when you give us some more money we will deliver on what we’re trying to do and there will be no tricks’’’.

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