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“More contact time with home via telephone and e-mail. And leave that starts the moment you step foot on British soil rather than when you actually leave the middle of Afghanistan.

“Any government that values our armed forces and respects the military covenant shouldn’t sit on it hands and say there’s nothing we can do. It should roll up sleeves and work day and night to make sure they happen.”

But there were bigger examples of how the Government has failed the military. “We’re fighting a major counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan.

“Yet defence spending is at it lowest levels since the 1930s, our troops are around 5,500 under strength, and they are regularly sent into action without necessary equipment like night vision goggles and armoured vehicles. All this, at a time when the MoD is spending over £2 billion on refurbishing its Whitehall headquarters.

“We have to spend our money more wisely and get more of it to the frontline.”

Mr Weston said that he was particularly concerned about the “paltry” compensation offered to servicemen injured in action.

“Some of them, they are beyond employment now,” he said. “They shouldn’t have to grovel and lose their dignity to get the rightful sums of money they deserve.”

He added: “The sacrifice and duty and honour with which these people serve our country should never be underestimated or taken too cheaply, and sadly that has been the case. It has been taken too cheaply and it has been misused and the trust has definitely been broken...

“We have got to show more respect to the people who deserve it.”

Both Mr Weston and Mr Forsyth insisted that the Commission, due to produce its report in September, would be independent and not party political.

Mr Forsyth said: “This is, I hope, going to produce feasible and affordable proposals which could become party policy for a government led by David Cameron which will proceed to carry out these recommendations with a view to restoring what was once a truly magnificent relationship between a country and its Armed Forces, which has been broken - there is no question about it, it has been destroyed.”

Responding to Mr Cameron’s comments, an MoD spokesman said: “Nobody within military circles has said the military covenant is broken, including the Royal British Legion.

“We strive constantly to ensure the Armed Forces have the best possible package of care. In the past few years we have made some significant improvements.”

Details of extra support for service personnel and their families will be set out in a command paper would be published in June by Bob Ainsworth, the Armed Forces Minister.

The spokesman added that the Armed Forces were experiencing “the longest period of sustained growth in defence spending”, with an additional £7.7 billion by 2011.

The most seriously injured personnel were getting more compensation, while the tax-free operational allowance for those deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan had been increased to £2,320 and all ranks had secured an above-inflation pay rise of 2.6 per cent last month.

Troops now enjoyed more free phone calls and better internet access, and £8.4 billion would be spent on improving accommodation over the next decade, said the spokesman.

Meanwhile, some £2.6 billion has been spent since 2001 to meet urgent operational requirements such as new vehicles and enhanced body armour.

A military-managed ward was already available at Selly Oak Hospital, and efforts made to introduce priority treatment for veterans with injuries linked to their time in the Armed Forces.

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