Senior Labour figures accused the head of the army last night of playing politics as he said that there were too few troops and helicopters in the Afghan war zone.

One minister expressed fury that General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the general staff, had attended a private dinner with Tory MPs and suggested an extra 2,000 troops were needed in Helmand province.

The general’s remarks put him at odds with the official government line, that the 9,000 British troops already in Afghanistan are sufficient to cope with the offensive.

A Labour minister said: “General Dannatt has crossed an important line. He is playing a high-risk game.”

David Crausby, a Labour member of the Commons defence committee, added: “It is not appropriate to play party politics at this time. Dannatt should just get on with the job. After the conflict, if there are lessons to be learnt, we should do so in a considered manner.”

Eight British soldiers died in a 24-hour period last week, with a total of 15 losing their lives in 10 days.

Two of those killed on Thursday were named last night as Rifleman Daniel Hume, 22, of 4th Battalion the Rifles, and Private John Brackpool, 28, of 1st Battalion the Welsh Guards.

The latest casualties, incurred during the assault against the Taliban known as Operation Panther’s Claw, took the total of British deaths in Afghanistan to 184 – more than the number killed in the Iraq war.

It was claimed yesterday that a number of these latest deaths, mainly caused by roadside bombs, could have been avoided if British troops had more access to helicopters instead of being forced to make dangerous journeys by road.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said the government’s failure to provide helicopters was a “scandal”. His claim echoed a devastating attack on Gordon Brown by Lord Guthrie, the former head of the armed forces, who said that when Brown was chancellor the Treasury had spent “the minimum they could get away with” on defence.

Stung by criticism that the Afghan war was “unwinnable”, Brown issued a detailed defence of Britain’s continued role in the conflict. In a six-page letter to MPs, he claimed the Afghanistan-Pakistan border had emerged as “a new crucible of terrorism” linked to three-quarters of the most serious plots against the UK.

President Barack Obama praised the troops in Afghanistan last night, saying: “My heart goes out to those British soldiers. Great Britain has played an extraordinary role in this coalition.

“The contribution of the British is critical . . . the likelihood of a terrorist attack in London is just as high if not higher than it is in the US,” he told Sky News. He said that the coalition strategy would need to be evaluated after the presidential election in Afghanistan next month.

It emerged last night that the Treasury had told Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials that there would be no funds for extra helicopters because the Americans had now in effect taken over Helmand.

The chancellor, Alistair Darling, insisted yesterday that the troops would get anything they needed. “You can’t send troops to the front line and not be prepared to see it through in terms of the . . . resources that they need,” he said.

However, an MoD official working on urgent operational requirements for Afghanistan said the Treasury had made it clear that there was no extra money for vital equipment, including armoured vehicles.

Plans to send extra helicopters to southern Afghanistan to support British special forces had been cancelled, one defence source said. The forces will have to rely on US helicopters and sharing those used by British troops in Helmand.

Of the 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, there are 5,000 in Helmand, who have just 10 Chinooks and five smaller, less-powerful Lynx helicopters, compared with the 120 Chinooks allocated to the 8,000 US marines in the centre and south of the province.

Dannatt made his comments at a Commons event on Wednesday evening hosted by the Conservative-dominated parliamentary army group.

A minister said Dannatt’s latest foray into the Commons was a step too far. “He should not be going out there briefing the Conservatives. If he has any concerns he should raise them in meetings in the ministry, not blurt them out.”

A spokesman for the MoD said: “General Dannatt has made it clear that more troops are needed in Afghanistan, but that they need not be from the UK’s armed forces, which have been punching above their weight in the most dangerous part of Afghanistan for three years. Neither did he suggest the UK needs to send more helicopters.

“He acknowledged more are needed from Nato as a whole.”

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