On Sunday 20th September 2015 the Sunday Times newspaper ran a front-page story on leader of the opposition in the UK parliament Jeremy Corbyn, in which an unnamed general calls for 'direct action' by the armed forces against a future Corbyn-led Labour government. 

It is extremely disturbing that in a democracy a serving general can openly call for the undermining of a future democratically elected Labour government. 

We demand that the general is named and removed from the army immediately.

We demand that the government immediately launches an investigation into the extent of plans by the army general staff to subvert a future Labour government and that all those found to be involved are sacked immediately.

From the Sunday Times:

A senior serving general said the armed forces would take “direct action” to stop a Corbyn government downgrading them and said his victory had been greeted with “wholesale dismay”, even among Labour-supporting soldiers.

“There would be mass resignations at all levels and you would face the very real prospect of an event which would effectively be a mutiny,” the general said. “Feelings are running very high within the armed forces. You would see a major break in convention with senior generals directly and publicly challenging Corbyn over vital important policy decisions such as Trident, pulling out of Nato and any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces. The Army just wouldn’t stand for it. The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that. You can’t put a maverick in charge of a country’s security.”