By Dave Lord

THE MOTHER of a teenage Perth solider who died at the controversial Deepcut army barracks has criticised a “blundering” politician for making “ill-informed” comments about her son’s death.

A local politician has also joined James Collinson’s parents in hitting out at Conservative MP Liam Fox, who called the young private “vulnerable.”

The Perth soldier was just 17 when he died—and his mother Yvonne insists he was in no way suicidal. She has repeatedly stressed the need for a full public inquiry into the death, one of four at the Surrey barracks.

Yvonne has now written to Mr Fox—and was last night joined by Perth and North Perthshire MP Pete Wishart who branded the Tory as having all the tact and subtlety of a “bull in a china shop.”

Mr Fox had spoken out after the Blake review into the Deepcut deaths, which concluded the army had failed in its duty of care to the four young recruits.

He stated, “Let us remind ourselves of some basic facts of this tragedy. Of the four young victims two had previous, clearly-recorded episodes of self-harm in their medical notes prior to recruitment. One of the others had clearly documented episodes of self-harm while in the army. Another was about to be forced to leave the army against his will.

“These vulnerable individuals were not only given loaded guns, but put on solitary guard duty in remote locations.”

Mrs Collinson was furious on hearing the remarks and said, “I wonder if Mr Fox could explain to me which category my son fell in to. There has very recently been an inquest conducted into my son’s death, and at no point was there any suggestion that he had ever self-harmed or that he was about to be discharged from the army.

“On the contrary he was reported to have the ‘makings of a very good soldier’ and was described as a happy young man.”

Mrs Collinson said his remarks were misguided, thoughtless and extremely upsetting. “I suggest Mr Fox should make a full apology and retract his extremely inaccurate statement at his earliest convenience.”

Mr Wishart said, “Liam Fox’s remarks have caused great upset to all the families who lost loved ones at the Deepcut barracks. He clearly knows nothing about the individual circumstances of these deaths and has blundered into this situation like a bull in a china shop.

“He should immediately apologise to Jim and Yvonne Collinson and then keep his nose out of these affairs,” Mr Wishart continued.

“The families have been through too much for ill-informed Tories to derail their campaign for justice.

“I will be writing to Liam Fox to make sure this apology is forthcoming.”