The Ministry of Defence has denied reports that it is freezing army recruitment to save costs.

A report in the Daily Telegraph suggested that a six-month ban has been imposed to save money, which the newspaper claims “will leave every British Army infantry battalion undermanned”.

The report also claimed that the army is “at its most over-stretched since the second world war” and is currently “struggling to keep hold of experienced soldiers”.

However, an MoD spokesperson told Recruiter that this was incorrect and recruitment had only stopped in certain units which currently had enough people.

“We’re not stopping recruiting,” she said, adding that high retention rates meant that new recruits “might not get the unit they want or might be asked to wait until the unit becomes available”.