Father's anger at Brown.

BRAVE soldier Paul McAleese's father-inlaw has blamed Gordon Brown for leaving his daughter a widow.

Paul McAleese, 29, a serjeant in 2nd BattalionThe Rifles and son of one of the SAS heroes of the 1980 Iranian embassy siege, died in a blast in Afghanistan on August 20.

In an angry letter to the PM, his wife Jo's father, Stephen Minter, said the Government were to blame for not equipping the troops properly in the war zone.

He wrote: "Because of you I now have a 26-year-old daughter with no husband and a five-month-old grandson with no father."

Paul, whose father John is Scottish, was deployed to Afghanistan when his son Charley was only a week old.

Vehicles Mr Minter added that Paul had told him there were no armoured vehicles at forward operation base Wishtan and helicopters were not widely available.

He said his son-in-law and others like him were killed not by the Taliban or other insurgents but by those who sent them to Afghanistan without the necessary equipment.

Meanwhile, Paul's mother Kim said her son had kept his criticisms to himself because he had a responsibility to his colleagues in Afghanistan.

But he had planned to speak to his superiors about his concerns over equipment.

The PM's spokesman said Brown would reply to the family privately.

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KILLED: Paul McAleese