BORIS JOHNSON’S new Office for Veterans’ Affairs is an affront to working-class troops, an Afghan war vet blasted today.

The PM made the announcement while on a visit to a military base in Scotland today.

But Afghan war veteran Joe Glenton said a veterans’ union was needed to “organise against the officer class.”

He said the new Cabinet post was a political ploy to bring Tory MP Johnny Mercer back in line after he rebelled against Theresa May’s government.

Mr Mercer sent a letter to the then prime minister in May stating that he would not support her government on any votes, besides those on Brexit, until extra support was given to veterans.

The ex-army captain will now share a ministerial portfolio for veterans affairs with fellow Tory MP Oliver Dowden.

Mr Mercer said: “For the first time in its history, the UK government will have an Office for Veterans’ Affairs … to ensure that, when our armed forces personnel leave service, they are looked after in the manner that they deserve.”

But Mr Glenton told the Morning Star: “Johnny Mercer’s grovelling support for the bigot and buffoon Boris Johnson during the recent Tory leadership campaign seems finally to have paid off.

“This can surely only add to the impression of many hard-pressed working-class veterans I speak to that Mercer is a little more than a Flashman-esque posh-boy chancer trading off their hardships for his own advancement.

“The truth is that every virtue-signalling platitude Mercer has made about helping ‘our boys’ must be taken in the context of his active support for scorched-earth austerity policies dreamed up by his Tory chums and imposed at the expense of, among others, struggling former service personnel.

“We don’t need another toff at the head of some half-cocked new ‘veterans affairs office’ to help us.

“Veterans issues are overwhelmingly working-class issues. If we want a fair settlement we must organise against the officer class, not be organised by it.”