'Mrs Dannatt and the chief of army staff made us personally welcome at and the food was wonderful. We didn't feel it was cut-price at all.'

British newspapers said the Labour MPs' bid to target Dannatt had 'spectacularly backfired'.

'It was part of a suspected plot to blacken his name ahead of his retirement this week, when he is expected to step up his criticism of the way the armed forces have been treated by Labour,' reported the Daily Mail.

Dannatt has spent as little as five pounds per head on meals for political and military top brass and paid just 1.49 pound each for bottles of wine bought from a duty free cash and carry in Calais, France. He also bought sausages for these meals at Lidl, a cut-price supermarket chain.

One military source told the paper: 'Sir Richard hasn't put a foot wrong - and this proves it. Whatever these Labour politicians were planning to do, they've failed spectacularly, scoring a massive own goal, because their expenses claims are a thousand times worse.'