As the UK’s military faces falling numbers and expert warn the country is defenceless against a Russian attack, some have called for conscription to be brought back
The UK government is being pushed to bring back conscription, leaving many Brits wondering if they’ll be summoned for duty.
With the world seemingly teetering from one war-inducing crisis to the next on an almost daily basis, many have turned to talk of boosting the UK’s armed forces by way of conscription.
British Army’s ranks have shrunk to just over 72,000 regular forces personnel, the smallest since the Napoleonic Wars, which has set off alarm bells among national security chiefs. Back in February, Mike Martin, the Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells, made such a claim and said there’s “certainly more than a 50% chance we’ll be involved in a war before 2030”.
Donald Trump’s efforts at brokering peace in Ukraine have given rise to a real fear that Vladimir Putin might get cocky and attack Europe again, potentially dragging the UK into a major war. Trump’s bust-up with Zelenskyy and subsequent backing off of support for Ukraine has served as another reminder for Europeans that the era for total reliance on Americans for security may be over.
Putin’s rejection of a ceasefire deal today has led Army leaders to push for the government to consider conscription.
Colonel Hamish De Bretton Gordon, ex-chief of the British Army’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, told the Sun: “The government should rule nothing out at the moment. I can’t see how an army of just 70,000 is going to be able to deter Russia in the long term and maintain the mass it needs. If you look at the size of our regular Army, it’s tiny and they’d find it difficult to deploy a brigade for any period of time.”
Meanwhile, Sir Richard Shirreff, NATO’s ex-Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, said the UK government needs to “think the unthinkable” and maybe start a “selective” draft.
Several European nations like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden already do it, but the UK hasn’t had any form of conscription since National Service wrapped up in 1963.
At the start of World War II and as soon as Hitler marched into Poland, the conscription net widened to any male ages 18 to 41.
By the end of 1941, women and childless widows from 20 to 30 were called up for the war effort too, and the male age range stretched to 51.
However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to the News Agents podcast this Thursday and was adamant that “nobody is talking about conscription” and made it crystal that such talk has “never crossed my lips”.
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