NATO chief Mark Rutte has claimed the UK and other allied nations are next in Russia’s sights as he warned we “must be prepared” for war amid unsuccessful peace talks
The UK government is said to be “rapidly developing” plans to prepare for the possible outbreak of war as tensions rise in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. The European Union has decided to indefinitely freeze £184bn worth of Russia’s assets, so that Hungary and Slovakia, two countries with friendly relations with Moscow, cannot prevent billions of euros from being used to support Ukraine.
It comes weeks after President Trump issued a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine that strongly echoed Russian talking points. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has responded with a counterproposal that demands legal guarantees of protection against future Russian aggression, according to descriptions of the plan by European leaders and diplomats.
Britain’s dwindling numbers of soldiers have sparked alarm among experts in national security, with one former commander warning that the country would be effectively defenceless if Vladimir Putin launched a direct attack. Following major cuts to the MoD that began in 2010, just over 74,000 regular forces personnel are currently serving in the British Army – the lowest number since the Napoleonic Wars.
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Here, we take a look at how modern day conscription could work.
How old would conscripts be?
When Britain introduced conscription in the months leading up to World War II, single men aged between 20 and 22 were required to undertake six months’ military training, resulting in 240,000 being called up.
But when war was declared following Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland, the age range was immediately widened to any man aged 18 to 41. Exemptions were given to men who were too unfit medically, or who worked in vital industries like baking, farming, and medicine, which were vital to the war effort.
By the end of 1941, women and all childless widows between the ages of 20 and 30 were required to do work related to the war effort, while men aged up to 51 were called up for military service. Even men aged 52 to 60 were required to take part in “some form of military service”.
After the war, National Service required all healthy males aged 17 to 21 to serve in the armed forces for 18 months, along with a four-year reserve period. This typically involved training at a barracks based within the UK.
Would women also be conscripted?
The UK has never called up women to serve in direct combat – but recent polling suggests the public thinks that this should change if World War III ever broke out.
A YouGov poll earlier this year found that 72 percent supported women being conscripted as well as men in the event of the measure ever being reintroduced.
What if I refused?
Despite the warnings of the world now being in a “pre-war” state, the same YouGov poll also found that many young people would be unwilling to fight – even if Britain was about to be invaded. Around 38 percent of under-40s said they would refuse to serve in the armed forces if World War III broke out, and 30 percent would not serve even if the UK faced “imminent invasion”.
In World War II, ‘conscientious objectors’ who were within the conscription age but refused to fight were taken to court, and many were given mandatory jobs to contribute to the war effort in other ways.
If accepted, they were assigned to essential civilian jobs like farming, forestry, hospital work, or civil defence; some were placed in non-combatant military roles (like RAMC); others refused all war work, leading to imprisonment, but many performed crucial “work of national importance,” keeping vital services running.
Why are people saying we should bring in conscription?
The shaky attempts by Donald Trump to achieve peace in Ukraine have left many concerned that Vladimir Putin will feel emboldened to attack Europe again, potentially dragging the UK into a major war. As the US weakens its support for Ukraine and Russia rejects ceasefire deals, former top brass have warned that Britain must prepare to conscript if things escalate – or risk surrendering quickly.
Colonel Hamish De Bretton Gordon, who used to lead 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”.
Sir Richard Shirreff, a former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, meanwhile said that the British government should be prepared to “think the unthinkable” and begin a “selective” form of conscription.
What has the Government said?
The Government has said there are no plans for any form of conscription in the UK. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the News Agents podcast in March that “nobody is talking about conscription” and that such a proposal has “never crossed my lips”.
According to the newly published National Security Strategy report, facing the danger of nuclear weapons will be “more complex than it was even in the Cold War” – a prospect that will no doubt send a shudder down the spine of those who lived through these uncertain times.
Describing the nation as being in a period of “radical uncertainty”, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to spend five per cent of GDP on national security within a decade, in a bid to bring together civilian and military priorities “in a way not seen since 1945”.
Although national conscription was not mentioned in the document, Brits are now asking important questions as the threat to national security feels closer than ever.
Reflecting on this newly published strategy, Professor Anthony Glees, an expert on European affairs from The University of Buckingham, told the Mirror: “It’s revealing and depressing that the National Security Strategy outlines, correctly, the grave danger the UK now faces, but does not mention ‘conscription’ once. Not once.”
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