The UK is not considering introducing conscription to ready the country for a potential war – but decisions may be needed in the future to respond to the “new reality” we are now living in, a minister has told Sky News.
In an interview with Trevor Phillips, Latvian President Edgars Rinkeviks has urged European countries to follow his country’s lead and “absolutely” introduce conscription, conceding the continent is “quite weak” militarily.
Politics latest: Calls for European nations to reintroduce conscription
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Asked if the UK government is considering introducing the measure to boost the armed forces, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said it is important the UK does not find itself operating under “old assumptions” – and that it may be “decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality”.
He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are not considering conscription, but of course we have announced a major increase in defence expenditure.
“We do have to recognise that the world has changed. The phrase ‘step up’ is used a lot. Europe does have to step up in terms of its own defence.
“President Trump isn’t actually the first president to say that, but he said it more loudly and with more force than his predecessors – so, I think we have got to recognise that moment.”
‘UK cannot cling to old assumptions’
He added: “When the world is changing as fast as it is, it’s important that we don’t cling on to old assumptions.
“I think the prime minister has played a tremendous role in recent weeks in responding to that situation and explaining it to the public.
“That is why the decision on increasing defence expenditure was needed.
“It may be why other decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality, and that we don’t find ourselves caught operating under the same assumption as we used to in the past when the situation has changed.”
‘Battlefield is changing’
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP but has not set out when this will be achieved. Ministers say a defence review to be published this spring will set out a “roadmap” to it.
The number is much lower than the US president has demanded NATO members spend on defence, with Mr Trump saying they should all be spending 5% – an amount last seen during the Cold War.
Asked if the “new reality” involved a bigger army, Mr McFadden said ministers were waiting for the conclusion of the review.
But he added: “One thing is for sure, you would not spend money today on the same things as you would 10 years ago.
“The experience of the three years of the war in Ukraine has shown just how fast the battlefield is changing in terms of cyber, drones, the use of intelligence.”
In the UK, military conscription has existed for two periods in modern times.
The first was from 1916 to 1920 following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, due to the dwindling number of volunteers for military service.
Lord Kitchener’s campaign – promoted by his famous “Your Country Needs You” poster – had encouraged more than one million men to enlist by January 1915. But this was not enough.
In January 1916, after much debate, the Military Service Act was passed. This imposed conscription on all single men aged between 18 and 41, but exempted the medically unfit, clergymen, teachers and certain classes of industrial worker.
Conscientious objectors – men who objected to fighting on moral grounds – were also exempt, and were given civilian jobs or non-fighting roles at the front.
Conscription was not applied to Ireland because of the 1916 Easter Rising, although many Irishmen volunteered to fight.
A second Act passed in May 1916 extended conscription to married men, and in 1918, during the last months of the war, the age limit was raised to 51.
Conscription was extended until 1920 to allow the army to deal with continuing trouble spots in the Empire and parts of Europe.
In the run-up to the Second World War, plans for limited conscription applying to single men aged between 20 and 22 were given parliamentary approval in the Military Training Act in May 1939. This required men to undertake six months’ military training.
When Britain declared war against Germany on 3 September 1939, the National Service (Armed Forces) Act imposed conscription on all males aged between 18 and 41.
Those medically unfit were exempt, as were others in key industries and jobs such as baking, farming, medicine, and engineering, while conscientious objectors had to appear before a tribunal to argue their reasons for refusing to join up.
In December 1941, a second National Service Act was approved, making all unmarried women and all childless widows between the ages of 20 and 30 liable to call-up.
The last conscription term ended in 1960, although many soldiers chose to continue in the service beyond 1963.
The Conservatives’ first policy announcement of last year’s general election campaign was that the party would introduce a new form of mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds.
Asked if the Tories still stood by the plan which was in their manifesto, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are obviously not going to write our manifesto now, so I am not going to recommit to things in the previous manifesto.
“We’ll need to do the thinking properly. I am not going to speculate four years ahead of the election.
“I don’t think it was really exactly conscription that was being proposed, it was a National Citizen Service which is a bit different.
“The idea of getting younger people to do voluntary work and perform useful tasks is not a bad idea.”
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Last year, Britain’s former top NATO commander told Sky News it was time to “think the unthinkable” and consider introducing conscription.
General Sir Richard Sherriff, ex-deputy supreme allied commander of the military organisation, said: “I think we need to get over many of the cultural hang-ups and assumptions, and frankly think the unthinkable.
“I think we need to go further and look carefully at conscription.”
