General Sir Patrick Sanders has stressed that the UK Government must increase its military capacity to fight future wars. The UK Defence personnel statistics show that in the 12 months leading to March 2023, there was an overall decrease of 5,400, meaning that more people have left the British Army than joined. This can also be seen from the 57% reduction rate in inflow to the UK Regular Forces between 1990 and 2023.
Former British Army Colonel, Tim Collins said in a Sky News interview: “This country is absolutely not ready for war; our military is a shadow of itself.” This has come in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine where he went on to say: “Ukrainians are fighting for their liberty through the illegal invasion from Russia and if they do not win that, we are next.” Col Collins stated that the recruiting system of the armed forces has “failed miserably”. Conscription would mean that, legally, certain groups would have to join the armed forces. The National Services Act 1939 made conscription mandatory to all males aged between 18 and 41 in World War Two and those registered would undertake six months of military training.
Conscription ended in 1960 and former UK Defence Minister Michael Fallon has described it as “completely antithetical to the British thinking on the military”. Although, given the attacks in the Red Sea, the latest airstrikes in Yemen, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ever-increasing threat of China’s takeover in Taiwan, global events are undoubtedly increasing the pressure for MPs to think carefully about what a future military should look like. Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps delivered a speech at Lancaster House earlier this month where he spoke of the UK moving from a “post-war to a pre-war world”.
In this speech, he announced, ‘Exercise Steadfast Defender’, one of NATO’s largest deployments since the end of the Cold War, which will see 20,000 military personnel joining forces with counterparts from 30 NATO countries to provide resistance against Russia. Calls for a ‘citizen army’ have been suggested to prepare the UK if NATO goes to war with Russia. General Sanders has raised the idea of a one-month long summer course which would give youngsters an insight into what it is like to be in the army.
This could be targeted towards school leavers who may be on a gap year or who are waiting to go to university, in the hope that they may join the reserves afterwards. However, a spokesperson for Rishi Sunak shook off suggestions of conscription last week, declaring that the British military has a “proud tradition of being a voluntary force”, and it currently has no plans of changing this.