UK ‘will have conscription in five years’, former defence minister warns

He claimed the UK is "in denial" about the threat the nation faces.

Ellwood, who served as defence minister between 2017 and 2019 claimed the UK is "in denial" about the threat the nation faces.

The former Tory MP for Bournemouth, who spent 19 years in the role, said in an interview with The i Paper that he strongly believes "we will end up introducing national service within five years".

He said: “I’ve advocated for us to think about that. Society in Britain is still in denial at just how dangerous our world is becoming.

"And the confirmation should now be there that America is dialling back and Russia is dialling up.”

However, Ellwood emphasised that conscription would look very different to the traditional idea many have in mind.

He said: “We need to kill this idea that it’s going to be marching up and down parade squares. That’s a very dated view of what national service is.

“National service will be a service to the nation to help protect our society. It’s protecting the UK on land, sea and air, allowing the Armed Forces, in that traditional sense, to fight wars further afield.

"It’s how we look after ourselves here, how we become more resilient to increase threats that we’re now clearly enduring.”

He said that such a programme would cover a range of domains including space, cyber and AI, while also concerning more civil sectors such as the fire service and the coastguard.

Many countries already offer similar national service programmes, like in Switzerland where national service can be done in a military or civil capacity.

Britain is one of the few European nations to not enforce military service and with the tensions rising across the globe, notably with Trump's America threatening Greenland and Russia and China flexing their muscles, many people military service is an inevitable eventuality.

A varied programme would allow the UK to respond to not just an invasion or attack, but various national emergencies, as per Ellwood.

He said: “If something happens, like a 72-hour blackout of electricity, water or internet, there’s no way a standing Army of 74,000 will be able to allow large parts of Britain to endure that without community crisis [plans] being triggered."

Ellwood suggested modelling a UK national service programme on the Finnish system which obliges all citizens to take part in national defence.

Conscription in Finland concerns all men aged 18 to 60 while women can serve voluntarily.

Those who are eligible must complete either armed or unarmed military service, which lasts 165 days or 255 days for those with a specialism.

Those who object can apply for non-military service which last 347 days.