The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said there’s no plan for conscription after the head of the Army reportedly called for a “citizen army” in preparation for war.
General Sir Patrick Sanders also said the UK needs to expand its regular army in his speech on Wednesday at the International Armoured Vehicles expo in Twickenham, West London.
It comes days after a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) chief warned that the alliance may be at war within 20 years.
Former Defence Committee chair Tobias Ellwood, who has served with Sir Patrick, said we need to “listen carefully” to the army chief’s advice.
Downing Street and the MoD said there is no plan for a return to conscription.
In the closed-door speech, the outgoing general said, “We need an Army designed to expand rapidly to enable the first echelon, resource the second echelon and train and equip the citizen army that must follow,” according to the PA News Agency.
“Within the next three years, it must be credible to talk of a British Army of 120,000, folding in our reserve and strategic reserve. But this is not enough,” he said.
The general said allies in eastern and northern Europe are “already acting prudently, laying the foundations for national mobilisation” amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
“As the chairman of the NATO military committee warned just last week, and as the Swedish government has done, preparing Sweden for entry to NATO, taking preparatory steps to enable placing our societies on a war footing when needed are now not merely desirable but essential,” he said.
Sir Patrick said the UK won’t be immune, warning the country must prepare using a “whole-of-nation” approach as “the pre-war generation.”
“Ukraine brutally illustrates that regular armies start wars; citizen armies win them,” the general added.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Mr. Ellwood said the UK has been “too complacent.”
“We need to listen and listen carefully” to the army chief’s warning, he said.
“What’s coming over the horizon should shock us. It should worry us and we are not prepared.”
The MoD said it’s not planing conscriptions.
In a statement emailed to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for the MoD said, “The British military has a proud tradition of being a voluntary force and there is absolutely no suggestion of a return to conscription.
“More than £50 [billion] is being invested in our Armed Forces this year alone to enable the UK to tackle threats wherever they occur, whether responding to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, playing a leading role in NATO or by our enduring commitment to Ukraine in their fight against Russia’s illegal invasion.”
Downing Street also told reporters there’s “no suggestion of conscription,” adding “hypothetical scenarios” about potential future conflicts were “not helpful.”
“The British military has a proud tradition of being a voluntary force. There are no plans to change that,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said.
On Saturday, NATO’s chair of the Military Committee Admiral Rob Bauer told reporters that it’s “great” that Swedish civilians are preparing for war.
Asked about media reports that Swedish civilians are “panic buying” supplies such as tents and radios that don’t need electricity, the admiral said “that is great.”
“You need to have water, you need to have a radio on batteries, and you need to have a flashlight on batteries to make sure that you can survive the first 36 hours,” he said.
“Things like that, that’s simple things, but it starts there—the realisation that not everything is plantable, not everything is going to be hunky dory in the next 20 years.”
Admiral Bauer said he’s not saying things are going wrong “tomorrow,” but “we have to realise it’s not a given that we are in peace.”
He also stressed that “whole of society” will get involved in wars “whether we like it or not.”
