Is now the time to bring back national service?

Wes Streeting has told us last week that we have 1,000 days to get war-ready amid the intensifying threats and aggression from Vladimir Putin. The Defence Secretary’s ‘1,000 days’ deadline rests on an earlier warning by the former prime minister Keir Starmer. He had warned that Russia could attack Nato by the end of the decade. However, looking at the Budget this week, it’s clear Labour’s priorities don’t lie with getting Britain ready to face the threats of tomorrow.

Chancellor John Healey made no mention of the government’s ‘Be Ready’ resilience campaign, and the funding for 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030 has been pushed back to next year’s spending review. If an attack is less than four years away, one would hope the government would now ditch its circus of prioritising welfare over warfare. Resilience in this country is laughable. Last week could have been an opportunity for Labour to seize the narrative on boosting public resilience.

Instead, the Defence Secretary soft-launched a scheme that was more of a shopping list than a blueprint for the nation. Despite the government’s lack of urgency on this issue, at least one Labour figure spoke up and offered a sensible solution: Alex Ballinger. A Labour MP, Chair of the APPG on the Armed Forces and, perhaps most importantly, a former Royal Marine. Speaking at a reception at the Finnish ambassador’s residence, he said he’d personally love to see the return of national service and that Britain could learn from Finland’s model.

And I agree. Now is the time to bring back mandatory national service for 18-year-olds. What we need is a resilient, hardened and capable population As useful as bottled water, non-perishable food, and wet wipes might be in your cupboard, they won’t do much to steady the nation if we face power outages, cyber attacks, or, God forbid, a drone or missile attack. What we need is a resilient, hardened and capable population, ready for the tough times ahead.

Not a country with 10 million working-age people on benefits, 1 million of whom are classified as not in education, employment or training. Putin’s grey-zone campaign of sabotage, cyber attacks, arson, undersea cable mapping and electoral interference tactics is designed to test our responses. And currently, we are failing those tests. Beyond the occasional press conference attempting to hold Putin to account, our reactions have been pretty lacklustre.

This then emboldens the Russina president to push further and see what he can get away with. Russia will see our dismal defence spending and inability to mobilise our population as a weakness. The situation has become so bleak that only a radical solution will get the country back on track. Therefore, every 18-year-old should be required to serve in the military or take a shorter civil defence route, such as the NHS, fire service, emergency response, or a future Home Guard-style outfit.

In 1949, a good four years after the end of the second world war, men aged 17 to 21 were required to serve in one of the armed forces for 18 months. This peacetime service instilled civic pride and a sense of duty in many youngsters, something that is clearly absent today. Reintroducing such a scheme would teach the next generation a newfound respect for their country and a sense of moral responsibility to serve their community. It would also give Britain a hardened, resilient youth with the skills needed not just to cope in a crisis, but to serve their own communities.

The Finns have a concept known as Sisu , which is a concept meaning stoicism in the face of extreme adversity. This cultural pillar underpins Finland’s strong whole-of-society resolve. Although Britain has a population 12 times larger than Finland, Helsinki has a trained reserve of around 870,000. This dwarfs Britain’s 32,000 and sends a strong message to Putin: come knocking at your peril. It’s understandable that a country like Finland, which shares an 830-mile border with Russia, will do everything it can to bolster and maximise its defences, especially in terms of manpower.

But even nations like Germany and France have launched new forms of military service. Berlin now requires every 18-year-old man to complete a questionnaire on his skills, fitness and willingness to serve. It remains voluntary for now, but the Bundestag can trigger needs-based conscription. Meanwhile, in France, Emmanuel Macron introduced voluntary military service, encouraging French citizens aged 18 to 25 to take part in a 10-month programme, aiming to train 10,000 volunteers a year by 2030.

So while Britain pats itself on the back for stockpiling baked beans and Andrex, the rest of the continent firmly encourages its population to step up. It’s fair to say we would struggle to train and accommodate a national service cohort. Our already overstretched Armed Forces personnel can barely train effectively in the current climate. However, resilience doesn’t just have to mean training up the next generation of soldiers. A whole-of-society approach also relies on supporting blue-light services and community care.

If Russia does seek to attack Nato by 2030, then the clock is ticking. Putin knows how weak our defences are, but he also knows how vulnerable we are as a society – a divided nation, lacking social cohesion. National service is now the only serious answer.