National Service Would Help Bolster UK Troops In Ukraine, Says Ex-Defence Minister
Tobias Ellwood is an ex-defence minister (Alamy)
3 min read
The government should restore national service to bolster the potential deployment of British troops to Ukraine under a peace deal, a former defence minister has told PoliticsHome.
Tobias Ellwood, a former Tory MP who served as a minister as well as chair of the defence committee, said introducing a system of national service would give the UK a "latent capability" to respond to military challenges like protecting a Ukraine peace deal.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday after hosting the European defence summit in London that the UK was willing to put "boots on the ground and planes in the air" to defend Ukraine from a future Russian attack.
The UK and France are hoping to convince other European governments to form a "coalition of the willing" — a commitment to protect any Ukrainian peace deal militarily.
Ellwood, who was a soldier before his 19 years as the Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, expressed doubt that the British military in its current form could maintain the sort of presence necessary for defending Ukraine. He said Britain would "struggle to maintain that for any length of time without the support of the reserves" due to rotation times.
"You would need reserve forces as well," he told PoliticsHome.
He added that while he believes there are enough reserves at the moment, the government should "bring back national service, not because it's particularly for Ukraine, although it would certainly help, it's more to have that latent capability embedded in society".
Britain's national service came to an end in the early 1960s, due to concerns about the economy and the large numbers of men being absorbed into the forces becoming a burden.
Former Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak announced a policy of reintroducing national service during the 2024 general election campaign. Under his manifesto proposal, every 18-year-old would have been required to spend time working in military or civilian service, with a royal commission being tasked with designing how the scheme would work.
"Wearing the uniform in one form or another is not for everybody," said Ellwood.
"But there are other ways that you can help defend and improve Britain's resilience.
"And at the moment, we're not particularly good at that."
Ellwood said women should be expected to come forward and contribute to national service in the same way as men, telling PoliticsHome: "I don't think there's a single role in the armed forces that's not open to women now... you're missing out on capability if you don't invite everybody to step forward."
He stressed, however, the importance of defining what "boots on the ground" means before allocating troops, describing the phrase as "short-term symbolism".
"We need to confirm whether there's an immediacy of preventing Russia's advancement, or is this about part of a peace deal that sees the current line, the contact line, become the new division between Russian-occupied territory and now what's left of Ukraine."
Ellwood also said there are problems with the term "peacekeeping", which has been used to describe the potential presence of British troops in the region.
"I've been involved in peacekeeping missions across the world," he said, adding that peacekeeping troops act as an "intermediary" between two adversaries, in this conflict the UK is "very much on one side of the fence".
Keir Starmer's official spokesperson on Tuesday said the Prime Minister is "full of admiration" for British troops after remarks by US vice-president JD Vance triggered outrage across the UK political spectrum.
Vance in an interview with Fox News poured scorn over the idea that European countries could provide Ukraine with military protection, describing them as “20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
Critics said his remarks insulted British troops who served alongside the US in recent conflicts, though Vance later described those claims as "absurdly dishonest".
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