United Kingdom Should Reinstitute Military Conscription to Deter Russia, Urges NATO Ally

The United Kingdom should reinstitute military conscription of British citizens to act as a deterrent against Russia invading other countries in Europe, a NATO ally has urged.

Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins argued that Britain should once again start conscripting citizens into military service, after having scrapped the World War-era system in 1960.

Latvia, like Finland, has instituted a conscription programme following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, requiring men between the ages of 18 to 27 to carry out at least 11 months of military service.

Asked in an interview with The Telegraph whether Britain should follow suit, Karins said: “We would strongly recommend this. We are developing and fleshing out a system of what we call a total defence involving all parts of civil society.”

Karins said that it is imperative for his country, which shares a 133-mile border with Russia, and other Baltic states for NATO to be ready to defend its territory “from the first square centimetre”.

The former prime minister argued, therefore, that British military strength would be a “crucial” deterrent, adding: “We need to plan and train and supply and plan and train and supply and make that visible to the Russians,” he said. “We will not stop them from wanting to have imperialistic ambitions, but we can make sure they don’t consider coming our way.”

Downing Street said in January that it has no plans of reintroducing conscription in Britain after the head of the British Army, Chief of the General Staff Gen. Patrick Saunders, argued that conscription may be necessary to confront Russia with a “citizen army” in a “whole-of-nation” effort.

The comments from the NATO ally come amid a debate as to whether the UK should ramp up its defence spending from the NATO minimum obligation of 2 per cent of GDP to 3 per cent or more. The Latvian foreign minister said that he believes it is “inevitable” that Britain will need to ramp up defence spending to at least 3 per cent.

However, in his recent budget, finance chief Jeremy Hunt chose to keep military spending at 2 per cent, in favour of spending on domestic services and mild tax cuts.

In an interview with POLITICO over the weekend, the outspoken former head of the MI6 intelligence agency, Sir Richard Dearlove criticised the lack of emphasis on defence spending, saying: “We’ve got to make some tough choices, and I’m afraid the tough choices are in front of us right now. We should be spending at least 2.5 per cent.”

“We urgently need to be building more ships. We need a much bigger navy. And we need more boots on the ground, for God’s sake.”

“If you stopped anyone in the street here in the U.K. and asked them whether they thought Britain is at war, they’d look at you as if you were mad,” he continued. “But we are at war — we’re engaged in a gray war with Russia, and I am trying to remind people of that.”

The ex-spy chief went on to praise former President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on NATO allies to ramp up defence spending, which has been criticised by establishment media as somehow an attack on the alliance itself.

“I approve of what Trump did in calling out NATO in his first term, and particularly the Germans. If the Germans really start spending seriously on rearming — which they should be doing because of the size of their economy — that would be totally transformative,” Dearlove said.

The former intelligence boss went on to praise Trump’s use of the “madman theory” on foreign relations, saying: “The principle of deterrence really is based on uncertainty and not [being able to] guess what your opponent is going to do. And I mean, in terms of guessing what Trump’s going to do, he has a deterrent effect because you can never be sure what he’s going to do next.”

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