Why the UK is unlikely to bring back conscription to aid Israel against Iran

David Cameron has confirmed that British RAF jets played a part in shooting down Iranian drones launched towards Israel on Saturday night.

The unprecedented attack by Iran, in retaliation for an Israeli missile strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria earlier this month, has raised fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spiral into a wider regional conflagration.

RAF jets could defend Israel again, even if the country’s leaders ignored calls from the UK and US to hold back from retaliation against Iran, Lord Cameron suggested.

While there is currently no suggestion that British ground forces could be mobilised, questions have been raised this year about the readiness of the army for potential global conflicts.

In February, a former senior army commander, General Sir Richard Barrons, warned that the public should be prepared for conscription to repel a potential Russian attack.

It came after the outgoing head of the British army, Sir Patrick Sanders, stopped short of calling for conscription, but said the UK should train and equip” a “citizen army” to prepare for for a potential land war with Vladimir Putin’s forces.

What is conscription?

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people into a national service, typically the military, enforced by the state.

It was first introduced in the UK in 1916, during the First World War, with men between 18 and 41 being legally required to sign up to the military. The age range was later extended to 51.

Failure to enlist was a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment of up to a year.

Those who wished to avoid fighting had to apply for an exemption on specific grounds – such as doing work of national importance, medical unfitness or conscientious objection.

Comments by the head of the British Army have led some to question whether conscription could be reintroduced in the UK (Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP)

A system of tribunals adjudicated on whether exemptions should be granted.

By the end of 1916, about 750,000 men applied to the tribunals – nearly as many as the number who joined the army – and the number of exemptions grew to 1.8 million by the end of the war.

In World War Two, men between 18 and 41 were again conscripted, with a similar system of exemptions in place.

National Service, a standardised form of peacetime conscription, was introduced in 1947 for men between the ages of 18 and 21, lasting until 1960.

If conscription was introduced in 2024, women could also be drafted into the frontline, with all roles in the Armed Forces available to females since 2018, after the end of a previous ban on women engaging in ground close combat.

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The Royal Armoured Corps was the first ground close combat branch to welcome female soldiers and officers, in November 2016, followed by the RAF Regiment in September 2017.

There are around 85 countries around the world that have some form of obligatory military training, including Israel, Turkey, Cyprus, Brazil and North and South Korea.

Russia conscripts over a quarter of million young men aged 18-27 each year.

On the official website of the Russian ministry of defence, it states that mandatory service is “not a fun ride, no matter where you find yourself serving your country, but being a real man is being able to take the pain and hardship.”

“This experience will make your further civilian life so much easier,” it adds.

And in the Netherlands, both men and women receive a letter from the ministry of defence stating they are registered for military service at the age of 17, but this is not enforced.

Could conscription return to the UK?

The Government has dismissed suggestions that citizens could ever face mandatory military service.

Responding to Sir Patrick’s comments earlier this year, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said that “hypothetical scenarios” about potential future wars were “not helpful”.

The spokesperson said the PM disagreed with Sir Patrick and that Mr Sunak had “no intention” of considering conscription.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson also told i: “We have been clear that increasing recruitment and improving retention across the services is a top priority, but there is no suggestion of a return to conscription.”

An anti-missile system operates after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon (Photo: Amir Cohen/Reuters)

The debate around conscription amid a wider debate about the current size of the UK’s army.

In the 12 months to September 2023, the army’s total strength fell from 79,139 to 75,983, an annual drop of 4 per cent and the lowest level in 200 years.

Chemical weapons expert Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told i that Britain’s Armed Forces were “pitifully small”.

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The outcome of the Ukraine war would be key to the risk of war with Russia, he said, the event most likely to result in conscription.

But for most people, the conflict in Ukraine, now in its third year, was passing them by, with conscription “beyond their comprehension”.

“If we are going to have to fight the Russians, it’s going to happen. When it’s national survival, you either shut up or you put up”, he said.

“We only have to look back to 1939 and people were rushing to the conscription offices to join the military.

“If it did come to it, I’m sure like Britain has done throughout millennia, people would pick up their picks and shovels and fight the enemy, as it were.”

Colonel de Bretton-Gordon is a former commander of UK and Nato CBRN [Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear] Forces.

Admiral Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy, said: “Clearly, if a country goes to war it has to mobilise, but we’re not at that stage yet.

“If there is a war, then people accept things like conscription, and if there’s a war, people have to start doing what they’re told. But we’re nowhere near that.”