‘UK must consider conscription NOW’…Calls for Labour to follow Europe’s frontline & ramp up readiness for war with Putin

BRITAIN is in "no position" to fight a war and the government "must" consider conscription now, former UK defence chiefs have warned.

Ex-Nato officers told The Sun that the UK must "wake up" to the looming Russian threat and recruit thousands more soldiers and reserves now - before it's too late.

The UK and Europe have been forced into action after Donald Trump suggested the US will no longer act as our backstop for defence.

European leaders have been scrambling to bolster Nato defences across the Baltics amid the emerging threat of a Vladimir Putin attack - which defence chiefs fear could happen in a few years.

Some nations - including Poland and Latvia - have already brought back conscription to prepare themselves for the worst.

But the UK government disagrees - despite talk of British boots on the ground in Ukraine and Keir Starmer spearheading Europe's peace efforts.

Cabinet minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat MacFaddon has clearly stated the government is "not considering" introducing conscription.

But military chiefs and defence analysts say this mindset is wrong and Labour should rule "nothing out at the moment".

Sir Richard Shirreff, who served as Nato's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told The Sun we need to look to conscript now - or it'll be too late.

The former commander, said the only way Putin can be stopped is if Europe bolsters its defences and creates an effective deterrence.

And that means boosting our forces across Nato's eastern flank as well as filling the gap that could be left behind if Trump pulls out of the alliance.

The military chief says as it stands, the British forces stand no chance against Putin's meatgrinder forces with over a million still prepared to fight.

Colonel Hamish De Bretton Gordon told The Sun that Britain must start conscription "if things go really badly" to avoid surrendering to Putin.

He said: "Militarily, Britain absolutely needs to look at all the options as has been described.

"We are not in a position at the moment to fight a ground war.

"There's no way we'll avoid [conscription] unless we surrender, and I don't think anybody in this country is going to surrender without a fight, especially to Putin."

With just 70,000 active troops in the British army - the smallest since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 - De Bretton Gordon said there is a massive need to modernise our military equipment.

He added: "What is important is to modernise our military. Make sure that we have the right kit, enough ammunition, and enough training, and that we are in a position to support Ukraine.

"While conscription will take a huge focus away from our regular military - which we cannot afford at the moment - we need to plan for it."

And Sir Shirreff said Britain needs to "think the unthinkable" and start planning to prevent a catastrophic event.

He suggested that the government should look to launch "selective conscription", which will help the British public get ready for war.

He told The Sun: "The government should rule nothing out at the moment. I can’t see how an army of just 70,000 is going to be able to deter Russia in the long term and maintain the mass it needs.

“If you look at the size of our regular army, it’s tiny and they’d find it difficult to deploy a brigade for any period of time.

“You need mass and you achieve mass through alliance and through creating larger forces but you’ve also got to build up your own army.

“Selective conscription must be looked at. We’ve got to think the unthinkable and one of the things we must be considering is selective conscription."

While Starmer's long-awaited defence hike of three per cent was widely welcomed, many experts say it's "too little too late".

The cash boost will add an additional £13bn a year to armed forces coffers from 2027, according to the PM.

“We must change our national security posture, because a generational challenge requires a generational response, that will demand some extremely difficult and painful choices," he said.

But only £6 billion of that is new money - calculated as the difference between spending 2.3 per cent and 2.5 per cent of GDP.

British MP and Afghan veteran Mike Martin said Starmer's response fell short of what was needed at this critical moment.

Speaking to The Sun, the former Army Reserve Officer said: "Starmer made a big speech about us facing a ‘generational challenge’.

"And his response was to increase spending by 0.2% and be a bridge between the US and Europe? We’ve been doing that for 60 years.

"It hasn’t been a generational response.”

He urged the government to help the British public grow a military backbone.

“It’s the duty of the government to get the public ready - to lead on this issue," Martin said.

"We could be looking at conscription after a period of getting the public ready," the war veteran added.

Meanwhile, veteran Air Marshal Greg Bagwell who served in the RAF for 36 years, said he believes the UK's military needs an extra 26,000 personnel across all forces - warning that the current 130,000 isn't enough to put up a good fight.

The airman told The Sun: "There are 70,000 in the Army and 30,000 in the Navy and RAF and you might think that's not bad to have 130,000.

"But they're not all going to be on the front line, they're not all going to be in planes or ships."

And he warned that's not even taking into account the sheer scale of losses Britain and Nato as a whole could suffer on the battlefields against Russian troops.

That means Britain needs to recruit and train up thousands more soldiers and reservists so that there's a constant backlog of troops ready to fight.

However, there are no signs from the UK government that it is working to fill in the gaping holes.

Lt Col Stuart Crawford, who spent 24 years serving in the Royal Tank Regiment, told The Sun that Britain has been doing the “absolute minimum” to maintain its military, and “the problem is deep”.

He said: "Politicians don’t get it yet... they are still banging on about other priorities for spending."

Those priorities have to change - and fast, Crawford added.

Fix blackholes now

Retired army officer Colonel Richard Kemp said there is an "extremely wide gap" in the capabilities of the current forces and that he government certainly needs to have plans for conscription "if the situation deteriorates". 

Speaking to The Sun, he said: "The capability gap is extremely wide. The PM talks about deploying British forces to Ukraine, but the reality is we couldn’t field a significant military force. 

"The British armed forces need to be dramatically expanded both in manpower and fighting equipment such as ships, tanks and planes. 

"We could no longer deploy troops on the scale of the Falklands War, Afghanistan or Iraq.

"We don’t have adequate numbers of infantrymen, armoured vehicles, artillery, engineers, air defences or munitions to keep them fighting.

"I’m sure we’re up to strength in diversity officers but they don’t win wars."

Lt Col Stuart Crawford said the armed forces have “failed to recruit enough people for the last 10 years”, so we must first sort out the regulars.

He said: “The forces are seen as declining organizations - which they are - and have been for at least the last 25 years, because of a lack of resources and funding.”

At the moment, there’s “nowhere to train these people”, “nothing to equip these people with”, and “not enough people to instruct them.”

Colonel Richard agrees, adding the British military needs to rampantly improve recruiting.

He said: "Our ridiculously small armed forces are undermanned. But I believe not only could this be reversed but also the size of the forces increased by fixing two things: recruiting and retention.

"The recruiting organization needs radical change.

"The situation is grave at present, and if the MOD continues to fail to get a grip of recruiting or if the situation deteriorates, the government certainly needs to have plans for conscription."