A former NATO commander has called for the UK to consider conscripting 30,000 Britons a year in order to boost the country’s depleted Armed Forces.
General Sir Richard Shirreff, a retired senior British Army officer, urged the UK and its NATO allies to prepare for war with Russia.
He said that US President Donald Trump’s ‘betrayal of Ukraine’ should fire a ‘starting gun’ for Western nations in readying themselves for conflict with Vladimir Putin.
The ex-deputy supreme allied commander Europe of NATO piled pressure on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to hike defence spending in order to protect British cities.
And he was not alone among Britain’s former top brass in issuing a chilling warning about the UK’s ability to defend itself from a Russian attack.
General Sir Nick Carter, who served as chief of the defence staff between 2018 and 2021, said the UK’s Armed Forces were ‘remarkably hollow’ after decades of neglect.
He added Britain was ‘massively vulnerable’ and suggested the country would not be able to withstand a Russian onslaught such as Ukraine has suffered since 2022.
The Labour Government is under huge pressure to raise defence spending, even beyond the 2.5 per cent of GDP that Sir Keir promised before the general election.
British troops are pictured loading a 105mm Howitzer during training in the Arctic Circle in Norway this month
A Soviet era T-34 tank rolls on Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow in May last year
Donald Trump’s ‘betrayal of Ukraine’ should fire a ‘starting gun’ for Western nations in readying themselves for conflict with Vladimir Putin (pictured), according to ex-military chiefs
The PM is due to visit Mr Trump in Washington DC next week in the wake of the White House telling Europe to take responsibility for its own and Ukraine’s defence.
The US President has also appeared to side with Mr Putin – and publicly attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – while beginning peace talks with Moscow.
Sir Richard told Sir Keir he would be ‘laughed out of court’ by the US President if he didn’t use the talks to signal UK defence spending would rise to at least 3 per cent.
He also further outlined his demand for the UK to consider the conscription of around 30,000 Britons a year to boost the size of the British Army to 100,000.
‘Where are the air defence missiles defending London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, other major UK cities?’ Sir Richard told The i newspaper.
‘Where is the mobilising of the defence industries, the mobilising of the national economy to fight a war?
‘This is big stuff. This is really serious. Munich 1938 was a betrayal of Czechoslovakia, but at least it forced Chamberlain to kick off rearmaments.
‘Munich 2025 is set to be a betrayal of Ukraine.
‘But it should also be firing a starting gun to prepare Britain and NATO for war with Russia, because that ultimately is the only way we are going to maintain peace.’
Sir Richard previously called for Britain to make plans for conscription in a Daily Mail article earlier this week, saying that ‘Trump has left us with no other choice’.
His demands for boosted defence spending were echoed by Sir Nick during an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time programme last night.
He warned the UK’s Armed Forces were ‘remarkably hollow’ after being whittled down by successive Tory and Labour governments.
‘The British Army has given up a huge number of its tanks and artillery pieces to Ukraine and doesn’t any longer have enough for what is required,’ he said.
‘This, to be fair to everybody, has been a process of neglect over a 30-year period. Of course, what has happened in that time is that warfare has also evolved.
‘We have these holes that need filling but its also the case that we need to digitise and take account of the digital era we’re now in.
‘But I think we also need to be clear about how vulnerable our country is – 95 per cent of the UK’s data comes through undersea cables, 45 per cent of our gas comes from Norway in undersea pipelines.
‘We get 40 per cent of our food via sea, much of our critical national infrastructure is not properly protected by cyber defences.
‘We are in a position, I think, where we are massively vulnerable at the moment. Whether we like it or not, that means we’re going to have to start protecting ourselves.
‘And the sort of onslaught that Ukraine has suffered from the air via drones and missiles over the course of the last three years is unsustainable as far as the UK is concerned.
‘We might be able to park a Destroyer in the Thames to protect parts of London, but nothing more than that.’
