Politics Home | UK Should Bring In Nordic-Style National Service, Says Former Defence Secretary

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The former Conservative MP also admitted that his party should have done more to increase defence spending while in power.

Sweden restored conscription in 2017 to address falling service numbers. Under Sweden’s total defence model, all 17-year-old men and women are required to submit applications to join the military, but entry is capped at around 8000 per year, making it highly competitive.

Fallon, who was defence secretary between 2014 and 2017, said it was an approach that Britain could adopt as European countries face pressure from the US to bolster their defensive capabilities.

“ I’d like to see us adopt some form as the Nordics have of competitive national service, where it’s a badge of honour to get selected for it,” said Fallon, speaking to the Latika Takes podcast in remarks shared with PoliticsHome.

“You set a certain number of places and open up a competition for them, and within a couple of years, you find in the Nordics, and this is something employers absolutely valued, people fought to get places on the scheme.”

Fallon argued that this sort of approach would avoid a situation in which “hundreds of thousands” of young people end up in national service despite not wanting to be there, “which obviously cost them a lot in terms of time and money and training”.

France, which is reintroducing a form of national service, has also been inspired by the Nordics. France’s Chief of Defence Staff General Fabien Mandon recently told French military magazine, Esprit Défense: “I was particularly struck by what I saw in Norway and Sweden, where some young people are even concerned about not being selected.”

Neil Barnett, who runs British private intelligence firm, Istok Associates Limited, and has special interests in the Nordic region, said the UK didn’t need to adopt Sweden’s total defence model, but did need to bolster the number of men and women who can be called up in the event of war, which “the Swedish model is excellent for”.

“What you see in Sweden is that among the young Swedes… there’s a competition to get into the elite forces,” he said, adding: “It becomes a prestigious thing and you’re not trying to press gang people who are mentally or physically unsuited because that’s not in anyone’s interests.”

Former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak proposed introducing national service during the party’s unsuccessful 2024 general election campaign.

Tobias Ellwood, former chair of the House of Commons defence committee, recently called on the UK to consider a form of national service as a way of deterring Russian aggression in eastern Europe.

Fallon admitted that the Conservatives should have raised defence spending higher and faster during their time in office.

“ Arguably, yes, we should have,” he told the podcast.

“I was responsible for three of those early years, from 2014 to 2017. The world then became more dangerous. It obviously became more dangerous after Crimea [annexed by Russia] and some of the other conflicts that we had.

“So there was certainly a case for raising it faster in the latter years of the 2010s.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has committed to raising defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by April next year and to 3 per cent in the next parliament. However, he is coming under pressure to raise that target amid Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East.

In February, the PM said that “to meet the wider threat, it’s clear that we are going to have to spend more, faster.”

“The issue is now you have a Labour government that clearly is not prepared to cut overseas aid further,” said Fallon.

“And it certainly doesn’t look prepared to cut back on welfare. And unless you do those two things, it seems unlikely they’re going to very quickly find additional money for defence.”