The British public could be conscripted into the armed forces in the event of war with Russia according to an MP on the Defence Select Committee. Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin, who served multiple tours of Afghanistan made the remarks as he warned that the UK must be prepared for conflict in order to deter it. He said: “There’s a significant chance that it [war with Russia] might happen so we must be prepared.

“Obviously, if we get involved in a general war with Russia, we’ll be conscripting the population – there’s no question about that. Being prepared generates deterrence, which decreases the likelihood [of war]. The whole point about building the military up is it decreases the likelihood of this happening.”

He added: “I think that’s an important caveat. I’ve fought in wars, I’m not a warmonger. But I recognise that you’ve got to [pursue] peace through strength.”

The idea of conscription has seeped back into the consciousness of Britons since January 2024, when the outgoing Chief of the Defence Staff first suggested that politicians might need to start considering the prospect in the wake of growing threats.

General Patrick Sanders used his speech to reiterate his belief that the army should be designed to expand rapidly “to enable the first echelon, resource the second echelon, and train and equip the citizen army that must follow”.

He added that: “Ukraine brutally illustrates that regular armies start wars; citizen armies win them.”

Such threats include principally war in Europe with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlighting the threats to the west after years of the so-called “peace dividend” following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In Ukraine, men over the age of 25 are eligible for conscription as the country attempts to continue to fight off the much-larger Russian army.

The British armed forces have reached record lows in recent years, caused by a fall in recruitment, poor retention of personnel and two decades of involvement in small-scale wars against non-state actors.

The UK armed forces has around 138,000 personnel, 75,000 of which are enlisted in the British Army. In December, Veterans’ Minister Alistair Carns said Britain’s army would be “expended” within six to 12 months of a major conflict.

But it remains unclear what form conscription would take, with various examples existing around the world.

While conscription in the face of an invasion in Ukraine sits at one end of the scale other countries use national service as a means of ensuring hundreds of thousands of citizens possess low level skills that would allow them to be incorporated into the armed forces should they be required.

Countries such as Latvia, Sweden and Norway all have forms of conscription, with a shared border with Russia no doubt highlighting the threat facing each nation.