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Britain's political leaders will soon begin a "frank conversation" with the public about preparing for war and will ask citizens to accept "sacrifices" to prioritize defense, the head of the British Army told troops this week.
"Indeed, very soon, the political leaders of this country will start to have a frank conversation with the citizens of this country about just what is going on, and where the risk lies, and what the nation must need to be prepared to do," Chief of the General Staff Gen. Sir Roly Walker told about 700 soldiers at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire on Thursday.
The unusually blunt warning comes as Britain faces pressure to raise defense spending amid the Russia-Ukraine war and wider global threats, while a new poll shows half of Britons say they would not fight for their country under any circumstances.
"You didn’t know this, but our nation is going to need you," Walker said in remarks recorded by the British Forces Broadcasting Service.
"There was a time that our nation didn’t want to think of a time when it would need its soldiers to fight in a war. But as anyone who is studying the trajectory of world affairs and the geopolitical system within which our nation sits and thrives will realize there is extreme jeopardy in the world at the moment, and the business of soldiering is coming back into the nation’s psyche," he said.
"They are going to try and explain to our citizens that our citizens have got to consent to sacrifices to prioritize defense and security," Walker stated.
"They need to understand what we do for them. They need to consent to allow us to do that, which means sacrifices by them. And ultimately we are going to need them to back us, to back you to do the one thing that you do that nobody else gets to do and that is to take the fight to the enemy," he added.
"There is no other environment, to my mind, where the burden of fighting is placed squarely on the shoulders of our most inexperienced and junior soldiers than in our land forces," he said.
"The General’s comments show that as the threats we face become more complex and move closer to home, our alliances and national security have never been more important," a government spokesperson reportedly said.
"Our response must go beyond the Armed Forces alone. Government, industry and the public all have a role to play," the spokesperson added.
Defense Secretary Wes Streeting has urged households to keep small supplies of cash, bottled water and tinned food, calling for a "whole society approach" while saying people should remain "alert not alarmed."
Half of British adults say there are no circumstances in which they would go to war for Britain, unchanged since April 2025, an Ipsos poll of 1,090 adults found. Support for higher defense spending rose to 51%, from 28% in June 2022.
Hamish Mundell of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said that the figures would likely not worry military planners. "I can’t see the number of people willing to fight decreasing if the UK started suffering at the hands of a foreign power during a conflict," he told the Press Association.
Britain plans to raise defense spending to 2.7% of GDP by 2027/28, with NATO allies committed to 3.5% for core defense by 2035. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said details on reaching 3% would come in the Oct. 28 budget, as Walker's call for sacrifices fuels the debate.
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