# UK conscription’s ‘first group’ to be recruited ‘refuses to fight’ in WW3

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/uk-conscriptions-first-group-to-be-recruited-refuses-to-fight-in-ww3/
- Published: 2026-11-05T10:05:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-05T12:05:44+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Express (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2263468/conscription-first-group
- Topics: Health, Mental Health, UK, World

## Key points

- Only 22 per cent of under-35s say they would be willing to serve.
- The UK has not used conscription since 1963.
- A historian suggests graduates could be called up, with defence workers exempt.

## Summary

A British Social Attitudes Survey has found that only 22 per cent of people under 35 would be willing to join the armed forces or consider doing so highly important. The finding raises questions about how young people might respond if the UK ever reintroduced conscription, though the article says there are no current plans to do so.

The survey questioned 4,656 people aged 16 and over, and found that more respondents viewed the United States as a threat than in previous years. The UK last used conscription in 1963; during the Second World War, service was required for men aged 18 to 41. Historian David Swift has suggested unemployed graduates could be targeted in a future call-up, while people working in defence industries might be exempt or directed into those roles.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.