“Our Nation Is Going to Need You”: Britain’S Army Chief Warns the Public to Get Ready for Sacrifices

“You didn’t know this, but our nation is going to need you.” With that line the head of the British Army, General Sir Roly Walker, opened a blunt address to around 700 soldiers at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire this week. The speech was filmed by the British Forces Broadcasting Service and reported by Sky News and Forces News.

The Chief of the General Staff said the days when Britain did not have to think about its soldiers fighting a war are over. There is “extreme jeopardy in the world at the moment”, he told troops from 1 (UK) Division, the army’s light, high-readiness force that includes the Parachute Regiment. Very soon, he said, the country’s political leaders will start a “frank conversation” with citizens about where the risk lies and what the nation must be prepared to do.

“They're going to try and explain to our citizens that our citizens have got to consent to sacrifices to prioritise defence and security.”

— General Sir Roly Walker, Chief of the General Staff, to soldiers at Catterick Garrison (BFBS / Forces News)

Half of Britons say they would not fight

Walker did not stop at money. Citizens will be asked to play a part in the defence of the country themselves, he said, and ultimately to back the soldiers who “take the fight to the enemy”. The burden of fighting, he added, rests on the army’s most junior soldiers.

The warning lands in an awkward place. An Ipsos poll cited by Forces News found that half of Britons would not go to war for their country under any circumstances, although more than half support higher defence spending. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting told Labour’s conference in September that more defence spending comes with “choices and trade-offs”, and Chancellor John Healey sets out his budget on 28 October.

Sky News notes that Prime Minister Andy Burnham inherited Sir Keir Starmer’s promise of a national conversation on defence, along with a household crisis-preparedness campaign that has still not been launched. The British account @BasilTheGreat put the question to its followers bluntly on X: what will you say to them?