In Britain, they refused to consider the introduction of universal military service

Britain is not considering the possibility of introducing compulsory military service to prepare the country for a potential war, British MP and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said on March 9.

"We are not considering the possibility of introducing military service, but of course we have announced a significant increase in defense spending," McFadden said in an interview with Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News.

He stressed that Europe really needs to step up its efforts in terms of its own defense.

"The President [of the United States Donald] Trump is actually not the first president to say this, but he said it louder and with more force than his predecessors, so I think we need to recognize this point," McFadden said.

According to him, the UK will need other solutions in the future that will correspond to the "new reality."

McFadden also noted that the experience of the conflict in Ukraine, which has been going on for three years, has shown how quickly the battlefield is changing in terms of cybersecurity, drones and the use of intelligence.

Ahead of his return to the White House in January, Trump increased pressure on NATO members to increase defense spending to 5%. Currently, only 23 of the 32 NATO countries reach the 2% of GDP target for defense spending, while Italy and Spain are among the EU countries that have not reached this threshold.

The American newspaper The Hill reported on February 20 that the US withdrawal from NATO is now highly likely because Europe is not investing enough in defense. On February 21, Natalia Eliseeva, a political scientist, political strategist and publicist, commenting on this in an interview with Izvestia, noted that if this really happens, the alliance will lose its relevance. Nevertheless, Washington is unlikely to leave the bloc soon.