Luke Graham was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Ochil and Perthshire South from 2017 to 2019, the candidate in Perth and Kinross-shire in 2024, and a former head of the Downing Street Union Unit.
Over the past fortnight, we have had the Secretary of Defence call for more “resilience” in our population, the Head of MI5 call for an effective national resilience doctrine and Russia make a clear threat that Britain will pay for supporting Ukraine militarily.
The drumbeat of conflict is growing stronger, and yet, most of our political debate is still incredibly inward looking, focused on what each of us get rather than what we can contribute.
65 years ago, then President of the USA, John F. Kennedy gave his inaugural address, including his optimistic yet demanding line “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. This now famous line was tucked within a 14-minute speech that appealed to service, sacrifice and civic responsibility.
As Conservatives we need to be demonstrating the same values and asking for similar commitment.
In the past weeks our party outlined how we will reach 3 per cent of GDP for defence spending, proving that while Labour is the party of social security, we are the party of national security. This spending commitment is an important part of the future Conservative & Unionist programme for government, but it is only one part of the project. The past decades have seen the fracturing of our country’s identity, sense of purpose and confidence. Even this week Plaid Cymru, the SNP and Sinn Fein are meeting in Cardiff to sign a declaration calling for the end of our United Kingdom. At a time when a majority of people support maintaining the UK, and Britain requires greater collective resilience, nationalist parties are instead promoting constitutional fragmentation.
That is why any future Conservative government must not only improve the funding for our armed forces but also tackle the culture around national defence. At a time when threats are increasing, the UK is becoming markedly more detached from its Armed Forces. In 1995 there were around 233,000 Regular Armed Forces personnel — roughly one for every 250 people in the country. Today there are around 137,500, or just one for every 500. The change is even more striking across the wider military community. Royal British Legion research estimated that in 2005 some 4.8 million people — 8 per cent of the population — were veterans, and that veterans and their dependents together represented almost 17 per cent of the country, the latest census indicated this has dropped to around 6.5 per cent. The result is not just a smaller military, but a society where fewer families, workplaces and communities have connections with national defence.
As the head of MI5 highlighted last week, a large portion of our critical infrastructure, including transport and telecommunications, is in private hands. Economic security, infrastructure resilience, corporate security and traditional national security therefore need to be treated as parts of the same problem.
So, although equipment and technology are vital to the future of effective defence, so are our people. I am not calling for 1950s-style conscription. Instead, increased defence spending should support a National Resilience Programme: expanding cadets, reservists, cyber training, civil resilience programmes and defence-industry apprenticeships.
Therefore, new defence strategies need to consider the wider societal impact: cadets, reservists and defence-adjacent industries – not throwing young people at the front line but teaching them skills above and beyond comprehensive education and creating new opportunities in public and private sectors. For example, cyber security recruits that could be trained to support the defence of key infrastructure and networks, can also acquire skills that can then be deployed in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing businesses and SMEs across the UK. National resilience and economic productivity are not competing objectives.
Through training, new investments and technologies we can demonstrate why counties across the UK can and will benefit from being part of our national mission to rebuild our defences, strengthen our resilience and create a renewed sense of unity. We can stop talking about what the UK and “Britishness” is and get on with living it.
From Wiltshire to Perthshire, Aldershot to Antrim, Yorkshire to Inverness-shire: defence investment can connect communities across the Union through aerospace, shipbuilding, cybersecurity, training, engineering and direct service in the Armed Forces themselves.
National identity is strengthened through shared endeavour rather than government or political party definitions of identity. In 2026 citizens should demand more from their government. But perhaps it’s time we asked a little more of ourselves; not simply what we can get from the state, but what each of us can contribute to its security, resilience and lasting future.