The Commons Defence Select Committee has heard how widespread unemployment caused by the pandemic could help recruit more people to the armed forces.
Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew (Broadland) raised the prospect of younger people joining the armed forces due to having no jobs.
He said: “As a response to Covid, we’ve seen the unemployment figures start to rise and that’s particularly reflected in the 18 to 24-year-old demographic.
“Does the Government agree this is an opportunity to recruit, perhaps even to meet our full-time trained requirement for the first time since the year 2000? Does (Defence minister James Heappey) agree that a career in the armed forces represents an excellent life choice and now is a better time than ever to sign up?”
Mr Heappey responded: “Emphatically, yes.”
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Government is prepared to meet the challenges of Covid-19 and “any second eventuality”.
Tobias Ellwood, Tory chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, called for “greater use of our senior armed forces to help advance Whitehall’s strategic thinking, operational planning and delivery as well as clarity of the message”.
He added: “Following the briefings this morning in Number 10, arguably the biggest threat facing this nation is actually Covid-19 and with cases once again rising we must learn lessons from the first spike, and it’s clear that the bandwidth, the capacity of all governments, including the UK’s, are being tested by this enduring emergency.”
Responding, Mr Wallace said: “Backed up with people like defence intelligence we have already started planning for any second eventuality.
“Whether that is a second wave, whether that is not a wave but an alternative challenge, whether it is winter pressures, whether it is floods, whether it is Brexit. All of that is ongoing. I’m confident that the men and women will be able to deliver whatever demands are put on government.”
