Former Aylesbury MP suggests young people should join the army to reduce their student debt

Aylesbury’s former MP has suggested young people should complete some form of military training in return for having their student loans cut down.

Aylesbury’s MP between 1992 and 2019, Sir David Lidington, floated the idea of using financial incentives to get young people to join the army.

In an interview LBC, the former leader of the House of Commons said: “I think we need to do more to boost reserves and probably have an element of conscription that selected brought back. But it’s more about equipping people with the skills that would be needed to keep civilised life running in the event of an attack that brought down one of those critical systems, of which all of us, including particularly the most vulnerable in our society, rely.

"And I’m not afraid of saying that I think there probably does now need to be a level of compulsion. And if it’s put to people this is not just about everybody having to put on a uniform and go out and sit in a trench with a rifle. But this is about ensuring that your neighbours, your family, the people you care about in your community, are properly looked after in the event of a crisis then I think the case starts to get greater traction.”

The 67-year-old went to explain his compensation idea to host Tom Swarbrick in greater detail. He added: “What you want is buy in. I think that is an argument that can be won. It has been won in countries like Sweden and Finland that are hardly renowned as being hardline ultra nationalists. The stick would be there, but you’d have a carrot as well. You could say, right we’ll knock a bit off your student loan debt if you come and take part in this.”

Many social media users disagreed with the proposals, some X users noted that the former MP never served in the military himself.

Journalist Ava Evans said on X: “Risk your life for us and we’ll “knock a bit off your student loan”. The audacity!”