British Armed Forces to accept cancer survivors for the first time to ease recruitment crisis

Speaking at the Labor Party conference on Monday, Mr Healey said: “We are deeply proud of those who serve our country and we are determined to tackle the crisis in recruitment and retention caused by years of Conservative hollowing out.

“Our Armed Forces rightly set the highest standards, and with Labor that will continue. At the same time, we will unblock the bottlenecks, the needless red tape and delays which are turning great talent away from our Forces.”

The Defense Secretary said that in a changing world with evolving threats, the military’s recruitment needs to be “right for the 21st century”.

He said: “That’s why we will remove unnecessary barriers and fast-track bright candidates into cyber defense to help face down (Vladimir) Putin’s online aggression.”

Earlier this month, the UK National Cyber ​​Security Center exposed a secretive Russian military unit for a campaign of malicious cyber operations around the world.

A new focus on cyber will involve the creation of a new military direct-entry cyber pathway to boost the UK’s cyber resilience.

It will have different tailored selection and basic training requirements, and provide routes for lateral entry for cyber specialists who are already working in another career.

In addition to revising medical entry standards, The Telegraph understands that the Ministry of Defense has also been reviewing pre-joining fitness tests, reviewing aptitude assessments and withdrawing requirements for swimming proficiency where appropriate.