The Traitors winner Harry Clark backs controversial calls for the return of national service for youngsters

The Traitors star Harry Clark has backed calls for bringing back National Service for young people in the UK.

Harry, a former British Army engineer who won the second series of the BBC reality series, was speaking on the Storm & Alexis show on Channel 5 on Wednesday when he made the comments.

In the interview he also said he still to this day feels guilty about betraying fellow Traitors contestant Mollie Pearce in the final to bag the cash for just himself. 

On National Service Harry talked about his own positive experience in the army back in the day. 

He told hosts Storm Huntley and Radzi Chinyanganya: 'I was in the military for six years, I don't see any negative with bringing back the National Service.

'I think it's a great idea. Firstly, just because there's a massive misconception with the army, the army doesn't mean we're going to take our kids, send them away to war, and they're going to shoot guns and be shot at and maybe die, that's not the case at all.

'The army teaches you so many things. You could be a driver, a chef. I was an aeronautical engineer on helicopters. I can't even spell the word aeronautical, so it's a trade I get for my life forever.

'I think what we have today, especially in London, is young teenagers getting into crime because they feel like they have no purpose, and the military can give them that purpose.

'On the wider aspects of things, National Service can be so much broader. It doesn't mean just going to the military, it could be community service, because what you're doing is installing discipline into these young kids, and they can take that on for their life forever.

'When I was in the military the main thing I realized was that people were lost, or they had no one else outside the military. 

'The military then became their family, and I can promise you, if these kids go to the military and just spend a year there, and they learn how to make their bed, firstly, they're going to be better off as young adults when they're coming out.

'But secondly, I can promise you, probably 50 to 60 per cent of them will want to stay on in the military and learn more, because you can get multiple trades, you can travel the world.'

Harry was also asked if he felt guilty about betraying Mollie in the final seconds of Traitors to win the whole £95,000 jackpot for himself.

He replied: 'I did definitely, of course, I'm a nice person, I'd like to think I'm nice to everyone, and if you didn't feel guilty, I don't feel like you're a human being, because it was so tough to take on that decision but again, it's the game.

'We left and I remember saying to Claudia, 'Oh, is there any way I could sort of say I'm sorry?' And then they were like, 'Oh, Mollie already wants to see you', and I thought, 'Oh, God, she's going to be behind a door with a piece of rope or something to get me back', but no, it was literally, 'You deserved it. The game was amazing, no one deserved it any more than you, because you played the game to a tee of being a traitor'.

'And again it shows how amazing the whole cast was, and how good the Traitors people are at choosing the right cast.'

In April this year former Nato chief Lord Robertson said introducing a Swedish-style national service 'should certainly be on the agenda' due to the 'threats that we now face'.

The former defence secretary appeared in front of the joint Parliamentary committee on the National Security Strategy. 

He was asked: 'In Sweden, every resident aged 16 to 70 has a legally defined role in civil resilience. Should we do that?'

Lord Robertson said: 'I think there is a case for that. It might go against the grain in terms of the way in which we think of ourselves.

'But I think given the nature of the threats that we now face, both in a civil as well as a military context, I think there would be a case for putting that forward.

'We talk about a defence readiness bill in our review, which would involve society as a whole. It appears it's not going to be in the King's speech next week or the week after next, which is a pity, because it's a crucial part of what we promoted.

'But I think ideas like that should certainly be on the agenda.'

Under the Swedish system, everybody between the ages of 16 and 70 is legally obliged to contribute to the defence of the country in the case of war.

This includes military conscription, civil conscription such as rescue services or maintaining critical national infrastructure, or general national service carrying out tasks decided by the authorities.

National service in Britain - which came into force in January 1949 and required all physically fit men between 17 and 21 to serve in the armed forces for 18 months - was ended in 1960.

Other countries, such as Finland, already have military conscription and in December Germany's parliament voted to introduce voluntary military service following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.