Rishi Sunak has vowed to bring back national service for 18-year-olds to create a “renewed sense of pride in our country” if he wins the general election.
Under the mandatory scheme, teenagers would be given a choice between a full-time placement in the armed forces for 12 months or spending one weekend a month for a year volunteering in their community.
Labour branded the announcement “another desperate unfunded commitment”, which would cost an estimated £2.5bn each year, while armed forces veteran Justin Crump warned the “ill-thought through” plans would place an “enormous potential burden” on Britain’s military.
It comes as Wes Streeting warned striking doctors he would not meet their huge pay demands, and has vowed he would be “a shop steward for patients” as health secretary.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent, the shadow health secretary spoke of his plan to tackle of record waiting lists and the ongoing pay disputes, stating: “The NHS is not the envy of the world.”
George Osborne not planning to help Sunak’s campaign, friend says
A friend of Tory former chancellor George Osborne has poured cold water on rumours he could help Rishi Sunak’s campaign.
They were quoted as telling The Times: “George thinks Rishi is hopeless. He’s always thought he doesn’t have a big political brain and that Rishi has made two big calls in his career — backing Brexit and backing Boris — and that those are the two most catastrophic things to happen to this country in the last decade.”
What is mandatory National Service and how would it work as Rishi Sunak announces scheme
Much of the detail remains unclear, with the Tories saying they would set up a royal commission bringing in expertise from across the military and civil society to establish how the scheme would work in practice.
This commission would be tasked with bringing forward a proposal for how to ensure the first pilot is open for applications in September 2025, and the Tories would then seek to introduce a new “National Service Act” to make the measures compulsory by the end of the next parliament.
But broadly, the party said that young people would be given a choice between a full-time placement in the armed forces for 12 months or spending one weekend a month for a year “volunteering,” in their community.
Teenagers who choose to sign up for a placement in the forces would “learn and take part in logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations”, the Tories said.
Watch: ‘No return to austerity’ under Labour government, Rachel Reeves claims
Sunak’s government argued on Thursday against national service
Labour MP Richard Burgon notes that, only this week, Rishi Sunak’s government was arguing against its new policy of national service on the grounds that it “could damage morale, recruitment and retention and would consume professional military and naval resources”.
Defence minister Andrew Murrison told Tory MP Mark Pritchard in a parliamentary response on Thursday – the day after Rishi Sunak called the general election – that: “The government has no current plans to reintroduce National Service.
“Since 1963, when the last national servicemen were discharged, it has been the policy of successive Governments that the best way of providing for the defence of our country is by maintaining professional Armed Forces staffed by volunteers.
“The demanding, increasingly technical, nature of defence today is such that we require highly trained, professional men and women in our Regular and Reserve Armed Forces, fully committed to giving their best in defending our country and its allies.
“If potentially unwilling National Service recruits were to be obliged to serve alongside the professional men and women of our Armed Forces, it could damage morale, recruitment and retention and would consume professional military and naval resources.
“If, on the other hand, National Service recruits were kept in separate units, it would be difficult to find a proper and meaningful role for them, potentially harming motivation and discipline. For all these reasons, there are no current plans for the restoration of any form of National Service.”
Lib Dems mock Sunak’s plans for National Service
The Liberal Democrats responded quickly to Rishi Sunak’s plan to reintroduce National Service for school leavers with a campaign ad mocking the prime minister.
With the hope of knocking down “the Tory blue wall” in the south of England, the Lib Dems posted on social media and emailed supporters a picture of General Kitchener’s famous First World War poster saying: “Your country needs you!”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey noted: “I never thought I’d be writing this. I agree with Rishi Sunak: we need millions of people to do national service.”
He added: “We need millions of people to commit to serving their country in its time of need – by voting this Government out of office. I need you, Jack, to be part of our national service.
“This is your moment. This is your time to sign up and to commit to a better future for our country.”
Cleverly defends Sunak’s sodden election announcement
The Tories would have been criticised regardless of how they responded to the downpour that left Rishi Sunak sodden as he announced the general election, James Cleverly insisted this morning.
The home secretary told Sky News: “Whatever way that we had responded to the rain, whether we’d moved the announcement, whether we had someone with an umbrella, you guys would have criticised us.”
He added: “When people are going to the ballot box are they going to ask ‘was it raining when he made the announcement?’
“Or are they going to ask ‘who was the person that was instrumental in the furlough programme that kept a roof over my head during Covid? Who was the person that got a grip of inflation … who was the person that started reducing the national insurance contribution’?”
Sunak to miss Southampton’s Championship play-off
Rishi Sunak will not attend Southampton’s Championship play-off final against Leeds at Wembley Stadium on Sunday because he is meeting voters in the South East, it is understood.
The Prime Minister is unable to go to the game because he is campaigning, but will be keeping a close eye on the score from afar this afternoon, sources said.
Wes Streeting’s three-word formula for how Labour will govern
Wes Streeting has set out a three word vision of the guiding philosophy of a Labour government if, as expected, it wins power on 4 July.
The shadow health secretary had echoes of Tony Blair’s new Labour when he promised that his party would be “compensatory not confiscatory”.
Mr Streeting was in discussion with The Independent’s editor Geordie Greig in front of an audience at the Hay Festival discussing the election, politics and his book One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up.
Sunak to use key ‘levelling up’ post-EU funds to pay for national service
Rishi Sunak’s team have published “five things you need to know” on his X/Twitter account about his national service plans – which he says will partly be funded by money previously brought in to replace EU structural funding as a major part of the government’s levelling up agenda.
The posts state: “Every 18-year-old will get the choice of how they do their National Service. Deciding to either serve their country in the Armed Forces or serve their community by volunteering”.
This “bold new model will open up a world of opportunity” and “make sure young people in the UK get the same chance in life as their peers in allies like Sweden, Norway, Denmark and France”, he claims.
He added: “Everyone will get the life-changing chance to learn from the best of the best – from the men and women of our Armed Forces, our inspirational NHS staff or the fire service. Gaining skills for life in everything from cyber to leadership.”
Sunak’s national service scheme would be ‘enormous burden’ on military, veteran warns
Rishi Sunak’s national service plans are “ill-thought through” and would be an “enormous potential burden” on Britain’s military, a military veteran of 25 years has warned.
“From the military point of view, this is an enormous potential burden,” Justin Crump told Sky News. “It’s certainly not the solution to the military’s problems and I think everyone I’ve spoken to this morning still has their head in their hands slightly in the same way.
“I think the aspiration is meritous around the fragmentation of society and the role of service within that and duty, which of course everyone in the armed forces ardently supports.
“I think though the scheme, the idea of putting people towards the military for just a year, and the way it’s been described, is very ill-thought through. It would provide a huge distraction of what the military needs to do at the moment and doesn’t address its core funding needs – in fact it makes it worse.
“So it’s very close to the sort of thing people might like to see, but I just think the military component of it feels very ill-thought through by comparison. And particularly, the very stark difference between spending a year in the military or spending two weekends a month closer to home.
“Those are the big areas that have us scratching our heads a little bit at this point.”
