Rishi Sunak pledges to bring back mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds if Tories come back to power

As the United Kingdom gears up for an intense general election, the country’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that a future Conservative government would bring back mandatory national service for 18-year-olds.

The British prime minister made the announcement in an effort to reignite his election campaign after an error-strewn start. According to the proposed plan, Sunak maintained that every 18-year-old would have to spend time in a competitive, full-time military commission or spend one weekend a month volunteering in “civil resilience”, The Guardian reported.

The party said that the country needs to be “open and honest” about the long-term challenges it might face as two wars engulf the globe. The British premier insisted that the scheme would ensure that young people had the “opportunities they deserve”.

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The Tories blame the pandemic

The Conservatives insisted that the past scheme did not amount to conscription. They also maintained that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of taking part in national services. Hence, the party insisted that a scheme like this is “completely essential”.

“Only by nurturing our shared culture and fostering a sense of duty can we preserve our nation and values for decades to come. This is an investment in both the character of young people and our security,” it said.

The party also pointed out that a similar scheme was successful in Sweden and claimed that 80 per cent of young people who completed national service in the Nordic nation said that they would recommend it to their peers as well.

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Labour hurls criticism

Meanwhile, the Labour Party slammed the proposition by Sunak and called it another uncosted policy from the Tories. “This is another desperate, £2.5bn unfunded commitment from a Tory party which already crashed the economy, sending mortgages rocketing, and now they’re spoiling for more,” said a party spokesperson.

“This is not a plan – it’s a review which could cost billions and is only needed because the Tories hollowed out the armed forces to their smallest size since Napoleon. Britain has had enough of the Conservatives, who are bankrupt of ideas and have no plans to end 14 years of chaos. It’s time to …rebuild Britain with Labour,” the spokesperson furthered.

The Tories maintained that the scheme would be partially funded through a £1bn tax avoidance clampdown and £1.5bn currently spent on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It is pertinent to note that a similar scheme was outlined in 2010 by David Cameron.

According to Cameron’s proposal, a special youth programme for 16-year-olds was proposed to be established to end a “pointless waste of potential” among teenagers. However, the plan never came into practice.