National service would re-engage young people with society, countering the trend of “too many living in their own bubble,” according to Home Secretary James Cleverly in an interview with the BBC.
The Conservatives have promised that, if they win the general election, 18-year-olds will be required to participate in a scheme involving either military or non-military service.
Mr. Cleverly emphasized that this initiative would “address the fragmentation in society,” but clarified that there would be no proposal to imprison those who refuse to participate.
Labour criticized the plan, calling it “a desperate gimmick” without viable funding.
In an interview on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr. Cleverly emphasized that the national service initiative is about “coming together.”
“Too many young people are living in their own bubble, whether that’s a digital bubble or a social bubble,” he explained.
Mr. Cleverly highlighted the goal of the scheme: “We want to get back to a situation where young people are mixing with people from different areas, economic groups, and religions, to address the fragmentation we see too much of.”
The Conservatives’ plan includes 30,000 selective military placements where “the brightest and best” volunteers would engage full-time for a year in cyber security, logistics, or civil response operations.
For others, the scheme involves 25 days or one weekend a month for a year with non-military organizations such as the fire service, police, NHS, or charities.
Mr. Cleverly stressed that the military placements are “a small element” of the plan, assuring that “nobody will be compelled to do the military bit.”
He also clarified to Sky News, “There’s going to be no criminal sanction. No one is going to jail over this.”
The plan is “fully funded,” according to Mr. Cleverly, with £1.5 billion diverted from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund starting in 2028, supplemented by an additional £1 billion from a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion.
Appearing on the same programme, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves criticized the proposal, calling it “another desperate gimmick from the Conservative Party with no viable means of funding it.”
“One minute they say levelling up is really important, then they raid the levelling up budget and say it’s going to be used for national service. This is just another example of a gimmick where the sums don’t add up,” Reeves stated.
Reform UK’s honorary president Nigel Farage dismissed the plan as “a joke” and “totally impractical.” He accused the Conservatives of basing policy on “a focus group of half a dozen Reform voters” who supported national service. Farage added, “When you’re a weak leader – and Sunak is not a leader in any way at all – you’re a follower, so you follow what the focus groups say. It’s totally impractical – the Army has shrunk from 100,000 to 75,000 in 14 years of conservatism, and we have a growing number of young people who do not subscribe to British values, and in fact loathe much of what we stand for.”
The Liberal Democrats pointed out that Mr. Cleverly’s Braintree constituency had benefited from £1.6 million from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and accused him of leaving his constituents “high and dry in a desperate plea for headlines.” Housing and local government spokesperson Helen Morgan urged the Conservatives to focus on reversing the decline in troop numbers.
SNP deputy leader Keith Brown criticized the plan as “half-thought through” and called for proper investment to boost armed forces recruitment. Brown, a former Royal Marine, said the Conservatives were “trying to put a sticking plaster on the future of young people and the future of the armed forces, and it’s not going to work.”
The Scottish Conservatives welcomed the initiative, noting that Scandinavian countries had similar systems.
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville-Roberts described the plan as “bonkers,” suggesting the Tory message to young people was, “we’ll scrap investment in your futures and force you to join the army.”
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer called the policy “removed from reality,” stating, “It’s not what our military needs and it certainly isn’t what our young people need. What young people tell us they need is access to the housing market, to higher education that doesn’t plunge them into debt, and to meaningful jobs that pay well – not military conscription.”
Outside Westminster, Northern Powerhouse leaders expressed concern about regional funds being cut. Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, noted that areas which had already seen funds reduced when EU structural money was replaced by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund would face further cuts under this plan. “The areas which voted to leave and were promised they would be better, not worse off in funding terms, will have their monies sent to pay for a scheme which will do little or nothing to remove the huge disparities between North and South in this country,” he said.