Ruling Conservative Party says it will bring back national service if it wins the July 4 general election.
Eighteen-year-olds will have to perform a mandatory national service if the Conservative Party is voted back to power in the United Kingdom’s July 4 election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced.
The UK has “generations of young people who have not had the opportunities they deserve”, and this measure would help unite society in an “increasingly uncertain world”, Sunak said on Saturday.
The party said that under the prime minister’s plan, young people would be given the choice of working full-time in the army for 12 months or volunteering in their communities one weekend a month for a year.
The announcement comes as the Conservative Party prepares for an election and steps up its attacks on the opposition Labor Party.
In Britain he had national service from 1947 until 1960, from the age of 17 he served in the army for 18 months until he was 21 years old. According to the BBC, the British Army has shrunk from 100,000 soldiers in 2010 to nearly 73,000 in January 2024.
The Conservatives said military placements would help teens “learn about and participate in logistics, cybersecurity, procurement and civilian response activities.”
Options for community services could include support for local fire and police services, the UK’s National Health Service, and charities that tackle loneliness in isolated older people. The BBC reports that the program will cost around 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) a year.
A Royal Commission bringing together military and civil society experts will be established to design a national service program.
The first pilot of this program is expected to open for applications in September 2025. The Conservatives will then introduce the National Service Act, making it binding until the end of the next parliamentary term.
Conservatives claim the system is not conscription, the Guardian reported.
“This new compulsory national service will provide life-changing opportunities for our nation’s young people, giving them the chance to learn practical skills, do new things, and contribute to their communities and our country.” said Sunak.
“The effects of uncertainty are clear. No plan means a more dangerous world. If Labor wins, you, your family and our country are all at risk.” be exposed to,” he added.
Labor called the announcement “another hopeless and unfunded promise” and said Foreign Secretary David Cameron had introduced a similar program, the National Citizen Service, as prime minister.
A Labor Party spokesperson said: “This is not a plan. It is a review that could cost billions of dollars and is only necessary because the Conservatives have dismantled the military to its smallest size since Napoleon.” said. “Britain has had enough” by a bankrupt Tory party with no plan to end 14 years of turmoil. It’s time to turn the page and rebuild Britain with Labor.
Several European countries, including Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, already have some form of conscription in their armed forces.