The first big new policy announcement of the election campaign is in from the Tories, and it’s likely to be a talker. Where Keir Starmer appears to be opting for a ‘Ming vase’ strategy – trying not to rock the boat ahead of polling day – the Tories are leaning towards the opposite. At 20 points behind in the polls, aides believe they need headline-grabbing, bold policies in order to get the public’s attention. The first of which is the return of mandatory national service.
In what the Tories are billing as ‘a bold new model for national service for 18-year-olds’, they propose to make it mandatory for all 18-year-olds living in the UK to either carry out a full-time placement over 12 months in the armed forces, or one weekend per month for a year volunteering in their community. The Tories say they would set up a royal commission and have the first pilot open within a year – then it would be mandatory by the end of the parliament in 2029.
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