Gedling MP Tom Randall has backed plans to reintroduce national service and believes it could help youngsters gain the valuable skills they need ‘for a brighter future’.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to return to a mandatory national service system for 18-year-olds over the weekend.
Many MPs believe it would help tackle knife crime and anti-social behaviour problems plaguing parts of the UK.
Under a future Tory Government, every 18-year-old would either spend a full year in a competitive, full-time military placement or spend the equivalent of one weekend a month volunteering in a community role like the NHS, and the RNLI.
Conservative MP for Gedling, Tom Randall has welcomed the plan.
He said: “We have so much to be proud of in Britain but, one of the problems we face is that too many young people don’t get the opportunities they deserve.
“That is why I welcome our new National Service model which will provide young people across Gedling with a choice to serve in our world-leading Armed Forces or volunteer for our community, so they can contribute to their country whilst gaining the valuable skills they need for a brighter future.
“Only the Conservatives can be trusted with the future of our young people and our country. Labour would take us back to square one, placing both at risk.”
The Tories said the programme will cost around £2.5 billion a year by the end of the decade and plans to fund £1 billion through plans to ‘crack down on tax avoidance and evasion.’
Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey said: “The Conservative’s election gambit on compulsory national service is an undeliverable plan and a distraction from their failures in defence over the last 14 years.”
Shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall told Sky News that the plans were ‘unfunded’ and a ‘headline-grabbing gimmick.’
The Conservatives say that young people would receive ‘best-in-class’ training in critical skill sets from the economy, from cyber to civil engineering to leadership.
The UK had national service between 1947 and 1960, with men between the ages of 17 and 21 serving in the armed forces for 18 months.
