National service: What’s the actual Tory plan and would there be exemptions?
If the Conservatives win the general election, teenagers will be expected to take part in national service when they turn 18.
Exactly how the scheme would work has not yet been hammered out. The Tories have said they would set up a royal commission – a type of public inquiry – to come up with the details.
But here is what we know so far about what teenagers could be doing, who might be exempt and what would happen to those who refuse to take part.
How would national service work?
Under the Conservatives’ new plan for national service, 18-year-olds would take part in one of two streams:
Community volunteering: The vast majority of teenagers would take this pathway.
It would require them to spend one weekend a month volunteering, for one year – 25 days in total.
The voluntary placements would be in the local community, with organisations such as the police, the fire service, the NHS, or charities that work with older isolated people.
Conservative MPs have given various examples of the kinds of volunteering teenagers could do, including delivering prescriptions or food to infirm people, being a lifeguard, supporting communities during storms and working with search and rescue.
Military training: 30,000 teenagers would be able to take up places to spend a year full-time in the armed forces.
Young adults would need to apply for the programme and tests would be used to select the best candidates.
This pathway would not involve combat. Rather, young people would “learn and take part in logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations”, the Tories said.
Talking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Home Secretary James Cleverly said those who choose the military option “will be motivated to join the military” after the year-long placement.
Most teenagers would volunteer in their community under the national service scheme. Pic: Reuters
Who will be exempt?
The Conservatives have not announced details about who would be exempt from national service – but they have confirmed that royal children would be expected to take part.
When national service was in place after the Second World War, it covered “able-bodied men” and excluded blind people and men with a mental illness.
It is not clear whether similar rules would apply under the new proposal. Disabled people may not be automatically excluded as they were in the past given voluntary placements are likely to be suited to a wide range of people.
In other countries that have national service, exemptions are mostly granted on medical grounds.
Where national or military service is a full-time requirement, people may be able to get an exemption if they are a university student, only son, single parent or professional athlete.
Would women have to do it too?
Yes, the plan involves all 18-year-olds regardless of gender.
Women were first included in national service during the Second World War, but after 1945 they were no longer included despite the scheme continuing for men.
How is national service different from conscription?
Conscription legally requires people to join the Armed Forces for a certain period.
The Tories’ plan for national service is different in that it does not compel people to serve with the military.
Swedish conscripts in 2023. Pic: Reuters
Would there be punishments for not taking part?
People who refused to take part would not end up in jail.
“There’s going to be no criminal sanctions,” Home Secretary James Cleverly told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
“Nobody will be compelled to do the military element,” he added.
It remains unclear how it will be made compulsory.
Speaking to Times Radio, Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan compared the compulsory nature of the proposed national service to young people having to attend school until they are 18.
She did not rule out the possibility of parents being fined if their children do not take part, but said the details of how the scheme would be made mandatory would be established by the royal commission.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Mr Sunak said: “To those who complain that making it mandatory is unreasonable, I say: citizenship brings with it obligations as well as rights. Being British is about more than just the queue you join at passport control.”
Will people be paid?
Mr Cleverly said those who do the military element will be paid – while those who choose to volunteer will not be paid.
How would it be funded?
The Conservatives said the national service programme would cost £2.5bn a year and would be funded by cash previously used for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion.
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Has national service been pitched before?
At the start of this year, top military officials touted the idea of conscription as they discussed what could happen if NATO went to war with Russia.
The head of the British Army said UK citizens should be “trained and equipped” to fight in a potential war, while Britain’s former top NATO commander said it was time to get over the “cultural hang-ups” around conscription.
Downing Street ruled out any move towards conscription, saying army service would remain voluntary.
But a similar model to the Tories’ national service scheme has been pitched recently.
Last year, centre-right thinktank Onward proposed a “Great British National Service” scheme.
Like the Conservatives’ current proposal, it focused on volunteering and suggested 16-year-olds should have to complete a certain number of volunteering hours.
A key difference was that it was not mandatory – it proposed a system where 16-year-olds were automatically enrolled, but could opt out.
Research commissioned by Onward showed 57% of British people supported national service and 19% opposed it.
It found the most popular model included civil and military activities, with 53% more likely to support a mixed programme.
The ideas won the support of the leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, and former Tory minister Rory Stewart.
What has the reaction been?
Critics from across the political divide have dismissed the Tories’ plan as unserious, while leading military figures are sceptical over how it would work.
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Sky’s military analyst Sean Bell assesses national service plan
Sir Keir Starmer called the national service policy “a sort of teenage Dad’s Army“, while Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall accused the policy of being “yet another unfunded spending commitment”.
She told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “That UK Prosperity Fund is supposed to be used to tackle economic inactivity and helping people get back into work so that really undermines another one of their arguments.
“This is an unfunded commitment, a headline-grabbing gimmick.”
Mr Cleverly said the main point of the policy was to make sure “people mix with people outside their bubble” for “community cohesion”.
He said: “We want to build a society where people mix with people outside their own communities, mix with people from different backgrounds, different religions, different income levels.
The only survivor of the Air India plane crash says he thought he was “going to die”.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national, managed to walk away from the wreckage. He was “disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body… but he seems to be out of danger”, according to a doctor who examined him.
There had been 242 people on board flight AI171 when it came down. Among the passengers and crew on the Gatwick-bound aircraft were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a doctors’ hostel in a residential area on Thursday, moments after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, in western India.
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Vidhi Chaudhary, a senior police officer in Ahmedabad, said Mr Ramesh was sat in seat 11A, located next to an emergency exit, and “managed to escape by jumping out the emergency door”.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Ramesh said he “still can’t believe” he survived.
He said he thought he “was also going to die” but he then “opened [his] eyes”.
“I pulled out the belt from under my seat and tried to escape. Then I managed to do it,” he told DD India.
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Moment of fatal plane crash in India
Mr Ramesh said “within the first mile” after take-off “it felt like the plane was stuck” and “like something had happened”.
“Then a light came on, like a green and white light came on inside the plane,” he added.
“The pilot was trying to give it a bit of a push to push it forward, but it was struggling. But it went straight into a building.”
He said the side where he landed was not the hostel side and as soon as the plane door broke, he “could see that it was open for [him] and [he had] a chance to get out”.
He said that his brother, Ajay, was seated in a different row on the plane. “He was travelling with me and I can’t find him anymore. Please help me find him,” he told the Hindustan Times.
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‘Bodies all around me’
Mr Ramesh continued: “It all happened so quickly. When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me.
“Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
From his hospital bed, Mr Ramesh also met India’s prime minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking in Leicester, Mr Ramesh’s brother Nayan told Sky’s Shamaan Freeman-Powell that their father was on the phone to Mr Ramesh while the plane was still on the runway.
“My dad called him,” the 27-year-old said. “And Vishwash said ‘oh we’re going to take off soon’.”
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Plane crash survivor’s brother speaks to Sky News
Two minutes later, their father received a video call from Mr Ramesh to say the plane had crashed and he had survived.
“He video-called my dad as he crashed and said ‘Oh the plane’s crashed. I don’t know where my brother is. I don’t see any other passengers. I don’t know how I’m alive – how I exited the plane’,” Nayan said.
Air India has confirmed 229 passengers and 12 crew members died, but authorities have not confirmed how many people on the ground were killed or injured.
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Plane wreckage rips apart medical hostel
Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa and their four-year-old daughter Sara. Pic: PA
Who were the victims?
Among the British citizens killed in the crash were Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa, and their four-year-old daughter Sara.
Gloucester Muslim Community said in a statement on Facebook that “no words can truly ease the pain of such a profound loss”.
Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek. Pic: Instagram
Also on the flight were married couple Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek from west London, who had posted a video from the airport on their Instagram feed shortly before boarding.
Gatwick Airport said in a statement that a reception centre was being set up where information and support will be provided for relatives of those on board.
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Tata Sons, Air India’s owner, said it would give around £86,000 to the families of each person who died, cover the medical costs of those injured and support the rebuild of the medical hostel.
British nationals who require consular assistance are advised to call 020 7008 5000, while Air India has set up hotlines to provide information on +91 806 2779 200 for foreign nationals or 1800 5691 444 if calling from India.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called for “restraint” and “diplomacy” after Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes on Iran early on Friday.
He called reports of Israel’s so-called Operation Rising Lion “concerning”, but stopped short of condemning it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had targeted the “heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme”, which he feared would eventually be aimed at Israel.
Iran promised “severe punishment” for the attacks, which killed several top commanders and nuclear scientists, and launched 100 drones towards Israel in an initial response.
Follow latest: Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear sites
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Analysis: ‘This is the big one’
In a statement on Friday, Mr Starmer urged “all parties to step back and reduce tensions urgently”.
He added: “Escalation serves no one in the region. Stability in the Middle East must be the priority and we are engaging partners to de-escalate.
“Now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy.”
The UK does not appear to have been warned in advance of Israel’s plan to attack Iran.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, had been due to travel to Washington on Friday to meet his American counterpart.
The trip was cancelled once it became known that Israel had launched its operation.
A Whitehall source said the late cancellation of Mr Lammy’s travel plans indicated the UK had not been alerted in advance to the timing of the attack.
However, the UK had been aware of the increasing likelihood of an Israeli mission to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, given the rhetoric from the Israeli government in recent weeks.
Mr Lammy called it a “dangerous moment” and said “stability in the Middle East is vital for global security”.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, British industry minister Sarah Jones also said the UK had not been involved in the Israeli military operation.
It is understood British warplanes are not currently involved in helping to defend Israel’s skies from any Iranian counterattacks.
This could change as the situation develops.
Additional forces could well be sent to a key Royal Air Force base in Cyprus, where Typhoon jets are stationed.
The deployment of reinforcements to RAF Akrotiri has happened in the past during times of crisis in the Middle East.
The US also said it had not been involved in Israel’s attack on Iran, and warned against any retaliation targeting American interests or personnel.
US President Donald Trump had previously urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran while Washington negotiates a nuclear deal with the country.
In his first public comment about the attacks, he again urged Iran to reach a deal with Washington on its nuclear programme, warning on his Truth Social platform that Israel’s attacks “will only get worse”.
Without saying whether he was privy to specific Israeli plans, the US president said “there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end”.
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But China, Saudi Arabia and Russia condemned Israel’s strikes, while Japan called the use of military force “deeply regrettable”.
Russia’s foreign ministry called the attack “unprovoked” and “categorically unacceptable” and said it was in breach of the United Nations charter.
Spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry Lin Jian said: “China opposes the violation of Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, opposes the intensification of contradictions, the expansion of conflicts, and the sudden
rise in temperature of the regional situation.”
Takeshi Iwaya, Japan’s foreign minister, said: “Amid ongoing diplomatic efforts, including talks between the United States and Iran, to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue, the use of military force is deeply regrettable.”
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