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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.

A volunteer at a foodbank during COVID. Pic: Reuters
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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 conscript soldiers take part in the Aurora 23 military exercise at the Rinkaby firing range outside Kristianstad, Sweden May 6, 2023. Swedish, Polish, American, Finnish and Danish troops were on site to beat back the enemy who had taken over the harbor area around the harbor in Ahus. TT News Agency/ Johan Nilsson via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. SWEDEN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SWEDEN.
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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.

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Jaguar Land Rover to ‘pause’ US shipments over Donald Trump tariffs

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Jaguar Land Rover to 'pause' US shipments over Donald Trump tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has said it will “pause” shipments to the US as the British car firm works to “address the new trading terms” of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The US president has introduced a 25% levy on all foreign cars imported into the country, which came into force on Thursday.

JLR, one of the country’s biggest carmakers, exported about 38,000 cars to the US in the third quarter of 2024 – almost equal to the amount sold to the UK and the EU combined.

Follow live updates: Trump’s baseline 10% tariff kicks in

In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for the company behind the Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover brands said: “The USA is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands.

“As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.”

The company released a statement last week before Mr Trump announced a “baseline” 10% tariff on goods from around the world, which kicked in on Saturday morning, on what he called “liberation day”.

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JLR reassured customers its business was “resilient” and “accustomed to changing market conditions”.

“Our priorities now are delivering for our clients around the world and addressing these new US trading terms,” the firm said.

Trading across the world has been hit by Mr Trump’s tariff announcement at the White House on Wednesday.

All but one stock on the FTSE 100 fell on Friday – with Rolls-Royce, banks and miners among those to suffer the sharpest losses.

Read more: A red wall on Wall Street – but Trump seems to believe it will work out

Cars are the top product exported from the UK to the US, with exports worth £8.3bn in the year to the end of September 2024, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

For UK carmakers, the US is the second largest export market behind the European Union.

Industry groups have previously warned the tariffs will force firms to rethink where they trade, while a report by thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research said more than 25,000 car manufacturing jobs in the UK could be at risk.

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Two people die after caravan fire at holiday park in Lincolnshire

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Two people die after caravan fire at holiday park in Lincolnshire

Two people have died following a fire at a caravan site near Skegness, Lincolnshire Police have said.

In a statement, officers said they were called at 3.53am on Saturday to a report of a blaze at Golden Beach Holiday Park in the village of Ingoldmells.

Fire and rescue crews attended the scene, and two people were found to have died.

They were reported to be a 10-year-old girl and a 48-year-old man.

The force said the victims’ next of kin have been informed and will be supported by specially trained officers.

Officers are trying to establish the exact cause of the blaze.

“We are at the very early stages of our investigation and as such we are keeping an open mind,” the force said.

Two fire crews remain at the scene.

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Boy dies after ‘getting into difficulty’ in lake in southeast London

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Boy dies after 'getting into difficulty' in lake in southeast London

A 15-year-old boy has died after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London, police say.

Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.

The Metropolitan Police said a boy “was recovered from the lake” at around 10.42pm the same day.

“He was taken to hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. His death is being treated as unexpected but not believed to be suspicious,” according to the force.

The boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.

The force originally said the child was 16 years old, but has since confirmed his age as 15.

In the earlier statement, officers said emergency services carried out a search and the park was evacuated.

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google street view inside Beckenham Place park, Lewisham where a 16 y/o boy is missing after getting into difficulty in a lake
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Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon

Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.

The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres.

It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said on Friday: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.

“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.”

Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.

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