The Conservative Party is facing renewed scrutiny over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s flagship national service policy, with increasing confusion surrounding the scheme’s implementation.
Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has come under fire for creating uncertainty through conflicting statements about the military component of the initiative.
Shadow Defense Secretary John Healey has formally demanded clarity from Shapps, questioning whether the scheme is “fully costed, fully funded, deliverable, and clearly set out to the public.”
Healey accused the government of “making it up as they go along” and labeled the plan a “distraction from their failures in defense over 14 years.”
The Conservative manifesto promises every 18-year-old in the UK a choice between a year of civic service or military service.
The policy outlines a “year-long full-time placement in the armed forces or cyber defense” for 30,000 18-year-olds, while others would be required to volunteer one weekend each month with organizations like the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
However, Shapps recently stirred confusion by stating that 18-year-olds would serve only 25 days annually in the armed forces, contradicting the initial year-long commitment.
Shapps clarified, “It’s not, as you presented, 30,000 people over an entire year, it’s 25 days a year for those 30,000.”
A week later, Shapps changed his explanation, indicating that his previous comments referred specifically to the accommodation aspect, adding that participants would not need year-round accommodation but only for 25 days of training.
Policy Confusion Raises Critical Questions
John Healey raised critical questions about what service personnel would do for the remaining 340 days of the year when not in accommodation.
He also demanded clarity on the distinction between the 25-day training for 18-year-olds and the 14-week basic training required of all other recruits.
“After that 25-day training course, what happens to them for the rest of their twelve months in service?” Healey asked.
He further criticized the policy’s £2.5bn estimated cost, questioning its feasibility given the apparent confusion.
“This is the flagship policy of the Conservative manifesto — the very first announcement that Rishi Sunak made during the election campaign — so we would expect the government to be absolutely clear how much it will cost and how it will work, rather than both those questions being thrown up in the air by your comments over the last week.”
John Healey
He concluded, “The Tories National Service pledge is an undeliverable plan and a distraction from their failures in defense over the last 14 years. With confusion over where people will be accommodated and how long they’ll serve, the Tories seem to be making it up as they go along.”
This controversy adds to the growing list of criticisms against the policy. Former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, has been particularly vocal, dismissing the proposal as “utter nonsense.”
He argued that “anyone with the most basic experience of how much it costs, and what it entails, to turn a new recruit into someone that can usefully serve in our armed forces would not need a royal commission to tell them that the proposal as currently presented is utter nonsense.”
West warned that the scheme would increase pressure on defense resources and waste money. “Rather than enhancing our defense capability, it would further reduce it,” he wrote, highlighting the impracticality of the conscription plan.
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