The Conservative flagship pledge to bring back National Service is in total disarray after the Defence Secretary suggested the scheme will last less than a month.
Rishi Sunak has announced plans to force 18-year-olds to either get experience with the armed forces or spend time doing community projects. Announcing the plan last month, Mr Sunak said the “bold” scheme would see youngsters choose between a “competitive, full-time military commission over twelve months.. or one weekend per month volunteering in the community”.
The Tory manifesto published yesterday confirmed the military option would be a “year-long full-time placement in the armed forces or cyber defence”. But Defence Secretary Grant Shapps today suggested the scheme would be much shorter.
Asked on Good Morning Britain if the armed forces had accommodation ready for tens of thousands of 18-year-olds, he said: “It’s not, as you presented, 30,000 people for over an entire year. It’s 25-days a year for those 30,000.”
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth said: “The Defence Secretary has completely blown up the Prime Minister’s flagship manifesto commitment… This is what happens when you have a Conservative Party making up policy as it goes along, and working out how much their pledges will cost the taxpayer after they’ve already been announced. It is a symbol of the utter desperation at the heart of this Conservative campaign, and the chaos at the heart of their government.”
He added: “This also confirms what Labour has said all along – that the National Service scheme has not been properly costed, and when the Ministry of Defence finally works through the implications for pay, training and accommodation, it will use up all the money the Conservatives have said they will save from curbing tax avoidance, leaving no money to fund their wishlist of other pledges.
“When the Tories can’t even decide between themselves from one day to the next what their flagship policy is supposed to deliver, it is clear that all Rishi Sunak offers is five more years of chaos, a scattergun of unfunded pledges, and the £4,800 more on family mortgages that will result.”