James Cleverly said 18-year-olds would not be forced to go to jail if they refuse to carry out “mandatory” national service under Tory plans.
It comes after Rishi Sunak announced on Saturday that 18-year-olds would be forced to carry out a form of national service if the Tories are voted back in at the July 4 General Election.
The Prime Minister said Britain has “generations of young people who have not had the opportunities they deserve” as he claimed the policy would help unite society in an “increasingly uncertain world”.
In future, 18-year-olds would be given a choice between a full-time placement in the armed forces for 12 months or spending one weekend a month for a year volunteering in their community, the Tories said.
READ MORE: Mandatory national service for 18-year-olds if Tories win election, Sunak vows
Asked on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme whether the consequences of resisting the compulsory scheme could involve a prison term, the Home Secretary said: “No, there’s going to be no criminal sanction. There’s no one going to jail over this.”
He said in other countries with similar schemes there is a “very, very wide scope, take-up, acceptance and enthusiasm for this”.
The Conservatives would want to make sure the programme “fits with different people’s attitudes and aspirations”, Mr Cleverly said.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said the Conservatives’ national service announcement was a “gimmick”.
She told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show: “Elections should be about the country’s future, not fighting for a better past.”
She added: “This is an unfunded commitment, a headline-grabbing gimmick, it is not a proper plan to deliver it, it doesn’t deal with the big challenges facing young people who are desperate to get the skills and qualifications they need to get good jobs, to have a home they can call their own.”
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