Teens could lose bank accounts and driving licences for snubbing national service, Rishi Sunak says
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Rishi Sunak has said he could take drivers’ licences and bank accounts off 18-year-olds if they refuse to take part in his mandatory national service.
The prime minister has so far failed to say how he will force young people to participate in the scheme, which would see them volunteer with community groups or join the armed forces.
And, pressed by BBC Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce, Mr Sunak suggested the government will consider stopping young people having access to finance or drivers’ licences.
The PM said there are “all sorts of things” countries across Europe do to ensure young people take part in mandatory national service.
“Whether that is looking at driving licences, or their access to finance or all sorts of other things, that’s the right thing to do,” Mr Sunak said.
National service is one of the key announcements made by the Tories during the general election campaign.
The Tory manifesto sets out that every 18-year-old in the UK will be given the choice between a year of civic service or military service.
It promised a “year-long full-time placement in the armed forces or cyber defence” for 30,000 18-year-olds, while others will be forced to volunteer for one weekend each month with organisations such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
The military service option promises to be “competitive and paid, so our armed forces recruit and train the brightest and the best”, taking up much of the estimated £2.5bn cost of the policy.
The policy is aimed at shoring up support among the older and more patriotic Conservative base. But the party has come unstuck since announcing the plans, with ministers repeatedly refusing to say how it will work and how 18-year-olds will be forced to take part.
Foreign office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan even suggested parents could be punished on behalf of their children if they refused to participate.
As well as questions over how it will be paid for and enforced, the policy has been panned by the former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, and other senior military figures.
Lord West, who was first sea lord from 2002 to 2006, warned 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”.
“This ill-thought-out conscription scheme will increase pressure on defence and waste money,” the former Navy chief wrote, adding: “Rather than enhancing our defence capability, it would further reduce it.”
The Conservatives were asked to comment.
