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Rishi Sunak has vowed to bring back national service for 18-year-olds to create a “renewed sense of pride in our country” if he wins the general election.
Under the mandatory scheme, teenagers 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.
Labour branded the announcement “another desperate unfunded commitment”, which would cost an estimated £2.5bn each year.
It comes as Wes Streeting warned striking doctors he would not meet their huge pay demands, and has vowed he would be “a shop steward for patients” as health secretary.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent, the shadow health secretary spoke of his plan to tackle of record waiting lists and the ongoing pay disputes, stating: “The NHS is not the envy of the world.”
Sir Keir Starmer also confirmed on Saturday that he wanted to lower the voting age to 16, and sought to question why voters should have trust in Mr Sunak’s general election proposals if Michael Gove appears to have “lost faith” in the PM by joining the record exodus of Tory MPs.
Key Points
- Mandatory national service for 18-year-olds if Tories win election, Rishi Sunak vows
- Teenagers won’t be jailed for refusing call-up, insists James Cleverly
- More than 10,000 people cross Channel in small boats in blow to Sunak
- Keir Starmer says he wants to lower voting age to 16
- Michael Gove joins exodus from parliament
Nigel Farage condemned for 'race baiting' after claim Muslims are 'hostile to British values'
Nigel Farage signalled a return to rightwing shock tactics for his Reform UK party as he used his first election interview to attacking Muslims in the UK for “not sharing British values”.
His words on Muslims and immigration to Sir Trevor Phillips on Sky News shocked the studio guests including Labour peer Baroness Ayesha Hazarika who said: “This reveals his true colours as a nasty race baiting character.”
Commentator Lord Daniel Finkelstein said the remarks had made him pleased that Farage was not running for parliament, and questioned why Mr Farage claims to “speak for real people as if those who disagree with him are somehow not real”.
Our political editor David Maddox has the full report:
Nigel Farage condemned for 'race baiting' over attack on British Muslims
Nigel Farage shocked Sky News presenter Sir Trevor Phillips with an attack on British Muslims as he begins campaigning for Reform UK
Andy Gregory26 May 2024 10:35 1716715872Labour ‘not going to put a timetable’ on defence spending increase
Asked when Labour would increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has told the BBC: “We’re not going to put a timetable on that”.
“We’ve committed to do in government a strategic defence review to make sure that we’re getting value for money for all of our spending, including on defence where some of the procurement costs of purchasing new equipment have, frankly, got out of control under this Government,” Ms Reeves said.
And asked whether Labour would scrap the two-child benefit cap, Ms Reeves said: “We’re not going to be able to put everything right that the Conservatives have done straight away, and our priority is reducing those NHS waiting lists.”
Andy Gregory26 May 2024 10:31 1716714900Rachel Reeves defends workers rights package after union criticism
Rachel Reeves has insisted Labour “will end fire and rehire” – after a union criticised the party for excluding an outright ban on the practice in the final version of its workers’ rights package.
The shadow chancellor said she is “sorry that Sharon feels like that” – after Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the plans now have “more holes than Swiss cheese” – but defended the pledges.
“We will end fire and rehire which has seen companies ... sack all their staff and then try and bring them back on worse contracts. That is deplorable and we will not allow that to happen,” Ms Reeves told the BBC.
When it was put to her that Ms Graham did not back the package, Ms Reeves said: “I’m sorry that Sharon feels like that but we do have the support of our trade union colleagues and I believe that this is the biggest-ever extension of workplace rights that’s ever been introduced if we have that opportunity to do so.”
Andy Gregory26 May 2024 10:15 1716714816Labour will not bring return to austerity, Rachel Reeves insists
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has insisted there is “not going to be a return to austerity” as she was pressed to rule out public sector cuts under a Labour government.
Ms Reeves told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “There’s not going to be a return to austerity under a Labour government. We had austerity for five years and that is part of the reason why our economy and our public services are in a mess today.
“There is no spending review, the government hasn’t done a spending review, so there’s no allocations for departments. I would have to do that if I became chancellor in a few weeks’ time and I’ll set out those plans.”
Pressed on whether she would rule out cuts in some areas of public spending, Ms Reeves repeated: “We’re not going to be bringing back austerity but we have got that immediate injection of cash into our frontline public services - that’s a down payment on the changes that we want to make.
“But in the end we have to grow the economy, we have to turnaround this dire economic performance ... I don’t want to make any cuts to public spending which is why we’ve announced the immediate injection of cash into public services.
“So that money for our NHS, the additional police – 13,000 additional police and community officers – and the 6,500 additional teachers in our schools, they are all fully costed and fully funded promises because unless things are fully costed and fully funded, frankly, you can’t believe they’re going to happen.”
Andy Gregory26 May 2024 10:13 1716714415Farage challenged on ‘offensive and incendiary’ claims about Muslims
Nigel Farage has been involved in a lengthy clash about immigration in which he made a number of claims about Muslims, described as offensive and incendiary by Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips.
Challenged on whether incendiary claims about Muslims will be the “thrust of the Reform campaign”, Mr Farage claimed: “We have never before seen anything like this.
“You think about West Indian immigration into Britain, post World War Two, there were a lot of shared things there, shared history, culture, shared religion in many cases. Most families that came could say one of their family had served with British forces ... the list goes on but there were commonalities.
“The key to immigration is integration. If you get integration it works. What we’ve done ...”
Interjecting to point out that his own ancestors were Muslims before being forcibly converted to Christianity by slave owners, Mr Phillips said: “When you talk about Muslims as hostile to British values, I don’t really see how you arrive at that conclusion. And trying to say to me, ‘actually you guys are not like these other guys’, can you imagine how offensive that is to a British Muslim?”
Mr Farage replied: “How many people of your community speak English? How many people of the West Indian community don’t speak English? ... I can take you to streets in Oldham where virtually no one speaks English.”
Challenged that “you’re not serious”, Mr Farage claimed: “I am not here to attack the religion of Islam”, before claiming “we have a real, real problem here” and citing Hamas.
Andy Gregory26 May 2024 10:06 1716713557Farage seeks to attack Sunak in tirade about British Muslims
Nigel Farage has claimed there are British Muslims who “loathe” much of what Britain stands for, and sought to attack Rishi Sunak for “building up far more of that population than anybody before in history”.
Asked about the Tories’ citizen service policy, the former Ukip leader told Sky News: “When you’re a weak leader, and Sunak is not a leader in any way at all, you’re a follower. So you follow what the focus groups say and say ‘by doing this, I can attack the Reform vote’. That’s what it’s all about and it’s totally impractical.
“The army has shrunk from 100,000 and 75,000 in 14 years of Conservativism, and most interestingly we have a growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values. In fact, loathe much of what we stand for. So what do you do?”
Asked who he is referring to, he said: “Oh I think we see them on the streets of London every Saturday.”
Pressed on whether he is talking about Muslims, Mr Farage said: “We are. And I’m afraid I’ve found some of the recent surveys saying that 46 per cent of British Muslims support Hamas, support a terrorist organisation that is proscribed in this country.
“And this prime minister is building up far more of that population than anybody before in history.”
Sunder Katwala of the British Future think-tank is among those who have noted that respondents in the poll cited by Mr Farage were asked to make a binary choice between Israel and Hamas, rather than Israel and Palestine, which would have yielded different results.
Challenged by host Trevor Phillips on whether he is claiming Muslims are somehow less patriotic than other British people, Mr Farage claimed: “Let’s be clear, there is a growing population of people in this country, a lot of them very young, who have recently been voting for and electing candidates up and down the country in inner cities who stand for a set of values that are completely ... against our values.”
It is unclear which candidates Mr Farage was referring to.
Andy Gregory26 May 2024 09:52 1716712041Cleverly fails to deny national service announcement partly targeted at Reform voters
Home secretary James Cleverly did not deny the Tories’ national service announcement was in part aimed at drawing the attention of those who may vote Reform.
“This is about dealing with what we know to be the case, which is social fragmentation. Too many young people live in a bubble within their own communities,” Mr Cleverly told Sky News when asked whether the Tories were hoping to attract people who may vote for Richard Tice’s party.
“They don’t mix with people of different religions, they don’t mix with different viewpoints.”
Andy Gregory26 May 2024 09:27 1716711716Labour's open letters to pensioners
Labour has gone directly after traditional Tory voters with an open letter to pensioners in the Conservative-supporting Mail on Sunday this morning.
The letter from shadow pensions minister Liz Kendall, who is on Sky with Sir Trevor Phillips, this morning, pushes claims made by Labour that long term plans by the Conservatives will cost £46bn and have to be paid for with cuts to the state pension.
"With Labour, we will never put your pension at risk," she wrote.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt recently described this attack line as “disgraceful” arguing that National Insurance will only be reduced when economic growth allows.
Tories asking young people to fix ‘problems they have created themselves’, says Labour
Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall has claimed that Rishi Sunak’s national service policy is asking young people to solve the problems in public services “that the Tories themselves have created.
Ms Kendall said: “Elections should be about the country’s future, not fighting for a better past. And I think this announcement sort of epitomises the choice at the next election – more of the same from the Conservatives, yet another unfunded spending commitment.”
Pressed that it was a funded announcement, she said: “Funnily enough, 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.”
She added: “I think the way we bring young people and our country together is ensuring everyone feels they’ve got a shot at success. That they can have the opportunities to fulfill their potential, can get the job of their dreams, have a chance of getting on the housing ladder, that they get those skills.
“And that isn’t a plan to deliver it. What it actually is is asking young people to solve the problems in the NHS, the police and the armed services that the Tories themselves have created.”
Andy Gregory26 May 2024 09:17 1716711182Curtice warns Tories that they face historic task
Professor Sir John Curtice has described the daunting task facing the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak are facing at this election.
With an average of 21 point lead for Labour, Sir John emphasised the historic nature of Mr Sunak's task on 4 July.
He told Laura Kuenssberg's Sunday morning politics show: “Rishi Sunak either needs a record campaign swing or for the polls to be wrong and have their worst election campaign ever.”
David Maddox, Political Editor26 May 2024 09:13 Newer1 / 12OlderDisclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
