Summary
Here is a summary of the key events on Sunday.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak announced plans for mandatory national service for 18-year-olds. He said every 18-year-old will get the choice of how they do their National Services, deciding to either serve their country in the armed forces or serve their community by volunteering. “The Covid pandemic showed the value of civic service to individuals and our country as a whole. By building on this spirit of community, this bold action will enable young people to give back to the communities that raised them.” he said.
Home secretary James Cleverly said 18-year-olds would not be jailed if they refuse to carry out “mandatory” national service. He told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips “No, there’s going to be no criminal sanction. There’s no one going to jail over this.”
Cleverly told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that no-one would be “compelled” to do the military national service, and they they could instead participate in the civil elements. These could include a range of things: uniform public service such as special constable, on call fire fighter, emergency health responder, environmental protection, he said.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves dismissed the national service plans as “just another desperate gimmick” with “no viable means of funding it.”
Reeves said the UK would not return to austerity measures under a Labour government and her “No 1 commitment is to bring stability back to the economy”, she said.
Reeves said on whether she would rule out putting up income tax: “What I want and what Keir wants is taxes on working people to be lower, and certainly won’t be increasing income tax or national insurance if we win the election.”
When asked when Labour would increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, Reeves told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “We’re not going to put a timetable on that”.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar dismissed the national service plans saying: “I think this policy is going to go the same way as this Tory government, in the bin”, describing it as “another gimmick…to distract from their disastrous election campaign so far”.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats said of the Conservatives’ first policy pledge for mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds: “This is quite a pathetic attempt, desperate attempt, from Conservatives to grab a headline, the vast majority of people are going to say come on you’re completely out of touch.”
Green Party co-leader, Carla Denyer said of the national service plans:“This policy is removed from reality. It is not what our military needs and it certainly isn’t what our young people need
In a post on X, Reform UK party leader Richard Tice said: “Sunak is so desperate…. Putting out unconsidered impractical policy ideas that military do not want, not asked for.”
Nigel Farage described the national service plans “a joke” and “totally impractical”.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall confirmed Labour would seek to revive plans to ban young people from ever being able to smoke tobacco legally after the Tobacco and Vapes Bill failed to become law ahead of the General Election.
Asked if Labour would keep the triple-lock on pensions, Kendall replied: “Yes.”
Rachel Reeves has accused the Tories of making £64bn of unfunded spending commitments in a “desperate and reckless” effort to rescue their gaffe-strewn general election campaign. Speaking to the Observer, Reeves said that what appeared to be pledges to slash taxes – including national insurance, income tax and inheritance tax – were reminiscent of Liz Truss’s catastrophic mini-budget and showed the Conservatives had learned nothing from her disastrous time at No 10.
Nigel Farage has insisted he still has “one more big card to play” and confirmed plans to stand in the future as an MP candidate, despite feeling “extremely disappointed” by Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a general election on 4 July.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson will be out of the country for most of the election campaign but will help from afar, friends have told the Sunday Telegraph.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has pledged to tackle the “cultural rot that places protecting the reputation of the NHS above protecting the public” and says that patient care is not good enough. Writing for The Sunday Times, Streeting warned that the NHS is broken and promises “reformation of the national religion”.
Scotland First Minister John Swinney has said the SNP will stand against the “twin threats” of austerity and privatisation, as his party campaigns on public services. The SNP will seek to focus on investing in the NHS and other public services over the coming week of general election campaigning.
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Rachel Reeves vowed there would be no “return to austerity” under a Labour government as she ruled out increases to income tax or national insurance.
On the first weekend of the general election campaign, the shadow chancellor said she and Keir Starmer wanted taxes on working people to be lower.
Pressed on how Labour would fund public services, Reeves ruled out raising income tax or national insurance and insisted that there would be no “unfunded proposals” in the party’s election manifesto.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Reeves said: “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.
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