World

British PM seeks election Hail Mary with youth national service plan: 'Last attempt to fix a broken nation'

Published

2 years ago

May 29, 2024

Press Room

British PM seeks election Hail Mary with youth national service plan: 'Last attempt to fix a broken nation'

Join Fox News for access to this content

Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account – free of charge.

Please enter a valid email address.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to institute a national service requirement should the Conservative Party win the general election on July 4.

“The appeal of the idea is particularly geared to more right wing voters who might have been leaning to vote for the Reform Party and may now switch back to Conservative,” Alan Mendoza, co-founder and executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital.

Sunak last week announced that the U.K. would have a general election, catching many in his own party off-guard. He made the announcement alone, standing in the rain outside the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street while the 1997 Labour Campaign theme “Things Can Only Get Better” played in the background.

Sunak has since then started laying out his proposal for the next phase of his government should he win the general election — a feat that appears increasingly difficult as the polling puts the rival Labour Party ahead by around 20 points and the Conservatives look to replace some 77 MPs who have decided not to run for re-election, according to The Institute For Government.

A UK ELECTION HAS BEEN CALLED FOR JULY 4. HERE’S WHAT TO KNOW

Chief among the prime minister’s proposals is the eye-catching national service requirement, which the U.K. abandoned as a practice around 60 years ago: The last mandatory service requirements occurred after World War II and ended in 1960.

The previous national service requirement meant 18 months of military training and four years on the reserve list, which would allow the government to draft citizens on short notice, according to the BBC.

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak greets members of various British troops as he visits troops at the Julius Leber Barracks to meet troops and see military equipment on April 24, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (Henry Nicholls/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The new scheme would provide 18-year-olds with the choice to participate in either community volunteering one weekend every month for a year (totaling 25 days) in a service such as the National Health Service (NHS), fire brigade, ambulance service, search and rescue or critical local infrastructure or a year-long military participation in areas such as logistics, cybersecurity, procurement or civil response operations.

The Conservatives would establish a Royal Commission to design the program, with a pilot scheme accepting applicants in September 2025 with plans for a national rollout by 2029, The Telegraph reported.

Police officers detain a person as disruptors target shops during a shoplifting spree flash mob on Oxford Street in London, Britain, on Aug. 9, 2023. (Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett)

A YouGov poll from last year found around 45% both supporting and opposing any compulsory program, while the majority would support some voluntary version of the scheme.

British Home Secretary James Cleverly insisted the government would not force anyone to complete military training as part of their service, saying during an appearance on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “There’s going to be no criminal sanction. There’s no one going to jail over this.”

TRIAL SET FOR UK MEN ACCUSED OF COLLABORATING WITH HONG KONG INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

“This is about dealing with what we know to be the case, which is social fragmentation,” Cleverly said. “Too many young people live in a bubble within their own communities. They don’t mix with people of different religions. They don’t mix with different viewpoints.”

Cleverly said the scheme would seek funding from around $1.27 billion out of a possible $7.5 billion gained through a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion, with Conservatives estimating that the scheme would require around $3.2 billion a year by the end of the decade, The Guardian reported.

Sunak has consistently faced criticism for “no longer representing right-wing people in the U.K.,” according to former Boris Johnson adviser Thomas Corbett-Dillon, but Mendoza argued that this new policy is an effort to appeal to that more hardline voter base.

“National Service tends to be a very popular idea with British voters,” Mendoza said. “The Conservative Party’s conceptualization of it has less to do with the 1950s imagery that has been derided by some commentators and much more with the Scandinavian models currently in use that stress responsible citizenship.”

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech to supporters, members and local people during his visit to Lancing in West Sussex, while on the General Election campaign trail on May 27, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images)

“All the evidence in those countries suggests young people view it as an essential part of their transition to adulthood, as well as teaching useful skills and community spirit,” Mendoza added.

Nigel Farage, the honorary president of Reform U.K., argued that the national service scheme aimed to appeal to his voters, as Reform and the Conservatives fight over voters in the upcoming election.

PRINCE HARRY REPORTEDLY REJECTING KING CHARLES’ ROYAL RESIDENCE INVITE IMPLIES ‘DEEPER-ROOTED’ ISSUES: EXPERT

“You follow what the focus groups say — you say, by doing this I can attack the Reform vote,” Farage told Sky News. “That’s what it’s all about. And look, it’s totally impractical. The army has shrunk from 100,000 to 75,000 in 14 years of Conservatism.”

However, Corbett-Dillon argued that the effort will not prove successful, ridiculing the government for resorting to a “last ditch attempt” to stoke patriotism, only for it to backfire.

Former MEP and Honorary President of the Reform UK party Nigel Farage speaks during the National Conservatism conference in Brussels, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

“So the government, in a last ditch attempt to fix a broken nation, suggested a National Service to bring the people together, an opportunity to serve your nation, to give back, to ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” Corbett-Dillon said. “And what happened? The new ‘multicultural’ generation laughed the whole thing off, ‘Why would I serve a country I hate?’ was the common message across social media.”

“The fact that the United Kingdom can’t even implement a national service shows you that it is now a failed nation — all thanks to ‘multiculturalism,’” he added, blasting the Conservatives as being “really Democrats” and claiming that Sunak would “very quickly take up a lavish Silicon Valley job” when he loses the upcoming election, pointing to former Deputy PM Nick Clegg, who now serves as the President of Global Affairs for Facebook.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ridiculed the idea as just another of the “endless spinning around that Tory governments have subjected” the U.K. voters to over the past few years, arguing that the Conservatives present “a new plan every week, a new strategy every month.”

UK ARTISTS, VETERANS CREATE 80 SAND SILHOUETTES ON BEACH FOR 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY LANDINGS

Police and large groups of young people in Oxford Circus hours after the mass TikTok crime was due to take place in London on Aug. 9, 2023. ( Matthew Chattle/Alamy Live News)

“All this spinning round and round — it’s symbolic of the chaos and instability,” Starmer said during a keynote speech delivered in West Sussex as he gets his party’s campaign into gear. “You’ve seen it over the past few days with the desperation of this national service policy.”

Starmer claimed that the policy would receive funding from abandoned “leveling up” schemes, which would use taxpayer money to help revive business across the U.K. to create jobs and bolster the economy. Starmer insisted that the money should instead go to the National Health Service, which the Labour Party consistently keeps at the center of its campaign strategies.

Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Sec. Liz Kendall dismissed the plan, saying elections “should be about the country’s future, not fighting for a better past.”

“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,” Kendall said during an appearance on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

World

A look at some of the contenders to be Iran’s supreme leader after the killing of Khamenei

Published

53 minutes ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

A look at some of the contenders to be Iran’s supreme leader after the killing of Khamenei

Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years before he was killed in the surprise U.S. and Israeli bombardment.

It’s only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen. Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement.

The supreme leader has the final say on all major decisions, including war, peace and the country’s disputed nuclear program.

In the meantime, a provisional governing council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and senior Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi is guiding the country through its biggest crisis in decades. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that a new supreme leader would be chosen early this week.

The supreme leader is appointed by an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts, who by law are supposed to quickly name a successor. The panel consists of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected after their candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.

Khamenei had major influence over both clerical bodies, making it unlikely the next leader will mark a radical departure.

Here are the top contenders.

Mojtaba Khamenei

The son of Khamenei, a mid-level Shiite cleric, is widely considered a potential successor. He has strong ties to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard but has never held office. His selection could prove awkward, as the Islamic Republic has long criticized hereditary rule and cast itself as a more just alternative.

Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi

Arafi is a member of the provisional government council. The senior Shiite cleric was handpicked by Khamenei to be a member of the Guardian Council in 2019, and three years later he was elected to the Assembly of Experts. He leads a network of seminaries.

Hassan Rouhani

Rouhani, a relative moderate, was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the landmark nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trump scrapped during his first term. Rouhani served on the Assembly of Experts until 2024, when he said he was disqualified from running for reelection. Rouhani criticized it as an infringement on Iranians’ political participation.

Hassan Khomeini

Khomeini is the most prominent grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He is also seen as a relative moderate, but has never held government office. He currently works at his grandfather’s mausoleum in Tehran.

Ayatollah Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri

Mirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hard-liners who serves on the Assembly of Experts.

He was close to the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce “special weapons,” a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirbagheri denounced the closure of schools as a “conspiracy.”

He is currently the head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom, the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran.

World

US cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

US cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The U.S. has been cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iran’s missile capabilities after Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed off on the plan, and while U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey stated on Sunday Britain had “stepped up alongside the Americans.”

“The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source, in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles,” Starmer confirmed in a recorded statement to the nation.

“The U.S. has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose,” he said. “We have taken the decision to accept this request.”

The decision came amid escalation across the Middle East in the wake of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory missile and drone attacks, raising fears of a broader regional conflict.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed off on a plan to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities. (Kin Cheung / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

On Feb. 28, in the wake of Operation Epic Fury, Starmer confirmed British planes “are in the sky today” across the Middle East “as part of coordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies.”

Healey went on to disclose Sunday that two Iranian missiles were fired in the direction of Cyprus, where Britain maintains key sovereign base areas.

The Royal Air Force confirmed that Typhoon jets operating from Qatar as part of the joint U.K.-Qatar Typhoon Squadron successfully intercepted an Iranian drone heading toward Qatar.

About 300 British personnel are stationed at a naval facility in Bahrain, where Iranian missiles and drones struck nearby areas.

“We’re taking down the drones that are menacing either our bases, our people or our allies,” Healey told “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” on Sky. “We’ve stepped up alongside the Americans. We’ve stepped up our defensive forces in the Middle East. We’re flying those sorties.”

ISRAEL’S LARGEST EVER MILITARY FLYOVER HAMMERS IRANIAN MILITARY TARGETS

British Defense Secretary John Healey stressed that the U.K. had “no part” in the American-Israeli strikes on Iran. (Peter Nicholls/Pool via Reuters)

Healey also made sure to stress that the U.K. had “no part” in the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and insisted all British actions were defensive. “All our actions are about defending U.K. interests and defending U.K. allies,” he said.

When asked if the U.K. would join the U.S. in offensive action, Healey said, “I’m not going to speculate,” according to Sky News.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Downing Street also confirmed Feb. 28 that Starmer and President Donald Trump had spoken by phone about the “situation in the Middle East,” the BBC reported.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Downing Street for comment.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

World

Pakistan calls troops, orders 3-day curfew as 24 killed in pro-Iran rallies

Published

3 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Pakistan calls troops, orders 3-day curfew as 24 killed in pro-Iran rallies

Army deployed and some areas in northern Gilgit-Baltistan region put under curfew after deadly violence over Khamenei’s killing.

By AFP, Anadolu and The Associated Press

Published On 2 Mar 2026

Pakistan has called in the military and imposed a three-day curfew in some areas following deadly protests over the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint United States-Israeli attack on Saturday.

At least 24 people were killed and dozens injured in clashes between protesters and security forces across the country on Sunday, prompting authorities to tighten security around the US embassy and consulates.