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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has ridiculed Rishi Sunak’s “teenage ‘Dad’s Army’” plan to revive national service, as a Tory minister distanced himself from the policy and a Conservative peer hit out at the UK prime minister.

In Starmer’s first major speech of the campaign on Monday, he sought to reassure voters that his party could be trusted with Britain’s security while claiming Sunak was engaged in political stunts.

Starmer attacked the “desperation” of Sunak’s £2.5bn-a-year plan to revive compulsory national service — which was abolished in 1960 — with 18-year-olds having to do work in the community or with the military.

He said it amounted to “a teenage ‘Dad’s Army’ paid for by cancelling levelling-up funding and money from tax avoidance that we would use to invest in our NHS”.

Steve Baker, Northern Ireland minister in Sunak’s government, also signalled doubts about the national service plan, which has been criticised in a region of the UK where serving with the British army is a highly political issue.

Baker posted on X that it was a Tory policy, not a government one.

“A government policy would have been developed by ministers on the advice of officials and collectively agreed. I would have had a say on behalf of NI [Northern Ireland],” he wrote.

“But this proposal was developed by a political adviser or advisers and sprung on candidates, some of whom are relevant ministers.”

In a further indication of Conservative disarray, Lord Zac Goldsmith said on X that the prime minister had “damaged the Party almost beyond repair and all but guaranteed the majority of his MPs will lose their job next month”.

The Conservative peer added that “the hope is that when Sunak disappears off to California in a few weeks there are at least some decent MPs left around which to rebuild”.

Tory headquarters also acknowledged it had “in error” sent Conservative MPs an email that blamed them for failing to “get behind” the campaign and disclosed personal information, according to a report in the Times.

Sunak’s manifesto pledge to make all 18-year-olds take part in a year-long military placement or to carry out 25 days of compulsory “volunteering” in the community is his biggest policy statement to date.

But Starmer attempted to draw a distinction between his offer of “stability” and Sunak’s approach to government, which he said amounted to “a new plan every week, a new strategy every month”.

Speaking in West Sussex, he vowed to put “country first, party second”, in an attempt to reassure floating voters that he had buried the legacy of left-wing former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He acknowledged that voters still had questions about Labour and whether his party had changed enough for voters to trust him with their money and with the country’s borders and security.

“My answer is yes, you can, because I have changed my party permanently,” he said.

The Labour leader’s speech was an attempt to establish himself in the minds of voters, many of whom have reservations about him: Starmer is less popular than his party.

YouGov polling last week found that 34 per cent of people had a favourable view of the Labour leader compared with 53 per cent holding a negative view.

Starmer told his audience he grew up in Oxted, a village on the Surrey/Kent border that was “about as English as it gets” but that his family experienced real hardship growing up.

He said that in the 1970s, when inflation was out of control, his family had the phone disconnected because they could not pay all their bills, adding that this informed his belief in the need for economic stability.

Conservatives have focused on Starmer’s record of ditching policies, including many of the left-wing ones he espoused in 2020 when running to succeed Corbyn as Labour leader.

Richard Holden, Conservative party chair, said: “Once again Keir Starmer stood up to tell the country absolutely nothing. In this wearisome and rambling speech there was no policy, no substance, and no plan.”

Starmer, asked whether he stood by the promise he made to axe student tuition fees, said that was still “an option” and there was “a powerful case for change” to the ways students and universities were funded.

But he said a Labour government would face difficult choices and his priority would be the NHS.

Starmer also defended Labour’s plan to end the VAT tax break for private schools, but said the money raised would be used to appoint 6,500 more teachers to state secondary schools.

“I understand the aspirations of those who work and save to send their children to private schools,” he said, before adding that he also understood the aspirations of those, like himself, who sent their children to state schools.

OMAHA, Nebraska — At a farmers’ market in midtown Omaha, abortion politics are playing out near the produce stands, flower vendors and a brass band.

Petitioners for two opposing ballot measures have set up folding tables near each other, competing for signatures from registered voters. One initiative would put an amendment in the state’s constitution allowing abortion until fetal viability – usually about 24 weeks. That would replace the current ban on most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy currently in state law.

Samantha Weatherington stopped to sign the fetal viability proposal. To her, the state’s current ban is too restrictive.

“It’s terrifying to think that we can’t even make choices of our own bodies again, it’s like going back to the ‘40s and ’50s,” she said. “I don’t want to see people’s daughters using a coat hanger as a last resort.”

Less than 20 feet away is another table where petitioners solicit signatures for a different ballot question. This would ask voters to put the current 12-week ban into the constitution.

Andrew Shradar planned to sign that petition.

“I believe that it’s a human being at conception,” he said. “Protecting the unborn is what needs to be done no matter what, and for the two petitions that are being held right now, that’s the one I’m going to sign.”

At a farmers’ market in midtown Omaha, Richard Riscol solicits signatures for a petition to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would limit abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Elizabeth Rembert/Nebraska Public Media

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Elizabeth Rembert/Nebraska Public Media

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Since The Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in 2022, the issue has been fought out state by state. It is already on the ballot in Colorado, Florida, Maryland and South Dakota and there are efforts underway in six more states.

The opposing groups have to get on the ballot and then compete

In several, like Arizona and Missouri, abortion rights supporters are going to the voters to get around Republican-led legislatures that have passed laws restricting abortion.

That’s the case in Nebraska too, but with the added twist of the competing campaigns. Four months after the abortion rights groups got going on the fetal viability proposal, activists opposing abortion started the drive for the 12-week ban.

To get on the ballot, the campaigns have until July 3 to collect signatures from 10% of the state’s registered voters – about 123,000 people. That has to include signatures from 5% of voters in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. To pass, the ballot proposals require majority approval, with votes from at least 35% of those casting ballots in the November election.

There’s a chance they could both get on the ballot. “This is where the conflict arises,” said Sec. of State Bob Evnen in an interview. “You have two conflicting initiatives proposing an amendment to the Nebraska constitution. That conflict has to be resolved.”

And while it’s up to the governor – after the vote – to rule officially that two amendments are in conflict, he says he thinks these do. “They are wholly in conflict with each other,” he said. “There’s nothing to reconcile.”

Evnen says that would test for the first time a law established in 1912 that says that if they both pass, then whichever proposal gets more approving votes will be adopted in the state’s constitution.

“It’s possible that one of the proposals could get approved and not be adopted,” Evnen said. “It’ll come down to, whichever one receives the most votes is the one that would go into Nebraska’s constitution.”

Voter education will be key

That could all lead to confusing choices for Nebraska voters. Rachel Rebouché, a reproductive and family law expert and dean of Temple University’s law school, said that twist will make outreach even more important for each campaign.

“Having to choose between 12 weeks and fetal viability is going to slice voters up in different ways,” she said. “Each side has a stable group of supporters. But how are they going to reach people who have abortion ambivalence and convince them that their stance is the best option?”

For now, both campaigns said they’re focusing on getting their proposal onto the November ballot. Once that’s cleared, they said they’ll turn to educating and turning out voters, since a majority might not be enough to win.

“Decisions about pregnancy are personal, and they should be made between medical providers and the patient,” said Allie Berry, campaign manager for Protect Our Rights, which backs the fetal viability amendment. “A lot of people agree with that and are excited to sign.”

Brenna Grasz, treasurer for Protect Women & Children, is confident in the 12-week ban petition drive. “We believe that Nebraska voters are majority pro-life, and the vote in November will reflect that.”

One of her allies, Nebraska Right to Life President Sandy Danek, says she supports the 12-week amendment in part because it will allow for tighter abortion limits in law later. “It does give us an ability to go back to the Nebraska legislature and seek further protections,” she said. “I can’t tell you when the body will be in a place to do that, but this initiative does give us that liberty.”

Elizabeth Rembert reports for Nebraska Public Media.

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Profits at China’s industrial companies returned to growth in April, highlighting Beijing’s efforts to boost manufacturing as other areas of the world’s second-largest economy struggle to regain momentum.

Industrial profits at businesses with more than Rmb20mn ($2.8mn) in turnover increased 4 per cent year on year in April after a decline of 3.5 per cent in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. So far this year, their profits are up 4.3 per cent, unchanged compared with the rate in the first quarter after a large jump at the start of the year.

The improved April data follows a rise in Chinese exports in the same month after a push from Xi Jinping’s government to boost “high-quality development” in manufacturing, which prompted complaints from western leaders over perceived overcapacity.

The EU is carrying out a probe into state support for Chinese electric vehicle production, while US President Joe Biden this month introduced 100 per cent tariffs on EV imports from China, where intense domestic competition has spurred a price war.

Recent economic data in China is being closely watched for further evidence of the government’s strategy as it grapples with a historic property sector slowdown and weak consumption. Exports in April grew 1.5 per cent year on year in dollar terms, while industrial production jumped 6.7 per cent.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs noted strong increases in profits across equipment manufacturing in the first four months, with profits in electronics and transportation equipment growing by 76 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively.

Yu Weining, statistician for the National Bureau of Statistics, also emphasised the contribution of equipment manufacturing and said market demand picked up in April, citing the impact of “macroeconomic policies”.

But Yu added that domestic demand remained “insufficient” and that the development of new productive forces — a widely used term in China for its recent focus on manufacturing — still needed to be “accelerated”.

State-owned companies’ profits dropped 2.8 per cent year on year in the first four months of 2024, the data showed, while profits at private groups rose 6.4 per cent and those at foreign businesses grew 16.7 per cent.