National service plan to get youngsters ‘out of their bubble’

Mr Cleverly told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme the move was about “coming together”.

“It’s about addressing the fragmentation that we have seen in society,” he said.

“Too many young people are living in their own bubble, whether that’s a digital bubble or a social bubble.

“We want to get back to a situation where young people are mixing with people – in different areas, different economic groups, different religions – to try and find a way of addressing the kind of fragmentation that we see too much of.”

The Conservatives say the scheme would involve 30,000 selective military placements where “the brightest and best” would get involved in cyber security, logistics, or civil response operations full-time for a year.

Everyone else would do 25 days, or one weekend a month for a year, with non-military organisations including the fire service, the police, the NHS or charities.

The armed forces placements were “a small element” of the plan, Mr Cleverly said, as “nobody will be compelled to do the military bit”.

“There’s going to be no criminal sanction – There’s no one going to jail over this,” he told Sky News.

Mr Cleverly insisted the plan was “fully funded”, with £1.5bn diverted from levelling up’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund from 2028. A further £1bn would come from plans to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion.