Rishi Sunak renews national service push as he warns Britain must prepare for cyberattacks

During his 2024 general election campaign, the ex-Tory leader called for a national service model that “encompassed civilian as well as military roles”.

The move would have required all 18-year-olds across the UK by law to participate, with no exemptions for university students, those in work, or people on gap years.

The service would have offered two options to those 18-year-olds, either a full-time military/cyber placement or community volunteering.

Writing in The Times, Mr Sunak reflected on the last time he called for a renewed form of national service, and how he “quickly became the butt of jokes”.

Mr Sunak said of the response to his plan: “When I proposed a new model of national service in the 2024 election, it quickly became the butt of jokes.

“Now France and Germany are taking steps towards it, and in Sweden places are highly prized by teenagers and employers alike.”

Assessing the recent string of cyberattacks and bomb threats on planes, online, in schools and in supermarkets, Mr Sunak argued that there was a need for a “resilience corps” back in 2024.

He explained: “What I’d seen as prime minister – the constant probing by our enemies, which didn’t distinguish between civilian and military – had convinced me we would soon need some kind of resilience corps.

“The cyberattacks on European supermarkets, with fridges remotely set to 50C so the food spoils, show this is our new reality. Defence spending won’t stop that. Responsibility for our security can’t just be subcontracted to the military.”

Taking aim at Labour’s newly announced “Be Ready” scheme, which encourages Britons to prepare and stockpile essential goods in case of an attack or disaster, Mr Sunak said there must be a “culture change”.

He said: “In a world in which the Government feels obliged to tell us to stockpile tinned goods, our culture needs to change. It will take more than well-stocked cupboards to meet this moment.

“A new, universal national service scheme should offer people options. A few might join a small, selective military cadre. Others could serve with search and rescue, St John Ambulance or Meals on Wheels, or train in cybersecurity.”

The former Prime Minister said that a form of national service would also help tackle Labour’s NEETs (not in education, employment or training) crisis.

He said: “It would make us more resilient and more cohesive, give the almost one million young people not in education, employment or training a sense of purpose, and remind us all that citizenship brings responsibilities as well as rights.”

Mr Sunak made clear that amid the growing threat from Russia and Vladimir Putin, “every country” that stands in the way of him “needs to adopt such an approach”.

He said: “Our enemies seek to exploit divisions in our society. National service would help combat that too: it would make us more cohesive as well as more resilient.

“It would unite young people from very different backgrounds and provide part of the answer to our great integration challenge. Serving together would help build our shared sense of Britishness.

“In an era when the threats come from digital devices as much as detonators, every country that stands in the way of Putin and other aggressive authoritarians needs to adopt such an approach.”