Refusing mandatory National Service won't lead to prison, Home Secretary James Cleverly says

Home Secretary, before discussing the details of your compulsory

national

service

proposal, a couple of questions of yes, no, what if someone

says

I don't want to do it, do they go straight to jail? No, there will be no criminal sanction for this. no one is going to jail for this, but what we have seen in other countries that have similar schemes to this, particularly in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, first of all, there is actually very wide acceptance and enthusiasm for this, so we We want to make this compelling, we're going to force people to do it, but we also want to make sure that it fits the aptitudes and aspirations of different people, so the military will come together and you, I'm sure we will come, I want, I wanna go. that, but let me ask you another very strong question: are people going to get paid for this if they do the volunteer or civilian option instead of the military option?

So the military option will come with a salary because it's longer and so by extension the other elements won't be and I mean, and that's very good, that's very much in line, so I was in the forces reserve, as you know, military reserve forces get paid, um, uh, uh, for example. The special police are not St John's ambulance, the people are not, so that combination is actually quite in line with the structures we already have, but honestly, that's your first problem, isn't it? You're not going to get 18 year olds to sign up? during a weekend of the month for nothing, yes, because in reality what we have seen, as I say, the military reserve forces are paid and their police firefighting counterparts are not, so that mixed portfolio, that mixed bill is well established and what we want to Of course, we want to make sure that everyone is involved because it is about building a network across society.

Okay, let's start with the military side because you know who's going to hate this. Your colleagues, you are a soldier, your colleagues. in the military, your defense minister, Andrew Morrison, told the Financial Times about an idea before this came up, a similar idea has a cost and that is to exchange people, look after them, manage them and then they disappear as they become vaguely useful, so the people who are going to operate this are clearly not going to like it very much, especially since the military has forces, they have a lot of work to do, they need some people who are not so useful to them until we are about of leaving well who we are, what we seek to do in the first place, no one will be forced to do the military element, so, while it is

mandatory

, the military hopes that some of my point is not of course, by nature , the people doing the military element will have volunteered to do the military version, so they will be motivated to join the military, they will have the opportunity to spend a year with the armed forces and then of course we suspect that many of they will want to join the regular forces or, as I have done, have many decades, but you are telling me why they would want to do it.

What I'm asking you is about an army that can't actually recruit. real soldiers who are going to make a career, that's what they really need and now you're telling them, oh, by the way, you have to take care of some kids for a year who aren't going to fit in with who we are. I'm going to see if the people who go to the army will have volunteered to do it, so they will be motivated. You're telling me the same thing again. Yes, I know because I'm going to finish my point this time. is that of course they will have had a period of military training, they will be useful to the military and that is part of it, but not the main objective, the broader point about this

national

service

is that we want to build a society where people they mix with people outside their own communities they mix with people from different backgrounds, different religions, okay, different income levels, eh, and part of this has to do with usefulness to the Armed Forces, that's part of it, but most of this has to do with helping to build. a cohesive society where people mix outside of their bubble, whether through military service, other uniform or non-uniformed service, uh, uh, service, look, I can, I can hear the aspiration here and we can have a discussion about whether what you're proposing is really Seriously, but let me tell you this, this is really about getting the attention of the people who say they're going to vote for reform who would be attracted to this, right?

What it's about is responding, it's politics, well, me. I'm a politician, so you shouldn't be entirely surprised that I'm involved in politics, but the point is that politics is good. I'm glad a politician who

says

he's political is willing to admit it, but politics is the way to do it. We deal with really serious problems and it's about dealing with what we know to be the case, which is social fragmentation. Too many young people live in a kind of bubble within their own communities, they don't mix. with people of different religions they don't mix with different points of view more people are saying that they wouldn't date someone who didn't have the same political opinions and what we are saying is that responding to that is a political imperative.

Well, let me ask you and to answer that it's about bringing people together in different ways, military, uh, medical volunteering. I understand all of that and it's FL defenses and environmental protection. It's all perfectly reasonable, let me ask you, as a politician, do you believe that? This will help you capture the attention of those who vote for reform, the voters, for example, in the Red Wall constituencies, so what motivates us is to make sure that we have a cohesive society. Now, of course, don't look at Trevor. election is fine, so of course in an election you come up with new ideas and you come up with ideas that we hope will bring us votes.

There's nothing illegitimate about that, but it is, but it's fundamentally about addressing the concerns that we see about social media. fragmentation that wants to encourage a new generation of volunteers, something I have spent my entire life doing and I have loved every minute of it. I understand. I want to talk to you about this election. Did the Prime Minister explain to you why he chose to call elections when in reality he has not selected all his candidates well. The reason we call elections now is because we have seen inflation return to normal levels. We can see that the economic indicators are going in the right direction.

We are now in a position where we can demonstrate that our plan is working and there will be an explanation of what we are going to do next to keep us on track. There will always be an explanation. pros and cons for any time in an election, as we already know, I said in the Green Room, frankly, I would rather campaign in early spring than late fall, but we are ready to take a bold step, I understand that. because we trust us, we understand that you still have to select in 190 electoral districts, well, the selection process has been going on, there will be many places where the selections were about to happen, I can name a lot of them have already been taken away from me from the head, which I'm not going to do, so that will happen very, very quickly, but look, I have been president of the party, you always have to make selections until the last minute, uh, there is nothing in particular. unusual about that that's about that's the kind of number you know 19200 I'm not I'm not on cchq so I don't know the details I know we have a lot that we have yet to select but a fantastic group of candidates incredibly diverse in terms of their life experience and what they bring.

Ok, let's get into the campaign itself. Let's start with Mr. Sun's announcement. Let's remember this: the 21st century is taking the

lead

in technology and migration. Weaponized by hostile states to threaten the integrity of our borders in this country, every couple planning a wedding prepares for the rain, every village cricket captain prepares for the rain, but you managed to make this the image that will haunt the Prime Minister for the next six. weeks, what were you thinking? The bottom line is that it sometimes rains in the UK. You are absolutely right, but what we have also seen is rain, the rain is not going to discourage us, guy with the umbrella outside.

I mean, what is this? It's high-level incompetence, isn't it? Look, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, um, whatever way we would have responded to the Kingdom, if we moved the ad, if we had someone with an umbrella, you would have criticized us, you would have found a vector of criticism the bottom line is that the Prime Minister made the case for why we are going to the country. We are very proud of the difficult decisions we have made to bring inflation back down to normal levels. I have a plan for the future and let's compare it to Labour's complete lack of it.

I'm not asking you. I won't ask you if we delay it. Ask that question to be a know-it-all. I know. people who will do that, but what has happened since then you started the campaign with this, then you went to a beer hall with a prime minister who doesn't drink, a trip to the Titanic followed, the jokes were corrected and then you organized yourself. a group with journalists where he is standing under an exit sign. My point is who would trust a team that does all that to run the country when they can't even get the basics of a campaign right, so when people go to the ballot.

Box, are you going to ask if it was raining when you made the announcement or are you going to remember that they couldn't actually do the details or are you going to ask who was the person who was so instrumental in the Furlow show that I kept a roof over my head? during covid, who was the person who controlled inflation, so it went from over 11% to normal B, who was the person who started reducing National Insurance contributions, so my family and I got money , who was the person who is going to protect the P respect so that they remember they may remember the image of the r every month they will look at their payroll and see that under the conservatives they are paying less taxes than they would pay with respect you and I have both We've been knocking on doors, we've talked to a lot of voters in our races, and I actually don't think you can rule it out like that.

This is the kind of thing that people remember. Let me ask you about something else. They let me ask you. about one other thing you'll remember, no one has mentioned, let me ask you about one other thing you'll remember, there was some vital legislation that you're trying to pass, some of it was abandoned and I suspect one thing in particular will come back, huh. That is, Murray walked 200 miles from Manchester to London campaigning for the Martin Act, which deals with the protection of potential victims of terrorism. Mr. St. I looked her in the eye on Wednesday on the seventh anniversary of his son's death in the Manchester Arena attack and told him that law would be passed when he should have known it wasn't going to happen.

Did he apologize to her? I don't know if the Prime Minister spoke to Fan and his family. I was at the meeting with the Prime Minister and the commitment that we made and said and I remember going through the details that we said there was an election coming up, we said we couldn't necessarily guarantee that the law would have completed its full passage before the general election, she He withdrew and believed. They had told him what would happen, we told him no, I was at the meeting, no, no, please leave me this is very important, this is very important, I was at the meeting and I told him that I have no doubt that even if a general election is delayed, I pointed out explicitly that it could be that there is cross-party support on this and that we are determined to make sure that this is delivered.

She has been saying for the past 48 hours that she believed it would pass regardless of rights. And the bad thing about this, would you like to apologize to her now? This is a matter of trust in the character and position of politicians. You could say just look, I'm really sorry it didn't happen, so of course we're sorry not all of us. the legislation was passed and I'm particularly specific and I'm especially sorry that we weren't able to get Martin's Law into the statute books before the general election, but I talked to the family in the campaign group that it could cover a general election that, if we were to re-enter to the government, we would prioritize this to get it done because it has taken longer than we would have liked and I said there is support from all parties and I said I can't imagine a world where this will not be enacted even if it is delayed because of the general election, let me take you, you are responsible for the biggest flagship policy of this government until the national service, which is the Rwanda ship, yesterday we broke the 10,000 uh barrier. for the number of people crossing the channel in small boats in the first 150 days of the year, the highest ever.

They are calling these elections now because they really know that they are not going to be able to stop these small boats. and that summer, a summer like that would have ended your chances, well, of course, dealing with illegal migrationIt's difficult, it's difficult in the UK, it's difficult across Europe when I talk to my colleagues in the United States, Australia and other countries, uh. They find it difficult too, but we have a plan that is part of the Rwanda plan, which is an important part of it, it is about making sure that we have that international cooperation and we are committed to doing that, which is for, forgive me for interrupting , but forgive me for interrupting, but the viewers and I have heard the minister of the Ministry say that we have a plan it is working, it is working, it is not working, you are at 10,000, the highest number ever seen, what we are seeing is at people.

Smugglers are changing their tactics. forcing more people onto ships now, but fundamentally they are getting more people across the channel, they are winning, it is not because they are responding to tactics that are putting pressure on their supply chains now, the point is that What we have done is that we have the Rwanda plan, which is part of our arsenal, and these figures are not where we would like them to be, but they would be considerably worse if the Labor Party started to undo things like the Rwanda plan, which The position of the Labor's take on this is that they would do less than what we are currently doing, less than what we plan to do and somehow magically they think that would reduce the number of boats and that is fundamentally dishonest to voters.

The point is, no, but let me finally ask you a question not only about illegal migration but also about legal migration. Net migration fell 10% this week and I'm sure they would say it was a success, but the problem is the number of people entering the country is practically the same as last year, 1.2 million or so. The reason migration numbers have decreased is because more people are leaving the country. It's part of the plan to make life in Britain so unbearable for Some people leave and that's how you achieve your goal, so part of the reason more people leave is because the students and the number of students They have our general migration figures, and they decreased during the Covid years, a number of international immigrants.

Students have come to the UK, are now completing their courses and leaving. We are understanding the areas where there have been more people coming on visas, such as health and social care visas, which creates dependency, so we are. deal with that, which is one of the reasons why, their plan is to basically get rid of health workers, social care workers, doctors, nurses, all the IT professionals that we need. Our plan is to make sure that we get back to the kind of The levels that we had just before uh covid Co distorted a lot of things and the point is I just want to touch on this and very briefly, if you care about immigration, the Labor Party is trying to persuade the British people that, despite the fact that they have voted against border control measures more than 130 times.

Suddenly they have a plan and their flagship policy. The flagship policy. No, this is because it is about integrity. Its flagship policy is to announce the creation of something that already exists commanded by General Duncan with 700 caps. People from various agencies forgive me for pointing out the labor spokespeople, so we viewers don't already know, or they don't know what they are talking about or they are being dishonest and ignorance and stupidity are not a selling point and Dishonesty It is not a point of sale either.