General election: Sir Keir Starmer says Conservatives’ National Service plan will not work | Politics News

Sir Keir Starmer accused the Conservatives of wanting a “teenage Dad’s Army” with their plan to introduce National Service.

The Labour leader, giving his first major speech of the election campaign, called the Tory plan for 18-year-olds to serve in the military for a year or do mandatory volunteering “desperate”.

“I think they are rummaging around in the toy box to try and find any plan that they can throw on the table. I don’t think it’ll work,” he said.

Sir Keir said the Conservatives are planning to take money from the levelling up fund which shows “they’ve completely abandoned the project they put before the electorate in 2019”.

The Labour leader said he recognises many people have not yet decided how they will vote on 4 July despite being “fed up with the failure, chaos and division of the Tories”.

He admitted many “still have questions about us” and will be asking whether Labour has “changed enough” and if they can be trusted with the economy, immigration and security.

“My answer is yes you can – because I have changed this party. Permanently,” he said.

“This has been my driving mission since day one. I was determined to change Labour so that it could serve the British people.”

Sir Keir accused Rishi Sunak of governing to appease sections of the Tory party, not for the whole country.

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He put security at the heart of his speech as the prime minister seeks to get one up on Labour after announcing a new national service programme for 18-year-olds.

Sir Keir said Labour has changed under him and is ready to meet the “core tests” the British people set for government – economic security, border security and national security.

“Make no mistake, if the British people give us the opportunity to serve, then this is their core test. It is always their core test,” he said.

“I haven’t worked for four years on this, just to stop now. This is the foundation, the bedrock that our manifesto and our first steps will be built upon.”

Ahead of his speech, in Lancing, West Sussex, Sir Keir released a video featuring his childhood home and pictures of his parents, revealing his family were hard up at times and had their telephone cut off.

Appealing to people struggling through the cost of living crisis, he says he knows what they are going through and knows what it is like to struggle to make ends meet.

“I grew up working class, I’ve been fighting all my life and I won’t stop now,” he says in the video.

During his speech today, he emphasised how he has fought to change the Labour Party since becoming leader.

He said: “There are always people who say, don’t do that, don’t go so fast.

“But whenever I face a fork in the road, it always comes back to this: the golden thread: country first, party second.”

He also said the policies his party are putting forward are “a new path for our country, a plan that will turn the page, deliver stability and change”.

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Echoing his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, he also said all Labour’s policies are “deliverable, fully-funded and ready to go”.

“A clear direction, not the endless spinning around that successive Conservative governments have subjected our country to,” he said.

Reacting to the speech, Richard Holden, the Conservative Party chairman, said Sir Keir told the country “absolutely nothing”.

“In this wearisome and rambling speech there was no policy, no substance, and no plan,” he said.

“The question remains: will Starmer ever find the courage and conviction to tell us what he would do, or does he simply not know?

“The choice is clear: stick with the plan that is working and take bold action for a safer, more secure future with Rishi Sunak. Or, go back to square one with Sir Keir Starmer and the same old Labour Party.”