Poll: 60% of 18-24s would like to take part in a mandatory year of national service

Right · 2A Focaldata poll commissioned by the US bipartisan group With Honor found that 60 per cent of 18-24-year-olds in Britain would like to take part in a mandatory year of national service, civilian or military, if they were eligible. 1 2 Right · 2Of those young people, 19 per cent said they would "very much" like to take part and 41 per cent "somewhat"; GB News reported that just 12 per cent ruled it out entirely. 1 2 Right · 2Some 53 per cent of 18-24s saw service as an opportunity and 34 per cent as an obligation, while among over-65s 26 per cent said opportunity and 40 per cent obligation. 1 2

Right · 1On jobs, 17 per cent of those polled believed a year of service would help the almost a million Neets (16-24-year-olds not in employment, education or training) into work, and GB News reported that 73 per cent of employers said they would be more likely to hire someone who had completed a year of mandatory service. 1 Right · 1GB News also reported that 68 per cent of respondents would back a paid, full-time year of service and 10 per cent opposed it, that 66 per cent said employers should contribute to the wage while 25 per cent said the Government should pay in full, and that majorities of every main party's voters backed the funded scheme, from Labour at 75 per cent to Reform at 67 per cent. 1 Right · 2With Honor co-founder and former US Marine Rye Barcott, author of the book Courage Can Save US, called the result "encouraging" and said young people "want a path forward to give back". 1 2

Right · 1Asked whether the roughly £15,000-per-person cost was realistic for a whole generation, Barcott said "That’s for the British to decide"; he pointed to the US AmeriCorps programme, saying it costs about $1billion a year for around 100,000 participants and that an estimated $27 of benefit returns for every dollar spent. 1 Right · 2Al Carns MP, a former Minister for the Armed Forces, said the poll "shows they are willing, and that employers will value it" and that routes to serve now need to be built; GB News also quoted Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat as saying mandatory service "should not necessarily be seen as the default option" and that giving young people the chance to serve belongs to no single party. 1 2 Right · 1GB News also quoted Victoria Head of City Year UK and Stephen Greene of UK Year of Service, who said young people support service when it is paid, recognised and leads somewhere. 1

Right · 1As background, GB News noted that the Conservative Party proposed a mandatory scheme for all 18-year-olds in the 2024 general election campaign, and that official estimates put the cost at about £15,000 per person, or roughly £11.5billion for about 766,000 18-year-olds. 1 Right · 1The Daily Express, which relayed the poll and Barcott's comments from GB News, invited readers to vote on whether national service should return. 2