Tory national service policy would leave UK’s poorest

Thinktank says proposal to pay for scheme by scrapping shared prosperity fund would downgrade efforts to level up country

UK politics live – latest updates

Rishi Sunak’s election pledge to introduce mandatory national service would leave the UK’s poorest regions millions of pounds worse off, a thinktank has warned.

The prime minister announced last weekend that if he was re-elected, every 18-year-old would have to spend time in a competitive, full-time military commission or spend one weekend a month volunteering in “civil resilience”.