James Cleverly said that teenagers would not be sent to jail for refusing to comply with the Tories’ proposed “mandatory” national service.

The Home Secretary said there would be no criminal sanctions for young people if they defied the plans under a Conservative government.

In the first major policy announcement ahead of the General Election, Rishi Sunak pledged to get 18-year-olds to either join the military for 12 months or do “volunteer” work one weekend a month for a year.

The Prime Minister said the policy would help unite society in an “increasingly uncertain world” and give young people a “shared sense of purpose”.

In an apparent pitch to older voters and those who may turn to Reform UK, the Conservatives said volunteering could include helping local fire, police and NHS services, and charities tackling loneliness and supporting elderly people.

Touring broadcast studios on Sunday, Mr Cleverly said the Tories would ensure the scheme “fits with different people’s attitudes and aspirations” after questions arose over whether teenagers would be punished for not taking part.

“There’s going to be no criminal sanction. There’s no one going to jail over this,” he told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme.

“This is about dealing with what we know to be the case, which is social fragmentation.

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“Too many young people live in a bubble within their own communities. They don’t mix with people of different religions, they don’t mix with different viewpoints.”

Opposition critics have dismissed the plans as unserious, with Labour saying the pledge would never come to fruition and amounted to “another unfunded commitment”.

The Prime Minister is seeking to draw a dividing line with Sir Keir Starmer’s party on global security following his pledge to raise defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2030.

Heightening his attack on Saturday, Mr Sunak said voters would be left “at risk” with the Labour leader in Number 10 because Britain’s enemies would notice that he “doesn’t have a plan”.

Teenagers who choose to sign up for placement in the forces would “learn and take part in logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations”, the Tories said.

The Conservatives said they would establish a royal commission bringing in expertise from across the military and civil society to establish the details of what they described as the “bold” national service programme.