Over the coming weeks, candidates from Huntingdon, North West Cambridgeshire and St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire will give views on key issues facing the electorate.
Here, the candidates for North West Cambridgeshire share their views on plans for the re-introduction of National Service.
As part of the scheme, 18-year-olds would be mandated to choose between one year of military training or 25 days of 'volunteer work' over the course of a year.
Shailesh Vara (Conservative)
"I welcome the Prime Minister's proposals for a National Service scheme for all 18-year-olds which will provide young people across the country with the means to acquire valuable life skills through work or volunteering in their local community.
"This new scheme will provide life-changing opportunities for our young people, allowing them to learn new and practical skills and enabling them to contribute to wider society.
"By implementing this program, all 18-year-olds will have a choice of serving a year in the armed forces or volunteering one weekend a month to do valuable work in community roles in their areas."
He added: "Many young people leave school without knowing what to do in the future.
"By working a year in the armed forces or doing regular volunteering for the same period, they will develop new skills which will help them to build a more solid foundation for their futures and also help them to decide what career paths to pursue."
Sam Carling (Labour)
“The Conservatives' announcement that they would introduce mandatory national service comes after 14 years of failure in defence, which has seen our Army cut to its smallest size since the Napoleonic era.
“Nobody expects them to actually be able to deliver it – least of all the ex-military chiefs that have branded the plan “bonkers” in the media and been clear that it would deplete the defence budget.
“We’re already much less safe under the Conservatives, who have cut defence spending, missed recruitment targets every year, removed one in five ships from the Royal Navy, and taken 200 aircraft out of service in the last five years alone."
He added: “As for the idea of mandatory volunteering, I just find it insulting to the many young people that are spending all their weekends working all the hours they can to support themselves and their families in this cost of living crisis.
“Instead, Labour would offer young people real opportunities to build strong careers.”
Bridget Smith (Liberal Democrat)
"My first reaction to the Tory announcement of the reintroduction of National Service 65 years after it was abolished was ‘they must be joking!’
"The Tories are obviously right out of ideas if they are dredging this old barrel and it’s yet another reason to get rid of them now.
"They have failed to explain what problems national service is to solve. All three of my sons volunteered for the cadet force at school but they and I would have been horrified at the idea of mandatory service.
"If the problem to be solved is the strength of our defence forces the Tories need to reverse their cuts to 10,000 military personnel."
She added: "If they are concerned about the future of our young people they need to invest in education, strengthen the teaching profession and completely overhaul their apprenticeship levy scheme which has seen a massive reduction in apprenticeships.
"The Lib Dem manifesto cancels the Conservative cuts to the army, maintains the UK’s support for NATO and meets all of our NATO commitments on defence spending."
Elliot Tong (Green Party)
"I was not particularly surprised by the Conservative Party’s recent announcement of their support for National Service.
"The Conservatives have given up on trying to win over a new generation of voters. All that's left for them to do is to double down on appealing to the rapidly dwindling number of people that still have any respect for them.
"Conscription is an outdated idea put forward by an outdated government, standing in direct opposition to the values of "freedom" and "liberty" that they claim to represent.
He added: "Over the last decade, young people have had to sit back and watch as their rights have been chipped away under a decade of austerity; to take their ability to decide their own occupation is yet another example of this.
"If the Conservatives wish to cultivate a sense of pride in our country, they first need to create something that we can be proud of.
"The Green Party would focus its efforts on empowering young people by reinvesting in the essential community facilities that have suffered over the last ten years."
The Hunts Post contacted the Reform UK candidate for North West Cambridgeshire Karan Maheshwari as part of this piece, but received no response.
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