Rishi Sunak has indicated that young people might face restrictions on access to finance or driving licences if they refuse to do national service, as he faced a TV quizzing from voters. Asked during a BBC Question Time special what sanctions people could face for declining to take part in the Conservative policy of compulsory national service for all 18-year-olds, the prime minister pointed to “driving licences, or the access to finance, all sorts of other things”. Questioned on whether this could mean denying young people bank cards, he replied: “There’s lot of different models around Europe.” In his half-hour slot on the show, following Keir Starmer, Ed Davey and John Swinney, the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National party leaders, Sunak was also repeatedly challenged on why the public should trust the Tories after 14 sometimes chaotic years in office. He received shouts of “shame” after refusing to say he would keep Britain in the European convention on human rights. He was also challenged on revelations about alleged betting on the general election date, saying he was “incredibly angry” about the issue. . The prime minister was asked why Brexit was “absent” from the current Conservative manifesto, a question which prompted applause from the audience in York. Pressed on NHS waiting lists, he conceded that the government “haven’t made as much progress as I would like” but insisted things were improving. Asked if this had convinced him, the questioner replied: “No.” Another audience member, a doctor, then attacked Sunak over his NHS plans, saying: “People are suffering.” The sceptical tone was set by the first question to Sunak, which noted the quick succession of five Tory prime ministers, including Liz Truss’s six weeks in office: “I am asking if you would confess to us tonight even just a small amount of embarrassment to be leading the Conservative party?” Sunak insisted people should judge him on his own record, but was then asked why young people should trust him given the “shenanigans with the Tory party”. Fiona Bruce, hosting the show, said: “There’s a bit of a theme emerging.”
In his half-hour slot before Sunak’s, Starmer was also asked a series of tricky questions, with one audience member calling out “all of the backtracking on policies from Labour”. Starmer gave a bullish response, saying tough decisions were needed, characterising one as being between reducing NHS waiting lists and removing student tuition fees. “They are political choices,” he said, calling himself “a commonsense politician” and adding: “I’m telling you what they are before the election, so people can make their mind up.” The Labour leader faced a grilling over whether he was being sincere when he praised Jeremy Corbyn during the 2019 election as someone who would make a “great” prime minister. After deflecting the question by saying he did not expect Labour to win in 2019, as he has done before, Starmer said: “I was campaigning for the Labour party, I was a Labour politician.” Pressed by Bruce for a yes or no answer about whether he meant it, Starmer indicated he believed Corbyn would have been better than his Conservative opponent, saying: “Look what we got – Boris Johnson.” Asked about transgender rights and differences within the Labour party over the issue, Starmer stressed that he wanted to bring the public together on divisive issues. He contrasted this with Sunak’s decision to make a “trans joke” in parliament, winning applause. Davey, the first leader to be grilled, faced audience opprobrium over his party’s role in the 2010-15 coalition government, with one audience member winning applause by accusing the Lib Dem leader of having “enabled Cameron’s and Osborne’s austerity”. Another questioner prompted applause by asking how young people could trust the Lib Dems when they had broken a pledge over introducing tuition fees. Davey conceded that he was “not proud” of some of the policies enacted, saying that one lesson he had learned from the coalition period was that in 2010 his party “promised what we couldn’t deliver”. Similarly, Swinney was asked about the succession of recent scandals for his party, with one questioner saying it had “destroyed itself from the top down”. The SNP leader said he realised his party had to “rebuild the trust of people in Scotland”. He was also pressed on whether the SNP would continue to push for independence if it did not achieve a majority of Scottish Westminster seats, a question he somewhat dodged.