UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to bring back mandatory National Service for 18-year-old if his conservative party wins the upcoming General Election.
On Wednesday, the 44-year-old PM stood outside Downing Street in the pouring rain and announced that the next General Election will take place on July 4.
Sunak decaled to the nation that it was "the moment for Britain to choose its future", and assured voters that the Tories should be trusted to lead the country during this concerning time of global instability.
The decision - which has seen powerful Tories such as Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom stand down - could result in the Conservative Party losing power for the first time in 14 years.
Now - as if politics wasn't divisive enough - Rishi Sunak has announced that he will bring back national service for 18-year-olds in an effort to reignite a "sense of pride in our country”.
Under the scheme - which will be mandatory for anybody who is eligible - teenagers would be given a choice between a full-time placement in the armed forces for 12 months or spending one weekend each month for a whole year working as a volunteer in their community, per The Independent.
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The Labour party has also responded to Sunak's announcement, describing it as "another desperate unfunded commitment" that would cost the UK an estimated £2.5 billion each year.
What was National Service?
Following the Second World War, the UK still had a high need of military manpower in parts of the world where Britain had strong ongoing commitments amid peacetime - such as in India, Germany, and Palestine.
As a result, in 1947 Clement Attlee's Labour government persuaded Parliament to pass the National Service Act, with the act officially coming into force in January 1949.
It required all physically fit and eligible males between the ages of 17 and 21 to serve in one of the UK's armed forces for a duration of 18 months.
The UK's National Service officially ended in 1960 - with the last national servicemen being discharged in 1963.
Will the UK Parliament be Dissolved?
On May 30 - with King Charles III's permission - Rishi Sunak will dissolve the UK Parliament.
This will mean that Members of Parliament (MPs) will cease to be so and they will be denied entry to the Palace of Westminster. During this time, they will return to their constituencies in an effort to run successful campaigns for the upcoming General Election.
Any proposed legislation will either have to be passed before May 30 - or it will be scrapped entirely as it may not be carried over into the new House of Commons once it reassembles following the July 4 General Election.
The last UK General Election was back in 2019 when former PM Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons.
Since then, both former PM Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have taken the role of UK Prime Minister without a public vote.
