The Conservatives would bring in National Service for 18-year-olds, they will announce on Sunday.

In the first new policy announcement of the election campaign, the prime minister has unveiled a plan that would see new adults given the choice of a full-time military placement for 12 months or a scheme to volunteer for one weekend a month for a year.

The placement would be selective - with tests used to decide who is eligible - and involve working with the armed forces or in cyber defence. 

Read more from our political correspondent Rob Powell:

At a breakfast with veterans on Saturday morning, Rishi Sunak made light of the wetter-than-hoped election announcement earlier this week.

Standing at a lectern outside Number 10 on Wednesday, the prime minister had to ignore the steady rain as he outlined his plan for the upcoming polling day.

This morning - a sunnier one - he met the group of eight veterans and sat in The Buck Inn, a Wetherspoon's pub on the High Street in his Richmond constituency, where the group were sipping tea and some tucked into breakfasts.

But it was the wet weather that was the subject of conversation...

The Conservatives would introduce National Service for 18-year-olds, it will be announced on Sunday.

Hailed by the party as a "bold new model", the plans would see new adults working in the armed forces or volunteering in their community.

The scheme would be mandatory.

"We have so much to be proud of in the United Kingdom, but we also need to be open and honest about the long-term challenges that our country and our society faces," the party said.

"And one of the problems in our society is that we have generations of young people who don’t have the opportunities they deserve."

Young people would be able to choose from:

- A selective, full-time 12-month placement in the armed forces or UK cyber defence

- Volunteering the equivalent of one weekend per month (25 days per year) in their community with organisations such as fire, police and the NHS as well as charities tackling loneliness and supporting older, isolated people

It has not been confirmed that the 12-month placement option would be paid.

This National Service will provide valuable work experience and ignite a passion for a future career in healthcare, public service, charity or the armed forces, the Conservatives say.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "This is a great country but generations of young people have not had the opportunities or experience they deserve and there are forces trying to divide our society in this increasingly uncertain world." 

What was Labour's reaction?

Responding to the plans, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “This is another desperate £2.5bn unfunded commitment from a Tory Party which already crashed the economy, sending mortgages rocketing, and now they’re spoiling for more. 

“This is not a plan – it’s a review which could cost billions and is only needed because the Tories hollowed out the armed forces to their smallest size since Napoleon. 

“Britain has had enough of the Conservatives, who are bankrupt of ideas, and have no plans to end 14 years of chaos. It’s time to turn the page and rebuild Britain with Labour.”

UNISON has commented on Sir Keir Starmer's package of workers' rights. 

Earlier, the Unite criticised Labour's plans for having "more holes in it than Swiss cheese".

General secretary Sharon Graham accused the party of watering down its policies after rebranding "Labour's new deal for working people" as "Labour's plan to make work pay".

But Christina McAnea, UNISON's general secretary, backed the plans.

She said: "Labour's new deal best illustrates that choice. It will make work fairer and boost the economy too."

She said its measures are "proving popular on the doorstep" and said that "bad employers" will no longer be able to cut corners and costs by exploiting staff.

"An end to dodgy zero-hours contracts, paid travel time for care workers and a new fair pay agreement to help boost recruitment in that crisis-stricken sector too. Plus a wave of bringing public service contracts back in-house to end the profiteering in frontline services. Labour is the only party with a plan to help working families." 

The Liberal Democrats are "way more in tune" with young voters than "any other party", their leader has argued.

Sir Ed Davey spoke in Chichester in reaction to Labour's pledge to lower the voting age to 16.

He pointed to his party's position on housing, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and their pro-European stance as policies that may appeal to younger people.

Sir Ed welcomed Labour's promise to reduce the voting age to 16 but said "bolder" reform is needed to fix the country's "broken" political system.

When asked how the Lib Dems could regain the trust of young voters following the U-turn on their pledge to scrap university fees during the 2010 coalition government, Sir Ed said his party had "fought the Conservatives every single day" during the power-sharing agreement but "weren't able to get everything we wanted".

Under the coalition, university tuition fees were trebled to a maximum of £9,000-a-year from 2012. 

Now that Rishi Sunak has called the next general election for Thursday 4 July, the nation is preparing for its first polling day since December 2019.

Here's everything you need to know about the general election and how it's going to work...  

Scottish First Minister John Swinney has defended his decision to challenge the sanction ordered against his colleague Michael Matheson.

Mr Matheson drew criticism over a near-£11,000 data roaming bill on his parliamentary iPad.

The Scottish parliament's standards committee backed a 27-day suspension for the MSP.

But SNP leader Mr Swinney said he did not support the cross-party committee’s sanction as one of its members, Conservative Annie Wells, had previously made critical comments about Mr Matheson’s explanation for the bill, which Mr Swinney believes therefore prejudiced the decision.

Speaking to journalists, he said: "I’m not going to have prejudice taken forward in any part of Scottish life, it shouldn’t happen in the Scottish Parliament."  

Flight logs appear to show Rishi Sunak used a Tory donor’s helicopter to travel from his Yorkshire home to campaign in London this afternoon.

Online route data shows a helicopter believed to be owned by millionaire businessman Richard Harpin landing in grounds next to Rishi Sunak’s mansion this morning after previously taking off from an airfield 15 minutes’ drive away in Bagby.

It then flew via Nottingham to Central London.

Rishi Sunak has since been photographed campaigning in Wimbledon and Carshalton in South London – two Tory-held Lib Dem marginals.

It comes after Labour accused the Prime Minister of taking a day off in the first week of the election race.

Conservatives denied that saying Mr Sunak was leading "from the front".

On Thursday and Friday he campaigned in all four nations of the UK, using a plane to visit Wales, the North of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister then met veterans in his Richmond constituency this morning, but the media had not been made aware of any other visits.

A Conservative source did not deny that Rishi Sunak used a helicopter to travel from Yorkshire but said the London visits were "pre-planned".

"As with literally all campaigns, politicians do canvassing, door knocking, meeting activists and volunteers without media as well as with", the source added. 

 Rishi Sunak has hit out at Labour and said a Keir Starmer-led government would be marked by "uncertainty" and mean a "more dangerous world".

In a lengthy thread on X, the prime minister claimed that Labour "doesn't have a plan".

Expanding on what he said would be the uncertainty of a Labour government, he said: "Who knows what they would do in government? They won't tell us how they would fund any of their policies. They refused to meet our defence spending pledge." 

He argued that an "uncertain future" has consequences.

"Our enemies notice. The world becomes more dangerous as they take advantage of our weakness. This leads to higher prices of food and fuel, as well as a greater risk of attacks against our nation." 

Mr Sunak is referred to his pledge to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, at a time when Russia appears to be on the front foot in Ukraine.

Meanwhile Sir Keir, who has sought to re-establish Labour's security credentials in recent years, has said he wanted to commit to the 2.5% "when resources allow".

Earlier we brought you discussion of Richard Tice's somewhat tenuous links to Skegness in Lincolnshire.

The Reform Party leader is standing to be an MP in the seaside destination, but how well he actually knows the town is an open question.

Here's what he told Sky News: