Rishi squirms after teen asks him why he ‘hates young people’
The PM tried to assure the teenager he would 'love' the National Service.
Rishi Sunak appeared to squirm and try to ‘escape’ after a teenager asked him an awkward question.
The viral TikTok video shows Henry Hassell, 16, approach the Prime Minister inside a busy pub in west Devon.
The student, from Drewsteignton, was told by Sunak he ‘loves’ the idea of a mandatory military service.
Hassell then asks Sunak point blank ‘why do you hate young people so much?’
The Prime Minister replies ‘no, you’ll have a choice, you’ll have a choice’ before reassuring the teen he would ‘love it.’
He then goes on to ask ‘why do I have to do it all again when I’m finally coming out of education?’ to which Sunak responds: ‘I wouldn’t view it like that. A culture of service is a good thing for our country, and you’ll have a choice.’
Now the teen has said Sunak ‘started scuttling out the pub,’ claiming he tried to ‘escape the question’ after being asked about the National Service plan.
The young singer-songwriter said it has been ‘crazy’ to see his TikTok video ‘blowing up,’ with almost 100,000 views on the social media platform.
The teen said Sunak’s response made him think how he has already done volunteering, including busking for cancer research on the streets and in schools with his mum, who works in education.
‘I thought: if I’ve done this volunteering already, why does it have to be mandatory and when I’m finally coming out of education, why do I have to do it all again,’ he continued.
After the Prime Minister left the pub, he greeted elderly women coming to see him excitedly, but when he tried to shake his hand Sunak ‘completely ignored me and went to another lady,’ Hassell claimed.
‘That really put into perspective how he treats the different age demographics,’ he said.
The musician said that while he is not able to vote in the upcoming election, nor is he a member of any political party, his family supports Labour and he would vote for Labour when he is able to in future elections.
It comes after Sunak announced plans to bring back the National Service which was abolished more than sixty years ago.
The new version would be a lighter one than its predecessor, with young people either serving a full-time placement in the armed forces for a year or spend one weekend a month for a year volunteering.
Both Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer kicked off the second weekend of election campaigning by revealing their parties’ ‘battle’ buses.
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