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UK To Lower Voting Age to 16, but Could Plans To Garner ‘Socialist Fodder’ End Up Backfiring?

July 18, 2025 UKR Editor GOVERNMENT 0

UK to lower voting age to 16, but could plans to garner ‘socialist fodder’ end up backfiring?

Labour’s plan to enfranchise 1.5 million teenagers draws fire from critics who say it’s a bid to rig the system

 

THOMAS BROOKE

Britain’s left-wing Labour government has announced plans to lower the voting age in time for the next U.K. general election, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in what it described as sweeping electoral reforms to “modernize democracy.”

Ministers say the move is designed to rebuild public trust, but critics have accused the government of trying to tilt the electoral playing field in its favor, with recent polling suggesting Labour would benefit from a third of the votes.

The voting age reform is part of a broader Elections Bill that will also ease voter ID rules by allowing bank cards as accepted identification and introduce tougher regulations on foreign donations, campaigner abuse, and digital voter registration.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said the plan would “break down barriers to participation” and deliver on Labour’s manifesto promise to extend the vote to young people who already “work, pay taxes, and serve in the military.” Minister for Democracy Rushanara Ali called it a “generational step forward.”

But Nigel Farage, leader of Reform U.K., responded: “I’m not in favor of it, but I’m really encouraged by the number of young people that are coming towards us. It’s an attempt to rig the political system, but we intend to give them a nasty surprise.”

Polling by Merlin Strategy suggests the issue is divisive even among teenagers. Of 500 16- and 17-year-olds surveyed, 49 percent said they did not believe they should be allowed to vote, while 51 percent supported the move. When asked how they would vote, 33 percent backed Labour, but Reform U.K. came in second with 20 percent. Only 10 percent of respondents said they would vote Conservative.

Shadow Communities Secretary Kevin Hollinrake told the Daily Mail the move risks undermining democracy: “Even 16- and 17-year-olds don’t think they’re ready to vote. With only 18 percent saying they’d definitely take part in an election, it’s clear this is more about politics than principle.”

Former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, was blunter: “In a desperate attempt to find anybody to vote Labour, Angela Rayner has announced 16-year-olds can vote. At 16, they know nothing of life and finance and therefore make great socialist fodder.”

In a European context, the U.K. now joins Austria and Malta in allowing 16-year-olds to vote in all elections. Germany, Wales, and Scotland permit voting at 16 for local or regional elections, but most European countries still set the national voting age at 18.

The move could backfire for the Labour government. Just 43 percent of young people are supportive of the two legacy parties in Britain, Labour and the Conservatives, with the data suggesting they are sympathetic to left and right-wing causes.

With talk of a potential splinter party from Labour in the pipeline being set up by far-left MPs Zara Sultana and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the indisputable success Reform U.K. had at the last general election through its use of social media targeting young people, Keir Starmer’s party could find itself being squeezed from both sides.

This article (UK to lower voting age to 16, but could plans to garner ‘socialist fodder’ end up backfiring?) was created and published by Remix News and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Thomas Brooke

See Related Article Below

This voting fix will backfire on Labour

Only desperate Left-wing strategists and A-level Politics teachers want this change

WILLIAM ATKINSON

If in doubt, gerrymander. That is the logic underlying Labour’s announcement today that the voting age will be lowered to sixteen at the next election. Having reached, within a year, depths of unpopularity and incompetence that it took the Conservatives fourteen years to plumb, Keir Starmer has now accepted that his only hope of getting re-elected relies on trying to rig the electorate in his favour. This is why he has smashed the glass marked “Votes at 16”.

There is something uniquely moronic about calls to lower the voting age. It is a policy that only interests desperate Labour strategists and A-level Politics teachers. The arguments for and against it are well-rehearsed, as each of us who chose that benighted subject have written half a dozen essays on it.

Proponents will argue that it is expanding democracy; opponents will point out the long list of responsibilities politicians deem 16-year-olds too irresponsible to be trusted with – from driving a car to getting a tattoo.

Many sixteen-year-olds don’t want the vote, with a Merlin Strategy poll suggesting only around half of 16 and 17-year-olds back their enfranchisement; in the elections for the so-called Scottish and Welsh “Parliaments”, the turnout of the young consistently trails that of older voters. Not to mention that for the young – just as for this Government – there are much more pressing issues.

But might this decision backfire for Starmer? There’s a strong chance it could. That same poll mentioned earlier also found that while a third of teenagers would vote Labour, 20 per cent would choose Reform. The next election is four years away. This Government will only become even more unpopular; Nigel Farage’s TikTok mastery will only grow. The last time a Labour Government lowered the voting age, in 1969, it found itself swept away at the next general election. On current polling, it would be no surprise if history repeated itself.

The Telegraph: continue reading

Featured image: Unsplash

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