The British government is set to drop the voting age from 18 to 16 in time for the next national election in 2029, allowing some 1.6 million young people a voice in the country’s leadership.
The proposed changes have sparked debate around how a new generation of young people could steer future election outcomes. While the plan still requires parliamentary approval, it’s expected to pass given the Labour Party’s significant majority.
People as young as 16 can already vote for representatives in parliaments in local councils in Scotland and Wales, but not yet in England or Northern Ireland.
Unlike Australia, the UK doesn’t have compulsory voting, and at the last national election, voter turnout was 60 per cent, the lowest it’s been since 2001, when it was 59.4 per cent.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the move will boost trust in democracy.
“They’re old enough to go out to work, they’re old enough to pay taxes… and I think if you pay in, you should have the opportunity to say what you want your money spent on, which way the government should go,” Starmer told Britain’s ITV News.
Along with lowering the voting age, the UK government announced a number of other proposed changes on Thursday, including allowing bank cards to be used as voter ID and tightening rules on political donations.
“For too long public trust in our democracy has been damaged and faith in our institutions has been allowed to decline,” says Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner in a statement.
“We cannot take our democracy for granted, and by protecting our elections from abuse and boosting participation we will strengthen the foundations of our society for the future.”
Last year, the Labour Party campaigned in part on lowering the voting age. It’s a controversial subject for some as recent generational trends show younger voters support more progressive parties over conservatives.
In the UK, a recent ITV News poll asked 16 and 17 year olds which party they would vote for, with 33 per cent saying Labour, 20 per cent saying Reform, 18 per cent would vote Green, 12 per cent for Liberal Democrats and only 10 per cent said they’d vote Conservative.
Despite Reform UK polling second behind Labour, the right-wing party has accused Labour of trying to increase votes for themselves by lowering the voting age.
Head of the Reform UK party Nigel Farage told ITV News the party doesn’t support lowering the voting age “even though we’d get lots of votes”, noting that 16-year-olds aren’t eligible to run as a political candidate.
“I don’t think you should be able to vote in an election unless you’re also eligible to be a candidate, and I don’t think 16 year olds should stand for Parliament,” Farage said.
ITV also polled young people on the issues most important to them, which turned out to be the economy (30 per cent), healthcare (28 per cent), crime/law and order (25 per cent), Israel/Palestine (25 per cent and immigration (23 per cent), with climate change, housing and education further down on the list.
As more research is conducted looking into the younger generation’s voting preferences, a growing gender gap in political leanings has also emerged into the spotlight.
There’s also been a growing gender divide, as data from the British Election Study indicates that women were more likely to vote for the Conservative party than men right up until the 2017 general election, when they became more likely to vote Labour than men.
Reasons for this, according to analysts, could be a product of underlying generational differences, with situational contexts, such as the gender divide in the Brexit vote, needed to be taken into account as well.
Voting age has changed throughout history, and those in favour of lowering the vote to 16-year-olds often cite the fact that younger people should have a greater say in their own future, and that there’s no single age point where young people realise all the social and economic responsibilities associated with adulthood.
Women over the age of 21 were granted the right to vote in the UK in 1928, before the age was lowered to 18 for both men and women in 1969. A UK bill in 2008 tried to reduce the voting age to 16 but failed to pass.
In Scotland, 16 and 17 year olds were given the right to vote in 2015, and a similar bill passed for Wales in 2019.
For most major economies like the US, Germany, China and India, the voting age is still 18, but now the UK could join a small but growing list of countries that have reduced it to 16 and/or 17 years old.