Theresa May has resisted calls to lower the voting age to 16, insisting young people could get involved in politics without casting a ballot.
If you are 16 or 17 you can get married, join the armed forces and if you are working you will have to pay tax.
And yet you have no say when it comes to picking the next Government. And the Prime Minister thinks this is fair …
May said the General Election was ‘about young people’s futures’ as the UK was at a ‘key point of change’ because of Brexit. Yet she is determined to deny the vote to 16 and 17 year olds, despite a YouGov poll showing 71% of under-24s voted to Remain last June.
Asked about the voting age she told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: ‘This is one of those questions where you have to draw a line, you have to pick a point at which you think it is right for the voting age to be. I continue to think it is right for it to be 18.
Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Tom Brake accused May of ‘robbing young people of future opportunities through her damaging hard Brexit agenda, it’s no surprise she is now refusing to give 16 and 17-year-olds the vote.
‘Young people have the largest stake in our future, they deserve a say over what happens next.
‘The evidence is clear that voting at 16 gets people into the habit of voting early and increases turnout in the long-term.’
His concern was echoed by SNP depute leader Angus Robertson, who pledged to try to change the law in favour of voting at 16 after the election.
Robertson said: ‘The Scottish Government has already introduced votes at 16 for Scottish Parliament and council elections, as well as Scottish referendums – and it has been such a success that even (Scottish Tory leader) Ruth Davidson now admits that the Tories were wrong to oppose this SNP policy.
Most popular
Owen Jones’s non-apology for liking anti-Semitic bile
Peering into a mystery
Gisèle Pelicot, person of the year 2024
Nigel Farage has just made his first huge mistake
