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    Keir Starmer: Labour will give 16- and 17-year-olds right to vote
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    Keir Starmer: Labour will give 16- and 17-year-olds right to vote

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    31 Comments

    1. EvilTaffyapple on

      Interesting to see how this will play out.

      Historically, younger generations appear to have leant left, but with all of this new Tate-related bollocks and the US going even further Right, it’s hard not to think this will backfire for Labour.

    3. Manhunter_From_Mars on

      Sorry, he’s committing to this????

      Jesus let’s see how this one plays out. It’s bold, VERY BOLD

    4. AltruisticMaybe1934 on

      So why not send them to adult prison? Oh, is it because we don’t consider them adults? 

      This is flagrant manipulation of the democratic vote to try to ensure Labour gets more of a share. Nothing to do with policy or a better democracy. 

    5. pelicanradishmuncher on

      I think labour may be in for a surprise at how right leaning under 18 year olds are…

    6. South_Dependent_1128 on

      Hmm, not a bad idea. Government has a large impact on education so it makes sense for them to have a say in which party has their interests at heart.

      + people 18 and over don’t necessarily know much about politics, it doesn’t make much of a difference to drop the requirements to 16 or over.

    8. therealhairykrishna on

      They can work, pay tax, join the armed forces. I think they should be allowed to vote. I don’t really see an argument against other than ‘teenagers make stupid decisions’. That seems to apply equally well to pensioners though.

    10. AwkwardWaltz3996 on

      They should ask some teachers their opinions on if they think their students are ready to vote

    11. Illustrious_Issue136 on

      Great, as the current electorate is already so well-informed, let’s bring in people who haven’t finished 6th form yet…

      We should be putting resources into informing the electorate better; I don’t see how giving the vote to children is going to help that.

    12. aultumn on

      I think there needs to be a greater requirement to vote beyond how old someone is, this is a ridiculous idea in my opinion.

    13. MaxCherry64 on

      How much did you understand, truly, on a deep ish level at 16 about politics. No really… I was an idiot at 16, and so was everyone else I knew.

    14. JHock93 on

      We’ve had this here in Wales for a while. I support it in principle but the idea that it’s some bold play by labour to win the next election is massively overestimating it’s impact. Tbh it doesn’t change much. Statistically, not many people are aged 16-17 as it’s only a 2 year difference so it’s not exactly expanding the electorate hugely. Plus its expanding the electorate of under 30s who are famously bad at turning out to vote. It’s hardly enough to noticeably swing elections.

    15. Zealousideal-Wafer88 on

      I’m not necessarily against it, I just don’t want to see reddit crying if they don’t vote the “correct way”

    16. spacespaces on

      We don’t need more eligible voters. We need our votes to matter. We need electoral reform, and have done for years, but any government will put their party interest before the national interest.

    17. melody-calling on

      Honestly has anyone who is a believer in this scheme ever met a 16 year old? I’ve met smarter dogs, where are their votes? They live in the uk 

    18. Big_Tadpole_353 on

      Let’s be honest folks think back to when your were 16 and would you have voted for the right people to come into power?

    19. realmbeast on

      great now introduce politics/civics class to the core curriculum so they are informed enough to vote

    20. Guy1905 on

      Their brains aren’t developed enough to make serious decisions like this. They aren’t adults. I know how dumb I was at 16 and I shouldn’t have had the right to vote either.

      If KSI ran he would get 70% of their votes.

    21. redditsuxmydk on

      My son 19 study at Birmingham university ATM. He cares jack shit about voting not I’m care jack shit about voting. Voting only feel like they backstab me

    22. Astriania on

      This is a bad idea, and I can only imagine Labour want to do it because (like the SNP in Scotland) they think they’ll vote the “right” way.

      16 and 17 year olds are not adults, they are required to still be in full time education so by definition they have no knowledge of the job market, and they don’t have fully formed minds either physiologically or in terms of information. Almost all of them still live with their parents. They can’t buy a beer, but they’re supposed to be trusted with deciding the future of the country?

      I’m sure all of us remember (with a bit of a cringe) how dumb we and our peers were at school, and how terrible an idea it would have been if we were voting.

      If the age should change then it should go *up*, but really having it as part of the standard age of majority at 18 is pretty sensible and I wouldn’t want to change it.

    24. RedBlueTundra on

      It’s not exactly a good look if you’re clamouring for the votes of increasingly less informed and less mature people.

    25. Geckohobo on

      I find it interesting how this contrasts with the fact that over the last 20-30 years every legislative change I can think of has moved coming of age milestones from 16 to 18 (or even past 18).

      The mandatory education age, the age for smoking, and the age to be depicted in sexual media all shifted from 16 to 18, and we’ve been increasingly restricting young people’s access to the welfare state even well past 18. We’ve also introduced controls and stricter age limits on things like knives and solvents.

      This is the only thing I can think of since at least 2000 that would seek to treat people as adults at a younger age rather than older one.

      I don’t really have a dog in the fight of what we should allow at what age, but it’s fascinating to me that we’re talking about giving the vote to people we don’t allow to buy glue.

    26. dyallm on

      Okay, cool, how about a new electoral system so we don’t end up with absurdities like uhm, er, the 2024 general election? Again, despite winning far more votes than the Lib Dems, Reform got far fewer seats. This is an absurdity and if I was leading a nation the UK was criticising for lack of democracy, I would simply point ot the fact that the UK insists on FPTP all while it produces horribly undemocratic results like the 2024 GE did where reform UK got far fewer seats than the Lib Dems despite winning far more votes. If Nigel Farage wants to claim that British democracy is under threat, that his enemies are enemies of democracy, he has a point: a proper electoral system wouldn’t produce such an absurd result.

      And at this point, everyone who wants the UK to scrap FPTP regardless of the will of the people to strengthen democracy has a point. Something like the UK’s 2024 GE results is an absurdity that makes a mockery of any claim the UK has to being a democracy.

    27. OldLondon on

      We let pensioners who couldn’t remember what they had for breakfast decide Brexit but apparently giving the vote to 16/17 year olds is just too much for some people to stomach.  Get over yourselves.  The ones who are motivated and want to vote will benefit, I suspect a load will not be arsed in the slightest so what’s the problem, don’t get the angst against it

    29. Chillmm8 on

      Terrible idea. It’s grossly unpopular amongst the electorate, especially in the demographics Labour need to hold their majority.

    30. altviewdelete on

      With the influences of all media, on the youth of our population, this seems a terrible idea.

      If anything the age should be raised to 21.