Labour would allow 16-year-olds to vote in future general elections 
Labour would allow 16-year-olds to vote in future general elections
Party intends to lower voting age within first year if it wins power on July 4
Labour is looking to introduce votes for 16 and 17-year-olds in its first year in government if it wins the election.
The party is closely studying how Scotland and Wales lowered the voting age and believes there is no reason why lowering the national voting age for general elections would need to take longer.
Sir Keir Starmer pledged to extend the franchise to younger voters in September with no indication of how quickly the policy would be implemented should it win the election. Party sources now say that while there is yet no commitment that the policy will be in the King's Speech, it is nonetheless expected to be enacted quickly. “I would be extremely surprised if it wasn't in the King's Speech,” one said, describing the legislation needed as “extremely straightforward”.
About 1.5 million people under the age of 18 would be given the vote in general elections under plans agreed by Labour in the final draft of its national policy forum. It would be the largest change to the electorate since 1969, when the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18.
The party is looking to the example of Scotland and Wales and believes a similar time frame for enactment is possible. Scotland has already lowered the voting age for local and Scottish parliament elections to 16 and Wales has done so for local and Welsh parliament elections.
The process of lowering the age in both was swift. In Scotland, it took less than six months from Scotland being handed the power to reduce the age to the passage of legislation. Researchers at Sheffield and Edinburgh have found that the move resulted in young voters being more likely to turn out as they grew older.
In Wales, where the Labour-run government has been consulted by the party in Westminster on how a nationwide extension could work, the two pieces of legislation both passed no more than a year after being introduced.
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The policy is likely to benefit Labour in future elections. In a recent YouGov poll for The Times, Labour commanded a 25-point lead over the Tories, with the party on 46 per cent of the vote and the Conservatives on 21 per cent. Among 18 to 24-year-olds that gap widened, with 54 per cent planning to vote Labour at the next election compared to just 9 per cent for the Tories.
One senior Labour source said: “It [the policy] has the double benefit of not costing very much to do but of helping secure a second Labour term.”
It is not clear how strong an electoral advantage the policy would be for Labour. YouGov's latest MRP poll, conducted in March 2024, gave Labour a 154-seat majority with the party winning 403 seats to the Tories' 155.
Yet an analysis by The Times of population data suggested that if 16 and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote — and they voted in a similar way as 18 to 24-year-olds — it could result in an additional eight seats flipping from the Conservatives to Labour in England alone. This could increase Labour's potential majority to at least 170.
The seats where 16 and 17-year-olds could make a difference are predominantly in southern England, and include Aldershot, Aylesbury, Bridgwater, Frome and East Somerset, Hornchurch and Upminster, Mid Derbyshire, North East Hertfordshire, and Sittingbourne & Sheppey.
Patrick English, director of political analytics at YouGov, said: “We would generally expect that lowering the voting age would be electorally advantageous to Labour, as younger people are significantly more likely to back them over the Conservatives, or indeed any other party.”
The typical 18-year-old was almost ten times more likely to back Labour than the Conservatives, he said, and this would be expected to be similar for 16 and 17-year-olds.
“However, we also know that young people are among the most unlikely voter groups to actually turn out. So, any advantage Labour have in terms of raw support among this potential new block of young voters will be significantly reduced at the ballot box by their low participation rates,” English added.
Florence Eshalomi, the shadow minister for local government, said: “Fourteen years of chaos under the Conservatives has left many feeling ignored and left out by the political system. Labour is committed to restoring a sense of trust and national pride and that includes by strengthening our democracy.
“Our elections are built on the basic principle that those who contribute to our country should have a say in how it is governed. Yet 16 and 17-year-olds are still blocked from voting in English elections.
“It's time to turn the page on the eroding of our democracy and give the next generation a chance to help shape their future.”
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This used to be a big left wing position in Sweden until the 10 ish years, when youngsters started overwhelmingly leaning Sweden democrat. The Chud party
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See, Democrats are right wing in Sweden
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The absolute state
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For real, modern chud parties and orgs have straggy names like “Sweden's Democrats” or “Alternative for Germany”, even the “National Front” is now the “National Rally”.
Gone are the days of “The Iron Ring”, “The Black Hundreds” or “British Union of Fascists”.
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Chuddy societies in
land have cool names. Claíomh Solais (The Sword of Light), Síol na hÉireann(Seed of Ireland), Muintir na hÉireann(The Irish People).
https://drb.ie/articles/democracys-underground-streams/
!nooticers
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Sneed of Ireland doesn't sound so cool to me
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ARENA é a melhor sigla de partido já criada
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It'd make sense for Labour since most young people are gonna want to vote left wing.
I actually don't know about this one. 16 year olds are r-slurred but it's not like you hear anything particularly intelligent when talking about politics with the average 50 year old either.
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I feel like 16 is right around the time kids start to become politically aware. but they also tend to have a very simplistic view of politics. They are too susceptible to it being "good vs evil" based on political lines and not considering the candidate's actual platform. We already have too many of these types. They need to experience the party they think they support not living up to their expectations before being able to influence who runs their country.
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Everyone I talk to regardless of age behaves like that. They know there's good guys and the bad guys but will struggle to mention a single political policy from either of them. You might get some vague 'lower taxes' or something or the latest hot culture war issue but that's the best you'll do.
idk democracy is kind of r-slurred
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16 is when kids first start getting a feeling for politics and ping pong rapidly between being a socialist/anarchist/libertarian for 2-3 years before finally settling on what they'll become.
The voting age being lowered will just help lolbertarian and green parties as kiddos don't really vote for the mainstream parties. They're sensitive to the rule of cool.
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Since people generally believe the false assessment that your brain finishes developing at 25, we should raise the voting age to 25 when we can trust people to be ready with such responsibility.
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Yeah, and they can experience that without voting. It's dumb to let r-slurs vote, but obviously socialism and its nonsense can be appealing to young folks of all kinds (wanting to help others in need
and demagogues who know how to solve all problems 
)
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If it's anything like it is in Germany, this could seriously backfire as they don't realize every second teenager is a gigachud now, including the women.
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I think 16 year olds are more likely to vote as their family told them to than anything else but I also think most of them won't bother so
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It doesn't matter every election is rigged anyway since half the population is r-slurred and absorbs propaganda
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I support this, not because I have any delusions that the average 16 year old knows anything but rather because it'll lower the age of the median voter and result in our democracy being less beholden to geriatric interests.
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I am against this because teenagers are easily influenced by political extremists and the only redeeming quality of democracy is its relative stability. Last thing we need is people that haven't grown out of their kneejerk authoritarian tendencies to vote.
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Skibidi vote for skibidi potty!
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I don't mind it because youngsters tend not to vote at all. Only benefitting some wingcucks at most. Which is funny
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Imagine voting at age 16 like go do drugs r-slur.
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16 year old me was too busy smashing letterboxes and drinking boxed wine in the park to care about politics
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Lol are they trying this all around the world right now? In germany too. If anything they should raise the voting age.
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Really they should lower the age where you could graduate from school. Vast majority of normies I knew would have been better just going straight to work and becoming a supervisor in a firm or tradie rather than lose out on 4 years of potential income for a degree they won't even use.
!chuds
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I have literally used !mathematics !physics !chemistry and !biology for my career because !ifrickinglovescience and I often make fun of !engineering because they don't even drive trains.
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You mean !math
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You mean !math
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YOU mean !math
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What's your background precisely?
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Precisely?
I'm an enthusiastic STEMcel and like do science n sheeit, and for some reason people give me money.
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The bread crumbs are piling up. After some tracking I found your IP: 104.121.224.233
Out of luck, son (snap)
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You can leave school after 10th grade in germany, which is fine imo.
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You used to be allowed to leave at 15 in
land but now it's mandatory to complete final year exams at 18 
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Nah you're assuming that it's bad life choices that make people stupid, and not the other way around. I know many people who went to university to get just whatever random degree was available and then couldn't find a job, but I'm certain that if they just went on to work straight after school they'd basically be stacking crates for minimum wage for the foreseeable future
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I'm yet to meet anyone over 16 who thinks giving 16 year olds right to vote is a good idea.
I say raise the requirements to 20 + at least 20'000£ in bank account
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I bet millennial high school teachers and admins would bust in their pants at the idea of loading up school buses full of kids to ship to the polls. After a full semester of spending half of every math class discussing the evils of capitalism, of course.
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Yes, they may not know what an interest rate is, but these kids are the future of our country!
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If anything it should be raised. If redditors are right and the brain is not fully developed until 25, that's what the voting age should be
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Your political party needs to do some serious self reflection if you're relying on underage teenagers as a core demographic.
It's like how I don't understand any man over 25 who votes for Labour, imagine having the same political opinions as a 16 year old girl.
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aren't zoomers chuds nowadays though?
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Both more far right and far left.
The normies just vote what their parents tell them.
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Depends on the country. In Bongland most people under 40 are hardcore laborites.
In the US zoomers are democratic leaning but millennials have chuded out in the past 4 years (almost every poll now shows 30-39 voters leaning towards Trump) showing people can switch (or maybe left leaning people vote earlier in the US with chuds activating later in life).
In Brazil zoomers are mostly lulistas while millennials are Bolsonaro's core voter base.
There's the gender gap too. In Sweden zoomer foids vote for The Left party while most zoomer moids (half of them) vote for the right-wing Swedish Democrats, something similar happened in South Korea.
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Most zoomers are lefties, but the ones that are rightoids seem more likely to be BAPists or Groypers than the kind of rightoid their grandparents were.
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If you allow 16 year olds to have a say on something you're admitting that that thing doesn't matter.
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Darn. They're talking about the big issues.
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They wouldn't defend this if things were like in the continent, where young voters lean right.
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Well, teens are r-slurred and thus vote leftoid. So no surprise leftoids want to lower the voting age.
Lowering the voting age below the age of maturity leads to a host of inconsistent and illogical situations though. You can vote, but cant drink, cant drive, cant work to the full extend. Yet you are expected to make decisions about those things. You get a vote, but youre not a fully mature and independent person yet, your parents literally have power over you. Its like servants or slaves.
If anything, voting ages should be increased.
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Yeah, this argument
didn't work in 1919 and it won't work now.
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True, but it should
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If this happens, we should wait like 8 years and then invade the UK.
I am not joking.
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Labour's support for this would evaporate if teens didn't tend to vote for them. Let's not pretend this has anything to do with representation.
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Nooo muh politics is HECKIN POLITICAL
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People should only be able to vote if they support my party
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"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -- and both commonly succeed, and are right."
Snapshots:
https://old.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/1czvbqw/labour_would_allow_16yearolds_to_vote_in_future/:
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https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1d05v27/labour_would_allow_16yearolds_to_vote_in_future/:
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Labour would allow 16-year-olds to vote in future general elections:
ghostarchive.org
archive.org
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Vivid memories of taking to a ~20yo leftist who wasn't aware that most women are left-wing and had never heard that the front line of a revolution tends to get eaten up by its own side once it's succeeded
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This is entirely fair. You can pay taxes at 16, you have right to have a say in how that money is spent
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