Today, Keir Starmer announced that if elected, he will lower the voting age to 16 for General Elections. To show how important this is to Labour, he has vowed to do it in his first year in office. He says: “If you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote”.
In July headlines proclaimed the House of Commons had a “new baby”. His name was Keir Mather and he was 25 years old. He received the inevitable abuse other young MPs have suffered, including from Johnny Mercer, who mocked him as an Inbetweener.
I suspect many of us would not have liked the sarcastic tone, but nevertheless we could appreciate the argument that you will get better MPs with the experience of age. It seems like common sense. However, whenever it just seems like common sense, it is time to think more deeply.
The young are not necessarily unwise
In the US, Biden won in 2020 and the Democrats won in 2022 thanks to the youth vote. If it was up to older people with life experience, Trump would still be in power and democracy would be in peril. If he wins in 2024 it will undoubtedly be due to older voters.
In Brazil, Lula’s remarkable turnaround from prison to President was due in no small part to the youth vote. In fact, in Brazil 16-year-olds can vote in general elections. It is compulsory for most adults but not 16–18-year-olds. However, the data shows that turnout among 16–18-year-olds was over 80%. This flies in the face of our usual prejudice that the young don’t vote. Perhaps it was because they had a reason to vote for someone who listened to them? The young stopped the Amazon burning.
And in the UK’s Brexit vote, analysis of the data clearly showed that age and education were the two biggest determiners for voting remain. If 16-year-olds had voted we would probably still be in Europe.
Young MPs vs old MPs
Why is the belief in the wisdom of age still so persuasive? It seems to be deeply ingrained not only in our culture, but also in various civilisations, religions and our collective psyche. Is it wish fulfilment? As our body gets older do we want to convince ourselves that something is improving, and so spread the myth that we make better decisions?
At its core, the notion that age produces better politicians and wiser decisions at the ballot box is fundamentally undemocratic. In a democracy every vote is equally important and everyone who can vote is represented. The mechanism of democracy does not give more weight to one category of voter over another. Our democratic discourse should reflect this essential parity.
Why we need more young MPs
UK policies from all our major parties seem to fall over backwards to favour the older generation, i.e. those that parties expect to turn out and vote for them. As an example, the hugely expensive triple lock is carefully maintained, but frequently our politicians tell us they cannot afford free nursery places, free higher education, and won’t introduce free school meals throughout England. All of these decisions go against overwhelming social and economic evidence of the long-term benefit of funding the young.
Keir Mather is one of the tiny minority of MPs in their 20s. I believe for democracy to work we should have proper representation of all ages. Each age group inevitably relates more closely to others in their age group. As an example, I am in my late 40s, and cannot have the same insight as Mather into what it means to be 18 despite my best intentions. We rightly say that the Commons will represent women and ethnic minorities better if there are more female and BAME MPs. The same should apply to age. We shouldn’t always talk about experience in terms of years and jobs but realise that young people have experience older people do not have.
Chris Mullins wrote an article recently about the problem of octogenarian leaders on the world stage. I agree with that point – not because I have anything against octogenarians but because there are just too many at the very top of world politics. Mullins then went on to criticise young MPs and so fell head-first into the normal trap. He suggests middle-aged MPs are the best ones. Could that be because he left the Commons in late middle age?
Why do fewer young people actually vote?
A frequent argument against lowering the voting age to 16 is that the young are not interested in politics and do not turn up. If we pause and reflect, this reasoning is extremely undemocratic. People over ninety years of age have a low turn-out. Should we consequently deny them the vote? In a true democracy, votes are not conditional.
Furthermore, some of the reasons the young have lower turn-out are simply practical. As a party door knocker, I often meet people who say ‘we’ve just moved and haven’t got round to registering yet’. Many young people are in flux and are moving from rented flat to flat. They live precarious and unpredictable lives. The current rules on ID are another discriminatory hurdle: the young simply have less ID. Our voting system is heavily biased towards a fixed address and fixed ID – both points significantly favour older voters.
There is another fundamental reason in many countries – if nobody is standing up for the young and nobody has policies for them is it any wonder they don’t vote? Brazil showed that the youth vote can be very high if the policies appeal to them.
Young MPs need encouragement
Younger MPs should be encouraged, and not worn down as Mhairi Black, an earlier ‘baby of the house’ experienced to her cost. The current figures show 3.5% of MPs are under 30. Statistics show more than more than a tenth of our population is aged 20–30, so that should be reflected by at least 10% of MPs. Younger MPs will self-evidently be more in touch with the issues that affect the lives of the young. We must address this head-on in order to grow and move forward as a nation.
First, we need to lower the voting age to 16. In closely fought seats MPs will thus have thousands of extra voters to reach. By and large MPs try to do the best for everyone, but inevitably when it comes to the crunch they appeal to the electorate who protect their job. It’s no surprise the young are repeatedly ignored. A lower voting age will mean they have more electoral clout.
I have nothing against older voters, or indeed middle-aged voters – I am one. But we have a serious democratic deficit if we ignore the young. Many countries are balanced on the precipice of angry right-wing populism. We need the young for our democracy and for our planet. This decision by Keir Starmer is the right one.
This article was updated on 25 May 2024 to include remarks on lowering the voting age, made by Keir Starmer during campaigning.
