We have been supportive of Votes for 16- and 17-year-olds for a long time. We hope you will join us in calling for the franchise to be extended to 16- and 17-year-olds across the entire UK and in all elections.
Giving the right to vote to young people aged 16 and 17 is a small but important step to make sure young people’s voices are heard. Our electorate is skewed, by size and turnout, towards older generations, and a significant number of young people aged 18 and over migrate cities that they move to for university and work. Ensuring that candidates for Parliament, local government have to listen to more young people and take their opinions and priorities seriously would make our democracy healthier, and should lead to better outcomes for younger and future generations.
It is especially odd now that young people aged 16 or above have been able to vote in elections in Scotland and Wales, but their counterparts in England and Northern Ireland are still denied that right.
Please share our campaign online and show your support by emailing your local MP and call on them to support Votes at 16.