Labour’s plan to lower the voting age could add more than a million Left-wing teenagers to the electoral roll. Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that he will press ahead with lowering the voting age to 16 if he wins the election next week. The move would enfranchise around 1.6 million 16- and 17-year-olds. Sir Keir told the Mail this week that Tory claims he is trying to rig the electorate were ‘completely wrong’. But analysis of recent polls suggests the youngsters he plans to give the right to vote will be overwhelmingly Left-wing. A recent YouGov survey found that 37 per cent of voters aged 18-24 backed Labour, with 21 per cent supporting the Greens and an equal number the Liberal Democrats. If results were similar for 16 and 17-year-olds, they would suggest that lowering the voting age could add an extra 1.3 million Left or centre-Left voters to the electoral roll. By contrast, the Conservatives enjoy just 7 per cent support among the youngest age group, and could gain as few as 112,000 extra voters from the change. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said: ‘If Keir Starmer were to win, the UK would join a small group of countries like Cuba and Ecuador in enfranchising teenagers as he manoeuvres to lock in large Labour majorities. ‘A supermajority would give Starmer a blank cheque to raise taxes, attack pensioners and lose control on migration. Automatically gifting himself more than a million more Left-leaning voters will lock Labour in power for a generation.’ Meanwhile a children’s vote organised by a coalition of youth organisations and charities also suggested that lowering the voting age would benefit the Left. The vote, organised by a coalition of youth organisations and charities, saw 23,000 young people aged seven to 17 take part across England and Wales. The Our Generation, Our Vote mock election was held to give young people a voice and hear first-hand views about the policies of the main parties. Overall results saw 32 per cent voting Labour, 29 per cent choosing the Green Party and 13 per cent going for the Liberal Democrats. Ten per cent picked Reform UK, while just 9 per cent favoured the Conservatives. The 20 organisations behind the project stress that they are politically neutral. The coalition, including Save the Children, UK Youth and Girlguiding, said more than a fifth (22 per cent) of the children who took part had highlighted education as the policy area that influenced their vote the most. This was followed by health and climate/environment (joint on 18 per cent). Cost of living was an issue for 16 per cent, while 12 per cent cited safety. Immigration was mentioned least, with only 8 per cent saying this had influenced their mock vote.
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