Proposal #2: Votes at 16

By Wes Streeting / @wesstreeting

Imagine a country with a democratic deficit, where political elites are struggling to find ways of reversing a trend of declining voter turnout. Imagine that the same elites are simultaneously refusing to open the door to scores of citizens who are actually asking to vote. Sound crazy? Welcome to 21st century Britain.

Earlier this year, the government’s Youth Citizenship Commission, of which I was part, ran a consultation to find out what young people thought about lowering the voting age to 16. A representative survey found that a clear majority of young people supported extending the franchise. The work of the same commission found that a whopping 82% of young people don’t trust politicians to make the right decisions for them and 72% don’t feel that they can influence government decisions.

Who can blame them? How many times have Labour canvassers been out on the doorstep and asked a 14, 15 or 16 year old how the local council can meet their needs, instead of simply asking if Mum or Dad’s home? Even at grassroots level, the Labour Party sends a message to young people across Britain that we don’t care about them because they can’t vote.

This is self-defeating for our progressive politics, when the quality of public services, safer neighbourhoods and tackling poverty matters just as much to young people as any other section of the population. On issues like climate change, the failure of global leaders to act will have a greater impact on the current generation of young people than those charged with making decisions that could make the difference.

Lowering the voting age to 16 is not a tool for increasing the proportion of voters turning out, but it is a way of giving young people who want the vote – who pay taxes, join the armed forces, get married, drive cars – an opportunity to exercise some influence over the political system that currently lets too many young people down.

The Labour Party as a whole now agrees. Only last year, Olivia Bailey led a determined and successful effort to secure the support of the National Policy Forum for lowering the voting age to 16. She did so by mobilising young people inside and outside the Labour movement to support her campaign and gained the overwhelming support of NPF members. Olivia’s campaign – and speech to the National Policy Forum – was cited by Ed Miliband, the man charged with drafting the next manifesto, at Party conference last autumn. The same conference endorsed the NPF’s recommendation and lowering the voting age to 16 is now a Labour Party policy.

Whether or not the commitment will be included in the next manifesto remains to be seen. Much will depend on whether the Party’s policy making process counts for me as much as the opposition of figures in the Cabinet, like Jack Straw. For the Labour Party, however, the inclusion of votes at 16 in the next manifesto is a litmus test as to how seriously the leadership take the youth movement of the Party.

Ed Miliband: we’re watching you.