There’s broad support from across the Labour Party today for the announcement that the Labour frontbench would be backing votes at 16 in the Commons today. I had thought this was unremarkable as Labour had made a commitment to lowering the voting age in the 2010 manifesto – but I was rightly corrected, because the 2010 pledge was only to hold a free vote.
Expect to see a commitment to lowering the voting age in the next Labour manifesto. A Labour source told me this morning that both Ed Miliband and Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan are: “very keen for it to find its way into the next manifesto”.
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