16-24 year olds more likely to vote Labour, poll finds

A voting attitudes poll has found that young people, between the ages of 16-24, are more likely to vote Labour in the next general election.

The poll, carried out by Survation between 21st-26th August for Sky News, saw 1,003 young people asked about their attitudes towards politics and their voting intentions in the next general election. Of those who said they would be voting, 35% said that they would vote Labour, while only 12% opted for the Conservatives and a mere 4% said they would vote Lib Dem.

Although Labour clearly come out ahead of all the other political parties, Ukip also fared relatively well. 13% of those asked saying that would vote the anti-EU party – placing them just ahead of the Conservatives. Ukip’s second-place poll rating is worrying, not just for the Tories but also for Labour because, as Matthew Goodwin has noted, some of those people who are migrating to Ukip are traditional Labour voters – in particular the over-65s (although not relevant for the demographic group polled here, still important to note), the working-class and those who left education early. 

Meanwhile, 27% of those asked remain undecided. This suggests that there’s still ground Labour could be making to convince a significant proportion of young people that they are the party best placed to consider their interests.

Alongside potential Ukip voters, it is this pool of undecided voters to which Labour should be speaking. Particularly as when undecided voters and those who refused to respond were removed from the equation, 50% of people asked saying they would vote Labour, while only 18% opted for the Tories, 16% for Ukip and 5% said Lib Dem.

However, this isn’t just a case of figuring out how to ‘win over’ the votes of young people. Survation also found that 44% of those young people polled said that despite trying to make their voices heard, they didn’t feel anyone was listening to them. This is a damning indictment of the political process in the UK, which Labour have, to their credit, tried to combat through their Generation Y report. Yet ultimately, these figures highlight once again that more needs to be done to engage people (not just young people) in politics and enable them to make their voices heard.

Labour’s ability to gain support from young people is significant – and a testament to party activists’ drive to include more young people in politics – but if this poll is anything to go by, there’s still a way to go…