Britain Will Lower Its Voting Age To 16 In A Bid To Strengthen Democracy

LONDON — Britain will little nan voting property from 18 to 16 by nan adjacent nationalist predetermination arsenic portion of measures to summation antiauthoritarian participation, nan authorities announced Thursday.

The center-left Labour Party pledged earlier it was elected successful July 2024 to little nan voting property for elections to Britain’s Parliament. Scotland and Wales already fto 16- and 17-year-olds ballot successful section and location elections.

Britain will subordinate nan short database of countries wherever nan voting property is 16, alongside nan likes of Austria, Brazil and Ecuador. A fistful of European Union countries, including Belgium, Germany and Malta, let 16-year-olds to ballot successful elections to nan European Parliament.

The move comes alongside wider reforms that see tightening run financing rules to extremity ammunition companies pinch murky ownership from donating to governmental parties. Democracy Minister Rushanara Ali said nan alteration would fortify safeguards against overseas interference successful British politics.

There will besides beryllium tougher sentences for group convicted of intimidating candidates.

Additionally, nan authorities said it will present automatic elector registration and let voters to usage slope cards arsenic a shape of recognition astatine polling stations.

The erstwhile Conservative authorities introduced a request for voters to show photograph recognition successful 2022, a measurement it said would combat fraud. Critics based on it could disenfranchise millions of voters, peculiarly nan young, nan mediocre and members of taste minorities.

Elections watchdog nan Electoral Commission estimates that astir 750,000 group did not ballot successful past year’s predetermination because they lacked ID.

Turnout successful nan 2024 predetermination was 59.7%, nan lowest level successful much than 2 decades.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, caput of left-leaning deliberation vessel nan Institute for Public Policy Research, said nan changes were “the biggest betterment to our electoral strategy since 1969,” erstwhile nan voting property was lowered to 18 from 21.

The changes must beryllium approved by Parliament. The adjacent nationalist predetermination must beryllium held by 2029.

“For excessively long, nationalist spot successful our populist has been damaged and religion successful our institutions has been allowed to decline,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said. “We are taking action to break down barriers to information that will guarantee much group person nan opportunity to prosecute successful U.K. democracy.”

Stuart Fox, a authorities teacher astatine nan University of Exeter who has studied younker voting, said it’s “far from clear” whether lowering nan voting property really increases younker engagement.

“It is correct to thief young group beryllium heard,” he said. “But location are different measures which are much effective astatine getting young group to ballot — peculiarly those from nan poorest backgrounds who are by acold nan slightest apt to ballot — specified arsenic beefing up nan citizenship program aliases expanding nan proviso of volunteering programs successful schools.”