Lowering voting age to 16 will only help the Green Party, Labour MPs tell Starmer – as they urge him to shelve the plans
Labor MPs are urging Sir Keir Starmer to scrap plans to lower the voting age to 16 in the general election over fears it will give votes to the Green Party.
They are calling on the Prime Minister to realize it would be ‘utter madness’ to continue with this measure as Zack Polanski’s party grows in popularity among young voters.
Instead, Labor supporters privately argue that 16 and 17-year-olds should only get the right from 2030 – after the next general election, which is safely expected to be held in 2029.
A senior MP told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The way the opinion polls are going, it would be pure madness to bring this up before 2029.’
He called on Local Government Minister Steve Reed, who is overseeing the reform, to realize that “otherwise we would just be giving more votes to Zack Polanski and the Greens”.
When the plans were first put forward last year, Labor faced allegations it was trying to rig future elections on the grounds that young people were more likely to vote for them rather than the Conservatives. But a poll appeared to suggest the Greens, who pose a threat in some Labour-held constituencies, could benefit more from this.
The ITV Youth Tracker poll, published by Savanta last November, showed support for Labor among 18 to 25-year-olds had fallen to just 25 per cent from 43 per cent in March last year. Support for the Greens increased from 16 to 32 percent.
And Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said Labor MPs were now only having second thoughts because ‘it will come down to them because this group is more likely to vote Green’.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski with newly elected Green MP Hannah Spencer. Labor MPs are urging Sir Keir Starmer to shelve plans to lower the voting age to 16 in the general election over fears votes will be transferred to the Green Party
A polling station in Manchester. Labour’s supporters privately argue that 16 and 17-year-olds should only get the right from 2030 – after the next general election, which is safely expected to be held in 2029.
He accused them of a ‘cynical political manoeuvre’ and reaffirmed that Conservative MPs would vote against lowering the voting age.
On Saturday, a senior Labor source admitted he was ‘sympathetic’ to the idea of delaying the change.
But he insisted the plan would apply to 2029, adding that there were ‘so few’ voters in this new age group that it would not change the outcome of the next general election.
This is despite Labour’s manifesto saying it will ‘increase young people’s participation in our vibrant democracy’.
A spokesperson for the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the change would ‘take place during this Parliament and will encourage democratic participation and deliver on a manifesto commitment’.
However, despite his apparent support for voting age reform, the Greens have branded Mr Reed ‘the embodiment of a culture of self-serving and out-of-touch voters identified with Labour’.
A leaked Green Party internal memo accused Mr Reed of ‘sending dossiers to smear Green voters as extremists and anti-Semites’, but said it was ‘initiating further investigations’ to oust him.
But Mr Reed hit back, saying: ‘Many of the anti-Semites who joined Labor under Jeremy Corbyn have now joined the Green Party. Zack Polanski initially ignored it, but after weeks of pressure, he finally acknowledged the problem and took action. ‘I welcome this and will continue to shine a light on this disgusting racism.’
