Labour to lower voting age to 16

Sir Keir Starmer has re-affirmed Labours’ intention to lower the voting age in England to 16, under plans previously announced to Labour party members as part of Starmer’s party leadership campaign.

In doing so, Starmer has once again confirmed that his priorities lie in securing future election victory for his party, rather than looking after the greater interests of the country.

Allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote does nothing to help the economy, the NHS, defence or schools. It is a cynical attempt to increase the party’s own voter base, and serves no purpose other than demonstrating Labour commitment to promote their own self-interest.

Quite why anyone would consider it appropriate to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote is unfathomable. Most are still in school, those who are in work overwhelmingly earn below the lower rate band for income tax, and therefore the vast majority have never paid taxes or contributed to society in any meaningful way. The amount of life experience accumulated at 16 is very shallow, so much so that society does not deem it appropriate to allow under-18s to enter into any legally binding contract.

Crucially however, one thing that is being overlooked is that Starmers' assumption that voters in this age category will automatically vote for Labour may be arrogantly wide of the mark. Whilst it is true that, as a rule, younger age groups are more likely to vote Labour than Tory, the overriding policy priority for members of the brainwashed Greta Thunburg generation is tackling climate change. It is why Labour’s flagship policy remains (at the time of print) an ever-harder push towards net zero… in order to secure the young vote.

However, it is increasingly likely that Labour will need to row further and further back on their green policies over the coming years, as the true cost of the charge to carbon neutrality becomes ever more apparent. Labour have already U-turned on their commitment to spend £28bn a year on their green energy plan, and the true cost of achieving their net zero targets was already likely to be significantly higher than this. As we draw closer to 2030, and the reality of having to burden the public with shouldering the costs, we can expect more and more of Labour’s green policies to be watered down or dropped altogether.

Such U-turns in their green policies will be seen as a betrayal of younger generations. This may see the decision to give 16-17 year olds the vote backfire spectacularly on Labour, as this very voter group turn against them and towards other parties who are prepared to stick with an extreme green agenda (which will be much easier for a party like the Greens, who will never be close enough to power to have to actually fund their ruinous net zero policies).

How poetic it could be in years to come to see Labour abandoned by the very hordes of young voters to whom they had been given the vote with the sole and specific intention to enhance their voter base.