Voting at 16 Isn’t Radical - It’s Rational.

Okay, so this may be controversial - but that's kind of what I'm all about.

This is part of a weekly article series, later accompanied by a short video, that I'll be releasing every week, (alongside the weekly “State of the Inbox” posts where you keep up to date with what is happening and vote on the issues you want discussed).

Voting at 16 in elections (where it is already allowed in Wales and Scotland) is not a bad policy by Labour.

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

And while I can't advocate for much else of what they're pushing for (despite having the chance with the welfare reforms, as I spoke about in my One Year of Keir Starmer video) this one may lead to good outcomes, if done correctly.

And of course there are many things that could go wrong, but if we fixate on the “what-ifs” of anything, we are bound to get nowhere.

Now I should probably start off with myself. At 16, which wasn't that long ago, I was incredibly politically informed, probably more than most adults. I was studying politics, was in a politically active environment and was able to understand economic common-sense decisions. I understand that I wasn't the norm, and that most of my classmates weren't interested, and would probably make what I feel is the wrong choice with the parties they choose to elect.

But my friends who are young adults aren't much better, and in a lot of cases, are actually quite a lot worse.

The advent of “millennial socialism” has seen those young adults in the generation above mine become completely indoctrinated by the radical left, and in actual reality, a lot of Zoomers haven't followed that same path. Now, of course, if you do rationally make a conscious choice to vote for left-leaning parties, that is your choice and I am not necessarily criticising it - just addressing what many think is the main reason that Labour has introduced this policy; to increase their voter base.

I think it is quite naive to assume that a 16-17 year old will automatically vote for the Labour Party, when we are seeing a national resurgence of the right (not only in the UK, but also globally) driven primarily by the youth. When I was studying politics with 16-17 year olds, there was actually a heavy discontent with the Labour Party, and I can imagine there is even more so now they are in government.

Labour hasn't managed to actually tap into the core left-leaning vote (as can be seen with the split off kind-of-sort-of-maybe party led (?) by Sultana and Corbyn - I talk about it more here) due to the conflict in the Middle East, the perceived rightwards shift of Labour economically, and the general attitude that Labour has abandoned the working class.

There is also, as expected, discontent on the right - which I mean, fair enough, it's Labour. On the socially conservative front you have the “Blue Labour” faction of the Labour Party, which have been all but silenced with the rise of Reform which (at least, I feel) emulates them to a certain degree. And on the economically conservative (which is essentially economically liberal, unless you're a one-nationer), you have quite obvious discontent…because since Thatcher (and potentially Truss, but we saw how that went), nobody has really listened to the libertarians.

But the thing is, it actually seems that much of the pushback against 16 year olds voting is actually… from the young people themselves. This Telegraph article (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/17/im-16-and-i-shouldnt-be-given-the-vote/) sums it up, but if you're paywalled, all it says is that the franchise shouldn't be expanded.

One of the major reasons is education. I hardly think this is an issue since, if anything, it is easier to educate young people who are in contact with mandatory education, versus very reluctant adults who have other priorities. Since we have an education framework and a national curriculum, it should be very easy to mandate compulsory political lessons into the education system - not just for those who choose to like I did. This I would advocate for even if the franchise wasn't being expanded, because it seems quite common sense.

The counter, of course, is quite understandable. It seems to be quite hard, at least from my lens, to give the reins of education and what is taught (essentially dictating our lifelong ideas, morals and values) to the state, especially when it has continuously proven itself to be so incompetent. There is the legitimate concern of bias too, but I can assure you that my school political education and the teachers who taught me were very much unbiased (as is mandated), that this didn't actually seem like an issue.

In the face of things, realistically… there isn't much difference between a 16 and 18 year old. I guess that is why people advocate for the age of 21. But the reality is that the decisions of the state, especially when they are as bad as this, mean young people are the ones most impacted.

Which also means they should be the ones with the voice.

What they do with the voice is a different matter, and that's where education becomes the key. Yes, young people easily fall prey to indoctrination, especially the type we see on our campuses.

That's where the movement, the campaign really begins, to enable students and young people to really think with their minds, and be open to ideas that aren't necessarily the orthodoxy anymore.

All the complaints about 16 year olds voting can just as easily be said for 18 year olds. And I don't think there's any issue with either.

But if you disagree, have any other views about how votes at 16 could impact the UK (and potentially your country), let us know down below 👇