General election 2024 - view from Gen Z: why 16 and 17-year-olds should be given the right to vote

The Labour leader said anyone paying tax should “have a say” in how their money is spent, adding: “Yes, I want to see both 16 and 17-year-olds. If you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote.” However, Conservatives have accused Starmer of trying to “fix” elections for Labour by increasing the size of the electorate.

But what does Gen Z think? We got the thoughts of Sheffield University students Carys Reid and Joseph Barlow.

‘Young people are positioned as the solution - but our voices aren’t allowed to be heard’

The last election was in 2019, and since then I have seen the UK plough through three Prime Ministers all the while wondering when I’d be able to have my say. The coming general election will be my first opportunity to vote, and for young people it comes at a time where our futures seem pretty bleak.

It’s terrifying learning as a graduate that most 18 to 34-year-olds are living with their parents, or that the average age of a first-time buyer is in the late 30s. And it’s insulting that certain degrees are going to be labelled as “rip-offs”. There’s a huge hypocrisy in how young people are positioned as the solution, but our voices aren’t allowed to be heard. 

In this country, 16 year olds can have a full-time job, join the army, get married and have a child. But they cannot vote. With the new five-year term, some of those finishing their GCSEs will have finished university before they can vote in their first general election. Or those that turn 18 after 4 July won’t be able to vote in a general election until they’re 23. Since the pandemic young people have been watching their futures fall apart before them, unable to do anything about it. 

There’s a great possibility that the last four-and-a-half years may have looked very different had those in my age group been able to vote in 2019. The pandemic cost young people the best part of two years of education and is still taking a massive toll on mental health and well-being. Getting young people to vote whilst still in educational spaces fosters a wider involvement in politics, and that is ultimately where our last inkling of hope resides.

Carys Reid

‘Does the government not have faith in our education system?’

Many children growing up take most adults as oracles of knowledge, simply by their age. Yet, in every child’s life there is a moment of realisation when speaking to an adult that past inferiority sheds for a new skin of belief. A moment when the child thinks: ‘Oh, I might be smarter than this person, and I’m 12.” I myself was this 12-year-old speaking with my uncle, and once I reached 16 and 17 it infuriated me that that my uncle could vote and I could not. 

Firstly, democracy is for all and all people should be able to vote, no matter their intelligence or opinions. Sixteen and 17-year-olds are equally as capable of having their own opinions, age does not automatically make people oracles of knowledge. The disastrous effects of Brexit have shown older voters to be just as fallible at the ballot box. 

Was I smarter than my uncle at 12? Probably not, however a society that cannot trust young people is a damning indictment on the government and its polices, not teenagers. Does Rishi Sunak not have faith in the education system? As that is the implication of his rejection of this policy. Maybe the Prime Minister is just terrified that dropping the voting age is the nail in the coffin of his national service gimmick. 

Joseph Barlow