On 17 July 2025, the Labour Government officially announced that it would legislate to ensure 16 and 17-year-olds can vote in all UK elections. This implements one of its key manifesto commitments on democracy and harmonises the voting age across the UK. This is a sensible policy measure which can improve democratic participation in the UK at time of deep distrust. However, the success of ‘votes at 16’ relies upon a more robust civic education system than is presently in place, and this reform should be seen only as a stepping stone towards the aspiration of a more participatory democracy.
The importance of harmonising policy across the UK
The UK Government’s announcement means that 16- and 17-year-olds will be able to vote in every election managed by the UK Government, including local council and mayoral elections in England and Wales, and the UK General Election in 2029. This equalises the voting age across all UK elections: 16- and 17-year olds were given the right to vote for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, and in all other Scottish elections from 2015. In Wales, this age group has been able to vote in devolved elections since 2021. This has made England and Northern Ireland the outliers over the last decade. Scottish Government-funded research identified that one of the main drawbacks of introducing votes at 16 in Scotland was the inconsistency of the voting age across the UK, which this policy change rectifies. Allowing 16-year-olds in Scotland to vote resulted in higher turnout for first-time voters, and over time for those who first voted at that age. With a recent survey of public opinion on foreign policy by the British Foreign Policy group highlighting young people’s disillusionment with the current Government’s strategies, measures such as this are needed to politically re-engage young people. Harmonising ‘votes at 16’ across the UK is, with this context in mind, a sound and sensible policy that is well-placed to improve engagement with democracy.
There is no guarantee that it will benefit Labour
Some immediate responses to the Government’s announcement accused it of attempting to ‘rig’ the political system. However, recent polling by Merlin Strategy on the voting intention of 16 and 17-year-olds suggests otherwise: the two most popular parties are Labour (33% of respondents) and Reform (20%), with the Green Party third (18%). This is consistent with a wider split between the political opinions of young men and young women: in the UK, young women aged 18-29 are, as of 2024, 25 percentage points more liberal than their male counterparts. Sam Freedman highlights that young women are shifting leftwards politically, and towards parties such as the Greens. Assuming that 16- and 17-year-olds are likely to have similar voting preferences those aged 18-25, extending the franchise could leave Labour electorally vulnerable both to Reform on its right, and the Greens on its left.
Votes at 16 requires more robust civic education
The main critique of the Government’s announcement from campaigners, policymakers and academics is that there is insufficient focus on strengthening citizenship education. The APPG on Political and Media Literacy’s policy brief notes that young people must be equipped with practical skills to exercise their democratic rights effectively, such as being able to register to vote, decipher a manifesto and think critically about media content in an age of AI-driven misinformation. Research on the introduction of votes at 16 in Scotland and Wales suggests that the lack of citizenship education in Wales to accompany the expansion of the franchise led to lower turnout. In Scotland, secondary school students may be offered Modern Studies classes, which help young people understand how the political system works, but do not assist in helping them to participate in it. What is critical, according to Jan Eichhorn and Christine Huebner, is that citizenship education includes opportunities to deliberate about political issues. As a result, though the Government’s ‘votes at 16’ policy creates opportunities for participation, it fails to ensure the conditions for that participation. Research by the ICfS earlier this year has argued this is critical for effectively strengthening democratic participation.
Given this, citizenship education across the UK is in urgent need of reform. Most pupils who entered secondary school in September 2024 will be eligible to vote in the 2029 UK General Election. The UK and devolved governments must work with educational institutions, civic society and community groups to ensure that opportunities for citizenship education are available and implemented well in advance of this. Pilot projects on experiential citizenship education should also be part of this strategy. Experiential learning will be critical not only in providing the practical skills and knowledge necessary for effective democratic participation, but the motivation to do so, by facilitating connections between learners and other human and more-than-human communities.
A stepping stone to a more participatory democracy?
Although this UK-wide extension of the franchise may improve participation, the existing challenges with the UK’s representative democratic system remain. ‘Votes at 16’ will not change the disproportionality of the First-Past-the-Post electoral system, or the lack of opportunities for citizen engagement outside elections. Eichhorn and Huebner’s research from Scotland also suggests that there is no spillover from extending the franchise to other non-electoral democratic engagement, such as participating in demonstrations or signing petitions. ‘Votes at 16’ is therefore, at best, one element of a wider package of reforms that will enhance democratic participation in the UK; further experiments with participatory and deliberative democracy at local levels are also essential in resolving some of the structural challenges facing British democracy.
Equalising the voting age across all UK elections is a sensible policy measure with the potential to enhance democratic participation across the UK. However, its success in the short-term is dependent on urgent reform to the UK’s citizenship education offering, which must be practical as well as theoretical. Governments, educational institutions and civil society must jointly create the space for the education that will support and sustain a more participatory democracy in the years to come.
