People Younger Than 18 Might Be Able to Vote in the UK

England might lower the voting age to 16 instead of 18 years old. Currently, people can only vote if they are 18 years or older. However, in Scotland and Wales, people as young as 16 years old have already been able to vote since 2021.

The UK government wants to modernize how people vote and also lower the age requirement down to 16. They plan to introduce this new voting requirement by 2029, which is the next general election.

However, not everybody agrees with this plan. For example, the Conservative Party doesn’t agree with the Labour Government’s decision. They argue that if 16-year-olds should be able to vote, then why shouldn’t they be allowed to get married, go to wars, or stand at elections. Additionally, Reform UK doesn’t agree with this plan. Only the liberal democrats fully support this idea.

The Labour government has arguments to support them. They argue that the 16-year-olds and the seventeen year olds already have many responsibilities. They should be able to then decide how the country is governed since they understand how the government works and can make good decisions.

“A young person can work, they pay taxes, they can join the army,” Rushanara Ali, the minister for democracy, said. “There’s no reason why from that age, they shouldn’t have a say in who governs our country.”

However, there are also arguments against this. Some think 16 and 17-year-olds are still not mature and shouldn’t decide how the country is governed. Others think they can easily be swayed and vote for the irresponsible or unjust people since they are still young and could be naive.

Many people agree with this plan, but many also disagree. Because of this, the decision can’t be made yet.