Britain will lower the voting age from 18 to 16 earlier than the following nationwide election as a part of measures to increase democratic participation, the federal government introduced Thursday (July 17, 2025).
The centre-left Labour Party pledged earlier than it was elected in July 2024 to lower the voting age for elections to Britain’s Parliament. Scotland and Wales already let 16 and 17-year-olds vote in native and regional elections.
Britain will be part of the brief checklist of nations the place the voting age is 16, alongside the likes of Ecuador, Austria and Brazil.
The transfer comes alongside wider reforms that embody tightening marketing campaign financing guidelines to cease shell firms with murky possession from donating to political events. Democracy Minister Rushanara Ali stated the change would strengthen safeguards towards international interference in British politics.
The authorities additionally stated it should introduce automated voter registration and permit voters to use financial institution playing cards as a type of identification at polling stations.
The earlier Conservative authorities launched a requirement for voters to present photograph identification in 2022, a measure it stated would fight fraud. Critics argued it may disenfranchise tens of millions of voters, significantly the younger, the poor and members of ethnic minorities.
Elections watchdog the Electoral Commission has estimated that about 750,000 folks didn’t vote in final 12 months’s election as a result of they lacked ID.
Turnout in the 2024 election was 59.7%, the bottom degree in greater than twenty years.
Harry Quilter-Pinner, head of left-leaning suppose tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, stated the adjustments have been “the most important reform to our electoral system since 1969,” when the voting age was lowered to 18 from 21.
The changes must be approved by Parliament. The next national election must be held by 2029.
“For too long public trust in our democracy has been damaged and faith in our institutions has been allowed to decline,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said. “We are taking action to break down barriers to participation that will ensure more people have the opportunity to engage in UK democracy.”
