Votes at 16 not the answer to raising turnout, says Gyimah

Speaking during an election hustings organised by BBC Newsbeat and broadcast on Tuesday evening, Gyimah, minister for the constitution and childcare minister, said he did not support lowering the voting age from age 18, despite all other parties in the debate backing the move.
 
Gyimah said: “There are a lot of things you can’t do at the age of 16, you can’t get credit, you can’t get a mortgage, you can’t fight on the frontline without parental permission, so I think if we’re going to look at lowering the voting age, we’ve got to look at a whole number of issues around it as well.
 
“There is another reason, which is a lot of political parties see widening the franchise as somehow a magic way of addressing the fact that voter turnout is down and people are getting less and less engaged with parties.
 
“I firmly believe that if you want people to be more engaged in politics, changing more of the process is not the way to do it."

Gyimah’s comments follow criticism of the government over the length of time it took to respond to a youth select committee report on lowering the voting age to 16.

The report, published last November, put forward recommendations for new legislation to lower the voting age in all elections, as well as a programme of preparation and youth engagement, citizenship training and teacher training.

In a letter sent to the British Youth Council (BYC) at the end of March, Gyimah praised the committee’s “comprehensive and well-argued” report calling it a “significant contribution” to the debate surrounding lowering the voting age to 16.

But 18-year-old Michael Hope, chair of the committee, said: “We were disappointed at the five-month delay in the response and we believe that it was a missed opportunity for the government to engage in the decision-making process with young people.

“We are also disappointed that the government did not respond sooner and more positively with a commitment to consider votes at 16 for the European elections as a first step on which all parties could agree.”

However the letter from Gyimah did note the general election was an opportunity for debate and for the public to reconsider their attitudes towards younger voters, despite the coalition government not sharing a view on the issue.

The letter also highlighted government support for youth participation initiatives by the UK Youth Parliament, the youth select committee and the BYC.

Hope added: “The report is a credible foundation, once parliament decides the time is right.

“We know it works and although – as cited in the response – public opinion was against the measure in the UK, we know this is no longer the case in Scotland with the vast majority of young people and adults now in favour of votes at 16 for all," he said.

The youth select committee is a BYC initiative, supported by the House of Commons. The 11 committee members are aged 11 to 18 and include a member of the UK Youth Parliament, a young mayor, one elected representative from each of the devolved nations and a youth councillor.