A party spokeswoman said Labour had been keen to propose lowering the voting age and had expected The Electoral Commission to endorse the move.
But the independent body's decision to recommend keeping 18 as the minimum voting age had made the forthcoming debate on the issue at the Labour Party Conference "a tricky discussion for us to have and say yes to votes at 16". But she added that the party's "big constitutional brains would work their way around this".
Laura Edwards, senior researcher at left-leaning think tank the IPPR, said: "Labour is keen to push votes at 16, but it's not clear how much the party is prepared to rub up against The Electoral Commission on this."
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