'Growing support' among Tory MPs for votes at 16

Senior Tory backbencher Sir Peter Bottomley said it was a "question of when rather than if" the party would eventually back the idea, adding to growing voices within the party for voting age reform.

Bottomley told the Evening Standard that there was enough support from within his party to ensure the voting age could be lowered.

"Anyone who has listened to Youth Parliament debates at Westminster cannot say that these young people are incapable of deciding who should be their MP or, indirectly, form their government," he said.

Meanwhile, former chancellor George Osborne, now editor of the Evening Standard, said that given the strength of support among Tory MPs for the change, which is already backed by Labour and the Lib Dems, the government would not be able to halt the move.

Writing on the website Conservative Home earlier this week, former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said that she will back a private members' bill tabled by Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle, to lower the voting age to 16.

She said that by allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the Scottish independence referendum four years ago the Conservative Party undermined any arguments against lowering the voting age.

Since 2014, 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland have also been able to vote in local and Scottish parliament elections.

"By accepting that 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland could vote on their future during the 2014 referendum on independence, I'm afraid that the Conservative party undermined the arguments for not extending the franchise further," wrote Morgan.

She added: "Embracing votes at 16 would demonstrate to the next generation that the Conservative Party has something to offer them. Anything we do on tuition fees, however necessary, will only look like we are playing catch up with Corbyn. 

"Just as the Conservatives both delivered on and then fulfilled votes for women, it is time for us to take the next pragmatic leap forward and get on with votes at 16."

Osborne has also said that the move to lower the voting age is unstoppable due to support from Conservative MPs and that politically the government risked losing support of young people if they did not back it.

More Tory MPs now support votes for 16yr olds. By my count, Govn now doesn't have a majority to stop it. Choice: lose in Commons, 16yr olds get vote & Tories lose even more support of young people; or back votes at 16 & get some credit for major social reform. Hmmm. Tough one.

— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) February 15, 2018

At Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons last month, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry reiterated Labour's backing for lowering the voting age and called on the government to back the move.

However, cabinet office minister David Lidington, who was filling in for Prime Minister Theresa May, said the government had no intention of lowering the voting age.

"The age of 18, rather than 16, is widely recognised as the age at which one becomes an adult and that is when full citizenship rights are attained. Only a handful of countries have a nationwide voting ?age below 18 and we believe that it is right that the age of majority - 18 - should continue to be the age at which people become eligible to vote," Lidington told Thornberry.

Fresh research into lowering the voting age to 16 was announced in December last year. Carried out by academics from the University of Huddersfield and University of Liverpool, this is looking at historical and contemporary debates on the issue and in detail at countries that have already made the move.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The government believes that the voting age should remain at 18. The House of Commons has debated the question of the voting age in a number of contexts, and has repeatedly voted against lowering it.

"The age of 18 is widely recognised as the age at which one becomes an adult. Full citizenship rights - from drinking, to betting, to voting - should be gained at adulthood."