Firms lure youth to UK polls

UBER, Starbucks and Twitter have joined forces to get British youngsters to take part in the June 8 general election, even if it means they might vote for the candidate that wants to tax them the most.

The initiatives, co-ordinated by youth group Bite the Ballot, aim to rally a loath-to-vote demographic group that tends to be left-leaning. YouGov polling shows that 45% of 18-to-24year-olds prefer Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party — which would hike company tax and increase public spending — to Theresa May’s Conservatives.

Uber plans to send a message to passengers, calling on them to register to vote, while users of the UberEats service would get a similar prompt as they waited for their food, Bite The Ballot said.

Starbucks is hosting what are called Democracy Cafes for people to chat about the election. Twitter will promote content urging voter registration by May 22, the deadline.

“We believe that cities and countries work best when everybody has a say,” said Jo Bertram, Uber’s UK regional general manager.

About 26% of eligible voters under 24 are not on the electoral roll. — Bloomberg