Gerard Killen

MP MP FOR FOR RUTHERGLEN RUTHERGLEN AND AND HAMILTON HAMILTON WEST

This week, parliament will have the first opportunity to consider a private members’ bill put forward by Labour MP, Jim McMahon.

Officially named the Representation of The People (Young People’s Enfranchisement and Education) Bill, if passed, it will bring UK general elections in line with Scottish elections in allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote.

I will be in parliament on Friday to support the bill and if MPs get the opportunity to vote on this issue, it will be one of the easiest votes I have ever cast.

Ask anyone who campaigned in the Scottish independence referendum and they will tell you how remarkably informed and engaged young people were in that debate.

In elections since, I have chapped on many doors where a young person is about to cast their first vote.

I always find them to be refreshingly open minded and keen to take the time to think about the issues and consider each candidate and party on merit.

It is a view that was reinforced for me last week when I visited higher modern studies students at Cathkin High School.

We covered the full range of issues from taxation and welfare to the constitution and the monarchy, each question carefully thought out and each student genuinely interested in the answer.

It is absurd to think that at 16 or 17 you could be married, join the army, or have a full time job and pay tax, but the prime minister does not trust you enough to decide who your local MP should be.

Unfortunately, the Conservatives seem unlikely to support the bill.

It will be interesting to hear what arguments they put forward.

The answer to their scepticism may be found in current opinion polls.

Sixty-three per cent of voters aged 18-24 now say they back Jeremy Corbyn, Theresa May knows that extending the

If MPs get the opportunity to vote, it will be one of the easiest I have cast