Prime Minister rejects call to give vote to 16-year-olds

THERESA MAY has resisted calls to lower the voting age to 16, insisting that youths could get involved in politics without casting a ballot.

She said maintaining the current age limit of 18 was right as the Tories refused to match Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the Green Party in pledging to reduce it to 16.

The Prime Minister said the General Election was “about young people’s futures” as the UK was at a “key point of change” because of Brexit.

Asked about the voting age she told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “This is one of those questions where you have to draw a line, you have to pick a point at which you think it is right for the voting age to be. I continue to think it is right for it to be 18.

“Of course we now expect young people more to stay in education or training up to the age of 18 and I think that is an appropriate point at which we allow people to have a vote in parliamentary elections.”

Challenged about the fact that in Scotland 16-year-olds can vote in local and Holyrood elections, Mrs May said: “The implication from your question is that the only way to get engaged in politics is by casting a vote. Obviously there is an engagement and an activity there which is very much about people giving their view and I am very clear in this election that every single vote counts.

“But people can get engaged in politics in a whole variety of ways and I would encourage young people to do so. I think it is important young people watch politics, pay attention to politics, get to think about their own views and,

‘I think it is important young people watch politics, pay attention to politics and start to get involved’

where possible, start to get involved. There are lots of ways – youth parliaments, but also we see young people becoming councillors.”

♦ Nicola Sturgeon has admitted that standards of numeracy and literacy have declined in Scottish schools.

Appearing on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday, the First Minister of Scotland said “we need to do better”. The latest figures showed fewer than half of 13 and 14-year-olds in Scotland are performing well in writing.