Because they know that only an (ever decreasing) minority will vote for them, the Tories have never tried to seriously engage with young voters. The Tories have published two major policy initiatives, a reintroduced National Service and a plan to replace ‘Micky Mouse’ degrees with more apprenticeships. But these have been aimed at their ageing Reform leaning core supporters, rather widening their base amongst the young – more likely they’ll have the opposite effect!
But Labour has said little to inspire the younger generation either. It says everybody will benefit from more ‘growth’, yet young people have been at the sharp end of the falling living standards during the last decade. The most highly educated generation ever, but facing precarious employment, rather than able to move into anything resembling a ‘career’, is unlikely to be convinced by Keir Starmer’s promises about restoring the ‘aspirational’ society of their baby boomer parents. On the contrary, rather than expecting to ‘move up’ in the way many of their parent did, many will experience downward social mobility instead.
In recent years, Labour has also tended to assume young people’s interests are largely furthered by putting a strong emphasis on education. But in contrast to Tony Blair’s wild promises, beyond offering a few extra teachers, Starmer’s Labour is being tight-lipped. This is because of its self-imposed funding constraints, but it’s also the case that education isn’t featuring as a major issue in voter opinion polls. Being well behind the cost-of-living crisis and the NHS.
Yet Keir Starmer is still committed to bringing in early legislation to lower the franchise to 16, on the grounds that ‘if you can work and can pay taxes then you should be able to vote’. While this is to be welcomed, ironically, the vast majority of these new ‘citizens’ will be remaining in full-time education for many years, because of a lack of employment opportunities and as a result are more dependent on their parents/family carers than ever. Large numbers can expect to have to live at home throughout their twenties.
Young voters are now considered to be more ‘progressive’ however. Whereas in 1987, Labour had just a two-point lead amongst 18–24-year-old voters, the 2017/19 elections saw support grow to two-thirds. These days some polls show less than 10% of under 25s likely to vote for the Tories, far less than those who support the Greens. Evidence also shows that arguments about people becoming right wing as they get older no longer have substance.
Arguably, many of Jeremy Corbyn’s policies resonated well with new young voters and may have been a really significant factor in increased participation by this group in the 2019 election. But turn-outs of just over 50% still remained relatively low compared to the 70% plus by older groups.
Amid concerns that voter participation in this election will be generally low and with a general lack of confidence in conventional (and by its very nature ‘consensus’) politics amongst young people, surveys report that up to a third have already decided not to vote, with many more still not registered.
Education, Economy and Society 