Lowering the vote to 16 won’t save Labour from Reform

When the news broke that the government would be lowering the voting age to 16 before the next general election, my first thought was: Finally. 

My second: Starmer is panicking.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m fully in favour of votes at 16. You’ve heard all the arguments before; If they pay taxes, and can join the army, they deserve a democratic say in the decisions shaping their future. 

But let’s not pretend that this ‘seismic’ reform is being undertaken purely as a matter of principle. Keir Starmer and his team in No 10 did not wake up this morning with a burning desire for youth enfranchisement – this is strategy. Panicked strategy. 

For Labour advisers, the logic does appear simple: Give 16 and 17-year-olds the vote, and they’ll vote Labour. 

Wrong.

And if Labour still believes that, they’ve well and truly shot themselves in the foot.

The party is, as you might expect, a year into a government defined by ‘tough choices’, shipping progressive votes to more left-wing parties. But the awkward, data-backed, TikTok-verified truth is that a significant portion of Gen Z is being pulled into Nigel Farage’s sphere. 

Not because his policies have anything concrete to give them (few do), but because he has made himself visible, vocal, and – in their opinion – genuine.

A previous JL Partners poll found that 23% of 16 and 17-year-olds were supporting Reform UK, placing Farage’s party second in that age group, just slightly behind Labour. Among young men? Reform was level with Labour at 35%.

This is no anomaly. It’s a trend.

Teenage boys are not sitting around watching Keir Starmer’s painstakingly choreographed campaign videos.

No. They are watching Farage down pints, mock ‘the elites’ (despite him being one himself), and posting punchy soundbites from the pub. 

He is where they are, mostly on TikTok, where he has over 1.3million followers.

And where he is, whether he is goading climate protesters or psyched about free speech, he is speaking their language – short-form, crude, and utterly unbothered by traditional truth.

It’s infuriating. It’s dangerous. But it’s working.

And the Labour Party has fallen hook, line, and sinker into the trap.

In attempting to push through this reform in the hope of boosting their electoral map, they risk unconsciously inviting Farage onto new territory, even though he remains officially opposed to the move. 

On social media, Farage isn’t waffling about the public deficit and pensions. He’s making himself a meme. 

A cheeky, jesting uncle who’s ‘just saying what everyone’s thinking’. It’s performative politics with punchlines and it’s gaining likes.

Labour, meanwhile, is presumably expecting 16-year-olds to be so grateful for their new right to vote that they’ll express it by voting for a party that has watered down its message on climate, attempted to cut benefits for the disabled, and has remained mostly silent on Gaza. Spoiler alert: They won’t.

Most youth are already tuned off Labour. You just have to look at the rise in Green support. 

That same JL Partners poll from last year had the Greens on 18% among 16 to 17-year-olds.

And more than a third of 18 to 24-year-olds say they are willing to consider voting for a Jeremy Corbyn-led party, according to a recent YouGov poll.

So here we are: Labour, trying to outbid Farage by enfranchising a group that, shock horror, might quite like him.

A party seeking to secure its youth vote without having done the political legwork to earn it. It’s not just naïve. It’s reckless.

The irony is that Labour is doing the right thing, morally.   

Lowering the voting age is long overdue. It’s fair. It’s a reflection of the responsibilities young people already carry in society. But in doing it for the wrong reasons, they risk losing the very group they’re trying to enfranchise.

And Farage? He’s laughing all the way to the comments.

The man has no real policies for youth. 

No affordable housing strategy. No ideas on tuition fees. No plan for youth mental health, education, or employment. What he offers instead is grievance and swagger, daily and in bite-sized pieces. It’s fast-food populism.

If Labour is to reverse that, it can’t be through the process; it needs to be the process. It requires principle. It requires bravery. It requires an end to a party being scared of its own principles and for them to start speaking straight and boldly to young people – telling them what they can have, not what they can’t. 

Climate justice, affordable housing, international solidarity, economic transformation – these aren’t niche issues. They’re youth issues. But if Labour continues to triangulate and mumble, it’ll keep losing ground.

Votes at 16 is not a bad policy. But it’s not a silver bullet either. Not when you’ve got Nigel Farage playing the anti-politics game better than anyone and making young people think he’s one of them.

Labour can’t afford to underestimate him. Again.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.