Lowering the Voting Age is Not Enough: Britain Needs Mandatory Voting to Change

The Labour government recently announced that it would lower the voting age in general elections from 18 years old to 16 in what marks the largest extension of the franchise since the late 1960s. It was promised in Labour’s 2024 manifesto and largely predictable given the party’s historical success with younger voters.

Conservative voices have branded the policy as a self-serving way for Labour to improve its prospects in the next election. This is an overreaction. Voters in the 16-18 age group do not constitute a substantial proportion of voters in many constituencies, let alone enough to significantly swing future elections. If anyone is to gain, one might expect Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party to pick up votes as people look to vent their frustration over the government’s stance on Gaza.

Yet, it will not transform British democracy nor the lives of ordinary Brits. Young voters have a record of poor turnout in general elections and we can expect that, at the rate things are going, new members of the franchise will skip too.

If Sir Keir Starmer’s government is serious about meaningful change, he should take a look at more radical electoral form. Britain ought to make voting mandatory to reinvent and reinvigorate British democracy. This is a wider problem than just with young people. Turnout in last year’s election was a measly 60% and exposed gaps in ethnicity, region and housing. 

This matters because who turns out to vote affects the way Britain’s parties “play politics”. When they see that young people are not taking part in our elections, it skews their policy choices to be geared towards people who do. In Britain’s case, parties cater towards older voters who make the real difference in elections – this overrepresentation is creating a system of unfairness and poor representation. 

By following the lead of Australia, Singapore and others, it would become harder for politicians to ignore the issues that matter most to young people. Notable publications have come out in recent years linking an ageing electorate, that has a higher propensity to vote, with economic stagnation. Tim Vlandas, a professor of social policy, has argued that ageing populations have incentivised democratic governments to prioritise certain social policies and economic outcomes. He argues that gerontocracies create “gerontonomia” that pursue low inflation and stable pensions.

Older people who are out of the labour market, who have accumulated wealth and rely on pensions have very different experiences of the economy than working-age people. Their role within the economy makes them, generally, less sensitive to economic growth and much more exposed to inflation than other groups. We end up with a voting coalition that does not reward governments that seek to boost productivity and does not punish those that cannot deliver on weak growth. Policies that Britain desperately needs for long-term success including building houses and infrastructure have had the political oxygen sucked out of them. 

Opponents of mandatory voting argue that it flies in the face of the freedoms championed by liberal democracies. Anxiety over whether the state should or should not interfere with the basic freedom to abstain from voting is a valid concern. But a healthy democracy already requires that some civic duties are compulsory, including jury duty and paying tax. It is a compelling argument to say that we should treat voting no differently since it is vital to a representative and responsive political system.

Young people need politicians that do not simply pander to the most convenient demographic but give meaningful considerations for all groups. If Starmer is serious about serious change, he should enfranchise young people and march them to the polls. Electoral reform is not some skeleton key that will magically unlock all of Britain’s potential – it will have to be in lockstep with other systematic reforms of our institutions. Only after our political elites are forced to listen to what young people need will it become possible to achieve greater intergenerational political equality. The alternative is continued drift, relative decline, political disillusionment and a nation unable to deal with the great challenges of our time.

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion