Britain will lower its voting age to 16 in a bid to strengthen democracy

A woman exits a polling station set up at St. Anne's Church, Bermondsey, in London, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

LONDON — Britain will lower the voting age from 18 to 16 before the next national election as part of measures to increase democratic participation, the government announced Thursday.

The centre-left Labour Party pledged before it was elected in July 2024 to lower the voting age for elections to Britain’s Parliament. Scotland and Wales already let 16- and 17-year-olds vote in local and regional elections.

Britain will join the short list of countries where the voting age is 16, alongside the likes of Ecuador, Austria and Brazil.

The move comes alongside wider reforms that include tightening campaign financing rules to stop shell companies with murky ownership from donating to political parties. Democracy Minister Rushanara Ali said the change would strengthen safeguards against foreign interference in British politics.

The government also said it will introduce automatic voter registration and allow voters to use bank cards as a form of identification at polling stations.

The previous Conservative government introduced a requirement for voters to show photo identification in 2022, a measure it said would combat fraud. Critics argued it could disenfranchise millions of voters, particularly the young, the poor and members of ethnic minorities.

Elections watchdog the Electoral Commission has estimated that about 750,000 people did not vote in last year’s election because they lacked ID.

Turnout in the 2024 election was 59.7%, the lowest level in more than two decades.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, head of left-leaning think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, said the changes were “the biggest reform to our electoral system since 1969,” when the voting age was lowered to 18 from 21.

The changes must be approved by Parliament. The next national election must be held by 2029.

“For too long public trust in our democracy has been damaged and faith in our institutions has been allowed to decline,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said. “We are taking action to break down barriers to participation that will ensure more people have the opportunity to engage in U.K. democracy.”

The Associated Press