If you are old enough to work and pay taxes, you should be able to vote. A viewpoint I have echoed for over a decade and finally, it is shared by the Prime Minister. The government is planning a raft of electoral reforms including allowing 16 and 17-year-olds the chance to vote in general elections. Other reforms include expanding acceptable voter ID and new and tougher rules to safeguard against abuse of campaigners and foreign political interference. Finally, Britain looks to be becoming more democratic.
Extending the franchise
The Scottish independence referendum of 2014 saw 16 and 17-year-olds in Scotland be given the right to vote on whether Scotland should be an independent country. This was the first time that young people in that age bracket were given the right to vote anywhere in the UK and the Scottish National Party continued this practice for all Scottish Parliament and local government elections with Wales doing the same. Now, Labour are seeking to do the same with Keir Starmer aiming to bring forward legislation that will see 16 and 17-year-olds across the country be allowed to vote in UK elections by the next general election.
Voter ID
When the Conservatives under Boris Johnson first introduced the law that people had to show photo ID to vote, Labour opposed the move with Keir Starmer, then leader of the opposition, saying that it risked “locking people out of democracy”. He was right with the Electoral Commission saying that 3% of people in the UK did not have eligible photo ID to allow them to vote.
Now in government, Labour under Keir Starmer is not scrapping this policy. They are, however, expanding the accepted forms of voter ID to include UK-issued bank cards. Whereas this isn’t a reversal of Johnson’s draconian policy, it is a mitigation as many more people who didn’t have acceptable forms of ID will do now.
Go further
As with his approach to Europe, including the recently signed UK-Germany treaty, the Prime Minister is doing well but needs to go further.
Currently we have a voting system in the UK that allows a party to win 63.2% of all parliamentary seats with only a third of voters voting for it. It can see MPs elected with sometimes less than 25% of the vote and have a party with 6.7% of the vote to get less than 1% of the seat share. Britain needs a voting system that gives parties a share of elected representatives that matches the share of the vote they achieved.
The franchise must also be extended to include citizens of other nations who have come to the UK and made it their home. Because as Keir Starmer rightly says (albeit somewhat paraphrased), if you work and pay taxes, you should have the opportunity to have your say. So, if foreign nationals make the UK their home and work and pay into the nation, they should have the right to vote. In a time of unease and unhappiness with the welfare cuts, two-child benefit cap and winter fuel allowance cut, I am glad to see more positives coming from the government. Will these reforms reinvigorate democracy and restore trust in politics? Only time will tell. Will Labour go further and implement a fairer voting system as its members voted for at the 2022 and 2023 party conferences? Will Labour extend the franchise to foreign nationals living, working and paying tax in the UK? We can only hope.
