There has been a lot of discourse around the new voting age brought in by Labour, and as a 17-year-old I was worried this would boost Reform.
While polling data from Yougov suggests Farage is typically less and less popular the younger the age group, I haven’t seen anyone consider that the under 18s voting next election – assuming one isn’t called early – are currently 12 and 13. I know from personal experience Mr Farage has extremely high exposure among these children, making a fool of himself on TikTok, and occasionally through clips on the website Cameo (few would forget his “up the Ra” faux pas). He has far more youth engagement on social media than any other figure in British politics; extremely bizarre for someone who released an AI-generated rap music video of himself so ridiculous it would make the writers of Spitting Image blush.
It is true that today’s children – tomorrow’s voters – are far more aware of Farage and Reform than any other figure or party. And while exposure is highly important (as our party is sorely aware) it doesn’t directly translate to political success. The truth is, while I am worried Reform will get a greater segment of the under 18 vote than many predict, to quote the title of my favourite film, there is a new hope.
Young people are a more caring, compassionate and considerate group than many give us credit for – and while Farage is certainly infamous to us, it’s more because he’s a funny little man who says funny little things behind our screens than some kind of youth-savvy visionary. Confronted with his “policies” I’m certain most of my peers would flinch in horror: less trans rights, less worker’s rights, less human rights?
Ultimately it comes down to this; Farage and his band of malignant men have captured the dwindling attention-spans of future voters, but these currently 12 and 13 year olds will eventually go in search of what the funny little man actually stands for, and when they do we have to be there; not to give them long lectures, but bite-sized pieces of Reform’s genuine intentions.
He may be funny, but his beliefs certainly aren’t.
* Lewis Page is a Lib Dem member, student and aspiring councillor from Cambridgeshire.
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2 Comments
I’d worry that they’ll mainly vote for the green party and cause them to overtake us in even more seats than they already have. I remember a time back in the 2000s when votes at 16 would have massively boosted our success but even though Labour getting into power finally gives us a chance to regain our lost support amongst young voters we don’t seem to be doing very much at all to achieve this, even though it’s something we used to be very good at.
We need to remember that every proposed government change to the electoral system is driven by only one thing – party political advantage.
Elected mayors,
– nothing to do with devolving powers,
– just a means to create a massive electorate to produce a single figurehead
– under FPTP
– that makes local government easier to control in areas that had 100s of councillors
UNTIL Labour noticed that Reform would likely win most of them
– when Angela Rayner announced a quick change of system to AV (not STV)
– to give Labour a chance but to minimise the risk of the Lib Dems coming through.
Now votes for U18s
– Why?
– Labour believe they will be more likely to vote for them than the population at large.