Voting At 16 by Elana Leask
16 Year Olds Allowed to Vote in the UK
How will this affect votes and what is projected to happen in the next general election?
On the 17th of July 2025 the UK government publicly announced that all 16- and 17-year-olds are now allowed to vote in Britain. This will mean an estimated extra 1.5 million people able to vote! However, approximately half of those people do not want to vote when a poll was taken by ITVX. Similarly, in SJHS, S1- S3 did a vote on if we think 16 – 17-year-olds should be able to vote;
5 said no, they should not
24 said yes, they should
9 decided not to vote
So therefor at SJHS the majority of S1 – S3 think that yes16- to 17-year-olds should be allowed to vote. Will everyone under 18 vote? Will they favour a specific party?It will all be found out in the next election! The government has said that in the UK all 16 and 17 will be allowed to vote in the next general election,
One big question is why? The UK government has been recently making a lot of changes for a more inclusive UK. One of which is allowing people to vote from the age of 16 and up. The youths of Britain have been overall very pleased with the change as they had been pushing for it for a long time.
A sign reads “Our voices matter vote at 16”
So what do you think? Is the new law a perfect new perspective or an ill informed interpretation? Article by Elana Leask, S1
