Teen-age Voters Soon In U.K.?

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31737, 22 July 1968, Page 16

Teen-age Voters Soon In U.K.?

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) LONDON, July 21. A Parliamentary struggle is building up over the prospect of 2,500,000 teen-age voters bursting on to the British political scene.

Electoral reform proposals drawn up by the Labour Government will be published next week, and informed sources say these are bound to include a lowering

of the voting age from 21 to 18. Along with this could well go the right of 18-year-olds to stand for Parliament and, if elected, argue with their elders in the House of Commons. This possibility has aroused misgivings among politicians of all parties. The Conservative Party, in particular, views the change with disfavour; it recently recommended that the voting age would come down by no more than one year to the age of 20. Some Cabinet Ministers and members of Parliament in the Labour Party are known to share these reservations about lowering the political age barrier. Among Labour M.P.s, however, it is conceded that the move might bring some immediate party profit—a large slice of the 2j million voters in the new age category might well be expected to record “a gratitude vote” at their first election, and thus ease the Labour Party through what promises to be a tough contest. Supporters of the proposals are expected to argue that the march of youth is inevitable, and should be approved now, rather than later.