Teenagers are uncertain about whether they will vote at all at the next election despite Labour's plan to give 16-year-olds the vote, according to a new poll. Almost half of 13 to 17-year-olds said they either do not know which political party they would support or are unsure whether they would even vote.
The survey by the Children's Commissioner found 'widespread disengagement and uncertainty' about politics among young people, painting a bleak picture of the future of Britain's democracy. Today's teenagers are growing up worried about their futures and uncertain about voting at all, Dame Rachel de Souza will warn in a speech after the local elections.
It comes after Labour was accused of attempting to rig future elections by giving the vote to 16-year-olds, which would see an estimated four million children enfranchised by 2029. But the Children's Commissioner said that many young people are approaching this milestone feeling disconnected from politics as she warned that 'as a nation, we're at a crossroads'.
Dame Rachel said: 'For the first time, hundreds of thousands of children will be eligible to vote in the next general election at 16 - but my polling of how children intend to vote shows teenagers are uncertain about voting. Many say they don't know which political party they would support, or even if they would vote at all.'
The survey found that 28 per cent of children polled do not know which party they would vote for and 20 per cent said they do not know whether they would vote at all. Some 11 per cent said they would not vote in the next general election - the same proportion that said they would vote for Labour. A further 9 per cent said they would back Nigel Farage's Reform UK, 8 per cent said they would cast their ballot for the Green Party, 5 per cent would vote for the Conservatives and 3 per cent for the Liberal Democrats.
Nine in 10 children surveyed said they worry about the future, with concerns ranging from having a good home and enough money, to war and conflict. Dame Rachel said: 'We are making the biggest change to the franchise in 50 years, at a time when many are asking if childhood today is as good as it was for generations past. There is growing uncertainty about childhood today - from screen time to schooling, from future jobs to AI - yet children consistently tell me they're not heard and excluded from the debate.'
The commissioner has called on politicians to engage more with children to address this disconnect many young people are feeling with democracy. 'How we respond to children's challenges will define what it means to grow up in England and shape how a generation engages in democracy for years to come,' Dame Rachel said. She will launch another survey on Friday called the Big Future, a poll to hear from England's children aged 0 to 18 about whether politicians listen to their views and what the Government needs to do to improve childhood.
