European Union Referendum Bill

With this it will be convenient to take the following:

Amendment 51, in page 1, line 17, le...

I shall speak to amendments 18 and 19 and new clause 2.

It is apt that we are debating our ...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?

I would love to give way on that point—in fact, this is the first intervention I have taken.

I feel privileged that I am able to give the hon. Gentleman his first intervention, but may I tel...

I am not terribly surprised to find out that Labour Members are split. I thank the hon. Gentleman...

On Second Reading the Secretary of State rejected the strong case that the hon. Gentleman is maki...

As is often the case, the hon. Lady is absolutely spot on. The facts that I have read out show th...

The hon. Gentleman was giving reasons why young people would be interested in the referendum in g...

The hon. Gentleman made an excellent contribution on Tuesday, and he makes an excellent point tod...

Is not this about trusting young people to make informed decisions about their future, given that...

The hon. Gentleman speaks for the other side of the Labour party on this—I wonder whether there i...

rose—

I have given way to Members on the Opposition side of the Committee, so I would be delighted to g...

The hon. Gentleman speaks fluently on the legitimacy of 16 and 17-year-olds participating in this...

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, and I respect his service. Voting in an election and tryin...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will make some progress for the moment. I have been generous so far, and I will happy to take m...

Surely not Tories!

I can tell the hon. Gentleman that votes at 16 are supported not just by the SNP, Labour, the Gre...

Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the reasons there has been such a change in attitude in Sco...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. We found that 16 and 17-year-olds, in particular, were studyin...

I have lots of 13, 14 and 15-year-olds in my constituency who have very good political views on a...

As the hon. Gentleman will be aware—he was clearly not listening earlier, so I will repeat it—at ...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Not at the moment; I will make some progress.

On the example of the Scottish Bill, for whic...

It is a pleasure to be called so early in this debate. With no disrespect to the hon. Member for ...

I rise to speak to amendment 1, which would extend the franchise for the referendum to 16 and 17-...

If the right hon. Gentleman is going to cite a list of things that people can do at 16, he also n...

The hon. Lady makes the point that not every right and legal responsibility is conferred on peopl...

I find this very awkward, because I nearly always agree with my right hon. Friend, but is not wha...

I have huge mutual respect for my hon. Friend, but I do not see the connection between extending ...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that schools and colleges have a role to play? Perhaps the though...

I do not think any of us would ever want schools to be engaged in partisan debate, but schools do...

The argument that the right hon. Gentleman is employing could equally be made for 13, 14 and 15-y...

As I said, the rules of the hon. Gentleman’s own party allow people to join at 15, but we have re...

The right hon. Gentleman says that he is fixed on 16 as the age at which legal rights accrue to t...

We could argue that there are some rights that people do not get even at 18. In the end, it is a ...

A small minority of Labour Members worry that we will make 16 the age of becoming an adult, which...

My hon. Friend has made his point about shrinking childhood before. I say to him that maturity is...

The right hon. Gentleman will remember from our happy days together in the Labour club at Edinbur...

I thank the hon. and learned Lady for her intervention.

The issue before us is the UK’s fut...

One of the key rights that we have as citizens in this country is to be judged by a jury of our p...

That is not part of our amendments, but I am sure such things can be considered in other debates....

I associate myself with what my hon. Friend the Member for Eddisbury (Antoinette Sandbach) said, ...

I believe that the long-term trend will be towards enfranchisement at a younger age, for some of ...

Although some say that the voting age should be dealt with generally rather than specifically, is...

The decision was taken for the Scottish referendum because the power to do so was devolved. The p...

It may be helpful if I remind the right hon. Gentleman that in the last Parliament the House in f...

It did, but it was not put into legislation in the way that we have the opportunity to do today.<...

I am delighted that the right hon. Gentleman has given way on the nature of the legislation befor...

I thank the hon. Lady for her praise of my amendment, but its effect would be clear and we have t...

We all visit schools in our constituencies, and I am sure I am not alone in thinking that some of...

Does my hon. Friend think that 16 and 17-year-olds are mature enough to decide whether to buy a p...

My hon. Friend will not be surprised to hear me say that I do not think that we should widen the ...

I, too, often speak to sixth-form colleges, and after a discussion about whether 16 and 17-year-o...

Absolutely not. I am clearly talking to very different young people in south Devon. I agree that ...

Does my hon. Friend agree in principle that votes at 16 is an idea whose time has come, but that ...

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that the time has come. The time came in Scotland, and we ...

The hon. Lady is making a rigorous case. I agree with her very much about the importance of infor...

I think the hon. Lady knows that I agree with her on the importance of PSHE in schools, and there...

My hon. Friend is making a persuasive and enlightened case. She is right: we should never be fear...

I agree with my hon. Friend, but we can sometimes use excuses to delay important issues. The impo...

My hon. Friend is making a strong argument, but, to reflect the point raised by my hon. Friend th...

My hon. Friend is right that we need to debate it. We need to do that too, and I will be making e...

Taking a philosophical approach, if we look at, say, young offenders institutions and prisons, is...

Let me point out to my hon. Friend that one of the things I campaigned long and hard on in the la...

But they are children.

But the point is that these are children who are being incarcerated. The inquiry on child and ado...

My hon. Friend may not be surprised to know that I agree that it is time for people to have votes...

Order. Before the hon. Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) continues, I should say that there has be...

There will always be inconsistencies. We will never get complete consistency on the threshold iss...

I am always keen to follow what my hon. Friend has to say and the thoughtful way in which she mak...

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, but I feel that this is the right age to have the op...

Are not the people who are arguing against votes at 16 also doubting, by extension, the virtue of...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point and take another intervention.

Does the hon. Lady think there are lessons to be learned about what happened in Scotland, where t...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Who could have watched that extraordinary debate, the mos...

I congratulate the hon. Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) on her speech, and I absolutely agree wi...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that there is a valid reason for extending the franchise to members...

I will not be diverted into a long argument, but I have constituents and friends who are Poles, w...

The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point. In Scotland, we have an excellent Polish community, ...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention.

On the question of EU citizens, there is a...

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his pronunciation of all those names.

In her brilliant spe...

I take that point entirely. The letter that the New Europeans sent to the Prime Minister points o...

The right hon. Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) read out a powerful list of othe...

That is true, but there remains an anomaly which is not dealt with by what has been said by eithe...

I am happy to have added my name to the hon. Gentleman’s very sensible amendment. What reasons ha...

I will let my Front-Bench colleagues speak for themselves. I will not put words into their mouths...

The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful case for his amendment in arguing against differentiation...

I understand what the right hon. Gentleman is saying, but the referendum is about the European Un...

I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman’s argument relates to the complexities of our current system...

That is not a question that I can answer at this stage. We have residence rules with regard to pe...

The hon. Gentleman makes a powerful case, as does that email, but first, may I gently remind him ...

Order. Before the hon. Gentleman responds, I must say that interventions are supposed to be on a ...

There is no proposal from the Government, and that is why my amendment explores exactly what thei...

Is the hon. Gentleman therefore restating his opposition in principle to a referendum and to allo...

It is a pity the hon. Gentleman was not here on Tuesday to hear my response to another interventi...

Will the hon. Gentleman consider the fact that some people who miss out during elections are impa...

The problem with that argument is that the hon. Gentleman’s party agreed to a local government an...

Surely, the hon. Gentleman recognises that one way to guarantee that the referendum will not be s...

The choice is clear: we could have the local government franchise, which would allow European Uni...

Does the hon. Gentleman think that the Bill is a local or a national matter? If he thinks that it...

This Bill is more than a local or national matter; it has wide-ranging international implications...

Conservative Members liken this argument to arguments about local government, but the Scottish re...

I absolutely agree with that. I will conclude my remarks with the hope that both Front-Bench team...

I would like to say it is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes), but...

rose—

Let me make a little progress, because Scottish Members have made a lot of comments in this debat...

A study by the University of Edinburgh showed that if people engage at 16, that increases their c...

I respect the right of the Scottish people to draw those conclusions, but my conclusion is that w...

The turnout in my constituency was 72%, which was significantly higher than the turnout across th...

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman, but his turnout was lower than my turnout. Having said that, m...

Has my hon. Friend considered the issue of who the electoral roll and electoral data should be ma...

My hon. Friend makes a valid point, but I will be chided if I go down that route because it is no...

rose—

I know that I mentioned the word Scotland, so I shall give way to the hon. Lady.

Does it not strike the hon. Lady that whenever franchises have been extended in this country, whe...

The hon. Lady has just made my point. My point is: why not any age? She has exactly made the poin...

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is extremely rich of the Opposition to have a view on the detai...

My hon. Friend reinforces my point. Up until this very moment, the Opposition did not want us to ...

rose—

I shall certainly give way to the right hon. Gentleman who does not bluster.

I missed that last comment. I thank the hon. Lady for giving way. Just to be clear: she keeps ref...

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right; I hope that he will forgive my comments. We have ma...

My hon. Friend said that her father might have thought she was eccentric voting at the age of 18,...

Order. The hon. Gentleman is referring to the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr Clegg)....

I have been gently chided from going down that route. The point is that a referendum is something...

I rise to speak in favour of amendments 51, 1, 2 and 18. Having been advised that the lead amendm...

The right hon. Gentleman takes a snipe at the Conservative party for refusing to take certain dec...

The hon. Gentleman will know that that is not the case. In the previous Government, we legislated...

The corollary of the right hon. Gentleman’s argument is that he is advocating the abolition of th...

Order. Saying “While I am on my feet” is almost the same as saying “and secondly”. Members should...

I certainly agree with the hon. Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) on the latter point, if I m...

As we all know, rightly or wrongly, many of the people who would vote to leave the European Union...

I will let the hon. Gentleman speculate on that, but what is clearly inflammatory is that 2.3 mil...

I welcome the right hon. Gentleman’s mention of consistency. Perhaps he could remind the House of...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, but I suspect that given the ferocity with whic...

I believe passionately—I have spoken on this point before, both in this place and outside it—that...

The percentage of young people who turned out in our election just past is expected to have been ...

The hon. Lady makes a good point about the nature of a referendum, although if I understood her c...

On the point about referendum turnout, is my hon. Friend aware of the Electoral Commission study ...

I will attempt to draw the statistically based interventions together into a broader point: young...

The hon. Lady makes some good points, and I hope she will join us in the Lobby tonight, unlike th...

The hon. Gentleman makes a sound point. Voting is a habit that is formed early, and we ought to t...

My hon. Friend’s point about low turnout among younger voters is a good one. What is her opinion ...

Unfortunately, mathematically my hon. Friend may well be right. I am endeavouring to avoid the dr...

My hon. Friend is a great expert on these matters. The point has been made that efforts to encour...

Yes, I do agree. I think my right hon. Friend is echoing a point made by the hon. Member for Nort...

One does not have to speculate about the effect of lowering the voting age to 16. Musings from th...

I take that point, but I still think the evidence is mixed. We have one—very strong—example. Ruth...

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and allowing me to make a point in response to the hon. Mem...

My hon. Friend places me in a difficult position. As he was responding to the hon. Member for Arf...

Sorry, I apologise.

If I may, Mr Howarth, I will suggest that the two hon. Members sort themselves out. [Laughter.]