My Lords, I follow the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, and the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, with pleasure. I will speak to Amendments 137 and 138, to which I have attached my name. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Lister—I am sorry we have not heard from the noble Lord, Lord Holmes of Richmond, and are yet to hear his case—I oppose Amendment 143 on the basis that it assumes that contribution to society can somehow be measured by income. In fact, we know that many of the people who contribute most to our society, whether they be
carers—there are many young carers in our society—or people involved in the community, are huge parts of their community without receiving any income for that.
I will speak chiefly to Amendments 137 and 138. The noble Lord, Lord Wallace, in introducing this, reflected on the previous group being very English in its debate. That is particularly relevant to this group, as Scotland and Wales have votes at 16—the former having had it since 2015—with full cross-party support, including enthusiastic support from the former Scottish Tory leader and now Member of your Lordships’ House, the noble Baroness, Lady Davidson. It is a pity she is not with us today; I hope she might join us to share her thoughts on this on Report because that would be interesting and informative.
The success of the policy north of the English border has been very obvious, with very high turnout among 16 and 17 year-olds—a higher turnout than for 18 to 24 year-olds, with 75% voting and 97% saying they would vote in future elections. It is also worth noting that research shows they got their information from a wider range of sources than voters of older age groups. There is very strong evidence that people who vote in their first possible election are far more likely to keep voting. We have lost generations of people who have not voted in their first election. If we have votes at 16 and 17, we can see from the Scottish example that people are more likely to vote and keep voting.
I often speak to young people in formal and informal settings. I will insert a little advert here, for Members of your Lordships’ House who are not involved in it, for the Learn with the Lords programme, which is a great way to have contact with young people from a wide range of audiences.
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I speak a great deal to climate strikers. I find that 16 year-olds are, on average, as informed about politics as 60 year-olds, perhaps rather more so. However, I endorse the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, that society would benefit from a great deal more political education and understanding.
It has long been Green Party policy to have votes at 16. I declare an interest in that it would certainly be a benefit to our vote. Thinking long term is a core part of our political philosophy, and for young people, the long term is much more personal than it is for their parents and grandparents. It is their life. However, that is not why we want votes at 16. We want it, as do many others, because our current political structures are tottering, unstable and dangerously undemocratic, and votes at 16, while no panacea, would be a positive step forward.
The historical view is very useful here. The average age of voters in 2019, in our fast-ageing population, with a much lower turnout from that 18-24 group, is higher than it has ever been before, and less representative of the actual population than ever before, as we are seeing many European residents who are losing their right to vote in local elections.
There is also a huge ideological gap between generations, reflecting different life experiences and far higher levels of education in younger age groups. A 16 or 17 year-old is an expert on being a 16 or
17 year-old in a way that no one in your Lordships’ House can possibly be. The voting age also feeds into the age of our parliamentary representation, at least in the other place. If we look to continental Europe, the Parliaments are frequently far younger. In model democratic states such as Scandinavia, Ministers in their 20s and 30s are no cause for comment, reflecting a different kind of political culture which votes at 16 could help to bring in.
I am somewhat surprised and pleased to learn that the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, has pre-empted me in quoting David Runciman and that research. I was also going to suggest votes at six. She has stolen my thunder, but it is something that we might have a chat about later. I have met some very smart and politically engaged nine and 10 year-olds, who have asked some of the most pointed and difficult questions of anyone that I have ever encountered. They very often ask: “Why are things this way, why aren’t they different?” from a perspective which is very valuable.
The noble Lord, Lord Wallace, said that he introduced this as a probing amendment, but I put a proposition to your Lordships’ House. Our membership has an average age of 71 years. Would it not be a gift for us to put votes at 16 into the Elections Bill?