Should 16-year-olds get the vote? Young Tory insists they're not informed enough
26 November 2019, 10:31
A young Conservative activist has told LBC he doesn't think 16-year-olds are knowledgeable enough to be allowed to vote in the general election.
Iain Dale hosted a youth panel with young activists from each party - and it was a fascinating look at the way teenagers today think about politics.
One caller asked whether they felt the voting age should be lowered by two years and the panellists profoundly disagreed.
Layton Smith, a young Tory activist, said: "No. I was too young for the referendum in 2016, but I agree that I shouldn't have been able to vote.
"Talking to peers and friends, they didn't know anything about it. There were one or two that had views on it, but most didn't know anything and said they would vote one way because someone else was voting that way. They follow their friends.
"I don't think 16-year-olds are informed enough."
When Aleisha Stansfield, the Lib Dem supporter, disagreed, Layton added: "The only reason the Liberal Democrats and Labour want 16-year-olds to get the vote is because it is the only way you can win."
Labour's Chloe White claimed she was informed enough to vote at 16 and insisted 16-year-olds had the right to have their say.
And she rowed with Iain when he brought up Jeremy Corbyn's comments on Isis bride Shamima Begun, who he insisted was just a child at 16 and didn't know what she was doing.
