Starmer Says 16-year-olds Should Be Able to Vote because They're 'Old Enough to Pay Taxes'

THE GUARDIAN: Keir Starmer has defended giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote in UK parliamentary election on the grounds that teenagers pay tax. He told ITV News:

“I think it’s really important that 16- and 17-year-olds have the vote, because they are old enough to go out to work, they are old enough to pay taxes, so pay in.

And I think if you pay in, you should have the opportunity to say what you want your money spent on, which way the government should go.

So I’m really pleased we are able to bring more young people into our democracy and give them a chance to have a say over how their taxes are paid and what they are going to be used for. » | The Guardian | Thursday, July 17, 2025

Such hypocrisy! The same argument could be made for the right to smoke. If a man is old enough to fight for his country, if a man is old enough to get married and sire children, then he is also old enough to decide whether he wishes to smoke, or not.

Giving such young people the right to vote is a very cynical political move. Labour prime ministers are fond of reducing the voting age because young people are generally more inclined to be left-wing and therefore vote Labour. It was a Labour prime minister before who reduced the voting age — it was reduced from twenty-one to eighteen. And that was Harold Wilson some fifty years ago. Starmer is behaving true to form.

For what it is worth, in my humble opinion, regardless of political leanings, sixteen-year-olds are far too young to vote. Far too young, too! What does a sixteen-year-old know about politics? – © Mark Alexander