Commenting on the publication of the Electoral Reform Society polling on young people and electoral registration, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan MP, said:

“This research reveals the scale of the problem we have in engaging young people in our democracy. Low numbers of young people on the electoral register should worry us all. It’s bad enough that they won’t be able to vote, but it’ll also lead to juries that aren’t representative of society as a whole. That’s why initiatives like today’s National Voter Registration Day play a really important role in getting more people signed up

“It’s going to need a monumental effort to tackle apathy amongst younger people. Labour is committed to extending voting to 16 and 17 year olds and improving citizenship education in our schools. We also need to make registering to vote as easy as possible, so that it fits in with people’s busy lifestyles.

“But by recklessly speeding up moves to individual electoral registration, and stripping out key safeguards put in place by Labour, the Government is taking an enormous risk with the health of our democracy. Millions of eligible voters falling off the register and being deprived of their vote because of the Government’s incompetence could be disastrous.”

ENDS