UK to lower its voting age from 18 to 16 to strengthen democracy

Britain will lower the voting age from 18 to 16 by the next national election as part of measures to increase democratic participation, the government announced on Thursday.

- Associated Press

The centre-left Labour Party pledged before it was elected in July 2024 to lower the voting age for elections to Britain's Parliament. Scotland and Wales already let 16and 17-year-olds vote in local and regional elections.

Britain will join the short list of countries where the voting age is 16, alongside the likes of Austria, Brazil and Ecuador.

A handful of European Union countries, including Belgium, Germany and Malta, allow 16-year-olds to vote in elections to the European Parliament.

The move comes alongside wider reforms that include tightening campaign financing rules to stop shell companies with murky ownership from donating to political parties.