UK-EU Future Relationship: Young Voters Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Smith of Newnham
Main Page: Baroness Smith of Newnham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Smith of Newnham's debates with the Department for Exiting the European Union
(6 years, 3 months ago)
Lords ChamberNone of the positions that the noble Lord takes strikes me as particularly more absurd than any of his other positions.
My Lords, your Lordships’ House voted for 16 and 17 year-olds to be enfranchised in the 2016 referendum. The then Prime Minister was determined that they should not be enfranchised. As the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, said, those people have now reached maturity. In a general election, one would expect to be able to vote to kick out the Government and, at the age of 16 or 17, be able to vote at the next general election. The same is not being said of the referendum. For how long is the 2016 referendum meant to be valid? If we stopped holding general elections, I might have stopped the clock in 2010 and we would have had Liberal Democrats in government in perpetuity.
I am not sure how popular that would have been. Of course, young people who are 16 or 17 will be able to vote in the next general election. No doubt they will have the option, if they are particularly crazy, of voting Liberal Democrats—who may well put the option of rejoining the European Union in their manifesto. We will see how many votes they get on that basis.