Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Cunningham Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2016 Commons Chamber

The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked—

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

1. What steps the Government are taking to increase the number of young people registered to vote.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Chris Skidmore)]

The Government are building a democracy that works for everyone, including young people. Online registration has made it easier and faster to register to vote, and since its introduction a record 4.2 million applications to register have been made by people aged 16 to 24.

[Mr Cunningham]

That was a very interesting answer. How can the Government be building a democracy when they have excluded nearly 2 million people who were allowed to vote in the referendum, and are going ahead with boundary reviews that will particularly affect young people in universities?

[Chris Skidmore]

We are absolutely committed to taking account of the issues that matter to young people. As for the boundary changes, it is right for us to ensure that every seat is of equal value. It cannot be right for some constituencies to contain 95,000 people and others 38,000. We will ensure that every vote is equal, and that includes those of young people.