How Labour stands to lose out from its changes to the electoral system
Had we been given the vote then, I know which party would not have received my support. Sir Keir Starmer's Government must be very confident about how it will perform over the next four years (' Votes at 16 as Starmer panics over Reform ', report, July 18).
Deborah Tompkinson
Maidenhead, Berkshire
SIR – Labour's plan to extend the franchise to 16-year-olds could easily backfire and play into Reform UK's hands.
If these young people were to reflect on their lot, they would realise how both Labour and Conservative policies in recent years have left them significantly worse-off than their forebears. Factors they might consider include: the effect of the bungled Covid response on secondary education, the eye-watering cost of a tertiary education of diminished value, sky-high property prices, a weakening jobs market, collapsing public services and crumbling infrastructure, poor-quality but expensive public transport, an ineffective and wasteful health service, immigration out of control, weakening social cohesion, and a social care system in disarray.
Why would someone vote for any party at least partly responsible for such a catalogue of failings? The appeal of a new, non-establishment party offering a fresh approach to the next generation is clear.
Sam Kendall-Marsden
Huntingdon
SIR – At a barbecue a while ago, I found myself in conversation with a 16-year-old. For no apparent reason, she told me that Margaret Thatcher was an evil person who had ruined the country. I asked how she had reached this view. 'My teacher told me,' she replied.
I suspect Labour's latest move will, in effect, just give extra votes to the Lefties of the education unions.
Tony Palframan
Disley, Cheshire
SIR – Sir Keir Starmer claims that the reason for giving 16-year-olds the vote is that they deserve a say over how their taxes are used. Given that young people are required to stay in some form of education or training until the age of 18, how many 16 and 17-year-olds are actually paying tax?
Peter Higgins
West Wickham, Kent
SIR – Labour's arguably cynical decision to reduce the voting age will create fresh mental burdens for young people, arising from social media saturation by political parties and pundits.
Research published last year indicated that nearly 20 per cent of British 16-to-18-year-olds felt their smartphone usage was problematic, leading to anxiety and depression.
Does the Government really want to make this worse, with the inevitable bombardment of political messaging? Shouldn't these young people be allowed two years to settle into their next stage of life, without having another thing to worry about?
Simon Taylor
Martock, Somerset
SIR – I fear that Annabel Hogan, in her excellent commentary (' Under-18s like me really don't need a say in who runs the country ', July 18), has unwittingly undermined her own argument.
Her grasp of the essentials of the discourse, and the maturity of her expression, suggest that, despite being in her mid-teens, she possesses all the attributes required for competent voting. Her article provides hope that not all young people will be bought off with promises of free ice cream.
Dermot Elworthy
Tiverton, Devon
SIR – I recall being enfranchised at the age of 18. I was still at school.
I walked into the local office of my favoured party and asked the man behind the desk if he could explain why I should vote for it. He curtly asked me to leave. I cast my vote for Screaming Lord Sutch's Monster Raving Loony Party, which at the time was campaigning for greater availability of birth control on the NHS and the return of school milk.
Chris Benn
Grantham, Lincolnshire
SIR – At 18 I voted for Anthony Eden because he was good-looking. He then took us into the Suez Crisis.
Doris Grimsley
Abbey Wood, Kent
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The Guardian
6 minutes ago
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Two UK pro-Palestine organisations have bank accounts frozen
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Sky News
26 minutes ago
- Sky News
Reform UK is on the march - and the most popular party on TikTok. There's just one problem
Reform UK is on the march. Following a barnstorming performance in this year's local elections, they are now the most successful political party on TikTok, engaging younger audiences. But most of their 400,000 followers are men. I was at the local elections launch for Reform in March, looking around for any young women to interview who had come to support the party at its most ambitious rally yet, and I was struggling. A woman wearing a "let's save Britain" hat walked by, and I asked her to help me. "Now you say it, there are more men here," she said. But she wasn't worried, adding: "We'll get the women in." And that probably best sums up Reform's strategy. When Nigel Farage threw his hat into the ring to become an MP for Reform, midway through the general election campaign, they weren't really thinking about the diversity of their base. 1:48 As a result, they attracted a very specific politician. Fewer than 20% of general election candidates for Reform were women, and the five men elected were all white with a median age of 60. Polling shows that best, too. According to YouGov's survey from June 2025, a year on from the election, young women are one of Reform UK's weakest groups, with just 7% supporting Farage's party - half the rate of men in the same age group. The highest support comes from older men, with a considerable amount of over-65s backing Reform - almost 40%. But the party hoped to change all that at the local elections. Time to go pro It was the closing act of Reform's September conference and Farage had his most serious rallying cry: it was time for the party to "professionalise". In an interview with me last year, Farage admitted "no vetting" had occurred for one of his new MPs, James McMurdock. 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The Crown Prosecution Service later said it would not charge Lowe after an investigation. He now sits as an independent MP. 1:04 A breakthrough night But these issues created an image problem and scuppered plans for getting women to join the party. So, in the run-up to the local elections, big changes were made. The first big opportunity presented itself when a by-election was called in Runcorn and Helsby. The party put up Sarah Pochin as a candidate, and she won a nail-biting race by just six votes. Reform effectively doubled their vote share there compared to the general election - jumping to 38% - and brought its first female MP into parliament. And in the Lincolnshire mayoral race - where Andrea Jenkyns was up for the role - they won with 42% of the vote. The council results that night were positive, too, with Reform taking control of 10 local authorities. They brought new recruits into the party - some of whom had never been involved in active politics. 6:11 'The same vibes as Trump' Catherine Becker is one of them and says motherhood, family, and community is at the heart of Reform's offering. It's attracted her to what she calls Reform's "common sense" policies. As Reform's parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Highgate in last year's general election, and now a councillor, she also taps into Reform's strategy of hyper-localism - trying to get candidates to talk about local issues of crime, family, and law and order in the community above everything else. Jess Gill was your quintessential Labour voter: "I'm northern, I'm working class, I'm a woman, based on the current stereotype that would have been the party for me." But when Sir Keir Starmer knelt for Black Lives Matter, she said that was the end of her love affair with the party, and she switched. "Women are fed up of men not being real men," she says. "Starmer is a bit of a wimp, where Nigel Farage is a funny guy - he gives the same vibes as Trump in a way." 'Shy Reformers' But most of Reform's recruits seem to have defected from the Conservative Party, according to the data, and this is where the party sees real opportunity. Anna McGovern was one of those defectors after the astonishing defeat of the Tories in the general election. She thinks there may be "shy Reformers" - women who support the party but are unwilling to speak about it publicly. "You don't see many young women like myself who are publicly saying they support Reform," she says. "I think many people fear that if they publicly say they support Reform, what their friends might think about them. I've faced that before, where people have made assumptions of my beliefs because I've said I support Reform or more right-wing policies." But representation isn't their entire strategy. Reform have pivoted to speaking about controversial topics - the sort they think the female voters they're keen to attract may be particularly attuned to. "Reform are speaking up for women on issues such as transgenderism, defining what a woman is," McGovern says. And since Reform's original five MPs joined parliament, grooming gangs have been mentioned 159 times in the Commons - compared to the previous 13 years when it was mentioned 88 times, despite the scandal first coming to prominence back in 2011. But the pitfall of that strategy is where it could risk alienating other communities. Pochin, Reform's first and only female MP, used her first question in parliament to the prime minister to ask if he would ban the burka - something that isn't Reform policy, but which she says was "punchy" to "get the attention to start the debate". 0:31 'What politics is all about' Alex Philips was the right-hand woman to Farage during the Brexit years. She's still very close to senior officials in Reform and a party member, and tells me these issues present an opportunity. "An issue in politics is a political opportunity and what democracy is for is actually putting a voice to a representation, to concerns of the public. That's what politics is all about." Luke Tryl is the executive director of the More In Common public opinion and polling firm, and says the shift since the local elections is targeted and effective. Reform's newer converts are much more likely to be female, as the party started to realise you can't win a general election without getting the support of effectively half the electorate. "When we speak to women, particularly older women in focus groups, there is a sense that women's issues have been neglected by the traditional mainstream parties," he says. "Particularly issues around women's safety, and women's concerns aren't taken as seriously as they should be. "If Reform could show it takes their concerns seriously, they may well consolidate their support." According to his focus groups, the party's vote share among women aged 18 to 26 shot up in May - jumping from 12% to 21% after the local elections. But the gender divide in right-wing parties is still stark, Tryl says, and representation will remain an uphill battle for a party historically dogged by controversy and clashes. A Reform UK spokesman told Sky News: "Reform is attracting support across all demographics. "Our support with women has surged since the general election a year ago, in that time we have seen Sarah Pochin and Andrea Jenkyns elected in senior roles for the party."
Sky News
30 minutes ago
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Nigel Farage says ex-Reform chair liking antisemitic post about Robert Jenrick and his family is 'one little mistake'
Nigel Farage has said Reform's ex-chairman made "one little mistake" by liking an antisemitic social media post about senior Tory Robert Jenrick and his Jewish wife. Asked to respond to Mr Jenrick calling for Zia Yusuf, who heads up Reform 's 'DOGE' unit, to be sacked over the post, Mr Farage told Sky News: "Everyone makes mistakes. "Robert Jenrick in government made a lot more mistakes than Zia making one little mistake for which he immediately apologised." An anonymous X account posted a video appearing to show Mr Yusuf's account had liked a post on Friday which said: "Reminder that Jenrick is a traitorous Zogbot with a Jewish wife and family." A Zogbot is slang for a conspiracy theory claiming that Jews secretly control Western governments. Mr Yusuf, a multimillionaire businessman, said one of his team "accidentally pressed like on an awful antisemitic tweet" and said: "I apologise for this." He said the post is "equally racist against me" as it refers to "brown savages". "Clearly it was not intentional", he said as he claimed the amount of antisemitism and racism on X is "spiralling out of control". But Mr Jenrick said he calls "bulls***" on Mr Yusuf's claim that it was a team member and a mistake. "You've spent the last 48 hours calling me a 'traitor' for not drawing attention to a leaked spreadsheet with our special forces and MI6 officers' names on," the Conservative tweeted. "But we're meant to believe this tweet attacking me as a traitor for having a Jewish wife and family was liked "accidentally" by "one of the team." You must think we're all thick. "No. The mask has slipped. Likes are private. You thought nobody would ever know. Unfortunately for you, the racist account who posted the tweet and could see the likes exposed you.
