Yahoo News Young people on the election: 'I’ve only ever lived under prime ministers that lied'
The majority of young people who supported Labour in the last election are planning to do so again, but former Liberal Democrat and Conservative supporters are split over whether to remain loyal to the parties, a Guardian callout has shown.
With almost a third of people who registered to vote in a pre-election surge being under 25, young voters could play critical role in this week’s general election.
More than 700 people between 18 and 24 responded to a Guardian callout about young voters. The issues of Brexit, the NHS and the climate crisis were key focal points. Many said they would like to back the Green party but feared their vote would be wasted.
Most of those who voted Labour in 2017 said they planned to do so again, with many saying Jeremy Corbyn offered a vision of meaningful change.
“Corbyn has been fighting on the people’s side for longer than I’ve been alive,” said 22-year-old Gaby in Birmingham, who said she felt the party had been losing touch with its working-class roots until Corbyn’s leadership.
“I’ve only ever lived under prime ministers that lied, schemed, ignored the people’s wishes or ran away. Corbyn makes me excited to be following politics again, he speaks with my voice,” she said.
While most felt voting Labour was the most “realistic” choice to prevent a Conservative majority, many said they would do so reluctantly, having lost faith in the party over a perceived weakness on Brexit and failures to address allegations of antisemitism.
Jack, 20, from Eddisbury, said: “In the current state of the party, I feel unable to consider voting for them. My constituency is a safe Tory seat and I’m quite glad my vote doesn’t count for too much. If I was in a marginal Labour-Tory seat, this decision would be torturous.”
Jamie, 22, in London, who voted Labour in the last election, said: “I like the Green party a lot, especially Caroline Lucas. But I’ve taken the view that, this election, the most important thing to do is to get the Tories out of power. Frankly, [Boris Johnson’s leadership] is terrifying and makes me feel a bit sick.”
For 2017 Conservative voters who contacted the Guardian, Johnson was a polarising figure, losing as many supporters as he had attracted. Some cited his comments on groups including Muslim women, black people, and gay men as reasons for their departure from the party, with many feeling it had morphed into a political project they could no longer support.
“If David Cameron had made those comments or used that language, it would have been unacceptable”, said 21-year-old Ayman from London. “I won’t vote Conservative as long as it’s drifted to the right, and I think it will take at least 10 years to get the centre ground back.”
However, for other voters, the Conservatives’ repeated pledge to “get Brexit done” had cut through the noise, with one describing Johnson as a “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Ben Duncanson, 19, from Warrington, said Theresa May’s handling of Brexit was a “farce” and he now “just wanted it over and done with” – a job he felt was best entrusted to Johnson.
Despite riding high on EU election success and soaring in the early general election polls, the Liberal Democrats have appeared to lose momentum in recent weeks, and most of those who said they would vote for the party this year were doing so tactically.
While Jo Swinson’s commitment to revoking article 50 offered some young voters welcome clarity in uncertain political times, many feared it would aggravate existing social tensions and undermine democracy.
Lewis, a 24-year-old from Shropshire, who voted for the party in 2017, said the policy would not “heal the wounds” that caused Britain’s withdrawal from Europe. “It doesn’t take a majority of the country to win an election, so it wouldn’t democratically override all those that voted for Brexit,” he said.
For many young voters, it seemed that Swinson was unable to escape the shadow of the 2010 coalition government in which she was a minister. Her role in the austerity policies and tuition fee failings of the administration was widely criticised, with both at the forefront of young voters’ minds in light of high rates of youth unemployment, house and rent prices, and record high university tuition fees.
In Hull, Faye Priestley, 22, said she had voted Liberal Democrat in 2017 but would now vote Labour. “Jo Swinson has tried to backtrack and apologise, but how can she support reducing austerity now when she was voting with the coalition?” she said. “It doesn’t make them look trustworthy.”
