Tory MPs accused of blocking bid to lower voting age
Tory MPs were faced with shouts of “shame” after being accused of blocking attempts to lower the voting age.
Labour’s Jim McMahon said MPs on the Government benches had spoken at length during an earlier debate “to reduce the amount of time” available for his proposal to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in UK parliamentary elections, local elections and referendums.
His Labour colleagues shouted “shame” repeatedly before Mr McMahon later told the Commons: “I think the Government benches ought to be very concerned.
“Because 16 and 17-year-olds today might be denied the right to vote but in two years’ time, they will remember who blocked them from having that democratic right only two years earlier.”
In rowdy scenes with both sides heckling each other, Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing also had to intervene to tell MPs: “Order! Order! Order! This is not a football match.
“We are having a debate. We will behave in an honourable and decent manner.”
A last-ditch attempt by Labour’s Wes Streeting (Ilford North) to move a closure motion to curtail the Representation of the People (Young People’s Enfranchisement and Education) Bill’s second reading debate and force a vote failed.
The #votesat16 Private Member’s Bill didn’t get to a vote today! The debate will continue on 1st December and we still have @peterkyle’s Private Member’s Bill on Votes at 16 which should be debated in May. #WeAreReady
— Votes at 16 Campaign (@votesat16) November 3, 2017
Ms Laing ruled not enough time had passed during the debate for the motion to be considered, given that MPs has spent fewer than 90 minutes on the Bill.
Debate on Mr McMahon’s proposal was adjourned at 2.30pm, with the MP asking for it to return on December 1 although it is unlikely to receive time for further consideration on that day.
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