Giving teenagers the vote could have won EU referendum for Remain

THE EU referendum could have ended in a Remain victory if 16 and 17 year-olds had been given the vote, the chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament has claimed.
Counted ballots lie stacked on a counting table. Picture: GettyCounted ballots lie stacked on a counting table. Picture: Getty
Counted ballots lie stacked on a counting table. Picture: Getty

There were calls for the voting age to be lowered, in line with the decision to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in this year’s Holyrood elections. But the UK Government ruled it out.

Youth parliament chair Katie Burke said: “Many young people in Scotland are bitterly disappointed by the vote to leave the EU. It is a supreme irony that an estimated one and a half million 16 and 17 year olds across the UK were denied their say in the referendum, yet the difference between the vote for Leave and Remain was only 1,269,501. If those young people had not been denied the right to have a say on their future, the result may have been different.”