Sixteen and 17 year olds will be able to vote in all UK elections in the biggest reform to the electoral system since 1969.

The government said it will give young people the right to vote in the next general election, something Labour promised in its manifesto last summer.

They can already vote in Senedd elections in Wales and Holyrood elections in Scotland, but this will mean all 16 and 17 year olds across all four UK nations can vote in local, regional and general elections.

Politics latest: Starmer facing criticism for suspending rebel MPs

Up to 9.5 million more people will now be able to vote, the IPPR thinktank said. The latest figures show 48,208,507 people are registered to vote.

The last time the voting age was changed was in 1969 when it was reduced from 21 to 18.

The government has said the change will “boost democratic engagement in a changing world, and help to restore trust in UK democracy”.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: “For too long public trust in our democracy has been damaged and faith in our institutions has been allowed to decline.       

“We are taking action to break down barriers to participation that will ensure more people have the opportunity to engage in UK democracy, supporting our Plan for Change, and delivering on our manifesto commitment to give 16 year olds the right to vote.   

“We cannot take our democracy for granted, and by protecting our elections from abuse and boosting participation we will strengthen the foundations of our society for the future.”

Majority of Britons do not want to give young people a vote

A YouGov poll of 5,538 adults held in the hours after Thursday’s announcement found 57% of Britons think 16 and 17 year olds should not be allowed to vote, while a third (32%) say they should.

Anthony Wells, head of European political and social research at YouGov, said due to “raw numbers”, 16 and 17 year olds “probably won’t have much impact” as they only make up about 2.8% of the 16+ population.

If their turnout rate is similar to other young people, they will also be a “substantially lower proportion of the actual electorate”, he added.

They tend to vote more heavily for Labour and the Greens – less for the Tories – however, he added this could change if Labour is unpopular by the next election.

No consultation

Conservative shadow communities minister Paul Holmes accused Labour of having “rushed” the announcement out “in an attempt to avoid parliamentary scrutiny and without consultation”, calling it a “confusing message to young people”.

He said it is a “brazen attempt” by a party whose “unpopularity is scaring them into making major constitutional changes without consultation”.

The Tory added: “16-year-olds will be able to vote in an election but not stand as candidates, and they will be able to vote but not permitted to buy a lottery ticket, consume alcohol, marry, or go to war.

“This is a hopelessly confusing policy from Labour, who appear uncertain themselves about what they want young people to be allowed to do.”

Read more:
Voter ID won’t be scrapped, minister says
New rules may stop Elon Musk making unlimited donations to Reform

Bank cards allowed as voter ID

As part of the strategy, voter ID will also be extended to include UK-issued bank cards.

Mr Holmes raised concerns using bank cards for ID will “undermine the security of the ballot box”.

When other IDs that are already accepted, such as the veteran card and UK driving licences, become digitised, they will also be accepted in that form.

A digital Voter Authority Certificate will also be created to ensure electoral registration officers, who maintain registers of electors and absent voters, will be able to accept digital forms of ID.

Close loopholes for foreign donors

In an effort to boost transparency and accountability in politics, the government said it will close loopholes allowing foreign donors via “shell companies” to influence UK political parties.

New requirements will be introduced so unincorporated associations will have to carry out checks on donations over £500 to tackle foreign interference.

The Electoral Commission will also be given new powers to enforce heavier fines of up to £500,000 on those who breach political finance rules, and enable tougher sentences for those who abuse election campaigners.

The final member of the Stockwell Six – who were falsely accused of robbing a police officer on the London Underground in 1972 – has been cleared more than 50 years after his wrongful conviction.

Ronald De’Souza was one of six young black men who were accused of trying to rob British Transport Police officer Sergeant Derek Ridgewell during a night out on 18 February 1972.

Mr De’Souza has been cleared on the same day another man, Errol Campbell, who was investigated by Ridgewell in 1977 also had his conviction quashed after he was wrongly accused of stealing from the depot where he worked.

Ridgewell was a corrupt police officer who was jailed after he was involved in a number of high-profile and controversial cases in the early 1970s.

What happened to the Stockwell Six?

De’Souza and five other men – Texo Johnson, Courtney Harriot, Paul Green, Cleveland Davidson and Everett Mullins – were arrested on the Tube network while travelling from Stockwell station in south London.

They all pleaded not guilty and told jurors police officers had lied and subjected them to violence and threats.

However, five of them, including De’Souza were found guilty and jailed.

Johnson, Harriot, Green and Davidson were all acquitted in 2021.

The sixth member, Mullins, was acquitted at the time because it was proved his reading ability was not good enough for him to have fully understood his signed statement which was written for him by Ridgewell.

Campbell’s conviction quashed

In a separate case, Campbell, who died in 2004, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to steal and theft from the Bricklayers Arms Goods Depot in south London where he was working for British Rail in April 1977.

Giving his judgement at the Court of Appeal after Mr Campbell was cleared on Thursday, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Butcher and Mr Justice Wall, said it was with “regret” that the court could not undo Mr Campbell’s suffering.

He added: “We can however, and do, allow the appeal brought on his behalf, and quash his conviction.

“We hope that will at least bring some comfort to Mr Campbell’s family who survive.”

Campbell ‘became an alcoholic’

In a statement read out by his solicitor, Mr Campbell’s son Errol Campbell Jr said: “The British Transport Police knew that Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell was corrupt, and they let him carry on regardless with what he was doing.

“My dad always said he was innocent, and today, that’s finally been confirmed, almost 50 years later.

“He came to England in the Windrush generation and worked for years for British Rail. The conviction caused absolute misery to my dad and our family.

“Due to the shame and disgrace of this conviction, he found it difficult to get employment, so much so that he fled the country.

“On his return, he became an alcoholic and couldn’t hold down a lollipop man’s job.

“I’m angry that Ridgewell is not alive for this day and that he never went to prison for all the people he fitted up. He never answered for his crimes.

“I am Errol Campbell’s first son. I look like him. Before this, he was a great family man and looked after us as children, and he was dapper. He was a good man.”

Read more:
Convictions of three Stockwell Six members overturned
Stockwell Six man went through 50 years of ‘trauma’

Matt Foot, Mr Campbell Jr’s solicitor, said separately: “Fifty years ago, it was no secret that Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell was racist and corrupt.

“There was a calypso song about him in south London. There was a BBC documentary made about him, nationwide. Millions of people saw that documentary, about him fitting up 16 young black men.

“What did the British Transport Police do? They took Derek Ridgewell into the headquarters. They harboured him, and then they put him back out to commit the misery that you have heard today, the misery that was inflicted on the British Rail workers at the Bricklayers Arms depot.”

When asked about what steps he wished to see the BTP take, Mr Foot said: “Well, first of all, they need to state who was responsible for harbouring Derek Ridgewell in 1973, 74, 75, and then putting him out on duty.

“What is happening about those officers? Have they been held to account? This, also to say, is not going to be the last case relating to Derek Ridgewell… what are the BTP doing about finding those people and resolving those cases?”

Mr Foot is now calling for a change in the law that so when a police officer is jailed, there is an automatic review of their cases to look for miscarriages of justice.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has said today’s decisions mean 13 people from cases involving Ridgewell have now had their convictions overturned.

Mr Campbell had unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in 1978.

His son submitted an application to the CCRC in September 2024, with the help of the charity APPEAL.

Following a review, the CCRC found there was a real possibility Mr Campbell’s conviction would be quashed, and it referred the conviction in February 2025.

In August 2023, the CCRC referred the convictions of Mr Campbell’s co-defendants, Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin, to the Court of Appeal after it tracked down their family members.

The convictions were both quashed in January 2024.

Ridgewell led the case against Mr Campbell and several others, but along with colleagues DC Douglas Ellis and DC Alan Keeling, later pleaded guilty to stealing from the same Bricklayers’ Arms Depot.

Ridgewell died in prison of a heart attack aged 37 in 1982 before he had completed his sentence.

In a previous judgment, the court found their criminal activities between January 1977 and April 1978 resulted in the loss from the depot of goods to the value of about £364,000, “an enormous sum of money at that time”.

“It was like hell on Earth.”

Warning: This article includes references to sexual abuse and suicide that some readers may find distressing.

Colin (not his real name) is one of 19 alleged abuse victims who has come forward following a Sky News investigation into a closed children’s home in Norfolk.

The total number is now 62.

Numerous people have told us that they experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse at The Small School at Red House run by a Danish organisation called Tvind, which has been described as a cult.

Colin was taken into care after being a victim of sexual exploitation, but when he arrived at The Red House at 15, his personal, painful history was used against him.

“A couple of the lads grabbed hold of me,” he said. “They’d been told that I was a rent boy before I got there, they wanted to knock me into shape. I contemplated killing myself. I’d never experienced that humiliation.”

Children were sent to The Red House from all over the country. Some have told Sky News that violent staff broke their fingers, threw them down the stairs and even locked them in rooms with Alsatians.

Sadly for Colin, his experience of sexual exploitation continued at the home.

“They put these three lads in my room, they squeezed me round my neck and I passed out,” he said. “When I came round they were sexually abusing me. I was screaming and screaming. The next day I ran and I never went back there.”

The home was run by the Tvind School Cooperative of Denmark. A controversial group founded in the late 1960s, they opened around 30 radical schools in Denmark, mostly for disadvantaged children, and two in England. Many have since closed.

Inspections by regulatory bodies reveal growing concerns about The Red House. In 1990, the Social Services Inspectorate wrote to directors of local authorities warning them against sending children to the home.

An inspection report made by Norfolk County Council in 1994 shows they were aware of alleged “sexual abuse” and “physical abuse” involving 20 children.

Yet the home continued to operate and three years after that inspection report, Norfolk County Council sent a teenage boy to the Red House.

“Red House was this black hole where they could just dump people and not worry about them,” he says.

“Whilst I was there I can’t even think of one instance when my social worker turned up to come and check on me.”

He is one of the many alleged victims in the process of suing Norfolk County Council and the local authorities which sent children to the home.

Read more:
The Red House: The children’s home run like a cult
The Danish group behind a children’s home run like a cult

Daniel Lemberger Cooper is representing victims on behalf of Imran Khan and Partners.

“[We] urge Norfolk Council, who are the centre of this and whose geographic area Red House was based, to tell the truth. They were aware very early on … about abuse and allegations of abuse and they failed to act.”

Victims are also being supported by the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association who are urging any more people to come forward.

The home was shut down in 1998. Norfolk Police have done two investigations into allegations of abuse but no one has been charged.

Those still working for Tvind in Denmark say they are not associated with the former cooperative.

Norfolk County Council says: “We continue to investigate and respond to those private claims through the appropriate legal channels.

“Our thoughts are with all survivors of abuse but, as there is an ongoing legal claim relating to Red House, we cannot comment further at this time.”

People can contact the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association by visiting: www.smallschoolredhouse.co.uk.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.