Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds will be able to vote in the next British general election.
This is according to a new Elections Bill which the government is looking to pass.
There will be a number of other reforms under the Bill, including expanding the types of voter ID that can be used to verify identity in elections, as well as tightening up rules around political donations.
Lowering the voting age was part of the Labour Party’s manifesto before last year’s general election, which Labour won by a landslide.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was quoted by the BBC as saying: “I was a mum at 16; you can go to work, you can pay your taxes, and I think that people should have a vote at 16.”
However, the opposition Conservative Party said the government’s position was “hopelessly confused”. Tory MP Paul Holmes said that it did not make sense that a sixteen-year-old couldn’t buy a lottery ticket or a beer or go to war, but could vote and stand in elections.
The last time the UK changed the age at which people could vote was in 1969, when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18.