At 16 you can: join the armed forces, apply for a driving licence, pay national insurance, leave school and these are all things I think we could describe as significant milestones
Yet up until this point one of the things you cannot do is to vote in a UK general election, an election that determines so much of what is linked to those milestones, From the early days of our democracy, progress was made in widening the vote, but many people who played an important role in society were still left out.
Votes at 16 in Wales for the Senedd elections have now been in place for over 5 years, and I am sure the government will seek to learn lessons not only from its implementation but from the engagement process which will be so vital.
This process will be crucial for schools across Wrexham. When I visit and speak to pupils, they consistently tell me they want—and need—opportunities to engage with democracy in a formal way. That is why proposals such as inclusion in teacher training, a clear and coordinated approach to media literacy, and requirements on social media platforms to support this engagement must be considered
Yet they will be voting in a system that is clearly not fit for purpose.
We know that public trust in politics has significantly deteriorated over recent times and people up and down the country feel unrepresented and unheard.
This in part is what led to an average of 4 in 10 people not casting a vote at the last General Election. For a country the size of Britain, this fact should shame us all. I would observe that Governments of all shades up to this point have not treated non- voting with the seriousness that it clearly warrants.
Multi-party politics is nothing new to British politics, but trends point to its significance growing and growing to the point where it is possible that in many seats at the next general election, you could see as many as 4 or 5 parties in with a chance at winning.
This presents the possibility of a very real scenario where majorities are commonly being won on less than 20%, meaning only 1 in 5 voters in a particular constituency would have voted for the winning candidate.
Whilst this may suit the interests of an individual party, it will not be in the interests of our democracy and all that we value about it.
I welcome that within the scope of the Representation of the People Bill is the inclusion of a commitment to move towards a system that will allow for the automatic registration of voters.
Research has consistently shown that between different groups of ethic and social-economic backgrounds rates of registration vary and all contribute to someone’s likelihood to be on the electoral register.
Automatic voter registration has the potential to remove unnecessary administrative barriers, reduce inequality in political participation, and ensure that our electoral system better reflects the society it seeks to represent. By shifting the responsibility from the individual to the state, we can take a meaningful step towards a more inclusive and representative democracy.
We should never see or treat democracy as something that is guaranteed, it is after all something that did not exist throughout most of our country’s long history and by comparison new.
We have seen warning signs from across the world that it is not, and we should not ignore but be proactive in taking them on board.
Trust, stability, and legitimacy are at the cornerstone of what we value about British democracy, but further fragmentation of votes could risk unintended consequences and risks in the long term that are beyond our control.
One of those risks, is the rising power of social media accounts that are openly sharing disinformation and bot accounts that are then spreading them to far reaching audiences. This is combined with technological advances which are making hard to differentiate between what is real and what is not. And I welcome actions we have seen from the Government to hold social media companies to account and to get them to act on this.
Around 60% of the population now support some kind of proportional representation, so we must dismiss any idea that it is an issue that does not warrant significant airtime and discussion within our political settings.
I also note the importance of the letter published by over 50 leading academics, from universities up and down the country, regarding the risks that First Past the Post poses to Britain, included amongst its signatories are the former chief of the Electoral Commission, Bob Posner.
Proportional representation can be the next chapter in Britain’s democratic renewal, following landmark reforms such as the Representation of the People Act 1918, the devolution settlements of 1998, and the introduction of directly elected mayors under the Local Government Act 2000.
Few would argue that these have taken our democracy backwards and not forwards.
This bill does so much to be proud of, giving the vote to 16 and 17 year olds, new rules to provide greater transparency and security on political donations, measures to prevent foreign actors from interfering in the UK’s election, improvements in voter registration, measures to protect candidates, campaigners, and electoral staff from abuse, and I look forward to supporting its passage through the house.
I ask the government that alongside this, to give serious consideration to the inclusion of a National Commission on electoral reform that can act as the anchor to taking this next great step for British democracy.
