“Let’s get involved, get registered and get voting” urges David Cameron, Leader of The Conservative Party. In a series of pre-recorded videos by the party leaders to be released this week the Prime Minster joins Nick Clegg, Leader of The Liberal Democrats and Ed Milband, Leader of The Labour Party, in calling on young people to register to vote in the 2015 General Election ahead of the deadline for registration on Monday 20th April 2015 as part of the League of Young Voters #VotePower campaign. Other leaders have been invited and are expected to add their support.
The coalition, was brought together by the British Youth Council in 2014 to address the challenge that not enough young people are registering and voting in the UK. It aims to get 1.5 million more of those aged 16-25 to registered to vote. In the last general election, for example, only 44% of 18-24 year olds voted in comparison to 76% or 65+ year olds, and last year identified a shortfall in voter registration which we’ve asked all party leaders to address. A YouGov poll published by BYC reported revealed that 71% of 18-24 year olds are definitely registered and 14% think they are – and this is expected to increase as we approach deadline day.
On Monday we’ll be releasing a message from David Cameron, followed by Nick Clegg on Tuesday, Ed Milband on Wednesday and remaining opposition parties on Thursday ahead of the BBC Challengers Debate.
All the parties have been asked by The British Youth Council to respond to young people call for something to vote for by publishing a Youth Manifesto and pledging to introduce a Minister and will be publishing their responses in two weeks.
Mita Desai, Chair of The British Youth Council said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have the party leaders join our campaign to get 1.5 million more young people on the electoral register. The British Youth Council and the hundreds of thousands we represent want to be a positive influence on our democracy and our clear message to young people this week is get registered, vote and be heard”
Watch:
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