Evans: Line needs to be drawn somewhere

Friday, 06, Jun 2008 12:00

Conservative MP Nigel Evans says the existence of a minimum voting age means some, inevitably, will feel cheated of their vote.

He was speaking as MPs debated proposals to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 years in a failed private member's bill in the Commons today.

"Let us consider the example of somebody who happens to be 17 years, 11 months and three weeks old — almost 18 — at the time of a general election. Such a person has clearly failed to reach the relevant age, but they will feel cheated because with another four days they would have been able to vote. The reality is that we need to have a cut-off time. If we used 16 as that point, someone who was one day short of being 16 would rightly feel cheated too. We need a line or a barrier at some stage, and some people will fall past it and others will fall the other way."