‘We want to be heard’: Lambeth’s young people on being locked out of May 7 elections

With a bill to lower the voting age going through Parliament, 16 and 17-year-olds still won’t get a say on the housing crisis, whether they can afford to stay in …

Apr 30, 2026 - 13:18

‘We want to be heard’: Lambeth’s young people on being locked out of May 7 elections

With a bill to lower the voting age going through Parliament, 16 and 17-year-olds still won’t get a say on the housing crisis, whether they can afford to stay in the area they grew up in, and a load of other issues that affect their lives.

When I was 16, I felt strongly that I should have a political voice just as 18-year-olds do. Now that I am 19, my opinion is largely the same.

Why should a young person, only two years older, have voting rights and 16 and 17-year-olds don’t?

Are the choices an 18-year-old makes much better than those of a 16-year-old?

We’re in a period of political unrest, and our young people are struggling to find opportunity, and I know first-hand how many young people are filled with anxiety and worry for their future. Asking themselves: Will I ever get a decent job? Will I ever have a home of my own?

So I asked some younger people how they felt about having their say at the ballot box ?

Maja Zajko, 16 from Tulse Hill, said:

“I think that changing the voting age from 18 to 16 would create a difference, as many 16 to 17-year-olds will have different beliefs than the older demographic.

However, it could be a risky decision…there are many teenagers who have no idea about the political world.”

– Maja Zajko, 16, Tulse Hill

Maja makes a fair point; many 16 and 17 year olds do not have any “idea about the political world” but the same could be said for many adults over the age of 18.

I spoke to Ciara Alleyne, a 22-year-old Green candidate for Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction, to better understand how she became one of the youngest candidates and how she feels about lowering the voting age.

I first asked her about Maja’s demographic comment would be. Ciara said:

“…every young person is really different. I think we often get treated as one homogenous group, where we all have the same opinions”.

– Ciara Alleyne, 22, Green Party candidate, Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction

She went on to explain that when she was 16, she felt ready to vote but also saw that many of her peers were not in the same position. When she turned 18, she “thought, oh, okay, so, nothing in those two years made any difference about whether young people are ready to vote.”

I had feelings similar to Ciara’s at 16 and again at 18. So what I take from this point is that age is not the defining factor; character is.

The character of a young person differs just as much as the character of adults; no two people are the same, and it is entirely unfair to generalise 16 and 17-year-olds to “one homogenous group”.

Maja had an excellent point though, that education would bridge the gap in young people’s understanding of the political world, saying:

“Voting at 16 could be a good idea; however, it would need to be backed up by giving more information about politics in schools, allowing children to grasp an idea about the different parties.”

– Maja Zajko, 16, Tulse Hill

This is a very fair point, and in practice, it could give more young people the opportunity to change their political futures.

The local 16 and 17-year-olds I spoke to gave me similar answers about who they’d feel safe voting for.

Oliver Raji, 17, said,

“I think that if young people are given the opportunity to vote, they may just do whatever they please without taking into consideration the impact of their vote…I think I’d vote for (the) Green Party”.

– Oliver Raji, 17

Maley Ashby-Nicholson, 17, also said, “I would most likely vote (for the) Green Party” – It was interesting to hear that all the young people in Lambeth I spoke to said they’d vote for the Green Party.

[Ciara Alleyne with Green Party supporters]

Ciara who co-chairs the national Young Greens of England and Wales – the largest youth and student wing of a political party in the UK gave me some insight into why the Greens are so appealing to young people.

Ciara has a background in involving young people with politics, while she also clearly relates to and understands many of the young people in Lambeth:

“I have a very similar background and upbringing to lots of the people in Lambeth. I mean, for me personally, I grew up in a council flat, I’ve got an immigrant parent, and I’m the first in my family to go to university.”

Ciara is in a very “unique position” she says, as she’s not only “speaking on behalf of these people”, but she’s “speaking as one of these people”.

While speaking to Ciara, I felt strongly that the main political parties are not appealing to young people in Lambeth because they lack policies that put young people front and centre.

Ciara said,

“(Most young people) have absolutely no chance of ever getting on the property ladder.

And what the Green Party wants to do is to take back control from the greed that we’re currently seeing in the market…wages aren’t increasing, and young people increasingly can’t afford to rent around the corner from where they grew up…

And then, I’m going to say tax the rich… because I think it’s something that young people uniquely understand, especially with the politics that we’ve grown up with, seeing that people at the top, the 1%…

It’s quite symbolic in a policy; it’s symbolic of taking back power from those who have ignored us for years.”

– Ciara Alleyne, 22, Green Party candidate, Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction

What I’ve heard from 16- and 17-year-olds in Lambeth is that they want to be heard, and not treating them as a single group that all think, feel, and act the same is key to forming an opinion on whether the voting age should be lowered to 16.