Labour is re-engaging young people
—Today’s generation of young people are better informed, better networked and more challenging of conventional orthodoxies than their predecessors. An increasing number are entrepreneurs, community leaders and the creative talent driving our economy, public services and voluntary sector. Despite their vitality and innovation many tell us that, having worked hard and done all the right things, they are struggling to progress and anxious about the future. This anxiety is echoed by parents and grandparents who fear this will be the first generation of young people not to experience the intergenerational progress taken for granted through the ages. In celebrating this exceptional generation we must also acknowledge that too many young people in our society continue to be cut off from the opportunities available to others, trapped in a cycle of low expectations and low aspirations.
The disparity in turnout at elections is the unspoken scandal of our democracy. Based on recent trends in 2015, less than 50 per cent of Generation Y (18-to-35-year-olds) are likely to vote in 2015 compared to nearly 80 per cent of over-65s. This situation has been made worse by the government’s voter registration changes, which have led to one million people, many of them students, dropping off the register.
This democratic deficit skews the priorities of political parties and too often leads to politicians writing off young people as ‘non-voters.’ Ed Miliband has taken a different view and has asked me to lead a young voter campaign, supported by Lisa Nandy and Janet Royall which is the beginning of a new long-term approach to improving Labour’s engagement with young people, a campaign building on excellent work to increase registration and support among students.
If we are serious about reaching out to young people, a ‘more of the same’ approach to politics will not work. That is why Miliband launched Shape Your Future in January, beginning our new dialogue with young people by asking them to help write a unique young people’s manifesto for this election, and sharing our existing policies while asking young people to identify gaps, priorities and fresh ideas. As well as thousands of young people completing an online survey, candidates and frontbenchers are holding townhall meetings with young people.
They have told us that Labours plans for better future joins with their priorities. Young people want to take responsibility for their own lives, but expect government to be on their side as guarantor of fairness, ensuring hard work is rewarded through good jobs with fair pay and career progression based on talent not background. They want better information and advice about options beyond school and action on the cost of university and the availability of high-quality apprenticeships. They worry about Tory fragmentation of the NHS and are passionate that mental health should have equal status to physical illness. Affordable housing, whether to rent or buy, is a top priority. For young people, starting a family and the costs of childcare can be prohibitive and pose a real challenge to those wanting to combine family and career. Many young people share Miliband’s view that inequality is corrosive and want their country to be leading the world in tackling global poverty, climate change and promoting human rights.
In all of these areas, Labour has a compelling offer and is taking action on issues such as increasing the minimum wage, abolishing exploitative zero-hours contracts, and ensuring tenants are not ripped off by private landlords. Our pledge to reduce tuition fees and improve maintenance grants will make a real difference to students who have suffered as a result of a Liberal Democrat betrayal which has done so much damage to young people’s trust in politics.
Our challenge is threefold: to inspire people beyond individual policies with a radical message of hope and optimism about a better future; to make young people aware of our offer via social media and face-to-face contact; to reassure young people that we will deliver on our promises and run an open government where the voice of young people will be heard on an ongoing basis – the damage to trust caused by the Liberal Democrat betrayal on tuition fees cannot be overstated.
Our mission is to build a new coalition for change among young people. A coalition of those who are ambitious for themselves and idealistic about a fairer society. In every community young people should not only be our supporters, but our champions among their peers, workmates and families. We are reaching out to them as important voters in this high-stakes election. But by getting it right we will also be investing in the long-term renewal of our party and our democracy.
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Ivan Lewis MP is Labour’s young people campaign coordinator and shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland