Labour ‘to look at’ reducing voting age and increasing franchise to migrants
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roposals to increase the voting franchise are “something we will look at”, shadow enterprise secretary Jonathan Reynolds has stated amid stories Labour plans to permit settled migrants and 16 and 17-year-olds to vote.
But the Labour frontbencher pressured such strikes are “not the final plans for the Labour manifesto”, including: “I don’t think any changes to how the British state works, how democracy works, should ever be considered through any kind of party political lens.”
Mr Reynolds informed Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “I think there are arguments for expanding the franchise, it’s not an area I directly deal with in the shadow cabinet. I’m not going to give a definitive answer on that, but I think we should always be seeking to involve as many people as possible in our democracy…
“It’s something we will look at, but some of the reports, I’ve got to stress they’re not the final plans for the Labour manifesto.”
Mr Reynolds stated his celebration is “always looking at ways to strengthen our democracy”, when quizzed about plans for adjustments to the voting system.
He informed Sky News: “Some of the speculation that’s been in the press about Labour policy actually relates to our policy-making process, it’s not our manifesto, it’s not a statement of party policy, but it’s how we go about doing that.
“We’ve got a process where people put in their submissions, they’re deliberated on, they’re voted upon, so this is not a statement of policy yet, but of course we’re always looking at ways to strengthen our democracy, to involve as many people (as) possible in that, and there’ll be an element of that, reform of how this country operates, how power is shared, in the Labour manifesto, that’s for sure.”
He argued the Conservative Party “seems quite demoralised and as ever full of internal conflicts and battles”, including: “I don’t accept the case that we’re not putting forward specific policies.”
Mr Reynolds stated Sir Keir Starmer’s description of his celebration’s reforms as Clause Four “on steroids” associated to the “level of ambition” of Labour’s “policy platform”.
He informed the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “It means that if you look at the scale of the challenge an incoming Labour government would have, it is, I would argue, bigger than any other point in British history.
“We’ve had an economy that hasn’t performed as it should have for 13 years, we’ve got public services where, let’s be frank, are there any public services today working better than 13 years ago when the Conservatives came to power? No.
“So the scale of what we’ve got to do is not only have the policy platform that meets that, have the courage to change the Labour Party to meet that, that is what Clause Four fundamentally was about. I think that is what Keir has done so far.
“We know there’s more to do, but Keir is making clear, yes we see the challenge is very big, but don’t underestimate our determination to meet that challenge.”
Mr Reynolds insisted his celebration beneath Sir Keir is embodying a “classic Labour offer”.
He informed the BBC: “I think it is incumbent on any political party that’s had a defeat as significant as 2019, to look at itself and say we’re going to have to attract some voters back who didn’t vote for us last time, and I want people who voted Conservative last time to look again at the Labour Party, look at their own priorities and say actually yes, it is Labour who better represent that.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not embodying what I think is a classic Labour offer, I think that is fundamentally what Keir Starmer is about. A stronger set of employment rights, a better industrial policy, making the economy work for working people, rebuilding the NHS.
“There’ll be limitations, of course, on any incoming Labour government there’ll be limited funds, there’ll be priorities we have to make.”
Meanwhile, former Liberal Democrat chief Sir Vince Cable advised to The Observer it could be “highly improbable” that his celebration would enter a coalition with Labour, after the expertise of its “very unbalanced” association with the Conservatives from 2010 to 2015 – however didn’t rule out different methods.