Martin Lewis criticizes Keir Starmer’s stance on lowering the voting age linked to tax contributions

ITV regular Martin Lewis has slammed a “weird” comment made by Sir Keir Starmer about lowering the voting age. The Times reported that Mr Starmer, discussing his policy to lower the voting age to 16, said: “If you pay tax, you should be allowed to say what you think the tax should be spent on.”

Responding to this, Mr Lewis said: “That is quite a strange line reported by Starmer on lowering the voting age. Everyone is eligible to pay tax in the same way.”

“It’s just that most kids don’t earn more than their tax-free personal allowance. By that logic, a 12-year-old who is a movie star, or has a large inheritance or savings, or a round of papers to pay taxes, should get a vote.”

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One Twitter user responded to this, saying: “It’s called Nit Picking.. I’m not a fan of ‘Sir Keir’ but it was mainly the gist of his argument, nothing more.. It’s the kind of picking that it encourages honest people to avoid politics .. leaving it to clowns and crooks”.

Mr Lewis replied: “It is questionable to tie the vote to taxation as an argument. Many people pay taxes who do not get a vote (resident aliens, etc.). I think we have to be careful in the political debate to reflect the realities,” he reports. Birmingham Live.

Another person said: “I personally think it’s much better to say that a 16-year-old will be affected by government decisions as much as an 80-year-old, so why shouldn’t they have the same choice?”.

“If that’s an argument, I want that vote, please. No matter how long I pay tax here, I’m still a foreigner who doesn’t trust a vote. However, for £1,300 I can buy a British passport and then suddenly I have confidence in myself, even though nothing else has changed,” said another.

“Young people who are over the minimum graduation age should be allowed to vote. Most 16/17 year olds I know are more politically aware than the adults I know who are legally inclined to vote for years,” wrote another Twitter user.