What do young Britons really think?

Good morning. The markets have taken a dim view of POTUS and his revealed preference for chaos. There is a lot of great analysis from my FT colleagues on this and we have a tariff tracker here. But as the dust settles on the overnight retreat from some of it, let’s take a slight detour to our own shores and delve into something domestic: what do young people in the UK really think about politics?

The secret of youth

As the Commons got through last-minute business before rising for recess, prime minister Keir Starmer reiterated to the gathered select committee chairs that Labour is determined to push on with votes at 16. Many thought this manifesto commitment would be firmly on the back burner given all the headline issue firefights his government is currently engaged in. Whatever the true timescale turns out to be, it’s worth considering what impact this might actually have on British politics.

Happily a new piece of research has landed. So far, most of what we know is simple: the lower you get down the age range, the lower the turnout. In other words, younger eligible voters, currently 18 and above for general elections, don’t make their voice heard at the ballot box — leading to a lack of attention to their challenges from campaigning candidates and parties.

The John Smith Institute, a non-aligned charity based in Scotland that promotes young people’s engagement in politics across the UK, has just released a large 2025 Youth Poll that surveyed 16- to 19-year-olds.

A few headline findings here — but I recommend the full report for a wealth of new insights on these often-ignored future voters and what makes them tick. Broadly, it’s economic woes and insecurity. The top source of anxiety is housing, followed by the NHS and then making work pay. It’s only further down their list of priorities that you find the broader, topical issues often in the news — including the impact of ‘toxic masculinity’ and proposals to ban social media for under-16s (spoiler: they support that one).

When it comes to politics, Eddie Barnes, the centre’s director, said the study revealed a “contempt” that contains a warning: some have an appetite for a completely different approach. Sixty per cent said they would consider voting for an independent candidate rather than one of the parties. And most agreed that “democracy is in trouble” — that politics is “weird” and “something only done by a strange caste of odd obsessives”.

Calls for less divisive politics and everybody working together to solve the nation’s challenges can sound a bit happy-clappy in the abstract — is it really what voters reward in actual elections? Would younger voters, when enfranchised, really behave differently? But there is a degree of jeopardy for the parties in choosing to ignore these warnings about young people’s views completely.

And some of this becomes urgent: elections to the Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd already allow votes from the age of 16 and both fights in 2026 could be very tough for Starmer’s party. Reform UK is extremely ambitious for a breakthrough in Wales, where Labour has run the show — sometimes in coalition and sometimes alone — ever since devolved government was introduced by the Blair government in its first term.

So even if the prime minister finds this manifesto commitment tricky to honour in terms of a lower voting age for electing MPs, there is a significant early test coming — not least of whether there is a dramatic divergence in the political leanings and world view of young men and young women, a global phenomenon that John Burn-Murdoch has tracked.

Political scientists love to argue over whether the idea of a “Reform surge” — or even anti-democratic sentiment — is a real phenomenon among young people in Britain. We are yet to find out. But it’s an almost daily debate on the wonky end of social media (from me, to be clear, this is not an insult!). My favourite recent example: the poll commissioned by Channel 4 suggesting that more than half of Gen Z would like a dictatorship. But when polling expert Bobby Duffy and his KCL Policy Institute looked at the topic closely they came up with a strong corrective — it was more like 6 per cent.

Digital health service is no cure-all

One final thought, based on a news story by Laura Hughes that proved very popular with FT readers. Billions have already been spent on digital health records, with more to come from Spring Statement announcements. But it isn’t working as planned, a think-tank has found, because staff aren’t trained to use the systems. Health secretary Wes Streeting has pledged to shift the whole NHS from “analogue to digital”, but it’s difficult because of real world rather than ideal use. (Hands up readers who have to wrestle with multiple apps and interfaces even inside just one NHS Trust — yup, thought so, me too).

As they plan this aspect of our brave, new, partly AI-enabled world, ministers should ponder just how infuriating citizens find it to get poor customer service online and over the phone from the public sector. I wrote about it a few days ago here after a think-tank put numbers on the time we all waste stuck in admin doom loops.

Now try this . . . drainpipes and peroxide

So much for the young, now for the old. So much Blondie nostalgia this week — the death of the band’s drummer Clem Burke has led to my social feeds being awash with sensational grungy glamorous shots of Debbie Harry and the rest of the foursome over the years. This wall of content has been very welcome to me (aged 9, 10 or whatever it was, I was a member of the official Blondie fan club and my enthusiasm never dimmed — see the gratuitous mention in the column above, written before Burke died). Younger readers of this newsletter may find it all a bit meh, but those New York new wave drums, guitars and clever lyrics would repay study. Favourite song on the seminal Parallel Lines album? It has to be “11:59” (pretty sure Robert Shrimsley agrees with me on this) partly for its wonderfully dismissive line about a “sidewalk social scientist” — well, honestly, who in this game is not? I hope Stephen is enjoying the wall-to-wall tributes while he’s in the US.

Top stories today

• ‘Optimism’ on autos | Keir Starmer has shifted his focus in US trade talks to cutting the 25 per cent tariff on British cars. He admitted he did not know if he could persuade Donald Trump to drop his new 10 per cent tariff on all British imports. The US president insisted last week that the UK prime minister was “very happy” with the 10 per cent levy he imposed on imports from Britain.

• Less happy reading | The UK’s long-term borrowing costs soared to their highest level in 27 years yesterday, as gilts were swept up in a global bond sell-off sparked by Donald Trump’s trade war.

• UK-India trade talks | Britain and India have held talks on closer financial co-operation as they rush to secure a trade deal, with officials in New Delhi saying Trump’s trade war has put new impetus behind negotiations.

• Clock ticking on keeping British Steel plant going | The government has offered to buy the coking coal that is essential to keep steel production going at British Steel in Scunthorpe, the BBC reports. British Steel has been warning for several days that the raw materials needed to keep its plant’s two blast furnaces operational are running out.