Votes for 16 Year Olds & Abbott Suspended

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.4 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, the voting age at the next general election will be lowered across the UK to 16 for the first time.

Labour's election manifesto last year pledged to lower the voting age to 16 - in line with Scottish and Welsh elections. The Prime Minister has said 16 and 17-year-olds are "old enough to go out to work, they are old enough to pay taxes". The policy has been criticised by the Conservatives and Reform. Adam and Chris are joined by Professor Jane Green - Director of Nuffield Politics Research Centre and President of the British Polling Council.

And, MP Diane Abbott has been suspended by the Labour Party pending an investigation into comments she made about racism, the BBC understands. Labour said it would not be commenting "while this investigation is ongoing".

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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Anna Harris and Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producers were Joe Wilkinson and Jada Meosa John. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham

Transcript

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0:00.0	American politics can sometimes feel like a different language.
0:05.0	But our podcast can help you translate.
0:07.3	Make sense of what's happening in the US, with new podcast episodes arriving throughout the week.
0:12.1	AmeriCast, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:16.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:19.9	Hello, the government today announced that at the next general election, 16 and 17-year-olds will be eligible to vote,
0:26.2	which means at the next election, people who are watching Newsround now will be able to vote.
0:33.1	So I've decided to break the news in the style of Newsround, which, as you know very well, I worked on for many, many years.
0:48.3	Right, here is how adults choose the next government of the UK.
0:52.0	Every few years, they go into a room and in secret use a pencil to mark an X next to the name of the person they want to vote for.
1:00.1	Now, each of those people will be a member of a different political party, and each political party has got different opinions on the big issues in the country.
1:08.6	That is what a general election is.
1:10.7	The big news today is that the government has announced that 16 and 17 people, on the big issues in the country. That is what a general election is.
1:17.6	The big news today is that the government has announced that 16 and 17-year-olds will also be able to do this,
1:25.6	starting at the next election, which we reckon is going to be in 2029, which means that if you're 12 or 13 now,
1:29.8	you will probably be helping to pick the next government.
1:32.2	And now it's time for Neighbors.
1:36.3	And do you know what? I'm still wearing exactly the same clothes I would have worn if I'd been delivering that news or news round. Some things never change. Right, it's not an
1:40.9	episode of Neighbors coming your way now. It's now an episode of Newscast.
1:45.6	Newscast from the BBC.
1:47.9	He has just compared me to the fat controller.
1:50.9	Did I say that?
	...

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