Election 2017 analysis: How Britain's youth mobilised to give Theresa May a catastrophic result

They were dismissed as a snowflake generation too interested in avocado to bother voting — but  yesterday the millennials mobilised to deliver a shock result. Phoebe Luckhurst hears them roar
Natasha Quarmby/Rex
Phoebe Luckhust9 June 2017

Yesterday, a generation woke and roared at last. It took dispiriting result after dispiriting result but the numbers suggest we’ve finally been galvanised: the turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds is being estimated at 72 per cent.

By comparison, in 2015, turnout among this cohort was 43 per cent, and for the Brexit vote it was 64 per cent. It’s assumed this generation won’t get out of bed unless there’s a meme involved. Last night they delivered a youthquake.

As the final results shudder in, we can see what a difference it made. During the swinging blows of this campaign, exhausted, frustrated commentators have observed, time and again, that whatever May’s legacy on police, or Corbyn’s record on terror, the real key to this election was the youth.

If we turned out, there was a real chance that the Conservatives would fail to deliver the majority they coveted and believed was theirs. We’ve made enough noise now: parliament is hung, and May’s future hangs in question.

Certainly, there were tentative signs of a movement. Early in the campaign, an encouraging number of 18- to 24-year-olds registered: 1.05 million is the estimate. Over a quarter of a million under-25s registered to vote on the last possible day, and on the day the election was called, theirs was the largest demographic to register — followed by their older siblings, those aged between 25 and 34.

Youthquake: record numbers of young people turned out to vote
PA

And yesterday, it seemed like something was happening. In university towns like Nottingham, Canterbury and Southampton, queues three-people-deep snaked around corners. “Lady behind me says it’s the first time she’s seen a queue like this in 25 years,” remarked one voter in a university town on Twitter yesterday.

Online, thousands shared pictures of themselves outside polling booths. Young female voters were thrilled by the poetry of the date: June 8 was 104 years to the day since Emily Davison, the mother of female suffrage, threw herself in front of a horse in the name of votes for women.

Still, until you have data, politics feels like meaningless posturing: while yesterday’s signs were encouraging, we’d been there before. Ultimately, those broadcasting about voting are always going to be ones who voted. It was impossible to tell whether we’d picked up any new people or whether this was just the same noisy echo of the same engaged cohort. Like last year, during the EU referendum, when the echo chamber asserted itself.

Facebook was a cacophony of Remain voters, cheering each other on; the results, of course, spoke differently and the poor youth turnout was a source of real shame. For comparison, turnout in those aged over 65 was 90 per cent.

Yesterday’s turnout is proof that the EU referendum smarted — that we took lessons on board.

REUTERS

But it also signifies our fury. Time and again, our generation is characterised — indeed, maligned — as thoughtless, precious snowflakes. We are cossetted and unrealistic; we do not live in the real world. We do not countenance views that oppose ours — and this, in itself, signifies a fundamental stubbornness to engage with anything outside our own, small filter bubbles. Indeed, our lives play out online — it assumed that we almost enjoy the impotence of screaming into the void, like a young adult version of a tantrum. Certainly, it is presumed that, when called upon to do something real like vote, we’ll fall short.

Granted, turnout proves we have form. The Sun summed up the smugness of the country’s elders yesterday, sharing a short column about “how to stop our kids voting”. “You just know they’ll do the wrong thing,” the writer opined. “Wander down to the polling booth with their scatty heads full of unicorn tears and marshmallows. And before you know it we’ll have given up Trident, disarmed the police and cut off relations with Israel. The civic thing to do is to stop them voting.”

Suggested measures included leaving them to have a lie-in (“maybe bring them some breakfast at about 9 tonight”), buying a boy a distracting video game or, “introducing them to skunk”. “If they have already been introduced to skunk, introduce them to LSD. That should keep them occupied for the day,” it reasoned. The piece also suggested creating a fake polling station and telling them “the election is tomorrow”.

General Election Polling Day 2017 - In pictures

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It was all unfunny; an example of dad humour. But instead of just complaining about it — though we did, online, vociferously — we also got out to the booths. As one friend put it this morning, “young people > The Sun”.

Indeed, the reaction this morning is one of exhausted, disbelieving joy. “72 per cent youth turnout is absolutely sensational. So, so happy,” tweeted Ben Skipper, a video games reporter. “So bloody proud of the youth turnout,” tweeted a Leeds politics student. “Give ya self a pat on the back 18-25-year-olds”. “Super duper proud that young people went out and voted!!!”, said one; “72 per cent youth turnout is one of the greatest stats I’ve ever seen,” celebrated another. “Never underestimate the power of young people.” Last night, Uber surged briefly in London, at around 2am, as formerly despondent people travelled across the city to join viewing parties in other living rooms. It was assumed that there was no point staying up: instead, the early results suggested that something strange was happening, and our votes might well be a part of the story.

Of course, others were more circumspect. “If only the youth turnout had been this high for the EU referendum then we might not have been in this f**king mess in the first place,” observed one sage commentator. “Congratulating our generation on turning out to vote is like having a glass of prosecco because you got to work on time.”

Glavanising young voters: Jeremy Corbyn 
REUTERS

This morning, many of my friends urged caution: we are still staring down the barrel of a hung parliament. It isn’t yet certain what any of this means. This morning, at the time of writing, an alternative youth turnout figure closer to 67 per cent was circulating. However, generally the mood remains fierce and defiant. There is a feeling, at last, that we have done something. “I think there was a sizeable mobilisation of youth vote,” says one student, who voted in her first election this year. “And I really think it’s down to issues like the NHS and university tuition.” Indeed, it seems there are finally real things to play for: politics has been animated by the reality of Brexit, by the rising cost of education, by the dwindling of NHS funds. For decades, people have anguished and posited about how to engage young people in voting — it seems like the answer might be to give something to really fight back against. And now we’re awake, it’s going to be a long, long night.

Follow Phoebe Luckhurst on Twitter: @phoebeluckhurst

Additional reporting by Katie Strick

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