00:00 Hi, my name is Helen Pankhurst. The clue is in the surname as the relative of those who
00:08 campaigned for women to get the vote over 100 years ago and I continue to be a women's
00:12 rights activist.
00:14 New research has found that a third of Brits believe that the legal voting age should be
00:18 reduced to 16 and 64% said they would have liked to have had the ability to vote when
00:23 they were that age.
00:24 Helen is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst,
00:29 who are both leaders in the suffragette movement and she herself is passionate about lowering
00:34 the voting age to allow young people to have a say in their futures.
00:38 So important that we have a vibrant democracy that always questions who is included and
00:43 who's not included and what we can do to widen franchise. There have been six great reforms
00:50 to date from 1832 as the first and as you just mentioned the 1969 as the last. The two
00:57 I usually talk about are the 1918 when some women got the vote and the 1928 when women
01:03 got the vote equally with men and my family is synonymous with those campaigns but I really
01:08 think there's a question you know why not now why not consider whether the situations
01:15 calls for needs for so many reasons the voice the opinions of 16 and 17 year olds and for
01:21 policy makers to listen to those opinions.
01:25 Since its founding in the 70s the Body Shop has aimed to be a force for good in both the
01:29 beauty industry and the planet and have advocated for many a social cause in that time. Now
01:35 they've partnered with the British Youth Council to help uplift youth voices around the world.
01:40 The research we did with the UN really shows that there are so many issues facing young
01:43 people today you know whether it be climate change, the cost of living crisis becoming
01:47 a big issue, mental health is becoming a big issue and actually rather than pick one of
01:52 those topics the decision was well let's actually try and make sure that young people actually
01:56 have a voice in some of the decisions that will affect their future so you know that's
02:00 why we're pretty passionate on this subject.
02:02 While some 16 year olds can vote at local elections the ability to do so is essentially
02:07 down to geography. Only 16 and 17 year olds in Wales and Scotland are able to vote in
02:12 local elections a right not enjoyed by those of the same age in England and Northern Ireland.
02:17 I know that there's always a hesitancy to enfranchise more people there's always this
02:22 sense that the younger generation isn't capable of making decisions or women are not capable
02:28 of making decisions the status quo kind of does protect the status quo a little bit.
02:34 The more we've got into this the more it's really clear that if you can get young people
02:38 voting from an early age then it sticks and you know the part of the manifesto we've also
02:44 launched with the British Youth Council is really much more about political education
02:47 so that young people are actually better equipped to make decisions and to participate. But
02:52 you know we all quote the statistics young people they can pay tax they can join the
02:56 military surely that means they should have a right to have a say in the future. You know
03:01 I think it's about fairness and consistency.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]
