How Britain’s new gen Z MPs could shake up the House of Commons

Wang Leung (Kiwi) Ting, Lecturer in Comparative Politics, University of Reading

Fri, 19 July 2024 

There are now ten MPs in the House of Commons who were born after 1995, up from just two before the election. Among them is Sam Carling, MP for North West Cambridgeshire, who at 22 is the youngest MP: the baby of the house. He is joined by others including 24-year-old Josh Dean, MP for Hertford and Stortford, and Euan Stainbank, MP for Falkirk, also 24.

The presence of these young MPs in the House of Commons has important implications because young people tend to be poorly represented in political institutions.

It has long been the norm that politics, both in the UK and across developed democracies, is dominated by older generations. And while the lack of representation of other demographics, such as women and ethnic minorities, has received a lot of justified attention, the under-representation of youth has not received as much notice.

A possible reason for this is that, until fairly recently, age has not been associated with distinct political behaviour. For example, politics in the UK has long been dominated by class, with voters young and old mostly supporting the parties that advocated for their class interest. But these tendencies have gradually fallen away in the past few decades.

To some extent, they have been superseded by a model in which age has become a more influential contributing factor in how people vote in elections. At the same time, there is no longer a clear pattern between voting intention and class status.

This pattern can be seen in polls taken before the recent general election and since: younger voters overwhelmingly support left-of-centre parties, such as Labour and the Greens, while the older voters were, the more likely they were to prefer right-of-centre parties like the Conservatives and Reform. On the other hand, voters from different social classes are supporting the major parties at roughly similar level.

Policy priorities

Not only is age associated with voting behaviour, but research has also shown that young people across developed democracies have distinctive policy preferences, too. Young people are more likely to express greater concern with climate change and support actions to reduce carbon emissions. Survey data has also shown that younger voters in the UK were much less supportive of Brexit.

People aged between 18 and 29 make up nearly 15% of the population. Given these distinctive interests, the absence of young representatives could lead to the under-representation of their views. As it is, gen Z MPs (born between the mid-1990s and early-2010s) make up only 1.5% of the House of Commons.

Young people could be further alienated from participating in the democratic process if they don’t see their contemporaries in positions of political power. Young voters are already less likely to vote in elections. If our political system is unable to reflect the interests and aspirations of young people, this could lead to a vicious cycle of apathy among future generations.

The election of these young MPs is an important step in bringing the views of young people to Westminster. Not only can their presence be seen as symbolic inclusion of young people, but young representatives across the world do pay special attention to reflecting the concerns of young people.

Research on the German Bundestag has found that young members are more likely to raise parliamentary questions that are associated with the interests of young people. These include issues such as childcare, child benefits and juvenile crime.

But unlike other demographic groups, youth is transient. As David Cameron said of Tony Blair: “He was the future once”. In years to come, more young people will need to be encouraged to consider political involvement.

Political parties may need to think about how to better engage with young people and perhaps how to make the selection process more favourable to young people, who may have less political experience. The increasing success of young candidate in this election could encourage others to throw their hat into the ring.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Wang Leung (Kiwi) Ting does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.