NIGEL Farage’s Tory pact may have triggered a rush of young people signing up to vote, an expert claims.
The “massive spike” of voter registrations on November 12 came the day after Farage announced his Brexit Party would not run in Tory-held seats in a move aimed at preventing a split in the Leave vote and ensuring Brexit happens.
Almost 160,000 people joined the voter register that day and Dr Benjamin Bowman, who teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Centre for Youth Studies, says the Farage announcement could be behind the surge.
However, he warned it is “too early” to be sure. He said: “That kind of massive spike is the kind of thing we didn’t see in the last general election campaign.”
Bowman was speaking to The National on the eve of today’s voter registration deadline.
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Applications by post end at 5pm tonight, while online registration closes at midnight.
The National launched a sign-up drive last month after it emerged that up to 890,000 eligible voters in Scotland were not correctly registered.
Yesterday UK Government figures revealed that almost three million people have applied to register in the past month, with more than one third of moves made by people under the age of 25 and a similar number made by those aged 25-34.
In contrast, only 4% have been submitted by people aged 65 and over.
While younger voters are statistically more likely to back Labour than the Conservatives in England, Bowman says a higher proportion of young voters in Scotland should benefit the SNP.
However, he said it was “surprising” that not all were already on lists, stating: “This is a group of young people who have seen the referendum on Scottish independence, the referendum on the EU and two general elections already in the last five years. This is a group of people who have had elections pushed on them – there have been constant elections.
“It’s surprising there is anybody left.
“We thought everybody would get registered and it would dry up, but it seems people are registering because they are motivated to do it. It’s not what we expected.”
On the high levels of engagement amongst the public, he went on: “Everybody expected people to be sick of elections by now. The opposite is true – people are really up for it.
“In Scotland, that’s probably good news for the SNP.
“The SNP do well with young voters and they did well at the last election.
“From the number of young people registering to vote, my immediate question is ‘who do they vote for?’ and in Scotland it’s more SNP than Labour – but it’s possible some may be registering to vote because they want Conservatives to stay in Scottish seats.
“It’s possible, but I think it’s unlikely.”
To be able to vote on December 12, a person must be correctly registered, aged 18 or over on polling day and also either a UK or Irish citizen, or a qualifying Commonwealth citizen resident in the UK.
Bowman says he will “be watching to see if we get a massive surge in registration” today.
However, he said getting supporters to sign up will not guarantee success to any party, commenting: “That’s the first part of the picture – you get people to register to vote then you have to make sure they come out.”
He went on: “There’s a lot of positivity about young people registering to vote. People aren’t banging on about apathy and laziness the way they have in previous elections. Young voters are being given more respect.”
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