UK’s House of Lords Debates Bill to Lower Voting Age to 16

The UK’s House of Lords held a second-reading debate on 14 September 2026 on the government’s Representation of the People Bill, with nearly fifty peers speaking over more than five hours on legislation that would lower the voting age to 16 and introduce automatic electoral registration. The bill has already passed committee stage in the House of Commons.

What the bill would change

The legislation’s headline measure is extending the franchise in UK parliamentary elections to 16- and 17-year-olds, bringing the rest of the country into line with Scotland and Wales, where 16-year-olds can already vote in devolved and local elections. It would affect an estimated 1.7 million young people. A second major element is automated electoral registration, using existing public records, aimed at reducing the number of eligible voters missing from the register, which campaigners have put at between six and eight million people. The bill also includes new rules on political donations, including restrictions on donations from overseas electors and a ban on donations made in cryptoassets.

Peers raise concerns over donation limits

Several peers, including Lord Wallace of Saltaire, Baroness Hodge, Lord Wills, Lord Rennard, Lord Carter of Haslemere and Lord Evans of Weardale, argued during the debate that the bill’s donation restrictions apply only to overseas donors and leave large domestic political donations essentially uncapped. The point was raised days after it emerged that two individual donors had given a combined £72 million to Reform UK within 24 hours, a figure cited in the debate as an example of the scale of domestic donations the bill would not address.

Why It Matters

Changes to who can vote and how political parties are funded shape the ground rules of a country’s democracy for a generation. If enacted, the bill would be one of the most significant extensions of the UK franchise in decades, while the unresolved debate over large domestic donations shows how far consensus still needs to travel before the legislation reaches the statute book.