Our message to politicians in 2024: ignore young voters at your peril

“Cri­sis, what crisis?”

That seems to be the mes­sage we’re hear­ing from most of our politi­cians as we head towards the com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion. The cost of liv­ing is sky­rock­et­ing, more and more of us are strug­gling to heat our homes, and cli­mate change is caus­ing more extreme weath­er in the UK than ever before. And yet half of our politi­cians are try­ing to dis­tract us with divi­sive attacks on migrants and trans peo­ple, while the oth­er half act as if noth­ing out of the ordi­nary is hap­pen­ing. Last week, in a final, depress­ing capit­u­la­tion to Tory attacks, Labour ditched its flag­ship pledge to spend £28 bil­lion on green infra­struc­ture – leav­ing Keir Starmer with no plan to revi­talise the econ­o­my or tack­le cli­mate change.

It’s an infu­ri­at­ing time to be a young vot­er. We know that our future is on the line: not just the health of our plan­et, but our prospects for finan­cial secu­ri­ty, decent hous­ing, live­able wages. We’re watch­ing water com­pa­nies dump sewage in our rivers and seas, while land­lords bleed us dry with ever-ris­ing rents – and yet our inter­ests, our prob­lems and our hopes for the future are ignored by those bat­tling it out to be sit­ting in Num­ber 10 at the end of the year. But that’s unwise – and in the months to come, our gen­er­a­tion will be mak­ing it clear that politi­cians ignore our voic­es at their peril.

Young peo­ple are always accused of being ​‘apa­thet­ic’ – of not car­ing enough to take our views to the bal­lot box and have our say. It’s part­ly this stereo­type – along with the demo­graph­ics of some of the major par­ties’ tar­get seats – which has left us to be over­looked at elec­tion time for so long. But this couldn’t be fur­ther from the truth. In the UK and across the globe, younger gen­er­a­tions are angry, switched on and ready to act. In the US midterms in 2022, under-30s turned out in almost record num­bers, form­ing a cru­cial vot­ing bloc for the Democ­rats. In Australia’s 2022 elec­tions, a ​‘youthquake’ drove a move away from the main par­ties and towards the Greens.

Now, for the first time, mil­len­ni­als and Gen Z make up the largest per­cent­age of the UK’s pop­u­la­tion – and we have more in com­mon than age. From being ​‘gen­er­a­tion rent’ and des­per­ate for more decent, afford­able hous­ing, to our high lev­els of wor­ry over the cli­mate, there is a nat­ur­al vot­ing bloc among under-40s ready to be acti­vat­ed. For decades, our votes have been tak­en for grant­ed, but at this elec­tion, politi­cians will need to give us some­thing to vote for.

We know that a live­able future depends on action now to tack­le cli­mate change – and that with the right poli­cies, we can trans­form our econ­o­my so that it works for all of us. Mass insu­la­tion of homes, to low­er bills and reduce emis­sions; bring­ing pub­lic ser­vices back into pub­lic own­er­ship; mil­lions of good green jobs; mak­ing pol­luters pay for the dam­age they do to the envi­ron­ment – these are just a few pop­u­lar and effec­tive mea­sures politi­cians should be scram­bling to announce. But with those at the top lag­ging behind what the pub­lic wants, it’s up to us to push these demands up the agenda.

And that’s what we, at Green New Deal Ris­ing, will be doing in 2024 – turn­ing the heat up on politi­cians of all par­ties, mak­ing it clear that our votes need to be earned, and back­ing can­di­dates who we know will cham­pi­on our inter­ests. In May, we’ll be turn­ing out thou­sands of young peo­ple in the North East to elect Jamie Driscoll as may­or – he’s some­one who has already deliv­ered on Green New Deal pri­or­i­ties like trans­port, hous­ing and green jobs. When the gen­er­al elec­tion comes, we’ll be mobil­is­ing young peo­ple across the coun­try to elect a whole slate of Green New Deal cham­pi­ons to par­lia­ment, cam­paign­ing not on par­ty lines but for can­di­dates who will take real action on the issues that matter.

We’ll chal­lenge politi­cians in their con­stituen­cies, at their par­ty offices, in par­lia­ment. We’re upskilling hun­dreds of activists to recruit, engage and mobilise vol­un­teers, and empow­er­ing thou­sands of young peo­ple in con­stituen­cies across the coun­try to get involved in the elec­tion that will shape their future. Tak­ing lessons from pro­gres­sives in the US and across the world, we’re using tools and tac­tics we know can win – even in hos­tile conditions.

It’s time to make the Green New Deal an elec­tion-defin­ing issue. The changes we need to build a future that works for all of us are with­in our grasp, if our gen­er­a­tion ris­es up and shows our pow­er. As the next elec­tion approach­es, we’re putting the UK’s polit­i­cal par­ties on notice: young peo­ple are watch­ing to see if your plans match the scale of the chal­lenges we face, and we will vote accordingly.

We’ll also be tak­ing our demands direct­ly to the politi­cians who try to shut their ears to our voic­es. We’ve got form on this: when Keir Starmer refused to meet with us to dis­cuss Labour’s cli­mate poli­cies, we held over 120 protests out­side Labour MPs’ offices across the UK. When Pri­ti Patel was home sec­re­tary, we dis­rupt­ed her speech at a Tory par­ty din­ner to speak out against the government’s cru­el plans to send asy­lum seek­ers to Rwan­da. Last year, we inter­rupt­ed Keir Starmer’s edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy launch to ask why he kept waver­ing over Labour’s green com­mit­ments. And last week, after Labour’s green u‑turn, we did our very best to deliv­er to Keir Starmer some­thing he seemed sore­ly lack­ing: a spine. With a the back­drop of an elec­tion our dis­rup­tion will reach new lev­els to ensure politi­cians stick to talk­ing about the things we care about.

We’ll chal­lenge politi­cians in their con­stituen­cies, at their par­ty offices, in par­lia­ment. We’re upskilling hun­dreds of activists to recruit, engage and mobilise vol­un­teers, and empow­er­ing thou­sands of young peo­ple in con­stituen­cies across the coun­try to get involved in the elec­tion that will shape their future. Tak­ing lessons from pro­gres­sives in the US and across the world, we’re using tools and tac­tics we know can win – even in hos­tile conditions.

It’s time to make the Green New Deal an elec­tion-defin­ing issue. The changes we need to build a future that works for all of us are with­in our grasp, if our gen­er­a­tion ris­es up and shows our pow­er. As the next elec­tion approach­es, we’re putting the UK’s polit­i­cal par­ties on notice: young peo­ple are watch­ing to see if your plans match the scale of the chal­lenges we face, and we will vote accord­ing­ly.

Fati­ma Ibrahim is Co-Direc­tor of Green New Deal Rising

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