Closed petition We call for a referendum before extending voting rights to 16 & 17-year-olds

We call on the government to hold a national referendum before extending voting rights to 16 and 17-year-olds in general elections.

More details

We think this is a profound change to the democratic franchise, such a significant constitutional reform should not be without the direct consent of the British people.

We think the right to vote is one of the most consequential aspects of citizenship and expanding it to a new age group should not be decided solely by politicians, but by the electorate itself in a fair and open referendum.

The UK has held referendums on major democratic reforms, such as devolution (1997), the Alternative Vote (2011), and Scottish independence (2014). We think changing the voting age is no less significant and deserves the same public scrutiny.

This petition is closed All petitions run for 6 months

3,623 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 3,623 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Show on a map the geographical breakdown of signatures by constituency

10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 1 February 2026
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.