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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