Just One-half of adults in this country voted at the 2024 general election, the lowest share of the population to vote since universal suffrage.
The report found that even amomngst registered voters only three in five people could be bothered to turn up at the ballot box and if non voters had been a political party, it would have easily won the election
The report out this morning from the IPPR Think tank found that constituencies where a larghe share of the population were older,wealthy home owners and white were more lileky to vote
The report says that the country lies at a democratic crossroads where the low road promises to widen the gap between the haves and the have nots and will see polititians catering for the needs of the older and wealthier citizens or the high road with a more politically equal country
The report also recommends that the Goernment should make the process of participation more worthwhile including taking down the barriers to electoral registration and ensuring that there is a perceived return for voting
Parth Patel, a senior research fellow at the IPPR and co-author of the report, said the fact that only one in two adults voted this year was “shocking”.
“If democracy is collective self-rule and only half of us are voting, you do have to ask about the other half, who politics and policymaking are less responsive to as a result,”
