Labour to lower voting age

Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans to lower the voting age to 16 - as Labour and the Tories kicked off the first weekend of the general election campaign.

- ANDY GREGORY

On a campaign visit to Stafford, the Labour leader confirmed plans to follow Scotland and Wales in extending the vote to a further 1.5 million people, telling reporters: "If you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote."

The "extremely straightforward" legislation will likely even appear as soon as the King's Speech, a Labour source told The Times, which estimated that such a move could flip eight Tory seats red in England alone. It comes as Rishi Sunak is scrambling to find more than 190 candidates amid the largest exodus of Tory MPs since the Second World War, with 78 now announcing they are stepping down at the July election.

Following a morning meeting with local veterans in his constituency in which he warned the world was becoming more dangerous, the PM's whereabouts yesterday afternoon were unclear. Minister Bim Afolami was forced to reject suggestions Mr Sunak was "taking the day off" but Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth accused the PM of "hiding away in his mansion".