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General election 2024 live: Leaders hit the campaign trail as Michael Gove steps down - BBC News General election 2024 live: Keir Starmer says he wants to lower voting age to 16 - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Over to a question on lowering the voting age, something Sir Keir Starmer has previously spoken supportively about and was included in the Labour party's manifesto in both 2015 and 2017. Harry Farley
When pressed on this specific point, the Labour leader says: "Yes, I want to see 16 and 17 year olds voting". Political correspondent
He explains that if these young people are able to go out and work - and if they are working, he notes, they are also paying taxes - they should also be able to vote. I’ve been speaking to Sir Keir Starmer here at Stafford Rangers Football Club.
He adds that these age groups are also able to sign up for for the Army. This is exactly the sort of area where Labour need to win back voters on July 4th. When we were filming with him, he was keen to make sure the stadium name was in the background – presumably so locals watching at home knew he was in their neighbourhood.
"If you serve in your armed forces you ought to be able to vote." There are certain parliamentary seats known as "bellweathers". That means they typically vote for an MP from the party that wins the election. And Stafford is one of them.
Labour insiders are open about their campaign plan which is not focused so much on how many votes they win, but where they win them. Sir Keir will not spend that much time in areas like big cities, which they tend to win anyway, even if that means losing a bit of support there. Labour’s hope is even if they lose some votes in cities, they will still win those seats.
Instead they will spend their time and energy on places like this, and other Conservative held areas, around the country.
So for the next six weeks we can expect to see a lot of Sir Keir Starmer popping up in exactly this kind of constituency – Conservative currently, but which Labour think they can win.
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