Surge in young people registering to vote for the local elections: More than ... trends now
More than 113,000 people under the age of 35 registered to vote on the last day before the local election deadline yesterday - as 'non-partisan' celebrities urged younger generations to make their voice heard.
Official government data shows 113,045 people aged 34 and under registered to vote on April 16 - a 350 per cent surge on the day before that accounted for 73.8 per cent of the 153,614 registrations yesterday.
And the number of registrations from younger voters has almost doubled from the last equivalent local elections in 2021, when local, mayoral and police elections last took place on the same day.
The push came following the last-minute 'Give an X' drive from celebrities including Michael Sheen and Billy Bragg, as well as Chicken Shop Date YouTuber Amelia Dimoldenberg, to encourage younger voters to vote.
Polling suggests younger voters are more inclined to vote for Labour - and the last minute surge could encourage what is being predicted to be a widespread massacre for the Tories at the ballot box.
Voters will go to the polls in local, mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections on May 2
Actor Michael Sheen and musician Billy Bragg are among those to have signed an open letter urging people to register tovtote
Voter registration data crunched by MailOnline shows the number of people registering to vote on deadline day swelled compared to previous local elections in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2019.
Young voters made up the majority of those putting themselves on the electoral register.
The Give an X campaign, backed by celebrities including Sheen, Bragg, Dimoldenberg and others such as actor Brian Cox, writer Armando Iannucci and comedian Meera Syal, had urged younger voters to make their vote count.
'We join hands with the young people leading the Give an X campaign in emphasising the importance of young people shaping the future, and we urge each and every citizen to claim their seat at the table,' the open letter read.
But experts have also urged caution over the figures - suggesting they may not represent a growth in young voters on the register at all.
Professor Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said similar surges happen 'in the run up before every election'.
He added: 'A lot of the people who register at this point are already on the register but do not realise it.'
Professor Edward Fieldhouse, professor of social and political science at the University of Manchester, says many young people registering may not be dropping off the register at all but moving around to, for example, student addresses.
The British Election Study, an ongoing examination of voter behaviour in Britain, found in 2021 younger voters aged 35 and under were more likely than other age groups to drop off the register after individual electoral registration
