The one big lesson Tories must learn about young voters

It’s the youth wot won it (almost). The day after the election turned into a day of self-congratulation for young voters, as initial reports indicated 72 per cent turnout among 18-24 year olds. As post-election data comes in, it is obvious that the so-called ‘youthquake’ was exaggerated. Nevertheless, there was undeniably an upward trend in engagement. The Conservatives now need to learn from their mistake of believing young people would never make it to the polling station. Figures released yesterday by Ipsos Mori put turnout at 64 per cent for 18-24 year olds on the electoral register, the highest for more than two decades. YouGov’s estimate last week was lower at 57 per cent for 18-19 year olds and 59 per cent for 20-24 year olds, but whichever way you look at it, involvement is going up. And unsurprisingly, young people were much more likely to vote Labour than Tory. As James Forsyth wrote earlier this week, ‘One of the major problems for the Tories was that they had almost no positive offer; what did they offer a thirty something on fifty thousand a year who didn’t stand to inherit anything? Tories can’t expect young people to be capitalists, when they have no capital.