Votes for 16-year-olds just got blocked without a vote after Tory MPs spoke for ages

Votes for 16-year-olds have been blocked without a
vote in a farcical House of Commons fight.
Furious Labour MPs shouted "shame!" as they claimed
Tory tactics had killed off their bid to lower the voting
age from 18.
Today's debate was so angry that the Deputy Speaker
had to cut in and shout: "This is not a football
match!"
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Labour, allies and Tory ex-Chancellor George Osborne
had all joined a campaign to lower the voting age, to
get young people into democracy.
But Tories - who would likely see their vote share
shrink - fought it, claiming 16-year-olds don't have
"the political knowledge or maturity required."
Labour accused them of using out-of-date
Parliamentary rules to ensure the move would be
blocked today.
The move would have been made law through a
backbench Bill by Labour MP Jim McMahon.
It was the second on the list in a five-hour debating
slot today.
But out-of-date Commons rules - which Tories have
refused to change - say any Friday law should be
shelved if it doesn't get to a vote by 2.30pm.
So by total coincidence, several Tory MPs spoke for
ages in favour of the first law of the day, a popular
bid to force police to wear body cameras when they
restrain people.
Between them, five Tories spoke for 95 minutes -
each droning on for longer than the first Bill's author
Steve Reed.
That meant there was just an hour and 28 minutes left
by the time it got to the Votes at 16 Bill.
Labour had the 100 MPs needed to force a vote
through a "closure motion", aiming to stop Tories from
filibustering.
But it didn't work.
Because the debate was so short and the subject so
important, Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing ruled it
wouldn't be right to force a vote so soon.
Furious Mr McMahon accused Tory MPs of
deliberately trying to "reduce the amount of time
available".
And he sarcastically claimed Sheryll Murray, a Tory
who said she did no such thing, was "almost a shoe-in
for the amateur dramatic society".
He warned: "16 and 17-year-olds today might be
denied the right to vote.
"But in two years' time, they will remember who
blocked them from having that democratic right only
two years earlier."
In a bad-tempered debate Tories were repeatedly
accused of "patronising" young people by claiming
they weren't mature enough.
In return, Tory Philip Davies accused Labour of
wanting to give votes to 10-year-olds.
Tory Bernard Jenkin said North Korea had a lower
voting age, proving it doesn't necessarily work, even
though North Korea is a secretive autocracy led by a
self-proclaimed god-like figure.
And Tory Robert Jenrick tried to prove his point by
saying 16-year-olds couldn't watch film classic The
Terminator even though it's a 15, not an 18.
"We're saying in this debate you should be able to
choose a representative in the government of the
country, but you can't go watch 50 Shades of Grey or
the Terminator down your local cinema!" he said.
Tory backbencher James Cleverly called Mr
McMahon's speech "the most egregious, partisan
tirade I've ever heard".
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Cat Smith, for Labour,
hit back that MPs had a "historic opportunity" to
extend the franchise.
Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse added: "I feel myself
strangely transposed in a costume drama of about 100
years ago.
"Those people who resisted the women's vote [came]
out with exactly these arguments of immaturity and
disinterest and that women wouldn't know what they
were talking about."

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