By Christian Smith 

The government has blocked the chance to vote for the reduction of the voting age to 16. 

Jim McMahon, the Member of Parliament for Oldham had proposed in the House of Commons that voting rights should be extended to 16 and 17-year-olds. But, Conservative MPs who spoke for 95 minutes prevented the debate from being heard.

Young people are most likely to vote Labour in an election. In a tweet, the shadow chancellor, John Mcdonell said: “shame on the Tories for blocking a vote on reducing the voting age to 16 by talking out Labour’s bill. #VotesAt16.”

A former leader of the Labour, also expressed his disappointment at the Tory government’s action to block the votes, even though his party had the 100 MPs needed to force a vote through a “closure motion.”

“Disappointed not to get a chance to vote for #VotesAt16 today. But tide of history and voices of young people mean it will happen,” @Ed_Miliband tweeted.