Does Rishi Sunak care about young people?

In Brief...

• Rishi Sunak's policies appear to favour older demographics, with initiatives like national service for 18-year-olds and pensioner tax cuts.
• Critics argue these measures, along with high university fees and housing costs, neglect the needs of young people.
• While the Conservatives point to benefits like expanded free childcare and proposed stamp duty changes, the overall impact on young voters' perception remains uncertain.

Why are people saying Rishi Sunak hates young people?

The Conservatives notoriously perform better with the old than the young, and according to recent polls this General Election is no different.

At the Conservatives manifesto launch event, The News Agents host Emily Maitlis posed the problem to Home Secretary James Cleverly .

“When you speak to the young, when you speak to your kids' friends, they’re saying the Tories are a party for old rich people, that’s the message that comes back,” she told him.

Whilst this may be the common narrative, today we’re asking; is there still time for the Tories to increase their popularity, and therefore their votes, amongst Britain’s youth?

After announcing the general election Rishi Sunak made two initial pledges. The first was introducing mandatory national service for 18-year-olds and the second was a tax cut for pensioners by raising the tax-free pension allowance via a “triple lock plus”.

Neither are favourable to the young, and it led 16-year-old Harry Hassell, who came face to face with Sunak on the campaign trail in Devon to ask the Prime Minister directly; “why do you hate young people so much?”

What do critics of Sunak and the Conservative party say?

They point to what 14 years of Conservative government has looked like for young people.

Earlier this year the number of children living in poverty in the UK hit a record high. University fees are the most expensive they have ever been. House prices (and rent prices) have sky-rocketed, meaning the dream of homeownership is just that, a dream, for many young people.

There’s also the argument that Covid-19 lockdowns have already forced the young to make major changes to benefit older people - the sacrifice of a ‘normal’ education. The sacrifice of socialising in the ‘best’ years of their lives. They stayed at home, even when they were at little risk from Covid, to protect the elderly.

Now, you want them to do national service too?

Not to mention, the national service scheme is estimated to cost £2.5 billion - money some argue would be better spent on education or housing for the young.

Instead of trying to remedy this for July’s general election, Rishi Sunak has seemingly decided to put all of his attention on ensuring he doesn’t lose the older vote.

What do Rishi Sunak and the Conservative party say?

Well, to Harry Hassell (the 16-year-old who confronted him in Devon), Sunak simply replied; “A culture of service is a good thing for our country - and you’ll have the choice”, referring to the national service, obviously.

And that is the exact line they take. That national service is not a punishment for the young, it is an opportunity. Sunak has said the scheme would promote a "shared sense of purpose among our young people and a renewed sense of pride in our country".

"This modern form of national service will mean that young people get the skills and the opportunities that they need, which is going to serve them very well in life,” Sunak said.

They would also point to the expansion of free childcare introduced under Rishi Sunak, which has extended some free childcare to eligible families with children from age nine-months (it previously was only available to three and four-year-olds). This was a big help to many young parents, and something that Labour have committed to keeping in place if they win the general election.

Lastly, in their manifesto launch, Rishi Sunak pledged to abolish stamp duty on properties up to £425,000 to help first time buyers, who are often the young. He said he will also introduce a new Help to Buy scheme to get people on the property ladder.

Our analysis

The introduction of more free childcare for eligible families is most probably the biggest success from their tenure - although this is of course more beneficial to young adults, as opposed to children or teenagers.

The promise of a new Help to Buy scheme and abolishing stamp duty up to £425,00 will be music to some young people's ears and therefore, could bring some young people round, tipping the scales more slightly in the Conservatives favour.

However, the national service pledge and promising to rewrite the Equality Act (something that many Gen-Z feel strongly about) are sure to alienate a lot of the youth in the UK.

So, do the Conservatives care about young people? We’ll leave young people to come to their own conclusion on that one.

Although, as former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace put it on X/Twitter...

What do the News Agents think?

Discussing the Conservatives’ election campaign during an episode of the News Agents, Jon Sopel said that the Tories may have been turning a blind eye to young people as they are “playing a core vote strategy”.

He said: “They are already thinking ‘how can we just shore up the basic homes of our voters’, and the elderly, pensioners, is where that core vote is.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents podcast now.