There was recently a row when a 25-year old, Keir Mather, won the Selby and Ainsty by-election for Labour. The Conservative MP Johnny Mercer took to the airwaves to protest against Parliament becoming ‘like the Inbetweeners.’
In the US, there are stringent minimum ages for elected politicians – you must be 25 to be in the House of Representatives, 30 to be in the Senate and 35 to be President – and some would say for good reasons.
But if Pitt the Younger could be Prime Minister at the age of 24 back in the eighteenth century and if local voters want a younger adult to represent them, what’s the problem? It is not as if all older leaders have unblemished records.
Moreover, some of the biggest social policy challenges faced in the UK are intergenerational ones, suggesting perhaps that multiple generations should be represented in the House of Commons to thrash out issues together.
