The Conservatives are finally on their way out – here, we look back at how their damaging policies may have cost them the Gen Z vote forever
If you live in the UK, you’ve probably noticed that nothing seems to work anymore. Every time I find myself at a train station, I wonder whether my journey is going to be cancelled, delayed or overcrowded. Somehow, flights to Spain are cheaper than a train across the country – unless you’re an oracle with the foresight to anticipate all your train journeys ten weeks in advance. I’ve spent hours wading through Spareroom ads in search of somewhere to live that isn’t a mouldy shoebox, extortionately priced or owned by a landlord who won’t even let me work from home. When I try – and fail – to get a same-day GP appointment, I’m rudely reminded that seeing a doctor has become a rare treat, rather than a basic right.
Something, clearly, has gone badly wrong. The five Prime Ministers we’ve had between 2010 and 2024 – David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak – have all been grim in different ways, but one thing has remained consistent throughout this period: things have got worse for young people.
After 14 years, we are slowly but surely nearing the end of Conservative rule. In this time, the Tories have come up with myriad ways of making life more difficult for the young. Today, universities are going bust. Youth services – through a rigorous programme of austerity – have been decimated, with 603 youth centres being shut in five years. Tuition fees have tripled to £9,250 while teaching time has fallen. Not only have interest rates on student loans increased, but you now have the pleasure of paying off your debt for 40 years instead of 30. That’s right – if you graduated at 21, you’ll be paying for your education until your 60s.
One of the most pressing issues facing young people is housing. House prices are rising at the fastest rate since 2004 with demand for housing far outstripping supply, an issue which is also driving up rents. As a result, young adult home ownership rates have plummeted far more dramatically in the UK than other developed countries. Instead of policies to address this, young people have been stereotyped as profligate idiots, squandering their money on avocados, coffees and cumin seeds. Not owning a house, many Tories claim, is the result of individual failings; the fact that young people “lack the desire to make those sacrifices”. It’s a narrative that all-too-conveniently excludes the fact that getting on the housing ladder without rich parents is a Sisyphean feat.
Any redeeming policies have been scrapped too. The Renters Reform Bill – a bill that would have introduced protections for private renters by changing eviction laws – has been kicked into the long grass. Similarly, Erasmus, the student exchange programme which enabled thousands of UK students to study abroad in Europe, was scrapped in 2020. When offered the chance to partially revive the scheme, the government refused. Plans to ‘level up’ the North and create more opportunities for young people living outside of London have also been half-arsed or abandoned entirely – just look at HS2.
“Across all age groups support for the Tories is dwindling, but it has nosedived among the young”
Across all age groups support for the Tories is dwindling, but it has nosedived among the young. In 2010, 30 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds supported the party. Now, the latest YouGov poll indicates that just four per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds plan to vote Conservative in July’s election. Declining support for the Tories appears to be running alongside an undercurrent of disillusionment with mainstream politics, with polling suggesting that of the 18-24 year-olds eligible to vote, 40 per cent won’t vote at all.
But none of this should come as surprising news to a party who may as well have made ‘hating the young’ its political slogan. The Tories disdain for young people is so palpable and so obvious, that it has been acknowledged across the political spectrum, with right-wing political magazine The Spectator penning an article titled “Young people are right to hate the Tories” in September last year.
It’s fair to say that part of this total neglect of Gen Z voters comes down to the fact they’re too busy conjuring up new policies catering entirely to the kind of older, right-wing voters they risk losing to Reform, like bringing back compulsory National Service to teach young people “real-life skills” and foster “national spirit” or promising to raise the tax-free pension allowance. Because, of course, there’s no “magic money tree” for welfare or housing or the climate, but lo-and-behold there’s £2.4 billion lying around for an obvious effort to court the pensioner vote.
@danmxcmillan A rant after 14 years of Tory rule, with no exciting alternatives to look forward to!! Fun times for the UK! #tory #labour #uk #politics #england #scotland #wales ♬ original sound - dan
“Young people should welcome national service as a way to say thank you for furlough”, suggested Telegraph writer Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon – with the piece subsequently edited after publication to clarify the fact that no, the young people who would be doing national service were most definitely not old enough to have benefitted from the furlough scheme, and were more likely cooped up inside worrying about their GCSEs. Supporters of the scheme argue it is time young people “repaid their debt to the nation” – but it’s really high time ‘the nation’ repaid its debt to young people, who have been trodden on, sidelined, and demonised for years.
It’s worth remembering that it doesn’t always have to be this way. Things could actually, genuinely, be better. We could very easily improve the rights of renters by introducing rent controls and banning no-fault evictions, so no tenant has to lose sleep over the thought of being made homeless. We could inject more money into desperately underfunded mental health services so anyone struggling doesn’t have to wait weeks and weeks for CBT. We could stop new oil, coal or gas development and invest in green energy. We could create more community spaces so we don’t have to rely on artists like Stormzy to prop up the country’s youth services. We could renationalise water companies so we can swim in our rivers and seas again without fear of diving into raw sewage. We could alleviate child hunger with free school meals and address the fact that children in the UK are literally shrinking as a result of growing up under austerity. We could tax the rich so the tax burden doesn’t fall as heavily on the poor (a new study recently confirmed that a policy like this would work).
There are so many things we could do. As David Graeber once said, “the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently”. While the Conservatives have always hammered home the message that there is no viable alternative to the decisions they make, the reality is that each policy thus far has been an active, deliberate choice – a choice that repeatedly prioritises the interests of some voters over others.
Already, people are writing obituaries of the Conservative Party. With some polls suggesting that the actual Prime Minister could lose his seat, and the mass exodus of MPs who have decided not to stand, the Tories now find themselves on the brink of a generational wipeout. For a long time, the Conservatives have relied on the idea that the electorate will eventually age into voting Tory; the older someone is, the more they have to conserve, the more they care about upholding the status quo. But this ignores the fact that people are shaped by their circumstances. For the first time ever, there are signs that younger people are bucking this trend of becoming more right-wing with age. We won’t age into voting Conservative if we’re never given anything worth conserving. The past 14 years have left an indelible mark on Gen Z – which is why we should all head to the polls on July 4 to vote for something different: be it an idea; a candidate; or a future you believe in.