School of Social & Political Sciences

The 2026 UK Youth Poll reveals that young people aren't switching off from politics — but when the system makes meaningful participation nearly impossible, voting for insurgent parties is becoming the only rational response left.

It is well known that the media love to vilify young people. We have been accused of being addicted to social media, self-absorbed, and largely indifferent towards politics and the issues that shape our lives. Yet, when we do stake a strong opinion on a political issue, we have been dismissed as naïve, immature, unpatriotic snowflakes who care more about people from afar than our own.

Looking at the 2026 UK Youth Poll — a survey and focus groups of 18–29-year-olds — the data reveals genuine political interest. A third have signed a petition, more than a quarter have advocated on social media, and nearly as many have actively tried to change someone's mind on a political issue; only one in ten say they don't care about politics.

Far from being politically apathetic, we are acutely aware of the current political turmoil. Responding to the Peter Mandelson scandal, one focus group participant said what we are all thinking:

I wasn't surprised that something like this would come up — there's always some form of corruption. How are we allowing these people to run our country when their morals are just not where they should be?”

This is not indifference — we are a generation watching closely and finding ourselves betrayed.

However, despite this political awareness, most of us remain locked out of meaningful political participation. When asked what stops us from being more active in politics, nearly a quarter don't know where to begin, and almost as many find the whole thing too overwhelming or too complicated to navigate.

But complexity alone does not explain the disconnect. Distrust runs deeper. As one focus group participant put it bluntly:

It's all built off LIES, politics and promises and lies, all of them failing to deliver.”

It is a sentiment the data bears out — almost a third don't trust politicians, and almost as many feel politicians simply don't listen to people like us.

This distrust has had a serious consequence for conventional political participation, which has collapsed. As Figure 1 illustrates, only one in ten have ever contacted an MP, fewer still attended a political event or campaigned for a political party.

One participant summed up the confusion of trying to follow politics as a young person:

Everywhere I look says something different... I'm just not that educated on it.”

We want in. But the system won’t let us.

When conventional political participation is difficult and trust in the system has collapsed, the ballot box becomes the only outlet left to express frustration. Figure 2 compares 2024 voting behaviour with voting intention today. Green support has nearly tripled, Reform has almost doubled, and Labour has haemorrhaged nearly a third of its young vote.

When anti-establishment parties from left and right are both gaining ground simultaneously, the message isn't left or right — it's rejection. We aren't choosing a direction. We’re choosing out.

This isn't a new development. Writing in the aftermath of the First World War, German sociologist Max Weber warned that when professional politicians lose their sense of purpose and moral conviction, voters turn toward charismatic outsider figures who promise to cut through the system rather than work within it.

Picture a vending machine. You paid for the crisps, but they never drop. You strike it, shake it, do whatever it takes to get what you were promised. Voting for the Greens or Reform is that same impulse applied to democracy: the system hasn't delivered, so we are rattling the machine.

None of this implies young voters lack coherent politics — many of us are deeply principled and ideologically consistent. But even principled voters strike the machine when it stops working for them.

The rise of the Greens and Reform is the direct consequence of a system that has made itself alienating and untrustworthy. Mainstream parties cannot keep losing young voters and expect British democracy to remain stable. Weber's warning cuts both ways — charismatic outsider leaders can destabilise the institutions that hold democracy together, but they can also re-energise a disillusioned generation.

The solution lies with politicians taking young people seriously: clean up politics and rebuild trust through genuine accountability.

They must also make participation accessible through civic education and clearer entry points, and expand pathways for more diverse people into politics.

Ultimately, it starts with recognising that for many young voters, what we lack is not the apathy we are accused of – but a system worth defending.

We aren't apathetic — we are abandoning a political mainstream that has failed us.

Can you really blame us?

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This blog was initially published on the University of Glasgow's John Smith Centre blog here

This blog is part of the SPS Student Academic Blog series. You can read more contributions from the series here.

First published: 9 June 2026