UK parties seek elusive youth vote in final days of campaigning

In the final days of the tightest election campaign for decades, UK political parties are seeking an elusive prize: the youth vote.

Pollsters have bemoaned the unreliability of young voters, who were vocal in their support of the Liberal Democrats in 2010 but did not turn up to vote in the numbers expected. In the last election the turnout for 18 to 24 year-olds was just 52 per cent, compared with 65 per cent nationally.

But given the closeness of the race, any party that gets young people down to the polling booth has much to gain.

This was reflected in Ed Miliband's decision this week to be grilled by comedian Russell Brand. The Labour leader was hoping to reach a section of the electorate who are more likely to engage with Mr Brand's iconoclastic YouTube channel than a traditional newspaper interview.

Immediately after the video was posted on YouTube, there were signs that it had cut through: Google searches for Mr Miliband surged 17 per cent, while those for David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage all fell.

Toni Pearce, president of the National Union of Students, cautiously endorsed Mr Miliband's strategy, saying it was essential that politicians used a variety of different platforms to connect with voters.

"We know that young people can feel shut out by the way our political system works," Ms Pearce told the Financial Times. "They are interested in politics, in the issues which shape our society and the communities we live in, but they are turned off by broken promises and a political system which they have completely lost trust with."

Getting young voters on side is harder than ever, due to a change in voter registration rules which disadvantages people living in communal accommodation such as halls of residence. Mr Miliband warned earlier this year that almost 1m people, many of them students, had disappeared from the electoral roll since the reforms were enacted in 2014.

Aware of how many voters they could be missing with traditional campaigns, the parties been deploying new tactics for some time. Labour has pursued a ground war on Facebook, while the Conservatives have specialised in YouTube videos linking Mr Miliband to the Scottish National party.

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A poll of more than 13,000 final year students released last month by recruitment analysts High Fliers Research showed support for Labour and the Tories tied neck and neck at 31 per cent. The Greens were next, at 25 per cent, while the Lib Dems trailed at 6 per cent of the student vote.

Meanwhile, a wider YouGov poll of all 18 to 24 year-olds showed Labour with a clear lead at 34 per cent, Conservatives at 23 per cent, the Greens 19 per cent and the Lib Dems at 7.

Students themselves are mobilising too. In Newcastle, Andrew Foster, a final-year economics and finance student, is so committed to making his vote count that on polling day he will drive back to his home town of Pudsey - a relative marginal - to cast his Tory ballot there, rather than in the safe Labour seat of Newcastle East. He will give his friend Tom, a fellow Tory, a lift so that he can also make his vote count in Leeds North East.

In Sheffield - where Nick Clegg is facing a battle to keep his seat - students are also on the march, mounting an "organised bloc" of Labour voters to oust the Lib Dem leader in retaliation over his U-turn on tuition fees.

Josh Berlyne, a student at Sheffield University, described the movement as a "massive push" which could well result in a "higher turnout higher than normal".

He added, however, that any switch to Labour would not have been courtesy of Mr Brand. "He doesn't seem authentic," Mr Berlyne said. "I think most students will see [the Miliband interview] as a gimmick."

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