Diane Abbott suspended by Labour Party over race row letter

Diane Abbott has been suspended by the Labour Party over her claiming she stood by a controversial letter she wrote in 2023 comparing different types of racism based on colour.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”

The move means the whip is automatically suspended in the House of Commons for the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, it is understood.

Ms Abbott was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party in 2023 after writing a letter to The Observer comparing racism experienced by people of colour with that seen by other groups.

She apologised for any anguish caused by the remarks, which drew criticism from Jewish and Traveller groups, and was readmitted to the party before the 2024 general election.

But speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Reflections on Thursday, she said she did not look back on the incident with regret.

Ms Abbott told the programme: “Clearly, there must be a difference between racism, which is about colour, and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.

“I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism, which is about skin colour, is the same as other types of racism.

“I don’t know why people would say that.”

She apologised for any anguish caused by the remarks that drew criticism from Jewish and Traveller groups.

The suspension comes less than 24 hours after the suspension of four left-wing rebels as Sir Keir Starmer attempts to reassert his authority.

The mother of the House, as the longest-serving female MP in the Commons, having entered Parliament in 1987, said she got a “bit weary” about people labelling her antisemitic and said she had “spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds”.

She said she was “grateful” to be a Labour MP but was sure the party leadership had been “trying to get me out”.

Ms Abbott is a close ally of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is now an independent MP having been expelled from the party. He is currently setting up a new party with another former Labour rebel, Zarah Sultana.

Ms Abbott served as Mr Corbyn’s shadow home secretary and has been a noted anti-racism campaigner.

However, she became embroiled in antisemitism allegations over her attitudes to Israel, an issue which has split the party.

One ally, Shami Chakrabarti, questioned whether the current Labour leadership, which has been accused of using the language of right-wing former Tory MP Enoch Powell over immigration, is fit to pass judgement on Ms Abbott.

She said: “People who are writing island of strangers speeches should be a bit slow to sit in judgement on Diane Abbott, who has been fighting racism all her life.”

Another ally, journalist Owen Jones, posted: “It is absolutely absurd that Diane Abbott was suspended for this. She’s describing the lived experience of anti-Black racism. She wasn’t saying Jewish people and Travellers don’t experience racism. She’s saying that racism takes different forms.”

The Independent has contacted Ms Abbott for comment.

Space skydiver Felix Baumgartner dies in paragliding crash aged 56

Felix Baumgartner, known for his record-breaking skydive from the edge of space, has died in a paragliding accident aged 56.

Baumgartner lost control of his motorised paraglider while flying over Porto Sant’Elpidio in Italy‘s central Marche region, and fell to the ground near the swimming pool of a hotel, local police said.

Porto Sant’Elpidio’s mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, said reports suggested he may have suffered a sudden medical issue mid-air, and offered the town’s condolences for the death of “a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flights”.

The Austrian made headlines around the world in October 2012 when, wearing a specially made suit, he jumped from a balloon 38km (24 miles) above Earth, becoming the first skydiver to break the sound barrier, typically measured at more than 690 mph.

He made the historic jump over Roswell, New Mexico, reaching a peak speed of over 833 mph, on the 65th anniversary of legendary American pilot Chuck Yeager’s flight shattering the sound barrier on 14 October 1947.

“When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about of breaking records anymore, you do not think of about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive,” he said after landing.

The altitude he jumped from also marked the highest-ever for a skydiver, shattering the previous record set in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who served as an adviser to Baumgartner during his feat.

Baumgartner’s altitude record stood for two years until Google executive Alan Eustace set new marks for the highest free-fall jump and greatest free-fall distance.

The self-styled “God of the Skies” started parachuting as a teenager before taking up the extreme sport of base jumping.

His long career of daredevil jumps included skydiving across the English Channel and parachuting off the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.

In Austria he was also known for courting controversy with views that included expressing support for dictatorship as a system of government.

Baumgartner was fined €1,500 after he punched a Greek truck driver in the face during a 2010 altercation that broke out in a traffic jam near Salzburg.

Ten more years of injustice: Figures lay bare scale of IPP scandal

It will take a decade to free 2,544 prisoners trapped on “inhumane” indefinite jail terms, damning new figures suggest, as campaigners warn the government “must go further and faster” to end the scandal.

The number of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners being released for the first time has hit an all-time low, according to the Ministry of Justice data, with just 172 freed for the first time last year.

At current rates, the overall population is decreasing by less than 10 per cent a year – despite some prisoners having served up to 22 times longer than their original sentence.

This excludes a further 233 people on IPP sentences who are being held in secure hospitals after their mental health has deteriorated in prison.

The figures, released on Thursday in an annual report, lay bare the toxic legacy of the open-ended jail terms as pressure mounts on the government to take up fresh proposals to help those languishing without a release date.

The jail term – described as “psychological torture” by the UN – was outlawed in 2012, but not retrospectively, leaving those already jailed incarcerated indefinitely.

Victims of the scandal, whose tragic cases have been highlighted by The Independent, include: Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years for robbing a mobile phone; Thomas White, 42, who set himself alight in his cell and has served 13 years for stealing a phone; and Abdullahi Suleman, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery.

At least 94 prisoners have taken their own lives in custody after losing hope of ever getting out. A further 37 self-inflicted deaths have taken place in the community under strict licence conditions which leave offenders in fear of being hauled back to prison indefinitely for minor breaches.

Successive governments have refused justice committee recommendations to resentence IPP prisoners, claiming it will lead to dangerous prisoners being released without supervision.

However an expert panel, convened by the Howard League for Penal Reform and former top judge Lord John Thomas, last month urged the government to end the injustice by giving prisoners a release date at their next review by the Parole Board within a two-year window.

Other measures being considered by ministers include reducing numbers recalled to prison and providing a package of mental health support for IPP prisoners on release.

The Howard League’s director of campaigns, Andrew Neilson, said the data in the annual report “underlines how much further and faster ministers will have to go to end a scandal that leaves thousands of people still in prison without an end date in sight”.

“The government must provide hope for those still serving this unjust sentence, and the best way to do this would be to accept the carefully considered proposals put forward by the working group chaired by Lord Thomas,” he added.

Campaigner Shirley Debono, who co-founded IPP Committee in Action, told The Independent: “It’s a travesty. This has been devastating for families.

“It’s going to take a decade to clear the backlog of IPPs. In that time people are going to die and family members are going to die.”

She claims the government’s IPP Action Plan, designed to help support prisoners to progress towards release by the Parole Board, is only working to keep prisoners in jail for longer as her son Shaun Lloyd languishes in prison.

Mr Lloyd, who was handed a two and a half year IPP sentence in 2005 after stealing a mobile phone, has served a total of 14 years after being recalled four times.

He has been held for 17 months on his latest recall, despite facing no further police action, and told he must complete a five-month course before the Parole Board will consider him for release.

The latest figures show prisoners serve a further 25 months on average before they are re-released, even if they are not convicted of a further offence.

A spokesperson for The United Group for Reform of IPP (UNGRIPP) said the latest report shows the government’s plan “misses the mark in the urgency that is needed to put an end to this 20 year long injustice”.

“By sticking with this approach the government are committing themselves to a slow change scenario,” they added.

“UNGRIPP do not believe that this or any action plan can fix the IPP sentence, the only true way to fix it is through parliamentary policy and the politicians know this but are choosing to ignore it.”

Last week former justice secretary Alex Chalk said the jail terms are “overbearing” and “unfair” as he urged his successor Shabana Mahmood to look carefully at the Howard League’s proposals to end the historic wrong.

Prisons minister James Timpson admitted there is more work to do to help IPP prisoners.

“It is absolutely right that the IPP sentence was abolished,” he added. “As this report shows, we have significantly improved support for these offenders, with greater access to rehabilitation and mental health support.

“There is more work to do as we reduce the number of IPP offenders in custody, but will only do so in a way that protects the public.”

How Jeffrey Epstein could finish Trump from beyond the grave

Who owns Maga? I mean, not literally, of course. Maga is an idea rather than a thing. It is not a shop or a book. There are no bricks and mortar – although if I could have had 10 per cent from every red Make America Great Again cap sold, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this article.

The reason I pose the question is that when there was a rumbling disquiet over sending bombers to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, the president swatted his Trumpland critics who said this wasn’t true to the core principles of Maga and America First.

He more or less said, “I invented Maga, so Maga is what I say it is.” It worked. His detractors huffed and puffed a bit, but then they went quiet. The Maga coalition fell into line behind their hero.

But over Jeffrey Epstein – the disgraced millionaire and paedophile who died in custody awaiting trial – it’s all rather different. Here, the Trumpland critics are getting noisier, and their numbers are swelling. For the first time, the base is not buying what Donald Trump is selling. Or to put it another way, someone who died six years ago is posing the greatest challenge to the president’s authority since he returned to the White House in January.

It is replete with irony. Let’s face it, over the years, it has felt that Trump has been a one-man conspiracy theory generator, most famously of all, his “birther” theory: that Barack Obama was not born in the US, he was born in Kenya and was therefore ineligible to be US president.

The Obama White House initially tried to laugh it off, but the conspiracy theory just wouldn’t go away. So, eventually, they produced his birth certificate, which states quite clearly that Obama was born in Hawaii. But then those who bought into the theory said this was the summary birth certificate and not the full thing. And so it went on.

The lesson that Obama’s inner circle drew from this is that while you may be able to shrink a conspiracy theory by peeling off rational, fair-minded citizens, and while you may be able to get people to look away and focus on something else, you can never kill off a conspiracy theory completely. It’s like Japanese knotweed – or moths in your wardrobe.

And if anyone should know that, it’s Trump. He’s getting increasingly tetchy and cross that the American public – and his supporters in particular – won’t accept the findings of his attorney general, Pam Bondi, that with the Epstein conspiracy theory, there is nothing to it. Please move on. Nothing to see here.

Because, of course, the conspiracy theory was originally generated in Trumpland. It’s been talked up by the vice-president, JD Vance, and by the president’s son, Don Jr. And it roughly goes like this: Epstein had a client list of all the sleazy millionaires and politicians he’d entertained on his island of horrors where underage girls were forced to perform sexual acts for these powerful men – some of them supposedly prominent Democrats.

When he was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019, it wasn’t suicide – as the post-mortem found. It was murder, they claimed. According to conspiracy lore, he had died because those powerful forces, whose names were in his little black book, wanted him dead before he could take the stand at a trial and implicate them.

Even Bondi is on record with her past promises of releasing a “truckload” of bombshell FBI documents on Epstein. She told Fox News in late February that she literally had possession of the convicted sex offender’s supposed black book of prominent figures who engaged in illegal sexual activities. “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review,” the attorney general told Fox News anchor John Roberts at the time. “That’s been a directive by President Trump.”

Compare this to the Department of Justice and FBI’s two-page unsigned memo released last week, concluding that the agencies had found no evidence that Epstein was murdered in his jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019. Additionally, they were unable to find any list of powerful clients that Epstein was attempting to blackmail for having sex with underage girls.

The conspiracy theories had also been advanced relentlessly by the likes of Kash Patel – now head of the FBI, and his deputy (the former right-wing podcast host) Dan Bongino – and millions of Maga supporters bought into it with gusto. It was another slam-dunk, deep state cover-up if ever there was one.

All of which has left the attorney general and president looking as though they are isolated and swimming against the tide when they keep insisting the Epstein file is a great big nothingburger. Rumours have swirled that Bongino could resign his post over it.

The Epstein court documents are held by the federal judiciary — a branch exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Trump’s reluctance to release them is making him appear increasingly out of kilter with his base – something that just doesn’t happen.

He’s calling the Epstein story “boring” and said it was only being advanced by “bad people”. It’s a hoax. On his Truth Social platform, he called the Epstein conspiracy theory ‘bulls***’ – and referred to those who bought into it as his “PAST supporters” (His capitals, not mine) – as if there would be a process of excommunication for these apostates to the Maga faith.

Even the most pliant and obsequious lapdogs are growling and showing their teeth. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House – who it sometimes feels was put on God’s earth purely to make Trump happy – is demanding the justice department publish everything it has on Epstein’s death. Republican congressmen are openly saying they don’t believe or trust what the administration is telling them.

There was a rally hosted by the former Fox TV presenter Megyn Kelly and right-wing radio host Charlie Kirk – two very prominent influencers – where they asked the 7,000-strong audience whether they buy the “nothing to see here” explanation. The hall is unanimous. They don’t. They believe there’s been a cover-up.

There is one other danger for Trump. And that is it generates a conspiracy theory in the opposite direction: that it is the president who has something to hide and is creating a cover-up to protect himself; that Epstein did have a list – and Trump’s name was on it. After all, that was the allegation made by Elon Musk when they had their Semtex-rich falling out a few weeks back. I should add that there is no evidence of that, although Epstein and Trump knew each other and have been photographed together.

It’s not quite Dr Frankenstein losing control of the monster he created, but if you live by the conspiracy theory – as Trump has done – you can die by it too.

Syrian leader says Israel turning country into ‘theatre of chaos’

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has accused Israel of trying to turn Syria into a “theatre of endless chaos” in the wake of IDF strikes on Damascus.

In a televised speech on Thursday, the Syrian leader promised to protect the country’s Druze citizens as government forces withdrew from the southern province of Sweida, where clashes have erupted between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias.

Bedouin clans had fought alongside government forces against the Druze groups.

A ceasefire between Syrian government forces and Druze fighters, mediated by the US and Turkey, appeared to be holding as of Thursday evening. Under the agreement, Druze factions and clerics have been appointed to maintain internal security in Sweida.

“The Israeli intervention, which has consistently targeted our stability and sown discord since the fall of the former regime, now seeks once again to turn our sacred land into a theatre of endless chaos,” Mr al-Sharaa said in a televised address from an undisclosed location.

The violence escalated on Wednesday when Israel hit Damascus with airstrikes, damaging the defence ministry and striking near the presidential palace.

Western diplomats were passing near the ministry in an armoured convoy when Israel struck the building, according to two people familiar with the matter, including a Syrian eyewitness. Nobody in the convoy was injured.

Israel has demanded the withdrawal of Syrian government forces from the south, citing its responsibility to protect the Druze population in Syria.

“We have set forth a clear policy: demilitarisation of the region to the south of Damascus, from the Golan Heights and to the Druze Mountain area,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. He claimed Damascus had broken this policy.

“The regime sent troops south of Damascus, into the region that has to be demilitarised, and began slaughtering the Druze,” he said. “That we could not accept in any way, and I therefore directed the IDF to take action – and take powerful action.”

Since fighting broke out, Israel has launched dozens of strikes against government troops and convoys and warned it could escalate its involvement.

Armed confrontations broke out between Druze militias and Sunni Bedouin tribes after a Druze merchant was abducted on a highway on Sunday.

The situation worsened when government troops attempted to restore order but ended up clashing with local Druze fighters.

In Sweida, a local Druze journalist – who asked not to be named for security reasons – told The Independent that the national hospital in the city was packed with bodies, most of them civilians.

“There are more than 500 bodies of those killed in the National Hospital in Sweida – almost all of them civilians. There are women, children, people shot in the head,” he said.

Fadel Abdulghany from the Syrian Network for Human Rights said they had documented at least 207 people killed, including six women, six children and two medics.

He said the death toll is probably far higher than that, as the number does not include combatants killed in battle, but instead focuses on those who were subjected to summary executions, other violations and those killed in Israeli strikes.

“This not a final death toll, it’s increasing – there are cases we haven’t been able to reach,” Mr Abdulghany told The Independent.

“The core of the problem is everything has been a mess – there is no real political inclusion [since the fall of Assad], it feels like major centralisation.”

Ryan Marouf of the local TV station Suwayda24 told Reuters he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man. “People are looking for bodies,” he said in a voice recording.

The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shia Islam. It is deeply suspicious of Mr al-Sharaa’s government.

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said the “painful blows have begun” in a post on X, alongside a video of a Syrian presenter interrupted live by an airstrike on Syria’s defence ministry.

The explosion caused the camera to shake and the presenter quickly took shelter. A large explosion erupted behind her, with smoke billowing from the scene.

In a separate TRT video, a presenter is shown ducking as a burst of red flares up before the building is engulfed in smoke.

An Israeli military spokesperson said: “The IDF struck the entrance of the Syrian regime’s military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria.

“The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime’s actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. The IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios.”

Mr Netanyahu has said he is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria because of their deep ties to those living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Tensions between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters have continued since Sunni rebels led a lightning assault to topple former president Bashar al-Assad in early December.

When my friends were facing cancer, a community of people stepped up

When I was younger, I used to worry incessantly about my parents getting cancer. I’d lay awake at night, ruminating on what would happen to my brother and I if they did. Who would support us? Thankfully, both are still cancer-free, well into their seventies.

However, now that I’m a parent myself, I worry about my children. Many people believe that cancer only really happens to people in old age, but that’s just not true. One beloved friend’s daughter died of leukaemia in 2020, aged just five; an unthinkable horror that changed the lives of everyone who knew her and her family.

And with Macmillan Cancer Support reporting that almost 3.5 million people in the UK are living with cancer, I also worry about my friends – parents themselves, their lives touched by cancer. One friend sat me down in our favourite local café, our toddlers playing at our feet, to break the news that she was about to undergo a double mastectomy. We cried together.

Another friend, Sarah, a single parent to two teenage girls, was diagnosed with breast cancer the day before we heard that King Charles had cancer, and a month before the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, announced her own diagnosis in March last year. It seemed like cancer was everywhere.

As a result, Sarah put 2024 on hold – she missed her daughter’s last sports day and last concert at primary school and had to find a whole new way of co-ordinating family life.

“I’m lucky in some ways that my children are teenagers, so they are able to look after themselves to some degree – but I’m also a single parent, so there are some things that they can’t do, or struggle with, due to their age,” she tells me.

“I have even set up multiple alarms on our Alexa reminding them to put their packed lunches in their bags or leave for school, just in case I can’t get up.”

Sarah says she thought she knew quite a lot about cancer prior to her diagnosis, but now admits she “really didn’t”. She explains: “There are so many terms and procedures to understand – stages and grades, not to mention over 100 different chemotherapy drugs.”

Sarah tells me about the exhausting cumulative effect of chemotherapy, which she endured every three weeks during her cancer treatment: “After the very first lot, I slept for a few hours and felt much better pretty quickly. For my last rounds, I slept for 48 hours solid and even days later, I needed to have a nap in the middle of the day and was in bed by 8pm.”

Sarah’s now finished chemotherapy and, a year on from her diagnosis, is turning 50. She’s throwing a huge party to celebrate not only the birthday milestone, but getting over this “annus horriblis” – a year she couldn’t have gotten through without the people around her.

“People can do so much for us when we are unwell – and I am forever grateful,” she says. “I’ve been really overwhelmed by the support that my friends have given me; from ferrying around my children to and from after-school events and sleepovers when things get bad, to my 75-year-old neighbour mowing the lawn. One friend popped round with a huge pot of pasta sauce and I even had a gift box from a recruiter at work.”

What talking to my strong, resilient friends about their cancer journeys has made me realise most, is the power of community: for when we receive the worst news imaginable, what we need is people around us to see us through. A community of other women: friends, school mums, neighbours.

They had people willing to make them food, pick up their children, go shopping for them or to just sit with them and listen. They had support when they decided to raise money for cancer support charities, when they did fundraisers such as hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning.

It takes a village to raise a child – and that village will be with you every step of the way when you need them most.

Find out how you can help raise vital funds by hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Sign up now on the Macmillan website

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.

Prisoners let out ‘in error’ or held illegally in ‘squalid’ prison

Criminals have been released early by mistake or held illegally beyond their release date in “appalling conditions” inside a chaotic and squalid prison, a watchdog has warned.

The chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor has issued an urgent notification to the government over the state of medium security HMP Pentonville.

The overcrowded Victorian jail in north London, where most prisoners share cells designed for one person, is infested with mice and cockroaches.

Inspectors discovered 10 inmates in the Category B jail had been released early “in error” between July 2024 and June 2025 because staff “failed to calculate sentences accurately”. The prison holds a wide range offenders, including some jailed for violent crimes.

A further 130 inmates – 20 per cent of those eligible for release – had been held illegally after their release date in the last six months.

In a letter to justice secretary Shabana Mahmood, the chief inspector said arrangements for new prisoners’ first night at the north London jail and induction were “chaotic and even frightening”.

Men were held in dirty cells missing bedding, furniture, telephones and pillows, the watchdog said, while the majority of prisoners were locked in their cells for more than 22 hours a day.

Inspectors took emergency action after they found oversight of prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm was “shockingly poor”, with one prison officer found asleep when they were supposed to be monitoring at-risk prisoners.

Two were found reading books and another was “completely absent”, despite three self-inflicted deaths at the prison in 2025.

Mr Taylor said: “Pentonville is an overcrowded, inner-city, Victorian prison with a record of poor performance over many years.

“Too many of its staff have become disillusioned about the possibility of improvement or their capacity to affect change. Yet many of its shocking failures are firmly within the control of leaders.”

A survey of prisoners also revealed 44 per cent felt unsafe at the time of inspection, which is the highest figure recorded during Mr Taylor’s tenure as chief inspector.

Pentonville is the tenth prison to be issued with an urgent notification since November 2022, following Exeter, Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution, Woodhill, Bedford, Wandsworth, Rochester, Manchester and Winchester prisons.

The Howard League for Penal Reform described the findings as a “new low” for the prisons system.

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns, said: “The details emerging from this inspection are appalling and outrageous, and they represent a new low for an overcrowded and under-resourced public service that stands on the brink of collapse.

“While the government inherited a dire state of affairs in prisons, it has had more than a year to bring about change. As report cards go, such a dire account of dysfunction in Pentonville instils little confidence that ministers have a grip of the situation.”

Pia Sinha, of the Prison Reform Trust, said the damning report must serve as a rallying cry for action.

“Prisoners illegally held after they should have been released, or others released early in error, further undermine effective sentence planning and erode public confidence,” she added.

“This urgent notification must be a rallying cry for immediate action – fix the failing infrastructure, improve staff training, and treat prisoners with dignity.”

Prisons minister Lord Timpson said: “This is a deeply concerning report and reflects the crisis that has gripped too many of our prisons for far too long.

“Yesterday, I visited HMP Pentonville and met with staff. The team is already working to urgently address the concerns raised by the Chief Inspector. We will publish an action plan in the coming weeks to support them in these efforts.

“This Government will end the chaos we inherited in our jails. We are building 14,000 new prison places and reforming sentencing so our jails reduce reoffending, cut crime, and keep victims safe.”

16-year-olds to be given vote at next election in landmark change

The voting age is to be lowered to 16 in time for the next election, the government has announced in a move that would allow around 1.5 million more teenagers to cast a ballot.

The change will bring UK-wide elections in line with Scotland and Wales by the time the country next goes to the polls, due by the summer of 2029 at the latest.

The “seismic” development, which is part of a raft of measures set to be introduced through a new Elections Bill, is the biggest change to the electorate since 1969 when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18.

Keir Starmer encouraged 16 and 17 year olds to use their vote at next election.

No 10 said the PM would “absolutely encourage them to be as engaged as they can be in the future of their country”.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said: “For too long public trust in our democracy has been damaged and faith in our institutions has been allowed to decline.

“We are taking action to break down barriers to participation that will ensure more people have the opportunity to engage in UK democracy… and delivering on our manifesto commitment to give 16-year-olds the right to vote.”

Sixteen-year-olds already work, pay taxes and serve in the military, ministers point out.

Rushanara Ali, the minister for democracy, said the move would take “a generational step forward in restoring public trust and boosting engagement in UK democracy”.

But politicians from other parties have accused Starmer of trying to “rig future elections” with the change.

The PM insisted last year the issue was one of fairness. He said: “If you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote.”

Across the world there are only a handful of countries where the voting age is less than 18. In 2024 only Nicaragua, Scotland (for devolved Scottish Parliament and council elections), the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Cuba, Brazil, and Austria had votes at 16.

Last year the then Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns, who has since lost her seat and defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform party, put a video out on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that Starmer wants to “rig future elections”.

But Chris Annous, from pollsters More in Common, said expanding the right to vote to 16 and 17 year olds “will have little impact on election results – outside of hyper marginal seats”.

A new poll has also found nearly half of 16 and 17-year-olds don’t think they should be allowed to vote.

The survey of 500 16 and 17-year-olds by Merlin Strategy for ITV News found that 49 per cent didn’t think the voting age should be lowered to 16, while 51 per cent said it should.

The plans will also see UK-issued bank cards as an accepted form of ID at the polling stations. A more automated voter registration system will also make it easier for people to register to vote, the government said.

New changes will also close loopholes that would allow foreign donors via ‘shell companies’ to influence UK political parties.

It follows reports earlier this year that Elon Musk was preparing to give $100m (£80m) to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, in what would have been by far the largest donation in British electoral history.

The changes will also allow the Electoral Commission to take action and enforce heavier fines of up to £500,000 on those who breach political finance rules, and enable tougher sentences for those who abuse election campaigners.

The reforms come as the official watchdog the Electoral Commission reported that spending at last summer’s general election hit a record high of £94.5 million, including £69.3 million spent by political parties.

Labour outspent its rivals, shelling out £30 million during the campaign, more than twice the amount it spent five years earlier, while the Conservatives spent £23.9 million and the Liberal Democrats £5.6 million.

Reform spent £5.5 million, the Greens £1.7 million and the SNP £799,000.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director of the IPPR think tank, said the changes were “the biggest reform to our electoral system since 1969”, when the voting age was lowered to 18.

He said: “Barely half of people voted in last year’s general election. Our democracy is in crisis, and we risk reaching a tipping point where politics loses its legitimacy. The government has clearly heard these alarm bells.”

No 10 “absolutely rejected” claims that the reform was being brought in to shore up the government’s vote.