Prioritising older voters while forcing teenagers into national service has been described as “outright wrong” in Sky News’ Target Towns.
The early stages of the campaign have seen the Conservatives offering a pensions “triple lock plus” while also promising to force 18-year-olds to dedicate time to the military or community service.
Labour has vowed to maintain the pensions triple lock for the duration of the next Parliament, if elected.
General election latest: Tory tactic on Starmer age may backfire
Inside a boxing fitness class laid on for elderly residents of a care home in Grimsby, Sky News heard concerns about an emerging generational divide.
Sydney Ballard, 18, has just started a student work placement at the care home. She said she wanted to see fewer dividing lines in politics.
“We all come from the same kind of place…no, I don’t think there should be a divide at all.
“I don’t think dividing the people does anybody any good.”
Fitness instructor Bailey Greetham-Clark, 21, was leading the energetic afternoon session with his trademark enthusiasm that has made his boxing videos a big hit on TikTok.
Bailey Greetham-Clark, a 21-year-old fitness instructor
While he is up for encouraging more young people to contribute to their communities, he is uneasy about making it compulsory.
“Using young people as a political tool is just outright wrong,” he told Sky News.
“As a generation, young people are underestimated and we are perceived to be a lot more lazy than we are.
“We are actually change makers.”
More politics:
Abbott accuses Starmer of ‘culling’ Labour left wingers
Polling suggests trouble ahead for Starmer if times get tough
Ninety-one-year-old resident Vera Troop said that the election promises she’d heard so far on pensions were attractive to her.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What would Grimsby voters ask?
“I do hope whoever gets in fulfils their promises and do a little more for us,” she said.
“I think we old ones have had the best times; it is so different to when we were younger…I do think they (teenagers) have a raw deal.”
Sky News is planning to hold a leaders debate in the crucial seat of Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes to allow residents to put their concerns directly to the party leaders.
