Attracting the Elusive Youth Vote?
By Ian Gee, April 2026
What a great experience the Together Alliance March on Saturday 28th Match was. Travelling up to London from Barnstaple with a coach full of like minded people. People from a range of progressive organisations, all with the shared belief that we have had enough of right wing rhetoric dividing the country. A group of people that are not only willing to get up at an unearthly hour to catch a coach to London, but even more importantly, who are willing to stand up and be counted.
The march itself was inspiring. Standing alongside people from all over the UK and making our presence and voices heard was genuinely uplifting. There were also some wonderful placards, many of which made their point with great humour and wonderful artwork.
One thing that particularly stood out to me, was the presence of the Communist Party. I don’t know about you, but I have not seen or heard anything of the Communist Party in years. The only local communist I have met is Gerald Sables, who years ago, when Peter Heaton-Jones got elected as our MP, I heard speak at a local husting. He was a very impressive and compelling speaker.
What was really interesting is that from my very rough visual estimate, there were around 300+ people marching with the communists; about 70% of whom looked to be under the age of 30. With many of them looking to be under 25.
I know from both my time with ND Compass and with ND4EU we talked a lot about how to engage young people in our cause and what we could do to encourage them to become active and have their voices heard. This proved to be a recurring theme with our leafletting students at the then named Petroc College on a few occasions, and talking to ‘tame’ young people to try and understand what we could do to encourage them to get involved. All our work led to very little, if any, engagement of younger people with either ND4EU or ND Compass.
Having done a bit of research it would appear there are at least versions of the Communist Party in the UK:
• The Communist Party of Britain
• The Communist Party of Great Britain (Leninist/Marxist)
• The Communist party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee)
• The Revolutionary Communist Party
With only the Communist Party of Britain having a dedicated youth wing; The Young Communist League. The others simply integrating younger members into the main body of the organisation.
Digging a bit deeper (for full disclosure I used ChatGPT to get the data) it would appear that the Young Communist League has undergone considerable growth, and though still not big in actual numbers, has experienced rapid growth in terms of membership.
To put this into context I had a look at youth membership trends across other political parties.
Reform does not have a ‘youth wing’. The party’s membership is estimated to be 200,000 to 250,000 with an average age of 61 and over half aged 65+. Equally Restore do not publish the age profile of their membership though it is estimated to have a membership of between 50,000 and 100,000. I doubt I would be wrong in assuming that their membership profile is likely much the same as Reform.
This makes me think that whilst centre to left leaning organisations have seen growing engagement from younger people, Reform UK, despite its large and rapidly growing membership, has a much older profile, with very few members under 25. It could be argued that this suggests that younger people are not just moving to ‘new’ parties, but specifically to those offering a particular kind of clarity and vision about what they stand for.
My next point of inquiry was what is it about Labour during the Corbyn era, the Greens and the Communist Party that have attracted young people?
One reason could be that they have a number of articulate and may be particularly charismatic recruiters in certain areas, including at colleges and universities, who are able to stimulate interest and attract recruits? Another of course, could be the policies they have. Or it could be a combination of the two. Not having had the chance to talk directly to any of the Communist Party members, I decided to have a look at what they stand for, in terms of what they would do if they ever got elected.
One of the younger marchers gave me a copy of ’The Communist’ newspaper which lists their demands as follows:
And having looked at the Young Communist Leagues website, their demands are pretty much similar:
Our Demands:
A real living wage and an end to casualisation and age discrimination in pay
A new apprenticeship system and real jobs with
Trade union and employment rights
More council housing and private sector rent controls
Public transport network cards for young people with capped, affordable prices
Free college and university education
Free access to government and council cultural, leisure and sports facilities
Free access to all NHS Healthcare and improved mental and sexual health services
The right to vote at 16
An end to all forms of discrimination
Fight to prevent climate change
What I find particularly interesting about these demands is how clear and absolute they are when compared to the more cautious language often used by mainstream political parties. There is little sense of ‘realpolitik’. Instead, they present a direct and uncompromising vision.
I wonder whether, to many young people, this clarity feels more authentic, especially when contrasted with what can sometimes sound like equivocation, ‘swithering’ or ‘word salad’ in mainstream political messaging? Are young people drawn to politics not just by ideology but by clarity, conviction and simplicity?
I am wondering what groups like Compass and the other progressive parties might be able to learn from the way that the Communist Party has managed to attract young people? Do we need to be more absolutists and binary in the way we make our offerings? Do we need leaders with more charisma?
What do you think? Be good to hear your thoughts on all of this.
Ian Gee
5th April 26
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