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Interviews by Cormac Crowley and Megan Smith as part of a broader project run by yPolitics, article compiled by UK Editor Rosie Addecott
There’s no doubt about it. 2025 is no easy time to be a young person. Some days it just feels like the world is burning, prices are rising, debts are growing and opportunities are disappearing. More and more young people in the UK are becoming disenchanted with politics and the country as a whole. But are there some pockets of hope left in the hearts of the youth? Where, if anywhere, are we willing to put our faith? And how do we feel about our future? In interviews with the presidents of the Labour and Green societies at the University of Birmingham (UoB) and three of the leaders of the Politics society at the University of Surrey (UoS), we hope to pose some possible answers to these questions, while also addressing what this means for the British political class.
One standout theme in these interviews was young people’s disappointment with the Labour government. For decades Labour have been the party of the young people, but tumultuous times and a lacklustre government performance thus far is causing a crack in these traditional alignments. The students reported that both they and the people in their societies feel that the government have not brought the change that many young people had been hoping for after years of Conservative leadership. Even Kashvi, a Labour member and Labour Society president, admits that ‘constituents are just tired.’ She adds that young people are reluctant to get involved with the Labour party in Sandwell, and the party simply does not know how to approach young people.
The Politics Society members at UoS further expressed this malaise at the party’s uninspiring first year in office. James, president, is considering ending his membership with the party, whilst Holly, social secretary, chose now to renew hers as she was ‘struggling with how far the party has moved towards centrism.’ She added that ‘a lot of their promises and the way they campaigned are a lot more left-wing than (how) they’re acting now.’
The interviewees are witnessing this disenchantment play out at their universities. Although according to the Labour Society president at UoB, Kashvi, they haven’t lost members to rival societies, the president of the Green Society, Olly, stated that, although the Labour Society still have more member’s the turnout at their events is low. ‘Our events,’ he said, ‘get about 30 students… whereas Labour gets about 10’. He continued, ‘we (UoB) are a very big hub for Labour support. The Labour Society used to be a campaign machine, but now they’re pretty much defunct.’
As Labour are falling, the Greens are rising. The national picture indicates a burst of never-before-seen popularity for the Greens. Their membership has now topped 150,000 and they are particularly popular with young people, with most recent polling suggesting that 42% of 18-24 year olds would vote Green if there was an election tomorrow. Our interviews are indicative of this. Kashvi, of the Labour Society, reluctantly admitted that the Greens’ approach is better than Labour’s ‘at connecting with young people,’ and she predicts they will gain many MPs. Olly, Green Society, is convinced the ‘Polanski has pulled the youth vote,’ which he accredits to the ‘rise in hope politics’ that the Green party are delivering ‘after such a long period of austerity and hate.’ If Green are offering young people a brighter, better future, why wouldn’t they take it?
All three of the politics society leaders at UoS think they would be likely to vote Green following their falling out of love with Labour. James, president, likes ‘the idea of there being real change,’ and Holly added that she ‘would rather vote for a smaller party who I’m proud I voted for than feel let down by another mainstream party.’ This sentiment was not universal, however, as Matt, VP, fears that, despite his support for the Greens’ ideas, ‘the vote is wasted’ as a result of the system being ‘rigged against them.’ The first-past-the-post system in the UK, a hallmark of our democracy, is guilty of punishing small parties and given them highly disproportionate representation in parliament considering the often-high vote share they receive. In 2024, despite getting 6.7% of the vote, the Greens only won 0.6% of the seats. Still, with a powerful enough youth vote, maybe this, too, is a part of traditional British politics that has the capacity to change.
While the Greens are a beacon of hope for young people, Your Party have been nothing but a let-down. At first, they appeared to represent many of the interests of young people. However, infighting and a lack of coordination have turned the party into little more than a joke. Matt, UoS Politics Society, said he feels ‘the Green Party is just more defined, we know what they are about.’ Holly, a long-time follower of Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana was excited when they initially announced the formation of a new party but was disheartened to see them crumble at the first hint of pressure. ‘When you want to support a small party, you want to know they’re actually going to be a united force and focus on growing.’ If Your Party do have some support, it seems that a university campus is not the place to find it.
Alongside their thoughts about political parties, we asked our interviewees how they feel about their own prospects for the future. The picture they painted for us was a bleak one. Top of the concerns for the UoS Politics Society leadership was the very real fear that they won’t be able to find a job after graduating. The old adage of “a degree equals a good job” just does not seem to hold up anymore. ‘A lot of my friends have just graduated,’ said Holly, ‘and one out of ten of them have a job in a career they want to do.’ James contributed, ‘we have so many people with uni degrees now so its oversaturation of the market.’ A recent study found that only a little over half of graduates are in full-time work 15 months after graduating, with unemployment for post-grads rising. Matt’s fear of not finding work after graduating has driven him to do a masters, and even then he still questions, ‘am I going to get a job straight out of the blocks? Probably not.’
Kashvi and Olly from UoB both expressed frustration at the government’s handling of student loans and public finances. As Kashvi said, ‘we understand that there needs to be money raised and the economy is struggling, but it is very hard hitting when they raise student loans on the working-class families.’ Currently, tuition fees stand at £9535, having risen by 3.1% since the cap on fees was raised, and new budget measures mean they stand to rise to £10,050 by 2027. Moreover, the new budget will make it harder for students from low income households to get the max loan by freezing parental income thresholds, and a freeze on the repayment threshold for students on the 2nd repayment plan is designed to squeeze more and more money out of young people. ‘The “tough decisions” Rachel Reeves has to make are never benefitting the poorer in society, the young people, the working people,’ Olly lamented. ‘It’s never tough decisions for rich people, for millionaires and billionaires.’ ‘It feels (like) the current system is set out to be regressive and to tax young and working people more than people that hold the wealth.’ Clearly, it’s more than just the financial strain that is causing discontent among young people; it’s the blatant unfairness of it all. As the rich get richer the poor get poorer and young people are being put through the ringer, underprioritized by the government and overly charged for an education that they can’t even guarantee will find them a job in the future.
So, what’s the takeaway from all this? One obvious takeaway is that the Labour government won’t be winning any popularity contests with young people any time soon. Though they don’t have much to worry about with Your Party as competition, it is clear than the Green Party are making a successful bid for this historically Labour-leaning section of the electorate. This feeds into the second takeaway from these interviews; young people are fed up. They’re fed up of enormous loans, a lack of available jobs, an unfair economic system, and political leaders that make them bear the brunt of the strain while not delivering on any of their promises. If Labour ever hope to win this group back, as they will surely need to if they want to win the next election, they have a hell of a lot of work to do. If not, then who can blame us young people from looking to smaller parties, be it the Greens or, depressingly, Reform, to offer us a more enticing alternative. Young people deserve a country that offers them a bright future, so the party that wins them over will be the party which seems most likely to deliver that.
Interviews with:
• Kashvi – University of Birmingham Labour society president
• Olly – University of Birmingham Green society president
• James – University of Surrey Politics society president
• Matt – University of Surrey Politics society vice-president
• Holly – University of Surrey Politics society social secretary
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