Britain’s youngest voter wanted to make a difference – at age 14

Alfie McKenzie, who was the youngest voter in last Thursday’s UK general election, said he cast his vote because he wanted “to make a difference”. But he had to fool polling station staff in order to do so.

The UK Guardian newspaper has revealed that McKenzie, a 14-year-old school student from Preesall in Lancashire, was the youngest voter in the election, which has left Britain with a hung parliament and parties still in talks over how to carve up power. However, despite teasing from fellow pupils at his school and stern warnings from Lancashire police and Wyre Borough Council that he may have carried out a criminal offence (currently, the legal voting age in the UK is 18), the schoolboy is unrepentant. “It was just too much of a temptation to resist. I’m a socialist, I’m really, really interested in politics. I’d been reading up on it a lot before the election, and I’d got very interested in tactical voting. Nobody asked me for ID or anything. I was literally in and out of the polling station in about 15 seconds. “As I said to my headteacher today, regrettably, I’m only sorry that I got caught. I would be a Labour supporter, but I voted Lib Dem tactically: I would have been interested in a Lib–Lab coalition, but [Lib Dem leader Nick] Clegg is in with [Tory leader David] Cameron right now, isn’t he? I’m not really a Cameron man.” Apparently, his polling card arrived in the post after his sister Georgie gave his name, along with hers and their parents’, to a council official who visited their house a few months before. She did so in all innocence, believing it was to do with the census; however, the official was actually updating the electoral register for the Wyre and Preston North constituency. Dressed carefully McKenzie visited his local polling station early on Thursday morning. “I was at the polling station by ten past seven. I dressed really carefully, in my trenchcoat, with my glasses, and I was careful to wear my posh shoes. I put on a posh accent, sort of Southern. I reckoned if they thought I was a Tory voter nobody would suspect me, because it couldn’t have made any difference in this constituency.” Afterwards, he returned home to change into his [school] uniform, then caught the bus to St Aidan’s school. Unfortunately for him, he made the mistake of confiding in a teacher, who then reported the events. “The teacher went straight to the head, and the head called the council – but I don’t think the council had a clue what to do about it in the beginning.” Later in the day, he was called out of class by the head teacher and given a stern talking-to by the police. If convicted of a criminal offence, he could face a fine of £5,000 or six months in prison. However, according to the Guardian report, the police have confided to his mother that the matter was unlikely to be taken any further. Soon afterwards, he was called out of class again to be told that a reporter was on the phone, wanting to speak to him. It was the tabloid Sun, but, McKenzie later told the Guardian: “I’d never speak to the Sun. I’m a Guardian reader.” Strong opinions His mother, Nadine Wiseman, is a doctor’s assistant and a Labour supporter, while his father, Darren McKenzie, is a socialist estate agent. However, McKenzie says his family are “not political but people do have very strong opinions on what’s right and wrong”. According to the BBC, McKenzie dressed so as he thought “officials would think I was a Tory. I knew they wouldn’t suspect an under-18 for voting Tory.” He told them that he was “very serious” about politics and socialism, but decided to vote Liberal Democrat as a tactical option. “There’s not a socialist candidate in our area and, unfortunately, even if there was it would be a wasted vote. I’ve looked into it and the best option for a socialist is the Liberal Democrats. “I did want to make a difference – unfortunately I didn’t.” In the event, Conservative candidate Ben Wallace held the seat for his party with a majority of 15,844. But McKenzie did his best to minimise the Tory victory. “Still, they were predicted to take the seat with 94 percent of the vote, and he only got 50 percent, so I like to think I helped a bit,” he told the Guardian. Nadine Wiseman, meanwhile, admitted to the paper that she found it hard to take a suitably stern line on her son’s actions. “He’s fabulous – there’s never a dull moment with Alfie around.” She told the BBC that she had asked her son not to vote after he received the polling card, but that she “wasn’t surprised” that he had. Final results for the election were: Tories 306; Labour 258; Lib Dems 57; Scottish Nationals 6; Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationals) 3; others 19.