Re-generated youth citizenship: youth civic and electoral mobilisation at the 2017 General Election

Now the dust has settled, how should we account for the surge in youth turnout at the 2017 UK General Election with estimates that 64% of those aged 18-24 cast a vote (Hart and Henn 2017) – representing a significant 21-point increase from the 2015 General Election and a departure from recent patterns of youth abstention? After all, our youth are often decried as apathetic and having no sense of civic responsibility or commitment to social and collective endeavour. So when Theresa May unexpectedly called a snap election on 18 April 2017, such an outcome seemed virtually unthinkable. The Conservative lead over Labour in the pre-election polls appeared unassailable (YouGov 2017), and the 50-day campaign period loomed long, flat and predictable. For many young people, another vote, soon after what they considered a deeply disappointing 2016 Referendum outcome to leave the EU, heralded little more than the prospect of another five years in which their concerns would remain ignored by the political elite. The likelihood that Britain's youth would flock to the polls seemed somewhat remote