Greens open up staggering lead with 18-24 year olds

The Green Party has opened up a staggering lead with 18-24 year olds according to one poll:

🗳️ POLL | Greens lead with 18-24 year olds:

🟢 Grn: 35% (+17)
🔴 Lab: 19% (-22)
➡️ Ref: 17% (+8)
🔵 Con: 8% (-)
🟠 Lib: 7% (-9)
🚩 Your: 4% (+4)

(Source: @focaldataHQ)
—
+/- vs GE2024 data pic.twitter.com/L0LBqjcjGP

— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) June 9, 2026

It’s almost as if they’re the only party which is acknowledging the issues young people face.

Meeting needs

The above isn’t the only poll to have shown the Greens leading with young people. This, from March, shows the party leading with everyone under the tender age of 65:

🗳️ NEW | Greens lead with all voters under 65, reveals latest YouGov survey:

— 18-64s —
🟢 Grn: 26%
➡️ Ref: 20%
🔴 Lab: 17%
🔵 Con: 13%
🟠 Lib: 14%

— Over 65s —
➡️ Ref: 33%
🔵 Con: 26%
🔴 Lab: 15%
🟠 Lib: 14%
🟢 Grn: 6%

Poll: @YouGov, 1-2 March pic.twitter.com/Kaa1pBYBJ3

— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) March 3, 2026

It’s not hard to see why.

Reform and the Tories mostly target retirees. This older generation is largely secure, having bought their houses at rock bottom prices. While that’s great for them, it does also make them more vulnerable to the message that ‘people are coming to steal what’s yours‘. Young people, meanwhile, can’t afford to buy their own homes, and as such they’ve nothing to conserve – excluding them from the conservative instincts of their grandparents.

Labour’s plan in government has been to pursue changes so marginal that no one even notices them. They’ve also completely abandoned young people on issues like the minimum wage:

Page 45 of Labours 2024 manifesto stated: "Labour will also remove the discriminatory age bands so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage"

Pat McFadden is asked, when are you going to do this?

McFadden says its not up to the govt to do it. pic.twitter.com/RSVJaZvf7x

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 31, 2026

Under this Labour government, young people are facing an under-employment crisis (one which began with the Tories, to be fair).

As Politics UK reported:

– Mid- and lower-skilled jobs have fallen by around 1.6 million over the past 20 years

– Hospitality vacancies have nearly halved in the last 4 years

– Apprenticeships for 16-24-year-olds have fallen by 35% since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced in 2017

– The proportion of 16-17-year-olds in paid work has nearly halved from 35% in 2006 to 19% today

– If every current inactive 18-24-year-old was in full-time work, this would contribute an additional £38 billion to UK GDP

– 58% of inactive young people (6 in 10) have never had a job

And as we reported in turn:

As life has gotten more expensive in the UK, many young people are living at home for longer. This means fewer of them need to take the dead-end jobs that many of us accepted to ensure we could pay the rent. The knock-on effect is young people have less disposable income, and as a result they don’t go out, meaning fewer jobs in the hospitality sector. Increasing the minimum wage would better incentivise work, which would better drive economic activity.

So this is what the young can expect under Labour and the Tories:

Live with your parents.
Be in student debt for most of your working life.
Struggle to get a job.
Be blamed for everything wrong with the country.

In other words, it’s increasingly hard for young people to have hope for the future. And as such, it’s easy to see why the Greens are proving to be so popular.

Greens messaging

These are the sort of messages that Zack Polanski and the Green Party are putting out:

Rising rents, cost of further education, the climate crisis.

There's lots for young people to worry about.

Yet they have a plan & the determination to end Rip off Britain.

Join us: https://t.co/Q27Jy5eX7z pic.twitter.com/EBAKibIOu3

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 28, 2026

"Austerity is a false economy. If you don't invest in young people, if you burden them with student debt rather than public investment, that's why we get the kind of problems we've got."

Zack Polanski on why investing in young people matters. pic.twitter.com/H7pqhJ1PhH

— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) February 19, 2026

With the establishment parties implicitly arguing that ‘things can only get worse’, it’s easy to see why the Greens are cutting through.

Featured image via Jon Rowley (Getty Images)

Tags: Green party UK

Comments 3

Airlane1979 says:

1 month ago

Those younger people are far less likely to bother to vote in elections than are largely capitalist and right-wing older people, so this polling lead – which in itself historically means much less than it appears – should not be taken as an indication of election results.

D71 says:

1 month ago

Many rail against planned economies, that is, at least nominally, democratically controlled economic activity. Yet the alternative is undemocratic economies, and the work available in those is largely crap, and created to the benefit of the wealthy. However, it’s easy to see why people dislike the idea of planned economies – they’re delivered by elected govts, and they largely support the actions of the wealthy, throughout history. In fact, there is a form of capitalism that’s been around since merchant capitalism, which is the public-private partnership. A further fact – capitalism relies on this partnership and cannot survive without it. Without govts creating money constantly and increasing its supply, economic expansion would be impossible, since money, at some point, ceases to circulate as someone will save it. What’s said often about capitalism is largely untrue, apart perhaps that it only survives because, as David Graeber noted, because underneath capitalism resides communism (he used the word provocatively). He noted that capitalism fundamentally requires co-operation (which is a communist principle first and foremost), within organisations, between organisations, for organisations to work together and follow rules. Capitalism would destroy itself instantly if a society became totally capitalist. Capitalists cannot make a profit, they can only bribe governments into making it legal for them to take what belongs to others. What we need is a genuinely collectively decided economy, by assemblies organised at whatever level is needed, co-ordinated regionally and nationally, staffed by sortition, as with jury service, since, as the ancient Greeks noted, elections are oligarchical, sortition is democratic, and people paid well to work on whatever project is needed. Governance is corrupt because power is concentrated into parliament, and even further into cabinet, around 20 people deciding the fate of 67,000,000. To think that’s a good idea you have to be truly stupid, and ignore the entirety of history. There is no way to vote ourselves out of the current polycrisis. Unfortunately, and I intend to vote for the Green party, the Green party will only be marginally progressive, rather than transformative. They will not permanently disseminate decision-making power, including co-ordinated, collective money creation, away from cabinet. They will not seriously diminish the scope of power of parliament. Leaving most of us still disempowered and vulnerable.

TheUnderdog says:

1 month ago

Still does not change the fact Polanski is a zionist. Green party, like the other zionist parties, will not receive my vote whilst a pro-zionist is in power.
“From Liberal Zionist to Green Party leader: The political journey of Zack Polanski”
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/greens-leader-polanski-embracing-outsider-status-on-gaza-debate/
“Zack Polanski’s Greens block anti-Zionist motion at conference”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/03/30/dctq-m30.html
“UK Green Party suspends pro-Palestine Jewish activist following Israel criticism”
https://www.newarab.com/news/uk-green-party-suspends-jewish-activist-after-israel-criticism
I will keep reposting this until the Canary acknowledges it.