Sir Keir Starmer's plan to lower the voting age to 16 could backfire as a new poll suggests young voters are surging to Reform UK and Jeremy Corbyn's Your Party.
More than one in five 16 and 17-year-olds would vote for a party led by Mr Corbyn and Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana.
The study by More in Common would take six percentage points off Labour’s share among 16-17 year olds.
It leaves Sir Keir's party on 24 per cent, Nigel Farage’s Reform on 23 per cent and Mr Corbyn’s new party on 21 per cent.
However, the biggest loser would be The Green Party, with its vote share more than halving from 14 per cent to six per cent.
The More in Common poll of more than 1,100 16 and 17 year olds found that 48 per cent said that they would vote Remain if the 2016 Brexit referendum were held again while 13 per cent said they would vote Leave.
More than a third said they sympathised more with the Palestinians in the ongoing war in Gaza, with nine per cent siding with Israel.
There was also overwhelming support for lowering the voting age, with 59 per cent supporting votes for 16 and 17-year-olds and 17 per cent opposing.
Young people are flocking away from Sir Keir Starmer's party
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The poll will be a boost for the Islington North MP and Your Party co-leader
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The poll also suggested a gender split, with 45 per cent of 16-17-year-old boys saying they would vote for either Reform or the Conservatives, compared with 24 per cent of girls.
Reform’s vote share is six points higher among boys than girls, with the gap even wider for the Tories.
Reacting to the news, a Reform spokesman told The Sunday Times: "Labour tried to rig the next election with votes for 16-year-olds but it may now just come back to bite them."
GB News contributor and former advisor to Mr Corbyn, James Schnieder said young voters are "fed up with establishment parties that have failed to cut rents, invest in education, or protect their future."
Nigel Farage remains the most polarising politician according to the poll
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Amaan, 16, from Manchester, told a focus group set up to accompany the poll: "I think Jeremy Corbyn would be a good leader of this country as he seems like he represents the working class quite well compared to say Keir Starmer."
Lyla, 17, from Leeds, said: "Personally, I think that quite a lot of people I know that support Labour or lean left-wing are quite disappointed because it seems like although the Labour Party says they’re representing the working class.
"[They’re] making relatively centrist and right-wing policies at the moment.
"So, I think that quite a lot of people who are hard-left-leaning are quite disappointed in that, from what I’ve heard."
According to the poll, Nigel Farage has a six per cent net favourability with boys aged 16/17 but -18 with girls.
Mr Corbyn, who led Labour from 2015 to 2020, had favourability ratings of five per cent with boys and three per cent with girls aged 16/17, although 52 per cent said they did not know or had neither positive or negative feelings towards the Islington North MP.
Director of More in Common Luke Tryl said: "It seems the fragmentation of politics is not limited to adults.
"This poll of more than one thousand 16 and 17-year-olds shows that Corbyn’s new party, Reform UK and Labour would be in a virtual three-way tie among this group of soon-to-be voters."
Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's party finish in the top three among young people
| PAFormer Labour advisor and outspoken critic of Mr Corbyn's leadership Paul Richards was more cynical about the poll's findings.
He told GB News: "This poll is of people who are 16 now, but we're talking about a general election.
"So they should have been polling 12 year olds, really. People change their minds between the age of 12 and the age of 16/17, as we know.
"Second of all, this party is is still bull. They've already split between Sultana and Corbyn. They're not talking to each other. They can't agree on a name...If you put three of them in a room, you get four factions."