David Cameron reform bid amid voting age debate

David Cameron, the British prime minister, has come under pressure to reduce the age of eligibility to vote in the referendum on EU membership to 16, as he began in earnest a push to secure sufficient change to Britain’s relations with Brussels to persuade voters to back continued membership.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker arrived in the UK last evening for initial talks over Cameron’s broad aims for reform — ahead of Cameron’s whirlwind tour of European capitals.

However, the announcement that the in/out vote — promised by the end of 2017 — would be run using the same franchise as for general elections provoked a mixed response. The effective exclusion of most UK-resident EU citizens was broadly welcomed but there was condemnation of the failure to follow Scotland’s independence referendum move to allow votes at 16.