Did youth vote buoy Jeremy Corbyn and Labour at the polls?

Labour’s unexpected gains and the loss of the Tory majority is likely down to a high youth turnout in favour of Jeremy Corbyn.

Latest figures showing 69% of electors went to the polls indicate younger people were voting in higher numbers than two years ago, according to Sky News election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher.

Labour directly courted the youth vote with the promise to scrap tuition fees and increase the minimum wage in their anti-austerity manifesto.

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A backlash against last year’s EU referendum result and concerns over a Tory-led "hard Brexit" may also have been a factor.

Data shows the vast majority of younger people backed Remain while older people voted Leave.

While precise figures for turnout among the 18 to 25-year-olds at the General Election are not yet available, Mr Thrasher said the exit poll revealed "constituencies containing large numbers of graduates were flocking towards Labour".

"Higher turnout hinted that younger people were voting in higher numbers than two years ago," he added.

Mr Corbyn referred to young people in his acceptance speech after holding his Islington seat.

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Mr Corbyn said: "Politics has changed. Politics is not going back into the box where it was before.

"What’s happened is people have said they have had quite enough of austerity politics, they have had quite enough of cuts in public expenditure, underfunding our health service, underfunding our schools and our education service and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society."

People were "voting for hope for the future and turning their backs on austerity", he said.

Matthew Pennycook, newly elected Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, said Mr Corbyn had brought "young people out in record numbers", while Labour veteran Paul Flynn, who was re-elected to Newport West, said he was "exhilarated" at "the welling up of idealism among young people".

Former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who was defeated in Sheffield Hallam, warned of a "huge gulf now between young and old".

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He said: "We saw that in the Brexit referendum last year and we see it here again tonight, polarised between left and right, between different regions and nations and areas of the country, but most gravely of all, this huge gulf now between young and old.

"My only plea would be to all MPs… from all parties, is this: that we will not pick our way through the very difficult times that our country faces if in the next parliament MPs of all parties simply seek to amplify what divides them."

(c) Sky News 2017: Did youth vote buoy Jeremy Corbyn and Labour at the polls?