A number of Tory MPs have promised to back a fresh Labour bid to lower the voting age to 16, the shadow youth minister has said.

Cat Smith said she was "optimistic" that a private member's bill led by Labour MP Jim McMahon had a good chance of becoming law.

She was speaking to BuzzFeed News at a fringe event at the Labour conference in Brighton on Tuesday, where she urged students to lobby their MP to back the bill at its second reading on 3 November.

McMahon's bill would lower the voting age from 18 to 16 for UK elections, and would ensure young people were educated in "citizenship and the constitution".

Theresa May, the prime minister, made clear earlier this year that she did not believe the voting age should be lowered, saying: "You have to pick a point at which you think it is right for the voting age to be. I continue to think it is right for it to be 18."