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Eight young women are sitting round a pine wood table saying they’ve never bothered to vote because all MPs are liars, politics is boring and it doesn’t affect them anyway.

They’re familiar gripes - and Labour MP Gloria de Piero is, amazingly, lapping them up.

The Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Registration asked for this, urging them to “be really honest, you’ve got to be brutal”.

An hour earlier she slipped out of the fortified Westminster bubble and took a 33-minute Tube ride to east London.

She’s only 11 miles from the heart of UK democracy but it feels very much further.

(Image: Phil Harris/Daily Mirror)

The Mirror, which is encouraging people to register to vote through our #NoVoteNoVoice campaign, has been invited join her quest to find out why Britain’s youngsters do not vote.

The reasons are depressingly predictable - and put forward with raw frustration, dismay and disenchantment.

“It’s a waste of five minutes even thinking about it, I would rather think about my dinner,” sighs youth worker Cassie Hull, 24.

“I just don’t actually get what politicians do, I don’t understand what they’re doing,” reveals betting shop worker Emma Wynne, also 24.

The youngsters taking part in this candid session are - they freely admit - woefully ill-informed.

(Image: Phil Harris/Daily Mirror)

It’s a fact, not a criticism – and one for which the media must also shoulder some blame.

Most of these young people don’t even know how to vote, even if they wanted to, which they don’t.

Some know that David Cameron is the Prime Minister and Conservative leader.

They describe Labour as the party of the “working class”.

But none has heard of Jeremy Corbyn , which will surely be a blow to the leader who believes this scandalously-ignored slice of the electorate will propel him to Downing Street in 2020.

“People who are in politics, they understand it but for young people you have got to break it down,” pleads Cassie.

Smiling stoically, Gloria asks: “So you’ve basically got no idea what we are on about?”

Cassie replies: “Basically, yeah.”

(Image: Phil Harris/Daily Mirror)

Hearing the lack of engagement from these young people is deeply depressing.

They are intelligent, articulate and polite. The issues which affect them – jobs, housing, travel costs - are familiar to Britons across the land.

Teaching assistant Parisse Everiste-Clifford, 24, wants less cash spent on overseas aid.

“They are trying to be heroes in other countries when charity starts at home,” she says.

Nicole Mann, 21, a youth worker, wants politicians to “stop spending money we haven’t got”.

(Image: Phil Harris/Daily Mirror)

But, during the 45-minute seminar in Barking as guests of the Young Women's Trust and Future M.O.L.D.S, it’s clear these youngsters can’t ever imagine their issues being solved through politics.

This is a vicious circle; the young people don’t vote because they say politicians don’t aim policies at them.

Politicians don’t come up with youth-friendly policies because they rightly say young people don’t vote.

The Tories ruthlessly targeted older voters at the election - and when 78% pensioners went to the polls compared with 43% of those aged 18 to 24, who can blame them? They would have been foolish not to.

Gloria warns the youngsters: “You’re almost like a horrible politician’s dream because if you don’t vote you let them get away with murder.”

Cassie has a solution that is unlikely to have much appeal in the Commons.

She says: “I would like to see politicians live in our shoes rather than deciding how we live. If they lived in our shoes they wouldn't be dictating how we live.”

It’s unlikely many will take up her suggestion.

And despite Gloria’s brave efforts, defiant Cassie confirms she will not be casting a vote when elections are held in May.