Idea is part of package of changes to try to boost turnout, but critics say they fail to address root cause of voter apathy

Making the day of each general election a national holiday has been endorsed by MPs as part of a package of proposed changes to try to boost voter turnout in the UK.

The Commons political and constitutional reform committee said it could help restore “greater esteem and excitement” to the electoral process.

It also called for automatic registration and trials of voting via the internet “with a view to all electors having the choice of voting online at the 2020 general election”. But it was split over whether voting should be made compulsory and called on the government to produce detailed analysis of the idea and put it to a Commons vote, including whether there should be a “none of the above” option to allow an active abstention.

The committee chair, Labour MP Graham Allen, said: “Our democracy is facing a crisis if we do not take urgent action to make elections more accessible to the public and convince them that it is worth voting.

“Turnout for the last general election was only 65% – almost 16 million voters chose not to participate – and millions of people are not even registered to vote. This is not an acceptable state of affairs for a modern democracy.

“The fact that almost 85% of people turned out for the recent referendum on Scottish independence shows that people will turn out if they care about an issue and believe they can make a difference. This lesson needs to be learnt and applied to all other elections.

“We hope our report shows that parliament is waking up to this issue by calling for radical change.”

David Babbs, executive director of the campaign group 38 Degrees, said tweaking the system would not address the fundamental cause of voter apathy – distrust of politicians.

He cited a poll of 100 MPs that found 86% thought they were trusted by their constituents to represent them in parliament, while fewer than a quarter of voters (24%) in a separate survey expressed trust in them to do so.

“Compulsory voting won’t restore the faith of a voter whose MP broke promises after the last election,” Babbs said. “Votes for 16-year-olds won’t give any more hope to a young person living in a safe seat. It’s going to take more than an online ballot box to make people believe that it’s worth casting their vote.

“If politicians really want more of us involved in politics, they need to look closer to home. The report is right to suggest that if you want to tackle the collapse of trust in politics, you also need to tackle the root causes, like corporate lobbying, or party funding.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said the government had given £4.2m to local authorities and national organisations to encourage people to register to vote.

“As the committee says, it is not just for the government to improve voter engagement, but everyone involved in public life: civil society, politicians, political parties and others all have a role to play.

“This summer, in a historic change, we introduced online voter registration for the first time, coupled with individual electoral registration, to make it more convenient than ever to get on the electoral register.

“Nearly three and a half million people have applied to be on the register since we introduced the new system in June, two-thirds of whom applied online.”