Care homes get out the grey vote for European election

Elderly in care homes across the EU cast votes in the European election including 86-year-old Sheila Colburn who declared her determination to vote because suffragettes died for her right to.

With 200m people aged 50+ in the European Union, out of 400m European citizens eligible to vote in the election, care home workers aided by minibuses and quite a few wheelchairs got organised to help deliver the grey vote.

Postal votes made sure many people who were unable to leave their home, could vote while others turned up at polling stations with the assistance of care workers.

86-year-old Sheila Colburn, who lives at Ingleby Care Home in Stockton-on-Tees was among them.

Sheila Colburn said: “I couldn’t thank the staff enough for taking me to vote.

“The reason that I vote at all was because women died for us to be able to vote."

When asked by carehome.co.uk which party got her vote, she said: “I have always voted Labour. My father was a Labour councillor. When I was young in Oxford, I used to go canvassing with him.

“I’ve always voted and didn’t know what would happen after moving to Ingleby Care Home, with my family working.”

Staff at Ingleby Care Home wanted to ensure residents could exercise their right to vote regardless of their mobility difficulties and helped 10 residents get to a polling station, while others were assisted to make postal votes.

Cassie McCloskey, unit manager at the care home, which is part of the Hill Care group, said: “It was great to be able to take residents to the polling station and they were really happy to be able to vote.

“Moving into a care home, either due to lack of mobility or other issues, should not mean the end of their right to vote.

“Many residents still want to take part in elections and we are only too happy to support them to do so.”

With 751 seats up for grabs, the European elections for 2019-2024 resulted in Green parties across Europe securing 69 seats.

In the UK, Nigel Farage’s Brexit party got 29 seats (32 per cent of UK votes), Liberal Democrats got 20 per cent of UK votes. However, the Conservatives (nine per cent) and Labour (14 per cent) both lost seats. The Green party got 12 per cent of the vote.

The election turnout across Europe was 50 per cent. In the UK, the turnout was 37 per cent.

Seventy-four-year-old Charlotte Stephenson, who also lives at Ingleby care home said: “It’s nice we can still get to vote.”

A strong Labour supporter she said her decision to vote for the party was because “I always voted for them.”

'Ageist attitudes'

The European election saw different parties campaign on many diverse issues including elderly rights, which crept into numerous manifestos.

Age Platform Europe is a European network of non-profit organisations for people aged 50+, and has campaigned as ‘the voice of older people’s at EU level’.

It champions issues such as anti-discrimination against the elderly, employment of older workers and active ageing, pension reforms, social inclusion, health, elder abuse, intergenerational solidarity, accessibility of public transport and the build environment and new technologies.

The organisation is calling for all countries to work on ‘intergenerational solidarity’ across Europe.

In a statement, Age Platform Europe said: ‘Ageist attitudes hit the European elections debates in several EU member states where national leaders and MEP candidates themselves mock their adversaries as dinosaurs, or have diplomatically called for a generational change in Brussels'.

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