The Scottish and Welsh nationalists have made a joint call for the voting age to be lowered to 16.

Speaking to journalists in Westminster on Wednesday, Angus Robertson of the SNP and Adam Price of Plaid Cymru, urged the move to encourage young people to participate in politics.

"If democracy doesn't value young people, then how can we expect young people to value democracy? Young people's voices need to be heard on allissues, from education and employment, to defence and the environment," said Price.

The Plaid Cymru MP also argued that if 16 and 17 year olds were able to vote then the government would find it hard to justify treating them differently in terms of welfare benefits.

The SNP's MP for Moray added: "It is vital that we engage young people in the democratic process, and lowering the voting age to 16 is a key aspect of that."

"It is already SNP and Plaid Cymru policy to lower the voting age, and we hope to take this campaign forward on a wider cross-party basis. Already, there are senior Labour and Lib Dem MPs who support lowering the voting age," said Robertson.

"If we can engage young people in the democratic process early by extending the right to vote, I am convinced that this interest can be maintained through to later life, and that can only be good for our democracy," he added.

The campaign to lower the voting age has already been supported by the Electoral Reform Society.

The society, which has monitored British elections for nearly 120 years, argues that as 16-year-olds are considered adults in a range of other ways they should be allowed to participate in the democratic process through the ballot box.

Moves to increase voter participation have been a major concern to all parties following the last general election at which turnout slumped to its lowest level since 1918.