Students at Suffolk school grill parliamentary candidates during special debate

Students at Thomas Gainsborough School in Sudbury have been posing questions to a panel of parliamentary candidates from the five main political parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green and UKIP).

It is less than two months to go until the General Election and the opinion polls are putting the Conservatives and Labour almost neck and neck, so every vote counts. Meanwhile a third of all 18-24 year olds are not even registered to vote on 7 May, a trend which goes back nearly 50 years.

The graph below shows that since the 1970s the proportion of 18-24 year olds voting is consistently well below every other age group, with less than half of those in that category casting a vote in 2010.

Watch the full debate between students and five election candidates by clicking below

The proportion of those between the ages of 15 and 30 voting in any type of election in the UK is 38%, compared to the EU where in Germany its 53%, Spain 61%, in France 64%, while in Italy (71%), and Belgium (73%) the number in that category is up above the 70 percent mark, a huge difference compared to here.