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Previous members said scrapping it 'would be a huge mistake and detrimental to youth voice across the UK'
The UK Youth Parliament is set to be axed by Labour after the collective was branded a "colossal waste" of taxpayer money.
The Parliament, which was launched by Tony Blair's government in 2000, has more than 300 elected members aged between 11 and 18.
It aims to improve youth participation in politics and encourage young people to take part in democratic processes.
However, it has long been criticised for being a "waste" of money and "woke".
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) funds the Youth Parliament, which includes among its alumni Labour minister Keir Mather, Tory frontbencher Alicia Kearns and Green bigwig Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
However, the DCMS, which funds the Parliament each year with £500,000 of taxpayer cash, is not committing to giving any more grants to it, reports The BBC.
A DCMS spokesman praised the Youth Parliament's "important legacy... giving elected young people a national platform to represent their peers, engage with decision-makers and develop confidence, leadership and skills for life and work".
One Whitehall source said: "The government has not committed to continuing the programme in its current form", with Youth Parliament insiders warning that without public funding, it is likely to close.
The Parliament, which sits in the House of Commons once a year, has been on the receiving end of criticism, with former political director of the TaxPayers' Alliance Dia Chakravarty describing it as a "colossal waste of potential to engage bright young people".
Writing in The Telegraph, she said; "The UKYP programme is yet another example of taxpayers’ money being spent on lobbying the Government to spend even more of taxpayers’ money on progressive policies."
Conservative MP for Windsor Jack Rankin said last year it "should not receive taxpayers' money and should not sit in the Chamber of the House of Commons".
The Tory MP added it should be funded by voluntary donations rather than public money.
Bobby Forbes, the recently departed chair of the UK Youth Parliament's Youth Select Committee, spoke in favour of the group, adding it gives teenagers "a direct way to scrutinise government and hold decision-makers to account".
The 18-year-old said scrapping it "would be a huge mistake and detrimental to youth voice across the UK".
Under the Youth Parliament rules, MPs are elected every one to two years by voters aged 11 to 18 who live, work or go to school in local authorities.
Similar schemes are in place for the devolved Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments.
One of the Youth Parliament's most recent campaigns was lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 for all UK elections, with the bill currently making its way through the legal system.
Peter Swallow, the Labour MP for Bracknell who ran for UK Youth Parliament aged 14, said it would be "short-sighted to cut off funding to a scheme" given these developments.
He added: "As we face a world where trust in politics is low and young people in particular are doubting the value of democratic institutions, I cannot imagine a more important time for young people to be invited into the heart of our democracy through programmes like UK Youth Parliament."
