Pupils from senior schools across Wokingham Borough have elected a new Youth MP and a Vice Youth MP.
The programme is run by the British Youth Council, to give opportunities to young people to use their elected voice to bring about social change through meaningful representation and campaigning.
In the autumn, participating schools elected a candidate to be put forward as a prospective Youth MP. These students met on Monday January 7 in the council chamber with Borough Mayor Cllr John Kaiser and council officers.
They were accompanied by five fellow students, who then became the electorate. The candidates each gave a three-minute speech and answered questions, prior to a ballot.
Charlotte Stokes, Year 11 at St Crispin’s School was elected Youth MP and Euan Bell, Year 11 at The Piggott School was elected Vice Youth MP.
Charlotte and Euan will have the opportunity to organise events and projects, run campaigns and influence decision makers on the issues that matter most to them, as well as to meet at the UK Youth Parliament Annual Sitting and UK Youth Parliament House of Commons Sitting.
Wokingham Borough Mayor Cllr John Kaiser said, “This is a great opportunity for Wokingham Borough’s young people to have a taste of politics at such a young age and to use their voices to bring the issues that are important to them to light. Wokingham Borough Council supports this programme and we look forward to working closely with Charlotte and Euan over the next year.”
The other pupils who ran for office are Humayan Tufail (Bulmershe School), Hermani Rull (The Holt School), Varniethan Ketheeswaran (Maiden Erlegh School), Charlotte Ranwell (Oakbank School) and Jessica Kent (Waingels College).
