I’m lucky to represent an amazing area as a district and town councillor. Since I was elected at the age of 19, becoming Huntingdonshire’s youngest ever councillor, I’ve had a huge amount of support from the community, friends, family, officers, and councillors of all parties.
At the same time, I’ve also heard every “are you old enough for big trousers?” and “did you finish college last week?” jibe you can imagine.
Let’s be honest – most of the time that’s good humour. Young people in politics are rare, people find it unusual, and people are excited to see a young person engaging with council democracy.
But at times, there is genuine abuse thrown in young people’s direction – for being young. Certain incidents over the past few weeks come to mind for me.
This isn’t anything new, nor is personal abuse in politics generally. But it is getting worse. When I think back to early 2022 when I was trying to convince people to vote for me as a fresh face, they were incredibly welcoming to me (including those who weren’t going to vote for me). Even when people were sick of politics because of the Partygate revelations, I can only remember one or two doorsteps that gave me genuine grief for being young.
Unfortunately, like a lot of stuff in Britain right now – things have gotten worse since then. I’ve faced some pretty vindictive stuff based on my age recently. Nor am I alone in this – this isn’t a localised trend.
And anti-youth abuse is just one part of the massive challenges we’re facing.
Anyone in public office or politics expects to be held to account for our decisions, positions, and actions. That’s the sign of a healthy democracy. But personal abuse, including for being young, goes past this.
I’m incredibly lucky to have a great support network around me – a great council group and local party, friends and family, and the Young Liberals. But this trend just creates an environment where good people are put off from public service because of the toll it takes on them.
So why is this the case? I don’t think we can pin it on something specific. But the political temperature being as high as it is isn’t good for anyone.
And the longer it stays high, kept there by divisive populists, more good people will be driven out of roles of public service due to the abuse they face.
There’s also some internal reflection we need to have to have as a party. Are there any times where we’ve inadvertently put up barriers to young people engaging with national opportunities? Personally, the recent changes to our PPC selection strategy (“F10”) comes to mind for me.
To anyone young who wants to get involved in politics, stand for council, or take a role in campaigning to make their area better – please do, and don’t be put off. The democratic process needs good people like you, and you gain a lot of resilience very quickly. Being older doesn’t automatically mean someone is more experienced than you and you have something you bring to the table.
And I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve achieved as a young councillor. I’ve helped give young people a voice on my council, helped save Cambridgeshire’s Under 25s’ bus pass, and helped make our area safer for young people by strengthening our licensing policies.
But the wider challenge remains – how many good people are we missing from politics with the temperature this high?
* Nathan Hunt has been a District Councillor in Huntingdonshire since 2022. He is also an Honorary Vice President of Young Liberals.
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11 Comments
We are told that young people under 25, convicted of offences, should have their youth taken into account when their sentences are determined on the basis that brains don’t fully mature until aged around 25.
On that basis, it is not surprising that some people believe that candidates aged under 25 are too young. Would you wish to vote for someone whose brain was not fully developed if other candidates were available?
Just to add, nothing justifies personal abuse.
@ Joan Summers 6th Mar ’26 – 5:46pm…Would you wish to vote for someone whose brain was not fully developed if other candidates were available?..
Things work both ways. The human brain begins a gradual, “early aging” phase around age 66, when brain connectivity reduces, white matter starts to degenerate, and structural changes occur. While functional decline can start as early as 45, significant structural shrinkage and slower processing speeds often accelerate around age 60..
Would you wish to vote for someone whose brain was in rapid decline if other candidates were available?..
@Joan Summers – “Would you wish to vote for someone whose brain was not fully developed if other candidates were available?”
Speak for yourself. I would have no hesitation to vote for a 21 year old liberal. The human brain starts to shrink from the age of 40, so would you only vote for candidates within a narrow 25-40 age range?
The brain development study has been well disproven – it’s a shame to see people acting like it justifies ageism. Young people are part of society and deserve the chance to represent themselves.
What determines a developed brain anyway? (As shown by the study being disproven because the brain never stops). At what point do we stop disabled people running? We barely have enough disabled representatives as it is…
Thank you for raising such as important topic Nathan
Culpability of youth in Scottish court sentacing takes into account those 24 and under.
Why would you think that at 16/17/18 liberals believe you cannot make an informed choice on wether you are mature enough to take up vaping – or for that matter a year on year rolling ban on cigarettes sales coupled to age.
It’s cherry picking of what suits for political expediency – nothing liberal – in fact it’s the opposite.
It is 40 years ago this month since I was elected in a byelection to Clwyd County Council at the age of 25. Reading this article I see times change but prejudices have not. There is an element of jealousy. Some people will have tried for years in some cases decades to achieve the exalted heights of councillor. Then you appear and make their efforts look futile. I still remember while canvassing in that long ago byelection the advice from a 90 year old gentlemen who had been elected 68 years before to the the Corporation and City of Liverpool. “You are looking to a future not of a few years but many decades. Your elderly critics will be dead …. soon”. You cannot say it to them but you can certainly think how true that is.
This study indicates that the brain typically switches from adolescent to adult phase around age 32: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/five-ages-human-brain, where the adolescent phase is one in which the brain is continuing to develop. Of course that doesn’t mean no-one below age 32 should be a political representative, but it is consistent with people continuing to mature through their 20s.
Add to this that life experience is something that can only be acquired through living and aging. And certainly, all my own experience and observation is that, on average, as people get older, they tend to become more understanding of diverse beliefs that contradict their own views, more thoughtful, and less impulsive: Those are all important qualities for a representative. Of course that’s an average – there are always exceptions and exceptional people who can make admirable councillors and MPs at earlier ages.
But in the light of that, it’s completely rational to be a little wary of someone becoming a representative or gaining a huge amount of responsibility at a very early age: I would not dismiss that as either prejudice or jealousy (as long as you are still accepting each person as an individual on their merits and their record).
Of course none of that justifies outright abuse.
@Simon Robinson – “become more understanding of diverse beliefs that contradict their own views”
You do realise that support for Reform and the Conservatives is heavily concentrated among the over 50s?
Maybe older people become set in their ways and resistant to change? Maybe having a diverse range of ages (along with genders, backgrounds and ethnicity) in every council chamber would be enormously beneficial to local democracy?
As a young apprentice engineer I remember factory workers asking me to get them a left handed screwdriver, or a bucket of steam from the stores. The girls on the factory floor were even worse, and I will not commit to text the kind of comments they made to me. Within 3 years of me qualifying, those same folk were coming to me for advice on complex engineering problems.
Could it be that what you are experiencing is not so much abuse but what we oldies called a rite-of-passage.
The electorate of Huntingdonshire, trusted you, and gave you the job and they will judge if you are doing a good job or a bad job. Try to stop stressing, and just enjoy being 19. I can assure you that one day you will laugh about this “gauntlet of jibes”.
@Nick: Sure, Reform voters tend to be older, but I don’t believe that is inconsistent with anything I’ve written. A typical Reform voter probably wants lower immigration, has conservative social attitudes, and feels let down by established political parties. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are any less open to hearing viewpoints that they disagree with than someone with liberal views might be. When I referred to, being understanding of diverse beliefs, I was talking about, your ability to tolerate, non-judgementally listen to and seek to understand, and represent, people who have different political opinions to your own. That shouldn’t depend on where on the political spectrum your own opinions lie.