‘Young people are a vital voice in our politics. Johnny Mercer, not so much’

Watching the Sky News by-election coverage last week, I was shocked by Plymouth Moor View MP Johnny Mercer’s incredibly shallow and short-sighted comments about there being no place for adults, who happen to be in their 20s, in politics.

His comments took aim at Keir Mather, who had just been elected as Labour’s newest MP for Selby and Ainsty at 25 years old.

Comparing a passionate person, deeply rooted in his constituency, who happens to be in his twenties, to one of the cast of The Inbetweeners is a bit rich when, back in 2018, it was Mr Mercer who took two unnecessary weeks away from serving his constituents to pretend to be a celebrity on TV.

But I felt the comments perhaps more keenly than most because I’m 22 years old and last May, I had the incredible honour and privilege of being elected as the first ever Labour councillor for Compton Ward on Plymouth City Council. I’m currently the youngest member of the council. After my first year on the council, I was appointed as chair of the Taxi Licensing Committee by the leader who said he felt I was the right person for the job.

All of us in the Plymouth Labour group know that to truly be able to serve every resident in our city, we need our elected representatives to be just as diverse as the people and neighbourhoods that make up our city.

There are many advantages to having more adults under 30 in elected office. We know the cost-of-living crisis is hitting everyone, but those under 30 are particularly feeling the pinch. We all want to get back to a day when poverty isn’t commonplace in our country, and that includes those who are of the same generation as me.

Having people like me step forward to serve offers this country new solutions to these dire situations, that can be used in tandem with the fixes we have always relied on. We have fresh ideas and perspectives which we are eager to share and we should be encouraging more young people to play their part not putting them off with derogatory remarks like Mr Mercer’s.

Britain is meant to be the country of aspiration and opportunity for all, a beacon of light on the global stage, but the younger generations are watching things that were once considered a staple of British achievement fall further and further from our reach. It’s so much harder to own your own home and increasingly difficult to rent one, everything about being self-sufficient by the age of 25 is just becoming a dream, rather than reality for too many people up and down the country.

So when Mr Mercer wants to criticise hard working adults who want to be part of changing our country for the better, I ask him to take a long hard look at his voting record and then ask himself, how have his votes helped give every young person a fair and equal start in life?

The answer is simple, they haven’t.

And since Mr Mercer raised The Inbetweeners I’d add that it won’t be long until he – and his outdated and patronising views – will find himself in between jobs.