UP CLOSE: With the local school boy who was elected as the Member of Youth Parliament for Kingston
By Tilly O'Brien 3rd May 2026
A 16-year-old boy who attends Tiffin School in Kingston has been elected as the Member of Youth Parliament for Kingston.
George Meakin was honoured with his new role at the recent elections held by Achieving for Children.
This means he will be part of the UK youth Parliament, which involves around 350 members from across the country, as well as the Kingston Youth Council, which has 20 members.
However, as a member of the UK Youth Parliament, Meakin will be the only representative from Kingston's Youth Council.
In an exclusive interview with Nub News, Meakin said: "So, I managed to get both after starting my campaign in December."
Despite not having a previous interest in politics, Meakin decided to run for UK Youth Parliament because he wants to ttry and take every opportunity he can.
He said: "When I was in year 9, , we had the opportunity at my school to become a ball boy at Wimbledon, but I was really, really scared of early morning wake ups and stuff, and I just didn't do it because I didn't even want to try.
"But now that I look back on it, it was such a stupid decision of mine because I have a love of tennis, and I love Wimbledon. My mum even works there.
"So, looking back, it was just a no brainer, but when I started seeing all my friends doing it, I thought, 'Right, in the future, I'm gonna try and take as many opportunities as I possibly can to make sure that I don't feel any regret'.
"So, when the opportunity for the UK Youth Parliament came up, I started getting a bit more interested in politics, and I just thought, It'd be good to make a change in the borough, and something that I passionately believe in is making sure that young people feel heard, so by being a leader, I can help them achieve that."
Meakin says he thus "took up the offer", attended some training sessions at the Guild Hall, and "it kind of went on from there".
The schoolboy says that social media, particularly Instagram and TikTok, was a big part of his election campaign.
He said: "The main thing that I wanted to achieve was to engage young people in politics because voting figures show that young people are the demographic that vote the least out of any group.
"I really, really want to change that and make sure that young people know that voting is the best thing to do, so that they can feel like they can have their voices heard.
"So the way I planned on doing that and started going about it was by using social media to try and connect with young people because I think a lot of what politicians do nowadays is targeted through the mainstream media and these things that young people aren't really as well versed in as things such as Instagram or TikTok.
"So, I set up accounts on both Instagram and TikTok where I started making trendy videos, but then tying them in with politics. For example, I made videos relating to TikTok trends and dances, then accompanied them with the benefits of 'why you should vote Meakin.
"It's the slogan that I was using."
Meakin says that the main policies of his 'Meakin Manifesto' included ensuring that all young people who go to school in London boroughs, including Kingston, up until the age of 18 have access to free bus travel.
He said: "Because currently, if you live outside of London, but you go to school in London, you don't get free bus travel when you turn 16."
Meakin's second manifesto point was to "make sure that young people can actually feel represented through [him]".
He said: "So, if they have any concerns, they can raise them through my social media platforms, and then I can raise them at the council.
"So, it kind of gives young people that easy medium to make sure that they can feel heard and that their issues can get raised, and also simultaneously gives them a voice because I feel like young people currently feel a bit voiceless."
Meakin says that, through his Youth Parliament bid, he also wants to make sure that young people can use zip or travel cards as a form of photo ID should the country's voting age be lowered to 16.
He said: "Because the government introduced plans to have photo ID at polling stations, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, older people are allowed to use freedom passes whereas younger people can't use zip cards or travel cards, which I think is not right at all, and this definitely needs to be changed."
As part of his election campaign, Meakin also had 1500 business cards printed out with images of himself and his Meakin Manifesto on them.
He said that along with his best friend Elijah Gilbert, who also ran for the election, he handed his business cards out at his school and other schools and this "really helped" his campaign.
Additionally, Meakin took every assembly at his school from Year 7 to 13 to give a presentation about his campaign and to explain why he believed his peers should "vote Meakin".
Speaking about being elected, Meakin said: "I'd like to say a massive thank you to everybody who's voted, not just for me, but for all the other candidates, because it really shows a massive increase in youth participation, because this election, for example, had quintupled the vote count of the last election.
"So, we managed to increase the vote count by up to five times, which is absolutely amazing. So an absolute, massive thank you to everybody who's participated in the election, which was amazing."
Now that Meakin has been elected, he will be attending weekly two-hour sessions with Kingston Council.
He said: "Kingston Council uses the Youth Parliament body in Kingston to make sure that we can discuss and debate all the issues that young people face in the borough and also the UK as a whole.
"And then twice a year, all the MYPs get to go to the House of Commons and they speak in debates and then they debate issues of national importance.
"And then from there, we can hopefully try and lobby the government into making the change that young people deserve."
You can find out more about Meakin's campaign via his Instagram page here.
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