UP CLOSE: With the local teen running for Kingston’s Youth Council and hoping to 'make change' for young people across the borough
By Tilly O'Brien 21st Dec 2025
By Tilly O'Brien 21st Dec 2025
17-year-old Elijah Gilbert, who lives in Raynes Park, is currently running for the Kingston Youth Council and UK Youth Parliament.
In an exclusive interview with Nub News, Gilbert explained that he grew up "doing a bit of acting and filmmaking" and then got into public speaking at Richard Challoner school where he participated in Jack Petchey's Speak Out Challenge, a public speaking competition which is offered at various schools across London, including in Kingston.
"The challenge was compulsory for students," Gilbert said. "So, I was forced to get involved."
Gilbert got through multiple stages of the challenge and then to the national final, where he performed his speech on a West End stage.
Speaking about the challenge, he said: "That sort of nurtured my public speaking skills and gave me the confidence to realise that I have a voice that can create some change, a voice that can be used to amplify voices that maybe are not heard so well."
The teen then found out about the opportunity to run for youth councils, which he says are "becoming a little bit more prominent".
Gilbert explained that through a career's programme at school, he was offered to apply for the Youth Council in East Park, which he says is "inclusive to anybody".
Now he is campaigning to run Kingston's Youth Council.
According to Gilbert, the Kingston Youth Council consists of a body of 20 people and elections take place in March, inviting anyone between the ages of 11 and 18 to vote.
He explained: "Those 20 people sort of govern the youth of Kingston. They raise awareness for this, and that and whatever, and then one person in the entire borough of Kingston is elected as a member of Youth Parliament and is basically the MP for Kingston, and they go to the House of Commons, and they debate in Parliament with people from across the country."
Gilbert says that as part of this, candidates can campaign in schools.
"But you're not meant to take it too seriously because it's just a Youth Council," he said.
However, Gilbert says, he and his friend, who is also running for the Kingston Youth Council, have decided to "turn this into something more professional by starting a political online campaign, by campaigning not just in schools but in youth centres, but in radio stations, in podcasts, in public, with collaborations".
He added: "I've been reaching out to MPs, to politicians, to organisations".
"I've also been reaching out to people outside of London and just getting as many sort of collaborations, endorsements and support as I can to promote both myself, but also the efforts of the Youth Council."
As part of the election, Gilbert will give a 60-second manifesto in March, which he says "is meant to be the difference".
However, for the past four months, Gilbert and his team have been "thinking outside the box and campaigning to sort of build understanding and rapport before that election so [they] can have a sort of reputation in the borough".
He said: "We're taking the extra step to show how serious issues are in Kingston and with young people, because it's not particularly well addressed, how young people are misrepresented and sort of ignored.
"And it's only when you take those extra steps and make the effort to go out and raise awareness, that things actually change."
The teen is also currently running for the UK Youth Parliament.
Speaking about why youth politics is important to him, Gilbert said: "Well, for starters, I'm a young person. I hang around young people all the time, and young people are everywhere; they make up a huge amount of the population.
"And especially in Kingston, there's a lot of young people around everywhere - it's cliche, but we are the future and a lot of people just toss it around and take it for granted. But the fact is that we are the people that will promote change.
"How I think about it is that in a day and age like today, the biggest issues facing young people in society are things like AI and mental health and social media, things which I don't think much older politicians are capable of grasping in the way that we can."
He continued: "I think that we don't have much of a say in how our country and our lives are run, and we cannot relate to politicians in government. They are so detached from young people. These privately educated, incredibly wealthy people can't relate to the youth of Kingston, for example, people who grew up in Northern Manor or Norbiton."
"How can you relate to the figures that we see in politics now?" Gilbert asked.
"I aspire that one day we'd have people in government or have a Prime Minister or a Cabinet Minister who grew up in one of our areas, who shares the same experience that we have. Someone who we can actually touch base with and find some common ground."
Gilbert says that the issue around young people being "misrepresented and ignored" is not "addressed enough".
"We're the future," he said. "We're the people who can bring about actual change.
"But lots of young people don't think they can bring about change, and change is taken for granted as well. It's just a word.
"People think change in leadership is like leading countries and politics. But change can be just doing a simple thing like talking to a friend or comforting them. Or it can be on a local level, or it can be on a family level. It can be on a personal level."
He added: "So, I think we need to redefine what young people can do and show people that you can make change and that you can aspire to do whatever the hell you want to do."
Gilbert says that PM Kier Starmer's idea to reduce the UK's voting age to 16 is "one of the best things he's done".
He said: "There are lots of young people who know a lot more about politics than lots of older people. I think it's silly to put the cap on 18 and say, right, if you're past 18, you're educated and mature enough to vote on politics.
"If you look at people in our country, I think it's very, very evident. There are a lot of older people who are immature and silly. And again, I think that we deserve to have a say in the future of our country.
"And lots of 16-year-olds, especially now, are getting much more involved in politics. I think if you look at parties like the Green Party and even Reform, young people are getting increasingly more involved.
"That is evidence of the fact that we are finding ways to make a change.
"So I think lowering the voting age to 16 is fantastic. I even say to go even further down because again, there are 15-year-olds, 14-year-olds that are more educated and a lot more aware about politics and also just deserve to have a say, I suppose."
Speaking about why people should vote for him in Kingston's youth Council elections, Gilbert said: "Well, if you look at all of the other candidates, they will say what every single political candidate will say, 'I'm here to make change. I'm going to change the borough. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to improve this. I'm going to cut this out'. That's crap.
"Politicians make false claims. And if you look at the young people who I'm running against, most of them will probably also make false claims.
"I am proposing to actually be real, to actually connect with people, to not be a detached politician like everybody else is."
The teen continued: "And I'm keeping it in mind that obviously this isn't real politics, this is youth politics. But I'm taking this quite seriously because, as well as being youth politics, this is an opportunity for young people to get involved in changing our borough.
"This is an opportunity for young people to actually get involved in making change. And I am willing, but I have three policies which I think will appeal to people.
"And they're not in the cloud stuff about how I'm going to end racism and stuff like that, because realistically, that won't happen overnight, and it probably won't happen through the works of the Youth Council.
"The point of the Youth Council and Youth Parliament is to raise awareness and to promote these issues, and to promote awareness about the issues."
Gilbert says he is "running under a three-policy thing".
He explained: "One of them is empowering young people to speak out and achieve their goals.
"As a keen public speaker, I have quite a lot of experience in public speaking and in the efforts of public speaking organisations like the Speakers Trust, like the Jack Petchey Speak Out challenge.
"And even though people think public speaking is really scary, especially speaking in front of an audience, that's not what it's about. It's about finding your voice because every single person has a voice.
"You use the voice of your friends. You use a voice for your family. You use a voice in school. So, you all have a voice that you do use in a way or form. It's just about having the confidence to use that voice to do something bigger and better.
"Because so many young people leave school and leave education, not having the confidence to use their voice in public. And if you can't use your voice in public, then that's rubbish because you can't actually create change.
"If you're just speaking to yourself in your bedroom or speaking to a friend or your family, what can you do with that? You need to have the confidence to go out and speak in public and make the change that you actually want to see."
Thus, Gilbert says his "first point is empowering young people to actually speak out".
He explained that he would do this by implementing public speaking workshops into every school in Kingston.
"I think that whether the children want to do it or not, it's paramount that they have the experience and they take every opportunity that comes to them," he said.
Gilbert says his second point is about making politics "relatable and realistic".
He added: "Politicians are so detached from young people. When you talk about politics, young people are so bored by it. It's just very boring, and a lot of young people don't see the appeal in getting involved or even doing the research.
"So, I want to make politics relatable. And for me, that's by connecting on a one-to-one basis. You know, I spend time with these people. I have a laugh, I'm human. I want to be personable. I want to be approachable not like the politicians in Government.
"Now, again, I'm a young person. I'm no different from anyone else. I go to school with so many of you. I live in the same borough. You've probably seen me going to parties. You've probably seen me in Kingston. I am just a normal person like everybody else, and I'm standing here to amplify young people's voices."
Gilbert says his third point is "learning what young people want". He says he is running for Youth Parliament to learn.
He said: "I'm coming in to ask people and to discern what young people actually want to change."
Should Gilbert be elected for Kingston's Youth Council, he hopes to "create change with engagement, online content creation, and with just raising awareness in the borough".
"I can't promise to end this and then that, but I can promise to at least try my best and do everything within my capabilities to help the young people across Kingston," he said.
The teen says he wants to be a lawyer when he is older because he wants to "advocate for people", but he would not say no to a career in politics, as his current campaigns have given him a "taste of what working in politics is like".
He added: "And it's shown me that a normal kid like me from Raynes Park can make a change and that a career in politics is attainable."
As Gilbert currently works as a children's Tennis Instructor and has experience in public speaking, he believes he would make a good politician in the future.
"Young people need somebody to represent them," he said. "They need somebody to amplify their voices. And to be quite frank, I can't really pick any politician right now who I think really does that very well."
However, Gilbert says that he is inspired by the new Green Party Leader Zack Polanski and New York politician Zohran Mamdani.
"He said:" They are both young people, and I know it's wrong to say that their character has a huge impact on the policies, but it does.
"Having a young person have with that position of influence is so influential. Somebody who is combating titans like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, people who are actually going there and standing out against them and being incredibly young is so inspirational.
"I really hope that I can draw from their work and maybe use that to better Kingston and beyond."
The teen has in fact been approached by the Green Party to become a councillor in Merton. However, as he is not yet 18, he cannot do so, but is "seriously considering" to run for council in either Kingston or Merton when he turns 18.
Gilbert says a politician who "does not" inspire him is Reform UK's Nigel Farage.
He said: "He's culminating a culture of hate and division in our society. He's exploiting populism and he's exploiting young people on social media to create hate and division, which I thought was extinguished from our society a very, very long time ago.
"I think that he's exploiting young people in a similar way to Andrew Tate. He's looking at an issue which is immigration, and he's hyper inflating that to disproportionate levels.
"And he's using young people, young people who at this point are impressionable. We're quite woke. Lots of us are quite gullible. And in this early stage of our life, lots of us are open to new ideas in terms of politics. And he is taking that window and he's exploiting that, and he's creating a culture which is detrimental to young people."
You can follow Gilbert's campaign via his Instagram page here.
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