Britain’s youngest mayor on Brexit and the challenges facing Labour

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/27/britain-youngest-mayor-terence-smith-brexit-labour

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Terence Smith, Britain’s youngest mayor, is missing freshers’ week to attend the Labour party conference this week. The 19-year-old, who recently won a place at Hull University to study sociology (though he has since switched to politics), says he will be juggling studying with his political responsibilities as mayor of Goole, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Smith was voted into a 12-month term of office earlier this year by councillors in his home town. To those who question whether he’s too young to be a mayor, he responds: “I’ve got all of my political experience from the doorstep, from a grassroots level and from the community I live in. Age doesn’t necessarily equal life experience. It’s what you’ve done [that’s important]: I’ve been involved in scouting for 13 years, I’ve done work in students’ unions and charitable organisations and I know the local area and the people who live here as well as anyone.”

Smith’s first brush with politics came in 1997, the year of Labour’s landslide victory: his mother took him into the polling station as a three-month-old baby while she cast her vote. It was the tuition fee hike in 2010, however, that marked the start of his political engagement, aged 13. “The first time I ever got into an argument with a teacher was over what the coalition were doing to education. That was the first time I became political,” he says.

Neither his friends nor his parents – his mother is a taxi driver, and his stepfather works in a hardware store – are particularly political and Smith attributes his interest to a sense of community gained from being a scout, (he is wearing a scouting badge on the tie of his suit when we meet).

When Smith bumped into John Prescott during the former deputy prime minister’s doomed bid to become the Humberside police and crime commissioner, Prescott encouraged him to get involved in Young Labour.

People always ask why young people aren’t involved [in politics], then criticise them when they get involved

In January 2015, the local Labour party mentioned that it was looking for candidates to run for seats on Goole council, so Smith stood and won. With 60 being the average age of a councillor in England, Smith, who was at that time studying for his A-Levels, is highly unusual.

“A lot of people said I was too young, and asked why I wasn’t out drinking, what on earth I knew about politics,” he says. “People always ask why young people aren’t involved [in politics], then criticise them when they get involved.” Smith believes that barriers for young people to participate are increasing. “We’re juggling study, exams and work, it’s hard,” he points out.

“If the government wanted to increase youth turnout they’d let us vote online: if it’s safe enough for leadership elections, why not for others? I can walk into a polling station with no ID, so why should voting online be less secure?, he asks. While an undergraduate he will live in halls in Hull, the nearest city to Goole, returning regularly to his mayoral duties.

Smith campaigned hard for the remain camp in the referendum and admits he is deeply disappointed by the result, though clear on why it happened. “Here, immigration has happened quite quickly in the last 15 years, and people are not necessarily racist, they’re just scared or unsure. It wasn’t a problem we could tackle on the doorsteps,” he says. Goole’s immigration is mostly from eastern Europe – Poland and Latvia – and a couple of eastern European shops cluster on one side of the local railway station. “A lot of people were blaming immigration for the NHS failing, the housing crisis, and a lack of school places, when that’s down to the government,” he says.

Goole has some of the highest child poverty rates in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and problems with youth unemployment and low pay, therefore attracting EU structural funding. “Goole’s benefited heavily from European Union funding, we’ve had a new link road built, and high-speed internet rolled out,” Smith says. “The government doesn’t care about Goole, but the European Union had to. We’re quite a rural area, and our farmers are worried about subsidies and, more than that, the European workforce.”

Smith supported Owen Smith’s failed bid in the Labour leadership election, and still argues that Labour MPs have lost faith in Jeremy Corbyn due to the shock of Brexit.

“We lost the Brexit argument (Hull voted 68% leave), the membership has spoken and we must respect this but this doesn’t mean Jeremy has an easy run. A lot of MPs, and I, are worried that a snap election will leave us in no situation to lead a government,” he says. “Corbyn has the support of the membership, but the MPs just don’t like him. The challenge now for Jeremy is to form a shadow cabinet.”

Whatever the future of the Labour party, Smith’s mayoral term will end in 2017. But he still has just under three years left as a councillor. He comes across as highly articulate and polished in his political opinions, weighing his words carefully. So after he has graduated does he have bigger political ambitions?

“To stay in politics would be great,” Smith replies, “and a seat in the House would be fantastic.”

Curriculum vitae

Age: 19.

Lives: Goole, Yorkshire.

Family: Only child, lives with mother and stepfather.

Education: Holy Family Catholic high school, Carlton; York College; Hull University, studying politics.

Work: 2013-present; part-time taxi desk operator.

Public life: May 2016-present; mayor, Goole; 2015-present: Labour councillor, Goole council; scouting.

Hobbies: Collecting vinyl records and film memorabilia, baking.