Member of Youth Parliament for North East Lincolnshire, Salema Khatun, and other members from around the country took part in a live debate at the House of Commons on November 13 to tackle issues that matter most to young people.

The UK Youth Parliament is an organisation run by young people, for young people. With more than 600 members and deputy members, they work together to bring positive change nationally as well as in their local communities. Once a year, 11-18 year olds from all around the country who have been elected locally, come together to debate on the country’s top five issues that have been voted by young people during the Make Your Mark campaign.

The national campaign allows young people to vote and express their opinions on anything they think is an important subject. The results of the 2015 campaign has been released with more than 920,000 votes from each corner of the country.

The top five issues that members of Youth Parliament were debating about was the living wage, a curriculum to prepare us for life, transport, mental health, and tackling racism and discrimination. All day the members debated over which two issues deserves to be taken forward as a national campaign for the next year, finally deciding on racism and discrimination and mental health. Now, the members can begin to plan and look at how they will take on the issues in their area and around the country.

Salema Khatun, member of Youth Parliament said: “I am excited to be representing young people’s views from my constituency on a national scale, even though we are a small area I feel as though every one of our voices are of equal importance and deserve to be heard and it is an honour to have been elected by my peers to speak in the House of Commons. ”

In North East Lincolnshire the elected member organises events and projects, run campaigns, and help to push issues that matter most to young people to local parliament. They also have an active role at the council, meeting with the Mayor of North East Lincolnshire, council officers, councillors, and other voluntary sector or business and public bodies that are local.

The debate was televised all day on BBC Parliament and Democracy live. For more information you can visit the website at www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/.