In January 2026, Wokingham elected Jasmine Dix, a student at The Holt School, and Laima Dhimitri from Maiden Erlegh School as its latest Members of Youth Parliament (MYP). Jasmine and Laima won the election against strong competition from William Hudson from The Bulmershe School, Kyan Ko from Emmbrook School, Archie Mason from The Forest School, Sammy Pearson from the Piggott School and Salma Arafat from St Crispin’s School.
Following internal processes in each school to determine who their candidates would be, the seven students came together in the council chamber in Wokingham to put forward their plans, to explain what their priorities would be if they were elected and to answer a variety of questions that were put to them. The quality of both their presentations and the content of what they said was extremely high and they all performed very well.
Wokingham Borough Mayor Cllr Carol Jewell joined the proceedings and very kindly gave a keynote speech. The Returning Officer for Wokingham, Andrew Moulton, and Senior Electoral Services Officer Eleanor Bool were also in attendance. They provided an official ballot box and ensured the proceedings followed were fair and transparent. Eleanor also gave a talk on democracy which was very well received.
As MYPs, Jasine and Laima become members of the UK Youth Parliament, UKYP, which is run by the National Youth Agency. This gives them the opportunity to represent the borough of Wokingham nationally. Locally, they will chair the Wokingham Youth Council.
To see the press release of the event, please see New generation students step into politics.
Jasmine and Laima’s term of office is two years, so they will be in post until January 2028.
