Five of the youngest general election candidates

Luke Allan Holmes – who is standing for the Conservatives – agrees.

The 21-year-old says while most voters are “pleasantly surprised” to see someone his age standing for Parliament, some on social media have questioned whether he has the life experience to be an MP.

“I didn’t go to university,” says Luke, whose previous jobs include staffing the checkouts at his local branch of Tesco and working for HMRC. “People need to realise that actually some young people have gone through a lot in life and have a lot to offer.”

Growing up in County Durham, Luke says he felt the area was “taken for granted” by Labour politicians.

The secondary school he went to was rated inadequate and poor public transport meant he had to move closer to Durham to go to college.

“I saw those challenges firsthand,” he says, “and that’s what drove me to want to do something about it.”

It was the 2019 general election which really sparked his interest in politics, when the Conservatives won a string of former Labour strongholds in the north of England, including nearby Bishop Auckland.

Even so, Luke admits he had reservations about standing to be an MP in the City of Durham. Since becoming a councillor in 2021, he says he has experienced abuse both online and in person.

“I’ve had people ringing me up in the middle of the night,” he says. “Or people coming up to me in the street and saying unpleasant things.

“But that’s one of the reasons why I want to stand – because we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”