Record numbers of young people have voted to elect two new Havering representatives into the UK Youth Parliament.

At a special town hall event on Friday, Frankie Walker, 16, of Harold Hill, and Tolu Akingbade, 14, of Hornchurch were announced as the voices of young people in the borough.

Following more than 10,000 votes, they will now make the priorities and issues of their peers known at a national level.

In her speech, Frankie said: “This has been a really hard process – we’ve had to interact with lots of different types of people and speak in front of really large groups. But we did this because youths should be heard more and that’s what will lead to changes in society – that’s why this process and the role are so important.”

Freya Pearson, 14, of Gidea Park and Destiny Fakayode, 15, of Elm Park, were elected as Frankie and Tolu’s deputies.

Lack of work experience and combating negative stereotypes were two of the main issues highlighted by the pair.

“We’re going to need jobs in the future, and we don’t just want to be another statistic,” said Destiny.

Frankie added: “There are a lot of misconceptions about young people and we need to break those down.”

Nine candidates campaigned across secondary schools, colleges and youth centres in the borough.