By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
A 19-year-old Labour student has been elected to sit on Broxtowe Borough Council in a ward previously held by Conservatives and an Independent.
Cllr Will Mee, who is in his first year at the University of York, said it “still doesn’t feel real” after he found out he had been elected on Friday, May 5.
Cllr Mee, who also works part-time at Iceland, will represent the Kimberley ward. He is the youngest of all the new councillors elected in Nottinghamshire following Thursday’s poll.
Fellow Labour candidates Chris Carr and Andy Coope also won seats – meaning that Conservative Shane Easom, the councillor for Kimberley, was ousted from the council.
Former Conservative councillor Mel Crow, and Independent Richard Robinson, did not choose to stand again.
The Labour group gained 26 seats out of a possible 44 in the May 4 election, compared to the 14 seats it held after 2019.
The Conservative Party won 10 seats while five Liberal Democrats and three Independents were also elected.
Cllr Mee, who studies Politics, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was initially put forward as a ‘paper candidate’ – to make sure a candidate was fielded by the Labour party in that ward.
Cllr Mee, who grew up in Beeston, said: “I never expected to get this far so it was a shock and a surprise when I was elected.
“At first I thought there was no way I would get in, but towards the end, I started to think I had a chance – the Tories didn’t do any campaigning.
“It was fantastic on the day, me and Andy shared a tear when we got elected, we knew we had worked for it
“We saw some proper heavyweights go, they have been screwed by the national swing.
“But if we hadn’t done the campaigning we did, we wouldn’t have won seats like mine.”
Cllr Mee said he is ready for the challenge despite being one of the youngest councillors to be elected at Broxtowe.
“I know I’m not going to be as sharp as people who have been there for 25 years, but I’ve got to build my knowledge up”, he said.
Cllr Mee has previously been Broxtowe’s Youth Mayor and says he became interested in politics during the 2016 Brexit referendum.
His family have always supported the Labour Party – but Cllr Mee had ambitions to become a politician.
He said: “I got involved in Broxtowe Labour CLP about a year and a half ago.
“I was asked earlier this year if I wanted to stand as a paper candidate.
“We started campaigning and knocked on every door in Kimberley. The Broxtowe Labour Party is very community driven and we wanted to get people involved.
“Looking to the future, I am interested in the East Midlands Mayor role.”
