Earlier this year, His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar announced an exciting opportunity for a young person to participate at the UK Youth Parliament sitting in the House of Commons on Friday 17th November.

Following an essay competition where individuals were asked to write about ‘the most important issue affecting young people in Gibraltar‘, Jessie Chipol was selected as the competition winner. The competition was judged by young people from the Commonwealth Youth Association.

The meeting will take place on Friday 17th November and will include representatives of the UK Overseas Territories who will each have a two-minute slot to raise the most important issue affecting young people today. The speeches will be delivered from the despatch box and the session will be streamed live on Parliament TV.

Mr Chipol will also have the opportunity to take part in the UK Overseas Territories Youth Summit which is being held in London at the same time.

The Deputy Chief Minister, the Hon Dr Joseph Garcia CMG MP, said:

“This is the second time that Gibraltar is represented at the UK Youth Parliament. It is, indeed, a remarkable opportunity offered by the Government, for our young people, and I was very pleased to meet with Jessie last week and wish him all the very best ahead of his address to the House of Commons on Friday. The Government is, once again, very grateful to the Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle for the inclusion of young people from the UK Overseas Territories in this event.

“Since we were elected to Government in 2011, we set out to offer our young people from all sides of the political divide as many opportunities as possible to represent Gibraltar abroad. We now send individuals to the Commonwealth Youth Parliament, the Commonwealth Youth and Women’s Forum and provide our students with the opportunity of visiting the UK Government and Commonwealth institutions in London. Young people are the future and it is important we continue to provide them with opportunities such as these.”