The Glasgow Guardian speaks to two University of Glasgow students who have been elected as councillors in the 2022 local elections to represent their communities.
On Thursday, 5 May 2022, Scottish council elections took place to fill 1,227 seats across all 32 Scottish local authorities. Two successful candidates include Chloé Robertson (SNP) who was elected as councillor for Irvine West and Jamie McGuire (Labour) who was elected to represent Renfrew North and Braehead.
Fourth-year Politics student Chloé Robertson told The Glasgow Guardian: “Coming from an area with high deprivation, I wanted to be a good working class representative for people”, specifically highlighting the importance of young people in politics. At newly 22 years old, she informed The Glasgow Guardian that she is the youngest councillor voted in this year and feels proud to have won as one of the few women candidates in the area. Ballot Box Scotland reports that the Scottish National Party secured 40.7% of first-preference votes in West Irvine, with Chloé receiving 623 first-preference votes.
Jamie McGuire, a second-year Politics student at the University of Glasgow was elected in the ward Renfrew North and Braehead. Also aged 22, his campaign pledges focused on the cost of living crisis, education recovery, safer and cleaner streets, fixing the roads, and funding the frontline. He told The Glasgow Guardian that being elected is “an opportunity to represent the community I’ve lived in my whole life” and that “the only way to make a transformative impact was by being in the council chambers”. According to Ballot Box Scotland, Scottish Labour received 29.6% of first-preference votes in Renfrew North and Braehead, with Jamie receiving 1,371 first-preference votes.
Chloé is particularly looking forward to consulting with people living in her area and will strive to work with SNP colleagues and other parties to reduce the effects of the cost of living crisis. The newly-appointed councillor added that as an aspiring teacher, she hopes to “work with young people in the area too, [in order to] improve the outcomes of children and young people in north Ayrshire.”
Looking ahead, Jamie is eager to contribute towards his local community by creating a new community hub and regenerating abandoned parks. He told The Glasgow Guardian: “Getting elected while being a university student proves that young people can have the influence to power change. Often we’re sidelined as being ‘inexperienced’ but today proves that fresh ideas are needed. If I can do it, so can you!”
For Scottish election result updates, please visit Ballot Box Scotland. For more information on their election campaigns, you can visit Chloé Robertson’s page by clicking here and Jamie McGuire’s page by clicking here.
