The Conservative Party has chosen a 19-year-old who has just finished re-sitting his A-levels as its candidate for the Holloway by-election to take on Labour’s Jason Jackson.
Harry Nugent is Holloway born and bred, having lived there all of his life. He got involved with the Conservatives at school and founded the Islington Young Conservatives group, which he chairs, two years ago.
“I don’t think there’s enough done for young people locally. I want to take a stand, I want to do my bit, you know?” Nugent told Islington Now. “I’ve always been that kind of person – I don’t want to sit there and moan about something. I’d rather try and get it sorted. So from there, I always wanted to get involved, so I just bit the bullet.”
“It’s not a huge thing. I mean, it’s a small group of us. We basically just help out with the main association- quite a bit of campaigning. In the past few months the main association has kind of got a new lease of life. We’re a lot more active than we were.”
When it comes to campaigning, Nugent’s plan is to make an asset out of his youth, drawing on his experience at school to draw attention to the issue of knife crime in the ward.
“If I’m lucky enough to get elected, I think it’s definitely going to be an advantage, because it’s a different point of view. It’s a different voice: not a Labour voice, it’s a Tory voice. And my age, as I said before, I’m lucky that I got involved so young, that I can tell the councillors, this is what young people are going through. This is what they’re dealing with.”
Despite Labour’s stronghold over Islington council, Nugent remains confident that he offers a strong alternative to opposition candidate Jackson for the Holloway by-election.
“I mean I’m lucky, I’m a very confident person. I know that it’s not going to be an easy election, but I just want to show people there’s another option than Labour. Labour have taken peoples’ votes round here for granted… people will make the right decision. I know they will.”
