Two Coventry teenagers will soon be rubbing shoulders with the country’s movers and shakers as the city’s representatives in the new UK Youth Parliament.

The two ‘MYP’s that have been elected to represent young people in the city on a national level are John Dalziel, aged 18, and Woodlands school pupil Anthony Ruck, aged 15. They were both elected at the Youth 4 Youth Conference held at Coventry City Football Club earlier this month.

Their role as MYPs is to get the voice of Coventry youth heard at the highest level of government.

They will attend the first sitting of the UK Youth Parliament, which will be made up of over 400 MYPs, and is being held in February.

One of John and Anthony’s first jobs will be to work with other young people to get their views as part of a Young People’s Manifesto.

The manifesto will be based on the hopes, fears, issues and ideas of young people from all walks of life and from all over the country and will be presented to cabinet, Parliament, party leaders and service providers.

The aim is to give adults a better idea of the impact of their decisions on children and young people.

John, who works as a presenter for Kix 96, said:

"I look forward to the year ahead as an MYP, representing the youth of Coventry and cannot wait to hear the views, issues and ideas that young people have.

"It has been said that there are NO ACTIVE YOUTH in Coventry and I see this as an opportunity to prove people wrong!"