Chair of Oldham Youth Council grills PM in briefing

Tia asked the first public question at the Prime Minister's press briefing yesterday

The chair of the Oldham Youth Council was the first to ask a question from the public at yesterday's press briefing.

Tia Henderson, 18, put this question to Boris Johnson:

"How can you ensure that the appropriate support is available across the UK for young people to be able to fufil their potential moving through this time of uncertainty, as COVID-19 and lockdown has affected young people's mental health, education and youth unemployment has risen?"

The PM responded by saying:

"I think the answer to that is obviously that we will do everything we can to help young people through this difficult time and you'll have seen the package that we've put in place to support people going back to university, working with the Chancellors to get COVID-secure universities and again, I thank students for the responsible way that they're behaving. 

"In terms of employment for young people, Tia, the answer is that we really want to help young people get into jobs wherever we possibly can.

"That's why we've launched the kick-start plan to give people support in jobs. To give employers support from the government up to the value of the living wage to support young people into work.

"And I'd also mention what we're doing in terms of training - the lifetime skills guarantee that we announced yesterday to give young people, people in their 20s the ability to retrain, get the jobs that are out there.

"And we will do everything we can, as I've said repeatedly, to put our arms around the workforce, help young people through this pandemic, and bounce back as strongly as we can the other side."

In a tweet after the briefing, Tia said she was sad that he didn't answer her part of the question focussed on young people's mental health.

Oldham Youth Council said that they were proud and thanked her for representing young people's concerns.

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