Unexpected local politician looking to inspire 'Gen Z'

Lee Trewhela talks to the youngest councillor ever to be elected to Cornwall Council, Angus Black, aged 18

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THE youngest councillor ever elected to Cornwall Council is hoping he can inspire other members of Gen Z to get involved in politics. Angus Black, 18, believes having someone as young as him making decisions at Lys Kernow / County Hall can only be a good thing.

Angus was elected as the Reform UK councillor for the Calstock division in May's election. He admits being shocked that he'd won a seat in a previous Labour stronghold, but says working for the area he grew up in is now his priority and he's given up a job behind the bar in a local pub as a result.

The former Callington Community College student is now getting used to life making decisions on the unitary authority's miscellaneous licensing, east area planning and constitution committees, while many of his contemporaries are at university or working.

I met him during a break in a committee meeting at the council's Chy Trevail offices in Bodmin. The fresh-faced councillor, who still can't drive and relies on colleagues to give him lifts, certainly stands out from his contemporaries, some of whom are four times his age.

I started by asking him why someone who is 18 want to be a councillor. "I've always been interested in politics from a young age," he told me. "It was either Brexit or Trump - very interesting movements. Everybody had an opinion - my granddad, being the man he is, has always been heavily involved in politics and I've always engaged with these things from a very young age.

"He did a lot of leafleting when he was a younger man for the Labour Party in Australia. I spent a long time in a household that was very political."

Cllr Black's grandad Paul Plowright is a Scillonian who lived in Penzance after meeting his grandmother. The whole family emigrated to Australia, including Angus' mother and her siblings in 1982, returning in 1997.