Westmorland and Furness has elected a new member to the Youth Parliament after a ceremony at Kendal's County Hall.

Honey Barker - tasked with representing the views of Westmorland and Furness' young people at local, regional and national levels - ran a manifesto centred around the safety of children on social media and its impact on their mental health.

Ms Barker said: "It’s great we can work together and serve the young people of Westmorland and Furness and make a difference to their day-to-day life.

"What I’m really focused on is mental health and social media because a lot of young people are self-harming or have bad mental health because of content they’ve seen online.

"I’d really love to work with some charities set up such as the one for Molly Russell who took her own life, fund raise for them, and raise their profile.

"I would also want to be involved in pressuring the government and the tech giants to bring in regulations to manage this more effectively."

Milorad Vasic, the presiding officer and director of children’s services at Westmorland and Furness Council, advocated that all the youth who had submitted entries would become deputy members.

This decision leads to an increase in deputy members from two to six.

The new deputies are Aamna Mannah, Brandan Slater, Charlie English, Dillan Ashton, Erin McCanny, and Thomas Colquhoun.

The deputies' manifestos addressed a broad range of subjects, such as raising awareness of autism and neuro-divergence in schools, and road safety for young people, particularly regarding distractions caused by mobile phones and headphones.

Additionally, they highlighted the numerous job opportunities within the tech industry and how young people can access them.

Mr Vasic said: "Everywhere I go in Westmorland and Furness, I am impressed by our young people.

"They are caring, well informed and confident when it comes to expressing their views.

"All the candidates today (May 29) were passionate, eloquent and had thought through their manifesto and how it could help their friends and young people in our area."

For more information on the UK Youth Parliament, visit the National Youth Agency's website.