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Emily Benn, granddaughter of Tony and niece of Hilary, has been selected as a Labour parliamentary candidate despite being two weeks shy of her 18th birthday.
Should Gordon Brown call an election tomorrow, the latest Benn will be old enough to contest East Worthing and Shoreham just.
“You have to be 18 when nominations close and that’s ten days before the polling date,” she said yesterday. To those who say that she is too young to be an MP she says that passion matters as much as experience.
She says that her grandfather is “thrilled” at the news and has already been helping her to plan her campaign to overturn a 8,813 Tory majority.
Asked for her views, she borrows a line from her uncle, the Environment Secretary: “I am a Benn not a Bennite.”

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If an 18-year-old can't represent anyone over 25, nobody over 25 can represent 18-year-olds - so 18-year-olds and anyone younger has no representation at all! How ridiculous is that?
Tim H, Leeds,
Now I know the country has gone mad this child has had no experience of life, it is especially gauling given that the politicans were talking about raising the drinking age to 21. So now it is okay to be an MP and die for your country but not to have a drink. This is totally inane, we need candidates that have had a least 10 years in a working enviroment and by that I mean work not as a political researcher or straight from university.We do not need another dose of nepotism or another person who wants to make their way in the world as a career poltician without any life skills/experience. Would she have been selected if her Grandad father and Uncle were not part of the Labour aristocracy, I very much doubt it.
J. Cox, London, England
Would Miss Benn like to quantify
"Passion matters as much as experience"
Try telling your Local council, who are asking for staff that I have passion but not experience your CV and application will probably get as far as the waste bin.
Karen Cox, London, UK
Passion means nothing in politics. The worst possible politicians are those who have no, or very narrow, life experience. This young lady should wait until she has seen a little of life herself. I certainly wouldn't vote for an 18 year old in local or national politics and this is just a signal of how ridiculous politics has become and why no one is interested any more. Politics has now deteriorated into a weird kind of nepotism which benefits nobody bar those who churn out the same old diet of politics 'speak', ( a million ways to tell the same lie over and over again). It is insulting to imply that any 18 year old could represent the interests of anyone over 25.
Judy , Liverpool, england