THE country’s best young minds gathered for an annual sitting last weekend.

Carney Bonner, 17, Member of UK Youth Parliament for Swindon, and 300 others met at Leeds University for the 11th Annual Sitting of the UKYP.

The Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow opened the event with a speech declaring his support for the organisation, while other speakers included Children’s Minister Tim Loughton MP and Holocaust survivor Iby Knill.

The weekend aimed to update the UK Youth Parliament National Manifesto and the final Big Vote session on Sunday saw 20 out of 27 new motions adopted into the manifesto.

The manifesto will be presented to party leaders and decision makers later this year.

On the Sunday all 300 members held a two-minute silence to mark the victims of the massacre on a youth camp in Utoya, Norway.

Carney, 17, said: “I thought that it was a good sitting and I loved the chance that we got to meet new people and got to go into workshops that actually helped me as a Member of Youth Parliament and I loved the fact that although we worked hard through the day we had a nice relaxing break.

“It was good to know that the Speaker of the House of Commons is backing the work of UK Youth Parliament so much.”