Ellie Emberson was elected to represent Minster after receiving 1308 votes in the local elections

Ellie Emberson was elected to represent Minster ward after a huge victory in the Reading Borough local elections and became the youngest member to join the council since 1973.

The 19-year-old legal secretary celebrated with her Labour colleagues at Rivermead Leisure Centre on May 3, after replacing Marian Livingston.

However, opponents were quick to dampen her enthusiasm by saying she was 'still in nappies' and not experienced enough to be a councillor.

She said: "A lot of people have been sexist, but those comments have been removed. Thankfully, I have been too busy since being elected to read many of them.

"There has been stuff about me still being in nappies and there were worse comments, but I have not seen them.

"It has been a little bit difficult, but I have not had any time to let it bother me.

"There have been quite a few ageist comments from people who are saying I have no experience and I am still a schoolgirl and that I need to get a proper job."

The former Prospect School pupil has received a lot of support from the likes of Rachel Eden, who was re-elected to represent Whitley on the same night.

Cllr Emberson is hoping to use her own success as inspiration to get more young people into politics.

Livingston was the oldest member on the council and served Minster ward for eight years.

"They [cllr Eden and Livingston] have both been councillors for a considerable amount of time and have experienced issues like this," Ellie added.

"Rachel has also been affected by very personal abuse, so they have both been able to offer me words of encouragement.

"The voting turnout was quite high and I would hope that it was because of all the campaigning we did in the run-up to the election."

As well as winning 1,308 votes, Cllr Emberson also won over her grandparents who had always been Conservative supporters until they heard she was running in the election.