A TEENAGER who was awarded top A-level results just three months ago is celebrating again after becoming one of the youngest elected politicians in the country.

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said Sharifah Rahman, at just 18, was possibly the town’s youngest ever councillor after claiming victory for Labour in a by-election on Thursday.

Named Darlington’s Citizen of the Year in 2016, Miss Rahman secured 249 votes and will represent the Red Hall and Lingfield ward on Darlington Borough Council.

She had stood against independent candidate Kevin Brack, a former UKIP candidate who backs the anti-Islamic For Britain movement, who received 46 votes and Conservative candidate Jonathan Dulston, who missed out on the council seat by just 19 votes. Liberal Democrat Harry Longmoor received 11 votes and the Green Party’s Michael McTimoney received 20.

A by-election held simultaneously for the Mowden ward saw Conservative candidate Alan Marshall elected to represent residents.

Ms Rahman, who has lived in Darlington all of her life, said: “I am honoured to represent my home community and to have been elected by my ward.

"This is such an exciting time, to support the area I love, I feel incredibly grateful and humbled. I hope to be a voice for residents and I can’t wait to get started.”

Labour MP Ms Chapman took to social media to say she was looking forward to working with Ms Rahman, a respected anti-racist campaigner and political activist who has spent weeks canvassing on the doorsteps of the ward she will now represent.

Newcastle councillor Dipu Ahad added: “Not only does she become the first ever Asian woman from a Bangladeshi, Muslim background to be elected as a councillor at Darlington Borough Council, but she also becomes the youngest ever councillor in Darlington, and one of the youngest in the region, if not the country at the age of 18.”

The Mowden ward saw Alan Marshall win the seat with 652 votes, while the Green Party’s Kathryn Barley received 26 votes, Edwin Heslop for Labour received 285 and Sarah Jordan for the Liberal Democrats received 111.