A YOUNGSTER from Billingham celebrated winning a national award with Cherie Blair.
Jon-Paul Rowden, from St Michael's RC School, Billingham, won Best Prime Minister in the Citizenship Foundation's Youth Parliament Competition.
The school swept the board, with additional awards for Best School and Best Opposition Spokesperson.
Twenty-seven students from the school attended the prizewinners' reception at the House of Lords on Wednesday, where Jon-Paul received his prize from Government minister Estelle Morris.
The winners also had tea at Number 10 with the Prime Minister's wife, a trustee of the Citizenship Foundation.
Now in its eleventh year, the Youth Parliament Competition offers secondary students an insight into democracy by producing a video of a mock parliamentary session
For their entry, the St Michael's pupils debated compulsory identity cards.
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