A teenager has been named as the new chairman of Loughton Conservatives.

Former membership secretary Chris Criscione, 19, was elected to replace Cllr James Hart at a meeting last night.

Mr Criscione, who joined the party four years ago, is currently in his first year studying political theory at Westminster University in Regent Street alongside his new role.

The teenager said he has already spent his spare time planning "fresh ideas" that will benefit Loughton, including a quarterly newsletter.

He said: "we had 13 disastrous years of Labour government.

"I got involved during this and the economy and peoples lives went down the drain and the NHS was basically ruined.

"Our policy as Conservatives helps real everyday families which is something I joined because of, it's something I really believe in.

"The government creates the business to grow an environment, then it is up to the free market and up to the businesses to compete and work towards even further growth and profit to go back into their market.

"We are not a party of the rich like everyone believes, I have lived on a council estate my whole life, my family have struggled but slowly it’s getting better and I believe this is because of the Conservative policy.

"I came into Conservative party four years ago now because I could see that I could contribute to them.

"I have a lot of new fresh ideas including a quarterly newsletter rather than annually so residents in the town can see the hard work we are doing.

The former Chingford Foundation Sixth Form, in Nevin Drive, Chingford, pupil, said he knew that the tory party was for him after studying politics at A-Level.

He added: "We were looking at the hung parliament and I found it very interesting.

"I took a brave step one day and at the time I didn't realise it was brave but now I do.

"I happened to go along to an AGM meeting alone and I was very quickly snapped up as a young face.

"The Conservative party was what appealed to me the most, it wasn't until I was involved that I realised it was even better on the local front."

Mr Criscione said he hopes that becoming the chairman will inspire other young people to join in.

He said: "Epping Forest has quite an aged population so it is slightly harder to get younger people in.

"Although the Conservative Party has more young support in terms of numbers, it is a little harder locally.

"I hope that through me becoming chairman there will be a few young people out there that will say 'if he can do it, I can'.

"I am very pleased to have been selected, there are a lot of members who have been in the party for a long time so it goes a long way that they chose me to be the chairman.

"I hope to live up to expectations."