Youngest-ever States Member shares campaign experience and future plans - Jersey Evening Post
by Tom Innes · Jersey Evening PostPosted inNews
Youngest-ever States Member shares campaign experience and future plans
by Tom Innes 15 June 202612 June 2026
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JUST after 3.30am on Monday, in the final result announced on an eventful election night, Gabriel Raimondo was confirmed as having been chosen as Deputy of St Brelade. The former Victoria College student, who turned 18 ten days before the election, has become the youngest-ever Member of Jersey’s States Assembly, and is believed to be one of the youngest-ever salaried politicians anywhere in the world. After an eventful election campaign, and mid-way through the induction sessions arranged for all new Members, Deputy Raimondo sat down with the JEP to talk all about it.
YOUTHFUL energy is one thing, but Jersey’s youngest-ever States Member has admitted to being a bit knackered after an arduous election campaign.
Talking within 58 hours of learning that he had been successful in winning a seat in the States Assembly, Gabriel Raimondo was still buzzing at the news, but also looking forward to a slightly less frenzied spell when the Assembly breaks for the summer in mid-July.
“I will take a little break then, because in the last year I went straight from A-levels to a massive campaign to now taking in the most information I ever have with the States Assembly, and I need to just be able to step back,” he said.
“I’m tired now, I really am – for the last six weeks, I’ve been running on three or four hours sleep a night, so I’ll need to recharge a bit.”
But a bit of fatigue didn’t mean that the new Deputy for St Brelade could not still be excited about his successful campaign.
“It was a brilliant day, and I had a good feeling about certain things,” he said. “I knew I’d tried my best – I knocked on 3,623 doors, and that was everything I could have done.”
The previous description of the election campaign as “eventful” was something of an understatement, with Deputy Raimondo having shared his experience of being targeted with what he called “horrendous” online rumours.
Having previously reported some of the online abuse to the police, he said he was resigned to the fact that there was little that could be done, with most of the comments falling below the threshold at which criminal proceedings could have been initiated.
“I’ve had death threats, been spat on, I’ve had my posters ripped down, so that was quite significant,” he said. “It does get to you at first, but after a while, you have to let it go over your head – you either crumble or you push on, and if you crumble, you give in to them.
“I’m pleased with the fact that I led what I consider to be a very respectful campaign – even at the hustings I think I kept my cool, I kept an element of respect, even when some people probably didn’t show me that in return.”
Deputy Raimondo did not duck discussions about what people had been saying – he is keen to put the record straight, particularly in relation to claims about his being an apologist for domestic abuse, stemming from comments he made during a debate at Jersey College for Girls.
“The comment I made was that I really think our education system is not right at the moment, and it’s actually causing young people, especially young men, to move towards influencers such as Andrew Tate, and this is really damaging,” he said. “Now I’ve been elected I want to work to tackle that.”
Other rumours focused on alleged expulsion from Victoria College following a decision made by the sixth-former to withdraw from his A-levels in order to focus on the election campaign.
A significant part of the “heat” during the election campaign involved Deputy Raimondo having endorsed the policies of political movement Value Jersey, and ensuing criticism from supporters of the Island’s only major official party, Reform Jersey.
“I think being the one strong party made Reform want to find an opponent to fight against,” he said. “In 2022 there was an obvious candidate – the Alliance Party – and this time round they wanted an enemy to fight against, and the only way they could do that was to twist a narrative and try to make Value Jersey a party in the people’s eyes, and I think they did a very poor job of that.”
Value Jersey does not have the formal structure of a party, Deputy Raimondo added, although he conceded that some of the successful candidates may work together in the Assembly. He said he thought there were more politicians who were supportive of Value Jersey’s economic policies but had been wary of identifying with the political movement ahead of polling day.
“Based on conversations I’ve had, I do think that had it not been for the aggression that was shown towards Value Jersey, and candidates who had endorsed its policies, that more people would have endorsed it.”
Deputy Raimondo said his wish was to focus on what is ahead, admitting that he has just set off on a steep learning curve.
“My goal for the next four years is to be a sponge in the Assembly, to listen and to take in as much information as I can, which is what I believe people should do when they start a job, listening to more experienced people,” he said.
“We have people in there – Lyndon Farnham has been in [politics] since, what, 1999? – it’s important you listen to people like that.
“I’d like to think that [other politicians] are a little bit impressed by the campaign I’ve run – they are listening to me, and I’m grateful for that.
“It works the other way as well, I respect them much more now than I probably did at the start of this campaign.”
In terms of what roles he may end up in, either in government or Scrutiny panels, Deputy Raimondo said he had yet to make any firm decisions, admitting that it also depended what, if anything, he was offered.
But once ministers have been elected at the end of June, and the inaugural “regular” meeting of the Assembly has wrapped up in mid-July, the new Member for St Brelade is looking to take a holiday, as well as spending more time with family and friends than has been possible in recent weeks.
“I need to recharge a bit, to do the reading that I need to do, and then come back really strong in September when we start looking at committees, when we start looking at the Budget, and the major things that need doing.
“The nice thing is that many of my friends have been doing A-levels at the moment, and so they’ve been equally busy and I haven’t seen them, but [now the campaign is over] I want to see plenty of my friends, and my family.
“I do think I will have to manage my time, because there’s a lot to do, but I’m the same person I was before – I’ve always been political, the only difference now is that instead of campaigning, I’ll be working in the Assembly to with colleagues to get things pushed through.”
News of there being an 18-year-old who has become a salaried member of a legislature, beating the record for a Jersey politician (Jeremy Maçon in 2008) by three years and the UK’s youngest in recent times (SNP MP Mhairi Black in 2015) by two years has made news far beyond the Channel Islands.
“I’m doing interviews with lots of UK news [outlets] and possibly Norwegian news and media in the US,” he said.
“That’s to get Jersey out there as well – I’m very proud of the Island and [voters] deciding to take what is possibly a risk on an 18-year-old candidate who’s now an 18-year-old politician.
“It shows Jersey is progressive, and that people want to see a change in our future, so I will be doing those interview, while this is a story, to be able to get Jersey out there.
“You have to keep your ego in check, and I think that’s a thing where some politicians get carried away, they think they’re so far above people, when in reality they are those people, they’re a person.
“I think that’s really key, that no matter what has happened in this campaign, I never want to not be humble, because I’m just like anybody else.”
Deputy Raimondo also hopes that some of the online comments may die down a little, or at least change in nature.
“Now I’ve got in, I hope some of the rumours have been shut down and I will be able to show that isn’t me,” he said.
“We’ve had comments about me saying that I think husbands should beat their wives and stuff like that, and for the next four years I’d like to work with organisations like Freeda, and others involved in tackling violence against women and girls, to show that the narrative that was pushed about me simply isn’t true.
“I hope the [online abuse] will reduce, we’ll probably see more political stuff against me based on what I do, but that will be from politically-minded people, rather than people that just don’t like me.”
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