FRESH from celebrating his victory in the General Election, Labour MP Hugh Bayley had to concede defeat at a York school.

The winning candidate in the mock elections at All Saints School was Katherine Ekers, who stood as an independent, and is pictured here with the MP.

Katherine was the only girl in a field of eight candidates including boys representing Labour, Tory and Lib Dem, and head of politics Mark Wheatley said he thought that securing the female vote might have played a large part in her win.

Mr Bayley turned out at the school to present Katharine with her prizes and he told the youngsters he thought the main political parties could do more to engage younger voters.

"Although I don't think he was too disappointed that Labour didn't win at the school, there's maybe a lesson in there that young people would rather vote for an independent candidate than for Labour," said Mr Wheatley.

About 340 votes were cast in the mock election out of about 600 youngsters at the school. Mr Wheatley said: "I'm really proud of all the candidates. It was their idea in the first place to hold the election, disproving the idea that kids aren't interested in politics. Clearly, they are interested."

Mr Bayley presented Katherine with her prize - two politics books, including Bill Clinton's biography My Life.

Updated: 11:23 Wednesday, May 11, 2005