I’m Benjamin Rothery, but I prefer Ben. I was born and raised in Harrogate, North Yorkshire along with my two older sisters. I am an aspiring primary school teacher, studying education studies at York St John University, with the intention of going into politics later in my life. I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community, coming out on new years eve 2016 to a small group of friends and eventually in 2017 my entire year group when I ran as head boy in my sixth form (of which, I got deputy!) and then to family in 2018. I am a big supporter of the Labour Party, running as a councillor in the May 2018 local elections for the Harrogate Saltergate ward, increasing the vote share from the previous election for the party and being apart of the group of the youngest councillor candidates for that year. I’m also very open about my struggles with mental health. Due to my sexuality, I had a lot of problems with acceptance of that and who I was resulting in poor mental health. I became open about it when I did a video on my local newspaper’s Facebook Page, The Harrogate Advertiser, discussing my story of mental health and the journey I went through.
