PUTTING together manifestos, campaigning and sitting on councils are almost a family business for the Brierly family.

With a father who is a former council leader and ex-mayor of Bexley and a daughter and son-in-law in the cabinet of the present Bexley Council, it was inevitable the family love affair with the hustings would spread to a third generation. Now Rebecca Briant, 10, has become the latest in the line to get herself elected to a council — the school council that is.

Rebecca, a Hurst Primary School pupil, is the daughter of Joel and Donna Briant, councillors for Cray Meadows and Thamesmead East on Bexley Council.

And Donna is the daughter of ex-council leader Ron Brierly, who is still active in local politics and is chairman of the Bexley’s Community Health Council.

The school council comprises a girl and boy from each class at the school and Rebecca was up against one other girl for the place. She stood on a manifesto of more equipment in the playground for playtimes.

“She wrote her own manifesto,” said dad Joel. “But I may have tweaked it a bit,” he confessed.

Proud parents and grandad are hoping, with her pedigree, Rebecca’s school council career is just the start of something big in local politics.