Regional journalists will be amongst those judging a competition to find the country’s future political reporters.

The prestigious Write Now competition, organised by the Parliamentary Press Gallery, will judge youngsters who have aspirations towards political journalism.

Winners will be given chance to visit Parliament and meet top politicians and lobby hacks.

Entries will be judged by journalists including the Birmingham Mail’s political editor Jonathan Walker.

Regional finalists in the latest round of judging will be invited to Parliament where they will meet journalists and politicians and tour the Palace of Westminster.

Their entries will additionally be judged by a panel made up of MPs and Peers who will select the overall winners in each of two age groups.

The challenge for students in years ten to 11 is to imagine they are standing for election as mayor of their town or city and to write a personal campaign statement.

Students in years 12 or 13 are asked to imagine they are a political blogger and to write up to four blog posts on one of the top political stories of the day.

For full details of the challenges and information about how to enter log onto writenow

The PPG is made up of journalists from leading regional and national newspapers as well as broadcasters and political bloggers.