Stuart Young

Stuart Richard Young (born 9 February 1975) is a Trinidadian attorney and politician and was the eighth prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago between 17 March and 28 April 2025. As member of the People's National Movement (PNM), he has been a member of parliament (MP) in the House of Representatives for Port-of-Spain North/St. Ann's West since 2015.

He was the minister of energy and energy industries and minister in the office of the prime minister. On 6 January 2025, it was announced Young would be the presumptive nominee to succeed as prime minister in August 2025 when Keith Rowley intends to resign from representational politics. Young has previously held the posts of minister of national security, minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs and minister of communications. Young was appointed a senior counsel on 20 June 2024.

Young lead the PNM into the 2025 Trinidad and Tobago general election which was lost to Kamla Persad-Bissessar of the United National Congress (UNC) thus causing Young to be the shortest serving Prime Minister in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. In the aftermath of the election, Young resigned as PNM party chairman on April 30.

Early life and education Young was born on Henry Street, Port of Spain, on 9 February 1975 to Richard Peter Young, a Chinese Trinidadian, and Priscilla Hosein, an Indo-Trinidadian. He was raised Catholic While in school he participated in competitive swimming, cycling, and running, as well as being a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Sea Scouts. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a junior barrister at Gray's Inn in July 1997. The following year, he received a legal education certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School and was admitted to the bar in Trinidad and Tobago. He was also admitted to the bars of the Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda. He served on the American Chamber of Commerce legislative committee, as a board member of FUNDAID, and as a council member of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.

On 17 March 2016, he was assigned to the additional position of minister in the office of the prime minister. From 7 June 2018 until 20 July 2019, he was Minister of Communications and from 6 August 2018 until 18 April 2021, he was Minister of National Security. Young also serves as chairman of the Finance & General Purposes Committee of the Cabinet (F&GP), as well as being a member of the National Security Council (NSC), the Energy Standing Committee, the Human Advisory Committee, the Committee of Privileges and the Statutory Instruments Committee.

Young was re-elected to office during the 2020 general election on 10 August 2020. He was also a co-chair of the Government Empowered Negotiating Team for energy. On 19 April 2021, he was re-assigned as Minister of Energy and Energy Industries to take over from Franklin Khan, who died in office.

In December 2022, Young was elected as the Chairman of the PNM. After the party's defeat in the 2025 general election, Young resigned party chairman. On 3 January 2025, Prime Minister Keith Rowley announced his intention to resign as prime minister before elections are constitutionally due later this year. On 26 February 2025, Prime Minister Keith Rowley announced he would officially resign from office on 16 March. On 6 January 2025, Stuart Young was elected by the PNM Parliamentary caucus as Prime Minister designate. He won with 11 votes to Pennelope Beckles-Robinson's nine. After becoming prime minister, a social media post about the incident of him being accused of bullying became popular, and Young responded a few days later saying that bullying in Trinidad and Tobago could not be overlooked. Barry Padarath, the MP for Princes Town, asked Young to apologise. Five hours after assuming his role as prime minister, Young changed Rowley's cabinet. He appointed Vishnu Dhanpaul, the former Trinidadian High Commissioner to Canada, as finance minister. He also replaced Reginald Armour with Camille Robinson-Regis, the former housing minister, as the new attorney general. He also replaced the security minister, Fitzgerald Hinds, with Marvin Gonzales, in turn replacing Robinson-Regis as housing minister with Adrian Leonce. Hassel Bacchus stayed as digital transformation minister, as well as taking on the role of junior finance minister.

On his second day in office, Young advised President Christine Kangaloo to dissolve parliament and call an election for 28 April.

Electoral history