HER hero is former Iron lady Margaret Thatcher.

And the teenager is to challenge the most powerful politician in Huddersfield in next year’s council elections in Kirklees.

Katie Frank, who turns 19 tomorrow, has been chosen as the Conservative candidate for Greenhead.

The Huddersfield New College student will try to unseat Labour council leader Clr Mehboob Khan in next May’s vote.

She said: “I’m tremendously looking forward to taking on Clr Khan because I feel he has done a great deal wrong for the people of Kirklees as a whole.”

The Lindley woman joined the Huddersfield branch of Conservative Future just three months ago.

“I feel incredibly lucky as a relatively new Conservative Party member to have this chance,” she said.

But Miss Frank faces an uphill struggle to defeat Clr Khan, who held his seat in 2008 with a majority of 2,641 over the Conservatives.

“I reckon it will be a very difficult battle because it’s a safe Labour seat but I will still try,” she said.

“With enough hard work I can push up the number of Conservative votes.”

Miss Frank, who lives at Ridge View Drive in Lindley, will campaign to save Huddersfield’s green spaces.

She said: “I live next to Grimescar Meadow and I’m so against building on green belt land.

“In Greenhead ward, they are looking to build on Clayton Fields, which I think is appalling. Empty homes should be brought into use first.”

On a national level, the teenager said she backed Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision not to support a new European Union treaty.