A husting event held at a Newbury secondary school gave pupils the chance to have their say on key political issues ahead of the upcoming General Election.
Representatives of four political parties appeared at Trinity School on Friday, June 14 and fielded questions submitted by Year 12 students on a wide variety of topics.
Areas covered included Brexit, trans inclusivity, childcare funding, raw sewage being pumped into rivers by water companies and National Service.
The Conservatives were represented by West Berkshire councillor Dominic Boeck, who was standing in for Newbury’s MP and Tory parliamentary candidate Laura Farris.
Mr Boeck spent much of the hustings defending his party’s governance of the country over the last 14 years, particularly from Steve Masters, the Green candidate for Newbury, who was strongly opposed to many Conservative policies and choices.
Discussing the UK’s exit from the EU, Mr Masters said: “I think we are going to see a really big Brexit benefit, and that would be the destruction and self-destruction of the Conservative party on the 4th of July.”
The Liberal Democrats were represented by Lee Dillon, the former West Berkshire Council leader who hopes to become Newbury’s first yellow MP since David Rendel.
Mr Dillon both agreed and disagreed with several of the views offered by the other parties, and in response to pupil’s questions he outlined pertinent Lib Dem policies in detail.
Dr Liz Bell, Newbury’s Labour candidate, rounded out the four.
She often joined Mr Masters in her derision of the Conservative party, but she did praise the Tories for the achievements they had made in the education sector in recent years.
