Candidates faced questions about abortion, assisted dying, gender identity and free speech at the main General Election hustings in Bishop’s Stortford.
Dr John Burmicz for Reform UK; Liberal Democrat Cllr Helen Campbell; Green Party contender Cllr Nick Cox, Labour’s Cllr Josh Dean, Heritage Party representative Barry Hensall and Conservative Julie Marson, who won the Hertford and Stortford seat for the first time in 2019, answered voters concerns for two hours.
Only Jane Fowler, the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom, was absent from the event organised by Bishop’s Stortford Churches Together.
Moderator David Clapham asked the candidates a series of “portmanteau” questions, formed from subjects raised by residents including housebuilding, education and the NHS. They included a composite of moral posers for the politicians.
The Abortion Act 1967 decriminalised terminations in some circumstances by exempting a woman from prosecution when two doctors agree the pregnancy would be a risk to her physical or mental health.
However, earlier this year a cross-party group of MPs proposed making abortion access a human right in England and Wales up to the current legal limit of 24 weeks. Abortions may only be performed after this period if the mother’s life is at risk or the child would be born severely disabled.
Laws throughout the UK prevent people from asking for medical help to die. More specifically, euthanasia is illegal under English law and is considered manslaughter or murder. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment.
In Scotland, changes to legislation have already been tabled and Labour leader Keir Starmer has signalled he would allow MPs to vote on decriminalising assisted dying.
Across the country the rights of people who identify as transgender or non-binary - and how they affect the legal protections afforded to females in the Equality Act 2010 - have prompted legal challenges, protests and fears about restrictions on free speech.
Barry Hensall was the first candidate given two minutes to answer all points.
He said: “Most of the [Heritage Party] members don’t want abortion. Some of us understand that maybe it’s needed. It’s a very contentious issue.
“So all I can say is that we understand it. We must lower the time [limit] that abortion takes place. Some of our members want it completely gone. We are totally pro-life.”
He was equally empathic about euthanasia: “Assisted dying should never happen. Every single person, no matter how old you are, should not have to worry about whether your doctor is going to maybe help you to pass over to the next life. I don’t believe that assisted dying is helping anybody.”
On the trans debate, he said: “So gender ideology, I’m not even going to go into that. All I know is that we’re going to stop schools teaching the LBQ, ABC or whatever. No, children should not be sexualised in schools.”
He added: “Free speech is sacrosanct. There is no grey area to free speech. You either have free speech or you don’t have free speech. And anybody who says ‘ But you can’t do hate speech’, that is just another grey area. You do not do that. You either have free speech 100% or you don’t have it.”
Julie Marson said she disagreed with Mr Hensall on almost every point. She said: “What are my guiding principles? Evidence and values are probably the two things.
“I do believe women have a choice with what to do with their own bodies. I do believe that, but there will be evidence about the viability of life.”
She said it was important to overlay evidence with values and that there would be a free vote in Parliament if abortion legislation was debated.
She said: “The same with assisted dying. Sadly we have a lot of cancer in my family. I’ve watched many family members die agonising deaths. And I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone.”
She said it was important to support end-of-life palliative care but added: “But, you know, really, people should have the choice on how they want to die.”
Mrs Marson said free speech was important but “not without its limits. She said: “We accept limits on all sorts of things, and I think we accept limits [on things ] which are gratuitously offensive.”
She said: “I believe that everyone should be treated with respect no matter what their sexuality, no matter what they identify as.
“But I’m also passionate that women and girls need to be safeguarded as well. That actually, biological sex is real. That is the basis on which we must make many of these decisions.
“And, you know, I believe that we can square a circle where everybody is treated with respect. And that would be my aim.”
She said she supported the Cass report, published earlier this year, which concludes that for the majority of children, holistic care rather than a medical pathway is the best way to manage their gender-related distress.
John Burmicz agreed that women had autonomy over their bodies and the right to choose abortion.
He told the audience he had watched an aunt unable to breathe at the end of her life who was given a cocktail of drugs to ease her pain. He said: “And slowly she drifted away. And I think, to be honest with you, that was probably the best thing.”
Therefore he believed that in “dire straits”, assisted dying was sometimes necessary.
About gender identity, he said there were “two sexes and two genders” and it was a dangerous safeguarding issue to confuse children by suggesting otherwise.
He opposed social transitioning for children and supported parents’ right to be informed by schools. He added that schools must have single-sex facilities and his party believed critical race theory - that racial bias is inherent in society - should be banned in primaries and secondaries because it taught children to be ashamed of their country.
Helen Campbell said: “Liberal Democrats exist to build and create and sustain a free society where every person’s rights and freedoms are protected and people have dignity and are able to go about their lives in the way that seems best to them.”
She said polarisation was a problem and the topics raised were complex and had been the subject of fierce debate for decades and would continue to be for many years more.
She described her guiding principle: “I always want to guard against people searching for black and white answers, searching for definitive solutions to things.”
She agreed free speech was “sacrosanct” and as a result: “The Liberal Democrats will repeal the Conservatives’ cynical and damaging ban on protests.”
She said her party wanted a debate and vote on assisted dying in parliament and that there would need to be strict safeguards in place as part of any legislation.
Nick Cox offered an alternative view on abortion, saying: “Surely the question is why do we have so many unwanted pregnancies in this country?
“The rate is much higher than in equivalent European countries. Somebody said, ‘Don’t sexualize children in schools’. Well, maybe we’re going about it the wrong way.
“Surely every school pupil should be taught where to go for contraceptive advice should they need it. If they understood their biology lessons properly, we wouldn’t get so many unwanted pregnancies.”
He said the same was true for assisted dying: “I think we’re looking at it the wrong way round. The NHS does not cope with dying particularly well. It’s outsourced to the hospices, which are charities. The government washed their hands of the problem. If dying was done with dignity and respect and everything else, the demand for assisted dying would diminish. Let’s get the dying process right first and then see if there’s a problem left afterwards.”
He added: “Gender ideology. Why is this political? If we treated everybody with respect, why would we need to have this debate?”
He concluded: “Greens are in favour of free speech, but it must have limits. We all accept that you can’t shout fire in a crowded building. And surely it follows that you can’t stand in the streets and make people afraid. That is not right, and that must remain an offence.”
Josh Dean said he backed a woman’s right to choose an abortion and supported a Parliamentary debate on assisted dying.
He said: “On issues of free speech, gender ideology, we have to be really, really clear that what an MP must always do is listen to the diversity of opinions in their community, treat their resident’s views with good faith, and listen to them.
“Because on so many of the issues we’re talking about today...debate has become toxic.
“As your MP, I will always seek to take the heat out of these discussions, treat residents’ views in good faith and I will never seek to inflame tensions.”
He said it was a politician’s job to seek common ground.
