Election Candidates Clash at Hustings in School

Senior students and staff welcomed General Election candidates and a party representative in to school for a lively hustings event this week.  Five parties were represented by Stewart Jackson (Conservative candidate), Darren Fower (Liberal Democrat candidate), Mary Herdman (UKIP candidate), Darren Bisby-Boyd (Green Party candidate) and Daniel Swain (Labour Party Constituency Organiser).

The hustings were chaired by Abigail Jessop and Jordan Grinyer, who firstly asked each candidate to respond to three set questions which they had received in advance:  What first got you in to politics?; What does your party stand for? and What would your party do for young people in Peterborough?

After this, students from the floor put questions to individual candiates and it was during this session that Mr Jackson and Mr Swain had some heated exchanges about the opposing party's policies and statistics.

The students, some of whom will be voting for the first time in the General Election, thoroughly enjoyed the verbal exchanges and were extremely interested to hear the candidates' pitches for votes.

After the hustings, Sixth Form students made good use of the opportunity to pose further, direct questions to the candidates over refreshments.

Following this event, Senior students will cast their votes during an internal election, the results of which will be announced on Election Day.

The Headmaster was very pleased to see the level of interest the students had in the hustings, saying:  "It is extremely important for young people to have an interest and engage in politics and having the candidates actually here with us in school gave us an excellent opportunity to hear their arguments first hand and carefully examine our local options.  The calibre and delivery of the students' questions were exceptional and I know the candidates were impressed with the boys' and girls' enthusiasm".