Food poverty and mental health in spotlight at election hustings

About 100 people attended a General Election hustings at Guisborough Methodist Church on Wednesday evening.

Four of the candidates for the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland seat were present at the event, which was organised by Rev Kevin Highfield, the Methodist minister, who compered the speeches and questions.

Rev Highfield made the point that he was an American citizen and had no passionate views on politics in the UK.

Attending were Luke Myer, (Labour), Gemma Joy (Liberal Democrat), Rod Liddle (SDP), and Rowan McLaughlin (Green). The Conservative candidate, Sir Simon Clarke, was not present and had previously intimated that he was otherwise engaged.

The evening started with a five-minute address from each candidate, setting out their party’s priorities and policies. Rev Highfield then chose various issues and invited each candidate to respond on that subject.

He said that a major issue for the Church was concern about food poverty. Mr Siddle (SDP) said that the closure of the Teesside steelworks had led to menial jobs with poor pay, not helped by cheap labour from immigration.

Mr Myers (Labour) blamed the effects of the Conservative austerity years, and Ms Joy (Lib-Dems) was concerned about mental health services and people with disabilities. Ms McLaughlin thought that there should be end to the two-child cap on benefits.

Rev Highfield asked the candidates about how they felt about mental health services. Mr Myers said that youngsters should be given the help they needed, and Ms McLaughlin felt that children should be given time to play. Ms Joy said that there should be a mental health practitioner in every school, and Mr Liddle felt that social media was causing problems for children.

Other questions included how to achieve peace in Israel and Gaza, and Britain’s relations with Europe.

At the conclusion Rev Highfield thanked the candidates and the audience for attending.

Sir Simon Clarke cited a “packed diary” in rejecting an invite to the hustings event.

Organisers had offered an alternative date in order to accommodate the former Tory cabinet minister, but to no avail.

Asked to respond to criticism for not attending, a spokesman for Sir Simon shared the reply he had given to Rev Highfield.

In it he stated: “As you can imagine my diary is absolutely packed out as I speak to hundreds of people every day across the whole constituency.

“With regret, it is my experience over three previous general elections that hustings events tend to be very poorly attended and almost exclusively by those who have already formed their prior view on the key questions.

“I have the utmost respect for what you are seeking to achieve, but will unfortunately be unable to attend.”