'I'd only vote in my Surrey town for the General Election if I was forced to'

In the university town which taught the woman who died for the right to vote, locals were asked if voting should be compulsory. Kelvin Hayward, 75, who admitted he had not voted in the previous election, asserted: "I think that, if it was compulsory, I would vote. When you have a selection and you have no interest in either, then I think everybody should be forced to vote."

Kevin also highlighted the potential policy to Australia's voting laws, where people can be fined if they do not vote. But a local businessman, Mohan Singh, said: "Compulsory voting? Maybe not, but I would say that people should take an interest because we are a part of this country,"

Mohan, owner of Egham Essentials, a hardware shop in the town centre beliefs clashed with others in the university town, where suffragette Emily Wilding Davison briefly studied at Royal Holloway. Isra Khan, 22, said: "Yeah, Your vote matters; your voice matters."

Egham sits in the reconstituted constituency of Runnymede and Weybridge, which lost territory to the seats of Windsor, Esher and Walton in the boundary changes, but gained the area around the town of Cobham.

Residents were also asked about the most important issues this election, as well as their opinions on the two premiers of the leading parties: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (Conservative) and Sir Keir Starmer (Labour).

Opinions varied wildly with affordable housing, interest rates and inflation, international aid, crime and social issues among those picked out. Lee Oliver, 23, highlighted: "Issues affecting young people, like housing and the state of public services, the NHS, the state of roads."

The only sense of consensus could be found in the general antipathy towards Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, which was found to be the case in previous reporting by SurreyLive. Bill Sheils, 75, a local councillor said: "[Sunak] should never have been Prime Minister."

Oliver, who works in Finance, called Sunak "weak" and "ineffective," but he went on to dub Starmer 'uninspiring,' despite labelling him 'stable' and 'steady.' Although terming him a "waste of space," Kelvin thought Sunak had "tried his best." It was a marked contrast to his view on Starmer, about whom he commented: "I don't trust him."

Lucia López, a student from Spain concerned about Sunak's and Starmer's "sphere of power," thought they were not open minded towards immigration, 'selfish' and did not know the needs of the people.

It comes as Surrey could have as many as 12 new MPs after the July 4 general election, according to the latest poll. Runnymede and Weybridge, Woking, Spelthorne, Windsor, and Godalming and Ash are all toss ups, according to Ipsos. Read the full story here.

The candidates for Runnymede and Weybridge this election are:

• Ben Spencer (Conservative)

• Ellen Nicholson (Liberal Democrat)

• Robert King (Labour)

• Steve Ringham (Green)

• Stewart Mackay (Reform UK)

• Michael Cressey (Independent)

• Nicholas Wood (UK Independence Party)

For more news about the general election in Surrey, visit our page here.