Candidates For Portsmouth South Face Grilling Questions From Local Voters - #UoPGE19.

On Tuesday 19th of November, the Portsmouth South hustings took place for the 2019 General Election. Around 100 members of the public and 30 staff and students from the University of Portsmouth headed to the event that was held at the Eldon building.

The hustings included candidates from the: Conservative (Donna Jones), Labour (Stephen Morgan MP), Liberal Democrat (Gerald Vernon-Jackson) and Brexit (John Kennedy) parties.

There was also a late entry from the Justice and Anti-Corruption Party (Steven George), who surprised the crowd and used his 3 minute introduction to make a statement about a recent court case he was involved in, he proceeded to leave the hustings after this speech.

Once the unexpected speech had finished, the other candidates began to tell the voters who they are, and what their main policies would be if elected.

   (The hustings with 5 minutes to go.)

First up was Donna Jones, she made it very clear that 'If you vote for me on December 12th, I promise to get Brexit done'. She also referred to the NHS crisis, and said the Conservatives are going to provide '6,000 more GP's', she linked this to Portsmouth by stating she would make sure Queen Alexandra hospital would receive a £58 million investment.

We then heard from Stephen Morgan, the current MP for the Portsmouth South seat. He told us 'this election will shape our nation.' He said he 'knows our city and the challenges we face', telling the audience, 'I have so much more to give.'

Gerald Vernon-Jackson began his speech saying, 'Brexit will do great harm to the country', and made his commitment to the party line very clear, the Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit.

John Kennedy spoke for the Brexit party, and as a one issue party, his 3 minutes consisted of saying that he would lobby 'non stop' to get Brexit sorted as soon as possible, he did state that he would prefer to leave with a deal.

(From left to right: Mark Waldron (editor of The News), Donna Jones (Conservative), Stephen Morgan MP (Labour), John Kennedy (Brexit) and Gerald Vernon-Jackson (Liberal Democrat).)

Next it was time to hear from the audience. They covered topics ranging from school funding, universal credit, student housing and the NHS.

'I'll make sure all my staff are fully trained on universal credit.' Donna Jones.

'Universal credit does not work' - Gerald Vernon-Jackson.

On the topic of student numbers rising in Portsmouth, the question,

'How important are these students for the city and the country, and what would you and your parties hope to do either grow, or control their numbers.' was asked.

Vernon-Jackson argued that students are vital for the economic growth of Portsmouth, with Morgan reiterating this point saying that the University is an important asset to our community, he took the opportunity to mention Labour's promise to scrap tuition fees.

Jones stated she was concerned about the number of students who come and study here but leave straight Portsmouth after they graduate. She also made reference to the amount of student housing being put up at an alarmingly fast rate

Politics is about putting food on the table and a roof over peoples heads' - Stephen Morgan.

The event was run by the Creative and Cultural Industries faculty at the University.

After 10 years of austerity and constant headlines about the NHS being in crisis, the audience wanted to hear their candidates views on the health service.

Shay Bottomley, a student from the university, asked if our NHS was really up for sale when it came to making a trade deal with Trump.

Jones made it very clear that these headlines were 'fake news' and the NHS was not a selling point.

Morgan implied that he was deeply concerned about the potential sale of our NHS, he promised that a Labour government would make real investment into the NHS.

'With a Labour government, 2% of the GDP will be spent on defenses and we will create a £1 billion investment plus hundreds of new jobs.' - Stephen Morgan.

When the issue of climate change and air pollution rates was brought up, Jones remarked that she wasn't worried about the issue and thinks it will 'sort itself out in the next 20 years', she did promise that a Conservative government will invest £50 million in eco-battery technology.

Vernon-Jackson linked the pollution levels in Portsmouth to the rapid rate of housing, saying it is unfair that the decision to build 800 new homes here was not made by the Local City Council. He also made reference to the cycling system in place in London, and that he would like the same level of promotion in Portsmouth.

Morgan also expressed concern, saying we need to 'reduce the number of single use plastics.'

'It is important to protect the personnel who are serving, as well as veterans from the Navy.' - John Kennedy.

The night saw some healthy competition between the candidates, with Kennedy saying that Jones' statistics had 'gone a bit Diane Abbott' when she was talking about increasing police numbers in the area. The audience interacted with the candidates, and made sure that their feelings and opinions were known.

Editor of The News, and moderator for the hustings, Mark Waldron spoke about his thoughts on how to event went,

'I think the standard of questions that we got from the crowd was superb... the panelists gave reasoned answers, I'm hoping that the people who came tonight have got an insight into what their vote means on December the 12th.'

The Portsmouth South seat has bounced between parties in the last few elections, events like these hustings are important to constituents, they are able meet their candidates, and learn about what policies matter to them.

To book tickets for the Portsmouth North hustings on the 26th of November, click here.