Two election hustings were held in Brighton last night (Tuesday 7 April) – one organised by the Argus newspaper and the other by the BBC.
At the Argus hustings, at the Thistle hotel on Brighton seafront, the panel was made up of five general election candidates.
They were Chris Bowers (Liberal Democrat, Brighton Pavilion), Simon Kirby (Conservative, Brighton Kemptown), Caroline Lucas (Green, Brighton Pavilion), Purna Sen (Labour, Brighton Pavilion), and Kevin Smith (UKIP, Hove).
The event was chaired by the new Argus editor Mike Gilson.
The BBC hustings, at the Clarendon Centre, in New England Street, Brighton, and chaired by presenter Danny Pike, focused on the NHS.
The panel included Norman Baker (Liberal Democrat, Lewes), Mike Glennon (UKIP, East Worthing and Shoreham), Louise Irvine (National Health Action Party, South West Surrey), Davy Jones (Green, Brighton Kemptown), Peter Kyle (Labour, Hove) and Henry Smith (Conservative, Crawley).
At the Thistle the candidates answered questions on the European Union and the prospect of a referendum, ISIS and the Syrian conflict and the fallout from the Iraq War.
Purna Sen was asked by Conservative council candidate Joe Miller about the £1,000 donation to Labour parliamentary candidates by the former Prime Minister Tony Blair. She said: “It was offered. I did not accept any donation from Tony Blair.”
The panel members were also asked about the proposed TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), the living wage, the personal tax threshold, welfare benefits, free schools and the NHS.
Howard Pilott, who plans to stand in Brighton Pavilion for the Socialist Party of Great Britain, said from the floor that TTIP was “a perfect example of how corporate power trumps the rights of ordinary people”.
Homelessness was raised by UKIP council candidate Jamie Gillespie, prompting Caroline Lucas to say: “I’m feeling a sense of cognitive dissonance.” She praised Mr Gillespie for speaking so eloquently on the subject.
Mr Kirby said that the government had done well for five years but that there was still much to do.
Mr Bowers, a member of Lewes District Council, said: “There’s an awful lot that’s the domain of Brighton and Hove City Council.
“You have two votes. It may be better to vote different ways in the local and general election.”
At the Clarendon Centre panellists were asked about the challenges arising from the growing population including the increasing number of older people coupled with spending challenges. Privatisation, private finance initiative (PFI) programmes, health tourism and immigration also came up.
Mr Jones said: “I don’t think that immigrants are in any way responsible for the problems in the NHS. Britain is a net exporter of patients.”
Mr Glennon called for a fair playing field. He said that visitors to Britain should fund their healthcare here through insurance, just as Britons travelling abroad were expected to have health insurance to cover the cost of treatment overseas.
Mr Kyle said that the NHS was held up by people from abroad who worked tirelessly doing jobs that many of our own population didn’t have the skills to do.
Mr Baker said that UKIP’s position appeared to be that if only we had no people coming into the country and we left the EU, we would be living in a land of milk and honey. He said that the NHS would collapse without immigrants working in it.
Mr Smith said that it was an issue of who paid and that Britain had not been good at recovering the cost of treatment through the current Europe-wide system. He said that the situation was improving.
Dr Irvine said that criticism of immigrants was a smokescreen. She said that it camouflaged the real causes of the problems in the NHS and that immigrants were net contributors.
Mr Jones said: “We will bring all of the NHS services back under public ownership.”
Mr Kyle said that this would mean ending the support provided by charities such as the WRVS and Macmillan Cancer Support or nationalising those services.
Mr Smith said that there had always been an element of private and voluntary sector involvement in the NHS such as family doctors and pharmacies.
He said: “It is absolutely essential that the NHS remains a universal service free at the point of delivery. It would be political suicide, frankly, for anyone to suggest anything else.”
If only Norman Baker stood back and listened to himself . The nhs was put there for the people of this country not for the dam rich to dump it at there lesiure like most tories , labour and clegs army want to. You are ok you can afford to go private there are millions that cannot. I represent ukip at the local elections so tread carefull when it comes down to the nhs. Its ours not yours Baker.