A hustings has been organised to give voters a chance to put questions to candidates a week before polling day in the Queen’s Park by-election.
The event has been organised by St Luke’s Residents’ Association, a non-political organisation, and is due to take place at St Luke’s Church Hall, in Brighton.
Candidates will be invited to take part in the hustings from 7pm to 8.30pm on Thursday 17 September.
They will be standing for a seat on Brighton and Hove City Council, with polling day set for Thursday 24 September.
The by-election is the third in the two-member ward since the local elections in May 2023 and was called after Labour councillor Mill Gauge resigned because of safeguarding concerns for gender-confused children.
The organisers said: “Come along and hear from the candidates standing in the council by-election.
“Each candidate will have five minutes to address the audience and then there will be questions from members to the candidates.”
They added that the event would be free and open to all local people but residents’ association members would be given precedence in the question and answer part of the meeting.
The residents’ association said that it was “easy to join – just a fiver and you can pay on the door!”
So far, three candidates have been announced – Mark Strong for the Greens, John Shepherd for Reform UK and Rüdiger Dikty-Daudiyan, also known as Rüdi Dikty, for the Liberal Democrats.
I’m pleased to see a Hustings being organised, and as someone who has stood as an independent candidate in Queen’s Park before, I hope voters will use it to ask some difficult questions about the issue that has led to this by-election.
At the 2024 Queen’s Park by-election that elected Milla the Hustings gave me an opportunity to raise concerns about safeguarding in schools and the Council’s approach to gender-questioning children. At the time, both the Green and Liberal Democrat candidates dismissed what I was saying as “anti-trans rhetoric”. As her resignation statement makes clear, Milla found herself increasingly concerned about child protection and the Council’s approach to these issues.
Since then, the WellBN investigation has identified catastrophic failings and potential harm to children receiving gender-related care locally. Yet calls for the Council to examine the wider safeguarding implications — including the relationship between schools, Council services and healthcare — have still not resulted in the independent review many parents believe is necessary.
I hope candidates at this hustings will therefore be asked a simple question: do you recognise the need for an independent review of pupil safeguarding in relation to Council services and schools, and would you support one if elected?
That seems to me a reasonable question for Queen’s Park voters to put to every candidate, whatever their views on the wider gender debate.