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On Friday evening, the Cambridge Union welcomed parliamentary candidates in the Cambridge constituency from the five main parties for a hustings held jointly with Cam Fm. Each speaker took to the Union stage to deliver opening and closing speeches, between which they answered questions put to them by moderators Oliver Mosley from the Union, Amatey Doku from Cam FM, and also from the floor.

Chamali Fernando, candidate for the Conservative party, opened her speech by admitting that the event was “the most well attended hustings any of us have been to in the General Election campaign”.

Daniel Zeichner, representing Labour, followed this, telling the chamber that the Cambridge vote was “really really important” in deciding which of Labour or the Conservative party would be successful on May 7th. 

Rupert Read of the Green Party, opened by promising that a Green vote would be a “vote for public transport…a vote for your future”.

Patrick O'Flynn, UKIP candidate, focused on the issue of immigration and budget cuts in his first speech, whilst also assuring those in the chamber that UKIP is “not going away”.

Incumbent MP for Cambridge Dr. Julian Huppert was keen to prove his achievements during his tenure, and promised that he would continue to “stand up for us”.

The first topic debated was that of the cost of living, with the recognition that Cambridge is the third most unaffordable city in the UK. Fernando, Huppert and Read all established that they would lower the costs of transport. Read claimed that this was a “Green priority for Cambridge”, whilst Fernando reasoned that lower transport costs would allow people to live further away from the expensive city centre.

Also discussed was the problem of the living wage in Cambridge. Zeichner, O’Flynn, and Huppert all related this specifically to the university, with the Labour candidate calling the failure to pay the living wage to almost 1000 employees a “disgrace” and Huppert promising to continue in attempts to try and force each college to pay the living wage.

Turning to discuss specifically the cost of living for students, in what is the most expensive student city, alongside Bristol, there were controversial comments from O’Flynn. He stated that his concern is “not so much for the student population but for the local youth”. Responding to an audience question about what would be done to provide financial support for students, he replied that UKIP’s higher education policy was to “abolish tuition fees for home students, but only in the STEM subjects”. The Greens also spoke of “abolishing tuition fees” but across all subjects.

The next floor question concerned how the low proportion of women in politics could be addressed. The sole female candidate, Fernando argued that currently, women were put off by the “barbaric, ungentlemanly behavior” often witnessed in politics. She called for the creation of “role models in politics and encouraging women to think they can break the glass ceiling”. Huppert joined her in condemning the “childish, sexist and pathetic” behaviour often seen on Prime Minister’s Question Time, and promised to consider job shares for female MPs and ministers.

Read and O’Flynn both noted that their parties have women in senior positions, with the Green candidate joking that he was “hoping to be the token man in the Green Party”. Zeichner was the only candidate to argue that there was any need for inherent structural change or the use of all-female shortlists, originally introduced by his party.

The final topic discussed was that of the NHS, with Addenbrookes having declared a ‘major incident’ in January. There was a general consensus that the health service required more money, and O’Flynn and Fernando also identified ending health tourism as a priority. Claiming that the NHS was his “passion”, Zeichner spoke of the need to integrate health and social care. Read also acknowledged the need for this, on the same day that party leader Natalie Bennett unveiled a new policy integrating these aspects of the healthcare system.

Huppert was the only candidate to mention mental health; the part of healthcare policy that he stated was “always neglected, always forgotten”. He said he was keen to change this.

At the close of the debate, the results of hustings were as follows: undecided: 9 per cent, Liberal Democrats: 39.5 per cent, Labour: 22.8 per cent, Conservatives: 12.6 per cent, Greens: 9 per cent, UKIP: 7.2 per cent. This was in contrast to the results of the entry poll. This put undecided voters as 26.1 per cent, Labour at 24.2 per cent, the Conservatives at 17.7 per cent, Liberal Democrats at 17 per cent, the Greens at 9.8 per cent, and UKIP at 5.2 per cent.

Reece Edmunds, of the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats, said of the final hustings vote: “I’m really glad Cambridge students seem keen on re-electing such a hard-working MP.”

The General Election will take place this year on May 7th. Voter registration is still open online.