Watch General Election Hustings | Southend West and Leigh Constituency

As the general election approaches, Leigh Road Baptist Church (LRBC) once again invited ten of the candidates standing for the Southend West and Leigh Constituency seat to a hustings event.

It took place on Monday 24 June 2024, 7:30pm – 9:30pm chaired by Rev Steve Tinning, Joint Public Issues Enabler with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and former Minister at LRBC, to a full house of over 300 people at the home of Leigh Road Baptist Church, Marguerite Drive, Leigh-on-Sea, SS9 1NN.

Many issues, local, national and international were addressed, including UK poverty, international aid, support of refugees, clean beaches, climate change, Israel and Palestine, local authority funding, affordable housing, crime, and political accountability amongst others.

Watch the proceedings

2024 General Election Hustings Southend West and Leigh Constituency

Those that accepted our invitation to participate in the full evening (in Alphabetical Order by Party):

Conservative Party | Anna Firth
Green Party | Tilly Hogrebe
Labour Party | David Burton-Sampson
Liberal Democrats | Stephen Cummins
Reform UK | Peter Little

Candidates invited to give opening statements and closing remarks addressing some of the questions raised (in Alphabetical Order by Party):

James Miller | Confelicity (Boycotted event)
Lara Michelle Hurley | Heritage Party – Free Speech and Liberty
Tom Darwood | Independent
Robert David John Francis | Independent
Jason Pilley | Psychedelic Movement (Did not attend)

It is a sad reality that to accommodate all 10 candidates for full participation in the Hustings would have been too unwieldy and seriously restrict the number of questions we’d have been able to address in the time available, we actually received over 88 questions! So, we followed Election Commission guidelines and extended an invitation to 5 of the 10 candidates on the basis of their parties enjoying recent local election success and/or recent national profile/polling, ensuring we have a broad range of views represented. We also reached out to the independent candidates and those representing smaller parties in the hope that they will be able to come to the Hustings and offer a short opening statement and some brief comments on some of the questions they felt particularly compelled to address, ensuring attendees will be made aware of all of those standing and the key policies they are promoting.

Questions were gathered beforehand so that we could make best use of the time we had and so that we could ensure the candidates were asked about local, national and international issues that have the broadest concern amongst those attending.

Our thanks to the candidates on the night and all those running for election, and to the public that sent in their questions and turned up hear the answers.

Please do exercise your right to vote on Thursday 4 July 2024, and don’t forget to take your photo i.d.