SALISBURY'S incumbent MP was heckled with profanities during last night's General Election hustings.
This hustings, attended by more than 200 voters, was the second in a series in the lead up to the election and took place at Bishop Wordsworth's School.
The evening was dominated by Brexit, the climate change emergency, and the NHS.
When faced with a question about the Tory party's policy of austerity at the hustings, John Glen blamed austerity on "the enormous deficit left after Labour left office [in 2010], caused by a lack of government regulations and systemic overspending".
In response, a member of the audience called out to Mr Glen, insinuating he was lying.
READ MORE: Meet the candidates for Salisbury
At another point in the evening, Mr Glen also faced criticism for the Conservative party's history on the NHS, and was again interrupted.
After the interruption, Mr Glen said: "Can I please finish the question?", to which an audience member responded "if it is truthful, yes".
Mr Glen then added: "We are ready to invest now. Once we are past the impasse of Brexit, we want to invest in a brighter future.
"I acknowledge more needs to be done.We want to invest more in mental health, for example. But there are no easy answers in terms of opening a cheque book and giving something unlimited money."
Following this, Labour candidate Tom Corbin was quizzed by the audience about his party's leader Jeremy Corbyn, mainly in response to reported problems of anti-Semitism.
Mr Corbin said: "Jeremy Corbyn gets a hard time, but I'm proud of him and I think he's a good man.
"We’ve had our own issues, and I think we’ve managed them quite effectively.
"But lets be honest, we wouldn’t be having this election if the Tories weren’t constantly in-fighting. We’d have left the European Union in March. Perhaps we wouldn’t be in the mess we're in now."
The evening then shifted to the topic of Europe, as Liberal Democrats candidate Victoria Charleston was faced with questions over her party's Brexit policy.
The Lib Dem's policy is to stop Brexit, and a member of audience accused the Lib Dems of being "liberals, but not democrats".
In response, Mrs Charleston defended voter's rights to have another vote.
She said: “I hear this quite an awful lot. I regard myself still as a democrat, especially with regards to Europe.
"The referendum was flawed. We should have a people’s vote once we have a deal, asking the public if they are 100 per cent absolutely sure.
"What is democracy if you can't change your mind."
The climate emergency was another important topic for those in attendance, and audience members took the opportunity to ask the Green Party's Rick Page how badly he felt the climate emergency must get before there is a collection reaction.
He said: “That’s a very difficult question. Human psychology is such that we don’t know when that point will be reached.
"People have their heads in the sand. Look at the fires in California, Australia, the Arctic melting.
"We’re normalising it. That’s my biggest concern. I hope we don’t have a big disaster which tips people into action."
Criticism of all the main parties then followed from independent candidate Arthur Pendragon.
He said: "Climate change, Brexit, the NHS. If you add up all their green policies, it is still not enough. We need to do them now. Its not worth a can of beans.
"We need a lot more action and we need it a lot faster.
"You might think I look a bit strange, but this is a general election, and I’m the general you want to send to Westminster.
"Who do you think is going to hold leaders to account? A junior minister? A backbencher? Or a nutter who calls himself King Arthur from Stonehenge? Vote for me."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel