Shropshire Star

Students grill politicians for Brexit hustings at college

Students had a chance to question politicians of all stripes on national issues at a Brexit hustings event.

Published

Telford College in Wellington invited representatives of political parties to speak on Britain's departure from the European Union.

The students prepared questions in advance for the panel, who introduced their arguments before taking three minutes to answer each question.

Then the room was opened up for individual questions from the students.

A number of students said their initial positions had been entrenched after the panel discussion.

Rebecca Anderson, an A Level Social Sciences student who supports leaving the EU, said: "I think the event was really useful but my opinion that we should leave has not changed.

"It has only strengthened. It is the best thing for us to do."

Meanwhile Belinda Ezdeazu, a Foundation student in Health and Social Care, said: "I still stand with Remain because 'united we stand, divided we fall'.

"The UK thrives from EU nationals, with a lot of UK people unwilling to do jobs EU nationals do."

The panel featured Jacqueline Seymour, a Conservative Telford & Wrekin Councillor, and Peter Bradley, who served as the Labour MP for the Wrekin for eight years.

Also featured were Matthew Green of the Liberal Democrats, Pat McCarthy of the Green Party and Bill Gilmour of UKIP.

They were all quizzed by the students on four pre-prepared questions: 'How will article 13 impact on UK if we leave the EU?', 'If parliament subverts the leave decision from June 2016, what confidence do we have in democracy?', 'What impact will Brexit have on the NHS?' and 'With the announcement of job losses at Nissan Sunderland, what is the opinion of the panel on the future of the UK job market post-Brexit?'.

Dan Blasczyk, an enrichment coordinator at the college who helped organise the event, said: "It was a well-balanced debate with seemingly half of the room of the opinion that we should leave.

"It is important to engage young people in Brexit issues because it will affect them most."