In the firing line
Reporter: DAWN MARSDEN
Date published: 07 January 2011
Candidates clash at Chronicle Question Time
TENSIONS ran high as voters were given the chance to grill election candidates a week before going to the polls.
Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins and Conservative Kashif Ali drew a near-capacity crowd of well over 100 at Denshaw Village Hall for the Chronicle’s first ever Question Time — chaired by Chronicle editor David Whaley ahead of Thursday’s by-election.
The contest, which will secure a new MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, was called when Labour’s Phil Woolas was ousted from power after High Court judges decided material he distributed in the run up to May’s General Election personally attacked Mr Watkins.
The trio delivered opening statements outlining their key messages before taking questions from the floor.
Tuition fees caused the biggest controversy with audience members challenging Mr Watkins to explain his U-turn on a pre-election promise to abolish fees before offering his support for fellow party members when they voted in favour of an increase.
Mr Watkins said: “Students will not have to pay anything up front and will pay the money back when they earn over a certain amount. Someone earning £30,000 a year would pay back £60 a month. Some people will never have to pay back a penny. We have to make savings somewhere.”
Mr Ali added: “Labour introduced tuition fees when times were not as tough. There are cuts being made to the Higher Education budget and it was widely accepted before the election that tuition fees would be raised. We need to be adult and realistic about this.”
Mrs Abrahams said: “This is another broken promise from the coalition. I have spoken to families with young people that have had to rethink their plans as they can no longer afford to go to university and be weighed down with that level of debt. We want to implement a graduate tax that would be based on ability to pay.
“The rise in fees will affect the poorest members of society and will affect social mobility.”
Police cuts were also a hot topic with all three candidates agreeing that there needs to be more police on the streets.
Mrs Abrahams said: “The coalition promised to increase the number of bobbies on the beat but in reality they made cuts.
“We had started to see a reduction in crime under Labour thanks to key investments made and now there is a real danger because of a reduction in the number of officers.”
Mr Ali said: “Under Labour, only 11 per cent of an officer’s time was spent on the beat. The rest was spent doing paperwork and trying to hit targets. Yes we have made cuts but this has mostly been to backroom staff, not frontline officers. We want to see officers on the streets, getting to know the area and being accountable.”
Mr Watkins said: “We have always known there were far too many people in the back office. From next year, there will be more police officers on the beat.”
The trio were in agreement that, if elected, they would fight for money to make improvements to Saddleworth School as promised in the Building Schools for the Future programme.
Mr Watkins and Mr Ali accused Labour of promising funds for BSF that were never really there in a bid to win votes while Mrs Abrahams said the scrapping of plans to improve Saddleworth School was denying local youngsters opportunities.
The candidates agreed that they would put the needs of constituents before Westminster if elected.
