The BIG Stoke on Trent General Election will be held at LRV on the Stoke-on-Trent campus on Monday, December 9
Image: The BIG Stoke-on-Trent General Election debate
We’re delighted to be joining forces with The Sentinel and StokeonTrentLive to help inform local people about their choices in the General Election and see this very much as part of our responsibilities as a civic university.
Professor Martin Jones, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Members of the public will have the chance to put their questions to local candidates standing in the General Election at event taking place at Staffordshire University.
The BIG Stoke-on-Trent General Election will be held at the LRV on Leek Road on Monday, December 9, just three days before the country goes to the polls.
The debate, to be chaired by Sentinel and StokeonTrentLive Editor Martin Tideswell, will include a representative from the Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem, Green and Brexit political parties as well as the one independent candidate standing in the city.
The panel line up includes Gareth Snell (Labour), Jo Gideon (Conservative), Steven Pritchard (Lib Dem), Tariq Mahmood (Brexit), Adam Colclough (Green) and Matt Dilworth (independent).
Panel members will have the opportunity to briefly address the room before answering questions from the audience.
Professor Martin Jones, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Staffordshire University, said: “We’re delighted to be joining forces with The Sentinel and StokeonTrentLive to help inform local people about their choices in the General Election and see this very much as part of our responsibilities as a Civic University.
“We also recognise that the student vote is hugely important at both local and national level and this is a great opportunity for our University community to hear from those candidates and parties seeking to represent them in Parliament.
“We look forward to welcoming the panel and the public onto campus for what we hope will be a lively and informed debate about the issues that really matter - including the role universities like ours will play in society.”
Mr Tideswell said: “It is the duty of The Sentinel and StokeonTrentLive to cut through the rhetoric and present the issues in a clear and unbiased way to help our readers to make an informed decision as to who to vote for in any election.
“This is why, in conjunction with our colleagues at Staffordshire University, we are staging a public debate which will also be filmed, live-blogged, broadcast via social media and reported on in the newspaper.
Doors to the LRV will be open from 6pm, with the debate set to run from 6.30pm until 8pm. To book visit Eventbrite.