Candidates debate face-to-face ahead of General Election

Candidates Jon Whitehouse, Anna Widdup, Eleanor Laing, Gareth Barrett and Andrew Smith tackled questions from members of the public on issues such as nuclear deterrence, loss of GP’s and carers wage with only one minute each to provide an answer.

Mark Wadsworth of the Young People’s Party was not present at the second General Election hustings, hosted by Churches Together at St John’s Church in High Road, Epping, due to a prior arrangement.

A prominent topic of the evening was fear over loss of general practitioners.

One member of the public asked how each candidate would reconcile statistics that show one in three GP’s plan to retire within three years and one in five plans to work overseas after completing training.

“This is indeed a problem” said Conservative candidate Eleanor Laing, who claimed that the statistics were a direct result of the NHS being made into "political football".

Eleanor Laing for Conservative party

She added:  “We ought to talk up the wonderful work that our doctors and other health professionals do. 

"We propose that we show them that they are appreciated, that we need them, that we all want good for the NHS and stop scaremongering about it."

Andrew Smith, UKIP, added that "offering people fee free medical education at university on the condition that they remain working as a GP" may make the role more attractive.

Andrew Smith, UKIP

Labour candidate Gareth Barrett said: "A big part of keeping GPs will be making the NHS system more attractive and more welcoming to make them want to stay in the system for longer.

"Labour will use a systematic approach to how we train and how we maintain GPs to find out how we can retain staff in the NHS."

Liberal Democrat candidate Jon Whitehouse said: "we will need to work to give trainee doctors the incentive and the interest that will give them the professional satisfaction that perhaps sometimes they may feel they only get if they go into the specialist areas of medicine.”

Liberal Democrat candidate Jon Whitehouse

Green candidate Anna Widdup said: "I agree with the points that a lot of people have said about making the NHS more attractive to doctors and to other staff.

"We need to go through our taxation systems so that we have got the money to re-put into the NHS which could create around 400,000 jobs in the NHS, some of which would be GPs and doctors."

Another audience member introduced herself as a mother who cares for her son, who has cerebral palsy, for 168 hours a week and on £2.59 an hour asked the candidates what each party would do to end carer’s financial hardship.

Anna Widdup of Green party

Andrew Smith, UKIP, said: "I wouldn’t describe that as a wage, it is an allowance.

"We would raise that to the jobseekers allowance primary which is around 25% more and we would also work to help end carers hardship as we know it can be an extremely stressful time."

Green party candidate Anna Widdup said: “What the Green party really want to do is to support people as individuals in a way that is suitable for them and of their choice.

“We would provide adequate benefits; we would have proper staple funding voluntary organisations, we would make sure that people with disabilities are supported financially and of course we would support respite care.”

Labour candidate Gareth Barrett

Jon Whitehouse discussed that the Liberal Democrats would look into offering an annual £250 bonus and introducing additional leave for carers.

Conservative candidate Eleanor Laing stated that she believed that "being a carer to a disabled child is the most difficult job in the world" and that her party would work to make sure carers received the support they needed.

Gareth Barrett said that Labour planned to ring fence money which would be focused on providing respite care.

With strict time limits many issues such as the green belt, potholes and street lighting were only briefly discussed in closing statements.

The General Election is set to take place on May 7.

You can read a summary of Tuesday's hustings at St Mary's Church in High Road, Loughton, here.