YOUNG people from across South Gloucestershire were given the chance to talk politics last night at a special general election hustings event in Thornbury.

Youth groups from across the county, including Thornbury, Yate, Kingswood, Patchway Filton and Little Stoke, were joined in Turnberrie’s Community Centre by Thornbury and Yate candidates Luke Hall from the Conservatives, Lib Dem Claire Young, and Green candidate Iain Hamilton, as well as Mhairi Threlfall who is standing for Labour in Kingswood.

The event opened with an open vote, with the 37 young people in attendance deciding which of the four candidates they would choose given their knowledge of person, party and politics at the time, as well as a “Don’t Know” option.

An early lead was claimed by the Lib Dems, with 13 members of the audience saying they would give the party their vote. Second was Labour with 10 votes, followed closely by the Conservatives with nine votes, and two votes each for the Green Party and for those unsure.

The four candidates were then given three minutes each to talk about themselves, their party and why they should be deserving of their vote, before spending 10 minutes at each of the four tables to discuss the issues in greater depth.

Once each table had been visited, the group was given the chance again to vote, with a surprising upheaval of the vote as the Conservatives went into the lead with 20 votes, Labour and the Greens advanced one vote each to 11 and 3 respectively, with the Lib Dem majority falling to just one vote.

Sandy Hore-Ruthven, from Creative Youth Network, who organised the event, said that it was important to open up similar events to everybody.

He said: “The most important things are that young people learn more about how politics can directly affect them and give the candidates a chance to hear what young people have to say.

“Statistics have shown that old people are much more likely to vote than young people, by giving them a chance to learn more, they will hopefully be encouraged to have their say and make an informed choice come June 8.”

Kat Bradford, from Thornbury’s youth club Krunch, who hosted the event, said: “A big thankyou goes to our candidates for taking the time to come and speak to us and to make the effort to listen to what our generation has to say. We wish them the best of luck for the rest of their campaigning.”

All the candidates said they enjoyed the event and learned a lot from speaking to the young people they hope to represent.

Mr Hamilton said: It is nice to see young people asking questions and engaging with us on this level, even though some are not old enough vote, their voices are as important to be heard as everyone else’s.”

“The range of questions we were getting were very interesting,” added Ms Young. “There was some mature thinking going on and what they would ask us was not what you might expect. They were very clued in to the national issues.”

Ms Threlfall said: “They gave us a good grilling, which was great because they are clearly interested in what we have to say, which is so important.”

Mr Hall thanked everyone for taking part and said how pleased he was to have taken part in such “an informative debate, attended by engaged young people in our community.”