Blackpool North Hustings: Candidates asked how they’d bring local issues to Parliament on behalf of the constituency
The Blackpool Gazette and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Blackpool North constituency at next month's general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
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NewsTranscript
00:00conduct themselves in terms of transparency and ensuring local issues are raised in Parliament
00:06on behalf of the constituency should they be elected.
00:15I'm probably the one who can go away and check on day work for you how I have been raising local
00:20issues in Parliament. Of course when you're a minister on the front bench you can't do so
00:25and you do it behind the scenes in the voting lobby where you can
00:28reach a minister warmly by the throat and ask him precisely what you want them to do.
00:32But as a backbench MP there are so many ways in which you can raise issues,
00:36not just by asking questions but by holding debates. So when I've been a backbencher
00:40I've focused a lot on issues of financial vulnerability, of loan shrouds and making
00:45sure that people have more financial resilience should I know the extent of the poverty that
00:49exists particularly in the centre of Blackpool. So I've worked with so many charities and interest
00:54groups. I've been a Conservative who's come home with a trussel truss to end the need for food
00:58banks and so I've done that commission into that. There are many ways that MPs can raise local
01:03issues, it isn't just by shouting your mouth off in the chamber behind the Commons.
01:13I'll promise you anything, vote for me.
01:15So having worked in the public sector my whole life, my working life has been following some
01:30disciplined code of conduct. So as a trainee nurse I have followed the principle of respect,
01:38care, compassion and honesty. One has to, one has to follow these
01:44rules so I have a good grounding in these virtues. Thank you.
01:55The way which I would address the problem is that I would want more devolution. The people who are
01:59best able to deal with your problems are people who live in this area and whilst MPs, the one or
02:06two that come from this area going down to London will do their best and I believe the majority of
02:12MPs do do their best, they just have not got the time or the capacity to deal with the local issues.
02:19Therefore we've got to take the power away from London and bring it out to the regions and make
02:25sure that there is the capacity there to deal with the problems that this region has and the
02:31residents distinctly. I think one of the key things to consider as well is if you're not
02:39Labour or Tory and you're in the House of Commons and you still manage to be an MP
02:44then you will work with others, you will cooperate to bring forward our issues and I don't think I
02:51have ever stood down from something that really matters to me. I spent eight years fighting,
02:56cracking and I wouldn't give up. I was like a dog with a bone along with the other residents until
03:00we had that done with and I would do the same to stop the landfill, to improve the tourism,
03:05to make sure that our children's voices are heard and that they aren't just
03:09written off because you're just somewhere up north. And they're paid well.
03:17So I don't know what it is about Tory MPs when they come to the Fylde coast but we've got
03:21Mark Menzies in Fylde whose private life is incompatible with his public life. We've got
03:27Scott Benton who's a cash for questions guy for the gambling industry and anyone else who cares
03:32to pay him and even Paul, bless him, has had his own little scandal with over a thousand pounds
03:37for printing which is not a matter of public record. As your MP I will make sure that I put
03:46this constituency first and I will not have my hands in the till like your average Tory MP in
03:51this area.
04:11Can I just ask for calm please and let Clive answer the question and then we'll go back to
04:17Paul and give him a right to reply since that raised something that I feel he deserves.
04:25Well I know that Lorraine Beavers is absolutely committed to fighting on behalf of her
04:31constituents. She doesn't want to be a minister, she wants to fight for the investment in the local
04:37community. You know there is a fact that we do need change. We do need change from the standards
04:43I mentioned before about some of the issues that we've had with this government, with Boris Johnson,
04:49Rishi Suna and others over the last few years. We need change because we need to build that trust
04:56back into politics. We need people to actually believe that politicians can make a difference
05:02and I'm confident that Lorraine will absolutely do that. Thank you.
05:06Thank you.
05:08Thank you.
05:10At least part of the year a member of my local association made a complaint about me because I was falling out within the association and for long now the mud was thrown my way across the front page of the Sunday Times and everything else.
05:24So a six months investigation took place in Parliament by the Compliance Officer and they went through everything they could possibly go through and they determined that we should have been paying £4.50 a month more for one particular case.
05:34£4.50 a month more for one particular item of equipment. They had an agreement with the Parliamentary authorities over how we paid for different aspects of our office and they looked down and said we should be paying £4.50 a month more for that, which I was perfectly happy to pay.
05:48There was no criticism of me. The report was clear that I quote reasonably believed, unquote, that the agreement we had with it should cover this item of equipment. The Compliance Officer determined otherwise and I was quite happy to pay.
06:02£1,200.
06:04£1,200.
06:06£1,200.
06:08£1,200.
06:10£1,200.
06:12£1,200.
06:14£1,200.
06:16£1,200.
06:18£1,200.
06:20£1,200.
06:22£1,200.
06:24£1,200.
06:26£1,200.
06:28£1,200.
06:30£1,200.
06:32£1,200.
06:34£1,200.
06:36£1,200.
06:38Can we just calm down please because we're all here to just ask questions and behave in a civilised manner, which is what we do want our politicians to do ultimately.