Empty chair due to Tory no-show at Rotherham election debate

The Rotherham Pensioners Action Group hosted an election hustings at My Place recently, where election candidates from all parties were invited to a question and answer session with it's members. 170940-1

Rotherham Pensioners Action Group (RPAG) hosted the event at the myplace youth centre at St Ann’s on Tuesday (4).

Labour, UKIP, the Lib Dems, the Yorkshire Party and the Greens were represented by candidates and party members.

RPAG chairman Keith Billington said: “We were rather disappointed that the Conservatives didn’t show up. It seems to be a national trend from what I can gather, especially where it’s groups involving the elderly.

“We sent two letters and they didn’t even reply, which is very discourteous. This was our third hustings event and they have attended the previous ones.

“We had also hoped for a better attendance from the public, but all we can do is invite people.

“There was a good selection of questions, quite a few on immigration, some on social care and the importance of having a national care service joined to the NHS, as well as the number of languages teachers have to deal with in the classroom.”

The Green party’s Ann Roche talked about the importance of moving away from fossil fuels and Yorkshire Party candidate Mick Bower spoke of the imbalance of power and money held by London.