Lincoln’s General Election hopefuls were grilled by students on Thursday, November 28, as they faced a range of individual questions over voting records, tax plans and broken promises.
At the second hustings of the campaign held by Lincoln Students’ Union, the seven MP candidates made their pitch as to why students should vote for them on December 12.
Candidates were each faced with questions from members of the audience on the night.
Conservative Karl McCartney defended his voting record on LGBTQ rights, while Labour’s Karen Lee apologised for the hurt caused to the Jewish community by antisemitism.
Ms Lee said she was “confident” of winning Lincoln despite a recent YouGov poll predicting the party would win just 211 seats nationally – the second worst post-war result for Labour.
(From the left) Liberal candidate, Charles Shaw, Green Party’s Sally Horscroft, Conservative Karl McCartney and Independent, Rob Bradley. Picture: Calvin Robinson.
“There is only one poll that matters and that is the one that happens on the day,” she said.
She defended the party’s tax plans and said she would be “happy to pay more for public services”.
Meanwhile, Mr McCartney said his voting record while the city’s MP was a “long time ago”.
He faced questions over his views on same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ issues.
“I stand by my public record of voting and I voted the way that I did,” he said.
“But that voting record is quite some time ago.”
He went onto defend his expenses and his staff appointments to his office while MP, which included his wife.
(From the left) Liberal Democrat candidate, Caroline Kenyon, Brexit Party’s Reece Wilkes and Labour’s Karen Lee. Picture: Calvin Robinson.
Elsewhere, Carline Kenyon, Liberal Democrat candidate, was asked why students should trust her party when it tripled tuition fees back in 2011.
She said she recognised that the party had “made mistakes” while in a coalition government.
“I absolutely put my hand up and say that we got things wrong,” she said.
She added that the then Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, apologised for the broken pledge.
The Brexit Party candidate, Reece Wilkes, faced questions over his party’s promise to abolish the House of Lords.
He said it was about “accountability” and that peers were not elected to the chamber.
The 2019 Lincoln general election candidates
The Lincolnite and BBC Radio Lincolnshire will host a live debate will all the candidates on Monday, December 9 at 7pm. More info here.
Sally Horscroft, Green Party candidate, was asked why her party found it hard to “cut through climate scepticism”.
She blamed the “right wing media” and oil firms who “want to protect their profits”.
Meanwhile, Charles Shaw, Liberal candidate, was asked whether there was anything his party would disagree with the Liberal Democrats on.
He said his party would “respect Brexit” and added that the 2016 referendum was a “straight forward question”.
Similarly, Independent candidate, Rob Bradley, said he would “not have a right” to contradict the referendum result.
Clash over social media
The seven candidates clashed over social media later in the night, including use of Twitter by MPs.
Mr McCartney was faced with calls to be suspended after allegedly re-tweeting far right figures such as Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins.
He said he did not endorse anything he retweeted and added he retweeted a former SU president’s claims that Ms Lee said students were a “disease”.
Ms Lee denied that she ever made the comment and said it was “simply untrue”.
She added that she “gets some really nasty stuff” on Twitter and Facebook.
Meanwhile, other party candidates, including the Greens, Liberal, Brexit Party and independent Rob Bradley, warned people to be careful on social media platforms.
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Emergency repairs to the A16 near Crowland have been completed just over 48 hours after the road had to be closed due to a dramatic lorry fire that melted the surface.
Lincolnshire County Council’s highways department was forced to close the A16 south of Crowland on Friday, following a lorry catching fire the day before on the road.
The temperatures from the blaze were so high the road surface melted, with various materials from the lorry itself welding to the road as a result of the heat.
A before and after of the road. | Photo: Lincolnshire County Council
It happened across both sides of the road, within metres of a busy roundabout, though thankfully no casualties were reported.
The road was closed over the weekend to allow for emergency repair works, and after 48 hours of intense, frantic action, it is now open again thanks to a rapid response.
The ruined road surface was removed and the damaged sides were rebuilt, with an entire new top layer of the A16 laid down, treated and painted in just one weekend.
It means the road was closed for just over 48 hours, as the road reopened to the publicly 10pm on Sunday.
An unbelievably quick turnaround given the severity of the damage caused from the fire. | Photo: Lincolnshire County Council
Councillor Richard Davies, executive member for highways, said: “What a great effort by everyone involved to get this section of damaged road up and running.
“The damage to the road surface was so intense that smaller repairs were out of the question and a full resurface of the road was the only option we had.
“We worked extremely hard to get this road stripped back and rebuilt as quickly as possible and the results can be seen for themselves.
“I want to thank everyone involved in this swift repair and I also want to thank all road users for their patience whilst we carried out the work in a very short timeframe.”
A Lincolnshire stonemason who failed to supply memorial headstones to his customers after getting into financial trouble has been given a suspended jail sentence, Lincoln Crown Court heard on Monday.
Julian Karl Gaunt, 53, from Spalding, admitted failing to supply ceremonial works to four customers in 2016 after his memorials business collapsed.
Gaunt also pleaded guilty to the theft of one memorial headstone from a supplier in Tadcaster, near York, which he failed to return after his company went under.
Lincoln Crown Court heard Gaunt did not set up his business with a fraudulent purpose but got into difficulties after he was “crippled” with a number of problems.
John McNally, mitigating, said Gaunt lost the services of a trusted secretary who then set up against him, and had to let other staff go after he was confronted with HMRC and VAT demands.
His business finally collapsed in July 2016 after his banking facilities were withdrawn, the court heard.
Mr McNally explained: “At that point Mr Gaunt buried his head in the sand.
“His marriage collapsed, he lost his home, he managed to get some employment, but was then signed off because of his health.”
Mr McNally said Gaunt was not motivated by any financial motivation for himself, but should have put better systems in place as the director of the business.
The court heard Gaunt had intended to return one memorial stone to a supplier in North Yorkshire, but failed to get round to it after his business collapsed.
Gaunt, formerly of Queens Road, Spalding, but now of Beech Avenue, Spalding, admitted four charges of consent or connivance in a fraudulent misrepresentation between April 28 and July 22, 2016.
He also pleaded guilty to a single charge of theft of a memorial headstone from Tadcaster, N Yorks, between July 1 and December 31, 2016.
Gaunt was sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for two years, and must also obey an electronically monitored curfew between 7pm and 7am for four months.
Passing sentence Judge John Pini QC told Gaunt he accepted that he was not motivated by fraudulent motives and had not targeted his customers.
But Judge Pini said there was a point where it should have been “crystal clear” that he could not fulfil the orders for which he had taken money in a sensitive business.
“You took orders for memorial works and failed to supply those works,” Judge Pini added.
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