Candidates from the four main parties contesting the forthcoming general election attended a public meeting at Victoria Hall to explain their policies on asylum.

In the first meeting of its kind locally, Conservative Nicola Bates, Paul Blomfield (Labour), Jillian Creasey (Green) and Paul Scriven (Lib Dem) faced an audience of more than 200 who grilled them on their party’s policies.

The meeting was also addressed by a local asylum seeker and Julian Prior, chair of the team which produced the report ‘Asylum Matters’ for the Centre for Social Justice think tank run by former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith.