SCHOOL pupils got their chance to quiz Bishop Auckland’s election candidates today (April 20), after organising their own hustings event.

More than 70 pupils from Teesdale School, in Barnard Castle, attended the event which was organised by Year 13 politics student, Jake Madgwick-Lawton.

All five candidates, Christopher Adams, of the Conservative Party, Rhys Burriss, of UKIP, Helen Goodman, from the Labour Party, Thom Robinson, from the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats’ Stephen White, were grilled by group of 11 to 19 year olds.

Mr Madgwick-Lawton, 17, invited each candidate to introduce themselves and their party to the room before leading the debate and holding the candidates to a strict time deadline.

The pupils’ questions addressed issues such as immigration, housing and climate change while they also asked candidates to answer questions on issues closer to home such as the use of foodbanks and how to stop the reduction in local bus services.

Mr Robinson challenged the Conservative’s claim that 47,000 new jobs had been created in the last five years saying people were having to prop their low wages up with foodbanks and that the economy needed to be “rebalanced”.

Mrs Goodman and Mr Burriss also blamed the bedroom tax for increased use in foodbanks and promised to abolish it if they were elected while Mr White said the delay in benefit payments needed to be addressed.

On the issue of housing, Mr Burriss said UKIP wanted to protect green-field sites while the other candidates wanted to increase the amount of new homes built and tackle agent fees.

When asked about climate change, Mr Robinson said the Greens were probably the only party that understood the issue as the other candidates were “full of hot air”.

Another controversial question asked was why people should vote in the area if it seems to be a safe seat for Labour at which all the candidates encouraged people to use their vote stressing that votes were never wasted.

Mr Madgwick-Lawton said he was glad all five candidates attended while he was also pleased both national and local issues that matter to young people in the area had been discussed.

Co-principle, Simon Maguire, said: “I would like to thank our candidates for taking the trouble for coming to speak but I would particularly like to thank all the young people themselves for the thoughtful and perceptive questions on a wide range of national and local issues.”