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
00:00So the next question probably affects everybody and you know is another very important issue
00:09which is the question is around social care and what plans does your party have to fund
00:15social care in the constituency at a time when councils are struggling to pay for this vital
00:22business? I won't repeat what I said at the beginning but the one thing which I do want to
00:34say is that whatever we do with care it's got to be done with the two other parties, major parties
00:41there. It's like the NHS was immediately following the second world war. There is no point one party
00:48said I'm going to do this because Theresa May said what she was going to do and look how badly
00:54that went down and then the other party changes it. We have got to work together that's the reason
01:00why Liberal Democrats are strongly putting forward this proposition regarding care because we need
01:07to pull the other two parties together and for everyone to work together to provide the service
01:13which is absolutely needed.
01:18Both social care and NHS are suffering from an absolute lack of staff
01:22sometimes some of those immigrants coming over are the people who would be caring for us
01:26if we weren't so busy trying to keep them out. I think when it comes to our staff
01:33the problem in that sector is the same problem in all the sectors we don't pay them what they're
01:38worth. They are worth far more than so many other professions and we're all going to depend on them
01:44we have done since the day we were born and how dare we treat them with such disrespect. I've just
01:48finished caring for my stepfather for three years and I watched the care staff that came in to help
01:53us and these people were my gods you know they deserved so much and they got so little and their
01:59time was short and they had to dash between people and remove that dignity of care that each person
02:05absolutely deserved.
02:13So you might be surprised to hear for a party that's right at centre we do have a clear policy
02:18on social care and I would agree with some of the other panellists here that the two main parties
02:23have talked about it and when it's come to the crunch they have shied away from it because it's
02:27a vote loser but we are a party of common sense Reform UK and what we have said clearly in our
02:33contract is that we will look at the social care because we don't expect to be in power this time
02:37we'll look at the social care we will involve other parties and we haven't ruled out the need
02:42for more funding which could mean higher taxes but it means we can provide a decent level of care
02:47for people who deserve it. Thank you.
02:53Well let's not pretend there's an easy solution to this one because it's going to be an expensive
02:58solution but it's it's a crisis it's social care is in crisis in this country and that crisis
03:06is one where people are being let down they can't afford to pay for the care we haven't got the
03:11staff to deliver the care then there's a knock-on impact in the NHS because we can't discharge
03:18people from the hospitals because they haven't got the care packaging in place we need a strong
03:24Labour government to deliver the social care that they've talked about the Tories have talked
03:30about for years and delivered absolutely nothing we need a party that cares about people that
03:36understands the impact of the finances and understands actually that you just can't put a
03:42cap on on people's families and the houses to pay for this you've actually got to to invest in it
03:50from central government that is the way we'll solve this crisis.
03:58So I don't think anyone can fail to doubt the challenges that our social care sector faces
04:03both locally and nationally we're seeing an ageing population that has an inevitable
04:09consequence of more people needing social care both in their home and eventually residential
04:15the challenges that we face they're trying to make sure we don't wait until people need to go
04:20into residential care to provide adequate levels of help actually the solution to much of our care
04:25crisis lies in primary care it lies in hospital at home to help free up hospital beds so my
04:32frustration as a politician over many decades has been that when people discuss social care policy
04:38they think it actually starts in the residential care it doesn't it started keeping people healthy
04:44in their own homes in the first place and that's how you create a more sustainable care sector
04:49in the longer term.
04:57Call me loony but if we keep bringing immigrants in to do the social care then the immigrants
05:03are going to get old so you need more immigrants to look after the immigrants who got old
05:07but the social care I don't get it so perhaps what we need to do is to not have as many people in the
05:15country but that's...
05:25Social care is not a single suit I've been a care worker and when I first started working
05:32as a carer I realized very fast that it's not a very well respected job it's not very well paid
05:41not very well trained why the carers do as much and sometimes even more than the nurses
05:49one and second we definitely need a social care arrangement that actually runs parallel to the
05:56NHS thing is lots of people we are we are living longer we are getting older and living longer we
06:04are healthier but many people they suffer from Alzheimer's and dementia their houses are taken
06:11away and sold off that shouldn't happen so if cancer is taken as an illness so should be dementia
06:19and Alzheimer's so we need a social care that works thank you