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
00:00young people and their sort of needs. So is it fair young people are paid less because of their age
00:11even when they are doing the same job as older colleagues? Now I think this is in reference,
00:16this is a question that came in to us, I think it's in reference to the living wage, I believe
00:20only applies to workers aged over 21 with younger workers only eligible for the minimum wage. So
00:28quite an interesting question that's come in so I'm sure all our answers will be really cool.
00:34I'm pleased with this question because one of our key policies is to pay young people the same rate
00:39for the same job that other people pay. My granddaughter here is 19 and she's an amazing
00:44worker but she has worked in low ridiculous pay at like four pound an hour for doing exactly the
00:50same work for her colleagues, different in jobs obviously where you've had to work for years to
00:55gain that experience to be a doctor or a brain surgeon. However when you're filling shelves at
00:59Tesco's or doing this straightforward job why on earth should they be paid less? I also think it
01:05undervalues and demoralizes them which when I said about schools and how we took away their hope
01:11I sometimes wonder and even when we do things like this is how much sadder can we make them?
01:17And we talk about the increase in the mental health crisis for our young people well no wonder
01:22and you said it last week at a hustings what was it the um shit something? Shit life syndrome.
01:29Shit life syndrome and I credit that entirely to Peter but it is so true and we shouldn't give them that.
01:44So we are actually the reason why we're talking about young people and their
01:49opportunities uh is realities we're all getting poorer because of the population explosion I
01:54talked about earlier wages are going down in real terms the GDP per capita has been going down the
02:00last six quarters none of the main parties want to talk about this in fact they want more immigration
02:05but really what it means is it's not just British workers it's young people and the poorest who are
02:10the most affected by this and that will just get more and more worse the more this goes on so our
02:15policy is to cap immigration which would deliver a high wage high growth economy for British workers
02:21including young people and for opportunity for young people to have a future here and have a
02:25good career. Thank you. I mean the answer to the question is the exploitation of young people is wrong
02:35that actually young people deserve the fruits of their labour like anybody else
02:41if they do the same job the same work they should get the same pay you know they've got to save up
02:46for mortgages and the cost of living like everybody else does but let's not forget that it was our
02:51Labour government in the face of the opposition from the Conservative that brought in the minimum
02:56wage that's brought in the the real living wage that actually pays low-wage workers the the wages
03:04and actually gets invested back in to the economy rather than the the tax kind of grabs of of the
03:10richer people you know when people talk about caring about about poverty and the low pay it
03:17is the Labour Party that have delivered the policies or will deliver them in the future
03:21and support low-paying people. So on one of them I think we have far too many low-paid jobs across
03:32the Faroe Coast as a whole with respect to what age you are that's already much more investment
03:37in regeneration across the whole of the Faroe Coast but the young people in particular I understand
03:43the frustration the the area where minimum wage legislation was put in there was obviously a
03:48concern did we want to drive young people out of the jobs market if we price things too high would
03:54employers not take them on I think there probably is a case now 30 years on from that legislation
04:00first going through and looking at whether that is still the case and whether it meets the needs
04:04of a modern economy many young people now are going straight into work by encouraging apprenticeships
04:10galore maybe it is right that they should be paid the same amount and not be paid a lower rate
04:23oh the questions are getting harder um but one loony logic would be if you've got a young person
04:32with no experience and you've got another person who's got more experience and as an
04:38employer you're looking at them and saying I've got to pay you with no experience and I'm not
04:43actually going to turn up on time and I don't know about your work ethic but you have got a good
04:47record who should I take for the same money maybe young people are expecting too much if they ask
04:56too much
05:03well everyone deserves equal pay and then why didn't you why didn't you give any so anyways
05:13young people should get what they deserve because they do work harder and for example my own daughter
05:20when she worked in bakery after her school was over she was the one who used to wake up early and
05:27turn the gas ovens and everything on in pound bakery shop and she was always given more work
05:34because she was getting paid lesser yeah so what what happens our young people they are leaving
05:41town their gaming skills even if you say we get them apprenticeships and things they will get
05:47those skills but they will leave because they know they have no future over here but definitely
05:52we can speak louder about it and make a difference
06:01my understanding is that you can help somebody work as hard as they like but if there's poor
06:07investment in supporting that worker they will not produce as much as they should the government
06:13for the past 14 years has totally decimated the economy therefore people have not been invested
06:21in the workplace and therefore the young people
06:24are not having the opportunities to actually make the money which they deserve