VOTERS in two key constituencies will be given the chance to quiz their general election candidates – thanks to local churches.

The Church of the Resurrection, in Penrhyn Avenue, Drayton, will host candidates from the three main political parties in Portsmouth North for an election hustings event on Monday 25 April. The same three candidates will then discuss the issues again at a similar event at the Church of the Ascension, on Stubbington Avenue, North End, next Thursday 28 April. Both meetings will start at 7.30pm.

Both churches are inviting members of the public as well as churchgoers to hear from the three candidates – Labour’s Sarah McCarthy-Fry, Conservative Penny Mordaunt and Liberal Democrat Gary Lawson.

Both meetings will be chaired by the clergy who lead each parish. The Rev Steve Summers, rector of St Andrew’s Church, Farlington, and Church of the Resurrection, Drayton, will chair Monday’s debate, and Father Ron Robinson, priest-in-charge of the Church of the Ascension, will chair Thursday’s.

Father Ron said: “From my perspective, this election seems to have contained a lot of razzamatazz without people necessarily engaging with the issues. Locally, I’d like to encourage people to meet their own candidates and find out what they stand for before they vote.

“I also want to see people voting, as it’s important that people engage with the political process as a whole. It’s quite right that the church gets involved in this kind of thing as part of our calling as Christians is to help improve the society we live in, and part of the way we do that is by helping people to realise that they can affect political decision-making. ”

Voters in the Portsmouth South constituency will get a chance to question their candidates at an election hustings meeting at Portsmouth’s Anglican Cathedral on May 1 at 7.30pm. Lib Dem Mike Hancock, Conservative Caroline Dinenage and Labour’s Mark Button will debate the issues after the evening service.