Glasgow East hustings discusses in work poverty and food insecurity
Five candidates vying for the Glasgow East seat addressed a sparse crowd at a foodbank-hosted hustings, discussing poverty, inequality, and their visions for the future. With the SNP and Labour as leading contenders, the debate highlighted the critical issues facing one of Scotland's most deprived communities.
By Annette Fisher
In a vast church chamber in the heart of Govanhill five would-be MPs gathered on a stage at an elections hustings hosted by the Glasgow South East foodbank for the newly-boundaried Glasgow East constituency on the 24th of June 2024. Approximately 25 people turned up to listen and pose questions to the candidates, the audience dwarfed by the size of the hall.
As the SNP candidate (for former MP) said, hustings are odd affairs – with the audience often made up of local political activists, but they’re a quirk of our democracy in the United Kingdom. Candidates with a chance of winning often don’t like these events because they’re an opportunity for gaffs or to be caught out. Candidates with little chance of winning are often keen on them because it is a rare opportunity to talk to local people and get their message across.
Hustings like these are held in church halls and community centres up and down the four nations of the UK and are open to the public to turn-up and ask questions of the people who hope to represent them in Westminster.
The evening started with Ruth Wilkinson, the Chair (from the foodbank), introducing the candidates and their parties and each candidate was given two minutes to introduce themselves and the issues they wanted to talk about. Glasgow East has seven candidates standing in the July 2024 election however only five attended the hustings:
David Linden for the Scottish National Party
Liam McLaughlan for the Scottish Socialist Party
Thomas Kerr for the Conservative and Unionist Party
Amy Kettyles for the Scottish Green Party
John Grady for the Labour Party
Those who didn’t attend were: Matthew Clark of the Liberal Democrats and Donnie McLeod of Reform UK.
At the time of writing polls for the constituency have the SNP and Labour as the two parties most likely to win the constituency. Glasgow has recently undergone a boundary change by the Election Commission and Govanhill, formerly in the Glasgow Central constituency has now been moved into the Glasgow East one, along with neighbouring Gorbals. The Glasgow Central constituency is no more, and the incumbent MP for the former constituency – Alison Thewliss – is now standing in Glasgow North.
The SNP has held the constituency of Glasgow East for the last 16 years, while previously it was one of the safest seats for the Labour Party, the constituency having returned solely Labour MPs since the 30s.
At the hustings, there was a strong focus on poverty and inequality in the opening statements, particularly child poverty. This is perhaps not surprising since the hustings were being hosted by a foodbank in Govanhill, one of Scotland's most deprived communities.
It was recently reported in that ‘88 per cent of children up to 15 years old living in Govanhill West… are in poverty. Govanhill is consistently recorded as one of the most deprived areas in Scotland, with almost 1,150 of the 1,300 kids in Govanhill West living below the breadline
Questions were posed by the Chair and members of the audience covering issues such as in-work poverty, which was the main issue discussed throughout the evening by all candidates. Other issues covered were rogue landlords, the two-child benefit cap, the issue of equal pay at Glasgow City Council, rising energy costs, and party loyalty vs moral conscience in voting.
The candidates were non-confrontational throughout the evening and there were several examples of those on the stage complimenting a policy or stance of another party or candidate.
This author has attended many hustings in different parts of the country and this one was notable by how much the candidates agreed on the issues and very often agreed on the broad solutions. Where candidates differed tended to be around how funds ought to be raised nationally in order to pay for programmes to increase social security/benefits and other support to those living in poverty.
There seemed to also be broad consensus that Sir Keir Starmer is going to be the next Prime Minister and that Labour will form the next government in Westminster. The Labour and SNP candidates tried to persuade the audience to vote for them by saying that Scotland’s interests were best served by a) having a strong Scottish contingent of MPs in the next government (Grady for Labour) or b) having a strong Scottish contingent of opposition MPs to hold Labour to account (Linden for SNP).
It is for you, the reader to decide how you wish to cast your vote on election day; but whoever you vote for, don’t forget to vote and don’t forget to bring your ID to the polling station.
Decisions are made by those who show up, make sure the voice of Govanhill is heard in this election.