10 December 2019updated 08 Jun 2021 9:38am

Conservative candidates accused of avoiding election hustings

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 06: Prime Minister Boris Johnson talks onstage at the launch of the Conservative Party's General Election campaign at the National Exhibition Centre on November 6, 2019 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Boris Johnson visited HM The Queen earlier today to officially dissolve Parliament before heading to the West Midlands to launch the Conservative Party general election campaign. The British people will go to the polls on December 12th for the first winter election in nearly a century. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Much press attention has been focused on Boris Johnson’s decision not to do a set-piece interview with Andrew Neil on BBC One. However, just as important to his constituents in Uxbridge and South Ruislip was the Prime Minister’s avoidance of local hustings. It appears that Johnson is merely setting an example for Tory candidates across the country.

Huntingdon, Hartlepool and Harlow are just some of the constituencies where the Conservatives have been accused of avoiding local debates. There is no precise data on the overall scale of the evasion, but Extinction Rebellion, which has organised climate hustings across the country throughout the campaign, has so far counted 70 Conservative no-shows at their events (by comparison only one Labour candidate — Diane Abbott — has failed to appear). What is striking is that Tory candidates battling in marginal seats seem to be particularly reluctant to appear before the electorate.