A rare thing happened when four politicians set out their election stall to students at an East Hampshire school: they and the audience all agreed on something.

Damian Hinds, Richard Knight, Lucy Sims and Dominic Martin all accepted there should be better representation of disabled people in parliament.

The Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates also agreed during the Treloar’s general election hustings event that it’s important to keep raising awareness of disabilities.

Four of the seven prospective parliamentary candidates accepted an invitation by Treloar’s student governors, Archie and Isobel, to take part with staff and students from both the school and college also attending the debates.

Governors were keen on giving their peers the chance to make “an informed decision” on election day as over half of its student popular is eligible to vote. 

Students at the Holybourne and Froyle sites have been learning about voting, political parties and how to get their voices heard in the lead up to the general election on July 4.

Treloar’s feel strongly about student voices being heard in Westminster and that future governments support the needs of the UK’s 16 million disabled people.

Candidates spoke to school and college students either side of lunch, respectively, with the hopefuls making a short opening statement before answering questions.

Questions were asked about tax, access to public transport, access to sports facilities and how to improve representation of people with disabilities in parliament.

One of the trickiest questions came from a student called Alex as he queried why wheelchairs take so long to fix. Two of the candidates admitted they weren’t aware of the issue but were grateful for being informed.

Ben Bastin thanked the candidates for their day of participation before reminding students to register to vote, if they haven’t already done so.