Woking College hosted to parliamentary candidates and representatives at a general election hustings.

Jonathan Lord, the incumbent Conservative, was joined by three of his opponents on July 4, Will Forster, Liberal Democrats, Nataly Anderson, Green Party, and Richard Barker, Reform UK. The Labour candidate, Ese Erheriene, was unable to attend and was represented by Tahir Aziz, a former borough councillor. Tim Read, the Heritage Party candidate, was not present because invitations were sent before it was announced he was standing.

After an introduction by college principal, Brett Freeman, the floor was thrown over to the students who asked the candidates a number of questions, ranging from higher education tuition and housing shortages to the conflict in Gaza. All the candidates and the Labour representative agreed that something needed to be done about tuition fees. Only Ms Anderson stated that fees should be scrapped, while all the others commented on the possibility of removing interest from loan repayments. These range from 6.25% to 7.9%, depending on the loan type,.

The speakers largely refrained from attacking each other and instead focused on setting out their own party’s position on the issues. Mr Lord defended the Government’s record, while Mr Aziz encouraged Labour-leaning voters to not vote tactically for the Liberal Democrats. Mr Barker stressed his outsider status, as someone new to politics.

Mr Lord, who was first elected in 2010, is defending a 9,767 majority he gained in 2019. Mr Forster came second, Labour third, the Greens fourth and Ukip, which has been replaced by Reform and Heritage, fifth.

In 2017, Mr Lord had a majority of 16,724, with Labour second and Mr Forster, in his first attempt to become Woking MP, third. Ukip were fourth, the Greens fifth and Hassan Akberali, an Independent who has since become a borough councillor, was sixth.