An Isle of Wight General Election Hustings – set up by 38 Degrees – attracted a storm of criticism this morning after it was revealed the independent candidate, Julie Jones-Evans, had been excluded from the event.
The Isle of Wight has six candidates standing, but when organising the event 38 Degrees had applied their national policy, which is to select the ‘top five’ candidates to take part.
Hearing about the ‘meet your next MP’ event via email because she is a member of 38 Degrees, Julie Jones-Evans got in touch with the organisers. They’d informed her that she could not take part as a candidate, but could attend the event as an audience member, or watch the debate online via their live stream.
Top five national policy
OnTheWight got in touch with 38 Degrees this morning to find out how they selected the ‘top five’ and why they would not be including the independent candidate in their Hustings.
They got back in touch this afternoon to explain that following our contact the independent candidate had now been apologised to and invited to take part.
Admitting they’d not looked into the local politics of the Isle of Wight, a spokesperson for 38 Degrees explained they’d simply adhered to the national policy, which is to select the top five candidates based on the projected vote share of parties using data from Vote Share, Electoral Calculus and various polling data.
Jones-Evans: “Really pleased 38 Degrees have listened”
Julie Jones-Evans told OnTheWight this afternoon,
“I’m really pleased 38 Degrees have listened and now understand more about the Isle of Wight.
“It’s good that, as the largest constituency, that they are now giving all Isle of Wight candidates a chance to attend.
“Thanks to those who have helped – in particular to OnTheWight for their part in getting this sorted out.”
Labour candidate unhappy
Labour candidate, Julian Critchley, told others on a Facebook discussion this morning that when first invited to confirm availability, he’d informed 38 Degrees he was unable to make 31st May.
“I had written it off as unfortunate – we’re all busy and there are only so many days. Maybe they could have at least talked to me about alternate dates.
“But to not invite you [Julie Jones-Evans] on purely arbitrary grounds is outrageous. Without question that demonstrates bias on the part of the organisers, and it makes me look at the ‘unfortunate’ timing decision in a different light.”
Alternative offer for Labour
A spokesperson from 38 Degrees explained to OnTheWight they’d also been in touch with the Labour candidate this afternoon.
He told us,
“As the other candidates were able to attend – meaning no other hustings on – we hoped Labour would shuffle their diary accordingly, but understand that it’s a short campaign and that candidates’ diaries are very busy.
“We’re hoping to ask the Labour candidate the questions other candidates get asked at the Hustings so they can still have their responses sent to 38 Degrees members soon.”
38 Degrees will have a film crew on the Island for the Hustings event and have offered to do a Q&A session with Julian Critchley on Thursday morning.
Recognise policy did not reflect Island politics
A spokesperson for 38 Degrees said today,
“As a politically-independent organisation dedicated to facilitating citizen involvement in the political process, we’re delighted that Julie [Jones-Evans] is able to attend our hustings event alongside many of the other candidates.
“Having originally applied our national invitation criteria, we recognised that this did not accurately reflect the local politics of the Island. We subsequently apologised to candidates for any confusion this caused, and to Julie for the late invitation to the event. We can confirm that all candidates have been invited, and we are greatly looking forward to the evening and facilitating an open and fulsome debate with the four candidates attending.
“Due to the short election campaign, we are of course disappointed that prior diary commitments have meant some candidates are not able to join us on the night. We are working with them to make sure our 5,000 members on Island can still hear from them directly.”
It’s good to see 38 Degrees responding to the calls for change.
Event details
Where: Bembridge Sailing Club, Bembridge, England, PO35 5NR
When: Wednesday 31st May
What time: You can arrive from 6pm for a 6.30pm start.
The event will last around an hour and there’s time afterwards for a drink if you’d like to stick around.
Update:
Statement from 38 Degrees spokesperson.
Image: rusty_clark under CC BY 2.0
