MP Hilary Benn quizzed by students

Hilary Benn spoke to students at MMU

STUDENTS from courses including Politics and Public Services had the chance to grill MP Hilary Benn at a special event.

The guest talk and question and answer session was organised by Rejdi Kercyku, a BA (Hons) Public Services student.

The students didn’t shy away from asking tough questions on subjects including zero hours contracts, integration and council budgets.

Hilary spoke passionately about the importance of voting, and the battles which have been fought to allow people of all classes and genders to have their say in who runs the country. When asked, every student in the room said they were going to cast their vote on May 7.

Great debate

Hilary also spoke at length about the way letting fees affect students, and Labour’s proposed changes, should they win the forthcoming General Election.

Rejdi said: “We wanted to talk about student letting fees because this affects a huge number of students – the money you have to pay is ridiculous. We also wanted to give student the opportunity to talk to him about Labour policies that affect them.”

Annabel Kiernan, Principal Lecturer in Public Services, said: “The HLSS Faculty was very pleased to host this event and the turnout by students from all year groups and from a number of our disciplines demonstrated that.

“It is great to have these types of guest presentations organised by our students and I think it shows their commitment to enthusing and engaging young people with the election campaign for May."

Students "crucial" to election

Annabel said that student engagement could be key to the General Election. 

She said: "The significant student turnout in key constituencies, for example Nick Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam seat, was seen to be key in shaping the 2010 election outcome, so having these opportunities for students to question and discuss important issues before the vote on May 7 is crucial. 

“Hilary Benn was very confident in his talk and in his responses to our students’ questions - but the debates continued in the corridors afterwards!”

Notes to editors

For more information, contact Kat Dibbits in the MMU press office on 0161 247 5278 or email K.Dibbits@mmu.ac.uk