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Elections should be held outside university term times and students should only be allowed to register to vote from their home, according to the defeated Conservative candidate who contested Canterbury in December.
Anna Firth, who lost out to the Labour candidate Rosie Duffield in December’s poll, has suggested the idea in an article for the Conservative Home website, claiming students had little interest in local issues. Scroll down to take part in our poll.
She has also acknowledged that the Conservative position on Brexit was “toxic” and was partly responsible for the huge turnout of students in university towns.
In what some may regard as controversial proposals, she argues that residents in university constituencies would welcome the idea of only permitting students to vote from their home address.
“A practical response would be to ensure that all General Elections take place outside term-time, preferably in September. Elections, however, are rarely entirely within our control even without the Fixed Term Parliament Act, so a fairer solution would be for students to vote only at their permanent home and not at their university address.”
“This would be very popular with local residents. Over the last few weeks I have received numerous emails from incensed permanent residents furious that their choice of MP has been made by part-time residents who will be gone by the next election, and who have little interest in long-term issues such better roads, schools and healthcare. With postal votes so easily and freely available, fortunately, there is no risk of disenfranchising students studying in far-flung universities.”
She says the party struggled to win over students for a number of reasons, among them Brexit.
“Not surprisingly, the national Brexit message was toxic in university seats, many of which voted strongly Remain.”
But she said the party also failed to engage students on issues such as the environment and that the government needed to reassess its position on tuition fees.
“Given that 60% of student debts are unlikely to be repaid, tuition fees continue to disenfranchise millions of young people for no reason. This and the punitive rate of interest on student loans, currently 5.4 per cent, needs to be looked at again.”
She says the party needed to welcome the next generation of voters “with an aspirational message of freedom, opportunity and progressive social change.”
And she said her party had failed to recognise the strength of the student vote: “Historically a low-turnout group, the last two elections have seen the university vote morph into a highly motivated Labour block vote.”
Canterbury was the focus of an intense electoral battle with both Labour and the Conservatives vying for votes. The outcome saw Rosie Duffield prevail for Labour with an increased majority of 1,836.
