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by Angela Cole, video by Mary Graham

Pictures: Matthew Reading

Tory candidate Helen Grant will claim for a second home and keep
a second job should she become the next MP for Maidstone and the
Weald.

Conservative Mrs Grant was put on the spot at the Kent
Messenger’s Hustings at the Local by a question from Rebecca
Matthews (pictured below), one of the 200-strong crowd of people
who turned out to listen to a debate between five of the local
candidates at the Royal Albion pub.

Mrs Grant said: “I do have a home in the
constituency, in lovely Marden. I will continue to have a home in
the constituency, but I also need to keep my other home, as I have
a 15-year-old son, who is at school there, and I need to be able to
see him in the evenings and check he has done his homework, and so
on.”

Asked whether she would keep a second job, she also conceded
that she would keep “a link” to her job as a family aid lawyer.

She said: “I never, ever want to forget how to 'fix it’.
Politicians are very good at talk, talk, talk. I want to be a fixer
and a doer... I would not like to become as many politicians are
becoming, political anoraks. It is important to retain a link with
your profession, provided that link was fully open to the
public.”

Mrs Grant was the only one of the five candidates – Lib Dem
Peter Carroll; Labour’s Dr Rav Seeruthun; Stuart Jeffery (Green)
and Gareth Kendall (UKIP) – to say she would keep a second home and
job should she become the area’s MP.

In response, Mrs Matthews said: “There are plenty of people who
live in Maidstone and work in London and they get the train to
work; they don’t have a second home.”

The expenses question proved to be one of several feisty
exchanges, with Mr Carroll saying: “So many MPs have been elected
in so-called safe seats for so long, they have taken the mickey. I
would reopen The Tower of London for them. And I believe you should
have the right to sack your MP.”

Read Paul's blog on this and other
election news>>

Other issues debated included the economy, schooling, including
the candidates’ views on grammar schools; local maternity services,
and young people and children.

Full report and pictures in this Friday's Kent
Messenger