SOME of the county’s youngest voters put North Wiltshire’s parliamentary candidates to the test this week when they quizzed them on the issues that they consider most important.

Year 12 and 13 pupils from Kingsbury Green Academy’s sixth form invited Conservative candidate James Gray, Labour’s Jon Fisher and Liberal Democrat hopeful Brian Mathew each to meet with them separately and respond to their concerns about a range of issues.

Ruth Wood, head of sixth form at Calne’s Kingsbury Green Academy, said the students had prepared rigorously for the event beforehand.

She said: “They’ve looked carefully at what each of the three parties stand for, and have interrogated the emerging manifestos.

“Within their tutor groups they discussed possible questions they could put to the candidates, and they’ve shown a passion for politics and political accountability that is really refreshing, some of them have just turned 18.

"They are very excited that they can now vote and get their voices heard, they’ve been watching all the TV debates and listening to what politicians of all persuasions have been saying on the national stage, but having the opportunity to speak directly with candidates who are vying to represent them directly is such a bonus."

“I must give credit to all three candidates who agreed to answer to the students – our sixth formers are fiercely intelligent, curious and exacting, and they must have known that they would be put through their paces!”

Topics that the pupils raised included student tuition fees, equal rights for those in same sex partnerships, reducing the UK’s carbon emissions, Brexit, and what each candidate considers to be Calne’s greatest issues.