Student vote questioned

Reacting to the Canterbury result, Sir Roger Gale has questioned whether students should have the choice of voting in their university town or at home. The veteran Herne Bay MP believes they should instead be registered to their permanent addresses.

“I said to Anna (Firth) afterwards that, as Julian Brazier found out the hard way, there’s no known antidote to 40,000 students in pyjamas,” he said. “I have a concern, not because of Canterbury particularly, but with university cities.

“A third of the students will leave this summer, and a lot of them will never visit Canterbury again. Then another third of them will leave the year after that and then another third the year after that. “Various people are determining who the Member of Parliament will be for a constituency they’re not going to live in.” Long lines of students were photographed outside a polling station on the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus last Thursday.

The city has tens of thousands of youngsters attending its universities, and, as in 2017, their votes are being credited for helping Ms Duffield get over the line. “It seems to me that students should register at their permanent residence; they can vote by post, so that’s not a problem,” continued Sir Roger.

“I’m not carping at the result – I’m sure Anna won’t either – but I’m not sure it’s right that you can be registered in more than one place.

“I’m not complaining the election was fought under the rules that exist.”

Sir Roger Gale