Five takeaways from the Northampton election debate

Five of the seven candidates took part in the debate hosted by BBC Radio Northampton's Annabel Amos (third left)

The candidates wanting to be the next Northampton North MP have been facing questions in a BBC Radio Northampton election debate.

Five of the seven candidates faced questions at the Picturedrome, a former cinema-turned-pub in the town.

Here are the main takeaways from what happened. You can also watch the debate on the BBC iPlayer or in this page below.

1. How to tackle the NHS?

Getting a doctor's appointment, trying to see an NHS dentist and tackling hospital waiting lists are all issues people have spoken to me about during this campaign.

It was a topic that saw the Labour and Conservative candidates clash.

Labour's Lucy Rigby said "we're hearing excuse after excuse from the Conservatives".

She said Labour plans to make 40,000 more appointments available, with overtime offered so this can take place in evenings and at weekends.

Conservative Dan Bennett defended the Tories' record on the NHS and said the party had a "long-term workforce plan for recruiting 100,000 new nurses and nearly 30,000 new doctors".

Liberal Democrat Chris Leggett said the party would look to "recruit 8,000 more GPs" but added: "That will take time."

2. What would you do for the town centre?

Major boundary changes see this seat expanded to the southwest to encompass Northampton town centre.

In many places town centre regeneration is an issue but here it’s undergoing a £33m revamp and includes a scheme to transform Market Square, which is due to be completed this summer.

Chris Leggett for the Liberal Democrats agreed with Reform candidate Antony Antoniou that the town centre was in trouble.

The Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Reform candidates said they would look at business rates.

Dan Bennett, for the Tories, said he personally would be pushing for cuts to business rates if elected. That's not something the party has said.

3. Crime and punishment

Like many places crime is an issue on people's minds here whether it's retail crime, anti-social behaviour or knife crime.

It was in this constituency that 15-year-old Fred Shand was stabbed to death in Kingsthorpe last year.

Conservative's Dan Bennett said he would like to see "more police out on the streets". He said the Tories wanted to put 8,000 more police officers on the street.

Lucy Rigby, for Labour, said the party had a "plan to halve knife crime in the next decade" and, if elected, she'd work with the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner to tackle it.

Reform UK's candidate Antony Antoniou said the party would look to scrap Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners and take the politics out of policing.

For the Liberal Democrats, Chris Leggett said they have a policy of diversion to avoid people going into the police and court system.

4. Was it heated?

Politics can often be heated between the parties and a regular complaint I hear from people is they don't like the "punch and judy" nature of it.

They want to know what the parties are going to do for them. I think voters will have got that from this debate. It covered a range of topics from cost of living to housing.

Although there was disagreement, at times there was agreement from the candidates and it was a fairly calm discussion of policies that the parties are putting forward.

5. Can I trust you?

A disbelief in what politicians say isn't unique to this constituency but it is something the candidates putting themselves forward here recognise needs tackling.

The Green Party candidate Eishar Bassan raised the issue of trust in one of her answers.

She said "at the moment a lot of people don't trust the politics" and she'd personally like to see something done about it.

All the parties recognised it's an important issue and not unique to any one party.

The Labour candidate said it was about action and delivering what they say they will.

The Reform UK candidate admitted he never wanted to be a politician but he wanted to stand up for the people he's spoken to who are angry and fearful.

The Conservative candidate said there was nothing new in mistrust but social media had raised it more to the forefront and the Liberal Democrat candidate said it was about actions and words.

Also standing in the Northampton North constituency is independent candidate Paul Clark and Khalid Razzaq, for the Workers Party of Britain.

A full list of candidates can be found here.

Watch the Northampton North debate