Cornwall debate shines spotlight on NHS and Brexit

Candidates from North Cornwall, with one stand-in, took part in a live debate with BBC Radio Cornwall

The parties battling it out in the general election for the North Cornwall constituency debated key issues in a live hustings.

Scott Mann (Conservatives), councillor Kate Ewitt - in place of Robyn Sara Harris (Labour), Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrats), Lance Symonds (Green Party), Rowland O'Connor (Reform UK) and Sarah Farrell (Heritage Party) participated in the Your Voice, Your Vote debate.

Hosted by BBC Radio Cornwall the debate covered subjects including health, social care, dentistry and the impact of Brexit on farming and fishing.

• Watch the debate as it happened on BBC iPlayer

The candidates took part in a live hustings

The NHS

After host Julie Skentelbery told the story of the death of her husband following a "14-hour wait for an ambulance", the panel was asked how their policies could save other people this experience.

Lance Symonds, Green party candidate, who spoke of "severe underfunding", especially in Cornwall, said the Greens would go back to "more of a public ownership".

This would be achieved by a wealth tax on the "biggest and broadest shoulders", he added, providing £48m for the NHS over the next five years.

Rowland O'Connor from Reform UK said NHS staff were "absolutely fantastic" and his party was "passionate about reforming the NHS to make it work".

He said the NHS would be "free at the point of delivery", with a three-year tax break for front-line workers.

Scott Mann said the Conservatives were committed to making sure "money does flow" into the NHS, with £66m more in Cornwall's coffers than in 2019.

He said the NHS machine in Cornwall was "stuttering", with more services needed to deliver "locally for people", better pharmacy provision and getting services "away from main hospitals" and into cottage hospitals.

Ben Maguire said the Liberal Democrats would create 8,000 new training places for GPs every year, while boosting funding for rural GPs and reducing pressure on the hospitals in Treliske and Derriford.

Kate Ewitt, standing in for Labour candidate Robyn Sara Harris, said better access to GPs to avoid unnecessary visits to A&E would be a priority, as would GP recruitment and "changing the way GP practices run".

"People don't like change but the system is crumbling, it's on its knees," she added.

Sarah Farrell of the Heritage Party said pharmaceuticals were "getting rich" while waiting lists were getting "longer and longer" and said the NHS either had to be fully private or fully publicly funded.

Dentistry

Ben Maguire said the Liberal Democrats would "tear up the current NHS dental contract" and replace it with one which "fundamentally incentivises NHS work" as dentists were paid "four times" as much for a private filling.

Kate Ewitt, standing in for Labour candidate Robyn Sara Harris, said her 10-year-old had not seen a dentist since 2020 and dentists needed to be "brought back" into the industry and it needed to be "made appealing" to go back into the NHS.

Scott Mann, Conservative, said contracts would also be in their plan, encouraging dentists to take more NHS patients, with more dentistry vans in towns and villages in North Cornwall.

Lance Symonds, Green Party candidate, said a system of paying dentists an "hourly rate", was making it "undesirable" for dentists to take on NHS patients and that his party would reform this.

Sarah Farrell, from the Heritage Party, said people's consumption of medicines was "costing the taxpayer a lot of money" and that a healthier way to spend these funds would be to "train British doctors, dentists and social workers".

Rowland O'Connor, from Reform UK, said his party would offer three-year tax breaks to front-line service personnel, including dentists, to encourage a return to NHS dentistry.

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Fishing and Farming

The candidates were asked for their views on how Brexit had damaged the fishing and farming industry in Cornwall.

Rowland O'Connor from Reform UK said Brexit "simply hadn't been delivered" in North Cornwall and that farmers were "really struggling", in part due to "ridiculous red tape" introduced by the government, which his party would remove.

Ben Maguire, Liberal Democrats candidate, said the "atrocious" Brexit deal was "just not working", with the EU "effectively closed" to fishers as a trading partner and his party would "fundamentally renegotiate this awful deal" to boost exports.

Scott Mann said the Conservatives' "journey" of leaving the EU was ongoing, referencing a fisheries negotiation in 2016, before pinpointing a lack of a mention of fisheries in the Labour manifesto.

Kate Ewitt, standing in for Labour candidate Robyn Sara Harris, said fishers and farmers did not trust the Conservatives on Brexit - vowing a Labour government would look at the Brexit deal, veterinary agreements and a mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

Lance Symonds, Green Party candidate said regional deprivation had "not been taken in to account" with Brexit and that funding intended for the region had been spent on the "national service plan".

Sarah Farrell said the Heritage Party would look to "fulfil agreements that should have been done in the first place", as well as banning off-shore seaweed farms and "not pay subsidies to farmers complying to climate targets".