Candidates bidding to become the city's elected mayor faced 400 voters in the final major hustings of the campaign last night.

The Big Debate, hosted by De Montfort University and the Leicester Mercury, saw nine of the 11 mayoral hopefuls given their toughest grilling of the campaign so far, by members of the public.

The biggest curve ball came when they were asked who they would tell voters to choose as their second-preference candidate.

Tory Ross Grant and Liberal Democrat Gary Hunt said independent businessman Rick Moore, but Labour's Sir Peter Soulsby opted for 18-year-old independent Mu-Hamid Pathan – and fired back: "The fact that the coalition candidates both back Rick says an awful lot."

Mr Grant and Sir Peter also clashed over the latter's previous stint as council leader. Mr Grant said he found it "hard to take Peter seriously when he talks about listening to the people" after he "railroaded through the closure of six of our city schools" and created New College "that failed miserably".

But a furious Sir Peter hit back: "These were failing schools. It was a tough decision but I had the courage to take it and have never regretted it."

Other issues covered included overhauling the city's transport system, how to embrace different ethnic communities and whether the mayor would be accountable.

A night of high-level debate was peppered with occasional moments of humour. Flamboyant independent David Bowley got one of the biggest laughs when he was asked what was his biggest mistake.

He said: "My biggest mistake was voting for (former Labour Leicester West MP) Patricia Hewitt."

Last night’s debate began with candidates given a minute each to

introduce themselves to the audience and set out their vision for the

city.

Nine of the 11 candidates running for mayor turned up, with

independent Nima Patel and UKIP candidate Regine Anderson choosing not

to take part.

Set-piece questions put by Mercury readers were

followed by a free-for-all from audience members, who asked varied

questions to which candidates had just seconds to compose their response

and give the audience an answer.

A final chance to sum up saw front-runner Sir Peter Soulsby take aim at his independent rival Rick Moore.

The

independent businessman grew up in Leicester and was educated here, but

Sir Peter pointed out that he no longer lives in the city.

He said: “Rick’s tried to rubbish the three mainstream candidates tonight.

“However,

the distinction of the three mainstream candidates is that they

actually live in the city. Rick lives in a village on the outskirts of

Market Harborough.”

Afterwards, Mr Moore said: “I’m clearly shaking

things up in this race when a mainstream candidate chooses to take time

out of their final pitch to the electorate to take a shot at me.”

Conservative

Ross Grant promised a “dose of common sense” if he was elected mayor,

while Liberal Democrat Gary Hunt said that, if elected, he would make

the council more efficient and put trust back into local politics in the

city.

Voters will go to the polls on May 5 to have the final say on who runs the city until 2015.

The Mercury’s Dan Martin and political correspondent David MacLean watched the debate unfold.

QUESTION 1

What sort of relationship would you like to have with central government?

Leicester’s mayoral candidates all said they would stand up to the

government to represent the needs of the city, though some stressed the

importance or working with Westminster to get cash for public services

flowing into the city.

Conservative Ross Grant said he would not challenge the government for the sake of grabbing headlines.

He

said “We need to put forward rational arguments on why the government

should be doing more for Leicester and doing different things for

Leicester.

“One thing that will not work is to just play to an

audience, where you go out as if you are going head to head with the

government and fighting it all the time.

“It may look good in terms of headlines, but it is not going to achieve the things we need for the city.”

Liberal Democrat Gary Hunt

said the relationship had to be good because central government was

responsible for giving the city council 86 per cent of its cash.

He

said: “If we are ever going to get education and employment cured in

this city, we are going to want every pound out of the government that

they are capable of giving us.

“Now is the time to get me in charge

of Leicester, because we can get real money out of the government with

me in charge of the city.”

Independent Rick Moore said the reliance on government cash needed to be balanced with standing up for local priorities.

“This

is a two-way street. Funding is substantially from government, but that

two-way street also means we have to stand up for what we believe in.

“We

have to say to government: ‘These are our local issues and you, the

government, must understand us and respect them and we shall fight for

them and we shall fight very, very hard for them.”

Labour’s Sir Peter Soulsby said he would oppose the current cuts imposed by government on the city council.

He said: “The mayor’s relationship with central government needs to be robust.

“Central government is forcing councils to do their dirty work for them and make some very savage cuts to our public services.

“It also needs to be realistic, because the government is the government and we need to work with them.”

He

said that as chairman of Leicester’s City Challenge, he had worked with

Tory governments in the past to secure millions of pounds for the city

and promised he could do so again.

Independent candidate David Bowley

said he would like to “barricade Leicester up and fire arrows at

central government, while fellow independent Mu-Hamid Pathan earned

applause from the audience for saying his relationship with government

would be “transparent and clear.”

A third independent candidate Lee Sowden said one of the things he had learned was that “you always have to work with people you don’t like.”

QUESTION 2

What

thoughts have the candidates given to such things like community

relationships, community representation and community development?

Gary Hunt said he did not think the existing council was properly set up to deal with the changing ethnic make-up of the city.

“We must be capable of coping with that change,” he said.

“A

multi-cultural community, by its very nature, requires special

attention. That’s another reason why I want money and decision-making

powers out in the communities of the city.

“I just don’t think we are

capable any more of running a huge bureaucracy, with 16,800 people

employed, that can actually respond to the needs of the community. You

just can’t do it.

“It’s too big, too unwieldy. It costs too much.

“So you put it out into the community, you give those people power and you give those people the money to govern themselves.”

Leicester University student Lee Sowden said he wanted to build the campuses’ multi-culturalism in the wider city.

He said: “The university is a microcosm of the city. These are the ideas I want to bring into the city.

“Put

power back to the people of the city. People know what they want and

we want to get those people accountable and make it work for everyone.”

Sir Peter Soulsby told the audience that it was the diversity of the city that prompted him to stay here after he had been a student.

He

said: “I think we have a lot in this city to be proud of – the way in

which the city has been enormously enriched by people who have chose to

make their homes here and raise their families here – but we have

nothing to be complacent about.

“Community cohesion is always a work

in progress. It’s not something you have achieved. It’s something you

have to continue to strive for.”

He stressed it was important to listen to the needs of different communities and that was something he would do as mayor.

Rick Moore said he was concerned about the low number of high level black and Asian civil servants in the city council ranks.

He

said he hoped to change that adding: “I believe in targeting. I don’t

believe in positive discrimination, I think it’s demeaning and

patronising, but I think we still have loads of work to do with black

and Asian communities in saying ‘come on, get on board’.”

The panel

was asked what it would do to stop groups such as the English Defence

League and the British National Party exploiting the city.

Ross Grant said: “I think we have beaten the BNP in Leicester, but it is no reason just to be complacent.”

He

said it was important the city council did not do anything to cause

friction by handling different communities in different ways.

Peace and Unity candidate Mohinder Farma said he spend 48 years fighting racism and discrimination in the city and would continue to do so.

The Green Party’s Geoff Forse

said: “The city has a very good record in its working together. It’s a

job in progress and I don’t think its a job that can ever be finished.”

He said he would consult with all ethnic groups if elected.

OPEN TO THE FLOOR

DMU vice-chancellor Dominic Shellard opened up the floor to audience members to put quick fire questions to the candidates.

Who would candidates encourage voters to give their second preference votes to at the mayoral election?

Rick Moore said:

“I’d imagine that many people may put their first preference as Labour.

However, if you aren’t using your first preference vote for an

independent, then use your second vote for Rick Moore.”

Gary Hunt said he would also back Mr Moore.

But Sir Peter Soulsby said: “The fact that coalition candidates are both backing Rick says an awful lot. I back Mu-Hamid (Pathan), who is the voice of youth.”

How would you improve education in the city?

Sir Peter Soulsby said: “We’ve got some excellent education in

this city and we’ve got some that falls a long way short of what’s

acceptable. We have some good secondary schools, and some which are

frankly not anywhere near satisfactory.

“We need to make sure excellence is shared – a partnership approach where the best help the worst.”

Independent Mu-Hamid Pathan

said: “We can only improve schools by listening to the young people who

are learning there because, at the moment, when Ofsted comes to inspect

a school every few years it’s a hand-picked selection of students who

they get to speak to. I want to find a way to make sure that young

people can contact the mayor directly if they have concerns about their

school.”

How would you protect care homes and other facilities for vulnerable people?

Gary Hunt said: “Liberal Democrat councils across the country are protecting these services. It is Labour that is making the cuts.

“We

need to cut all unnecessary spending to protect services. We spend the

same on staff that we don’t know what they’re doing than we’re making in

cuts.”

Rick Moore said: “We need to take fripperies out of

the budget that we don’t need. There’s no need to spend cash on new (One

Leicester) banners to hang on lampposts.”

The mayor will have unprecedented powers. How do we make sure that they’ll remain accountable during their four-year term?

Sir Peter Soulsby said: “This is part of the reinvigoration

of local democracy. I can tell you now that if I’m elected mayor I’ll be

back in front of audiences such as this one, listening to what people

say.”

He added that his time in Parliament had shown him that

thorough scrutiny of decisions made by those in power was good for

democracy. “I want a similarly high standard of scrutiny in Leicester,”

he said.

Mu-Hamid Pathan said: “I’ll give people the power to get rid of me mid-term if they don’t like how I’m performing.”

See YouTube video clips from the Big Debate here

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