Beaconsfield hustings: what was said to get the biggest audience reaction?

1. ‘I was sacked by the Prime Minister’

In his closing speech yesterday, Dominic Grieve said “I happen to think the government has done well in the last five years, heaven knows I have had disagreements with it, after all the Prime Minister sacked me”.

It resulted in a lot of laughter from the audience and is one of the only times Mr Grieve has spoken candidly about his departure from the role of Attorney General.

2. ‘Who is Plaid Cymru?’

As Green Party candidate David Hampton spoke about the embrace of the three female leaders – Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Natalie Bennett (Green Party) and Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru) – during the TV debates, one audience member was puzzled by the name of the Welsh national party.

3. ‘I believe in climate change, but I’m yet to be convinced it’s man made’

After a question from the audience about renewable energy, Ukip candidate Tim Scott said he was yet to be convinced man was the reason behind climate change.

This provoked an angry response from Mr Hampton, who said that sort of theory went out of the window in the mid 1900’s.

4. ‘I’m not 100 per cent sure food banks are such a bad thing’

One female member of the audience heckled Mr Grieve saying he had ‘no idea’ after he made this comment when talking about food banks.

He said: “Are they such a bad thing? I’m going to be a bit controversial here, I’m not 100 per cent sure they are. They may be a sign of a problem, but they are also in fact a solution.”

5. ‘Scrap HS2 – demolish Birmingham and move it 15 minutes closer to London’

Some of the loudest laughs from the audience came during the end of the evening when Mr Scott talked about his party’s thoughts on HS2.

He said: “If you vote for Ukip we will scrap HS2, we don’t want to spend billions getting to Birmingham 15 minutes cheaper, frankly it would be easier and cheaper to demolish Birmingham and move it 15 minutes closer to London.”