Lead transport spokespeople from the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrat political parties will debate their manifesto points on cycling and its infrastructure at the first ever ‘Big Cycling Debate.'
The event will take place in central London on Monday 2 March, 11.30 - 12.30pm for our supporters and other interested members of the public.
Following a similar format to BBC's Question Time, the Big Cycling debate will be chaired by John Humphrys, broadcaster and journalist. The audience can expect to hear Robert Goodwill MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport from the Conservative Party, Richard Burden MP, Shadow Minister for Transport from the Labour Party and Dr Julian Huppert MP, Vice Chair of the Federal Policy Committee from the Liberal Democrats all debating the prospective cycling policies of their parties.
We will be live tweeting from the event, so you can keep up with the action by following #cyclingdebate.
We have a limited number of seats still available if you would like to attend - however, these places are strictly on a first come first served basis. So, if you would like to register your interest in attending and ask a question of the panel please email hustings[at]ctc.org.uk with the subject line of "Big Cycling Debate - call for questions".
Alternatively, you may not be able to attend but may wish to submit a question. If so, please send your question to the above email address and we will pass it to the Chair to put to the panel.
Comments
Why are some of the so-called
Why are some of the so-called "minor" parties not being invited to participate in this debate?
In organising the debate the
In organising the debate the UK Cycling Alliance has liaised extensively with the Electoral Commission to ensure that we adhere to the strict rules in the run up to a General Election and to ensure that we fulfill our aim for the event which is to put the main UK parties on the spot about what they will do to improve conditions for cycling if they get into government in May.
There are very strict Electoral Commission rules about which political parties should be invited to an election debate and by including one minor party we would have to include all others that have representation in the UK Parliament, potentially 11 plus parties, which would make an audience participative debate in the space of one our hour impossible to manage.
While we appreciate that "minor" parties should be included at the debate and have had one request so far, we are limited in how we can shape the event. Including one additional party alongside the three parties with the largest representations in Westminster alone isn’t an option.
However, we will be asking each party to send us their main points and will show this on our websites to ensure that voters from across the country are aware of party positions on active travel.