MARTIN GOSS struck the first blow in General Election campaigning in Colchester by topping the voting at a husting held in front of students at the Sixth Form College.

The Lib Dem parliamentary candidate topped the polls at the College with just under 56% following talks by all the constituency hopefuls in front of a group of students. Only Conservative candidate James Cracknell was not present at the debate, which saw Martin (pictured in front of the results) and his political rivals pitch their arguments to the audience.

Labour came second with just over 28% of the vote with the Reform party in third place. To cap a bad week nationally, the Conservatives took just over 4% of the vote, just ahead of the Green Party.

Martin said: “It was great to meet the students and let them hear what we are all about. Too often young people feel ignored in general elections and this was a great idea to engage them.

“On a personal level, it was exciting to see that the Liberal Democrats’ policies resonated with the students and hopefully this bodes well for the next three weeks of campaigning leading up to the July 4^th election day.”