GABRIEL Polley, WRP candidate for Norwich South was prevented from speaking at the Election hustings at the University of East Anglia last Thursday. Gabriel is a student at UEA and President of the YSSS branch.
The meeting was called by the UEA students union. Speaking were Labour MP Charles Clarke, former Labour Home Secretary and leading Blairite; Tory candidate Anthony Little, and candidates from the Lib Dems and Green Party.
Gabriel attended the meeting, and after the candidates had been introduced by the chairperson, got up and addressed the audience stating ‘There is another candidate, in this election, myself, Gabriel Polley, standing for the Workers Revolutionary Party in Norwich South.’ The audience clapped and cheered when he spoke.
He added ‘I am very angry at not being invited to speak at this meeting which I believe is my right.’ However one of the security guards, a large burly man, immediately manhandled him and hustled him out of the room, with the chairperson remaining silent. Students came out from the meeting and told Gabriel ‘we thought you should be allowed to speak’.
The chairperson remained silent on this issue throughout the meeting, as did Charles Clarke. Gabriel has previously spoken at hustings in the area organised by the PCS union, at which Charles Clarke also spoke, and also on Radio Norfolk.
Gabriel told News Line: ‘I know I have the right to speak at all hustings meetings of parliamentary candidates and I am going to insist on this right.’