Here’s everything you need to know about voting as a Royal Holloway student

Traditionally, this time of year, the biggest decision we face is whether it is okay to start listening to Christmas songs in November. However, this December, we face the General election to break the deadlock of parliament.

The Royal Holloway Tab conducted a survey which asked students in Royal Holloway’s constituency if they had registered to vote, 100% of survey recipients responded "yes". However, 23% did not know who they would be voting for on the 12th of December and 7.7% of those who did know made their decision based on what their family and friends were voting.

According to the BBC Three’s article titled The Truth About Young People and Brexit published in October 2018, only about 64% of 18-24-year-olds voted in the Brexit referendum of 2016 compared to the 90% of over 65s. Yet it is not mere indecisiveness that stops young people from voting.

When asked what students of the Runnymede and Weybridge constituency would like to see in the next government, students were clear in their demands. The most common answers were plans for the environmental crisis, NHS and government funding, investment in education and focus on equality in society.

So it isn’t that students don’t know what they want – it is that they don’t know which political parties would answer their demands. After extensive research into Royal Holloway’s local candidates for each political party, we will attempt to make it clear for you students out there.

So, sit back, relax and decide how to vote.

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned from this point onward is taken from candidates’ personal Twitter profiles and party manifestos, further information on party policies can be found on their public pages.

Ben Spencer – Conservative Candidate (Runnymede and Weybridge)

Personal Beliefs:

• Fairness and equality of opportunity

• Mental health should be treated as seriously as physical
health

• Brexit – Leave

Party Manifestations:

• Promise Brexit by end of January 2020 to give businesses and families economic certainty

• Strengthen the NHS

• Invest in schools

• A strong economy

• Safer streets

Robert Ashley King – Labour Candidate (Runnymede and Weybridge)

Personal Beliefs:

• Aims to increase benefits

• Second referendum

• For investment into the NHS

Party Manifestations:

• Rebuild public services

• A green industrial revolution

• Tackle poverty and inequality

• A new internationalism

• Second referendum for Brexit

Rob O’Carroll – Liberal Democrat Candidate (Runnymede and Weybridge)

Personal Beliefs:

• Remain deal

• For equality and human rights

• #STOPtheloanchare – where individuals were paid in the form of loans, replacing part of their salary.

Party Manifestations:

• Stop Brexit

• Tackle climate emergency

• Give every child the best start in life

• Build a fairer economy

• Transform our mental health services

Benjamin Smith – Green Party Candidate (Runnymede and Weybridge)

Personal Beliefs:

• Anti-hunting

• For the end of fuel poverty

• Against inequality

Party Manifestations:

• Remain in the EU

• Grow democracy

• The green quality of life guarantee

• Equality

• Redistribution of wealth

Nicholas David Wood – UK Independence Candidate (Runnymede and Weybridge)

Personal Beliefs:

• Pro leave

• Pro LGBTQ+ equality

• Against UK cuts in favour of foreign expenditure

Party Manifestations:

• Deliver a clean-break Brexit

• End mass immigration

• Put our NHS before foreign aid

• Ban non-stun slaughter

• Defend British values and free speech

Now it’s up to you!

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• 'Understand that this is a last resort': RHUL lecturers speak about striking for eight days