Stourbridge students give Cameron the pop star treatment (From Stourbridge News)

Stourbridge students give Cameron the pop star treatment

2:40pm Monday 29th March 2010 in Local By Martyn Smith

STOURBRIDGE students gave Tory leader David Cameron a pop star’s welcome for his turn in the Politics Show hotseat.

The man who could be the next Prime Minister, was greeted with cheers by young people who lined the driveway at King Edward VI College when he arrived to record a BBC debate with undecided voters on Friday March 26.

Mr Cameron used his appearance on the show, which was broadcast on Sunday March 28, to slam the Premier Gordon Brown over the current spate of high profile industrial disputes.

He said: “The unions have scented weakness in the government, we have seen from the Prime Minister a certain weakness in the face of industrial disputes.”

The debate was the last of three high profile TV shows filmed at the college featuring the main party leaders talking to a panel of members of the public.

During a lively discussion Mr Cameron was quizzed on a range of topics including the NHS, the economy and immigration.

He pledged a Conservative government would cap the numbers of people entering Britain from outside the EU but ruled out a total ban.

He also said manufacturing in the UK has declined faster under Labour than during the 1980s and new jobs would have to come from the private sector.

On cutting public spending, Mr Cameron said: “We have got to make a start this year, the longer we leave it the worse it gets.”

“The government can’t go on spending and wasting as it is at the moment, if you have a problem you have got to get on and start dealing with it.”

Mr Cameron would not be drawn into giving details of spending cuts but said he would say more before the coming election.

Despite a robust debate the Tory leader failed to convince some panel members to back his party.

Malcolm Wale, aged 68, from Wollescote, said: “I was not at all convinced, he did not answer the questions.

“He overruled everybody else as being wrong and he was right, I am most likely going to vote UKIP.”

The Politics Show will be focusing on the marginal constituency of Stourbridge throughout the election campaign.

To contact the production team email ian.lauchlan@bbc.co.uk