Future leaders hash it out in Uckfield College mock election

The year 13 students ran a series of assemblies in which ‘representatives’ from each party with candidates in the Wealden constituency – Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Greens – in today’s (Thursday, December 12) general election.

In it they elaborated on their main policies and described their approach to Brexit in an attempt to sway a voting public who were, in this case, made up of 300 students from upper and lower sixth. Students were also given access to current polls and leaders debates to help them decide how to vote.

After the last ballot was cast, the politics students counted up the votes and recorded the results. The Liberal Democrats, represented in the school by Chris Bowers, came out on top winning 38 per cent of the total vote. They were followed by Labour, who won 26 per cent of the vote, the Conservatives, who won 22 per cent and the Greens, who nabbed 14 per cent of the schools vote.

Students also emphasised the importance of political participation, urging students to register to vote in party election assemblies, and the difference between so-called ‘safe seats’ compared with marginalised ones which often change political hands.

Alice Chapman, year 13, found the exercise especially enlightening, saying: “It was very useful to understand the electoral system properly, like the fact that an MP can be elected on quite a bit less than 50 per cent of the vote.”