Eight passionate candidates for the Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd constituency faced questions from the public last Wednesday evening at a Senedd Election hustings event in Talgarth.

The event, hosted by Talgarth & District Regeneration Group, Talgarth Community Library and The Friends of Ysgol y Mynydd Du, took place at Ysgol y Mynydd Du.

The hustings was chaired by Regional Editor at Tindle Newspapers, Liz Davies. The panel of candidates included outgoing MSs James Evans of Reform UK and Sioned Williams of Plaid Cymru; Cllr Nathan Goldup-John of the Welsh Green Party; Cllr Alex Sims of Welsh Labour; Cllr Jackie Charlton of the Welsh Liberal Democrats; Dr Liz Hill-O’Shea of the Welsh Conservatives; Jennifer Roberts of the Heritage Party, and independent candidate Cllr Beverley Baynham of Presteigne.

Each candidate was given two minutes to introduce themselves to the packed school hall and were given one minute each to answer questions submitted by the public. Following the questions, they were each given two minutes for a closing speech.

The candidates answered eight questions from the public on a range of topics. They were questioned on what party policies they are most proud of at a local and national level, additional learning needs in Wales, transport in Powys, the new voting system for the upcoming election, and ending violence against women and girls.

A fairly subdued audience sprung to life when Jennifer Roberts answered a question on how candidates will work to rout out misogyny. She said: “Everyone seems to be avoiding the elephant in the room here which is the illegal immigrants coming into this country.” Her comments were met with boos and heckles from the crowd.

“On Monday, 600 illegal immigrants entered this country,” she continued. “And we’ve got a speaker from the USA who is banned. You can avoid it as much as you like, your children and grandchildren are not safe anymore. We’ve got a problem in the UK.”

From that point on, the hustings continued to be a lively affair as questions were asked on women’s reproductive rights and abortion, large scale wind farm proposals, and enhancing community engagement to improve health and social services in Powys.

Rounding off the two-hour long event, Ms Davies said: “Thank you all very much for your patience, and thank you for your questions. I’m sorry we couldn’t have heard more from the floor but obviously our time is constrained.

“Thank you very much to our candidates. Whether you agree with them or not, I think you can’t disagree that there’s certainly a lot of passion and a lot of love for this constituency so I’m sure whoever gets in you will be in safe hands. Good luck to everyone at the polls and thank you very much for your attendance.”

Candidates then shook hands and went their separate ways.

The full transcript of the hustings is available to see on the Brecon & Radnor Express website.

You can still view the full two-hour live hustings recording on the Brecon & Radnor Express Facebook page for the next 30 days.