STUDENTS have challenged a parliamentary hopeful to come up with ideas to narrow the North-South divide.
GCSE and A Level students at Northallerton College spent an hour quizzing prospective parliamentary candidate for Richmond Rishi Sunak on a host of issues affecting young people in the constituency.
Sixth formers asked the Conservative replacement for retiring MP William Hague whether he had noticed a North-South divide and how he would combat the phenomenon.
Mr Sunak said he saw education and technology as crucial elements to the region’s success and he had already been in talks with key partners to see how the successful models of Tech City, London, and Silicon Valley in America could be rolled out across the North.
He told them: “My grandparents lived in North India with no electricity and water 80 years ago. They moved to East Africa and then to the UK with my parents. That journey in a couple of generations was largely down to education.
“My grandfather was the first in the family to go to school. My parents were the first to go to university. I was the first to go to Oxford. Education is the passport to getting on in life.”
He said he studied his masters at Stamford and worked in Silicon Valley, which gave him an appreciation of the power of technology.
“You need to think about how you can use technology to your advantage. We need to make sure you have the essentials, such as high speed broadband, otherwise young people and businesses will not stay here.”
He urged them to get involved in some way with politics so they could have their say on issues that would impact on their future lives.
English students asked him about speech writing and presentation techniques and he was also asked how he planned to make politics more appealing to the young.
Sixth former Dominic Jacques, 17, of RAF Leeming said he thought Mr Sunak was very open. “It was nice to be treated like an adult rather than be spoken down to,” he said.
Ewan Cameron, 16, of Northallerton, said he was disappointed not to be able to vote at the next election. He said he would have voted for Mr Sunak. “I certainly will be voting as soon as I can,” he added.
