Brighton and Hove has suffered disproportionately under austerity measures, a special Argus hustings event was told last night.

Rival parliamentary candidates rounded on Conservative MP for Brighton Kemptown Simon Kirby, claiming the city had suffered under five years of Coalition funding cuts.

Mr Kirby defended his Government’s record saying its billions in savings were because the previous Labour government had not “fixed the roof while the sun shined”.

Current Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas (Green) said the time had come to scotch deliberately misleading statements by the Government that austerity was the result of too much public spending and was instead a deliberate policy by the Tories to shrink the public sector. The hustings audience was told homelessness had become the “biggest issue” the city now faced, while 16,000 of the city’s poorest families were now facing a 76% hike in their council tax.

The event, organised by The Argus, put five parliamentary candidates from across the five main parties in front of an audience of more than 200 at the Thistle Brighton Hotel last night.

Mr Kirby outlined the success of the Government in bringing millions of people out of tax and creating two million jobs.

He said: “At the end of the day, you can’t change things overnight but we are moving in the right direction.

“We have done very well in difficult times but there is much more of the job to do.

Purna Sen (Labour parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion) said the current levels of inequality were “absolutely appalling” and the inequality in the distribution of wealth was harmful to residents’ health.

She said: “People are becoming hungrier and poorer while other people become richer and it doesn’t do any of us any good.

“We need to see a redistribution of this wealth and income. That’s what I’m committed to and that’s what my party is committed to.”

Ms Sen also hit back at claims by Green rival Ms Lucas that Labour were an austerity party, pointing to policies such as the proposed Mansion Tax.

She added: “Caroline, you have been rebuked in Parliament for making those claims so I’m surprised to hear you repeat them today.”

Ms Lucas pointed to research that showed austerity measures had hit the “poorest hardest and women hardest of all” and said her party would make the minimum wage a living wage of £10 an hour by the end of the next Parliament.

She also said there needed to be a change of mindset towards tax from something that everybody avoided to something that should be celebrated for going into a “big pot” for the benefit of all.

The Green candidate also dismissed Mr Kirby’s claim that the austerity measures taken by his Government were because the previous government had “failed to repair the roof while the sun shined”.

She said: “The idea that Gordon Brown was responsible for the collapse of Lehman Brothers is ludicrous.

“It’s a deliberate misdiagnosis by the Government, who don’t see it as a crisis but a much-looked-forward opportunity to shrink the public sector.”

She added that homelessness was the “biggest crisis the city faced” in part because not enough affordable homes were being built.

Kevin Smith, Ukip parliamentary candidate for Hove, said his party would take a stand for the people who did not earn enough money and take them out of tax.

Chris Bowers, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said it was his party who first proposed raising the tax threshold for the country’s lowest paid.

He said: “It was Nick Clegg at the TV debates that said he wanted to raise the tax threshold to £10,000 and he was told by David Cameron that it was a nice idea but it can’t be done.

“Well we said it could be done and now the threshold is £10,600 and now the Tories are trying to take credit for it.”

  •  For more coverage on the hustings event, see The Argus tomorrow. On Thursday, April 23, the next Argus debate at Thistle Brighton Hotel will focus on the city’s council elections. For ticket details, visit theargus.co.uk

‘Only Tories can deliver EU referendum’

The Conservatives are the only party that can deliver a referendum on Europe, Simon Kirby told The Argus hustings debate But the Brighton Kemptown MP, pictured left during the debate, was reluctant to be drawn on whether he would vote yes or no.

The Tory candidate said he hoped Prime Minister David Cameron would be able to renegotiate more favourable terms for the UK and hinted that he may prefer an exit if those improved powers could not be agreed.

Mr Kirby said: “I’m in favour of David Cameron doing the best possible job for this country.

“My personal opinion is that our current relationship is not what it should be.”

He said of his rivals that if they had a strong case to stay in the EU they should make that case in a referendum debate and that a national vote would lift the uncertainty and indecision currently surrounding the issue.

Liberal Democrat candidate Chris Bowers said the idea the country was an “open house” was nonsense.

He said his party believed in an in/out referendum – but only at the proposal of further treaty changes, warning that to do so any earlier would simply create unnecessary doubt and uncertainty.

Labour candidate Purna Sen said “every single businessperson” she had spoken to was in favour of remaining within the EU – but said it was the not the most important issue to be addressed after May 7. Ukip’s Kevin Smith said the country was paying a high price for EU membership and the UK “did not need to be in that club”.

Caroline Lucas said the Green Party would be happy to have a referendum and would “argue very strongly” for continued membership.

She said: “This debate won’t go away if we don’t have it now, it’s a sore we need to lance.

“We say yes to reform, yes to a referendum and yes to staying in.”