MPs Tim Loughton and Sir Peter Bottomley took an hour out of their busy schedules to meet students at Worthing College.

The college was also delighted to welcome back Alumni Joe Osborne who is currently working for Sir Peter Bottomley as a Parliamentary Assistant.

Joe studied three A-levels – Government and politics, sociology and history – leaving the college in 2014 to study history and politics at the University of Portsmouth.

After being welcomed to the college by principal Paul Riley and president of the Student Union Brad Hardwick, the MPs met other Student Union officers and a group of politics students.

The objective of the meeting was to give students an insight into the role and responsibilities of being an effective MP.

They started by outlining how working collaboratively with each other locally and with others nationally, often in a cross party way is how things get done or resolved.

Mr Loughton said: “Despite what you see on television with MPs shouting at each other, the real work goes on behind the scenes bringing the right people together.”

Both MPs talked about the work they do on a day to day basis representing their constituents and reminded the audience that they represent the needs of all their constituents regardless of whether they support their party political views and gave students several examples of how a local issue can impact changes in the law.

Mr Loughton talked to the group about how important it was to make himself available and visible to the people he represents in Parliament.

As well as holding his formal surgery sessions where constituents bring issues to him, he likes to get out and meet people at his street surgeries which he holds regularly at shopping centres and local farmers’ markets.

He said: “This is where I can gauge the mood of my constituents on a range of national and local issues.”

In response to a question from one of the students about the future of Teville Gate, both MPs made a direct plea to the young people in the room – that was to get involved in local politics, to get their voices heard on local issues.