BREXIT proved a persistent issue at the South West Surrey election hustings at the Farnham Maltings on Sunday – as the constituency’s three candidates set out their personal stances on Britain’s departure from the EU, in two cases disagreeing with their own party’s national position.

The Maltings’ Great Hall was packed for the sell-out debate – with Jeremy Hunt (Conservative), Paul Follows (Lib Dem) and Tim Corry (Labour) taking questions both from the floor and posed by chairman, and Maltings director, Gavin Stride.

A fiery discussion of local and national issues ensued, reflecting the clear differences between the three main parties at this election. But having formed the basis for the opening question of the night, Brexit remained a thorny subject throughout.

“I voted to remain in the referendum. On such an important issue as Brexit, who should I vote for now?”, asked Sue Stockbridge.

Responding first, “ardent remainer” and former RAF Chinook pilot Mr Corry said Brexit was an “absolute disaster”, adding “we’ve divided the country to try and save the Tory party” to great applause. He also boldly claimed Labour “has the best policy” on Brexit and praised Jeremy Corbyn for showing “leadership” by taking a neutral position.

However, he also stated his preference for a second referendum as the “only solution” to remove the standstill in parliament and “heal the injuries caused by Brexit”.

Re-stating his own position, Mr Hunt said although he campaigned to remain in 2016, he also “promised publicly that I would respect the results of the referendum”.

“If we had another referendum, and let’s say the result was exactly the mirror image of what we actually had – 52 per cent remain, 48 per cent leave – you would have just under half the country who had voted twice to leave.

“That 48 per cent would be incredibly angry, and I think we would be arguing about it for decades more. You cannot say in a democracy that you got it wrong and we are going to ignore your vote.”

Mr Follows, also a remainer, criticised his Tory rival for “not standing up to the far right of his party” who are pushing for a hard Brexit, but he also took issue with his own party’s position – saying that the Lib Dems’ vow to revoke Article 50 is “too extreme”.

Instead, he followed Mr Corry in advocating a second referendum “based on the actual facts of the situation”, something he marched for in London this summer, and presented this as the only way to “stop MPs squabbling”.