Students explore EU in school MEP debate

UKIP MEP Roger Helmer met up with Bill Newton-Dunn from the Liberal Democrats at the Church Warsop school to debate the question of whether the UK should remain within the European Union.

The visit was organised by the school’s humanities department to ensure students could get both sides of the political argument over Britain’s future in the EU.

Anti-EU Mr Helmer and pro-European Union Mr Newton-Dunn both introduced their respective arguments at the event, which took place at the Burns Lane school on Friday.

They were then given the opportunity to counter arguments made by the other side, before taking questions from students, a school spokesman told Chad.

Mr Helmer was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999.

In 2012 he defected to UKIP and won his fourth term as an MEP earlier this year. He also stood as the UKIP candidate in the Newark by-election.

Mr Newton-Dunn was also a Tory MEP between 1979 and 1994, before returning to the European Parliament in 1999, but defected to the Liberal Democrats the following year.

Speaking about the debate, deputy headteacher Janet Brashaw said: “We were incredibly impressed with the interest our students took in the debate and the perceptive and searching questions that they put to both Roger Helmer and Bill Newton-Dunn.

“It was obvious from questions asked that the students understood the importance of this issue.

“With the future in the hands of these young people we have nothing to worry about.”