Statement from Antoinette Sandbach

Following the Live Debate on Friday which Antoinette Sandbach pulled out of, we have received the following statement:

"When I was asked to the Audlem hustings it was agreed that Mr Antar would not be attending, and on this basis I agreed to attend. I do not regard this as unusual as the CISTA candidate was not invited to two out of the three hustings I have attended, namely Tarporley High School and Reaseheath College.

"The fact the CISTA candidate was not attending was confirmed by an email on the 29th April received by my agent from the organisers. It appears that Mr Antar was invited by the organisers to attend on the 30th April. I found out this was the case on the 1st of May and at that point I made the decision I would not attend.

At a previous hustings in Winsford Mr Antar read out a prepared statement that was not challenged by the moderator and I viewed it highly likely that a similar format would follow where alleged "factual" statements about drugs would also go unchallenged, as in fact was the case in Audlem.

"My association can confirm that the emails sent to my agent on the 13th and 29th April which outlined the conditions of the hustings around broadcasting and live streaming were not passed onto me by my agent, and I did not see them until the 1st May.

"This has been independently verified by my Constituency Association. Not unreasonably the organisers believed I had been informed of the terms on the 13th April and again on the 29th April, however those emails were not passed onto me until 1st May."

"In an attempt to resolve the situation I attempted to reach agreement with AudlemOnline in that I agreed I would be prepared to attend, and for the event to be live streamed, but I would not agree to the subsequent broadcasting of the event as I outlined in my statement read out on the evening. The organisers insisted on being able to broadcast and I therefore took the view that I would not attend.

"I have every respect for the voters of Audlem, and the statement read out on the evening of the hustings makes clear my decision and regret that we had not been able to reach agreement. I have since offered an exclusive video interview to AudlemOnline so that the voters of Audlem can see my answers to the questions asked at the hustings, but they have declined that offer."
Antoinette Sandbach
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Eddisbury

Audlem Online adds: In a telephone conversation last night with Antoinette Sandbach it was eventually established that the constituency office had been briefed on Thursday last week by AudlemOnline, as soon as George Antar asked to be included. No objection was raised.

We declined the offer of an exclusive video interview with Antoinette Sandbach this week because that would not be fair on the five other candidates who came to Audlem on Friday night.

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