Parliamentary candidates for the Esher and Walton seat at next month's General Election faced off at Claremont Fan Court School in Esher on Monday (November 18).

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (Conservative), Liberal Democrat Candidate Monica Harding and Labour's Peter Ashurst all debated key issues in front of an attentive crowd of students at the school.

All three are hoping to secure the nod to become Esher and Walton's next MP in what is tipped to be one of the more interesting seats up for grabs when voters go to the polls across Britain on December 12.

Claremont Fan Court School said that over 150 students had the chance to ask their constituency candidates questions.

Your Local Guardian: Hustings between parliamentary candidates Dominic Raab (Con), Monica Harding (LD) and Peter Ashurst at Claremont Fan Court School in Esher Hustings between parliamentary candidates Dominic Raab (Con), Monica Harding (LD) and Peter Ashurst at Claremont Fan Court School in Esher

The politicians were quizzed on a range of topics including managing the environment, street crime, education and health challenges of the future.

"We were really impressed by all three of the candidates, they all spoke really well and tackled the questions the kids asked them," Lucy Smith, the Claremont teacher in charge of Politics at the school, told the Comet.

"They spent a lot of time here and I thought it was interesting how polite they all remained with each other," she added.

Claremont sixth-former and Politics student Ben Sweeney was also impressed by the candidates at the hustings.

"I found it very engaging and interesting. It was good to hear the different points of view and see how they hold themselves up in that kind of situation," he said.

"One question about how to tackle knife crime got some interesting responses about community policing and how to make policing less in violation of the public," he added.

Your Local Guardian: Hustings between parliamentary candidates Dominic Raab (Con), Monica Harding (LD) and Peter Ashurst at Claremont Fan Court School in Esher Hustings between parliamentary candidates Dominic Raab (Con), Monica Harding (LD) and Peter Ashurst at Claremont Fan Court School in Esher

Of the three candidates, Ben said that the two expected frontrunners for the seat — Mr Raab and Ms Harding — impressed the most.

"Dominic Raab seemed the most experienced so that's to be expected but he held himself up well. I think the Lib Dem candidate Monica Harding also did very well," he said.

Ben's teacher Ms Smith meanwhile reflected on how important engaging students in the political process was for the democratic process.

"They're the future generation and the results of these elections is going to have a big impact on their futures.

"We think it's really important that students are able to hold representatives to account for what they're saying and doing," she said.