Carlisle's electorate grilled the city’s parliamentary candidates for the final time as voters prepare to head to the polling station on Thursday.

Issues including Brexit, climate change and foodbank use were discussed by Conservative John Stevenson, Labour’s Ruth Alcroft, Peter Thornton of the Liberal Democrats and Ukip’s Fiona Mills at the University of Cumbria.

The candidates were asked by audience member Stephen Graham what they would do to tackle the increasing number of people using foodbanks in Carlisle.

“Ukip would raise the personal allowance to £13,500, which would mean that people have more money in their pockets,” Miss Mills said. “We would also scrap VAT on energy bills so people would have more money.”

Mr Thornton said that more money needed to be spent on benefits. “At the moment we’re only spending one per cent on the people that need it the most,” he said. “If you’re incapacitated then there’s very little you can do to get out of that. It might be unpopular but it’s what we need to do.”

Mr Stevenson, who has held the Carlisle seat since 2010, said: “We [the Conservatives] have been creating jobs over the last eight years. Unemployment has been at its lowest since 1975. We are helping people and we are helping them out of unemployment. We have also raised the personal allowance.”

Mrs Alcroft said: “In 2010 people hadn’t really heard of foodbanks. Labour would remove the sanctions imposed that restrict people getting access to benefits because they are draconian.”

She added: “The public sector have had a one per cent pay increase. They’re not helping the economy because they’re not spending money. It seems very much like we’re going back towards Victorian times.”

With regards to Brexit, Miss Mills pointed out that she was the only candidate to have voted to leave the European Union, while Mr Stevenson said that he was “optimistic” Britain could negotiate its own deals, similar to those the EU has with Switzerland and Norway.

Meanwhile, Mr Thornton said the Liberal Democrats were committed to ensuring that the general public would have the final say on any deal through the means of another referendum.

Mrs Alcroft said that it was “really important” that the rights of EU citizens living in the UK were protected and that Labour would ensure it was the case.