Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Prominent Leeds MPs to debate Brexit, representing the working class and lessons from the 2017 General Election
The annual public event, which will take place across the University’s City Campus from Monday 13 to Friday 17 November, consists of a range of talks and debates, providing opportunities for the discussion of key political issues and policy challenges facing our world today.
The festival is organised by the Politics and International Relations group within the School of Social Sciences at Leeds Beckett.
The week-long programme will culminate in an afternoon of talks led by local Leeds MPs on Friday 17 November at the city centre Calverley Building. Hilary Benn, Labour MP for Leeds Central and Chair of the House of Commons Committee on Exiting the European Union, will debate Is a ‘progressive Brexit’ possible? Alec Shelbrooke, Conservative MP for Elmet and Rothwell and Vice Chairman (International) of the Conservative Party, will consider Which political party, if any, represents the working class today?; and Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds NW and Councillor for the Moortown ward in Leeds, will present Lessons from the 2017 General Election.
Friday 17 November will also see the launch of a new book, Political Ideologies, by Leeds Beckett University academics, and a session to find out more about the subjects of Politics and International Relations and studying at university.
Dr Paul Wetherly, Festival organiser, commented: “The Festival is organised each year by the Politics and International Relations subject group in the School of Social Sciences at Leeds Beckett. It is a week-long programme of events and the idea is to provide a space within the academic year to discuss and debate openly a range of social, political and economic issues – contemporary and historical, national and global. As well as our own students, the festival is open to local schools and members of the public.
“The programme this year includes discussions on: political ideologies today; Brexit; working class voters; the general election result; the politics of Star Wars; the crisis in Venezuela; gender and peacebuilding; and weapons technologies. We are delighted that the festival will again include a range of invited speakers alongside our own staff and students.”
For full details, and to book onto any of the events, please click here.