WITH the General Election looming, parliamentary hopefuls in Southampton got a grilling on nuclear deterrents, the European Union (EU) and devolution at the city’s pensioner forum.

All of the city candidates for UKIP and the Liberal Democrats faced the audience at a meeting at the Civic Centre yesterday.

UKIP hopefuls Pearline Hingston (Southampton Test), Sandra James (Romsey and Southampton North) and Kim Rose (Southampton Itchen) were first up to face questioning from some of the city’s pensioners.

Mr Rose, who said the party was pushing for a referendum to leave the EU, made pledges to raise £15m to allow pensioners in Southampton free access to heating and telephones, and to give much of his MP salary away to fund apprenticeships.

Responding to questions, which at one stage saw them accused of “scaremongering” by one pensioner, Ms Hingston said that the party wanted to introduce an Australian-style points system for immigration, while Ms James said that the party wanted to “sustain” the armed forces but not get involved in foreign conflicts.

Following them, Lib Dem candidates Ben Nicholls (Romsey and Southampton North), Adrian Ford (Southampton Test) and Eleanor Bell (Southampton Itchen) faced questions about keeping the Trident nuclear system and devolving local powers.

Mr Nicholls said that he was in support of keeping Trident and devolving powers from Westminster so that it would be “in the hands” of local communities, while also saying that he opposed the so-called bedroom tax.