CANDIDATES for Oxford East locked horns in the latest round of election hustings today.

The candidates – apart from incumbent MP Andrew Smith, who was with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on a visit to Cowley’s BMW plant – were quizzed by voters at a packed St Michael At The North Gate in Cornmarket Street. The Very Rev Bob Wilkes is pictured introducing the candidates.

Earlier this week, controversy flared at a hustings at Cowley Road’s First Floor restaurant, which was organised by Oxford’s Anglo-Asian Association.

Oxford East UKIP candidate Julia Gasper, angered she was not invited, turned up – only to be asked to sit in the audience.

She said: “I feel it’s an opportunity lost.”

Anglo-Asian Association co-chairman Martin Conway said a decision to invite only four candidates, Liberal Democrat, Labour, Green and Conservative, had been made in advance due to time constraints on the session.