Sue Richards and Prafal Nargand

THERE is a proud history of “empty chairing” in this country, a cornerstone of British democracy.

What better way is there to shame politicians who duck tough questions from the public by refusing to turn up to a debate?

Channel 4 News used it to get at Boris Johnson when he was prime minister and Nigel Farage when they refused to attend an election hustings on climate change.

There was the famous tub of lard on Have I Got News For You when Roy Hattersley refused to come on the show. In the United States the empty chair can be traced back more than 100 years to a meeting when a vice presidential nominee Burton K Wheeler debated an invisible President Calvin Coolidge.

But what about the history of not emptychairing candidates, most recently in Islington?

Keep Our NHS Public was due to hold a health hustings in a church in Upper Street at the end of the month, but the debate has been called off after both Labour candidates – Jeremy Corbyn’s opponent in Islington North, Praful Nargund, and Islington South’s Emily Thornberry – declined the invitation.

The decision to cancel was taken by the group – which was specifically set up to fight NHS privatisation – after what I am told was a very close split decision.

The current chair Frances Bradley, who was in favour of emptychairing instead of cancellation, told me: “There were five of us at the meeting but the feeling among the three was that cancelling was better.

They were saying that people turning up to the hustings would be disappointed without the full breadth of opinions.

I thought ‘well, OK, but also it could just end early’. I thought in a way that it would all the more show to people how they are hiding from being confronted by the public.”

Ms Bradley said she felt as if the decision not to empty chair was taken specifically to protect the Labour candidates, adding: “If you are part of Keep Our NHS Public how can you support the Labour Party in its current iteration? The party has dropped ‘the NHS is not for Sale’ from its manifesto.

“How could anybody who signed up to KONP also support a party with these policies?” I had been looking forward, with a little trepidation, to chairing the event at St Mary’s Church in Upper Street on June 26.

The last time I took on this role it was a rowdy affair with some tough questions from the public on a sweltering evening in Islington Town Hall in 2015. At that event the candidates from all the main parties – including Ms Thornberry – came to speak and answer questions about their views on reforming and protecting the health service.

According to organisers, the candidates had rejected coming to the hustings on any day and had made it clear they would not attend a KONP hustings full stop. I’m not sure which absence is more telling?

Is it Ms Thornberry, who has been in politics for a long time, and should have the gumption to stand up for the Labour Party at a public meeting, whether the independent Corbyn is on the panel or not?

She told me this week that she would attend a KONP meeting if it was just for Islington South, adding: “A hustings should be an opportunity for people living in a constituency to hear from those asking for their vote. I am doing a hustings at Union Chapel this Sunday and another for City & Islington College.”

Or is it the mysterious fledgling candidate Mr Nargund, who could very easily get swept into government in a Labour landslide next month having not answered a question from the public in the run-up?

He can be found confidently endorsing private healthcare in a clipped film doing the rounds on social media this week. He appears to have made his money from a clinic for private patients, Create Fertility.

But last year when he was out campaigning alongside a former chair of Islington KONP Professor Sue Richards, he warned against “the farcical over reliance on agency workers in NHS hospitals”.

Professor Richards, who has also been out campaigning in support of Mr Nargund, told me: “We very much regret that they chose not to attend and we think it is bad democratic practice to avoid debate in public meetings.

They are the lifeblood of democracy and we are sorry not to be able to offer a hustings to Islington people.

But if the main players, for reasons best known to themselves, won’t play, what can you do? “I have been a member of the Labour Party since 2010, having previously left in 2003 over the decision to go to war in Iraq.

I first met Praful when he was elected chair of Islington South and Finsbury Labour Party, where he did an excellent job, and he and I also did some research work together on the cost of locum staff at the Whittington.

Praful is the son of an NHS consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology. His mother set up a private company to provide fertility services and he worked for her in the organisation – Create Fertility.

As you know, the NHS has virtually stopped providing this service and so couples who need it have to pay privately. I think it should be a public service but time is precious when you have fertility issues and this organisation works at relatively modest prices.

“My own personal views on politics are my affair but I believe we need a Labour government now, and that we are about to get one, which seemed impossible after our disastrous performance in 2019, and I want to give my support to anyone who can help to build that majority.

“I do not think Wes Streeting will make a good secretary of state for health as I believe he is too committed to the line taken by the Blair government that private sector involvement in public services is a good thing in itself.

“I hope he will have this view knocked out of him when he understands the full crisis that faces the NHS and social care, but I am sure Keep Our NHS Public will need to keep fighting to restore our NHS whoever wins the election.”

Mr Nargund has not responded to requests for comment from our newspapers since he launched his campaign. At an NHS rally in Archway on Saturday, Mr Corbyn told me: “I have accepted every invite for a hustings so far.”