Misinformation, the NHS and Brexit were all on the agenda last Friday, as three of the parliamentary candidates competing for the South West Surrey seat took part in a debate at the University for the Creative Arts.

The Conservative Party’s Jeremy Hunt, Labour’s Tim Corry and Liberal Democrat candidate Paul Follows went head-to-head in front of a 250-member audience in the university’s film and media centre, with just over a week remaining until voters head to polling stations.

Both Mr Hunt and Mr Follows apologised on behalf of their parties for separate incidents that were seen to be misleading to the public.

Mr Follows said that he apologises “profusely” if a letter circulated around the constituency from the Lib Dems was misleading.

This letter contained a plea from an independent Polling and Elections expert to vote for Jo Swinson’s party on December 12, with it only being clear that the letter was sent from the party in small print at the bottom.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives rebranded their press office’s Twitter account to ‘factcheckUK’ during the ITV Leaders’ Debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corybn last month, something that was heavily criticised by opposition figures and the social media platform itself.

Mr Hunt, who was first elected as MP in the South West Surrey constituency in 2005 after Virginia Bottomley’s retirement, also had to defend his six-year tenure as Health Secretary despite dismissing the fact that the NHS would be sold under a future Tory government.

Grilled on his admittance that the National Health Service doesn’t have enough nurses and is underfunded, Mr Hunt stated: “I increased the number of doctors that we are training by 25 per cent, set up six new medical schools and I increased the number of nurses that we’re training by 25 per cent”.

All three candidates were united in voting remain in 2016, though they had different views on the Brexit path that the United Kingdom should take after the election.

Labour’s Mr Corry made it clear that he wanted to “stop Brexit” and said that the Labour Party should have established themselves as a remain party.

However, leader Jeremy Corbyn has made it clear that he would remain ‘neutral’ in a possible second referendum.

Lib Dem candidate Mr Follows stated that he voted against his party’s motion to introduce a Revoke Article 50 policy, although he fully supports a People’s Vote if the Liberal Democrats are a part of the next government.

Former Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt was a major part of Theresa May’s ministry that tried to get a Brexit deal through parliament earlier on this year and said “it would be an incredibly dangerous thing for the fabric of the democracy” if there was a second referendum.

Voters can have their say when they head to polling stations on Thursday (December 12) between 7am and 10pm.By Adam JonesUCA, second year BA Journalism and Media Production