Guide to planning hustings | Local action

Why organise a hustings?

A hustings is an open meeting in the run-up to an election where candidates debate policies and answer questions from the audience. It's a great way to secure commitments from candidates, while building relationships with your potential elected representatives and community partners.

Hustings usually:

• feature candidates from all major parties
• are organised by local community groups
• are held in the area where the candidates are standing for election
• are politically impartial. Read electoral commission guidance on this.

A hustings is also a great way to recruit new members to your group by getting them involved with organising one. 

Before the hustings

Decide a date and time

Find a time that encourages high attendance, like the evenings, weekends and a time that doesn’t clash with other local events. 

Consider childcare hours too. Make sure to contact candidates as early as possible to lock in a date, you can use our template email to invite candidates. 

Make sure to invite all mainstream political parties to the hustings, unless there’s a significant reputational, security or safeguarding risk — if you have any concerns about this please get in touch with your regional staff contact to work it through.

Decide a location

Think about where you want to hold your hustings. It should be in the constituency (if it’s a hustings for a general election) or the ward (if it’s a hustings for a local election) of where candidates are standing. 

Location for a general election

You can find your candidate and contact details on the Who Can I Vote For website then email them and/or their local party office with an invitation. You could also ask the local party to send their climate change representative (climate change portfolio holder) if they have one. Make sure that all main parties have been offered the opportunity to send a candidate. If you have any questions, email [email protected]. 

Location for local elections

You can ask the local party to send their climate change representative (climate change portfolio holder) or the local party leader if they are up for election to speak at the hustings. Alternatively, the party may offer a candidate who is well-versed on the party's local policies. The most important thing is to make sure that all main parties have been offered the opportunity to send a candidate. Every area is different in what’s best on the local of a hustings. If you have any questions, email [email protected].

In-person and online

You can hold your hustings in person or online. For hustings in person, think about:

• Deciding on a date as soon as possible so you can book a venue.
• Finding an accessible venue. Places like community centres and churches are often good venues to choose.
• Completing a risk assessment for your event. 

Pick a host

You’ll need someone to host no matter what format you choose for your hustings. Make sure you pick someone who isn't publicly affiliated with a political party.

Hosts can be a member of your group, a local journalist or even a local celebrity. Choose from a diverse a group to best represent your community — this is especially if the panel of candidates over-represents a particular demographic. 

If you’re running an in-person hustings, make sure the host familiar with the key issues so they can push the candidate(s) for clarification.

There’s a risk with hustings that candidates may go back and forth with one another, so pick a host who's also able to maintain order.

Get the word out

The more people you can attract to your hustings, the more candidates will feel the pressure to make bold commitments. Here are some tips for how to do this:

• Make your event public by using social media.
• Invite your local journalists to encourage candidates to attend. They’ll want lots of press coverage.
• Tap into your local network including friends, family and related community groups to help spread the word.

We can help too. Send details of your event to [email protected] at least 2 weeks before your event and we can email supporters in your area.

Safeguarding, disinformation and political impartiality

We anticipate there may be a rise in counter-climate and justice messaging and misinformation in the run-up to elections.  Our guide on resisting threats to climate action and justice is available if you need support in managing this. At a minimum, make sure to outline ground rules at the beginning of the event that you can fall back on to manage disruption, have a team of stewards present and make sure you’ve done a risk assessment.  

Friends of the Earth complies with all electoral law and regulations, and we're committed to conducting our activity in a way that's politically impartial. During elections, groups can't endorse or campaign for any party or candidate in their constituency, but they can comment on manifesto pledges and promises by the candidates. To find out more about how to stay impartial, read our political impartiality guide. For any questions, please email [email protected].

Agree on a format and structure

In-person hustings

Here are a few ideas on what your hustings could look like:

• Traditional hustings: The host and candidates are at the front of the room. Candidates are given the opportunity to make an opening statement and answer questions from the audience. Candidates make a closing statement at the end.  
• Speed hustings: The audience is split into small groups and candidates move around the room, spending (for example) 10 minutes with each group. This enables more of a conversation with the candidates, although you might want to invite candidates to make an opening statement in each group.

When choosing your hustings format, think about whose voices get heard, who’s speaking and who’s doing the listening. Hustings are a good opportunity for voters to hear from candidates, but also for candidates to hear from voters about the issues they really care about and what they expect once someone is elected.  

Top tip: avoid voters taking too long to ask their questions to make sure everyone is heard. You could:

• Ask voters to put down questions on a slip of paper before the hustings start and for the host to read them
• Use online tools like slido. This tool allows the audience to ask questions online and for others to vote for questions they’d like asked. It’s worth having a screen behind the host and candidates to show the questions popping up in real time if you have your hustings in-person. 

Host a hustings online or hybrid

You could hold a hustings online or offer an online option to those who can’t attend your in-person hustings. Online hustings can be especially useful if you’re inviting candidates from across a large region. Sarah at Blackwater Valley Friends of the Earth said online hustings gave their "community a proper chance to meet their potential councillor and see how they react to genuine relevant questions that have not been rehearsed". This would also hold true with a potential MP.

Zoom is a great tool for online hustings, and you can set up your own account easily at Zoom.us. Remember that calls on Zoom are limited to 40 minutes on free Zoom accounts, so you may want to set up a paid account for your group. Alternatively, you can email [email protected] to see if we have got a slot available. Here’s a guide on getting the best from Zoom.

Think about structure

Below is an outline of how you could structure your hustings. 

Top tip: leave lots of time for the audience to speak and candidates to listen, as hustings are a rare opportunity for your community to ask direct questions of their potential future representatives.

Hustings last 90 minutes to 2 hours. If you're doing it online, it's worth setting the Zoom webinar up to start 10 minutes before the public start time, so that candidates can get settled and fix any connection problems.

In the event a candidate can’t join, ask if their campaign manager can stand in their place. You could ask them to provide a written statement to be read out if no-one can attend. For political impartiality purposes, if the party isn’t able to provide either a candidate or a statement, make sure you say at the beginning of the hustings that the party was invited.

Suggested outline

• Welcome from the host (5 minutes). Make sure you mention the name of your group and let people know how they can get involved. If you're doing it online, include a brief introduction on Zoom guidelines. Set some ground rules to ensure fair involvement from everyone. (10 mins).
• Introductory remarks from candidates (15 mins). This can be useful for attendees who aren't familiar with the candidates. You can frame this around an introductory question, such as "what are you going to do about the climate emergency if elected?" to ensure they stay on topic.
• Questions from the host to candidates (25 mins).
• Audience Q&A (20 mins). You may want to think through how you want to structure the Q&A. For example, you could ask attendees to submit questions at the beginning of the event via the Zoom Q&A feature.
• Closing remarks from candidates (10 mins).
• Host closes hustings and reminds people again of the name of your group and how to get involved (5 mins).

Don’t forget to post photos along with key quotes from candidates on social media during your event. This will allow people who were unable to join your event to follow along. Using a hashtag means the entire network can connect with the event too.

Model questions

Good questions are a crucial part of any hustings, as they allow you to probe candidates’ positions and even secure commitments that you can use to hold candidates to account.

Make sure to tailor the questions as much as possible to your local context.

Our climate data tool tells you how your local authority is performing on key climate issues, and the results can also help tailor your questions for electoral candidates. 

Example questions for all candidates

• In our area, xx% of homes are energy inefficient, leaving many families living in cold, damp homes. This has serious effects on people’s mental and physical health and causes unnecessary carbon emissions through wasted energy. Will your party ensure no-one has to live in a cold home by supporting the rapid rollout of a street-by-street home insulation programme, starting in neighbourhoods most affected by fuel poverty?
• There are many rental homes in the area that are badly insulated. The government has said it'll raise the minimum legal standards, but these won't be effective unless well-policed. What will you do to ensure rental homes are a decent standard?
• Across the country millions of people are struggling with soaring bills and the rising cost of living. What will your party do to provide urgent support to people who are being forced to ration their energy usage, living in cold, damp homes, and even struggling to put food on the table?
• Over 80% of homes in the UK are dependent on gas for heating. This over-reliance on expensive fossil fuels has left many of us struggling to pay our energy bills while oil and gas companies rake in billions of pounds in profits. What will your party do to ensure our homes are heated by cheap homegrown renewable energy instead of expensive and polluting fossil fuels.
• We need to tackle the climate crisis. At the same time, many are struggling with the cost of living. If elected, what will you do to make low-carbon options affordable and accessible to all?
• If everyone could benefit from a good-quality environment near their home, it would save our NHS billions of pounds, improve millions of lives and provide an opportunity for people to be a part of decisions made in their communities. The UK has signed 1 international treaty and 2 United Nations resolutions over the last 20 years in support of the human right to a healthy environment. What will you do to clean up the air and water in our area and ensure everyone has access to quality green space?
• It's unforgivable that in the UK children have died from air pollution on their street, and even from damp and mould in their homes. What will your party do to stop any more young people being harmed because of how toxic their local environment is?
• Will you commit to supporting a new UK law on business, human rights and the environment that holds companies responsible for environmental and social damage in their supply chains and agree for us to record your support?  What will you do within your first few weeks to champion the need for this law in parliament and in your party? 

Involve partners

Co-organising the event may boost attendance and help spread the workload.  

Prioritise what key issues are in your area, then connect with local organisations on this. For example, if air pollution is a big issue where you live, you could connect with health groups, local teachers, faith communities and other environmental groups. Or you may want to work with fuel poverty groups, trade unions and food banks to focus your hustings on the cost-of-living crisis.

For help on identifying potential alliances, read our guidance on building alliances.

Learn from others

Still feeling unsure about organising your hustings? Barnet Friends of the Earth shares its top tips for holding a hustings.

You can also watch our "How to organise a hustings" training if you need further advice.

After the event

It's a good idea to post a follow-up on social media and in the press after your hustings. Whatever you post or say, remember to remain impartial. The best way to do that is to avoid comparing the performance of different candidates or parties, or saying who had the most support or “won”. Leave that up to the audience to decide.

If you’re sharing quotes on social media or in a press release, be sure to share an even spread of quotes from different candidates and avoid endorsing any candidate positions. 

As ever, if you stick to our impartiality guidance you’ll be fine.

Also, don’t forget to follow up with people who came to the event and let them know how they can get involved in your local campaign or local action group.

Follow up with any partners organisations you organised the event with too. Perhaps think about how to spend some social time together and reflect on how the event went, as well as opportunities to continue to work together going forward. 

Apply for funding

Apply to the local action group fund if you need financial support for organising your hustings or any other activities around the elections.