Twickenham has long been known as Sir Vince Cable’s seat, but the political giant is stepping down this election and hoping fellow Liberal Democrat Munira Wilson will replace him.

It seems likely she will, with YouGov’s MRP poll estimating that the seat is a strong Lib Dem hold, but the Tories still tend to do well here.

Conservative candidate, Isobel Grant, will give Ms Wilson a run for her money as a popular young female engineer, and while Labour are very much the third party in this constituency, Ranjeev Walia could see a boost to his party’s vote share of the vote.

Stuart Wells is flying the flag for leave as the Brexit Party candidate, but will struggle in such a heavily remain constituency.

At Monday’s hustings at Hampton School (December 9) the candidates told us what they hope to do in the local area.

Only Mr Wells from the Brexit Party was not in attendance.

Here are the key things we learnt at the final hustings:

1. Isobel Grant would oppose the Conservative whip and vote against Heathrow expansion

The vast majority of Twickenham residents are opposed to the expansion of Heathrow and the increase in noise and pollution that would result from more flights. Just like fellow Conservative Zac Goldsmith in neighbouring Richmond, Ms Grant says she opposes expansion and would even go against the party whip to vote against it.

Ms Wilson, alongside her party, also strongly oppose expansion.

2. Munira Wilson says private schools must earn their charitable status

A question on Labour’s policy to remove VAT exemption from private schools unsurprisingly caused some controversy at the hustings hosted by Hampton School, which is independent and charges fees of £6,915 a term.

Labour’s Mr Walia said austerity has “starved our state schools of funding,” adding “I feel education should be fair for everyone and everyone should have the same opportunity to succeed,” while Ms Grant for the Conservatives said she was against Labour’s policy and wants to “celebrate excellence” in our schools and give parents a choice.

Ms Wilson, however, perhaps had the most interesting response. She said as a Liberal she believes in choice for parents and that many schools like Hampton meet the test of charitable status and help the community and disadvantaged schools. However, she added that some do not, and called upon the Charity Commission to ensure the rule is enforced properly to make sure only schools that are adequately helping their communities enjoy VAT exempt status.

3. Rajeev Walia calls Jo Swinson an “extreme” leader

Candidate summaries tend to focus on the key reason why you should vote for them, but Mr Walia took a slightly different approach in a constituency popular with the Lib Dems by calling their leader, Jo Swinson “extreme”.

He criticised her for saying in a BBC radio interview that she would rather have another election than go in with Labour to form a government, and claimed she had voted with the Tory whip more times than 75 Tory MPs.

“If you want more austerity, hard-Brexit, the choice is simple. Look at the parties next to me. If you want opportunity and hope, you need to vote Labour,” he said.

This did not go down particularly well with the audience, and there were some grumbles and jeers.

4. Candidates promise to keep Erasmus-like scheme for studying abroad

Many of the students at Hampton School are applying for university places at the moment, and wanted to hear what will happen for those who want to study abroad after Brexit.

All the candidates were in agreement that Erasmus is a good scheme and should be kept in some form or another.

Ms Grant said we will have a “strong partnership with other institutions in Europe,” while Mr Walia said “education is vitally important” and would personally work towards protecting rights for those studying abroad.

Ms Wilson said she wants to ‘remain’ but would fight to keep the Erasmus scheme in even if we did leave the EU, emphasising the benefits of the exchange programme and her own experience studying French abroad while at university. She went on to criticises the Tories “for putting up barriers on visas” that would make these programmes more difficult.

5. All would honour result of second referendum

All the candidates have slightly different views on Brexit, with Ms Grant arguing the Conservatives are the only ones who will help to “move the country forward” with Johnson’s deal to leave.

Ms Wilson and the Liberal Democrats are firmly committed to staying in the EU. Mr Walia said Labour will negotiate a new deal and hold a second referendum between that and remaining.

However all agreed that if there were to be another referendum they would respect the result regardless, to thankful applause from the audience.