EUROPE dominated much of a packed election forum in Marlow on Friday night.

The evening was staged at the Methodist church hall in Spittal Street and chaired by the Rev Michael Hughes, whose church organised the evening.

Paul Goodman (Con), Chauhdry Shafique (Lab), John Laker (Green) and Christopher Cooke (UKIP) along with Stephen Billingham standing in for Lib Dem candidate Dee Tomlin, all took to the stage for the hour-and-a-half question and answer session.

One forum goer asked what private member's bill the candidates would like to introduce if they got into power.

The most controversial answer came from Mr Cooke who said: "I am particularly against abortion which has killed millions of children in the womb. I would wish to reduce the number of abortions in this country."

Mr Goodman, who spent two years as a Benedictine monk in his twenties sailed along a similar tack to Mr Cooke. He said: "Foetus' with handicaps are allowed to be aborted almost right up to birth. I would want to correct that terrible assault on human life."

Mr Shafique used the question to bring-up the issue of political apathy in the 18 to 24 age group saying he would like to reduce the age of voting to 16.

Mr Billingham chose scrapping student tuition fees while Mr Laker said he would like to introduce a bill to stop fox hunting.

The session began to boil-up when Mr Billingham said: "We can't go backwards. It is important that we go forward as part of the Europe Union. We can't just remove ourselves."