A CAVERSHAM resident has criticised Rob Wilson for not turning up to a husting event in the “heartland of his constituency”.

The Conservative candidate, who has held the Reading East since 2005, has also been picked up by opponents for what they describe as a lack of public appearances.

Organisers of the hustings event held at Caversham Baptist Church on Sunday invited all five candidates for the Reading East constituency to debate local issues, but no Conservative representative was in attendance.

Mr Wilson defended his decision saying that he had already informed organisers he would be unable to attend as he historically keeps Sunday nights free to spend time with his family.

He said: “Sunday evenings I preciously protect for my family and it is an unbreakable commitment to my family.

“I cannot really attend every hustings because there are so many of them. I have done five so far but I just physically cannot do everything.”

Previous events which Mr Wilson could not attend were filled in by other local Conservatives including Councillor Ed Hopper.

Mr Wilson first won the seat in 2005 after Labour MP Jane Griffiths was de-selected. He ran against Tony Page, now deputy leader of Reading Borough Council, winning the seat with 15,557 votes (35.4 per cent) against Mr Page’s 15,082 votes. In 2010, he won a second term with 42.6 per cent of the vote.

Jason Mehmet, 38, who was at Sunday’s event said he was “disappointed” that there was no representative from Mr Wilson’s party on the night.

He said: “I respect that he wants to spend time with his family and that is acceptable for him but no other people were involved from the Conservative party.

“I think for Caversham it is quite important because we have the free school which is an important issue and I imagine quite a few people would have turned up to talk to him about that.

“The Third Bridge also came up which other candidates talked about. I guess you just expect a dialogue with your MP, especially during an election and in the heartland of his constituency.”

Around 40 residents turned out to the debate in South Street, Caversham.

Rob White, Green candidate for Reading East, said: “He has shown up to hardly any of the hustings events so far. I think that is his decision but there are a lot of frustrated constituents at those meetings who want to ask him questions or hold him to account for decisions made by the Government and he has just not been there to answer them.”

The other four candidates for the seat — Christine Forrester, Ukip, Matt Rodda, Labour, Dr Jenny Woods, Liberal Democrats and Rob White, Green — were all in attendance.