AN EAST Lancashire homelessness campaigner claims he was refused entry to the televised leaders’ debate despite having a ticket.

Burnley man Wesley Hall, who runs the Help the Homeless project opposite Blackburn fire station, said he threw his ticket at Labour leader Ed Miliband after being turned away from ITV’s studio in MediaCityUK, Salford.

Mr Hall had intended to ask the seven party leaders about the effects of austerity on East Lancashire’s homeless populations.

The 32-year-old has more than 50 criminal convictions and found himself living on the streets before beating his drug addiction.

Mr Hall said a marketing firm had given him a ticket, but then rang him the night before Thursday’s event to say Greater Manchester Police (GMP) did not want him in the building.

Mr Hall said: “I was selected by a marketing company to attend, my ticket had arrived and the ITV producer contacted me with regards to my question and said it had been shortlisted.

“I then received a call from the marketing company the night before stating that GMP had refused my entry.

“What they don’t seem to understand is that it’s my past that has led me to understand many of the problems that these people face.

“I’ve been through the judicial system. I’ve conquered addiction. I’ve contemplated all kinds of things and I have done some wrong things in life. But it’s these mistakes that I have learnt from .”

Mr Hall, whose Blackburn operation takes place every Wednesday evening, co-ordinates a similar food and drink stall for homeless people in Manchester on Saturdays.

The question he submitted read: “I live in East Lancashire, which is classed as the seventh-poorest area in Europe, and I volunteer at a homeless outreach programme where I’ve seen the effects of austerity and poverty at grass roots level with hundreds of people dying on the streets every week.

“What will your party do to make sure the poorest in our society don’t shoulder the burden of tackling austerity? Many of the proposed policies we’re hearing are quite similar.

“Where does the balance lie between investing in the people’s social needs versus paying billions of pounds to prop up the banks, renew Trident and allow corporates to evade tax in the fifth richest country in the world?”

A spokesman for GMP insisted that a vetting process was in place for the event.

ITV said they were unable to comment.