THE Labour soap box campaign led by Jack Straw and Labour parliamentary candidate for Hyndburn, Graham Jones, descended on Accrington.

Residents and passers-by were able to fire questions at Mr Straw during the 45-minute session.

Councillor Jones said: “Jack got a full round of applause at the end which shows that people really value that he is prepared to take some stick and the fact that he didn’t shy away from answering any critical questions.

“I was pleasantly surprised at how successful it was.”

Coun Jones stated that only one person had mentioned Prime Minister Gordan Brown’s ‘bigot’ blunder.

He said: “Someone just heckled from the back saying that it was an invasion of privacy to allow the comments to be aired.”