On the 20 March, the King’s College London Conservative Association (KCLCA) and KCL Your Party went head-to-head on their parties policies, including wealth tax, welfare reform, foreign policy and immigration. The debate was hosted by King’s Union and moderated by Mustafa Dassu.
The newly elected KCLCA President Dexter Dedálo and Co-President Hannah Goodman debated against KCL Your Party President Thomas Herrod and Vice President Ella Sinnot-Behrmann.
In pre-debate polling, KCL Your Party led with 28 votes (53%), while KCLCA followed with 25 (41%).
Despite starting behind, KCLCA went on to win the debate with 59% of the vote.
Debate Intensifies Over Welfare and Migration
KCLCA Co-President Hannah Goodman began her opening remarks by outlining the differences between her party and the opposing party.
She said, “This is not a simple debate versus left and right. It’s a debate about sense, a debate about ideas. A battle of sense, and lunacy versus far-fetched notions of infinite wealth off the backs of idleness.”
Goodman continued to emphasise how the conservative approach to policy-making prioritises economic sustainability, such as ensuring that the welfare system isn’t being exploited, and that Britain regains its military power to defend the “values” of the West.
“Britain is not what it was in terms of military power…we are still a nuclear power, we still have a tradition, we need to increase spending on defence…we need to put real force behind that to enable us to take a stand on the world stage.”
KCL Your Party retaliated, “As Hannah said [KCLCA’s Vice President] we are meant to be on the side of the West to apparently have our best interest at heart. Yet we have Trump threatening a fellow NATO member.”
Herrod continued by arguing that western countries such as the U.S are going to foreign countries like Venezuela to “kidnap” their president.
Dedálo stressed how he is “not defending” the government getting involved in Iran, but that they have “conducted purely defensive operations to protect British citizens.”
He continued, “Imagine that you’re stuck as a British citizen under this conflict and British planes won’t go into the sky because Jeremy Corbyn wants to mentally and morally masturbate about how just he is.”
Later, the Tories discussed the importance of the “cultural effects of migration,” instead of focussing only on its economic benefits.
Statistics regarding welfare dependency and economic benefits remained a focal point of discussion. This is where the two parties reached their climactic point of disagreement.
KLCA stood firm on the notion that “the number of people on welfare is higher than it has ever been”.
In response, the representatives of KCL Your Party highlighted the broader socio-economic context behind the high number of citizens on welfare.
“About 14.5% of the population receive some form of benefit,” said Thomas Herrod. “Whilst this is a high number… We have an extortionate [sic] poverty rate in this country around 21%.”
One audience member contested that the conservatives have the answer to fix the welfare system. They highlighted that the number of working age people claiming benefits rose from 5 million when the conservatives came to power, to 10 million when they left power in 2024.
Hannah Goodman defended her party by stating that this rise in welfare was a “product of covid” and the “job market” at the time.
Roar as the Chosen Topic of Debate
The recent Roar article on the removal of KCLCA’s former president elected for 2025/26 due to alleged racist remarks they made about the Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, was chosen as an additional topic of debate.
Dedálo defended his society, arguing, “This is what they [Roar] decided that you guys care about the most. They decided that was more important to bring to light to the student Union than I quote: ‘strand driver admits to causing death of King’s student’. Dexter Dedálo proceeded to argue how the piece about Aalia’s Mahomed’s death was the more morally and ethically correct piece of news that mattered most to the student body.
“I think above politics, we’re all humans here. We all recognise that the death of that student was a systemic failure.”
He added, “Their [Roar‘s] decision to prioritise petty politics over an issue which I think matters to all of us, I think is pretty awful and talks to the institution in general.”
Grace Holloway, Roar‘s Co-Editor-in-Chief, responded to Dedálo’s comments.
“We chose to include a long-running exclusive investigation as the main story on the front page, rather than the Strand van driver pleading guilty, as we firstly felt placing Aalia’s picture and that of the perpetrator on the front page would have been insensitive given that it coincided with the anniversary of Aalia’s tragic death, and because we were awaiting updates on the sentencing which took place after our print was finalised.”
She added, “We believe highlighting systemic racism on campus is not ‘petty politics’, but exactly the role of a student newspaper.”
Migration Showdown Sparks Moderation Row
The two parties clashed, as Dexter Dedálo questioned Thomas Herrod over the limit that his party would place on migration in the UK, as well as the net positives surrounding it.
“If high immigration is sustainable… What is the threshold for when it wouldn’t be?”
A large portion of the debate consisted of the KCLCA questioning their opponents to give that threshold in numbers.
Another point of disagreement occurred when KCL Your Party began discussing the importance of renewable green energy for the future of the UK. As this happened when foreign policy was the topic of debate, the moderator, Mustafa Dassu reminded the debaters to remain on track.
Roar asked Thomas Herrod on the debate experience of KCL Your Party:
“We would have hoped for stronger moderation, especially as we were under the impression that it was specific topics [being discussed]… Rather than broader categories… We would have liked to seen stronger fact checking and moderation on the debate to allow for equal speaking opportunities on both sides.“
However, during the debate, Dexter Dedálo accused KCL Your Party‘s vice president of steering the discussion into a topic that would be beneficial to their stance.
Dedálo said, “Before this motion was switched, Ella leaned over to Mustafa and said, ‘talk about [the] two child benefit [cap].’ He proceeded to say that ’They want to chew us [KCLCA] into a particular discussion.'”
After securing the win, Dedálo spoke to Roar following the debate.
“I don’t think that in this university we can ever win with conservative arguments. We are a minority on campus.”
He added, “We won today’s debate because [KCL Your Party] failed to answer the obvious questions.“
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