Teachers pay in Waltham Forest should rise in line with 'inner London' boroughs due to the increasing cost of living, an election hustings heard.

Parliamentary candidates from all the major parties, excluding the Conserviatives, debated education at the event last night organised by the National Union of Teachers.

School and college staff in Waltham Forest are currently paid less than their counterparts in other parts of London because the borough is classified as outer London, where living costs are deemed lower.

But one audience member asked whether the candidates would support a campaign to re-classify Waltham Forest due to the rising cost of renting and buying property.

John Cryer, sitting MP for Leyton and Wanstead, said he had already pledged support for the campaign.

“The inner London boroughs were drawn up by the GLC in 1965 and were used for short term political gain at the time," he said. 

"Barking & Dagenham being classed as inner London is just weird.”

Green candidate in Walthamstow, Ashley Gunstock, and Nancy Taafe, standing for the Trade Unionist Socialist Coalition, also both pledged support for the campaign.

Steven Cheung, standing in Walthamstow for the Liberal Democrats, did not commit to supporting the call for re-calssification, but said his party would introduce the London living wage and protect the education budget.

Freddy Vachha, UKIP candidate for for Chingford & Woodford Green and former physics teacher, refused to back the campaign, adding: “We simply don’t have the money, we are 1.5 trillion in debt.”

The Conservatives are yet to explain why the party sent no candidate to the event at the Quaker Meeting house in Jewel Road, Walthamstow, last night.