Tory candidate refuses to say whether she voted for Brexit in awkward exchange

Kristy Adams wants to be MP for Hove

Kristy Adams is running to be MP for Hove and Portslade in the upcoming general election (Brighton and Hove Conservatives)

A Conservative parliamentary candidate has been accused of ignoring the biggest political issue facing the country after she refused to tell her local newspaper whether or not she had voted to leave the EU.

Kristy Adams, the Tory candidate in Hove, is trying to unseat Peter Kyle, one of the very few Labour MPs in the south of England outside of London.

In an interview with Brighton and Hove’s Argus paper Ms Adams clumsily tried to dodge a question about which way she had voted during the referendum – and ultimately refused to answer the question at all.

Asked​ by a local reporter which way she had voted, Ms Adams replied: “I didn’t campaign for the outs and I didn’t campaign for the ins. I think we’ve got to look to the future and that’s what I’m about.”

When the local reporter persisted, asking her to clarify how she had actually voted, she said: “I’ve just said to you I didn’t campaign for the in team and I didn’t campaign for the out team.”

When it was pointed out to Ms Adams that she was not answering the question, she said: “I’m not going to answer that question.”

The newspaper took issue with the candidate’s intransigence, splashing the refusal to answer on its front page.

Ms Adams last hit national headlines when the Daily Mirror obtained a recording of her where she appeared to say she had healed a deaf man through prayer.

Mr Kyle, the sitting Labour MP for the area, said Ms Adams’ secretive approach was “a betrayal of our community”.

'Brexit is the single largest force that will shape the future of our community and people have a right to know not only how we voted but that we have the courage to engage in the debate. This is not an issue to duck or run from and doing so is a betrayal of our community. Residents expect an MP who will engage, influence and fight for our city and country, not sit on the sidelines hoping it will all just go away," he said.

The Hove seat was captured by Labour in 2015 with 42.4 per cent of the vote to the Tories 39.9 per cent.