THE POLITICAL spotlight turned towards York tonight when Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn arrived in the city for TV’s “Battle for Number 10”.

Politicians and journalists flocked to the university, to see the two leaders appear one after the other on Question Time’s election special – just six days before the polls open.

In the run up to the event protesters and Corbyn supporters gathered outside the venue, and security was tight with a heavy police presence around the Heslington campus.

A large part of the Heslington East site was locked behind a tight cordon with security guards, police and armed offices restricting access to the buildings around the Ron Cooke Hub, where May and Corbyn faced David Dimbleby.

Protestors gathered on the grass outside the cordon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the leaders as they arrived. Graham Martin, of York People’s Assembly, helped organise the event.

He said: “We feel this more about free speech. Rights like free speech and democracy are even more important after the terrible things that happened in Manchester.

“We wanted a community gathering of people from right across the political spectrum. I don’t think we’ve got any Tories here, but we’ve still got quite a wide spread.

“It’s just important that we are here and hopefully get some of our message across.”

Also there was Steve Howley, from North Yorkshire’s Fire Brigades Union, who said he had gone there to support Jeremy Corbyn.

“In North Yorkshire the cuts under this government are really biting hard, across the public sector.”

He spoke of the extra stresses police and firefighters face since Bootham Park – York’s mental health hospital closed – and of the constant staff struggles the fire service faced.

Pro-EU campaigners from York for Europe were at the demonstration as well, supporting the national “Pants to Brexit” campaign.

The group’s Jamie Wood said: “We are really here to make a statement to Theresa May. For us, Brexit is still the main issue.”

They want a new Parliament to be able to really debate and scrutinise the Brexit process, he said, and not a heavy Conservative majority capable of “pushing through” any deal.

Earlier in the day, Mr Corbyn headed to York Science Park where he outlined his industrial strategy, promising the “vast majority” of the news jobs would go to British workers.

He said his strategy would strategy would help create a million "good" jobs to "unleash the untapped potential of every part of the country" if Labour wins the General Election.

Asked if he could guarantee that all or a proportion of the one million jobs would go to British workers, Mr Corbyn said: "They would obviously be for people looking for work, the vast majority will be for people coming out of our schools and our colleges and our universities, and we will not allow anyone to only recruit overseas for jobs here.

"They've got to recruit in an open way so that everyone gets a fair chance.

Mr Corbyn highlighted Labour plans to pump £250 billion into industry through a new National Investment Bank and create a network of Regional Development Banks as well as a National Transformation Fund.

The University of York’s Pro Vice Chancellor Elect Jon Timmis said putting on the debate had been a huge undertaking for them, but added: “For the university it’s a great honour to host this – it shows the university off in a really great light.”