HOW passionately voters feel about Britain remaining or leaving the EU was forcibly demonstrated on Tuesday night, when a Brexit debate was packed to overflowing.

In a remarkable coup, Liphook-based diplomat Thom Reilly succeeded in getting former Lib Dem leader Lord Paddy Ashdown and former Secretary of State for Scotland Lord Forsyth to go head-to-head at Haslemere Hall.

But even the biggest venue in the town was not large enough to accommodate the level of local interest.

The hall was packed to capacity with 400 and more than 50 had to be turned away. Lord Ashdown told The Herald: “I haven’t been to Haslemere before and it’s clearly been a big gap in my life. You are all very keen on this.”

BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen was due to chair the debate but had been sent off to cover events in Turkey. Dr John Hemery, founder and director of the Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies, stepped in and ensured as many people as possible put their questions to the two high-profile politicians.

Lord Ashdown made the case for remaining and Lord Forsyth made the case for leaving, in two short and punchy presentations that left maximum time for questions from the floor.

Questioners were asked to state if they were ‘remain’, ‘leave’ or ‘undecided’, with each camp taken in order to make it as even-handed as possible. One ‘undecided’ questioner, enraged by the EU-Turkey deal and the knock-on effect on immigration, was threatened with expulsion when she continued to heckle the speakers. But all the other questioners managed to keep a lid on their emotions.

In fact, the EU-Turkey deal was the one thing about which Lords Ashdown and Forsyth agreed. The former Lib Dem leader responded: “Immigration is one of the big issues that worries me, but we won’t solve anything by leaving. I agree EU policy on Turkey is mad.” Lord Forsyth said: “We all know Turkey is full of terrorists”.

When a questioner voting to remain, asked if leaving would really mean £350million more for the NHS, Lord Ashdown described the figure as “grossly misleading”, while Lord Forsyth maintained it would mean even more money – £372million – for better health provision.

There were shouts of “hear, hear” when a businessman voting to leave, said the foundation for prosperity was Britain being judged by its own laws.

But Lord Ashdown responded there were no laws in force that Britain had not agreed to. Ex-ITN chief foreign correspondent Michael Nicholson, who is voting to leave, reminded Lord Ashdown of their shared experience of “the horrors of Bosnia” and said it demonstrated EU incompetence.

It clearly struck home with Lord Ashdown, who played a crucial role in the peace negotiations, and called the question “uncharacteristically unfair”. Recalling the atrocities he had been forced to witness, he said: “Everyone made mistakes, there are 8,000 tombstones to prove it. It’s unfair to pick on the EU, it gave us a chance for peace.In a turbulent age to abandon the EU and a remarkable step to peace would be madness.”

Both lords concluded by urging everyone to vote on June 23. Outgoing Haslemere Mayor Melanie Odell expressed her gratitude to Mr Reilly and said: “Haslemere is so fortunate to have two lords, who are so powerful and passionate.”

Speaking afterwards Mr Reilly described the debate as “a onehit wonder for Haslemere” in the run-up to the referendum. “The numbers demonstrated the interest there is in the issue and the questions people asked demonstrated how seriously they take it,” he said.