Browse content similar to 14/05/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning folks, welcome to the Daily Politics. | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
A prominent youth member of UKIP quits | :00:42. | :00:42. | |
the party claiming it has descended into a form of "racist populism." | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
Sanya-Jeet Thandi, seen here in last year's UKIP | :00:47. | :00:47. | |
election broadcast, says the party's direction is "terrifying." | :00:48. | :00:49. | |
We'll speak to UKIP's Director of Communications. | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
At one time he was ahead in the polls and a win | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
So has Ed Miliband's electoral strategy gone a bit flat? | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
Who will be on the front foot at Prime Minister's Questions? | :01:01. | :01:03. | |
We'll have all the action live at midday. | :01:04. | :01:05. | |
And, no it's not a B movie, it's a campaign video from | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
Their leader will be here to explain all. | :01:09. | :01:47. | |
And with us for this televisual feast are two | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
subterranean creatures that don't often see the light of day. | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
The Policing Minister, Damian Green and the Shadow | :01:58. | :01:58. | |
Now another day, another UKIP headline. | :01:59. | :02:07. | |
A prominent Asian youth member has quit the party claiming that it has | :02:08. | :02:10. | |
descended into a "form of racist populism." | :02:11. | :02:12. | |
Sanya-Jeet Thandi, who's 21, wrote on a blog for the Guardian website | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
that the party was turning the election into a game of us and them. | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
Three years ago Miss Thandi was described by Nigel Farage | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
Here they are appearing together in an official UKIP video. | :02:25. | :02:36. | |
You are 18 and a rising star in the party. One of the other things that | :02:37. | :02:45. | |
has often been said and in the early days of UKIP's existence, the BBC | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
encourage this, we start out with this idea that if you believe in the | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
United Kingdom and leave we should not governed from Europe, that this | :02:57. | :03:04. | |
was white only? People say it is white only, it is ridiculous. We | :03:05. | :03:07. | |
have Greek members, and Turkish. With is us now is Patrick O'Flynn, | :03:08. | :03:15. | |
UKIP's Director of Communications and a UKIP candidate in the East of | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
England in the forthcoming European This is your rising star? She was on | :03:20. | :03:36. | |
Channel four News singing the praises of UKIP's policy saying it | :03:37. | :03:44. | |
did not discriminate people from EU countries and other countries around | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
the world. I am curious about that. Young people are free to join and | :03:50. | :03:57. | |
leave parties as they want. I do think it is a bit shabby of her to | :03:58. | :04:03. | |
be one week did bend our immigration policy and then throw the racist | :04:04. | :04:13. | |
words in the mix. Have you asked her what has turned her? I have never | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
had a conversation with her in my life, I did send a tweet | :04:20. | :04:22. | |
congratulating her on Channel four News. I thought she was one of your | :04:23. | :04:30. | |
rising stars? She was a prominent member, she has been concentrating | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
on her studies. As recently as last week she did seem to be singing the | :04:36. | :04:40. | |
praises of our immigration policy. Maybe you have been neglecting her. | :04:41. | :04:48. | |
You do have priorities in life and our priority is the European | :04:49. | :04:56. | |
elections. You are in here having to talk about it, the media on the | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
left, the right and the Centre are talking about it. It follows from a | :05:02. | :05:07. | |
coast of people saying inappropriate things in your party. It follows | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
from you trying to make out you had a moment last week when you had | :05:14. | :05:16. | |
members from various grounds all showing. It was a nice picture, this | :05:17. | :05:23. | |
has blown it out of the water. Did you see the poll at the weekend | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
which showed in the European elections, 16% of people from | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
non-white backgrounds will be voting UKIP. I'd ain't we are making great | :05:30. | :05:36. | |
strides in the ethnic community. Why can't you hold onto this bright, | :05:37. | :05:42. | |
young star of which is politics? You can hold onto these things on an | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
individual basis. You have chosen a candidate who has rather strange | :05:50. | :05:58. | |
views on homosexuality. Those views are evolving. He said it in 2012, | :05:59. | :06:07. | |
not that long ago, not the dark ages of the 50s. I think it was when he | :06:08. | :06:14. | |
was a conservative, now he is in UKIP he is more relaxed. You have | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
chosen another former Conservative to run in Grimsby who once said she | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
wanted to send all of the immigrants back home. You are talking about | :06:24. | :06:30. | |
Victoria it -- Victoria Ayling who said she wanted to send away the | :06:31. | :06:38. | |
illegal immigrants. There has not been an announcement of the | :06:39. | :06:47. | |
candidate. It is death by 1000 cuts. The polls say we are rising. | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
Politicians tell me there is only one poll that matters. They do look | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
at these polls very carefully. But every time you tell us it is just a | :07:00. | :07:06. | |
couple of rotten apples and you are getting rid of them, something else | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
jumps out to cause you major embarrassment. Our party has more | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
than doubled the membership. We are on 37,000 and will have more to say | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
on benchmarks soon. We have what Drew pulled our voting intentions. | :07:22. | :07:30. | |
We have growing pains. I know it is something novel in British politics | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
pause these guys have shrinking pains. She said in the Guardian that | :07:35. | :07:41. | |
the reason she supported UKIP stemmed from liberal I hear, smaller | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
taxes, and on immigration policy that was fair equal opportunities. | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
Maybe she should have joined the Conservatives. But you have not | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
delivered either. Sounds like she is eminently qualified with sound | :07:57. | :08:03. | |
instincts to join the Conservative Party and I encourage her to do so. | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
Have you had talks with her? Nope, I first learned of her existence over | :08:11. | :08:16. | |
the past few months. So the Tories... I am only saying I | :08:17. | :08:22. | |
haven't. Far as I know she has done this on her own. Would you like to | :08:23. | :08:30. | |
have talks with her? I am interested in talking to people. Every time a | :08:31. | :08:38. | |
UKIP councillor, MEP or candidate opens their mouth there seems to be | :08:39. | :08:45. | |
another problem. Godfrey Bloom accusing women being sluts for | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
failing to clean behind the fridge. His flatmate in Brussels has told us | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
what he thinks of women. Patrick excuses the views on homosexuality | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
with the excuse he is 70. What age has got to do with it. He is | :09:01. | :09:08. | |
entitled to have his views. What has age got to do with it? Demographics | :09:09. | :09:14. | |
show that older people are less comfortable with homosexuality. The | :09:15. | :09:22. | |
point he is making, and it is fair enough, no matter how often these | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
things happen, how often we in the media pounce on them, UKIP's ratings | :09:27. | :09:36. | |
are not being touched? Patrick has talked about its growing pains | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
because they are going from a small base to a less small base. They are | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
attracting people, former members of the National front who are joining | :09:47. | :09:56. | |
UKIP. Patrick was the director of communications when Andre Lamb | :09:57. | :09:58. | |
picks, whose vile views were exposed on Twitter. They do not have a | :09:59. | :10:05. | |
conversation with him as well? No one outside of UKIP either in the | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
media or in other parties understand why all of this debt can be thrown | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
at them but they are still doing well. | :10:14. | :10:22. | |
Now, new figures released this morning show that a total | :10:23. | :10:24. | |
of 140,000 Romanians and Bulgarians were being employed in the UK in the | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
That number is down slightly on the total number being employed | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
However, there has been a rise in the numbers | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
These are the first set of employment figures since Bulgarians | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
and Romanians gained the same rights to work in the UK as other EU | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
Here's David Freeman from the Office of National Statistics speaking | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
The number of people born in Bulgaria and Romania working in the | :10:50. | :11:10. | |
UK is 140,000. We compared these figures from a year ago and last | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
year there were 112 thousand Romanians and Bulgarians in | :11:16. | :11:22. | |
employment. If you look at the total number of people born abroad who | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
work in the UK, that increased to 172,000. The main impact on that | :11:27. | :11:33. | |
change is from the eight countries that joined the European Union in | :11:34. | :11:43. | |
2004. UKIP have said when the gates were opened in January two | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
Bulgarians and Romanians on January the 1st they would come | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
thousand. You got it very wrong? Nope, we didn't. The figure is down | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
on Nope, we didn't. The figure is down | :11:59. | :12:05. | |
doubt, Sir Andrew Green's central projection of about 50,000 more a | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
year. Nigel Farage said this in his debates with Nick Clegg, he wasn't | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
talking about debates with Nick Clegg, he wasn't | :12:14. | :12:24. | |
400 million people. If you look at workers from | :12:25. | :12:30. | |
400 million people. If you look at the year. From the eight other | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
countries, 74,000 were in the first quarter of the country alone. It | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
countries, 74,000 were in the first out of control. Nigel Farage, on | :12:39. | :12:38. | |
question out of control. Nigel Farage, on | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
doors, we are talking about when the restriction is lifted, the emphasis | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
was put on that, he said opened the doors to 29 million vulgarians and | :12:50. | :12:56. | |
Romanians. It is only 4% came, that with the over a million people. | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
Romanians. It is only 4% came, that number is down. Since those | :13:03. | :13:04. | |
restrictions were lifted because that is what UKIP talked about. You | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
restrictions were lifted because were wrong. Based on one | :13:11. | :13:17. | |
restrictions were lifted because benchmark. We are | :13:18. | :13:18. | |
restrictions were lifted because predicting a very big, long-term | :13:19. | :13:20. | |
rise in Romanian and Bulgarian rise in Romanian and Bulgarian | :13:21. | :13:33. | |
David Cameron cannot fulfil his promise of getting net migration | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
down. It is just going to go up and promise of getting net migration | :13:38. | :13:40. | |
that is a betrayal of the British people. | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
that is a betrayal of the British answer that in a minute. But on the | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
that is a betrayal of the British have hundreds and thousands of Olga | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
Aryans and Romanians. That was wrong. We are going to have hundreds | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
and thousands of them. He is ignoring it. They started | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
scaremongering in the run-up to January the 1st. They have been | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
proved wrong and decided to go for broke and continue to | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
scaremongering. They are not scaremongering from the number of | :14:16. | :14:25. | |
immigrants from the eight countries. When the previous government did not | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
have transitional controls, that is the lessons we learned. That is why | :14:31. | :14:36. | |
we put controls on Romania and Bulgaria and we have not had a | :14:37. | :14:42. | |
similar problem. Underlying this, it comes out as part of the | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
unemployment statistics, we have more people in work than ever before | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
and 75% of the new jobs are being taken by British citizens. That | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
figure was 55% at the end of the Labour government. We will have to | :14:57. | :14:57. | |
leave it there. Now, we've talked a lot | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
on this programme about ?gurus?. Oh yes, we keep up with all | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
the hot political trends. This week Labour's new guru is | :15:07. | :15:07. | |
in town. He's called David Axelrod | :15:08. | :15:09. | |
and he helped Barack Obama win two He's been hired to give Ed Miliband | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
strategic advice between now But judging by the latest polls | :15:13. | :15:18. | |
on this side of the pond he might have his work cut out performing the | :15:19. | :15:21. | |
same magic for the labour leader. As always at times like this | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
JoCo is on hand to explain why. chief -- former campaign chief David | :15:26. | :15:57. | |
Axelrod has arrived in the UK. With a year to go until the general | :15:58. | :16:00. | |
election, Labour is watching its once healthy lead in the polls | :16:01. | :16:06. | |
slowly narrow. The BBC's poll of polls up until April, shows April | :16:07. | :16:09. | |
now only four percentage points ahead. | :16:10. | :16:23. | |
One of those polls found that Miliband's leadership rating | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
was lower than Nick Clegg's. Whilst that's miserable reading | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
for Miliband's election man it's still not good enough | :16:35. | :16:37. | |
for a successful Cameron campaign. For the Conservatives to gain an | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
overall majority it's thought they need to be 11 percentage points | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
ahead of Labour by the election. There is however a big electoral | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
wildcard - Scotland, where Labour currently have 41 out of 59 MPs. | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
If Scotland votes yes to independence it would force everyone | :16:54. | :16:55. | |
to radically recalculate their electoral mathematics. | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
Let's speak now to Joe Twyman, he's director | :17:00. | :16:59. | |
of political research at YouGov. Welcome to the programme. If you | :17:00. | :17:10. | |
were David Axelrod, what would you be thinking? I would think I have | :17:11. | :17:17. | |
got an awful lot of money and I have got a big job to do. This time last | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
year, Labour were ten points ahead and now it is pretty much neck and | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
neck depending on which poll you look at. But both parties are only | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
on 34% of the vote and you are not going to win a majority in the | :17:31. | :17:33. | |
general election with that share. That could lead to a very | :17:34. | :17:37. | |
interesting situation come this time next year when Labour win the most | :17:38. | :17:42. | |
seats but the Conservatives win the most votes in a hung parliament. And | :17:43. | :17:50. | |
then who knows what happens. Do you think these two latest polls which | :17:51. | :17:52. | |
put the Conservatives two points ahead, is that part of a pattern | :17:53. | :17:55. | |
which will increase or will it go back, do you think, let's look at | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
the Sunday Times poll at the weekend which found Labour ahead? Individual | :18:01. | :18:05. | |
polls are interesting but what is really important is the long-term | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
trends over months or years. Some people will say it is the European | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
elections coming up so polls are always slightly odd, but what we are | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
seeing in terms of longer term trends going back to the election, | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
is the decline of that gap. And the Conservatives moving ever closer to | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
Labour. That is worrying if you are Labour strategist because that has | :18:29. | :18:31. | |
to be changed if you're going to be successful at the ballot box. Thank | :18:32. | :18:34. | |
you. And thanks, John-macro. -- | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
John-macro. Mary we find out that Mr Miliband's | :18:39. | :18:54. | |
personal ratings are below Gordon Brown's. What is going on? Polls go | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
up and they go down. We do not pay too much attention to polls. You | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
do, you spend a lot of money in the Labour Party. I do not know what | :19:07. | :19:13. | |
David Axelrod does but I know Ed Miliband's leadership has inspired | :19:14. | :19:15. | |
thousands of people to join the Labour Party and to rejoin the | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
Labour Party. We have thousands of people out talking to people on the | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
doorstep. I think there is a UKIP effect. What would that be? A vote | :19:27. | :19:33. | |
for UKIP is a vote for none of the above, it is a protest vote. I think | :19:34. | :19:38. | |
we will not see that affect as strongly at the general election. | :19:39. | :19:42. | |
There is no doubt at the European elections that UKIP has sent a mass | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
mailing out to people. I can see why that would affect the state of the | :19:48. | :19:51. | |
parties if you are right, but I do not understand how that would affect | :19:52. | :19:58. | |
the public's assessment of Mr Miliband as a leader. We have had | :19:59. | :20:01. | |
Taylor advised debates, Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg -- televised debates. | :20:02. | :20:09. | |
People have seen a lot of those people. When people meet Ed Miliband | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
and they listen to his policies and when they meet him and they see him, | :20:14. | :20:20. | |
people see his charisma, see his leadership... His charisma? Yes, his | :20:21. | :20:27. | |
charisma, he's charismatic. When you look at the trend in these polls, | :20:28. | :20:33. | |
the more the British people see Ed Miliband, the less they like what | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
they see. His poll ratings have got consistently worse over the last two | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
years. When people look at the policies Ed Miliband has formulated | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
for our party, whether it is 25 hours a week for childcare to help | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
working people get a job and help their families, whether it is the | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
gas and electricity price freeze, derided by the Conservatives and now | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
imitated by them... Each of these policies on Rome, they are pretty | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
popular in the country, so why therefore has Labour's poll lead all | :21:09. | :21:14. | |
disappeared? There is an argument about whether it has disappeared. It | :21:15. | :21:24. | |
has certainly narrowed. There is a coalition government, there is a | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
media focus on David Cameron and Nick Clegg. That is where most of | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
the media attention is focused. The great media personality is Nigel | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
Farage who has never knowingly photographed without a pint of beer | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
and a cigarette in his hand. Is Ed Miliband charismatic? He is. Mrs | :21:43. | :21:54. | |
Miliband thinks he is charismatic. I do. People like him, | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
Miliband thinks he is charismatic. I him, he is sincere. It just may be | :22:00. | :22:05. | |
that your fundamental pitch is not gelling with the British people. But | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
when you talk about a cost of living crisis, and I emphasise the word | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
crisis as opposed to cost of living problems, people think times have | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
been tough, it is not easy, we have to tighten our belts but it is not a | :22:20. | :22:26. | |
crisis. It is a crisis. When you have a million people relying on | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
food hand-outs, when you have children and elderly people being | :22:31. | :22:33. | |
thrust into poverty, people look around them in their towns and | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
cities and they think, my child will not be able to go to university with | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
the tuition fees, they will not be able to afford their own home and | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
they see a government that is interested in tax cuts for the very | :22:45. | :22:48. | |
rich at the top, not helping people at the bottom to have a hand up. We | :22:49. | :22:57. | |
have just had yet again very good unemployment figures coming out, it | :22:58. | :23:00. | |
is at the lowest in Europe after Germany, if there is a cost of | :23:01. | :23:07. | |
living crisis, why are retail sales in the shops so strong and why is | :23:08. | :23:13. | |
every consumer confidence index rising? If you are one of the | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
850,000 young people who has not got a job, there is a crisis. We know | :23:19. | :23:23. | |
the scarring effects of long-term unemployment and older women and | :23:24. | :23:31. | |
young people. Hold on, almost 300,000 of those people are | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
university students. These consumer confidence indices and retail sales | :23:37. | :23:39. | |
are driven by people on average incomes. So if there is a cost of | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
living crisis for the average person in this country, why are retail | :23:45. | :23:47. | |
sales so strong and why figures are the figures, there may | :23:48. | :23:59. | |
be students but they are trying to pay their way through university to | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
minimise the debts they will come out with after university. And our | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
confidence question, people in the south-east of seeing the house | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
prices rise. There is an issue about consumer spending is being fuelled | :24:14. | :24:16. | |
by people who feel they are richer because that house price is going | :24:17. | :24:18. | |
up. That is not the case. These are national and they break them down | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
regionally and national and they break them down | :24:24. | :24:26. | |
every region. No people in national and they break them down | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
Tamworth that I have been speaking to, do not feel confident. They are | :24:33. | :24:39. | |
not splashing a load of cash and consumer durables. It is not a | :24:40. | :24:42. | |
recovery being felt across consumer durables. It is not a | :24:43. | :24:45. | |
United Kingdom. It is interesting if that is true that it is not being | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
reflected in the polls. The best you can hope for is to be the largest | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
party again, isn't it? No, Labour had a lead of 16%. You think you can | :24:57. | :25:06. | |
have an 11% lead over Labour? Well the polls move. They do not move | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
like Krakatoa! You really think you can get an 11% lead? What are you | :25:12. | :25:18. | |
one these days? I am looking at the economy. I am looking at the figures | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
we have had today. Falling youth unemployment. Mary has a cheek to | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
dog at 850,000, I spent days in opposition talking about a million | :25:29. | :25:34. | |
people under the age of 24. 150,000 fewer of them are out of work than | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
they used to be. You could get that 11 point lead, it would be | :25:39. | :25:43. | |
conceivable if it was not for something called UKIP and you do not | :25:44. | :25:46. | |
know how to handle UKIP. Every time you come up with a policy or an | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
approach or a policy or an approach or strategy towards them rises in | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
the polls. We have seen what has happened in the run-up to the | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
European elections. People traditionally use European elections | :26:00. | :26:03. | |
as a free kick. We have seen the Green Party get 15% in the European | :26:04. | :26:10. | |
election and more or less disappear for decades. People behave | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
differently than general elections. I do not think it is a great | :26:15. | :26:16. | |
predictor of a general election. OK. Now as you know here | :26:17. | :26:23. | |
at the BBC we like to cover all the Yesterday Jo had an opera singer | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
performing some arias in the studio. But we also like to reflect the | :26:28. | :26:31. | |
fringe pastimes that might still The government's been thinking | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
about one such event - something The top minds at the Home Office | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
have written a report looking at the benefits of keeping the pubs open | :26:41. | :26:46. | |
during this competition, which is Are you sure you don't mean | :26:47. | :26:49. | |
the Olympics? Anyway, the report says England has | :26:50. | :26:56. | |
a 54% chance of getting past the group stage, | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
whatever that is, and an 11% chance So it sounds like the England team, | :27:00. | :27:05. | |
whoever they are, won't be bringing They do however have | :27:06. | :27:13. | |
a good chance of winning the Cup And you won't have to go to Brazil | :27:14. | :27:23. | |
to do it. We'll remind you how to enter | :27:24. | :27:34. | |
in a minute, but let's see if you can remember when this happened - | :27:35. | :27:37. | |
and just a warning there is some Nice music. I liked it. To be in | :27:38. | :29:26. | |
with a chance of winning a mug, send your answer to our e-mail address. | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
Full terms and conditions are online. | :29:33. | :29:34. | |
It is coming up to midday here. Big Ben is behind me. I love that shot! | :29:35. | :29:43. | |
And in front of me is Nick Robinson of the BBC here for Prime Minister's | :29:44. | :29:46. | |
Questions. They are becoming quite rare these days because I think | :29:47. | :29:49. | |
after today there will not be one next week because Parliament has | :29:50. | :29:53. | |
nothing to do. They are all off to the seaside. Then it is the Whitsun | :29:54. | :29:57. | |
holiday so they will get two weeks. And then when they come back there | :29:58. | :29:59. | |
will be the week go now. I have had meetings with ministerial | :30:00. | :30:31. | |
colleagues and others and in addition to my duties in this House, | :30:32. | :30:35. | |
I will have further meetings later. The UK has 104 billionaires, London | :30:36. | :30:42. | |
has 72 billionaires. Wes Brown Wales and the valleys is in the top | :30:43. | :30:57. | |
poorest regions in Europe. Why is Lord Mandelson intensely relaxed | :30:58. | :30:59. | |
about people getting filthy rich. What is worthwhile is the massive | :31:00. | :31:05. | |
fall in unemployment and the increase in employment we have seen | :31:06. | :31:07. | |
across the country. In terms of Wales, unemployment has fallen by | :31:08. | :31:16. | |
5000 in the last quarter and fallen by 25,000 in the last election. In | :31:17. | :31:22. | |
terms of making sure the richest in our country pay their taxes, we see | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
the richest 1% paying a greater percentage of income tax than ever | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
they did under Labour. What we are seeing is abroad based recovery and | :31:34. | :31:39. | |
I want to make sure everyone in our country can benefit and that is why | :31:40. | :31:44. | |
we are cutting taxes and keep people from paying income tax. At the end | :31:45. | :31:56. | |
of November, a director of the Stagecoach company acquired Manston | :31:57. | :31:59. | |
airport in my constituency for ?1. On budget day, she announced she was | :32:00. | :32:05. | |
going into consultation with the view to closing an airport which is | :32:06. | :32:11. | |
worth hundreds of jobs, and major diversion field and a search and | :32:12. | :32:14. | |
rescue base. Since then we have sought to find a buyer. Last night | :32:15. | :32:18. | |
the river oak company, who already have airport interests put in a | :32:19. | :32:26. | |
realistic offer to keep the airport open, save jobs and develop the | :32:27. | :32:33. | |
business. At present the owners are reluctant. I don't expect my right | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
honourable friend to engage in commercial negotiations, but will he | :32:38. | :32:48. | |
ensure that the CAA operating licence remains open, the airport | :32:49. | :32:56. | |
remains open and further discussions are held and will he encourage those | :32:57. | :33:02. | |
discussions to take ways? I know my honourable friend has been fighting | :33:03. | :33:04. | |
hard with the honourable member about the future of Manston airport | :33:05. | :33:05. | |
and recognise it has played an important role in the local economy. | :33:06. | :33:06. | |
The future of the airport remains the responsibility of the owner, but | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
I think it is important the government is engaged. I know the | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
Transport Secretary is engaged and will be talking to the owner about | :33:16. | :33:20. | |
this issue and contacting the potential purchasers. In | :33:21. | :33:24. | |
this issue and contacting the they had to make a commercial | :33:25. | :33:25. | |
decision but the government will do everything it can to help. | :33:26. | :33:38. | |
I welcome the fall in unemployment. For all of those people who have | :33:39. | :33:47. | |
found work it is good for them and good for their families. Following | :33:48. | :33:57. | |
the appearance of Pfizer at the select committee yesterday, can the | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
Prime Minister tell us what assurances he is seeking from them | :34:02. | :34:08. | |
and their takeover of AstraZeneca. These are jobs he predict did would | :34:09. | :34:12. | |
never come to Britain and would never be there all stop but it is | :34:13. | :34:18. | |
important because what we see is the largest quarterly increase of people | :34:19. | :34:25. | |
in work, 280,000. We see unemployment is coming down, youth | :34:26. | :34:28. | |
unemployment is coming down and long-term youth unemployment coming | :34:29. | :34:36. | |
down with long-term economic plan working, we see the number of | :34:37. | :34:39. | |
vacancies going up. Honourable members may be interested to know, | :34:40. | :34:48. | |
three quarters of the new jobs over year have gone to UK nationals and | :34:49. | :34:51. | |
also, the employment of Romanians and Olga Aryans went down in the | :34:52. | :34:53. | |
first three months of this year, following the lifting of the | :34:54. | :35:00. | |
controls, which I think is notable. In terms of Pfizer and AstraZeneca | :35:01. | :35:10. | |
this government has been cleared to get stuck in to seek a possible | :35:11. | :35:13. | |
guarantees on British jobs, investment and British science. We | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
discussed this last week and one of the most important things is the | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
right honourable gentleman was asked for a meeting with Pfizer, but said | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
he was too busy politically campaigning. He put party politics | :35:27. | :35:34. | |
ahead of the national interests. I am not going to take any lectures | :35:35. | :35:44. | |
from the guy who was negotiating with Pfizer over the heads of the | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
board of AstraZeneca. Pfizer does not need a PR man, they have got the | :35:51. | :35:58. | |
Prime Minister. Now, for all sides of the House, the appearance of | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
Pfizer at a select committee raises more questions than answers about | :36:04. | :36:09. | |
so-called assurances. The head of Pfizer said there would be a fall in | :36:10. | :36:13. | |
research and development spending as a result of the takeover. Has the | :36:14. | :36:21. | |
Prime Minister got assurances these cuts will not take place in the UK? | :36:22. | :36:27. | |
What is the way of getting those guarantees? Is it getting stuck in | :36:28. | :36:31. | |
with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, battling for the British interest? | :36:32. | :36:38. | |
Or, is it standing back like he has done, doing nothing apart from | :36:39. | :36:40. | |
playing politics. I am clear what the British interest is, it is | :36:41. | :36:47. | |
British jobs, British science, writ -ish research and development and I | :36:48. | :36:53. | |
will do our bit link I can to receive those guarantees. 175,000 | :36:54. | :37:02. | |
employed in life sciences in our country because we encourage | :37:03. | :37:09. | |
investments. Companies have chosen to come and invest here because it | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
is a great country to come and do business. The problem is, his | :37:14. | :37:20. | |
assurances are vague, have caveats and are inappropriate. Not my words | :37:21. | :37:27. | |
but the words of the Presidents of the Royal Society. His assurances | :37:28. | :37:29. | |
are useless and there is no guarantee on research and | :37:30. | :37:35. | |
development. The head of Pfizer said yesterday, " there will be job cuts | :37:36. | :37:41. | |
somewhere". Has he got an assurance these job cuts will not take place | :37:42. | :37:48. | |
in the UK? We have assurances on the percentage of research and | :37:49. | :37:53. | |
development that will happen here, investment in Cambridge, investment | :37:54. | :37:57. | |
in Macclesfield. If he is arguing, do we want further assurances? Yes | :37:58. | :38:01. | |
we do. Do we want to make sure those jobs stay here? Yes we do do we want | :38:02. | :38:08. | |
more investment in British universities and science? Yes we do. | :38:09. | :38:15. | |
I say, get stuck in, negotiate hard, fight for Britain. He says, play | :38:16. | :38:21. | |
politics and put that before the national interest. His negotiations | :38:22. | :38:29. | |
aren't working. They are worthless. On research and development, on | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
jobs, he has no answers. What about the possible carving up of the | :38:34. | :38:39. | |
merged company? Nobody wants a company to be bought, split up and | :38:40. | :38:42. | |
sold off. Has he got assurances that won't happen in the course of this | :38:43. | :38:48. | |
takeover? We want a good out, or British investment and jobs. We know | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
what happens if you take the approach of the Labour Party. Let's | :38:54. | :38:59. | |
remember Kraft and Cadburys. We had wonderful speeches about locking | :39:00. | :39:06. | |
investments and then complete and abject surrender and the closure | :39:07. | :39:09. | |
plans under Labour. We have learned the lessons of the mistakes Labour | :39:10. | :39:15. | |
made. We are operating under the framework they left us, which he | :39:16. | :39:19. | |
wrote while he was at the Treasury. We will get results for British | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
science and investment by being engaged rather than standing off and | :39:25. | :39:32. | |
playing politics. He sold off Royal Mail at a knock-down price and the | :39:33. | :39:37. | |
Chancellor's Westman made a killing. That is what happens with his | :39:38. | :39:41. | |
assurances. The truth is, he cannot give us a guarantee because the | :39:42. | :39:50. | |
chief executive says, " he wants to conserve the option a la tea of | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
splitting up the company and flogging it off". Last week the | :39:55. | :39:59. | |
Prime Minister said he would judge the takeover on British jobs, | :40:00. | :40:01. | |
British investment and British science. But he cannot offer | :40:02. | :40:08. | |
assurances on any of those things. Isn't it obvious we should have a | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
proper test of the public interest and if the deal does not pass, we | :40:13. | :40:18. | |
should lock it. He raises this issue about the public interest test. | :40:19. | :40:22. | |
Which party, which government and which individual, when he was in the | :40:23. | :40:28. | |
Treasury writing the rules, got rid of that test? It was the right | :40:29. | :40:31. | |
honourable gentleman. That is what we see on a day when unemployment is | :40:32. | :40:37. | |
down, when more people are in work. He will try any trick, rather than | :40:38. | :40:47. | |
to talk about what is happening in our economy. The country is getting | :40:48. | :40:55. | |
stronger, he is getting weaker. He may not think it is important to | :40:56. | :40:59. | |
talk about a company that is 2% of UK experts and which 30,000 jobs | :41:00. | :41:01. | |
depend. It is crucial to our national interests. And the truth | :41:02. | :41:06. | |
is, he is not powerless, he is the Prime Minister. He can act on a | :41:07. | :41:10. | |
public interest test. We're talking about one of our most important | :41:11. | :41:16. | |
companies. Nobody is certain about his assurances and he is calling | :41:17. | :41:20. | |
back on the old idea that the market knows best and does not need rest. | :41:21. | :41:26. | |
From Royal Mail to AstraZeneca, this is a Prime Minister whose ideology | :41:27. | :41:32. | |
means he cannot stand up for the national interests. If the things | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
these companies are important, why didn't he meet with them rather than | :41:37. | :41:42. | |
go canvassing. He put his own party political interest ahead of the | :41:43. | :41:46. | |
national interest. He fails to understand with measure British | :41:47. | :41:51. | |
interest in British science, jobs and investment. But we measure it on | :41:52. | :41:55. | |
us being a country open to overseas investment. There is a reason | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
companies are coming here to make cars, build trains, make new drugs | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
in our company is because we cut taxes, welcome investments, we are | :42:06. | :42:11. | |
growing our economy and we have more people in work. We will not take a | :42:12. | :42:18. | |
lecture from the party that brought this economy to its knees. I am sure | :42:19. | :42:27. | |
the honourable gentleman is delighted to be greeted. The sun is | :42:28. | :42:34. | |
shining and people are preparing to come to Cornwall for their holiday. | :42:35. | :42:40. | |
When they arrive they will see some of the recent storm damage still has | :42:41. | :42:45. | |
not been put right. Cornwall doesn't just need a long-term, economic | :42:46. | :42:51. | |
plan. We need help today. Will he meet with me to see what more can be | :42:52. | :42:57. | |
done? I am happy to go on discussing with Cornish MPs and with the | :42:58. | :43:01. | |
council to make sure we do every thing to help Cornwall back onto its | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
feet after the storms. I have said the money is under the scheme, so | :43:07. | :43:10. | |
all of the emergency funding that Cornwall had to spend, it had | :43:11. | :43:15. | |
claimed back. It still has time to work on that claim. We have | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
increased the amount of money going through the Environment Agency to | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
repair storm damage. There is an opportunity for Cornwall to have | :43:25. | :43:29. | |
somebody as well. I am sure people are preparing to go to Cornwall and | :43:30. | :43:32. | |
when they get there they will have a very good time. This week the Public | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
Accounts Committee criticised the MoD for failing to account for a one | :43:38. | :43:43. | |
2p underspend, and went on to say this might result in higher spending | :43:44. | :43:48. | |
in future years. Does the Prime Minister think he is right he has | :43:49. | :43:54. | |
balanced the books at the MoD? I remember coming government where we | :43:55. | :43:58. | |
were left with a 38 William pounds black hole. If the criticism is the | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
Secretary of State is careful with the pounds and the pennies and | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
making sure there is an underspend, that can be carried forward into | :44:07. | :44:09. | |
further investment to make sure we have the best investment for the | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
troops, I suspect he may plead guilty. Stevenage continuously the | :44:14. | :44:27. | |
economic recovery. It shows our long-term economic plan is working. | :44:28. | :44:32. | |
economic recovery. It shows our Will the Prime Minister join with | :44:33. | :44:34. | |
economic recovery. It shows our in congratulating the | :44:35. | :44:37. | |
economic recovery. It shows our institutions and businesses in my | :44:38. | :44:38. | |
constituency that have increased apprenticeship starts to over 800 | :44:39. | :44:47. | |
apprenticeship starts now? My honourable friend is right. In | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
Stevenage unemployment has fallen by 24% over the last year which shows | :44:52. | :45:03. | |
our economic plan is working and every one of those people is not | :45:04. | :45:38. | |
just a They have zero hour contracts which do not pay enough to pay the | :45:39. | :45:44. | |
rent. Unemployment in Stockton has fallen over the last year. If he | :45:45. | :45:49. | |
looks at the unemployment figures, he will see that the number of | :45:50. | :45:52. | |
people in part-time work he will see that the number of | :45:53. | :45:57. | |
full-time work has fallen increasingly. People are able to | :45:58. | :46:00. | |
find the full-time work that they want. There is an increase in people | :46:01. | :46:05. | |
claiming housing benefit because there is an increase in people who | :46:06. | :46:08. | |
are in work. That is what is happening in our country, we are | :46:09. | :46:14. | |
getting people back to work. Mr Speaker, thousands of people in | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
my constituency are forced to use the NHS in Wales said they will be | :46:19. | :46:23. | |
concerned about yesterday's report which showed serious failings in the | :46:24. | :46:31. | |
care of fail older people at two NHS hospitals in Wales -- frail older | :46:32. | :46:36. | |
people. Don't the people of Wales and my constituency deserve better? | :46:37. | :46:40. | |
As I understand it these are very concerning reports which do need to | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
be studied because the NHS in Wales is not in a good state. We have had | :46:45. | :46:50. | |
an 8% cut in the budget. The last time A targets were met in Wales | :46:51. | :46:56. | |
was in 2009. The last time the urgent cancer treatment target was | :46:57. | :47:01. | |
met was in 2008. We really season problems in the NHS in Wales and | :47:02. | :47:05. | |
frankly the Labour Party are chatting to each other on the front | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
bench and they should be getting a grip of this issue and sorting out | :47:10. | :47:13. | |
the NHS. The Pfizer boss did give assurances | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
to the business committee yesterday. He gave an absolute | :47:18. | :47:22. | |
assurance that any takeover of AstraZeneca would result in a fall | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
in research and development into new drugs in the UK. The AstraZeneca | :47:27. | :47:33. | |
boss said it could put lives at risk. How can any Prime Minister | :47:34. | :47:37. | |
worth the title not immediately conclude that the right thing to do | :47:38. | :47:40. | |
in the national interest is to call this in? As I explained to his right | :47:41. | :47:46. | |
honourable friend, we are operating under the legal framework put in | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
place by the Government he was a member of. I actually think, when he | :47:51. | :47:53. | |
looks at The Record of what was said yesterday, I think you will find | :47:54. | :47:56. | |
that the quotes he gives are not accurate. Does the Prime Minister | :47:57. | :48:04. | |
agree that the building of vital roads like the A5 M1 link Dunstable | :48:05. | :48:10. | |
Northern bypass will create even more jobs and that continued | :48:11. | :48:13. | |
infrastructure investment like this is a key part of our long-term | :48:14. | :48:22. | |
economic plan? I agree. I have spent some time in his constituency stuck | :48:23. | :48:27. | |
on the A5 and I know how much it does need this remedial work done. | :48:28. | :48:32. | |
It is absolutely vital for this part of our country. We are investing | :48:33. | :48:37. | |
more in our railways since any time since the Victorian times and we are | :48:38. | :48:42. | |
investing more on our roads since the 1970s. It is keyed to the | :48:43. | :48:46. | |
success of our long-term economic plan. | :48:47. | :48:49. | |
Is there a good reason why the promised will not condemn the tax | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
affairs of Tory supporting Gary Barlow as morally wrong? I could not | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
be clearer that I condemn all of these progressive tax avoidance | :49:00. | :49:02. | |
schemes. And more than just condemning them, this government has | :49:03. | :49:07. | |
taken legislative action to say to people, to coin a phrase, we want | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
your money for good. Mr William Cash. Order, order! Lets | :49:13. | :49:21. | |
have a respectful silence for Mr William Cash. | :49:22. | :49:29. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. My right honourable friend will know that my | :49:30. | :49:33. | |
international do on gender equality act came into force last night. Will | :49:34. | :49:40. | |
he note that this will protect women and girls throughout the world and | :49:41. | :49:46. | |
furthermore that particularly in places like Nigeria and Syria, it | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
provides an opportunity to be able to do whatever we can to relieve | :49:52. | :49:55. | |
their tragedy. Will he be good enough to have a word with the | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
secretary of the, our excellent Secretary of State for International | :50:01. | :50:03. | |
development and do whatever we can to use that act to help those people | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
who are being severely afflicted? I am sure the whole house will want to | :50:09. | :50:14. | |
join me in amending this honourable gentleman for his bill and getting | :50:15. | :50:17. | |
this important measure on the statute book. This year, Britain is | :50:18. | :50:22. | |
taking some huge steps forward, using the power of our aid budget to | :50:23. | :50:27. | |
really try and drive change in our world, to end forever the scandals | :50:28. | :50:33. | |
of forced and early marriage and female genital mutilation. We are in | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
a really strong position to drive change on this. He mentioned Nigeria | :50:38. | :50:41. | |
and I can announce today that we have offered Nigeria further | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
assistance in terms of surveillance aircraft and the team to work with | :50:46. | :50:50. | |
US experts to analyse information on the girls' location. As I said last | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
week, this is an act of pure evil, the world is coming together not | :50:56. | :50:59. | |
just to condemn it but to help the Nigerians find these girls. | :51:00. | :51:06. | |
50,499 ambulances have been waiting in queues of at least half an hour | :51:07. | :51:12. | |
at accident and emergency units up and down the country. What is he | :51:13. | :51:17. | |
going to do about it? What we are doing about it is making sure the | :51:18. | :51:21. | |
?12.7 billion extra that we are putting into the NHS, unlike the | :51:22. | :51:27. | |
Labour NHS cut in Wales, is going to good use and we can actually see in | :51:28. | :51:33. | |
our NHS, we have 1.2 million more people attending accident and | :51:34. | :51:36. | |
emergency and over this winter period, we met our targets for | :51:37. | :51:41. | |
accident and emergency. I remember the last time the Labour leader | :51:42. | :51:46. | |
raised our hospitals at Prime Minister's Questions. It was back in | :51:47. | :51:51. | |
November. He has not had a word to say about it since! He predicted a | :51:52. | :51:55. | |
winter crisis, he sat there day after day dying for it to happen. It | :51:56. | :51:59. | |
did not happen because we have a strong NHS with more doctors and | :52:00. | :52:09. | |
nurses serving our country. The Prime Minister is well aware of | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
the wonderful work done by the Royal British Legion centre with our brave | :52:14. | :52:18. | |
servicemen and women who have been injured in conflict through adaptive | :52:19. | :52:23. | |
sports and adventurous training. At the end of this month, I will be | :52:24. | :52:28. | |
joining a team from the centre with the honourable members for Bass | :52:29. | :52:33. | |
North, chat and Aylesford, to raise awareness of this wonderful work and | :52:34. | :52:36. | |
will the Prime Minister wish us every success in this aim? I will | :52:37. | :52:42. | |
certainly wish the honourable gentleman from across the House, the | :52:43. | :52:49. | |
honourable gentlemen and ladies. I wish them well. The Royal British | :52:50. | :52:53. | |
Legion plays a key part in standing up for our veterans and their | :52:54. | :52:57. | |
interests and making sure we raise money and serve them properly. We | :52:58. | :53:00. | |
work very closely with them in government. The Battle Back centre | :53:01. | :53:08. | |
is an extraordinary facility. I wish you well and hope the fundraising | :53:09. | :53:12. | |
goes well. When the Prime Minister goes up to | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
Scotland this week, when he explained to our agricultural | :53:17. | :53:19. | |
producers in rural countries, wide by 2019 we will be receiving the | :53:20. | :53:24. | |
lower-level -- lowest level per hectare, not only of any country in | :53:25. | :53:32. | |
the UK but in the whole EU? What I will be explaining on my trip is how | :53:33. | :53:39. | |
Scotland is better off inside the United Kingdom, that we have all of | :53:40. | :53:43. | |
the negotiating power of the UK around the table to get a good deal | :53:44. | :53:47. | |
for Scotland, whereas an independent Scotland would have to queue up | :53:48. | :53:51. | |
behind other countries to get back into the European Union and | :53:52. | :53:55. | |
specifically on agriculture, because of the hard work of my right | :53:56. | :53:58. | |
honourable friend the agriculture secretary, we're actually making | :53:59. | :54:02. | |
sure that there will be extra support for Scottish farmers | :54:03. | :54:05. | |
absolutely in line with what the Scottish | :54:06. | :54:07. | |
absolutely in line with what the for. Richard Harrington. | :54:08. | :54:14. | |
According to the Watford Chamber of Commerce, this year Watford will | :54:15. | :54:16. | |
benefit from a total of ?1.5 Commerce, this year Watford will | :54:17. | :54:20. | |
in new investment. Already started, we have got a new road, two train | :54:21. | :54:26. | |
stations, two secondary schools being refitted and we have a | :54:27. | :54:31. | |
brand-new UTC. To cap all of that, today that has been an announcement | :54:32. | :54:37. | |
that unemployment is 667 less than a year ago. But I am very concerned | :54:38. | :54:43. | |
that this continues. I would like to ask the Prime Minister what his | :54:44. | :54:45. | |
strategy is to make sure this continues. If he takes my advice, Mr | :54:46. | :54:48. | |
Speaker, he will continues. If he takes my advice, Mr | :54:49. | :54:56. | |
something that is one long-term, two economic. First of all, can I say to | :54:57. | :55:02. | |
my honourable friend how well commit is that unemployment in Watford over | :55:03. | :55:07. | |
the last year has fallen by 30%. We are getting the people of Watford | :55:08. | :55:13. | |
back to work and cutting unemployment. What he says in terms | :55:14. | :55:16. | |
of the important investment with the rail link and the two new stations | :55:17. | :55:20. | |
and re-building new schools are absolutely vital. The long-term plan | :55:21. | :55:24. | |
is not just about jobs and cutting taxes, as important as those are, it | :55:25. | :55:29. | |
is also about supporting business and small business in particular, by | :55:30. | :55:34. | |
building the infrastructure we need. Because we have taken difficult | :55:35. | :55:37. | |
long-term decisions, we have been able to put this investment into our | :55:38. | :55:40. | |
roads and railways. able to put this investment into our | :55:41. | :55:49. | |
able to see a GP within 48 hours was not a priority. Does this Prime | :55:50. | :55:56. | |
Minister regret this? If you listen to the Royal College of GPs, they | :55:57. | :56:01. | |
are saying there is something like 40 million more GP appointments | :56:02. | :56:06. | |
since 2010. The patients survey always quoted by Labour ministers | :56:07. | :56:11. | |
when they were in government says 93% of people say appointments in | :56:12. | :56:14. | |
the GP system are convenient. Frankly, I want more. As the father | :56:15. | :56:19. | |
of three young children, I know how important it is to get timely GP | :56:20. | :56:24. | |
appointments. That is why we are training 5000 more GPs. We have | :56:25. | :56:28. | |
named GP for frail and elderly people. We have a thousand GP | :56:29. | :56:33. | |
centres which now open 8am to 8pm and at weekends. I tell you what I | :56:34. | :56:38. | |
do regret. I regret the fact the last Labour government signed a | :56:39. | :56:41. | |
contract with GPs which meant they did not have to offer a service out | :56:42. | :56:45. | |
of hours or at weekends. Because of the investment we are putting into | :56:46. | :56:50. | |
the NHS, actually, we are providing better services. If he is wondering | :56:51. | :56:55. | |
about the idea of a 48-hour target, he might ask why Labour scrapped one | :56:56. | :57:02. | |
in Wales. Nigel Evans. Ribble Valley Council has recently | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
approved its core strategy. Will he reassure local councillors that this | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
will now give them extra power to protect those areas within the | :57:12. | :57:16. | |
Ribble Valley that are not already earmarked for development. And will | :57:17. | :57:19. | |
he come and visit the Ribble Valley and see for himself why the Ribble | :57:20. | :57:23. | |
Valley is consistently voted one of the best places to live in the | :57:24. | :57:26. | |
United Kingdom and why local people want to keep it that way. I look | :57:27. | :57:34. | |
forward to visiting my honourable friend's constituency and broader | :57:35. | :57:36. | |
constituencies in Lancashire as well. I think the assurance I can | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
give him is this. When local councils put in place their local | :57:42. | :57:44. | |
plan, they will have far greater ability to determine how much | :57:45. | :57:48. | |
housing, what sort of housing and where it goes. That is what we are | :57:49. | :57:51. | |
trying to put in place and the faster local councils can put | :57:52. | :57:54. | |
implants the more power and responsibility they will have. | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
As the Prime Minister has acknowledged, the number of people | :58:00. | :58:02. | |
who are in work but have to claim housing benefit to make ends meet is | :58:03. | :58:06. | |
growing, but the cost of that will be an extra ?5 billion over the | :58:07. | :58:10. | |
course of this Parliament. Does the Prime Minister consider that a sign | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
of success? The most important thing we have done in respect to housing | :58:16. | :58:18. | |
benefit is to put a cap on it. When we claim to office there were | :58:19. | :58:24. | |
families claiming 60, 70, ?80,000. When we put the cap on housing | :58:25. | :58:28. | |
benefit, what was the Labour reaction? It was to vote against it. | :58:29. | :58:32. | |
When we said housing benefit should not be paid in respect of spare | :58:33. | :58:36. | |
rooms that people are not using, what was Labour's attitude? To | :58:37. | :58:42. | |
oppose it. The good news from his seat is, here is something which is | :58:43. | :58:46. | |
not going up, it is unemployment and it is down 31% in his constituency. | :58:47. | :58:53. | |
Some of those people in work are claiming housing benefit but because | :58:54. | :58:56. | |
of this government's long-term economic plan, more of his | :58:57. | :58:59. | |
constituents are in work and earning. Mr Andrew Percy. | :59:00. | :59:07. | |
Extra flood defence funding for the Humber area following the tidal | :59:08. | :59:11. | |
surge in December was most welcome but many of my constituents are | :59:12. | :59:14. | |
still out of their homes and there is concern that we get the 300 | :59:15. | :59:17. | |
million which is needed over the next five years. MPs are working | :59:18. | :59:22. | |
across party on this. Will the prime Minster meet with us so we can meet | :59:23. | :59:29. | |
with him to discuss the high risk of flooding? I had an experience of | :59:30. | :59:36. | |
very positive and good meetings with members of Parliament for Humberside | :59:37. | :59:40. | |
on a cross-party basis. We worked very hard to make sure the Siemens | :59:41. | :59:44. | |
investment went into a hole which is going to bring not just jobs to that | :59:45. | :59:49. | |
factory but a whole new industry and supply chain into the area -- | :59:50. | :59:54. | |
investment went into Hull. I will make sure we do all we can to | :59:55. | :59:59. | |
protect people's homes and businesses. | :00:00. | :59:59. | |
While I welcome the I hope you enjoyed that because you | :00:00. | :03:06. | |
will not be getting another one for a long time. The two frontbenchers | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
went backwards and forwards over Pfizer. Not a single new fact was | :03:11. | :03:17. | |
introduced in the exchanges. They just repeated what we have heard | :03:18. | :03:25. | |
many, many times before. Viewers did not engage and the subject matter. | :03:26. | :03:33. | |
Actually, what they did engage and was the performances of the party | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
leaders. Colin in Rugby said I do not know what scale politicians used | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
to measure charisma, but it did it matter if it is the Bofors scale, Ed | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
to measure charisma, but it did it air or possibly hot air. | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
to measure charisma, but it did it the wild applause | :03:55. | :03:57. | |
to measure charisma, but it did it for Ed Miliband was from the | :03:58. | :03:57. | |
Conservative MPs. for Ed Miliband was from the | :03:58. | :04:07. | |
long-term economic for Ed Miliband was from the | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
but those and zero hours contracts do not think it is working. Terry | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
Casey from Liverpool says the Prime Minister does not understand the | :04:20. | :04:20. | |
rich are earning a lot more Minister does not understand the | :04:21. | :04:29. | |
hence the rise in the tax. And some else accuses Ed Miliband of playing | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
politics, if you get to me. I got lost on that one. You can explain to | :04:35. | :04:44. | |
me later. Or all three main Westminster party is going to take | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
the view that the European elections do not say anything about the future | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
course in politics? The Greens did very well in 19 18, in the 1980s | :04:55. | :05:03. | |
when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, UKIP did well in the past | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
and another leader, Robert Kilroy silk. But if there is a big turnout | :05:08. | :05:37. | |
or whether there is a protest vote. I thought what was striking today is | :05:38. | :05:44. | |
Ed Miliband with news on a difficult wicket, a couple of the polls have | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
shown Labour behind and employment figures are very good. What he | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
wanted to avoid before an election is David Cameron pointing it out and | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
him pointing out he was scared to talk about the economy. It is better | :06:00. | :06:09. | |
than Manning crisis polls which have turned in the wrong direction. You | :06:10. | :06:18. | |
can talk about this long-term sustainability, but it looks like | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
this coalition government will go to the polls in a benign economic | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
atmosphere. The governor of the Bank of England is forecast for this | :06:29. | :06:36. | |
year, three point -- 3.4% growth and they have raised 2015, up 3%. No one | :06:37. | :06:45. | |
on the left or the right sort that would be a kind of background to the | :06:46. | :06:53. | |
run up to the election? We hoped for growth earlier and when we left | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
government growth was rising, unemployment was falling and so was | :06:58. | :06:59. | |
inflation. All of those things changed around 2010. We had three | :07:00. | :07:07. | |
wasted years when we did not have growth. But growth for who? Where is | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
the recovery being felt? It is being felt in London and the south-east | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
and we have talked about House prices. But working people are on | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
average ?1600 worse off with council tax bills going up, food going up | :07:23. | :07:31. | |
and rent going up. Putting a ceiling on rent rises, these are the | :07:32. | :07:45. | |
policies people are calling out for when we go out on the doorstep. So | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
it is a recovery for the South. Labour said if you follow these | :07:49. | :07:49. | |
policies, they won't be growth, there won't be recovery. We are now | :07:50. | :07:57. | |
seeing strong growth. We have cut the deficit by a third. Unemployment | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
coming down. There is clearly a palpable recovery going on across | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
the economy. Helping young people, at least the young unemployment | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
figures are coming down. And the long-term economic plan is working. | :08:14. | :08:20. | |
You say nobody predicted this would be the background to the election, | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
George Osborne predict did it. He said we would need to go through the | :08:25. | :08:27. | |
pain of austerity. He predict did things with a better, he did not | :08:28. | :08:35. | |
predict 3.4% growth, which is what the banks predicted because he has | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
to depend on the OBR figures for growth and they are consistently | :08:41. | :08:47. | |
wrong. The OBR is not the Treasury either. George Osborne sensibly | :08:48. | :08:54. | |
set... You know when you speak to senior Conservatives they will | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
surprise the economy is growing by over three and a half percent. We | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
are not surprised the economy is growing because that was the purpose | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
of the plan. I am talking about the volume of the growth which I think | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
has surprised all of the Westminster establishment on the left and the | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
right. The monetary policy committee meeting this morning, which is more | :09:20. | :09:26. | |
important than anything that happened at Prime Minister's | :09:27. | :09:28. | |
Questions. As the bank is telling us if the economy is growing by over | :09:29. | :09:35. | |
3%, it is a return to normality. 3% is the growth rate you get coming | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
out of a recession and at last we have reached that. So when do | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
interest rates return to normal? Has anybody given the thought too, the | :09:44. | :09:51. | |
closest we get to an election, does it not become a political move for | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
the Governor of the bank to start to change interest rates. In America | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
the Federal Reserve tries to avoid it in a presidential year. People | :10:01. | :10:08. | |
are stretched on their mortgages and can only afford them because | :10:09. | :10:10. | |
interest rates have been low for so long. While growth will help lots of | :10:11. | :10:16. | |
people, the rise in interest rates will help savers but will hurt | :10:17. | :10:24. | |
people with mortgages and push some over the edge. The governor was | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
signalling interest rate rises would come sooner than he originally | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
thought, but they will be gradual. I suspect if he thinks it has got to | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
be done, they will try to do it slowly and steadily rather than | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
waiting and waiting and doing it at one go. But it will be a big event, | :10:47. | :10:57. | |
even if it is only 25 basis points, it is the turning of the cycle, the | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
day he does that. What I cannot work out is, will he really do that this | :11:01. | :11:09. | |
side of voting day? The hint is, he is given the upgrading of economic | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
forecasts. But the interesting thing is, compared with him and his | :11:16. | :11:23. | |
predecessor, Mervyn King, he was a politician first. He was a Canadian | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
politician before he ran the Canadian central bank. He will be | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
aware of the political sensitivity of putting up interest rates. But if | :11:34. | :11:40. | |
the Bank of England concludes it has got to be done, I suspect it will | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
be. I suspect he will hold off, not just for political reasons but the | :11:46. | :11:48. | |
external pressures coming in on Britain at the moment are | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
deflationary. The strength of sterling, the spectre of deflation | :11:55. | :11:57. | |
in the Eurozone. I have just come back from Italy which has been hit | :11:58. | :12:05. | |
by Italy, so has Greece, Spain and Portugal. Even Sweden, in the north. | :12:06. | :12:13. | |
And this overcapacity in China, which will more than likely be | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
dumped on Europe, these goods will come in cheaply. I suspect because | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
of these deflationary pressures will not allow him to raise interest | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
rates for a while? He will not want to do anything to choke off the | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
recovery. And become political. We don't want to see people defaulting | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
on their mortgages. Damien talks about a recovery but when we have | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
half a million people on 0-hours contract 's, a million part-time | :12:45. | :12:46. | |
workers who would like to move to full-time work but can't because | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
their employers are not offering, or they cannot get the child care they | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
need. It is not a recovery fully spread across all parts of the UK | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
economy. It is spreading across all parts. One of the interesting things | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
about this recovery is how balanced it is, it is not just a consumer | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
recovery. Business investment as well. If it is not just consumers | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
and businesses have got somewhere else to go, what else is it? It is | :13:21. | :13:28. | |
exports as well. Overall, exports throughout the coalition's life have | :13:29. | :13:36. | |
been a negative on growth. But they are coming in the right direction | :13:37. | :13:39. | |
now. Manufacturing is doing better than people thought. A very low | :13:40. | :13:51. | |
base? The base actor the recession was extremely low, it has now | :13:52. | :14:00. | |
recovered under this government. And also the big issues leading up to | :14:01. | :14:07. | |
these elections is immigration. The Prime Minister squeezed in a mention | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
of it. You can look at the figures that show a big increase in the | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
number of people coming from the EU as a success story. Jobs are being | :14:16. | :14:17. | |
created and there is a record number of British people in jobs. If you | :14:18. | :14:19. | |
are UKIP, you can say, we did not get it right about Romania and dog | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
area but there is still a surge of people coming from the EU. It is | :14:24. | :14:30. | |
whether the data can be read in more than one way. Do these figures that | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
came out today, Vince Cable saying, I told you so. Or is Nigel Farage to | :14:35. | :14:44. | |
save I don't care which bit of Europe came from, they are still | :14:45. | :14:46. | |
coming. I suspect if they had gone on that it would have been more | :14:47. | :14:52. | |
interesting. We will not see you for a few weeks. Just go and do some | :14:53. | :15:01. | |
gardening, nothing else to do. We will see you on June 18. We will be | :15:02. | :15:08. | |
counting the days. The weather will be nice, what ever | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
you decide to do. How do you know that? | :15:12. | :15:21. | |
I believe the BBC weather forecast. LED lights are becoming more | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
popular, not just as flickering indicators are machines but for | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
vehicle headlights, industrial lighting and even illuminating | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
homes. They are seen as more efficient and longer lasting than | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
traditional lamps. It is perhaps for this reason they are also being seen | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
as an alternative option for street lighting by some councils. For soap | :15:43. | :15:48. | |
box this week, we hear from Simon Nicholas who is a leading campaigner | :15:49. | :15:53. | |
against LED street lighting in Trafford in South Manchester. | :15:54. | :16:09. | |
and spreading across Britain. Now councils up and down the country | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
want to use LEDs to light up our streets at night. Here in West | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
London they have already made the switch. Here in West London they use | :16:20. | :16:27. | |
them. They claim to use less energy. The cost of the PFI contract to | :16:28. | :16:33. | |
install these is unknown. In my own borough of Old Trafford, the cost | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
was similarly shrouded in secrecy. There is a question about how | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
cost-effective it really is. In order to achieve savings over | :16:45. | :16:46. | |
traditional lights, they must be supplied with a very high colour | :16:47. | :16:52. | |
temperature omitting high levels in the blue spectrum. There is an | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
increasing research which supports the view that blue | :16:57. | :17:02. | |
bad for health and the environment. A number of studies suggests the | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
blue lighting leads to the suppression of melatonin, a hormone | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
which leads to sleep. A report in 2009 recommended caution before any | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
widescale move to lean sodium lighting and broad-spectrum | :17:21. | :17:22. | |
lighting. Here, people have complained the new lights have | :17:23. | :17:28. | |
disrupted their sleep and they have had to use cardboard on the windows | :17:29. | :17:31. | |
to block the lighting. I believe we need to halt and reverse the spread | :17:32. | :17:38. | |
of LED lighting until wider research has been explored in the cold light | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
of day. And Simon Nicholas is with me now. | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
Let's look at the impact on health and sleep deprivation. How much | :17:50. | :17:52. | |
evidence have you got to support the claims made in that film that LED | :17:53. | :17:56. | |
lighting does have a negative impact? There is a lot of | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
multinational research which have been published to support that. It | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
is well acknowledged that blue light at night does affect sleep. And | :18:07. | :18:10. | |
also, the whole issue will blue light in the environment affects not | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
just human beings but also ecosystems of other animals and | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
plants. It is not a naturally occurring to have blue light at | :18:20. | :18:26. | |
night. There is a number of research that has been published. People are | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
not going to be sleeping under the lights. It is not as if you are | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
getting direct exposure, as if it was inside the house with you? I | :18:36. | :18:40. | |
think you do get exposure if it is coming through your living room | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
window in the evening and also, if you have a crack in the curtains, it | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
can come through and liked the room. Also it has been suggested that you | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
can get up in the middle of the night and walk into a room which | :18:54. | :18:56. | |
does not have the curtains closed and it can trigger your body clock | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
by just doing that. Is it true that even with the curtains closed, if | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
you are standing in the bedrooms, if you have an LED light facing your | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
house, you would have it streamed through the window? Guests. I went | :19:11. | :19:19. | |
to a gentleman's house last night and he has a downstairs flat and it | :19:20. | :19:22. | |
is streaming in almost like a floodlight from across the road into | :19:23. | :19:24. | |
his bedroom. It does last longer than some of the traditional | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
lighting that is used and is more efficient in terms of energy | :19:29. | :19:31. | |
consumption. Is that the reason behind using them? It is more | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
efficient but only if you tune it to omit a large amount of blue light. | :19:38. | :19:46. | |
There are other issues as well such as glare. They are extremely bright. | :19:47. | :19:52. | |
And also Flickr. There is concern and I have spoken to public health | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
England about this, that different types of streetlights operating at | :19:58. | :20:04. | |
different frequencies might cause problems in terms of seizures and | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
that sort of thing. Have you actually won your battle in | :20:09. | :20:14. | |
Trafford? In a sense, gas. They were in denial for a while about the | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
issue of health. They have gone away and given me a commitment that they | :20:19. | :20:25. | |
will not fit high colour temperature LEDs in Trafford. If more than -- is | :20:26. | :20:32. | |
more benign specifications do not stack up financially, they will not | :20:33. | :20:43. | |
be suppressed. I am worried about councils turning off the lights | :20:44. | :20:46. | |
altogether. As somebody who regularly site 's home later | :20:47. | :20:55. | |
tonight, there is research in a large amounts of accidents when the | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
lights are turned off. Eric Pickles says people should not be doing | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
aerobics at three o'clock in the morning. I do not think we want | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
lessons from Eric and aerobics but I think it is important that we have a | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
safe lighting system. Do you think this is? No, I think LED lights in | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
Salford, they have installed them, they have cut their bill, it is a | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
low-energy way of lighting the streets, councils are under pressure | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
and a price freeze would reduce that but I do think blue light, it is the | :21:26. | :21:35. | |
blue light which is most likely to keep us awake is staring at our | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
hand-held phones and our computers and we do that voluntarily. What you | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
say about the claim of Tory councils wanting to switch off the lights to | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
save money. Eric Pickles says he loves them being switched off at | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
night because it saves money and helps and sleep. Councils saving | :21:52. | :22:01. | |
money is not sensible if they are not saving on essential things. The | :22:02. | :22:08. | |
thing to do it is in areas where it does not make a difference. Having | :22:09. | :22:11. | |
full streetlights on at three o'clock in the morning inroads where | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
nobody walks down is not a sensible use of taxpayers' money. Is that | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
stops a fatal car crash. Cars have headlights. Public health England | :22:23. | :22:29. | |
has said that they are not convinced, there is research showing | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
that they can cause problems. Public Health England is not convinced by | :22:35. | :22:40. | |
that. The research on crime generally is almost perverse. It | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
shows that crime goes down if you switch the lights off. I made that | :22:45. | :22:48. | |
face as well when I heard that but it is fair to say that on the house | :22:49. | :22:53. | |
aspects and the crime and safety aspects, the research is at best | :22:54. | :23:00. | |
inconclusive. There is also environmental issues as well. Royal | :23:01. | :23:05. | |
commission report said it advised government to do some research and | :23:06. | :23:12. | |
not to rush into LED street lighting until the full environmental impact | :23:13. | :23:15. | |
had been considered. Thank you and come and tell us what Trafford | :23:16. | :23:26. | |
decide to do in the future. A crack team of researchers has been | :23:27. | :23:32. | |
on to the House of Commons and they tell us that last year there was a | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
PMQs after the Queens speech I stand corrected! But now there is some | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
doubt about it. There are several anti-EU groups | :23:43. | :23:53. | |
in each electoral region, including ex-UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass and his | :23:54. | :24:00. | |
"An Independence from Europe" Party. Let's have a look | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
at their election broadcast. No one would have believed that in | :24:05. | :24:24. | |
the first years of the 21st century, Britain's affairs were being watched | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
and scrutinised by an alien world. With our three political parties who | :24:31. | :24:34. | |
lie to the public about their intentions, minds more Eurocrat than | :24:35. | :24:41. | |
ours, slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And then it came. | :24:42. | :24:49. | |
The hideous body of the EU, smashing our democracy and destroying our | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
laws. Plotting to annihilate our currency and sucking up our pension | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
funds. And Mike Nattrass is here in the | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
studio. Welcome to the Daily Politics. There is the United | :25:07. | :25:09. | |
kingdom Independence party and now there is the An Independence From | :25:10. | :25:15. | |
Europe party. It is a bit like the people's Judaean front and the | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
Judaean front... Traditionally in British politics, it was the far | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
left that went into endless factions. I think there were 16 | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
different Trotskyite groups. Are you not in danger of doing the same? No, | :25:29. | :25:35. | |
we are not the same. We are to the left of UKIP. We do not believe in | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
privatisation which is being bandied around by Nigel who does tend to | :25:41. | :25:44. | |
wreck policy on the hoof. We are against privatisation especially in | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
the National Health Service but of course we want to get out of Europe. | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
That is our main policy. By referendum? Not necessarily. Our own | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
sticky issue and does not need a referendum. It really needs MPs with | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
a backbone to get us out. They need a referendum because otherwise they | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
are scared to do it. Am I right in thinking the main motivation of this | :26:10. | :26:14. | |
party is to get Nigel? There is no personal animosity? No, there is... | :26:15. | :26:27. | |
Do you despise him? Jelena I would rather stay away. Of the 12 MEPs he | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
had, there are now six. Where you kicked out of UKIP or did you leave? | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
I resigned when I found that he was trying to change the members' ballot | :26:40. | :26:41. | |
when he trying to change the members' ballot | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
order of the list of candidates. I walked out of a meeting in | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
Strasbourg where he was gerrymandering the list. Your | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
election broadcast seems rather similar to one that UKIP had. It was | :26:55. | :27:03. | |
mine, I own it. I paid for it. In the early 2000s I think I did four | :27:04. | :27:09. | |
broadcasts for UKIP. I was the deputy leader at the time. Do you | :27:10. | :27:15. | |
have problems as UKIP has had that people are saying rather outlandish | :27:16. | :27:23. | |
and Ed Jepson of all things. -- and objection all things. Not so far. I | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
have had some amusing telephone calls. Mostly people ringing up and | :27:28. | :27:35. | |
saying good luck. Have you had any far right problems? I do not think | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
so. You have somebody from the Dutch Freedom party. They left the Dutch | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
Freedom party for that reason. In the same way that some people from | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
UKIP have distanced themselves because he has joined a group in the | :27:51. | :27:54. | |
European Parliament which is probably obnoxious. You both want to | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
leave Europe, you differ on privatisation but what other | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
distinguishing characteristic you have other than you are not Nigel | :28:04. | :28:09. | |
Farage? I am a grammar school kid, I did not go to public school. Just | :28:10. | :28:16. | |
one policy, quickly. We think assemblies should not exist in their | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
present form. Regional assemblies. They should be occupied by MPs who | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
break from Westminster, it leaving the English to deal with English | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
matters in the English Parliament. Very well. We have to leave it there | :28:30. | :28:35. | |
but thank you. We have to pick who won guessed the year. -- the winner | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
is Ruth Duffy from Lancashire. We'll be back tomorrow | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
at noon with all the big political We'll be joined by pensions expert | :28:47. | :28:52. | |
Ros Altman, so do join us then. | :28:53. | :28:57. |