Browse content similar to 25/11/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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the Chancellor enjoys a bounty of better financial forecasts, and | :00:00. | :00:07. | |
uses them to soften his cuts and talk the politics of the centre. | :00:08. | :00:17. | |
We were elected as a one-nation Government. | :00:18. | :00:20. | |
Today we deliver the Spending Review of a one-nation Government. | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
This Government the mainstream representatives | :00:25. | :00:33. | |
Much of the day's attention though was focused on the | :00:34. | :00:48. | |
Shadow Chancellor's red face after waving Chairman Mao's red book. | :00:49. | :00:54. | |
It's the new politics, man. It shah shaken things up. | :00:55. | :01:05. | |
George Osborne's former right-hand man is with us to explain it all, | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
and we'll hear from Labour and the Conservatives on where it leaves | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
Also tonight, we hear from the youthful new Prime | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
I have a tremendous amount of faith in citizens, that if I | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
didn't have anything to say - it didn't matter how good | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
my hair was - I wouldn't be sitting here right now talking to you. | :01:24. | :01:33. | |
Remember Napoleon famously said he didn't want good generals, | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
Well, George Osborne looks to be enjoying | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
Because, there was one number that mattered in his Autumn Statement | :01:44. | :01:49. | |
today, one figure that had nothing to do with him - it was ?27 billion. | :01:50. | :01:54. | |
That was the good news in the forecasts, | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
the underlying improvement over the five-year parliament | :01:59. | :01:59. | |
?27 billion is about ?5.5 billion a year. | :02:00. | :02:10. | |
Combine the effects of better tax receipts and lower debt interest and | :02:11. | :02:20. | |
the OBR calculate means a ?27 billion improvement in our public | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
finances in the forecast period compared to where they we were in | :02:24. | :02:26. | |
the budget. Now, a lot of people missed that | :02:27. | :02:26. | |
during the Chancellor's speech and were thus baffled for the remaining | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
50 minutes as to how he could A spectacular U-turn on tax credits, | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
no cuts to the Police, extra money for house building, | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
roads and infrastructure. Plus some smaller gratuities | :02:37. | :02:38. | |
for the Arts Council, UK Sport, the Commonwealth War Graves | :02:39. | :02:40. | |
Commission, women's health But, if you've got | :02:41. | :02:42. | |
an extra ?5 billion or ?6 billion to play with, everything's much easier | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
than it was before. In fact, back in the July Budget | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
things were already improving So a killer fact is that the actual | :02:52. | :02:54. | |
cuts to day-to-day departmental spending that we are going to see | :02:55. | :03:02. | |
are about a quarter of the ones that Don't dance a jig - | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
the cuts still won't be easy. But not as difficult | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
as tough-sounding Conservative What the OBR giveth, | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
it can take away. The last Chancellor to enjoy | :03:15. | :03:21. | |
improving forecasts was this one: We are not only providing the ?40 | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
billion extra we promised to health and education, but today I will | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
announce more money and more capital investment in schools, hospitals, | :03:31. | :03:32. | |
transport and fighting crime. In Gordon Brown's day, | :03:33. | :03:42. | |
he actually made the forecasts. Today, they are independent, | :03:43. | :03:49. | |
and I think they are independent. So the key question today is, where | :03:50. | :03:52. | |
did the ?27 billion improvement come Here's our economics editor, | :03:53. | :03:58. | |
Duncan Weldon. It might only be November but the | :03:59. | :04:13. | |
Christmas lights are already up, and today the Chancellor got an early | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
present in the form of a ?27 billion windfall over the next five years. | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
The new forecast from the office of bubble responsibility show an | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
unexpected improvement in the public finances. This graph shows changes | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
to the borrowing forecasts since the budget in July. Above the line means | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
higher borrowing and below it is lower borrowing. ?27 billion less | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
borrowing across the Parliament, with especially big falls in the | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
middle between 2017 and 2019. That gave the Chancellor the room for a | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
net giveaway in almost every year and still meant that after this year | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
borrowing is forecast to be lower in each year. Finding ?27 billion is | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
going to give anyone a big sense of Christmas cheer. Especially when it | :05:01. | :05:03. | |
helps dig you out of a tight political hole. Forecasts for the | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
rest of the economy is broadly unchanged so. , where on earth has | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
it come from? Some of it was from lower interest rates. But much of it | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
was from a change in how the OBR model tax revenues. George Osborne | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
certainly benefitted from two pieces of good news from the OBR today that | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
I don't think many people were expected them to be that size. Tax | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
receipts have come in better this year and the OBR thinks that is | :05:31. | :05:33. | |
going to continue in the medium term. That boosts the forecast for | :05:34. | :05:41. | |
revenues. But there were different modelling changes in VAT and | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
national insurance contributions, which gave George Osborne a bit more | :05:46. | :05:51. | |
room for manoeuvre. The timing might be fortuitous for the Chancellor but | :05:52. | :05:56. | |
the OBR is widely regarded as impartial. We reviewed forecast | :05:57. | :06:07. | |
methods all the time. There is an official process which happens once | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
a year, and we look back on our errors and we decide how to change | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
how we work. The Christmas bonus didn't just mean a cancelling of tax | :06:18. | :06:23. | |
credit cuts but eased the pain in Whitehall. In the last budget huge | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
cuts in departmental spending were pencilled in. A ?40 billion plus cut | :06:28. | :06:34. | |
in four years and then a rise. What was called the roller poster. After | :06:35. | :06:42. | |
the election the cuts were scaled back and today the unexpected | :06:43. | :06:45. | |
windfall has been used to iron out even more of them. The roller | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
coaster is now a gentler incline and the departmental cuts are a quarter | :06:52. | :06:57. | |
of the size outlined 8 months ago. Today the OBR has acted as is about | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
tota clause, but unlike Father Christmas they sometimes take | :07:03. | :07:05. | |
presents away. In the past when they've given George Osborne bad | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
news he's responded by pushing the date by which he wants to balance | :07:10. | :07:11. | |
the books further away. Today when giving good news, rather than | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
pulling that date back he's chosen to spend the windfall. | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
pulling that date back he's chosen economists would call an | :07:23. | :07:22. | |
asymmetrical economists would call an | :07:23. | :07:29. | |
a politics fixed on deficit reduction might call not fixing the | :07:30. | :07:31. | |
There was a big U-turn on roof | :07:32. | :07:43. | |
credits. Is it as straightforward as a simple U-turn. It is a handbrake | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
180 degree turn. They a simple U-turn. It is a handbrake | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
cut tax credits. Those cuts have now a simple U-turn. It is a handbrake | :07:53. | :07:54. | |
gone. In the July budget a simple U-turn. It is a handbrake | :07:55. | :07:55. | |
Government said they were making a simple U-turn. It is a handbrake | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
credit, the new welfare a simple U-turn. It is a handbrake | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
what that means is a lot of the tax credit cuts have been reversed | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
today, meaning people will have more money in two or three years. But by | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
the end of the Parliament, because the universal credit cuts are in | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
place, there'll be a substantial number of people losing a | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
substantial amount of money. Right, so the other thing we need to talk | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
about is this issue about the OBR and its independence. Because you | :08:24. | :08:26. | |
and I know system of these people. and its independence. Because you | :08:27. | :08:33. | |
What do you think, a lot of people are taking the line that it is so | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
convenient for the Chancellor to have all of this before Christmas. | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
On Twitter today that was the line, that | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
On Twitter today that was the line, numbers for the Chancellor, and | :08:47. | :08:48. | |
On Twitter today that was the line, are, but the | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
On Twitter today that was the line, If you remember the huge fight | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
before the election about cutting spending back to 1934 levels. That | :08:59. | :09:00. | |
was a big tranche of good news | :09:01. | :09:10. | |
in the forecast, but the Chancellor billion or so from buy-to-let | :09:11. | :09:29. | |
investors. Extra taxes, | :09:30. | :09:30. | |
and smaller spending cuts. Should we have predicted | :09:31. | :09:32. | |
that back at the election? All in all, it makes the judgement | :09:33. | :09:34. | |
about the politics more nuanced. Mr Osborne more centrist | :09:35. | :09:37. | |
than he likes to posture. Let's look at the politics | :09:38. | :09:39. | |
of it all, with Allegra. Today we got a | :09:40. | :09:48. | |
Not just of what the state will look like but the career prospects of our | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
current Chancellor. The most powerful man in Government has been | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
in trouble since his emergency budget in July. How would he get out | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
of this fix? I've listened to the concerns. I hear and understand | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
them. And because I've been able to announce today an improvement in the | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
public finances the, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these | :10:09. | :10:16. | |
chains these changes in but to avoid them altogether. It took the Shadow | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
Chancellor a while to claim victory. There is such a thing as the iron | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
law, and the louder the cheers for the statement on the day, the | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
greater the disappointment by the weekend when the analysis goes in. | :10:35. | :10:40. | |
George Osborne today shelved the untra painful tax credit changes due | :10:41. | :10:52. | |
in April. Everyone is being moved on to a less generous universal credit | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
system. Watch the face of Labour's deputy leader on the right of your | :10:57. | :11:02. | |
screen. To assist comrade Osborne in his dealings with his new-found | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
comrades I've brought him Mao's little Red Book. Let me quote, Mr | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
Speaker. THE SPEAKER: Order! I want to hear | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
about the contents of the book! Today was a win for the opposition, | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
except many in Labour's ranks feel dispirited right now. They know | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
George Osborne only did what he did on tax credits because he doesn't | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
feel threatened by Labour. Instead it was an exercise of clearing the | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
decks for the Chancellor, so get rid of the tax credit problem to | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
underscore that you are the party of workers, he hopes. Get rid of the | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
the threat of risk to police forces, to show that you are the party of | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
security, he hopes. Many don't expect Jeremy Corbyn do lead Labour | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
into the next election, so today they were readying themselves for | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
what comes next. But how did we get here? It was the prospect of another | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
mauling by Tory rebels in the Commons that probably proved most | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
deadly. Baroness Stroud was critical of the changes. In 2010, nine in 10 | :12:12. | :12:18. | |
people were in receipt of tax credits if they were working with | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
families. The changes he made up to 2015 were to reduce that to six in | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
ten. These changes only took it to five in ten. If you spoke to the | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
average person on the street and said, who should the Government be | :12:32. | :12:35. | |
supporting, they would say probably 50% of the population is quite | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
generous. So he looks at it in macroterms and structural terms, but | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
the changes today about human lives are about people, and about saying | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
actually we and that losing money is really difficult. Are you surprised | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
you won this debate? I'm delighted we won this debate. You must find | :12:55. | :13:00. | |
yourself with real goals and targets and being quite disciplined to get | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
these things delivered, but it is probably easy to forget perhaps what | :13:06. | :13:08. | |
the real world is like out there. But the important thing is he's | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
reeled, he's listened to us and changed it. . In the Conservative | :13:14. | :13:17. | |
Party a lot of people voted for us the first time because they trusted | :13:18. | :13:22. | |
us and perhaps hadn't before. We risked destroying that if we were | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
all about financial responsibility, not thinking about people. We had to | :13:27. | :13:33. | |
call time on that. It may be that Labour's right that the devil is in | :13:34. | :13:39. | |
the detail and further scrutiny will see today's measures unravel, George | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
Osborne taking people for fools, or just as after the omnishambles | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
budget in the last Parliament the Chancellor really has learnt. In | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
tarot I'm told the death card can often mean renewed life. | :13:54. | :14:01. | |
The man who was joined at the hip to George Osborne | :14:02. | :14:04. | |
until the election was Rupert Harrison, his chief of staff. | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
He's left the Treasury now, but he's here in the studio. | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
Good evening. Give us some insight. Back at election time, did you | :14:14. | :14:22. | |
really expect to make the cuts that you were talking about then? I think | :14:23. | :14:29. | |
we certainly thought it was doable. We came on a lot of shows, I didn't | :14:30. | :14:35. | |
but George Osborne and other Conservative Ministers came on | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
endless shows like annuity and were asked a lot of questions and we had | :14:40. | :14:44. | |
answers. In the back of the minds of most people in the Conservative | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
Party and indeed almost everybody in the commentariat at the time there | :14:50. | :14:52. | |
was an unspoken assumption there would probably be a coalition and I | :14:53. | :14:55. | |
think that coloured a lot of people's views. I don't think they | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
put together plans that were unimplementable. There was maybe an | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
expectation you might have been negotiating. At the back of people's | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
minds was the mainstream expectation but we ation, put together a plan | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
that was knowingly impossible. Conservative politicians came under | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
a lot of pressure at that election from you and others on how difficult | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
they were. A lot of us looked at it and said wow! That's eye wateringly | :15:24. | :15:29. | |
difficult and the OBR said back to the Government of the 1930s. That | :15:30. | :15:32. | |
was quite ferocious. Surprise, surprise you haven't thrived those | :15:33. | :15:36. | |
cuts. Are you surprised? It is not me. Sorry, you wrote them at the | :15:37. | :15:42. | |
time, but the cuts haven't been delivered. | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
The economy is in a better place than people thought, and receipts | :15:48. | :15:55. | |
are a bit better. It is unfair that politicians get a raw deal, and when | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
things go worse than it expected, it is their fault. George Osborne had | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
some money to play with today because of a stronger economy, a | :16:06. | :16:10. | |
stronger economy he has been talking about for five years. As a | :16:11. | :16:15. | |
Chancellor, you make your own luck. Explain to me why you had to put | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
taxes up today. Taxes have gone up by around ?5.5 billion. You were not | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
talking about that in the election campaign. The spending cuts were not | :16:27. | :16:33. | |
as difficult as you thought, but you still... You keep saying, you! The | :16:34. | :16:43. | |
big one today is the apprenticeships levy, which is a system designed to | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
incentivise companies to provide apprenticeships. They get the money | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
back if they do. In terms of taxes in general, the big picture, as a | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
result of today, is that spending is coming down to around 36% of GDP, | :17:00. | :17:07. | |
towards the lows of our lifetimes. Equally, tax receipts as a share of | :17:08. | :17:13. | |
GDP, the amount of tax coming in, is in line with the average. It is | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
rising. The details today, there was ?1 billion from stamp duty, there | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
was a specific policy aimed more at the dynamics of the housing market | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
than bringing in revenues, but you have a Chancellor who is taking | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
difficult decisions, cutting spending, and most of that is being | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
done by spending cuts. Before the election he was posturing as tougher | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
than he really is - you would deny that? It is a strategy to posture | :17:46. | :17:53. | |
that you would do more terrible things than you pretend. I think he | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
wanted to mandate for those difficult decisions. He didn't know | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
what those decisions would be. In 2010, the interesting thing about | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
the UK compared to other countries who have struggled with deficit is | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
that no one question the mandate that George Osborne and David | :18:15. | :18:17. | |
Cameron had to cut spending, because they went into the election with | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
quite a lot of honesty about what they were going to do. The lesson | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
they drew from that was that it gave them the mandate to go on and do it. | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
They were confident in the last election that the job wasn't done | :18:31. | :18:37. | |
and they had to go on to do it. The relationship between the OBR and the | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
Treasury... When did they tell you how much you have a year? It happens | :18:43. | :18:49. | |
in phases. You get an initial forecast from them about six weeks | :18:50. | :18:56. | |
to two months out. We learn to take that initial forecast with a pinch | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
of salt. When you start putting together this Rubik 's cube... You | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
get an update every couple of weeks. George Osborne would have | :19:07. | :19:09. | |
known that things were looking better. We have been allowed to | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
believe it was all much more serious than it was. He might have known | :19:15. | :19:19. | |
with more certainty two weeks to go than six weeks to go. Thank you. | :19:20. | :19:22. | |
Just because a Spending Review isn't as dripping in blood | :19:23. | :19:25. | |
as you thought it would be doesn't mean it isn't still pretty brutal. | :19:26. | :19:28. | |
Ironically, the areas in most pain at the moment are health | :19:29. | :19:33. | |
With a bit of extra money, and a little financial trickery, health | :19:34. | :19:36. | |
and social care looked like winners today - but that doesn't mean their | :19:37. | :19:39. | |
problems are solved, as our policy editor, Chris Cook, explains. | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
And in this Spending Review, people - our national health. | :19:45. | :20:06. | |
Taking a step back, things are a little bit murkier than the | :20:07. | :20:14. | |
For example, spending on NHS England has definitely risen | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
by a sizeable amount, but there have been cuts to health services | :20:19. | :20:21. | |
So, taken altogether, the health budget is rising, but the Chancellor | :20:22. | :20:34. | |
has been a lot less generous than he would like to think. The Chancellor | :20:35. | :20:43. | |
told us there would be ?5.5 billion of extra spending for the NHS last | :20:44. | :20:50. | |
year. After information, that's 3.8 billion. Part of it is being covered | :20:51. | :20:57. | |
by a ?1.5 billion cut to things which are not considered part of the | :20:58. | :21:03. | |
NHS, but only really because of technicalities. There is a jet | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
covering vaccination and training doctors that will drop by about 10%. | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
There will be a sigh of relief from some people who were wondering | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
whether they would be able to pay their staff next year. The NHS | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
starts the next financial year already in deficit. When this was | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
asked for, they did not envisage there would be a number of other | :21:26. | :21:32. | |
things that have been announced, such as seven-day GP surgeries. It | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
is very challenging. The amount of efficiency improvement going to be | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
asked for is unprecedented. There is some question whether this is a | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
doable task in the time available. The overall health budget will get | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
an increase of less than 1% a year above inflation. Not a huge one. You | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
cannot talk about the NHS without talking about social care, which is | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
largely provided by local authorities. Today, there was | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
discussion is about how problems in social care are feeding back into | :22:09. | :22:12. | |
hospitals who cannot discharge patients anywhere that can look | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
after them. How did social care do today? Those local authorities | :22:17. | :22:22. | |
responsible for social care will be able to levy a social care pre-set | :22:23. | :22:28. | |
of up to 2% on council tax. The money raised will have to be spent | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
exclusively on adult social care, and for authorities who make full | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
use of it, it will bring ?2 billion into the social care system. Local | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
authorities will be able to access an extra ?1.5 billion by 2019-20. It | :22:45. | :22:53. | |
is fine to give councils the freedom to put up their council tax a bit, | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
but the councils who have the most need for social care are those which | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
have the least revenue from raising council tax. Deprived areas will not | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
do as well from this settlement, and there is nothing to address what I | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
would see as the fundamental injustice. If you have cancer you | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
are entitled to a lot of free, expensive health care. If you have | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
dementia, all too often, you and your family are left to struggle | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
with inadequate help. There is enough to keep social care and the | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
NHS going for now, but there will be problems in some areas. Keeping | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
within this budget for five years will be phenomenally difficult. With | :23:37. | :23:44. | |
me now is Greg Hands and Seema Malhotra. Greg Hands, you heard that | :23:45. | :23:51. | |
the long-term problems of health and social care are not really resolved. | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
We had a Royal commission to decades ago, yet still, we are having to | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
pump extra money in without a true solution being found. I disagree | :24:01. | :24:07. | |
with that. We set out two things today. First, central government is | :24:08. | :24:13. | |
going to put in an additional ?1.5 billion into social care from | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
central budgets. Councils will be able to raise a 2% per annum | :24:18. | :24:23. | |
precept, so long as it is spent on social care, to deliver that at | :24:24. | :24:29. | |
local authority level. Does it fill the gap between need and cash? It | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
will allow local authorities to increase the amount of money spent | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
on social care in real terms. But the demand is increasing every year. | :24:40. | :24:44. | |
Does it fill the gap between funding and demand? We are confident it | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
offers a very good solution in terms of the amount of money we raise | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
locally, the amount we put in century, a long-term solution on | :24:54. | :24:59. | |
social care. Part of that, the police. When was it decided that | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
there would be no cuts in the police budget? That decision was taken | :25:03. | :25:08. | |
partly as a result of presentations we have had, partly as a result of | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
the increased public finance figure is mentioned in your programme | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
earlier, the ?27 billion improvement, which allowed us more | :25:20. | :25:22. | |
room to do something which is the right things to do. But when | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
exactly? Literally in the last couple of days? A lot of these | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
things move around all the time when you are doing something like a | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
Spending Review, with five years of government budgets in front of you, | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
as well as an Autumn Statement, a lot of things move around all the | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
time. Why was it necessary to raise taxes today? You had ?27 billion of | :25:47. | :25:52. | |
good news, and you have had to raise taxes. Why? The two main items that | :25:53. | :26:01. | |
you mention when you talk about taxes, firstly the apprenticeship | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
levy, which isn't really a tax in a conventional sense, but it is an | :26:07. | :26:10. | |
amount of money that businesses will have to pay into to provide | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
apprenticeships and training for their own workforce. Secondly, in | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
terms of stamp duty land tax on additional homes, and extra 3% | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
surcharge on the rate of stamp duty paid, which is about revenue and | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
sending a message to first-time buyers that we want to bias the | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
system back towards first-time buyers in terms of what they can do | :26:35. | :26:40. | |
in the housing market. Am I right that the taxes raised, for whatever | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
motive, have helped the public finance systems to the tune of ?5.5 | :26:46. | :26:51. | |
billion? The taxes that have been raised have been helped by public | :26:52. | :26:59. | |
finance. So there is a ?5 billion tax... We are funding the | :27:00. | :27:06. | |
apprenticeships as well, because the cost of the apprenticeship will | :27:07. | :27:12. | |
improve. The IFS said, be ready for taxes to ride -- to rise, on | :27:13. | :27:19. | |
February the 4th. The IFS said it because the spending increasing | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
didn't look possible. Amazingly, within a year of the election, we | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
have had taxes rising and we haven't had the spending cuts that were | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
promised. It is an extraordinary departure. I disagree with the | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
premise of that question. There are spending cuts coming. Some are | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
unprotected. We have delivered the tax lock, going into the general | :27:45. | :27:49. | |
election which we will preserve over the course of the parliament, income | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
tax, national insurance and DAT will not be raised during the course of | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
the parliament. Seema Malhotra. Can you help me out? What is the Labour | :28:02. | :28:08. | |
critique of the Autumn Statement? It is really disappointing to hear what | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
Greg has been saying on the NHS and other matters. This was a smoke and | :28:14. | :28:19. | |
mirrors Autumn Statement. What you saw and heard isn't necessarily what | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
we are going to get. There was no big story about investment for the | :28:24. | :28:29. | |
future, when we have seen infrastructure investment dropped. | :28:30. | :28:34. | |
It dropped in the last Parliament from over 3% of GDP to 1.5%, and | :28:35. | :28:42. | |
falling further. That was Alistair Darling's projected cuts. It was | :28:43. | :28:49. | |
under George Osborne. Only 9% of infrastructure projects have | :28:50. | :28:52. | |
started. Average earnings forecasts are set to go down over the next | :28:53. | :28:58. | |
three years, as our productivity forecasts. We already have a 20 | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
point gap in our productivity between us and other G-7 nations. If | :29:04. | :29:09. | |
I can mention about tax credits. What we saw today was in one way a | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
U-turn, but it isn't all it seems. It has been an effective delay, and | :29:15. | :29:21. | |
a disguise of those cuts, which will come forward in a another form in a | :29:22. | :29:26. | |
few years' time, did the same families, through the Universal | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
Credit. Tonight we heard from the Resolution Foundation, chaired by | :29:33. | :29:36. | |
David Willetts, that 3 million families will see an average drop of | :29:37. | :29:41. | |
?1000 in their household income by 2020. Can you confirm those | :29:42. | :29:43. | |
figures? We haven't seen those figures yet. | :29:44. | :29:54. | |
Our election pledge to deliver ?12 billion in welfare savings by the | :29:55. | :29:58. | |
year 1920 will be delivered. You were elected having said you will | :29:59. | :30:01. | |
not be cutting tax creditsment that's why George Osborne has seen a | :30:02. | :30:05. | |
big knock to his trust and credibility. What you've tried to do | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
is force this through Parliament through the back door. And now he | :30:10. | :30:14. | |
said today is a U-turn. This is going to unravel, because it's been | :30:15. | :30:19. | |
a delay. Greg Hands, you've done modelling of the effects on | :30:20. | :30:23. | |
individual households of the tax credits and universal credit | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
packages open to the Parliament. The Resolution Foundation think a single | :30:29. | :30:34. | |
parent working part time with a child on the living wage will lose | :30:35. | :30:40. | |
?1,000 by 2020. . I haven't seen the figures. But you must know the | :30:41. | :30:48. | |
effects. We've made sure it is much better aligned with what we are | :30:49. | :30:52. | |
doing with welfare and elsewhere this re this | :30:53. | :30:58. | |
doing with welfare and elsewhere this re -- in the system. Don't | :30:59. | :31:06. | |
forget the tax allowance which will rise... Sorry, that's been taken | :31:07. | :31:11. | |
into account. You've done these figures, the you've modelled effects | :31:12. | :31:15. | |
on households. Not you personally, the Treasury. Not me personally, but | :31:16. | :31:20. | |
what I will say is we are delivering on that pledge to save ?12 billion | :31:21. | :31:27. | |
of welfare and we've done a budget surplus, which is very important. | :31:28. | :31:30. | |
Sounds like you haven't worked out what the effects are, but we can | :31:31. | :31:36. | |
come back to that. Seema Malhotra, I heard your Shadow Chancellor say he | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
opposed all the cuts but I also heard him criticise the Government | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
for having cleared the deficit already. You can't have it both | :31:47. | :31:50. | |
ways. George Osborne has failed on the targets he set himself. If you | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
have a situation where you are continually failing on your | :31:55. | :31:57. | |
financial or fiscal targets, you have to ask the question where you | :31:58. | :32:02. | |
are held to account for that. When we lost the election in 2010, we | :32:03. | :32:06. | |
still said it was possible to halve the deficit over five years. And we | :32:07. | :32:10. | |
said you could do that by continuing to invest for the future as well as | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
making cuts. What we've seen is that George Osborne has done that through | :32:16. | :32:20. | |
a much more painful route, with a massive impact on the communitieses | :32:21. | :32:24. | |
this country. We've seen a huge impact on affordable house building, | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
which if you look at some of the detail in the OBR report shows even | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
since July the impact that George Osborne's decisions are going to | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
have on knocking back affordable housing is absolutely true. You can | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
look at the graph yourself Greg. We are out of time. I do want to ask | :32:43. | :32:47. | |
about the Red Book moment in Parliament. What did you think of it | :32:48. | :32:52. | |
in the Well, John's going to make his own decisions on this. What was | :32:53. | :32:56. | |
important was the point he was making. He was making a really | :32:57. | :32:59. | |
important point about the lack of investment that George Osborne is | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
making in Britain. You can look to have external investment... Do you | :33:04. | :33:07. | |
think that's what people have taken away from it? I think a lot of it is | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
actually, because there's a real concern about what is happening at | :33:12. | :33:17. | |
the moment There's a real concern about what... Did you know he was | :33:18. | :33:21. | |
going to do it? Look, he made his own decision on this. Come on, did | :33:22. | :33:29. | |
you now... He made his own decision on this. I didn't know. But that the | :33:30. | :33:35. | |
his choice. Have you read it? I've studied politics, I've read a lot. | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
But my point is this. It is a really important point about how George | :33:42. | :33:45. | |
Osborne is selling our assets on the cheap and not investing in the | :33:46. | :33:48. | |
future in this country in our industry as he should be. Sorry, we | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
do have to leave it there. Thank you both very much. | :33:53. | :33:53. | |
We'll return to the Autumn Statement soon, but first - to Canada. | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
Which has a dashing, youthful new prime minister. | :33:58. | :33:59. | |
Justin Trudeau - son of Pierre, a Prime Minister back in the 70s. | :34:00. | :34:05. | |
And to be brutal, the last Canadian Prime Minister whose name | :34:06. | :34:07. | |
Justin's Liberal party was not meant to win the election, | :34:08. | :34:12. | |
And his arrival at 24 Sussex - the Canadian equivalent of Number 10 | :34:13. | :34:17. | |
If scepticism with politics has been sweeping the west, | :34:18. | :34:21. | |
he seems to have beaten the trend, and in a liberal kind of way. | :34:22. | :34:24. | |
He's been in London today, to see the Queen and the PM, but | :34:25. | :34:27. | |
I began by asking about his Government's approach to dealing | :34:28. | :34:37. | |
with so-called Islamic State. We've decided that we're going to | :34:38. | :34:40. | |
cease the actual bombing mission that Canada has | :34:41. | :34:42. | |
so far been involved in, and shift We have consistently said that | :34:43. | :34:45. | |
Canada has a strong role to play, obviously on a humanitarian and | :34:46. | :34:54. | |
refugee side, as well as part of But we also know that Canada has | :34:55. | :34:57. | |
a tremendous level of expertise, hard-won in Afghanistan over | :34:58. | :35:03. | |
the past ten years, to help with training, to help local troops be | :35:04. | :35:07. | |
more effective in the fight on the ground, and I think we're going to | :35:08. | :35:10. | |
be stepping our involvement in that It was more a decision about Canada | :35:11. | :35:13. | |
and whether it was able to add value There's a wide range of things that | :35:14. | :35:22. | |
Canada can do, and certainly our Royal Canadian Air Force is | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
outstanding in doing what it does, but I know that we have different | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
ways that we can be possibly even more helpful to our friends | :35:32. | :35:36. | |
and allies, and I've had this conversation a number of times | :35:37. | :35:42. | |
with my fellow leaders, and they are reassured that Canada is continuing | :35:43. | :35:45. | |
to be a strong and active partner And Paris has made no difference to | :35:46. | :35:48. | |
your view in what Canada's role I think Paris has highlighted for us | :35:49. | :35:53. | |
in a very personal way - myself being a French Canadian, I obviously | :35:54. | :35:59. | |
feel a tremendous closeness to our French cousins, and continue to | :36:00. | :36:05. | |
stand resolute in that Canada has Let's talk a little more generally | :36:06. | :36:08. | |
about politics in the West. There's political scepticism | :36:09. | :36:16. | |
in many, many countries, political disenchantment, | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
antipathy towards the elites and I wonder what you think | :36:22. | :36:24. | |
your election in Canada said And potentially | :36:25. | :36:31. | |
about ways politicians can react to You have, over | :36:32. | :36:35. | |
the past little while, seen the rise of the anti-politician, whether it | :36:36. | :36:42. | |
was our own Rob Ford in Toronto who was very much an anti-politician, | :36:43. | :36:48. | |
or Donald Trump, who makes a big I think that has, | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
to a certain extent, run its course, just because people don't want the | :36:53. | :37:01. | |
usual kinds of politicians, fine. They are also looking for people who | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
are going to be serious about bringing people together, | :37:06. | :37:08. | |
serving, and being upfront about the That's a very optimistic point | :37:09. | :37:11. | |
of view. If anything, Donald Trump, contrary | :37:12. | :37:14. | |
to what everybody expected, is We've seen this a few times, not | :37:15. | :37:18. | |
just in our election, where polls showing that more divisive positions | :37:19. | :37:41. | |
were very popular, but when you get right down to it, when citizens take | :37:42. | :37:45. | |
a long hard look in the ballot box about actually voting | :37:46. | :37:48. | |
against your neighbour, against In pluralistic societies | :37:49. | :37:50. | |
like we have, it becomes very Or the fear of, you know, | :37:51. | :37:53. | |
the shopkeeper you see down the street every day, or your | :37:54. | :37:57. | |
colleague from two cubicles over. That dynamic is what is really | :37:58. | :38:01. | |
a source of optimism for me. Lots has been written about your | :38:02. | :38:06. | |
appearance, good looks, tattoo. Do you think they contributed | :38:07. | :38:10. | |
to your success? You look like a fresher faced kind | :38:11. | :38:14. | |
of politician to some of the others, It didn't really play all that | :38:15. | :38:17. | |
much during the election campaign. In the beginning, there was a little | :38:18. | :38:27. | |
bit more interest in appearance. The fact that I'm friendly and | :38:28. | :38:33. | |
like people shouldn't count against me when I'm hoping to | :38:34. | :38:38. | |
represent them on the world stage. In Australia there's been a real | :38:39. | :38:45. | |
debate about whether the Queen should be head of state. It doesn't | :38:46. | :38:51. | |
feel as though there's been that debate in Canada to the same degree, | :38:52. | :38:56. | |
but you took the Queen's portrait down in one Government building. Why | :38:57. | :39:02. | |
did you do that? There's been a long tradition of showcasing Canadian | :39:03. | :39:06. | |
artists in our embassies around the world, as you've seen here at Canada | :39:07. | :39:12. | |
House, so it was something that the previous Government did as a I think | :39:13. | :39:18. | |
sign of disrespect towards the art commuters for which they had been | :39:19. | :39:23. | |
famously accused. And I think rightly accused on many levels. It | :39:24. | :39:27. | |
was more about restoring Canada's place and not meant at all as a | :39:28. | :39:33. | |
disrespect to our Queen, who is still a, who still adorns many | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
banknotes and others. You are right that there is not a huge appetite | :39:39. | :39:43. | |
for that in Canada. There are far more pressing things and we are | :39:44. | :39:45. | |
perfectly happy with our Queen of Canada. When you look at Canada | :39:46. | :39:49. | |
today, it is interesting, because you are not the United States. | :39:50. | :39:51. | |
Clearly different to the United States in a whole lot of respects, | :39:52. | :39:57. | |
right? Do you feel Canada's closer to the UK, or to the United States? | :39:58. | :40:03. | |
I think that the time of Canadians worried that there is no Canadian | :40:04. | :40:09. | |
identity has passed. We have succeeded in creating an | :40:10. | :40:13. | |
extraordinary country based on shared values and approach. And an | :40:14. | :40:19. | |
optimism about the world that quite frankly leaves us a little less | :40:20. | :40:31. | |
needily in terms y in terms offics term definitions. That's | :40:32. | :40:34. | |
interesting. Obviously you are not going to join the United States... | :40:35. | :40:41. | |
No, but if they wanted to join us as provinces we could talk about that. | :40:42. | :40:45. | |
You are standing for new politics, a new generation, and of course your | :40:46. | :40:49. | |
name is an old name in Canadian politics. Most people here will know | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
that your father was Prime Minister. Let me be brutal. Does it embarrass | :40:54. | :41:00. | |
you that you are part of Canada's first family dynasty? No, because | :41:01. | :41:04. | |
I'm incredibly proud of my father, the values he stood for, the place | :41:05. | :41:07. | |
he gave da on the world stage. The the values he stood for, the place | :41:08. | :41:14. | |
he gave da on the world stage. -- he gave Canada on the world stage. Do | :41:15. | :41:19. | |
you believe would be there if you hadn't been a Trudeau? I don't deny | :41:20. | :41:24. | |
that doors opened up for me. The way I was raised was that I had to work | :41:25. | :41:29. | |
two or three times as hard as anyone else would to walk through that door | :41:30. | :41:33. | |
now that it was open. I think Canadians get that. There's a lot of | :41:34. | :41:38. | |
people who shrugged and said, he has nothing but a name to go on, and | :41:39. | :41:43. | |
found themselves slightly bewildered as I left them in the dust. Justin | :41:44. | :41:49. | |
Trudeau, very nice to talk to you. A real pleasure. Thank you. Back to | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
the Autumn Statement. Well, as much talked about today | :41:55. | :41:55. | |
as the Chancellor's Autumn Statement was the Shadow | :41:56. | :41:57. | |
Chancellor's response to it. John McDonnell's wielding | :41:58. | :41:59. | |
of Chairman Mao's red book, It was a joke - | :42:00. | :42:01. | |
and a courageous one. But who exactly were we meant | :42:02. | :42:04. | |
to be laughing with, or at? Stephen Smith has been looking | :42:05. | :42:07. | |
at the wisdom of Mao and why it hasn't played | :42:08. | :42:10. | |
a bigger part in the proceedings A journey of a thousand miles begins | :42:11. | :42:25. | |
with a single step, Mao is supposed to have said. But I don't think even | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
he could have imagined we would end up here. To assist comrade os worn | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
in his dealings with his new-found comrades I've brought him along | :42:37. | :42:42. | |
Mao's little Red Book. Let me quote... Was it a joke? To the | :42:43. | :42:47. | |
Conservatives and most of Fleet Street it was a gaffe, and like the | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
Great Wall big enough to see from space. We must learn to do economic | :42:52. | :42:58. | |
work from all who know how. No matter who they are. We must esteem | :42:59. | :43:05. | |
them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and conscientiously, | :43:06. | :43:08. | |
but not pretend to know what we do not know. I thought white come in | :43:09. | :43:15. | |
handy for him. George Osborne could gorge himself on fortune cookies | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
before he got this lucky again. So the Shadow Chancellor literal stood | :43:21. | :43:26. | |
at the dispatch box and read out from Mao's little Red Book! | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
LAUGHTER Look, it's his personal from Mao's little Red Book! | :43:31. | :43:39. | |
CHEERING. What was Jock McDonnell thinking of? On the face of it all | :43:40. | :43:44. | |
he did was make the Tory front bench weep with laughter and some of his | :43:45. | :43:51. | |
own MPs just weep. He put the moist into Maoist. I wouldn't | :43:52. | :44:00. | |
How did you feel? I saw the footage of it afterwards. I think I was | :44:01. | :44:04. | |
talking to the BBC. What about when you saw it? I thought, that's a | :44:05. | :44:06. | |
different way of doing things. The Conservatives were quick to | :44:07. | :44:22. | |
more choice quotes. People say Chairman Mao is not a joke. He was | :44:23. | :44:27. | |
responsible for about 20 million deaths in China. Of course, and I | :44:28. | :44:32. | |
condemn all that. The point of doing it today was to get across the fact | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
that what this government is doing is selling off our assets. This is | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
selling off virtually the family furniture. After Mr MacDonald's | :44:42. | :44:48. | |
performance, 1000 flowers bloomed, so to speak, on social media. -- Mr | :44:49. | :44:59. | |
McDonnell's. He has tried to talk about conservative failures, but | :45:00. | :45:04. | |
talked about his own failures. Marxism is still completely relevant | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
as a form of historical analysis, but getting a little red book out! | :45:10. | :45:15. | |
People have whatever fashion accessories they have, iPad or hover | :45:16. | :45:22. | |
boards! It's different times. What would Bell himself have made of the | :45:23. | :45:31. | |
Corbyn-McDonnell Project. -- Mao himself. It's too early to tell. | :45:32. | :45:38. | |
Let's talk about Labour's day and himself. It's too early to tell. | :45:39. | :45:44. | |
the conservative's day. Word does it leave George Osborne? | :45:45. | :46:00. | |
In recovery. He had this extraordinary good fortune of | :46:01. | :46:01. | |
increased tax receipts out of extraordinary good fortune of | :46:02. | :46:05. | |
nowhere. He has two extraordinary good fortune of | :46:06. | :46:08. | |
for their generosity. He has played his cards well. He has spent all | :46:09. | :46:14. | |
that money on tax credits, as well as bedding out the NHS and the | :46:15. | :46:20. | |
police. He has solved big headaches by a big stroke of fortune. The | :46:21. | :46:26. | |
other stroke of fortune you just saw, John McDonnell. George Osborne, | :46:27. | :46:33. | |
how does it change your view of him? He's very clever. He's very | :46:34. | :46:40. | |
political. He's been very nifty. Instead of front loading the cuts, | :46:41. | :46:45. | |
he has back loaded them. He's assuming he is not going to be | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
Chancellor in the run-up to the next election. But he absolutely has not | :46:51. | :46:54. | |
changed course. He has always said he would reduce the size of the | :46:55. | :47:02. | |
state to 36% of GDP, smaller than it has ever been, permanently. Mrs | :47:03. | :47:08. | |
Thatcher had a state of 46%. They are not being blown off course. It | :47:09. | :47:13. | |
is happening a bit slower, but the same people will be hit in the same | :47:14. | :47:19. | |
way. Just later. You would reject the hypothesis that George Osborne | :47:20. | :47:24. | |
is trying to pull the Conservatives to the centre with infrastructure | :47:25. | :47:28. | |
spending and more spending on the NHS. You still think he is ie | :47:29. | :47:33. | |
geologically very right-wing? He has understood that his cuts were | :47:34. | :47:37. | |
becoming very un-pop killer, and he needed to make political gestures. | :47:38. | :47:46. | |
It will just about get the NHS through. It doesn't solve the | :47:47. | :47:52. | |
problem, but he had to do this fix. Police would have been a disaster. | :47:53. | :47:56. | |
If we have some sort of jihadist attack, what would it do to his | :47:57. | :48:01. | |
political career if he cut the police? Do you think he is a | :48:02. | :48:07. | |
pragmatic centrist, or ideologically right? Is it hard to tell? He is on | :48:08. | :48:14. | |
the Move ideologically. He is a very clever politician, a chameleon. He | :48:15. | :48:20. | |
has put himself banged on the centre now. He was accused by Ukip today of | :48:21. | :48:27. | |
being a horrible Blairite for abandoning austerity. Several front | :48:28. | :48:34. | |
pages of newspapers are screaming, what has happened to austerity? He | :48:35. | :48:37. | |
has cleverly put himself on the mainstream. By varying the tax | :48:38. | :48:43. | |
credits problem, he is re-engaging the one nation narrative. Everyone | :48:44. | :48:51. | |
knows that those tax credit cuts are coming, just under Universal Credit | :48:52. | :48:57. | |
is, and a bit later. The Sun takes the credit for campaigning against | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
credit cuts. What is the son's take on universal credit? Will you take | :49:03. | :49:12. | |
up the campaign against that? It took several months for all of us to | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
get our heads round what he did with tax credits in the summer budget. | :49:18. | :49:23. | |
Some of us on the living wage of going to be better off come the | :49:24. | :49:29. | |
summer. No, because they lose it under tax credits. It is about your | :49:30. | :49:34. | |
household income and how many children you've got. Universal | :49:35. | :49:38. | |
Credit has always been so complicated that most Tory MPs have | :49:39. | :49:41. | |
never understood it at all. Another fact put out today is that Britain | :49:42. | :49:48. | |
will be spending more on overseas than on the Home Office by the end | :49:49. | :49:53. | |
of this government. They fiddle what they are going to use the overseas | :49:54. | :49:58. | |
aid budget on. They say, now we will use it on those failed states who | :49:59. | :50:03. | |
are sending their migrants towards us. We are using it for our own | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
purposes. We do have to finish on the Redbook moment. I am told the | :50:09. | :50:17. | |
Chancellor has taken his copy of the Redbook back to his chambers and is | :50:18. | :50:23. | |
planning on framing it. Tax credits, ring-fencing, we will not remember | :50:24. | :50:29. | |
that in a few months' time. Today we will remember for one reason only, | :50:30. | :50:36. | |
John MacDonald's little red book. What was it? Did he not have a clear | :50:37. | :50:43. | |
critique? It is an impossible day. No Shadow Chancellor should be | :50:44. | :50:48. | |
expected to reply on the same day to stuff they haven't seen before. But | :50:49. | :50:53. | |
that was a terrible error, because it played into what people think of | :50:54. | :50:58. | |
Corbyn and McDonnell anyway, that they have little red books in their | :50:59. | :51:04. | |
pockets. The blood drained from all of the Labour MPs behind him. It was | :51:05. | :51:10. | |
a blunder. All he had to do today was look credible. Thank you very | :51:11. | :51:15. | |
much indeed. That is all we have time for. I will be back tomorrow. | :51:16. | :51:18. | |
We will be talking about Syria. | :51:19. | :51:20. |