Browse content similar to 12/07/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Yet another extraordinary day in British politics. | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
The Labour Party divided, relying on lawyers to help determine | :00:00. | :00:09. | |
whether the leader can stand in a leadership election. | :00:10. | :00:20. | |
I'm delighted to say that the Labour Party National executive has decided | :00:21. | :00:26. | |
that an incumbent is automatically on the ballot paper. CHEERING | :00:27. | :00:28. | |
It's alleged that at one point, as the party's | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
National Executive Committee deliberated, Mr Corbyn | :00:33. | :00:34. | |
was asked to leave the room, and refused to go. | :00:35. | :00:37. | |
And the fight in the party saw a brick thrown through the window of | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
We'll ask Angela Eagle whether a split is now inevitable. | :00:41. | :00:49. | |
As the ceremonial removal van enters Downing Street, | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
the Conservatives say farewell to their leader. | :00:52. | :00:53. | |
His biggest error was winning the 2015 general election | :00:54. | :01:01. | |
because had it still been a coalition, then of course | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
the referendum, I suspect, would never have been allowed | :01:05. | :01:06. | |
The black Americans who are arming themselves with guns, | :01:07. | :01:23. | |
to protect themselves from the police. | :01:24. | :01:25. | |
When the Civil War was fought, did the North go to war | :01:26. | :01:32. | |
Don't the battlefield need to be even? | :01:33. | :01:43. | |
A champion of the radical left, a man who challenges | :01:44. | :01:46. | |
conventional politics, for months he fights hard, | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
infuriates his opponents and inspires a new band of supporters. | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
But finally, he concedes his campaign is not going to get him | :01:54. | :01:56. | |
into power, and he offers support to the woman challenging him, | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
It was in the US, where Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton. | :02:00. | :02:06. | |
For the Labour Party, in contrast, the split | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
between the radical left and establishment left leaves | :02:11. | :02:12. | |
the party in the grimmest of predicaments. | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
We knew there would be a leadership election, | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
and now we know Jeremy Corbyn will be on the ballot, after a long | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
National Executive Committee meeting this afternoon. | :02:23. | :02:24. | |
Our political editor Nick Watt is here. | :02:25. | :02:26. | |
It was the mother of all NEC meetings. This is one of the big | :02:27. | :02:35. | |
meetings in two moments in Labour's post-war history. Corbyn has lost | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
80% of the support of his MPs but he will be on the ballot in the | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
leadership contest and what is significant is that the visual | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
Labour machinery had some legal advice saying he should be treated | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
like any other candidate, but he is automatically on the ballot. When I | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
caught up with him, he was delighted. | :03:00. | :03:00. | |
Is that a really historic day, Jeremy? | :03:01. | :03:02. | |
It's about people, it's about political engagement | :03:03. | :03:07. | |
And our campaign is going to be about bringing people | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
Members have elected me ten months ago, we now look | :03:14. | :03:22. | |
like having another election, that's fine, let's take part in that | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
It will be done with respect, it will be done with decency, | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
He seemed very happy and perhaps feistier than we've seen him for a | :03:31. | :03:41. | |
few months. It is like a life or death struggle for both factions in | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
the party. Let's think about the left, why is this issue so | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
important? It was make or break for the left, their view is that if | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
Jeremy Corbyn was not automatically on the paper they couldn't be sure | :03:54. | :03:56. | |
of getting the 51 nominations to get him on. I understand that ten days | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
ago, Corbyn was thinking of throwing in the towel but his key allies, | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
John O'Donnell and his strategy chief said, don't do that because | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
there is nobody is with his appeal and that why Seamus Milne looked | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
very happy when I caught up with him. | :04:15. | :04:14. | |
Are you being interviewed for Newsnight? | :04:15. | :04:23. | |
OK. Not particularly revealing exchanges! OK, the Labour plotters, | :04:24. | :04:37. | |
the antique Corbyn people, they lost the big issue, Corbyn is in the | :04:38. | :04:44. | |
ballot, but there is more news for them. They say that he is beatable | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
because the rules are different. If you are a full-time member, you can | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
only vote if you signed up since February. So those who signed up | :04:54. | :05:01. | |
since, they can't vote. If you are a so-called edited supporter, you have | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
to pay ?23 and there is a brief window in July for you to sign up. | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
The idea is to create a different contest last year when you could pay | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
just ?3 and sign up on the EE of the ballot. Some Labour Party sources | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
close to Jeremy Corbyn say that this sounds like the ballot is being | :05:20. | :05:22. | |
rigged, and they want to challenge these very strict rules at the next | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
meeting of the NEC. Frankly it is so bitter and unpleasant, the lawyers | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
are going over the words in order to get interpretations of the rules. | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
One might take the view that they'll be on a point at which a split is | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
inevitable. There is a feeling that if Angela Eagle or if it is Owen | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
Smith, the unity candidate to take on Corbyn, if they don't defeat him, | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
you have a feeling that at the very least you may get a kind of | :05:52. | :05:57. | |
unilateral declaration of independence from the Parliamentary | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
Labour Party. 176 of the 231 voted against him and they could become | :06:02. | :06:04. | |
the official opposition. Whether they can setup a party in the | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
country without the support of the trade union movement, that's a | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
different one. Thank you for joining us. | :06:14. | :06:15. | |
Well, who knows what is going on at the local level? | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
My Newsnight colleagues, Jake Morris and Hannah Barnes have | :06:19. | :06:20. | |
been ringing around today, to local Labour councillors | :06:21. | :06:22. | |
It's not a poll obviously, not scientific, but they've been | :06:23. | :06:25. | |
telling us that party membership has gone up | :06:26. | :06:27. | |
considerably in the last year, and that there's been a surge | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
The majority gave us the impression that they thought the latest | :06:31. | :06:38. | |
people to join the party were in the pro-Corbyn camp. | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
"If Corbyn's on the ballot, he'll win" said one, | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
"and there will be a split in the party. | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
I don't see how the PLP can continue," they continued. | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
Most striking were the views on the conduct of politics | :06:56. | :06:57. | |
One area where the vitriol has descended into the criminal | :06:58. | :07:23. | |
is Wallasey on Merseyside, the constituency of Angela Eagle. | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
Lewis Goodall went to see what has been going on there today, | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
and found echoes of struggles in that area, reported | :07:33. | :07:34. | |
You wouldn't know it, but the Wirral on wordy side -- Merseyside is | :07:35. | :07:51. | |
ground zero in the battle for the soul of the Labour Party and from | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
any old hands in Labour in this part of the world and may be many | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
Newsnight viewers, this may feel all too familiar. Newsnight was here in | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
Wallasey 25 years ago covering an emboldened local Labour Party who | :08:05. | :08:11. | |
were trying to deselect their local Labour MP. Well it's happening all | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
over again but this time it isn't a local backbencher who can't | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
guarantee the support of their party members, like Angela Eagle, who, | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
theoretically at least, could be the Labour delayed -- could be the | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
Labour Party leader. Angela Eagle has incest many of her Labour Party | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
activists including her constituency chair. She has done some strange | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
things recently. For months she has been telling us what she is doing | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
and what the party is doing and she has always shown support for Jeremy. | :08:47. | :08:53. | |
She says he is doing a good job, when asked about the referendum, | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
saying he is running up and down the country like a 25-year-old, but a | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
week later he has shown no leadership qualities, what a load of | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
rubbish. She would work with any elected leader and get behind him | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
for the democratic right of our members. And on that basis, we | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
supported her. So now she is contesting and saying that Jeremy | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
isn't a good leader and she is contesting that leadership and we | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
feel very let down by Angela. Cathy Jo into -- join the party with | :09:27. | :09:33. | |
Jeremy Corbyn and less than a year later she is the chair of the CLP, | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
numbering 1200. With many of those involved this is part of eight | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
strategy, building up in the local party and consolidating across | :09:45. | :09:47. | |
Labour nationally. We have a meeting on the 22nd of this month and there | :09:48. | :09:55. | |
will be motions debated at a meeting in which there will be a decision | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
taken about who gets the CLP support in the leadership contest. Caffeine | :10:02. | :10:04. | |
may be new but this man certainly isn't. -- Cathy may be new. | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
A quarter of a century ago that Newsnight | :10:10. | :10:11. | |
investigation focused on | :10:12. | :10:12. | |
the attempts to deselect Birkenhead MP Frank Field. | :10:13. | :10:14. | |
He's back in the party and vice-chair of Wallasey | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
There will be a move to punish MPs, I accept that, by some | :10:20. | :10:26. | |
I don't think we should punish people. | :10:27. | :10:29. | |
I think they should be prepared to take the same route | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
they thought was fit for Jeremy Corbyn. | :10:35. | :10:36. | |
He faced a vote of no confidence, they said he should | :10:37. | :10:39. | |
They then denigrated him for not resigning. | :10:40. | :10:43. | |
If an MP gets the vote of no-confidence in their | :10:44. | :10:46. | |
constituency, having said that, they should resign. | :10:47. | :10:48. | |
Today the action against Angela Eagle went beyond | :10:49. | :10:51. | |
Sometime this morning a brick was thrown into the window | :10:52. | :10:54. | |
The response on Facebook wasn't exactly | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
We didn't expect anything where they were going to start | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
throwing things through the window, but we did | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
which we were working was becoming increasingly hostile. | :11:07. | :11:13. | |
My son made sure I had a little alarm thing on | :11:14. | :11:15. | |
my keys now because he's worried about me, especially with the | :11:16. | :11:18. | |
In the wake of the murder of Jo Cox, many spoke | :11:19. | :11:25. | |
of a kind of politics and a new respect for MPs. | :11:26. | :11:27. | |
Clearly the author of this e-mail obtained by Newsnight | :11:28. | :11:31. | |
sent only today to Angela Eagle's office didn't take it to heart. | :11:32. | :11:46. | |
Some members of the local party say a | :11:47. | :11:49. | |
culture of intimidation has gripped Labour across the Wirral. | :11:50. | :11:52. | |
Councillor Moira MacLachlan is a veteran of the | :11:53. | :11:54. | |
On the basis of what's happening at the moment | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
and what happened in Birkenhead 30 years ago, almost certainly there | :11:59. | :12:01. | |
will be an attempt to get rid of Angela and some | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
of the councillors who support her, I would fully expect that to happen. | :12:07. | :12:09. | |
In Wallasey the tone of the meetings has been appalling, we've had | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
threats of violence, homophobia, arguments between grown men and | :12:14. | :12:15. | |
Most recently today we've had an actual act of violence, a brick | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
Homophobic comments aimed at Angela Eagle, who | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
Homophobic gestures at the mention of Angela's name. | :12:26. | :12:32. | |
One lady even threatening to punch somebody. | :12:33. | :12:34. | |
What really angers me is that this is a | :12:35. | :12:36. | |
blatant contradiction of our own laws, our | :12:37. | :12:38. | |
own values as members of | :12:39. | :12:39. | |
We should work together in the spirit of | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
Some say this is simply robust debate. | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
We are being asked to believe that amongst the councillors | :12:51. | :12:53. | |
there, the trade union officials there, the people who support Angela | :12:54. | :12:58. | |
and the people who don't support Angela, not one person stood up to | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
object to intimidation, or worse, to object to homophobia. | :13:04. | :13:06. | |
Now I would criticise anyone, anyone who heard | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
homophobic comments or saw homophobic gestures at a meeting who | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
I couldn't speak about intimidation because I was | :13:16. | :13:27. | |
Many would never have thought that the battles of the | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
A vote of no-confidence will take place in Angela Eagle's | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
One source on the CLP told me the momentum for that motion | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
If she's still a candidate to lead, what happens | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
then, like much else in the Labour Party right | :13:47. | :13:48. | |
Well, with me now is Angela Eagle, the former Shadow Business Secretary | :13:49. | :13:56. | |
who is standing against Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership. | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
Good evening. Watching that, are you sure you are in the right party with | :14:01. | :14:09. | |
those people? I've been a Labour Party member for 40 years. I've | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
dedicated my life to the Labour Party and I will stay in the Labour | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
Party whatever happens. What my leadership challenge is about is | :14:21. | :14:25. | |
saving and reuniting the Labour Party so that it can be an effective | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
opposition in Parliament so that we can make our democracy work and I | :14:31. | :14:36. | |
hope he'll our country and save it from perpetual Conservative | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
dominance. You said a lot in that answer. Firstly, you will stay in | :14:41. | :14:43. | |
the Labour Party. There are those who say that it's over and that you | :14:44. | :14:49. | |
can't. It is my party, I was born into it. There are people who have | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
come back into it recently. You saw and heard from some of them in that | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
piece. They were thrown out in the 1990s. They are back in and you can | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
see what they are doing. I have to stand up to that kind of bullying | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
and I will continue to. If there's a motion of no confidence in you by | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
your local party, you heard what the gentleman said, failing the motion | :15:13. | :15:20. | |
of no-confidence, get out. Would you stand aside from that seat, what | :15:21. | :15:21. | |
will you do if they deselect you? There's no question of me being | :15:22. | :15:31. | |
deselected at the moment. What I'm doing is trying to say that the | :15:32. | :15:37. | |
Labour Party was created to be the voice of working people in | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
Parliament, to make certain that those who create the wealth in our | :15:43. | :15:44. | |
country actually get a fair share of the opportunities and the income | :15:45. | :15:48. | |
that comes from that well. That is the historic role of the Labour | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
Party. To do that you have to be effective in Parliament. I have | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
tried to work with Jeremy from nine months. He has lost the confidence | :15:59. | :16:02. | |
of his parliamentary colleagues and cannot lead in Parliament. He is | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
also failing to lead on the doorstep because he's not communicating or | :16:08. | :16:11. | |
connecting with the 9 million people who voted Labour at the last | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
election. And we have a duty as Labour Party members of Parliament | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
to put that case to him. And I will get to all of that. We saw a brick | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
thrown through your constituency office window. Do you think it is | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
the Labour Party members of any kind who are responsible for the | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
violence, death threats, hate that we've seen? There's a lot of hate, | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
there were death threats, I've been told, tonight. There's a lot of | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
vitriol. I have to say that my office workers have to work in that | :16:44. | :16:46. | |
environment, and you heard from one of them to night. They are just | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
trying to do their job. They should not be subjected to this kind of | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
approach. It's happening up and down the country. Is it Jeremy Corbyn's | :16:55. | :16:59. | |
fold? It is bullying and it should stop, and Jeremy should tell his | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
supporters who are orchestrating this on social media to stop. And | :17:04. | :17:08. | |
you don't think he's done enough so far? I don't think he's shown | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
leadership there, either. You've said the Labour Party is your party, | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
but we just have to face the possibility that you are not going | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
to win the leadership election, and Jeremy Corbyn will be there, and | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
what is going to be happen... I'm not going to speculate about what | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
will happen if I lose. I'm in this leadership election to win it. We | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
need to be an effective Labour Party going forward which puts a | :17:38. | :17:39. | |
compelling case to the British people that is an anti-Tory case. | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
There are huge challenges following the Brexit vote, we've got to make | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
certain that the effects of that Brexit vote aren't visited upon | :17:49. | :17:51. | |
communities that have already suffered from Tory cuts and | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
austerity. I understand. We've got to be effective. Of course you do. I | :17:57. | :18:04. | |
understand. And that is the argument we are having in the party at the | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
moment. I understand but let's suppose Theresa May calls the | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
general election next break, perfectly possible. I expect there | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
will be. Will you be able to look in the eyes of the public and say, vote | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
for Jeremy Corbyn to be Prime Minister, even everything you've | :18:22. | :18:24. | |
said about him? We are having a leadership election and I have | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
joined in that leadership election to win it. Jeremy has opened up the | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
party to new ideas and changed the direction of the party. He now needs | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
to stand aside so other people can take this forward and communicate | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
properly with Labour voters. I would say to the 9 million Labour voters | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
out there, there are two days next week when you campaign ?25, help | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
save the Labour Party, make our democracy work, and help me here our | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
country. Join as a registered supporter. So you are literally | :18:54. | :18:57. | |
urging the country to join to get Corbyn out? That is precisely what I | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
think should happen. Join us in this battle and let us win the Labour | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
Party back for parliamentary democracy. We need people to | :19:08. | :19:10. | |
persuade the country and not just protest. ?25 is quite expensive to | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
get the vote. It's a good investment for the whole of democracy. If there | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
was an election next spring or sooner and Jeremy Corbyn was leader, | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
how do you think Labour would do? I think the evidence, unfortunately, | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
is clear. We are 8% behind in the polls now when we should be ahead. | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
We lost seats in the local elections despite all our efforts. We lost a | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
referendum because voters saw the ambiguity that Jeremy had during | :19:42. | :19:45. | |
that referendum and that is going to cause enormous damage. In the | :19:46. | :19:52. | |
marginals we are 14% behind. So we have to do something and we have to | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
do it quickly if we are going to prevent perpetual conservative rule, | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
which will damage our areas and damage the interests of Labour | :20:02. | :20:04. | |
voters. In the campaign so far you have tried to downplay policy | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
differences between you and Jeremy Corbyn, you say it is not a left | :20:09. | :20:15. | |
right thing. Well, I'm on the left. Well people might debate that. I did | :20:16. | :20:18. | |
not walk away when Jeremy was elected, I try to serve until it was | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
impossible to carry on. Why do you think, then, that the party under | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
you, will win, when it will lose so badly under Jeremy Corbyn? Well, | :20:29. | :20:32. | |
look, I think you need a more effective communicator and somebody | :20:33. | :20:37. | |
that reaches out to voters. Jeremy talks to people who don't really | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
believe in Parliamentary democracy. He is a protest, he is not a | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
persuader of people. He has done a good thing by switching the way that | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
the Labour Party works. Now we need something else to take it forward. | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
Owen Smith, another candidate, potentially, we think he will throw | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
his hat into the ring tomorrow or soon thereafter, it's not going to | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
work so well for the Corbyn Challenger as if there are two of | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
you fighting. Will you stand aside if he looks like the stronger of the | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
two of you? I think it's about time we had a woman leader of the Labour | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
Party elected. We now have the Conservatives on the second woman | :21:17. | :21:19. | |
Prime Minister. We are the party of a quality that has always worked in | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
this agenda. It's about time that we had a woman leader. So you won't | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
stand aside? Basically you will have two splits in the party? I don't | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
know whether Owen is going to stand, but I'm willing to have this debate | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
in full view of the party members. We are going to have a contest, I'm | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
looking forward to it. Which is more important to you? Is it more | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
important to you that you become the leader or that Jeremy Corbyn ceases | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
to be the leader? Is it about stopping Corbyn or you leading? Well | :21:52. | :21:56. | |
I think I've got good experience and leadership capabilities to take us | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
forward into this very different and challenging era. And that's the | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
debate we are going to be having. But let's be honest, it is about | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
Corbyn, isn't it? I think it's a most impossible for somebody who's | :22:12. | :22:14. | |
lost the support of the vast majority of their Parliamentary | :22:15. | :22:18. | |
party to carry on as leader of the Parliamentary party, which is the | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
first part of the job description of the Labour Party. It is in clause | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
one of our Constitution. There was a moment when I wondered whether you | :22:28. | :22:36. | |
would make a pitch to the grief stricken Remainers, the 16 million | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
people who voted, there must be at least 1 million, 2 million. At maybe | :22:42. | :22:46. | |
they are feeling like they were not paid ?25 to vote for you. One of the | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
policy differences between me and Jeremy, on the day after the | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
referendum Jeremy came out and said article 50 should be triggered | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
straightaway. I think that would be a profound mistake. I think we have | :23:00. | :23:03. | |
to be very careful in the way we begin to disentangle from the | :23:04. | :23:06. | |
European Union and we have to do it in a way which is least likely to | :23:07. | :23:09. | |
hurt those communities I'm particularly concerned about, those | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
poorer communities who have already been badly hit by Tory cuts. Some | :23:14. | :23:20. | |
who are more sympathetic to your side of the argument have looked at | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
the results of the NEC and set Corbyn is going to win, this is the | :23:24. | :23:27. | |
death of the Labour Party as we know it. I wonder whether you look at | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
these members who are going to try to get you deselected, confidence | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
motion in you, you look at the violence internally, the vitriol and | :23:37. | :23:39. | |
the debate, and don't you wonder whether the marriage between this | :23:40. | :23:42. | |
radical left and establishment left is over, do you never wonder that? I | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
think it's important that we take the broad base of the Labour Party | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
with us. I don't think that some of the people have joined and the way | :23:53. | :23:55. | |
they are behaving is acceptable behaviour in British politics. It | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
course and is our democracy and it needs to be called out for the | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
bullying it is. I'm standing up to it and everybody else needs to stand | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
up to it. And I think Jeremy Corbyn leads to condemn it and stop it | :24:08. | :24:10. | |
happening. Angela Eagle, thank you very much. | :24:11. | :24:12. | |
The killing of five policeman in Dallas last Thursday, | :24:13. | :24:14. | |
an insane revenge for the killing of black citizens by | :24:15. | :24:17. | |
the police, has left America shocked and divided. | :24:18. | :24:19. | |
And so today, there was an attempt at healing. | :24:20. | :24:21. | |
President Obama and George W Bush attended a memorial | :24:22. | :24:23. | |
service in the city, for the dead policemen. | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
But those of us who love Dallas and call it home have had five | :24:28. | :24:34. | |
We are here to honour the memory and mourn the loss | :24:35. | :24:44. | |
To pray for the wounded and to try and find some meaning | :24:45. | :25:04. | |
You have to go back decades to find a time when the politics of race | :25:05. | :25:12. | |
in the US, were as fraught as they are now. | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
But if you do go back decades, you might remember | :25:16. | :25:17. | |
the Black Panther movement - a party of gun-toting | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
political radicals challenging police brutality. | :25:23. | :25:23. | |
the Black Panther movement - a party of gun-toting | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
political radicals challenging police brutality. | :25:29. | :25:29. | |
Back then, believe it or not, the National Rifle Association | :25:30. | :25:31. | |
The Panthers fizzled out in acrimony and scandal in the seventies, | :25:32. | :25:35. | |
but in its time, the movement inspired more than a few activists. | :25:36. | :25:38. | |
Well, there is a new Black Panther party and a new move among black | :25:39. | :25:41. | |
Americans to carry guns; getting into a kind of arms | :25:42. | :25:44. | |
Gabriel Gatehouse has been in Dallas to talk to some of those involved. | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
My biggest threat is the police department. | :25:51. | :26:01. | |
They are the biggest gang in our country. | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
We are already at war, we already have casualties in war. | :26:07. | :26:22. | |
We're just sitting there and then IMITATES GUNFIRE. | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
They're shooting right now and there's an officer down. | :26:27. | :26:28. | |
It began as a peaceful protest against the killing | :26:29. | :26:41. | |
It ended with Micah Johnson, a black man, shooting five | :26:42. | :26:52. | |
But I also felt hurt because we had to march for those four | :26:53. | :26:59. | |
brothers who had been killed by the police. | :27:00. | :27:01. | |
He say, we saw Alton Sterling being assassinated. | :27:02. | :27:05. | |
Alinca Green was one of the organisers of the protest | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
which marched under the banner, Black Lives Matter. | :27:10. | :27:15. | |
The killer told police he was not affiliated with any organisation, | :27:16. | :27:17. | |
but he has shown an interest in social media in various black | :27:18. | :27:20. | |
I don't know the guy, I don't know the shooter but I can tell you, | :27:21. | :27:27. | |
if you oppress the people for so long, the revolt | :27:28. | :27:29. | |
Can I just be clear, you aren't advocating | :27:30. | :27:32. | |
Not at all, I mean, we aren't advocating shooting | :27:33. | :27:37. | |
We're advocating survival, the survival of our people. | :27:38. | :27:43. | |
Thursday's shooting was the deadliest day for US law | :27:44. | :27:49. | |
It's hard to overstate the effect that has an some sections | :27:50. | :27:56. | |
Here in Dallas, people really are coming together around | :27:57. | :27:59. | |
the police force and it's worth just taking a look at the numbers. | :28:00. | :28:02. | |
26 police officers have been shot dead in the line of duty | :28:03. | :28:05. | |
The number of people killed, shot dead by police officers so far | :28:06. | :28:14. | |
When you dig into the demographics, you find a stark truth and that is, | :28:15. | :28:27. | |
if you are black in America, you are two and a half times more | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
likely to be shot dead by the police than if you are white. | :28:32. | :28:34. | |
A group called the Huey P Newton Gun Club is calling on black | :28:35. | :28:49. | |
Huey P Newton was was one of the founders of the Black Panthers. | :28:50. | :28:55. | |
The gun club is affiliated with the new Black Panther Party | :28:56. | :28:57. | |
which has chapters across the United States. | :28:58. | :29:00. | |
They hold occasional demonstrations in the Dallas area | :29:01. | :29:10. | |
where they parade in public, guns on display, | :29:11. | :29:12. | |
La'Shadion Anthony is affiliated with the gun club. | :29:13. | :29:15. | |
One in the chamber at all times. | :29:16. | :29:21. | |
So that means if I need to, I just aim and squeeze. | :29:22. | :29:28. | |
My biggest threat is the police department, they are the biggest | :29:29. | :29:39. | |
Like the killing of Philando Castile, one of the deaths that | :29:40. | :29:42. | |
sparked the demonstration in Dallas on Thursday, | :29:43. | :29:44. | |
many fatal shootings by police begin as a simple traffic stop, | :29:45. | :29:47. | |
for something as innocuous as a broken tail light. | :29:48. | :29:55. | |
We can't even see past tomorrow because tomorrow is not | :29:56. | :29:57. | |
I can leave here right now and be pulled over for a traffic stop | :29:58. | :30:05. | |
like the young man did, Philando Castile and end up dead | :30:06. | :30:07. | |
In front of your wife and your child. | :30:08. | :30:11. | |
Against this backdrop, Dallas waited for a visit from | :30:12. | :30:13. | |
Among the congregation at Friendship West Baptist Church, | :30:14. | :30:22. | |
many have mixed feelings about Obama's record on standing up | :30:23. | :30:24. | |
Don't put all this on police, you put this on America. | :30:25. | :30:30. | |
Can we hurt for the families of the slain police | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
officers and the families of Alton and Philando? | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
All I'm trying to say, Mr President, if you come to Dallas, | :30:39. | :30:42. | |
you need to come to Baton Rouge, you need to go to Minnesota, | :30:43. | :30:45. | |
you need to go to Staten Island, you need to go down to Prairie View, | :30:46. | :30:51. | |
you need to go to every place with an unnecessary | :30:52. | :30:54. | |
This was a mixed audience including representatives from mothers groups, | :30:55. | :31:03. | |
members of the Nation of Islam and supporters | :31:04. | :31:05. | |
There's a lot of talk here about local democracy, | :31:06. | :31:12. | |
about making the law work for the black community, | :31:13. | :31:14. | |
about building bridges with other communities. | :31:15. | :31:18. | |
But there are also some people here who are re-examining | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
the founding principles of American democracy. | :31:23. | :31:26. | |
There are some, not all, but some in this room who say | :31:27. | :31:30. | |
the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, | :31:31. | :31:34. | |
written into the Constitution so that Americans could defend | :31:35. | :31:37. | |
themselves from an oppressive government that didn't | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
And here, in the 21st-century, they are taking inspiration from that. | :31:42. | :31:47. | |
The liberal idea that the solution to America's gun violence is gun | :31:48. | :31:50. | |
Guns don't kill people, police with guns kill people. | :31:51. | :31:58. | |
We see this every day in our country. | :31:59. | :32:02. | |
They kill people and they go home without any consequence. | :32:03. | :32:04. | |
But don't police with guns kill people because they are worried | :32:05. | :32:07. | |
That's the rhetoric that they use, the propaganda that they use. | :32:08. | :32:13. | |
But they've been killing us even before guns. | :32:14. | :32:15. | |
They don't even have to have guns to kill us, | :32:16. | :32:17. | |
they killed Eric Garner by choking him to death. | :32:18. | :32:20. | |
The guns are the only sanctuary we have to keep | :32:21. | :32:22. | |
But the implication of what you are saying, it is very | :32:23. | :32:31. | |
scary because if you are saying the only defence you have | :32:32. | :32:34. | |
from your own police is your own weapon, then down that | :32:35. | :32:36. | |
When the Civil War was fought, did the North go to war | :32:37. | :32:45. | |
Doesn't the battlefield needs to be even? | :32:46. | :32:50. | |
We have tried prayer and everything else, we've tried dialogue, | :32:51. | :33:00. | |
I don't want to see it go to war but what do we have left? | :33:01. | :33:06. | |
I'm not advocating this, but it's happening. | :33:07. | :33:07. | |
What is happening to our country where you turn on your TV, | :33:08. | :33:15. | |
within two days, two black men who did nothing | :33:16. | :33:18. | |
There are plenty of people who feel deeply uneasy about the idea | :33:19. | :33:26. | |
that their best protection against their own police | :33:27. | :33:28. | |
But advocates of arming the black community are not | :33:29. | :33:35. | |
And the killing of five officers here last week seems certain | :33:36. | :33:40. | |
to deepen America's already deadly racial divide. | :33:41. | :33:48. | |
David Cameron steps off his Prime Ministerial perch tomorrow, | :33:49. | :33:50. | |
having spent over six years in Downing Street. | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
In terms of length of tenure, he's somewhere in the middle | :33:55. | :34:01. | |
of the league of post-war prime ministers, but let's face it, | :34:02. | :34:04. | |
Among other objectives, he had three: he wanted to hold | :34:05. | :34:08. | |
the Conservative Party together, to stop it banging on about Europe, | :34:09. | :34:10. | |
In the end, he could achieve one of those, in that the party has | :34:11. | :34:15. | |
And even that may not be a secure legacy. | :34:16. | :34:19. | |
Because we will probably not be talking about David Cameron much | :34:20. | :34:21. | |
tomorrow, we asked David Grossman to reflect on his record. | :34:22. | :34:27. | |
David the chameleon burst out into the big wide world. | :34:28. | :34:30. | |
When Labour was first trying to deal with the fresh young | :34:31. | :34:33. | |
challenge from David Cameron, they came up with this, | :34:34. | :34:36. | |
Dave the Chameleon, the ultimate non-conviction politician who led | :34:37. | :34:39. | |
Dave the Chameleon, the ultimate non-conviction politician who let | :34:40. | :34:41. | |
From now on he would only tell people whatever he thought | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
they wanted to hear, whether he and the blue | :34:46. | :34:48. | |
No better example of this chameleon-like tendency, | :34:49. | :34:55. | |
say Mr Cameron's critics, than his attitude over | :34:56. | :34:57. | |
Say whatever is necessary or expedient to get out | :34:58. | :35:04. | |
of a difficult news cycle or party rebellion and then count | :35:05. | :35:07. | |
on your ability as a brilliant salesman to get you out | :35:08. | :35:09. | |
of difficulty before disaster strikes. | :35:10. | :35:11. | |
David Cameron secured the Conservative Party leadership | :35:12. | :35:19. | |
in 2005, partly by appealing to the Eurosceptic right of his party. | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
A promise to take the Conservatives out of the European People's Party | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
grouping in the European Parliament was essentially meaningless to most | :35:29. | :35:31. | |
voters but acted like catnip to a certain type of Conservative MP. | :35:32. | :35:36. | |
The caricature that he made these noises to try to win around | :35:37. | :35:44. | |
the right of the party really isn't true because I discussed | :35:45. | :35:46. | |
these issues with him in private company | :35:47. | :35:48. | |
in public and there was no disconnect, he genuinely believed | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
that the European Union needed fundamental reform. | :35:53. | :35:54. | |
He was committed to trying to do that. | :35:55. | :35:56. | |
That's why he took the tough decision to leave the EPP, | :35:57. | :35:59. | |
It's why he vetoed the treaty when he became Prime Minister | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
with all of the flak that he got on that. | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
But in the end it just wasn't possible to get the kind of reform | :36:09. | :36:11. | |
But the by-product of those decisions was to cut David Cameron | :36:12. | :36:18. | |
off from like-minded centre-right EU leaders like Angela Merkel | :36:19. | :36:20. | |
And it made it impossible for him to block the rise | :36:21. | :36:28. | |
The Eurosceptics wanted more and more but David Cameron, | :36:29. | :36:31. | |
having raised expectations during his leadership contest, | :36:32. | :36:32. | |
Instead of talking the things that most people care about, | :36:33. | :36:39. | |
we talked about what we cared about most. | :36:40. | :36:42. | |
While parents worried about childcare, getting their kids | :36:43. | :36:45. | |
to school, the balance between work and family life, | :36:46. | :36:48. | |
we were sometimes banging on about Europe. | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
I think when you are leader of the Conservative Party that has | :36:53. | :36:56. | |
such a clear part that is dedicated to being Eurosceptic, | :36:57. | :37:01. | |
and really very difficult to get a decision that would have | :37:02. | :37:04. | |
What always impressed me about David as Prime Minister was that he did | :37:05. | :37:13. | |
try and deliver for that group as well as deliver for | :37:14. | :37:15. | |
I'm not entirely sure that when it came down to it at the 2005 and 2010 | :37:16. | :37:23. | |
general elections that Europe was the top agenda item for voters | :37:24. | :37:26. | |
Like a brilliant but mercurial batsman, David Cameron tried | :37:27. | :37:33. | |
to knock the ball out of the park to win the match on Europe | :37:34. | :37:36. | |
when perhaps a more cautious politician would have | :37:37. | :37:38. | |
But his approach worked, until it didn't. | :37:39. | :37:43. | |
He was convinced he could win fundamental reform of the EU. | :37:44. | :37:46. | |
He promised his party and the country. | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
I will go to Brussels, I will not take no for an answer | :37:51. | :37:54. | |
and when it comes to free movement, I will get what Britain needs. | :37:55. | :37:59. | |
This promise and the referendum pledge itself were designed | :38:00. | :38:02. | |
to neutralise the increasing threat that Mr Cameron saw from Ukip. | :38:03. | :38:06. | |
Do you accept or not that in your renegotiation, | :38:07. | :38:09. | |
free movement is not up for discussion? | :38:10. | :38:10. | |
Nigel is basically saying give up before you've begun. | :38:11. | :38:21. | |
In that election, the Ukip threat was contained, | :38:22. | :38:22. | |
The unexpected victory gave Mr Cameron a huge problem. | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
He didn't have to offer the referendum but the reality | :38:27. | :38:28. | |
was that once he gave that promise, he had to deliver on it. | :38:29. | :38:31. | |
There is no way that the Conservative Party | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
at Westminster would allow that promise not to be delivered. | :38:36. | :38:37. | |
Funnily enough I suppose one can say that his biggest error was winning | :38:38. | :38:43. | |
the 2015 general election because had it still been | :38:44. | :38:47. | |
a coalition, then of course the referendum, I suspect, | :38:48. | :38:49. | |
would never have been allowed by the Liberal Democrats. | :38:50. | :38:51. | |
What happened next in the negotiations | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
and the referendum has, of course, been well documented. | :38:56. | :39:00. | |
David Cameron was unable to deliver, unable to satisfy large | :39:01. | :39:03. | |
sections of his party, unable to persuade | :39:04. | :39:05. | |
I think the truth is, leaving the European Union is not | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
When I worked for him as an adviser, we were discussing his approach | :39:11. | :39:17. | |
on the Lisbon Treaty, he once joked that if we left | :39:18. | :39:19. | |
the EU, at least he wouldn't have to worry about his legacy. | :39:20. | :39:22. | |
Tony Blair worried about his legacy in those days. | :39:23. | :39:26. | |
On his last full day as Prime Minister, Mr Cameron tried | :39:27. | :39:30. | |
to point us towards an alternative legacy, visiting one of the more | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
than 300 free schools that opened since he entered Downing Street. | :39:35. | :39:37. | |
He looked relaxed, happy, even, as if savouring the moment | :39:38. | :39:41. | |
A quick look at the papers, the Daily Telegraph on the legacy, | :39:42. | :39:55. | |
saying that he hopes that people see a stronger country as he leaves, he | :39:56. | :40:02. | |
said. The times refers to a possible Labour Party split. May's women on | :40:03. | :40:10. | |
the march in the Daily Mail. That's all we have time for. I will be back | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
tomorrow. Something is happening, what is it? Oh yes, Theresa May will | :40:16. | :40:18. | |
be visiting the Palace! Sunshine sunshine and showers | :40:19. | :40:37. | |
tomorrow. There will be more across | :40:38. | :40:38. |