Browse content similar to 22/09/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good morning from the Labour Party conference here in sunny Manchester. | :00:11. | :00:20. | |
The shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has a lot of convincing to do. | :00:21. | :00:51. | |
Morning, folks and welcome to the Daily Politics. | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
Ed Balls warns that a Labour government will have to make more | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
cuts to balance the budget - including capping child benefit - | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
we'll bring you his speech live at midday. | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
Conservative MPs descend on the Prime Minister's country | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
house, Chequers, to demand a better deal for England after the promises | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
Labour accuses the Prime Minister of playing politics with his promise of | :01:12. | :01:20. | |
English votes for English laws - we ask the folks here what they think. | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
And I've been out and about sampling the conference nightlife here | :01:27. | :01:29. | |
in Manchester - finding out if they're in any mood to party. | :01:30. | :01:41. | |
Ed has got to project himself as the future prime ministers. I did not | :01:42. | :01:47. | |
vote for him. I voted for David Miliband. | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
All that coming up in the next 90 minutes - oh yes, | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
you get 90 minutes today of this Daily Politics Conference Special. | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
First this morning - Ed Balls has been doing the traditional | :01:58. | :01:59. | |
He chose a Sure Start children's centre to deliver his message that | :02:00. | :02:05. | |
Labour would cap child benefit - a move he says will save ?400 | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
We'll be investigating that figure in a minute. | :02:12. | :02:21. | |
First, here is what Mr Balls had to say. I cannot make spending | :02:22. | :02:31. | |
commitments we cannot pay for. If, in the first two years, we keep that | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
child benefit rise to 1%, I hope we can go on and the child benefit | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
rising by more than that later in the parliament. It is one of the | :02:41. | :02:43. | |
things we say we will have to do to get the deficit down in a fairway. | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
If we do not get the deficit down, if we do not balance the books, we | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
will not be able to deliver on all the we want to see. Let's set the | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
scene here in this formidable Manchester conference centre. | :02:59. | :03:05. | |
of the Daily Mirror, and the Spectator's Isabel Hardman. | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
What is the mood of the conference? I think it is pretty flat. A member | :03:11. | :03:18. | |
of the National executive said to me it feels like Labour have lost an | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
election rather than they are about to fight one. Maybe that is because | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
part of the energy and oxygen was sucked up last week by the | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
referendum in Scotland which was a momentous moment in Britain's | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
history. It is very hard to have a conference straight after that with | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
any zip in it. Have you found that, Isabel? Gas, and there are not many | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
policies. I sat here yesterday afternoon and there were no new | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
announcements. Just run hunt gave a speech about education but he did | :03:52. | :03:58. | |
not announce anything -- Tristram Hunt gave a speech about education. | :03:59. | :04:06. | |
We have Ed Balls' speech coming up at noon. It is always the shadow | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
Chancellor Monday speech which is the big one from him. They have said | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
they will freeze child benefit for another year or limited to a 1% cap. | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
Is that it? They are way behind on the polls when it comes to economic | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
credibility. Do we need something to put lead in their pencil? He is 25% | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
behind in the polls on that question. It is very hard to create | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
excitement because you normally create excitement by spending money | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
and promising something. If you say you're going to tackle the deficit, | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
can you give money away? We have not been briefed about further | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
announcements. It could be they are held back for Ed Miliband tomorrow | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
afternoon. The word is there will be something on the NHS. We know it is | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
a weak point for the Conservatives. If you look at the polling, the | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
Conservatives win on economic confidence, UKIP win on immigration | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
and the third bid F -- the third big issue is the NHS which Labour are a | :05:07. | :05:14. | |
head-on. After austerities, you would think he was saying, rather | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
than another freeze, he would come up with something saying things are | :05:21. | :05:22. | |
changing and Labour will make it better will stop this is the balance | :05:23. | :05:33. | |
the house to strike. What he is announcing today goes nowhere near | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
anything like a difficult decision. He is freezing child benefit which | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
voters will probably not notice. It is not like you are taking something | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
away. They will notice it does not match their earnings. That is not | :05:47. | :05:49. | |
the shopping difficult decision that people get upset about. It is very | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
small. Ed Miliband came up with the minimum wage going up to ?8 an hour | :05:56. | :06:01. | |
but that is by 2020, in six years' time. If you look at the growth | :06:02. | :06:12. | |
enrages -- in wages before the crash it would match that. He wanted to | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
give something but it did not quite work. A lot of the chat now is David | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
Cameron, English votes for English laws. It is a very tricky issue for | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
Labour because they have so many MPs in Scotland and Wales to defend. I | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
think David Cameron himself, he did not rise to the occasion of the | :06:32. | :06:36. | |
Scottish referendum result, it was dirty, no politics, but it has been | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
pretty effective in the short term. He may in the long-term playing to | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
Nigel Farage's hands. If you are going to play an English nationalist | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
game, UKIP will trump you every time. Is it all down to Mr Miliband | :06:51. | :06:56. | |
tomorrow? Is he the 1 who will have to set the tone? He did last year at | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
the conference, the freeze on energy prices, that set the political | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
weather for months afterwards. He has got to do that again, so no | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
pressure. We often underestimate Ed Miliband's speech. He did rate 12 | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
years ago and we said he could not replicate that but he did again. He | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
does have to produce policies in some sense of a manifesto which I | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
have not got the impression is taking place. Thank you to both of | :07:25. | :07:27. | |
you for kicking off our conference coverage. | :07:28. | :07:29. | |
A group of Conservative MPs are having lunch at an English country | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
house - the Prime Minister's country residence - Chequers. | :07:33. | :07:34. | |
They're pressing him for more powers for English MPs | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
after promises of the swift transfer of significant extra powers to | :07:38. | :07:39. | |
the Scottish parliament before last week's referendum. | :07:40. | :07:41. | |
In particular they want "English Votes for English Laws". | :07:42. | :07:43. | |
Well, our correspondent Mike Sargeant is outside Chequers. | :07:44. | :07:54. | |
Mike, is the Prime Minister there to listen to what his backbenchers have | :07:55. | :08:02. | |
to say, or is he telling them what the policies will be. I think it | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
will be a bit of both. A glorious day here today. A quintessential | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
English seem to consider the issues of identity and national powers. The | :08:14. | :08:20. | |
Conservative MPs are coming here with a message which they believe is | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
in the interests of fairness, to rebalance the powers in the United | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
Kingdom, to give England more in terms of funding and votes at | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
Westminster. There will be more with Labour saying these issues cannot | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
just be decided by a group of Conservative MPs over a nice lunch | :08:39. | :08:45. | |
in a country house. Is Mr Cameron's idea of English devolution, does it | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
just come down to English votes for English laws? Is it just the answer | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
to the West Lothian question. Is that it? The Prime Minister said on | :08:53. | :09:00. | |
Friday, all of these issues would have to be considered in hand, and | :09:01. | :09:07. | |
at the same pace as giving the powers up to Scotland that were | :09:08. | :09:10. | |
promised. The English votes for English laws is something that was | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
in the Conservative manifesto. These Conservative MPs now believe it is | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
time to enact that. But what form that would take? Would it be a soft | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
version like the Mackay commission that the government organised which | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
said you would need a majority in England, but the final say would be | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
by UK MPs. Would you move to a system where you had two classes of | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
MPs? Would there be an English administration, a federal system? | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
These are big, big questions and some of it could be settled quickly | :09:42. | :09:48. | |
but these bigger questions of what kind of structures we have with our | :09:49. | :09:50. | |
parliament and administration may take a lot longer. Separate to that | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
is all the questions about funding, the Barnett formula and all the | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
rest. Have you had any clear briefing from Downing Street on | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
what, if any, is the link between the promised devolution for Scotland | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
and the Prime Minister now talking about English devolution. On Friday | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
morning at 7am, the Prime Minister said English devolution would have | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
to take place into hand and at the same pace Scottish devolution. Since | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
then I am told that Downing Street is saying maybe they are not linked. | :10:23. | :10:29. | |
Any clearer picture? I think the briefing that was emerging over the | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
weekend from Downing Street was trying to give the strong sense that | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
a vow has been made on Scottish powers. That thou has to be | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
honoured, regardless of anything else that happens -- that thou has | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
to be honoured. Many MPs here today believe that the question of English | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
powers has to be sorted out, or at least the direction of travel has to | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
be established. They think politically it is very difficult to | :10:56. | :10:59. | |
be seen to be giving a lot of extra powers to Scotland without | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
addressing what they see as some of these fundamental constitutional | :11:04. | :11:06. | |
imbalances. Downing Street is very clear that it is not conditional, | :11:07. | :11:09. | |
but would like these things to happen at the same time, parallel | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
process. I think that is as close as we have got to understanding what is | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
going on at the moment. That is interesting. Thank you for that. | :11:19. | :11:21. | |
But what do the Lib Dems think about all this? | :11:22. | :11:23. | |
Well, the Business Secretary Vince Cable joins me now from Westminster. | :11:24. | :11:30. | |
Welcome to the Daily Politics. Do the Lib Dems support English votes | :11:31. | :11:39. | |
for English laws? We certainly support the principle. There is an | :11:40. | :11:42. | |
anomaly at the moment and it has to be rectified. It is a complex | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
problem. The Mackay commission a couple of years ago looked at this. | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
It has some ideas for dealing with this through parliamentary | :11:54. | :11:55. | |
procedure. We certainly do not favour setting up some sort of | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
elaborate English Parliament with all the paraphernalia around it. We | :12:01. | :12:03. | |
do recognise the anomaly while we are also dealing with the Scottish | :12:04. | :12:10. | |
devolution issue. But I thought the Lib Dems believed in federalism. | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
Wouldn't federalism involve an English parliament? Not in a formal | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
way. Setting up a new talking shop and institution is not necessary to | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
capture the spirit of federalism. We are federal party. We see merit in | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
going down the route that successful countries like Germany, Australia | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
and the US have. But in order to introduce a fully federal system, | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
you have a whole series of steps to navigate. The immediate issue is how | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
you deal with the English votes for English issues. There are ways to | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
deal with it and the Mackay commission suggests how best we do | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
it. You say it is complicated but isn't it quite easy, if the bill | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
does not apply to Scotland, Scottish MPs do not vote on it? That is a | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
simple principle. When Mackay looked at it, he looked at different stages | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
of the parliamentary process, one of the problems here is you have to | :13:08. | :13:10. | |
separate out the issues which involve money, where of course there | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
is partial devolution, and issues involving legal powers which are | :13:17. | :13:19. | |
fully devolved. The issues are complex. A lot of thought by | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
nonpolitical people have gone into this. There is no silver bullet. The | :13:26. | :13:32. | |
principle of devolution in England, the principle of rectifying the West | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
Lothian question, that is something Liberal Democrats fully accept. If | :13:37. | :13:41. | |
the Prime Minister puts down a motion before Parliament this side | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
of the election on English votes for English laws, how would the Lib Dems | :13:47. | :13:52. | |
vote? It depends what the detail is. As I have said already, the | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
principle has got to be addressed. There is a West Lothian question. It | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
has to have a solution. But the devil is in the detail, rather than | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
in the general principle, and that is what we have got to work through. | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
There is a blueprint of a kind and we want to go back to the Mackay | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
commission and see how much of that can be put into practice in a | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
reasonable timescale. But you will know that the Mackay commission is | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
not go nearly far enough for many people now, because it has simply | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
said the English MPs could have a monopoly on the scrutiny of | :14:29. | :14:41. | |
legislation for England, but at the end of the day, it would be the UK | :14:42. | :14:44. | |
Parliament with everybody voting on it, as to whether it became law or | :14:45. | :14:47. | |
not. That is not satisfactory to many people who think it has to be | :14:48. | :14:50. | |
much more clear-cut. You have put your finger on one of the | :14:51. | :14:52. | |
difficulties. That is not the only one. We have to negotiate this in | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
parallel with more devolution to British cities. There is a clamour | :14:57. | :15:00. | |
for Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Bristol and so on to have | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
more powers. London already have too some degree. The question is how you | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
reconcile devolution to the cities with devolution to England as an | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
entity within Parliament. This is all very tricky stuff and it has got | :15:15. | :15:17. | |
to be dealt with carefully. Shouldn't that be a matter for | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
English votes for English laws? Shouldn't it be up to the English to | :15:22. | :15:31. | |
decide if they are going to decentralise to the major cities? | :15:32. | :15:33. | |
That is what already happens. We already have city deals. That has | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
not been a problem. There has been no conflict with Scottish | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
colleagues. We did not extend the English city deals system to | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
Glasgow. Within the UK we have this, we can entertain this | :15:47. | :15:57. | |
imaginative arrangement. Mr Cable, can you still hear me? I can hear | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
you very well, thank you. OK. Somebody must have cut us off. Can | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
you clarify one final thing - given that it's been a Liberal Democrat | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
policy for a long while and many people said you've been ahead of the | :16:12. | :16:17. | |
game on voting for a federal UK and Menzies Campbell said, "We'll not | :16:18. | :16:23. | |
wait to wait long before we can see a federal United Kingdom." If the | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
Scots have their own Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Ireland too, | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
why not the English? It comes down to what you mean by an English | :16:33. | :16:36. | |
Parliament. If you are talking about a shiny building and new | :16:37. | :16:39. | |
politicians, I don't think there's an appetite for that. But if you are | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
talking about a place within Westminster, within the UK | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
Parliament, where English issues are dealt with by English MPs, then that | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
is an issue we have to focus on. As I've said, the Mackay Commission | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
suggests a way forward and it also points out some of the problems. | :16:58. | :17:05. | |
What about an English executive? If you had a fully federal system, but | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
then you would have to have - within the UK it's unbalanced, the country | :17:11. | :17:18. | |
is so much bigger and then you talk about regions and city regions and | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
how power is devolved. You have to resolve all those problems before we | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
talk about English executives. What we don't want to do is create an | :17:25. | :17:32. | |
uber complex country. We have too much of that at the moment. We | :17:33. | :17:38. | |
better leave it there. Thank you. Labour has most to lose if Scottish | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
MPs are prevented from voting. They have 40 Labour seats in Scotland. | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
What do delegates here think of the idea? Adam went out with his famous | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
mood box to find out. Everyone's talking about the issue of English | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
votes for English laws, so for the first mood box we are asking Labour | :17:59. | :18:01. | |
delegates should Scottish MPs be banned from voting on English issues | :18:02. | :18:08. | |
or not? No, I don't think so. Most legislation is sorted out across all | :18:09. | :18:14. | |
national boundaries. What we need is decentralisation of power from | :18:15. | :18:20. | |
Whitehall to local authorities. Do you know what the West Lothian | :18:21. | :18:27. | |
question is? No. Our first banner. Do you think Scottish MPs should be | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
allowed to vote on English matters in Parliament? Well, House of Lords | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
can vote on English matters and they're not enelected. If Scottish | :18:37. | :18:45. | |
people vote on their own, then we should, so I say no. You're on David | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
Cameron's side of the argument? Can he retract what he said? We'll have | :18:52. | :19:00. | |
the West Dorset question. The Tories determine the NHS and poverty and we | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
have to make sure that people from the left are represented and the | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
people in the poorest communities get represented equally. No holidays | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
in Dorset for you for a while? No. I'm from Northern Ireland. We depend | :19:14. | :19:19. | |
on the Barnet formula and we need to vote on English matters and we can | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
know the share of the budget we are getting. I'm from the north-east of | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
England and people are talking about it there, because in the north-east | :19:29. | :19:31. | |
we feel that an English Parliament is what we need like a hole in the | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
head. Should Scottish MPs be banned from voting on English issues in | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
Parliament? Is there anyone Scottish here? I'm struggling to find anyone | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
Scottish. They are not here yet. They'll be here later today, because | :19:49. | :19:51. | |
they've been given the morning off because of the referendum. This is | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
an interesting one, because you are a Scottish English MP. I'm a British | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
MP and I think there's a lot of change going to have to occur at | :20:01. | :20:07. | |
Westminster as a result of devo max, but it's not something cue do on the | :20:08. | :20:11. | |
back of a fag packet. This is the Conservative Party. It has to be | :20:12. | :20:23. | |
consistent. Therefore, we need a separate federal Parliament. Where | :20:24. | :20:30. | |
would it be? London. That's not very devolutionary, is it? No. Yorkshire | :20:31. | :20:39. | |
maybe? Can I take you back to front-line politics? It's a | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
wonderful question on the balance of... How about Resident Milburn? | :20:46. | :20:55. | |
I'm warming to your theme. That will get you back, being President? Oh, | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
yes, watch out. That's pretty overwhelming people here do not want | :21:01. | :21:07. | |
the ban. I suppose the only irony is, we didn't get a single vote from | :21:08. | :21:16. | |
a Scottish MP. Jim Murphy grabbed the headlines after he was pelted | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
with eggs by question question supporters. -- "yes" supporters. He | :21:22. | :21:29. | |
joins me now. It was two accurates -- crates, one for each of my size | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
13 feet. You managed to duck the mood box. Where would you have put | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
the ball? The majority of people, so no. What is wrong with Scottish MPs | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
not voting on matters that only effect England? I think there's a | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
lot of things we have to discuss. All the disappointments of the | :21:52. | :21:58. | |
post-referendum period is that the parties worked better together in | :21:59. | :22:06. | |
beTer together. -- Better Together. The result were over? The ink was | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
hardly dry and he was out there making his own proposals. Scotland | :22:12. | :22:15. | |
took two years and taken two decades to get to this point. David Cameron | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
seems to have done it in a few short moments and I think it's naked party | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
politics and that's where we were in the Scottish referendum. It | :22:26. | :22:28. | |
shouldn't be where we are when it comes to suggesting the United | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
Kingdom's unwritten constitution. It also gells with people's idea of | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
fairness. Scottish MPs vote for - Scottish politicians vote on | :22:40. | :22:42. | |
Scottish laws, why shouldn't English politicians vote on English laws? | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
What about Northern Ireland MPs? On any law that was England... Or the | :22:48. | :22:54. | |
Welsh? Any law that affects only England, only English MPs vote? | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
David Cameron is focussing on the Scots for the reason of party | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
politics. When we had devolution in Northern Ireland no-one is talking | :23:03. | :23:09. | |
about them or Wales. He said English vote for English people. We have | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
devolution in London with the Mayor of London and London MPs vote on | :23:15. | :23:18. | |
issues in the House that don't affect their constituents on | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
transport, so there's so much here way beyond the single soundbite that | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
David Cameron comes up with at 7.00am on Friday morning. We should | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
have a convention and if we are looking at the lessons of Scotland, | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
there is one lesson, I would like to see votes at 16 and 17. That was a | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
great success. We should look at constitutional convention to look at | :23:42. | :23:44. | |
all of the issues rather than one single issue as to whether Scottish | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
MPs get to vote in the second reading of a housing bill. Why do | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
you need a constitutional convention to tell you it's unfair that | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
Scottish MPs interfere in English matters when English MPs don't | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
interfere in Scottish matters? I've already said, there are London MPs | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
voting and it doesn't affect their constituents. It's nothing like the | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
power of the Scottish Parliament. On what basis should they not be | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
allowed to vote on transport? This shows where we have an unwritten | :24:17. | :24:20. | |
constitution that has evolved over the decades, and over the centuries, | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
now surely we have time to reflect at a slower pace through a | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
convention involving all the parties, civic societies... You want | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
to kick them into touch? The answer is politically desperate for you, | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
without your 40 Labour MPs from Scotland you cannot enforce your | :24:41. | :24:43. | |
will in England? It's not about that at all. Of course it is. Everybody | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
knows that. It's desperate of David Cameron to come up with this | :24:48. | :24:50. | |
quarter-baked plan early in the morning on Friday. Surely we should | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
do this at a reasonable pace, have a convention, allow the public of the | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
United Kingdom in on this and should we have a Bill of Rights? Should we | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
have a written constitution and people vote at 16 or 17? All of | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
those issues are more important than the vote of Scottish MPs. You as a | :25:10. | :25:15. | |
Scottish MP voted to increase top-up fees for English students. The bill | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
was only enforced on England because of people like you and yet your | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
constituents weren't facing top-up fees. You forced it on England and | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
yet the Scots got away with not having it at all. How is that fair? | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
I don't think that's correct in terms of the balance of votes in the | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
House, but we'll leave that to one side. The Labour Government was only | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
able to push it through on the back of 38 Scottish Labour MPs, a piece | :25:43. | :25:46. | |
of legislation that affected England, but not Scotland. The | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
Liberal Democrats voted against it and the Tories voted against it too. | :25:51. | :25:58. | |
The principle is the maths. The Government want -- won by five | :25:59. | :26:01. | |
votes. They wouldn't have won without the 37 Labour MPs. We have a | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
situation where the constitution is a bit of a stramash in a haphazard | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
way and we add on and take parts away. In the Scottish Parliament | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
there's been a more careful way of doing it and I would rather do it | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
more considered and my preference would be for a written constitution, | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
where we can discuss the issues over voting powers and rights and who get | :26:29. | :26:35. | |
to vote and which members of the public do vote. In the meantime, you | :26:36. | :26:44. | |
are going to devolve income tax powers to the Scottish Parliament, | :26:45. | :26:47. | |
that's part of the vow that your party and David Cameron made. So, | :26:48. | :26:55. | |
the Scots will set their own income tax rates. Why should you have any | :26:56. | :27:00. | |
right to set income tax rates for England? The Scots already have the | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
power to set their income tax. The principle was agreed. The Parliament | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
from day one had income tax power and through the Commission in | :27:12. | :27:17. | |
2012... To devolve it further? I accept it's further. In 2012 they | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
were devolved through the Commission and there was an ability to fade -- | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
vary the rates in income tax. You are right to say there are further | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
powers. I think there has to be a response across the UK to all the | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
issues. We'll look at Scotland and how to rebalance the constitution of | :27:36. | :27:38. | |
the United Kingdom and do it effectively. Someone, not me, | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
someone cleverer than me, described this approach as a dangerous dog | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
act. Let's not do this in a rush. What is David Cameron's rush? I | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
suspect he's trying to win a general election. It's naked Tory politics. | :27:53. | :27:59. | |
Your party and the Tories and the Liberal Democrats did a huge rush | :28:00. | :28:02. | |
when you looked like you might be losing the referendum. Let me ask | :28:03. | :28:07. | |
you this - is it Labour policy to devolve all income tax powers to | :28:08. | :28:14. | |
Edinburgh? It wasn't our policy in our proposals and we came forward | :28:15. | :28:17. | |
with our proposals. The Liberal Democrats had theirs. I'm not asking | :28:18. | :28:21. | |
about them. What is Labour's policy? We came forward with a policy. It | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
wasn't full devolution. What is it now? No what we'll do is discuss | :28:26. | :28:32. | |
with the Tories and the Liberal Democrats and let the people of | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
Scotland in on the conversation and all three parties will have to give | :28:37. | :28:41. | |
and take. We have our position and they have theirs. We'll try to find | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
a common cause, even though the referendum is offer, with the three | :28:46. | :28:48. | |
parties and involve the people of Scotland. I can't announce the | :28:49. | :28:51. | |
outcome of something we have only just started doing. That's what | :28:52. | :28:57. | |
David Cameron has done. Scottish devolution is happening at | :28:58. | :28:59. | |
break-neck speed. There's no question about that. You've agreed | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
to the speed. Yet, you sit here and you cannot tell our viewers what | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
Labour's position is on devolving income tax to Scotland? Scottish | :29:09. | :29:13. | |
devolution is not happening quickly. It's taken two decades. The campaign | :29:14. | :29:20. | |
ran for two years. It's quicker, but it's not break-neck speed. What we | :29:21. | :29:23. | |
are doing is the three parties, Labour, Conservative Party and | :29:24. | :29:26. | |
Liberal Democrats their own plans and dint plans. We have said in | :29:27. | :29:29. | |
light of the referendum, how can we speed up the plans and how can we | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
find common cause? The only break-neck speed here is David | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
Cameron and his haphazard quarter-baked ideas about how to | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
treat Scottish MPs. One more time - can you tell me what Labour Party | :29:43. | :29:52. | |
policy is in devolving income tax? Our policy is the same as it was on | :29:53. | :29:57. | |
Friday mourning, to discuss with the Conservative Party, the Liberal | :29:58. | :30:00. | |
Democrats and the people of Scotland to see what the right policy would | :30:01. | :30:03. | |
be in terms of the balance of income tax. It's not complicated. I'm not | :30:04. | :30:08. | |
going to make up a new policy on your programme today. | :30:09. | :30:16. | |
What is your policy on devolving income taxed to Scotland? Our | :30:17. | :30:26. | |
approach is to try and find an agreement with the other two parties | :30:27. | :30:31. | |
who had a different policy. I know you have to sound frustrated... I am | :30:32. | :30:39. | |
frustrated! That is your fault. You are not answering the question. I am | :30:40. | :30:43. | |
not going to make up a new policy in three days. We will work with the | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
other parties, discuss it with the people of Scotland and come to a | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
consensus if we can. And then we will have a constitutional | :30:54. | :30:55. | |
convention to rebalance the unwritten laws and the Constitution | :30:56. | :31:01. | |
of the UK. I know when I am beaten, Jim Murphy. I will have some Irn-Bru | :31:02. | :31:06. | |
next time I interview you! It is good for you. | :31:07. | :31:12. | |
Just a few minutes until Ed Balls delivers his conference speech. | :31:13. | :31:21. | |
In a moment I'll be talking to Nick Robinson about what we can | :31:22. | :31:24. | |
But first Ed Balls is known, of course, as a political bruiser - | :31:25. | :31:28. | |
but yesterday he showed that he can get a bit physical | :31:29. | :31:30. | |
He was playing what was supposed to be a | :31:31. | :31:34. | |
"friendly" charity match against a team of journalists, but Ed's elbow | :31:35. | :31:36. | |
left one of his opponents with four stitches in his cheek ? ouch. | :31:37. | :31:40. | |
And we're joined now by the journalist in question, Rob Merrick. | :31:41. | :31:42. | |
How are you? I am fine. How did you feel? I was disappointed to go off | :31:43. | :31:55. | |
because we were winning at the time. The rest did not even give a free | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
kick. Look at that picture. Our shadow Chancellor? The pictures do | :32:01. | :32:06. | |
not do him any favours but I have been sent off in this fixture before | :32:07. | :32:11. | |
now so I am the last to complain about a few robust challenges. His | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
response was your tackle was a bit tough. I am not sure he said that. | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
He said I was trying to net a ball off him and he was putting up his | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
arms to protect himself and he caught me on a soft spot. So no hard | :32:26. | :32:33. | |
feelings? Definitely not. I'm convinced Ed will be hurting other | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
people. We beat them 3-1 and he did not manage a target on shot. You | :32:39. | :32:44. | |
will play him again? We will never retire. Speaking of a man who never | :32:45. | :32:54. | |
retires, here Nick Robinson! I love the idea of it Ed Balls said you ran | :32:55. | :33:02. | |
into his elbow, your face ran into his elbow. He has a nasty little | :33:03. | :33:10. | |
bruise. That is the excuse people give the police on a Friday night, | :33:11. | :33:15. | |
he ran into my fist. Has Ed Balls got more to say on what has been | :33:16. | :33:21. | |
leaked so far? I think he has. We often get full briefings and | :33:22. | :33:25. | |
full-text. We have not. I can tell you the little I know. What we have | :33:26. | :33:31. | |
had so far is clearly designed to bolster what we will get. By saying | :33:32. | :33:37. | |
I will take a tough decision, by saying I will take a decision on | :33:38. | :33:43. | |
child benefit, albeit a small amount of money, what is he trying to do? | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
He is trying to say to his conference critically and the | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
public, look, I mean what I say when I say I am not going on a spending | :33:53. | :33:58. | |
spree. There will be a lot of people saying we will be in power next | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
year, boys and we will get spending again. He needs to say to them, | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
honestly, I am not going to. Crucially, he needs to say to the | :34:08. | :34:12. | |
country because Labour is way behind in terms of the credibility and | :34:13. | :34:17. | |
opinion polls. Doesn't he also have to rally the troops are bit as well? | :34:18. | :34:21. | |
They are way behind on economic competence in the polls. But he also | :34:22. | :34:29. | |
have to give something, not just more cuts on child benefit, | :34:30. | :34:34. | |
something that lift their spirits? The giveaway is the backdrop of the | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
conference. They put those words up for a reason. We often think it is a | :34:40. | :34:49. | |
load of old la. Labour's plan. Why does it say that? Every time someone | :34:50. | :34:54. | |
stands up and says we have got a long-term economic plan in the | :34:55. | :34:58. | |
Conservative Party, that has been hurting them. A lot of people do not | :34:59. | :35:01. | |
like the coalition or the Tories but they say, at least that Cameron and | :35:02. | :35:06. | |
Osborne have got a plan. I think what Ed Balls is going to try to do, | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
but crucially Ed Miliband will do in his speech tomorrow, is to say, this | :35:12. | :35:15. | |
is not just a series of little measures which do not connect, we | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
have a plan and we know what we will do if we get in. I think the upside | :35:21. | :35:25. | |
of what Ed Balls will do is to say, Yes one apprenticeships and | :35:26. | :35:27. | |
house-building, we will do all of those but we will also deal with the | :35:28. | :35:34. | |
deficit at the same time. Did he not give you a preview of his speech to | :35:35. | :35:38. | |
make up for what he did? No I do not think I got an extra preview. I did | :35:39. | :35:44. | |
come back from A to a story about Ed Balls making cuts which is the | :35:45. | :35:49. | |
come back from A to a story about ultimate irony. I think he is the | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
ultimate metaphor. He was toying with the joke yesterday about I can | :35:55. | :36:00. | |
be guaranteed to deliver more bloody cuts but I think he took the view | :36:01. | :36:05. | |
that that would not be appropriate. If he makes the gag later on about | :36:06. | :36:11. | |
being in stitches! We can show you the picture as it builds up. | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
Margaret Beckett is speaking to the conference at the moment. There is | :36:17. | :36:22. | |
Ed Balls getting ready. And Mr Miliband. I can tell you that his | :36:23. | :36:29. | |
speech has been delayed. It is not reckoned that he will speak until | :36:30. | :36:37. | |
12:20pm. Do you know why, Nick? Not a clue. But I can bring you the | :36:38. | :36:43. | |
vital news that this speech has been practised on an ironing board in the | :36:44. | :36:45. | |
balls Cooper bedroom. You practised on an ironing board in the | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
have something which is the practised on an ironing board in the | :36:51. | :36:54. | |
of a podium. There is an ironing board in Ed Balls | :36:55. | :36:57. | |
of a podium. There is an ironing Cooper's bedroom. It has on it a | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
speaker's lector which apparently they bought from the United States. | :37:03. | :37:09. | |
They had been trying it out on their aides who are under no pressure of | :37:10. | :37:16. | |
course to laugh and clap. All right. We are now hearing that he will get | :37:17. | :37:24. | |
on his feet at 12:11pm. -- Patsy has been told to hurry up. -- perhaps he | :37:25. | :37:39. | |
has been told to hurry up. Because Labour have a different attitude to | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
borrowing, to the current coalition and particularly the Tories, he | :37:45. | :37:50. | |
would have room to borrow up to ?28 billion more, over three years from | :37:51. | :37:55. | |
2015 to 2018, the time of the next election, he would have the room to | :37:56. | :38:02. | |
spend and borrow ?28 million more. Why? Because the Tory goal is to | :38:03. | :38:08. | |
effectively stop borrowing in 2018. Ed Balls argues that there is | :38:09. | :38:11. | |
nothing wrong with borrowing to build things, to invest, and that | :38:12. | :38:17. | |
would allow in this kind of room. The irony is it is eye-catching to | :38:18. | :38:23. | |
talk about child benefit, which may save he says 400 million. The | :38:24. | :38:26. | |
Treasury are saying it will save about a third of that, but actually, | :38:27. | :38:33. | |
this is chicken feed compared to these big differences in | :38:34. | :38:35. | |
macroeconomic policy which gives them a lot more room. I understand | :38:36. | :38:42. | |
he is saying he will run a surplus on the current spending, and he will | :38:43. | :38:47. | |
still borrow to invest in capital spending, on infrastructure and | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
things like that. But he is also saying he will pay down the national | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
debt. He cannot pay down the national debt if he is continuing to | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
borrow on capital account. Unless the runs a very big current account | :39:02. | :39:07. | |
service. He would have to run a lot. I have not seen any figures to | :39:08. | :39:12. | |
explain that. I do not think you will get them today either, in | :39:13. | :39:16. | |
truth. His defence always is that you do not know the state of the | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
economy so it is mad to set out the figures early. They are all haunted | :39:22. | :39:26. | |
by the great shadow budget as it was known of John Smith before the 1992 | :39:27. | :39:31. | |
election, which spells out a lot of detail, designed to tackle the | :39:32. | :39:35. | |
Tories' claim that the figures did not add up and you did not know what | :39:36. | :39:40. | |
Labour would do. The state of politics and the economy changed and | :39:41. | :39:42. | |
they were stuck with this plan which was two years old and some argue | :39:43. | :39:48. | |
that helped Neil Kinnock lose the election against John Major. We are | :39:49. | :39:55. | |
talking about nurses pay, teachers' pay, welfare spending, all the | :39:56. | :40:02. | |
things which makes this party and the country tick. Guess, and you're | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
certainly not talking about meeting that goal by a couple of hundred | :40:08. | :40:11. | |
million on curbing child benefit. There is no way that that would meet | :40:12. | :40:15. | |
that. You would need something much more substantial. Is a Mr Balls | :40:16. | :40:21. | |
running out of time? It has been four years now, there has been a lot | :40:22. | :40:30. | |
of austerity and still Labour's credibility on economic matters is | :40:31. | :40:33. | |
way behind the Conservatives and we are only seven or eight months until | :40:34. | :40:37. | |
the election? Jelena I think that is what so many people fear, that it is | :40:38. | :40:43. | |
too late to make up the ground. I wonder if they have underestimated | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
how popular with activists in cutting child benefit will be. I | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
have a message on my phone from someone who is furious about it. It | :40:54. | :41:00. | |
is not meaningful in economic terms as you explained. I wonder if it | :41:01. | :41:06. | |
will play worse than he expects. Margaret back -- Beckett has sat | :41:07. | :41:17. | |
down. She is a Labour veteran. The huge hall looks pretty busy. I think | :41:18. | :41:22. | |
we are ready to see the shadow Chancellor get to his feet. He is | :41:23. | :41:29. | |
being introduced. The big speech, I guess is Ed Miliband tomorrow. This | :41:30. | :41:33. | |
is preparing for it, laying the foundations for it. Ed Miliband has | :41:34. | :41:39. | |
two convince people that they can see him as Prime Minister. Let's go | :41:40. | :41:40. | |
to Ed Balls now. Thank you very much, Angela. | :41:41. | :42:00. | |
Conference, 20 years ago, at this Labour conference, we'd together | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
took the historic step of reforming our party's Constitution. The result | :42:06. | :42:09. | |
is on the back of our membership card today. Our goal, a community in | :42:10. | :42:16. | |
which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not | :42:17. | :42:22. | |
the few. Our conviction that by the strength of our common endeavour, we | :42:23. | :42:29. | |
achieve more than we achieve alone. 20 years on, that Labour vision, our | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
Labour values are more relevant than they have ever been. While our | :42:35. | :42:42. | |
economy is growing again, taxes are up, wages are down, NHS waiting | :42:43. | :42:48. | |
times are rising, most working people are not seeing any benefit | :42:49. | :42:52. | |
from the recovery. It is no wonder that the country is crying out for | :42:53. | :42:58. | |
change. But at a time when trust in all politicians is at an all-time | :42:59. | :43:03. | |
low, and when even after deep spending cuts and tax rises for | :43:04. | :43:07. | |
working people, our deficit is still high, this is our task. Not to | :43:08. | :43:13. | |
flinch from the tough decisions we have to make, but to show the | :43:14. | :43:16. | |
country there is a better way forward. Labour's plan for | :43:17. | :43:23. | |
Britain's future, our common endeavour, to build an economy that | :43:24. | :43:28. | |
works for the many, not the few. For all working people in every part of | :43:29. | :43:31. | |
our United Kingdom. APPLAUSE | :43:32. | :43:39. | |
And conference, when we think of those words, by the strength of our | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
common endeavour, we achieve more than we achieve alone. Don't they | :43:44. | :43:50. | |
resonate more loudly, after the events of the last few days and | :43:51. | :43:54. | |
weeks, because conference, we meet here in Manchester, a united party | :43:55. | :44:00. | |
in our still United Kingdom. APPLAUSE | :44:01. | :44:08. | |
And let us pay tribute to Joe and Lamont and Margaret Curran, Alistair | :44:09. | :44:14. | |
Darling and Gordon Brown, Anna Sarwar, Jim Murphy, Douglas | :44:15. | :44:20. | |
Alexander, Cathy Jamieson, all the MPs, MSP 's, party workers, | :44:21. | :44:23. | |
volunteers, up more beyond our MPs, MSP 's, party workers, | :44:24. | :44:27. | |
as well, who worked so tirelessly to win last week's | :44:28. | :44:30. | |
as well, who worked so tirelessly to thank them all -- Johann Lamont. But | :44:31. | :44:41. | |
let us never forget. After all the campaigning and the brilliant | :44:42. | :44:45. | |
barnstorming speeches, the decision to stay together and shape | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
Scotland's future within our United Kingdom, was not made by politicians | :44:51. | :44:55. | |
or pundits. It was made by the people of Scotland. They voted to | :44:56. | :45:01. | |
retain the shared prosperity and security and solidarity our union | :45:02. | :45:05. | |
brings. But the people of Scotland did not vote for the status quo. | :45:06. | :45:10. | |
They voted for the opportunity to shape Scotland's future with greater | :45:11. | :45:15. | |
devolution and it is our duty to deliver on that promise, and for | :45:16. | :45:19. | |
Wales and for the cities and regions of England as well. Yes, we do need | :45:20. | :45:28. | |
to change our constitution and reform and strengthen our union in a | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
fair way. A process which as Ed has said, must start with | :45:35. | :45:38. | |
fair way. A process which as Ed has politicians. We know too that in | :45:39. | :45:42. | |
Scotland and across the rest of the United Kingdom people want bigger | :45:43. | :45:47. | |
change than that. Change which goes beyond powers and processes and | :45:48. | :45:51. | |
Parliaments and constitutions. It's radical change. To build an economy | :45:52. | :45:57. | |
that works for all working people. Knocking on doors, in my | :45:58. | :46:01. | |
constituency a few Sundays ago, I spoke to a mum and she told me her | :46:02. | :46:07. | |
teenage son had finished college and he had been looking for a job for | :46:08. | :46:12. | |
ages. She so relieved when he finally found a job, but she was | :46:13. | :46:16. | |
worried because he's on a zero-hours contract. Every morning he rings in | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
at 7.00am to see if they want him and when they say no, he has to wait | :46:22. | :46:29. | |
around all day. She said, "It breaks my heart, because he deserves better | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
than that." She is right and that story's no exception. It's one of | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
thousands and thousands of doorstep stories all of us here across the | :46:40. | :46:43. | |
country every week hear. Parents worried about whether their children | :46:44. | :46:47. | |
will get a job or apprenticeship and whether the next generation will be | :46:48. | :46:53. | |
worse off than ours. And they are relying on us, Labour, to make | :46:54. | :46:57. | |
things better. Families and pensioners seeing prices rising in | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
the shops, heating bills going up and up. Millions of people in the | :47:02. | :47:06. | |
private and in the public sectors struggling without a pay rise or | :47:07. | :47:10. | |
unable to get the hours they need, still not feeling benefit from the | :47:11. | :47:15. | |
recovery and relying on us, Labour, to make things better. Young people | :47:16. | :47:22. | |
struggling to save to buy a house. Disabled people and family carers | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
forced to pay the Government's bedroom tax and thousands of people | :47:27. | :47:30. | |
working in the NHS and millions more relying on our NHS, worried about | :47:31. | :47:36. | |
waiting times, rising and creeping privatisation, rely on us, Labour, | :47:37. | :47:42. | |
to make things better. And conference, we must not let them | :47:43. | :47:48. | |
down. And that is why it's our job to go on and win the next general | :47:49. | :47:53. | |
election and change Britain and deliver this country from this | :47:54. | :47:58. | |
unfair out-of-touch and failing Tory government. And conference, we all | :47:59. | :48:11. | |
know the great weight of responsibility we carry on our | :48:12. | :48:17. | |
shoulders. That is why this party is so united and determined and fired | :48:18. | :48:20. | |
up to get Ed into Downing Street. Over the last four years, Ed has led | :48:21. | :48:28. | |
us from the front, reforming our party and leading a shadow Cabinet | :48:29. | :48:32. | |
with more women and more candidates than ever before and modernising our | :48:33. | :48:36. | |
relationship with the trade unions and standing up for the victims of | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
phone hacking and speaking up for the people of Britain on the cost of | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
living crisis and demanding the reforms we need to change our | :48:45. | :48:50. | |
economy at every stage and he has led this party with courage and | :48:51. | :48:57. | |
strength and vision and principle and he will do the same for this | :48:58. | :49:01. | |
country, our leader, Britain's next Prime Minister, Ed Miliband. | :49:02. | :49:10. | |
APPLAUSE As for David Cameron and George | :49:11. | :49:16. | |
Osborne, going around the country saying they've fixed the economy and | :49:17. | :49:21. | |
telling people they've never had it so good, how out of touch can you | :49:22. | :49:31. | |
get? Prices still raising faster than wages and the Tories say | :49:32. | :49:34. | |
they've fixed the economy. The lowest recovery for 100 years, | :49:35. | :49:39. | |
business investment still lagging behind and the lowest level of house | :49:40. | :49:45. | |
building since the 1920s. One in six young people out of work and the | :49:46. | :49:51. | |
gender pay gap widening. Over a million zero-hours contracts and | :49:52. | :49:55. | |
working people, 1600 a year worse off and the Tories say they've fixed | :49:56. | :49:59. | |
the economy. What planet are they on? Conference, working people | :50:00. | :50:03. | |
cannot afford five more years of this Tory government. | :50:04. | :50:13. | |
APPLAUSE You know, when the Tories say | :50:14. | :50:19. | |
they've fixed the economy we know what they've really meant. The | :50:20. | :50:23. | |
millionaires who got a massive tax cut, that's who they've fixed it | :50:24. | :50:32. | |
for. The hedge funds funding the Tory Party and the big investors | :50:33. | :50:38. | |
buying Royal Mail and Russian oligarchs in tennis mashes with | :50:39. | :50:42. | |
Boris and Dave. Conference, it's the same old Tories. | :50:43. | :50:52. | |
APPLAUSE It's the same old Tory economics | :50:53. | :50:58. | |
too. Cutting taxes at the top, and hoping wealth will somehow trickle | :50:59. | :51:02. | |
down. Standing up for a privileged few, while everyone is left behind | :51:03. | :51:09. | |
for the few, not the many, David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg, | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
it's the same old Tories every one of them. | :51:15. | :51:24. | |
APPLAUSE And now, David Cameron thinks a | :51:25. | :51:29. | |
grateful and devoted nation is going to give him another five years in | :51:30. | :51:36. | |
Downing Street. Another five years. You know what, even his own party | :51:37. | :51:43. | |
don't believe him any more. APPLAUSE Do you remember Cameron's A | :51:44. | :51:52. | |
list? Nine Tories elected in 2010 already standing down from the A | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
list to the exit door innious four years. Nine Tories leaving. Another | :51:58. | :52:08. | |
scurrying off to UKIP. And Boris scrambling back to Westminster | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
preparing to elbow David Cameron out of the way. Although, perhaps today | :52:13. | :52:20. | |
the less said about elbows the better. That's today's Tories. Going | :52:21. | :52:28. | |
on about Cameron, giving up on the general election, starting to fight | :52:29. | :52:32. | |
the next Tory leadership election instead. Conference, just remember | :52:33. | :52:44. | |
what Boris - Michael Gove said, just remember what he said a few weeks | :52:45. | :52:53. | |
ago over a boozy dinner with his old boss, Rupert Murdoch, which somehow | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
found its way into the newspapers. I don't know how? ! Michael Gove said | :52:59. | :53:07. | |
that Boris Johnson has no gravitas. He said Theresa May has no friends. | :53:08. | :53:14. | |
He said only George Osborne is fit to lead. Only George Osborne is fit | :53:15. | :53:25. | |
to lead? And how did Michael Gove explain his comments? He said he was | :53:26. | :53:31. | |
tipsy. LAUGHTER Tipsy? | :53:32. | :53:34. | |
He must have been completely legless! | :53:35. | :53:44. | |
Conference, we know working people can't afford five more years of the | :53:45. | :53:51. | |
Tories, but this is no time for complacency, because this is the | :53:52. | :53:55. | |
hard truth that we learned not just from events in Scotland, but also | :53:56. | :53:58. | |
from the local and European elections, the rise of you cup from | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
the conversations we have on doorsteps and in workplaces week | :54:04. | :54:07. | |
after week. Yes, the Tories are deeply unpopular, yes, the country's | :54:08. | :54:11. | |
crying out for change, but even after the progress and successes of | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
our last four years, we have more to do to show Labour can deliver the | :54:17. | :54:20. | |
change people want to see. That we have learned from our time in | :54:21. | :54:24. | |
government. To show we will make the tough decisions to get the deficit | :54:25. | :54:27. | |
down and that we can change our economy and make it work for working | :54:28. | :54:33. | |
people. Conference, it's more important than ever that we, the | :54:34. | :54:37. | |
Labour Party, are honest with the country about what the last Labour | :54:38. | :54:41. | |
government got right and what we got wrong. Like you, I'm proud of so | :54:42. | :54:49. | |
many of the things we did. Conference, we, Labour, introduced | :54:50. | :54:53. | |
the first-ever national minimum wage and we will raise the minimum waning | :54:54. | :55:05. | |
if we win the election next year. APPLAUSE | :55:06. | :55:08. | |
We, Labour, introduced free nursery places for the first time ever and | :55:09. | :55:13. | |
we will expand free childcare for working parents if we win the | :55:14. | :55:23. | |
election next year. APPLAUSE | :55:24. | :55:24. | |
We, Labour, introduced civil partnerships and paved the way this | :55:25. | :55:30. | |
year for our country's first-ever same-sex marriages and opened 3,500 | :55:31. | :55:36. | |
children's centres and made the right call not joining the euro and | :55:37. | :55:42. | |
starting in 1997, after 18 years of neglect, we we formed the NHS, we | :55:43. | :55:47. | |
invested in the NHS, we cut waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks in | :55:48. | :55:53. | |
the NHS. Conference, we saved our National Health Service from the | :55:54. | :56:03. | |
Tories. APPLAUSE | :56:04. | :56:07. | |
Next year, after just five years of David Cameron, with waiting times | :56:08. | :56:13. | |
rising, fewer nurses, a crisis in A, we will have to save the NHS | :56:14. | :56:20. | |
from the Tories once again and we will do what it takes, because | :56:21. | :56:25. | |
conference, it's the oldest trick in the book - you can never ever trust | :56:26. | :56:40. | |
the Tories with the NHS. APPLAUSE | :56:41. | :56:43. | |
Conference, we can be proud of many of the things we did. But where we | :56:44. | :56:49. | |
made mistakes, like all government do, we should be grown up about it. | :56:50. | :56:53. | |
We should put our hands up, learn from the past and explain how we'll | :56:54. | :56:57. | |
do things differently in the future. We should have had tougher rules on | :56:58. | :57:01. | |
immigration from eastern Europe. It was a mistake not to have | :57:02. | :57:05. | |
transitional controls in 2004. We must change the rules in the future. | :57:06. | :57:09. | |
Longer transitional controls for new countries. A longer time people have | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
to work before they can get benefits. Stopping people claiming | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
tax credits and child benefit and sending it to families abroad and | :57:19. | :57:25. | |
cracking down on employiers who exploit migrant working by avoiding | :57:26. | :57:29. | |
the minimum wage and tough controls and fairer rules. That is what we | :57:30. | :57:32. | |
mean when we talk about fair movement, not free movement. And | :57:33. | :57:37. | |
conference, while it was the banks which caused the global recession, | :57:38. | :57:41. | |
it was the global recession which caused deficits to rise here in | :57:42. | :57:44. | |
Britain and around the world and the truth is we should have regulated | :57:45. | :57:48. | |
the banks in a tougher way. It was a mistake. We should apologise and I | :57:49. | :57:51. | |
do. Plaus plau | :57:52. | :57:57. | |
-- APPLAUSE Paver As we get the deficit | :57:58. | :58:02. | |
down again, we must reform the banks, so it can never happen again. | :58:03. | :58:06. | |
And conference, we didn't do enough to tackle the underlying causes of | :58:07. | :58:11. | |
rising spending on housing benefit and in-work poverty, so we'll raise | :58:12. | :58:16. | |
the minimum wage and build more homes and cap overall spending on | :58:17. | :58:21. | |
social security. And we should not have scrapped the 10 pence starting | :58:22. | :58:27. | |
rate of tax. APPLAUSE | :58:28. | :58:30. | |
Conference, we don't just need to learn from our mistakes, we also | :58:31. | :58:35. | |
need to put right the mistakes this Government is making. So, we won't | :58:36. | :58:42. | |
pay for new free schools in areas where there are excess school | :58:43. | :58:53. | |
places. APPLAUSE | :58:54. | :58:57. | |
Conference, we will repeal the NHS bill and stop the creeping | :58:58. | :59:00. | |
privatisation of the National Health Service. And yes, conference, in our | :59:01. | :59:14. | |
first Budget, the next Labour Government will scrap the bedroom | :59:15. | :59:15. | |
tax too. We'll build on our record and | :59:16. | :59:29. | |
leadership the mistakes from the last government and put right the | :59:30. | :59:33. | |
mistakes of the Tories. We will change Britain and change the Labour | :59:34. | :59:37. | |
Party changing Britain, but we'll also face great challenges. Working | :59:38. | :59:41. | |
people are already paying more taxes, our public services are under | :59:42. | :59:46. | |
great pressure. We know there would have had to have been tough | :59:47. | :59:50. | |
decisions on tax and pay restraint, whoever was in Government, but three | :59:51. | :59:54. | |
years of lost growth at the start of this Parliament means we'll have to | :59:55. | :00:02. | |
deal with a deficit of ?75 billion. Not that balanced Budget George | :00:03. | :00:07. | |
Osborne promised. That will make our task hugely difficult and this goes | :00:08. | :00:11. | |
to the heart of the political challenge we'll face. | :00:12. | :00:22. | |
balance the books and we will make the sums add up and we will not duck | :00:23. | :00:29. | |
the decisions they face if they return us to government. Working | :00:30. | :00:32. | |
people have to balance their own books and they are clear that | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
government has to balance its own books as well. We will balance the | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
books. There will be tough fiscal rules. We will get the current | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
budget into surplus and the national debt falling as soon as possible in | :00:46. | :00:50. | |
the next Parliament. Tough fiscal rules, our National policy Forum | :00:51. | :00:58. | |
endorsed in July, said however difficult, our party can unite in | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
tough times to agree a radical, credible and fully costed programme | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
to government. We will legislate those rules in the first year of | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
government. They will be independently monitored by the | :01:14. | :01:16. | |
office for budget responsibility. In our manifesto there will be no | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
proposals for any new spending paid for by borrowing. No new commitments | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
without saying where the money is coming from because we will not make | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
promises we cannot keep and cannot afford. And because we will need an | :01:29. | :01:34. | |
iron commitment to fiscal discipline, we want the office for | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
budget responsibility to be allowed independently to audit the costing | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
and spending for every tax measure in Labour's manifesto and those in | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
other parties as well, a bold reform which the Tories are desperate to | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
block, because they are running scared from having their own | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
manifesto subject to independent scrutiny and because David Cameron | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
and George Osborne want to carry on peddling untruths and smears about | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
Labour's plans. Conference, the next Labour government will get the | :02:09. | :02:19. | |
deficit down. Ed Miliband and all my shadow cabinet colleagues are | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
clear, it will mean cuts and tough decisions. We will take the lead. I | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
can announce today that if we win the election on day one of the next | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
Labour government, the pay of every minister will be cut by 5%. | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
Ministerial pay will be frozen each year until we have achieved our | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
promise to balance the nation's books, because we are clear that | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
everybody in the next Labour government must be fully focused on | :02:47. | :02:48. | |
the task of getting the deficit down. Our 0-based review of public | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
spending is examining every pound spent by government to cut waste and | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
make difficult choices and setting out how we can make money and | :02:59. | :03:04. | |
improve care by having a single budget and joint management. If it | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
has set out how police forces will work more closely together to make | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
savings and we will scrap Police and Crime Commissioners so we can do | :03:16. | :03:18. | |
more to protect front-line policing -- Yvette Cooper has set out how | :03:19. | :03:25. | |
police forces will work more closely. Hillary is working with the | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
toughest and best generation of local government leaders to make | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
savings and free up resources for the front line. We will look to | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
prioritise early intervention now which can save billions of pounds in | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
the future and we will insist that all the proceeds from the sale of | :03:43. | :03:49. | |
our stakes in Lloyds and RBS, are used not for a frivolous | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
pre-election giveaway, but instead, every penny of profit will be used | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
to reduce the national debt. Conference, that is fiscal will | :04:00. | :04:02. | |
sponsor the little in the national interest. And we will have to make | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
other decisions, which I know will not be popular with everyone. At a | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
time when the public services that pensioners rely on are under such | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
pressure, we will stop paying the winter fuel allowance for the | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
richest 5% of pensioners. Over the long-term, as life expect in the | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
rises, we will need to continue to raise the retirement age to keep our | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
pension system affordable. We will cap social structural security | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
spending and keep the benefits cap, but we will make sure it properly | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
reflects local housing costs. Conference, I want to see child | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
benefit rising again in line with inflation in the next Parliament, | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
but we will not spend money we can't afford. For the first two years of | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
the parliament, we will cap the rise in child benefit at 1%, we will save | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
400 main pounds in the next Parliament. All the savings will go | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
to cutting the deficit -- ?400 million. We will ask those who have | :04:59. | :05:07. | |
the most to make the biggest contribution. That is why we oppose | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
David Cameron cutting the 50p top rate of tax. Now cannot be the time | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
to give the richest 1% of people in the country 3 billion tax cut. As we | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
get the deficit down in the next Parliament, the Labour government | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
will reverse this Tory tax cut for millionaires. We will balance the | :05:27. | :05:39. | |
budget in a fairer way. In the next Parliament, when we will continue to | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
face tough spending constraints, I want pay settlements which are both | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
affordable and fair. Private and public sector workers should all | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
sharing rising prosperity. Labour will not undermine fairness and the | :05:54. | :06:00. | |
independent pay review bodies by rejecting their advice out of hand. | :06:01. | :06:08. | |
Instead, we will work with the pay review bodies, employers and | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
employees, to ensure pay settlements are affordable and fair, and do more | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
for those on the lowest pay with tough settlements at the top. | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
Conference, we will also scrap the shares for rights screen. We will | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
reverse the tax cuts for hedge funds is. We will crack down on tax | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
avoidance and loopholes. And we will levy a tax on the highest value | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
properties, a mansion tax on houses worth more than ?2 million. But we | :06:35. | :06:44. | |
will do it in a fair, sensible and proportional way, raising it in line | :06:45. | :06:46. | |
with house prices, putting in protections for those who are asset | :06:47. | :06:49. | |
rich and cash poor. And ensuring those with properties worth tens of | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
millions of pounds make a significantly bigger contribution | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
than those in houses just above the limit. How can it be right that a | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
billionaire overseas buyer this year of ?140 million, penthouse in | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
Westminster, will pay just ?26 a week in property tax, the same as | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
the average value property in that area? Conference, we will make | :07:15. | :07:22. | |
different choices for fairer deficit reduction and to safeguard our vital | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
public services. That is Labour's plans to balance the books in a | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
fairer way. APPLAUSE | :07:31. | :07:38. | |
Conference, our plan will balance the books. But an economic plan must | :07:39. | :07:44. | |
do much more than that. We also need to change the way our economy works. | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
We must restore the broken link between the Wealth of Nations and | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
finally for finances and deliver prosperity for all -- family | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
finances. Across the world, rapid technological change is replacing | :08:00. | :08:02. | |
not just on skilled but skilled jobs as well, in banking and offices, as | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
well as on production lines. The result is our hollowing out in our | :08:08. | :08:14. | |
Labour market with low-wage and insecure it employment on the rise. | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
Conference, in this new world, we cannot succeed the Tory way to a | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
race to the bottom with British companies simply competing on cost, | :08:25. | :08:30. | |
as people see their job security row did and living standards decline. We | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
can only succeed and create the number of good jobs we need in a | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
race to the top. Labour's economic plan will transform vocational | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
education. We will work with employers to produce a gold standard | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
technical education and radically expand apprenticeships and we will | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
get young people back to work. Rachel Reeves will introduce | :08:53. | :08:55. | |
compulsory jobs guarantee, a pledge for young people and they | :08:56. | :08:58. | |
un-employed which people will have to take up or lose benefits. It will | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
be paid for by repeating the tax on bank bonuses. We will end the | :09:04. | :09:06. | |
scourge of long-term unemployment once and for all. | :09:07. | :09:14. | |
APPLAUSE And because a modern economy depends | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
on not just traditional infrastructure, but on the most | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
important modern infrastructure of, we will increased the bank levy to | :09:24. | :09:32. | |
expand childcare for working parents to 25 hours a week to help mums and | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
dads balance family life. We will give tax breaks to firms which paid | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
a living wage. We will end the exploitative use of zero hours | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
contracts and by the end of the next Parliament, Labour will increase the | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
national minimum wage to ?8 an hour. APPLAUSE | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
And what is the Tory plan for the next Parliament? They want to spend | :09:58. | :10:04. | |
?3 billion on a tax break for a minority of married couples. People | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
who are separated, widowed or divorced, they will not get it. | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
People who fled and divorced and divorced an abusive partner, they | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
will not get it. Read the small print, two thirds of married couples | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
will not get it. Five out of six families with children will not get | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
it either. And the Tories call that a flagship policy for families. In | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
our first budget, we will scrap this unfair policy and instead use the | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
money to introduce a 10p starting rate of income tax. A tax cut for 24 | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
million people on middle and lower incomes. More working people will | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
benefit. More women will benefit. More married couples will benefit. | :10:51. | :10:53. | |
More families will children will benefit. That is a fairer way to | :10:54. | :10:59. | |
help working people in tough times. And conference, Labour's economic | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
plan means modern industrial policy to back the new growth sectors, | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
manufacturing, clean technology and the creative industries. We want | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
proper competition in banking and energy markets. New takeover rules | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
to support long-term investment, not as stripping. Proper investment | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
banks and businesses get the finance they need. Chuka Umunna and I have | :11:23. | :11:29. | |
asked Graeme Cole, chair of Augusta Westland UK, to also review what | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
more we can do to back British exports. We will keep our | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
corporation tax rates the lowest of the G7, but instead of another | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
corporation tax rate next year, our plan will instead that money to cut | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
business rates for small firms because it is time, conference, that | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
we had a fairer deal for small businesses in our country. | :11:55. | :12:01. | |
Conference, why should decisions on what skills Manchester needs be made | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
in Whitehall? Why should a Transport Minister in Westminster make | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
decisions about all the transport needs of Birmingham, Newcastle or | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
Leeds? Our economic plan will devolve power and resources, not | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
only to Scotland and Wales, but to the city and county regions in every | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
part of England. Our new independent national infrastructure commission | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
will end dither and delay on big infrastructure decisions we need for | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
the future. And whatever the outcome of the Howard Davies review into egg | :12:33. | :12:39. | |
port capacity, we must resolve to finally make a decision on airport | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
capacity in London and the south-east, expanding capacity while | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
taking into account environmental impact. No more kicking it into the | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
long grass, but taking the right decisions for Britain's long-term | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
future. And conference, in the housing market, demand is | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
outstripping supply, risking a premature rise in interest rates, | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
the housing benefit bill is rising. Following the Lions report which we | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
will publish in a few weeks and making housing priority, within the | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
existing capital settlement for the next Parliament, Laboureconomic plan | :13:16. | :13:22. | |
will get at least 200,000 new homes built by 2020. Creating jobs, | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
helping first-time buyers and building the homes Britain needs for | :13:27. | :13:28. | |
the future. APPLAUSE | :13:29. | :13:37. | |
. Labour's economic clan is based on the clear conviction that Britain | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
has always succeeded and can only succeed in the future of open, | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
internationalist and outward facing trading nation. We need reform in | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
Europe will stop cutting wasteful subsidies, getting the euro area | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
growing again, reforming jobs and ending the waste of two European | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
Parliaments, let us all build the alliances to secure reform and | :14:04. | :14:05. | |
change Europe so it works better for Britain. As we heard so powerfully | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
this morning from the Chief Executive of Airbus, we are not | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
going to earn our way into higher living standards by walking away | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
from our biggest single market. Let us say loud and clear, walking away | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
from Europe would be a disaster for British jobs and investment. On | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
Europe, this party will always put the national interest first. | :14:32. | :14:45. | |
APPLAUSE Conference, that's Labour's economic plan. It's the kind of | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
government we should be, ambitious, reforming, doing what it takes to | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
deliver, an economy that works for working people in every part of | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
Britain. And that's the kind of Chancellor I want to be too. People | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
rightly want to know who we are, what drives us on, what makes us | :15:03. | :15:10. | |
tick. Let me say this - I'd always rather taxes were lower, but my | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
first tax cuts would be for millions of hard-working people and not | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
millionaires. I hate wasteful spending, but I hate the waste of | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
one in six young people out of work. I'm pro-business, but not business | :15:25. | :15:28. | |
as usual. I'm pro-Europe, but never join the euro. I love the NHS, I'll | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
do whatever it takes to save it. And above all else, I want to build a | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
better and fairer country for my children and all our children. | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
Because, as soon who has grown up with a stammer being I've worked all | :15:45. | :15:48. | |
my political life to breakdown barriers so that all children can | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
succeed. To get extra help and support to those children who need | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
it, because I don't want to live in a society where children are held | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
back by their special need or their disability by their parents' income | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
or the colour of their skin. That's why I'm Labour. I'm a real list. | :16:06. | :16:21. | |
APPLAUSE I'm a realist and an optimist. I don't believe in | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
dpuBGing difficult decisions, unpopular decisions hard truths, but | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
I believe in the power of politics and public service to make a | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
difference. That's who I am. And that's what our Labour Party is for | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
and that's why I am proud to be a member of this party and to serve in | :16:40. | :16:51. | |
Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet. Conference, we have learned from our | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
past and mistakes. We are tough enough to make the difficult | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
decisions and with Ed Miliband's leadership by the strength of our | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
common endeavour, we can make a change that Britain needs. | :17:07. | :17:15. | |
Conference, this is what our first Labour Bumminget will do -- Budget | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
will do, business rates cut, tax avoidance tackled, the deficit down | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
fairly, infrastructure decisions made not delayed, the minimum wage | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
raised, energy bills frozen, jobs guaranteed for young people, tax | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
cuts for millions, not for millionaires, bank bonuses taxed, | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
the bedroom tax scrapped, are NHS saved, that's what Labour's first | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
Budget will do. Fixing the economy for everyone, a plan for the many, | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
not the few, people are relying on us to deliver this. Conference, we | :17:49. | :18:04. | |
will not let them down. Thank you. APPLAUSE El balls, the Shadow | :18:05. | :18:18. | |
Chancellor takes the applause as he comes to the end of his speech. A | :18:19. | :18:25. | |
rousing end. Rather more rousing than the middle or the beginning. | :18:26. | :18:28. | |
There weren't too many policy changes to our attention. He | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
apologised for not getting bank regulation right, but he's done that | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
before. He apologised for not having tougher rules on immigration and | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
he's done that before. He said he will scrap the tax rate for married | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
couples and the pre-announcement was that he'll keep the 1% increase on | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
child benefit for an extra year. We'll talk about that with Rachel | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
Reeves in one moment. He indicated, though, that the Davies Report on | :19:00. | :19:03. | |
airport capacity, which is about expanding in the south-east of | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
England in particular, it sounded to me they will accept the report and | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
that Ed Miliband will not try to expand Heathrow Airport. At least, | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
that's what it sounded like. He interestingly had nothing to say | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
about the devolution of income tax to Scotland. That is one of the | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
great promises made to the Scottish people during the referendum | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
campaign. Nick Robinson was in the hall and listening and he joins me | :19:33. | :19:39. | |
now. A lopping speech, but nothing new? It was interesting how he's | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
targeting different audiences. The message to voters via the media, we | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
got that yesterday. I'm tough on spending. As well as that child | :19:49. | :19:53. | |
benefit, curving of benefit increases that we read about, as | :19:54. | :19:56. | |
well as the cut in ministerial pay, we got the general statement that he | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
will not put anything in the manifesto that will require no new | :20:02. | :20:04. | |
spending commitment or extra borrowing. As we have been | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
stressing, his existing rules for borrowing are much more lax than the | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
current coalition, so he's got a lot of extra borrowing and spending, but | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
he said there would be no new spending. The message to the party | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
was, look at all the things we can change, raise the minimum wage and | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
jobs guaranteed for the Jung and so on. That is -- young and so on. It's | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
clearly the makings of the plan. I've no doubt by the end of this, | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
we'll be handed the plan. I was most interested by this targeting of | :20:36. | :20:38. | |
business. They've got a real problem, Labour, with business. | :20:39. | :20:40. | |
There are few things they are trying. First, to say the Tories | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
will get you out of the EU, we won't. The thing you mentioned about | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
airports, very important, Ed Miliband | :20:51. | :20:52. | |
airports, very important, Ed Secretary and was opposed to | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
expansion. The speech in code, but carefully briefed to the CBI, we are | :20:57. | :21:00. | |
not against it, we are still going to have tests about the environment | :21:01. | :21:04. | |
and noise, but do not think we are going to ignore expansion. It has to | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
be done. And if so, we'll do it. Very wealthy viewers, he said the | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
way that Labour's mansion tax would work and it's people in houses worth | :21:16. | :21:21. | |
more than ?2 million, they would vary the rate, so the person,le | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
billionaire who can afford a ?20 billion and there are some of those | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
in central London, would pay at a higher rate from those people just | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
above the limit, who may actually be in the jarring an, asset rich and | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
income poor. Crudely, a widow who inher receipts a house from someone | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
and the house is up, but there isn't much ready cash to spend. There are | :21:45. | :21:48. | |
little nuggets, but frankly, on the eve of the general election it | :21:49. | :21:51. | |
didn't feel like we got much that we didn't already know. Now, the dog | :21:52. | :21:56. | |
that didn't bark, no mention about devolving income tax to Scotland. I | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
think you and I both understand that's because Mr Balls is not that | :22:01. | :22:05. | |
keen on this. He's not happy with the way Gordon Brown just made this | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
announcement. We understand that he wasn't even consulted. And that he | :22:10. | :22:13. | |
does not want all income tax to be devolved to Scotland? Definitely | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
not. There's no doubt at all that as Shadow Chancellor he fought | :22:19. | :22:20. | |
proposals that were drawn up not just a few weeks ago, but last year | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
in the Scottish Labour Party, to devolve more taxes to the Scottish | :22:26. | :22:32. | |
Parliament. A draft report emerged, written by Joanne Lamont and when | :22:33. | :22:37. | |
the final report emerged it would be massively watered down. Why? Because | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
Ed Balls had intervened. His argument is, if I'm going to be a | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
Labour Chancellor I want controls of economic leaders and if you devolve | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
all of income tax you are devolving yet another thing that holds the | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
United Kingdom together. What he would call shared risk. They are the | :22:57. | :22:59. | |
things we do together. He didn't like it being done last week in the | :23:00. | :23:03. | |
heat of the referendum campaign and I think he'll continue to fight it. | :23:04. | :23:10. | |
Thank you. We are joined now by the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
Rachel Reeves. Can you enlighten us on what Labour plans to do on income | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
tax for Scotland? All these things need to be worked through, but the | :23:20. | :23:22. | |
people of Scotland, they voted to remain part of the United Kingdom, | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
to pool and share risk and that. We do know that. All these details need | :23:28. | :23:34. | |
to be worked out. You can't tell us. This freezing of child benefit at 1% | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
for up to two years in the first year, you say that will save ?400 | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
million? Over the course of the next Parliament. 200 million of that is | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
in plans, because the first year involves only 1%, so the net saving | :23:51. | :23:53. | |
that you have announced can't be more than 200 million? It's around | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
300 million during the course of this Parliament. It's the saving in | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
the year one... But it's factored into the next year's plans. So only | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
one extra year. It's around 300 million. You also assumed a higher | :24:11. | :24:16. | |
rate of inflation that is now impossible, so on the Treasury's | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
calculations you've only saved 120 billion. The Bank of England | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
forecasts at inflation on what we use to make the forecast and that is | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
having inflation going up to around 2%. First of all, it is penalised | :24:30. | :24:39. | |
anyway? 400 million is a big contribution towards the deficit | :24:40. | :24:44. | |
reduction and getting the debt down. It's 75 billion. Child benefit is | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
not the only thing. The tax on properties worth more than ?2 | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
million, repeating the bank bonus tax and increasing the top rate of | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
tax up to 50 pence and the winter fuel allowance not going to the | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
richest pensioners. It's important if you add it all up to. What is it? | :25:02. | :25:08. | |
Several billion. The key point and way to get the deficit down is to | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
have an economic recovery that leaves no-one behind. Our | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
announcement on the national minimum wage is really important for deficit | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
reduction, because in the last 12 months we have spent ?270 million on | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
tax credits and benefit payments because the minimum wage hasn't kept | :25:26. | :25:33. | |
up with inflation. Increasing that is important component as well, | :25:34. | :25:35. | |
because if people aren't paid a wage to live on they have to draw on | :25:36. | :25:42. | |
benefits to make ends meet. If they're not getting the extra | :25:43. | :25:45. | |
benefits, if the benefits are withdrawn from them as the wage goes | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
up, they don't get the whole benefit of the minimum wage. They are | :25:50. | :25:56. | |
marginalised. For every pound that you get that lift you above the | :25:57. | :26:00. | |
minimum wage saves taxpayers 49 pence in the pound. I'm not the | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
people who are independent of it. They are not getting all of the | :26:06. | :26:09. | |
money, but if you have a pay rise then it would be around ?3,000 | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
better off a year compared to the minimum wage where it is today. That | :26:14. | :26:17. | |
is a massive difference. You say you're going to balance the current | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
budget, or runcy surplus even and pay down the national debt? As soon | :26:24. | :26:29. | |
as possible. Then you'll borrow more for investment? No, what Ed said in | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
the speech and this is important, there will be no spending commitment | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
in the manifesto that aren't paid for, so there will be no extra | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
borrowing in our manifesto. Everything we set up, whether | :26:44. | :26:46. | |
capital spending or current, will be paid for. You are still going to | :26:47. | :26:53. | |
borrow? No, what we are saying. In the manifesto, there will be no | :26:54. | :26:57. | |
proposals for further borrowing whether for capital or current. You | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
are actually going to run a surplus on the current and the capital | :27:03. | :27:05. | |
account? What we are saying is that as soon as possible, in the next | :27:06. | :27:12. | |
Parliament, we want to run a surplus overall and national debt falling. | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
He doesn't say that. He said he could get the current budget and pay | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
down the fashle debt. He didn't say that he was going to have an overall | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
budget surplus. What he says in the speech there will be no further | :27:28. | :27:31. | |
spending in the manifesto for current or capital expeed tour, | :27:32. | :27:33. | |
because we can't make promises we can't keep. That is what the Liberal | :27:34. | :27:37. | |
Democrats did going into the 2010 general election. You conditioned | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
kid people there will be loads of extra money. I need to clarify this, | :27:42. | :27:48. | |
because it's important. If you are telling me now that you don't intend | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
to borrow for investment and you are going to run a current spending | :27:54. | :27:58. | |
surplus, you are planning to run an overall budget surplus? We are | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
planning to get the national debt down, which means you have to be | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
running a surplus to be able to that. If you are national debt | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
falling you have to have a surplus overall. On current and capital | :28:09. | :28:12. | |
accounts or both? To get debt falling you have to have a surplus | :28:13. | :28:18. | |
on overall spending, so... It was only a couple of months ago he was | :28:19. | :28:21. | |
saying it was all right to borrow to invest. ! Listen to what he said | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
today, no commitments in the manifesto for further borrowing. | :28:27. | :28:30. | |
Everything in manifesto will be paid for, not by further borrowing. That | :28:31. | :28:37. | |
is really important. It's significant OK, thank you for | :28:38. | :28:42. | |
clarifying that. That's is for today. I'll be back tonight after | :28:43. | :28:47. | |
Newsnight on BBC Two. There is more tomorrow at midday, with live | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
coverage of the big speech from Ed Miliband from 2.00 onwards. Hope you | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
can join me then. Goodbye. The guns fell silent on | :28:56. | :29:09. | |
November 11th 1918, but the shadow stretched long into | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
the 20th century. Historian David Reynolds | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
examines its devastating impact. | :29:19. | :29:22. |