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Welcome to day three of the Conservative Party conference | :00:00. | :00:10. | |
here in Birmingham, where, as Prime Minister, Theresa May | :00:11. | :00:13. | |
was doing the rounds of broadcasters to flesh out her particular brand | :00:14. | :00:17. | |
of Conservatism, the pound plunged to a 31 year low | :00:18. | :00:19. | |
Welcome to this Daily Politics Conference Special - | :00:20. | :01:01. | |
live from the Tory party conference here in Brum. | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
Yesterday the Chancellor tried to reassure markets that he knew | :01:05. | :01:06. | |
what he was doing when it came to Brexit, | :01:07. | :01:09. | |
by making clear he wasn't a hardliner on the issue. | :01:10. | :01:11. | |
The exchange markets took fright and sterling plunged. | :01:12. | :01:18. | |
She failed to bring down net migration as Home Secretary... | :01:19. | :01:20. | |
Can Theresa May be any more successful at controlling | :01:21. | :01:22. | |
The Defence Secretary says that in future our armed forces will be | :01:23. | :01:30. | |
exempt from the jurisdiction of the European Court of | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
Human Rights in some circumstances - will this put an end to the flurry | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
Also this afternoon - transatlantic political allegiances. | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
Conservatives have traditionally supported the Republicans, | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
Labour, the Democrats - but what about in next month's | :01:52. | :01:53. | |
We send Adam out with his balls - would they plump | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
You know Ed wasn't their first choice for Strictly, they were going | :01:58. | :02:10. | |
to ask Jeremy Corbyn to do it, but somebody told them he had two left | :02:11. | :02:12. | |
feet! And there are polite | :02:13. | :02:14. | |
chuckles in the hall, Now, the Prime Minister has said | :02:15. | :02:16. | |
there will be "bumps in the road" as we negotiate our exit | :02:17. | :02:28. | |
from the EU and build Chancellor Philip Hammond's went | :02:29. | :02:30. | |
further warning of "turbulence" and a "rollercoaster" ride | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
for the economy. The exchange markets took him | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
at his word this morning when they opened and placed | :02:42. | :02:43. | |
sterling on a rollercoaster, heading down to its lowest level | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
against the dollar in 31 years. Here's what Theresa May had to say | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
on ITV earlier today. This isn't about saying well we're | :02:52. | :03:01. | |
coming out of the European Union, but what bits of men should do we | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
keep? It's saying when we leave the European Union it will be that | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
independent, sovereign country and we will be negotiating a new | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
relationship with the European Union. It won't be plain sailing, | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
there will be some bumps in the road as we go through this process. The | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
economic data we've seen so far in the last few weeks has been more | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
positive than people were expecting. It is early days but it has been | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
more positive than people were expecting. But I recognise the | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
concern business has, wanting to see a smooth process as we go through | :03:34. | :03:35. | |
these negotiations. We're joined now by Kate McCann | :03:36. | :03:37. | |
of the Telegraph and Sam Mr Hammond the new Chancellor, meant | :03:38. | :03:47. | |
to be a reassuring figure, an accountant, safe pair of hands but | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
the exchange markets didn't think so? I think what's been going on is | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
the markets have been broadly doing what the rest of us are trying to | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
do, trying to work out the nature of Brexit that we are going to have. We | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
are in a world where we have very few hard facts. We know the timing | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
of Article 50 but few details on the relationship Britain will have with | :04:09. | :04:11. | |
its closest neighbours and the rest of the world going forward. What | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
happened is the financial markets, broadly speaking, slightly out of | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
touch with the direction of travel of this government over the last few | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
weeks. It's been fairly clear to me we are heading to the sum had | :04:24. | :04:29. | |
Brexit, we won't stay in the single market, we will probably come out of | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
the customs union. There will be some kind of agreement between the | :04:33. | :04:39. | |
UK on the European union block, to some extent. And the markets in the | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
last 36-48 hours have woken up to that fact. Talking to traders on | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
Friday they said around the world there was a general misconception of | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
where we were going to end up on Brexit. I think the comments of | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
Theresa May yesterday and on Sunday have really put that to rest. That's | :04:56. | :05:02. | |
why we're getting such a sharp correction at this point. Can they | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
just shrug it off? We have a floating exchange rate now, we've | :05:07. | :05:09. | |
had one for years and years. Sterling goes up and down. Many | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
people thought it was overvalued anyway before the referendum. Or do | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
they start to get worried, because it will feed through into prices? It | :05:18. | :05:24. | |
well. The people who start to get worried will be us, people who it | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
matters to day today. It is worrying when you don't know the implications | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
of what it means, but what it does mean is anyone going on holiday to | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
America will be in a worse off position than they were before. | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
Before the vote we had these warnings. Chuka Umunna today warning | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
this means people will be worse off. They will feel their pound is worth | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
less in their pocket. That will cause people to stop and pause and | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
wonder if to buy or sell a house, or if to put that decision. That will | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
have a bigger and slower impact on what we are seeing today. The FTSE | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
100 is going through the roof at the moment, over 7000 and still rising. | :06:02. | :06:08. | |
Most people have their pensions and FTSE 100 companies, so to some | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
extent that is good news. But a big chunk of the FTSE are companies that | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
operate abroad, so when sterling goes down, they often do much better | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
because their foreign exchange then turns into sterling at a much better | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
rate. So it doesn't tell you that much? There are a range of | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
indicators we can look at. A lot of people think the FTSE 100 is to | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
short term to draw big conclusions from. What indicators and my most | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
interested in? I think in the next few months we will get more of a | :06:42. | :06:44. | |
settled sense of which direction this country is going in. The | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
numbers I will be looking at other ones published on November 23 by the | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
office the budget responsibility, will set up the predicted rates for | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
this country going forward, and critically the tax revenue the | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
Exchequer is expected to receive every year. This is the people at | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
home is the most important consequence of what is going on | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
here. Talking to the ISS and people in government, there is a widespread | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
assumption that by the time we get to 2020, you are perhaps looking at | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
15-20 or ?25 billion less tax revenue year. That's when it starts | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
getting tangible for people at home. Currency is one thing, but when | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
there is less money for schools and hospitals, when departmental budgets | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
will be hit, I think that's when people watching this programme are | :07:36. | :07:37. | |
going to most notice the consequence of Brexit. There is another side of | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
the argument, people who supported leaving the European Union at this | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
conference saying traditional bodies like the Institute for Fiscal | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
Studies are being too downbeat and not seeing the advantages that will | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
come from being a free trading nation, but it will come down to | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
cold hard economic reality. Other deals we can do now, will they | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
compensate for the loss people think we will see? It is a big question | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
and markets today seem to have taken a rather pessimistic medium-term | :08:13. | :08:15. | |
view. Most people think forecasters get it wrong, that's a problem. OBR | :08:16. | :08:21. | |
often gets it wrong. Yes, and we are at the start of a very slow process. | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
We haven't triggered Article 50 yet or left the EU yet, so goodness | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
knows what happens when we do. That's usually written into market | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
indicators. The problem we will have as this goes on, if Theresa May's | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
government decides to continue this kind of line of Brexit, we will know | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
very little. Some Conservative MPs at this conference has been saying, | :08:46. | :08:48. | |
I don't think there will be a hard Brexit. They are talking like that | :08:49. | :08:55. | |
is a given. We shall see. Forecasts can be wrong, and so can our | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
speculations. We will leave it there. | :09:00. | :09:01. | |
Now, the new Home Secretary Amber Rudd has just taken | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
-- is due on stage imbibing in shortly. | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
And she is expected to announce new restrictions on people coming | :09:11. | :09:12. | |
The Government is still committed to bringing net migration down | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
But, as Ellie Price explains, the level of non-EU migration | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
Net migration is the difference between the number of people coming | :09:22. | :09:35. | |
into the UK and those leaving each year. Last year it was 320 7000. | :09:36. | :09:41. | |
Around half came from the EU, the other half came from the rest of the | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
world. They are eye watering figures when you think the Conservatives | :09:46. | :09:48. | |
have been wanting to get the net migration figures down to 100,000 | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
since 2010. You are completely committed to the | :09:54. | :09:59. | |
tens of thousands target? I am completely committed to reducing | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
Icahn and tens of thousands, but it will take some time. Whether they | :10:03. | :10:05. | |
can meet that target will depend on what type of Brexit deal is agreed | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
on whether there are changes to freedom of movement from the EU. But | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
don't forget the number of non-EU migrants is still 190,000. Even | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
though the government already can and does apply immigration controls | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
to the rest of the world. The composition of non-EU migration is | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
very different EU migration. People from the EU are mainly coming as | :10:28. | :10:30. | |
workers, where as the largest group of people coming from outside of the | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
EU are actually international students. That is the largest group. | :10:35. | :10:39. | |
Then we have people coming as workers, coming mainly in highly | :10:40. | :10:43. | |
skilled jobs. Then we have family members, and the smallest group is | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
asylum. Let's look at the numbers. The largest number of non-EU | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
migrants is students, 72% of people who came to study in Britain last | :10:52. | :10:58. | |
year came from the rest of the world. That was 111,000 people. | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
Mostly coming from China and other Asian countries. There have been | :11:02. | :11:03. | |
concerns that route was being exploited. The government says it | :11:04. | :11:09. | |
closed 920 bogus colleges since 2010. That might partly explain why | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
the visiting student numbers last year were the lowest since 2007. | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
The second largest group of non-EU migrants as workers, usually in | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
higher skilled roles. 71,000 people came from outside the EU to the UK | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
last year to work. 20,000 were job-seekers and another 51,000 | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
already had a job lined up. Then you have another 47,000 who came to join | :11:34. | :11:39. | |
or a company family members. And finally, around 44,000 claiming | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
asylum. All of these numbers relate to non-EU immigration, before we | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
even get to deciding how many people can come from EU countries. Brexit | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
means UK politicians could soon have complete control over migration, but | :11:54. | :11:55. | |
it doesn't mean the choices they face will be any easier. | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
I'm joined now by the Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green. | :12:00. | :12:01. | |
In a former life he was the Immigration Minister | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
Welcome back to the programme. Do you accept if you are to get | :12:05. | :12:13. | |
anywhere near your target for net migration into this country that you | :12:14. | :12:21. | |
will have to cut both EU migration and non-EU migration? I think | :12:22. | :12:23. | |
mathematically that must be the case. Last time I looked it was | :12:24. | :12:30. | |
about... The net figures were 190,000 each. I think slightly | :12:31. | :12:36. | |
more... 330000 and it's roughly 50-50. So both will have do come | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
down. Yes. I think what Amber will be talking about today is measures | :12:42. | :12:49. | |
you can take to reduce migration from outside the European Union | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
first. Why haven't you done that? Net migration from the EU, from | :12:54. | :13:00. | |
outside the EU is way over your overall 100,000 target. What are you | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
doing about it? As your package just showed, I think it was some years | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
ago I was Immigration Minister. One of the most effective measures we | :13:10. | :13:12. | |
took was closing all the bogus colleges. That gives some context. | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
Everyone says we want students here. Some of them, they weren't students, | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
they were coming here to work and attending bogus colleges. I | :13:24. | :13:26. | |
understand that but the overall figure is 3.3 times your target. If | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
nobody came here from the EU, even if there was no migration from the | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
EU, you would still be 90,000 above your target. Which would have been | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
lower than what we had. Why do make promises you can't keep? It's like | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
pushing a balloon, you push one side and the other side comes up. It is a | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
permanent struggle to keep immigration numbers at an acceptable | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
level. A struggle you are losing. It is a struggle you have to keep at. | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
You have lost 330,000... Higher than the year before and that was higher | :14:01. | :14:03. | |
than the year before and that was higher than the year before that. It | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
came down and went up again. Went up for three years. It was going down. | :14:09. | :14:14. | |
It came down and went up again and went up again be partly because our | :14:15. | :14:20. | |
economy was growing much faster than the economy of many other European | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
countries. In some ways that makes it more difficult to control | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
immigration, but I don't think anyone's complaining about the fact | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
we had higher growth rates than many of our comparable countries. Can you | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
give us any idea when you might get even close to your target? It will | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
take time. I am not the Immigration Minister any more. Beyond 2020? It | :14:43. | :14:49. | |
will be a few years yet, yes. It depends how fast the relative | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
economic growth is in other countries. I would love other | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
countries in Europe to get to grips with their economy is, particularly | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
inside the euro zone, so there growing so very many young people | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
who come here can find jobs in their own country. Do you think when | :15:08. | :15:10. | |
people are worried about immigration into this country, and the | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
referendum showed there was worry about it, particularly outside the | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
metropolitan areas. Do you think they had doctors in mind when they | :15:21. | :15:22. | |
were worried about migration? Probably not, but you would have to | :15:23. | :15:31. | |
ask them that, Nigel Farage was forever at the forefront of saying | :15:32. | :15:36. | |
that we wanted few immigrants and he would never answer the question, | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
whether he meant doctors. Why would you want to not want to in Courage | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
medical people to come to this country? -- encourage. In an ideal | :15:47. | :15:54. | |
world we would train more doctors ourselves because this is a good | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
profession for people to go into and what we and other richer countries | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
are doing around the world, we are tending to take badly needed medical | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
professions from poorer countries. In the long term that is not a good | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
thing to do, that is not sustainable for them, but we are doing that | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
because we need to fill gaps because at the moment we are not training | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
enough doctors, so we should train more doctors. You have put the | :16:21. | :16:27. | |
doctors and other medical people working here already, you have put | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
them on deportation notice. No, we haven't. Really? The Prime Minister | :16:32. | :16:38. | |
was asked this morning if foreign doctors would be allowed to stay and | :16:39. | :16:41. | |
she said, until further numbers of home-grown doctors are trained. When | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
we train our doctors they will want to find jobs. But what happens to | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
the others? That is a Duport Asian notice warning to doctors already | :16:53. | :17:00. | |
here. -- deportation. Would you like to say to anyone who has come to | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
this country to work in the NHS, are they welcome to stay? They well, | :17:06. | :17:12. | |
while they are doing a job and they will be necessary for that time -- | :17:13. | :17:19. | |
they are well, for the wild way are doing a job. -- play a welcome. | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
So they don't have to go? What I will say again, it she said, doctors | :17:25. | :17:31. | |
will be allowed to stay until further numbers of home-grown | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
doctors are trained. Not talking about new foreign doctors coming in, | :17:38. | :17:42. | |
talking about those already here. You have clarified they won't have | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
to leave, correct? If we are training up more doctors, those | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
doctors will be available to apply for jobs in the future, many years | :17:51. | :17:54. | |
in the future, it takes many years to train a doctor, but they will | :17:55. | :17:58. | |
then presumably be competing for jobs with foreign doctors who are | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
not yet here. For a country with a national health 's is and with an | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
international reputation with health -- National Health Service. With | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
world beating hospitals and breakthroughs in medical techniques, | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
don't you want an international market in medical expertise? Don't | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
you want the best and the brightest to come to this country? Yes, of all | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
people to come to this country, the best and brightest, when I was | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
Immigration Minister I said we don't just want our fair share, we want | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
more than our fair share and we think this is a very attractive | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
country to come to. You have said you would like more of the best and | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
brightest to come, Boris Johnson has said he would like more Australians | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
to come, Philip Hammond says he thinks the City should be exempt | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
from any kind of immigration controls, and Sajid Javid says we | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
need more foreign builders. If all these are the people are coming into | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
the country, who is not coming in? These are people who are already | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
coming in. Mr Johnson says he would like more Australians, Sajid Javid | :19:10. | :19:12. | |
said we need more foreign builders. One of your other colleague said we | :19:13. | :19:17. | |
need more farm workers. If we need all these extra people to come into | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
the country, who are you not going to let in? How are you going to get | :19:22. | :19:29. | |
the numbers down? The basis of any sensible immigration policy and this | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
is what we seek to do, is to bring people in who are highly skilled and | :19:34. | :19:36. | |
world-class or filling gaps in the Labour market. One of the tasks of | :19:37. | :19:43. | |
other ministers including myself, is to make more highly skilled our own | :19:44. | :19:49. | |
workforce so that British workers are trained to do jobs that would | :19:50. | :19:51. | |
otherwise have to be done by workers from overseas. That is a permanent | :19:52. | :19:56. | |
struggle, not something you ever get to the end of, but absolutely, that | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
is a task for any British government to make sure our skills are better | :20:02. | :20:04. | |
and we have people who can do those jobs. The basis of your immigration | :20:05. | :20:11. | |
system is not allowing people to come in with skills that we need, | :20:12. | :20:19. | |
but the basis is to get net migration down. Most people, even | :20:20. | :20:29. | |
though most worried about immigration, they say they want | :20:30. | :20:32. | |
doctors and skilled people, they want the best people in the world | :20:33. | :20:38. | |
here. What you said in the referendum campaign, that was very | :20:39. | :20:42. | |
much the thought that we are bringing into many relatively low | :20:43. | :20:45. | |
skilled workers and the question is, can't we find British workers to do | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
those jobs which are not that is a legitimate question. -- to do those | :20:50. | :21:00. | |
jobs? Of course. How much for -- further does sterling have to fall | :21:01. | :21:03. | |
before you get worried? I have seen this happen, working in finance, and | :21:04. | :21:09. | |
anyone who worries over a few days in the market, but would find | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
themselves bouncing around every day. It is a trend. You will know | :21:16. | :21:22. | |
the trend has been down for 100 days. It is now down about 13.5% | :21:23. | :21:35. | |
since the 23rd of June. $1.28. How low does it go before you get | :21:36. | :21:44. | |
worried? You make long-term policy not on the basis of international | :21:45. | :21:51. | |
currency rates, but what you do, it seems to me the Prime Minister | :21:52. | :21:58. | |
giving a date for when we invoke Article 50, that actually promotes | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
stability. How did that work in the exchange markets this morning? The | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
Prime Minister gave a sedate over the weekend and then the pound | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
plunges as soon as the markets open -- gave a date. That is a classic | :22:14. | :22:20. | |
market reaction. Unless wondering where the stability comes in. The | :22:21. | :22:28. | |
longer you leave it uncertain, for markets and investment, long-term | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
investment, it is worse, and I think proceeding at a sensible pace with | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
the Brexit negotiations, and we are now single the timetable is, that is | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
the most sensible way to do it. It will be an uncertain period, they | :22:43. | :22:44. | |
will be bumps in the road, and knowing how long that road is seems | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
to be promoting stability. Damian Green, thanks for joining us. | :22:50. | :22:56. | |
Conservatives have traditionally supported US republicans - | :22:57. | :22:58. | |
But what about in next month's presidential election? | :22:59. | :23:07. | |
It is rather different from most elections in America. | :23:08. | :23:10. | |
Adam wheeled out his mood box amongst conference goers - would | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
Most people here don't have a vote in the American presidential | :23:14. | :23:21. | |
election but we're not letting that stop us, who do people prefer? | :23:22. | :23:29. | |
Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? This is going to be awesome, so | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
awesome. Clinton, she is the lesser of two evils. Ringing endorsement | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
exclaim Aqua grab a ball and put that in the Clinton box. It would be | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
great to have a female president. Go for it, then. I'm going to go for | :23:47. | :23:55. | |
Trump because I hate every Clinton. She is alive and she will say | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
anything for a of votes and I think Trump has a bit more credibility and | :24:01. | :24:07. | |
I would go for him. It is a kick in the face or a kick in the crotch, | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
and Clinton would probably kick me in the crotch full stop I don't know | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
what I would go for. Thank you very much. I share the same hairdresser | :24:17. | :24:24. | |
as Donald Trump, I've got to grab one of these. You wearing better. | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
Mine is just as false. It is going to be fantastic. I'm not sure | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
Clinton will do the best for America. It is like the Iran-Iraq | :24:36. | :24:41. | |
war come I want them both to lose, but I think if I was an American | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
citizen I'm afraid it would have to be, for world peace, the safer | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
world. I think Donald Trump will win. Unfortunately. This rolling | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
ball is for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. Trump or | :25:00. | :25:11. | |
Clinton? Trump, I think of are just so I can see the President of North | :25:12. | :25:19. | |
Korea's face when I -- someone whispers in his ear that Donald | :25:20. | :25:26. | |
Trump is the American president. -- I think just so I can see the | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
president of North Korea. Jim Davidson, News at ten, Conservative | :25:33. | :25:38. | |
conference. Who are you going to be announcing as the winner? Trump. I | :25:39. | :25:48. | |
don't want a madman and an idiot running the United States of | :25:49. | :25:51. | |
America. Who would you give this ball to? I give this to the | :25:52. | :25:59. | |
Republican candidate, Donald Trump. I won't vote for a very left-wing | :26:00. | :26:07. | |
Democrat. I'm doing some writing about this, about the US election, I | :26:08. | :26:11. | |
do a podcast every Friday, and in that position, I have to remain | :26:12. | :26:18. | |
neutral. Few people went for Donald Trump but the majority went for | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
Hillary Clinton. We have made the move box great again, not that it | :26:25. | :26:31. | |
wasn't great before -- mood. STUDIO: Ad showing that there is a clear | :26:32. | :26:38. | |
majority for Hillary Clinton at the Conservative conference -- Adam. | :26:39. | :26:45. | |
Stressing the difference between Britain's form of conservatism and | :26:46. | :26:48. | |
America's current style of conservatism. That is if you regard | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
Donald Trump as a Conservative. Now, Theresa May has said | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
she will trigger Article 50 - beginning the process of our exit | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
from the European Union But should it be her decision alone, | :27:00. | :27:01. | |
or should MPs have a vote on it? Well Conservative supporter, | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
Leave campaigner and founder of Pimlico Plumbers - | :27:07. | :27:08. | |
Charlie Mullins - is funding a legal challenge to try and force | :27:09. | :27:10. | |
a parliamentary vote. Good afternoon. People voted to | :27:11. | :27:23. | |
leave the European Union, why are you finding a vote to try and stop | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
the will of the people? I'm not against the result. You are. I'm | :27:28. | :27:34. | |
trying to clarify whether Theresa May is legally entitled to trigger | :27:35. | :27:37. | |
Article 50 and whether issued B Parliament, and I believe it should | :27:38. | :27:43. | |
be Parliament. -- and whether it should be Parliament. The government | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
says they have the legal power to do so. It should be Parliament. | :27:49. | :27:54. | |
Parliament makes the laws and decisions, so surely it should be | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
them that do it. Your slide in the campaign never told us that if we | :28:00. | :28:06. | |
voted to leave it would still be subject to a vote in parliament -- | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
side. We were never told that. We were told by the then Prime Minister | :28:12. | :28:15. | |
that if we voted to leave, the will of the people would be respected. | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
I'm not against the referendum, I'm here to clarify whether she is | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
entitled to trigger Article 50 or whether Parliament should be doing | :28:25. | :28:30. | |
it. You have never shown a massive interest in such intricate | :28:31. | :28:33. | |
constitutional matters before, why now? I'm sure aim is to thwart the | :28:34. | :28:43. | |
result. -- unless your aim. We have to accept the resort. If someone | :28:44. | :28:49. | |
challenges this 80 months down the line, and we have been in a complete | :28:50. | :28:53. | |
mess, there will be more uncertainty and we need to find whether she's | :28:54. | :28:58. | |
entitled to or whether it is Parliament. -- we have to accept the | :28:59. | :29:05. | |
result. Parliament is voting for us to leave in essence, by getting rid | :29:06. | :29:13. | |
of the European communities act. The idea of Parliament voting, they make | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
the laws, why should it left to the government? If we hadn't voted for | :29:19. | :29:23. | |
Parliament, how would you encourage MPs to vote? If we didn't have a | :29:24. | :29:31. | |
Parliament? No, if we had a vote in Parliament. I'm a Remain, but we can | :29:32. | :29:38. | |
live with the decision, it is about businesses preparing for the exit. | :29:39. | :29:43. | |
Do you want them to vote against triggering out of 50 -- Article 50 | :29:44. | :29:55. | |
question -- Article 50? I would rather they voted to Remain. So you | :29:56. | :30:02. | |
want this vote so that Parliament can reverse the result of the | :30:03. | :30:08. | |
referendum? Not at all, there's a campaign formed by Gena Miller, | :30:09. | :30:12. | |
businesswoman, she believes Theresa May is not entitled to trigger | :30:13. | :30:16. | |
Article 50. You have said if Parliament had a vote on Article 50 | :30:17. | :30:21. | |
you would want Parliament not to trigger Article 50, therefore not to | :30:22. | :30:25. | |
carry out the will of the referendum. No, no. We have two | :30:26. | :30:31. | |
except the result, even if we are not happy with it, but this is about | :30:32. | :30:35. | |
legally finding out whether it is Theresa May or Parliament should be | :30:36. | :30:41. | |
doing it. -- to accept. You have said you want MPs to vote not to | :30:42. | :30:46. | |
trigger Article 50. Obviously I have an opinion and from a business | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
perspective that is my opinion. What kind of constitutional crisis would | :30:51. | :30:53. | |
we have if the people, having voted to leave the EU, Parliament then | :30:54. | :31:01. | |
votes that we shouldn't leave? We don't own what they would vote. We | :31:02. | :31:05. | |
are uncertain at the moment, but we have got to go back to why I'm here, | :31:06. | :31:09. | |
the point is whether she is legally entitled to do it or whether it | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
should be Parliament. Thanks for joining us. When is the court case? | :31:14. | :31:22. | |
Ten days from now, the High Court's Lord Chief Justice is dealing with | :31:23. | :31:29. | |
it. More money for lawyers. It is your money. | :31:30. | :31:34. | |
Now, the Conservatives have used their conference to make a raft | :31:35. | :31:36. | |
Let's go back to London and see what we've learned so far. | :31:37. | :31:49. | |
Yes, Andrew, thank you. There have been a raft of announcements and we | :31:50. | :31:52. | |
will have a look at the big policies that were stated and have been since | :31:53. | :31:54. | |
Sunday. At the start of the conference | :31:55. | :31:56. | |
on Sunday, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the UK | :31:57. | :31:59. | |
will trigger Article 50 by the end of March, | :32:00. | :32:01. | |
starting the two year She also promised | :32:02. | :32:03. | |
a "Great Repeal Bill," removing the 1972 European Communities Act | :32:04. | :32:06. | |
from the statute books, and enshrining existing EU | :32:07. | :32:11. | |
law into British law. Yesterday, Chancellor Philip | :32:12. | :32:13. | |
Hammond abandoned his predecessor George Osborne's aim to balance | :32:14. | :32:15. | |
the books before 2020. Also, Communities Secretary Sajid | :32:16. | :32:20. | |
Javid said the Government will borrow money to build 1 million | :32:21. | :32:22. | |
new homes by 2020. Today, Defence Secretary | :32:23. | :32:28. | |
Michael Fallon announces plans to ensure UK troops are given legal | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
protection against While Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt | :32:34. | :32:35. | |
is announcing a 25% increase in medical school places, | :32:36. | :32:43. | |
to make England "self-sufficient" Joining me now from Leicester | :32:44. | :32:45. | |
is Labour Shadow Cabinet Welcome to the Daily Politics. As we | :32:46. | :33:00. | |
just said Chancellor Philip Hammond announced yesterday he is ditching | :33:01. | :33:04. | |
George Osborne's target to eliminate the Budget deficit by 2020. I assume | :33:05. | :33:08. | |
Labour is backing that? We always said he couldn't meet that target. | :33:09. | :33:14. | |
It was surplus by 2019, that was the basis of the Conservative 's general | :33:15. | :33:18. | |
election campaign last year. We said it would be unrealistic without deep | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
cuts in public expenditure. We have been calling for more investment in | :33:23. | :33:26. | |
infrastructure, that's what we think would be a sensible approach for the | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
economy and he seems to be adopting that approach, but we would have to | :33:31. | :33:34. | |
look at the details. It seems to vindicate the arguments we've | :33:35. | :33:37. | |
outlined in the last 12 months. So you are backing that. Your plea for | :33:38. | :33:43. | |
more investment seems to have been answered by the Conservatives. They | :33:44. | :33:45. | |
have announced they're going to borrow to build a million homes. | :33:46. | :33:50. | |
There is your public investment in infrastructure. You would support | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
that as well? We think we could go further. We have had the lowest | :33:55. | :34:00. | |
house-building on record since peace time, the nineteen twenties. How | :34:01. | :34:04. | |
many homes did Labour Bill did the last government? Not enough. Nothing | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
like it. We put investment into the housing stock, that was our priority | :34:10. | :34:14. | |
in the first few years of the Labour government. We want this government | :34:15. | :34:18. | |
to go further. We want more investment in our infrastructure. | :34:19. | :34:22. | |
Sticking with housing, you said Labour didn't build enough. The last | :34:23. | :34:26. | |
Labour government promised to build 240,000. The completions by the end | :34:27. | :34:31. | |
of that government were only 130 6000. You fell well short of that | :34:32. | :34:36. | |
promise so it's a bit rich for you to complain about the Conservatives' | :34:37. | :34:40. | |
record, which were right, completions was worse under David | :34:41. | :34:44. | |
Cameron, but now they are promising to build those homes. You support | :34:45. | :34:48. | |
that aspiration? I don't think it's rich when I am conceding to you we | :34:49. | :34:54. | |
didn't build enough homes. Not just enough... We wanted to put | :34:55. | :34:57. | |
investment in the existing housing stock, because it had had no | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
investment for 18 years of the previous Conservative government. | :35:03. | :35:05. | |
Why should voters trust you more than the Conservative government? On | :35:06. | :35:10. | |
the housing promises? What we have now, a Conservative government which | :35:11. | :35:14. | |
last year promised to balance the books and run a surplus by 2019. | :35:15. | :35:19. | |
They have completely abandoned that and completely abandoned any fiscal | :35:20. | :35:23. | |
rules whatsoever. We have a fiscal framework, we want to bring forward | :35:24. | :35:27. | |
billions and billions pounds worth of investment, not just houses but | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
Rhodes, broadband, and new sewage works that is needed, rail lines and | :35:32. | :35:35. | |
things like that. The Conservatives are just talking about housing, | :35:36. | :35:37. | |
which is welcome, and good as far enough and that is the | :35:38. | :35:53. | |
difference between us. You have abandoned any ambition to bring down | :35:54. | :35:55. | |
the deficit any time soon. You are pledging ?500 billion in new | :35:56. | :35:58. | |
investment to create jobs in new infrastructure projects. How much | :35:59. | :36:00. | |
are you going to add to the deficit? We will have to see what the public | :36:01. | :36:03. | |
finances are when we get into government and see what we inherit. | :36:04. | :36:05. | |
That you will be adding to the deficit quite dramatically much | :36:06. | :36:08. | |
about our pledges 25 billion over five years. We currently spend | :36:09. | :36:12. | |
something like 23 billion at the moment. There are ways in which we | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
can do this. If the deficit comes down of course we won't be boring, | :36:18. | :36:20. | |
but we will have to see what the public finances are like. What would | :36:21. | :36:24. | |
you do to bring the deficit down? If you invest in the economy, you grow | :36:25. | :36:28. | |
the economy. The reason the Conservatives have not been able to | :36:29. | :36:31. | |
deal with the deficit is because they haven't been investing in the | :36:32. | :36:35. | |
economy, haven't been growing the economy. Labour want to grow the | :36:36. | :36:44. | |
economy faster than it is now, at around 2.1%? What growth rate are | :36:45. | :36:46. | |
you predicting? We will make our decisions when we see what the | :36:47. | :36:48. | |
Chancellor says in his Autumn Statement and budget. The key event | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
will be the budget before the general election, as you know. In | :36:53. | :36:55. | |
the meantime, the Conservatives are talking about bumps on the road, | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
taking this very casual attitude to Brexit, apparently pushing us into | :37:01. | :37:04. | |
what is being called a hard Brexit, not being clear about whether they | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
want to remain in the single market or keep access. It seems like | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
they've moved away from that. We think that would be a catastrophe | :37:13. | :37:15. | |
for jobs, investment and the prosperity of the people I represent | :37:16. | :37:20. | |
in Leicester. If they push us out of the single market they need to be | :37:21. | :37:23. | |
clear about what that means the British manufacturers who are | :37:24. | :37:26. | |
worried about tariffs on perhaps the cars they produce in Sunderland and | :37:27. | :37:30. | |
elsewhere. This is the clarity we need from Theresa May. Been boosted | :37:31. | :37:38. | |
recently depending on the fall in sterling, that could be a good or a | :37:39. | :37:41. | |
bad thing. I don't think they will want tariffs. No, but at the moment | :37:42. | :37:46. | |
exports have been boosted. In terms of looking at the economy, although | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
sterling has fallen, the share prices have gone up in the FTSE 100. | :37:51. | :37:56. | |
Do you welcome that? Of course we welcome share prices increasing. We | :37:57. | :37:59. | |
need to know what will happen to the economy in the next few months. | :38:00. | :38:02. | |
Philip Hammond was warning us yesterday it will be difficult. | :38:03. | :38:05. | |
Theresa May talks about it is bumps in the road, as if people's jobs can | :38:06. | :38:10. | |
be dismissed in that casual way. People are genuinely worried, if we | :38:11. | :38:13. | |
leave the single market and don't have access, what will that mean for | :38:14. | :38:19. | |
jobs in the UK? Do you think Labour voters, particularly in northern | :38:20. | :38:22. | |
heartlands, will also be worried about immigration and the fact you | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
are pledging and would like the UK to remain within the single market, | :38:27. | :38:31. | |
which would mean freedom of movement, as it stands now? Many | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
Labour voters back Brexit because they want to see immigration fall. | :38:36. | :38:39. | |
Do you want to see the numbers fall? I don't think immigration policy | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
should drive economic policy. That's not what I asked, would you like to | :38:45. | :38:49. | |
see the immigration numbers fall? A lot of voters in those working-class | :38:50. | :38:52. | |
northern constituencies you are talking about would be concerned if | :38:53. | :38:55. | |
we went into recession because we don't have access to a single | :38:56. | :38:59. | |
European market. Jeremy Hosking talking about a migration impact | :39:00. | :39:06. | |
fund... -- Jeremy Hunt 's been talking. I don't see how a putting | :39:07. | :39:10. | |
these are the tree figures out that helps the case, it hasn't helped the | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
Tories. Because Labour voters want it. They have failed to do that. | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
Labour voters backing Brexit wanted to see fewer people coming here? | :39:20. | :39:23. | |
Labour voters who voted to leave the EU wanted us to leave the European | :39:24. | :39:27. | |
Union. I think there are other issues going on. People were annoyed | :39:28. | :39:31. | |
about the fact you can't get decent housing in this country, that wages | :39:32. | :39:34. | |
have been stagnant for years, that London and the south-east appears to | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
be booming and elsewhere cities are being left behind. These are not | :39:41. | :39:43. | |
self correcting issues, you need a government intervening to deal with | :39:44. | :39:46. | |
them and that is why the Labour Party has a stronger offer in these | :39:47. | :39:50. | |
areas. Thank you. Back to you, Andrew, in Birmingham. | :39:51. | :39:52. | |
Thank you. The Defence Secretary has announced | :39:53. | :39:55. | |
that UK troops will be protected from future | :39:56. | :39:57. | |
"vexatious" legal claims. The change in policy means | :39:58. | :39:58. | |
parts of the European Convention on Human Rights - | :39:59. | :40:01. | |
or ECHR - could be suspended Here's what Michael Fallon | :40:02. | :40:03. | |
had to say earlier. Much of the litigation that we face | :40:04. | :40:16. | |
comes from the extension of the European convention on human rights | :40:17. | :40:25. | |
to the battlefield. That has been damaging our troops, damaging | :40:26. | :40:28. | |
military operations and costing the taxpayer millions that should be | :40:29. | :40:31. | |
invested in defence itself. APPLAUSE So I can announce today that in | :40:32. | :40:47. | |
future conflicts we intend to Dehra great front that European | :40:48. | :40:48. | |
convention. That will protect in future our | :40:49. | :41:03. | |
Armed Forces from many of the industrial scale claims we have seen | :41:04. | :41:09. | |
coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I want to be clear, this is not | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
about putting our Armed Forces above the law. They wouldn't want that. | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
They have to comply with the criminal law of this country, and of | :41:20. | :41:24. | |
course with the Geneva conventions. Serious claims must be investigated, | :41:25. | :41:30. | |
but spurious claims will be stopped and our Armed Forces will now be | :41:31. | :41:34. | |
able to do their job fighting their enemy and not the lawyers. APPLAUSE | :41:35. | :41:41. | |
That was Michael Fallon talking to the conference earlier this morning. | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
I am joined by the Defence Secretary now. Welcome to the Daily Politics. | :41:47. | :41:51. | |
This has been spun as a great announcement, but we have always | :41:52. | :41:56. | |
been able, if we chose, to get out of the European convention when | :41:57. | :41:59. | |
going into a conflict and it's just we haven't chosen to do it. It is | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
nothing new? Yes it is. We have to change the law. We have to get | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
Parliament to vote an amendment to the Human Rights Act allowing us to | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
do this in future conflicts. This is a big decision today, the big day | :42:13. | :42:18. | |
for our military. We will be asking Parliament to ensure in future | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
conflicts the government of the day will have the power, the power, to | :42:22. | :42:26. | |
do so. What do you do if Parliament says no, we don't want to give you a | :42:27. | :42:31. | |
blank cheque. We will just vote on a conflict by conflict basis? That is | :42:32. | :42:37. | |
not how the convention is constructed. Other countries have | :42:38. | :42:43. | |
done this before. For the French state of emergency, not for a | :42:44. | :42:47. | |
foreign conflict. And it was very necessary. But the convention was | :42:48. | :42:50. | |
drawn up to deal with foreign conflict. It was drawn up, as you | :42:51. | :42:54. | |
well know, after the war for those countries that had been fighting | :42:55. | :42:59. | |
each other. It was never envisaged to extend the battlefield overseas | :43:00. | :43:02. | |
and we will stop that. Why do you think no country has sought this in | :43:03. | :43:07. | |
advance of a conflict? They haven't been subject to this industrial | :43:08. | :43:13. | |
scale fighting of spurious allegations. Several thousand | :43:14. | :43:17. | |
allegations have been made up and pushed through the system against | :43:18. | :43:21. | |
our troops years after the alleged offences. If they are spurious why | :43:22. | :43:29. | |
has your department paid so much out in compensation? Because under the | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
convention you have to do that, otherwise the court would rule | :43:34. | :43:37. | |
against you and that is precisely the point. I think we have paid out | :43:38. | :43:44. | |
some ?20 million in some 300 cases. 326 cases. We had to settle when we | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
shouldn't have had to because the convention applied. We will this | :43:50. | :43:55. | |
apply the convention in the right to liberty. If someone is firing on | :43:56. | :43:58. | |
British troops and they then detain them, they shouldn't be able to sue | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
for loss of liberty, while you're arresting them, trying to find out | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
who they are, who they are working with, gather vital intelligence. We | :44:07. | :44:10. | |
must stop that kind of nonsense. Are you telling our viewers this morning | :44:11. | :44:15. | |
your department paid out ?20 million in compensation to people who don't | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
deserve it? We have had to because of the court system and convention, | :44:20. | :44:23. | |
and that has been the past. 20 million? We are taking action today | :44:24. | :44:28. | |
to make defence budget money is spent on our Armed Forces, not | :44:29. | :44:33. | |
paying off these spurious cases. Are they all spurious, the 20 million? | :44:34. | :44:38. | |
We've had thousands of cases of people who have said they are suing | :44:39. | :44:44. | |
us... 326 you settled, there must be something going on where there is | :44:45. | :44:48. | |
some merit? I don't understand why the department would have used | :44:49. | :44:51. | |
taxpayers money in such a cavalier way if these cases were without | :44:52. | :44:56. | |
merit? Because otherwise they could rest on the European Convention, the | :44:57. | :45:00. | |
articles about the right to liberty, to say they've been detained in | :45:01. | :45:03. | |
properly and they would have been able to do that through the courts. | :45:04. | :45:07. | |
We are going to stop that. There were cases where our Army detained | :45:08. | :45:12. | |
people improperly? Where there are serious cases they need to be | :45:13. | :45:16. | |
investigated. Our Armed Forces wouldn't want this, nobody would say | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
they be above law but there is criminal law of the United Kingdom | :45:21. | :45:24. | |
and the Geneva Convention. Our Armed Forces have to respect that and will | :45:25. | :45:27. | |
go on respecting in the future, after we've done this. | :45:28. | :45:31. | |
What you say to the Army's former chief legal adviser in Iraq, he says | :45:32. | :45:41. | |
genuine grievances would not have come to light if it hadn't been for | :45:42. | :45:48. | |
this? I don't agree with that. It is important they can't be investigated | :45:49. | :45:51. | |
properly, when you are cluttered up with several thousand allegations | :45:52. | :45:54. | |
which have no basis in fact. If there are serious allegations they | :45:55. | :46:00. | |
will be pursued. He was the chief legal adviser in Iraq. Well, he was. | :46:01. | :46:06. | |
He thought without the conventions application serious cases of | :46:07. | :46:09. | |
wrongdoing would not have come to light. Serious cases can still be | :46:10. | :46:15. | |
pursued because as I said, the Armed Forces will remain subject to our | :46:16. | :46:21. | |
law and must comply with the Geneva conventions, international | :46:22. | :46:23. | |
humanitarian law and the Law of armed conflict. Why have you done | :46:24. | :46:27. | |
nothing for those who have already been pursued? We are doing | :46:28. | :46:31. | |
something, we are putting more resources into the investigation to | :46:32. | :46:34. | |
get rid of the spurious claims and we have got rid of over 1000 already | :46:35. | :46:40. | |
and we threw another thousand out by January and there will only be a few | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
hundred left of the original 3000 and then we will have a time limit, | :46:45. | :46:48. | |
so no you claims can emerge and we will tackle the culture and we have | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
already had one of these law firms pursued through the solicitors | :46:55. | :46:59. | |
tribunal for making false allegations and that firm has been | :47:00. | :47:05. | |
shut down. Based in Birmingham, no less. Yes, but no longer. They felt | :47:06. | :47:20. | |
they were lettering out to dry by the army, some of the soldiers have | :47:21. | :47:24. | |
said, what are you doing about that? -- they felt they were hung out to | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
dry. We will give them support and we will do our best to protect them | :47:30. | :47:33. | |
as they go through that process. We will make sure that in future | :47:34. | :47:37. | |
complex they would be subject to this kind of nonsense -- conflicts. | :47:38. | :47:42. | |
This will have to go to the House of Lords. What happens if they say they | :47:43. | :47:46. | |
aren't giving you a blank cheque and it wasn't in the manifesto and they | :47:47. | :47:49. | |
would rather do this on a conflict by conflict basis? It was in our | :47:50. | :47:55. | |
manifesto, there was a very clear commitment to tackle the nonsense of | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
what is called law fair. But not to derogate from the EC HR. The | :48:00. | :48:06. | |
manifesto did not say you were derogate from the EC HR, correct? | :48:07. | :48:11. | |
The manifesto said we would tackle law fair and this is part of | :48:12. | :48:14. | |
tackling law fair and I would expect the House of Lords to support it and | :48:15. | :48:20. | |
I would expect the former service chiefs to welcome this announcement | :48:21. | :48:24. | |
and I would expect the House of Commons to support it. How much of a | :48:25. | :48:31. | |
toll is the continuing fall in sterling taking on your defence | :48:32. | :48:36. | |
budget question mark given how much we buy overseas. -- defence budget? | :48:37. | :48:43. | |
There are fluctuations. More than a fluctuation, it is a one-way street | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
since the 23rd of June. This is how the graft goes. Like any large | :48:49. | :48:54. | |
organisation, we take precautions against movements in the currency, | :48:55. | :48:58. | |
and you would expect us to do that because we purchase a lot of | :48:59. | :49:03. | |
equipment in dollars. You would expect us to protect our position | :49:04. | :49:08. | |
and we will go on doing so. Does Philip Hammond have to give you a | :49:09. | :49:11. | |
top up to account for the fall in sterling? We have a defence budget | :49:12. | :49:17. | |
which is going up each year at the moment and that is a protection. | :49:18. | :49:22. | |
While sterling is going down. It is going ahead in real terms ahead of | :49:23. | :49:32. | |
inflation, and we are relatively fortunate compared with other | :49:33. | :49:36. | |
colleagues whose budgets are going down, but we do purchase a lot in | :49:37. | :49:39. | |
dollars and we take the precautions. Michael Fallon, thanks for joining | :49:40. | :49:44. | |
us. That was the Defence Secretary in Birmingham, and now back to | :49:45. | :49:53. | |
London. We are going to see Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary. She will | :49:54. | :49:58. | |
be talking about immigration no doubt in her speech to the | :49:59. | :49:59. | |
conference. And she announced she is going | :50:00. | :50:02. | |
to look at new ways to bring Right, I think we are slightly | :50:03. | :50:19. | |
delayed, but hopefully she will appear very shortly on your screen. | :50:20. | :50:25. | |
As you know the Conservative Party was elected on a manifesto | :50:26. | :50:28. | |
commitment to reduce net migration to sustainable levels and that means | :50:29. | :50:33. | |
tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands. My commitment to you | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
today is that I will be working with colleagues across government to | :50:38. | :50:42. | |
deliver this. But I'm also here to level with you, conference, this | :50:43. | :50:48. | |
will not happen overnight. Leaving the EU is just one part of the | :50:49. | :50:52. | |
strategy we have to look at all sources of immigration if we mean | :50:53. | :50:58. | |
business. I'm announcing today that from December landlords that | :50:59. | :51:01. | |
knowingly rent out property to people who have no right to be here | :51:02. | :51:04. | |
will be committing a criminal offence and they could go to prison. | :51:05. | :51:06. | |
APPLAUSE Furthermore from December | :51:07. | :51:20. | |
immigration checks will be a mandatory requirement for those | :51:21. | :51:23. | |
wanting to get a license to drive a taxi. APPLAUSE | :51:24. | :51:29. | |
And from next autumn banks will have to do regular checks to make sure | :51:30. | :51:35. | |
they are not providing essential banking services to illegal | :51:36. | :51:42. | |
migrants. I can announce today we will shortly be consulting on the | :51:43. | :51:45. | |
next steps needed to control immigration. We will be looking | :51:46. | :51:50. | |
across work and study groups and this will include examining whether | :51:51. | :51:56. | |
we should tighten and test -- the test companies have to take before | :51:57. | :52:01. | |
recruiting from abroad. British businesses have given the economic | :52:02. | :52:03. | |
recovery in this country with employment at record levels but we | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
still need to do more. All British people therefore get the | :52:09. | :52:10. | |
opportunities they need to get on in life. The test should make sure | :52:11. | :52:14. | |
people coming here are filling gaps in the Labour market and not taking | :52:15. | :52:18. | |
jobs that British people could do. That was Amber Rudd. Home Secretary. | :52:19. | :52:25. | |
"A bid for the weakest joke of Tory conference", | :52:26. | :52:26. | |
"a half hour cringe, my face has just about returned to normal"- | :52:27. | :52:29. | |
those were just some of the reviews of the jokes to come | :52:30. | :52:36. | |
out of the Tory Conference speeches yesterday. | :52:37. | :52:38. | |
But were critics being overly harsh on the Conservatives' | :52:39. | :52:40. | |
We sent Adam out to test the gags with the Birmingham public. | :52:41. | :52:44. | |
Last week it was a Jeremy Corbyn joke book but now it is a bag of | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
gags from Tory party conference speeches which we will try out on | :52:50. | :52:52. | |
commuters at Birmingham new Street station. This is the Culture | :52:53. | :52:59. | |
Secretary, Darren Bradley. If you think I want to read more | :53:00. | :53:06. | |
spreadsheets, your grip on reality is as loose as Jeremy Corbyn's. If | :53:07. | :53:12. | |
that meant to be funny? -- is that meant. OK. This is a joke from | :53:13. | :53:23. | |
Philip Hammond. Did you know that Ed Balls was not the first choice for | :53:24. | :53:29. | |
sticky come dancing, it was Jeremy Corbyn, but then they found out it | :53:30. | :53:36. | |
was the case that he had two left feet -- Strictly Come Dancing. This | :53:37. | :53:42. | |
is a joke from Andrea Leadsom. Agriculture Secretary. We are | :53:43. | :53:47. | |
determined to improve mobile phone coverage and out superfast broadband | :53:48. | :53:52. | |
and I know how frustrating it is to search with a single bar of signal, | :53:53. | :54:01. | |
worse still if you can't get into your Pokemon account. That was the | :54:02. | :54:09. | |
joke. Not impressed, really. How many Shadow Cabinet members does it | :54:10. | :54:19. | |
take to change a light bulb? No one knows because the light bulb has | :54:20. | :54:23. | |
outlasted all of them. Fairly good. Imagine Labour win the 2020 general | :54:24. | :54:29. | |
election, Jeremy Corbyn is in Downing Street raising a red flag | :54:30. | :54:32. | |
and John McDonnell is raising every taxi can find an Ken Livingstone is | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
perched in the back-seat of the prime ministerial car. Tony Blair | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
and Gordon Brown is in the boot. Well, every cloud has a silver | :54:44. | :54:48. | |
lining. To get to the top woman has to be twice as good as a man, but | :54:49. | :54:51. | |
fortunately that is not very difficult. I don't get this Yuma, | :54:52. | :55:01. | |
man. Fair enough. -- humour. He had a point. I'm not sure I get it | :55:02. | :55:04. | |
either. With us is Geoff Norcott, | :55:05. | :55:06. | |
an openly pro-Tory comedian who hit Edinburgh Fringe with his show | :55:07. | :55:08. | |
'Conswervative' this summer. And the Labour comedian Ahir Shah | :55:09. | :55:10. | |
who today kicks off his show As a Tory comedian you are a rare | :55:11. | :55:26. | |
species? Yes, not completely unique, but I'm the only one stupid enough | :55:27. | :55:31. | |
to go to Edinburgh and talk about it for a month. Did you get lynched? | :55:32. | :55:37. | |
No, but I did get some strange looks. There was a sense of morbid | :55:38. | :55:46. | |
curiosity. Novelty item? Yeah. Given what we have seen in Birmingham so | :55:47. | :55:49. | |
far and the conference speeches, is it any wonder there are not many | :55:50. | :55:57. | |
Tory comedian 's question -- questions? -- Tory comedians? Yes, I | :55:58. | :56:07. | |
don't imagine they remember the first time Pokemon came round, and | :56:08. | :56:10. | |
to think they have kept up with the Apple -based phenomenon. Being a | :56:11. | :56:16. | |
mother probably hindered her because she was probably too clued up. You | :56:17. | :56:21. | |
kids with your Britpop and your mega drives. Is it easier for you as a | :56:22. | :56:28. | |
left-leaning comedian? I don't know, but there are probably more Tory | :56:29. | :56:33. | |
voting comedians than would be honest about it. At some clubs I | :56:34. | :56:38. | |
would not regarded as bastions of left-wing humour. Certainly. But | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
being a political comedian from the left is slightly easier. Why? The | :56:45. | :56:51. | |
left's earnestness, you could say, does that mean you are funny? It is | :56:52. | :56:55. | |
easy at the moment because we are losing so badly. Stand-up comedy is | :56:56. | :57:01. | |
aways funnier when the comedian is the loser in this situation and for | :57:02. | :57:07. | |
a left as moribund as it is at the moment, punching up is very easy. | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
Not good for Labour, but funny. In terms of material. Yes, fantastic. | :57:12. | :57:18. | |
In terms of material, you haven't enough, but there is Boris Johnson. | :57:19. | :57:23. | |
Yes, there is Boris. The Tories are putting a lot of eggs in his basket | :57:24. | :57:27. | |
immediately ended you were booking the conference as a gig, he would be | :57:28. | :57:38. | |
on last. -- in his basket, and if you were booking the conference. | :57:39. | :57:43. | |
There was something very abstract from him, I thought he could have | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
taken it further, speculating on what kind of ice creams we could | :57:48. | :57:52. | |
have had under Jeremy Corbyn. Maybe a chocolate would be seen as a | :57:53. | :58:00. | |
bourgeois asset. They have gone for Jeremy Corbyn, but they have not | :58:01. | :58:05. | |
really got him. Liam Fox said there is nothing funny about Jeremy | :58:06. | :58:10. | |
Corbyn, but he looks like Obi-Wan Kenobi, a cross between him and | :58:11. | :58:12. | |
Albert Steptoe, I think there is plenty funny about Jeremy Corbyn. | :58:13. | :58:17. | |
Theresa May question what everything she is doing -- Theresa May? I'm so | :58:18. | :58:28. | |
depressed by everything she says, I've not found anything funny or | :58:29. | :58:35. | |
stop by family in India -- my family in India find it quite funny, | :58:36. | :58:38. | |
because they are enamoured with the idea of Britain destroying itself or | :58:39. | :58:43. | |
by next August it will probably be fine. Across the dispatch box, she | :58:44. | :58:52. | |
did do the remind you of anybody. It was a bit intense. The joke was | :58:53. | :58:58. | |
fine. Theresa May doesn't have to be funny, she has grabbed has and that | :58:59. | :59:02. | |
is OK, I suppose. Thank you very much. -- Gravett has. | :59:03. | :59:10. | |
On the day that sterling plunged to record low levels against the | :59:11. | :59:22. | |
dollar. But I'll be back with the highlights | :59:23. | :59:23. | |
from Birmingham at 11.15 tonight, and back tomorrow at 11am for a two | :59:24. | :59:26. | |
hour special and Theresa May's first Although Olly's the reason | :59:27. | :59:29. | |
I started making this film, | :59:30. | :59:44. |