East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Election 2017: Where You Live

Across east Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, cultural events

are taking place that are putting this region well and truly

on the map, and the political map of the region could be

about to change too, with the vote on June the 8th.

There's a buzz about this place, Hull, in particular,

International artists are making the city their home,

and new work celebrating the community, the history

and the future of Hull have all been in the national spotlight.

As we prepare to go to the polls again in the general election,

the decisions made by voters here and across east Yorkshire

and Lincolnshire will help to shape the political landscape

of the region and country for the next five years.

Good evening, and welcome to a special Look North

general election debate from St Mary's College in Hull.

Tonight we're joined by an audience of voters from across east

Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, who will be putting their

They are Victoria Atkins for the Conservatives,

standing in Louth and Horncastle, Claire Thomas for the Liberal

Democrats, standing in Hull for Hull West and Hessle,

Diana Johnson for Labour, also standing in this city

for the Hull North constituency, and Mike Hookem standing

Now, you can follow the debate as we go along.

If you want to comment on any of the remarks that you've heard

made by either our guests or by our audience, then

just go to social media, either Facebook or Twitter.

We look forward to reading all of your comments as we go along.

So let's have our first question from a GP in Hull.

I want to ask you, how will you seek funding for the NHS

so we have a future health care system that lasts?

The National Health Service is absolutely critical

to our country, to each of us as individuals, and I thank you,

One of the things we've got to do is to make sure

that we have a sustainable plan for the NHS going forward,

and that is why, in 2015, the Conservatives asked

the professionals in the NHS for the money they wanted

We are giving the NHS that money and we are committing a further

?8 billion over the next five-year Parliament.

Now, what we need to do is to make sure that that money is spent

as effectively as possible, and I know that there are issues,

for example, GP waiting times, certainly in my part of

We've got to make sure that we can recruit more doctors, more nurses

and that they are working with the best technologies

we have available so that conditions such as cancer,

survival rates of cancer continue to improve,

as they have done over the last few years.

Are you going to fund this by increasing income taxes

or National Insurance because the guaranteed not to do

What is absolutely key to finding the NHS and all of the public

services that we care about is a strong economy

because the foundations of strong economy, more people in work,

as there are at the moment, we have the highest employment

rate for many years now, more people paying taxes, fair rates

of tax, that is what helps fund the NHS and all the things

We have to support the economy to make sure it's

The Conservatives are a low tax party by nature,

and it's one of the reasons I am a Conservative, but it's the economy

What Victoria's just said obviously doesn't allow

for the fact where the money's going to come from.

The Lib Dems have been very clear that we would put a penny on income

tax and ring fence that money to pay for investment in the

And I think that anybody that tries to say, we are going to invest

in the NHS, we are going to invest in social care, but can't say

where the money is coming from is just fooling us because this

The NHS needs that extra funding, and we have to be clear that that

funding doesn't come out of nowhere, so it's right that we should put

It's fair for everybody to pay a penny extra on our income tax

in order to fund the NHS, that funding that's

But your leader has said that the Conservatives

are going to win, and he said that there will be no coalition

with any other party, so why would anybody vote

Because we are going to be the ones that are out there fighting

for the NHS and fighting for this extra penny in income tax.

At the moment, we've got a situation where the Conservatives

are doing what they like, and they know they are not

going to invest in the NHS and in social care, we know

that they are not going to put up taxes in order to do that.

We don't know where the money's going to come from.

Their manifesto doesn't say where the money's going to come

from this investment but, to be fair, Labour are not providing

that opposition to stand up for our NHS either and,

actually, there is no solution being given by anybody

We are saying, actually, that penny on income tax to pay for it,

we are being honest about the fact that there isn't enough money,

and this is where we would bring the money from.

To answer the question directly, the Labour Party has said

that we want to increase the rate of tax for people who earn

over ?80,000 per year to 45p in the pound,

and for those earning over ?125,000, we want to put it up

We also want to see corporation tax go up so big companies are paying

a fair share into paying for services like the NHS.

So I think we've got a very clear way of saying how

It certainly seems to me there are issues about staffing in the NHS.

We are here in Hull, we have the Hull York Medical School.

I certainly want to see more GP and doctor training places

being given to Hull York Medical School.

And also, one of the other things which I think is a disgrace

that the Conservatives have done in government is to take away

the nurse bursaries to stop encouraging people to go

Let's take a quick question from the gentleman there in the blue

You had your chance in 2010 when you were in coalition

with the government, and you never stuck

to your promises then, so why would we believe you now?

Gentleman in the checked shirt behind.

I think one of the interesting things said there is that,

particularly the targets from the Labour Party,

talking about big businesses paying for increasing tax in parts

of their manifesto, do you actually have a defined

statistic for what you define as a big business?

Because I think it very interesting to say that you're going to increase

corporation tax in order to fund things like this, but there are also

lots of small and medium businesses who this would particularly

negatively affect, and I think that could be very dangerous.

I'll come back to Diana Johnson in a moment.

Firstly, as a party, we are fully committed to the NHS

And we would fund the NHS through taking money back

from the foreign aid budget, which is at ?14 billion

We would take ?9 billion back out and we would put that into the NHS.

We need more doctors, we need more nurses.

We have grade A students that are not allowed to go

There's a cap at the moment at ?7500.

That's got to be raised to somewhere like ?10,000.

We need more front-line staff and we need to put the money in,

and that money's got to come from the foreign aid budget.

It's got to be charity begins at home.

We've got to put that money into the NHS.

We might come back to that later in the programme.

Diana Johnson, why should a headteacher or a senior policeman

We have an income tax system that means, if you earn more,

you pay a bit more, and I think a progressive party,

like the Labour Party, believes that, if you're earning

When you think the average wage in Hull is about ?20,000,

it's fair that those people pay a bit more.

Can I just respond to the issue about the corporation tax?

Because I think that gentleman's absolutely right.

We need to make sure that we support and encourage small businesses,

and we don't want to see them having the same high rate of corporation

tax is big businesses JD Sports or Amazon or whoever.

So I think there would have to be some accommodation to make sure

And can I say one other thing about the foreign aid budget?

Because I think we need to be clear that we spend nine times

as much on the NHS as we do on the foreign aid budget.

So if you're actually looking at the figures,

it's not going to put that much into the NHS.

I'd rather see it going to the NHS than go to China, North Korea

Mike Hookem, it was only last year that your leader was saying he wants

to privatise the NHS, he'd like to see a privatised NHS!

Before you come here, if you do a bit of research,

that was actually a hustingss back in 2009 when he said

I've got family members that work in the NHS.

We have to start looking at what we are paying for.

One of the questions which comes up time and time again in e-mails

to me just recently is, what is the actual

Because every one of the parties you've got sat here today have

all campaigned vigorously to stay within the European Union.

David Cameron spent ?9.3 million of our money to send

But you've got what you set out to do, haven't you?

Ukip is there to make sure that the Brexit that we get

is the Brexit that we voted for, and all of these parties that you've

Theresa May has already started backsliding on social

care, on the fisheries, and she will betray you,

as Ted Heath betrayed the fishing industries in 73.

Gentleman in the blue shirt at the back.

Just out of interest, as someone who works,

Isn't that's what's supposed to pay for the National Health Service

as well as the employee's contribution to the

We all contribute an awful lot to a health service

that all of us love, regardless of colour,

This debate has been going on year after year after year,

Every party is trying their hardest to actually sort out a solution

Shouldn't we have a cross-party approach to this?

And actually work out how to look after the National Health Service

Two more quick quotes, and then we'll move on to the next question.

Lady at the back in the beige cardigan, I think it is.

You've all said that you're going to pour money into the NHS.

How do you actually propose to get the GPs and the health care workers

to come to this part of the country to do the job?

Because we are so short of those sort of people to come to this area.

In Lincolnshire, particularly in the rural areas of Lincolnshire,

we do have difficulties recruiting GPs and professionals to this

I do everything I can to sell Lincolnshire.

If you're a medical professional, please come to Lincolnshire

But one of the things that Lincolnshire County Council has done

is to introduce a ?20,000 golden hello to new GPs

And those sorts of initiatives, as well as speaking up for the local

area, that I hope will attract more professionals into the county

Final comment from this gentleman in the front in the smart suits.

Peter, you have four wonderful candidates there, I'm sure.

You are all vying for people's votes this evening as well.

There are probably people in this audience that don't really

know which way to vote on the 8th of June.

You were asked question, how you would fund it.

You said you would put income tax up by 1p in the pound.

But your leader has said it would be significantly more.

You, Diana, and the Labour government, if you were

in government, would increase tax significantly.

I've been self-employed for 34 years.

?80,000 is a lot of money compared to ?20,000 for a person

who's self-employed, taking all the risks.

So what is the point that you're making?

?80,000 is not a lot of money for somebody who works 60-80 hours

a week and takes all the problems home with them.

If you are to increase taxation to that level,

Just briefly, ?80,000, people pay 45p, after ?123,000, people pay 50p.

Diana Johnson, last word with you on this one.

Well, look, no-one wants to stifle employment.

Of course we want people to be in jobs.

You know, I come from a family that had a self-employed business,

so I know how hard people work when they are self-employed.

But I do think, as a society, we have to make a choice about how

we fund good public services, and actually I think

it's the fairest way to say that, if you're earning a high income,

then you should pay a little bit more to ensure that we can

Let's move on, because we have got a lot of questions, and we will get

Just to say, if you are watching, if you want to comment on anything

you've heard from the panellists or anything you have

heard from the audience, go on to social media,

Facebook or Twitter, and this is the hashtag, #ge17eyl.

East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, easier way to remember it.

Now, our next question is from Wojciech Pisarski,

a retired social care manager from Skegness.

Could you tell us what you propose to do about the crisis in social

care and the impact it's having on the NHS, keeping people

in hospital, stopping their discharges because there is no

care for them outside of the hospital?

So, I completely agree with you that social care is really important.

I think sometimes when we talk about social care, we presume it's

all about the older generation, and actually there's

lots of people that are needing social care at home.

The Lib Dems have said clearly that the penny on income tax we have

talked about just now, that would be invested

in the NHS and social care, and that we need to bring those two

together, because at the moment they don't work

We need to bring the NHS and social care together.

If you need help with your health and with York are, it shouldn't

matter that you go one place for one thing and someone else

You need one system that enables you to get the help that

you need, where you need it and when you need it.

Why have you not put a cap on the cost?

We have said there will be a cap on the cost.

That dementia tax, I think, is, you know...

So, there has been an independent report that advised the Government

about what should happen with adult social care,

and the Lib Dems have signed up to the independent report,

which has a cap of something like 72,000.

Well, I think that with social care you have to look very carefully

at what happened over the last, well, the last seven years really.

4.6 billion has been taken away from councils

That's the real problem in all of this, and even

the proposals that the Tories have come up with in the last few weeks

are not going to tackle the complete underfunding of social

We know there's 1.2 million older people who have unmet care needs,

and we know the thresholds have gone up for people to be

What we need to do, I agree with Claire,

is a more integrated approach with the NHS and local councils,

And my party has said we would put ?8 billion in over

That alongside the 37 billion that we've set to the NHS.

We need to make sure that the people who need social

care are able to get it, and that's why we have a very clear

Yeah, and you talk about paying for it with corporation tax,

which the gentleman over there mentioned.

Other countries, you know, France, the United States,

So why do your party want to put it up?

Well, as I said in the contribution I made earlier, we are talking

as well about income tax, and if you look at income tax around

Europe, we are actually quite low in terms of what we ask individuals

to pay, so I think the increases that we've talked about their

bring us more into line with European averages.

The problem with social care is it's all disjointed.

It should be brought in with the NHS.

There's thousands of bed days that we've lost per month of people that

There's got to be legislation brought in to get people that

are laying in the hospital beds that need social care, so legislation

It's got to be a long-term funded project,

We've got to bring it back together again.

At the moment, it's just not working.

Victoria Atkins, was this a complete bungle in

We didn't get the messaging right, but I think the policy

Some people might say it's the first time in history that

a manifesto pledge was broken before an election.

The important thing is that we are the only party that's

come up with a sustainable long-term plan to deal with social care.

We have tried to tackle this problem...

The sticking plasters that we have at the moment...

We've invested a further ?2 billion in social care,

We have given councils the ability to charge you a little bit extra

That's fine but it's not sustainable and it's not long-term,

which is why the Prime Minister has tried to face up to what is one

of the greatest challenges facing our nation.

That's great, but of course it has implications for social care.

So what we are proposing is that we quadruple the amount

I may just explain, just to get the messaging right,

Peter, you had a giggle at my expense earlier on...

The ?23,500 is the policy at the moment.

We are quadrupling that to ?100,000, and we are saying

to people, you do not have to worry about your bills on a weekly

or monthly basis, because this will be deferred until after

you and your husband or wife passed away.

But you're asking people to vote without telling them

what the cap is going to be, though, aren't you?

This has to be part of a consultation.

This has to be part of the consultation.

A wide-ranging public consultation that well, you know, charities

I'm going to study there, because a lot of people want to talk.

Let me just first of all ask Wojciech if he is

I would like to come back to something that Victoria said,

in answer to the previous question, about that she believes

If you have a low-tax economy, you have poor or no services.

You can't reconcile the one and the other.

And we are told that we are all living longer -

People aren't living longer - there are more people around

because there were more people born 60, 70, 80 years ago.

But it's a fallacy to say that everyone's are living longer.

But I think that's pretty much accepted by the medical...

You've got people from Norway, Sweden, France, Germany,

who don't have to talk about having a problem

about people living longer - they get out and care for them.

And this country will not care for them because we don't

I mean, we should celebrate the fact that people are living longer.

This is one of the great things, the advances of medical science

and the National Health Service, but it does create a problem.

And one of the big things that, you know, I hope

we are going to come to this, Peter, as Bill Clinton's adviser

We need to have a strong economy to pay for all of these

things like the NHS, like social care, that we all want

All we are hearing from a number of the parties is,

Labour tried taxing the death out of this country in the 1970s.

Since we've reduced corporation tax in the last few years,

the tax take has gone up in corporation tax.

We need to encourage wealth creation, entrepreneurship,

small and medium-sized enterprises, and I know Diana said they wouldn't

get stung with the same increase in corporation tax,

We need to encourage wealth creation, so we can put this money

into social care and into the NHS, and have a sensible debate,

as one of the other members of the audience said earlier.

Stop throwing, sort of, rotten tomatoes at each other.

And say, we all believe in the NHS, let's run it better.

When we talk about social care, everyone seems to be

I want to mention about younger people, particularly those

with disabilities in our area, who are being failed

by the Government and the Government cuts.

Are the panel aware that there is a 12-month waiting list just

to get a basic educational health care plan for young people?

A four-page document and 12 months' wait for parents to try to have

access to help their children in school with social care.

The subject of social care is a very emotive one

A lot of people talk about it, and it was on our People's Manifesto

as one of the subjects that you feel very passionately about.

If you want to comment on that, if you go onto Facebook or Twitter,

We look forward to getting your comments on what we have heard

from the panellists tonight on BBC One and also

Now, our next question is from Arjun Gandhi,

who is a student in Hull, and a first-time voter.

I've been a lifelong Conservative myself,

but I have rather been disappointed by the rhetoric coming

from the Conservative establishment in wake of the Manchester attack.

So, is there any candidate here who can promise the British

people that immigration numbers will come down, and at the same time

we will be having more stringent background checks for asylum seekers

and people coming into our country from high-risk nations?

Let's go quickly to the panel on this one.

Well, I think because of the decision last year

around leaving the EU, we know that we will,

for the first time, have the opportunity to think again

about our immigration policy in this country.

Clearly we are part of the single market at the moment,

so there is the free movement of labour, but when we leave,

that will allow us, as a country, to decide what immigration policy

Now, the Conservatives have said that they wanted to get the figures

down to the tens of thousands, and that hasn't happened.

I'm not a supporter of any free market.

I think there should be regulation in all markets,

and I think there should be regulation in the immigration

So I think this is an opportunity for us.

There's lots of talk about the Australian points system,

that people seem to think would be an appropriate method for us

to have in this country, but that's the debate

we are going to be having over the next two years,

as we decide as a country what we want to do with immigration,

what our needs are, and especially in an area like East Yorkshire

and North Lincolnshire, where we know that there are needs

sometimes for seasonal workers to come to the area,

and I think that's going to be a very interesting debate over

Can you just clarify, will the freedom of movement

The previous Government have said that...

No, I'm not talking about the previous Government,

Because it's in your manifesto, isn't it?

Well, basically, the debate is going to be about what the deal

Now, the Tories have said they will come out of the single

As the Labour Party, we want to get the best deal we can,

but I certainly acknowledge, and the party acknowledges,

that immigration was one of the key issues in the referendum last year,

We have to make sure that is part of the debate.

But it says it will end in your manifesto, doesn't it?

Well, if we come out of the single market,

yeah, free movement of labour ends, yes.

We pack mass migration into this country, where a city the size

Within three years, a city the size of Birmingham

We have to go into an Australian-style policy,

and we have to know who comes in and who goes out.

You know, a lot of these people that come in and commit these atrocities

have travelled to Syria, to Iraq, to Afghanistan,

for training, and then slipped back in.

I was probably the first politician who spent five weeks in Calais

in the Jungle last year, and looked at the problem there,

lived amongst these people, looked at what they were doing,

and how easy it was at that point to get in.

British truck drivers asked me to go over there

because they were in fear of their life of what

was going on there, and when they were climbing

on the back of these vehicles and getting in.

I travelled to Brussels and I went through King George

I travelled out there on the ferry and I travelled back on the ferry.

And I was told by border control, morale is low, funding is low,

there is no infrastructure there, and they are really

This is an open door for these people, who are just coming in,

We've got to stop that and we've got to know who is coming in.

You need a certain amount of immigration, but you need people

that have got the skills that we need.

We've got enough of those people here now to do those jobs.

We have to know who is coming in, and it's a big problem,

and I believe Ukip is the only party that is committed to stopping this.

Well, immigration, the message from the referendum last year

was that people want to take control of immigration.

She was Home Secretary for six years and she knows just how difficult

Some people seem to give the impression there

is a silver bullet to solving the issues of immigration.

As Home Secretary, she failed miserably.

But that's the point, Mike, it's that you...

Please don't make promises about immigration, that it's

What we want to do is to lower it to the tens of thousands.

That hasn't been possible with membership of the European Union.

When we come out of the European Union, we are leaving

the single market and so on, and so we can take

I'll just add this as a slight nuance.

I represent one of the most rural constituencies in the country,

in Lincolnshire, the county that feeds the country,

You know, we have to be a little bit careful that we don't place

the farming industry in the position where vegetables

are lying unpicked in fields, because we follow Ukip's abrupt

policy of just putting an end to it...

It was picked before we went into the European Union.

It will be picked again, because we will bring a visa system in.

Where they come in for the season, pick the vegetables and then leave.

We might come back to this in just a moment.

It's not as clear-cut as others would perhaps have you believe.

Claire Thomas, and then I'll come back to you,

I just want to challenge the assumption of the question,

and I'm sure you didn't mean this, but the assumption that

immigration is the reason that terrorism happens,

I just don't think that is the right assumption.

Arjun, would you like to clarify that for us?

I do quite think that immigration does play quite a role

in the terrorist attacks that are happening in this country.

It is obviously not the only reason a terrorist attack happens,

but we have to be more stringent with the background checks,

with people coming into our country from high-risk nations.

The Prime Minister in her role as the Home Secretary has absolutely

failed in bringing the immigration numbers down, so how do I end up

Forgive me, if I may correct you on one thing,

of course I don't want to comment on a live investigation,

but we know, sadly, the murderer of last week,

I'm not going to name him because I don't want to give him

the glory, but we know he was British-born,

which is why we have to treat the issue of terrorism carefully.

But he travelled to Syria for training.

We have to deal with that carefully and I just think, at the moment,

it's very sensitive, but I will just make that point.

As Home Secretary, she introduced ranges of measures.

We closed hundreds of sham colleges that were set up simply to bring

We have tackled sham marriages as well, and we have...

She, as Home Secretary, kept trying different

methods to keep immigration down, but we...

The point of immigration, when people come to this country

to work, it is because we are a very attractive country in

And so that is why immigration has gone up and down over the years,

but the key to it would be making sure that we can form our

migration policy as we wish when we leave Europe.

Victoria, thank you very much indeed.

Our next question is sort of connected and follows on.

How will you decide who stays and who goes after Brexit?

It's not fair for EU migrants in Hull and East Yorkshire,

who come here to work and contribute to society, to be sent

Those that have come here under the EU laws are here legally,

You know, those that come in the future,

when the negotiations are settled, when Theresa May comes back

with that piece of paper saying a deal in our time,

you know, then we will know who is coming and he was going.

At the moment, they are here legally, so we cannot throw them

out and we would not want to throw them out.

They are here legally, so it's all dependent on what deal

The Prime Minister has made clear that negotiating the position of EU

nationals in the UK and of British nationals in the rest of the EU

is an absolute priority, when the Brexit negotiations

After the general election, the Brexit negotiations

That is why it is so critical that we have a Prime Minister

who will be absolutely up to speed, and will be able to conduct those

But the question was, how will you decide

That will be in the hands of all of the EU leaders,

I think, in fairness, there's quite a...

There is a lot of goodwill on both sides on this issue,

but we have made it clear that this must settled as a priority,

as and when the negotiations start in just over two weeks' time.

I don't know why the Government hasn't already said

Something like 10% of our GPs are immigrants, so, you know,

we've just talked about the NHS and the importance of having

Actually, if we try to get rid of immigration, we put a lot

We have just talked about the importance of that.

Let's go to Diana and then we will take some comments.

So, the Labour Party has been very clear that EU

nationals who are currently here are welcome to stay.

We think that's actually a good start to any negotiations that

commence after the general election, because we are acting in good faith

when we work with or negotiate with the other 27 countries,

because we obviously have British nationals living in those countries,

and we want to see a good deal for them.

I couldn't actually see any mention of immigration in your manifesto.

Well, the discussion around immigration is in the manifesto,

and it's around, for instance, the undercutting of local workers.

We want to make sure that there is proper enforcement

action for bad employers who employ people from EU countries and don't

We have made that very clear we want to stop that.

We want to stop bringing over gangs of people from particular countries.

We think that's wrong, where they are using

Sorry, but it was the Labour Party that said...

Peter Mandelson, one of your people, who actually said, we didn't

go looking for them - we sent search parties out for them.

The gentleman in the blue shirt there.

Yeah, just a quick question on immigration.

If all I have read is correct, I believe that, is it

still 50% of all immigration to the United Kingdom is not coming

from the European Union anyway, so I suppose, to answer the guy down

on the front row there, the other 50% of immigrants

who are coming in will get affected by the EU conversation anyway.

And also, with regard to the National Health Service,

it would be quite nice to have an intelligent answer

to the strain on education and the National Health Service.

What strain is being caused by the immigration at the moment,

hence we need more immigrant doctors and teachers?

I keep hearing some of the parties commenting that, you know,

The present Government should show their hand before

Why would you do, like one of the parties has already done,

by their leader, who has already said, if we don't get a good

deal, we'll come back and have a referendum?

You're not going to get a good deal from Europe if we go in with that,

Food is essential for our national security, and Victoria's the only

We do need foreign labour within our agricultural sector.

I think for us all to have affordable food, we need to be able

But are you reassured by what you've heard?

Victoria made the point that the European Union...

We'll be having discussions with the European Union in 11

That's perfectly fine, but, as we've heard from Europe,

they are not going to decide on anything to do with

migrants until well after the deal is sorted out.

Final comment from the gentleman there.

Regarding this question again, one in four doctors are migrants,

Since we left Brexit, 40% of European doctors have already

So all your policies about trying to have a points system and so on,

there may be some merit in it, but the reality is you going to lose

a lot more skilled workforce in the next two years,

And Mike, you seem to be speaking for Conservatives already by saying

when Theresa May comes back and signed the deal.

You may as well move your chair over there!

A lot of our policies they have pinched anyway.

We either talk about migrants or immigrants,

Immigrants come from Pakistan India, and I can tell you the immigrants

from Pakistan India have to jump through more hoops to get into this

country that are migrants from Eastern Europe.

We want to make a level playing field for everybody around the world

to come to this country with the skills that we want.

Doctors, nurses come to this country with the skills that we need.

A level playing field, that's what we are asking for.

Of course, there are some parts of country where you're not actually

putting up a candidate because you know the Conservatives

We're not putting up a candidate because we are targeting seats.

Until I realised you don't support me.

This is Bob Callison, who is from Cleethorpes.

He owns a construction company and runs a small hotel.

How do you propose to get the best deal for Britain

By having Theresa May as our Prime Minister.

All joking apart, the negotiations start 11 days after the general

election, and I'm not going to be personal about Jeremy Corbyn, he's

devoted his life to public surface, but the fact that Diana

and many of her colleagues stepped down, did the honourable thing,

in my view, and resigned from the shadow ministerial team

last summer because they felt Jeremy Corbyn wasn't up to the job

of leading the Labour Party I think leaves very great concerns

about whether or not he's capable of being a good Prime Minister.

Let's go through the panel really quickly on this one and then we've

I think the idea that Theresa May is going to get us the best deal

is just laughable given that she's ready just change the mind about

She's negotiated on a European level as Home Secretary.

Everybody said, oh, no, you'll never manage to get it negotiated,

you'll never get 28 member states to agree.

She did, and it's one of the key tributes in keeping us safe.

I think the idea that Theresa May is going to be this strong

and stable character, she is actually weak and wobbly

So I want to make sure that when the deal is being negotiated

around Brexit, this part of the country is not left out

because often, I have to say, over the last seven years,

the Liberal Democrats and the Tories have forgotten

So I want to make sure that whoever is representing the constituencies

in this area stands up for the industries round here

and Siemens and the investment they've made and renewables,

because that's really big important industry for us.

It is no deal better than a bad deal? No deal would be dreadful. As

a party, we believe if we repealed the communities act, they would be

out straightaway. We are negotiating and the Armitt dictating to us our

terms. I sit on committees in Brussels and they do not want us to

leave. 12% of the funding comes from this country, that is a huge hole

they have got to fill. They do not want us to leave. Article 50 is

nothing more than a delaying tactic. Repeal the 72 communities act and

come out straightaway. Theresa May took nine months to revoke Article

50. I did say quickly. Fabulous audience and panel. Thank you very

much indeed. Thanks to the audience. The debate continues until election

day. If you want to go on to Twitter or Facebook and send your messages,

tweets and texts with your comments, we would love to hear from you.

Thank you very much indeed for watching. See you soon. Good night.

Very disappointing to hear Ukip and conservatives will only commit small

amount. What we do need is qualified people. We will never turn our backs

on doctors and nurses. What we have to do is control it. There needs to

be a policy to bring people in who will do specific jobs in this

country that we need. But not for people just coming willy-nilly. That

was the point that the panellists were trying to come across with but

was not clear. I was disappointed with some of the answers. Some were

vague. Good questions were asked but on a lot of issues, it was very

wishy-washy. Hear the arguments

from the politicians themselves.