Browse content similar to Zac Goldsmith, Conservative MP. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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great man. That's it from me. Time to bring your HARDtalk. | :00:10. | :00:14. | |
These are tough times to be in power. In the UK politicians battle | :00:14. | :00:19. | |
with the impact of the financial crisis, their every action | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
scrutinised by a vigilant sometimes even intrusive media. My guest | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
today on HARDtalk is the Conservative MP, Zac Goldsmith. He | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
is from one of Britain's most famous and rich families. He has | :00:34. | :00:39. | |
had his personal e-mails accessed during the hacking scandal. He | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
wants a privacy law. He is at odds with his party leadership over | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
Europe and the environment. Is he damaging the very causes he wants | :00:48. | :00:58. | |
:00:58. | :01:17. | ||
to advance by being too outspoken and disloyal to the government? | :01:17. | :01:26. | |
Zac Goldsmith, welcome to HARDtalk. You have had your personal e-mails | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
accessed, but frankly, many would say, that is one of the risks you | :01:30. | :01:35. | |
have to take being rich and famous. That is the argument that has been | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
used many, many times. I watched a Hugh Grant's submission to the | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
Leveson inquiry, I was very impressed. If I was to send you a | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
pint of milk, you would agree to pay whatever the price beforehand, | :01:50. | :01:54. | |
that does not give you the right to enter my house uninvited, open my | :01:54. | :02:02. | |
fridge and burgle the milk. That is right. When people engage with the | :02:02. | :02:11. | |
media on every level, there is a two way process. It is a mutually | :02:11. | :02:20. | |
agreed process. The Leveson inquiry you are talking about, Lord Lasan | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
looking into the allegations about the links between the press and | :02:23. | :02:30. | |
people who hacked into e-mails and so on. The fact is, which you have | :02:30. | :02:36. | |
become a Conservative MP if he were not from a rich and famous family? | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
Your two grandfathers were Conservative MPs. You're late | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
father, the famous industrialist. do not describe my sister as a | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
Conservative. She is well known. principal concern is the | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
environment. That is a cross-party issue. That is not just by the | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats or Labour. That is my | :03:01. | :03:09. | |
principal motivation. My bias, my default position is more in sync | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
with Conservative thinking than with the other parties and that is | :03:12. | :03:20. | |
why I joined the Conservative Party. That is fine. When you said that | :03:20. | :03:27. | |
media interest in your affairs goes only so far... But you have | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
benefited from your name recognition? Absolutely. I was | :03:32. | :03:40. | |
editor of the ecologist magazine for ten years. That is not normally | :03:40. | :03:46. | |
of media interest, but it was because of my name. Why do you want | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
the privacy law? When you enter politics, in any case you expect | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
the bar to be higher. I would not apply the same rules to myself as | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
other people. I believe someone like Hugh Grant is entitled to | :04:01. | :04:08. | |
privacy. He is one of many people giving evidence at the inquiry. | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
are entitled to privacy. I think there is a limit. If I were to rush | :04:13. | :04:20. | |
around my constituency portraying myself as something which I am not, | :04:20. | :04:26. | |
whenever hypocrisy can be exposed by the press it should be. Whenever | :04:26. | :04:35. | |
hypocrisy it may be revealed by the press... In 2009 you were not a MP. | :04:35. | :04:41. | |
You're standing in 2010. There were revelations of your non domiciled | :04:41. | :04:48. | |
tax status. I think that is entirely legitimate. I think the | :04:48. | :04:54. | |
reports are wrong, I know they are wrong. I have had the status all my | :04:54. | :05:00. | |
life. I have not avoided paying tax. I had a letter from Price | :05:00. | :05:08. | |
Waterhouse my accountants. My constituents had a right to know. | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
Your party leader was not Prime Minister at the time. He said he | :05:12. | :05:21. | |
had been checked in the dark. never asked me to change it. A lot | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
of things are reported in the press... I never had a conversation. | :05:27. | :05:33. | |
I was asked by the Times, do you have none domicile status? The | :05:33. | :05:39. | |
answer was no. Did the leadership ask you to change it? No-one ever | :05:39. | :05:47. | |
asked me to change it. You say you did not get any financial benefits | :05:48. | :05:55. | |
from it, but as Vince Cable said, he is now a Cabinet minister, being | :05:55. | :06:03. | |
a nun domicile gives off the wrong citizen. It is for short-term | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
expatriates in the city and it is becoming discredited. I do accept | :06:09. | :06:16. | |
that. Ten years ago no-one knew what the term meant. Nowadays we do. | :06:16. | :06:21. | |
It was a label attached to me without my knowledge. It was not | :06:21. | :06:31. | |
something I knew about or took advantage. The reality is, I have | :06:31. | :06:39. | |
not avoided paying tax. I was able to persuade my constituents, I had | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
a larger swing than anyone else in the country. I believe I got my | :06:43. | :06:50. | |
arguments across. You want a privacy law. I think we need to. | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
This is an area where there is a huge outrage about elements of the | :06:54. | :07:04. | |
:07:04. | :07:04. | ||
media. We have seen abuse of power on an awesome scale. It is accepted | :07:04. | :07:13. | |
that this is an organisation that is too big. You say awesome. Let me | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
tell you what Professor Steven Barnett says, professor of | :07:18. | :07:24. | |
communications at Westminster University, much of the truly | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
egregious behaviour is down to corporate culture, not individual | :07:29. | :07:35. | |
bad intent. I 100% agree with him. This awesome power that the | :07:35. | :07:43. | |
organisation has, it abuses the power. When you have an entire | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
political class that is terrified of pointing the finger. I think | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
that becomes very dangerous for democracy. I would like to see a | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
reaction in law. There would be a huge catastrophe if we got it wrong. | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
I want the press to be able to point the finger and expose | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
hypocrisy for all. I want there to be a line, an acceptable line, | :08:07. | :08:14. | |
beyond which the press has no right to probe. That is what I hope will | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
emerge from this incredible fiasco that we are seen at the moment. | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
say you do not want to stifle the media. Let me tell you what Ian | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
Hislop says, if you are rich and powerful, you do not have to prove | :08:27. | :08:35. | |
it is not true, you just have to prove it is private. You are one of | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
some very well off people, who have able -- been able to keep their | :08:39. | :08:48. | |
private life out of the media. have taken out a super-injunction. | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
But this is not an act which anyone, including in his lot, would oppose. | :08:53. | :09:01. | |
My e-mails where illegally hacked. They are private. Newspapers have | :09:01. | :09:09. | |
no business publishing them. cost you a fortune? That is a | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
problem. Access to justice should not cost a fortune. But you can | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
afford it. I want a change in the law so that everyone has access to | :09:19. | :09:26. | |
justice when necessary. We need to recognise that the newspapers | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
nowadays are the rich and the powerful. It is about time the | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
authorities help them to account. That has not happened. That is why | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
we are seeing this extraordinary thing happened at the moment. | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
Jeremy Hunt says we do not want a privacy law, that does not mean we | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
were not look at some access of the legislation, to try and get it | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
right. Are you satisfied with that? I wanted in-law what is private and | :09:51. | :09:56. | |
what is public. If we do not do that the newspapers will always be | :09:57. | :10:06. | |
:10:07. | :10:10. | ||
able to cross the line in an unhealthy man of -- manner. We have | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
to see what the outcome of the Leveson inquiry is on that. This | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
idea of the rich and famous. We see many protest all over the world | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
about the growing gap between the rich and poor and inequality. What | :10:24. | :10:30. | |
do you think about that? I have a lot of sympathy. I have a lot of | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
sympathy for this outpouring of anger that we are seeing. I would | :10:34. | :10:41. | |
like to see the message encapsulated and made more Treasury. | :10:41. | :10:49. | |
-- coherent. When things get too big we lose our bargaining power. | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
When the newspaper gets too big we cannot hold them to account. When | :10:55. | :11:00. | |
the government gets too big which cannot hold democracy to account. | :11:00. | :11:06. | |
That is one of the problems with the European Union. We have created | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
a situation where organisations and institutions have got too big. If | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
that is the message of the protesters by M 100% behind them. | :11:15. | :11:25. | |
:11:25. | :11:27. | ||
What do you not like about them? I am 100%. I do not want it engage in | :11:27. | :11:37. | |
:11:37. | :11:38. | ||
any criticism. But overcrowding a public space... We are seeing in | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
some European countries, Italy and Greece, they have got unelected | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
government by technocrats. People talking about a disconnect between | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
people and their governments. The IMF and European Central Bank are | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
calling the shots... That is an extreme example. A lot of people | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
argue that a lot of the decisions made in this country are made by | :12:03. | :12:11. | |
unelected officials. In Brussels? Because of the European Union, our | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
government has had to ignore Parliament. That is a really | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
serious thing. You have to wonder what is the point of elections in | :12:19. | :12:25. | |
this country. You want Britain out of the European Union. You will one | :12:25. | :12:32. | |
of those Conservative MPs who voted against the government's wishes, | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
saying you back a referendum deciding Britain's relationship | :12:37. | :12:47. | |
:12:47. | :12:49. | ||
with the European Union. In the ideal world, the outcome I would | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
like is where we see genuine renegotiation. There are all kinds | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
of hours I would like to see restored to this country. I think | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
it would be very difficult. I do not think any government would be | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
able to renegotiate the repatriation without a referendum. | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
We probably need to withdraw to decide what kind of future we want | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
with Europe. You disobeyed the party leadership by voting for a | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
referendum, you paid for the -- paid the price for that, didn't | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
you? You had been appointed a government special envoy on climate | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
change, that had been taken away from you. It has. I was fired | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
before the announcement was made. There was announcement by the | :13:33. | :13:43. | |
President of Gabon. It was picked up by the newspaper's... You were | :13:43. | :13:53. | |
:13:53. | :13:54. | ||
told? This is an area of real interest to me. I will focus on our | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
role as a backbencher, as an envoy if that happens, I do not need a | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
formal position to maintain my interest. That is one of the | :14:04. | :14:10. | |
reasons I became an MP. undermine David Cameron? You have | :14:10. | :14:18. | |
done that. You voted against him, the largest backbench rebellion | :14:18. | :14:28. | |
:14:28. | :14:30. | ||
since World War II. You have the three-line whip imposed by your | :14:30. | :14:35. | |
party or constituents, I made a pledge to my constituents. I made | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
it very clear, if I'm given an opportunity to vote for | :14:39. | :14:49. | |
:14:49. | :14:52. | ||
renegotiation or repatriation of Irrespective of whether you | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
undermine the Prime Minister? It was humiliation for the Prime | :14:55. | :15:02. | |
Minister. If he can't win an argument with his backbenchers how | :15:02. | :15:09. | |
can he win it with the Country? This was handled badly. There was a | :15:09. | :15:14. | |
good consensus for the need of a rethink in relations with Europe. | :15:14. | :15:21. | |
By imposing 33-line the route, so it was a mistake. A petition was | :15:21. | :15:28. | |
signed by more than 100,000 people. They got it wrong. Maybe it was | :15:28. | :15:34. | |
embarrassing. But I am described as a rebellious backbencher. You | :15:34. | :15:40. | |
describe me as that. But I have voted with my party more than 90% | :15:40. | :15:48. | |
of the time. If that is anything other than loyalty, you need to | :15:48. | :15:55. | |
rethink those terms. Europe is a big issue. It was the fact that you | :15:55. | :16:01. | |
were part of the biggest ever at backbencher rebellion since the war | :16:01. | :16:06. | |
resulted in these kind of comments about humiliation. You suffered by | :16:06. | :16:13. | |
not having your job as a Climate Change Minister. I did not stand | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
for election to have a lobotomy. I am an independent backbencher. I | :16:19. | :16:26. | |
will always put my conscience and my constituents first. If I had | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
voted against that motion I would not have been able to look my | :16:31. | :16:36. | |
family, my constituents or myself in the i. It would have been | :16:36. | :16:42. | |
impossible to carry on. I am not the kind of employee. I am happy to | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
be an effective backbencher. I am learning. There are things I can do | :16:47. | :16:53. | |
as a backbencher which I could not do as a junior minister. That would | :16:53. | :16:59. | |
be a hellish existence. I like to get things done. I want to change | :16:59. | :17:07. | |
things. You want to be influential on the environment. What influence | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
are you will drink? The Government is going back on its environmental | :17:13. | :17:21. | |
credentials. The Government has been unfairly chat sties. I am a | :17:21. | :17:27. | |
green. I am very interested in this issue. If you look at what the | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
Government promised before the election and what made it into the | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
Coalition agreement, twice as many environmental commitments as any | :17:37. | :17:43. | |
other area of policy. And it is being delivered. We have a Green | :17:43. | :17:51. | |
investment Bank. It is not as big as we would have liked. It is a �3 | :17:51. | :17:56. | |
billion fund. It is not big enough or soon enough but it is a big step | :17:56. | :18:02. | |
in the right direction. We have the green deal which is the most | :18:02. | :18:08. | |
Biggest efficiency energy programme in the world. It needs to be over- | :18:08. | :18:18. | |
:18:18. | :18:23. | ||
charged.-Turbo-charge. But the Government is on track. Raising the | :18:23. | :18:32. | |
Speed limit to 80mph? Those figures have been debated. It is not an | :18:32. | :18:39. | |
issue that agitates me at all. Nobody will change this be because | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
of those laws. The key thing is we understand the priorities and | :18:43. | :18:50. | |
pursue them. We are beginning to. I cannot pretend the entire body of | :18:50. | :18:56. | |
the Treasury has fully understood the transition that we have to make. | :18:56. | :19:02. | |
I can't pretend they all understand that. For many people in Treasury, | :19:02. | :19:07. | |
environmental policy is still a cost. That is hugely important. But | :19:07. | :19:15. | |
the Treasury is more open to these ideas than ever before. When George | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
Osborne told the Tory party conference that he would not save | :19:20. | :19:26. | |
the planet by it putting the country out of business, business | :19:26. | :19:33. | |
interests would be paramount? he said is not new or wrong. One | :19:33. | :19:39. | |
concern was that he said it. The biggest risk if you ask any | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
business investor in the green technology sector, they will tell | :19:44. | :19:49. | |
you is the Government, political conservatism. When you hear this | :19:49. | :19:54. | |
kind of thing it makes you reluctant to pouring money in. I | :19:54. | :20:03. | |
would like to see more clarity. It is not a big boast because we have | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
never had a Green government. We must be greener than we ever had | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
have been before. We need to promote the green deal, expand | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
Green investment. But that is not being done. Let me tell you what | :20:18. | :20:24. | |
Tim Montgomerie told you. He said the Government has decided this is | :20:24. | :20:34. | |
a boat-losing issue, green issues. -- vote-listen. A poll earlier this | :20:34. | :20:39. | |
year asked voters what their main concerns were. The top of the list | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
was the rising price of energy. That has always been the case. If | :20:44. | :20:50. | |
you ask people who are hungry, their top concern will be food. If | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
you do not have a house, your concern is shelter. If your | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
children are it hopeless schools, your concern is education. But that | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
does not mean the environment is not the most important concern. For | :21:05. | :21:12. | |
a responsible government must recognise that. At a time of | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
economic crisis if we must find solutions that work with business | :21:16. | :21:21. | |
and human nature. But you do not agree with your own party on the | :21:21. | :21:27. | |
nuclear issue. The Government backs nuclear power. You do not. I think | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
the Government policy is about right. It is the same policy I | :21:31. | :21:37. | |
advocated before the election. My view it is if the Government sticks | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
to the policy there will not be any new power plants. Let me make a | :21:41. | :21:48. | |
prediction. The only way we will seek new nuclear power plants is if | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
the Government breaks its promise on subsidies. There has never been | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
a nuclear power plant built without public subsidies. We will see what | :21:57. | :22:03. | |
happens. But the gist of what I have been saying about privacy laws, | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
Europe and the environment, is that you are marching out of step with | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
the party leadership. I heard what you said about wanting to be an | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
effective backbencher, but some would say why it did you go into | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
politics and joined the Conservative Party because you knew | :22:20. | :22:26. | |
you had to toe the line stopover I see my job in Parliament as | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
reminding people of the biggest shoes. We had a debate about fuel | :22:31. | :22:37. | |
costs. I agreed with a lot of it but nobody made the point that | :22:37. | :22:44. | |
Western democracies and $1 trillion every year to unstable regimes | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
because of higher addictions to oil. We must reduce our dependence on | :22:49. | :22:56. | |
oil to solve these problems. Yes in the short-term level we must help | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
people through the economic price - - crisis, but the only long-term | :22:59. | :23:06. | |
solution is good policy. That is why I got involved in politics. | :23:06. | :23:14. | |
would you remain a rebel with a cause? The I am not pursuing a | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
ministerial career, but I have a lot of time for David Cameron. | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
There are some good people in government pushing this agenda. My | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
job is to push the Government, keep them on their toes, scrutinise | :23:28. | :23:33. | |
decisions. Our job as backbenchers is to hold the Government to | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
account. That does not happen enough. We need more independence | :23:37. | :23:42. | |
on the backbench. We must give the Government a hard time on a routine | :23:42. | :23:48. |