18/05/2017 Newsnight

The Tories don't seem to want you to.

Five years later because of our long-term economic plan and the

difficult decision... Come with me as I lead Britain. Strengthen our

hand as I fight for Britain and stand with me as I deliver for

Britain. Theresa May spells out a more

statist Conservatism - ditching dozens of her predecessor's

policies from just two years ago. When our political editor asked,

she was reluctant to define one. There is no Mayism. I know that you

journalists like to write about it. One thing that's unchanged

is the Tory immigration target. The Defence Secretary tells us

whether it will continue to be as functionally meaningless as it

has been for the last It is an aim and we intend to

continue to aim to reduce the level of immigration as we have set out.

Also tonight we are in blazing sunshine in Hartlepool which binds

itself on the Tory target list for the first time in decades. Can team

Theresa's narrative land them their first MPs year for half a century? I

like their policies at the moment, I want to leave the European Union and

I think Theresa May is the only person who will get us out of the

European Union with a reasonable deal. Labour. I've always been

Labour. And our panel will tell us

where Theresa May sits on our map Some of us remember

the heydey of TV advertising. Consumer brands - washing

powders and the like - would constantly market themselves

as new and improved. Never mind that they were less

than perfect before, as long as you now understood

that they are better than ever. Well, the Conservative

party is pitching itself A Theresa May manifesto,

with a pretty different A section entitled We Believe

in the Good That Government Can Do, Some will say it's just

marketing, others will see it Certainly, the emphasis on scaling

back the relative generosity displayed to the elderly

is a notable shift. The point of continuity

is the immigration pledge - it'll come down to tens

of thousands apparently. But we'll either look back on this

day as a momentous one in the history of the Tory party,

or as a forgettable attempt to be Let's start with our political

editor Nick Watt, who is in Salford where there has been

an ITV leaders' debate. Nick, what do you think we learned

today? That's right, the ITV leaders debate although sadly not with the

two plausible candidates for Prime Minister. But we saw plenty of

Theresa May at the launch of the Tory manifesto in Halifax and it was

interesting there because what you said earlier was that she made clear

that she does not feel beholden to any of her predecessors. So she

jumped some key elements of David Cameron 's manifesto from 2015. Out

went the tax lock so there's no pledge on

rates of income tax and national insurance and in came a commitment

that means that people will have to pay the cost of domiciliary home

care. This is what one senior Tory told me. Theresa May's brand in

focus groups is so resilient that it can withstand some radical moves

that would have been suicidal two years ago. While you get your

earpiece in, Nick, one of the rationales for this election was

Brexit and making sure that she had a majority, in her view, to get

through Brexit. Reading that manifesto what does it tell us about

her plan for that? She has given herself an enormous amount of

wriggle room on Brexit. We see it on two fronts. On public finances, a

senior Tory told me, she is removing the landmines on tax that could be

really difficult if we have a bumpy economic ride when those Brexit

negotiations are under way and a little noticed section in the

manifesto indicated that the Conservative Party would be prepared

to settle its financial bill when it leaves the EU. And one Tory I spoke

to said to me, the Prime Minister in the last year has embraced Ukip. She

has embraced the Tory right but what he is now showing is coming she gets

a big mandate on June eight she is prepared to walk away from them and

sign up to a deal that really would be quite unpalatable. So today we

really were looking at how liberated Theresa May would like to govern

this country. It was all a bit reminiscent of the 1980s, Tory Prime

Minister ventures into Labour territory with the inevitable and

loud protests. The tightly controlled Tory election campaign

machine was briefly thrown off-course as the protesters greeted

the arrival of Theresa May. Naturally our strong and stable

Prime Minister was not bothered as she took to the podium to tell the

nation it just who is the politician who was known as the submarine Home

Secretary in her last job. Is there a philosophy? One and we will be

talking about in decades to come? It is occasionally said that it's

difficult to define what is meant by Mayism but if you turn to Page nine

of your manifesto it says you reject the cult of softness individualism

and you regard such selfish gradualism and you regard the dogma

of is dangerous. That seems like a rejection of Thatcherism, are you

rejecting personally the comparisons between you and Mrs Thatcher? There

is no Mayism. I know that you journalists like to write about it!

There is good solid conservatism, which puts the interest of the

country and the interests of ordinary working people at the heart

of everything that we do in government. The assembled cabinet

ministers clubbed dutifully as they were put on notice to avoid any talk

of an ism but there was plenty of what George Bush senior memorably

called the vision thing. So join me on this journey, come with me as I

lead Britain, strengthen my hand as I fight for Britain and stand with

me as I deliver for Britain. By infighting former sparring partner

David Davis to introduce the commission show that you believe

that Brexit is the defining challenge of this generation. Our

future prosperity, place in the world, standard of living, the

opportunities we want for our children and children's children,

each and everyone depends on having the strongest possible hand as we

enter those negotiations to get the best Brexit steel for families

across this country. My prayer ministerial dressing down shows that

Theresa May abhors what she described in her little blue book is

the caricature is an idea of placing people on the left or the right. But

it would be remiss not to identify the clear lessons we learned about

her today. She believes she is the only party leader who truly

understands the cry of anguish that drove the Brexit vote. That means

being fearless in challenging traditional Tory thinking and

breaking with the Cameron legacy. Manifestos, said Churchill, should

be a lighthouse, not a shop window. Today's bright light showed the

Prime Minister is prepared to confront the Tory right by dropping

David Cameron 's pledge not to increase income tax and national

insurance, although she does rule and a rise in VAT. Pensioners, by

downgrading the triple lock of a guaranteed 2.5% rise in the basic

state pension to a less generous double lock. Middle England, by

saying they would be allowed to preserve no more than ?100,000 of

their assets to pay for social care. Big business by venturing into

territory once claimed by Ed Miliband, with tougher rules on

corporate pay. Theresa May chose Halifax for the launch of her

manifesto to show that she is confident of recapturing a seat that

has not elected Tory MP since Margaret Thatcher's heyday in 1983.

Labour still enjoys support in the town although the Prime Minister

does appear to be cutting through. Have you always voted Labour? Have

you decided how you will vote? What do you think of Theresa May? I think

she's doing a good job. So far, yeah. She's doing fine. Give her the

mandate to do it. I was definitely the Conservatives but this morning

the manifesto that I heard, the pensioners, ?200 of fuel allowance,

she's going to knock that off to pay for the pensioners that are

higher... I don't think that's right. I know what it is fair but I

did not like the idea of it. From what I've heard of the Labour Party

I like the manifesto, I must say. With protests ringing in her ears,

Theresa May set off to sell division two parts of Britain where the

Tories have been shunned the decades. -- to sell her vision.

Complacency is would officially banned at Tory HQ but senior

ministers are increasingly confident that the Prime Minister appears to

be on the verge of victory. Let's speak to our policy

editor Chris Cook. You have read all the manifestos of

the main parties, Chris, what did you make of this one. One quite

striking thing about this is that it doesn't do well in one of the tests

are set for the Labour Party when we talked about this on Tuesday. I said

one thing you want from a good manifesto is a sense of whether the

people behind this have a good enough understanding of the issues,

that they have done their homework so that they can credibly deliver.

It doesn't mean it is a fully worked out timetable, it is showing a

working, showing knowledge. And the odd thing about this one, especially

after the Labour and Liberal manifestos which were very detailed,

things to contest in all of them but very detailed, there is no working

at all in this. It's actually slightly mysterious how much these

social care changes will bring in, what these tax changes will do, all

this stuff is completely asserted. It's a booklet almost without

numbers in it. They give you the answers without the calculations.

Thank you Chris,. That's a good point

to move on to the Defence His job today was not to defend

the country, but the manifesto. I spoke to him this afternoon

and asked if I had somehow missed the costings section

of the document. Well, what you missed are the wild

promises we sought from Labour, all that extraordinary, billions more to

be borrowed and so on. What you have seen today our commitments to spend

more in two areas, we are already spending more on the NHS, we are

spending more on defence but today we announced ?4 billion more for

schools and we have made it clear where that is coming from and we

have announced additional resources for social care, for the first

time... I'm sorry, you have also announced additional resources for

the industrial strategy and four and the spending. We have but the two

big areas today schools and social care... The costings document that

sets out the costs and whether that will work, is that coming later

ordered I miss it or is it online? You haven't missed it. Some of these

things will depend on the level, for example, we will consult on the

level of the means test by which wealthier people will be asked to

surrender the winter fuel allowance. So some of the detail is still to be

consulted on as you would expect. On the immigration pledge to get

immigration down, and you costed that one. As someone done some work

and said this is how much it will cost the Exchequer because my

understanding is that the Office for Budget Responsibility thinks cutting

migration will cost the Exchequer. Have you guys costed that proposal?

There has been various academic work done on the cost of immigration. We

have made it clear that we accept that there is a cost and we want to

make sure that British companies to contribute to the training of

British workers when they want to fill that post... Sorry to

interrupt, I know you have not got much time. How much is it going to

cost the Exchequer to get immigration down by two thirds from

its current level? Well we haven't set out a formulation of how much it

will reduce by each year, what we have set out as our ambition to

continue to bear down... It is a policy to get immigration down to

tens of thousands, is it not? It is our ambition... Is it not a policy?

It is an ambition and we've had it in previous manifestos. Was the

difference between an ambition and a policy, you've had it in previous

manifestos and have probably not delivered. I isn't that by repeating

it there is some meaning to it this time. It as our aim to bear down on

immigration and for the first time it will become easier as we leave

the EU, they will be no further entitlement to freedom of movement,

at the moment it is animated, anyone in Bulgaria or Lithuania can up

sticks and come... Even if we regarded all the EU immigrants

you are nowhere near it. Is it something you are going to deliver?

It is an aim and we will continue to aim to reduce the level of

immigration that we have set out. Sir Michael, this is sounding a

little weak. I thought your policy was to get immigration down to the

tens of thousands, it sounds like this is not a policy at all. It is,

it is our aim and we have said so. We will get it done. Of you costed

that proposal, that is my point. You blame Labour for not costing bears,

have you costed yours because the OBR says it will cost money. You

need to cost proposals where you will

spend billions of pounds... That this will cost billions. No, it

won't. How do you know if you haven't costed it. The OBR doesn't

say it will cost millions, with great respect. If you are going to

nationalise an industry they will be an enormous cost to that. We are

going to manage properly the number of people coming into this country.

The OBR models different migration scenarios and there are billions of

pounds of differences that amounts to millions of pounds of Exchequer

differences between those assumptions. I put it to you again,

have you costed the proposal to get immigration down by two thirds from

its current level. We have not because we don't know specifically

in what year we will reach that point of reducing it to tens of

thousands but we set it out today, you keep interrupting me, we set out

the additional charge we will impose on British companies when they are

employing other workers, where British people could be taking those

jobs so we will be ensuring that there is some payment towards those

costs. It sounds like a pledge made in the morning has turned into a

vague game which doesn't need costing by the afternoon.

Can we move onto another area, the industrial strategy? Theresa May

said they want to make the party more prosperous and who will with

that. -- will quarrel with that? You have a few pages on this and I was

troubled myself to boil it down to what is at the centre of it. What do

you see as the heart of the industrial strategy? We have set out

our industrial strategy in other documents and we have been

consulting on it. It is a policy of providing our industries,

particularly in regions outside London, and in ensuring we have the

skills base and the focus on the new technologies that will strengthen

our economy, and ensure we continue to earn our place in the world. It

covers everything from shipbuilding to investment in digital, and a

revival through our city deals... The relationship between central

government and the mayors in the regions. But what is the actual

policy? You have outlined the objective and I understand that.

What is the tool that is going to revive, without much money because

you said there will not be much money, but what is that will deliver

the new industrial strategy, or revive industries in those areas?

One of the principal tools is the relationship, as I said, between

central and local government, for the first time empowering

particularly the mayors in their regions but also the cities of our

country, empowering them with local budgets so they can prioritise in

their own areas and make the choices needed between improving the

infrastructure, improving the human capital and to decide which of the

industries they wanted to see grow in their particular areas. And to

focus on. That work is already underway, we are consulting on the

detail, but this is built around investment in the new technologies,

a revival of manufacturing, and an unerring emphasis on skills. Can I

ask you, changing the subject, would you say we have had strong and

stable government for the last two years, between this and the last

election? We have had a relatively small majority in parliament. And we

have had to deal with the aftermath of the referendum result, and we

need to get through implementing the referendum, and we need to get on

beyond Brexit to build a stronger and fairer Britain, and that is why

we need a stronger and more stable Government for Theresa May to deal

with both of those challenges. I think most people looking back over

the last couple of years would consider them the two most unstable

years since the Second World War in the history of this country, and I

just wonder why we should believe you when you say you will be strong

and stable this time as opposed to the coalition of chaos or whatever

your slogan is, when you use the same formulation or the two years

ago before inaugurating two of the most unstable years anyone can

remember? Theresa May made clear today when she wants the manifesto

that the challenge of negotiating a successful exit from the European

Union is one of the difficult things any government is doing in this

country and has done since the Second World War, and to do that you

do need stable leadership, you do need strong government, back here at

home, and that is why she is requesting this fresh mandate from

the British people that will enable her not just to do that but to go

beyond Brexit and build a stronger and fairer Britain that can ever in

its place in the world. Sur Michael Fallon, thank you very much indeed.

Has Theresa May cracked Britain's social care problem?

-- Sir Michael Fallon, thank you very much indeed.

The immediate problem is that it is underfunded, the long

term problem is that we haven't found a way of helping people

who need care pay for it, other than suggesting they burn

The manifesto today basically continues that approach.

Overall, however, the document is not stuffed with largesse

That might be said to be a break with the past.

Chris Cook has been looking at what it implies for pensioners.

This year the Conservative Party is getting a lot of support

from older voters, but it is watering down its support for them.

A Conservative Government would not renew the so-called triple lock

on the state pension when it expires in 2020.

The pension will still rise with prices or earnings -

whichever is higher - but they will no longer be a minimum

On current forecasts scrapping the triple lock does not make

a great deal of difference at all in the coming years,

They were quite recently, and in past years the triple lock

And in the long term, even if the forecasts are right,

the triple lock does add up to start costing quite a lot of money,

so it is an important shift in that sense

and it is also a really symbolic shift with billions of pounds

still to come out of working-age benefits in coming years.

It marks a slightly different approach in terms

Which generations and which age groups the Conservative

The most eye-catching proposal, though, is for a big change

At the moment, if you are in a residential home,

you have to pay for it until you have ?23,250

left in possession, which is when state

That calculation includes all your assets, including your house. People

in this situation would be winners from these plans. Everything stays

the same for them, but the state takes over funding their care

earlier, when they hit ?100,000 of assets, so their potential care bill

is smaller. What we also see is those people worried that there are

savings, that they have done the right thing and see through their

lives and are worried their savings will dwindle to virtually nothing,

we are quadrupling the threshold at which assets will be protected to

that ?100,000. F, though, you're receiving care at home, things are

different. At the moment those people have to pay for care through

their assets until they hit ?20,250 when the state help starts. It

houses are excluded from that sum, so people looked after in their

homes have to run down their savings but get to keep their homes. Under

the Tory plans they would stop running down their own cash sooner

when they hit ?100,000, but the value of their houses will be

included in the means test, saw a lot of people in care at home,

so-called domiciliary care, would now be liable to pay much more. The

Tories have also promised, though, that payment of money from housing

assets can be delayed until the care recipient dies. Those elderly people

who have been worried about how they pay for care in their home want to

have to worry about that in the future. They will not have to pay

while they are still alive, they will... Nothing will be paid. They

will not have to sell their home while they have been living in it.

The plan is intended to get more cash out of pensioners well not

demanding they leave home. A major objective for people like

97-year-old Tony Barsky. I have been offered the opportunity to go into a

care home, but I would like to be here, to spend the rest of my life

here, surrounded by my belongings and everything running on that

basis. I don't want to be out of this place. The key things to

celebrate about today's position on social care are bringing money into

the system, bringing assets into the table to pump much-needed cash into

a social care system which is really struggling and underfunded. At the

same time, providing more care to poorer pensioners and protecting

more poorer pensioners' assets whether they live in a care home

residential home. Those that are welcome. Previous proposals to

reform social care have also identified a problem that these

proposals simply do not touch. Namely, the fact that if you are

unlucky enough to have very poor health in your old age, you also get

billed for it, so families, individual families, bear the

financial risk of illness in old age. So this change puts more money

into the existing care system, in the form of that housing wealth held

by the 670,000 -- the people in domiciliary care in England but it

does not seek to make life less compression is. The people who need

most help will still be asked to pay the most.

So we now have the Tory manifesto and we can try to define

what the party is all about under Theresa May.

And a good time to deploy our blackboard.

You'll pick up the rules as we play the game.

We have the left-right spectrum along here on the X axis; this

And then up the side, on the Y axis, it goes

from the outward, globalist position to nationalist, or protectionist.

Let's call that nationalised even though it says protectionist there.

Let's call that nationalist even though it says protectionist

And we have three seasoned political commentators with us to place

Theresa May and other Tory grandees on the scale.

Paul Mason, who's off this scale on the left.

We have Iain Dale, on the right, LBC presenter.

Miranda, where would you put Theresa May? I will put her down here, quite

protectionist, and left of the Tory party Y axis. But as a champion of

the free market, as a globalist she could be more up here. Can I... We

should not forget one of the extraordinary thing is happening is

the Conservative Party dumping the Single Market... Which was her

thing. Yes, so I would definitely put her down here, and whether you

want to call it red Toryism, and I know she denied there was such a

thing as May-ism... You will put her down there. Paul, how would you

position this? Look, there are no Uihleins left a smash, nothing left

to privatise, so it is hard to be as right-wing as Thatcher -- there are

no unions left to smash. Protectionist, down there. She is an

economic nationalised. There is one sentence in that manifesto that

reveals that, her preparedness to walk away from Europe without a

deal. She could have left that out. I think the idea of literally

declaring UDI from Europe, leaving ourselves and economy with no

market, that is quite nationalised. I think until we know how this is

costed, how big is the state going to be when they eventually get rid

of the deficit in the mid 2020s, then we don't know really how the

left and right it is and that is why it is a good question, what is the

economic content... Miranda put there on the left presumably because

of the economic measures, sending quite left-wing... Intervening in

markets, controlling executive pay. Not the sort of free-market, liberal

market Toryism we are used in the last couple of decades. Shouldn't

you be her? No, it is a form of bright Toryism. And I did cover the

rise of Cameron, and he was a genuinely liberal conservative. This

is antiliberal conservativism. What about you, Iain? I will disagree

with your positioning of David Cameron because I actually think he

is to the right of John Major. I would put him more up here as well.

Margaret Thatcher I think is absolutely right. But you could make

a good case for going further up. I want you to put Theresa May on the

map. If you had asked this question yesterday I would have put her

somewhere around here. Oh, really? Today I would put her somewhere

around here, and the reason is if you are going to be a globalist, you

don't penalised companies for bringing in skilled workers from

overseas and that is what she has done today in this manifesto, a

bizarre thing to do in my view. If you're going to be an outward

looking country after Brexit you want to recruit the strongest, the

best... You or more of an economic liberal on things like immigration

than she is? Absolutely. Thanks, Iain. And you wrote a book on the

history of Tory manifesto is from 1900. I edited a collection of them.

I would not say I wrote them. I did the Liberals as well, just to prove

what a sad geek I am. What do you think of this one as a pitch? It is

very Theresa May in that there is not a lot in it. This general

election is about her against Corbyn, not about policy, in her

view, and it is also not about Brexit. It is strange there are only

two pages in this manifesto about Brexit. A little similar to Margaret

Thatcher's manifesto in 79 in the sense it is very vague and general

but if you are Tory canvasser going out tomorrow what is the standout

policy in this document you go on sale on the doorstep? I'm afraid I

can't think of one. That is right and there are some real risks in it.

This idea of challenging older people who are sitting on a lot of

assets, telling them they will have to pay for their own care, you would

only do that and make that sort of proposition to the electorate if you

were so secure of your victory and so secure of those older voters but

it is a risk. I read something saying if you can't basically do

some of this now you will not be able to do it, when you are 50%

ahead in the polls. If she gets a big landslide it will be important

for her to confront some of these issues early on. Paul, you disagreed

with she goes, telling us this left and right thing is not working in

British politics at the moment... In the space of week both parties have

effectively the fact to change the momentum. Labour is now a Keynesian

big state interventionist party like it was before and is anti-austerity,

and it interesting thing about the Conservatives, how often have you or

I when I worked your sat in the studio and spoke about austerity and

about the sums adding up? That is gone. Labour are substantiated the

fiscal case behind their manifesto better than the Conservatives. I

want to say one thing. The attack on pensioners, on the taxpayer, so she

will probably raise national insurance and income tax, it goes

along side the inability any more to do what Duncan, -- Duncan Smith and

Cameron did, to attack those welfare benefits. I think conservatives

alike realise there is no further road to go down there. One thing I

was taught about the history of the Conservative Party, it was

fantastically adaptable and would reinvent itself every few decades to

suit the new mood, bring more people into its tent, and the world would

be safe under the Tories again. Is this one of those big moments, do

you think, Miranda, or is it just another manifesto that will be

forgotten? Or is it really decisive? It feels like a moment today because

it feels as if Theresa May and the people around her designing these

policies have decided to come in this brilliantly opportunistic way

that the Tories have always been good at, occupy the ground that has

been abandoned, claimed that Labour territory which is all about

sticking up for working families, in the parlance. We have yet to see if

this audacious land grab works because a lot of it, as Iain rightly

said, the details are not there. For example, something I am interested

in is the skills agenda. If you could solve the missing bits of the

educational programme in this country and create a decent

educational... But can it? Just to finish, Iain, do you think this is a

big moment in the history of the Tory party, a reinvention of curling

or not. I think we are in the middle of that. I think today is not that

moment, June the 8th of May well be and it is about defining herself in

opposition to Cameron, if you like. But there are lots of individual

policies in this and a festival like domestic violence policies that you

would not have gotten a previous manifestos. Liberal parts but they

are almost obliterated by the ridiculous immigration pledge. We

had better leave it there. Thank you all very much.

A big question in this election is what happens to people

Many of them don't have a Ukip candidate this time; many others

Now in many Labour seats there were enough Ukip voters last

time to put a Tory into Westminster this time, if they all wanted to.

Hartlepool is one of those constituencies, so the question

is how the Conservative Party offer is going down with the folks there?

Is it enough to turn Ukip voters into Tories?

Hartlepool washed in warm sunshine gives off an air of unreality,

The town has earned its place in electoral history

as much through mythology as through psephology.

Legend has it they hanged a shipwrecked monkey

as a Frenchman in Napoleonic days, but the election of the self-styled

monkey candidate for mayor - not once, but twice -

And it was here that the former MP Peter Mandelson was once accused

of mistaking mushy peas for guacamole in a local

He didn't, of course - it was a gimmick joke,

but it stuck because it played to a delicious cliche,

the Southern Metropolitan confusing his northern culture.

Mandelson surfed in here in the wave of New Labour,

This time the Tories are hoping to hoover them up.

But with the launch of today's manifesto, the mushy pea

Can Conservatives, long shunned in the industrial north-east,

convince Hartlepool they're on the side of -

to coin today's phrase - ordinary working people

Mostly, I've only ever voted for one other party and that was last year

And what's bringing you back to Conservative?

I want to leave the European Union and I think Theresa May is the only

person who's going to get us out of the European Union

Labour, I've always been Labour because it's

Right, so nothing will change your mind?

I think they're more for people who haven't got a lot of money,

because what the Conservatives have done recently, it's...

There hasn't been a Tory MP in this part of the world for over 50 years,

but there is an audacity of approach this time.

They've sent a big beast, David Davis, here to

Over lunch, I ask him if he thinks it's an ambition too far.

What we're seeing on the doorsteps is people who've never voted

Conservative in their lives before saying they're going to vote

for Theresa May because they think that she will deliver a better deal

Are you more of a mushy peas man or a guacamole man?

Being me and being so working class I'm mushy peas, I'm afraid.

In Mandelson's seat it's a good question.

Do you mind if I leave you one of these?

I'm your Conservative candidate during the election.

Carl Jackson is hoping to win Hartlepool for the Conservatives.

He's currently a councillor in Buckinghamshire,

Don't they say, what are you doing up here?

Well, I'm not going to pretend to have been

born in Hartlepool - I wasn't.

It didn't seem to stop Peter Mandelson being

He was born in one of the poshest parts of London.

But I have family from the north-east and this is an area

I know, it is an area I care about, and it's an area which

Do you mind if I leave you with a leaflet just with a few points.

He voted for Brexit, as did 70% of Hartlepool,

so does that mean job done for Ukip here?

For from it, says Phillip Broughton, the only one of the candidates

who stood last time, when he came second.

I think the Tories know that this is a Ukip -

seat, and Ukip or Labour is going to win, and people have got

a very clear choice, Emily, on June 8th.

If the vote Conservative or they vote Labour they will get

a Labour MP and nothing will change and it will be business as usual.

And I've lived in the town for 18-odd years...

Mike Hill suddenly found himself the prospective Labour candidate

when Iain Wright stepped down as the election was called.

I was just listening to that at the moment, the Government

Motorbike licences - a reminder that even in this big

week of manifestos most people are just thinking about

I'm sure it's going to be a hard fight to claw back for Labour...

Because if the Tories pick up that Ukip vote this time around,

The conversations I am having a very positive.

I represent a fresh start for Labour in this town and that's

The gleaming marina speaks to a Hartlepool reborn,

but the thousands of jobs lost here when heavy industry shutdown

The Conservatives have never really cared about Hartlepool,

and I don't think the leopard's going to change its spots.

I think as soon as the media's gone, they'll ravage Hartlepool.

Labour have had many many chances in Hartlepool,

both nationally and locally, and as I walk around

the town and speak to people there are very despondent

There's an appetite with Brexit for a fresh start here, but don't

Hartlepool's headland has seen the ebb and flow of centuries

Their defences may now prove too solid.

Emily in Hartlepool. I am afraid the labels on the Ukip and Labour

candidates were the wrong way round so the Ukip guy was first and the

Labour guy was after him, I think that was obvious from some of the

content. Is this a momentous moment, the Daily Mail thinks so if you look

at the headline, the Tories, 84 page manifesto unveiling Mayism, she

hates, politics entered a new era. That's all we've got

time for this evening. # In the sun on my disgrace

# Some moustache... # Call my name and I hear you scream

again. # Black hole sound, won't you come

and wash away the rain # Black hole Sun, won't you come

# Won't you come