28/04/2013 Sunday Politics East Midlands

the race to run our county councils? And the UK economy is on the move

but what is happening here? We would like to think we are on the way to

recovery but we are not there yet. My guest today at the Conservative

MP Stephen Orrell and Labour's Jon Ashworth. We have a break from

Parliament but when you are back, it is the Queen 's speech so what are

you hoping you will get out of that? For the East Midlands and the whole

country the most important bill in that programme is better working

between social services, county councils social services and the

health service and a reform of the structure of the way social services

are delivered. It has been discussed, and the government are

committed to bringing that forward. Why would it be important? There is

too much evidence of the relationship between social

services, primary care, the various bits of the health service

delivering care to the elderly, that breaks down and we need to ensure

closer working. I agree social services is important but I would

like the Prime Minister used it as an opportunity for fundamental

change on the economy, proper bills to get jobs. The unemployment rate

still keeps going up so something to get jobs and something for families

who are seeing the cost of living going up. By the time the MPs are

all back, we will know who will be running our county councils. Let's

take a look at a party with growing ambitions to make their mark here.

UKIP are fielding more candidates than ever. Tim Parker reports.

UK was set up as a movement to remove the UK from Europe in 1993.

While their greatest success has been in Europe itself, they are

canvassing across the East Midlands ahead of this week's county council

elections. Many commentators suggest that UKIP's support will come from

disgruntled Tories so why is Roger Helmer campaigning here in

Coalville? It is all part of their attempt to reach a wider electorate.

Coalville is a former mining town. We are certainly going to win seats

in Leicestershire across the East Midlands, across the country because

we are standing in three quarters of the seats. For us that is a first.

That is the theory but how is that going down with new voters? A lot of

what UKIP say is good but they are not strong enough. I have never

heard of them. But some experts say UKIP could have a big impact.

they will have their influence is in seats where the Conservatives have a

majority of eight. If they split the conservative vote, they will lose

seats so we could see Leicestershire go from being come to be

Conservative controlled to becoming a hung council. And that gives UKIP

campaigners competence. The visit to Coalville was not without its

hitches but they are hoping for a warmer reception at the polls on

Thursday. UKIP at a real threat to your party.

They certainly express some public concerns about matters of this

country's relationship with Europe but what is unclear is what they

think it will do to contribute to that argument by getting involved in

the Leicestershire county council. I do not know what their cue is on the

future rate of council tax, about the relationship between social

services and the health service and I suspect that UKIP does not know

its view on those issues either. Lord Ashcroft's showed 9% support

for UKIP and 44% said they had voted Tory in the last election so they

are moving to UKIP. There is also a lot of evidence that they take votes

from people who were not going to vote anyway. These are local

elections. The question in dispute on next Thursday will be who

determines who says the council tax, who determines the delivery of local

services and you cannot say they are anti-Europe. We saw them campaigning

in Coalville. We do not have elections in Leicester City. When

they were against me in our by-election they were hammered. When

I have been listening to people in Loughborough, places that put their

trust in David Cameron, voted in Conservative MPs for the first time

is in ten years. I am picking up a lot of disappointment in the

Conservatives. You say this will play out on local issues but Gordon

Brown called that woman a picket and when he did that, voters started to

not trust your party -- bigot. are talking about if we were in

power changing some of the rules on the immigration system, particularly

around pay, the abuse of agency workers which I know a lot of voters

are concerned about but these elections are about the Conservative

party and the Labour Party. The mistakes that gave it Cameron has

made and what the Labour Party would offer as an alternative. We have

been hearing from the leaders of the three main parties and this week it

is Leicestershire. Nick Rushton is a conservative and

leader of Leicestershire county council. He is a fan of inclusive

politics. He wants to protect services for the young and old and

aims to provide the best services at the lowest cost. Helping people get

into houses and jobs and get the economy moving - we have to make

savings going forward. I am going to work with other councils to make

savings and with the National Health Service to make services and I need

to protect key frontline services for the elderly and services.

Colton is leader of the Lib Dems on the council. He wants to concentrate

on jobs and growth, protecting services and using some of the

council's cash reserves. We want to focus on growth in the economy and

helping businesses and young people into employment. The second thing

will be around concentrating on the basic frontline services like

repairing roads properly, school transport. Basic things like

drainage and the services that people really do depend on. The

third area is looking at this issue of reserves again and looking at

where the county council can usefully spend some of that to help

the economy and the people of Leicestershire. Max Hunt is leader

of the Labour group. He promises 1000 new apprenticeships, better

coordination of elderly and social care and wants to save the museum.

We are putting in 1000 new apprenticeships. Want to get our

county social services working closely with the NHS giving elderly

and disabled people a better life at home. We support the money being put

into extra road maintenance. discuss what will happen in

Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, I joined by John

Hess. What are your predictions? not misting make but I think I can

predict the Tories have the jitters about the elections. You will

remember that the Conservatives were in third place, it was UKIP that

came second with 28% of the popular vote. Stephen has referred to the

challenge that UKIP pose for both the Conservatives and the other

parties. You look around the East Midlands and UKIP are fielding more

candidates than ever before. In Nottinghamshire the Queens are only

putting up a third of their candidates in those seats so you

look around and think where is that protest vote going to go and I

suspect a lot of it will go to UKIP. The thing to remember in the East

Midlands is both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire are run by the

Conservatives. Very narrow majorities and rethink -- saw Ed

Miliband in West Bridgford. Growing confidence for the Labour Party.

described UKIP as a protest vote. The real decision is whether people

support Tory candidates or whether they opt for Labour candidates and

we saw in the lifetime of the last Labour government the failure to

control expenditure that was the leg of the -- legacy they bequeathed.

Can Labour deliver? We can. The elections, people use it to send a

message to David Cameron to say they are not happy with the scale of his

cuts, not happy about him giving a tax cut to the wealthy - that is

what the election is about. If UKIP to win seats, asked politicians have

to respect that and we have to engage with those people who voted

UKIP. The Prime Minister has said these elections are about local

issues but you take this leaflet the Conservatives have been

distributing, on the back of the union flag and we promised a

referendum on the EU. It is not a local issue but in that there is set

out a local programme in Nottinghamshire. The Leicestershire

Conservatives are promising a real-time freeze in the council tax.

Everyone wants to know is here, partly because of Baroness

Thatcher's funeral so the campaigning has been delayed but on

Friday the eyes of the country will look at the result in Derbyshire and

Nottinghamshire because if it is a referendum on the coalition and

David Cameron 's premiership, it will have a huge effect in the last

two years, leading up to the next election. We are working hard in

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Last time it was a very disappointing set

of results for us but we are taking nothing for granted. We are also

working hard in Leicestershire and I hope we can make some progress

there. Are you braced for losing Conservative councils? I never

anticipate losing Conservative seats. It is clearly tougher when

you are the government of the country, so yes it is tougher but

when I was out last weekend, my constituents say, the reception I

was getting was receptive to the argument that we had a legacy that

had to be dealt with and it is being dealt with in a way that lays

foundations for the future. Labour wedded to a council tax

freeze? Every local council will have to grapple with these huge

spending cuts imposed on them by the government. Each local council will

have to make a decision about how they manage their budgets. Will it

be possible to maintain the level of spending that it was in 22 and? --

2010? Some of these cars are really hitting the front line. He used the

phrase fiscal consolidation by which you mean cuts. These elections will

probably be decided on national factors even though these are local

elections but these councils and important. Whatever the results

are, I think David Cameron will want to create that clear blue water

between the Tories and the coalition. We have already seen a

hint that the Prime Minister is wanting to beef up the Downing

Street policy unit, and indication we are clearing the decks for the

general election campaign. My blog has a profile of what has been

happening in Nottinghamshire and why Nottinghamshire is the target local

authority to watch on Friday. economy managed to avoid a triple

dip recession but things may not be rosy here. Latest figures show

growth fell back here in the first three months of the year so how does

it feel for people on the front line and looking for work?

The economy is growing, George Osborne is optimistic, let's see

what the rise in GDP means to job here. What do you think of the news

from George Osborne? He is not living in the real world, there are

not that many jobs round here. Nearly everything has closed down.

When the mines were open, there was no unemployment. We would like to

think we are on the way to recovery but we are not really there yet. We

could really do with some big employee is coming along and setting

up their businesses in this town. have noticed a rise in the number of

older people coming to us, they are close to retirement, they cannot

apply for jobs because they do not have the experience with computers.

What is out there for the older generation? Why do people my age

find it hard to find work? I have worked all my life. Now I am

unemployed. My question is why isn't all the investment going to all the

big cities and none to places like here. What do you say to them?

absolutely agree that times are tough and you introduced this

passage by saying we have avoided a triple dip recession and

statistically that is true. The truth is the economy is bumping

along the bottom. Flatlining. What we need to do is create

circumstances for growth and that means ensuring the government's

spending is kept under control and we have flexible economy is so

businesses can respond to their customers both here and abroad.

seems to be working in America because they have some growth. Why

can we not make it work here? relationship with Europe and the

fact that geography puts us very close to one of the most depressed

big economies in the world, the Continental European economy and we

have an interest in ensuring that economy sought its affairs out

because until we do we will remain close to a depressed area. There are

some small signs that the economy is growing. Is the strategy of the

Chancellor starting to work? I do not think it is. Others have been

hailing this growth figure. My word, isn't the bar set low. We are

bumping along, flatlining. We have to have some big measures to boost

growth. There is no demand in the economy. Tell us about

Leicestershire. In Leicestershire we have a degree of resilience in the

manufacturing base but we have companies there that want to export

and we need to give them more support. The government have said

there will be a new scheme, the money has not quite been flowing

through so we need to be supporting business. What about people out of

work? All politicians will agree that the economy needs to rebalance.

The problem is the unemployment rate in Charnwood is relatively OK

compared to other places but unemployment is still high. If you

look at what is happening... John says what we need is lots of

measures to create growth. I am not against in principle is looking for

opportunities to do that but how do you create growth in economy? It is

by businesses finding customers for goods and services both here and

abroad and what the government needs to do is put emphasis on ensuring

that businesses are able to create jobs and expand. We asked the

chamber of commerce about this and they say figures of growth fell here

while increasing for the rest of the country. The truth is right across

the country the economy is flatlining. To be fair the chamber

of comments said there were small signs of recovery but it is a bumpy

year ahead. We have this thing called the regional growth fund, the

East Midlands has had minuscule amounts of money. Given me have such

a proud tradition of manufacturing in this region, we should be doing

better. Ministers say the quality quality of our bids is not better.

Time for our round-up of some of the other political stories in the East

Midlands this week. Town halls across the East Midlands

are clocking up arrears in unpaid council tax. Nottingham City Council

is owed �14.5 million. In Leicester it is �10 million.

Some schools in Derby want more funding for an unexpected rise in

pupil numbers. It is needed to cope with an influx of children

particularly from Eastern Europe. The city council says extra funding

is available. And I sue bree has admitted she

worries her officials because she does not stick to her prepared

speech. I am not very good at following the script. It causes them

concern I go off script. But on message she said the correlation had

already made more progress on reducing health inequalities than

the previous Labour government. Sticking firmly to the script, that