:01:08. > :01:11.Here in the East Midlands. The conservative MP who is calling
:01:11. > :01:21.for David Cameron to go. And why are we always bottom of the
:01:21. > :01:21.
:01:21. > :40:15.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2333 seconds
:40:15. > :40:18.league when it comes to health and The conservative MP who is calling
:40:18. > :40:28.for David Cameron to go. And why are we always bottom of the
:40:28. > :40:35.
:40:35. > :40:40.league when it comes to health and wealth? The Government should look
:40:40. > :40:43.at younger ages earlier and inform them about healthier ways to live.
:40:43. > :40:46.Hello, I'm Marie Ashby and hoping to lift the gloom a little, my guests
:40:46. > :40:50.this week, the Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, Andrew
:40:50. > :40:53.Bridgen and Labour's MP for Leicester South, Jon Ashworth.
:40:53. > :40:57.Well, Andrew, you have been rather busy causing quite a stir this week,
:40:57. > :41:07.calling for a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister in a letter to
:41:07. > :41:08.
:41:08. > :41:17.the 1922 Backbench Committee? wrote that many weeks ago and
:41:17. > :41:21.informed many people, including the whip's office. That became public
:41:21. > :41:27.knowledge at the weekend. It was leaked to a national newspaper, it
:41:27. > :41:33.has caused a stir. It was a newsworthy item, I am disappointed
:41:33. > :41:39.that it became public knowledge, it should have been confidential.
:41:39. > :41:48.now he knows you don't want him to be there? Yes, he knows that. But
:41:48. > :41:56.the thought of having Ed Miliband and Ed Balls in is distressing. But
:41:56. > :42:00.I do think that mistakes have been made.
:42:00. > :42:03.Well, as you might expect, Labour have made a lot of this. Looks like
:42:03. > :42:09.you've got one thing in common now, Jon, you both want David Cameron
:42:09. > :42:14.out! Absolutely, he has let people down, the economy is in the doldrums
:42:14. > :42:21.and there is a huge squeeze. But I have to say, they have leaked his
:42:21. > :42:27.name, what a terrible way to treat a member. I am up for it, I would not
:42:27. > :42:33.treat our members this way. You have been let down? We will never find
:42:33. > :42:43.out how it was leaked, now unwell admit it. That's not know one will
:42:43. > :42:45.
:42:45. > :42:49.admit it. What is the difference between Ed and David? Labour have
:42:49. > :42:52.largely accepted the austerity measures. We have a different set of
:42:52. > :43:00.priorities, we want more investment in housing and capital
:43:00. > :43:03.infrastructure, the other different approach to the economy. It will be
:43:03. > :43:13.borrowing and spending and labourer. We worry about reducing the
:43:13. > :43:19.
:43:19. > :43:26.deficit. You are not producing it though! . We are interested in
:43:27. > :43:30.economy and jobs where I am MP. One of those tangents can create,
:43:30. > :43:37.politically, situation we did not have to go to. Whatever way someone
:43:37. > :43:42.votes, you will lose voters. It was unnecessary and politically not
:43:42. > :43:47.about the issue of same sex marriage. It was very wrong.
:43:47. > :43:54.next election will be about economy and jobs, I agree. But you are going
:43:54. > :43:59.massive deficit at the next election. And your party voted
:43:59. > :44:07.against the deficit reduction plan so far. You will never agree on that
:44:07. > :44:10.one. Another East Midlands MP who has
:44:10. > :44:13.been a bit of a problem for David Cameron is Patrick Mercer. The
:44:13. > :44:15.Newark MP who has resigned from the Conservative Party Whip is now an
:44:15. > :44:17.independent. He has referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards
:44:17. > :44:20.Commissioner over allegations that he established an all-party
:44:20. > :44:22.parliamentary group on Fiji after being contacted by undercover
:44:22. > :44:24.reporters posing as lobbyists. It has split opinion in his
:44:24. > :44:29.constituency. Sunday Politics reporter, Rob Pittam, has been to
:44:29. > :44:32.Newark to find out more. It may look peaceful enough, but
:44:32. > :44:38.Newark's a town that has had more than its fear share of strife in the
:44:38. > :44:48.past. It was besieged several times in the English Civil War before much
:44:48. > :44:48.
:44:48. > :44:53.of the castle was destroyed. Patrick Mercer might have been
:44:53. > :44:56.expected to adopt a siege mentality himself. He has told us he cannot
:44:56. > :45:02.give interviews well the Parliamentary enquiry is underway
:45:02. > :45:06.into his conduct. But he is holding regular surgeries here in the time.
:45:06. > :45:12.He says he has been buoyed by the support of hundreds of well-wishers.
:45:12. > :45:18.Among those supporters, Andrew Smith from the National Farmers Union.
:45:18. > :45:23.have done my role for 20 years, in that time he has been above and
:45:23. > :45:25.beyond the rest of the MPs in constituency business. I hope he can
:45:25. > :45:28.carry on doing such a great job. Not everyone agrees, Graham Gustard
:45:28. > :45:35.is a Newark-based businessman who has been appalled by the allegations
:45:35. > :45:40.against the MP. Someone who is independent should be free of undue
:45:40. > :45:43.influence and control, he is not significantly independent. He should
:45:43. > :45:49.not be standing as an independent. It is a divide that is reflected
:45:49. > :45:59.everywhere in the town. Do you think he's doing a good job?
:45:59. > :46:01.
:46:01. > :46:11.Yes, we do. No, he hasn't. Has the but the family? Think he has gone
:46:11. > :46:17.
:46:17. > :46:26.against everything in democracy. has this split the family? I have no
:46:26. > :46:32.objection to him staying on. There is agreement on wanting to prevent
:46:32. > :46:37.this happening in the future. MPs want to prevent other MPs from
:46:38. > :46:45.taking on second jobs, or give a pay rise to avoid them getting a second
:46:45. > :46:50.job. I do not think that is a good idea, ex-special leave with the
:46:50. > :46:57.economy the way it is. -- especially. You should just behave
:46:57. > :47:01.properly, ethically, and do what you were supposed to be doing. I think
:47:01. > :47:08.they are getting enough now. Yes, I think they've had enough.
:47:08. > :47:13.Not everyone, though, is against paying MPs more. We need people
:47:13. > :47:17.getting a commensurate salary with those who are specialists in the
:47:17. > :47:25.fields in industry. We want people with real life experience and not
:47:26. > :47:29.just Oxford and Cambridge router its spending all of their life in --
:47:29. > :47:37.graduates spending all of their life in university and then in
:47:37. > :47:44.Westminster. And so Newark finds itself under attack again from an
:47:44. > :47:47.increasingly hostile electorate. What has gone wrong here, is it down
:47:48. > :47:54.to individual MPs or is there something wrong with the system that
:47:54. > :48:00.makes the lobbyists so attractive to the MPs? He has played the price for
:48:00. > :48:08.it so far, -- he has paid the price for it so far, it will go through
:48:08. > :48:12.Parliament. Was it him was that the system? Let us not talk about him
:48:12. > :48:16.specifically. Individual MPs to blame for this system? I think MPs
:48:16. > :48:24.have to take some of the blame, we are responsible for our own actions.
:48:24. > :48:28.But it was quite a shabby entrapment plan that caught him out. It will be
:48:28. > :48:30.a plague on all our houses, no doubt about it. But now, he should not
:48:30. > :48:40.have done it. Some interesting attitudes in Newark
:48:40. > :48:46.to MPs being paid more there. Where do you stand on the issue? I do not
:48:46. > :48:51.think that MPs should be paid more, we have real week jurors squeezed --
:48:51. > :48:57.we have real wages squeezed already. I would not be in favour of that.
:48:57. > :49:00.If we paid MPs more would it stop them from taking on outside work?
:49:00. > :49:04.am not sure that many MPs are looking for work outside. Patrick
:49:04. > :49:11.Mercer has done the right thing by putting through the committee, but
:49:11. > :49:21.he did do the wrong thing. Is the money not enough? It is enough for
:49:21. > :49:23.
:49:23. > :49:27.me. Is the answer to ban you all from doing it? I think we need to
:49:27. > :49:37.look at it carefully because I know there are other MPs that have
:49:37. > :49:40.
:49:40. > :49:44.outside jobs as barristers and other things.
:49:44. > :49:52.You have got a thriving business, how do you find time to be an MP
:49:52. > :49:56.too? My job has no links to what I do as an MP. You should maybe look
:49:56. > :50:03.at people taking on interests after they have become a politician. My
:50:03. > :50:10.job was there before I was a politician. There is a difference
:50:10. > :50:14.between doing things anyway and then doing things when you have, chairman
:50:14. > :50:20.or something like that. At the moment the rules are not clear on
:50:20. > :50:25.that and I think they need to work at that. People are talking about
:50:25. > :50:30.getting more ordinary people into politics, in fact you have, but are
:50:31. > :50:38.using you want fewer people like yourself? Actually, yes. Yes I want
:50:39. > :50:46.to see fewer Labour MPs. Get over it. Yes, we want more ordinary
:50:46. > :50:49.people getting into Parliament. Absolutely. But how? We have to look
:50:49. > :50:53.at selection procedures and political parties, we have to entice
:50:53. > :50:59.people in. We'll flatter look at the hours. There is a debate over
:50:59. > :51:07.whether the hours are family friendly. -- we also have to look at
:51:07. > :51:16.the others. Some MPs are saying that nursery should be closed and turned
:51:16. > :51:21.into a bar. -- that the nursery. What would you do to attract
:51:21. > :51:25.ordinary people? Yes, we need to attract a cross-section of people.
:51:25. > :51:33.There needs to be at least one MP that anyone can relate to in the
:51:33. > :51:37.chamber. But we need to look at the salary package, the pension. As far
:51:37. > :51:44.as this parliament is concerned, we know we signed up for, but they will
:51:44. > :51:47.stay the same for this Parliament. Now, we East Midlanders might be
:51:47. > :51:50.forgiven for feeling a little depressed this week - a whole pile
:51:50. > :51:53.of reports have put us at the bottom for wealth, health and, well, just
:51:53. > :51:57.about everything. Parts of our region are among the worst for how
:51:57. > :52:00.long people live and one of our cities is said to be the poorest in
:52:00. > :52:04.the country. We will find out what our politicians are doing about it
:52:04. > :52:12.all in a moment. But first, Des Coleman has been on a not-so magical
:52:12. > :52:16.MISERY tour. There is high and deployment during
:52:16. > :52:23.Leicester and a high death rate. But what do you want politicians to do
:52:23. > :52:29.about it? Think we need to attack younger ages earlier and inform them
:52:29. > :52:39.about healthier lifestyles and ways to live. What should politicians do?
:52:39. > :52:44.
:52:44. > :52:50.Scrap the chicken shops. It is a politician 's faults, everyone can
:52:50. > :52:55.think for themselves. There is better news in Rutland. There are
:52:55. > :53:02.very good figures here, it is a wealthy community. When it comes to
:53:02. > :53:06.health, it is in the top ten. you can help to boost pride in the
:53:06. > :53:12.area. Here we have a lot of events that a lot of local councillors are
:53:12. > :53:15.involved in. I think that helps to make people feel better about where
:53:16. > :53:25.they live. From a politician 's point of view, to try to pinpoint
:53:26. > :53:27.
:53:27. > :53:30.something they could do, that is now. -- that is unmoved. Official
:53:30. > :53:36.figures say that the lowest disposable income is here in
:53:36. > :53:40.Nottingham. When it comes to health they are in the bottom ten. I would
:53:40. > :53:47.not have thought it was such a deprived place having lived here for
:53:47. > :53:55.years. I am sure there are areas with plums than we have. -- with
:53:55. > :54:01.worse problems than we have. It is not down to the politicians. It is
:54:01. > :54:11.not up to them to increase our life expectancy, it is up to people
:54:11. > :54:11.
:54:11. > :54:15.themselves. Look after themselves, look after their health.
:54:15. > :54:17.I am joined by Andrew Pritchard, who is the director for policy and
:54:17. > :54:25.infrastructure for East Midlands Councils - an association of local
:54:25. > :54:30.authorities in the region. Is it really as bad as all that?
:54:30. > :54:35.data has been collected in a very localised basis. If you look at it
:54:35. > :54:38.in generality, you could see that the whole of the East Bali -- the
:54:38. > :54:40.whole of the East Midlands is out of step with the rest of England.
:54:40. > :54:43.Are these figures accurate? It seems incredible that Nottingham is the
:54:43. > :54:50.poorest city in the country and yet the Office for National Statistics
:54:50. > :54:58.says average disposable income is less than �11,000. If you look at
:54:58. > :55:02.the boundaries around Nottingham, around the city, it includes more
:55:02. > :55:07.aware of the areas. There is a clear difference there. If you look at the
:55:07. > :55:14.hall you get a different conclusion. That is not to say that there are
:55:14. > :55:17.not challengers, clearly there are. -- if you look at the hall.
:55:17. > :55:21.There is little doubt there are problems here. What are you as MPs,
:55:21. > :55:25.particularly the ones in Government, doing about it? We had to drive
:55:25. > :55:32.growth and employment. But I would disagree because people are moving
:55:32. > :55:39.here for the quality-of-life, we have an improving population.
:55:39. > :55:44.everyone feels the benefit of that. Unemployment fell in my constituency
:55:44. > :55:54.last month. We have two private sector investments coming in the
:55:54. > :55:55.
:55:55. > :55:59.next couple of years which will generate over 8000 new jobs. Is that
:55:59. > :56:02.what you see over? I would say it is unbalanced here. Unemployment is
:56:02. > :56:09.still high on my constituency. It came down by single figures last
:56:09. > :56:13.month, but it is still higher than it was that the general election.
:56:14. > :56:17.You can see across the East Midlands in different areas, there are still
:56:17. > :56:23.levels of deprivation and problems in unemployment. When you look at
:56:23. > :56:30.the regional growth fund figures which we spoke of, you have to look
:56:30. > :56:36.further... You always say that MPs need to get together more on this,
:56:36. > :56:45.are you? Absolutely. MPs do work together. We are all singing from
:56:45. > :56:53.the same hence G8 -- from the same hymn sheet in this. We want to get
:56:53. > :56:59.on with that. Any optimistic signs? There are some really good things
:56:59. > :57:04.around our competitiveness in manufacturing and construction work.
:57:04. > :57:08.That is really positive. There is good reason to think that there is a
:57:08. > :57:12.good offer in the East Midlands, there is a good housing offered here
:57:12. > :57:19.as well. What about big infrastructure? We look at the
:57:19. > :57:26.electrification upgrade. There are roads that are infrastructure
:57:26. > :57:32.priorities that are now happening. There is more to do. The initiative
:57:32. > :57:37.that you have both been leading in the all-party MPs, we have to work
:57:37. > :57:46.with that in the councils. If we can join that up that would be the
:57:46. > :57:55.thing. Why is there a reason to be cheerful? Before these projects, in
:57:55. > :58:01.schemes we are already drawing and near the top. -- already roaring.
:58:01. > :58:06.What we need to do more of us more strategy. Things are quite localised
:58:06. > :58:11.at the moment. Perhaps there is a role for more strategic engagement
:58:11. > :58:17.between council leaders and MPs. Apparently Derbyshire has the best
:58:17. > :58:20.figures in the country for a liver disease, that is good news. At the
:58:20. > :58:27.latest figures show that unemployment is falling. There are
:58:27. > :58:35.reasons to be cheerful. Yes, and in the West Midlands if you compare us
:58:35. > :58:40.with them, they are significantly higher. The public affairs officer
:58:40. > :58:43.for British Airways said that all new aeroplanes will have Rolls-Royce
:58:43. > :58:49.engines which is good news for the East Midlands. Yes, we have great
:58:49. > :58:58.manufacturers and lots of food manufacturing. A city like Lester
:58:58. > :59:01.has export of food to the Middle East and India, even. We have lots
:59:01. > :59:07.of day Brett and communities, and we should be building on that. Would
:59:07. > :59:11.you like to see politicians shouting up more for the East Midlands?
:59:11. > :59:17.I think that is what we might need to do. Often we do not tell the
:59:17. > :59:24.story in the same way that other parts of the country do. Now that
:59:24. > :59:27.the councils are very active. is always a lot of lobbyists coming
:59:27. > :59:33.down from Yorkshire saying how good Yorkshire is, I think we should do
:59:33. > :59:41.more of that. We wanted about the East Midlands. So when a UNIX
:59:41. > :59:48.meeting? We just did, and we will meet again just before the summer.
:59:48. > :59:54.What happened at the meeting? were at the ATM meeting to talk
:59:54. > :00:04.about the election, it was agreed OPEC priority is the East Midlands
:00:04. > :00:07.
:00:07. > :00:10.economy. -- that our big. We will keep pupils did.
:00:10. > :00:13.Do you and conservative MPs get together on this? Can you
:00:13. > :00:19.realistically do anything? People we spoke to are not sure that you can
:00:19. > :00:22.and we have to take responsibility for ourselves.
:00:22. > :00:26.Time for our regular round-up of some of the other political stories
:00:26. > :00:30.here in the East Midlands this week in 60 seconds.
:00:30. > :00:36.Ignore letters saying that you have to pay for a new fibre-optic of -- a
:00:36. > :00:42.new fibre-optic cable, it is a scam. A man has been charged with the
:00:42. > :00:45.explosion near this building. He was remanded in custody after the
:00:45. > :00:52.explosion of the MP's offices in time.
:00:52. > :01:02.Local MPs have welcomed a move to suspend the moving of Linfield
:01:02. > :01:03.
:01:03. > :01:07.hospital's children's heart surgery. Will you ensure that quality of care
:01:07. > :01:14.including survival rates which matters most to parents is central
:01:14. > :01:17.to any decision about the future of the services? The future of heart
:01:17. > :01:26.surgery in England will now be reviewed again, but it is still not
:01:26. > :01:32.certain that Linfield will stay open. -- Glenfield.
:01:32. > :01:41.It seems to be good news, will it make any difference? All parties
:01:41. > :01:46.said that the review into moving line fields was needed. --
:01:46. > :01:50.Glenfield. We are awaiting further details, for now it is good news.
:01:50. > :01:59.Some centres will still have to close some way. That's back
:01:59. > :02:03.somewhere. I think Jeremy Hunt was very brave to admit that the review
:02:03. > :02:08.was initially flawed, stop it and give confidence to the staff working
:02:09. > :02:14.in all these areas that their jobs are safe for now. We will have a new
:02:14. > :02:19.review on the timescale is yet to be set out. We do not want a quick
:02:19. > :02:24.answer, we want the right answer, it is too important. Does this just
:02:24. > :02:34.prolong the agony? It is nothing to do with that, we need the right
:02:34. > :02:39.answer. Is keeping a small centre like Glenfield the answer?
:02:39. > :02:44.proposal to close that unit was the wrong proposal, that is what we are
:02:44. > :02:51.seeing. This was not MPs jumping on a bandwagon, we were listening to
:02:51. > :02:57.local opinions. It is Father's Day, happy Father's Day to both of you.