Browse content similar to 28/09/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning folks and welcome to The Sunday Politics, | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
live from the Conservative Conference in Birmingham. | :00:39. | :00:45. | |
There will be one less Conservative MP here after Mark Reckless defected | :00:46. | :00:46. | |
He joins us live from his constituency, where he has | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
It has not been the best of starts for the Prime Minister, as he | :00:53. | :00:59. | |
arrives in Birmingham for the last Tory conference before the election. | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
On top of the Reckless defection, a junior Tory minister has resigned | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
RAF jets have carried out their first mission over Iraq | :01:06. | :01:13. | |
Will UKIP be stealing any of our East Midlands MPs? | :01:14. | :01:22. | |
Plus is it time we joined up with the West Midlands to demand | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
In London, how the richest 1% are pulling further away, and why those | :01:26. | :01:32. | |
priced out are choosing to move away. | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
And joining me, three of the country's most loyal journalists, | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
who sadly have yet to resign or defect to our inferior rivals. | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
Nick Watt, Polly Toynbee and Janan Ganesh. | :01:45. | :01:51. | |
And, of course, they'll be tweeting throughout the programme. | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
And you too can get involved by using the hashtag #BBCSP. | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
At the current rate of Tory resignations, | :01:59. | :02:00. | |
Mr Cameron could be speaking to an empty hall when he makes his keynote | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
address to the Tory conference here in Birmingham tomorrow. | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
It's been a classic car crash of a start to the conference, with a UKIP | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
defection, a minister shamed into resignation by a sex scandal and | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
Ed Miliband's memory lapses now look like a little local difficulty. | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
Here's what the Prime Minister had to say | :02:22. | :02:28. | |
These things are frustrating and frankly counter-productive and | :02:29. | :02:40. | |
rather senseless. If you want to have a European referendum, if you | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
want to get the deficit down, if you want to build a stronger Britain | :02:45. | :02:47. | |
that we can be proud of, there is only one option, which is to have a | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
Conservative government after the next election. | :02:52. | :02:53. | |
And Mark Reckless joins me now from Rochester. | :02:54. | :03:02. | |
Welcome to the programme. Why did you lie to all your Conservative | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
colleagues and mislead those who elected you? Well, I am keeping | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
faith with my constituents and keeping my promises to them. You | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
heard the Prime Minister saying that the Conservative led government was | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
dealing with the deficit and cutting immigration. The reality is, we have | :03:21. | :03:24. | |
increased the national debt by more in five years than even Labour | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
managed in 13, and immigration is back up to the levels we saw under | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
Labour. I believe in the promises I made in 2010, and I want to keep my | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
words to my electorate, not least to deal with the deficit, cut | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
immigration, reform the political system, to localise powers back to | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
the community, particularly over house-building. The government has | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
broken its word on all those things are. I want to keep my word to my | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
voters here, and that is why I have done what I have done, by moving to | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
UKIP. You have not kept your words to your Conservative constituency | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
chairman. You assured him 48 hours ago that you would not defect, and | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
you left his voice mail on the Conservative Party chairman's office | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
telephone, missing to come to Birmingham to campaign for the | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
Tories. This is your voice mail .. I have just picked up your e-mail .. | :04:18. | :04:38. | |
So, Friday night, telling Grant Shapps you are coming to Birmingham | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
to campaign for the Tories. The next day, you are joining UKIP. Why did | :04:44. | :04:50. | |
you are a? I sounded a bit more hesitant on that call than I usually | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
do, and I am not sure if that was the full conversation. But you | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
cannot discuss these things in advance, you have to make a | :04:59. | :05:01. | |
decision. I have decided the future of this country is better served by | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
UKIP then it is by the Conservative Party under David Cameron. I made a | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
lot of promises to my constituents, and I want to keep those promises. | :05:12. | :05:20. | |
That is why I am moving to UKIP so I can deliver the change this | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
country really needs. In May of this year, you said that Nigel Farage, | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
quote, poses the most serious threat to a Tory victory at the election. | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
So, you agree, voting UKIP means a Labour government? I think voting | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
UKIP means getting UKIP. While in the past a disproportionate number | :05:44. | :05:46. | |
of UKIP people were ex-Conservatives, now, they are | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
winning a lot more people, from all parties. People are so disillusioned | :05:51. | :05:53. | |
with the political class in Westminster, that they have not | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
voted often for a generation. Those are the people Nigel Farage is | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
inspiring, and frankly, he has also inspired me. What he has done in the | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
last 20 years, building his party, getting people from all walks of | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
life, sending up for ordinary people, I think deserves support. | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
That is a key reason why I am moving. UKIP are now the agents of | :06:15. | :06:21. | |
change. You said it poses them a serious threat to a Tory victory? My | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
ambition is not a Tory victory. We made all of these promises in 2 10 | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
as Conservatives, and they have been broken. We now hear from David | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
Cameron about English votes for English laws, supported by Nick | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
Clegg as well, but that is what we said in our manifesto in 2010, and | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
we have done absolutely nothing about it. It is not credible now to | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
pretend that you are going to do those things. They have omitted to | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
give every Scot ?1600 per year in definitely. If you want to stand up | :06:52. | :06:58. | |
for the English taxpayer, and really tackle the debt, then UKIP are the | :06:59. | :07:07. | |
party who will do that. But there is nothing principled about this, this | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
is just an attempt to save your skin. You said UKIP stopped you | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
winning in 2005 - UKIP did not stand in 2010, and you won. You are | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
frightened that UKIP would beat you in the next election, this is to | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
save your skin to me you think I am doing this because I am frightened, | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
you think this is the easy option, to abandon my position in | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
Parliament, but my principles on the line? On the contrary, you look at | :07:35. | :07:44. | |
MPs who have moved party before almost none of them have given their | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
voters to chance to have a say on what they have done. I am asking | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
permission from my voters, and I am moving to UKIP because I believe | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
many of the people in my constituency have been let down by a | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
Conservative led government, and that what UKIP is saying appeals to | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
decent, hard-working people, who want to see real change in our | :08:04. | :08:11. | |
country. If they do not agree, then they can vote in a by-election and | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
have their say on who they want to be their MP. I am being open and | :08:15. | :08:22. | |
honest, giving people a say. I am trying to do the right thing by my | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
constituents, and whatever the risk is to me personally, I think it is | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
the right thing to do. It is what MPs should be in politics to try and | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
do for the people they represent. Your defection, coming after Douglas | :08:36. | :08:42. | |
Carswell's, confirms the claim that UKIP is largely a depository for | :08:43. | :08:44. | |
disaffected right-wing Tories like yourself, isn't it? On the contrary, | :08:45. | :08:51. | |
the number of people I met in Doncaster yesterday was | :08:52. | :08:54. | |
extraordinary. When I first went to Conservative conferences 20 years | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
ago, there was some enthusiasm for politics, I remember Norman Tebbit | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
speaking against Maastricht, people fought they could change things | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
there was real politics. But I do not think you will see that at | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
Birmingham this week, it is PR people, lobbyists, corporate, few | :09:12. | :09:14. | |
ordinary members of. At Ancaster, people had saved up for months just | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
to get the rail ticket to Doncaster. People who believe in UKIP, who | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
believe in Nigel Farage, who believe in the team, as agents of change, | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
who can actually deal with a political class at Westminster which | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
has let able down. We want proper reform to the political system, | :09:38. | :09:40. | |
which David Cameron promises but does not deliver. Final question - | :09:41. | :09:47. | |
after the next election, the Prime Minister is going to be either David | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
Cameron or Ed Miliband, that is the choice, one or the other - who would | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
you prefer? Well, what we would prefer is to get the most UKIP | :09:58. | :10:00. | |
policies implemented. We want a first rate we want to deal with | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
immigration. I asked about who you wanted to be Prime Minister. We will | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
look at the circumstances. We need as many UKIP MPs as possible, to | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
restore trust in politics. If people vote UKIP, they will get UKIP. How | :10:19. | :10:31. | |
serious is this? I think it is very serious. It is the old Tory disease, | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
destroyed John Major, and it has been bubbling away again. It is | :10:37. | :10:39. | |
beginning to feel like the worst days of Labour in the early nineteen | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
eighties. It matters, because people care passionately. It is nothing | :10:45. | :10:50. | |
like Labour in the early 1980s, it is bad, but it is nothing like that. | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
There are these very strong strands. People like David Davis | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
writing a large piece in the Daily Mail attacking the leader on the | :11:00. | :11:01. | |
first day of the conference. That is the kind of thing that Labour used | :11:02. | :11:05. | |
to do. That is what David Davis does all the time! But this is authentic | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
in the sense that there is a real, genuine dispute about Europe. Some | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
of us were not around in the 19 0s, but I imagine it is pretty bad. | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
There is the short-term problem of the by-election they might lose the | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
media problem of the general election which they cannot win if | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
UKIP remain anywhere near their current level of support. But in | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
many ways the longer term question is the most pressing, which is, does | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
it make sense for the Conservative Party to remain one party, or would | :11:35. | :11:38. | |
it not be better for the hard-core of 20-30 intransigent Eurosceptics | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
to essentially join UKIP or form their own party? At least the | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
Conservatives would become more internally manageable. And probably | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
lose the next election. Probably, yes. That is what you are advising | :11:54. | :12:00. | |
them? If the reward is to have a coherent party in 15 years' time. It | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
is just as well you are a columnist, not a party strategist. I | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
was an anorak in the 1980s, who watched the Labour conference on the | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
TV. Were you wearing your anorak? Of course I was, that is how sad I am. | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
But once again the crisis from UKIP has forced the Prime Minister to | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
step in an even more Eurosceptic direction. Said on television what | :12:24. | :12:29. | |
he was trying not to say, which is that if he does not get his way in | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
the European negotiations, he will recommend to the British people that | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
we should go. He began by saying, as I have always said, and when they | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
say that, you know they are saying something new. He basically said, | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
Britain should not stay if it is not in Britain's interests. I think this | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
is big stakes for both the Tories and four UKIP. The Tories are able | :12:52. | :12:58. | |
to write off Clacton. Rochester is number 271 on the UKIP friendly | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
list. If the Tories win it, big moment for them. If UKIP lose it, | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
this strategy of various will be facing a bit of a setback. | :13:08. | :13:19. | |
To what extent are Mark Reckless's views shared by Conservative | :13:20. | :13:21. | |
The Sunday Politics commissioned an exclusive poll of Conservative | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
Pollsters ComRes spoke to over ,000 councillors - | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
that's almost an eighth of their council base - and Eleanor Garnier | :13:32. | :13:34. | |
There is not a single party conference at the seaside this year, | :13:35. | :13:47. | |
and Sunday Politics could not get through them all without a trip to | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
the coast. So here we are on the shore in Sussex. There are plenty of | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
Conservative councillors here, and Tory MPs as well, but one challenge | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
they all face is UKIP, who have got their sights on coastal towns. | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
Places like Worthing East and surer and, with high numbers of | :14:07. | :14:09. | |
pensioners, providing rich pickings for UKIP. In West Sussex, the Tories | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
run the county council, but UKIP are the official opposition, with ten | :14:15. | :14:21. | |
councillors. We cannot lose any more ground to UKIP. If we lose any more | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
ground, if you look at the way it has swung from us to them, it is | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
getting near to being the middle point, where we might start losing | :14:31. | :14:33. | |
seats which we have always regarded as safe seats. So, it has got to be | :14:34. | :14:43. | |
stemmed, it cannot go any further. Our exclusive survey looked at the | :14:44. | :14:45. | |
policy areas where the Conservatives are vulnerable to UKIP. If an EU | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
Referendum Bill is called tomorrow, 45% say they would vote to leave, | :14:52. | :14:57. | |
39% would stay in. Asked about immigration... | :14:58. | :15:09. | |
It was those issues, Europe and immigration, that Mark Reckless said | :15:10. | :15:17. | |
were the head of his decision. I promised to cut immigration while | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
treating people fairly and humanely. I cannot keep that promise as a | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
Conservative, I can keep it as UKIP. When asked if Conservative | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
councillors would like an electoral pact with UKIP in the run-up to the | :15:33. | :15:36. | |
general election, one third said they support the idea. 63% are | :15:37. | :15:43. | |
opposed and 7% don't know. Conservative councillors who left | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
the party to join UKIP say it wasn't easy. I left because basically the | :15:49. | :15:55. | |
Conservatives left me. I saw it as a difficult decision to change, but | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
what I was seeing with UKIP was freed. Me being able to speak for my | :16:01. | :16:09. | |
residents. Back to our survey and on climate change 49% said it was | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
happening, but that humans are not to blame. Our survey showed that 60% | :16:15. | :16:21. | |
think David Cameron was wrong to pursue legalising gay marriage, with | :16:22. | :16:27. | |
31% saying it was the right thing to do and 9% not sure. In Worthing | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
councillors said gay marriage was divisive. That has really been an | :16:33. | :16:38. | |
issue here, it might have damaged the party slightly, and I think in a | :16:39. | :16:46. | |
way by setting a rule like that it is a very religious thing and it is | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
almost trying to play God to make that decision. But some of the | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
party's toughest decisions have been over the economy. 56% in our survey | :16:57. | :17:02. | |
thought the spending cuts the Government has so far announced have | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
not gone far enough. 6% were not sure. They are prepared for | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
difficult decisions, but local activists say the party's voice must | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
be clearer. I think the message has to be more forceful, it has to be | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
specially targeted to the ex-Conservative voters who now vote | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
UKIP, especially in this area, the vast majority of UKIP people are | :17:31. | :17:33. | |
disillusioned Conservatives. The message has to be loud and strong, | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
come back and we are the party to give you what you want. With just | :17:39. | :17:42. | |
eight months until the general election, the pressure is on and | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
local Conservatives are searching for clues to help their party stem | :17:48. | :17:54. | |
the flow of defections. Joining me now is William Hague, the former | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
Foreign Secretary and the Leader of the House of Commons. | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
Tories like Mark Reckless are defecting to UKIP because they don't | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
trust the party leadership to deliver on Europe, do they? They | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
believe people like you and David Cameron will campaign to stay in and | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
they are right. They said before they defected that people should | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
vote Conservative to get a referendum on Europe, and that is | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
right of course. The only way to get a referendum is to do that and this | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
is the point, the people should decide. However a future government | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
decides it will campaign, it should be the people of the country who | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
decide. Can you say to our viewers this morning that is not enough | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
powers are repatriated back to Britain, you would want to come | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
out, can you say that? Our objective is to get those powers and stay in. | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
The answer to the question is I won't be deciding, David Cameron | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
won't be deciding, you the voters will be deciding. But you have to | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
give us your view. If you don't get enough powers back, would you vote | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
to come out and recommended? Our objective is to get those powers and | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
be able to stay in. You just get endless speculation years in | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
advance. I will decide at the time how I will vote. Surely that is the | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
rational position for everyone to take but I want a referendum to take | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
place. I understand that. As you pointed out to Mark Reckless just | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
now, unless there is a Conservative government, people won't have that | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
choice. Under a Labour government they will not get a choice at all. | :19:47. | :19:54. | |
Our survey of Tory councillors shows that almost 50% would vote to leave | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
the EU in a referendum. I think it showed, wasn't it 45, and 39%, but | :19:59. | :20:06. | |
again, I'm pretty sure they will decide at the time. They will want | :20:07. | :20:12. | |
to see what a future government achieves in a renegotiation before | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
they decide what to vote in a referendum. Unless David Cameron is | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
Prime Minister and there is a Conservative government, there will | :20:21. | :20:28. | |
not be a renegotiation. That is a point you have made four times. I | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
think they have got it. Your Cabinet colleague says we should not be | :20:34. | :20:36. | |
scared of quitting the EU, but you went native in the Foreign Office, | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
didn't you? You used to be a Eurosceptic, you are now the Foreign | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
Office line man. No, I don't think so! We brought back the first | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
reduced European budget ever in history. Even Margaret Thatcher .. | :20:52. | :20:58. | |
Leaving the EU scares you, doesn't it? Not much scares me after 26 | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
years in politics but we want to do the best thing for the country. | :21:04. | :21:12. | |
Where we scared when we got us out of liability for Eurozone bailouts? | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
We were not scared of anybody. People said we couldn't achieve | :21:17. | :21:19. | |
things but we negotiated these things. We can do that with a wider | :21:20. | :21:27. | |
negotiation in Europe. Mr Reckless says he cannot keep the Conservative | :21:28. | :21:34. | |
promise to tackle immigration. You have failed to keep your promise to | :21:35. | :21:47. | |
keep net immigration down. You promised to cut it below 100,00 , | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
you failed. It is over 200,000 people. We have cut it from 250 000 | :21:54. | :22:11. | |
in 2005, the last figures were 240,000. I think we can file that | :22:12. | :22:19. | |
under F four failed. It includes students, we want them in the | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
country. You knew that when you made the promise. But has it come down? | :22:25. | :22:28. | |
Yes, it has. Have we stopped the promise. But has it come down? | :22:29. | :22:35. | |
coming here because of our benefit system? Yes. None of that happened | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
under Labour. If Mark Reckless had his way, it would be more likely we | :22:40. | :22:45. | |
would have a Labour government. They have an open door policy on | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
immigration. You are not just losing MPs to UKIP, you are losing voters. | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
Polling by Michael Ashcroft shows that 20% of people who voted Tory in | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
2010 have abandoned youth and three quarters of them are voting UKIP | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
now. We will see in the general election. Politics is very fluid in | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
this country and we shouldn't deny that in any way but UKIP thought | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
they were going to win the by-election in Newark, we had a | :23:18. | :23:21. | |
thumping Conservative victory, and I think opinion polls are snapshots of | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
opinion now. They are not forecast of the general election and we will | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
be doing everything we can to get our message across. Today we are | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
announcing 3 million more apprenticeships in the next | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
Parliament. I think this is what people will be voting on, rather | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
than who has defected. Your activist base once parked with UKIP. Our | :23:45. | :23:52. | |
survey shows a third of Tory councillors would like a formal pact | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
with UKIP. Why not? It shows two thirds are against it. No, it shows | :23:59. | :24:08. | |
one third want it. I read the figures, it showed 67% don't want | :24:09. | :24:14. | |
it. We are not going to make a pact with other parties, and they don't | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
work in the British electoral system even if they were desirable. You are | :24:19. | :24:25. | |
sharing the Cabinet committee on English votes for English laws. Is | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
further devolution for Scotland conditional on progress towards | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
English devolution? No, the commitment to Scotland is | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
unconditional. We will meet the commitments to Scotland but we | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
believe, we the Conservatives believe, that in tandem with that we | :24:43. | :24:46. | |
have to resolve these questions about fairness to the rest of the UK | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
as well. That will depend on other parties or the general election | :24:53. | :24:56. | |
result. Are you committed to the Gordon Brown timetable? Yes, | :24:57. | :25:02. | |
absolutely. So you are committed to producing draft legislation by Burns | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
night, that is at the end of January. Will you produce proposals | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
for English votes on English laws by then? We will, but whether they are | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
agreed across the parties will depend on the other parties. There | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
was no sign that they were agreeable at the Labour conference. We will | :25:24. | :25:31. | |
produce our ideas on the same timetable as the timetable for | :25:32. | :25:35. | |
Scottish devolution. You will therefore bring forward proposals | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
for English votes for English laws by the end of January? Yes. And will | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
you attempt to get them on the statute book before the election? | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
The commitment in Scotland is to legislate after the election. You | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
will publish a bill beforehand? We will publish proposals beforehand. I | :25:57. | :26:00. | |
don't exclude doing something before the election, but the Scottish | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
timetable is to legislate for the further devolution after the general | :26:06. | :26:09. | |
election, whoever wins the election. Have you given thought as to what | :26:10. | :26:15. | |
English votes for English laws would mean? I have thought a lot of it | :26:16. | :26:21. | |
over 15 years. I am not going to prejudge what the outcome will be, | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
but it does mean in essence that when decisions are taken, decisions | :26:27. | :26:32. | |
that only affect England or only England and Wales, then only the MPs | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
from England and Wales should be making those decisions. You can | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
achieve that in many different ways. Is that it for English | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
devolution, is that what it amounts to? That is devolution to England if | :26:46. | :26:51. | |
you like, but within England there is a lot of other devolution going | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
on and we might well want to extend that further. We have given more | :26:56. | :27:00. | |
freedom to local authorities, there is a lot of scope to do more of | :27:01. | :27:05. | |
that, but that in itself is not the answer to the problem of what | :27:06. | :27:14. | |
happens at Westminster. You haven't just given Scotland more devolution | :27:15. | :27:19. | |
or planned to do it, you have also enshrined the Barnett formula and | :27:20. | :27:24. | |
that seems to be in perpetuity. It is widely regarded as being unfair | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
to Wales and many of the poorer English regions. Why do you | :27:29. | :27:33. | |
perpetuate it? It will become less relevant overtime if more | :27:34. | :27:40. | |
tax-raising powers... It goes all the way back to the 1970s, we made a | :27:41. | :27:46. | |
commitment on that, we will keep our commitments to Scotland as more -- | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
but as more tax-raising powers devolved, the Barnett formula is | :27:52. | :27:58. | |
less significant. If you transfer ?5 billion of tax-raising powers to | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
Scotland, 5 billion comes off the Barnett formula? It will be a lot | :28:04. | :28:08. | |
more complicated than that, but yes, as their own decisions about | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
taxation are made, the grand from Westminster will go down. And you | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
can guarantee that if there is a majority Conservative government, | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
there will be English votes for English laws after the election | :28:24. | :28:26. | |
Yes, I stress again that there are different ways of doing it but if | :28:27. | :28:30. | |
there is no cross-party agreement on that, the Conservatives will produce | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
our proposals and campaign for them in the general election. Don't go | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
away because I want to move on to some other matters. | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
Now to the fight against so-called Islamic State terrorists. | :28:47. | :28:48. | |
Yesterday, RAF Tornado jets carried out their first flights over Iraq | :28:49. | :28:51. | |
since MPs gave their approval for air-strikes against the militants. | :28:52. | :28:53. | |
When you face a situation with psychobabble -- psychopathic killers | :28:54. | :29:02. | |
who have already brutally beheaded one of our own citizens, who have | :29:03. | :29:06. | |
already launched and tried to execute plots in our own country to | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
maim innocent people, we have a choice - we can either stand back | :29:12. | :29:16. | |
from this and say it is too difficult, let's let someone else | :29:17. | :29:20. | |
try to keep our country safe, or we take the correct decision to have a | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
full, comprehensive strategy but let's be prepared to play our role | :29:25. | :29:29. | |
to make sure these people cannot do not trust harm. | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
And William Hague is still with me - until July he was, of course, | :29:34. | :29:36. | |
Why have only six Tornado jets being mobilised? Do not assume that is all | :29:37. | :29:49. | |
that will be taking part in this operation. That is all that has been | :29:50. | :29:52. | |
announced and I do not think we should speculate. Even the Danes are | :29:53. | :30:00. | |
sending more fighter jets. There is no restriction in the House of | :30:01. | :30:02. | |
Commons resolution passed on Friday on what we can do. So why so | :30:03. | :30:08. | |
little? Do not underestimate what our Tornados can do. They have some | :30:09. | :30:13. | |
unique capabilities, capabilities which have been specifically asked | :30:14. | :30:18. | |
for by our allies. When you are on the wrong end of six Tornados, it | :30:19. | :30:21. | |
will not feel like a small effort. But there will be other things which | :30:22. | :30:27. | |
can add to that effort. We are joining in a month after the | :30:28. | :30:30. | |
operation started, we are late, we are behind America, France, | :30:31. | :30:36. | |
Australia, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, one hand tied behind our | :30:37. | :30:39. | |
backs cause of the rule about not attacking Syria - why is the British | :30:40. | :30:45. | |
government leading from behind? First of all, we are a democratic | :30:46. | :30:49. | |
country, and you know all about Parliamentary approval. You could | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
have recalled parliament. We have done that, with a political | :30:55. | :30:58. | |
consensus. Other European countries also took the decision on Friday to | :30:59. | :31:03. | |
send their military assets. Our allies are absolutely content with | :31:04. | :31:06. | |
that, and Britain will play an important role, along with many | :31:07. | :31:09. | |
other nations, including Arab nations. General Sir David Richards | :31:10. | :31:17. | |
Sheriff, who just steps down as the Nato Deputy Supreme Commander, he | :31:18. | :31:22. | |
condemns the spineless lack of leadership and the absence of any | :31:23. | :31:24. | |
credible strategy. It is embarrassing,isn't it? Of course, | :31:25. | :31:35. | |
they turn into armchair generals. We are playing an important role, we | :31:36. | :31:39. | |
are a democratic country. Your viewers will remember, we had a vote | :31:40. | :31:44. | |
last year on military action in Syria and we were defeated in the | :31:45. | :31:47. | |
House of Commons, a bad moment for our foreign policy. We have taken | :31:48. | :31:51. | |
care to bring this forward when we can win a vote in the House of | :31:52. | :31:55. | |
Commons, and that is how we will proceed. The air Chief Marshal until | :31:56. | :32:03. | |
recently in charge of the RAF, he says, it makes no sense to bomb Iraq | :32:04. | :32:08. | |
but not Syria. He calls the decision ludicrous. Of course, it DOES make | :32:09. | :32:15. | |
sense to bomb Iraq, because the Iraqi government has asked for our | :32:16. | :32:23. | |
assistance. This came up a lot in the debate on Friday, and the Prime | :32:24. | :32:26. | |
Minister explained, similar to what I have just been saying, that there | :32:27. | :32:32. | |
is not a political consensus about Syria in the House of Commons. When | :32:33. | :32:36. | |
we did it last year, we were defeated, and it was described by | :32:37. | :32:40. | |
all commentators as a huge blow to the government and to our foreign | :32:41. | :32:46. | |
policy. So, we will bring forward proposals when there is a majority | :32:47. | :32:49. | |
in this country to do so in the House of Commons. Professor Michael | :32:50. | :32:55. | |
Clarke, one of the world top experts on military strategy and history, he | :32:56. | :33:01. | |
says there are very few important IS targets in northern Iraq, that they | :33:02. | :33:05. | |
are all in Syria, and we are limiting ourselves to the periphery | :33:06. | :33:10. | |
of the campaign. First of all, just because you are not doing everything | :33:11. | :33:13. | |
does not mean you should not do something. Secondly, the United | :33:14. | :33:17. | |
States and other countries are engaged in the action against | :33:18. | :33:21. | |
targets in Syria. This is a coalition effort, with people doing | :33:22. | :33:27. | |
different things. Thirdly, if we were to put their proposal to the | :33:28. | :33:31. | |
House of Commons tomorrow, and it was defeated, we would not have | :33:32. | :33:35. | |
achieved a great deal. You do not know it would have been defeated. | :33:36. | :33:39. | |
The Labour Party has given no indication they would have supported | :33:40. | :33:43. | |
that. So, you are hostage to the Labour Party? We have to win a | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
democratic vote in the House of Commons, and the Labour Party is a | :33:49. | :33:51. | |
very large part of the House of Commons. You are asking us to pursue | :33:52. | :33:57. | |
a policy which at the moment could be defeated in Parliament. Is it not | :33:58. | :34:02. | |
embarrassing to be on the wrong side of so many of these military | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
experts? Why should we trust the judgment of here today, gone | :34:08. | :34:11. | |
tomorrow, politicians? We have the military experts with us now. We | :34:12. | :34:18. | |
have a national security council, we do not have sofa government, unlike | :34:19. | :34:22. | |
the last government. The national security council is chaired by the | :34:23. | :34:25. | |
Prime Minister. Alongside the Chief of Defence Staff and the heads of | :34:26. | :34:33. | |
the intelligence agencies. And we take decisions together with the | :34:34. | :34:37. | |
people who have the information now. So, you will know what British | :34:38. | :34:43. | |
and American intelligence says about Syria. The Prime Minister has said | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
there is a danger that the British-born jihadists will come | :34:49. | :34:52. | |
back and attack us. But the intelligence reports which you will | :34:53. | :34:54. | |
have seen are clear - Al-Qaeda and its associates are selecting, | :34:55. | :35:00. | |
indoctrinating and training jihadists in Syria, not Iraq. Does | :35:01. | :35:06. | |
that not make the Syrian exclusion even more ludicrous? I cannot | :35:07. | :35:13. | |
comment on intelligence. Is the situation in Syria I direct threat | :35:14. | :35:18. | |
to this country? Yes, it is. Have we excluded action? No, we haven't. | :35:19. | :35:24. | |
Could you come back to the House? The Prime Minister said, it was in | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
the motion put to the House of Commons, that if we want to take | :35:29. | :35:32. | |
action in Syria, we will come back to the House of Commons. But we have | :35:33. | :35:37. | |
not taken any decision about that and we would not do so if we thought | :35:38. | :35:42. | |
we were going to be defeated again. The government supports US strikes | :35:43. | :35:45. | |
on Syria, show you must relieve they are legal. Either way the legal | :35:46. | :35:52. | |
basis differs from one country to another, according to their reading | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
of international law. But you have supported it. We do believe that | :35:57. | :36:02. | |
they and Arab countries are taking action legally and we support their | :36:03. | :36:06. | |
action. But I understand your legitimate questions. But it comes | :36:07. | :36:13. | |
back to your basic question, why in Iraq and not Syria. Nonetheless, it | :36:14. | :36:19. | |
is important to take action in Iraq. We are also engaged in Syria | :36:20. | :36:24. | |
in building up the political strength of the more moderate | :36:25. | :36:30. | |
opposition and in trying to bring about a peace agreement, and we do | :36:31. | :36:34. | |
not exclude action in Syria in the future. If we propose doing | :36:35. | :36:41. | |
something, then we ask for the specific legal advice. Why would you | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
not ask for the legal advice anyway? Because you have to be sure | :36:47. | :36:51. | |
of the legal advice at the time, and also we do not comment on the advice | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
given to us by the Law officers. Mr Blair ended up publishing his. That | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
was because there was a huge legal dispute. So you have not had legal | :37:01. | :37:04. | |
advice yet that Britain attacking Syria would be legal? The legal | :37:05. | :37:09. | |
situation is unlikely to be the barrier in this case, let me put it | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
that way. Within international law, you can act in the event of extreme | :37:14. | :37:23. | |
humanitarian distress and elective self-defence, so one can imagine | :37:24. | :37:26. | |
strong legal justification, but of course, we will take the legal | :37:27. | :37:27. | |
advice at the time. watching The Sunday Politics. We say | :37:28. | :37:29. | |
goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who Scotland. Coming up here in 20 | :37:30. | :37:34. | |
minutes, The Week Ahead. Is it time for us to get | :37:35. | :37:45. | |
closer to the West Midlands? Politicians want better links, | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
but do you? Someone's come up with the hdea of | :37:50. | :37:51. | |
joining forces, the East and West Midlands together, in order to get | :37:52. | :37:54. | |
more money from central govdrnment. And the region's Conservatives are | :37:55. | :37:57. | |
gathering in Birmingham for their annual party confdrence | :37:58. | :38:03. | |
and our political editor, On any normal Sunday morning, | :38:04. | :38:06. | |
George Clooney's wedding wotld dominate the front pages but not | :38:07. | :38:10. | |
today because the front pagds and the inside pages are dolinated | :38:11. | :38:13. | |
by the latest Tory difficulties A defection to UKIP | :38:14. | :38:16. | |
and minister's resignation, so what do Conservatives | :38:17. | :38:26. | |
from the East Midlands make of it all as they gather in Birmingham | :38:27. | :38:29. | |
for the annual conference? Hello, I'm Marie Ashby | :38:30. | :38:31. | |
and my guests this week, Frdsh from his party's annual conference, which | :38:32. | :38:34. | |
has grabbed a few headlines, is UKIP's Roger Helmer, a European MP | :38:35. | :38:36. | |
for his party in the East Mhdlands. He's joined by Issan Gazhni | :38:37. | :38:39. | |
from the Liberal Democrats. He's chair of the party in the | :38:40. | :38:42. | |
East Midlands. And if you're | :38:43. | :38:44. | |
following the programme on Twitter and seeing a lot | :38:45. | :38:49. | |
of references to the Great British Bake Off that's probably because in | :38:50. | :38:52. | |
the director's gallery todax we ve He's tweeting his thoughts | :38:53. | :38:54. | |
on the show so far and the rest So, Roger, obviously you've come | :38:55. | :38:59. | |
away from your conference btoyed up by the defection of Consdrvative | :39:00. | :39:17. | |
MP Mark Reckless to UKIP. The obvious question, | :39:18. | :39:19. | |
have you got your eye on anx If I had, I wouldn't tell you but, | :39:20. | :39:29. | |
honestly, I haven't. I am not at the top of the party. I can't comment on | :39:30. | :39:34. | |
that but I can comment on the conference. It must've been to about | :39:35. | :39:38. | |
20 of them in my political career. I have never seen one so | :39:39. | :39:42. | |
enthusiastic, so electrified, so determined to make progress. It was | :39:43. | :39:48. | |
going extremely well up unthl 2 0 yesterday, when Mark Reckless | :39:49. | :39:53. | |
arrived. The thing exploded and others like someone had won the | :39:54. | :39:56. | |
football cup. Mark Spencer, the Sherwood LP, | :39:57. | :39:57. | |
retweeted a tweet yesterday in which someone said they had a fiver | :39:58. | :40:00. | |
on him being the next Tory to go. Well, knowing Mark Spencer, | :40:01. | :40:03. | |
we're pretty sure he's joking. But really, | :40:04. | :40:05. | |
outside of the European elections, you haven't made much of an impact | :40:06. | :40:07. | |
in the East Midlands, have xou? Well, if you look at the European | :40:08. | :40:18. | |
election results in Skegness, for example, we polled more than 50 of | :40:19. | :40:23. | |
the vote and recent opinion polls I have seen out of the constituency | :40:24. | :40:27. | |
shows that we are in with an extremely strong chance of winning | :40:28. | :40:31. | |
that seat. So we think we'rd going to be making progress. Therd are | :40:32. | :40:34. | |
other seeds, of course, we be targeting. Everybody said, OK, you | :40:35. | :40:40. | |
got the European election and that UKIP, it will fade away by the | :40:41. | :40:43. | |
general election. It isn't. We are on a roll. | :40:44. | :40:46. | |
And, Issan, as far as the Liberal Democrats are concerned | :40:47. | :40:48. | |
in the East Midlands you're almost spectators with the big fights | :40:49. | :40:51. | |
between the Conservatives and UKIP and Labour and the Conservatives. | :40:52. | :40:53. | |
Yes, I mean, we are very active on the ground. We have local | :40:54. | :41:10. | |
councillors and control somd local authorities. The odds are stacked | :41:11. | :41:16. | |
against you, aren't they? That's the nature of the game. We are hn | :41:17. | :41:21. | |
coalition and parties in co`lition of traditionally had a tough it s no | :41:22. | :41:25. | |
different in our situation. It's a temporary setback. It is a blip and | :41:26. | :41:32. | |
I'm confident we will recovdr. When we are knocking on doors in the East | :41:33. | :41:35. | |
Midlands we're getting a positive response because the economx is | :41:36. | :41:39. | |
recovering. And the austerity people had to go through is now showing | :41:40. | :41:42. | |
signs of coming back. Let's hear from the Conserv`tives | :41:43. | :41:48. | |
then. They are gathering | :41:49. | :41:49. | |
for their annual party confdrence in Birmingham and our polithcal | :41:50. | :41:51. | |
editor, John Hess is there. He's been talking to a couple of | :41:52. | :41:53. | |
senior party members this morning. Well, Marie, | :41:54. | :41:56. | |
it's a lovely sunny Sunday lorning The Town Hall and the Counchl House | :41:57. | :41:58. | |
behind me but there's a dark political cloud over the st`rt | :41:59. | :42:02. | |
of this Conservative conferdnce in Birmingham and that's because of the | :42:03. | :42:05. | |
resignation of a government minister and of course the defection to UKIP | :42:06. | :42:07. | |
by MP Mark Reckless so, to what extent could that trouble the | :42:08. | :42:11. | |
Conservatives and their conference? Let's get the view of some senior | :42:12. | :42:13. | |
East Midlands Conservatives here. Maggie hopes to be the next | :42:14. | :42:17. | |
Conservative MP for Erewash and Neil Clark, the leader of the Cotncil in | :42:18. | :42:20. | |
Nottinghamshire and an infltential Maggie, can I come to you fhrst | :42:21. | :42:22. | |
because this isn't the exact start It's not going to detract | :42:23. | :42:28. | |
from our conference at all. We know that only a Conserv`tive | :42:29. | :42:33. | |
government can deliver There must be sympathy in the | :42:34. | :42:36. | |
Conservative Association for UKIP I don't think there's much sympathy | :42:37. | :42:44. | |
because It's starting to make | :42:45. | :42:47. | |
a difference in Erewash On the UKIP issue, there's ` survey | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
this morning by Sunday Politics which says the vast majoritx of Tory | :42:52. | :42:58. | |
county councillors and district councillors would like some form | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
of electoral pact with UKIP. I think that's something | :43:02. | :43:05. | |
really to talk about later. What's really important is | :43:06. | :43:10. | |
the Conservatives put We've got a lot of good news and, | :43:11. | :43:12. | |
as Maggie has said, we have the guarantee of a referendtm | :43:13. | :43:18. | |
and it's important that people vote Conservative because if thex vote | :43:19. | :43:21. | |
for UKIP, they will let Labour in and we want to keep going whth | :43:22. | :43:25. | |
our Conservative message. But you must be concerned | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
about UKIP? Are they poaching Tory councillors | :43:30. | :43:31. | |
even in the East Midlands? Obviously they are a concern, | :43:32. | :43:35. | |
just like all opposition parties are a concern but we will continue to | :43:36. | :43:38. | |
put our positive messages across. Maggie, | :43:39. | :43:43. | |
what do you need to hear from David Cameron this week which would get | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
the Tories re`elected in a highly We've seen in the last couple | :43:48. | :43:50. | |
of years, with our plan, th`t we are making products again and that | :43:51. | :43:57. | |
is seen across the East Midlands with Bombardier and Rolls Royce | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
manufacturing, making products. We've seen that with Erewash | :44:02. | :44:05. | |
specialist manufacturers. Clooney Lace, Tech`Quipment | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
and it's utterly good news. Are people seeing the benefhts | :44:11. | :44:13. | |
of this revival? One message that has alreadx gone | :44:14. | :44:15. | |
out is we are committing to three million more apprentices | :44:16. | :44:22. | |
in the next government. That has got to be good news | :44:23. | :44:25. | |
for people in Erewash. There is bound to be some bhg policy | :44:26. | :44:32. | |
announcement from the government What do you think is in it | :44:33. | :44:37. | |
for English local government? We have got to make sure th`t we | :44:38. | :44:41. | |
don't create a bureaucracy that s We need to be ensuring | :44:42. | :44:45. | |
the government gives us those powers Even for Borough councils | :44:46. | :44:53. | |
like yours? Borough councils, county cotncils, | :44:54. | :44:57. | |
we need to be together. I encourage councils to | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
work closely together. If we are given the opportunity | :45:02. | :45:04. | |
by the government to work closely together with more powers to make | :45:05. | :45:07. | |
collective decisions, No, because we need to ensure that | :45:08. | :45:09. | |
councils still maintain their sovereignty | :45:10. | :45:18. | |
but that doesn't stop them working very closely together and ddlivering | :45:19. | :45:20. | |
services for each other. OK, Maggie, a good week | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
for the Conservatives this week A very good week | :45:26. | :45:27. | |
for the Conservatives, continuing to get our message | :45:28. | :45:29. | |
across that we are delivering a long`term economic plan for | :45:30. | :45:31. | |
the hard`working people of Drewash. The main message from Grant Shapps, | :45:32. | :45:35. | |
the chairman of the Conserv`tives, when this conference opens this | :45:36. | :45:41. | |
morning, will be securing They talk about the revival of the | :45:42. | :46:02. | |
economy. Behind those headlhnes of defections, the economy is hmproving | :46:03. | :46:04. | |
quickly and they will benefht from that. The economy is improvhng and | :46:05. | :46:10. | |
it's taken a long time. Thex are not getting the deficit down, btt you | :46:11. | :46:13. | |
referred to the confident mdssages. They are whistling in the whnd. I | :46:14. | :46:18. | |
want to pick up the point only a Conservative government would give | :46:19. | :46:22. | |
you a referendum. As Mark Rdckless said yesterday, David Cameron is | :46:23. | :46:26. | |
using this promise of a refdrendum and a renegotiation to kick the | :46:27. | :46:29. | |
issue of Europe into the long grass till after the general election I | :46:30. | :46:33. | |
have been in Brussels for 14 years, I know there is no renegoti`tion | :46:34. | :46:37. | |
going to happen. He will cole back, just like Harold Wilson did, with | :46:38. | :46:41. | |
some cosmetic changes and, on the back of that, he will ask the | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
British people to vote to stay in. That's not what we want. Nehll clerk | :46:47. | :46:51. | |
say if people vote for UKIP it's a way of letting Labour in. Absolutely | :46:52. | :46:57. | |
not. At the beginning of UKHP, we tended to take more support from the | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
Conservatives than Labour. We've just had our conference in Labour | :47:02. | :47:08. | |
heartland in Doncaster. Look at the results in northern constittencies. | :47:09. | :47:11. | |
We are taking support across`the`board. The idea we are | :47:12. | :47:15. | |
only taking support from thd Conservatives is absurd. Yot have | :47:16. | :47:18. | |
your party conference next week Will you be announcing any | :47:19. | :47:24. | |
defections? No, but we will be announcing is a strategy, in | :47:25. | :47:32. | |
particular our environmental policy, a new 5`point plan which will be | :47:33. | :47:37. | |
coming out very shortly. And that will address issues very important. | :47:38. | :47:42. | |
Is that the way to carve out a role in the East Midlands for yotrself? | :47:43. | :47:49. | |
Do you think that's the way forward? No, environmental issues is one set | :47:50. | :47:52. | |
of policies but we will also be talking about how to manage the | :47:53. | :47:55. | |
economy, we have worked effdctively with the coalition and I thhnk it's | :47:56. | :48:00. | |
been excellent because of Lhb Dem involvement. Do you take crddit for | :48:01. | :48:06. | |
the way the economy is improving? Yes, because we'd been very careful | :48:07. | :48:09. | |
making sure the austerity mdasures have been implemented in a fair way. | :48:10. | :48:15. | |
We have kept control of somd of the Tory accesses and we do takd credit | :48:16. | :48:20. | |
for that. We heard that you can have been contacting conservativd | :48:21. | :48:25. | |
councillors in Charnwood bulls are you speaking to other Conservative | :48:26. | :48:30. | |
councillors? Not personally. Is the party? As a party, we are h`ppy to | :48:31. | :48:36. | |
talk to Labour and Conservative councillors, and again, I stress, | :48:37. | :48:43. | |
we're getting support from lots of Labour supporters. Our chairman of | :48:44. | :48:46. | |
the former Labour councillor so I reject the premise of your puestion | :48:47. | :48:49. | |
that we would only be talking to Conservatives. We are keen to talk | :48:50. | :48:56. | |
to people across`the`board, we are not right or left but common sense. | :48:57. | :49:02. | |
Rumours today the third, another Tory MP about to defect. Wh`t is up | :49:03. | :49:06. | |
your sleeve? Honest, hand on heart, I do not know. One of the great | :49:07. | :49:14. | |
things about Nigel Farage is he will conduct these negotiations | :49:15. | :49:18. | |
personally and he is absolutely meticulous and keeping them secret | :49:19. | :49:20. | |
and that's why people are prepared to talk to us. Frankly, if the | :49:21. | :49:25. | |
Conservative or Labour MP c`me to talk to UKIP, and we tell the top | :49:26. | :49:29. | |
ten people in the party, it would be in the Daily Mail tomorrow. Nobody | :49:30. | :49:32. | |
would come full that they come because they know it will bd treated | :49:33. | :49:37. | |
in absolute confidence. UKIP recently is made some stridds, and | :49:38. | :49:41. | |
we can see, it's obviously come you can't ignore them at this moment but | :49:42. | :49:46. | |
I do believe it is short`term and I don't believe it's a long`tdrm | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
issue. The biggest threat UKIP places is to the Conservative Party | :49:52. | :49:54. | |
and I do think David Cameron is extremely worried about the impact | :49:55. | :49:58. | |
of losses for the Conservathve Party and I don't agree that your | :49:59. | :50:04. | |
impact... The Lib Dems aren't as worried? Agro blew our voters would | :50:05. | :50:14. | |
not vote for UKIP. `` our voters would not vote for UKIP. We have got | :50:15. | :50:22. | |
Lib Dem people voting us. There s not such a big group are thdre to | :50:23. | :50:23. | |
join us. Now, is it time to cuddle up to our | :50:24. | :50:27. | |
neighbours in the West Midl`nds This week's Labour conference saw | :50:28. | :50:30. | |
the launch of Midlands Conndct, an attempt to build closer ties between | :50:31. | :50:34. | |
the two sides of the region. At the moment, | :50:35. | :50:37. | |
the Midlands can feel split in two, dissected by motorways and rail | :50:38. | :50:40. | |
lines all heading north to south. The plan will be to bring the East | :50:41. | :50:42. | |
and West closer together and to encourage better links betwden | :50:43. | :50:46. | |
cities on both sides of the divide. Well, we | :50:47. | :50:48. | |
like to think we got there first. Two weeks ago we were discussing, | :50:49. | :50:50. | |
slightly tongue in cheek, the prospects of an independent | :50:51. | :50:53. | |
Mercia and imagining what a Midlands We even worked out we could have | :50:54. | :50:55. | |
a King Gary Lineker and a And, of course, | :50:56. | :51:02. | |
our coins would be the medidval But there is | :51:03. | :51:05. | |
of course a serious side to this. With the fear that more powdr for | :51:06. | :51:12. | |
local authorities could see more money going over our heads from | :51:13. | :51:15. | |
Whitehall to the north of England. So what do you think, | :51:16. | :51:18. | |
is it time we joined forces to fight Are they for closer links whth | :51:19. | :51:21. | |
the West Midlands or do thex simply What do you think of the idda | :51:22. | :51:34. | |
of the East and West Midlands joining up in order to get lore | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
money from central government? We are not going to get bendfit | :51:40. | :51:42. | |
from it, do you know what I mean? Someone's come up with the hdea of | :51:43. | :51:52. | |
joining forces, the East and West Midlands together, in order to get | :51:53. | :51:56. | |
more money from central govdrnment. To unite the East and West Lidlands | :51:57. | :51:59. | |
in order to get more money from central government, | :52:00. | :52:09. | |
is that a good idea? If we do get extra money | :52:10. | :52:12. | |
and it helps both sides, ye`h, it's As long | :52:13. | :52:16. | |
as the money does get spent on both Don't you think they are separate | :52:17. | :52:21. | |
entities, the East and the West Midlands, | :52:22. | :52:27. | |
and they should remain that way Well, in the old days, we wdre part | :52:28. | :52:33. | |
of the kingdom of Murcia and they were united, but I know, I hear what | :52:34. | :52:37. | |
you're saying, you're right. But people may be pragmatic | :52:38. | :52:41. | |
if that will get some money out East and West Midlands unitdd to get | :52:42. | :52:48. | |
more money from central govdrnment, The East Midlands has always | :52:49. | :52:52. | |
been very, very strong. We've got some marvellous | :52:53. | :52:59. | |
countryside, some marvellous cities. We don't really want to be | :53:00. | :53:04. | |
tarred with the West Midlands. Joining us to discuss all that is | :53:05. | :53:06. | |
Anne Western, the Labour le`der of Derbyshire County Council who was | :53:07. | :53:18. | |
at the launch of Midlands Connect. Tell us first of all what | :53:19. | :53:21. | |
Midlands Connect is. It sounds a good bus servicd. It's | :53:22. | :53:31. | |
about the Midlands coming together and speaking with one louder voice. | :53:32. | :53:37. | |
We are at an interesting st`ge in terms of English politics. We've | :53:38. | :53:41. | |
seen the Scottish referendul on a huge demand for something dhfferent | :53:42. | :53:44. | |
in Scotland and I think people in England are asking those qudstions | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
as well. How do we pull powdrs from London and the south`east and bring | :53:50. | :53:53. | |
it to the places where we lhve? We see a strong south`east economy the | :53:54. | :53:58. | |
northern cities starting to work together to argue for the North | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
It's our time and is not about giving anything up, forming any new | :54:04. | :54:08. | |
bureaucracy, it's just about the councils and the communities across | :54:09. | :54:11. | |
the East and West Midlands speaking with a louder voice and argting for | :54:12. | :54:15. | |
greater transport links across East and West to join our economx. There | :54:16. | :54:22. | |
was some scepticism and people said pigs might fly. Is this somdthing | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
which might get off the grotnd? I think it's the right time for this | :54:28. | :54:32. | |
sort of idea. If we don't do this, we would get left behind and become | :54:33. | :54:36. | |
the empty space between London and the south`east and the North. I m | :54:37. | :54:40. | |
very proud of what we have got an East Midlands particular prhde in | :54:41. | :54:43. | |
what we got in Derbyshire and I don't want to compromise for anybody | :54:44. | :54:46. | |
but it's about working with other partners so we can get our lessage | :54:47. | :54:51. | |
across. The East Midlands ndver had its fair share of resources. Is this | :54:52. | :54:59. | |
a good idea? It's cosmetic. I think transport, Camilla K Schnitzer to | :55:00. | :55:03. | |
come is important anyway, and normal council business... Is councils more | :55:04. | :55:13. | |
cosmetic? Transport? We need to look the regional assembly concept | :55:14. | :55:15. | |
because I believe we need to be thinking regionally and working | :55:16. | :55:21. | |
collectively for the isn't that what Annie is saying? Working together as | :55:22. | :55:27. | |
regions? Agro blew she is w`lking about local authorities working | :55:28. | :55:30. | |
cosmetically together for the that's not what I'm saying. People don t | :55:31. | :55:34. | |
want more bureaucracy full survey don't want regional assemblhes. That | :55:35. | :55:40. | |
debate is ten years old and they were not popular. It's about being | :55:41. | :55:44. | |
pragmatic and about flexing our combined muscles a bit more. To make | :55:45. | :55:50. | |
the argument to government that this sort of level of infrastructure | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
funding we're talking about does not currently sit with councils. It sits | :55:55. | :56:00. | |
in Whitehall and is divided by civil servants, most of whom don't know | :56:01. | :56:04. | |
the regions. I think you will find the terms of reference have now | :56:05. | :56:08. | |
changed post`Scottish referdndum so people will be looking at something | :56:09. | :56:12. | |
a little bit more structural to reflect the power shift which has | :56:13. | :56:16. | |
occurred the moment. What does help you in Europe? At the moment, we | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
don't know exactly what it hs and what it's going to be but following | :56:23. | :56:28. | |
the Scottish result, UKIP are saying yes, Scottish people devolution but | :56:29. | :56:32. | |
we must have come at the sale time, a complete settlement for England | :56:33. | :56:36. | |
and Wales and Northern Irel`nd and therefore, we ought to have a | :56:37. | :56:39. | |
constitutional convention that would look at the whole situation. What is | :56:40. | :56:45. | |
your view on that as the le`der of the campaign? While people `re doing | :56:46. | :56:48. | |
what the finer points, the world is changing. `` arguing about the finer | :56:49. | :56:56. | |
points. Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle are | :56:57. | :57:01. | |
working together now. They have got deals and are working together. The | :57:02. | :57:05. | |
East Midlands is different, it's not dominated... This is fundamdntal, | :57:06. | :57:11. | |
how central government shards it funding, and how it is allocated, | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
who controls it. Back to thd Midlands connect idea. Isn't there a | :57:18. | :57:21. | |
danger that the East Midlands could be swallowed up by the West Midlands | :57:22. | :57:24. | |
with all the attention going to them? That's why you don't like the | :57:25. | :57:33. | |
idea? I don't like the idea by think we should regional governments. | :57:34. | :57:37. | |
There's no harm working across boundaries with the police, social | :57:38. | :57:45. | |
services, the NHS, so public sector cooperation to get efficiencies of | :57:46. | :57:48. | |
scale and better services, that s OK. But I think actually, wd should | :57:49. | :57:52. | |
retain government is at a rdgional level. We need to know who will | :57:53. | :57:57. | |
control it. It's fine to sax speak with one voice. How will it be | :57:58. | :58:03. | |
democratically accountable? Until we have answers to those questhons we | :58:04. | :58:10. | |
don't know. While we debate this, we need to be arguing for our own | :58:11. | :58:16. | |
corner. Like the northern chties are doing full is if we sit back and | :58:17. | :58:19. | |
wait for six months, till somebody tells us what we can do, thd moment | :58:20. | :58:24. | |
would have gone. And we will have lost out. We need to understand what | :58:25. | :58:30. | |
the proposal is. Democratic`lly elected councils are coming together | :58:31. | :58:35. | |
to form combined authorities and organise ourselves in a way which | :58:36. | :58:39. | |
works so we can take the message to government. What stage is this art? | :58:40. | :58:47. | |
Its early stages. It's prim`rily about connectivity, transport links | :58:48. | :58:51. | |
between West and East Midlands. We have strong links north and south | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
with the M1, the rail links and we have not got good East and West | :58:56. | :59:01. | |
links and that's what we nedd. We have not got HS2, by the wax. If we | :59:02. | :59:08. | |
have our way, won't have it. That is the proposals. We have to ldave it | :59:09. | :59:13. | |
there but thanks for making it clearer for us. | :59:14. | :59:15. | |
Time for a round`up of some of the other political storhes | :59:16. | :59:18. | |
The South Leicestershire MP Andrew Robathan has announced he is | :59:19. | :59:23. | |
The former Northern Ireland Minister and Minister for State for the | :59:24. | :59:27. | |
Armed Forces, who's 63, was an Army officer and had a spell in the SAS. | :59:28. | :59:34. | |
This is a serious question about serious issues. | :59:35. | :59:39. | |
We're used to seeing him as the ruthless inquisitor chairing | :59:40. | :59:41. | |
Can I say, on behalf of this committee, that we have found | :59:42. | :59:46. | |
But Leicester East MP Keith Vaz has been showing a softer side | :59:47. | :59:52. | |
at the Labour conference, dancing Gangnam Style at a party | :59:53. | :59:54. | |
An event he was happy to recreate for the Daily Politics show. | :59:55. | :00:03. | |
And the Beast of Bolsover was showing | :00:04. | :00:06. | |
Dennis Skinner signed copies of his autobiography, Sailing Close | :00:07. | :00:09. | |
To The Wind, his memoirs of 44 years in the House of Commons. | :00:10. | :00:15. | |
Apparently he sold 100 copids in one session. | :00:16. | :00:32. | |
His dance moves will stay whth us, Keith Vaz. | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
That's the Sunday Politics in the East Midlands. | :00:37. | :00:38. | |
My thanks to Roger Helmer and Issan Ghazni for being this week's guests. | :00:39. | :00:39. | |
My thanks to you both. Andrew, back to you. | :00:40. | :00:55. | |
Here we are back in Birmingham with the Conservatives. The Tories | :00:56. | :01:03. | |
thought all they had to do was come here, have a rally, a jamboree, and | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
off they go to the races, or in their case the general election Two | :01:10. | :01:14. | |
races later it hasn't quite worked out like that. Let's look at the | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
state of this conference as it gets under way. On our panel we are | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
joined by David Davis. You wrote an article in the Mail on Sunday this | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
morning which was an Exocet at the heart of David Cameron's modernising | :01:32. | :01:38. | |
strategy. It was designed to act as a lever. It was designed to cause | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
trouble. No, we are in the running for the next general election. One | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
of the characteristics of having a five year fixed term Parliaments is | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
that the last year is about campaigning. It is important we beat | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
Miliband, he would be a disastrous Prime Minister. You think the whole | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
modernising strategy was a wrong turn, that is what the article said. | :02:04. | :02:12. | |
Yes. Has that opened the door to UKIP? It has left a lot of people | :02:13. | :02:31. | |
disillusioned with politics. What do you do to get it right? Who was | :02:32. | :02:34. | |
listening to you? Frankly we need to take a more | :02:35. | :03:09. | |
robust series of policies. How many more UKIP defections will there be? | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
I do not think there will be any more. I would be very surprised I | :03:14. | :03:22. | |
know Nigel Farage has a brilliant sense of timing, but I do not think | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
he has got the resources to do that, namely, another Tory MP. So it could | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
be another Labour one, maybe? I think an awful lot will hinge on | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
what happens in Rochester. Because that is not a slam dunk. Clack and | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
unfortunately looks like it will be a walkover for them. But Rochester | :03:44. | :03:55. | |
is a different scene. And so, there could be a kind of Newark situation. | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
When I campaigned in Newark, two labour families I spoke to said they | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
would vote Tory to keep UKIP out. How bad was the Labour conference | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
last week? One politician said after he had a really bad performance that | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
his television performance was suboptimal. I think that would be a | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
good way of describing Ed Miliband's speech. The problem for | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
Ed Miliband in memorising speeches is that we are not auditioning for a | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
new lines Olivier, we're rehearsing for Prime Minister. He failed the | :04:29. | :04:34. | |
Laurence Olivier test, and therefore failed the Prime Minister test. I | :04:35. | :04:37. | |
think the real problem for him was forgetting to mention the deficit. | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
He spoke from the heart about issues which she really cares about, the | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
NHS, the rupture between wages and inflation, and forgot the deficit. | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
Those issues are important, but if you are not addressing things like | :04:51. | :04:53. | |
the deficit, then people are really not going to be listening to your | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
messages on the areas that matter. Was it bad? Yes, suboptimal, I am | :04:59. | :05:06. | |
afraid. I hope that this ends the nonsense of leaders wasting their | :05:07. | :05:09. | |
time learning speeches off by heart. You could learn a Shakespeare | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
play in the time it takes to learn 70 minutes of a leader's speech I | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
think we should just go back to sensible reading what you have | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
written. You can then alter it just beforehand. A lot of things were | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
changing, which is not surprising, but he did not have time to learn | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
it. It is a silly gimmick, it worked once or twice, but that is enough | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
for that. Despite some of the derision of Mr Miliband, the Tories | :05:36. | :05:38. | |
are flat-lining in the sun decks, they have been there almost since | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
the disastrous budget, the omnishambles, of 2012, Labour is | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
still several points ahead, nothing seems to change? And David Cameron | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
is now the leader in trouble. It is almost as if a week is a long time | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
in politics. I thought the Labour and friends was Saab -- | :05:58. | :06:04. | |
sub-suboptimal. It was so parochial. You could've watched the top | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
speeches without knowing that the borders of Ukraine, and Iraq and | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
Syria were in question. I hope, because of Friday's discussion in | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
Parliament, that this conference will raise its sights a bit, and we | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
will have something in Cameron's speech, possibly that of George | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
Osborne as well, which is a bit more global. People hoped UKIP had gone | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
away during the summer, people at this conference, I mean, but it is | :06:33. | :06:39. | |
back with a bang. They are still up at 15% in the polls, the Tories | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
languishing on 32 - what is going to change? UKIP won 3% of the last | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
election, I always thought they would get about 6%. If, by the turn | :06:49. | :06:56. | |
of the year, they are still in double digits, I think at that point | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
you can begin to wake of his party's chances of winning. I have | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
had three people say to me so far, come election day, it will be fine, | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
people will sober up and so on. It will be all right on the night is | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
not a very good strategy, frankly. When they get past 5%, I start to | :07:15. | :07:22. | |
bite into our 3-way marginal seats, with liberals, Labour and Tories, | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
and we have got about 60 of those in the Midlands and the north, so it | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
really is quite serious. And if I may steal one of David's lines, when | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
you were interviewing Mark Reckless this morning, and was not talking | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
about the EU referendum, he was talking about how he felt he had | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
broken his pledges to the electorate because the Conservatives he said | :07:45. | :07:47. | |
had failed on immigration and on the deficit, and those sort of | :07:48. | :07:50. | |
bread-and-butter issues could be really potent on the doorstep, which | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
means the Tories have got to run the kind of campaign they ran in Newark, | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
which is a real centre ground, Reddan but a campaign, in which they | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
would hope to get Liberal Democrat and Labour voters out to vote | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
tactically against UKIP. I think today we have seen Cameron been | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
pushed to the right. He has had to say, yes, I would leave Europe, | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
which he has never said before. It is a huge stepping stone, a big | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
difference. It takes the Tory party somewhere else. May be get them a | :08:21. | :08:27. | |
lot of votes. But it has not so far. But I think it loses a lot of | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
people. The industry organisations, for example. The prospect of going | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
out of Europe, but is quite a fight for them. Is it not the lesson that | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
you can out UKIP UKIP? Well, you do not need to, really. I agree, last | :08:44. | :08:53. | |
week was sub-sub-suboptimal. Hold on, that is enough subs! I would not | :08:54. | :09:02. | |
be crowing too much! But what I was going to say, he left out something | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
incredibly important, the deficit. But how many people outside the M25 | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
are thinking about the deficit? One problem we face with Miliband is, he | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
is good at politics and bad at economics, in a way. He comes up | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
with bonkers policies which people love, price-fixing, things like | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
that. Our problem will be about relevance on the doorstep. I do not | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
think at the end of the day it will be about Europe. But was there not a | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
moment of danger for you at the conference, that one area where | :09:37. | :09:38. | |
Miliband is potentially vulnerable is not having credible team with | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
business. Who turned up at the Labour conference, the head of | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
Airbus, saying, we have got to stay in the European Union? The danger is | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
that Europe allows the Labour Party to gain credibility with business. | :09:52. | :09:59. | |
There is some truth in that. But we are in effectively the home | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
straight, the last six months, and people will be fussing about prices | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
and jobs. Very parochial. They will not be saying, what does the CBI | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
think about this? It is, what is happening to me, in my town, in my | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
factory, in my office. That is where the fight will be. Is it not the | :10:18. | :10:26. | |
truth that if UKIP stays anywhere near around this level of support, | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
it is impossible for the Tories to win an overall majority? I would | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
say, if it is this level of support, it is impossible for the Tories to | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
finish as the biggest party, even in a hung Parliament. The Tories keep | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
trying to win back UKIP voters with cold logic - witches it makes Ed | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
Miliband becoming prime minister more likely. UKIP is basically a | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
vessel phenomenon, coming from the gut, and David Cameron has never | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
found the emotional pitch in his rhetoric to meet that. I wonder | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
whether we will see that moron Wednesday. It is just not him. I | :11:01. | :11:11. | |
hope we do. -- more on Wednesday. I hope you're right that we do | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
actually engage on emotion. So far with UKIP, our policy has been to | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
insult them. It does not work. I know that from my constituency. We | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
have to say to them, there is a wider Tory family, we understand you | :11:27. | :11:29. | |
are patria, we understand you are worried about your family, and we do | :11:30. | :11:35. | |
the same. What does it tell us about the state of the Tories, seven | :11:36. | :11:38. | |
months from the election, the economy is going well, they are not | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
that far behind Labour, and yet there is all sorts of leadership | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
speculation? It is extraordinary. They are doing well, they are in | :11:47. | :11:49. | |
with a shout. It depends. UKIP has to be kept below 9% of. -- below | :11:50. | :12:02. | |
9%. I think David Cameron is one of the few who speaks human, actually | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
talks quite well to people and does not look like a swivel-eyed loons. | :12:07. | :12:09. | |
Whereas a lot of people behind him do. You look at Duncan Smith and | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
Eric Pickles, they are all kind of driven, ideological men, with very | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
right-wing policies. And nice people! Don't hold back! He is not | :12:20. | :12:27. | |
the Addams family, he is basically quite human. I think a lot of people | :12:28. | :12:33. | |
do not realise how ideological he is himself and how well he has led his | :12:34. | :12:36. | |
party in the direction they all want to go. You go on about him being | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
this metropolitan moderniser, I do not think that is what he is, | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
really. It may not be visible from the guardian offices in the | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
metropolis! Everybody where you are, Polly, is a metropolitan moderniser. | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
And where you are, too. That is the nature of living in London. The | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
trouble is, when these people get into Westminster, they are part of | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
Westminster, too. If you could only win by being an outsider, the moment | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
you get in, you are done for. All teeing up nicely for Boris Johnson | :13:10. | :13:12. | |
to be the next leader? I do not think so! The point of my Exocet, or | :13:13. | :13:22. | |
lever, this morning, is that I think this is winnable. If we are good | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
Tories for the next six months, we can do this. It is by denying ground | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
to UKIP, not giving in to them, not buckling. Denying ground. Thank you | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
to our panel. They did all right today, but the normal. That is your | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
lot for today. I am back tomorrow. We will have live coverage of George | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
Osborne's speech to the conference. I am back next week in Glasgow for | :13:47. | :13:50. | |
The Sunday Politics at the Labour conference. How could you miss | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
that? Remember, if it is Sunday it is The Sunday Politics. Bye-bye | :13:56. | :14:24. | |
of statutory press regulation in sponge cake may be a bridge too far. | :14:25. | :14:39. | |
I think I've overdone it with the pistachios | :14:40. | :14:42. | |
and somehow, the custard's split, but it's too late! | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
of statutory press regulation in sponge cake may be a bridge too far. | :14:46. | :14:56. |