Browse content similar to 02/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. The unions helped | :00:37. | :00:42. | |
him beat his brother to the top Now Ed Miliband wants to change Labour's | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
relationship with them. Who will come out on top? We will be asking | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
one union baron what he thinks. Cracks in the coalition after | :00:51. | :00:52. | |
Education Secretary Michael Gove sacks the chairwoman of Ofsted. His | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
Lib Dem deputy is said to be hopping mad. We will be talking to the new | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
deputy leader of the Lib Dems, Malcolm Bruce. | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
Caught a bout of the EU blues? David Cameron has been drowning his | :01:05. | :01:06. | |
sorrows with the President of France. Who better? We will be | :01:07. | :01:10. | |
asking if the EU referendum bill is dead in the water. | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
And bad weather getting you down? Getting from A to B a bit of a | :01:15. | :01:17. | |
nightmare? Fear not! The leader of the Greens will be here with her | :01:18. | :01:19. | |
traffic and travel report. Dutch Balancing the books. | :01:20. | :01:27. | |
lunchtime news. Balancing the books. | :01:28. | :01:37. | |
Will it provide the kind of reassurance people want? | :01:38. | :01:47. | |
Yes, all that and more in today s action-packed Sunday Politics. And | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
blowing more hot air than I have had hot dinners, Helen Lewis, Nick Watt | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
and Iain Martin. After the row about candidate | :01:58. | :01:59. | |
selection in Falkirk, Ed Miliband said he wanted to reshape the | :02:00. | :02:02. | |
relationship between Labour and the unions. The biggest changes involve | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
union membership of the party, which in turn will affect future Labour | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
leadership elections. Some claim this is Ed's Clause 4 moment. But | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
the unions will continue to be powerful at conference and on the | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
party's ruling committees, and they will still be able to bankroll the | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
election campaign. Here is Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, | :02:24. | :02:33. | |
speaking earlier. What he is proposing for the March the 1st | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
conference is a huge change in financing, in the election of the | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
leader, in what goes on at local level. In due course, it might have | :02:41. | :02:46. | |
implications for the NEC elections and conference. But this is already | :02:47. | :02:49. | |
a big issue to take forward. Joining me now is Paul Kenny, | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
general secretary of the GMB union and chair of the Trade Union and | :02:53. | :03:02. | |
Labour Party Liaison Organisation. Is this Ed Miliband's Clause 4 | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
moment? I don't know about that It is certainly a bold move, | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
particularly to have an electoral college, which as you said was the | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
system which elected him in the first place. Everybody admits that | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
has needed reforming for some time. Moving to a one member, one vote | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
situation seems to me to be sensible. I know some people are | :03:29. | :03:36. | |
upset, mostly MPs, who will lose their golden share. But it is | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
nonsense that one MP should have the same vote as 1000 party members So | :03:41. | :03:49. | |
the MPs have lost out. Have the unions lost out? Well, the system is | :03:50. | :04:00. | |
currently that union members get a ballot paper, but they have to | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
declare that they are a Labour supporter and they have to sign to | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
that effect in order to participate. Then their vote is counted. At the | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
last election, about 200,000 trade union members gave that indication, | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
and they participated in that way. That will not change. The way it is | :04:20. | :04:26. | |
organised will be different. The big change in the electoral college is | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
that the logical weight given to MPs will disappear. I wonder if you have | :04:32. | :04:38. | |
really lost anything. At the moment, there are about 3 million people | :04:39. | :04:41. | |
automatically affiliated from the unions to the Labour Party. If only | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
10% of them opt in, that will still mean twice as many union individual | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
members, 300,000, versus about 180,000 Labour Party members. So | :04:53. | :05:00. | |
union members and maybe even the unions will have as big an influence | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
on the leadership elections as you do now, maybe bigger? Well, they are | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
individual votes. Different unions support different candidates. It is | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
lost in the media myth of barons and block votes, but there is an | :05:16. | :05:21. | |
individual vote. Different unions recommend different candidates, and | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
union members vote accordingly. Ed Miliband won more individual votes | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
by a country mile than David, but it got messed up in the process of this | :05:31. | :05:37. | |
electoral college. As I have understood the proposals so far | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
they are not a done deal. There is a lot of discussion. But it seems | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
there are three hurdles. Firstly, union members themselves will have | :05:50. | :05:52. | |
to agree whether they want to affiliate to the Labour Party. If | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
they don't, the rest of it falls. If they decide they do my they will ask | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
union members to support that an individual basis the next five | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
years, which will have financial implications. Then there will be a | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
third position, which is that people who may want to agree with the | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
union's position and affiliate with the Labour Party may want to go | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
further and become active supporters of the Labour Party, participating | :06:20. | :06:22. | |
in leadership elections. They will have to give their sanction to that | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
at a third stage. So the implications in terms of | :06:29. | :06:31. | |
constituency parties and so on are a lot less than the idea that the 3 | :06:32. | :06:38. | |
million who are currently affiliated will change. At the moment, the | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
unions, because of the automatic affiliation, hand over a affiliation | :06:43. | :06:49. | |
fees of about ?8 million a year to Labour. You will now get to keep | :06:50. | :06:52. | |
that money, because the individuals will have to put up the money | :06:53. | :07:00. | |
themselves. You can keep that money and determine if you give it to | :07:01. | :07:03. | |
Labour to fight the election campaign, correct? Incorrect. | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
Firstly, the affiliation fees are paid from what is called the | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
political fund, which most unions have to set up in order to | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
participate. The union will continue to pay the ?3 a affiliation fee for | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
those members who want the union to be affiliated. But you get to keep a | :07:24. | :07:32. | |
lot more money. In reality, we will see a transitional period of a few | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
years. Less people will probably say yes, depending on how popular Labour | :07:38. | :07:44. | |
are, about whether they want the union to give money to the Labour | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
Party. The GMB has already done this. By the way, don't call me | :07:49. | :08:03. | |
kneel. It is Andrew or Mr Neil. The unions will have a bigger chunk of | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
money because the unions will not be handing over all of the money at one | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
time. But you could still play a major part in funding the Labour | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
election campaign. We'll how much you give the dependent on what the | :08:15. | :08:20. | |
Labour Party puts in its manifesto? Of course it will. It will have to | :08:21. | :08:28. | |
justify our support to Labour for the members who provide money to the | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
political fund. If we did not argue for the cert is social justice | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
campaigns and laws we want to see, we would be failing in our job. I | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
don't intend to hide that from anybody. The unions are there to | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
fight for their members. That is our job. So you will still be a major | :08:46. | :08:52. | |
part of the bankroll of the Labour campaign. You will still have 5 % of | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
the votes at a Labour conference, and you will still have a major part | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
in the Labour National executive committee and the policy committee. | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
It is right to say the unions are still at the heart of Labour, are | :09:05. | :09:14. | |
they not? Well, if you sick to break the affiliated link between trade | :09:15. | :09:16. | |
unions and the Labour Party, the whole thing collapses. That is what | :09:17. | :09:22. | |
anchors the Labour Party as far as we are concerned. Many of our | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
members think that when they want to look for ferrochrome and rights | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
social justice, housing and the health service, Labour are better it | :09:32. | :09:33. | |
quipped to deliver that for working people than the current parties | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
That is why we have traditionally supported them. But not at all of | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
our members support Labour, which is why we don't affiliate all of them | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
to Labour. There are over 30 million people in the British labour force | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
now. Union membership is only 6 5 million out of that 30. A 6.5% of | :09:54. | :10:04. | |
that do not vote Labour, they vote Tory or liberal or nationalist in | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
Scotland. So you are a relatively small pressure group. Why should | :10:11. | :10:17. | |
Labour be in thrall to you? We are the biggest voluntary organisation | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
in this country. Sorry about that, but that is the fact. People make | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
conscious choices. My own union the GMB, has been growing for eight | :10:28. | :10:30. | |
years. So this dying picture you are trying to paint... In terms of | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
accounting for the fact that some do not support Labour, that is why | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
unions do not affiliate all of their members to the Labour Party. We have | :10:41. | :10:48. | |
adjusted to that. If you don't like being called Neil, I don't like | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
being called a barren either. What about Mr Baron? I don't like that | :10:53. | :11:00. | |
either. We are representatives of working organisations. It may be | :11:01. | :11:02. | |
inconvenient for politicians to have to listen to working people, but we | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
will continue to press. Lord Baron, thank you very much. | :11:08. | :11:15. | |
So, is this a Clause 4 moment for Ed Miliband? Not really, but to his | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
credit, he is going ahead with this. There was a point at which it looked | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
as though Ed Miliband would back away from reform. To his credit he | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
is trying to create a mass membership party again. But when it | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
comes to the crucial business of funding a general election campaign, | :11:34. | :11:35. | |
these reforms will make Labour more reliant on large donations from | :11:36. | :11:42. | |
trade unions. They could have more power now, because they get to hold | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
back this money, whereas beforehand, they had to hand it over | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
automatically. As Mr Kenny just said, how much they handover will be | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
dependent on good behaviour. Yes, but these are pragmatic reforms The | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
fact that Ed Miliband has a lot of capital in not being seen as a | :12:04. | :12:06. | |
Blairite has helped him get these through . The response has been | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
muted, which suggests good party management on his behalf. That may | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
be because they will still have 50% of the votes at a party conference. | :12:16. | :12:18. | |
Mr Kenny was clear that that could be deal-breaker if they tried to | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
take that away. They have more places at the NEC than anyone else, | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
and party members, if only 10% of them signed up, they will outweigh | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
individual members in the constituencies. It was interesting, | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
how relaxed Paul Kenny was. He was taking thousands of pounds from the | :12:39. | :12:41. | |
Labour Party a few months ago because he was annoyed about these | :12:42. | :12:44. | |
reforms, and now he is relaxed because they still have 50% of the | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
vote at Labour Party conference and Labour Party Parliamentary | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
candidates are still selected in the same way. But there is a simple | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
point here. Yes, you can pick apart what Ed Miliband said and said the | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
unions have too much influence, but the only way he could have gone all | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
the way was to break the link with the trade unions, and he was not | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
going to do that. It was not the Labour Party that founded the | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
unions, it was the unions that founded the Labour Party. Even Tony | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
Blair did not break the link. In that context, Ed Miliband has gone | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
incredibly far. For the last 50 years, this opting into the union, | :13:25. | :13:28. | |
you have to turn to page 50 of your union terms and conditions to say, | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
do you want to opt out of the political levy 's that is going to | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
go, which will mean that when the next Labour leader is elected from | :13:37. | :13:43. | |
the union votes, they will get their ballot from the Labour Party and you | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
will append the fast where ballots went out from Unison macro and GMB | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
with a picture of Ed Miliband on the front of the ballot paper saying, | :13:52. | :13:57. | |
vote for aid. They were Stasi and Saddam Hussein ways of trade union | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
members electing the Labour leader, which will go. I am sorry his | :14:02. | :14:06. | |
Lordship is not still here to answer that question. | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
HMS Coalition is not a happy ship. The lovey-dovey days in the rose | :14:11. | :14:14. | |
garden are long gone. It is not a loveless marriage, perhaps even an | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
open one. The latest split is over the decision by Education Secretary | :14:18. | :14:20. | |
Michael Gove to replace Labour peer Sally Morgan as head of the schools | :14:21. | :14:23. | |
inspectorate, Ofsted. Mr Gove's deputy, Lib Dem David Laws, is said | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
to be spitting blood about her removal, although only through | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
surrogates. He has not said a word on the record. Here was the | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
Education Secretary a little earlier. If there is another | :14:37. | :14:47. | |
opportunity for Sally to serve in a different role at a different time, | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
then I would be delighted to support her in the role which she thinks it | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
is appropriate to do. There is nothing wrong with Sally but there | :14:57. | :14:59. | |
is a principle across government that there should be no automatic | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
reappointment, and that after three or four years, it is appropriate to | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
bring in a fresh pair of eyes. That is good corporate practice in order | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
to ensure that you refresh boards, bring a new perspective, and have | :15:15. | :15:22. | |
tough questions asked. We're joined now by the newly elected deputy | :15:23. | :15:25. | |
leader of the Liberal Democrats Malcolm Bruce. He's in Aberdeen | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
Welcome to the Sunday Politics. David Laws is said to be furious | :15:30. | :15:36. | |
with Michael Gove, is he? I think he is because Sally Morgan has been | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
doing a good job and that has been generally agreed across the whole | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
spectrum. I think Ofsted is an impartial body that inspects all | :15:46. | :15:48. | |
schools and it shouldn't be subject to some kind of political direction. | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
That is the concern, that she is being removed when she was doing a | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
good job and most people thought she should be reappointed. It is | :15:59. | :16:02. | |
strongly rumoured her successor will be a high-ranking Tory backer. Why | :16:03. | :16:15. | |
hasn't David Laws said this himself, have you spoken to him? I have, and | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
I know he is not very pleased about it but he will want to speak to | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
Michael Gove himself when he gets to see him on Monday. The question you | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
have to take on board is that David Laws is the schools minister, | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
effectively the one who has engagement with Ofsted, and he is | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
seeing it being undermined by the Secretary of State. There is a | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
question that if Michael Gove is so pleased with Sally Morgan why is he | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
replacing her, and who will he be replacing her with, and on what | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
basis? Maybe parliament should have a confirmation hearing so that we | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
can be assured that whoever is put in charge is there because they are | :16:59. | :17:07. | |
good at it. Why has he licensed his surrogates to save this rather than | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
saying it himself? He didn't, he knew I was on the programme this | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
morning so I am giving you the answers as best I can. David is | :17:18. | :17:25. | |
perfectly capable of speaking for himself. He hasn't so far. You asked | :17:26. | :17:31. | |
me to come on this programme and David was anxious for me to know he | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
wasn't happy about it, and I can certainly tell you that. I can also | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
give you my own opinion which is that Ofsted is not the Department | :17:42. | :17:44. | |
for Education, it is an independent body. The question you have to ask | :17:45. | :17:52. | |
is will Michael Gove but someone in charge of Ofsted who will have a | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
political agenda? If so, that is not what Ofsted should be used for. | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
Let's move on to your own position. You are 69, white male, | :18:04. | :18:15. | |
middle-class, what is your answer to the party with diversity problems? I | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
don't think that is what they voted on. They felt I had a wealth of | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
experience that would be vulnerable to the party from the period now | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
until the election, not least because the central issues that will | :18:29. | :18:31. | |
concern voters are the economy, and I have a track record of promoting | :18:32. | :18:38. | |
the party's economic policy over many years. But you are not even | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
standing at the next election. No, but we need to get to the next | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
election and my colleagues have confidence that I can do a useful | :18:49. | :19:00. | |
job for the party in that situation. We have developed and delivered | :19:01. | :19:03. | |
policies that I have helped to shape and I want to persuade people to | :19:04. | :19:05. | |
understand the Liberal Democrats have made a fundamental difference | :19:06. | :19:08. | |
to the economic recovery. But you know what has been happening with | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
the Liberal Democrats and their problems with women. Wasn't this a | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
chance to select a woman in a major part? You only have seven female MPs | :19:18. | :19:24. | |
out of 57, not a single Lib Dem woman in the Parliament. Again, why | :19:25. | :19:32. | |
you rather than making a break and bringing someone in onto major | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
positions? My colleagues have concluded that the role I am best | :19:38. | :19:44. | |
qualified to do it, that is why they voted for me. We do only have seven | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
women and that is an issue we need to address. Two of those women are | :19:51. | :20:01. | |
ministers, one is a government whip. We seem to have lost our line to | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
Aberdeen, just as Malcolm Bruce was in full flight defending his | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
position. I'm not sure if we can get the line back, just bear with me for | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
a few seconds to see if we can get it. It looks as if we have lost | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
Malcolm Bruce, I do apologise to Malcolm Bruce and the viewers that | :20:24. | :20:27. | |
we were not able to continue that interview. | :20:28. | :20:35. | |
Fierce winds, torrential rain and a tidal surge have brought more misery | :20:36. | :20:38. | |
to thousands. Official records show that southern England has seen the | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
wettest January since records began in 1767. I remember it well. The | :20:42. | :20:44. | |
Somerset Levels have been hit by weeks of flooding, with little | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
respite from relentless rain. And, the residents of one village on the | :20:50. | :20:52. | |
Levels, Muchelney, has been cut off for almost a month. We sent our Adam | :20:53. | :20:59. | |
out with his wellies and a properly filled out risk assessment form The | :21:00. | :21:18. | |
very wet road to Muchelney. This village of about 100 residents has | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
been cut off for about four weeks, and like the weather vane, it feels | :21:22. | :21:29. | |
a little bit spooky. It came up to here and your front door was there. | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
Anita is just relieved the water stopped here, practically on her | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
doorstep. Now it is the practicalities that are the problem. | :21:40. | :21:46. | |
Driving around for food is quite a hassle. You are foraging. It's not | :21:47. | :21:53. | |
as bad as that but we do have a few bits in the vegetable garden still, | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
and we had some nice apples until the rats ate them but we are not | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
doing too badly on that score. It sounds like the medieval! That's | :22:03. | :22:11. | |
what it feels like. Talking of retro, who knew Somerset still had a | :22:12. | :22:19. | |
Coleman, this is Brian's first delivery since Christmas. Everything | :22:20. | :22:25. | |
has gone old-fashioned. We are now talking to neighbours we might never | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
have seen before or spoken to so we are getting to know more people in | :22:30. | :22:35. | |
the village. She's right, there has been an outbreak of Dunkirk spirit, | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
quite literally. The council and the Fire Brigade have put on this boat | :22:40. | :22:46. | |
service to get people to work and school. The church has become an | :22:47. | :22:55. | |
unofficial flood HQ. This is where people pick up their mail, and this | :22:56. | :23:01. | |
is where the people who run the boat stopped for their tea breaks. It all | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
seems quite jolly, if a bit boring, but it is no fun for the homes and | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
businesses that have been inundated, or for the farmers whose land is | :23:13. | :23:18. | |
underwater, an area the size of Bristol, or for the villages which | :23:19. | :23:21. | |
are less isolated but where the flooding is worse. People like the | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
parish chairman are starting to get angry with how the Government has | :23:27. | :23:32. | |
responded. It was all a bit late. We knew what was going to happen with | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
the amount of rain on the fields and the Government was so slow to | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
react. The county council got the boat going quickly but it was | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
another four weeks nearly before the button was pressed for the major | :23:47. | :23:52. | |
incident. Right on cue, the cavalry arrived in the shape of emergency | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
crews from other parts of the UK. The rumour is that they will bring | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
in a hovercraft but the bad news is that the weather is becoming more | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
grim this weekend. There has been a surge in bookings at the campsite | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
where people have seen the Somerset Levels on holiday and would like to | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
come on holiday, if it ever stops raining. I'm delighted to say we | :24:17. | :24:25. | |
have got the line back to Aberdeen, somebody has put a shilling in the | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
meter. We can go back to Malcolm Bruce. We were talking about the Lib | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
Dem women and your election, I suppose the point some people are | :24:35. | :24:40. | |
making is that your party has as many knights in Parliament as it has | :24:41. | :24:48. | |
women and you are one of them. The good news is that for the five MPs | :24:49. | :24:55. | |
who are standing down, who have had candidates elected in their | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
constituencies so far, all five candidates that have been selected | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
are women. We need to fight hard to get behind those women and get them | :25:06. | :25:08. | |
elected so that we have a much better balanced parliament in the | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
future, but given that we have few women, you really have to pick | :25:14. | :25:16. | |
people appropriate for the job and we have appointed the women as I | :25:17. | :25:34. | |
have said but we need our image to be balanced. How many women | :25:35. | :25:41. | |
candidates will there be come the next election? At the moment, 1 , | :25:42. | :25:48. | |
five more than we have now, and we haven't finished selection. Where | :25:49. | :25:51. | |
there are men sitting and standing again, that is not likely to change, | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
but where they are standing down we are overwhelmingly choosing women, | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
and in my view good and very able women. What I would want to say to | :26:02. | :26:08. | |
people is that if you want to see the Lib Dems have more women, go to | :26:09. | :26:16. | |
those seats and help us hold them. We are told that only 20% of the 57 | :26:17. | :26:23. | |
seats have female candidates and in the unlikely event that you were | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
able to hold onto them all, it still wouldn't be a sea change to have | :26:29. | :26:34. | |
20%. The point is you have to build them up. We are supporting female | :26:35. | :26:41. | |
candidates. These are really good candidates who will make first-class | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
MPs and I certainly believe you will gradually see the Liberal Democrats | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
taking them on. We don't have 3 0 seats that we currently hold like | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
other parties, but what I can tell you is that increasing -- | :26:56. | :27:02. | |
increasingly we will have female candidates. One newspaper has said | :27:03. | :27:08. | |
that you will deal with the Chris Rennard fallout quickly and | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
privately, what does that mean? It means I will not be telling you | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
because these things are not helped by comments on the airwaves. I hope | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
it will be possible to have a resolution without people going to | :27:23. | :27:26. | |
court but I don't think it helps anybody for me to comment on any | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
aspect of how this will be done and I'm not prepared to do so. If you | :27:31. | :27:36. | |
are not in full possession of the facts, why did you say you will deal | :27:37. | :27:44. | |
with this privately? I have come into this halfway through, I don't | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
have full possession of the facts, I doubt you do, and we have a process | :27:49. | :27:56. | |
that needs to be followed through. Any comments in public do not help. | :27:57. | :28:02. | |
Isn't it hypocrisy of a high order to hear from a party that is | :28:03. | :28:09. | |
constantly calling for transparency in other institutions but when it | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
comes to your own, you say, I am not going to talk about it. There are | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
all sorts of disputes that happen in the world and often people don't | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
talk about them because talking about them aggravates the | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
situation. I believe you have to deal with them privately and I don't | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
think trial by media in this context is helpful and I don't believe that | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
those who choose to make those comments are making it easier to | :28:36. | :28:41. | |
solve them. There are problems in other walks of life and the Liberal | :28:42. | :28:44. | |
Democrats are not the only ones with these problems. We are trying to | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
change that culture and I think we will do it effectively in our own | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
way. We have a pastoral care officer now and I think that is the right | :28:55. | :29:05. | |
way to do it. Thank you for that. Let's now go back to the story of | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
the flooding in Somerset. We are joined by the leader of the Green | :29:10. | :29:17. | |
party, Natalie Bennett in Millbank. Natalie Bennett, don't the Green | :29:18. | :29:22. | |
party bears some responsibility for these floods? You have sided with | :29:23. | :29:30. | |
the Environment Agency in the decision not to dredge rivers and | :29:31. | :29:35. | |
that is one of the reason why these places have been flooded. Firstly I | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
want to give my sympathy to everyone dealing with these floods. The | :29:40. | :29:46. | |
homeowners, the farmers seeing sodden fields for weeks and weeks. | :29:47. | :29:55. | |
We get that, we all have huge sympathy, particularly because so | :29:56. | :29:58. | |
little seems to be done to help them. What is the answer to my | :29:59. | :30:03. | |
question? I think there is strong evidence that dredging is not the | :30:04. | :30:09. | |
answer. If you think about the flow of the river, where the pinch points | :30:10. | :30:15. | |
are is things like bridges, weirs and towns. If you dredge the river | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
in between those barriers, you just make the water faster to those | :30:21. | :30:24. | |
points. The experts are saying that dredging is not the answer, it may | :30:25. | :30:29. | |
be in particular cases, but you have to look at each river system on its | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
own merits and very often the best way of dealing with this is working | :30:34. | :30:37. | |
out ways to slow the watered down and make sure that people don't | :30:38. | :30:40. | |
suffer unduly while you are doing that. The west of England | :30:41. | :30:49. | |
agricultural Society, which I would venture knows more about the | :30:50. | :30:52. | |
Somerset Levels than either of us, has said that without dredging, this | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
was a disaster waiting to happen. The local drainage boards have been | :30:58. | :31:00. | |
calling for years for dredging to be resumed. The National Farmers' Union | :31:01. | :31:06. | |
has called for it, and the chairman of the West Sussex flood defences | :31:07. | :31:10. | |
has called for more drainage, and he is a drainage engineer by | :31:11. | :31:12. | |
profession. So I don't know where your experts are, but the experts on | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
the ground am not the urban ones in London, seem to think this has not | :31:18. | :31:24. | |
been caused, but made worse by the failure of the Environment Agency to | :31:25. | :31:29. | |
continue to dredge. If you look at the example of the planning and | :31:30. | :31:32. | |
climate change coalition, which is led by the town and country planning | :31:33. | :31:37. | |
Association, who you would not describe as a group of radical | :31:38. | :31:40. | |
greens, these people have said we have to look at how we deal with | :31:41. | :31:45. | |
flooding in the future. But not in Somerset. These are the people | :31:46. | :31:48. | |
currently being flooded, not somebody sitting in a quango office | :31:49. | :31:52. | |
in London. They have asked for this to happen and it hasn't, and they | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
are now flooded in definitely. We have to look at what is happening on | :31:58. | :32:02. | |
a case-by-case basis. If you look at Germany, there are many cases there | :32:03. | :32:06. | |
were, to deal with flooding, many farmers are paid to hold water on | :32:07. | :32:10. | |
their land. Maybe we need to introduce those systems, because we | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
have to protect farmland, but we also have to protect urban areas for | :32:15. | :32:20. | |
safety. We saw a horrible flood in Wales were lines were endangered -- | :32:21. | :32:28. | |
where lives were endangered. That is the priority, to protect lives, | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
property and farmland. Lives are endangered at the moment, | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
particularly as this stagnant water turns toxic. And yet we are in a | :32:38. | :32:43. | |
situation, again encouraged by the Greens and the lobbying Environment | :32:44. | :32:45. | |
Agency, it says it does not want to dredge because dredging is | :32:46. | :32:48. | |
expensive, yet it spends millions on a bird sanctuary. That is getting | :32:49. | :32:54. | |
everything totally wrong. The government is getting everything one | :32:55. | :32:59. | |
by cutting on flood defences. It has not cut on a bird sanctuaries. I | :33:00. | :33:06. | |
don't know the details of that. But looking at the broader issue, we | :33:07. | :33:14. | |
have to prepare for climate change. The government has slashed funding | :33:15. | :33:17. | |
to the Environment Agency and has cut back on the number of staff | :33:18. | :33:22. | |
available to deal with it and has removed the requirement on local | :33:23. | :33:24. | |
councils to plan for climate change. These are all gambling the future of | :33:25. | :33:31. | |
our lives and property and the future of our environment. Hasn t | :33:32. | :33:34. | |
the high watermark of greenery now gone well past? You don't come out | :33:35. | :33:40. | |
of the Somerset Levels with any great reputation. The UK government | :33:41. | :33:43. | |
is now going to start fracking as quickly as it can. Brussels is | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
loosening the CO2 obligations for 2030. The President of America is | :33:49. | :33:54. | |
about to give the go-ahead to the keystone pipeline, a totemic issue | :33:55. | :33:59. | |
for American greens, and your party is in a state of civil war in | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
Brighton. It is over, isn't it? Absolutely not. We are seeing large | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
amounts of extreme weather around the world. Any one event is whether, | :34:09. | :34:16. | |
but we are seeing a lot of it and people are recognising that climate | :34:17. | :34:19. | |
change is happening. If we are going to quote international experts, I | :34:20. | :34:23. | |
can quote to you Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, not known as a | :34:24. | :34:27. | |
radical green, and he said after the IPCC report came out that the heat | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
is on and we must act. If you go to Christine Lagarde, head of the | :34:33. | :34:34. | |
International Monetary Fund, again not a radical green, she was asked | :34:35. | :34:38. | |
what kept her awake at night, and she said, we are not doing enough | :34:39. | :34:43. | |
about climate change. So actually, people around the world are looking | :34:44. | :34:46. | |
at what is happening around them are both people on the ground and people | :34:47. | :34:50. | |
in high positions are saying we have to act on climate change. And in the | :34:51. | :34:55. | |
case of Britain, that should absolutely not mean fracking. Sorry | :34:56. | :35:01. | |
to interrupt, but I have evidence that you are planning a little | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
career change. Don't go away. This is what happens when you let Nigel | :35:06. | :35:09. | |
Farage present the weather. One thing leads to another and low and | :35:10. | :35:13. | |
behold, the Sunday Politics now has a new traffic and travel reporter. | :35:14. | :35:18. | |
Let's go back to Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett. Thanks, Andrew It | :35:19. | :35:24. | |
is easy out that, so let's start with our airports. I am pleased to | :35:25. | :35:29. | |
say that Heathrow's third runway, Boris Island and all short-haul | :35:30. | :35:35. | |
flights are, just like our arguments, well grounded. We suggest | :35:36. | :35:40. | |
making or alternative arrangements, like a re-nationalised rail | :35:41. | :35:47. | |
network, although it would be a glaring omission if we did not admit | :35:48. | :35:51. | |
that that plan is currently being delayed by Labour Party foot | :35:52. | :35:54. | |
dragging. Speaking of trains, we are hearing that high-speed two may well | :35:55. | :36:00. | |
be derailing, or at least getting bogged down in political fog. One | :36:01. | :36:05. | |
viewer, Ed Balls, has texted in to say he is completely lost. Thanks | :36:06. | :36:12. | |
for the update, Ed. You are not alone among political commuters | :36:13. | :36:16. | |
Meanwhile, dumped UKIP manifestoes are causing major tailbacks across | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
the South, apparently stretching all the way to Brussels. This does make | :36:22. | :36:27. | |
driving road tricky, but UKIP's MEPs can, of course, just hop on their | :36:28. | :36:37. | |
gravy train. The tree had a roundabout is blocked after reports | :36:38. | :36:41. | |
of a political earthquake. It seems that a green unwound his beard to | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
block a dodgy gas extractor. A motorist who turned out to be the | :36:47. | :36:49. | |
environment minister object into the delay and was told to frack off as | :36:50. | :36:55. | |
furious badgers demanded that he stopped moving the goalposts. | :36:56. | :37:02. | |
Unregulated traffic in the city of London continues unchecked. | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
Pedestrians should try to block bankers with sacks of loot rushing | :37:08. | :37:11. | |
for the payments. But do beware the Lib Dem Exodus that is clogging up | :37:12. | :37:18. | |
the motorways. Although they are in a jam, or is it a fudge, we are | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
happy to make way for them, as, like all refugees, we say they are | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
welcome here in muesli green. That is the travel. Back to you, Andrew. | :37:29. | :37:35. | |
Natalie, I think you make my point. You are now preparing a new career | :37:36. | :37:41. | |
in traffic and travel. Well, I do believe in lifelong education and | :37:42. | :37:44. | |
that was an example of it. We know you have had a tough time today to | :37:45. | :37:49. | |
get to our studio. Thank you for the effort. | :37:50. | :37:56. | |
You are watching the Sunday Politics. Coming up in just over 20 | :37:57. | :37:58. | |
minutes, we will have Hello and welcome to the part of the | :37:59. | :37:59. | |
changing the face Hello and welcome to the part of the | :38:00. | :38:15. | |
programme just for us here in the East. I'm Etholle George. | :38:16. | :38:21. | |
Coming up: Setting their budgets. The huge savings our local | :38:22. | :38:23. | |
authorities need to make, which could change how our councils work | :38:24. | :38:30. | |
completely. It is a massive contribution. It is 40% of our | :38:31. | :38:35. | |
budget. And we put Labour in the spotlight | :38:36. | :38:39. | |
as problems surface over party democracy in Luton. In parts of the | :38:40. | :38:45. | |
local party local democracy has stopped working. | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
Let's begin by meeting our guests for this week, Andrea Leadsom, the | :38:50. | :38:52. | |
Conservative MP for South Northamptonshire and Bob Blizzard, | :38:53. | :38:55. | |
the former Labour MP and now the party's parliamentary candidate, for | :38:56. | :38:57. | |
Waveney. I wanted to start with the flooding. | :38:58. | :39:04. | |
After another wet week there's no sign of flood warnings receding any | :39:05. | :39:08. | |
time soon. This week council leaders went to | :39:09. | :39:11. | |
London to lobby the Floods Minister for more money to help cover the | :39:12. | :39:15. | |
cost of the clear up operation. Several councils in Norfolk and | :39:16. | :39:18. | |
Suffolk say they are seriously out of pocket. This is money that we | :39:19. | :39:25. | |
have not budgeted for. We have financial restraints. We would | :39:26. | :39:30. | |
welcome any funding the Government is able to give us. Local Government | :39:31. | :39:37. | |
minister said an extra ?6.7 million is available at councils will have | :39:38. | :39:44. | |
to bid for it. Is there enough money to cover the | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
cost of the damage? David Cameron is always going on about his economic | :39:50. | :39:53. | |
plan. Part of that plan has been to cut the budget for flood defence in | :39:54. | :39:57. | |
our region every single year he has been in office. Andrea Leadsom, in | :39:58. | :40:05. | |
Northamptonshire the flood defences have held up so far, but it is a | :40:06. | :40:11. | |
densely populated area. You benefit more from funding. We have had | :40:12. | :40:18. | |
enormous problems over recent years. The huge issue is the amount of | :40:19. | :40:25. | |
planning requests for holding on the flood plains. Northamptonshire has | :40:26. | :40:32. | |
awful problems with flooding. There was a death in Northampton in the | :40:33. | :40:38. | |
late 1980s. We have got a number of houses that regularly flood that are | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
quite recently built. Planning and making sure that you do not build on | :40:44. | :40:50. | |
flood plains is vital. Now, at this time of year our councils have to | :40:51. | :40:53. | |
set their budgets. Since 2010 council funding has been plunging. | :40:54. | :40:56. | |
They've lost 40 per cent of their Government grants. | :40:57. | :41:39. | |
?1.2 billion worth of savings needs to be made over the next five | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
years. So what will that mean for the | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
services they provide ` for our schools, our libraries, our roads? | :41:48. | :41:49. | |
Local Government is transforming, through outsourcing, sharing | :41:50. | :41:52. | |
backroom staff and money making schemes. Cambridgeshire is going | :41:53. | :41:55. | |
into property development, Peterborough is pinning hopes on | :41:56. | :41:58. | |
solar farms and as Deborah McGurran found out,.Northamptonshire is going | :41:59. | :42:00. | |
into partnership with utility companies. It is really | :42:01. | :42:13. | |
challenging. We want to play our part in balancing the national | :42:14. | :42:22. | |
budget. We have got to save this year another ?34 million. That is | :42:23. | :42:30. | |
part of ?147 million we had to see over the next four years. A dozen | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
top of the ?177 million that we have already saved. # wrote that is on | :42:37. | :42:45. | |
top of the 177 million pounds. We are looking with this gas at the | :42:46. | :42:53. | |
smart meter broke. `` smart meter approach. If somebody always gets up | :42:54. | :43:02. | |
at the same time such as the kettle on and it goes on day after day and | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
then suddenly does not go on at the same time we can now that. We can | :43:07. | :43:16. | |
send people to make sure it is OK. How do you see the balance between | :43:17. | :43:21. | |
Vermont funding and local funding in the future? I do not think we will | :43:22. | :43:32. | |
see a shift. It would not be likely that central Government having got | :43:33. | :43:38. | |
its grip on strategic decisions would want to relax that grip. The | :43:39. | :43:45. | |
shift is already showing between central funding and local funding. | :43:46. | :43:54. | |
Local funding through the local council tax for the last three years | :43:55. | :43:57. | |
we have had as usual base. This year there will be a slight increase. It | :43:58. | :44:07. | |
will not be in our base budget for future years. We need that security | :44:08. | :44:14. | |
to provide the additional services. You are not in agreement with Mr | :44:15. | :44:21. | |
pickles? We are. We do not know what he is going to do. He is threatening | :44:22. | :44:35. | |
us with the lowering the 2% ceiling. I think he has done a good job. You | :44:36. | :44:42. | |
are happy to put up with him for the time being. He is very welcome to | :44:43. | :44:57. | |
come to Northamptonshire. Well, we met up with Mr Pickles in | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
Great Yarmouth and asked him whether councils can cope with the planned | :45:02. | :45:07. | |
savings in the East. People have said that from the beginning and | :45:08. | :45:12. | |
they have been proved wrong time and again. He had made the savings. | :45:13. | :45:21. | |
Balances have increased by slightly over ?2 billion. My view is that | :45:22. | :45:32. | |
what councils have got to do now is sheer services, officers. They | :45:33. | :45:45. | |
should cut down on fraud. There is still plenty of opportunities for | :45:46. | :45:49. | |
them to improve the service without going back to the council tax there. | :45:50. | :46:01. | |
But they are free to do so. Hilary Benn is joining us from | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
Leeds. You said that front line services | :46:07. | :46:09. | |
would be hit by these cuts in funding but they haven't. Councils | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
have protected them. You were wrong. Councils have worked hard to protect | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
front line services. I pay tribute to what they have done very | :46:19. | :46:27. | |
different circumstances. The way that Government is cutting funding | :46:28. | :46:29. | |
to local authorities is profoundly unfair. The 25 most deprived local | :46:30. | :46:37. | |
authorities in England are facing a reduction in their spending power | :46:38. | :46:41. | |
ten times greater than the 25 lease deprived. If your databases like | :46:42. | :46:47. | |
great Yarmouth and Peterborough they are facing reductions in funding | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
that are greater than other councils. There are some in the | :46:52. | :46:56. | |
country that are having in pieces. David Cameron's own council is | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
getting a rise in funding. That cannot be fair. Councils have been | :47:01. | :47:08. | |
losing staff where they can by voluntary means. Trying to reduce | :47:09. | :47:13. | |
back office costs. At the pressure is rising. There is a growing | :47:14. | :47:18. | |
elderly population. These cats will continue. It will be harder in the | :47:19. | :47:24. | |
year to come to protect front line services. | :47:25. | :47:28. | |
Would Labour continue to tighten the finances or loosen them and give | :47:29. | :47:36. | |
more money back to councils? We will stick with the spending plans that | :47:37. | :47:40. | |
we inherit if we win the election in 2015. But the one pledge I made is | :47:41. | :47:45. | |
that I will look at the formula because the money is being allocated | :47:46. | :47:52. | |
in an unfair way at the moment. We need a fairer distribution of | :47:53. | :47:59. | |
resources. We have got to address this funding crisis that local | :48:00. | :48:10. | |
authorities base. Would you loosen the grip? We would. We would bring | :48:11. | :48:28. | |
together the people dealing with an issue. That produces results. The | :48:29. | :48:36. | |
work programme is not successful in finding employment. We need a | :48:37. | :48:42. | |
fundamental change both because of the funding crisis and because I | :48:43. | :48:50. | |
want local communities and local authorities to do more things for | :48:51. | :48:53. | |
themselves in the months and years ahead. What do you say to the comics | :48:54. | :49:11. | |
that it is unfair? `` to the statement that it is unfair. What | :49:12. | :49:22. | |
councils have done is get creative. They get different levels of the | :49:23. | :49:24. | |
funding so they have to get creative in different ways. In the past there | :49:25. | :49:33. | |
has been enormous amounts of money sunk into those councils that have | :49:34. | :49:40. | |
been Labour run councils. If there have been changes in the funding it | :49:41. | :49:43. | |
is to make it fairer, not to make it unfair. The fact that there may have | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
been greater cats suffered in certain areas has been to make it | :49:50. | :49:53. | |
fairer for everybody. I would dispute the basis of his point. | :49:54. | :50:03. | |
Earlier we heard it said that this was an opportunity for titles. Some | :50:04. | :50:13. | |
councils are still wasting money. One council is spending 40 million | :50:14. | :50:17. | |
on new offices and 5 million on a footbridge that the public do not | :50:18. | :50:22. | |
want. But my main concern is the impact on social services | :50:23. | :50:25. | |
departments, in particular care of the elderly. Older people are having | :50:26. | :50:32. | |
to go more and more to Accident and Emergency at the General Hospital | :50:33. | :50:34. | |
because they are not getting the care in the community. When they are | :50:35. | :50:37. | |
in the hospital but are having to stay longer in the expensive | :50:38. | :50:42. | |
hospital bed because there is nobody to look after them in the community. | :50:43. | :50:46. | |
That is having an impact on the entire NHS. That is part of David | :50:47. | :50:56. | |
Cameron's economic plan failure. What about outsourcing? We have | :50:57. | :51:06. | |
heard of contracts going wrong. In South Northants district council | :51:07. | :51:11. | |
they are shaving leadership with another council. `` shaving | :51:12. | :51:17. | |
leadership. They are reaching out to other councils to share overheads. | :51:18. | :51:24. | |
When you are pushed to do more with less it is amazing how successful | :51:25. | :51:31. | |
you can be. The Mayor of Liverpool was saying that in Liverpool their | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
municipal golf courses were costing them half ?1 million per year in | :51:37. | :51:41. | |
subsidy. Now that they are in the private sector they are making a | :51:42. | :51:46. | |
profit of ?200,000 per year. Is this the end of local Government as we | :51:47. | :51:50. | |
know it? Local Government seems to be doing less and less. I can | :51:51. | :51:57. | |
understand that you always try and get best value and in some cases | :51:58. | :52:01. | |
save money. That there is a problem to do with responsibility. Sometimes | :52:02. | :52:07. | |
you complain at the council says it is the thing to do with them, it is | :52:08. | :52:11. | |
the people who are contracted. It is harder to get something fixed. How | :52:12. | :52:17. | |
can councils really shape their communities and take them forward if | :52:18. | :52:21. | |
all they are is minimalist providers of services? That is a classic | :52:22. | :52:28. | |
statist approach. Why did councils have two read their communities? | :52:29. | :52:44. | |
Communities lead their communities. We've spent the last few weeks | :52:45. | :52:47. | |
talking about problems within some of the Conservative associations in | :52:48. | :52:50. | |
our region. Now we've learnt that there are serious concerns about the | :52:51. | :52:53. | |
Labour party in Luton South. It follows a number of complaints that | :52:54. | :52:57. | |
a small group of people are signing up dozens of new members with a view | :52:58. | :53:00. | |
to influencing the outcome of internal elections. It's called | :53:01. | :53:03. | |
membership packing. There have been claims of bullying, a councillor has | :53:04. | :53:06. | |
resigned and the local MP has told us that in parts of his constituency | :53:07. | :53:09. | |
democracy no longer exists. Here's Andrew Sinclair. | :53:10. | :53:12. | |
Ed Miliband in Luton just a couple of months ago. This is the town that | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
has kept the Labour flame alive in the Eastern region. An example of | :53:17. | :53:19. | |
good party organisation to inspire others. But behind the smiles | :53:20. | :53:22. | |
there's resentment and a lot of infighting. In parts of my local | :53:23. | :53:30. | |
party local democracy has stopped working. | :53:31. | :53:33. | |
Here in Luton south 340 new people have joined the party since the last | :53:34. | :53:37. | |
election but are they all legitimate members? I find it irregular that an | :53:38. | :53:44. | |
entire household would become Labour supporters. | :53:45. | :54:04. | |
Yaqub Hanif, a Luton councillor, is one of several people who's told us | :54:05. | :54:07. | |
that membership packing is widespread. Do they even know that | :54:08. | :54:16. | |
they be long to the Labour Party? In some parts of my constituency the | :54:17. | :54:24. | |
person who gets selected is not the best person, it is whoever has | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
signed in members. We've seen internal party documents | :54:30. | :54:32. | |
that show that in four of the seven wards in Luton south membership has | :54:33. | :54:36. | |
increased by an average of 119 per cent over the last three years. But | :54:37. | :54:39. | |
in Farley and Caddington ward it's up by 179 per cent, in Biscott ward | :54:40. | :54:44. | |
by 314 per cent while in Dallow it's gone up by 400 per cent. | :54:45. | :54:47. | |
We've also seen a letter from the party chairman which notes that here | :54:48. | :54:51. | |
in Biscott wards 70 per cent of new members were recruited by the same | :54:52. | :55:03. | |
two people. Nobody has done anything to deal with the issue. The issue | :55:04. | :55:13. | |
has been flagged up many times. Recently it has become more apparent | :55:14. | :55:20. | |
how this is working against long term decent young men and women who | :55:21. | :55:29. | |
want to be candidate and fight on behalf of the Labour Party. | :55:30. | :55:37. | |
Last week a long standing councillor Robin Harris resigned accusing his | :55:38. | :55:39. | |
colleagues of using underhand tactics and bullying. He didn't want | :55:40. | :55:43. | |
to be interviewed but he told us he believed the process for choosing | :55:44. | :55:46. | |
candidates was being manipulated. None of the people who're allegedly | :55:47. | :55:49. | |
involved in membership packing returned our calls ` but they've | :55:50. | :55:52. | |
told friends that many of those complaining have failed to be | :55:53. | :55:56. | |
reselected and are just bad losers. But there is deep frustration among | :55:57. | :55:59. | |
many at the party's inability to deal with the problem. Despite the | :56:00. | :56:07. | |
efforts of a good constituency team and good people trying to challenge | :56:08. | :56:11. | |
this practice we have found ourselves in a position where the | :56:12. | :56:14. | |
rules do not allow us to deal with it as effectively as we might want | :56:15. | :56:27. | |
to. There is no formal investigation underway. But I understand that | :56:28. | :56:36. | |
officials in the regional party are closely watching Luton South. They | :56:37. | :56:40. | |
have adjusted the rules about who can vote in elections and I am told | :56:41. | :56:43. | |
they will take further action if they think it is necessary. If they | :56:44. | :56:49. | |
were real and remembers talking to the public, knocking on people 's | :56:50. | :56:56. | |
doors, engaging in political debate and driving forward the values of | :56:57. | :57:02. | |
the Labour Party, if that was happening, which does not, they | :57:03. | :57:08. | |
would not be a problem. The problem exists because people are not | :57:09. | :57:17. | |
joining for the right reasons. This isn't a scandal on the scale of | :57:18. | :57:20. | |
Falkirk. It's an internal party matter that at the moment doesn't | :57:21. | :57:23. | |
affect people outside the Labour party. But it's an issue which many | :57:24. | :57:27. | |
in the party want to see sorted out very soon. | :57:28. | :57:29. | |
Do the rules needs to be tightened up? We have got robust rules. I do | :57:30. | :57:36. | |
not see what more you can do. I do not know the details. This is the | :57:37. | :57:42. | |
first to have heard of anything like this? Yes. What I want to say is | :57:43. | :57:51. | |
that in all parties, when you have a hotly contested selection, rival | :57:52. | :57:56. | |
candidates will try and get their supporters along to a meeting to | :57:57. | :58:01. | |
vote for them. It has happened for years. The people who lose, | :58:02. | :58:04. | |
obviously they do not like losing, and they often complain about things | :58:05. | :58:08. | |
being and democratic. That is part of the hurly`burly of all attacks. | :58:09. | :58:18. | |
Is it the hurly`burly of politics? I am inclined to agree with Bob | :58:19. | :58:22. | |
Blizzard. People if they are trying to win an election will win over | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
people to their side. There is a line between bat and actually trying | :58:28. | :58:35. | |
to fix the votes which transgressors the law as well as internal party | :58:36. | :58:40. | |
rules. We need to be constantly the joint. Are the allegations | :58:41. | :58:47. | |
damaging? It is not a good story. Able do not like parties that are | :58:48. | :58:54. | |
arguing amongst themselves. I would say keep your eye on the big | :58:55. | :58:58. | |
picture. It is important to get the best candidate. They get down to | :58:59. | :59:04. | |
factionalism that is not good. This week we've heard that it's not | :59:05. | :59:08. | |
simply us with empty pockets these days but even the Queen is feeling | :59:09. | :59:11. | |
the pinch. Here's our weekly round up, all in 60 seconds. Peterborough | :59:12. | :59:18. | |
was named this week as the UK's fastest growing city with another | :59:19. | :59:21. | |
27,000 people over the last ten years needing homes. | :59:22. | :59:26. | |
But it was the Queen's homes causing concern to the Public Accounts | :59:27. | :59:29. | |
Committee, who think Her Majesty's palaces are in need of repair. The | :59:30. | :59:38. | |
wiring in the Buckingham Palace has not been renewed since 1949. | :59:39. | :59:42. | |
While it was the energy supply on the mind of Essex MP Brooks Newmark, | :59:43. | :59:46. | |
who told the House of Commons that the planning controls on solar farms | :59:47. | :59:49. | |
aren't strict enough. Andrea Leadsom won backing for her | :59:50. | :59:51. | |
manifesto supporting the bond between baby and carer, which has | :59:52. | :59:59. | |
profound lifelong consequences. Did you know that 36% of all serious | :00:00. | :00:03. | |
case reviews involve a baby under the age of one? | :00:04. | :00:08. | |
But Robert Halfon was jeered for talking up Harlow's artistic | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
pedigree. Harlow is the cultural capital of east of England. | :00:16. | :00:27. | |
I grew up in Hull. I am a great supporter of the arts. I would not | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
agree that he alone was quite the capital. Did you get a promise to | :00:34. | :00:44. | |
back the campaign? The Minister said Government policy is changing as a | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
result of the work that I and my colleagues have been doing. We want | :00:49. | :00:54. | |
to focus on giving people a better birth experience. | :00:55. | :00:57. | |
That is all for now. You can keep in birth experience. | :00:58. | :01:05. | |
Not a complete denial! Hopefully a Conservative mayor again. | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
Not a good week for David Cameron on the tricky European front last week. | :01:12. | :01:19. | |
President Hollande said he was not interested in major treaty reform | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
for 2017. That is when Mr Cameron hopes to hold his in-out referendum. | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
And the private member's bill to put that referendum on the statute bill | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
was killed by Labour and Lib Dem peers in the Lords. James Wharton | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
was the Tory MP behind the bill and he joins me now. What happens now? | :01:37. | :01:45. | |
It is out of my hands what happens now, because Labour and the Liberal | :01:46. | :01:48. | |
Democrats conspired in the Lords to kill off my bill. One of the options | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
is for another private member to bring a bill forward when they have | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
the next private member's bill at, and we can try again. The prime | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
minister has indicated that he will support that. But whatever happens, | :02:00. | :02:05. | |
it will be in the Conservative manifesto at the next election. Do | :02:06. | :02:12. | |
you accept that cost this is Tory policy and not government policy | :02:13. | :02:14. | |
that the government policy elite macro cannot bring forward a bill? | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
That is the problem. The Liberal Democrats, despite having promised a | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
referendum in their manifesto at the last election, now will not allow | :02:25. | :02:26. | |
government time for a bill to enshrine that in law. That was why I | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
brought it forward as a private member's bill. David Cameron and the | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
Conservative Party through everything behind that. To many | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
people's surprise, we got it through all the House of Commons stages | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
Sadly, to their discredit, Labour and Liberal Democrat peers, doing | :02:44. | :02:46. | |
the bidding of their masters in the Commons, is conspired to kill it. Do | :02:47. | :02:52. | |
you accept that it is Conservative policy, but not government policy, | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
that you could not use the Parliament act to get this through | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
the Lords? That is not the case The Parliament act is clear that if a | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
public bill passes through the House of Commons twice in one | :03:06. | :03:07. | |
Parliamentary period, there is a certain amount of time that has to | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
be between both bills being presented. There are some procedural | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
steps to be overcome, but there is no legal reason why the Parliament | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
act could not come into effect. I was talking about you not having a | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
majority in this case. That remains to be seen. We saw previously that | :03:26. | :03:28. | |
Labour and the Liberal Democrats sent enough people to frustrate its | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
progress to make it as difficult as possible, but not huge numbers to | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
vote against it. On a Friday, huge numbers of MPs do not attend | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
normally. Getting that number might prove difficult. The Parliament act, | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
which is a bit of an atomic bomb in constitutional terms, if that was | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
used, they would turn up to vote against you. Is it not the case that | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
after the countryside Alliance tried to involve the courts in the hunting | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
ban that it was made clear that the Parliament act was not to be used | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
for constitutional issues? I don't think we know how many would turn up | :04:11. | :04:13. | |
and we don't know how they would vote. One of the things that has | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
been revealed as I have gone through the process of getting this bill to | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
get a referendum through the Commons is that there are big splits in the | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
Labour Party. One of the reasons we did not see them turning up in large | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
numbers to stop this bill from happening was that Ed Miliband knew | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
that if he tried to lead his own MPs through the lobbies to block a | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
bill, the only purpose of which is to let Britain decides to give | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
people a say on membership of the union, a lot of his MPs may not have | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
followed him. It is all fantasy politics anyway. The French | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
president has made clear that he has no interest in treaty change this | :04:51. | :04:53. | |
side of 2017. He would need a referendum as well . And he needs | :04:54. | :05:00. | |
that like a hole and had. Merkel is not keen, as she is in coalition | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
with the social Democrats. Without the French or the Germans, it will | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
not happen, end of story. The policy is that we will try to negotiate on | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
getting a better deal. I hear what you are saying, but I don't | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
recognise it as reality. We have a strong bargaining position. But | :05:22. | :05:23. | |
whatever the result of that negotiation, it will be put in an | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
in-out vote to the Britain people. It is time people were allowed to | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
decide. It has been over a generation since we last had a say. | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
David Cameron has committed to delivering that referendum. The | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
Conservative Party will have it in our next manifesto for the election. | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
Whatever happens to my bill or any other of the bill that comes | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
forward. If people want a referendum, the only party that can | :05:49. | :05:51. | |
deliver that in British politics is the Conservatives. Let me bring the | :05:52. | :05:58. | |
panel in. Nick, where is this going? It is clear to me and anyone who | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
follows European politics that there is no appetite for major treaty | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
change in the short run, particularly for the kind of major | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
changes that Vista Cameron says he is going to get, and yet the Tories | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
are talking about Europe again when they should be talking about the | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
economy. And Francois Hollande is looking at 2017, the year we are | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
meant to have this referendum. There will be a French presidential | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
election going on, and Nicolas Sarkozy will be back in play by | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
then. But James has an interesting point, which is that it is down to | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
Angela Merkel. She would be more receptive to David Cameron's ideas | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
of reform than people assume. She has looked over the edge at a Europe | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
without the UK and said, that is not acceptable, and I am willing to pay | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
a price, not any price, but a price to keep the UK in the European | :06:51. | :06:56. | |
Union. And the French, because the UK and France are the only serious | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
military powers in Europe, will eventually come to that position. So | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
there is more support for David Cameron than people assume. The | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
French are also not a strong position in terms of the euro and | :07:09. | :07:17. | |
French economy. The Foreign Office seem a bit more optimistic about | :07:18. | :07:27. | |
it. Of course they are. Douglas Hurd once told me, we are winning the | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
arguments on the single currency. Of course anything from the Foreign | :07:32. | :07:33. | |
Office comes with a health warning, but if David Cameron had won a | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
majority and was determined to renegotiate, he is in a strong | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
position with Merkel. There is a possibility that the French could | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
eventually be talked around. So it is not entirely bleak on that front | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
for Cameron. When do the Tory party managers say, look, stop banging on | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
about Europe again? The economy is going away. We still have an | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
electoral mountain to climb. Let's just talk about that and not be | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
divided. They should have done that some time ago. It is already too | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
late. The Tories need a seven point lead in the polls to get image are | :08:14. | :08:19. | |
tea. The way things are, that would require a huge change from where we | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
are now . It is very unlikely to happen. So all this is happening in | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
some bizarre imaginary space with wonderful rainbows and sunshine But | :08:29. | :08:34. | |
we can detect the beginnings of a shift in the last couple of weeks. | :08:35. | :08:42. | |
If you talk to Tory backbenchers, Douglas Carswell is now saying in | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
public that it is time to stop the fighting. If they are to get even | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
close to winning the election, they can't do it if they are all against | :08:53. | :09:00. | |
each other. I don't think it is an imaginary space. It is likely that | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
David Cameron will have the largest party in the election. If it is a | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
hung parliament and it is the Liberal Democrats and the | :09:09. | :09:09. | |
Conservative Party, David Cameron will save to Nick Clegg we gave you | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
an AV referendum, I am having this referendum. And it will be difficult | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
for Nick to say no. Let me go back to Mr Wharton. You are going to get | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
a referendum in the manifesto. Other than Ken Clarke, everybody wants it. | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
So why don't you just banked that and get behind the leadership | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
Institute causing endless problems and coming across as a Europe | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
accessed, divided party? I am absolutely behind the leadership. | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
David Cameron announced the policy I am trying to bring forward in this | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
bill. It is in line with the speech he gave this time last year. But | :09:48. | :09:55. | |
getting that commitment into law will help to kick-start the | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
negotiation process and mean everyone will know where we stand. | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
But whatever happens, the Conservatives are committed to | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
delivering a referendum. And to address the point that we talk about | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
Europe too much, that is not the case. We have a good message on the | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
economy, on tackling immigration and reforming welfare. There is more to | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
do, but this is also an important part of policy. But at a time when | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
the economic news seems to be turning in your direction, you are | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
talking about the European referendum. Your backbench | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
colleagues are trying to change the Immigration Bill every which way. | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
Dominic Rather is putting in an amendment is and Mr Nigel Mills has | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
been on this programme, putting in amendments that are clearly illegal. | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
How is that helpful? The fact is that we are in a coalition, so there | :10:53. | :10:55. | |
are areas of policy where Conservatives might want to go | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
further and we are not able to do that. In other areas, we are | :10:59. | :11:05. | |
delivering good reforms. But this is not a matter of going further. The | :11:06. | :11:12. | |
mill 's amendment was clearly a contravention of the Treaty of Rome. | :11:13. | :11:15. | |
That is where you get the headlines from. Some of your colleagues have a | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
death wish? Would they rather have a Miliband government if the choice is | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
an impure Cameron one instead? I don't think anyone in their right | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
mind would rather have a Miliband government. Then why are they | :11:30. | :11:36. | |
behaving that way? We have had some disagreements into the leak and | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
debate within the party, but it was talked about on the panel just now. | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
The Conservative Party is behind David Cameron and focused on winning | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
the next election. Europe is one part of that. We have policies in a | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
range of areas, but we are getting back on the right track. Thank you | :11:53. | :12:00. | |
for being patient with us. Is this ghost story going to go | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
somewhere? Mr Laws is talking through surrogates at the moment, | :12:06. | :12:08. | |
but there is a strategy by the Lib Dems make these differential points | :12:09. | :12:17. | |
now. I think it is fantastic coalition sports and entertaining, | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
but in terms of out there, it has almost no traction whatsoever. I | :12:23. | :12:25. | |
don't think any voters know who Baroness Morgan is and it sounds | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
like one but politicians shouting at another bunch of politicians about | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
their ability to give each other jobs. There is a larger point about | :12:33. | :12:38. | |
the way Michael Gove runs his government. He is notoriously a very | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
polite man surrounded by Rottweiler is, his advisers. He has made | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
enemies of a lot of people in the media, and some of that will come | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
back on him in the next 18 months. We shall see if Mr Laws himself | :12:51. | :12:54. | |
sticks his head above the parapet. That is it for this week. The Daily | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
Politics is on throughout the week at midday on BBC Two, except on | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
Wednesdays, when we are on at 11:30am. I will be back next week at | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
the same time. Remember, if it is Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics. | :13:10. | :13:15. |