Browse content similar to 23/04/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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It's Sunday afternoon - this is the Sunday Politics. | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
Jeremy Corbyn wants to give everyone in Britain four | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
extra bank holidays - but is the Labour leader up | :00:42. | :00:43. | |
to being Prime Minister if he wins the election in just | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
Theresa May says she wants a stronger hand to deliver Brexit - | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
how will the Conservatives go about getting the bigger | :00:53. | :00:54. | |
I'll be asking Party Chairman, Patrick McLoughlin. | :00:55. | :01:01. | |
And I've been in Paris where voters are going to the polls in first | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
round of the French Presidential election - what could be the impact | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
on the EU and Brexit of this most unpredictable of contests? | :01:09. | :01:14. | |
Will the Remain majority punish the Tories for the decision? | :01:15. | :01:22. | |
Or feel they may not like it but the Tories | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
And with me has always ready for the marathon task of covering a snap | :01:26. | :01:39. | |
general election, even working on bank holidays, the best and | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
brightest political panel in the business. David Wooding, Polly | :01:44. | :01:44. | |
Toynbee and Toby Young. So Labour's big announcement this | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
morning was a crowd pleaser. Four more rainy bank | :01:48. | :01:49. | |
holidays to enjoy - one for each of the patron saints | :01:50. | :01:51. | |
of England, Scotland, But Mr Corbyn probably won't be | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
getting the time off work if he wins And on The Andrew Marr Show this | :01:55. | :02:00. | |
morning he was asked what he would do as Prime Minister | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
if the security services asked him to authorise a drone strike | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
on the leader of Islamic State. What I'd tell them is, | :02:09. | :02:10. | |
give me the information you've got, tell me how accurate that is, | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
tell me what you I'm asking you about decisions you | :02:15. | :02:17. | |
would take as Prime Minister. Can I take you back | :02:18. | :02:26. | |
to the whole point? Is the objective | :02:27. | :02:28. | |
to start more strikes that may kill many innocent | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
people, as has happened? Do you think killing | :02:33. | :02:34. | |
the leader of Isis would be I think the leader of Isis not | :02:35. | :02:36. | |
being around would be helpful, and I'm no supporter or defender | :02:37. | :02:45. | |
in any way of Isis. But I would also argue that | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
the bombing campaign has killed a of whom were virtually prisoners of | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
Isis. So you've got to think | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
about these things. Mr Corbyn earlier. David, is his | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
reply refreshing damaging? It is damaging. He has clearly been | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
freaked to the fire already in the first week, there will be lots of | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
questions on his suitability as a leader and the damage it could cause | :03:12. | :03:14. | |
to our national security over the weeks ahead and Andrew Marr has cut | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
straight to the chase here. The other thing, of course, is the | :03:19. | :03:21. | |
letters of last resort, one of the first duties of a Prime Minister | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
when he walks into No 10 is to sign these letters on his own, on or -- | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
or on her own in a room, a very lonely moment, to decide whether he | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
should press the nuclear button and that goes in the Vanguard submarines | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
and is opened in the event of a strike and he has dodged a question | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
so many times. One must wonder what he would do that. He has to make | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
these decisions as Prime Minister. On the Isis point, refreshing or | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
damaging? It sure is his base, the people who support him, that's the | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
sort of thing they support info and maybe his tactic is that's all he's | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
going to get, that is what the polls seem to suggest, in which case they | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
will be pleased, and say yes, the man is a man for these who doesn't | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
press buttons and shoot people down. But if you want to win you have to | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
deal with your own weaknesses and reach out to other people. I think | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
most people would say that's not somebody who could defend the | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
country. I wonder if he was being totally honest in saying he would | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
consider it he would ask for more information. He has previously been | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
on the record as being against drone strikes in principle, he's | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
campaigned against them, he wants to abolish drones. I think Andrew Marr | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
let him off saying it was a drone strike rather than a Navy SEAL or | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
SAS operation and he had the fact that they could be collateral | :04:41. | :04:43. | |
damage. We that's not his position because he condemned the | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
assassination of Osama Bin Laden even though there was no collateral | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
damage. David is right on the Trident point, he fetched the | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
question. We heard Niall Griffiths on this very show saying Trident, | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
the renewal of Trident, would be in the next Labour Party manifesto. It | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
turns out now we don't know and when he was asked he said that remains to | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
be seen, his re-opened a can of worms. What he has said about | :05:09. | :05:12. | |
Trident which was extraordinary was, we will rebuild the submarines but | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
not have any nukes on them which is expensive and useless. And of course | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
the Labour Party were forced soon after that interview to put out a | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
statement saying it is Labour Party policy to renew Trident. So where | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
are we? Do we know what the party's policy is? It is to renew Trident | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
but he has started this review which involves looking at it all again. We | :05:34. | :05:39. | |
know he is a unilateralist to start with but whether he can force this | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
through is dubious. Does it matter, though, if the party policy is in | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
favour of Trident, if the leader is not? The potential Prime Minister is | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
not? They split three ways when they went to vote on it in the Commons. | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
The party agreed they were pro-Trident and when it came to the | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
vote they split three ways. I think it's difficult for them, it's always | :06:01. | :06:04. | |
been a really difficult issue for Labour. The question is whether you | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
want to seal off your negatives, whether you really want to try and | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
reach out to people. There are an awful lot of people who will like | :06:13. | :06:15. | |
what he said, there are an awful lot of people that think we have been | :06:16. | :06:21. | |
involved in terrible wars, we have wasted a lot of money and blood and | :06:22. | :06:24. | |
let's just get back from the whole thing, let's retreat from the world | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
and not try punching above our weight. There is something to be | :06:30. | :06:32. | |
said for that and it is a reasonable argument. He's been true to himself | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
on this. I think he is and Polly is right, lots of people will agree | :06:38. | :06:40. | |
with him, not enough to win a general election, the latest ComRes | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
poll shows Tories on 50% and Labour on 25 and as my colleague James | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
Forsyth in the Spectator said if this was a boxing match it would | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
have been stopped by now by the revelry. We are not stopping, we are | :06:52. | :06:53. | |
going on. So the political parties have had | :06:54. | :06:54. | |
to move into election mode Stand by for battle buses, | :06:55. | :06:56. | |
mail shots and your social media timeline being bombarded | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
by political propoganda. But none of this comes cheap - | :07:01. | :07:01. | |
Adam's been doing his sums. Democracy is priceless but those | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
planes, trains and automobiles used in the last election cost money | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
and we know exactly how much, thanks to the Electoral | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
Commission database. The Conservatives flew David Cameron | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
to every part of the UK in one day on a private plane costing ?29,000, | :07:21. | :07:24. | |
in-flight meals extra. They shelled out ?1.2 million | :07:25. | :07:30. | |
for adverts on Facebook. The most expensive item was their | :07:31. | :07:36. | |
election guru Lynton Crosby. They bought ?2.4 million worth | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
of advice and research from his firm Labour's biggest expenditure | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
was on good old-fashioned leaflets, costing ?7.4 million | :07:44. | :07:50. | |
to print and deliver. Hope they didn't go straight | :07:51. | :07:52. | |
into the recycling. Cheap for all the | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
enjoyment it gave us. To turn a normal minibus | :07:59. | :08:06. | |
into Harriet Harman's pink bus Nick Clegg toured the country doing | :08:07. | :08:09. | |
all manner of stunts transported although the party got a grand's | :08:10. | :08:16. | |
discount when it broke down. Ukip's then leader Nigel Farage | :08:17. | :08:28. | |
was accompanied by bodyguards Nicola Sturgeon's chopper | :08:29. | :08:30. | |
cost the SNP ?35,450. Plaid Cymru spent just over | :08:31. | :08:39. | |
?1,000 on media training And the Greens spent ?6,912 | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
promoting their tweets. It adds up to a grand total | :08:44. | :08:57. | |
for all the parties of ?37,560,039. Jabbing at my calculator that works | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
out at less than ?1 per voter. Adam Fleming there - | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
and joining me now is the man responsible for the Conservative | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
election campaigns - for the locals next month | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
and the general election in June - Welcome to the programme. The Crown | :09:17. | :09:24. | |
Prosecution Service is reviewing evidence from 14 police forces that | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
your party breached election spending rules on multiple occasions | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
in the last election. What are you going to do differently this time? | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
Well, the battle buses are part of the National campaign spend. You saw | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
them just on the shot that you did, all three parties had those battle | :09:45. | :09:47. | |
buses so that's why we believe they were part of the national spend and | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
it was declared that way. At least 30 people in your party, MPs and | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
agents, being investigated because they may not have been right to | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
include it in the national spend. Are you saying you are going to do | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
nothing differently this time? You asked me about last time and the way | :10:03. | :10:09. | |
the position is... Was. I asked you about this time. We will take a | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
careful count and make sure that everything that we do is within the | :10:14. | :10:19. | |
law. But as I say, the last election, all three parties had | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
battle buses. It is your party that above all has been investigated by | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
14 police forces. You must surely be taking stock of that and working out | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
how to do some things differently. You are being investigated because | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
you put stuff on the National Ledger which should have been on the local | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
constituency ledger. Are you looking at that again? All of the parties | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
had battle buses and they all put them on their national spend. I | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
don't think any of the parties put them on the local spend. The other | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
battle buses were not full of their party activists. Your party stuffed | :10:54. | :10:56. | |
these battle buses with activists and took them to constituencies. | :10:57. | :11:02. | |
That's the difference. And I ask again, what is different this time? | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
Are you going to run the risk of being investigated yet again? We | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
believe that we fully compliant with the electoral law as it was. What | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
will happen if one of these, or two or three or four or five of these 30 | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
people, Tory MPs, or agents running campaigns are charged during the | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
campaign? As I say I believe we properly declared our election | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
expenses. What happens if they are charged? You asking me a | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
hypothetical question, the importance of this election is about | :11:34. | :11:36. | |
who is in Downing Street in seven weeks' time. Let me clarify this, | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
you maintain that in 2015 you did nothing wrong with how you allocated | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
the cost and the activities of the battle buses and you would do | :11:46. | :11:47. | |
exactly the same this time round? What we did at the last election we | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
believe fully complied with the law. So the battle buses this time, | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
stocked full of activists, will still be charged to the national | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
campaign even when they go to local constituencies? Will they? We will | :12:02. | :12:09. | |
be looking at the way we do it, there is new guidance from the | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
Electoral Commission out and we will look at that guidance. It is not the | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
guidance, it is the lawful stop the Electoral Commission said that, if | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
you look at the report they did on us, they said there was one area | :12:22. | :12:24. | |
where we had over claimed, over declared, and another area we had | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
and declared. We haven't worked out what to do | :12:29. | :12:31. | |
yet, have you? We will get on with the campaign and | :12:32. | :12:35. | |
start the campaign and I'm looking forward to the campaign. | :12:36. | :12:37. | |
I'm trying to work out of the campaign is going to be legal or not | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
because last time it seems it could have been illegal. | :12:42. | :12:44. | |
I am sure the campaign will be legal. | :12:45. | :12:46. | |
You started the campaign warning about the prospect of, the coalition | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
of chaos. Mr Corbyn has ruled out a post-election coalition with the SNP | :12:52. | :12:59. | |
and so have the Lib Dems so who is going to be in this coalition? | :13:00. | :13:02. | |
Vince Cable said he was looking towards a possible coalition trying | :13:03. | :13:04. | |
to stop a Conservative government. Is not the leader of the Lib Dems. | :13:05. | :13:06. | |
He's an important voice in the Lib Dems. Who will be in it? Let's see | :13:07. | :13:13. | |
because of the Conservative Party is not re-elected with a strong | :13:14. | :13:16. | |
majority, what will happen? There will be a coalition stopping us | :13:17. | :13:19. | |
doing the things we need to do. Who will be in it? It will be a | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
coalition of the Labour Party, the SNP and the Liberal party. They have | :13:25. | :13:28. | |
ruled it out. I think they would not rule it out if that was the | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
situation. Like Theresa May not ruling out an election and then | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
changing her mind? The things the Prime Minister said were very clear, | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
once she had served Article 50 there was an opportunity, as we know | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
today, there is going to be the start of a new government formed in | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
France and in September we have the German elections. So it was quite | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
right that we didn't get ourselves boxed into a timetable. That is why | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
the Prime Minister took the view that they should be a general | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
election to give her full strength of an electoral mandate when it | :14:01. | :14:03. | |
comes to those negotiations. What about Mr Corbyn's plan for four new | :14:04. | :14:10. | |
bank holidays, good idea? I'm not... If we get Corbyn in No 10 Downing St | :14:11. | :14:14. | |
we will have a permanent bank holiday of the United Kingdom. We | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
will have fewer bank holidays of most other major nations, most about | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
major wealthy nations. What about at least one more? Well, look, he's | :14:26. | :14:28. | |
talked about four bank holidays. Today would be a bank holiday and | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
next Monday would be a bank holiday and the other week was a bank | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
holiday too. I don't think it's very well thought out. It sounded more to | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
me something like you get in school mock elections rather than proper | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
elections. Your party is the self-styled party of the workers and | :14:46. | :14:48. | |
you have no plans to give the workers even one extra bank holiday? | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
What we want to do is ensure Britain is a strong economy and building on | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
the jobs that we have created since 2010. We were told that by reducing | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
public expenditure unemployment in this country would go up, | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
unemployment has gone down and the number of jobs have gone up | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
substantially. But no more bank holidays? Well, we will make our | :15:12. | :15:14. | |
manifesto in due course but I don't think four bank holidays held in | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
April, March and November are very attractive to people. When Ed | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
Miliband as leader of the Labour Party suggested the government | :15:25. | :15:33. | |
should control energy prices by capping them, the Conservatives | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
described that as almost Communist and central planning. Do still take | :15:38. | :15:41. | |
that view? You'll see what we have to say on energy prices. I didn't | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
you about that, I asked you if you take the view... The Prime Minister | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
made a speech at the Conservative Spring conference in which she | :15:51. | :15:52. | |
outlined her dissatisfaction about people who are kept locked on a | :15:53. | :15:55. | |
standard tariff and those are the issues we will address in the next | :15:56. | :15:58. | |
few weeks when the manifesto was published. | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
Would that be an act of communism? You will need to see what we say | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
when we set out the policies. It could be. You could put a Communist | :16:10. | :16:16. | |
act into your manifesto? I don't think you'll find a Communist | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
manifesto in a Conservative manifesto which will be launched... | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
You are planning to control prices? We will address what we think is | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
unfairness in the energy market. Mr Jeremy Corbyn was reluctant this | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
morning to sanction a drone strike. You heard us talking about it | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
earlier against the leader of Islamic State if our intelligence | :16:40. | :16:42. | |
services identified him. What would it achieve? When the Prime Minister | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
gets certain advice in the national interests, she has to act been that. | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
We've seen with Theresa May in her time as Home Secretary and Prime | :16:52. | :16:54. | |
Minister, she's not afraid to take those very difficult decisions. What | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
we say this morning from Jeremy Corbyn was a his tans, a reluctance. | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
I don't think that serves the country well. What would it achieve | :17:03. | :17:09. | |
if we take out the head of Islamic State he's replaced by somebody | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
else. It brings their organisation into difficulties. It undermines | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
their organisation. It shows we'll take every measure to undo an | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
organisation which has organised terrorism in different parts of | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
Europe, the UK. I think it is absolutely right the Prime Minister | :17:28. | :17:30. | |
is prepared to take those kind of measures. Jeremy Corbyn said he | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
wasn't prepared to take that. Because he wasn't sure what it would | :17:35. | :17:40. | |
achieve. The Obama administration launched hundreds of drone strikes | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
in various war zones and we in the west are still under attack on a | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
regular basis. Mr Corbyn's basis was what would it achieve? It would | :17:51. | :17:56. | |
achieve a safer position for the UK overall. The war on terrorists. But | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
the Westminster attack, Paris has just been attacked again? There's | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
been attacks which have been stopped by the intelligence services. We | :18:07. | :18:10. | |
must do all we can to support them. The question was about drone | :18:11. | :18:13. | |
strikes. Whether it is drone strikes or other action, we have to be | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
prepared to act. Let's move on to Brexit. It is the major reason the | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
Prime Minister's called the election? Not the only within but | :18:23. | :18:26. | |
the main reason? It is one of the reasons. Now we start the two-year | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
negotiations and then a year afterwards. Also the way in which | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
certain people said they would try to use in the House of Lords or | :18:37. | :18:38. | |
House of Commons to prevent us making progress. I think you'll put | :18:39. | :18:46. | |
in your manifesto, it is the Government's policy, the Brexit | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
negotiating position will be no more freedom of movement. Leave the | :18:52. | :18:58. | |
single market and no longer under the jurisdiction Europe. You expect | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
every Tory MP to fight on that manifesto. What will you do with Ken | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
Clarke and Anna? They will have fought on their manifesto. They will | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
understand the Prime Minister has the authority of the ballot box | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
behind them. Will they fight the election on these positions? I'm | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
sure they'll fight the election supporting the election of a | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
Conservative Government and it's manifesto will quite clearly set | :19:26. | :19:28. | |
out... You know they're against these positions. Ken Clarke has a | :19:29. | :19:33. | |
prod tradition of expressing a certain view. Overall, the party's | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
manifesto, it is not just individuals like Ken Clarke, it is | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
what happens as far as the House of Lords are concerned, people said | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
they'd use the House of Lords to prevent certain measures. You're the | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
party chairman, will it be possible for people like Ken Clarke to fight | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
this election under the Conservative ticket without sub describing to all | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
-- subscribing to all of these Brexit conditions? Ken Clarke will | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
fight as Conservative candidates. That wasn't my question. I know | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
that. Will they be allowed to fight it on their own ticket and not | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
subscribe to what is in your manifesto? The manifesto will be | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
what the Conservative Party fights the General Election on. There will | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
always be cases where people have had different views on different | :20:23. | :20:28. | |
parts of the manifesto. That will be the guiding principles for the | :20:29. | :20:34. | |
party. Philip Hammond says your election promises in 2015, in your | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
manifesto not to raise taxes tied his hands when it came to managing | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
the economy. Do you agree with him? No. The simple fact is we have to do | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
the best things for the economy. We'll set out in our manifesto in a | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
few weeks' time, what the policies will be for the next Parliament. Can | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
I clarify, you don't agree with your Chancellor? What Philip was saying | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
was some of the areas we wants to address as Chancellor, what the | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
party will do, it will set out all the issues we're fighting on. It | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
will set out clearly the choice we have in this country. That's the | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
important thing. Let me put the question to you again. Philip | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
Hammond said this week your election promise in 2015 not to raise taxes | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
had tied his hands when it came to managing the economy. I ask you, do | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
you agree with him? You said no. Philip expressed his view as to what | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
he would like. What I'm saying is in a few weeks' time we'll set the | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
manifesto which will set the policies, agreed with the the | :21:40. | :21:43. | |
Cabinet. He's Chancellor. Doesn't he determine what the economic part of | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
the manifesto is? We'll talk about that in due course. Will you have a | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
lock on the taxes that you locked in 2015 on income tax, VAT, national | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
insurance? That will be decided. You'll see that when we publish the | :21:59. | :22:05. | |
manifesto in a few weeks' time. Will you rule out the possibility taxes | :22:06. | :22:08. | |
may have to rise under a future Conservative Party? Conservative | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
Government. We've taken four million people out of tax. Now, on average, | :22:14. | :22:19. | |
people are paying ?1200 less tax than they were on the same salaries | :22:20. | :22:25. | |
in 2010. I'm very provide of that. I can assure you, the Conservative | :22:26. | :22:28. | |
Party will want to see taxes reduced. It is the Labour Party | :22:29. | :22:31. | |
which will put up taxes. We have the evidence where this he did so. | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
Council tax went up by over 100%. You haven't reduced the tax burden | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
as a percentage of the GDP is now going to reach its highest level | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
since the mid-180s which was when Conservatives were in power. The tax | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
burden in this country under your Government is rising? We've more | :22:55. | :22:57. | |
people paying taxes which is something, because we've a growing | :22:58. | :23:00. | |
economy and more people... What about the tax band? You said you | :23:01. | :23:05. | |
reduced the tax burden on your own Government's figures is rising? We | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
have reduced the tax burden. The threshold at which people start | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
paying. These are tax rates not the tax burden. It is rising. The tax | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
rates have been reduced. You said tax burden. Perhaps I misspoke. Tax | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
rates have been reduced. We'll leave it there. No doubt we'll speak again | :23:27. | :23:34. | |
between now and June Is France now about to make it | :23:35. | :23:36. | |
a hat-trick of shocks The prospect terrifies | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
the governing elite in Paris. But they're no less scared | :23:41. | :23:43. | |
in Brussels and Berlin, given what it could mean | :23:44. | :23:46. | |
for the whole EU project, never mind the huge potential impact | :23:47. | :23:48. | |
on our own Brexit negotiations. 11 candidates are contesting | :23:49. | :24:08. | |
the first round of the presidential Only the top two will go forward | :24:09. | :24:10. | |
to the run-off on May 7th. For the first time since General De | :24:11. | :24:16. | |
Gaulle created the fifth Republic in 1958, it's perfectly possible that | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
no candidate from the ruling parties of the centre-left or the | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
centre-right will even make it The election has been dominated by | :24:26. | :24:28. | |
the hard right in the shape of the who's never been elected | :24:29. | :24:36. | |
to anything and only started his own party | :24:37. | :24:42. | |
a few months ago. And the far left in the form | :24:43. | :24:45. | |
of Jean-Luc Melenchon, a former Trotskyite who has surged | :24:46. | :24:48. | |
in the final weeks of the campaign. The only candidate left from the | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
traditional governing parties is the centre-right's | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
Francois Fillon and he's been struggling to stay in | :24:56. | :24:57. | |
the race ever since it was revealed that his Welsh wife was being paid | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
at generous public expense for a job I've just come across | :25:02. | :25:06. | |
this magazine cover and it kind of sums up the mood | :25:07. | :25:21. | |
of the French people. It's got the five main candidates | :25:22. | :25:23. | |
for President here but it calls them the biggest liar, the biggest cheat, | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
the biggest traitor, the most paranoid, the biggest demagogue, | :25:28. | :25:30. | |
and it says they are the winners The four leading candidates, | :25:31. | :25:33. | |
Le Pen, Melenchon, Macron and Fillon, or in with a chance | :25:34. | :25:43. | |
of making it to the second round. Only a couple of points separates | :25:44. | :25:46. | |
them in the polls, Frankly, no one has a clue what's | :25:47. | :25:49. | |
going to happen. Of the four, there is a feeling that | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
two of them may be President But the two of them may not find | :25:56. | :26:00. | |
themselves in the second round. Somebody said to me that the man or | :26:01. | :26:13. | |
woman on the Paris Metro has as much a chance of knowing | :26:14. | :26:27. | |
who will win as the greatest experts Because the more expert you are | :26:28. | :26:30. | |
the more you may be wrong. The country has largely | :26:31. | :26:37. | |
stagnated for over a decade. One in ten are unemployed, | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
one in four if you are unlucky Like Britain in the '70s there is | :26:43. | :26:45. | |
the pervasive stench There are three keywords that come | :26:46. | :26:49. | |
to mind. Anger, anger at the elite, and in | :26:50. | :26:57. | |
particular the political elite. And an element of | :26:58. | :27:03. | |
nostalgia for the past. These three words were decisive | :27:04. | :27:09. | |
in the Brexit referendum. They are decisive in | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
the French election. Identity and security has been | :27:14. | :27:25. | |
as important in this election France is a proud nation, it worries | :27:26. | :27:28. | |
about its future in Europe It seems bereft of ideas about how | :27:29. | :27:35. | |
to deal with its largely Muslim migrant population, huge chunks of | :27:36. | :27:40. | |
which are increasingly divorced It is quite simply exhausted by | :27:41. | :27:43. | |
the never-ending Islamist terrorist attacks, the latest only days before | :27:44. | :27:54. | |
voting in the iconic heart of this If Fillon or Macron emerge | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
victorious then there will be continuity of sorts, though Fillon | :27:59. | :28:09. | |
will struggle to implement his Thatcherite agenda and Macron will | :28:10. | :28:12. | |
not be able to count on the support of the French parliament, the | :28:13. | :28:16. | |
National Assembly, for his reforms. But if it's Le Pen or Jean-Luc | :28:17. | :28:19. | |
Melenchon then all bets are off. Both are hardline French | :28:20. | :28:25. | |
nationalists, anti the euro, anti the European Union, anti-fiscal | :28:26. | :28:28. | |
discipline, anti the market, Either in the Elysee Palace | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
would represent an existential Brexit would simply become | :28:33. | :28:40. | |
a sideshow, the negotiations could just peter out as Brussels | :28:41. | :28:49. | |
and Berlin had bigger fish to fry. We're joined now from | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
Paris by the journalist 8th Welcome to the programme. | :28:55. | :29:05. | |
Overshadowing the voting today was yet another appalling terrorist | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
attack in Paris on Thursday night. Do we have any indications of how | :29:10. | :29:16. | |
that's playing into the election? That initially people thought this | :29:17. | :29:20. | |
has been almost foiled in that the police were there as a ramp up. One | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
policeman was killed. But the terrorist did not spray the crowd | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
with bullets. It was seen as not having much of an effect on the | :29:30. | :29:35. | |
election. This has changed. We now know the policeman who was killed, a | :29:36. | :29:41. | |
young man about to the promoted, he was at the Bataclan the night of the | :29:42. | :29:47. | |
terror attack. He was a fighter for LGBT rights. The fact he was | :29:48. | :29:53. | |
promoted, happy within his job, he has this fresh face. Sudden, he's | :29:54. | :30:00. | |
one of us. It took perhaps 48 hours for the French to process this. But | :30:01. | :30:05. | |
now they're angry and this may actually change the game, at least | :30:06. | :30:11. | |
at the margins. To whose advantage? I would say the two who might | :30:12. | :30:18. | |
benefit from this are Marine Le Pen, she's been absolutely | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
anti-immigration, anti-anything. And made no bones about it as she | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
immediately made rather strange announcement in which she'd said if | :30:28. | :30:30. | |
she'd been president none of the terror attacks which happened in | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
France would have happened. Francois Fillon has written a book two years | :30:35. | :30:42. | |
ago called Combating Islamic Terrorism he's has an organised plan | :30:43. | :30:47. | |
in his manifesto. Unlike Emmanuel Macron who stumbled when he was | :30:48. | :30:51. | |
asked the evening this happened what he thought, he said, I can't dream | :30:52. | :30:55. | |
up an anti-terror programme overnight. The question, of course, | :30:56. | :30:59. | |
that arrows was this is not the sort of thing that's just happened | :31:00. | :31:02. | |
overnight. It's been unfortunately the fate of France for many years. | :31:03. | :31:08. | |
Let me ask you this finally, what ever the outcome on May 7th in the | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
second round, who ever wins, would it be fair to say French politics | :31:14. | :31:19. | |
will never be the same again? Yes. Absolutely it's a very strange | :31:20. | :31:22. | |
thing. People have no become really excited about this. You cannot go | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
anywhere without people discussing heatedly this election. The anger | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
that was described is very accurate. Very true. There was this feeling as | :31:32. | :31:38. | |
for the Brexit voters and the Trump voters, vast parts of the people | :31:39. | :31:42. | |
were being talked down to by people who despised them. This has to | :31:43. | :31:48. | |
change. If it doesn't change, we cannot predict what the future will | :31:49. | :31:54. | |
be. We'll know the results or at least the ex-the Poll London time | :31:55. | :31:59. | |
tonight at 8.00pm. Thank for joining us from the glorious heart of your | :32:00. | :32:00. | |
city. Now, the Green Party currently has | :32:01. | :32:04. | |
one MP and they'll be contesting many more seats in June | :32:05. | :32:07. | |
as well as hoping to increase their presence on councils in | :32:08. | :32:10. | |
the local elections on 4th May. Launching their campaign | :32:11. | :32:13. | |
on Thursday, co-leader Caroline Lucas made | :32:14. | :32:14. | |
a pitch to younger voters. When it comes to young | :32:15. | :32:16. | |
people they've been But one crucial way they've been | :32:17. | :32:18. | |
betrayed is by what this generation and this government and the previous | :32:19. | :32:23. | |
ones have been doing when it comes We know we had the hottest year | :32:24. | :32:27. | |
on record last year, you know, you almost think what else does | :32:28. | :32:31. | |
the environment need to be doing All the signs are there | :32:32. | :32:34. | |
and it is young people who are going to be bearing | :32:35. | :32:38. | |
the brunt of a wrecked environment and that's why it's so important | :32:39. | :32:40. | |
that when we come to making that pitch to, yes, the country at large | :32:41. | :32:44. | |
but to young people in particular, I think climate change, | :32:45. | :32:47. | |
the environment, looking after our precious resources, | :32:48. | :32:49. | |
has to be up there. And I'm joined now by the Green | :32:50. | :32:53. | |
MEP, Molly Scott Cato. Welcome back to the programme. | :32:54. | :33:08. | |
Promised to scrap university tuition fees, increase NHS funding, rollback | :33:09. | :33:11. | |
cuts to local councils spending, how much would that cost and how would | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
you pay for it? Like the other parties we haven't got a costed | :33:16. | :33:18. | |
manifesto yet, it's only a few days since the election was announced so | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
I will come back and explain the figures. You don't know? Like every | :33:23. | :33:25. | |
party we have not produced accosted manifesto yet, we produced one last | :33:26. | :33:31. | |
time but public spending figures have changed so we're not in a | :33:32. | :33:34. | |
position to do that but we will be in a week or so. What taxes would | :33:35. | :33:39. | |
you like to consider raising? We would consider having higher taxes | :33:40. | :33:43. | |
for the better off in society. I think we need to increase the amount | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
of tax wealthier people pay. How do you define better off? I'm not | :33:49. | :33:51. | |
entirely clear what the precise number would be but I think 100,000 | :33:52. | :33:58. | |
people would pay a bit more, 150,000 quite considerably more but the real | :33:59. | :34:01. | |
focus needs to be on companies avoiding paying taxes. I work on | :34:02. | :34:05. | |
that a lot in my role in the European Parliament, we see an | :34:06. | :34:08. | |
enormous amount of tax avoidance by companies moving profits from | :34:09. | :34:11. | |
country to country and we need European corporation to make that | :34:12. | :34:14. | |
successful. It has not made much difference yet. We have made lots of | :34:15. | :34:20. | |
changes. Google turned over $1 billion and only paid 25 million in | :34:21. | :34:24. | |
taxes last year. There was a significant fine introduced by the | :34:25. | :34:29. | |
competition commission on Apple and in the case of Google we must change | :34:30. | :34:33. | |
the laws so that people cannot move profits from country to country. | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
Everybody wants to do it. But you couldn't face a big spending | :34:39. | :34:41. | |
programme on the ability to do that. You'd have to increase other taxes. | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
If you look at the cost of free student tuition, tuition fees and | :34:46. | :34:48. | |
also maintenance grants to students, that would come in at about 10 | :34:49. | :34:52. | |
billion a year. One way of paying for that would be to remove the | :34:53. | :34:55. | |
upper threshold on National Insurance, bringing in 20 billion a | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
year, that's the order of magnitude we are talking about. It is not | :35:00. | :35:03. | |
vast, and some of the proposals we have... That would be an increase on | :35:04. | :35:07. | |
the better of tax? National Insurance on people earning... | :35:08. | :35:14. | |
People earning above 42,000. You would have another 10% tax above | :35:15. | :35:18. | |
42,000? I can't remember exactly how much the National Insurance rate | :35:19. | :35:24. | |
changes by. But in government figures it would be 28 billion | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
raised. I think it is up to 45, a bit more you pay a marginal rate of | :35:29. | :35:32. | |
40%, you would have them pay a marginal rate of over 50%? We would | :35:33. | :35:37. | |
put the National Insurance rate on higher incomes the same as it is on | :35:38. | :35:41. | |
lower incomes. If you are a school head of an English department on 50, | :35:42. | :35:44. | |
60,000 a year you would face a marginal rate under U of over 50%? | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
It is not useful to do this as a mental maths exercise but if you | :35:51. | :35:55. | |
look at other proposals would could have a landlord licensing system, | :35:56. | :35:59. | |
longer term leases on properties, so young people particularly, but also | :36:00. | :36:02. | |
older people who rent, could have more security which needn't cost | :36:03. | :36:05. | |
anything. We could insist on landlords paying for that. The | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
mental arithmetic seems clear but we will come back to that. How is the | :36:11. | :36:14. | |
Progressive Alliance coming? It is going well, I have heard of a lot of | :36:15. | :36:18. | |
interest at local level. Winterset this in contest, context, lots of | :36:19. | :36:23. | |
progressives are concerned about the crisis in public services, prisons, | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
social care system, and also about the Tories' hard extreme Brexit they | :36:29. | :36:31. | |
are threatening. You want the left to come together? Theresa May has | :36:32. | :36:36. | |
given us opportunity, she has taken a risk because she has problems with | :36:37. | :36:39. | |
backbenchers, she doesn't think she can get through Brexit with a small | :36:40. | :36:43. | |
majority so there is an opportunity and we are saying progressives must | :36:44. | :36:46. | |
come together to corporate, Conservatives are effective at using | :36:47. | :36:49. | |
the first-past-the-post system and we have to become effective as well. | :36:50. | :36:54. | |
Do you accept this Progressive Alliance cannot become the | :36:55. | :36:57. | |
government and Mr Corbyn is the Prime Minister? How could it happen | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
otherwise? I think that is a secondary question. For me the | :37:03. | :37:05. | |
primary question is who do people choose to vote for? Aluminium | :37:06. | :37:08. | |
government afterwards comes after the election. In most countries that | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
is the case. I understand that but we have the system we have and you | :37:13. | :37:15. | |
accept this Progressive Alliance cannot be in power and thus mystical | :37:16. | :37:19. | |
Burmese Prime Minister? Personally I think Mr Corbyn is less of a threat | :37:20. | :37:22. | |
to the country than Theresa May, she has shown herself to be an | :37:23. | :37:25. | |
authoritarian leader and she has said she doesn't want to have | :37:26. | :37:32. | |
dissidents, which I would say is reasonable opposition, and what we | :37:33. | :37:34. | |
are suggesting at the moment is there is a way of avoiding that very | :37:35. | :37:37. | |
hard Brexit and damage to public services. You'd be happy to pay the | :37:38. | :37:39. | |
price of having Mr Corbyn as Prime Minister? I do not see that as a | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
price. People have the choice of Jeremy Corbyn or Theresa May as | :37:45. | :37:48. | |
Prime Minister, that's the system that works. You would prefer Mr | :37:49. | :37:52. | |
Corbyn? I would but votes are translated into seats and the | :37:53. | :37:55. | |
Progressive Alliance is a step towards that. | :37:56. | :37:57. | |
It's just gone 3:50pm, you're watching the Sunday Politics. | :37:58. | :37:59. | |
We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland, Wales | :38:00. | :38:01. | |
and Northern Ireland who leave us now. | :38:02. | :38:03. | |
Coming up here in 20 minutes, the Week Ahead. | :38:04. | :38:05. | |
First though, the Sunday Politics where you are. | :38:06. | :38:19. | |
So, off we go again in the capital, two years after the last one, | :38:20. | :38:30. | |
but with a hard-fought, some say divisive, mayoral | :38:31. | :38:32. | |
What will London do now with Brexit into the mix in this, | :38:33. | :38:36. | |
easily the most Remain place in England. | :38:37. | :38:38. | |
The Conservatives have provided us this week with Paul Scully, | :38:39. | :38:41. | |
who was in 2015 elected MP for Sutton and Cheam. | :38:42. | :38:43. | |
We also have with us the man co-ordinating | :38:44. | :38:45. | |
the Lib Dems' campaign, Tom Brake, | :38:46. | :38:47. | |
up to now MP for Carshalton and Wallington. | :38:48. | :38:48. | |
And the man doing likewise for Labour, Andy Slaughter, | :38:49. | :38:51. | |
Welcome to all of you. Just to kick off, realistic expectations, | :38:52. | :38:59. | |
starting with Paul, about what the Conservatives will do in the | :39:00. | :39:04. | |
capital. In London I would hope they will be winning well in south-west | :39:05. | :39:08. | |
London where it will be a tight fight against Liberal Democrats. Tom | :39:09. | :39:12. | |
I am sure will be on his toes, neither of us having fought in | :39:13. | :39:15. | |
Sutton for a long time will take anything for granted but I will give | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
him a run for his money. We need to be seeing if we can be making games | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
like in Ilford North and places like that as well. We will come onto that | :39:25. | :39:29. | |
later. Andrew Slaughter, honest and self-criticism, a realistic | :39:30. | :39:32. | |
assessment? Theresa May has misjudged calling the election both | :39:33. | :39:37. | |
on the issues and on the timing of it. She will get a nasty shock if | :39:38. | :39:41. | |
she expects people to just do what she is telling them. The British | :39:42. | :39:44. | |
public will not like that. Expectations about your own party? | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
In London I think we will do extremely well, partly as you say | :39:50. | :39:52. | |
because it is a Remain city and she's going for the hardest of hard | :39:53. | :39:58. | |
Brexits. Partly because the overall Tory message was very backward | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
looking, very monochrome type of view, which doesn't go down well at | :40:03. | :40:06. | |
all. Tom Brake opening thought, one step at a time? Paul Scully has | :40:07. | :40:10. | |
identified that south-west London will be a battle ground between the | :40:11. | :40:14. | |
Tories and the Lib Dems correctly. We have also heard that Ukip are | :40:15. | :40:17. | |
swinging behind Kate Hoey in Vauxhall which makes an interesting | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
prospect. And perhaps the seat that Simon Hughes used to hold which was | :40:24. | :40:28. | |
a very strong remain voting seat in the referendum where people may feel | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
let down by the Labour Party on the position they took on Brexit. We | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
will talk about that later because he is launching officially later | :40:38. | :40:42. | |
with a visit by the leader later on. The MP for that seat is just as | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
positive for Remain so let's not... We might discuss that later how | :40:48. | :40:53. | |
positive. We will discuss how positive he is about his own leader | :40:54. | :40:54. | |
later but let's move on. So, we've heard some | :40:55. | :40:57. | |
mention of target seats But let's get more detail | :40:58. | :40:58. | |
on the current picture and where the most crucial battles | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
could be fought, with Raph Sheridan. David Cameron wins a Tory | :41:03. | :41:04. | |
majority with the Lib Dems In London, Labour bucks the national | :41:05. | :41:12. | |
trend and performed well. Sadiq Khan is the | :41:13. | :41:18. | |
capital's Labour mayor. Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn | :41:19. | :41:32. | |
is Labour's leader and the Lib Dems The Lib Dems launched their campaign | :41:33. | :41:35. | |
here in Richmond Park where they managed a 22% swing | :41:36. | :41:41. | |
in a by-election victory last year. Bermondsey and Southwark, | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
Hornsey and Wood Green are hugely important, | :41:47. | :41:47. | |
significant seats for us. Bound to look at places | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
like Vauxhall and think with a heavily pro-Leave Labour MP | :41:52. | :41:55. | |
and a very liberal constituency, there's every chance we could do | :41:56. | :41:57. | |
well in places like that. Their strong stance against Brexit | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
is giving them a lot of ammunition against the Tories in the pro-EU | :42:02. | :42:05. | |
constituencies they lost I don't know what's wrong | :42:06. | :42:07. | |
with me, but I'm looking forward to this | :42:08. | :42:15. | |
election. I think it's because we're | :42:16. | :42:18. | |
full-on talking to people. I think that's what I remember | :42:19. | :42:20. | |
in 2015 The Labour Party has its strongholds | :42:21. | :42:24. | |
in inner London so their key where Jeremy Corbyn | :42:25. | :42:29. | |
launched his campaign. Do you want a Labour | :42:30. | :42:32. | |
MP that will stand up The Labour council in Croydon | :42:33. | :42:35. | |
is building council housing. I want a Labour Government that | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
builds council housing. Labour holds seats | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
across outer London Even the tiniest of swings | :42:45. | :42:46. | |
could mean the Tories once again Outer London, lots of marginal | :42:47. | :42:52. | |
constituencies where I think Labour MPs which in constituencies | :42:53. | :43:00. | |
in the past would not have been seen as absolutely | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
marginal will be worrying. There was a local council | :43:05. | :43:07. | |
by-election on Thursday in Harrow which showed a 9% swing from Labour | :43:08. | :43:10. | |
to the Conservatives. For many years, people have | :43:11. | :43:13. | |
described London as a Labour city. Come June 9th, will all | :43:14. | :43:15. | |
of that have changed? Where do we start? Let's start where | :43:16. | :43:28. | |
you were before the film. You say in somewhere like Southwark, where | :43:29. | :43:33. | |
there is a Remainer, that could neutralise the impact of Simon | :43:34. | :43:39. | |
Hughes, if this is going to be a Brexit election they will bond the | :43:40. | :43:42. | |
purest sense of rejection of it and will go for the Liberal Democrats | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
and not Labour. People have a variety of views, some people would | :43:47. | :43:50. | |
like us to stay in the EU, I would like to stay in the EU, or give | :43:51. | :43:55. | |
people a second referendum. Other people would say, yes, we respect | :43:56. | :43:59. | |
the result of the referendum but we want to replicate those terms | :44:00. | :44:03. | |
because those are good trading terms for the UK. To say it is a black and | :44:04. | :44:06. | |
white position as Tom Wood is ridiculous. I was correcting the | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
mistake which is that Neal Coyle with me and many other Labour MPs | :44:12. | :44:14. | |
voted not to trigger Article 50 so I hope we will not see in this | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
election campaign misrepresentation. How much those individuals might | :44:19. | :44:22. | |
have done, people will see it for what it was, that you had to say | :44:23. | :44:25. | |
that and do that and you knew an election would be coming sometime. I | :44:26. | :44:29. | |
think we have moved on in politics a lot and we will see some very | :44:30. | :44:33. | |
different results in different parts of the country in different | :44:34. | :44:35. | |
constituencies in the selection than we did before. So it's very | :44:36. | :44:39. | |
important when I put out my literature, or Niall does, or anyone | :44:40. | :44:43. | |
else does, they are clear about what their line is. It is absolutely | :44:44. | :44:50. | |
right, Keir Starmer our Brexit spokesman has said, quoting David | :44:51. | :44:52. | |
Davis, the Brexit Cabinet Minister, that we want to see the exact | :44:53. | :44:55. | |
replication of the trading conditions. I would like to go | :44:56. | :44:59. | |
further. I would like to see a second referendum or a vote in | :45:00. | :45:03. | |
parliament because Theresa May is not giving the British people what | :45:04. | :45:07. | |
they want. She's not giving them a choice. Tom Brake, south-west | :45:08. | :45:10. | |
London, like the south-west of the country, everyone knows now, there | :45:11. | :45:13. | |
will know immediately these are your targets, the Conservative candidate | :45:14. | :45:18. | |
there, I'm not sure quite why I'm going to enjoy this, she said, but | :45:19. | :45:22. | |
do you accept there will be limited Liberal Democrat advance and can | :45:23. | :45:25. | |
only be a limited advance because you are so far behind in so many | :45:26. | :45:29. | |
seats? Even someone like yours and in Paul's seat, narrowly Leave | :45:30. | :45:35. | |
areas. It is a myth to think the Liberal Democrats are doing well | :45:36. | :45:36. | |
just in Remain areas. We're not just going to make this | :45:37. | :45:56. | |
election about Brexit. This is also going to be about critical issues | :45:57. | :46:02. | |
such as the future of the NHS, the future of our local hospitals. Some | :46:03. | :46:06. | |
of those issues we'll come on to. How will you... You'll struggle in | :46:07. | :46:12. | |
your area where people prefer, definitely want to leave. And are | :46:13. | :46:17. | |
looking for signals there is a strong commitment to make that | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
happen? What I also think people want, they want to know if Theresa | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
May's re-elected at Prime Minister, there is a large vocal body of | :46:27. | :46:31. | |
people, Liberal Democrat members of Parliament to fight the Prime | :46:32. | :46:35. | |
Minister to ensure the hard Brexit she wants to enshoe which I think | :46:36. | :46:41. | |
will cause maximum damage to British jobs and families, is not the one | :46:42. | :46:45. | |
she'll end up delivering. You can only secure that if there is a large | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
body of MPs willing to fight her. The official Labour Party was supine | :46:51. | :46:58. | |
and frankly useless. The reason the Liberal Democrats want to fight this | :46:59. | :47:01. | |
on Brexit is they were complicit in the drew instruction of the NHS when | :47:02. | :47:05. | |
they were in coalition with the Tory Party. You can't air brush five | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
years of propping up a Tory Government. You see Tobias, an MP | :47:10. | :47:17. | |
for two years, you voted Leave as well, do you feel sorry for people | :47:18. | :47:21. | |
like Tanya Matthias who it looks like your party may be sacrificing | :47:22. | :47:26. | |
with this early election? I agree with Tom, this isn't just about | :47:27. | :47:30. | |
Brexit. It will clearly with the backdrop. Let's deal with the | :47:31. | :47:37. | |
backdrop first. What Tanya and I can do, and other Conservatives, is | :47:38. | :47:42. | |
compare the parties. Look to are what people want for the future. 52% | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
who voted to leave looked at different things. So did the 38%. | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
You have the Labour Party who can't agree about their position. The | :47:52. | :47:55. | |
Liberal Democrats are becoming increasingly shrill. It can have a | :47:56. | :48:03. | |
limited effect on the sidelines... You were a beneficiary of this in | :48:04. | :48:08. | |
2015 when you won, you took all those seats from the Liberal | :48:09. | :48:11. | |
Democrats, forced them virtually off the map in London. People in there | :48:12. | :48:16. | |
supported remain, a lot of candidates, Conservative, who got in | :48:17. | :48:21. | |
were Remain. They've' found themself with something they didn't want. | :48:22. | :48:27. | |
This isn't about rerehearsing last year's referendum. But it will be? | :48:28. | :48:34. | |
That was a by-election. A protest. I started talking to you about | :48:35. | :48:37. | |
Twickenham and Kingston. Voters may make it a very hard time for you. | :48:38. | :48:42. | |
Voters have their choices. They debate about the issues they want | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
to. We have to explain to people there is no point in rerehearsing | :48:48. | :48:54. | |
last year's arguments. Far better to concentrate on the individual | :48:55. | :48:56. | |
Industry Secretariers, individual communities, different styles of | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
business, so we can get the best, bespoke deal. Because Theresa May | :49:02. | :49:06. | |
has a wide negotiating position, doesn't mean anything's set in | :49:07. | :49:10. | |
stone. Do you think the timing's good? Coming so soon. Do you really | :49:11. | :49:15. | |
think the case has been made that there is is clear plan for how we'll | :49:16. | :49:20. | |
exit without all the harm that might be done when we loose access to the | :49:21. | :49:26. | |
single market? That's why this will be an interesting conversation over | :49:27. | :49:30. | |
the next seven weeks. Negotiating will take a full two years. This | :49:31. | :49:36. | |
isn't something that will be on June 9thth, we'll have a deal with the | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
rest of Europe, hard or soft Brexit. This will be something that will | :49:41. | :49:44. | |
involve politicians. I already was going to have, before this was | :49:45. | :49:47. | |
called, a set of public meetings to talk to people about what they | :49:48. | :49:52. | |
expected out of Brexit. The referendum, that last year's debate | :49:53. | :49:56. | |
has settled. Clear cloys, Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn leading this | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
process, getting that best deal now? I'm convinced Theresa May is ruining | :50:03. | :50:07. | |
this country. This hard Brexit path she's following. She wants to reject | :50:08. | :50:12. | |
our biggest trading partners and go off round the world talking to | :50:13. | :50:15. | |
dictators hoping she can patch together something. Brilliant | :50:16. | :50:20. | |
answer. That's repeating a point. And what a Labour Government under | :50:21. | :50:25. | |
Jeremy Corbyn will do is it will ensure that we replicate as quickly | :50:26. | :50:30. | |
and surely as possible the trading relationships to give us the | :50:31. | :50:36. | |
prosperity we want. Tom, adjudicate. Which of those parties will be best | :50:37. | :50:41. | |
able to deliver Brexit? I don't think either are well placed to. | :50:42. | :50:46. | |
That's why we want as many Liberal Democrats elected so the centre of | :50:47. | :50:50. | |
gravity which is very much on the hard end of Brexit is brought back | :50:51. | :50:56. | |
to the centre where most people whether they voted for Remain or | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
Leave, thought the UK would be within the single market. That's | :51:02. | :51:06. | |
what people who voted thought the Prime Minister was going to do. We | :51:07. | :51:10. | |
are not going to leave the whole Brexit theme but we'll drill down a | :51:11. | :51:14. | |
little deeper. How are the key issues as well as Brexit of Labour's | :51:15. | :51:18. | |
recent divisions. It is policies too. Worries over public services. | :51:19. | :51:23. | |
How will that be viewed in potentially one of the tightest | :51:24. | :51:25. | |
races? I will for the North. To make this report, | :51:26. | :51:40. | |
we trawled through pages of data about the constituency and found | :51:41. | :51:43. | |
apart from being quite a multi-cultural area, this part | :51:44. | :51:46. | |
of London is strikingly normal. So, whether you're looking | :51:47. | :51:48. | |
at how old people are, how much education they got, | :51:49. | :51:50. | |
whether they're healthy, how many cars they own, | :51:51. | :51:52. | |
if they own their own homes or not, Ilford North is uncannily | :51:53. | :51:55. | |
near the national average on almost But politically, this is a knife | :51:56. | :51:58. | |
edge constituenciency Labour won by just 589 seats | :51:59. | :52:01. | |
in the last election. With the polls suggesting big swings | :52:02. | :52:03. | |
to the Conservatives this time round, the people of Ilford North, | :52:04. | :52:06. | |
if it really is like the rest of the country, could well wake up | :52:07. | :52:09. | |
on 9th June with a Conservative We'll get you shown around | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
in one of our taxis. The man who has the job for now | :52:14. | :52:18. | |
is Labour's Wes Streeting. He took us on a tour | :52:19. | :52:21. | |
of the neighbourhood which, according to BBC research, | :52:22. | :52:23. | |
voted almost exactly like the rest of the country in the EU referendum | :52:24. | :52:26. | |
with 52% opting to leave. This is meant to be | :52:27. | :52:31. | |
a Brexit general election. My sense from talking to people, | :52:32. | :52:36. | |
I knock on doors every week and have done for the last two years, | :52:37. | :52:40. | |
I have to prompt conversations on Brexit more time | :52:41. | :52:43. | |
than not on the doorstep. Next stop, Wes's | :52:44. | :52:46. | |
constituency office. Were we typical from the man almost | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
certain to be his Conservative I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot | :52:52. | :52:54. | |
of you in the next seven weeks. In the last two years, Wes made | :52:55. | :53:03. | |
a name for himself as a leading critic of the Labour Party leader | :53:04. | :53:06. | |
Jeremy Corbyn, even going as far as saying the party can't | :53:07. | :53:09. | |
win a general election The battle is joined | :53:10. | :53:11. | |
by mobile phone. There's a landslide Tory Government | :53:12. | :53:22. | |
will deliver the hardest of hard Brexits and will deliver classic | :53:23. | :53:25. | |
Tory policies that will hit people, particularly the poorest, | :53:26. | :53:28. | |
on lower-middle incomes, They don't care every | :53:29. | :53:31. | |
school in my constituency They don't care my local A | :53:32. | :53:36. | |
is about to be closed. They don't care about the disabled | :53:37. | :53:40. | |
people in my constituency who've had their motability | :53:41. | :53:42. | |
vehicles taken away. The Labour leaflets handed out | :53:43. | :53:44. | |
on the street that we found have But quite a bit about Wes | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
himself and local issues, particularly the fate of the A | :53:50. | :53:54. | |
and The King George's Hospital. At the local Conservative | :53:55. | :53:58. | |
Association we showed them to the man at the other end | :53:59. | :54:01. | |
of the phone call Clearly, every election I've ever | :54:02. | :54:03. | |
stood in as a member of Parliament, as a councillor, every single time | :54:04. | :54:09. | |
I hear from the Labour Party that King George's is closing, | :54:10. | :54:12. | |
there will be cuts there. Later on, I'll take you down | :54:13. | :54:15. | |
to the A at King George's, I'll take you down to the hospital | :54:16. | :54:18. | |
which is still functioning. So, I don't believe scaremongering's | :54:19. | :54:22. | |
going to help anyone. There are no plans there would not | :54:23. | :54:25. | |
be, at the very least, a 24-hour I campaigned to keep St George's A | :54:26. | :54:29. | |
open and will do so again. So, if he's trying to make | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
the local NHS a non-issue, what would Lee like this election | :54:35. | :54:37. | |
to be about? Do we want a coalition chaos under | :54:38. | :54:41. | |
Jeremy Corbyn or do we want In the end, it is voters and not | :54:42. | :54:46. | |
politicians who decide how Jeremy Corbyn, not the best | :54:47. | :54:55. | |
speaker but he has a good I've never voted Conservative | :54:56. | :55:00. | |
in my life to be honest with you, I don't think I like | :55:01. | :55:05. | |
the present Prime Minister. Normally Labour, but I think | :55:06. | :55:15. | |
Theresa May's probably the best The Greens and Liberal Democrats | :55:16. | :55:22. | |
are also standing in Ilford North. Ukip have told us they're | :55:23. | :55:27. | |
looking for a candidate. But with just 46 days to go, | :55:28. | :55:30. | |
in this part of London, One of the issues for health in a | :55:31. | :55:45. | |
moment. First, quickly, about Wes streeting. We talked about Neil coil | :55:46. | :55:50. | |
in Southwark. Two very critical of the leadership. Do they deserve to | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
win when they've been so critical of the leader. Wes street something a | :55:55. | :56:02. | |
fantastic MP. Not Neil coil? I think I've made the case for Neil. Even | :56:03. | :56:06. | |
though they haven't. When they've been so critical over the last few | :56:07. | :56:11. | |
months and years, if they are not rallying fully behind the leadership | :56:12. | :56:15. | |
now do they deserve to win? I think you know the answer to the question. | :56:16. | :56:21. | |
I know these people. They are committed to their constituencies | :56:22. | :56:27. | |
and their constituents. That could have been me speaking about school | :56:28. | :56:30. | |
cuts and threats to local hospitals. It is a cheek for the Tory candidate | :56:31. | :56:36. | |
there to say that. The only reason these A closures have been delayed | :56:37. | :56:42. | |
not withdrawn is because there's such a crisis in the health service. | :56:43. | :56:47. | |
So much demand, so many people waiting so long on trolleys and A, | :56:48. | :56:50. | |
they have not been able to close them this year. Make no mistake, | :56:51. | :56:56. | |
they intend to do that. My next question, scaremongering, if hasn't | :56:57. | :57:01. | |
happened? No, because the NHS is in crisis because the Tories haven't | :57:02. | :57:05. | |
funded it and demand's going up. Any sensible Government, this is my real | :57:06. | :57:10. | |
beef with Theresa May's Government, any sensible Government would say | :57:11. | :57:14. | |
that's not going to work. Our plan to close A, in fact, they are | :57:15. | :57:20. | |
saying they'll go ahead with them. Every school in my constituency will | :57:21. | :57:26. | |
lose up to 25% of its school budget. St Helier hospital, between you two, | :57:27. | :57:33. | |
you both campaigned to keep it open. Paul Scully, Andy Slaughter saying | :57:34. | :57:38. | |
it won't stay open. With St Helier, we've heard is a quarter-of-a | :57:39. | :57:43. | |
century saying it will close with no viewpoint of how to take this off | :57:44. | :57:49. | |
the table. What I've been keen to do is work with the Chief Executive of | :57:50. | :57:52. | |
the hospital locally to see what we can do to maybe build a new hospital | :57:53. | :57:59. | |
facility in Sutton that is going to provide all those services. You | :58:00. | :58:03. | |
think there is a future there? But it... Let's trust the Tories, Tom | :58:04. | :58:12. | |
Brake. He's arguing for the closure of St Helier hospital No, I'm not. | :58:13. | :58:18. | |
With a replayment at the Sutton hospital site. There isn't the money | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
which amounts to 500 million or ?600 million to build a hospital on the | :58:24. | :58:28. | |
Sutton site. The risk of what he's advocating is we lose St Helier | :58:29. | :58:31. | |
hospital and don't gain Sutton hospital. You're wrong on both | :58:32. | :58:36. | |
counts. It doesn't cost that amount. I know from 25 years of campaigning | :58:37. | :58:39. | |
enough about the future of the hospital to know what it will cost. | :58:40. | :58:45. | |
It will cost around ?75 million. Do you think there should be any A | :58:46. | :58:53. | |
closures, any reforms? The last review is consultant-led. If you're | :58:54. | :58:58. | |
a junior doctor why go to St Hell year when everyone says it will | :58:59. | :59:01. | |
close down. You want to go to St George, where the action is, | :59:02. | :59:05. | |
according to the political waves. So, it is a self-perpetuating cycle, | :59:06. | :59:13. | |
really. Can I say, doctors would want to go to St Helier hospital | :59:14. | :59:17. | |
because it is one of the highest performing in London and achieves | :59:18. | :59:22. | |
the best results in A It is a shame it could be closed down. Can I | :59:23. | :59:26. | |
pick up on some of the themes from earlier. Your leader Jeremy Corbyn, | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
not apparently committing yet. Not clear about Trident which will come | :59:32. | :59:36. | |
up on the doorstep. Do you want to see a commitment to keep Trident in | :59:37. | :59:40. | |
the manifesto? There is a commitment. I'm sure it will be. You | :59:41. | :59:45. | |
want that though? It will be. It will be party policy and it will be. | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
You mentioned the doorstep. I've been eight hours there this weekend. | :59:50. | :59:57. | |
The Health Service came up, housing crisis, schools, housing crisis. | :59:58. | :00:03. | |
Very neat swerve. I can't even get on to Brexit and the NHS. Do you | :00:04. | :00:09. | |
agree this lock on taxation, which should be prepared to look the a | :00:10. | :00:14. | |
national insurance, income tax, VAT to see if this rises are necessary? | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
The Chancellor can talk about flexibility. I did speak out to the | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
Treasury about the national insurance changes in the last | :00:25. | :00:26. | |
budget. I've run businesses for 25 years. I don't want to send the | :00:27. | :00:34. | |
wrong signal to people taking risks. But in terms of flexibility for the | :00:35. | :00:37. | |
Chancellor, we'll see what the manifesto brings. A number of people | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
said to me, the Liberal Democrats, tuition fees. They still can't let | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
that go. People who have's children going through. What will you do | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
about that? I've campaigning a lot. No-one's mentioned tuition fees. On | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
all the wrong issues today. The Prime Minister has chosen to make | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
this general election Brexit. That is what we'll fight it on. But also | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
on issues like the NHS. Run out of time. Andrew, back to you. | :01:10. | :01:16. | |
Now, Ukip have made their first significant policy announcement | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
of the election campaign today with a call for a ban on wearing | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
But is it a policy that will meet with the approval of the man | :01:29. | :01:34. | |
who bankrolled the party's last general election campaign? | :01:35. | :01:36. | |
Hello, Andrew. Let me see if I can clarify some things, are you a | :01:37. | :01:44. | |
member of Ukip? I a patron of Ukip so I don't stop being a member. So | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
you are still a member? I am, apparently for life. Are you still | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
hoping to bankroll Ukip? Not at the moment. Why is that? The internal | :01:55. | :02:00. | |
problems we have had in Ukip have been aired, and a lot needs to | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
happen in the party in terms of professionalising it and I think it | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
is ill-prepared for this general election. Are you going to run in | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
Clacton? I will be if selected. For Ukip? Yes. Have you been to Clacton? | :02:15. | :02:22. | |
I've been with Nigel Mansell on the campaign. You will run for a | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
constituency you've only been in once? Yes, why does that surprise | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
you? You know nothing about it. I've just recently decided to become the | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
candidate there. Did you know where it is? Of course I do, your piece | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
the other night was completely wrong. I said I knew where it was | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
but I didn't know much about it. Maybe the people of Clacton will | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
regard you as a carpetbagger? Why? Because you have never been there. | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
Most politicians are carpetbaggers and I will be there for the right | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
reasons. I thought it was because of your visceral hatred of Douglas | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
Carswell. He only lasted 24 hours after I announced my candidacy so we | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
will see what happens. The main thing I am going to Clacton on | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
Monday to meet the Ukip councillors, see what the issues are and see if | :03:15. | :03:17. | |
they want me as a candidate. They may not want me. Who do you think | :03:18. | :03:23. | |
you will be up against? The potential Conservative candidate. | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
Who in Ukip? I don't suppose anyone in Ukip will stand against me, I | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
wouldn't have thought. Really? I would have thought. Money talks! Why | :03:35. | :03:42. | |
do you say that? You talked about having a pirate radio station to | :03:43. | :03:45. | |
blast into Clacton so it is not covered by the election rules. | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
You've been talking about financing a sort of right-wing Momentum | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
movement. I just wonder, has politics now just become a | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
Richmond's hobby? From my perspective the reason I'm | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
interested in it is if you have looked at what has happened in the | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
country, it's clear the Conservatives will have a massive | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
majority. -- has politics become a rich man's hobby. Only putting up | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
candidates not against Brexit MPs. Is Ukip over? I don't think so. The | :04:16. | :04:22. | |
electoral maths is interesting because first-past-the-post | :04:23. | :04:24. | |
effectively could help Ukip in this example. Ukip got one MP with 4 | :04:25. | :04:35. | |
million votes. What we are seeing is the total collapse of Labour. In | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
that situation there are certain seats up north in Hartlepool and | :04:39. | :04:41. | |
other seats like that, the total collapse of the Labour Party could | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
help Ukip to win a few seats. Is Ukip over? It looks that way, yes. | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
They haven't made much of a dent in Labour's vote in the north, they | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
don't really have a defining issue anymore and all the polls we have | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
seen published since the election was called show Ukip vote is going | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
to the Conservatives. Is Ukip over? It always happens when the | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
Conservative Party goes far to the right, really hard Brexit, there is | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
no space for BMP, Ukip and all of that. Are you associating the BNP | :05:12. | :05:18. | |
with Ukip? Or that, movements to the right of the Conservatives get eaten | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
up one the Conservatives move as far right as Theresa May has done. I | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
think what your enterprise shows is how it's really time to reform | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
funding of political parties. It is disgraceful that very rich people | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
can move in and bankroll the Brexit campaigned to the extent that they | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
did. We need proper state funding of parties. The union is bankrolling | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
Labour. I assume the reform would include trade unions? Indeed. Ukip | :05:47. | :05:54. | |
has lost its talisman in Nigel Farage, it was a one-man party, I | :05:55. | :05:57. | |
have to say, people like Tim. Having voted for Brexit its reason to be | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
has gone. It will still take votes from Labour and the Conservatives | :06:04. | :06:06. | |
but probably only from the don't knows. There are seats in certain | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
places where if enough Tories back Ukip dated when. Hartlepool is an | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
example. Were the Tories will never win. The demise of Ukip has been | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
forecasted many times before but I don't see a Tory candidate winning | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
in a place like Hartlepool. So we could see, and I think we will see, | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
the total collapse of the Labour vote. We shall see. The leader of | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
the party of which you say you are still a patron, Paul Nuttall, said | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
he would ban the Burcea and the niqab in public, what is your view? | :06:37. | :06:45. | |
-- the niqab and the Burcea? I'm not in agreement with that. If it is a | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
security issue at airports or public transport it could be acceptable but | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
I'm not in favour of curtailing people's writes. You have gone | :06:54. | :06:56. | |
further than him, haven't you? You tweeted you wanted to ban Muslim | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
immigration. In my view the problem we have had with the lack of | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
integration in certain communities has come about through mass | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
open-door immigration. If you are a must win you wouldn't be allowed in? | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
What I said in the tweet was I think they should be a ban on | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
immigration... You said Muslim immigration. That's what I believe. | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
If you are a world famous doctor coming to help one of our big | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
teaching hospitals in this country because you are a Muslim you could | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
not get in? We have to start somewhere, there are huge problems | :07:31. | :07:33. | |
in areas where 20% of the population don't speak the language, they | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
haven't integrated. You should read the rest of the tweet, it is control | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
of immigration from a 10-year ban on unskilled immigration. The first | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
thing you said was to ban Muslim immigration, it is in black and | :07:49. | :07:51. | |
white. I have said that, I do not dispute that. I was questioning | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
that. There is my answer, you cannot tell somebody's will adjust freedoms | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
but what you can do is stop adding to the problem. Doesn't that sound a | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
bit like the BNP? It's as like BNP and like Trump. Its, we hate | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
Muslims, fine, if that is what you are standing for, that is clear. The | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
final word is we have had open-door mass immigration from the | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
Conservative Party, we've had it from the Labour Party and its fine | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
if you are in north London to say these things, if you live in Oldham | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
and your community has been radically changed and you have a | :08:25. | :08:27. | |
whole population not integrating in, not speaking the language, something | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
has got to be done. We had better leave it there. Thank you for coming | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
in. I am en route to Clacton. We will see how you get on there. | :08:37. | :08:38. | |
Now, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron was on TV earlier today | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
and he was asked again about an issue that he's been | :08:42. | :08:43. | |
asked about repeatedly - his attitude to homosexuality. | :08:44. | :08:45. | |
when they asked you whether gay sex was a sin. | :08:46. | :08:55. | |
Come on, Robert, I've been asked this question loads | :08:56. | :08:57. | |
few days and I have been clear, even in the House of Commons, | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
It's possible I'm not the only person getting tired | :09:02. | :09:12. | |
Probably, but then why don't you just close it down? | :09:13. | :09:15. | |
Toby Young, why does he get into such a mess over this? I mean, he is | :09:16. | :09:27. | |
leader of the Liberal Democrats. Its 2017. I guess the reason he keeps | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
refusing to answer that question is because what the implication is that | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
he does think that homosexual acts are sinful, and he cannot bring | :09:36. | :09:42. | |
himself not to say that, or to say what Robert Peston and others want | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
him to say because he is an evangelical Christian who converted | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
at the age of 20, 21, and clearly he really struggles with this issue and | :09:51. | :09:53. | |
I think it will be really difficult for the Lib Dems to promote, or even | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
Lib Dem candidates like Vince Cable, to promote the idea of the | :09:58. | :10:00. | |
Progressive Alliance even though Tim has ruled it out, if he is not | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
prepared to say I don't think homosexual acts are sinful. What is | :10:05. | :10:13. | |
your view? It is disastrous if that is what he really thinks but Preston | :10:14. | :10:16. | |
did not push the hard. I'm not sure he understood the difference about | :10:17. | :10:18. | |
the question between gay sex and being gay. I think he just thought | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
he was going on saying I'm not anti-gay. He needs to command | :10:23. | :10:25. | |
immediately and clarify it. If you are right and he does actually think | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
it is a sin he is in real trouble. There is a slight parallel with what | :10:31. | :10:33. | |
police said before about Jeremy Corbyn, how his unilateral nuclear | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
policy would appeal to the hard core of the left. The problem for Tim | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
Farron with what he is saying here, while he is an evangelical | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
Christian, this will not appeal to traditional Liberal Democrats. An | :10:48. | :10:54. | |
LGBT community member cannot possibly vote for an MP who believes | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
that a sexual act between homosexuals is sinful. He has not | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
made that clear. Of course, he wants to stop Brexit as well so he is | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
neither liberal nor democratic. He will have seven weeks to make it | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
clear because I am sure he will be asked again. We have the chairman of | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
the Conservative Party on earlier, Polly. An important figure for the | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
Tory campaign. What did you make of what he said? I don't think he will | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
have him on very often, he didn't do brilliantly. I think they will bring | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
back chemical Ali, Michael Fallon, he can say anything with a straight | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
face, he can say black is white. Michael Fallon, chemical Ali? Why do | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
you say that? He can absolutely say black is white. For instance if you | :11:38. | :11:43. | |
look back at what he said, you challenged him about the energy | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
policy, when Ed Miliband came out with it, he said any kind of freeze | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
would stop investment, the lights will go out. You have him on, he | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
will say the exact opposite. He is magic at that. But I don't think | :11:59. | :12:04. | |
your guy today was up to the job. If Michael Fallon was chemical Ali, or | :12:05. | :12:11. | |
we should say chemical Fally, Patrick was more like comical Ali. | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
The whole Iraq war is rushing back at me. He is the warm up comedian, | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
there is another six weeks to go, just getting things started. What | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
did you think? I don't think he was too bad, it was difficult for him to | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
say exactly what was in the 2050 manifesto is going to be replicated | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
in the Conservatives' manifesto during this general election, he | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
doesn't want to be seen rowing back on stuff but on the other hand I | :12:38. | :12:40. | |
don't think he can conceal the fact they will be far fewer commitments | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
in this Conservative manifesto than in the last one, as you and I know, | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
it was full of rash promises last time because they thought they would | :12:49. | :12:57. | |
have to trade a lot of them away in the negotiations with the Liberal | :12:58. | :12:59. | |
Democrats to form a second coalition so they are saddled with policies | :13:00. | :13:01. | |
they don't particularly want to be hemmed in by. The forthcoming | :13:02. | :13:03. | |
Conservative manifesto will be much lighter and shorter with fewer | :13:04. | :13:06. | |
commitments. Different? Some stuff jumped from the 2050 manifesto? I | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
think so but we will see a commitment to run schools to | :13:11. | :13:13. | |
overcome that hurdle in the next parliament and I don't think, in | :13:14. | :13:16. | |
spite of what you think, Polly, that it will be a hard tack to the right. | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
I think if anything the mood music of the Conservative manifesto will | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
be a centrist inclusive one. The mood music will be because the | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
specifics would be there. She is good at saying governing for | :13:31. | :13:33. | |
everybody and the many and not the few but when you look at the hard | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
facts of what her and Hammond's budget looks like, you look at her | :13:38. | :13:40. | |
hard Brexit, it's a very different story. Or that, the music has | :13:41. | :13:48. | |
stopped for this week! Thank you. I will be back next week at the normal | :13:49. | :13:55. | |
time of 11am on Sunday morning. On BBC One The Daily Politics is back | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
at midday tomorrow and we will be on every day next week on BBC Two. | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
Remember, if it's Sunday, it is The Sunday Politics. | :14:04. | :14:33. | |
There'll be a couple of hours of just fantastic music, really, | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
all the Ella classics, as well as some very special guests, | :14:37. | :14:39. | |
we have Mica Paris, Imelda May, Dame Cleo Laine | :14:40. | :14:43. |