17/11/2013 Sunday Politics North East and Cumbria

Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics.

Downing Street announces an inquiry into allegations of hardball tactics

and intimidation by unions in industrial disputes. That's our top

Thousands dead. Hundreds of Thousands dead. Hundreds of

thousands without homes. Millions affected. What is Britain doing to

help the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan? We'll ask

International Development Secretary Typhoon Haiyan? We'll ask

Justine Greening. Winter is coming and so, it seems,

is another crisis in England's hospitals. I'll be asking the Shadow

Health Secretary how he'd put visit a North East street to see how

its residents cope with rising fatalities on the capital's streets,

and renewed calls to get lorries off the roads in peak hours.

With me, the best and brightest political panel that money can buy.

Janan Ganesh, Nick Watt and this week, Zoe Williams, who'll be

tweeting their thoughts throughout the programme.

The Government has announced a review to investigate what the Prime

Minister has called "industrial intimidation" by trade union

activists. Bruce Carr QC will chair a panel to examine allegations of

the kind of tactics that came to light during the Grangemouth

dispute, when the Unite union took their protests - replete with a

giant rat - outside the family homes of the firms' bosses. Earlier this

morning the Cabinet office minister, Francis Maude spoke to the BBC and

this is what he had to say. To look at whether the law currently works

and see if it is ineffective in preventing the kind of intimidatory

activity that was alleged to have taken place around range mouth

during the previous disputes -- Grangemouth. We make no presumptions

at the beginning of this. I do think it is a responsible thing for the

government to establish what happened and really do a proper

review into whether the law is adequate to meet the needs. That was

Francis Maude. This is a purely political move, isn't it? Unite did

this a couple of times, it is hardly happening all over the country but

the government want to say, we are prepared to investigate Unite

properly, Labour isn't. This seemed a lot worse when I thought it was a

real rat. I thought it was a giant dead rat. I am not sure if you know

much about rats but real rats are not this big, even the ones in

London. The thing is, obviously it is naked politics but I think it is

more intelligent than it looks. They are trying to taint Miliband as a

week union puppet and that doesn't really wash. They hammer away with

it and it might wash for some people. But it really castrates

Miliband in the important issues he has to tackle. Zero hours, living

wage, all of those things in which he needs to be in concert with the

unions, and to use their expertise. He is making them absolutely toxic

to go anywhere near. It keeps the Unite story alive, have to kill --

particularly since Mr Miller band is under pressure to reopen the

investigation into what Unite are up to -- Mr Miliband. They are

frustrated, not only at the BBC but the media generally at what they

think is a lack of coverage. I see the political rationale from that

respect. There is a risk. There are union members who either vote Tory

or are open to the idea of voting Tory. All Lib Dem. If the party

comes across as too zealous in as -- its antipathy, there is an electoral

consequence. Ed Miliband has been careful to keep a distance. Yes

they depend on vast amounts of money. When Len McCluskey had a real

go at the Blairites, Ed Miliband was straight out there with a very

strong statement. Essentially Len McCluskey wanted Blairites in the

shadow cabinet sacked and Ed Miliband was keen to distance

himself or for that is why it is not quite sticking. Another story in the

Sunday papers this morning, the Mail on Sunday got hold of some e-mails.

When I saw the headline I thought it was a huge cache of e-mails, it

turns out to be a couple. They peel away the cover on the relationship

between Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, with some of Ed Miliband's cohorts

describing what Mr balls is trying to do as a nightmare. How bad are

the relations? They are pretty bad and these e-mails confirm the

biggest open signal in Westminster, which is that relations are pretty

tense, -- open secret. That Ed Miliband doesn't feel that Ed Balls

is acknowledging the economy has grown that Labour needs to admit to

past mistakes. The sort of great open signal is confirmed. On a scale

of 1-10, assuming that Blair-Brown was ten. I think it is between six

and seven. They occupy this joint suite of offices that George Cameron

and -- David Cameron and George Osborne had. It is not just on the

economy that there were tensions, there were clearly tensions over

HS2, Ed Balls put a huge question over it at his conference. There

will be more tensions when it comes to the third runway because my

information is that Mr balls wants to do it and Ed Miliband almost

resigned over it when he was in government. I don't think Ed

Miliband is thinking very politically because he has tried

live without Ed Balls and that is not tenable either. -- life without.

He has defined a way of making it work. That is where Tony Blair had

the edge on any modern politician. He didn't want to make Ed Balls his

Shadow Chancellor, he had to. Somebody said to him, if you make Ed

Balls Shadow Chancellor, that will be the last decision you take as

leader of the Labour Party. Is it as bad? I was surprised at how tame the

e-mails were. At the FT it is compulsory, one French word per

sentence! To call him a nightmare, compared to what they are willing to

say in briefings, conversations bits of frustrations they express

verbally come what is documented in the e-mails is actually pretty

light. It has been a grim week for the people of the Philippines as

they count the cost of the devastation wrought by Typhoon

Haiyan. HMS Daring has just arrived near the worst hit areas - part of

Britain's contribution to bring aid to the country.

It has been one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the

Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan hit the country nine days ago, leaving

devastation in its wake. The numbers involved are shocking. The official

death toll is over 3600 people, with many thousands more unaccounted for.

More than half a million people have lost their homes and the UN

estimates 11 million have been affected. David Cameron announced on

Friday that the UK government is to give an extra ?30 million in aid,

taking the total British figure ?250 million. An RAF Sea 17 aircraft

landed yesterday with equipment to help aid workers get too hard to

reach areas. HMS Illustrious is on its way and due to arrive next

weekend. The British public have once again dipped into their pockets

and given generously. They have given more than ?30 million to the

Disasters Emergency Committee. The International Development

Secretary, Justine Greening, joins me now for the Sunday Interview

Good morning, Secretary of State. How much of the ?50 million that the

government has allocated has got through so far? All of it has landed

on the ground now. HMS Daring has turned up, that will be able to

start getting help out to some of those more outlying islands that

have been hard to reach. We have seen Save the Children and Oxfam

really being able to get aid out on the ground. We have a plane taking

off today that will not read just carrying out more equipment to help

clear the roads but will also have their staff on board, too. We have

?50 million of aid actually on the ground? We instantly chartered

flights directly from Dubai where we have preprepared human Terry and

supplies, and started humanity work -- humanitarian supplies.

A lot of it has now arrived. I think we have done a huge amount so far.

We have gone beyond just providing humanitarian supplies, to getting

the Royal Air Force involved. They have helped us to get equipment out

there quickly. We have HMS Illustrious sailing over there now.

Why has that taken so long? It was based in the Gulf and is not going

to get there until two weeks after the storm first hit and that is the

one ship we have with lots of helicopters. The first decision we

took was to make sure we could get the fastest vessel out there that

was able to help HMS Daring. HMS Illustrious was just finishing an

exercise and planning to start to head back towards the UK. We have

said to not do that, and diverted it. Shouldn't it have happened more

quickly? We took the decisions as fast as we were able to, you can't

just turn a big warship around like the HMS Illustrious. We made sure we

took those decisions and that is while it will be taking over from

HMS Daring come and that is why HMS Daring is ready there. It will be

able to provide key support and expertise that has not been there so

far. The US Navy is doing the heavy lifting here. The US Navy had the

USS Washington, there is an aircraft carrier, 80 planes, 5000 personnel

and they have the fleet, they are doing the real work. We obviously

helping but the Americans are taking the lead. It is a big international

effort. Countries like the US and the UK, that have a broader ability

to support that goes beyond simply call humanitarian supplies -- have

made sure we have brought our logistics knowledge, we have sent

out our naval vessels. It shows we are working across government to

respond to this crisis. Why does only just over 4% of your aid budget

go on emergency disaster and response? A lot depends on what

crises hit in any given year. We have done a huge amount, responding

to the crisis in Syria, the conflict there and the fact we have 2 million

refugees who have fled the country. We are part of an international

effort in supporting them. Shouldn't we beginning more money to that

rather than some of the other programmes where it is harder to see

the results question of if we were to give more money to the refugees,

it would be a visible result. We could see an improvement in the

lives of children, men and women. What we need to do is alongside that

is stop those situations from happening in the first place. A lot

of our development spend is helping countries to stay stable. Look at

some of the work we are doing in Somalia, much more sensible. Not

just from an immigration but there is a threat perspective. There is a

lot of terrorism coming from Somalia. You only have to look at

Kenya recently to see that. Which is why you talk about what we do with

the rest of the spend. It is why it is responsible to work with the

government of Somalia. Should we give more, bigger part of the budget

to disaster relief or not? I think we get it about right, we have to be

flexible and we are. This Philippine relief is on top of the work in

Syria. Where can you show me a correlation between us giving aid to

some failed nation, or nearly failed nation, and that cutting down on

terrorism? If you look at the work we have done in Pakistan, a huge

amount of work. Some of it short-term. It is written by

terrorism. That is -- ridden by terrorism. That is not going to fix

it self in a sense. Look at the work that we do in investing in

education. The things that little girls like Malala talk about as

being absolutely key. We are ramping up our aid to Pakistan, it will be

close to half ?1 billion by the time of the election. Why should British

taxpayers be giving half ?1 billion to a country where only 0.5% of

people in Pakistan pay income tax, and 70% of their own MPs don't pay

income tax. It is a good point and that is why we have been working

with their tax revenue authority to help them increase that and push

forward the tax reform. You are right, and I have setup a team that

will go out and work with many of these countries so they can raise

their own revenues. You really think you will raise the amount of tax by

sending out the British HRM see How many troops I we sending out to

protect them? They don't need troops. We make sure that we have a

duty of care alongside our staff, but we have to respond to any crisis

like the Philippines, and alongside other countries we have two work

alongside them so that they can reinvest in their own public

services. If they can create their own taxes, will we stop paying aid?

We need to look at that but the new Pakistan Government has been very

clear it is a priority and we will be helping them in pursuing that.

Let me show you a picture. Who are these young women? I don't know I'm

sure you are about to tell me. They are the Ethiopian Spice Girls and

I'm surprised you don't know because they have only managed to become so

famous because your department has financed them to the tune of ?4

million. All of the work we do with women on the ground, making sure

they have a voice in their local communities, making sure they have

some control over what happens to their own bodies in terms of

tackling FGM, female genital mutilation... Did you know your

department has spent ?4 million on the Ethiopian Spice Girls? Yes, I

do, and we have to work with girls and show them there is a life ahead

of them with opportunity and potential that goes beyond what many

of them will experience, which includes early and forced marriage.

It is part of the work we do with local communities to change

attitudes everything you have just said is immeasurable, and they

broadcast on a radio station that doesn't reach most of the country so

it cannot have the impact. It only reaches 20 million people and the

project has been condemned saying there were serious inefficiencies.

That aid report was done a while ago now, and it was talking about the

project when it first got going and a lot of improvements have happened

since. I would go back to the point that we are working in very

difficult environments where we are trying to get longer term change on

the ground and that means working directly with communities but also

investing for the long-term, investing in some of these girls

start changing attitudes in them and their communities. Why does the

British taxpayers spend ?5 million on a Bangladesh version of Question

Time? We work with the BBC to make sure we can get accountabilities...

That is bigger then the BBC Question Time Normal -- budget. That includes

the cost of David Dimbleby's tattoo! We are working to improve

people's prospects but also we are working to improve their ability to

hold their governments to account so that when they are not getting

services on the ground, they have ways they can raise those concerns

with the people who are there to deliver services for them. In your

own personal view, should the next Conservative Government, if there is

one, should you continue to ring fence spending on foreign aid? But

it is critical that if we are going to spend 7.7% of our national

income, we should make sure it is in our national interest and that means

having a clear approach to humanitarian responses, in keeping

the country safe, and a clearer approach on helping drive economic

development and jobs so there is a long-term end of the dependency Do

you believe in an shrine in the percentage of our GDP that goes on

foreign aid in law? Yes, and that is a coalition agreement. There have

been a lot of agreements that you are sceptical about ring fencing. We

are focused on shaking up the economy and improving our public

finances. Why haven't you done that? At the end of the day we will be

accountable but we are committed to doing that. You are running out of

time, will you do it? I hope we can find the Parliamentary time, but

even if we don't, we have acted as if that law is in place and we have

already met 0.7% commitment. If you are British voter that doesn't

believe that we should enshrine that in by law, which means that with a

growing economy foreign aid will rise by definition, and if you think

we should be spending less money on the Ethiopian Spice Girls, for whom

should you wrote in the next election? I think we have a very

sensible approach. I don't know what the various party manifestoes.. The

only party who thinks we shouldn't be doing this is UKIP. I think you

have to look at the response to both the Philippines crisis and Children

In Need. Of all the steps we are taking to get the country back on

track, it shows the British people will respond to need when they need

it and it is one of the things that makes Britain's special.

Thank you. "It's always winter but never Christmas" - that's how

doctors describe life inside accident and emergency. The College

of Emergency Medicine have warned that this year could bring the

"worst crisis on record". If that dire prediction comes, expect a

spring of political recriminations, but how prepared are the NHS in

England? And what do they make of this autumnal speculation? Giles has

been to Leeds to find out. This winter has already come to our

hospitals. It had an official start date, November the 3rd. That is when

weekly updates are delivered to the NHS's most senior planners, alerting

them to any sudden changes in patient numbers coming in. Where do

they numbers register most then A They are the barometer for what

is going on everywhere else, and they are the pressure point, so if

the system is beginning to struggle then it is in the A department

that we see the problems. It is not that the problems are the A

departments, but they are the place where it all comes together. Plans

to tackle those problems start being drawn up in May and they look at

trends, even taking notice of any flu epidemics in New Zealand. They

also look at the amount of bets But the weather, economic realities

structural reforms, and changes to the general health of the

population, are all factors they have to consider. We get huge

amounts of information through the winter in order to help the NHS be

the best it can be, but we had to redouble our efforts this year

because we expected to be a difficult winter. We know the NHS is

stretched so we are working hard to be as good as we can be. That means

they are looking at winter staffing levels, plans to ask for help from

neighbouring hospitals, and dovetailing help with GP surgeries,

and still having the ability to move up an extra gear, a rehearsed

emergency plan if the NHS had to face a major disease pandemic. You

spend any time in any of our hospitals and you realise the NHS

knows that winter is coming and they are making plans, but you also get a

palpable feeling amongst health workers across the entire system

that they do get fed up of being used as a political football.

Doctors and all health care professionals are frustrated about

the politics that surrounds the NHS in health care. They go to work to

treat patients as best as they can, and the political knock-about does

not help anyone. I find it frustrating when there is a

commentary that suggests the NHS does not planned, when it is

surprised by winter, and wherever that comes from it is hard to take,

knowing how much we do nationally and how much our hard working front

line staff are doing. When the Coalition have recently tried to

open up the NHS to be a more independent body, it is clear the

NHS feel they have had an unhealthy dose of political wrangling between

parties on policy. The NHS is not infallible or making any guarantees,

but they seem confident that they and their patients can survive the

winter. Joining me now from Salford in the

Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham. Tell me this, if you were

health secretary now, you just took over in an emergency election, what

would you do to avoid another winter crisis? I would immediately halt the

closure of NHS walk-in centres. We heard this week that around one in

four walk-in centres are closed so it makes no sense whatsoever for the

Government to allow the continued closure of them. I would put nurses

back on the end of phones and restore an NHS direct style service.

The new 111 service is not in a position to provide help to people

this winter. I think the time has come to rethink how the NHS care is

particularly for older people so I propose the full integration of

health and social care. It cannot make any sense any more to have this

approach where we cut social care and let elderly people drift to

hospitals in greater numbers. We have two rethink it as a whole

service. So you would repeal some of the Tory reforms and move

commissioning to local authorities so the NHS should brace itself for

another major top-down health reorganisation? No, unlike Andrew

Lansley I will work with the organisations ie inherit. He could

work with primary care trusts but he turned it upside down when it needed

stability. I will not do that but I will repeal the health and social

care act because last week we heard that hospitals and health services

cannot get on and make sensible merger collaborations because of

this nonsense now that the NHS is bound by competition law. Let me get

your views on a number of ideas that have been floated either by the

press or the Coalition. We haven't got much time. Do you welcome the

plan to bring back named GPs for over 75s? Yes, but it has got harder

to get the GP appointment under this Government because David Cameron

scrapped the 48-hour guarantee that Tony Blair brought in. He was

challenged in the 2005 election about the difficulty of getting a GP

appointment, and Tony Blair brought in the commitment that people should

be able to get that within 48 hours. That has now been scrapped.

Do you welcome the idea of allowing everyone to choose their own GP

surgery even if it is not in our traditional catchment area? I

proposed that just before the last election, so yes. Do you welcome the

idea of how a practice is being rated being a matter of public

record, and of us knowing how much, at least from the NHS, our GP earns?

Of course, every political party supports transparency in the NHS.

More information for the public of that kind is a good thing. Do you

welcome this plan to make it will form the collect in an NHS hospital

-- make wilful neglect a criminal -- make wilful neglect a criminal

offence. It is important to say you can't pick and mix these

recommendations, you can't say we will have that one and not the

others. It was a balanced package that Sir Robert Francis put forward.

My message is that it must be permitted in full. If we are to

learn the lessons, the whole package must be addressed, and that includes

safe staffing levels across the NHS. Staff have a responsible to two

patients at the government also has responsible at T2 NHS staff and it

should not let them work in responsible at T2 NHS staff and it

understaffed, unsafe conditions -- a responsibility to NHS staff. Is

there a part of the 2004 agreements that you regret and should be

undone? A lot of myths have been built up about the contract. When it

came in, there was a huge shortage of GPs across the country. Some

communities struggle to recruit This myth that the government have

built, that the 2004 GP contract is responsible for the AM decries is,

it is spin of the worst possible kind -- the A crisis. You would

redo that contract? It was redone under our time in government and

change to make it better value for money. GPs should be focused on

improving the health of their patients and that is a very good

principle. Not so great if you can't get 24-hour access. I agree with

that. We brought in evening and weekend opening for GPs. That is

another thing that has gone in reverse under Mr Cameron. It is much

harder to get a GP appointment under him and that is one of the reasons

why A is an oppressor. -- under pressure. What do you make of the

review into intimidatory tactics by unions? If there has been

intimidation, it is unacceptable, and that should apply to unions as

well as employers. Was Unite wrong to turn up and demonstrate? I don't

know the details, this review will look into that presumably. I need

reassurance that this is not a pretty cool call by Mr Cameron on

the designed to appear near the election -- that this is not a

political call. Are you sponsored by unite? No. Do you get any money from

Unite? No. What have you done wrong? It seems others are getting money

from Unite. Can I tell you what I think is the scandal of British

party political funding, two health care companies have given ?1.5

million in donations to the Tory party, they have ?1.5 billion in NHS

contracts. I wonder why you don t spend much time talking about that

and obsess over trade union funding. We are happy to talk about that We

see from e-mails that Mr Miliband's closest advisers regard Mr Ed Balls

a bit of a nightmare about him as a bit of a nightmare about him as

well? I don't at all, he is a very good friend. I can't believe that

you are talking about those e-mails on a national political programme.

My goodness, you obviously scraping the barrel today. I have been in

front-line labour politics for 0 years. I can't remember the front

bench and the wider party being as united as it is today and it is a

great credit to Ed Miliband and Ed Balls. We are going into a general

election and we are going to get rid of a pretty disastrous coalition

government. It was worth spending a few seconds to establish your not

having nightmares. Thank you for having nightmares. Thank you for

joining me. It's just gone 11:30am. You're

watching the Sunday Politics. Coming up in just over 20 minutes, I'll be

talking to the MP Hello and a warm welcome to your

local part of the show, just for the North East and Cumbria. Coming up...

Can the new Police Commissioners keep crime down in the face of

shrinking budgets or will council tax have to rise? We will ask

Northumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird.

My other guests this week is North East Liberal Democrat Lord Shipley

and, on the weekend of their first`ever party conference in the

region, the deputy leader of UKIP, Paul Nuttall. You have planned well

in Parliamentary and other elections in the last 12 months, you think you

could make the big breakthrough and actually win seats in the North?

Look at last night. We are polling well. We polled 56 and 58%. We are

holding our first confidence in the North East and that shows how much

our membership has grown in this part of the world in the last couple

of years and we are wanting to take this forward to the European

elections. Is it not just a protest vote? No, I do not agree with that.

We have proved very well in local elections and county elections. When

you are looking at the situation in the North East and Cumbria, your

party is falling well behind UKIP. We have many more councillors than

they do and UKIP, friendly have two fight not just the odd by`election,

but only county elections and local elections, they will find more of

difficulty. Wait until next year. More on UKIP later, but first, what

were you doing around this time last year? Were you among the 15% of

people who bothered to vote in the first Police and Crime Commissioner

elections? 12 months on, their profile may still be relatively low,

but that is not to say the Police Commissioners are not grappling with

some big issues. The most difficult is how to keep crime levels down

with fewer officers and shrinking budgets. Do you know how I am? No, I

am afraid not. The police and ten Commissioner Ron Hogg is proud of

the work he has done in the first year. What has been difficulties

trying to get out to the community, to put across the cost of policing,

so as not to disrupt services. It is not going to get easier for any of

the commissioners. Durham will have to find savings of ?5 million over

the next two years, Cleveland ?7 million, Cumbria ?4 million in

Northumbria ?10 million. The challenge of funding is going to get

even worse. The financial resources for policing our getting squeezed

every year. In that climate, how do the commissioners keep promises?

Cumbria have said they will keep the number of officers for two years.

But only have to be a part of the council tax bill purely from the

police? The amount of money that we are talking about will think police

the precept. It is around ?4 per year. If we proceed with the

proposals with this year. Some are unhappy about trusting that slice of

money to the police commissioners. That money will be an 43 pairs of

hands up and down the country. The success failure of the commissioners

will be judged by voters in 2016. Given the cuts they have to make,

the main struggle to make an impact. The Police and Crime Commissioner

for Northumbria, Labour's Vera Baird, is here now. With the impact

on resources, can you do a lot more than manage a declaim? It is a great

challenge. We have been forced to lose 1,000 officers. The lease

constable is championing the front line and I agree with that, because

that is really front`line lies and Republic confidences. We face the

loss of another ?10 million in our region and the are looking at

everything else apart from cutting officers and personnel. Well that be

possible? We are systematically going through is the support, the

cost of running particular parts of the estate, the prospect of jointly

buying things with other police forces. You thinking of raising the

council tax, for you did last year? We did last year, but 82% of people

who were consulted before this happened, said the would do that. I

will ask the public again if I have two. Is it fair to ask people to pay

more in these difficult financial times? We have the smallest council

tax precept in the country. That is by a long way. A lot of the houses

in this region are banned a. This was only half of what people were

paid PPO to pay. But the government will say is, we give you their

resources, so you should be able to manage without raising the council

tax. But they have cut it by another ?10 million on top of the other

cuts. Let us talk about the Labour attitude. They did not Police and

Crime Commissioners want, they did not feel they should put so much

power in the hands of one person. I think the pioneers in this role have

to do not only a good job, it is exciting and challenging, I think I

have made the success of it. You need a good relationship with the

chief constable. But where we agree is that the one to one relationship,

if it does not work, could have a dramatically add impact. I think the

jury is still out is whether this individualistic approach is the way

to go. One thing I am sure is that democracy will not come back. That

is not going to go away. The Liberal Democrats did not like this idea.

Where are you on this? I agree with the that the jury is out. I think

just one year to assess it was rather harsh. I think you have to

wait a couple of years before this is judged. I am surprised that 70%

of people are aware that the have a police claim Commissioner, even if

they do not know the social name of them. Only 20% apparently dead. I am

encouraged by that. I am in favour of the police run panel in its

entirety being elected. But only 15% of people voted for the policing

claim Commissioner is, how many people would turn out to vote for

that? I think once it is established, once the panel is

elected, you would then guarantee that the likes of Northumberland

would have a representative on the police authority. What is the view

of UKIP about this? I think the elections last year when a disgrace.

They did not allow for a free leaflet to go for everyone's house.

They had to pay for it themselves. The big parties ensured that they

were able to put their machinery in place. What about the way it is

working? Again, I think the jury is out. We are only talking about one

year. It would help the commissioners if the government did

not keep cutting their resources for them? Actually, claim is down, do

you then need as many staff? But there has been a huge amount of

back`office bureaucracy in the police force. I think that needed

reformed. I am heartened by what he said, which is what she said she is

going through the budget line by line, to look at all aspects of the

police force cost. That is exactly the right thing to do.

It has been a good 12 months for UKIP in the region as we have heard,

but could that be derailed? Their policy of leaving the European Union

does not play well with many business leaders, who believe jobs

would be put at risk. Only last week came this warning from Nissan, a

firm which employs 6,000 workers in Sunderland. It is a very productive

time, but it is a European point based in the United Kingdom. If

anything change, we would have to reconsider our strategy. It could

have implications on investment? You cannot look at the United Kingdom

independent of its environment. That was the Chief Executive of Nissan.

Though, we have felt that Hitachi, have made a similar announcement. Is

this not worrying? We have been hearing all of this at the time. We

were told years ago that we would have problems every did not join the

union and that has not transpired. You are as Guinness is to just your

party and assuming that you know exactly what you are talking about.

The business world is split on this. So why are these chief Executive

saying this? Not all of them are. If we left the European Union beaded

same eight trade deal. If we came out, we would sign a free trade deal

and be able to deal and trade with the rest of the world. There is no

way that we would he suddenly putting this edgy party just because

we left the European Union surely? Well, you have to remember that

Nissan will then be faced with the tariff barrier. The calls would

become much more expensive. There is no evidence that the rest of Europe

would sign up to a free trade agreement. Finally, of the trade

agreements we are part of that in the European Union, we would be a

side of the street trade agreements. What UKIP is saying is simply

incorrect. There are 12 million jobs on the continent which are directly

related to British trade. They would not put 12 million jobs at this by

not signing a free trade treaty. Do you not have a referendum? I do not

have the problem holding a referendum because I am sure it

would be one and stone by those wanting to remain within the

European Union. Fundamentally, so much of our trade goes to the

European Union, we would suddenly find ourselves faced with the tariff

barrier. All our goods would become much more expensive. The Chief

Executive of Nissan and Hitachi are absolutely right. What about the

truth of what these companies are seeing. If we came out, we could

sign free`trade deals with the rest of the world. Our trade with Europe

is going down year`on`year and trade with the rest of the world is going

up and up. The European Union is effectively an economic block for

hours. Germany has built trade and the road and they remain within the

union, why are they not talking about coming out of it? I am

absolutely convinced we will be doing this debate for quite a while.

We talked earlier about crime, but what about the job of supervising

offenders after they get out of prison? The government believes the

best way of keeping them out of trouble is to hand over the

supervision of many offenders to private companies and charities.

Ministers believe it will be more efficient than the existing

Probation Service. Those proposals passed through their latest stage in

the Commons this week, but as Fergus Hewison reports, their potential

impact is causing concern. Serving up coffee, but there is a lot more

to this class cafe in Newcastle in the CIA. Many of the people employed

here are eight offenders. `` former of offenders. I have been involved

in petty claim for much of my life. There I came from, everyone seemed

to be pinching things and stealing things. For him, the cafe has become

a weird of the life of claim. This has been a great help to help build

a foundation in work. It has also made me meet new friends and

improved my spirit. He has also been involved with the project which runs

the cafe. He said he had a positive experience with the probation

service. The Rectory help with the aims and aspirations of where I

wanted go. The North East and Cumbria as one of the worst records

in the United Kingdom of people reoffending. Under plans debated in

the House of Commons, some of the services of the probation service

will be handed over to other groups. This will only involve

low`risk offenders. This will also link into people who receive no help

us support once the finish a sentence. Some people are not so

sure. I think there could be a reversal in the expertise of what

the probation service has given offenders. There is absolutely no

guarantee that this will work. Probation workers have been on

strike over the issue, but Conservative MPs say many of the

proposals are put forward by the last Labour government. In 2008,,

when the Labour Party were planning to put this format, it is said, we

estimate that 29,400 prisoners will start shortly. Why does he not know

like the plan which has been in the offing for nearly ten years and is

finally being produced by the coalition government? The Labour

Party says a desperate overhaul of the system and an ex`offenders are

treated is drastically needed. A lot of Labour MPs have been worried

about this. Let us get Police Commissioner Vera

Baird's view on the changes to probation. Yes, the probation

service results have been very good. But this is about bringing support

for people on lower`level sentencing, lower than one year.

This is the plan. This is the plan that Labour were planning to

introduce? Yes, they were going to bring in support for people with

less than one year sentences. The very people who should be delivering

that should be the probation trust, not private companies. There is no

evidence that this will work, but there is evidence that the current

system is not working, because reoffending rates are to Harry. How

I begun to improve it? By fragment in the service and bringing people

in the desk in one category and then went your situation changes, you

find yourselves being dealt with by a completely different organisation?

The rate of reoffending as I ended stricken down, but the probation

trust has one of the best reputations and records in doing

this. He's a huge contract. They are going to be delivered not to local

companies who know the ADF, they are going to be delivered to huge

nationwide companies. The government said reoffending rates are too high,

is this a good idea to try this? Reoffending is that 600,000 times a

year and that needs to come down. I hope charities will come on to take

the low two major risk probationers. If the probation trust is doing such

a good job, why is this being considered? Many of them, but are

600,000 we offenders. It is possible there could be a problem. The jury

may be out there, but more generally, there is to be a National

probation service, with 30,000 high`risk offenders still in that.

OK, thank you. Now, some good news on jobs and a

plan to save Durham Tees Valley Airport. Just a couple of the

stories making the news this week, all in a jet`powered 60 Seconds.

Prepare for take`off. Unemployment is down by 1,000 dead in the East.

There is a plan to rescue Durham Tees Valley Airport. A Wearside MP

said Mark trains will be cancelled only once the North East mainline is

privatised. We will see 15,000 trains officially late or cancel or

without the operator reaching the required standard. He liberal MP has

this voted against the bedroom tax, well another regional MP voted for

it feel for forehead. And that is about it from us. There

is more on my blog about police commissioners, including details of

a new poll, that is at bbc.co.uk/richardmoss. You can also

track me down on Twitter. Next Sunday, we have a special report on

the problems receiving it. We will return to this

if we hear more. Thank you. Andrew, it is back to you.

Who'd be an MP? It's a good question. Certainly something Mark

Pritchard must have asked himself when his picture graced the front

page of the Daily Telegraph, with allegations that he had offered to

set up business deals overseas in return for hundreds of thousands of

pounds. Mr Pritchard dismissed the claims as hurtful and wrong. He

referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner

who has now said there is insufficient evidence to

investigate. In a moment we'll talk to Mr Pritchard, but first let's

take a look back at how the story unfurled. A Conservative MP has

denied allegations that he used his Parliamentary contacts for financial

gain... The daily Telegraph says Mark Pritchard offered to broker

investments overseas. In a statement he said the allegations made by the

Telegraph are false. Mr Pritchard was secretly filmed... What do you

make of these allegations? He has referred himself to the

Parliamentary Commissioner for standards to clear his name and I

suspect this story will reopen the debate about what MPs should be

allowed, having business interests elsewhere. Is it not clear that you

did ask for money in consultancy services? First of all I would like

to apologise for the sunglasses I have had a lot of comments about

that. On a serious point, these claims by the Telegraph of false.

You didn't ask for ?3000? They are false, hurtful and malicious. It is

known widely that I have sued the Telegraph previously. I have also

been critical of their coverage of the plebgate affair, their reporting

of that. I have been supportive of the cross-party Royal Charter and I

know that some people in the media don't like my position on that. That

is why it is malicious. I believe in a free press. That free press also

has a responsibility to be fair accurate and lawful. In discussions

with this business who turned out to be a Telegraph reporter, it is true

that you ask for ?3000 a month consultancy fee. The point is..

That is the point. No. That video has been cut and pasted to serve the

Telegraph's story. The story was that we want to get Mark Bridger,

for whatever reason, at any cost. -- Mark Bridger hard. I would not go

down the line they were hoping I would go down. Everything I own

outside of Parliament is openly declared. We are allowed to have

outside witness interests. The Telegraph need to say clearly

whether they accept that or they don't. I think you need to say

clearly whether you asked for the money or not. You then went on to

ask for ?300,000 if it was a 10 million deal, you asked for 3%

commission. Let me be clear, if I was asking for income in return for

lobbying, or raising issues in Parliament, or setting up

Parliamentary groups, or going to ministers, writing to ministers

that would be completely inappropriate. I was approached by

somebody to advise them on business. It is entirely proper and entirely

within the rules for members of Parliament to have outside

consultancies and interests. Did you or didn't you? I am answering the

question in the way that I want to answer it, not in the way that fits

a particular narrative. The narrative, unfortunately, of some

parts of the Telegraph and to be fair, there are some very good

journalists, I know there is a dispute about the direction of that

paper at senior parts. Do they want to return to being a Catholic,

objective newspaper or do they want to slip into the slippery slope of

being an agnostic rag, looking for sensationalist headlines? Part of

this has come from your membership of these all-party Parliamentary

groups. You were in Malta when you are first approached, I think you

were on a trip there, Hungary is another one, there is an

uncomfortable overlap between your political and business interests. I

have no business interests in any of those countries. Some of the country

is the Telegraph mentioned, let me be clear, I have not even visited.

You were boasting that you knew the Albanian Prime Minister and the

Mayor of Teheran and the previous prime minister. I make no apology

for making foreign trips. I think it is unfortunate we have a narrative

developing in some parts of the press that if a politician goes

abroad at the taxpayers expense it is wrong. If they go abroad at a

host government's expense it is wrong. If they go abroad with a

charity, NGO and private company, even if it is declared, it is wrong.

We want people with an international perspective in Parliament. Look at

this map. You are a member of 5 country groups. I don't know what

Canada has done not to deserve you, or Australia. 54 groups, you are a

part of. You're like... This is the Mark Pritchard British Empire. That

is very kind. If I had global interests that white I would not be

in Parliament. No, no, no. That is the point... It is the suspicion,

that you used these groups to drum up business for your consultants.

Prove it, that is the trouble. These sorts of headlines, create

suspicion. I am suing the Telegraph... Have you issued a writ?

I expect an apology. Have you issued a writ? I have just answered your

question. It is yes or no, have you issued a writ? I am in final legal

discussions tomorrow about issuing a writ. You have raised something for

top the fact is that is inaccurate. I am a member of 40-something

Parliamentary groups, of which I make no apology. We have got 54 Let

me answer the question if I may It would be very useful. There are 196

countries around the world, it is less than a quarter of the country

groups on my figures. I make no apology. One of my regrets is not

having visited Syria, I don't know if I am a member of the Syria group,

part I should become a member, I make no apology. -- perhaps I should

become. When it came to the Syria vote, I was blind sided foot of yes,

we have excellent briefings. I had to make a judgement based on part

knowledge with nothing beats being on the ground, as even BBC

journalists recognised this week. Nothing beats being on the ground.

You posted about your connections in Albania to getting a business

contract. You meet these people through these all Parliamentary

groups. That is where there is an unhealthy overlap. That is what the

Telegraph said, let's wait and see. Look... You are a newspaperman, you

know lots of people in the newspaper industry, as well as being a

respected broadcaster. I am not going to prejudice my legal

proceedings against the Telegraph. I make no apology. A good politician

has to be local am a national and international. Hang on hang on -

has to be local, national and international. We need politicians

who get out of the Westminster bubble, who have a business

hinterland, who keep their foot in the real world and have an

international perspective. And ask for 3% commission? I have answered

the question. It was a cut and pasted video, photo shopped to suit

the agenda of the Telegraph. They need to get back to serious news

reporting and I wish those well at the senior part of the Telegraph who

want to get to those days. We look forward to the writ. Thank you.

Now - there's been more good news on the economy for George Osborne this

week - inflation's down, growth forecasts have been revised up and

unemployment has fallen again. On Friday the former Bullingdon boy

donned a head torch and went down't pit for just one of many photo

opportunities ahead of the Autumn Statement, which he'll deliver in

the Commons on fifth December. And, who knows, he might even take his

hard hat off for that. # Going underground.

# Let the boys all saying and let the boys all shout for tomorrow

# Lah, lah, love, love. # I talk and talk until my head

explodes. # Make this boy shout, make this boy

scream. # Going underground.

# I'm going underground. # I'm going underground.

George Osborne in his heart out he probably sleeps with it on. This

Autumn Statement is becoming a more important part of the political

calendar for the coalition. It looks like this is where they are finally

going to come up with some kind of response to Ed Miliband's game

changing electricity price freeze. The idea which is mooted is they

will move people's green tax on two general bills which is not an answer

but cosmetically it could have apolitical impact. George Osborne is

receiving a lot of representations from lobby groups, business, MPs on

his own side, for tax cuts and extra bits spending and he has to spend

the next two weeks reminding people of something that has been skewered

by the economic recovery. This country has a fiscal deficit which

is twice that of France, supposedly the crisis economy in western Europe

or if you accept it will take another parliament again to

eliminate this deficit, we are not even halfway through the age of

austerity. He is in no position to give anything away. He has to hold

the line. Danny Alexander has been useful but this is his real

challenge. He is going to give stuff away. When the Autumn Statement

comes away, 15 months from an election, Nick Clegg has been

talking about raising the tax allowance threshold even further,

talk of moving green levies of the electricity bills, he is going to

give stuff away. We will get funding for free school meals that Nick

Clegg mentioned in his party conference. The significance of the

Autumn Statement is twice a year, a Chancellor stands up and we all look

at the state of the economy. If you talk to members of the Chancellor's

circle, it is interesting how nervous they are. They say, don t

assume we are going to have this wonderful growth for ever, don't

assume everything is fine in the eurozone. I think what would help

the Chancellor is if somebody was able to see some of that humility in

public. It is recognised that he was far too triumphalist

speech he made on the 9th of September, when he said to Ed Balls,

we have one and you cannot make an economic policy on the cost of

living -- we have... Won. economic policy on the cost of

people don't seem to learn from Norman Lamont's green shoots. Labour

has moved from complaining there is no growth, now there is, to say

has moved from complaining there is is gross but living standards are

not rising. If the economy grows by nearly 3% next year, even the bank

is saying it will grow by 2.8%, living standards could start to

rise. It does but everybody in a difficult position politically if

the economy starts growing, ironically. We need to remind

ourselves that economy, the natural direction of an economy is to grow.

Unless the politicians screw up Unless you have some idiot in

charge! It is not a cause for the Morris dance that they seem to be

doing, certainly on the Tory side. Osborne is put in a difficult

position goes he will have to stop giving stuff away, he cannot push

the austerity line at the same time as jangling his magical growth - he

will have to start giving stuff away. It puts Labour in a difficult

position, it is very unlikely that living standards will match GDP Not

since 2003, GDP has been a great indicator. Wages have stagnated for

ten years, food has gone up 17% energy has gone up 24%. That is a

decade in which everybody has got poorer. The real sweet spot comes

when wages start to outstrip inflation. It is a sweet spot and

will be a huge challenge for Ed Miliband. As ever on the economy

with a sweet spot, you have a danger moment because that is when the

governor of the Bank of England will have to look at interest rates.

Everything he was saying last week was when we move toward 7%

unemployment come that is not the trigger for raising interest rates,

it is the moment when we look at it. Everything was saying he did not

want to do that. When do you anticipate wages outstripping

inflation? It hasn't happened for so long. The second half of next year.

Wages and prices are not the sole measure of living standards, there

are broader measures which no one seems willing to use.

That's all for today. The Daily Politics will be back at tomorrow at

midday on BBC Two and I will back here on BBC One at 11:00am next

week. Remember if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics.