:01:13. > :01:16.In the North West: The latest on the Conservative MP Nigel Evans.
:01:16. > :01:26.And Tory Blues, but Labour still falls short of taking full control
:01:26. > :01:26.
:01:26. > :38:39.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2232 seconds
:38:39. > :38:46.of Lancashire County Council. Coming up in the North West: Tory
:38:46. > :38:49.Blues, but Labour still fails to take control of our biggest council.
:38:49. > :38:51.The winners and losers of the local elections here. And joining me to
:38:51. > :38:54.discuss those elections, the Liberal Democrat MP for Burnley,
:38:54. > :38:57.Gordon Birtwistle, the Labour MP for Hyndburn, Graham Jones, and
:38:57. > :39:00.Andrew Stephenson, the Conservative MP for Pendle. And we start this
:39:00. > :39:02.morning with the news that in the last couple of hours, the
:39:02. > :39:05.Conservative MP for Ribble Valley and Deputy Speaker of the Commons
:39:05. > :39:08.Nigel Evans has issued a statement following his arrest for rape and
:39:08. > :39:18.sexual assault. Our correspondent Judy Hobson is live near his home
:39:18. > :39:21.
:39:21. > :39:25.in Lancashire for us now. Judy, what's he said? Were it that Nigel
:39:25. > :39:34.Evans was arrested yesterday morning and question through the
:39:34. > :39:41.day by police on allegations of rape and sexual assault. These
:39:41. > :39:46.allegations were against two men in their twenties and was alleged to
:39:46. > :39:56.have taken place at this house. Here is what Nigel Evans had to
:39:56. > :39:57.
:39:57. > :40:02.save. I was questioned by police over two complaints which were made
:40:02. > :40:05.by two people who are well known to each other. The complaints are
:40:06. > :40:11.completely false and I do not understand why they have been made
:40:11. > :40:15.especially as I continued to socialise with one as recently as
:40:15. > :40:23.last week. I appreciate the way the police have handled this in such a
:40:23. > :40:32.sensitive manner. My family and I have a sense of incredulity at
:40:33. > :40:37.these events. Nigel Evans has been the MP in this area for 21 years.
:40:37. > :40:41.It is fair to say talking to people this morning that he is very
:40:41. > :40:48.popular, people are very surprised that these allegations and there is
:40:48. > :40:53.a lot of support for him. What is your reaction to what has happened?
:40:53. > :40:59.Complete shock and disbelief. I have known it Nigel Evans for 10
:40:59. > :41:05.years. He is hard-working and impartial. I am really shocked that
:41:05. > :41:10.these allegations have been made. Do you think he can continue in his
:41:10. > :41:14.role as Deputy Speaker with these allegations hovering above them?
:41:14. > :41:19.think that is a decision for her Nigel Evans in consultation with
:41:19. > :41:23.the Speaker's office. At the moment I would like to see him continue.
:41:23. > :41:27.At the moment these are just allegations, he has not been
:41:27. > :41:32.charged with anything, I am a strong believer in innocent until
:41:32. > :41:38.proven guilty. Do you think he should continue as deputy speaker?
:41:38. > :41:43.I think there should be some discussion about that at high-level.
:41:43. > :41:53.There is a lot of discussions that need to be had as to whether he
:41:53. > :41:56.
:41:56. > :42:05.carries on. Do you agree with that Gordon? Row -- I do believe he
:42:05. > :42:08.should carry on. He will get my full support. New UKIP arrivals in
:42:09. > :42:14.town halls across the country but not here. Let us have a look at
:42:14. > :42:21.what happened across the north-west. The biggest surprise was Lancashire
:42:21. > :42:31.County Council. Labour needed three more games to win outright control
:42:31. > :42:36.
:42:36. > :42:40.from the Tories. The Conservatives lost 16 seats leaving the -- in
:42:40. > :42:45.Cumbria County Council Labour are the largest party. Labour did
:42:45. > :42:50.manage one big success, taking control of Derbyshire from the
:42:51. > :43:00.Conservatives. In a moment we will have the latest on who is running
:43:01. > :43:05.
:43:05. > :43:13.Lancashire but in the meantime our reporter has this selection report.
:43:13. > :43:20.From what we can see everything is going well. My feet are killing me
:43:20. > :43:26.with all the pounding I have done on the streets. He was a day of
:43:26. > :43:35.personal triumph for or Lancashire's party leaders. Tory
:43:35. > :43:40.leader Jeff driver saw his group lose its grasp on County Hall.
:43:40. > :43:50.disappointed. I thought we could keep control by campaigning on our
:43:50. > :43:55.local record but that was not to be. Ed Miliband made three visits to
:43:55. > :44:02.Lancashire on his soapbox during the election campaign. It did not
:44:02. > :44:07.quite wash with voters. You are going to see a weekend of political
:44:07. > :44:11.horse-trading. Labour should take control in coalition with the
:44:11. > :44:18.Liberal Democrats. You have got exciting times ahead in Lancashire
:44:18. > :44:25.while there is a lot of political wheeling and dealing going on.
:44:25. > :44:29.feeling is it has been good but not quite good enough. UKIP may have
:44:29. > :44:34.won reports but failed in the region to turn them into seats.
:44:34. > :44:40.think it is a great opportunity for us to work towards the European
:44:40. > :44:46.elections in 2014. Meanwhile, the BNP were out for the count losing
:44:46. > :44:50.their orderly county council seat in the country to Labour. To be
:44:50. > :44:55.honest, who wants to go in and think they are going to lose, no
:44:55. > :44:59.one, but we are bigger than that. I am not going to sit indoors
:44:59. > :45:05.watching television and hiding behind the television just because
:45:05. > :45:09.I am not going to win an election. Many local food soldiers are
:45:09. > :45:14.feeling the heat. People have mentioned the coalition in this
:45:14. > :45:17.particular area has had an effect. That is understandable but they
:45:17. > :45:23.have appreciated what the Lib Dems have done over the years and
:45:23. > :45:30.overall remain very loyal. People are concerned about the bedroom tax
:45:30. > :45:35.but do not think Labour has addressed them well because it all
:45:35. > :45:45.going on record as saying we will not reverse any of these changes
:45:45. > :45:46.
:45:46. > :45:51.does not help. So, Graham, were you disappointed with that result or
:45:51. > :45:58.where you hoping for no overall control? The most we have ever had
:45:58. > :46:04.his 44, a majority of two. We got 39 which is as good as it has
:46:04. > :46:11.almost been. 23 games, I do not think there have been as many
:46:11. > :46:17.across the country for the Labour Party as in Lancashire. It was a
:46:17. > :46:22.good result but it is a blow that you did not take control? I do not
:46:22. > :46:26.think so, I think that 44 majority of two was a very high point and it
:46:26. > :46:31.is very difficult to get there again. People before the campaign
:46:31. > :46:35.were telling me that they expected to take outright control. From the
:46:35. > :46:39.people I spoke to in the Labour Party we were told we could be
:46:39. > :46:45.cautiously optimistic we would be the largest party and we have
:46:45. > :46:53.achieved that. Why did you not think you could have got outright
:46:53. > :47:01.control bearing in mind you have one -- Lancashire County Council
:47:01. > :47:05.for a long time. It was clear that the county split between
:47:05. > :47:11.Conservative and Labour in the east and west. It is very difficult
:47:11. > :47:18.between our urban and rural. It is very hard to win without Blackburn
:47:18. > :47:23.and Blackpool. And a hard result for the Conservatives? Very
:47:23. > :47:33.disappointing for the Conservatives. We'll have to try to win back be
:47:33. > :47:39.boats that we have. -- the votes. In some of the marginal seats like
:47:39. > :47:43.my own in Open All I was expecting Labour to win that and they did not
:47:43. > :47:50.actually. In the marginal seats like mine it was actually quite a
:47:50. > :47:55.good result for us. Quite a number of Conservatives were thinking this
:47:55. > :48:03.was certainly going to be a more comfortable no overall control
:48:03. > :48:07.position for you and some even thought you might keep a majority.
:48:07. > :48:12.We won Lancashire when we were 15 points ahead in the opinion polls
:48:12. > :48:19.and at the moment we are 10 points behind. I think most of us were
:48:19. > :48:26.realistic. However, Geoff Driver and the local group were boating on
:48:26. > :48:30.local issues. They were feeling positive. It is a mid-term election
:48:30. > :48:40.and our County Council has paid the price for that. It is a
:48:40. > :48:41.
:48:42. > :48:48.disappointing result but one we have to learn a lesson from.
:48:48. > :48:58.you as disappointed, like Andrew? And disappointed that we lost two
:48:58. > :48:59.
:48:59. > :49:08.seats in Burnley, but be maintained two. Four years ago you won five of
:49:08. > :49:16.them, you are now down to two. That does not bode well. Prior to 2000
:49:16. > :49:20.we never had a seat. We won five last time as you rightly said. We
:49:20. > :49:30.lost one in the by-election where one of our county councillors
:49:30. > :49:37.unfortunately died. Overall we expected we could quite easily have
:49:37. > :49:47.a lot. We are hung on to two of them are quite comfortably. Overall
:49:47. > :49:52.you have gone down from 10 to six. In Burnley prior to 2009 we never
:49:52. > :50:01.had a county councillor. We have lost some of them but we did
:50:02. > :50:05.remarkably well particularly in the East to hold deep votes that we had.
:50:05. > :50:09.You have heard from these two news say the expected Labour to do
:50:09. > :50:16.better. They are going to say that but the figures do not bear that
:50:16. > :50:21.out. I think the Tories got 32%, the Liberals were way back in the
:50:21. > :50:28.teens. You look at that and translate it back into the
:50:28. > :50:38.parliamentary seats. Andrew's is marginal. In a General Election
:50:38. > :50:40.
:50:40. > :50:47.Labour voters will come out. All these marginal seats. How can you
:50:47. > :50:50.respond? My seat for 18 years until are a won it was a Labour seat. In
:50:50. > :50:56.these county council elections the results across Lancashire were
:50:56. > :51:03.worse than Michael foot got in 1981. If Labour want to win back these
:51:03. > :51:11.seats you have to be performing better than you are, surely.
:51:11. > :51:15.think Andrew is worried for you. Lancashire is one of those key
:51:15. > :51:20.marginal area is in the country that would come to Labour as it
:51:20. > :51:28.stands now. It is progress and we have a long way to go to the
:51:28. > :51:37.General Election but we are in a good position. We have got to build
:51:37. > :51:43.on voters' trust. Did you want to see something quickly? Labour had
:51:43. > :51:50.an MP in Bali for 77 years so one would expect them to win it back.
:51:50. > :51:54.We will see what happens. We would indeed. Our reporter now joins us
:51:54. > :52:00.from Preston. You're telling us what was happening in the elections
:52:00. > :52:06.but we still do not know who is running the council. That is right.
:52:06. > :52:09.Find you for joining me down by the river but as we know politics at
:52:09. > :52:14.Lancashire County Council is anything but a walk in the park
:52:14. > :52:24.because we are still unclear as to who is in control of the county
:52:24. > :52:26.
:52:26. > :52:30.council. Starting with you, Jenny, straight after the election you
:52:30. > :52:36.said you were disappointed you did not get control of the council,
:52:36. > :52:41.what went wrong? I did not go into this not do when but I am delighted
:52:41. > :52:48.with the games we have made. We are the biggest group by far. We have
:52:48. > :52:53.got a huge share, we increased the popular vote. But it was not enough,
:52:53. > :52:59.was it? It was not enough but I think there are ways and means we
:52:59. > :53:09.will still be able to form an administration. We have a mandate
:53:09. > :53:09.
:53:09. > :53:15.to take control. It has been at a weekend of deal or no deal, what
:53:15. > :53:20.will you do? We will not make a rash decision. We have leadership
:53:20. > :53:23.in place and we will be taking deep discussions forward. You are a
:53:23. > :53:30.Liberal Democrat and it could be said you hold the balance of power
:53:30. > :53:35.a year. I will write to each of the other party leaders and tell them
:53:35. > :53:40.we are willing to participate in discussions with either of them. We
:53:40. > :53:45.have got to deliver services to all of the people of Lancashire. What I
:53:45. > :53:50.think we ought to be doing his form an all-party group to run
:53:50. > :53:55.Lancashire for the next few years. You're glycol three parties to work
:53:55. > :54:03.together, we done that slow down the decision process? It could slow
:54:03. > :54:07.things down but it is better to get things right banquet. Just looking
:54:07. > :54:12.at the National impact of the Lib Dems working with the Conservatives,
:54:12. > :54:18.would it be a wise partnership to go into it locally? I was not
:54:18. > :54:24.talking about going into partnership with one party but two.
:54:24. > :54:28.I do not think that would cause a problem. We have done extremely
:54:29. > :54:35.well and it looks like we will hold most of our MPs that the next
:54:35. > :54:42.election. Are you tempted by this offer? I am not making any rash
:54:42. > :54:47.decisions. I would say that voters left the Lib Dems and Tories in
:54:47. > :54:57.their thousands on Thursday and came to us so I think we need to be
:54:57. > :54:58.
:54:58. > :55:03.taking control. Thank you very much. You kept got votes but not seats?
:55:03. > :55:08.20% in Lancashire bodes well for the European elections next year
:55:08. > :55:14.where the boats are taking place by proportional representation which
:55:14. > :55:22.means we could well be taking three MPs back to Brussels. IUD the
:55:22. > :55:25.protest vote or the real contender? I think we are winning the argument,
:55:25. > :55:31.the fact we are driving the debate in Britain at the moment you just
:55:31. > :55:35.have to look at how the other political leaders are changing the
:55:35. > :55:43.air attack on Europe, they never used to talk about those issues but
:55:43. > :55:49.they are now. So, no definitive answer yet over who will be in
:55:49. > :55:54.control of Lancashire County Council, watch this space. What did
:55:54. > :56:00.you pick up from that? There will have to be discussions. Labour has
:56:00. > :56:06.the largest mandate but not a majority. The dialogue will have to
:56:06. > :56:11.go on between Labour, Liberal and Conservative. The fact that people
:56:11. > :56:16.have given Labour a mandate and want the Labour Party to be
:56:16. > :56:24.governing. What is your ideal scenario? We will have to wait and
:56:24. > :56:29.see. We will all wait and see but what is your ideal scenario?
:56:29. > :56:34.think if the Conservatives are willing to support Labour that to
:56:34. > :56:38.be an option. And what about you, Andrew? I would love to think the
:56:38. > :56:43.Conservatives could keep control of the county council because we have
:56:43. > :56:49.got a good record. Labour are clearly in the driving street so
:56:49. > :56:56.over the next few days we will see what happens. In my constituency we
:56:56. > :57:01.lost a seat to the Lib Dems by about 200 votes and UKIP picked up
:57:01. > :57:07.700 beer. It is fair to say you kick caused us some issues but we
:57:07. > :57:12.have to reach out and win back those voters. There is a debate
:57:12. > :57:15.going on about how to do it but we will have to do it if we want to
:57:15. > :57:23.build confidence and support in our party before the next General
:57:23. > :57:33.Election. Gordon, I think I would be most worried about the Lib Dems
:57:33. > :57:35.
:57:35. > :57:40.because you care have taken away be protest vote. -- UKIP. When it into
:57:40. > :57:45.the General Election people went back to the two main parties. They
:57:45. > :57:52.will look at what they have got and may come back to us as they have
:57:52. > :57:58.done in the past. We did really well in deep seats where we have a
:57:58. > :58:03.sitting MP because the sitting MP works extremely hard and is well
:58:03. > :58:08.respected. I expect that will happen in the next General Election.
:58:08. > :58:12.Why don't we have a rainbow coalition? Why don't the
:58:12. > :58:15.politicians get together and do things for the people of Lancashire
:58:15. > :58:19.because that is what the people of Lancashire want rather than
:58:20. > :58:26.fighting it out and delivering these services together rather than
:58:26. > :58:33.what people want in Lancashire. big success for Labour was taking
:58:33. > :58:41.control of Derbyshire. Indeed. The last time these elections were
:58:41. > :58:46.fought was 2009. It was the worst when Gordon Brown was at a point
:58:46. > :58:50.that even his own MPs were resigning and calling on him to go.
:58:50. > :58:58.Body Labour Party not to perform in these elections would be staggering.
:58:58. > :59:02.The question is, have the performed well enough? Now the rest of the
:59:02. > :59:09.week's news in 60 seconds. The biggest shake-up of the benefit
:59:09. > :59:16.system got under way in Greater Lancashire. The new Universal
:59:16. > :59:21.Credit will follow for another regions in July. George Howe was
:59:21. > :59:27.talking to the Business Secretary to see if anything could be done to
:59:27. > :59:33.save this the road space plant. Manchester's installing 200
:59:33. > :59:39.Charging days for electric cars. It is costing �2.7 million, most of it
:59:39. > :59:47.funded by central Government. are competing with London, we are
:59:47. > :59:52.about week to go. Meanwhile, patching up potholes on the Isle of
:59:52. > :59:58.Man for the TT races, it will cost a quarter of a million pounds. And
:59:59. > :00:06.plans to alter this hospital which will also host a Medical Research
:00:06. > :00:12.Park. MPs heading back to Westminster for the Queen's speech,
:00:12. > :00:16.what are you going to have to do to get the Government going again?
:00:16. > :00:20.hope that in the Queen's speech there is lots for business and
:00:20. > :00:24.growth and bringing back manufacturing to the UK like he
:00:24. > :00:31.used to be in the old days. We will commit ourselves to rebalancing the
:00:31. > :00:36.economy. You cannot turn a ship around that has been going in the
:00:36. > :00:42.wrong direction of four or 30 years in two years. We are rebalancing
:00:42. > :00:47.now. Apprenticeships are up, manufacturing is up. That is what
:00:47. > :00:53.we want in the Queen's speech. do you think? Will the Government
:00:53. > :01:01.pick itself up? I don't know. The austerity measures are not working
:01:01. > :01:08.in Britain or across Europe. In our constituencies unemployment is
:01:08. > :01:15.rising or temporary employment is rising. People are feeling squeezed.