05/05/2013 Sunday Politics North West

In the North West: The latest on the Conservative MP Nigel Evans.

And Tory Blues, but Labour still falls short of taking full control

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2232 seconds

of Lancashire County Council. Coming up in the North West: Tory

Blues, but Labour still fails to take control of our biggest council.

The winners and losers of the local elections here. And joining me to

discuss those elections, the Liberal Democrat MP for Burnley,

Gordon Birtwistle, the Labour MP for Hyndburn, Graham Jones, and

Andrew Stephenson, the Conservative MP for Pendle. And we start this

morning with the news that in the last couple of hours, the

Conservative MP for Ribble Valley and Deputy Speaker of the Commons

Nigel Evans has issued a statement following his arrest for rape and

sexual assault. Our correspondent Judy Hobson is live near his home

in Lancashire for us now. Judy, what's he said? Were it that Nigel

Evans was arrested yesterday morning and question through the

day by police on allegations of rape and sexual assault. These

allegations were against two men in their twenties and was alleged to

have taken place at this house. Here is what Nigel Evans had to

save. I was questioned by police over two complaints which were made

by two people who are well known to each other. The complaints are

completely false and I do not understand why they have been made

especially as I continued to socialise with one as recently as

last week. I appreciate the way the police have handled this in such a

sensitive manner. My family and I have a sense of incredulity at

these events. Nigel Evans has been the MP in this area for 21 years.

It is fair to say talking to people this morning that he is very

popular, people are very surprised that these allegations and there is

a lot of support for him. What is your reaction to what has happened?

Complete shock and disbelief. I have known it Nigel Evans for 10

years. He is hard-working and impartial. I am really shocked that

these allegations have been made. Do you think he can continue in his

role as Deputy Speaker with these allegations hovering above them?

think that is a decision for her Nigel Evans in consultation with

the Speaker's office. At the moment I would like to see him continue.

At the moment these are just allegations, he has not been

charged with anything, I am a strong believer in innocent until

proven guilty. Do you think he should continue as deputy speaker?

I think there should be some discussion about that at high-level.

There is a lot of discussions that need to be had as to whether he

carries on. Do you agree with that Gordon? Row -- I do believe he

should carry on. He will get my full support. New UKIP arrivals in

town halls across the country but not here. Let us have a look at

what happened across the north-west. The biggest surprise was Lancashire

County Council. Labour needed three more games to win outright control

from the Tories. The Conservatives lost 16 seats leaving the -- in

Cumbria County Council Labour are the largest party. Labour did

manage one big success, taking control of Derbyshire from the

Conservatives. In a moment we will have the latest on who is running

Lancashire but in the meantime our reporter has this selection report.

From what we can see everything is going well. My feet are killing me

with all the pounding I have done on the streets. He was a day of

personal triumph for or Lancashire's party leaders. Tory

leader Jeff driver saw his group lose its grasp on County Hall.

disappointed. I thought we could keep control by campaigning on our

local record but that was not to be. Ed Miliband made three visits to

Lancashire on his soapbox during the election campaign. It did not

quite wash with voters. You are going to see a weekend of political

horse-trading. Labour should take control in coalition with the

Liberal Democrats. You have got exciting times ahead in Lancashire

while there is a lot of political wheeling and dealing going on.

feeling is it has been good but not quite good enough. UKIP may have

won reports but failed in the region to turn them into seats.

think it is a great opportunity for us to work towards the European

elections in 2014. Meanwhile, the BNP were out for the count losing

their orderly county council seat in the country to Labour. To be

honest, who wants to go in and think they are going to lose, no

one, but we are bigger than that. I am not going to sit indoors

watching television and hiding behind the television just because

I am not going to win an election. Many local food soldiers are

feeling the heat. People have mentioned the coalition in this

particular area has had an effect. That is understandable but they

have appreciated what the Lib Dems have done over the years and

overall remain very loyal. People are concerned about the bedroom tax

but do not think Labour has addressed them well because it all

going on record as saying we will not reverse any of these changes

does not help. So, Graham, were you disappointed with that result or

where you hoping for no overall control? The most we have ever had

his 44, a majority of two. We got 39 which is as good as it has

almost been. 23 games, I do not think there have been as many

across the country for the Labour Party as in Lancashire. It was a

good result but it is a blow that you did not take control? I do not

think so, I think that 44 majority of two was a very high point and it

is very difficult to get there again. People before the campaign

were telling me that they expected to take outright control. From the

people I spoke to in the Labour Party we were told we could be

cautiously optimistic we would be the largest party and we have

achieved that. Why did you not think you could have got outright

control bearing in mind you have one -- Lancashire County Council

for a long time. It was clear that the county split between

Conservative and Labour in the east and west. It is very difficult

between our urban and rural. It is very hard to win without Blackburn

and Blackpool. And a hard result for the Conservatives? Very

disappointing for the Conservatives. We'll have to try to win back be

boats that we have. -- the votes. In some of the marginal seats like

my own in Open All I was expecting Labour to win that and they did not

actually. In the marginal seats like mine it was actually quite a

good result for us. Quite a number of Conservatives were thinking this

was certainly going to be a more comfortable no overall control

position for you and some even thought you might keep a majority.

We won Lancashire when we were 15 points ahead in the opinion polls

and at the moment we are 10 points behind. I think most of us were

realistic. However, Geoff Driver and the local group were boating on

local issues. They were feeling positive. It is a mid-term election

and our County Council has paid the price for that. It is a

disappointing result but one we have to learn a lesson from.

you as disappointed, like Andrew? And disappointed that we lost two

seats in Burnley, but be maintained two. Four years ago you won five of

them, you are now down to two. That does not bode well. Prior to 2000

we never had a seat. We won five last time as you rightly said. We

lost one in the by-election where one of our county councillors

unfortunately died. Overall we expected we could quite easily have

a lot. We are hung on to two of them are quite comfortably. Overall

you have gone down from 10 to six. In Burnley prior to 2009 we never

had a county councillor. We have lost some of them but we did

remarkably well particularly in the East to hold deep votes that we had.

You have heard from these two news say the expected Labour to do

better. They are going to say that but the figures do not bear that

out. I think the Tories got 32%, the Liberals were way back in the

teens. You look at that and translate it back into the

parliamentary seats. Andrew's is marginal. In a General Election

Labour voters will come out. All these marginal seats. How can you

respond? My seat for 18 years until are a won it was a Labour seat. In

these county council elections the results across Lancashire were

worse than Michael foot got in 1981. If Labour want to win back these

seats you have to be performing better than you are, surely.

think Andrew is worried for you. Lancashire is one of those key

marginal area is in the country that would come to Labour as it

stands now. It is progress and we have a long way to go to the

General Election but we are in a good position. We have got to build

on voters' trust. Did you want to see something quickly? Labour had

an MP in Bali for 77 years so one would expect them to win it back.

We will see what happens. We would indeed. Our reporter now joins us

from Preston. You're telling us what was happening in the elections

but we still do not know who is running the council. That is right.

Find you for joining me down by the river but as we know politics at

Lancashire County Council is anything but a walk in the park

because we are still unclear as to who is in control of the county

council. Starting with you, Jenny, straight after the election you

said you were disappointed you did not get control of the council,

what went wrong? I did not go into this not do when but I am delighted

with the games we have made. We are the biggest group by far. We have

got a huge share, we increased the popular vote. But it was not enough,

was it? It was not enough but I think there are ways and means we

will still be able to form an administration. We have a mandate

to take control. It has been at a weekend of deal or no deal, what

will you do? We will not make a rash decision. We have leadership

in place and we will be taking deep discussions forward. You are a

Liberal Democrat and it could be said you hold the balance of power

a year. I will write to each of the other party leaders and tell them

we are willing to participate in discussions with either of them. We

have got to deliver services to all of the people of Lancashire. What I

think we ought to be doing his form an all-party group to run

Lancashire for the next few years. You're glycol three parties to work

together, we done that slow down the decision process? It could slow

things down but it is better to get things right banquet. Just looking

at the National impact of the Lib Dems working with the Conservatives,

would it be a wise partnership to go into it locally? I was not

talking about going into partnership with one party but two.

I do not think that would cause a problem. We have done extremely

well and it looks like we will hold most of our MPs that the next

election. Are you tempted by this offer? I am not making any rash

decisions. I would say that voters left the Lib Dems and Tories in

their thousands on Thursday and came to us so I think we need to be

taking control. Thank you very much. You kept got votes but not seats?

20% in Lancashire bodes well for the European elections next year

where the boats are taking place by proportional representation which

means we could well be taking three MPs back to Brussels. IUD the

protest vote or the real contender? I think we are winning the argument,

the fact we are driving the debate in Britain at the moment you just

have to look at how the other political leaders are changing the

air attack on Europe, they never used to talk about those issues but

they are now. So, no definitive answer yet over who will be in

control of Lancashire County Council, watch this space. What did

you pick up from that? There will have to be discussions. Labour has

the largest mandate but not a majority. The dialogue will have to

go on between Labour, Liberal and Conservative. The fact that people

have given Labour a mandate and want the Labour Party to be

governing. What is your ideal scenario? We will have to wait and

see. We will all wait and see but what is your ideal scenario?

think if the Conservatives are willing to support Labour that to

be an option. And what about you, Andrew? I would love to think the

Conservatives could keep control of the county council because we have

got a good record. Labour are clearly in the driving street so

over the next few days we will see what happens. In my constituency we

lost a seat to the Lib Dems by about 200 votes and UKIP picked up

700 beer. It is fair to say you kick caused us some issues but we

have to reach out and win back those voters. There is a debate

going on about how to do it but we will have to do it if we want to

build confidence and support in our party before the next General

Election. Gordon, I think I would be most worried about the Lib Dems

because you care have taken away be protest vote. -- UKIP. When it into

the General Election people went back to the two main parties. They

will look at what they have got and may come back to us as they have

done in the past. We did really well in deep seats where we have a

sitting MP because the sitting MP works extremely hard and is well

respected. I expect that will happen in the next General Election.

Why don't we have a rainbow coalition? Why don't the

politicians get together and do things for the people of Lancashire

because that is what the people of Lancashire want rather than

fighting it out and delivering these services together rather than

what people want in Lancashire. big success for Labour was taking

control of Derbyshire. Indeed. The last time these elections were

fought was 2009. It was the worst when Gordon Brown was at a point

that even his own MPs were resigning and calling on him to go.

Body Labour Party not to perform in these elections would be staggering.

The question is, have the performed well enough? Now the rest of the

week's news in 60 seconds. The biggest shake-up of the benefit

system got under way in Greater Lancashire. The new Universal

Credit will follow for another regions in July. George Howe was

talking to the Business Secretary to see if anything could be done to

save this the road space plant. Manchester's installing 200

Charging days for electric cars. It is costing �2.7 million, most of it

funded by central Government. are competing with London, we are

about week to go. Meanwhile, patching up potholes on the Isle of

Man for the TT races, it will cost a quarter of a million pounds. And

plans to alter this hospital which will also host a Medical Research

Park. MPs heading back to Westminster for the Queen's speech,

what are you going to have to do to get the Government going again?

hope that in the Queen's speech there is lots for business and

growth and bringing back manufacturing to the UK like he

used to be in the old days. We will commit ourselves to rebalancing the

economy. You cannot turn a ship around that has been going in the

wrong direction of four or 30 years in two years. We are rebalancing

now. Apprenticeships are up, manufacturing is up. That is what

we want in the Queen's speech. do you think? Will the Government

pick itself up? I don't know. The austerity measures are not working

in Britain or across Europe. In our constituencies unemployment is

rising or temporary employment is rising. People are feeling squeezed.