Browse content similar to 14/05/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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It's Sunday morning and this is the Sunday Politics. | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
Theresa May unveils plans to build many more affordable homes | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
in England, but with no price tag, timetable or building targets - | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
Labour takes aim at the City with what it calls a Robin Hood Tax | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
to fund public services, but will traders just | :00:54. | :00:55. | |
Don't look at the polls - Jeremy Corbyn, at least, | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
insists he can win this election - so which way will | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
As the General Election approaches, group in Leeds. | :01:03. | :01:08. | |
we explore which party has the best ideas | :01:09. | :01:10. | |
to sort out problems on our roads and railways. | :01:11. | :01:15. | |
and here, what the parties are saying about tackling the air | :01:16. | :01:17. | |
pollution problem in London. And with me, our own scientifically | :01:18. | :01:25. | |
selected focus group of political pundits - | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
they're not so much undecided as clueless - | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
Tom Newton Dunn, Isabel Oakeshott They'll be tweeting | :01:32. | :01:33. | |
throughout the programme. So, we've got two new | :01:34. | :01:40. | |
policies this morning. Labour say they will introduce | :01:41. | :01:42. | |
a financial transaction tax if they win the general election | :01:43. | :01:44. | |
and what they're calling "the biggest crackdown on tax | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
avoidance in the country's history". The Conservatives say they'll work | :01:48. | :01:49. | |
with local authorities in England to build council houses | :01:50. | :01:51. | |
with the right to buy. Theresa May says the policy | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
"will help thousands of people get on the first rung | :01:55. | :01:56. | |
of the housing ladder". Steve, what do you make of them? I | :01:57. | :02:08. | |
have been conditioned after doing tax and spend debates in | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
pre-election periods for many decades to treat policy is not as | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
literal but as arguments. In other words if you look back to 2015 the | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
Tory plan to wipe out the deficit was never going to happen and yet it | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
framed and large event. In that sense the Robin Hood tax is a | :02:27. | :02:30. | |
sensible move for Labour to make at this point because it is part of a | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
narrative of reconfiguring taxation to be fair. Treating it as an | :02:36. | :02:38. | |
argument rather than something that would happen in day one of Labour | :02:39. | :02:45. | |
government is sensible. In terms of building houses Theresa May said | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
right from the beginning when she was in Number Ten that there is a | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
housing deficit in this country rather than the economic deficit | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
George Osborne was focusing on, and this is an example of trying to get | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
house-building going. It seems entirely sensible, not sure how it | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
works with right to buy but again as framing of a 90 minute it makes | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
sense. I disagree with Steve on one front which is how sensible Theresa | :03:10. | :03:17. | |
May's policy is on the housing announcement. I think more broadly | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
these two announcements have something in common which is that | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
over the next 24 hours both will probably unravel in different ways. | :03:25. | :03:31. | |
Ye of little faith! The Mayor of London has already said he doesn't | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
agree with this, and when people see the actual impact of what looks like | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
a populist tax will very potentially affect people's pensions, it might | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
become a lot less popular. On the Tory housing plans, I think it is | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
difficult to imagine how they are going to implement this huge, what | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
looks like a huge land and property grab. Through compulsory purchase | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
orders, which are not a simple instrument. They say they will | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
change the law but really the idea of paying people below the market | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
value for their assets is not something I can see sitting easily | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
with Tory backbenchers or the Tories in the House of Lords. Tom. Both | :04:14. | :04:20. | |
would appear superficially to be appealing to traditional left and | :04:21. | :04:24. | |
traditional right bases. What is more Tory than right to buy, then | :04:25. | :04:31. | |
councils sell on these houses, and Labour slapping a massive tax on the | :04:32. | :04:38. | |
city. The Tories' plan, I would say look a bit deeper and all of the | :04:39. | :04:41. | |
Tory narrative from the last six years which hasn't worked well is | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
talking about the private sector increasing supply in the market. Now | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
Mrs May is talking about the role for the state after all so this is | :04:51. | :04:58. | |
the shift creeping in. On the Labour transaction tax, one of the most | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
interesting things I heard in days was from Paul Mason, former BBC | :05:03. | :05:09. | |
correspondent, now a cog in Easter extreme. On Newsnight he said don't | :05:10. | :05:12. | |
worry about whether the Labour manifesto will add up, I'm promising | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
it will, the bigger Tory attack line should be what on earth will be the | :05:18. | :05:24. | |
macroeconomic effect of taking so much tax out of the system. Very | :05:25. | :05:29. | |
well, we shall see. At least we have some policies to talk about. | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
Now, on Tuesday Labour will launch its manifesto. | :05:33. | :05:34. | |
But we've already got a pretty good idea of what's in it - | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
that's because most of its contents were leaked to the media | :05:38. | :05:39. | |
Labour has a variety of spending pledges including an extra | :05:40. | :05:48. | |
?6 billion a year for the NHS, an additional ?8 billion for social | :05:49. | :05:51. | |
care over the lifetime of the next parliament, | :05:52. | :05:53. | |
as well as a ?250 billion in infrastructure over | :05:54. | :05:55. | |
The party will support the renewal of the Trident submarine system, | :05:56. | :06:03. | |
although any Prime Minister should be extremely cautious | :06:04. | :06:04. | |
about its use, and the party will hold a strategic defence | :06:05. | :06:07. | |
and security review immediately after the election. | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
In terms of immigration, Labour will seek "reasonable | :06:11. | :06:12. | |
management of migration", but it will not make "false | :06:13. | :06:14. | |
Elsewhere, university tuition fees will be abolished, | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
and the public sector pay cap, which limits pay rises | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
for public sector workers to 1%, will be scrapped. | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
The party also aims to renationalise the railways, the Royal Mail | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
and the National Grid, as well as creating at least one | :06:31. | :06:37. | |
A senior Labour backbencher described it to the Sunday Politics | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
as a manifesto for a leadership who don't "give a toss | :06:43. | :06:45. | |
about the wider public", and several other Labour candidates | :06:46. | :06:47. | |
told us they thought it had been deliberately | :06:48. | :06:49. | |
leaked by the leadership, with one suggesting | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
the leak was intended to "bounce the National Executive" | :06:54. | :06:55. | |
And we're joined now from Salford by the Shadow Business Secretary, | :06:56. | :06:58. | |
Welcome to the programme. The draft manifesto proposed to renationalise | :06:59. | :07:07. | |
the number of industry. You will wait for the franchises to run out | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
rather than buy them out at the moment so can you confirm the | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
railways will not be wholly nationalised until 2030, after three | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
Labour governments, and Jeremy Corbyn will be 80? I'm not going to | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
comment on leaks, you will just have to be patient and wait to see what | :07:27. | :07:33. | |
is in our manifesto. But you have already announced you will | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
nationalise the railways, so tell me about it. We have discussed taking | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
the franchises into public ownership as they expire, however the detail | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
will be set out in the manifesto so I'm not prepared to go into detail | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
until that policy is formally laid out on Tuesday. That doesn't sound | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
very hopeful but let's carry on. You will also nationalise the National | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
Grid, it has a market capitalisation of ?40 billion, why do you want to | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
nationalise that? Again, I'm not going to speculate on leaks, you | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
will just have to be patient. But you said you will nationalise the | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
National Grid so tell's Y. The leaks have suggested but you will just | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
have to wait and see what the final manifesto states on that one. So is | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
it a waste of time me asking you how you will pay for something that | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
costs 40 billion? Be patient, just couple of days to go, but what I | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
would say is there is growing pressure from the public to reform | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
the utilities sector. The Competition and Markets Authority | :08:42. | :08:44. | |
stated in 2015 that bill payers were paying over till debt -- ?2 billion | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
in excess of what they should be paying so there is a clear need for | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
reform. The bills we get are from the energy companies, you are not | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
going to nationalise them, you are going to nationalise the | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
distribution company and I wondered what is the case for nationalising | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
the distribution company? As I said, our full plans will be set out on | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
Tuesday. In relation to the big six energy companies, we know in recent | :09:14. | :09:16. | |
years they have been overcharging customers... There's no point in | :09:17. | :09:24. | |
answering questions I am not asking. I am asking what is the case for | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
nationalising the National Grid? There is a case for reforming the | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
energy sector as a whole and that looks at the activities of the big | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
six companies and it will look at other aspects too. You will have to | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
be patient and wait until Tuesday. What about the Royal Mail? Again, | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
you will have to wait until Tuesday. Why can't you just be honest with | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
the British voter? We know you are going to do this and you have a duty | :09:55. | :10:01. | |
to explain. I'm not even arguing whether it is right or wrong. The | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
Royal Mail was sold off and we know it was sold under value and British | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
taxpayers have a reason to feel aggrieved about that. There is a | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
long-term strategy that would ensure the Royal Mail was classified as a | :10:16. | :10:18. | |
key piece of infrastructure but the details of that will be set out in | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
our manifesto because we want to ensure businesses and households | :10:25. | :10:26. | |
ensure the best quality of service when it comes to their postal | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
providers. You plan to borrow an extra 25 billion per year, John | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
McDonnell has already announced this, on public investment, on top | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
of the around 50 billion already being planned for investment. You | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
will borrow it all so that means, if you can confirm, that many years | :10:47. | :10:54. | |
after the crash by 2021, Labour government would still be borrowing | :10:55. | :11:01. | |
75 billion a year. Is that correct? We have set out ?250 billion of | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
capital investment, and ?250 billion for a national investment bank. Our | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
financial and fiscal rules dictate we will leave the Government in a | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
state of less debt than we found it at the start of the parliament so we | :11:16. | :11:18. | |
won't increase the national debt at the end of our Parliamentary term. | :11:19. | :11:25. | |
How can you do that if by 2021 you will still be borrowing around 75 | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
billion a year, which is more than we borrow at the moment? The 500 | :11:30. | :11:35. | |
billion figure is set out over a period of ten years, it's a figure | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
that has been suggested by Peter Helm from Oxford University as a | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
figure that is necessary to bring us in line with other industrial | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
competitors. Similar figures have been suggested by groups such as the | :11:48. | :11:55. | |
CBI. By the way I have not included all 500 billion, just the 250 | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
billion on public spending, not the extra money. You talk about the | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
fiscal rules. The draft manifesto said you will leave debt as a | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
proportion of trend GDP law at the end of each parliament, you have | :12:10. | :12:16. | |
just said a version of that. What is trend GDP? In clear terms we will | :12:17. | :12:20. | |
ensure the debt we acquire will be reduced by the end of the | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
parliament. We won't leave the Government finances in a worse state | :12:25. | :12:31. | |
than we found them. OK, but what is trend GDP? Our rule is we will | :12:32. | :12:35. | |
ensure public sector net debt is less than we found it when we came | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
to power in Government on June the 8th. But that is not what your draft | :12:41. | :12:48. | |
manifesto says. I'm not going to comment on leaks, you are just going | :12:49. | :12:51. | |
to have to wait until Tuesday to look at the fine detail and perhaps | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
we will have another chat then. You have published your plans for | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
corporation tax and you will increase it by a third and your | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
predictions assumed that will get an extra 20 billion a year by the end | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
of the parliament. But that assumes the companies don't change their | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
behaviour, that they move money around, they leave the country or | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
they generate smaller profits. Is that realistic? You are right to | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
make that point and you will see when we set out our policies and | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
costings in the manifesto that we haven't spent all of the tax take. | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
We have allowed for different differentials and potential changes | :13:34. | :13:35. | |
in market activity because that would be approved and direction to | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
take. But corporation tax is allowed to be cut in France and the United | :13:41. | :13:48. | |
States, it's only 12.5% in Dublin. Many companies based in Britain are | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
already wondering whether they should relocate because of Brexit, | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
if you increase this tax by a third couldn't that clinch it for a number | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
of them? No, we will still be one of the lowest corporation tax rate in | :14:02. | :14:06. | |
the G7. Let's look at what's important for business. Cutting | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
corporation tax in itself doesn't improve productivity, or business | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
investment and there's no suggestion cutting corporation tax in recent | :14:16. | :14:18. | |
years has achieved that. Businesses need an investment in tools in | :14:19. | :14:24. | |
things they need to thrive and prosper, they also need to reduce | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
the burden at the lower end of the tax scale, before we get to the | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
Prophet stage. One key example is business rates. We have made the | :14:35. | :14:41. | |
proposal to government to in -- exclude machinery so businesses can | :14:42. | :14:44. | |
invest and grow operations in the future but the Government refused. | :14:45. | :14:51. | |
Corporation tax has been cut since 2010. When it was 28% it brought in | :14:52. | :15:01. | |
?43 billion a year. Now it is down to 20%, it brought in ?55 billion a | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
year. By cutting it in the last year, it brought in 21% more, so | :15:08. | :15:14. | |
what is the problem? It might have brought in more money, but has it | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
increased business investment in the long term. It is not just about | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
cutting corporation tax, but it is on the ability of businesses to | :15:25. | :15:28. | |
thrive and prosper. Business investment in the UK is below are | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
industrial competitors. Wages are stagnating which doesn't indicate | :15:35. | :15:41. | |
businesses are not doing well. Let me get it right, you are arguing if | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
we increase business tax by a third, that will increase investment? I am | :15:46. | :15:52. | |
not saying that. You just did. Know I didn't, I said reducing business | :15:53. | :16:00. | |
tax isn't enough, you have to invest in the things businesses need to | :16:01. | :16:03. | |
thrive and prosper. You have also got to lessen the burden on | :16:04. | :16:15. | |
business. You have announced a financial transaction tax. Your own | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
labour Mayor of London said he has vowed to fight it. He said I do not | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
want a unilateral tax on business in our city, so why are you proceeding | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
with it? This isn't a new initiative, there is a growing | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
global pressure to make sure we have fairness in the financial sector. | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
Ordinary British people are paying for our banking crisis they didn't | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
cause. Another important point, stamp duty reserve tax was brought | :16:45. | :16:49. | |
in in the 1600 and there have been little reforms. The sector has | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
changed and we have do provide changes to the system for that | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
change. High-frequency trading where we have a state of affairs where a | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
lot of shares are traded on computers within milliseconds. We | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
need a tax system that keeps up with that. What happens if they move the | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
computers to another country? Emily Thornaby said this morning, other | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
countries had already introduced a financial transaction tax, what | :17:20. | :17:22. | |
other countries have done that? There are ten countries looking at | :17:23. | :17:30. | |
introducing a transaction tax. Which ones have done it so far? They will | :17:31. | :17:37. | |
be later announcing a final package, going through the finer detail at | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
the moment. But the European Commission tried to get this done in | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
2011 and it still hasn't happened in any of these countries. But you are | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
going to go ahead unilaterally and risk these businesses, which | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
generate a lot of money, moving to other jurisdictions. There is not a | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
significant risk of that happening. The stamp duty reserve tax is levied | :18:01. | :18:11. | |
at either where the person or company is domiciled or where the | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
instrument is issued rather than worth the transaction takes place. | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
This tax in itself is not enough to make people leave this country in | :18:22. | :18:24. | |
terms of financial services because there is more to keep these | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
businesses here in terms of the investment we are making, the | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
economy that Labour will build, in terms of productivity improvement we | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
will see. Thank you very much, Rebecca Long-Bailey. | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
And listening to that was the Home Office Minister, Brandon Lewis. | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
Over the years, you have got corporation tax by 20%, it is lower | :18:48. | :18:53. | |
than international standards, so why are so many global companies who | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
make money out of Great Britain, still not paying 20%? It is one of | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
the problems with the point Labour were making and Rebecca could not | :19:06. | :19:08. | |
answer, these companies can move around the world. One of the | :19:09. | :19:14. | |
important things is having a low tax economy but these businesses, it | :19:15. | :19:18. | |
encourages them to come at a rate they are prepared to pay. People may | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
say they are right, if they were paying 19, 20% incorporation tax. | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
But they are not. Google runs a multi-million pound corporation and | :19:30. | :19:38. | |
did not pay anywhere near 20%. There are companies that are trading | :19:39. | :19:41. | |
internationally and that is why we have to get this work done with our | :19:42. | :19:50. | |
partners around the world. Has there been an improvement? It is more than | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
they were paying before. Whether it is Google or any other company, | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
alongside them being here, apart from the tax they pay, it is the | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
people they employ. The deal was, if you cut the business tax, the | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
corporation tax on profits, we would get more companies coming here and | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
more companies paying their tax. It seems it doesn't matter how low, a | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
number of companies just pay a derisory amount and you haven't been | :20:18. | :20:24. | |
able to change that. As you outlined, the income taken from the | :20:25. | :20:26. | |
changing corporation tax has gone up. That is from established British | :20:27. | :20:34. | |
companies, not from these international companies. It is | :20:35. | :20:37. | |
because more companies are coming here and paying tax. That is a good | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
thing. There is always more to do and that is why we want to crack | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
down. In the last few weeks in the Finnish Parliament, Labour refused | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
to put to another ?8.7 billion of tax take we could have got by | :20:52. | :20:57. | |
cracking down further. You claim to have made great progress on cracking | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
down on people and companies to pay the tax they should. But the tax gap | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
is the difference between what HMRC takes in and what it should take in. | :21:08. | :21:13. | |
It has barely moved in five years, so where is the progress? He have | :21:14. | :21:19. | |
brought in 150 billion more where we have cracked down on those tax | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
schemes. The gap is still the same as it was five years ago. It's gone | :21:24. | :21:33. | |
from 6.8, 26.5. It has gone down. The Prime Minister and the | :21:34. | :21:35. | |
Chancellor said they want to continue work on to get more money | :21:36. | :21:40. | |
on these companies while still having a competitive rate to | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
encourage these companies. While big business and the wealthy continue to | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
prosper, the Office for Budget Responsibility tell us those on | :21:52. | :21:54. | |
average earnings in this country will be earning less in real terms | :21:55. | :22:00. | |
by 2021 than they did in 2008. How can that be fair? I don't see it | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
that way. I haven't seen the figures you have got. What I can say to you, | :22:07. | :22:10. | |
Andrew, we have made sure the minimum wage has gone up, the actual | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
income tax people pay has gone down. So in their pocket, real terms, | :22:16. | :22:25. | |
people have more money. You are the self-styled party of work. We keep | :22:26. | :22:27. | |
emphasising work. Under your government you can work for 13 years | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
and still not earn any more at the end of it, and you did at the start. | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
Where is the reward for effort in that? I have not seen those figures. | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
There are 2.8 million more people, more jobs in economy than there was. | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
1000 jobs every day and people are working and developing through their | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
careers. This is what I thought was odd in what Rebecca was saying, | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
investing in people is what the apprenticeship levy is about, | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
companies are investing their works force to take more opportunities | :23:02. | :23:07. | |
that there. We are talking about fairness, politicians talk about | :23:08. | :23:10. | |
hard-working people and we know the average earnings are no higher than | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
they were in 2008. We know the pay and bonuses of senior executives | :23:16. | :23:20. | |
have continued to grow and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
shown 3 million of the poorest households will lose an average of | :23:24. | :23:29. | |
?2500 a year in the next Parliament, benefits frozen, further sanctions | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
kick in. 3 million of the poorest losing 2500. Under the Tories, one | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
law for the rich and another for the poor. It is quite wrong. First of | :23:40. | :23:45. | |
all, we have got to be fair to the taxpayer who is funding the welfare | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
and benefit system. Which is why the welfare was right. Get more people | :23:51. | :23:56. | |
in work and then it is important to get more people upscaling. As that | :23:57. | :24:03. | |
allowance rises, people have more of the money they earn in their pocket | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
to be able to use in the economy. People will be worse off. 2500, | :24:09. | :24:14. | |
among the poorest already. They will have more money in their pocket as | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
we increase the allowance before people pay tax. We have seen | :24:21. | :24:26. | |
millions of people coming out of tax altogether. The reason I ask these | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
questions, you and the Prime Minister go on and on about the just | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
about managing classes. I am talking about the just about managing and | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
below that. It is all talk, you haven't done anything for them. We | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
have made sure they have an increasing minimum wage, it has gone | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
up more under us than any other previous government. Their wages | :24:49. | :24:54. | |
will be still lower in real terms. Let me come on to this plan for | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
housing. We have announced a new plan to increase affordable housing, | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
social housing, some council housing and social housing built by the | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
associations. How much money is behind this? It is part of the 1.4 | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
billion announced in the Autumn Statement. How many homes will you | :25:13. | :25:20. | |
get for 1.4 billion? That depends on the negotiations with local | :25:21. | :25:23. | |
authorities. It is local authorities, who know the area best. | :25:24. | :25:30. | |
I will not put a number on that. 1.4 billion, if you price the house at | :25:31. | :25:34. | |
100,000, which is very low, particularly for the South, back at | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
you 14,000 new homes. That is it. What we have seen before, how the | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
local government can leveraged to build thousands more homes. That is | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
what we want to see across the country. It is not just about the | :25:50. | :25:53. | |
money, for a lot of local authorities it is about the | :25:54. | :25:56. | |
expertise and knowledge on how to do this. That is why support from the | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
housing communities minister will help. What is the timescale, how | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
many more affordable homes will be built? I will not put a number on | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
it. You announced it today, so you cannot tell me how many more or what | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
the target is? It is a matter of working with the local authorities | :26:19. | :26:21. | |
who know what their local needs are, what land they have got available. | :26:22. | :26:25. | |
What we saw through the local elections with the Metro mayors, | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
they want to deliver in their areas, whether it is the West of England, | :26:31. | :26:33. | |
the north-east, Liverpool, Manchester and we want to work with | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
them. You have said variations of this for the past seven years and I | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
want some credibility. When you cannot tell us how much money, what | :26:43. | :26:48. | |
the target and timescale is, and this government, under which | :26:49. | :26:51. | |
affordable house building has fallen to a 24 year low. 1.2 million | :26:52. | :26:57. | |
families are on waiting lists for social housing to rent. That is your | :26:58. | :27:03. | |
record. Why should we believe a word you say? This is different to what | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
we have been doing over the last two years. We want to develop and have a | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
strong and stable economy that can sustain that 1.4 billion homes. This | :27:13. | :27:19. | |
is important. In 2010, we inherited the lowest level of house building, | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
75,000 new homes. That is about 189,000 over the last four years. | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
That is a big step forward after the crash, getting people back into the | :27:31. | :27:34. | |
industry. More first-time buyers onto the market. Final question, in | :27:35. | :27:45. | |
2010, 2011, your first year in government, there were 60,000 | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
affordable homes built. May not be enough, but last day it was 30 2000. | :27:51. | :27:58. | |
So why should we trust anything you say about this? On housing, we have | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
delivered. We have delivered more social housing. Double what Labour | :28:06. | :28:11. | |
did in 13 years, in just five years. This is what this policy is about, | :28:12. | :28:15. | |
working with local authorities to deliver more homes to people in | :28:16. | :28:16. | |
their local areas. Thank you. Now, they have a deficit | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
of between 15 and 20% in the polls, but Jeremy Corbyn and those | :28:21. | :28:23. | |
around him insist Labour can win. If the polls are right they've got | :28:24. | :28:26. | |
three and half weeks to change voters' minds and persuade those | :28:27. | :28:29. | |
fabled undecided voters We enlisted the polling organisation | :28:30. | :28:31. | |
YouGov to help us find out how the performance of party leaders | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
will affect behaviour Leeds, a city of three quarters | :28:37. | :28:38. | |
of a million people, eight Parliamentary seats and home | :28:39. | :28:47. | |
to our very own focus group. Our panel was recruited | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
from a variety of backgrounds and the majority say they haven't | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
decided who to vote for yet. Watching behind the glass, | :28:56. | :28:59. | |
two experts on different sides Giles Cunningham, who headed up | :29:00. | :29:01. | |
political press at Downing Street under David Cameron | :29:02. | :29:08. | |
and Aaron Bastani, Corbin supporter, under David Cameron | :29:09. | :29:15. | |
and Aaron Bastani, Corbyn supporter, I think Theresa May sees herself | :29:16. | :29:17. | |
as a pound shop Thatcher. Milliband's policies but when it | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
came about who you want, | :29:22. | :29:41. | |
if you wake up on maybe a 2015, We found in a couple of focus | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
groups, people saying we'd be quite relieved, | :29:46. | :29:48. | |
even though some of those same people have been saying we quite | :29:49. | :29:51. | |
like the Labour policies. I think the fact that Corbyn's | :29:52. | :29:53. | |
going so hard on his values, this is a really progressive | :29:54. | :29:58. | |
manifesto, they live But I think that's a new challenge, | :29:59. | :30:00. | |
that wasn't there in 2015. Is there anyone here that | :30:01. | :30:04. | |
you don't recognise? After a little warm up, | :30:05. | :30:06. | |
the first exercise, recognising I think it's nice to have a strong | :30:07. | :30:08. | |
woman in politics, I do. But I've got to say, | :30:09. | :30:15. | |
when she comes on the news, I kind of do think, | :30:16. | :30:17. | |
here we go again. Tell me about Tim Farron, what | :30:18. | :30:20. | |
are your impressions of Tim Farron? It isn't going to do anything, | :30:21. | :30:22. | |
it isn't going to change anything. You'll be surprised to hear it's | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
actually the Greens. Strong and stable leadership | :30:28. | :30:35. | |
in the national interest. Yes, Team May, it's | :30:36. | :30:48. | |
the British equivalent of make What do we think about this one | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
for the many and not the few? It's not quite as bad | :30:54. | :31:03. | |
as strong and stable, but it will probably get | :31:04. | :31:05. | |
on our nerves after a while. We must seize that chance today | :31:06. | :31:07. | |
and every day until June the 8th. But that's not quite my | :31:08. | :31:18. | |
question, my question is, if you are Prime Minister, | :31:19. | :31:26. | |
we will leave, come hell or high water, whatever is on the table | :31:27. | :31:28. | |
at the end of the negotiations? If we win the election, | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
we'll get a good deal with Europe. Assertive and in control | :31:33. | :31:34. | |
and he felt comfortable But the second one, I thought | :31:35. | :31:36. | |
he was very hesitant. I thought he was kind of, | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
hovering around, skirting around and that's the second | :31:42. | :31:50. | |
time I've seen a similar interview with the question | :31:51. | :31:53. | |
being asked regarding Brexit. I don't think I'd have | :31:54. | :31:55. | |
any confidence with him You think you are going up | :31:56. | :31:57. | |
against some quite strong people, how are you going to stand | :31:58. | :32:00. | |
up for us? When you are in negotiations, | :32:01. | :32:03. | |
you need to be tough. And actually is right | :32:04. | :32:07. | |
to be tough sometimes, particularly when you are doing | :32:08. | :32:09. | |
something for the country. There's a reason for talking | :32:10. | :32:11. | |
about strong and stable leadership. It's about the future | :32:12. | :32:14. | |
of the country, it's It's just that people kind of listen | :32:15. | :32:16. | |
to that kind of thing and think Both on The One Show | :32:17. | :32:20. | |
and in the news. She attracts the public better | :32:21. | :32:26. | |
than what Corbyn does. She didn't answer the question | :32:27. | :32:32. | |
in a more articular way than Corbyn Imagine that Theresa | :32:33. | :32:35. | |
May is an animal. So, in your minds, | :32:36. | :32:41. | |
what animal is coming to mind I've done a Pekinese because I think | :32:42. | :32:44. | |
she's all bark and no bite. Alpaca because she's | :32:45. | :32:58. | |
superior looking and woolly I don't think his policies | :32:59. | :33:05. | |
are for the modern, real world. A mouse because they are weak | :33:06. | :33:20. | |
and they can be easily bullied, but also they can catch | :33:21. | :33:24. | |
you by surprise if you're What do you take away | :33:25. | :33:26. | |
from what you saw then, and what message would you send back | :33:27. | :33:34. | |
to the Tories now? I think what came over is people see | :33:35. | :33:37. | |
Theresa May as a strong politician, not everyone likes her, | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
but you don't need to be liked to be elected, | :33:41. | :33:42. | |
because ultimately it's about who do you trust with your future | :33:43. | :33:45. | |
and your security. I think what I also take out | :33:46. | :33:47. | |
of that focus group, was it was a group of floating | :33:48. | :33:50. | |
voters, there was no huge appetite for the Lib Dems and there was no | :33:51. | :33:52. | |
huge appetite for Ukip. So my messaged back to CCHQ | :33:53. | :33:55. | |
would be stick to the plan. I thought the response | :33:56. | :33:58. | |
to the manifesto was excellent. It's clear that people aren't | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
particularly keen on Theresa May, There are some associations with her | :34:03. | :34:04. | |
about strength and stability, which is exactly what the Tory party | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
want of course, but they are not positive and nobody thinks | :34:10. | :34:12. | |
that she has a vision So, what I'd say the Jeremy Corbyn, | :34:13. | :34:14. | |
what I'd say to the Labour Party is, they need to really emphasise | :34:15. | :34:21. | |
the manifesto in Jeremy Corbyn himself has to perform | :34:22. | :34:23. | |
out of his skin and I think he has to reemphasise those | :34:24. | :34:29. | |
characteristics which may be have come to the fore may be | :34:30. | :34:32. | |
over the last 12 months, resilience, strength and the fact | :34:33. | :34:34. | |
that he's come this far, why not take that final step and go | :34:35. | :34:37. | |
into ten Downing Street? We're joined now by the American | :34:38. | :34:39. | |
political consultant For the sake of this discussion, | :34:40. | :34:47. | |
assume the polls at the moment are broadly right, is there any hope for | :34:48. | :34:54. | |
Mr Corbyn in the undecided voters? Know, and this is a very serious | :34:55. | :35:00. | |
collection with serious consequences to who wins. Nobody cares whether | :35:01. | :35:03. | |
you can draw and what animal they represent, they want to know where | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
they stand, and I felt that was frivolous. I come to Britain to | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
watch elections because I learned from here. Your elections are more | :35:13. | :35:17. | |
substantial, more serious, more policy and less about personality | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
and that peace was only about personality. That's partly because | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
Mrs May has decided to make this a presidential election. You can see | :35:27. | :35:36. | |
on the posters it is all Team May. I agree with that, and in her language | :35:37. | :35:43. | |
she says not everyone benefits from a Conservative government, I don't | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
see how using anything Republicans have used in the past. In fact her | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
campaign is more of a centrist Democrats but it is a smart strategy | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
because it pushes Corbyn further to the left. Of course you said Hillary | :35:57. | :36:02. | |
Clinton have won. On election night the polling was so bad in America, | :36:03. | :36:07. | |
the exit polls that were done, the BBC told America she had won. No, I | :36:08. | :36:13. | |
was anchoring the programme that night, I ignored your tweet. The BBC | :36:14. | :36:21. | |
had the same numbers. Yes, but we did not say she had won, I can | :36:22. | :36:25. | |
assure you of that. Because of people like you we thought she had | :36:26. | :36:31. | |
but we didn't broadcast it. That was a smart approach. My point is other | :36:32. | :36:38. | |
than teasing you, maybe there is hope for Jeremy Corbyn. I think you | :36:39. | :36:43. | |
will have one of the lowest turnout in modern history and I think Labour | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
will fall to one of the lowest percentages, not percentage of | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
number of seats they have had, and this will be a matter of | :36:53. | :36:55. | |
soul-searching for both political parties. What you do with a sizeable | :36:56. | :37:01. | |
majority, and she has a responsibility to tell the British | :37:02. | :37:04. | |
people exactly what happens as she moves forward. He and Labour will | :37:05. | :37:10. | |
have to take a look at whether they still represent a significant slice | :37:11. | :37:15. | |
of the British population. Do you see a realignment in British | :37:16. | :37:20. | |
politics taking place? I see a crumbling of the left and yet there | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
is still a significant percentage of the British population that once | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
someone who is centre-left. And they like a lot of Mr Corbyn's policies. | :37:29. | :37:37. | |
I'm listening to Michael foot. I went to school here in the 1980s and | :37:38. | :37:40. | |
I feel like I'm watching the Labour Party of 35 years ago, in a | :37:41. | :37:43. | |
population that wants to focus on the future, not the past. Thank you. | :37:44. | :37:49. | |
It's just gone 11.35, you're watching the Sunday Politics. | :37:50. | :37:51. | |
We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who leave us now | :37:52. | :37:54. | |
I'm Julia George and this is the Sunday Politics | :37:55. | :38:05. | |
This morning, in the first of our general election programmes | :38:06. | :38:08. | |
focusing on key issues affecting the region, | :38:09. | :38:10. | |
we'll be looking at our road and rail services, both sources | :38:11. | :38:13. | |
of increasing frustration for commuters and motorists. | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
To discuss these, I'm joined by Huw Merriman for the Conservatives, | :38:18. | :38:19. | |
Labour's Vince Maple and Chris Bower from the Liberal Democrats. | :38:20. | :38:22. | |
The row between Southern Rail and the unions | :38:23. | :38:27. | |
has rarely been out of the headlines over the past year. | :38:28. | :38:30. | |
Strikes over the rail company's plans to introduce driver only | :38:31. | :38:33. | |
operated trains are costing the South East economy | :38:34. | :38:36. | |
So what can be done to improve our railways? | :38:37. | :38:39. | |
We sent our reporter Briony Williams to find out. | :38:40. | :38:43. | |
Packed trains and commuter chaos have become synonymous | :38:44. | :38:45. | |
with the Southern Rail network over the past 12 months. | :38:46. | :38:50. | |
31 days of strike action called by the RMT Union has made it | :38:51. | :38:54. | |
the worst industrial action to hit the rail industry for 23 years. | :38:55. | :39:00. | |
The year-long dispute over driver only operated trains has affected | :39:01. | :39:04. | |
hundreds of thousands of journeys across 156 stations | :39:05. | :39:09. | |
for people's personal lives and livelihoods. | :39:10. | :39:16. | |
There was a month where I didn't pay myself | :39:17. | :39:19. | |
and, if it had carried on much longer, | :39:20. | :39:21. | |
footfall in the station in general was down, | :39:22. | :39:29. | |
and it had a big knock-on effect on local business, | :39:30. | :39:31. | |
Over the past year, 58,983 trains were fully | :39:32. | :39:39. | |
With the overall cost to the economy and the South East amounting | :39:40. | :39:44. | |
On top of that, the Government has paid out | :39:45. | :39:51. | |
That's not the only problem for commuters in the region. | :39:52. | :39:58. | |
A recent survey by the independent watchdog, Transport Focus, | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
found that Southern was the worst performing train operator | :40:03. | :40:05. | |
in the country, with only 30% of those surveyed saying | :40:06. | :40:08. | |
that their last journey was punctual, and only one in eight | :40:09. | :40:10. | |
saying that the company dealt well with delays. | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
Southeastern and Thameslink didn't fare much better. | :40:16. | :40:18. | |
Southern and Thameslink bosses say it's improved in recent months, | :40:19. | :40:22. | |
Southeastern say many of its passengers | :40:23. | :40:28. | |
and it's investing to improve where it needs to. | :40:29. | :40:33. | |
I think it could be better, but it could be worse. | :40:34. | :40:36. | |
So I'm less unhappy than many of the people | :40:37. | :40:38. | |
who were affected by the strikes, I suspect. | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
Yeah, no, they are very good, very dependable, | :40:43. | :40:44. | |
It's badly managed, it's irregular, it's inconvenient, | :40:45. | :40:50. | |
In Brighton and Hove, the main arguments are... | :40:51. | :40:59. | |
I think if rail was brought back into public ownership, | :41:00. | :41:02. | |
it would help solve some of the problems we've seen | :41:03. | :41:04. | |
not least because you would know where the buck stopped. | :41:05. | :41:08. | |
I mean, trying to fight with Southern over the fact | :41:09. | :41:10. | |
they have had such dreadful service for well over a year now | :41:11. | :41:13. | |
because you never know exactly who is responsible for what, | :41:14. | :41:18. | |
and they duck and they dive and they blame the Government, | :41:19. | :41:20. | |
So, at the very least, we would have real accountability, | :41:21. | :41:24. | |
and I think that's absolutely essential | :41:25. | :41:26. | |
when it comes to our railway services. | :41:27. | :41:28. | |
We should bring our railways back into public ownership, | :41:29. | :41:30. | |
and I think many more people in Brighton think that we should. | :41:31. | :41:33. | |
So, under a Labour government, we're going to renationalise our railways, | :41:34. | :41:35. | |
we're going to have proper investment | :41:36. | :41:37. | |
and deliver a good, publicly owned service. | :41:38. | :41:38. | |
What we need is an ombudsman to champion commuters, | :41:39. | :41:41. | |
and to have accountability so there is somewhere for commuters | :41:42. | :41:43. | |
to go to to get their money back and to champion their rights. | :41:44. | :41:49. | |
And, for those who are impacted day in, day out? | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
I think there needs to be some tangible changes to the way | :41:55. | :41:57. | |
and what the unions are allowed to get away with. | :41:58. | :42:05. | |
With the train drivers union, Aslef, and the RMT Union both due to resume | :42:06. | :42:09. | |
separate talks with the Southern bosses this coming week, | :42:10. | :42:13. | |
there is still no definitive end in sight. | :42:14. | :42:16. | |
So can any of the solutions put forward by the political parties | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
And we've just seen the latest report on rail performance | :42:21. | :42:27. | |
by the regulator, the Office for Rail and Road, | :42:28. | :42:30. | |
which shows Southern's parent company, Govia Thameslink, | :42:31. | :42:32. | |
in terms of cancellations and delays in over a decade. | :42:33. | :42:39. | |
Let's start with you, Chris Bower. Let's clarify the Liberal Democrat | :42:40. | :42:48. | |
position. Tim Farron told the BBC that he wanted to strip Southern of | :42:49. | :42:53. | |
its franchise. That sounds like we nationalise a. Is that your policy? | :42:54. | :42:57. | |
The policy which will come out in the manifesto is that we want to | :42:58. | :43:00. | |
strip Southern of its franchise, but we also want to work towards a | :43:01. | :43:07. | |
long-term franchising opportunity. There will be an interim period | :43:08. | :43:11. | |
where it will be owned by the gunmen, the same with Govia | :43:12. | :43:17. | |
Thameslink. We need to have some elected local authority | :43:18. | :43:20. | |
representative is as part of that. Is it just Southern that you would | :43:21. | :43:27. | |
strip of its franchise? Southern and Govia Thameslink. One of the most | :43:28. | :43:29. | |
compensated franchises in the country. It is Southern's management | :43:30. | :43:35. | |
who file. We have to put a word in for their staff, they do a brilliant | :43:36. | :43:40. | |
staff, covering up for the failures of their management. It sounds a lot | :43:41. | :43:44. | |
like renationalisation. In what way is it not? I you afraid to use the | :43:45. | :43:50. | |
word because Labour use the word in delicate manifesto. It involves the | :43:51. | :43:58. | |
local authority management. In what way we do involve the local | :43:59. | :44:01. | |
authority? You have boards which involve local councillors. Just for | :44:02. | :44:07. | |
scrutiny? For scrutiny, overall covenants, but we would have rail | :44:08. | :44:12. | |
companies actually running the railways, we're not going back to | :44:13. | :44:18. | |
the state running the railway. In some ways, that sounds more radical | :44:19. | :44:26. | |
than your party. You would wait until the franchises expire before | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
the nationalising. In some parts of the network, they would still be | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
radically owned in 2029. It is about finding a pragmatic solution. What | :44:35. | :44:37. | |
we have seen in the last 12 months with the southern dispute has been | :44:38. | :44:41. | |
chaos for commuters. I agree with Chris that the blame for that is to | :44:42. | :44:45. | |
be very carefully with the senior management. They have been tried | :44:46. | :44:51. | |
bring those parties together. The policy we have in our manifesto is | :44:52. | :44:57. | |
clear, the public are frustrated with expensive fares, a regular | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
train services, they want to see a decent public service, not for | :45:02. | :45:04. | |
profit, but for the public service for commuters across the region who | :45:05. | :45:16. | |
... We have to be clear, the management are not here to defend | :45:17. | :45:21. | |
themselves. I do agree that longer term, we need to take it in a | :45:22. | :45:35. | |
southern deadlock is broken, is your southern deadlock is broken, is your | :45:36. | :45:40. | |
Holocene to crush your things and hope the problem goes away? It was | :45:41. | :45:45. | |
terrible in 2016, we had industrial action and the redevelopment of | :45:46. | :45:49. | |
London Bridge, Southern's management maintain that was a key factor. What | :45:50. | :45:54. | |
we now have is Southern's public performance measurement going up | :45:55. | :45:58. | |
from six to 5% last year to 87%, which suggests that the fault was | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
with the unions were going on strike and with nationalised Network Rail | :46:04. | :46:06. | |
the overrunning of London Bridge. To turn back to those policies in terms | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
of nationalisation and giving unions or power would send us back to where | :46:12. | :46:15. | |
we were last year, which would be a disaster. We need to move forward. | :46:16. | :46:19. | |
To be fair to Southern, if they have turned the corner, we need to help | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
them get on with it. Looking at the wider issues on the railways, and | :46:25. | :46:28. | |
you can come back on this. In 2011, Philip Hammond said, and cup double | :46:29. | :46:35. | |
fact another one, the railways are already a vertically rich man's toy | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
come the whole railway. If you are a party for the people who are just | :46:40. | :46:41. | |
about managing, what will you do about managing, what will you do | :46:42. | :46:45. | |
see how Labour's figures will stack see how Labour's figures will stack | :46:46. | :46:48. | |
up. They are talking about getting rid of driver controlled trains, 76% | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
of Southern's trains are driver controlled. It doesn't add up to me | :46:55. | :47:02. | |
at all. What is important is that railways self fund themselves, which | :47:03. | :47:08. | |
allows us to put money into upgrading the tracks and stations. | :47:09. | :47:11. | |
You don't agree that we need to do something about rail fares? I agree | :47:12. | :47:14. | |
that they are expensive, but we need to make sure that they pay for the | :47:15. | :47:18. | |
service, which allows taxpayer money to go into improving in the | :47:19. | :47:25. | |
structure. What gets me is this whole business about hiding behind | :47:26. | :47:29. | |
the militant unions. How are customers of the railways going to | :47:30. | :47:30. | |
be any better about the Government be any better about the Government | :47:31. | :47:36. | |
that hides behind the union? They also want to know what you what to | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
do about fares. I have a friend who is an ICU nurse, on her part-time | :47:42. | :47:47. | |
nurses wage, she has to pay ?35 50 every time she travels from the | :47:48. | :47:52. | |
bridge wells to London Bridge. What are your party is going to do about | :47:53. | :47:57. | |
rail this question Mike in the coalition, we work on reducing bus | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
fares. We would love to bring the rail fares down. What are you going | :48:02. | :48:07. | |
to due to bring rail fares down? We will maintain the profit element. | :48:08. | :48:14. | |
Your ICU nurse friend, part of that there will be going to pay | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
shareholders. That should not be the case, it should be for the public, | :48:19. | :48:21. | |
not the profit. Our railways may need improving, | :48:22. | :48:23. | |
but are the roads faring any better? When the government announced | :48:24. | :48:26. | |
a giant ?250 million lorry park it was meant to be a solution | :48:27. | :48:29. | |
to Operation Stack, a temporary measure that | :48:30. | :48:33. | |
turned parts of the M20 into a lorry park a total | :48:34. | :48:35. | |
of 32 times in just that year. But work on the project appears | :48:36. | :48:38. | |
to have stalled because of | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
a pending judicial review. Our reporter, Heather Edwards, | :48:44. | :48:45. | |
joins us from the proposed site of the lorry park in | :48:46. | :48:48. | |
the village of Stanford. Well, other than the distant | :48:49. | :48:51. | |
rumble from the motorway, here in the countryside | :48:52. | :48:53. | |
around Stanford. We've had the dog | :48:54. | :48:56. | |
walkers out already. The Government has bold | :48:57. | :48:58. | |
plans for this land. It wants to build what could be | :48:59. | :49:01. | |
the world's biggest lorry park, twice the size of Disneyland, | :49:02. | :49:04. | |
with capacity for 3,600 lorries. I'm sure you can imagine, many local | :49:05. | :49:09. | |
people are horrified at the plans. I'm joined here by the chair | :49:10. | :49:13. | |
of Stanford parish council, Matthew Webb, and also | :49:14. | :49:15. | |
Christopher Snelling, from the Freight Transport | :49:16. | :49:17. | |
Association. Matthew, this is not | :49:18. | :49:20. | |
going to be Disneyland. Horrified, is that a reasonable | :49:21. | :49:22. | |
description of how you feel? Our residents provide and dismayed | :49:23. | :49:25. | |
that this should be proposed. They are very concerned | :49:26. | :49:29. | |
about the environmental health of their families, | :49:30. | :49:31. | |
and also we just do not think it doesn't get the freight | :49:32. | :49:34. | |
anywhere any more quickly. What you need to do is improve | :49:35. | :49:40. | |
capacity and resilience And Eurotunnel, Port of Dover have | :49:41. | :49:43. | |
helped do that in recent months. There's been better security around | :49:44. | :49:51. | |
the Channel Tunnel on the French side, the Jungle has been cleared, | :49:52. | :49:54. | |
and all of those things have helped contribute to the fact | :49:55. | :49:57. | |
that we haven't seen Operation Stack I mean, your members at | :49:58. | :49:59. | |
the Freight Transport Association, Would you want this | :50:00. | :50:06. | |
on your doorstep? I think the first important | :50:07. | :50:09. | |
thing to say is that this won't be a lorry park, | :50:10. | :50:12. | |
it's a lorry area. It's supposed to be | :50:13. | :50:14. | |
empty most of the time. It's an emergency reserve | :50:15. | :50:16. | |
for the normally two or three days a year that we need it | :50:17. | :50:19. | |
for Operation Stack. The purpose of it is to get | :50:20. | :50:21. | |
the lorry divers safe, and somewhere where they have | :50:22. | :50:24. | |
toilet facilities. Also, most importantly, | :50:25. | :50:26. | |
to keep the motorway open. If the motorway ever shuts, | :50:27. | :50:28. | |
that's a massive blight on the people of Kent and anyone | :50:29. | :50:30. | |
trying to get through it. You talk about blight - | :50:31. | :50:33. | |
as Matthew said, 3,600 diesel lorries in one location, | :50:34. | :50:36. | |
pumping out fumes. You can understand, surely, | :50:37. | :50:37. | |
the concerns of local people and the impact it's going to have | :50:38. | :50:40. | |
on the environment. If they are sat here | :50:41. | :50:42. | |
in a lorry area, they are not | :50:43. | :50:45. | |
going to be pumping out fumes because they are going | :50:46. | :50:47. | |
to be switched off. It is an essential resource for us | :50:48. | :50:49. | |
to be able to keep the motorways functioning for everything | :50:50. | :50:52. | |
else and everyone else We have to keep Kent working, | :50:53. | :50:54. | |
even when Operation Stack occurs. That is an important | :50:55. | :50:57. | |
point, Matthew, surely? 11,000 lorries a day, | :50:58. | :51:01. | |
rolling on and off ferries at Dover. Those lorries have got | :51:02. | :51:04. | |
to have somewhere to go. I would say that you need | :51:05. | :51:12. | |
to bear in mind that during the summer of 2015, | :51:13. | :51:14. | |
there were 9,000 lorries stuck You will still have 5,400 | :51:15. | :51:19. | |
on the motorway, not going anywhere. You need to fix the problems that | :51:20. | :51:27. | |
cause Stack, not the symptoms. 3,600 lorries when we had 9,000 | :51:28. | :51:31. | |
lorries stuck during 2015, it's not big enough, | :51:32. | :51:38. | |
and it's an awful lot of money. That was only for the very worst two | :51:39. | :51:42. | |
or three days we ever had. Normally, Stack is on the order | :51:43. | :51:46. | |
of 2,000 or 3,000 vehicles, Matthew was right, | :51:47. | :51:49. | |
the best thing of all We don't want to be sat here, | :51:50. | :51:52. | |
waiting, we want to be getting across the Channel | :51:53. | :51:56. | |
and servicing our customers. But some of those | :51:57. | :51:58. | |
problems are intractable. We're never going to fix | :51:59. | :52:00. | |
the weather in the channel, it's still going to be a problem | :52:01. | :52:02. | |
from time to time. We need to have emergency | :52:03. | :52:05. | |
plans in place. And, of course, we've got | :52:06. | :52:07. | |
Brexit on the horizon. The CEO of Dover says that that | :52:08. | :52:09. | |
could mean we have Operation Stack Christopher, briefly, | :52:10. | :52:12. | |
how worried are your members about what is going to happen | :52:13. | :52:15. | |
in two years' time? It's one of the chief | :52:16. | :52:17. | |
issues for us with Brexit, that if we have any potential | :52:18. | :52:21. | |
additional customs checks that we have to go through at Dover, | :52:22. | :52:23. | |
if the border is brought back, then that could add a lot | :52:24. | :52:27. | |
to the time getting across. If you are talking about 10,000 | :52:28. | :52:29. | |
or 11,000 movements every day, it would not take much for that | :52:30. | :52:32. | |
to go wrong, and suddenly you've got | :52:33. | :52:34. | |
Operation Stack a lot more often, The judicial review | :52:35. | :52:37. | |
is in the autumn. For now, thank you both | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
very much indeed. Matthew Webb | :52:43. | :52:45. | |
and Christopher Snelling, Thank you. | :52:46. | :52:46. | |
Thank you. Huw Merriman, you were on the | :52:47. | :52:59. | |
Transport Select Committee, which is critical on the lorry park. You have | :53:00. | :53:02. | |
heard it before, the Government's decision was taken hastily in | :53:03. | :53:06. | |
reaction to the events of 2015. They came up with the policy and came up | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
with a justification afterwards. To what agreed you agree with those? | :53:12. | :53:17. | |
Three months previously, we put our first report out before the covenant | :53:18. | :53:20. | |
had taken action. We reported it was hard to find any other possible | :53:21. | :53:24. | |
solution bar a lorry park at Stanford. Three months later, we | :53:25. | :53:27. | |
then attacked the Government for making a hasty decision. I did not | :53:28. | :53:32. | |
agree with the second report. I made a menace to the report to stop us | :53:33. | :53:38. | |
being hypocritical. We heard evidence from all the local | :53:39. | :53:48. | |
authorities, we only heard evidence that was against it. That summer in | :53:49. | :53:55. | |
Kent was chaos. It was bad for health, for business. We cannot see | :53:56. | :53:59. | |
that happening again. It will seem extraordinary for people that you | :54:00. | :54:05. | |
don't need planning permission for this enormous lorry park. There has | :54:06. | :54:12. | |
been a consultation period set for people to feedback. There will be | :54:13. | :54:16. | |
the usual legal process. No planning permission? What we have got in | :54:17. | :54:21. | |
place is a park that has had work already start on it. There is a | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
judicial review around the corner. When Terminal five was built, it | :54:25. | :54:28. | |
took eight years to get through the legal process would I don't want | :54:29. | :54:30. | |
that to happen again, otherwise you will have another summer in Kent | :54:31. | :54:38. | |
like pretty 15. Surely you can see the need for this lorry park? What | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
is clear to me is that the status quo of Operation Stack happening for | :54:44. | :54:51. | |
ever is not viable. We need that the happen. You plunged when you had the | :54:52. | :54:54. | |
support that with Brexit coming, we will have Operation Stack everyday. | :54:55. | :55:02. | |
Is that hyperbole? Who knows? We need to be prepared for these | :55:03. | :55:05. | |
things. I love living in Kent are part of the problem is that we have | :55:06. | :55:09. | |
the huge Port of Dover, which comes with challenges. The reality is we | :55:10. | :55:11. | |
need to have solutions to those problems. Have all of the solutions | :55:12. | :55:14. | |
being looked at here? I looked at being looked at here? I looked at | :55:15. | :55:19. | |
the footage of the committee, hours of that footage. The question that | :55:20. | :55:27. | |
they not properly looked at the they not properly looked at the | :55:28. | :55:31. | |
alternatives? Where are the cost analyses of all of the alternatives? | :55:32. | :55:33. | |
Part of that is looking at what will Part of that is looking at what will | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
happen if this goes ahead. There needs to be funding to make sure | :55:39. | :55:43. | |
this goes ahead. They need to be a costing structure. The risk is, if | :55:44. | :55:48. | |
it is not done properly... We need a solution. We need to look at farm | :55:49. | :55:54. | |
alternatives, more rail freight, get more freight off the roads and on | :55:55. | :55:59. | |
the rail capacity. Do we need to do the rail capacity. Do we need to do | :56:00. | :56:03. | |
that as well? Yes, we do, we need to improve communications. When we talk | :56:04. | :56:08. | |
about Brexit, we talk about the custom union and the single market. | :56:09. | :56:13. | |
This is the real application of that. If we leave the customs union, | :56:14. | :56:16. | |
leave the single market, Operation Stack will seem like being stuck for | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
a couple of minutes at a red traffic light. The boards are telling us | :56:23. | :56:27. | |
that they are already at capacity for the administration of seeing | :56:28. | :56:29. | |
vehicles through. If we are then going to have extra customs | :56:30. | :56:33. | |
formalities, that will make it unworkable. The new President of | :56:34. | :56:40. | |
France... He wants to bring the border over to this country. In this | :56:41. | :56:43. | |
case don't we need the lorry park and other lorry parks and your idea | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
about moving the freight onto the railways, and possibly the getting | :56:49. | :56:58. | |
of details to the drivers. We need to make sure we keep all of the | :56:59. | :57:01. | |
lorries out of the South East until they know it is going to be clear, | :57:02. | :57:08. | |
then you need the last resort. All of these points will add that in the | :57:09. | :57:12. | |
amity report. Looking at other ports, looking at additional lanes | :57:13. | :57:14. | |
on the motorways will take years and on the motorways will take years and | :57:15. | :57:19. | |
cost billions. In the meantime, Kent continues to suffer the inherent | :57:20. | :57:23. | |
danger of that summer chaos. We can't allow that to happen. What | :57:24. | :57:25. | |
about the inherent danger to people about the inherent danger to people | :57:26. | :57:30. | |
living in Stanford, looking at the particulate from those diesel | :57:31. | :57:34. | |
lorries. They are right to say, where is the investigation into the | :57:35. | :57:37. | |
environment or health issues here? That has all been studied as part of | :57:38. | :57:42. | |
the consultation. Let's look at the alternative, all those lorries | :57:43. | :57:44. | |
engines running, not just on the engines running, not just on the | :57:45. | :57:49. | |
motorways. The villages are blocked, there is a pollution there as the | :57:50. | :57:54. | |
noise and inconvenience, as well as being unable to get to hospitals or | :57:55. | :57:57. | |
to work. This is a better outcome than suffering the consequences that | :57:58. | :58:02. | |
Kent suffered last summer. It is not just about the whole of Kent. It was | :58:03. | :58:08. | |
North and West Kent affected as well, the whole county, it is a | :58:09. | :58:11. | |
national issue. If we can't get the freight moving, it will impact | :58:12. | :58:15. | |
business. Would you have this scrapped immediately if you were | :58:16. | :58:23. | |
elected? We would put it on hold. We cannot solve solutions with predict | :58:24. | :58:27. | |
and provide. We have to address them an first. A quick question, would | :58:28. | :58:32. | |
this operate as a conventional lorry park all year round? How report | :58:33. | :58:39. | |
suggested do so. The issue with Stack, and also illegal parking. We | :58:40. | :58:42. | |
want to see it operated all the way around as a legal lorry park was a | :58:43. | :58:46. | |
big deals with two issues rather than just one. Thank you. | :58:47. | :58:49. | |
And now here's some of the other news you may have missed | :58:50. | :58:52. | |
The chairman of the Kent branch of Ukip has confirmed | :58:53. | :59:00. | |
he will be standing down from the role, | :59:01. | :59:02. | |
and as the party's candidate in Sittingbourne and Sheppey. | :59:03. | :59:05. | |
It follows critical comments made on this programme | :59:06. | :59:08. | |
about the party leader, Paul Nuttall. | :59:09. | :59:10. | |
We could have a different leadership team at the top. | :59:11. | :59:12. | |
But Richard Palmer told the BBC that he needed a rest, | :59:13. | :59:15. | |
and the local party had made a decision not to field a candidate | :59:16. | :59:18. | |
Parents in Brighton and Hove have launched a campaign | :59:19. | :59:23. | |
in the run-up to the general election, | :59:24. | :59:25. | |
calling for greater funding for schools. | :59:26. | :59:27. | |
Banners were displayed, claiming cuts to school budgets | :59:28. | :59:30. | |
would have devastating impact on education. | :59:31. | :59:33. | |
It's going to have a detrimental effect on my children | :59:34. | :59:35. | |
and therefore the future of the country. | :59:36. | :59:39. | |
The Government says it's spending more than ever on schools. | :59:40. | :59:42. | |
showing a workman removing a star from the EU flag, | :59:43. | :59:45. | |
The street artist's latest work, believed to be a comment on Brexit, | :59:46. | :59:50. | |
Dover District Council said it would be monitoring | :59:51. | :59:54. | |
A really quick thought on beta won. A blessing or a curse? Yes, Gita. A | :59:55. | :00:23. | |
blessing, yes. Love it. Consensus! Thank you. | :00:24. | :00:25. | |
This programme is part of a series of shows | :00:26. | :00:27. | |
we will be hearing from all the major parties | :00:28. | :00:30. | |
standing candidates in the South East on a range of issues | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
during the general election campaign. | :00:34. | :00:39. | |
That's all we've got time for from the South East this week. | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
Natalie Graham will be here next week. | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
Tories are saying. It is a very emotive subject and we have run out | :00:48. | :00:57. | |
of time. On Thursday nominations closed | :00:58. | :01:05. | |
in the 650 parliamentary seats across the country, | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
so now we know exactly who's We've been analysing the parties' | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
candidates to find out what they might tell us | :01:13. | :01:19. | |
about the make-up of the House Well, we know Theresa May is | :01:20. | :01:21. | |
committed to delivering Brexit and analysis of Conservative | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
candidates has shown that in their top 100 target seats, | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
37 candidates supported leave during last year's referendum | :01:32. | :01:33. | |
campaign and 20 supported remain; 43 | :01:34. | :01:41. | |
have not made public In the last parliament, | :01:42. | :01:43. | |
the vast majority of Labour MPs were hostile to Jeremy Corbyn so how | :01:44. | :01:50. | |
supportive are Labour Well, of 50 of Labour's | :01:51. | :01:52. | |
top 100 target seats 17 candidates have expressed | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
support for Mr Corbyn. 20 candidates supported Owen Smith | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
in last year's leadership contest or have expressed | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
anti-Corbyn sentiment, and If they won those, | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
the Labour benches would be marginally more sympathetic | :02:11. | :02:16. | |
to Mr Corbyn than they are now. What do the figures tell us | :02:17. | :02:18. | |
about where the other Well, the Lib Dems have decided not | :02:19. | :02:20. | |
to stand against the Greens in Brighton Pavilion, | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
and are fielding 629 candidates this year - | :02:25. | :02:26. | |
that's two fewer than 2015. The number of Ukip candidates has | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
fallen dramatically. They are standing in 247 fewer | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
constituencies than 2015, throwing their support behind | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
solidly pro-Brexit Tories in some areas such as Lewes | :02:40. | :02:41. | |
and Norfolk North. The Greens are fielding | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
103 fewer candidates than at the last election, | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
standing down to help other progressive candidates | :02:50. | :03:00. | |
in some places. The most liking statistic is the | :03:01. | :03:13. | |
demise in Ukip candidates, is this their swansong? And I think so. It | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
is remarkable how few Ukip candidates are standing. It is hard | :03:20. | :03:27. | |
to see they will suddenly revive in the next couple of years. I think | :03:28. | :03:37. | |
this is probably the end. Frank Luntz mentioned the fragmentation of | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
the left was a feature of this election, but also there is the | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
consolidation of the right, and if you take the things together that | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
could explain why the polls are where they are. Absolutely, that's | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
precisely what happened at the start of the 1980s, the right was | :03:53. | :03:58. | |
incredibly united and that's when we started talking about majorities of | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
over 100 or so. No matter what the size of Theresa May's majority, it | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
will be the total collapse of Ukip, but not just because we are now | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
leaving the EU and that was their only reason for being, but a whole | :04:17. | :04:20. | |
lot of people voted for Ukip because they felt the Tories were no longer | :04:21. | :04:28. | |
listening. Theresa May has given the impression that she is listening, | :04:29. | :04:31. | |
and that is the biggest possible thing that could happen to the Tory | :04:32. | :04:40. | |
vote. Fragmentation of the left, consolidation of the right? It's one | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
of the lessons that is never learnt, it happened in the 1980s, it doesn't | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
take much for the whole thing to fracture so now you have on the | :04:51. | :04:53. | |
centre-left the SNP, the Labour Party, the Greens, the Liberal | :04:54. | :05:00. | |
Democrats all competing for the same votes and when you have, fleetingly | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
perhaps, large numbers coalescing on the right in one party, there is | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
only going to be one outcome. It happens regularly. It doesn't mean | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
the Tories haven't got their own fragility. Two years ago, David | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
Cameron and George Osborne the dominant figures, neither are in | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
Parliament now which is a symptom of the fragility this election is | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
disguising. Mrs May's position in a way reminds me of Mrs Thatcher in | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
the 1980s, I won't be outflanked on the right, Nicolas Sarkozy in | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
France, I won't be outflanked on the right, so the National Front didn't | :05:40. | :05:42. | |
get through either timed he ran to the second round on like this time, | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
and now Mrs May on Brexit won't be outflanked Iver and as a result has | :05:48. | :05:53. | |
seen off right flank. And also she is looking to the left as well with | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
some of the state interventions. What was interesting about the | :05:58. | :06:00. | |
analysis you showed a few minutes ago was the number of Tory | :06:01. | :06:04. | |
candidates who have apparently not declared which way they voted in the | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
referendum, and you would have thought if this election was all | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
about Brexit, as some would claim, that would become an unsustainable | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
position, and actually more it's about leadership. But the point that | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
I'm now hearing from a number of Labour candidates that they are | :06:22. | :06:28. | |
seeing Tory leaflets that don't even have the Tory candidate's name on | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
them, it is just about Theresa May. I am glad they are keeping to the | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
law because by law they have to put it on. It has been harder for some | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
of the smaller parties too because of the speed of the election being | :06:43. | :06:49. | |
called. We have the manifesto is coming out this week. I think Labour | :06:50. | :06:55. | |
Forshaw on Tuesday, we are not yet sure when the Tories will bring | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
bears out. I suggest one thing, it will at least for people like me | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
bring an end to the question you will have to wait for the manifesto. | :07:05. | :07:11. | |
And Rebecca Long baby will never have that excuse again, isn't it | :07:12. | :07:21. | |
wonderful! She is not the only one. When you are trying to take the | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
north and Midlands from Labour, I would go to one or the other. For | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
me, I can barely hold back my excitement over the Tory manifesto. | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
This will be, I think, the most important day for the British | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
government for the next five years. That wasn't irony there? You | :07:40. | :07:47. | |
actually meant that? I'm not even being cynical at all on Sunday | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
Politics! This is a huge day and it's because I think we will see... | :07:52. | :08:00. | |
I don't think Mrs May will play it safe and I don't think we will get | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
the broadbrush stuff that she might be advised to do. I think she will | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
lay out precisely what you want to do over the next five years and take | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
some big risks. Then finally after a year of this guessing and | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
theorising, we will finally work out what Mrs May is all about. She will | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
say she doesn't want the next parliament to be all about Brexit, | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
though she knows that's the next important thing she has to deliver | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
in some way, so she gets a mandate for that if the polls are right but | :08:30. | :08:31. | |
she does have very different ideas from | :08:32. | :08:45. | |
Mr Cameron about how to run a country. She will I assume one to | :08:46. | :08:47. | |
mandate for what these different ideas are. Otherwise there is no | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
point in holding an early election. You will get a majority, but if you | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
get a mandate to carry on implementing the Cameron and Osborne | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
manifesto it would be utterly pointless. I agree, it is the | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
pivotal event of the election and it will be interesting to see the | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
degree to which she expands on the line which interests me about its | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
time to look at the good that government can do. Because in a way | :09:09. | :09:14. | |
this moves the debate on in UK politics from, from 97 the Blair | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
Brown governments were insecure about arguing about the role of | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
government. Cameron Osborne government similarly so, so here you | :09:24. | :09:26. | |
have a Labour Party talking about the role of government and the | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
state, and Tory leader apparently doing so was well. I think that will | :09:32. | :09:34. | |
be really interesting to see whether it is fleshed out in any significant | :09:35. | :09:41. | |
way. And it is not a natural Tory message. Harold Macmillan talked | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
about the role of the state, Ted Heath Mark two was pretty big on the | :09:46. | :09:52. | |
state, the industrial policy and so on, and even if it is not thought to | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
be that Tory, does she get away with it because she deliver such a big | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
victory if that's what she does deliver? Just inject a little note | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
of scepticism, I wonder how much of this is authentically Theresa May. I | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
was interested to and talk to someone who used to sit in cabinet | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
meetings during which Theresa May never expressed an opinion on | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
anything outside the Home Office briefs. Other ministers were roving | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
all over their colleagues' briefs. So where are the ideas coming from? | :10:30. | :10:36. | |
I think we can point to Nick Timothy. One of her closest advisers | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
in Downing Street. It will be interesting to see how that evolves. | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
On Thursday I think we will all be talking about something called | :10:49. | :10:59. | |
Urdington Toryism. Urdington is the suburb of Birmingham where Nick | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
Timothy comes from, who is very much Theresa May's policy brain and | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
leading inspiration. Urdington Toryism is about connecting the | :11:11. | :11:13. | |
party with traditional working class voters, and their belief to do that | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
is not just taking away government out of their lives but showing them | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
that government can actually help their lives. It can be a force for | :11:23. | :11:31. | |
good to rebuild the trust. A lot of what Mrs May talks about is all... | :11:32. | :11:38. | |
It is talk and then a lot of it suddenly goes by the wayside. What | :11:39. | :11:46. | |
happened to worker directors on the boards. It is designed to appeal to | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
that constituency and then nothing happens. She had an excuse before in | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
the sense that it wasn't in the 2015 manifesto and she had a small | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
majority so therefore she arguably had to water down some of the stuff | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
for example in her Tory conference speech, which had a lot of this | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
active government material in it. If she puts it in the manifesto, it is | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
a sign she plans to do it and will have no excuse if she then gets | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
nervous afterwards because it will be in there. If it wasn't for | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
Brexit, this great overwhelming issue, I think this election will be | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
seen as quite a significant development in terms of an argument | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
around the role of government, much-needed. But Brexit | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
unfortunately overshadows it all. As much as we like our arguments over | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
the role of government we will hear strong and stable, stable and strong | :12:41. | :12:47. | |
ad nauseam, aren't we? Absolutely, and we heard the same old lines from | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
the Labour Party as well so they are all at it. It will be a fascinating | :12:53. | :12:59. | |
week, stop talking it down! Thanks to our panel. | :13:00. | :13:01. | |
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