21/10/2012 Sunday Politics South West

In the South West: Delays in the benefits system.

New figures show our region has the highest proportion of people

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2293 seconds

Welcome to the Sunday Politics in the south-west. Coming up: Plans

for them at the Walker -- notorious didn't work -- plans for the

notorious... It is a tale of two cities with

today's guests. Oliver Colvile, Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton

and Devonport and Ben Bradshaw, the Labour MP for Exeter. Welcome, both

of you, to the programme. There were momentous scenes at County

Hall in Truro this week as Cornwall Council sacked its Tory leader Alec

Robertson with a vote of no confidence. He lost his job over

large-scale plans to privatise council services. And for

apparently wanting to push them through in defiance of the

council's majority view. Here is the man who has replaced him in the

There has been a lot of concern about the lack of member

involvement, and the members had their day to day. They have come at

it from various angles, and for the first time they felt empowered. One

councillor said, as she left, in 41 years at County Hall, I have never

seen so much drama in a single day, and that is true.

Oliver, are we seeing a miss, even Conservatives, reacting against the

Government's message and austerity -- message of austerity? They have

to make sure they are bringing value for money as far as the

taxpayer is concerned. It is important delicate of the way of

doing that and making sure it is delivered. But there is a broader

issue here, under way in which the previous Labour government tried to

introduce lots of members in the decision-making process. You're a

great campaigner for democracy and the constitution. Do you approve

Thatcher government introduced a system that allowed this kind of

thing to happen? A leader pursue something through, completely at

odds with the majority of the council? Well, it didn't go through.

Most local authorities manages -- managed to exist perfectly well.

This is a classic example of the poor Corniche being let down again

by their county council. If you go back many years, Kent -- Cornwall

County Council has been a shambles. People in Cornwall have an

opportunity next May to put some Labour councillors in their to

bring commonsense. But under the rules, Alida could theoretically

bring something through. Only if they are scrutiny chairs. -- a

leader could bring something through. If the Conservative group

of Cornwall County Council were functional and not totally

dysfunctional, this would never have got through. I just have to

say that what should have happened is they should have been an amount

of discussion with the Conservative group in order to do it. We need to

make sure that actually local authorities are managed in a much

better way, making sure that the group's come to a collective

decision. It sounds like that did not happen, and a few people made

up the decision which did not work. We must move on.

A growing number of people in the south-west are relying on food

handouts from charities, and according from one group the region

has the highest proportion of people using them. It is happening

in some surprising places the -- some surprising places.

This has been opening three minutes, but they have already dealt -- Six

cases. This man says he would have starved if it was not for this.

There are so many people applying for the same vacancy, and only so

many people get through the see the process before calling anyone.

people through the JobCentre can use the service. This week, it

emerged that in the last six months, the South West branches of this

charity had been busier than any other region. Across the south-west,

some 13,500 people have used for banks operated by the trust since

April. In Plymouth, the number of people using the service has

quadrupled over the past four years. But there are also signs that

people are struggling in areas that are traditionally seen as a fluent.

This week, the Conservative lead South Hams District Council tweeted

it would help start a food bank for families in crisis. There are great

pockets of this area where there is a need, and all the little villages

around the district. With things like a paper mill closing, there

could be a lot more hardship, so it is good to have things in place for

people to get help if they need it. Unemployment and the rising cost in

food and fuel bills are all factors, but there are calls for the

Government to do more. Relying on young people debating, that is

great that young people do that, and we do volunteering very well,

but not being able to feed itself, I think that is an embarrassment to

the government. Batten Plymouth, one of the

problems is linked to the delays in benefit payments. Dan did not get

any payments for weeks after he signed on. It is in a fortnight

currently without money, and there was a problem at the start, too.

And the people providing the services that he is not alone.

wish I could say this was an odd example, but it is not. It takes a

long time to get these things set up and running, and you think

everything is going along fine when suddenly something happens and

there is no payment. It is not until you go and ask what has

happened that they say you have missed an appointment or at the

loss you sit 0 or something similar. There is no notification that there

is not going to be any money. -- lost a sick note.

They say that they never claimed times have remained consistent,

with most claims being turned around and 16 days. It says it is

reforming labour's broken welfare system to make work pay, and lift

thousands out of pores of -- poverty.

He is she right to say this is an embarrassment to the Government?

do not think it is. We need to make sure that what we have got is the

economy settles for people can get But it is the fact that this is

happening on the scale it is the problem. We need more jobs in to

Plymouth and more investment, we need to make sure that we have

better skills as well, and that is the argument I have been saying for

a while. I know you are a Plymouth MP, this is happening and what many

people would see as the highly affluent Conservative-run South

Hams. There is an issue to see that we get more jobs into the area.

What about the help in the meantime? Anyone who has an issue

or a problem can come and talk to me about it, and there has

obviously been some delay in people getting the benefits. A lot of

people, the trusts is 43% of people they deal with. I am willing for

them to come and talk to me, and we will clear up the mess to do with

benefits. You have left them in a mess. We did not have food banks

under the Labour government! We have had one in Exeter over there

last year, and it has trebled. Fuel prices are going up, benefits and

wages are going down, and people are facing this hardship. There has

been the abolition of emergency grants, so people who are in hard

Japan do not have their benefits through a do not get anything, so

they are desperate. -- people who are in hardship to not have the

benefits through. People who deserve benefits are being messed

around for weeks. It is about making sure we have more

investments will be can get people back into jobs. But people should

be getting the benefits that they deserve first. If anyone has an

issue in my constituency, they can come and speak to me about it, and

I will take up their case. We have got a benefits problem that we

inherited of the previous Labour government, and it became much more

dependent upon the state, and we need to make sure we sort this out.

In the south-west we have the biggest gap between earnings and

house prices, that is the problem. I think it is a case that we have

got to make sure we sort out the benefit matter and we make sure

that people get back into work and there are no jobs. In terms of

sorting this in the shorter term, people having to wait six weeks or

two months to get their money, can something not be done to get some

of -- some organisation into that? People can come and speak to me

about that. You will have a lot of people knocking on your door.

is fine. I am happy for this. Changes to constituency boundaries

probably leave most people accept characters like us distinctly

underwhelmed. Unless it involves giving a big chunk of Cornwall to a

Devon MP. Two days ago the Boundary Commission came up with his latest

thoughts on the new map, but where to draw the lines now looks like a

sideshow to a huge row at the heart Uproar over the notorious Devonwell

constituency struggling the D-Mark has dominated the boundary review

in the south-west. -- straddling The big question is, whether all

the clever people at the Boundary Commission are simply wasting an

awful lot of time and effort. I think these are the zombie

boundary changes. These are the walking dead proposals which will

never see the light of day. In the summer or a lot of Conservative MPs

scuppered the Lib Dems plan of reforming the House of Lords. Nick

Clegg said his party would no longer support boundary changes,

and there has been speculation that the Tories might try to tempt them

back with a deal on party funding. But Nick Clegg said this week, this

is an issue on which he will not budge. Because of a failure to

deliver a wider package of reforms we had agreed within the coalition

government, including the House of Lords reform, when it comes to a

vote, the Liberal Democrats will not support the changes ahead of

the election in 2015. Even without those presumably crucial Lib Dem

votes, the Prime Minister told me just a couple of weeks ago that it

still is full steam ahead. Do you have any hope of pushing

through the constituency boundary changes? They are coming forward

for a vote and a House of Commons, and my message to the MPs of all

parties is that I think it is right that we cost -- cut the cost of

politics and reduce the size of the House of Commons from 650-600. We

say that every constituency has the same number of voters and it.

attempt to achieve this through a deal on party funding might get the

Prime Minister into trouble with his own troops. What I hope is not

going on is that behind the scenes there is not some rather sordid

trading on an unprincipled basis to buy the Liberal Democrats ascent.

Would you be voting against it if it comes back to the Commons?

I would. It would be completely wrong for us to attempt to secure a

principled arrangement, a new electoral settlement, with an

unprincipled the tea trade behind the stairs. -- dirty trade. This

month would see his constituency changed completely -- disappear

completely of the saw the light of day.

I know your reputation for loyalty is legendary. But would you

consider voting against this if it is bought by the shabby, dirty

deal? The key thing is we need to reduce the number of members.

you vote against? We would need to see what the proposals are going to

be. Ultimately, I want to reduce the costs. I know why the

Government wants to do this, but would you consider voting against?

I am not going to answer a hypothetical question. He says we

know what fuss was caused by plans to reform the House of Lords. He

says any changes to party funding would be much more or unpalatable.

I do not think we will go down that route, and Grant Shapps, chairman

of the party, made that quite clear. That is not what is going to happen.

We need to reduce the number of the Members of Parliament by 50. We

need to save some money as far as the taxpayer is concerned and we

need to make sure that is what we deliver. That is what we have voted

for in Parliament in order to achieve. We come to the principal

issue. All around the Prime Minister say that this makes things

fairer and cheaper. But Oliver cannot vote against the changes

because he banned -- benefits massively. I have made it quite

clear that I would relish to fight the constituency on the current

boundaries, I have always made that happened. It does not look as if

the changes will go through, if Nick Clegg is going to vote against

him, David Cameron has to cobble together a massive majority. So why

on earth are we spending millions of pounds still doing it? And we

have this uncertainty for the next few years. You make a point of

being a constitutional reformer. David Cameron says this makes

things fairer and more democratic. We have the boundary reviews every

few years to make things fairer. The Boundary Commission make sure

that constituencies are a similar size. But what we have got here is

a clear gerrymandering, a reduction of 50 seats, a number that does not

hurt the Conservatives but had several other party, when we

already have 3 million people, mainly in inner-city areas, not

even on the electrical -- electoral roll. He would make sure he got

these on the electoral roll of he was concerned. The constituencies

do not have even number of voters. Some people say that 20 more seats

would not make any difference because you have so many rebels.

Now, the regular round-up of the Former defence minister Nick Harvey

prices the nuclear button at Prime Minister's Questions the stock will

the Prime Minister keep an open mind on how to replace the nuclear

deterrent? If you will have a nuclear deterrent, it makes sense

that the you have something that is credible and believable, or there

is no. And having won at all. -- there is no point in having won a

Day centres are all under threat, there is nothing sacrosanct, so we

have to make sure that we protect the Serb was his. Meanwhile, the

tree is dwarfed by the 20 metres pregnant women. Anything that

provides business into the town will be good for us. When her water

bricks, I do not know what will happen.

Handing out food to people in food Bangs, should the Tory council in

the poorest part of the south-west be spending �20,000 on a garden

decoration? We are trying to get people to come and visit the place

because that would mean more money in the economy, and in Plymouth

money to make sure we make more use of her -- our naval heritage.

has a strong counter-argument. not think this will make a

difference to the tourism trade. The Angel of the North was

controversial to start with and has been a huge success. Ed Miliband

suggested that the conference that there would be a consideration of

reviewing the results. Of course we will consider the results. But

Nuclear Disarmament position was at reviewed recently, Fang the this.

And we will retain the nuclear deterrent, I am afraid Labour has

got form in this regard. They talk about how they gave up in the past

on the nuclear deterrent, and I wonder if that is a point of