:00:37. > :00:41.Politics. Politics.
:00:42. > :00:45.Ed Balls has gone socialist and fiscal Conservative in one speech.
:00:46. > :00:49.He promises to balance the biggest bit of the budget. And to bring back
:00:50. > :00:53.the 50p top tax rate. Political masterstroke, or a return to old
:00:54. > :00:57.Labour? If you go to work by public
:00:58. > :01:00.transport, chances are the price of your ticket has just gone up -
:01:01. > :01:04.again. We'll speak to Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. He's
:01:05. > :01:07.our Sunday Interview. And it's been another wet week
:01:08. > :01:12.across much of the UK, but what's the outlook according to this man?
:01:13. > :01:13.This morning.This morning. Held in recent years by party veterans like
:01:14. > :01:20.Vince Cable And in the South West, the bishop
:01:21. > :01:23.who is concerned about council cuts. And the former MP calling for a
:01:24. > :01:40.clamp`down on the region's cannabis farms.
:01:41. > :01:44.And with me - as always - the political panel so fresh-faced,
:01:45. > :01:47.entertaining and downright popular they make Justin Bieber look like a
:01:48. > :01:49.boring old has-been just desperate to get your attention. Nick Watt,
:01:50. > :01:52.Helen Lewis and Janan Ganesh, and they'll be tweeting quicker than a
:01:53. > :02:09.yellow Lamborghini racing down Miami Beach. Being political nerds, they
:02:10. > :02:13.have no idea what I'm talking about. Ed Balls sprung a surprise on us all
:02:14. > :02:17.yesterday. We kinda thought Labour would head for the election with a
:02:18. > :02:21.return to the 50p top rate of tax. But we didn't think he'd do it now.
:02:22. > :02:24.He did! The polls say it's popular, Labour activists now have a spring
:02:25. > :02:28.in their step. The Tories say it's a return to the bad old days of the
:02:29. > :02:30.'70s, and bosses now think Labour is anti-business. Here's the Shadow
:02:31. > :02:33.Chancellor speaking earlier this morning. I was part of a Government
:02:34. > :02:35.which did very many things to open up markets, to make the Bank of
:02:36. > :02:38.England independent, to work closely with business, but the reality is we
:02:39. > :02:40.are in very difficult circumstances and because if I'm honest you,
:02:41. > :02:44.George Osborne's failure in the last few years, those difficult
:02:45. > :02:53.circumstances will last into the next Parliament. Business people
:02:54. > :02:59.have said to me they want to get the deficit down, of course they do But
:03:00. > :03:03.to cut the top rate... It is foolish and feeds resentment I want to do
:03:04. > :03:07.the opposite and say look, pro-business, pro investment, pro
:03:08. > :03:12.market, but pro fairness. Let's get this deficit down in a fairway and
:03:13. > :03:18.make the reforms to make our economy work for the long term. What are the
:03:19. > :03:25.political implications of Labour now in favour of a 50%, in practise 352%
:03:26. > :03:28.top rate of tax? One of the political implications I don't think
:03:29. > :03:32.exist is that they'll win new voters. I'm not sure many people out
:03:33. > :03:37.there would think, I would love to vote for Ed Miliband but I'm not
:03:38. > :03:43.sure if he wants to tax rich people enough. It will con Dale their
:03:44. > :03:50.existing vote but I don't think it is the kind of, in the 1990s we
:03:51. > :03:54.talked about triangulation, moving beyond your core vote, I don't think
:03:55. > :03:57.it is a policy like that. If there has been a policy like that this
:03:58. > :04:01.year, this month, it has been the Tories' move on minimum wage. I
:04:02. > :04:05.thought Labour would come back with their own version, a centre-right
:04:06. > :04:10.policy, and instead they have done this. I think we talk about the 35%
:04:11. > :04:17.strategy that Labour supposed will have, I think it is a policy in that
:04:18. > :04:23.direction rather than the thing Tony Blair or Gordon Brown would have
:04:24. > :04:29.done. Where he was not clear is on how much it would raise. We know the
:04:30. > :04:34.sum in the grand scheme of things isn't much, the bedroom tax was
:04:35. > :04:42.about sending a message. What we are going to see is George Osborne and
:04:43. > :04:48.Ed Balls lock as they try to push the other one into saying things
:04:49. > :04:56.that are unpopular. The Tories, ?150,000 a year, that's exactly
:04:57. > :05:00.where Ed Balls want them to be. All three main parties have roughly the
:05:01. > :05:04.same plan, to run a current budget surplus by the end of the next
:05:05. > :05:09.Parliament. George Osborne said ?12 billion of welfare cuts, hasn't said
:05:10. > :05:14.how he is going to do it. Ed Balls is giving an idea that he is going
:05:15. > :05:19.to restore this 50 persons rate The contribution of that will be
:05:20. > :05:24.deminimus. It is not much, but what does it say about your values.
:05:25. > :05:28.Because it is that package, it is cleverer than people think. Where
:05:29. > :05:31.the challenge is is the question that Peter Mandelson posed at the
:05:32. > :05:36.last election, which is can the Labour Party win a general election
:05:37. > :05:39.if it doesn't have business on its side? That's the big challenge and
:05:40. > :05:44.that's the question looking difficult for them this morning
:05:45. > :05:50.Does it matter if Labour has business on its side. I thought the
:05:51. > :05:54.most fascinating thing about this announcement is it came from the guy
:05:55. > :05:58.mindful of business support, Ed Balls. When in opposition and when a
:05:59. > :06:04.Minister and as a shadow as a result, he's been far more conscious
:06:05. > :06:09.than Ed Miliband about the need not to alienate the CB Bill. In the
:06:10. > :06:13.run-up of an election. This is a measure of Ed Miliband's strength in
:06:14. > :06:19.the Labour Party, that his view of things can prevail so easily over a
:06:20. > :06:24.guy who for the last 15 years has taken a different view. Eight out of
:06:25. > :06:30.ten businesses according to the CBI don't want us to leave business
:06:31. > :06:35.Business is in a bit of a cleft stick. Ed Miliband would like to see
:06:36. > :06:37.businesses squealing, and Ed Balls is clearly not so comfortable on
:06:38. > :06:42.that one. There's a difference on that. Mind you, they were squealing
:06:43. > :06:46.this morning from Davos. They probably had hangovers as well. The
:06:47. > :06:52.other thing they would say is this is not like Ed Balls thinks that 50p
:06:53. > :06:56.is the optimal rate forever, it what go eventually. Isn't that what
:06:57. > :07:01.politicians said when income tax was introduced? Yeah, in '97 Labour
:07:02. > :07:06.regarded 40 persons as the rate where it would stay.
:07:07. > :07:11.It's been a bad week for the Lib Dems. Again. Actually, it's been one
:07:12. > :07:14.of the worst weeks yet for Nick Clegg and his party in recent
:07:15. > :07:17.memory, as they've gone from talking confidently about their role in
:07:18. > :07:19.Government to facing a storm of criticism over claims of
:07:20. > :07:22.inappropriate sexual behaviour by a Lib Dem peer, Chris Rennard, and a
:07:23. > :07:26.Lib Dem MP, Mike Hancock. Here's Giles with the story of the week. A
:07:27. > :07:32.challenge to Nick Clegg's authority as he face as growing row over the
:07:33. > :07:37.Liberal Democrat... I want everyone to be treated with respect by the
:07:38. > :07:43.Liberal Democrats. We are expecting him to show moral leadership on our
:07:44. > :07:49.behalf. A good man has been publicly destroyed by the media with the
:07:50. > :07:52.apparent support of Nick Clegg. I would like Nick Clegg to show
:07:53. > :07:59.leadership and say, this has got to stop. When Nick Clegg woke up on
:08:00. > :08:05.Monday morning he knew he was in trouble, staring down the barrel of
:08:06. > :08:11.a stand justify with Lord Rennard over allegations that the peer had
:08:12. > :08:15.inappropriately touched a number of women. Chris Rennard thought he was
:08:16. > :08:20.cleared. Nick Clegg wanted more I said if he doesn't apologise, he
:08:21. > :08:25.should withdraw from the House of Lords. If he does that today, what
:08:26. > :08:32.do you do then? I hope he doesn t. I think no apology, no whip. 2014 was
:08:33. > :08:36.starting badly for the Liberal Democrats. Chris Rennard refused to
:08:37. > :08:42.apologise, saying you can't say sorry for something you haven't
:08:43. > :08:45.done. The and he was leaning towards legal action. Butch us friends
:08:46. > :08:49.better defending Pym and publicly. This is a good, decent man, who has
:08:50. > :08:54.been punished by the party, with the leadership of the party that seems
:08:55. > :09:01.to be showing scant regard for due process. But his accusers felt very
:09:02. > :09:05.differently. It is untenable for the Lib Dems to have a credible voice on
:09:06. > :09:09.qualities and women's issues in the future if Lord Rennard was allowed
:09:10. > :09:16.to be back on the Lib Dem benches in the House of Lords. Therein lay the
:09:17. > :09:19.problem that exposed the weaknesses of the Lib Dem leaders. The party's
:09:20. > :09:27.internal structures have all the simplicity of a circuit diagram for
:09:28. > :09:31.a supercomputer, exposing the complexity of who runs the Liberal
:09:32. > :09:36.Democrats? The simple question that arose of that was can the leader of
:09:37. > :09:41.the Lib Dems remove a Lib Dem peer? The simple answer is no. The Lib Dem
:09:42. > :09:48.whips in the Lords could do it but if enough Lib Dem peers disagreed,
:09:49. > :09:51.they could overrule it. Some long-stand ng friends of roar
:09:52. > :09:55.Rennard think he is either the innocent victim of a media
:09:56. > :09:59.witch-hunt or at the least due process has been ridden over rough
:10:00. > :10:04.shot by the leadership. Nobody ever did spot Lord Rennard as he didn't
:10:05. > :10:09.turn up to the Lords, will citing ill health. But issued a statement
:10:10. > :10:13.that ruled out an apology. He refused to do so and refused to
:10:14. > :10:16.comply with the outcome of that report, so there was no alternative
:10:17. > :10:21.but for the party to suspend his membership today. On Wednesday Nick
:10:22. > :10:24.Clegg met Lib Dem peers, not for a crunch decision, but to discuss the
:10:25. > :10:28.extraordinary prospect of legal action against the party by the man
:10:29. > :10:32.long credited with building its success. The situation was making
:10:33. > :10:36.the party look like a joke. One Tory MP said to one of my colleagues this
:10:37. > :10:40.morning, the funny thing about the Liberal Democrats, you managed to
:10:41. > :10:44.create a whole sex scandal without any sex. And we can laugh at
:10:45. > :10:49.ourselves but actually it is rather serious. And it got more serious,
:10:50. > :10:53.when an MP who had resigned the Lib Dem whip last year was expanded from
:10:54. > :10:57.the party over a report into allegations of serious and unwelcome
:10:58. > :11:02.sexual behaviour towards a constituent. All of this leaves the
:11:03. > :11:07.Lib Dems desperately wishing these sagas had been dealt with long ago
:11:08. > :11:13.and would now go away. Nick Clegg ended the week still party leader.
:11:14. > :11:19.Lord Rennard, once one of their most powerful players, ended the week,
:11:20. > :11:23.for now, no longer even in it. Giles on the Lib Dems' disastrous
:11:24. > :11:29.week. Now, as you doubtless already know, on Tuesday Lib Dem MPs will
:11:30. > :11:33.vote to choose a new deputy leader. You didn't know that? You do now.
:11:34. > :11:37.The job of Nick Clegg's number two is to speak with a genuine Lib Dem
:11:38. > :11:41.voice, untainted by the demands of coalition Government. At this point
:11:42. > :11:44.in the show we had expected to speak to all three candidates for the
:11:45. > :11:52.post, held in recent years by party veterans like Vince Cable and Simon
:11:53. > :11:54.Hughes. We thought it being quite a significant week for the party, they
:11:55. > :12:00.might have something to say. And here they are. Well that's their
:12:01. > :12:04.pictures. For various reasons, all three are now unavailable. Malcolm
:12:05. > :12:08.Bruce, he's reckoned to be the outsider. His office said he had a
:12:09. > :12:11."family commitment". Gordon Birtwistle, the Burnley MP, was
:12:12. > :12:15.booked to appear but then told us, "I was at an event last night with
:12:16. > :12:20.Lorely Burt" - she's one of the candidates - "and she told me it was
:12:21. > :12:24.off". And Lorely Burt herself, seen by many as the red hot favourite,
:12:25. > :12:28.told us: "Because of the Rennard thing we don't want to put ourselves
:12:29. > :12:39.in a position where we have to answer difficult questions." How
:12:40. > :12:43.refreshingly honest. Helen, how bad politically is all this for the Lib
:12:44. > :12:47.Dems? What I think is the tragic irony of the Lib Dems is they've
:12:48. > :12:52.been revealed as being too democratic. In the same way that
:12:53. > :12:56.their party conference embarrassed Nick Clegg by voting sings that he
:12:57. > :13:03.signed up to, and now everything has to be run past various
:13:04. > :13:15.sub-committees first. Is it democratic or chaotic? It is
:13:16. > :13:21.Byzantine. Mike Hancock was voluntarily suspended, and this week
:13:22. > :13:25.he was properly suspended. It was new information into the public
:13:26. > :13:32.domain that forced that. I'm already hearing Labour and Conservative
:13:33. > :13:36.Party musing that if it is a long Parliament, we will form a minority
:13:37. > :13:39.Government. It is a disaster for them. Voters like parties that
:13:40. > :13:44.reflect and are interested this their concerns. Parties that are
:13:45. > :13:48.self obsessed turn them off. The third party, if they carry on like
:13:49. > :13:52.this, they'll be the fifth party in the European elections, so they have
:13:53. > :13:57.got to draw a line under this. They do that, if they do, through
:13:58. > :14:02.mediation. As I understand it, Chris Rennard,s who has go devoted his
:14:03. > :14:05.entire life to the Liberal Democrats, and previously the
:14:06. > :14:09.Liberal Party, is keen to draw a line under this. He is up for
:14:10. > :14:13.mediation but he needs to know that the women that he has clearly
:14:14. > :14:17.invaded their personal space, that there wouldn't be a possible legal a
:14:18. > :14:21.action from them. The it is very difficult to see how you could
:14:22. > :14:25.resolve that. Except he is threatening through his friends
:14:26. > :14:30.these famous friends, to spill all the beans about all the party's sex
:14:31. > :14:33.secrets. Isn't the danger for the Lib Dems, this haunts them through
:14:34. > :14:37.to the European elections, where they'll get thumped in the European
:14:38. > :14:41.elections? They'll get destroyed in the European elections, which keeps
:14:42. > :14:46.it salient as a story over the summer. And it has implications for
:14:47. > :14:50.Nick Clegg's leadership. He's done a good job until now, perhaps better
:14:51. > :14:53.than David Cameron, of exercising authority over his party. He had a
:14:54. > :14:57.good conference in September. Absolutely, and now the Lib Dems
:14:58. > :15:03.have looked like a party without a leader or a leadership structure.
:15:04. > :15:06.Part of that is down to the chaotic or Byzantine organisational
:15:07. > :15:10.structure of the party. Part of it is Nick Clegg's failure to assert
:15:11. > :15:18.himself and impose himself over events. Is it Byzantine or
:15:19. > :15:29.Byzantine. It is labyrinthine. You don't get these words on the Today
:15:30. > :15:33.programme. The cost of living has been back on the agenda this week as
:15:34. > :15:36.Labour and the Tories argue over whether the value of money in your
:15:37. > :15:39.pocket is going up or down. Well there's one cost which has been
:15:40. > :15:43.racing ahead of inflation and that's the amount you have to pay to travel
:15:44. > :15:46.by train, by bus and by air. Rail commuters have been hard hit over
:15:47. > :15:50.the last four years, with the cost of the average season ticket going
:15:51. > :15:56.up by 18% since January 2010, while wages have gone up by just 3.6% over
:15:57. > :16:02.the same period. It means some rail users are paying high prices with
:16:03. > :16:06.commuters from Kent shelling out more than ?5,000 per year from the
:16:07. > :16:11.beginning of this month just to get to work in London. It doesn't
:16:12. > :16:17.compare well with our European counterparts. In the UK the average
:16:18. > :16:25.rail user spends 14% of their average income on trains. It is just
:16:26. > :16:30.1.5% in Italy. Regulated fares like season tickets went up 3.1% at the
:16:31. > :16:35.beginning of this month, and with ministers keen to make passengers
:16:36. > :16:38.fought more of the bills, there are more fare rises coming down the
:16:39. > :16:52.track. And Patrick McLoughlin joins me now for the Sunday Interview
:16:53. > :16:56.Welcome. You claim to be in the party of hard-working people, so why
:16:57. > :17:00.is it that since you came to power rail commuters have seen the cost of
:17:01. > :17:09.their average season ticket going up in money terms by over 18% while
:17:10. > :17:15.their pay has gone up in money terms by less than four? I would point out
:17:16. > :17:20.that this is the first year in ten years that we have not had an above
:17:21. > :17:25.inflation increase on fares. The Government accepts we have got to do
:17:26. > :17:34.as much as we can to help the passengers. A big inflation increase
:17:35. > :17:41.since 2010. This is the first year in ten years that it has not been
:17:42. > :17:45.above RPI, but we are also investing huge amounts of money into the
:17:46. > :17:50.railways, building new trains for the East Coast Main Line and the
:17:51. > :17:57.great Western. We are spending 500 million at Birmingham station, this
:17:58. > :18:01.is all increasing capacity, so we are seeing investments. Over the
:18:02. > :18:11.next five years Network Rail will invest over ?38 billion in the
:18:12. > :18:16.network structure. We also have an expensive railway and it is ordinary
:18:17. > :18:21.people paying for it. A season ticket from Woking in Surrey,
:18:22. > :18:28.commuter belt land in London, let's look at the figures. This is a
:18:29. > :18:37.distance of over 25 miles, it cost over ?3000 per year. We have picked
:18:38. > :18:45.similar distances to international cities.
:18:46. > :18:54.The British commuter is being ripped off. The British commuter is seeing
:18:55. > :18:59.record levels of investment in our railways. The investment has to be
:19:00. > :19:02.paid for. We are investing huge amounts of money and I don't know
:19:03. > :19:20.whether the figures you have got here... I'm sure they are likewise,
:19:21. > :19:28.as you have managed to do... White -- ten times more than the Italian
:19:29. > :19:33.equivalent. We have seen transformational changes in our
:19:34. > :19:38.railway services and we need to carry on investing. We were paying
:19:39. > :19:42.these prices even before you started investing. We have always paid a lot
:19:43. > :19:52.more to commute in this country than our European equivalents. I'm not
:19:53. > :19:58.quite sure I want to take on Italy is a great example. You would if you
:19:59. > :20:04.were a commuter. You is a great example. You would if you
:20:05. > :20:10.the other rates of taxation has to be paid as well. Isn't it the case
:20:11. > :20:14.they are making profits out of these figures and using them to subsidise
:20:15. > :20:22.cheaper fares back in their homeland? The overall profit margin
:20:23. > :20:26.train companies make is 3%, a reasonable amount, and we have seen
:20:27. > :20:31.a revolution as far as the railway industry is concerned.
:20:32. > :20:36.a revolution as far as the railway 20 years we have seen passenger
:20:37. > :20:40.journeys going from 750 million to 1.5 billion. That is a massive
:20:41. > :20:45.revolution in rail. Let me look 1.5 billion. That is a massive
:20:46. > :20:45.spokesperson for the German government, the Ministry of
:20:46. > :21:03.transport. They are charging huge fares in
:21:04. > :21:08.Britain to take that money back to subsidise fares in Germany. What do
:21:09. > :21:12.you say to that? We are seeing British companies winning contracts
:21:13. > :21:18.in Germany. The National Express are winning contracts to the railways.
:21:19. > :21:23.What about the ordinary commuter? They are paying through the nose so
:21:24. > :21:28.German commuters can travel more cheaply. We are still subsidising
:21:29. > :21:32.the railways in this country, but overall we want to reduce the
:21:33. > :21:40.subsidy we are giving. We are still seeing growth in our railways and I
:21:41. > :21:48.want to see more people using them. Why do you increase rail fares at
:21:49. > :21:53.the higher RPI measure than the lower CPI measurement? That is what
:21:54. > :21:57.has always been done, and we have stopped. This is the first time in
:21:58. > :22:07.ten years that we have not raised the rail figures above RPI. You
:22:08. > :22:13.still link fares to RPI. You use the lower CPI figure when it suits you,
:22:14. > :22:17.to keep pension payments down for example, but the higher one when it
:22:18. > :22:21.comes to increasing rail fares. We are still putting a huge subsidy
:22:22. > :22:26.into the rail industry, there is still a huge amount of money going
:22:27. > :22:32.from the taxpayer to support the rail industry. I am not asking you
:22:33. > :22:40.about that, I am asking you why you link the figures to the higher RPI
:22:41. > :22:47.vesture Mark if we are going to pay for the levels of investment, so all
:22:48. > :22:51.the new trains being built at Newton Aycliffe for the East Coast Main
:22:52. > :22:55.Line and the great Western, ?3. billion of investment, new rolling
:22:56. > :22:59.stock coming online, then yes, we have to pay for it, and it is a
:23:00. > :23:13.question of the taxpayer paying for it all the -- or the passenger.
:23:14. > :23:17.You have capped parking fines until the next election, rail commuters we
:23:18. > :23:27.have seen the cost of their ticket has gone up by nearly 20%, you are
:23:28. > :23:34.the party of the drivers, not the passengers, aren't you?
:23:35. > :23:47.We are trying to help everybody who has been struggling. I think we are
:23:48. > :23:52.setting out long-term plans for our railways, investing heavily in them
:23:53. > :23:57.and it is getting that balance right. But you have done more for
:23:58. > :24:04.the driver than you have for the user of public transport. I don t
:24:05. > :24:10.accept that. They are paying the same petrol prices as 2011. This is
:24:11. > :24:18.the first time in ten years that there has not been an RPI plus
:24:19. > :24:25.rise. We are investing record amounts. Bus fares are also rising,
:24:26. > :24:31.4.2% in real terms in 2010, at a time when real take-home pay has
:24:32. > :24:36.been falling. This hits commuters particularly workers who use buses
:24:37. > :24:41.on low incomes, another cost of living squeeze. I was with
:24:42. > :24:55.Stagecoach in Manchester on Friday, and I saw a bus company investing in
:24:56. > :25:01.new buses. Last week First ordered new buses. Part of your hard-working
:25:02. > :25:07.families you are always on about, they are the ones going to work
:25:08. > :25:11.early in the morning, and yet you are making them pay more for their
:25:12. > :25:18.buses in real terms than they did before. They would be happier if
:25:19. > :25:23.they could travel more cheaply. It is about getting investment in
:25:24. > :25:31.services, it has to be paid for Why not run the old buses for five more
:25:32. > :25:35.years? Because then there is more pollution in the atmosphere, modern
:25:36. > :25:40.buses have lower emissions, and we are still giving huge support
:25:41. > :25:43.overall to the bus industry and that is very important because I fully
:25:44. > :25:52.accept that the number of people, yes, use the train but a lot of
:25:53. > :25:59.people use buses as well. High-speed two, it has been delayed because 877
:26:00. > :26:05.pages of key evidence from your department were left on a computer
:26:06. > :26:09.memory stick, part of the submission to environmental consultation. Your
:26:10. > :26:16.department's economic case is now widely regarded as a joke, now you
:26:17. > :26:22.do this. Is your department fit for purpose? Yes, and as far as what
:26:23. > :26:26.happened with the memory stick, it is an acceptable and shouldn't have
:26:27. > :26:31.happened, and therefore we have extended the time. There has been an
:26:32. > :26:42.extension in the time for people to make representation, the bill for
:26:43. > :26:55.this goes through Parliament in a different way to a normal bill. It
:26:56. > :26:59.is vital HS2 provides what we want. What I am very pleased about is when
:27:00. > :27:04.the paving bill was passed by Parliament just a few months ago,
:27:05. > :27:10.there was overwhelming support, and I kept reading there was going to be
:27:11. > :27:15.70 people voting against it, in the end 30 people voted against it and
:27:16. > :27:19.there was a good majority in the House of Commons. So can you give a
:27:20. > :27:28.guarantee that this legislation will get onto the statute books? I will
:27:29. > :27:31.do all I can. I cannot tell you the exact Parliamentary time scale. The
:27:32. > :27:40.bill will have started its progress through the House of Commons by
:27:41. > :27:46.2015, and it may well have concluded. The new chairman of HS2
:27:47. > :27:57.said he can bring the cost of the line substantially under the budget,
:27:58. > :28:02.do you agree with that? The figure is ?42 billion with a large
:28:03. > :28:06.contingency, and David Higgins, as chairman of HS2, is looking at the
:28:07. > :28:12.whole cast and seeing if there are ways in which it can be built
:28:13. > :28:17.faster. At the moment across London we are building Crossrail, ?14.
:28:18. > :28:23.billion investment. There was a report last week saying what an
:28:24. > :28:29.excellent job has been done. Crossrail started under Labour.
:28:30. > :28:37.Actually it was Cecil Parkinson in the 1990 party conference. You may
:28:38. > :28:43.get HS2 cheaper if you didn't pay people so much, why is the
:28:44. > :28:53.nonexecutive chairman of HS2 on ?600,000? And the new chief
:28:54. > :28:56.executive on ?750,000. These are very big projects and we need to
:28:57. > :29:01.attract the best people become so we are going for the best engineers in
:29:02. > :29:07.the world to engineer this project. It is a large salary, there is no
:29:08. > :29:11.question about it, but I'm rather pleased that engineers rather than
:29:12. > :29:15.bankers can be seen to get big rewards for delivering what will be
:29:16. > :29:19.very important pieces of national infrastructure. I didn't have time
:29:20. > :29:26.to ask you about your passenger duty so perhaps another time. We are
:29:27. > :29:29.about to speak to Nigel Mills and all of these MPs on your side who
:29:30. > :29:34.are rebelling against the Government, how would you handle
:29:35. > :29:40.them? We have got to listen to what our colleagues are talking about and
:29:41. > :29:45.try to respond it. Would you take them for a long walk off a short
:29:46. > :29:57.pier? I'm sure I would have many conversations with them. An
:29:58. > :30:04.immigration bill to tack the immigration into the UK. When limits
:30:05. > :30:09.on migration from Bulgaria and Romania were lifted this year there
:30:10. > :30:13.were warnings of a large influx of migrant workerses from the two new
:30:14. > :30:19.European countries. So far it's been more of a dribble than a flood. Who
:30:20. > :30:23.can forget Labour MP Keith Vaz greeting a handful of arrivals at
:30:24. > :30:28.Luton Airport. But it is early days and it is one of the reasons the
:30:29. > :30:31.Government's introduced a new Immigration Bill. The Prime Minister
:30:32. > :30:38.is facing rebellion from backbenchers who want tougher action
:30:39. > :30:46.on immigration from abroad. Nigel Mills would reimpose restrictions on
:30:47. > :30:53.how many Romanians and Bulgarians can come here. Joining me is Nigel
:30:54. > :30:58.Mills, Conservative MP behind the amendment and Labour MP Diane
:30:59. > :31:06.Abbott. Welcome. Nigel Mills, there hasn't been an influx of Romanians
:31:07. > :31:09.and Bulgarians. Why do you want to restore these, kick these
:31:10. > :31:14.transitional controls way forward to 2019? I don't think any of us were
:31:15. > :31:19.expecting a rush on January 1st Andrew. I think we were talking
:31:20. > :31:24.about a range of 250,000 to 350 000 people over five years. That's
:31:25. > :31:29.obviously a large amount of people, especially when you think net
:31:30. > :31:33.migration to the UK was well in excess of the Government's target of
:31:34. > :31:38.tens of thousands last year. The real concern is that it would be
:31:39. > :31:44.ever increasing our population, attracting lots of low-skilled,
:31:45. > :31:49.low-wage people, which keeps our people out of work and wages down.
:31:50. > :31:53.Did you accept that if you were to accept this, it would be in breach
:31:54. > :31:59.of the Treaty of Rome, the founding principle of the European Union We
:32:00. > :32:03.were trying to keep the restrictions that Bulgaria and Romania accepted
:32:04. > :32:06.for their first seven years of EU membership, on the basis that when
:32:07. > :32:10.we signed the treaty we weren't aware that we would have a huge and
:32:11. > :32:16.catastrophic recession we are still recovering from. But you would be in
:32:17. > :32:20.breach of the law, correct? The UK Parliament has a right to say we
:32:21. > :32:24.signed this deal before the terrible recession, and we need a bit longer
:32:25. > :32:32.in our national interest. It is worth noting that Bulgaria and
:32:33. > :32:36.Romania haven't met all their accession requirements. The
:32:37. > :32:41.Bulgarian requirement passed a law... So if they break the law it
:32:42. > :32:46.is alright for us to break the law? Is we should be focusing on trying
:32:47. > :32:52.to get 2. 4 million of our own in work, and 1 million people not in
:32:53. > :32:57.work... Let me bring in Diane Abbott. Will you vote for this
:32:58. > :33:02.amendment and why? It is in breach of the treaty. While I deplore MPs
:33:03. > :33:06.that try to cause trouble, these MPs have been particularly mindless
:33:07. > :33:11.because what they want to do wouldn't be legal. However, it is a
:33:12. > :33:16.Tory internal brief, if I might say so. Maybe you can cause trouble by
:33:17. > :33:23.voting for it. No, that would be going too far. Underlying it is a
:33:24. > :33:27.real antagonism for David Cameron. They have had to hold off on this
:33:28. > :33:31.bill until January. It was supposed to be debating before Christmas As
:33:32. > :33:39.we speak they've not cut a deal so it could be pretty grus om. Nigel
:33:40. > :33:43.Mills, what do you say to that I think there is a recognition that
:33:44. > :33:48.there is a problem with the amount of migration from EU countries that
:33:49. > :33:51.we need to tackle. We could try to achieve an annual cap perhaps,
:33:52. > :33:55.longer limits on when countries get free movement. I think the debate is
:33:56. > :33:59.moving in the right direction, but I think those people who are trapped
:34:00. > :34:04.out of work and desperately looking for work want something to be done
:34:05. > :34:09.now and not wait a few more years while we have more assessments
:34:10. > :34:13.Andrews. People are worried about the level of immigration. They I it
:34:14. > :34:20.is too high. That's the consensus in the country. We spoke to to
:34:21. > :34:23.migration centre in Hackney and they said they are struggling to cope
:34:24. > :34:27.with the number of people using their services. These are people
:34:28. > :34:32.with problems with the law. In the past years EU migrants put in more
:34:33. > :34:37.to the economy in taxation than they take out in benefits. When it comes
:34:38. > :34:42.to free movement, which is agitating Nige em, that horse has bolted. We
:34:43. > :34:46.signed a treaty. There is nothing people like Nigel Mills can do,
:34:47. > :34:51.unless they want to rip their party apart, God forbid. Will you go as
:34:52. > :34:55.far as to rip your party apart, Nigel Mills? Are you going to take
:34:56. > :35:01.this all the way? Would you rather see this bill go down than your
:35:02. > :35:06.amendment not be accepted? This is a very important bill. I think we all
:35:07. > :35:10.want to see measures on the statute book, so the last thing we want to
:35:11. > :35:15.see is this bill go down. We do need to set out clearly that we have real
:35:16. > :35:22.concerns about the level of EU migration and something needs to be
:35:23. > :35:28.done. Would you rather have the bill without your amendment or no bill at
:35:29. > :35:32.all? I am hoping we can have the bill with the amendment. I know
:35:33. > :35:39.that, but if you can't? Is that will depend on what the Labour Party
:35:40. > :35:43.decide to do. They are talking tougher on immigration but will they
:35:44. > :35:47.take action on it? Your party has been talking tough on immigration
:35:48. > :35:52.but I will be surprised if an Ed Miliband Labour Party would vote for
:35:53. > :35:56.egg in direct cameravention of the Treaty of Rome. It would make no
:35:57. > :36:04.sense. Nigel Mills is wishing for the impossible. If I was a Tory I
:36:05. > :36:09.would be wringing high hands. He hasn't ruled out crashing the bill.
:36:10. > :36:15.That's incredible. Where will this end, Nigel Mills? We'll end with a
:36:16. > :36:19.vote on Thursday. There's a lot of amendments people can use to show
:36:20. > :36:23.their concern about migration. We want limited and proportionate
:36:24. > :36:27.action, and that's what I am proposing. I want to see the bill on
:36:28. > :36:32.the statute book, I want the restrictions on people who shouldn't
:36:33. > :36:37.be here getting bank accounts and driving licences. I don't want to
:36:38. > :36:43.crash this bill but there's more measures we need in it. Nigel Mills
:36:44. > :36:48.thank you. You are going to be -- popping up I think on the Sunday
:36:49. > :36:54.Politics East Midlands. Diane Abbott, thank you as well.
:36:55. > :36:57.We're in for more heavy rain and high winds across the UK today. You
:36:58. > :37:00.may remember that one UKIP councillor - he's since been
:37:01. > :37:03.suspended - caused controversy last weekend by blaming the recent
:37:04. > :37:06.flooding on the legalisation of gay marriage. Why didn't I think of
:37:07. > :37:10.that? So who better than this man to bring you the unofficial forecast.
:37:11. > :37:15.I'll be bringing you the late least UKIP weather from your area.
:37:16. > :37:21.You're watching Sunday Politics. Also coming up in just over 20
:37:22. > :37:33.minutes, I'll be looking at the week ahead with our political panel.
:37:34. > :37:40.Hello. I'm Lucie Fisher. Coming up on the Sunday Politics in the South
:37:41. > :37:45.West: The rise of the cannabis farm. One former Devon MP says there could
:37:46. > :37:49.be one in a house near you. And for the next 20 minutes I am
:37:50. > :37:53.joined by the Conservative MP Mel Stride and Labour Councillor Nicky
:37:54. > :37:56.Williams. Welcome to the programme. This week the Bishop of Crediton
:37:57. > :38:00.spoke out against council cuts which could force a shelter for homeless
:38:01. > :38:04.people to close. The Leonard Stocks Centre in Torquay opened four years
:38:05. > :38:10.ago. But half its funding comes from Torbay Council, which has to save
:38:11. > :38:14.more than ?22 million. To force the closure of a homeless
:38:15. > :38:17.centre or hit some of the welfare projects out there doesn't just
:38:18. > :38:23.affect those who are immediately affected, the homeless and the
:38:24. > :38:26.troubled people themselves. It has knock`on effects for others, and we
:38:27. > :38:35.probably all need to speak up for those who are most vulnerable in our
:38:36. > :38:38.society. It is quite unusual for a bishop to
:38:39. > :38:44.feel moved to speak out on an issue. Does he have a point? In the
:38:45. > :38:47.specific case of what is happening in Torbay, my understanding it is
:38:48. > :38:52.out to consultation so a final decision has not been taken, and I
:38:53. > :38:57.can't comment on that specifically because I know `` I don't know the
:38:58. > :39:01.context of what is happening on the ground, but in terms of raising the
:39:02. > :39:12.issue of the homeless in the form rubble, he is absolutely right. The
:39:13. > :39:16.Conservative government is holding a lot of houses. But where is there to
:39:17. > :39:21.go for these people if you close that shelter? In the case of Torbay,
:39:22. > :39:27.I don't know what is happening on the ground. Places open and closing
:39:28. > :39:31.all sorts of areas for differing reasons. So you don't feel
:39:32. > :39:35.responsible that the government cuts mean policies work down to councils
:39:36. > :39:38.and are working their way down to people we see on the street?
:39:39. > :39:42.Councils have difficult choices to make and there is no doubt about
:39:43. > :39:47.that. Money is extremely tight white across the country. They are having
:39:48. > :39:54.to make ethical decisions. What we are seeing only today is a rapid
:39:55. > :39:58.decrease in the level of unemployment and the economy is
:39:59. > :40:01.picking up. We are looking at ourselves slowly come out of the
:40:02. > :40:05.recession we have been through and we are putting things right, but it
:40:06. > :40:10.will be tough in the meantime. If we keep at it and keep with the long
:40:11. > :40:16.term economic plan, we'll make progress. What you make of that? We
:40:17. > :40:25.shouldn't worry? The reality is that these cuts are hitting the most
:40:26. > :40:29.vulnerable people. The cuts from the central government are being passed
:40:30. > :40:31.on to local government and we as local councillors run the services
:40:32. > :40:35.which protect the most vulnerable people. If you could put it in the
:40:36. > :40:41.way they are at the moment, inevitably, there are tough
:40:42. > :40:46.decisions being made. We are doing everything we can to protect the
:40:47. > :40:50.most vulnerable, but if you remove all the resources and the money,
:40:51. > :40:53.inevitably some people will be put in an awful position and we will
:40:54. > :40:58.have to make some hard decisions. What do you say to that? You can go
:40:59. > :41:04.back to the old Labour Party ways which got us into this mess in the
:41:05. > :41:07.first race, `` first place, which is to keep borrowing and spending and
:41:08. > :41:11.taxing, and you will end up in the position we were in in 2008. We are
:41:12. > :41:16.working through a long`term economic plan, seeing and employment go down
:41:17. > :41:19.and growth coming back. We are seeing some signs of real wage
:41:20. > :41:24.increases, and in the longer term is, those things give it a healthy
:41:25. > :41:27.and sustainable society. It is time move on.
:41:28. > :41:30.The former Totnes MP Anthony Steen is stepping up his efforts to raise
:41:31. > :41:35.the profile of cannabis farms and their links to child slavery. He has
:41:36. > :41:38.given the Sunday Politics recent figures which show Devon and
:41:39. > :41:42.Cornwall police found 150 of the farms in just one year. Mr Steen
:41:43. > :41:45.says the cannabis plants are often being pruned and watered by children
:41:46. > :41:49.who have been trafficked into Britain. We will speak to him in a
:41:50. > :41:57.moment, but first this report from Jenny Kumah.
:41:58. > :42:02.On the streets of Plymouth, it is easy to find links between the South
:42:03. > :42:08.West and the slave trade that was abolished more than 200 years ago.
:42:09. > :42:14.This spot marks the childhood home of Sir John Hawkyns, the first
:42:15. > :42:17.English slave trader. What is not so easy to see is the human trafficking
:42:18. > :42:22.and child slavery that is happening today. One South West charity which
:42:23. > :42:25.supports victims of modern slavery says more needs to be done to
:42:26. > :42:30.protect trafficked children, like this boy, whose words are voiced by
:42:31. > :42:36.an actor. I was 15 when I came here from
:42:37. > :42:40.Vietnam. My family was very poor. A friend of my father's offered me a
:42:41. > :42:45.job in a restaurant, but when I arrived I was met by a different
:42:46. > :42:48.man. The man said I had to do everything he told me to do or I
:42:49. > :42:53.would be arrested and my family would be in trouble. I was locked in
:42:54. > :42:57.a house and forced to look after cannabis plants. The doors and
:42:58. > :43:01.windows were locked. It was dark. I had very little food. If I asked
:43:02. > :43:06.questions, I was beaten. I wasn't allowed out at all. Government
:43:07. > :43:10.figures show that more than 500 child slaves were found in the UK
:43:11. > :43:14.last year. An official report says many were found working on cannabis
:43:15. > :43:21.farms set up in houses which, from the outside, look like ordinary
:43:22. > :43:25.family homes. A former Devon MP has long campaigned on this issue. I am
:43:26. > :43:31.quite sure in the South West there are trafficked women and boys and
:43:32. > :43:34.girls. In large towns, Plymouth, Torquay, Exeter, there is bound to
:43:35. > :43:39.be trafficked people, and they won't be in the city. They are usually in
:43:40. > :43:44.the suburbs looking perfectly normal, but they aren't.
:43:45. > :43:50.Anthony Steen is now the Home Secretary's special envoy on
:43:51. > :43:54.combating modern slavery. He has written to more than 240 MPs to
:43:55. > :43:59.raise awareness of the problem, highlighting the growing number of
:44:00. > :44:02.raids on cannabis factories. Recent figures show the police raided
:44:03. > :44:06.around 150 cannabis farms in Devon and Cornwall in just one year, with
:44:07. > :44:14.hotspots in Torbay, Plymouth and Exeter. Devon and Cornwall police
:44:15. > :44:17.say there have not been any human trafficking prosecutions linked to
:44:18. > :44:22.those raids, but in Avon and Somerset, there is more concern.
:44:23. > :44:25.Certainly we are seeing more cases of people who have been trafficked,
:44:26. > :44:28.examples of modern slavery, and people who are in need of
:44:29. > :44:34.safeguarding care from the police and other agencies. The draft Modern
:44:35. > :44:40.Slavery Bill is currently being scrutinised by Parliament. It will
:44:41. > :44:49.mean life sentences for offenders. It is not just about legislation. It
:44:50. > :44:52.is about an action plan as well. There are practical steps that the
:44:53. > :44:55.police, our new National Crime Agency, working with other agencies,
:44:56. > :44:58.such as local authorities, can take, and we will be publishing that
:44:59. > :45:01.action plan in the spring. But anti`trafficking campaigners say
:45:02. > :45:04.that many child slaves end up facing criminal charges and those that are
:45:05. > :45:08.taken into care all too often go missing. They warned the new bill
:45:09. > :45:13.does not do enough to address these problems.
:45:14. > :45:18.Jenny Kumah reporting, and the Chair of the Human Trafficking Foundation
:45:19. > :45:25.Anthony Steen joins us from London. Welcome to the programme. Many
:45:26. > :45:31.viewers will be surprised to see you say that lies at my child slavery is
:45:32. > :45:34.happening on ours `` our doorstep. The police have not prosecuted a
:45:35. > :45:41.single case in Devon and Cornwall Police. Are you exaggerating?
:45:42. > :45:46.Definitely not. The police in Devon and the ones who have provided me
:45:47. > :45:50.with the figures. There is no exaggeration. No exaggeration that
:45:51. > :45:55.we are finding cannabis farms, but not so much the child slavery?
:45:56. > :46:01.Perhaps not slavery in Devon and, but in most cannabis farms, which
:46:02. > :46:07.are terraced houses with electricity and water diverted so it doesn't
:46:08. > :46:11.cost anything, toys are locked in and they are expected to attend to
:46:12. > :46:16.the crops and then the police raid the farms. Devon and Cornwall Police
:46:17. > :46:23.a particularly good police force with a capable chief comes to. They
:46:24. > :46:26.are not charging young boys with this crime and the Lord Chief
:46:27. > :46:33.Justice recently made it plain that he disapproves immensely of police
:46:34. > :46:36.forces that charge boys who are actually victims of trafficking as
:46:37. > :46:41.guilty of a criminal offence. So I think what Devon and Cornwall Police
:46:42. > :46:44.shown is that they are following good practice and quite rightly
:46:45. > :46:49.following what the Lord Chief Justice says. The government is in
:46:50. > :46:54.`` bringing in a Modern Slavery Bill. Is that enough? As chairman of
:46:55. > :47:01.the human trafficking foundation, I would like to see it go further. I
:47:02. > :47:07.think the Home Secretary is to be applauded at taking this initiative.
:47:08. > :47:09.The foundation itself which you are representing here is saying that the
:47:10. > :47:15.government is seeing this as an immigration problem rather than a
:47:16. > :47:20.child protection problem. No, that is atypical NGO response. No, you
:47:21. > :47:25.are quoted in the Guardian as saying that it should be about being
:47:26. > :47:29.hostile to traffickers, caring to victims, a human rights approach
:47:30. > :47:35.rather than an immigration issue. That is absolutely correct! That is
:47:36. > :47:40.a very good quote. I applauded. That is about six months ago, but things
:47:41. > :47:43.have moved on. The bill has been published and it is a first`rate
:47:44. > :47:48.bill. It has nothing to with immigration. I gave a warning before
:47:49. > :47:52.and now they have needed it. Full marks to the government. Is this a
:47:53. > :47:57.problem we should be taking more notice of? Should people be looking
:47:58. > :48:00.on their streets to see if there is some kind of activity going on? We
:48:01. > :48:05.have to get it in proportion. We should not be worried about what is
:48:06. > :48:08.happening around every corner and every street across Devon, but I
:48:09. > :48:14.think Anthony is raising an extremely important point. I commend
:48:15. > :48:19.him on the years of campaigning that he has done. We take all cases like
:48:20. > :48:29.this seriously, which is why this bill going through Parliament at the
:48:30. > :48:32.moment, which may be amended, is going to bring in a potential life
:48:33. > :48:41.sentence for those involved in this despicable crime. It will bring an
:48:42. > :48:43.anti`slavery commissars which will overlook and coordinate a
:48:44. > :48:46.multi`agency approach to the problem and it will bring in powers that
:48:47. > :48:50.will restrict movement and activities of those who are involved
:48:51. > :48:57.in this despicable practice. Those are real things. We have a bill. You
:48:58. > :49:00.think this bill is going to go far enough? Should there be a separate
:49:01. > :49:07.offence for child slavery, which I know some charities are saying there
:49:08. > :49:15.should be? Should there be a specific part of the lease `` of the
:49:16. > :49:19.bill for that? Definitely. We have been calling for legislation since
:49:20. > :49:23.2010. It does not go far enough in that it does not talk specifically
:49:24. > :49:27.about the child victims of trafficking. And what happens to
:49:28. > :49:30.them. If they have been caught, what men often happens to those
:49:31. > :49:37.children? Often they are treated as criminals, but also, if they are
:49:38. > :49:40.taken into care, 60% of them are likely to disappear again and ended
:49:41. > :49:48.being trafficked again and end up being at in this vicious circle. We
:49:49. > :49:54.need to protect children as soon as they come to our attention, which is
:49:55. > :49:57.why we need that focus in the bill. Can I just congratulate both of them
:49:58. > :50:01.about being very well informed and up to speed, but I think it is quite
:50:02. > :50:11.an indictment on society that Torquay, small Torquay, had 24
:50:12. > :50:15.cannabis farms identified in 2011`2012, and 22 in Plymouth. This
:50:16. > :50:19.is quite large numbers, probably three or four Mac people in each,
:50:20. > :50:23.and some of them are bound to have children in them, because there are
:50:24. > :50:27.children from Vietnam in most cannabis farms, and the police have
:50:28. > :50:32.found several thousand cannabis farms in Britain, so we should be
:50:33. > :50:37.alarmed. I do have to stop you there. You stop me there. Thank you
:50:38. > :50:40.for joining us. Last May UKIP rocked the political
:50:41. > :50:44.establishment when they took nearly a quarter of the votes in the local
:50:45. > :50:47.elections. This May they are expected to better that, maybe even
:50:48. > :50:50.come first, in the European elections. Last time round, UKIP got
:50:51. > :50:53.two MEPs in the South West and, as Paul Barltrop reports, they have
:50:54. > :50:56.approached the role in very different ways.
:50:57. > :51:01.The Euro elections always give UKIP something to smile about. Last time
:51:02. > :51:07.around, they won two seats in the South West, 13 overall. But those
:51:08. > :51:13.who have been elected often don't fare too well. Two former MEPs have
:51:14. > :51:17.ended up in jail for fraud. Among the 2009 cohort, one was expelled
:51:18. > :51:21.from the party, two quit to join the Tories, while two others departed
:51:22. > :51:25.acrimoniously. Among those who remain, things aren't ideal. There
:51:26. > :51:31.is frustration, even anger, among senior party figures, about the
:51:32. > :51:34.performance of Trevor Colman. In the European Parliament, you won't find
:51:35. > :51:39.him on the UKIP benches. He sits apart since a disagreement in 2010.
:51:40. > :51:44.He is often not there. Recent figures show he has only taken part
:51:45. > :51:48.in just over half of the votes. In nearly five years in the chamber, he
:51:49. > :51:54.has made speeches or asked questions 19 times. The total for his UKIP
:51:55. > :52:00.colleague William Dartmouth is 673. The average for the South West's
:52:01. > :52:05.four other MEPs is 260. Trevor Colman makes no apology. The
:52:06. > :52:12.European Parliament has no power. It can't change or make legislation. It
:52:13. > :52:15.has little or no power. We are, in fact, just a pantomime taking place
:52:16. > :52:21.to give the illusion of democracy where none exists. Why make a speech
:52:22. > :52:25.when you know it is totally ineffective? You are there talking
:52:26. > :52:33.to a gallery of about six people. I don't quite see the point of me
:52:34. > :52:37.doing that. Then why did you get elected if you were not going to do
:52:38. > :52:43.anything? It is not that I am not doing anything. I am trying to get
:52:44. > :52:47.us out of this mess and that can only be achieved over here. In fact,
:52:48. > :52:51.one of the reasons he flies back and forth to Europe is to clock in to
:52:52. > :52:55.get the money. You go to these plenary sessions, barely take part
:52:56. > :52:58.in them, but is one of the main motivations to enable you to go on
:52:59. > :53:02.getting those allowances? I wouldn't say it is one of the main
:53:03. > :53:06.motivations. I am trying to be fair about it. It is a factor. Of course
:53:07. > :53:12.it is a factor. And this is what most of it is spent on, a website.
:53:13. > :53:15.Tonight, top EU stories... Five staff work on it, around ?200,000 of
:53:16. > :53:21.EU money funds an anti`EU campaign tool, but it doesn't detail how he
:53:22. > :53:25.spends taxpayers' money. He refuses to join fellow UKIP MEPs who detail
:53:26. > :53:34.their expenses on the official party website. You could publish it, but
:53:35. > :53:38.you don't. Why not? I don't believe there is a need to. We don't have to
:53:39. > :53:42.publish any of this, and if people are interested in why I am spending
:53:43. > :53:46.money or not spending money, they can come to this office any time
:53:47. > :53:53.they like and they can examine the accounts. Anyone. He is adamant he
:53:54. > :53:56.has not broken the rules. Other South West MEPs aren't impressed. At
:53:57. > :53:59.a Euro election debate in Bristol on Thursday, they complained that he is
:54:00. > :54:03.failing to serve his constituents. There is a massive amount that goes
:54:04. > :54:07.on in the European Parliament, and that is why most of the members are
:54:08. > :54:11.there full time doing their jobs. I am sorry if Trevor Colman finds it
:54:12. > :54:14.so boring. I would have to ask the question, why did he stand in the
:54:15. > :54:18.first place? Trevor Colman is standing down in May. UKIP will hope
:54:19. > :54:21.his successor causes the party less trouble.
:54:22. > :54:26.Paul Barltrop reporting, and UKIP's Chairman Steve Crowther joins us
:54:27. > :54:34.from Bristol. Welcome to the programme. Hello.
:54:35. > :54:40.Trevor Colman is not standing again. Why not? Has he been pushed
:54:41. > :54:45.by party leadership? Absolutely not. He is retiring. He has been fighting
:54:46. > :54:49.the EU to send mail for a decade and he's going to take a well earned
:54:50. > :54:52.retirement. And these questionable things have nothing to do with it?
:54:53. > :54:57.He had only spoken in Brussels 19 times and went publishing expenses.
:54:58. > :55:01.It is embarrassed for the party. Not at all. It is interesting, the
:55:02. > :55:06.figures that Paul came up with that, the average number of speeches
:55:07. > :55:14.made by Lib Dems and other MEPs is 260, while the average for UKIP MEPs
:55:15. > :55:19.was 346. But that is because William Dartmouth spoke nearly 700 times.
:55:20. > :55:23.Surely that is the problem. UKIP does not have a coherent kind of
:55:24. > :55:27.MEP. You have one person speaking 19 times and the other person 700
:55:28. > :55:32.times. It leaves you wondering what you get is about? It is extremely
:55:33. > :55:39.coherent. We do not get elected to help the European Parliament at ``
:55:40. > :55:43.to do its job. We get elected to try to abolish it. We divide our
:55:44. > :55:46.labours. We have to go over to the European Parliament and find out
:55:47. > :55:54.what is going on and back here we have to let people know. If you take
:55:55. > :55:56.the balance of what William is doing and list and its work focusing on
:55:57. > :56:01.speeches in Parliament, and then what Trevor is doing over here
:56:02. > :56:07.getting the word out by his website and hundreds of meetings... A
:56:08. > :56:11.website that costs ?200,000 year. I'm just going to ask Nicky year,
:56:12. > :56:18.the think there is a problem? Is this democracy at work? Is certainly
:56:19. > :56:22.not. His constituents must be absolutely appalled, because they
:56:23. > :56:26.are there to represent them to make their case for Europe, and if he is
:56:27. > :56:32.not there, how can he do it? What would you say to that, Steve? That
:56:33. > :56:35.is nonsense! He is making their case. Everybody who votes for UKIP
:56:36. > :56:40.in the European election knows what they are voting for, a party who
:56:41. > :56:46.wants to abolish it or get us out of it. Trevor is working hard to make
:56:47. > :56:48.that happen. He is representing his constituents and getting the
:56:49. > :56:52.information through his team from Brussels and Strasbourg as to what
:56:53. > :56:55.the parliament is doing, and his broadcasting it and going round to
:56:56. > :57:00.talk to his constituents about it. Is this the way you would expect an
:57:01. > :57:05.MEP to act? Not at all. I agree with Mickey. He is their first and
:57:06. > :57:10.foremost to support his constituents and stand up for his country. As the
:57:11. > :57:13.Conservative Party, we have many issues with Europe and we believe in
:57:14. > :57:17.fighting our corner, not turning our back and walking away, as Trevor
:57:18. > :57:21.seems to have been doing. And what about the issue of spending so much
:57:22. > :57:26.money every year on a website? There is nothing illegal about that. It is
:57:27. > :57:33.down to the voters to see if they decide that he and his party in that
:57:34. > :57:37.instance have behaved appropriately. Do you believe he has behaved
:57:38. > :57:41.appropriately? Absolutely. When the value for money tables come out of
:57:42. > :57:45.MEPs across`the`board, you will find that there are UKIP members near the
:57:46. > :57:49.top, in the Middle and near the bottom. We have different jobs to
:57:50. > :57:52.do, but they are all behind the same cause, which is getting the
:57:53. > :57:55.information from the EU Parliament about what is going on there and
:57:56. > :58:00.winning it back and disseminating it here. Many of the parties are quite
:58:01. > :58:03.content to send their MEPs to Brussels to draw their daily
:58:04. > :58:06.allowances and just sit there. I have to stop you there. Thank you
:58:07. > :58:07.for joining us. Now our regular round`up of the
:58:08. > :58:18.political week in 60 seconds. The Somerset floods were declared a
:58:19. > :58:21.major incident, as one of the county's MPs attacked Environment
:58:22. > :58:29.Agency bosses for refusing to dredge the rivers. Every year they silt up
:58:30. > :58:32.a bit more, every year they need to be cleared. It is just beyond a
:58:33. > :58:35.joke. Unemployment figures show dole
:58:36. > :58:38.figures in most parts of the region hitting a five`year low, but one
:58:39. > :58:44.debt charity said calls to its helpline had risen by nearly 40% in
:58:45. > :58:49.the past 12 months. Payday loans are a massive problem in the South West.
:58:50. > :58:54.We have seen a huge rise in the number of people who have this type
:58:55. > :58:57.of loan. It is very dangerous. Teachers were accused of forcing
:58:58. > :59:00.16`year`olds to stay on and take A`levels so their schools could get
:59:01. > :59:03.more cash. Young people across Plymouth are telling me that they
:59:04. > :59:08.feel as though they are little more than walking pots of money when it
:59:09. > :59:11.comes to careers advice. And countryside campaigners in
:59:12. > :59:23.Cornwall said the council had spoilt this lane by putting up 60 signs.
:59:24. > :59:29.Let's look briefly at the cost of living debate. We touched upon this
:59:30. > :59:33.briefly earlier. The government has revealed figures that shows that
:59:34. > :59:38.wages are starting to go up. Have Labour made a mistake on focusing on
:59:39. > :59:42.this issue? Not at all. I am not even going to approach the
:59:43. > :59:45.statistics. What is important is how people feel. Do they know at the end
:59:46. > :59:49.of the day that they have more money in their pocket a few years ago?
:59:50. > :59:53.That is the basis on which we should go. We know that payday loans are a
:59:54. > :59:57.huge problem in Plymouth, which is why we as a council have been
:59:58. > :00:01.proactive in tackling that. What would you say in response to that?
:00:02. > :00:06.Nicky says that statistics don't matter and in one sense she is
:00:07. > :00:08.right, but that has not stopped the Labour Party constantly going on
:00:09. > :00:12.about the fact that real wages have been diminishing, as they did under
:00:13. > :00:17.the last Labour government. Now things appear to be turning around,
:00:18. > :00:20.particularly when you take into account the tax cuts that the
:00:21. > :00:23.government has brought in on paid. I have to stop you there because that
:00:24. > :00:27.is the Sunday Politics in the South West. Thanks to my guests Mel Stride
:00:28. > :00:28.and Nicky Williams. Now back to Andrew in London.
:00:29. > :00:42.constituency, very pleased. Andrew, back to you.
:00:43. > :00:45.UKIP leader Nigel Farage is never far away from controversy, but this
:00:46. > :00:49.week he's been outdoing himself He was hit over the head with a placard
:00:50. > :00:51.by a protester in Kent, provoked outrage by saying women with
:00:52. > :00:59.children are worth less to city firms, and said the ban on owning
:01:00. > :01:02.handguns was 'crackers'. He also seemed less than sure of his party's
:01:03. > :01:06.own policies when I interviewed him on the Daily Politics. And the story
:01:07. > :01:10.that got everyone talking was the suggestion by a UKIP councillor that
:01:11. > :01:14.flooding is linked to gay marriage. We'll talk about all of that in a
:01:15. > :01:23.moment, but first, over to Nigel with the weather. Weather for all
:01:24. > :01:26.areas of the British Isles but definitely not "Bongo Bongo Land."
:01:27. > :01:32.You may have heard about a storm in a tea cup developed when you kip
:01:33. > :01:38.councillor in Oxfordshire blamed the floods on the gay marriage Bill The
:01:39. > :01:44.old party is focusing on the view of UKIP members like him, even though
:01:45. > :01:50.he had said a sell yuj of things before when a Tory councillor. How
:01:51. > :01:58.quickly things change depending on when the blouse. There are
:01:59. > :02:04.occasional barmy views by people of all persuasions. In Whitby a Labour
:02:05. > :02:09.councillor claimed of fathered a child with an extra terrorist ral,
:02:10. > :02:17.and said his real mother was a foot green alien. And in Wales a
:02:18. > :02:26.councillor thinking about heading off for the
:02:27. > :02:34.slopes, there were flurries of embarrassment for the Tories after
:02:35. > :02:40.Aidan Burly organised a Nazi skiing party in a resort.
:02:41. > :02:46.Anyone heading to Brussels, perhaps on the gravy train, watch out for
:02:47. > :02:50.hot air. In Britain temperatures are rising
:02:51. > :02:57.ahead of the European elections in May. It could get stormy, so advise
:02:58. > :03:02.light aircraft. Watch out for outbreaks of common sense, and no
:03:03. > :03:07.chance of cyclonic fruit cakes. Back to you, Andrew, with the rest of the
:03:08. > :03:11.Sunday Politics. Nick, if it was any other party that
:03:12. > :03:16.had bon through the past week it would be in meltdown. And maybe it
:03:17. > :03:22.is harming UKIP and maybe it isn't. What do you think? That just shows,
:03:23. > :03:27.that great weather forecast, Prince Charles now has a rival to be an
:03:28. > :03:33.excellent weather forecaster, as does the Duchess of Cornwall. It
:03:34. > :03:37.shows why Nigel Farage is the fefr candidate to the European elections.
:03:38. > :03:42.Our invitation to the British people to kick the establishment. The
:03:43. > :03:45.establishment have spent five years that the European Parliament is a
:03:46. > :03:52.waste of time, so who are you going to vote for? A Nigel Farage type of
:03:53. > :03:57.person. What was important about your eadviceration of Nigel Farage
:03:58. > :04:00.on Daily Politics is that when it came to the substance, they
:04:01. > :04:04.flounder. But the point about that party is they may have the thinnest
:04:05. > :04:11.set of policies, but people know what they stand for more than any
:04:12. > :04:16.other parties - get out of Europe, a grammar school in every town. If any
:04:17. > :04:22.other leading politician called for an end to the ban on handguns, at a
:04:23. > :04:25.time when we've seen these appalling gun deaths in the United States now
:04:26. > :04:30.almost one every week in some terrible siege in a school. It would
:04:31. > :04:40.be a crisis. It seems to wash off him. He's got congenital
:04:41. > :04:45.foot-and-mouthitis. Straight into another wild nothing to do with why
:04:46. > :04:49.people might vote UKIP. I don't think people are desperate to have
:04:50. > :04:55.handgun licences back in this country. It is such an unusual
:04:56. > :05:02.phenomenon, UKIP, that if this was a Tory or a Labour or a Lib Dem saying
:05:03. > :05:07.it, we've seen the damage done to the Lib Dems on a much more serious
:05:08. > :05:10.manner, we would say this is terminal. But maybe it adds to this
:05:11. > :05:17.image that we are not like the other parties. I think that is it. We keep
:05:18. > :05:21.waiting for these scandals and embarrassments to do damage to
:05:22. > :05:28.UKIP's poll ratings, but it's not working. It is ultimately because if
:05:29. > :05:33.you are an antiestablishment party, if you are an anti-system party the
:05:34. > :05:39.rules of the game which apply to the establishment parties don't apply to
:05:40. > :05:43.you. And the more ramshackle and embarrassing you are, the more
:05:44. > :05:50.authentic you seem. It what be take something for them not to finish
:05:51. > :05:54.second in May. Do they spend the following 12 months sinking in the
:05:55. > :05:57.poll snoos And George Osborne's strategy is fame everything as
:05:58. > :06:01.Labour versus the Conservatives The electorate will have their fun in
:06:02. > :06:08.May. Maybe the Tories will be beat into third place but in thejection
:06:09. > :06:16.is that -- but in the general election it is Labour versus the
:06:17. > :06:20.Tories. The Conservative Party will run around, 46 letters to Graham
:06:21. > :06:25.Brady, a leadership contest. That sort of scenario. UKIP, if it rules
:06:26. > :06:29.well in the European elections, could cause big trouble for Mr
:06:30. > :06:36.Cameron and Mr Clegg couldn't it? The big point about this, David
:06:37. > :06:41.Cameron said this is not a political party but a pressure group. This is
:06:42. > :06:46.the way to look at UKIP, and the way it is used by people in the right of
:06:47. > :06:53.the party, who say we have to do this. I like the policy of painting
:06:54. > :07:05.the trains in their old liveries. It would be like my old train set. I
:07:06. > :07:14.like the bigger passports. Pre-GNER... And London and Midland.
:07:15. > :07:18.I used to be a train spotter. Gordon Birtwhistle has been on the
:07:19. > :07:24.phone. Good to know you are watching but pity you are not here. He wanted
:07:25. > :07:28.to clarify he had constituency commitments to prevent him coming on
:07:29. > :07:32.the show to talk about becoming leader of the party, but he didn't
:07:33. > :07:35.dispute anything we said on the show.
:07:36. > :07:38.Yesterday, Ed Balls said that housing investment will be a central
:07:39. > :07:41.priority for the next Labour Government. It's a big issue, as the
:07:42. > :07:44.lack of new homes pushes up the the price of owning or renting. Well,
:07:45. > :07:47.tomorrow the Tories will announce what they say is the most ambitious
:07:48. > :07:54.programme of affordable housebuilding for 20 years. The
:07:55. > :08:00.Government sees housing as a really important part of the economy.
:08:01. > :08:05.That's why we are announcing a 23 billion package for 165,000 new
:08:06. > :08:10.affordable homes. So individual builders, councils, housing
:08:11. > :08:15.associations can bid for that money. Phase one, which we are halfway
:08:16. > :08:19.through at the moment, we've built 170,000 houses. 99,000 already
:08:20. > :08:26.coming out of the ground, so we ve made real progress on that. So,
:08:27. > :08:31.165,000 new, affordable homes. It is a lot. Let me add three more words.
:08:32. > :08:35.Over three years. It is not such a lot. It is not, and Labour's
:08:36. > :08:41.commitment is 200,000 homes a year and even that isn't enough. The
:08:42. > :08:46.problem here is that the vest interest is with people who already
:08:47. > :08:48.have homes. They have a vote in the system through the planning
:08:49. > :08:53.regulations. In London there is a gap in the hedge through Richmond
:08:54. > :08:58.Park through which you should be able to see St Paul's Cathedral
:08:59. > :09:03.That's why you cannot build homes where you want them. I don't think
:09:04. > :09:11.we want to build homes over Richmond Park. He wasn't saying that. That's
:09:12. > :09:15.dies an Tyne -- that's Byzantine. You've got to deal with supply,
:09:16. > :09:20.which is why Labour is talking about 200,000 a year, and what George
:09:21. > :09:25.Osborne has done with supply is helping with demand. We know the
:09:26. > :09:31.Help to Buy Scheme is pretty dangerous, and Mark Carney is keen
:09:32. > :09:37.to put the break on that. If you are to deal with supply, you have to do
:09:38. > :09:41.radical things. Chris Huhne talked about on brownfield sites you can
:09:42. > :09:44.tax people who are holding the land as if the development has taken
:09:45. > :09:48.place. Then if you are really going to deal with it you have to talk
:09:49. > :09:53.about the greenfield sites, and you have to deal with the garden cities
:09:54. > :09:57.argument, which is too much for the Tories. All the parties seem to
:09:58. > :10:00.agree building new houses is a political winner. I hope that they
:10:01. > :10:06.are right. I'm not sure they are. The housing market is the example of
:10:07. > :10:11.what economists call the insider in-outsider problem. People who are
:10:12. > :10:17.already homeowners have no rational incentive to vote for more housing
:10:18. > :10:20.stock. Even if you leave aside the Conservative arable objections, if
:10:21. > :10:25.you are a homeowner there is an interest to stick with the planning
:10:26. > :10:29.promise that we have. So then we are stuck between a rock and a hard
:10:30. > :10:34.place. Not only are we growing at the moment but our population is
:10:35. > :10:39.growing. I've seen projects that in quite quickly we will overtake
:10:40. > :10:42.Germany and become the largest populated country in Europe. If
:10:43. > :10:48.that's the case we've got to build homes. We have. If you look at Tower
:10:49. > :10:53.Hamlets in London, the population is r ging higher than the number of
:10:54. > :10:57.dwelling. Classically the theory's been young people are most affected
:10:58. > :11:03.by this and they don't vote much. But when their parents have young
:11:04. > :11:08.Johnny stuck at home at 37, that's an electoral issue. That's why the
:11:09. > :11:12.garden cities project is interesting, because they finance
:11:13. > :11:17.themselves. You zone it for development, it is worth ?2 million
:11:18. > :11:23.an acre and then you can build on it. But who is going to want the
:11:24. > :11:29.greenfield sites gone. And how quickly can we build garden cities
:11:30. > :11:34.today? Some were started before the Town and Country Planning Act. I've
:11:35. > :11:38.read stats about the way Chinese and Japanese are building houses and
:11:39. > :11:42.they were slower than that. Here's a thought, sticking on the housing
:11:43. > :11:47.theme. Ed Miliband came up with the energy freeze, a populist
:11:48. > :11:52.interventionist move. Then the use it or lose it to land developers.
:11:53. > :11:57.Then breaking up the banks. Now the 50p tax rate. How much would you put
:11:58. > :12:03.on Labour coming up for rent controls? That's already a big
:12:04. > :12:06.split. They are split already on it. They have. In London it is a popular
:12:07. > :12:11.policy. It might not play well in the rest of the country. I would say
:12:12. > :12:15.50-50 on that. I think Labour supporting rent controls like the
:12:16. > :12:20.Tories having a go at welfare. The policy may be individually popular
:12:21. > :12:24.but it sends an impression about the party which might be less attract
:12:25. > :12:28.active. It confirms underlying suspicions that vote these guys into
:12:29. > :12:32.power and suddenly they are tampering with the private economy.
:12:33. > :12:36.The memories of the '70s when Governments tried and failed to do
:12:37. > :12:40.that. It is riskier than a superficial reading of the polls
:12:41. > :12:46.would suggest. One to watch? I think they are looking at it. That was the
:12:47. > :12:51.key message of the Ed Balls speech on housing, is looking at supply and
:12:52. > :12:55.how you get to that 200,000 figure a year, which is substantially more
:12:56. > :12:59.than what Kris Hopkins is talking about. What we didn't get to talk
:13:00. > :13:04.about, remember we had Michael Wilshaw on, the Chief Inspector of
:13:05. > :13:07.Schools. We all consumed was Mr Gove's man, the Education
:13:08. > :13:12.Secretary's man. Now according to the Sunday Times he is spitting
:13:13. > :13:15.blood about the way Mr Gove and his office are speaking about him behind
:13:16. > :13:19.the scenes. We've checked the quotes and he stands by them, so I think
:13:20. > :13:24.we'll have to have the head of Ofsted back on the programme. If you
:13:25. > :13:28.are watching, we're here. All that to the Lib Dems who didn't come on
:13:29. > :13:31.today. That's all for today. Thanks to all
:13:32. > :13:35.my guests. The Daily Politics is back on Monday at midday on BBC Two,
:13:36. > :13:36.and I'll be here again next week. Remember, if it's Sunday, it's the
:13:37. > :14:14.Sunday Politics. Britain, with 120,000 soldiers
:14:15. > :14:22.is now at war with Germany This would be the first
:14:23. > :14:31.truly modern war.