17/11/2013 Sunday Politics South

Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics.

Downing Street announces an inquiry into allegations of hardball tactics

and intimidation by unions in industrial disputes. That's our top

story. Thousands dead. Hundreds of

thousands without homes. Millions affected. What is Britain doing to

help the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan? We'll ask

International Development Secretary Justine Greening.

Winter is coming and so, it seems, is another crisis in England's

hospitals. I'll be asking the Shadow Health Secretary how he'd put a stop

to In the South... Paying the Living

Wage ` why councils and employers are being urged to go beyond the

minimum wage to help the lowest`paid to cope with rising living costs.

fatalities on the capital's streets, and renewed calls to get lorries off

the roads in peak hours. With me, the best and brightest

political panel that money can buy. Janan Ganesh, Nick Watt and this

week, Zoe Williams, who'll be tweeting their thoughts throughout

the programme. The Government has announced a

review to investigate what the Prime Minister has called "industrial

intimidation" by trade union activists. Bruce Carr QC will chair

a panel to examine allegations of the kind of tactics that came to

light during the Grangemouth dispute, when the Unite union took

their protests - replete with a giant rat - outside the family homes

of the firms' bosses. Earlier this morning the Cabinet office minister,

Francis Maude spoke to the BBC and this is what he had to say. To look

at whether the law currently works and see if it is ineffective in

preventing the kind of intimidatory activity that was alleged to have

taken place around range mouth during the previous disputes --

Grangemouth. We make no presumptions at the beginning of this. I do think

it is a responsible thing for the government to establish what

happened and really do a proper review into whether the law is

adequate to meet the needs. That was Francis Maude. This is a purely

political move, isn't it? Unite did this a couple of times, it is hardly

happening all over the country but the government want to say, we are

prepared to investigate Unite properly, Labour isn't. This seemed

a lot worse when I thought it was a real rat. I thought it was a giant

dead rat. I am not sure if you know much about rats but real rats are

not this big, even the ones in London. The thing is, obviously it

is naked politics but I think it is more intelligent than it looks. They

are trying to taint Miliband as a week union puppet and that doesn't

really wash. They hammer away with it and it might wash for some

people. But it really castrates Miliband in the important issues he

has to tackle. Zero hours, living wage, all of those things in which

he needs to be in concert with the unions, and to use their expertise.

He is making them absolutely toxic to go anywhere near. It keeps the

Unite story alive, have to kill -- particularly since Mr Miller band is

under pressure to reopen the investigation into what Unite are up

to -- Mr Miliband. They are frustrated, not only at the BBC but

the media generally at what they think is a lack of coverage. I see

the political rationale from that respect. There is a risk. There are

union members who either vote Tory or are open to the idea of voting

Tory. All Lib Dem. If the party comes across as too zealous in as --

its antipathy, there is an electoral consequence. Ed Miliband has been

careful to keep a distance. Yes they depend on vast amounts of

money. When Len McCluskey had a real go at the Blairites, Ed Miliband was

straight out there with a very strong statement. Essentially Len

McCluskey wanted Blairites in the shadow cabinet sacked and Ed

Miliband was keen to distance himself or for that is why it is not

quite sticking. Another story in the Sunday papers this morning, the Mail

on Sunday got hold of some e-mails. When I saw the headline I thought it

was a huge cache of e-mails, it turns out to be a couple. They peel

away the cover on the relationship between Ed Miliband and Ed Balls,

with some of Ed Miliband's cohorts describing what Mr balls is trying

to do as a nightmare. How bad are the relations? They are pretty bad

and these e-mails confirm the biggest open signal in Westminster,

which is that relations are pretty tense, -- open secret. That Ed

Miliband doesn't feel that Ed Balls is acknowledging the economy has

grown that Labour needs to admit to past mistakes. The sort of great

open signal is confirmed. On a scale of 1-10, assuming that Blair-Brown

was ten. I think it is between six and seven. They occupy this joint

suite of offices that George Cameron and -- David Cameron and George

Osborne had. It is not just on the economy that there were tensions,

there were clearly tensions over HS2, Ed Balls put a huge question

over it at his conference. There will be more tensions when it comes

to the third runway because my information is that Mr balls wants

to do it and Ed Miliband almost resigned over it when he was in

government. I don't think Ed Miliband is thinking very

politically because he has tried live without Ed Balls and that is

not tenable either. -- life without. He has defined a way of making it

work. That is where Tony Blair had the edge on any modern politician.

He didn't want to make Ed Balls his Shadow Chancellor, he had to.

Somebody said to him, if you make Ed Balls Shadow Chancellor, that will

be the last decision you take as leader of the Labour Party. Is it as

bad? I was surprised at how tame the e-mails were. At the FT it is

compulsory, one French word per sentence! To call him a nightmare,

compared to what they are willing to say in briefings, conversations

bits of frustrations they express verbally come what is documented in

the e-mails is actually pretty light. It has been a grim week for

the people of the Philippines as they count the cost of the

devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan. HMS Daring has just arrived

near the worst hit areas - part of Britain's contribution to bring aid

to the country. It has been one of the worst natural

disasters in the history of the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan hit the

country nine days ago, leaving devastation in its wake. The numbers

involved are shocking. The official death toll is over 3600 people, with

many thousands more unaccounted for. More than half a million people have

lost their homes and the UN estimates 11 million have been

affected. David Cameron announced on Friday that the UK government is to

give an extra ?30 million in aid, taking the total British figure ?250

million. An RAF Sea 17 aircraft landed yesterday with equipment to

help aid workers get too hard to reach areas. HMS Illustrious is on

its way and due to arrive next weekend. The British public have

once again dipped into their pockets and given generously. They have

given more than ?30 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee.

The International Development Secretary, Justine Greening, joins

me now for the Sunday Interview Good morning, Secretary of State.

How much of the ?50 million that the government has allocated has got

through so far? All of it has landed on the ground now. HMS Daring has

turned up, that will be able to start getting help out to some of

those more outlying islands that have been hard to reach. We have

seen Save the Children and Oxfam really being able to get aid out on

the ground. We have a plane taking off today that will not read just

carrying out more equipment to help clear the roads but will also have

their staff on board, too. We have ?50 million of aid actually on the

ground? We instantly chartered flights directly from Dubai where we

have preprepared human Terry and supplies, and started humanity work

-- humanitarian supplies. A lot of it has now arrived. I think

we have done a huge amount so far. We have gone beyond just providing

humanitarian supplies, to getting the Royal Air Force involved. They

have helped us to get equipment out there quickly. We have HMS

Illustrious sailing over there now. Why has that taken so long? It was

based in the Gulf and is not going to get there until two weeks after

the storm first hit and that is the one ship we have with lots of

helicopters. The first decision we took was to make sure we could get

the fastest vessel out there that was able to help HMS Daring. HMS

Illustrious was just finishing an exercise and planning to start to

head back towards the UK. We have said to not do that, and diverted

it. Shouldn't it have happened more quickly? We took the decisions as

fast as we were able to, you can't just turn a big warship around like

the HMS Illustrious. We made sure we took those decisions and that is

while it will be taking over from HMS Daring come and that is why HMS

Daring is ready there. It will be able to provide key support and

expertise that has not been there so far. The US Navy is doing the heavy

lifting here. The US Navy had the USS Washington, there is an aircraft

carrier, 80 planes, 5000 personnel and they have the fleet, they are

doing the real work. We obviously helping but the Americans are taking

the lead. It is a big international effort. Countries like the US and

the UK, that have a broader ability to support that goes beyond simply

call humanitarian supplies -- have made sure we have brought our

logistics knowledge, we have sent out our naval vessels. It shows we

are working across government to respond to this crisis. Why does

only just over 4% of your aid budget go on emergency disaster and

response? A lot depends on what crises hit in any given year. We

have done a huge amount, responding to the crisis in Syria, the conflict

there and the fact we have 2 million refugees who have fled the country.

We are part of an international effort in supporting them. Shouldn't

we beginning more money to that rather than some of the other

programmes where it is harder to see the results question of if we were

to give more money to the refugees, it would be a visible result. We

could see an improvement in the lives of children, men and women.

What we need to do is alongside that is stop those situations from

happening in the first place. A lot of our development spend is helping

countries to stay stable. Look at some of the work we are doing in

Somalia, much more sensible. Not just from an immigration but there

is a threat perspective. There is a lot of terrorism coming from

Somalia. You only have to look at Kenya recently to see that. Which is

why you talk about what we do with the rest of the spend. It is why it

is responsible to work with the government of Somalia. Should we

give more, bigger part of the budget to disaster relief or not? I think

we get it about right, we have to be flexible and we are. This Philippine

relief is on top of the work in Syria. Where can you show me a

correlation between us giving aid to some failed nation, or nearly failed

nation, and that cutting down on terrorism? If you look at the work

we have done in Pakistan, a huge amount of work. Some of it

short-term. It is written by terrorism. That is -- ridden by

terrorism. That is not going to fix it self in a sense. Look at the work

that we do in investing in education. The things that little

girls like Malala talk about as being absolutely key. We are ramping

up our aid to Pakistan, it will be close to half ?1 billion by the time

of the election. Why should British taxpayers be giving half ?1 billion

to a country where only 0.5% of people in Pakistan pay income tax,

and 70% of their own MPs don't pay income tax. It is a good point and

that is why we have been working with their tax revenue authority to

help them increase that and push forward the tax reform. You are

right, and I have setup a team that will go out and work with many of

these countries so they can raise their own revenues. You really think

you will raise the amount of tax by sending out the British HRM see How

many troops I we sending out to protect them? They don't need

troops. We make sure that we have a duty of care alongside our staff,

but we have to respond to any crisis like the Philippines, and alongside

other countries we have two work alongside them so that they can

reinvest in their own public services. If they can create their

own taxes, will we stop paying aid? We need to look at that but the new

Pakistan Government has been very clear it is a priority and we will

be helping them in pursuing that. Let me show you a picture. Who are

these young women? I don't know I'm sure you are about to tell me. They

are the Ethiopian Spice Girls and I'm surprised you don't know because

they have only managed to become so famous because your department has

financed them to the tune of ?4 million. All of the work we do with

women on the ground, making sure they have a voice in their local

communities, making sure they have some control over what happens to

their own bodies in terms of tackling FGM, female genital

mutilation... Did you know your department has spent ?4 million on

the Ethiopian Spice Girls? Yes, I do, and we have to work with girls

and show them there is a life ahead of them with opportunity and

potential that goes beyond what many of them will experience, which

includes early and forced marriage. It is part of the work we do with

local communities to change attitudes everything you have just

said is immeasurable, and they broadcast on a radio station that

doesn't reach most of the country so it cannot have the impact. It only

reaches 20 million people and the project has been condemned saying

there were serious inefficiencies. That aid report was done a while ago

now, and it was talking about the project when it first got going and

a lot of improvements have happened since. I would go back to the point

that we are working in very difficult environments where we are

trying to get longer term change on the ground and that means working

directly with communities but also investing for the long-term,

investing in some of these girls start changing attitudes in them and

their communities. Why does the British taxpayers spend ?5 million

on a Bangladesh version of Question Time? We work with the BBC to make

sure we can get accountabilities... That is bigger then the BBC Question

Time Normal -- budget. That includes the cost of David Dimbleby's

tattoo! We are working to improve people's prospects but also we are

working to improve their ability to hold their governments to account so

that when they are not getting services on the ground, they have

ways they can raise those concerns with the people who are there to

deliver services for them. In your own personal view, should the next

Conservative Government, if there is one, should you continue to ring

fence spending on foreign aid? But it is critical that if we are going

to spend 7.7% of our national income, we should make sure it is in

our national interest and that means having a clear approach to

humanitarian responses, in keeping the country safe, and a clearer

approach on helping drive economic development and jobs so there is a

long-term end of the dependency Do you believe in an shrine in the

percentage of our GDP that goes on foreign aid in law? Yes, and that is

a coalition agreement. There have been a lot of agreements that you

are sceptical about ring fencing. We are focused on shaking up the

economy and improving our public finances. Why haven't you done that?

At the end of the day we will be accountable but we are committed to

doing that. You are running out of time, will you do it? I hope we can

find the Parliamentary time, but even if we don't, we have acted as

if that law is in place and we have already met 0.7% commitment. If you

are British voter that doesn't believe that we should enshrine that

in by law, which means that with a growing economy foreign aid will

rise by definition, and if you think we should be spending less money on

the Ethiopian Spice Girls, for whom should you wrote in the next

election? I think we have a very sensible approach. I don't know what

the various party manifestoes.. The only party who thinks we shouldn't

be doing this is UKIP. I think you have to look at the response to both

the Philippines crisis and Children In Need. Of all the steps we are

taking to get the country back on track, it shows the British people

will respond to need when they need it and it is one of the things that

makes Britain's special. Thank you. "It's always winter but

never Christmas" - that's how doctors describe life inside

accident and emergency. The College of Emergency Medicine have warned

that this year could bring the "worst crisis on record". If that

dire prediction comes, expect a spring of political recriminations,

but how prepared are the NHS in England? And what do they make of

this autumnal speculation? Giles has been to Leeds to find out.

This winter has already come to our hospitals. It had an official start

date, November the 3rd. That is when weekly updates are delivered to the

NHS's most senior planners, alerting them to any sudden changes in

patient numbers coming in. Where do they numbers register most then

A They are the barometer for what is going on everywhere else, and

they are the pressure point, so if the system is beginning to struggle

then it is in the A department that we see the problems. It is not

that the problems are the A departments, but they are the place

where it all comes together. Plans to tackle those problems start being

drawn up in May and they look at trends, even taking notice of any

flu epidemics in New Zealand. They also look at the amount of bets But

the weather, economic realities structural reforms, and changes to

the general health of the population, are all factors they

have to consider. We get huge amounts of information through the

winter in order to help the NHS be the best it can be, but we had to

redouble our efforts this year because we expected to be a

difficult winter. We know the NHS is stretched so we are working hard to

be as good as we can be. That means they are looking at winter staffing

levels, plans to ask for help from neighbouring hospitals, and

dovetailing help with GP surgeries, and still having the ability to move

up an extra gear, a rehearsed emergency plan if the NHS had to

face a major disease pandemic. You spend any time in any of our

hospitals and you realise the NHS knows that winter is coming and they

are making plans, but you also get a palpable feeling amongst health

workers across the entire system that they do get fed up of being

used as a political football. Doctors and all health care

professionals are frustrated about the politics that surrounds the NHS

in health care. They go to work to treat patients as best as they can,

and the political knock-about does not help anyone. I find it

frustrating when there is a commentary that suggests the NHS

does not planned, when it is surprised by winter, and wherever

that comes from it is hard to take, knowing how much we do nationally

and how much our hard working front line staff are doing. When the

Coalition have recently tried to open up the NHS to be a more

independent body, it is clear the NHS feel they have had an unhealthy

dose of political wrangling between parties on policy. The NHS is not

infallible or making any guarantees, but they seem confident that they

and their patients can survive the winter.

Joining me now from Salford in the Shadow Health Secretary, Andy

Burnham. Tell me this, if you were health secretary now, you just took

over in an emergency election, what would you do to avoid another winter

crisis? I would immediately halt the closure of NHS walk-in centres. We

heard this week that around one in four walk-in centres are closed so

it makes no sense whatsoever for the Government to allow the continued

closure of them. I would put nurses back on the end of phones and

restore an NHS direct style service. The new 111 service is not in a

position to provide help to people this winter. I think the time has

come to rethink how the NHS care is particularly for older people so I

propose the full integration of health and social care. It cannot

make any sense any more to have this approach where we cut social care

and let elderly people drift to hospitals in greater numbers. We

have two rethink it as a whole service. So you would repeal some of

the Tory reforms and move commissioning to local authorities

so the NHS should brace itself for another major top-down health

reorganisation? No, unlike Andrew Lansley I will work with the

organisations ie inherit. He could work with primary care trusts but he

turned it upside down when it needed stability. I will not do that but I

will repeal the health and social care act because last week we heard

that hospitals and health services cannot get on and make sensible

merger collaborations because of this nonsense now that the NHS is

bound by competition law. Let me get your views on a number of ideas that

have been floated either by the press or the Coalition. We haven't

got much time. Do you welcome the plan to bring back named GPs for

over 75s? Yes, but it has got harder to get the GP appointment under this

Government because David Cameron scrapped the 48-hour guarantee that

Tony Blair brought in. He was challenged in the 2005 election

about the difficulty of getting a GP appointment, and Tony Blair brought

in the commitment that people should be able to get that within 48

hours. That has now been scrapped. Do you welcome the idea of allowing

everyone to choose their own GP surgery even if it is not in our

traditional catchment area? I proposed that just before the last

election, so yes. Do you welcome the idea of how a practice is being

rated being a matter of public record, and of us knowing how much,

at least from the NHS, our GP earns? Of course, every political party

supports transparency in the NHS. More information for the public of

that kind is a good thing. Do you welcome this plan to make it will

form the collect in an NHS hospital -- make wilful neglect a criminal

offence. It is important to say you can't pick and mix these

recommendations, you can't say we will have that one and not the

others. It was a balanced package that Sir Robert Francis put forward.

My message is that it must be permitted in full. If we are to

learn the lessons, the whole package must be addressed, and that includes

safe staffing levels across the NHS. Staff have a responsible to two

patients at the government also has responsible at T2 NHS staff and it

should not let them work in understaffed, unsafe conditions -- a

responsibility to NHS staff. Is there a part of the 2004 agreements

that you regret and should be undone? A lot of myths have been

built up about the contract. When it came in, there was a huge shortage

of GPs across the country. Some communities struggle to recruit.

This myth that the government have built, that the 2004 GP contract is

responsible for the AM decries is, it is spin of the worst possible

kind -- the A crisis. You would redo that contract? It was redone

under our time in government and change to make it better value for

money. GPs should be focused on improving the health of their

patients and that is a very good principle. Not so great if you can't

get 24-hour access. I agree with that. We brought in evening and

weekend opening for GPs. That is another thing that has gone in

reverse under Mr Cameron. It is much harder to get a GP appointment under

him and that is one of the reasons why A is an oppressor. -- under

pressure. What do you make of the review into intimidatory tactics by

unions? If there has been intimidation, it is unacceptable,

and that should apply to unions as well as employers. Was Unite wrong

to turn up and demonstrate? I don't know the details, this review will

look into that presumably. I need reassurance that this is not a

pretty cool call by Mr Cameron on the designed to appear near the

election -- that this is not a political call. Are you sponsored by

unite? No. Do you get any money from Unite? No. What have you done wrong?

It seems others are getting money from Unite. Can I tell you what I

think is the scandal of British party political funding, two health

care companies have given ?1.5 million in donations to the Tory

party, they have ?1.5 billion in NHS contracts. I wonder why you don't

spend much time talking about that and obsess over trade union funding.

We are happy to talk about that. We see from e-mails that Mr Miliband's

closest advisers regard Mr Ed Balls as a bit of a nightmare, do you see

a bit of a nightmare about him as well? I don't at all, he is a very

good friend. I can't believe that you are talking about those e-mails

on a national political programme. My goodness, you obviously scraping

the barrel today. I have been in front-line labour politics for 20

years. I can't remember the front bench and the wider party being as

united as it is today and it is a great credit to Ed Miliband and Ed

Balls. We are going into a general election and we are going to get rid

of a pretty disastrous coalition government. It was worth spending a

few seconds to establish your not having nightmares. Thank you for

joining me. It's just gone 11:30am. You're

watching the Sunday Politics. Coming up in just over 20 minutes, I'll be

talking to the MP accused of Log onto Sunday Politics South. I am

Peter Henley. Today, paying the Living Wage. It may only be an extra

pound an hour but it may make a huge difference to the poorly paid. More

on that in a moment. Let us meet the two politicians who would be for the

next 20 minutes. Tony Page is the deputy leader of Reading are Council

and George Hollingbery is the Conservative MP for Meon Valley.

There is talk of rebalancing committee funding. You are the

losers on that. We were. He took a reduction for the Home Office but he

has fiddled the figures to discrimination against the urban

areas such as Reading, Slough and Oxford. You are saying this is

politically motivated? Certain authorities felt they should get

more money and we have taken the hit. It is no surprise that others

have seen a reduction whatsoever. That is of some significance. You

got 20% less from the Home Office. We will ask you about that. He has

decided on the criteria that the police use, reported crime and drug

abuse, it is transparent and not fiddled. Just because he cannot get

his head around eight, dated method, that does not mean it is not fatal.

`` get his head around a complicated method that does not mean it is not

fiddled. The reduction we have seen recently is threatened. He is not

here to defend himself, defend him. He is making a rather dim political

County Laois and that if it is true that Oxford, Reading and Slough are

the areas that are being ignored for political reasons, he will be heard

at the political level. It is more likely it is done sensibly. People

are there to make the judgement when the results come through in a few

years. That is the risky takes. There are more people in urban areas

than elsewhere. You sound like you are quite keen on the PCC thing. We

need to bring responsible a tea to a local level, to make sure there is

someone who is accountable. 7% of people knew some thing about police

authorities. There was a statistic on the BBC website the other day

that 30% of people did not know about Police and Crime Commissioner

's. It ignored the fact that there were 62% to did. A lot of the

decisions they have made in the controversy around them is the

reason for that. That is democracy! He is not standing again, so he is

not bothered. He is wreaking havoc on areas like Reading and Slough

where these reductions that we have got to grapple with and the

consequence is he is walking away. What have lashed cosmetics what have

Lush Cosmetics, Barclays and Oxford City Council got in common? They are

paying the Living Wage. This is James who with his

colleagues are among the lowest paid workers at Dorchester Town Council.

Because their employers is dedicated to paying staff a Living Wage, they

are being paid more than the minimum wage. It is only ?1 more a week but

it makes a difference. Every double helps. I would want a little bit

more but you cannot be greedy. The money will go further and it will

help with the bills. With the economy at the moment, it will

help. It is a good initiative. Everybody is struggling at the

moment. With inflation and everything, without pay rises,

everything is much tighter and it is harder to live. The national minimum

wage of ?6 31 is set by the Chancellor. The Living Wage, which

is ?7 85 outside of London, is set independently and based on the cost

of living. Unlike the minimum wage, it is not legally enforceable. Here

is the rub, employers choose to pay the Living Wage on involuntary

basis. He in Dorset, campaigners are trying to convince the county

council to explore the benefits of paying the Living Wage for their

staff and contractors. We are talking about dinner ladies, carers,

the people who are integral the running of our services. There are

very silly as issues at the moment. There are mothers of the community

who are struggling to get by without charities and benefits. We want

everybody to be getting a fair wage for a fair day 's pay. This part of

South Dorset is almost entirely dependent on its tourist industry.

Two hotels have recently gone into administration. Can local employers

afford to pay the Living Wage? The minimum wage is too low but unless

the Living Wage is enforced by the government and it is a level playing

field, it will not happen. We have a lot of tourism jobs on the beach and

in the hotels and restaurants and then in the winter a lot of those

people are unemployed again. The average wage is a lot lower against

the country. We have an average wage here of 18,000. If you take the top

10% off, that drops dramatically. The Living Wage is essential for low

earners but unless it is enforced, it will not happen. What about the

biggest employers? Can Dorset County Council afford to pay the Living

Wage given the huge cuts to local authority funding? In the next three

years, we need to find ?43 million on top of the 60 million we have

already found. That is a lot of money, 30% of our Budget. We are

very labour`intensive hit, like in any authority, so we have to keep a

close watch on how pay costs. So you support the idea in principle of the

lowest paid being paid a Living Wage but you cannot afford it? You can

argue the time has come but you need to see what the pros and cons are

before you make a decision. So neither ruled in or out. It was

referred to another council committee for further

consideration. Meanwhile, the authorities nearby save they are

happy to continue paying for the scheme. We are happy we have the

money to meet the bill and we think it is the right and proper thing to

do for the lowest paid staff. They get more money, it is a simple as

that. They deserve to be able to take home enough money without

having to claim benefits. That is what we are about. The Living Wage

campaign is backed by all of the major parties will stop even the

Prime Minister says it is an idea whose time has come. If Dorset juice

to pay a Living Wage, they may have to dig deep to find it.

As James said, it every little helps. Brighton city council

established a Living Wage commission back in 2011.

Bill Randall was the leader of the Green Party and he joins us now.

What difference has it made? It has made a difference to begin

with for about 350 of our employees who are now paid a Living Wage. It

was a priority for us, it was a manifesto commitment to do it and we

found the money when he came in. They were they work harder `` do

they work harder? If you pay the Living Wage, you get less sickness,

less of a staff turnover and you get a better turn up from your staff. It

is about fairness, that is the bottom line. We have not stopped

just with the City Council. We set up a commission, chaired by the

chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. She is now leading the

work on it through the Chamber of Commerce. It is the only two

business to business Living Wage campaign in Britain and about an

hundred and five companies in the city have no signed up for it. ``

have now signed up for it. Many of the companies in the country are in

Brighton and Hove. So it is a success. I understand the idea of a

level playing field, ensuring that employees do it as well as the

council. Is there not blackmail ? There is no coercion. As I say, the

Chamber of Commerce is doing it, so it is business to business. You

mention that report, how can they see the increased productivity in a

hotel? You any have a certain number of runs, you can only set a certain

number. They may not necessarily change the beds any quicker. I can

only refer you to their report. They are convinced of the worth of this.

I cannot say for sure that employers are working harder. I say that all

of our staff are working hard in difficult times. There is that

question of fairness. There is a difference between the Living Wage

and the minimum wage. Brighton generally is a low`wage city. At

least 50... It is a question of fairness, and I'm pleased with it. A

good idea, how about raising the minimum wage? The minimum wage is

about at the level it should be given the difficulties of

captivating it and `` of calculating it and the economic climate. If they

want to encourage local businesses to take part in the scheme, I can

see no reason not to do that at all. It seems that if we can afford to

pay a Living Wage, then we should try and do so. The recovery is very

delicate at the moment and we need to be extraordinarily careful about

how we push this forward. The voluntary way forward is the right

way. It is not legally enforceable, that is what you are trying to say.

Reading council has had a low paid policy for the last 25 years.

Although we are not formally accredited as a Living Wage

authority, we already pay more than the Living Wage, never mind the

minimum wage. We are committed to using all legal procurement

mechanisms to push that through into the supply chain. Bill will

understand that it is a legal minefield out there. We as local

authorities inherited policies from the Thatcher`era. I'm picking a lot

of that is still a minefield. We are still committed to go as far as we

can. George's point is fine. If our expert edge was not capped by

central government... `` our expenditure. We may return to that

question! Would you rather see a minimum wage or higher? The other

side is that you do raise more money through tax and reduction of

benefits. At the moment, employers are supported and subsidised through

the taxation and benefit system. I would rather see the money go

straight to the people who work for them. That is a really good point

and I add saluki get that. The interesting `` I absolutely get

that. The interesting thing is they have to worry about the effect on

the rest of the economy. We had that time of year when councils are

wrestling with their budgets. In many cases, they blaming the reduced

grant from central government. The man controlling the purse strings

for that is the committees and local government secretary, Eric Pickles.

He was speaking at the Oxford Union debating society earlier this week.

Helen Catt went along to the gym. What odds which are saying `` went

along to speak to him. They say they have reduced managers by 14%,

reduced another of councillors. They are saying that this is the time and

they will have to start looking at front line services. where else can

a local authority go? The most important thing is to protect the

front line. Or us what is the point in being a council? You have said

that councils should be looking to their reserves. Oxygen has said that

`` Oxfordshire has said that most of its funds are capped. It is part of

a policy. There are no restrictions on the amount they can raise by a

council tax will stop they would have to have a referendum if they

wanted to increase that. That is a legitimate thing to do. Ultimately,

it is the people of Oxfordshire that should decide, not the county

council. Ultimately, put it to the people. They will not hear a peep

out of me. You back a referendum in Oxfordshire? It is better than

sneaking below the referendum threshold. In North Oxfordshire

recently, there have been for developers who have wanted to build

there. The council has said no, the local people have said no and you

have overturned the decision. How do you square that with the idea of

putting local people in charge? It is straightforward. If there is an

adopted plan, that kind of thing would not happen. I am looking

forward to seeing a general overall plan being adopted between all of

the councils. It is not that they haven't started work on a local

plan. It is in the process the feeling is that they were being

penalised for being a bit slow. They are not being penalised for being

slow, bless them. What it is about is whether or not they have robust

figures that stand up to scrutiny with regard to numbers and size.

After all, I think it was Spiderman's uncle who advised him

with great power comes great responsible to. They to devise the

numbers. Thank you. Eric Pickles quoting Spiderman's

uncle. If there is a limit, there is a limit. Oxfordshire should be

allowed to have the full accountability of setting out a

Budget and then having elections, as we do in Reading. We have annual

election is. That is our mandate. It is petty to have these interfering

rules from central government. Eric Pickles knows full well that the use

of reserves is a one`off. At a time when we have huge pressures coming

down the track, educational expansion, we have to find 60

million for new primary schools. The government has given 19 million

towards a six 2 million capital programme but we are committed to

funding the rest. We will have to borrow money. Borrowing money costs

money. That will come out of our reserves. It is a simpler stick,

knee jerk response from Eric Pickles to suggest we dip into reserves.

Most local authorities have reserves in marked and none have got

sufficient levels to use more than a million or two. Is he right to keep

banging on? The Labour government capped councils. There was no

option. You could only take it to a certain level and now you can. You

can take it through that level. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.

Is he just teasing, saying why would you not hold a referendum? I see no

reason why not. If the council feels a strong reason to raise the limit,

they have to sell it to the people. The history of this is not great. It

has not always gone well for the government. You can convince people

of the need to do more and spend more money. Give us control over the

budgets in totality. Allow us to raise the money, allow us to raise

business rates and then we can control our Budget and then we can

go to election. Eric robs us blind and an expert 's as to justify a

couple of percent increase. Local taxation, race to spend by you. Now

our round`up in 62 seconds. `` 60 seconds.

17,000 jobs and nearly ?1 billion of investment was announced in the

Southampton, Portsmouth city deal. There were complaints that the

merry`go`round does not help the shipyard workers. This is not

mitigation for the job cuts at BAE Systems. That has to be a separate

agreement. Protest against the closure continued through the week,

with calls for work to be returned from Scotland. Meanwhile, one

airline is making a fifth of their workforce redundant and pulling out

of Gatwick. A review of Jimmy Savile's time at local hospitals has

led to 35 new recommendations. It would appear that people had degrees

of knowledge. A father whose son committed suicide after being

bullied on a school bus is calling for better supervision. Meanwhile,

Oxfordshire County Council says that a call to cap school transport will

not lead to school closures. That city deal, the sort of powers

that you called forebear. It is being offered in the case of

Portsmouth as some sort of helpful for getting people back to work. The

city deal has been in the building phase and negotiation stage for a

long time. What there is is some new streams of funding to get the ease

the pain. They are retraining some better work on placing long`term

unemployed long people and so on. It is new funding for that. You got the

city deal, are you happy with that? It is focused on training and those

who are not in education, employment or training. We are looking to make

better use of money that is not being spent. We are looking back

from central government departments and pulling it together and

hopefully targeting in a more effective way. Spiderman's uncle was

right, there is a lot going on at local authority level that will make

a difference. Yet to be seen. The ideas are good. Thank you to my

guests. You can keep up`to`date with the politics in the region on my

blog. For now, it is back to Andrew. if we hear more. Thank you. Andrew,

it is back to you. Who'd be an MP? It's a good

question. Certainly something Mark Pritchard must have asked himself

when his picture graced the front page of the Daily Telegraph, with

allegations that he had offered to set up business deals overseas in

return for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Mr Pritchard dismissed the

claims as hurtful and wrong. He referred himself to the

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner who has now said there is

insufficient evidence to investigate. In a moment we'll talk

to Mr Pritchard, but first let's take a look back at how the story

unfurled. A Conservative MP has denied allegations that he used his

Parliamentary contacts for financial gain... The daily Telegraph says

Mark Pritchard offered to broker investments overseas. In a statement

he said the allegations made by the Telegraph are false. Mr Pritchard

was secretly filmed... What do you make of these allegations? He has

referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for

standards to clear his name and I suspect this story will reopen the

debate about what MPs should be allowed, having business interests

elsewhere. Is it not clear that you did ask for money in consultancy

services? First of all I would like to apologise for the sunglasses I

have had a lot of comments about that. On a serious point, these

claims by the Telegraph of false. You didn't ask for ?3000? They are

false, hurtful and malicious. It is known widely that I have sued the

Telegraph previously. I have also been critical of their coverage of

the plebgate affair, their reporting of that. I have been supportive of

the cross-party Royal Charter and I know that some people in the media

don't like my position on that. That is why it is malicious. I believe in

a free press. That free press also has a responsibility to be fair

accurate and lawful. In discussions with this business who turned out to

be a Telegraph reporter, it is true that you ask for ?3000 a month

consultancy fee. The point is.. That is the point. No. That video

has been cut and pasted to serve the Telegraph's story. The story was

that we want to get Mark Bridger, for whatever reason, at any cost. --

Mark Bridger hard. I would not go down the line they were hoping I

would go down. Everything I own outside of Parliament is openly

declared. We are allowed to have outside witness interests. The

Telegraph need to say clearly whether they accept that or they

don't. I think you need to say clearly whether you asked for the

money or not. You then went on to ask for ?300,000 if it was a 10

million deal, you asked for 3% commission. Let me be clear, if I

was asking for income in return for lobbying, or raising issues in

Parliament, or setting up Parliamentary groups, or going to

ministers, writing to ministers that would be completely

inappropriate. I was approached by somebody to advise them on business.

It is entirely proper and entirely within the rules for members of

Parliament to have outside consultancies and interests. Did you

or didn't you? I am answering the question in the way that I want to

answer it, not in the way that fits a particular narrative. The

narrative, unfortunately, of some parts of the Telegraph and to be

fair, there are some very good journalists, I know there is a

dispute about the direction of that paper at senior parts. Do they want

to return to being a Catholic, objective newspaper or do they want

to slip into the slippery slope of being an agnostic rag, looking for

sensationalist headlines? Part of this has come from your membership

of these all-party Parliamentary groups. You were in Malta when you

are first approached, I think you were on a trip there, Hungary is

another one, there is an uncomfortable overlap between your

political and business interests. I have no business interests in any of

those countries. Some of the country is the Telegraph mentioned, let me

be clear, I have not even visited. You were boasting that you knew the

Albanian Prime Minister and the Mayor of Teheran and the previous

prime minister. I make no apology for making foreign trips. I think it

is unfortunate we have a narrative developing in some parts of the

press that if a politician goes abroad at the taxpayers expense it

is wrong. If they go abroad at a host government's expense it is

wrong. If they go abroad with a charity, NGO and private company,

even if it is declared, it is wrong. We want people with an international

perspective in Parliament. Look at this map. You are a member of 5

country groups. I don't know what Canada has done not to deserve you,

or Australia. 54 groups, you are a part of. You're like... This is the

Mark Pritchard British Empire. That is very kind. If I had global

interests that white I would not be in Parliament. No, no, no. That is

the point... It is the suspicion, that you used these groups to drum

up business for your consultants. Prove it, that is the trouble. These

sorts of headlines, create suspicion. I am suing the

Telegraph... Have you issued a writ? I expect an apology. Have you issued

a writ? I have just answered your question. It is yes or no, have you

issued a writ? I am in final legal discussions tomorrow about issuing a

writ. You have raised something for top the fact is that is inaccurate.

I am a member of 40-something Parliamentary groups, of which I

make no apology. We have got 54 Let me answer the question if I may It

would be very useful. There are 196 countries around the world, it is

less than a quarter of the country groups on my figures. I make no

apology. One of my regrets is not having visited Syria, I don't know

if I am a member of the Syria group, part I should become a member, I

make no apology. -- perhaps I should become. When it came to the Syria

vote, I was blind sided foot of yes, we have excellent briefings. I had

to make a judgement based on part knowledge with nothing beats being

on the ground, as even BBC journalists recognised this week.

Nothing beats being on the ground. You posted about your connections in

Albania to getting a business contract. You meet these people

through these all Parliamentary groups. That is where there is an

unhealthy overlap. That is what the Telegraph said, let's wait and see.

Look... You are a newspaperman, you know lots of people in the newspaper

industry, as well as being a respected broadcaster. I am not

going to prejudice my legal proceedings against the Telegraph. I

make no apology. A good politician has to be local am a national and

international. Hang on hang on - has to be local, national and

international. We need politicians who get out of the Westminster

bubble, who have a business hinterland, who keep their foot in

the real world and have an international perspective. And ask

for 3% commission? I have answered the question. It was a cut and

pasted video, photo shopped to suit the agenda of the Telegraph. They

need to get back to serious news reporting and I wish those well at

the senior part of the Telegraph who want to get to those days. We look

forward to the writ. Thank you. Now - there's been more good news on

the economy for George Osborne this week - inflation's down, growth

forecasts have been revised up and unemployment has fallen again. On

Friday the former Bullingdon boy donned a head torch and went down't

pit for just one of many photo opportunities ahead of the Autumn

Statement, which he'll deliver in the Commons on fifth December. And,

who knows, he might even take his hard hat off for that.

# Going underground. # Let the boys all saying and let

the boys all shout for tomorrow # Lah, lah, love, love.

# I talk and talk until my head explodes.

# Make this boy shout, make this boy scream.

# Going underground. # Going underground.

# I'm going underground. # I'm going underground.

George Osborne in his heart out he probably sleeps with it on. This

Autumn Statement is becoming a more important part of the political

calendar for the coalition. It looks like this is where they are finally

going to come up with some kind of response to Ed Miliband's game

changing electricity price freeze. The idea which is mooted is they

will move people's green tax on two general bills which is not an answer

but cosmetically it could have apolitical impact. George Osborne is

receiving a lot of representations from lobby groups, business, MPs on

his own side, for tax cuts and extra bits spending and he has to spend

the next two weeks reminding people of something that has been skewered

by the economic recovery. This country has a fiscal deficit which

is twice that of France, supposedly the crisis economy in western Europe

or if you accept it will take another parliament again to

eliminate this deficit, we are not even halfway through the age of

austerity. He is in no position to give anything away. He has to hold

the line. Danny Alexander has been useful but this is his real

challenge. He is going to give stuff away. When the Autumn Statement

comes away, 15 months from an election, Nick Clegg has been

talking about raising the tax allowance threshold even further,

talk of moving green levies of the electricity bills, he is going to

give stuff away. We will get funding for free school meals that Nick

Clegg mentioned in his party conference. The significance of the

Autumn Statement is twice a year, a Chancellor stands up and we all look

at the state of the economy. If you talk to members of the Chancellor's

circle, it is interesting how nervous they are. They say, don t

assume we are going to have this wonderful growth for ever, don't

assume everything is fine in the eurozone. I think what would help

the Chancellor is if somebody was able to see some of that humility in

public. It is recognised that he was far too triumphalist

speech he made on the 9th of September, when he said to Ed Balls,

we have one and you cannot make an economic policy on the cost of

living -- we have... Won. economic policy on the cost of

people don't seem to learn from Norman Lamont's green shoots. Labour

has moved from complaining there is no growth, now there is, to say

has moved from complaining there is is gross but living standards are

not rising. If the economy grows by nearly 3% next year, even the bank

is saying it will grow by 2.8%, living standards could start to

rise. It does but everybody in a difficult position politically if

the economy starts growing, ironically. We need to remind

ourselves that economy, the natural direction of an economy is to grow.

Unless the politicians screw up Unless you have some idiot in

charge! It is not a cause for the Morris dance that they seem to be

doing, certainly on the Tory side. Osborne is put in a difficult

position goes he will have to stop giving stuff away, he cannot push

the austerity line at the same time as jangling his magical growth - he

will have to start giving stuff away. It puts Labour in a difficult

position, it is very unlikely that living standards will match GDP Not

since 2003, GDP has been a great indicator. Wages have stagnated for

ten years, food has gone up 17% energy has gone up 24%. That is a

decade in which everybody has got poorer. The real sweet spot comes

when wages start to outstrip inflation. It is a sweet spot and

will be a huge challenge for Ed Miliband. As ever on the economy

with a sweet spot, you have a danger moment because that is when the

governor of the Bank of England will have to look at interest rates.

Everything he was saying last week was when we move toward 7%

unemployment come that is not the trigger for raising interest rates,

it is the moment when we look at it. Everything was saying he did not

want to do that. When do you anticipate wages outstripping

inflation? It hasn't happened for so long. The second half of next year.

Wages and prices are not the sole measure of living standards, there

are broader measures which no one seems willing to use.

That's all for today. The Daily Politics will be back at tomorrow at

midday on BBC Two and I will back here on BBC One at 11:00am next

week. Remember if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics.

I'm Nigel Slater, a cook. And I'm Adam Henson, a farmer.

all back in touch with where our food really comes from.

You asked me to grow some durum wheat to produce your pasta.