Browse content similar to 23/04/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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It's Sunday afternoon - this is the Sunday Politics. | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
Jeremy Corbyn wants to give everyone in Britain four | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
extra bank holidays - but is the Labour leader up | :00:44. | :00:45. | |
to being Prime Minister if he wins the election in just | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
Theresa May says she wants a stronger hand to deliver Brexit - | :00:49. | :00:54. | |
how will the Conservatives go about getting the bigger | :00:55. | :00:56. | |
I'll be asking Party Chairman, Patrick McLoughlin. | :00:57. | :01:03. | |
And I've been in Paris where voters are going to the polls in first | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
round of the French Presidential election - what could be the impact | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
In the South... unpredictable of contests? | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
What are the issues that will sway your vote? | :01:15. | :01:16. | |
Will it be housing, the NHS, transport - | :01:17. | :01:18. | |
Or feel they may not like it but the Tories | :01:19. | :01:26. | |
And with me has always ready for the marathon task of covering a snap | :01:27. | :01:41. | |
general election, even working on bank holidays, the best and | :01:42. | :01:45. | |
brightest political panel in the business. David Wooding, Polly | :01:46. | :01:45. | |
Toynbee and Toby Young. So Labour's big announcement this | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
morning was a crowd pleaser. Four more rainy bank | :01:50. | :01:51. | |
holidays to enjoy - one for each of the patron saints | :01:52. | :01:53. | |
of England, Scotland, But Mr Corbyn probably won't be | :01:54. | :01:56. | |
getting the time off work if he wins And on The Andrew Marr Show this | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
morning he was asked what he would do as Prime Minister | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
if the security services asked him to authorise a drone strike | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
on the leader of Islamic State. What I'd tell them is, | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
give me the information you've got, tell me how accurate that is, | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
tell me what you I'm asking you about decisions you | :02:17. | :02:18. | |
would take as Prime Minister. Can I take you back | :02:19. | :02:28. | |
to the whole point? Is the objective | :02:29. | :02:30. | |
to start more strikes that may kill many innocent | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
people, as has happened? Do you think killing | :02:35. | :02:36. | |
the leader of Isis would be I think the leader of Isis not | :02:37. | :02:38. | |
being around would be helpful, and I'm no supporter or defender | :02:39. | :02:47. | |
in any way of Isis. But I would also argue that | :02:48. | :02:49. | |
the bombing campaign has killed a of whom were virtually prisoners of | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
Isis. So you've got to think | :02:55. | :02:57. | |
about these things. Mr Corbyn earlier. David, is his | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
reply refreshing damaging? It is damaging. He has clearly been | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
freaked to the fire already in the first week, there will be lots of | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
questions on his suitability as a leader and the damage it could cause | :03:13. | :03:15. | |
to our national security over the weeks ahead and Andrew Marr has cut | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
straight to the chase here. The other thing, of course, is the | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
letters of last resort, one of the first duties of a Prime Minister | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
when he walks into No 10 is to sign these letters on his own, on or -- | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
or on her own in a room, a very lonely moment, to decide whether he | :03:33. | :03:35. | |
should press the nuclear button and that goes in the Vanguard submarines | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
and is opened in the event of a strike and he has dodged a question | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
so many times. One must wonder what he would do that. He has to make | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
these decisions as Prime Minister. On the Isis point, refreshing or | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
damaging? It sure is his base, the people who support him, that's the | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
sort of thing they support info and maybe his tactic is that's all he's | :03:58. | :04:00. | |
going to get, that is what the polls seem to suggest, in which case they | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
will be pleased, and say yes, the man is a man for these who doesn't | :04:05. | :04:07. | |
press buttons and shoot people down. But if you want to win you have to | :04:08. | :04:14. | |
deal with your own weaknesses and reach out to other people. I think | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
most people would say that's not somebody who could defend the | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
country. I wonder if he was being totally honest in saying he would | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
consider it he would ask for more information. He has previously been | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
on the record as being against drone strikes in principle, he's | :04:32. | :04:34. | |
campaigned against them, he wants to abolish drones. I think Andrew Marr | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
let him off saying it was a drone strike rather than a Navy SEAL or | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
SAS operation and he had the fact that they could be collateral | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
damage. We that's not his position because he condemned the | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
assassination of Osama Bin Laden even though there was no collateral | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
damage. David is right on the Trident point, he fetched the | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
question. We heard Niall Griffiths on this very show saying Trident, | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
the renewal of Trident, would be in the next Labour Party manifesto. It | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
turns out now we don't know and when he was asked he said that remains to | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
be seen, his re-opened a can of worms. What he has said about | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
Trident which was extraordinary was, we will rebuild the submarines but | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
not have any nukes on them which is expensive and useless. And of course | :05:20. | :05:22. | |
the Labour Party were forced soon after that interview to put out a | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
statement saying it is Labour Party policy to renew Trident. So where | :05:26. | :05:31. | |
are we? Do we know what the party's policy is? It is to renew Trident | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
but he has started this review which involves looking at it all again. We | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
know he is a unilateralist to start with but whether he can force this | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
through is dubious. Does it matter, though, if the party policy is in | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
favour of Trident, if the leader is not? The potential Prime Minister is | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
not? They split three ways when they went to vote on it in the Commons. | :05:55. | :05:57. | |
The party agreed they were pro-Trident and when it came to the | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
vote they split three ways. I think it's difficult for them, it's always | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
been a really difficult issue for Labour. The question is whether you | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
want to seal off your negatives, whether you really want to try and | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
reach out to people. There are an awful lot of people who will like | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
what he said, there are an awful lot of people that think we have been | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
involved in terrible wars, we have wasted a lot of money and blood and | :06:23. | :06:25. | |
let's just get back from the whole thing, let's retreat from the world | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
and not try punching above our weight. There is something to be | :06:32. | :06:34. | |
said for that and it is a reasonable argument. He's been true to himself | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
on this. I think he is and Polly is right, lots of people will agree | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
with him, not enough to win a general election, the latest ComRes | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
poll shows Tories on 50% and Labour on 25 and as my colleague James | :06:47. | :06:49. | |
Forsyth in the Spectator said if this was a boxing match it would | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
have been stopped by now by the revelry. We are not stopping, we are | :06:54. | :06:54. | |
going on. So the political parties have had | :06:55. | :06:56. | |
to move into election mode Stand by for battle buses, | :06:57. | :06:58. | |
mail shots and your social media timeline being bombarded | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
by political propoganda. But none of this comes cheap - | :07:03. | :07:03. | |
Adam's been doing his sums. Democracy is priceless but those | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
planes, trains and automobiles used in the last election cost money | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
and we know exactly how much, thanks to the Electoral | :07:15. | :07:16. | |
Commission database. The Conservatives flew David Cameron | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
to every part of the UK in one day on a private plane costing ?29,000, | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
in-flight meals extra. They shelled out ?1.2 million | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
for adverts on Facebook. The most expensive item was their | :07:33. | :07:38. | |
election guru Lynton Crosby. They bought ?2.4 million worth | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
of advice and research from his firm Labour's biggest expenditure | :07:43. | :07:45. | |
was on good old-fashioned leaflets, costing ?7.4 million | :07:46. | :07:51. | |
to print and deliver. Hope they didn't go straight | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
into the recycling. Cheap for all the | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
enjoyment it gave us. To turn a normal minibus | :08:00. | :08:08. | |
into Harriet Harman's pink bus Nick Clegg toured the country doing | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
all manner of stunts transported although the party got a grand's | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
discount when it broke down. Ukip's then leader Nigel Farage | :08:18. | :08:30. | |
was accompanied by bodyguards Nicola Sturgeon's chopper | :08:31. | :08:32. | |
cost the SNP ?35,450. Plaid Cymru spent just over | :08:33. | :08:41. | |
?1,000 on media training And the Greens spent ?6,912 | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
promoting their tweets. It adds up to a grand total | :08:46. | :08:59. | |
for all the parties of ?37,560,039. Jabbing at my calculator that works | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
out at less than ?1 per voter. Adam Fleming there - | :09:04. | :09:09. | |
and joining me now is the man responsible for the Conservative | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
election campaigns - for the locals next month | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
and the general election in June - Welcome to the programme. The Crown | :09:19. | :09:26. | |
Prosecution Service is reviewing evidence from 14 police forces that | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
your party breached election spending rules on multiple occasions | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
in the last election. What are you going to do differently this time? | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
Well, the battle buses are part of the National campaign spend. You saw | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
them just on the shot that you did, all three parties had those battle | :09:47. | :09:49. | |
buses so that's why we believe they were part of the national spend and | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
it was declared that way. At least 30 people in your party, MPs and | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
agents, being investigated because they may not have been right to | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
include it in the national spend. Are you saying you are going to do | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
nothing differently this time? You asked me about last time and the way | :10:04. | :10:11. | |
the position is... Was. I asked you about this time. We will take a | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
careful count and make sure that everything that we do is within the | :10:16. | :10:21. | |
law. But as I say, the last election, all three parties had | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
battle buses. It is your party that above all has been investigated by | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
14 police forces. You must surely be taking stock of that and working out | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
how to do some things differently. You are being investigated because | :10:36. | :10:38. | |
you put stuff on the National Ledger which should have been on the local | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
constituency ledger. Are you looking at that again? All of the parties | :10:44. | :10:46. | |
had battle buses and they all put them on their national spend. I | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
don't think any of the parties put them on the local spend. The other | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
battle buses were not full of their party activists. Your party stuffed | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
these battle buses with activists and took them to constituencies. | :10:59. | :11:04. | |
That's the difference. And I ask again, what is different this time? | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
Are you going to run the risk of being investigated yet again? We | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
believe that we fully compliant with the electoral law as it was. What | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
will happen if one of these, or two or three or four or five of these 30 | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
people, Tory MPs, or agents running campaigns are charged during the | :11:23. | :11:28. | |
campaign? As I say I believe we properly declared our election | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
expenses. What happens if they are charged? You asking me a | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
hypothetical question, the importance of this election is about | :11:36. | :11:38. | |
who is in Downing Street in seven weeks' time. Let me clarify this, | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
you maintain that in 2015 you did nothing wrong with how you allocated | :11:44. | :11:46. | |
the cost and the activities of the battle buses and you would do | :11:47. | :11:49. | |
exactly the same this time round? What we did at the last election we | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
believe fully complied with the law. So the battle buses this time, | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
stocked full of activists, will still be charged to the national | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
campaign even when they go to local constituencies? Will they? We will | :12:04. | :12:11. | |
be looking at the way we do it, there is new guidance from the | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
Electoral Commission out and we will look at that guidance. It is not the | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
guidance, it is the lawful stop the Electoral Commission said that, if | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
you look at the report they did on us, they said there was one area | :12:24. | :12:26. | |
where we had over claimed, over declared, and another area we had | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
and declared. We haven't worked out what to do | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
yet, have you? We will get on with the campaign and | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
start the campaign and I'm looking forward to the campaign. | :12:38. | :12:39. | |
I'm trying to work out of the campaign is going to be legal or not | :12:40. | :12:42. | |
because last time it seems it could have been illegal. | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
I am sure the campaign will be legal. | :12:47. | :12:48. | |
You started the campaign warning about the prospect of, the coalition | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
of chaos. Mr Corbyn has ruled out a post-election coalition with the SNP | :12:54. | :13:01. | |
and so have the Lib Dems so who is going to be in this coalition? | :13:02. | :13:03. | |
Vince Cable said he was looking towards a possible coalition trying | :13:04. | :13:05. | |
to stop a Conservative government. Is not the leader of the Lib Dems. | :13:06. | :13:08. | |
He's an important voice in the Lib Dems. Who will be in it? Let's see | :13:09. | :13:15. | |
because of the Conservative Party is not re-elected with a strong | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
majority, what will happen? There will be a coalition stopping us | :13:19. | :13:21. | |
doing the things we need to do. Who will be in it? It will be a | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
coalition of the Labour Party, the SNP and the Liberal party. They have | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
ruled it out. I think they would not rule it out if that was the | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
situation. Like Theresa May not ruling out an election and then | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
changing her mind? The things the Prime Minister said were very clear, | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
once she had served Article 50 there was an opportunity, as we know | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
today, there is going to be the start of a new government formed in | :13:46. | :13:49. | |
France and in September we have the German elections. So it was quite | :13:50. | :13:52. | |
right that we didn't get ourselves boxed into a timetable. That is why | :13:53. | :13:58. | |
the Prime Minister took the view that they should be a general | :13:59. | :14:01. | |
election to give her full strength of an electoral mandate when it | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
comes to those negotiations. What about Mr Corbyn's plan for four new | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
bank holidays, good idea? I'm not... If we get Corbyn in No 10 Downing St | :14:13. | :14:15. | |
we will have a permanent bank holiday of the United Kingdom. We | :14:16. | :14:21. | |
will have fewer bank holidays of most other major nations, most about | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
major wealthy nations. What about at least one more? Well, look, he's | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
talked about four bank holidays. Today would be a bank holiday and | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
next Monday would be a bank holiday and the other week was a bank | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
holiday too. I don't think it's very well thought out. It sounded more to | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
me something like you get in school mock elections rather than proper | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
elections. Your party is the self-styled party of the workers and | :14:48. | :14:50. | |
you have no plans to give the workers even one extra bank holiday? | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
What we want to do is ensure Britain is a strong economy and building on | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
the jobs that we have created since 2010. We were told that by reducing | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
public expenditure unemployment in this country would go up, | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
unemployment has gone down and the number of jobs have gone up | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
substantially. But no more bank holidays? Well, we will make our | :15:14. | :15:16. | |
manifesto in due course but I don't think four bank holidays held in | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
April, March and November are very attractive to people. When Ed | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
Miliband as leader of the Labour Party suggested the government | :15:27. | :15:35. | |
should control energy prices by capping them, the Conservatives | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
described that as almost Communist and central planning. Do still take | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
that view? You'll see what we have to say on energy prices. I didn't | :15:44. | :15:47. | |
you about that, I asked you if you take the view... The Prime Minister | :15:48. | :15:51. | |
made a speech at the Conservative Spring conference in which she | :15:52. | :15:54. | |
outlined her dissatisfaction about people who are kept locked on a | :15:55. | :15:57. | |
standard tariff and those are the issues we will address in the next | :15:58. | :16:00. | |
few weeks when the manifesto was published. | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
Would that be an act of communism? You will need to see what we say | :16:06. | :16:11. | |
when we set out the policies. It could be. You could put a Communist | :16:12. | :16:18. | |
act into your manifesto? I don't think you'll find a Communist | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
manifesto in a Conservative manifesto which will be launched... | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
You are planning to control prices? We will address what we think is | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
unfairness in the energy market. Mr Jeremy Corbyn was reluctant this | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
morning to sanction a drone strike. You heard us talking about it | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
earlier against the leader of Islamic State if our intelligence | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
services identified him. What would it achieve? When the Prime Minister | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
gets certain advice in the national interests, she has to act been that. | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
We've seen with Theresa May in her time as Home Secretary and Prime | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
Minister, she's not afraid to take those very difficult decisions. What | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
we say this morning from Jeremy Corbyn was a his tans, a reluctance. | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
I don't think that serves the country well. What would it achieve | :17:05. | :17:11. | |
if we take out the head of Islamic State he's replaced by somebody | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
else. It brings their organisation into difficulties. It undermines | :17:16. | :17:21. | |
their organisation. It shows we'll take every measure to undo an | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
organisation which has organised terrorism in different parts of | :17:26. | :17:28. | |
Europe, the UK. I think it is absolutely right the Prime Minister | :17:29. | :17:31. | |
is prepared to take those kind of measures. Jeremy Corbyn said he | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
wasn't prepared to take that. Because he wasn't sure what it would | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
achieve. The Obama administration launched hundreds of drone strikes | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
in various war zones and we in the west are still under attack on a | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
regular basis. Mr Corbyn's basis was what would it achieve? It would | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
achieve a safer position for the UK overall. The war on terrorists. But | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
the Westminster attack, Paris has just been attacked again? There's | :18:03. | :18:07. | |
been attacks which have been stopped by the intelligence services. We | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
must do all we can to support them. The question was about drone | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
strikes. Whether it is drone strikes or other action, we have to be | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
prepared to act. Let's move on to Brexit. It is the major reason the | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
Prime Minister's called the election? Not the only within but | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
the main reason? It is one of the reasons. Now we start the two-year | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
negotiations and then a year afterwards. Also the way in which | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
certain people said they would try to use in the House of Lords or | :18:38. | :18:40. | |
House of Commons to prevent us making progress. I think you'll put | :18:41. | :18:48. | |
in your manifesto, it is the Government's policy, the Brexit | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
negotiating position will be no more freedom of movement. Leave the | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
single market and no longer under the jurisdiction Europe. You expect | :19:01. | :19:03. | |
every Tory MP to fight on that manifesto. What will you do with Ken | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
Clarke and Anna? They will have fought on their manifesto. They will | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
understand the Prime Minister has the authority of the ballot box | :19:15. | :19:17. | |
behind them. Will they fight the election on these positions? I'm | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
sure they'll fight the election supporting the election of a | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
Conservative Government and it's manifesto will quite clearly set | :19:28. | :19:30. | |
out... You know they're against these positions. Ken Clarke has a | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
prod tradition of expressing a certain view. Overall, the party's | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
manifesto, it is not just individuals like Ken Clarke, it is | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
what happens as far as the House of Lords are concerned, people said | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
they'd use the House of Lords to prevent certain measures. You're the | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
party chairman, will it be possible for people like Ken Clarke to fight | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
this election under the Conservative ticket without sub describing to all | :19:58. | :20:02. | |
-- subscribing to all of these Brexit conditions? Ken Clarke will | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
fight as Conservative candidates. That wasn't my question. I know | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
that. Will they be allowed to fight it on their own ticket and not | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
subscribe to what is in your manifesto? The manifesto will be | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
what the Conservative Party fights the General Election on. There will | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
always be cases where people have had different views on different | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
parts of the manifesto. That will be the guiding principles for the | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
party. Philip Hammond says your election promises in 2015, in your | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
manifesto not to raise taxes tied his hands when it came to managing | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
the economy. Do you agree with him? No. The simple fact is we have to do | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
the best things for the economy. We'll set out in our manifesto in a | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
few weeks' time, what the policies will be for the next Parliament. Can | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
I clarify, you don't agree with your Chancellor? What Philip was saying | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
was some of the areas we wants to address as Chancellor, what the | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
party will do, it will set out all the issues we're fighting on. It | :21:11. | :21:13. | |
will set out clearly the choice we have in this country. That's the | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
important thing. Let me put the question to you again. Philip | :21:18. | :21:22. | |
Hammond said this week your election promise in 2015 not to raise taxes | :21:23. | :21:25. | |
had tied his hands when it came to managing the economy. I ask you, do | :21:26. | :21:31. | |
you agree with him? You said no. Philip expressed his view as to what | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
he would like. What I'm saying is in a few weeks' time we'll set the | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
manifesto which will set the policies, agreed with the the | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
Cabinet. He's Chancellor. Doesn't he determine what the economic part of | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
the manifesto is? We'll talk about that in due course. Will you have a | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
lock on the taxes that you locked in 2015 on income tax, VAT, national | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
insurance? That will be decided. You'll see that when we publish the | :22:00. | :22:06. | |
manifesto in a few weeks' time. Will you rule out the possibility taxes | :22:07. | :22:10. | |
may have to rise under a future Conservative Party? Conservative | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
Government. We've taken four million people out of tax. Now, on average, | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
people are paying ?1200 less tax than they were on the same salaries | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
in 2010. I'm very provide of that. I can assure you, the Conservative | :22:28. | :22:29. | |
Party will want to see taxes reduced. It is the Labour Party | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
which will put up taxes. We have the evidence where this he did so. | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
Council tax went up by over 100%. You haven't reduced the tax burden | :22:40. | :22:45. | |
as a percentage of the GDP is now going to reach its highest level | :22:46. | :22:51. | |
since the mid-180s which was when Conservatives were in power. The tax | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
burden in this country under your Government is rising? We've more | :22:57. | :22:59. | |
people paying taxes which is something, because we've a growing | :23:00. | :23:02. | |
economy and more people... What about the tax band? You said you | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
reduced the tax burden on your own Government's figures is rising? We | :23:08. | :23:13. | |
have reduced the tax burden. The threshold at which people start | :23:14. | :23:17. | |
paying. These are tax rates not the tax burden. It is rising. The tax | :23:18. | :23:23. | |
rates have been reduced. You said tax burden. Perhaps I misspoke. Tax | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
rates have been reduced. We'll leave it there. No doubt we'll speak again | :23:29. | :23:36. | |
between now and June Is France now about to make it | :23:37. | :23:38. | |
a hat-trick of shocks The prospect terrifies | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
the governing elite in Paris. But they're no less scared | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
in Brussels and Berlin, given what it could mean | :23:46. | :23:47. | |
for the whole EU project, never mind the huge potential impact | :23:48. | :23:50. | |
on our own Brexit negotiations. 11 candidates are contesting | :23:51. | :24:09. | |
the first round of the presidential Only the top two will go forward | :24:10. | :24:12. | |
to the run-off on May 7th. For the first time since General De | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
Gaulle created the fifth Republic in 1958, it's perfectly possible that | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
no candidate from the ruling parties of the centre-left or the | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
centre-right will even make it The election has been dominated by | :24:28. | :24:30. | |
the hard right in the shape of the who's never been elected | :24:31. | :24:37. | |
to anything and only started his own party | :24:38. | :24:44. | |
a few months ago. And the far left in the form | :24:45. | :24:46. | |
of Jean-Luc Melenchon, a former Trotskyite who has surged | :24:47. | :24:49. | |
in the final weeks of the campaign. The only candidate left from the | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
traditional governing parties is the centre-right's | :24:54. | :24:56. | |
Francois Fillon and he's been struggling to stay in | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
the race ever since it was revealed that his Welsh wife was being paid | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
at generous public expense for a job I've just come across | :25:03. | :25:08. | |
this magazine cover and it kind of sums up the mood | :25:09. | :25:22. | |
of the French people. It's got the five main candidates | :25:23. | :25:25. | |
for President here but it calls them the biggest liar, the biggest cheat, | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
the biggest traitor, the most paranoid, the biggest demagogue, | :25:30. | :25:32. | |
and it says they are the winners The four leading candidates, | :25:33. | :25:34. | |
Le Pen, Melenchon, Macron and Fillon, or in with a chance | :25:35. | :25:45. | |
of making it to the second round. Only a couple of points separates | :25:46. | :25:48. | |
them in the polls, Frankly, no one has a clue what's | :25:49. | :25:50. | |
going to happen. Of the four, there is a feeling that | :25:51. | :25:57. | |
two of them may be President But the two of them may not find | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
themselves in the second round. Somebody said to me that the man or | :26:03. | :26:15. | |
woman on the Paris Metro has as much a chance of knowing | :26:16. | :26:29. | |
who will win as the greatest experts Because the more expert you are | :26:30. | :26:32. | |
the more you may be wrong. The country has largely | :26:33. | :26:39. | |
stagnated for over a decade. One in ten are unemployed, | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
one in four if you are unlucky Like Britain in the '70s there is | :26:45. | :26:47. | |
the pervasive stench There are three keywords that come | :26:48. | :26:51. | |
to mind. Anger, anger at the elite, and in | :26:52. | :26:59. | |
particular the political elite. And an element of | :27:00. | :27:05. | |
nostalgia for the past. These three words were decisive | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
in the Brexit referendum. They are decisive in | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
the French election. Identity and security has been | :27:16. | :27:26. | |
as important in this election France is a proud nation, it worries | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
about its future in Europe It seems bereft of ideas about how | :27:31. | :27:37. | |
to deal with its largely Muslim migrant population, huge chunks of | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
which are increasingly divorced It is quite simply exhausted by | :27:43. | :27:45. | |
the never-ending Islamist terrorist attacks, the latest only days before | :27:46. | :27:56. | |
voting in the iconic heart of this If Fillon or Macron emerge | :27:57. | :27:59. | |
victorious then there will be continuity of sorts, though Fillon | :28:00. | :28:10. | |
will struggle to implement his Thatcherite agenda and Macron will | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
not be able to count on the support of the French parliament, the | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
National Assembly, for his reforms. But if it's Le Pen or Jean-Luc | :28:19. | :28:21. | |
Melenchon then all bets are off. Both are hardline French | :28:22. | :28:27. | |
nationalists, anti the euro, anti the European Union, anti-fiscal | :28:28. | :28:30. | |
discipline, anti the market, Either in the Elysee Palace | :28:31. | :28:33. | |
would represent an existential Brexit would simply become | :28:34. | :28:42. | |
a sideshow, the negotiations could just peter out as Brussels | :28:43. | :28:51. | |
and Berlin had bigger fish to fry. We're joined now from | :28:52. | :28:56. | |
Paris by the journalist 8th Welcome to the programme. | :28:57. | :29:07. | |
Overshadowing the voting today was yet another appalling terrorist | :29:08. | :29:11. | |
attack in Paris on Thursday night. Do we have any indications of how | :29:12. | :29:18. | |
that's playing into the election? That initially people thought this | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
has been almost foiled in that the police were there as a ramp up. One | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
policeman was killed. But the terrorist did not spray the crowd | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
with bullets. It was seen as not having much of an effect on the | :29:32. | :29:37. | |
election. This has changed. We now know the policeman who was killed, a | :29:38. | :29:43. | |
young man about to the promoted, he was at the Bataclan the night of the | :29:44. | :29:48. | |
terror attack. He was a fighter for LGBT rights. The fact he was | :29:49. | :29:55. | |
promoted, happy within his job, he has this fresh face. Sudden, he's | :29:56. | :30:02. | |
one of us. It took perhaps 48 hours for the French to process this. But | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
now they're angry and this may actually change the game, at least | :30:08. | :30:13. | |
at the margins. To whose advantage? I would say the two who might | :30:14. | :30:20. | |
benefit from this are Marine Le Pen, she's been absolutely | :30:21. | :30:24. | |
anti-immigration, anti-anything. And made no bones about it as she | :30:25. | :30:29. | |
immediately made rather strange announcement in which she'd said if | :30:30. | :30:32. | |
she'd been president none of the terror attacks which happened in | :30:33. | :30:36. | |
France would have happened. Francois Fillon has written a book two years | :30:37. | :30:44. | |
ago called Combating Islamic Terrorism he's has an organised plan | :30:45. | :30:48. | |
in his manifesto. Unlike Emmanuel Macron who stumbled when he was | :30:49. | :30:52. | |
asked the evening this happened what he thought, he said, I can't dream | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
up an anti-terror programme overnight. The question, of course, | :30:58. | :31:00. | |
that arrows was this is not the sort of thing that's just happened | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
overnight. It's been unfortunately the fate of France for many years. | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
Let me ask you this finally, what ever the outcome on May 7th in the | :31:11. | :31:15. | |
second round, who ever wins, would it be fair to say French politics | :31:16. | :31:21. | |
will never be the same again? Yes. Absolutely it's a very strange | :31:22. | :31:24. | |
thing. People have no become really excited about this. You cannot go | :31:25. | :31:29. | |
anywhere without people discussing heatedly this election. The anger | :31:30. | :31:33. | |
that was described is very accurate. Very true. There was this feeling as | :31:34. | :31:40. | |
for the Brexit voters and the Trump voters, vast parts of the people | :31:41. | :31:44. | |
were being talked down to by people who despised them. This has to | :31:45. | :31:50. | |
change. If it doesn't change, we cannot predict what the future will | :31:51. | :31:56. | |
be. We'll know the results or at least the ex-the Poll London time | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
tonight at 8.00pm. Thank for joining us from the glorious heart of your | :32:02. | :32:02. | |
city. Now, the Green Party currently has | :32:03. | :32:06. | |
one MP and they'll be contesting many more seats in June | :32:07. | :32:09. | |
as well as hoping to increase their presence on councils in | :32:10. | :32:12. | |
the local elections on 4th May. Launching their campaign | :32:13. | :32:15. | |
on Thursday, co-leader Caroline Lucas made | :32:16. | :32:16. | |
a pitch to younger voters. When it comes to young | :32:17. | :32:18. | |
people they've been But one crucial way they've been | :32:19. | :32:20. | |
betrayed is by what this generation and this government and the previous | :32:21. | :32:25. | |
ones have been doing when it comes We know we had the hottest year | :32:26. | :32:28. | |
on record last year, you know, you almost think what else does | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
the environment need to be doing All the signs are there | :32:34. | :32:36. | |
and it is young people who are going to be bearing | :32:37. | :32:39. | |
the brunt of a wrecked environment and that's why it's so important | :32:40. | :32:42. | |
that when we come to making that pitch to, yes, the country at large | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
but to young people in particular, I think climate change, | :32:47. | :32:49. | |
the environment, looking after our precious resources, | :32:50. | :32:50. | |
has to be up there. And I'm joined now by the Green | :32:51. | :32:55. | |
MEP, Molly Scott Cato. Welcome back to the programme. | :32:56. | :33:10. | |
Promised to scrap university tuition fees, increase NHS funding, rollback | :33:11. | :33:13. | |
cuts to local councils spending, how much would that cost and how would | :33:14. | :33:17. | |
you pay for it? Like the other parties we haven't got a costed | :33:18. | :33:20. | |
manifesto yet, it's only a few days since the election was announced so | :33:21. | :33:23. | |
I will come back and explain the figures. You don't know? Like every | :33:24. | :33:27. | |
party we have not produced accosted manifesto yet, we produced one last | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
time but public spending figures have changed so we're not in a | :33:34. | :33:36. | |
position to do that but we will be in a week or so. What taxes would | :33:37. | :33:41. | |
you like to consider raising? We would consider having higher taxes | :33:42. | :33:45. | |
for the better off in society. I think we need to increase the amount | :33:46. | :33:50. | |
of tax wealthier people pay. How do you define better off? I'm not | :33:51. | :33:53. | |
entirely clear what the precise number would be but I think 100,000 | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
people would pay a bit more, 150,000 quite considerably more but the real | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
focus needs to be on companies avoiding paying taxes. I work on | :34:04. | :34:06. | |
that a lot in my role in the European Parliament, we see an | :34:07. | :34:09. | |
enormous amount of tax avoidance by companies moving profits from | :34:10. | :34:13. | |
country to country and we need European corporation to make that | :34:14. | :34:16. | |
successful. It has not made much difference yet. We have made lots of | :34:17. | :34:22. | |
changes. Google turned over $1 billion and only paid 25 million in | :34:23. | :34:26. | |
taxes last year. There was a significant fine introduced by the | :34:27. | :34:30. | |
competition commission on Apple and in the case of Google we must change | :34:31. | :34:34. | |
the laws so that people cannot move profits from country to country. | :34:35. | :34:40. | |
Everybody wants to do it. But you couldn't face a big spending | :34:41. | :34:43. | |
programme on the ability to do that. You'd have to increase other taxes. | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
If you look at the cost of free student tuition, tuition fees and | :34:48. | :34:50. | |
also maintenance grants to students, that would come in at about 10 | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
billion a year. One way of paying for that would be to remove the | :34:55. | :34:57. | |
upper threshold on National Insurance, bringing in 20 billion a | :34:58. | :35:01. | |
year, that's the order of magnitude we are talking about. It is not | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
vast, and some of the proposals we have... That would be an increase on | :35:06. | :35:09. | |
the better of tax? National Insurance on people earning... | :35:10. | :35:16. | |
People earning above 42,000. You would have another 10% tax above | :35:17. | :35:20. | |
42,000? I can't remember exactly how much the National Insurance rate | :35:21. | :35:26. | |
changes by. But in government figures it would be 28 billion | :35:27. | :35:30. | |
raised. I think it is up to 45, a bit more you pay a marginal rate of | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
40%, you would have them pay a marginal rate of over 50%? We would | :35:35. | :35:38. | |
put the National Insurance rate on higher incomes the same as it is on | :35:39. | :35:43. | |
lower incomes. If you are a school head of an English department on 50, | :35:44. | :35:46. | |
60,000 a year you would face a marginal rate under U of over 50%? | :35:47. | :35:52. | |
It is not useful to do this as a mental maths exercise but if you | :35:53. | :35:57. | |
look at other proposals would could have a landlord licensing system, | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
longer term leases on properties, so young people particularly, but also | :36:02. | :36:04. | |
older people who rent, could have more security which needn't cost | :36:05. | :36:07. | |
anything. We could insist on landlords paying for that. The | :36:08. | :36:12. | |
mental arithmetic seems clear but we will come back to that. How is the | :36:13. | :36:16. | |
Progressive Alliance coming? It is going well, I have heard of a lot of | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
interest at local level. Winterset this in contest, context, lots of | :36:21. | :36:25. | |
progressives are concerned about the crisis in public services, prisons, | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
social care system, and also about the Tories' hard extreme Brexit they | :36:31. | :36:33. | |
are threatening. You want the left to come together? Theresa May has | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
given us opportunity, she has taken a risk because she has problems with | :36:39. | :36:41. | |
backbenchers, she doesn't think she can get through Brexit with a small | :36:42. | :36:45. | |
majority so there is an opportunity and we are saying progressives must | :36:46. | :36:48. | |
come together to corporate, Conservatives are effective at using | :36:49. | :36:51. | |
the first-past-the-post system and we have to become effective as well. | :36:52. | :36:56. | |
Do you accept this Progressive Alliance cannot become the | :36:57. | :36:59. | |
government and Mr Corbyn is the Prime Minister? How could it happen | :37:00. | :37:03. | |
otherwise? I think that is a secondary question. For me the | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
primary question is who do people choose to vote for? Aluminium | :37:08. | :37:10. | |
government afterwards comes after the election. In most countries that | :37:11. | :37:14. | |
is the case. I understand that but we have the system we have and you | :37:15. | :37:17. | |
accept this Progressive Alliance cannot be in power and thus mystical | :37:18. | :37:21. | |
Burmese Prime Minister? Personally I think Mr Corbyn is less of a threat | :37:22. | :37:24. | |
to the country than Theresa May, she has shown herself to be an | :37:25. | :37:27. | |
authoritarian leader and she has said she doesn't want to have | :37:28. | :37:34. | |
dissidents, which I would say is reasonable opposition, and what we | :37:35. | :37:36. | |
are suggesting at the moment is there is a way of avoiding that very | :37:37. | :37:38. | |
hard Brexit and damage to public services. You'd be happy to pay the | :37:39. | :37:41. | |
price of having Mr Corbyn as Prime Minister? I do not see that as a | :37:42. | :37:46. | |
price. People have the choice of Jeremy Corbyn or Theresa May as | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
Prime Minister, that's the system that works. You would prefer Mr | :37:51. | :37:54. | |
Corbyn? I would but votes are translated into seats and the | :37:55. | :37:57. | |
Progressive Alliance is a step towards that. | :37:58. | :37:59. | |
It's just gone 3:50pm, you're watching the Sunday Politics. | :38:00. | :38:01. | |
We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland, Wales | :38:02. | :38:03. | |
and Northern Ireland who leave us now. | :38:04. | :38:05. | |
Coming up here in 20 minutes, the Week Ahead. | :38:06. | :38:15. | |
Welcome to Sunday Politics South - my name's Peter Henley. | :38:16. | :38:17. | |
And you'll not be surprised to hear that we're in election mode this | :38:18. | :38:20. | |
week, and I'm joined by three politicians who'll all be asking | :38:21. | :38:23. | |
for your vote in just under seven weeks time. | :38:24. | :38:25. | |
Layla Moran will be standing for the Liberal Democrats | :38:26. | :38:27. | |
in Oxford West and Abingdon, as she did in 2015. | :38:28. | :38:30. | |
Alan Whitehead will be hoping to once again be the Labour MP | :38:31. | :38:32. | |
for Southampton Test, and Flick Drummond is standing | :38:33. | :38:34. | |
for the Conservatives in Portsmouth South, | :38:35. | :38:37. | |
which she first won for them two years ago. | :38:38. | :38:39. | |
We'll be hearing a lot over the next couple of months | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
about strong leadership, strength of opinion, | :38:45. | :38:46. | |
As it happens there were some experts in Southampton this week... | :38:47. | :38:58. | |
The competition to find the world's strongest man. | :38:59. | :39:09. | |
In politics, of course, it's not just about strength, | :39:10. | :39:14. | |
Do you think strength is important in a politician? | :39:15. | :39:21. | |
Be in the game with your head, make sure you're saying | :39:22. | :39:29. | |
the right things, make sure you have the right back-up. | :39:30. | :39:32. | |
It's about providing the strong and stable | :39:33. | :39:34. | |
It's about strengthening our hand in the negotiations that lie ahead. | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
It's all about strength, it's all about caring as well. | :39:41. | :39:43. | |
You know, the country is so divided between the rich and the poor, | :39:44. | :39:47. | |
You think Jeremy Corbyn is maybe not the stronger but the better person? | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
I know which side I am on, you know which side you're on. | :39:53. | :40:00. | |
What did you think of Theresa May calling an election like this? | :40:01. | :40:03. | |
I think that makes her quite a powerful person, actually, | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
However you voted last June, to vote to have a decent, | :40:08. | :40:14. | |
You have moral strength and you've got to have courage | :40:15. | :40:17. | |
When you make a decision, if it's right, and maybe not everyone | :40:18. | :40:26. | |
will agree with that, but as long as you stick with that. | :40:27. | :40:31. | |
Isn't it extraordinary that the Prime Minister | :40:32. | :40:33. | |
of our country can't even urge his party to support his own position! | :40:34. | :40:40. | |
Whoever would make the toughest Prime Minister, the strength | :40:41. | :40:51. | |
of parties in the south of England is clear. | :40:52. | :40:54. | |
The 2015 election saw conservatives clear out | :40:55. | :41:00. | |
Liberal Democrats in Eastleigh, Portsmouth and Mid Dorset. | :41:01. | :41:04. | |
They also took the Labour seat of Southampton Itchen. | :41:05. | :41:08. | |
And this time two of the South's long established Labour MPs have | :41:09. | :41:10. | |
Fiona McTaggart in Slough and Andrew Smith in Oxford. | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
Both will now have candidates selected by the National | :41:16. | :41:17. | |
Yes, it would have been nicer if local members could be involved. | :41:18. | :41:23. | |
We have received assurances, though, that in the selection process, | :41:24. | :41:28. | |
very close attentions will of course be paid to the calibre and relevant | :41:29. | :41:31. | |
Very close attention will be given to local links. | :41:32. | :41:37. | |
Speaker John Bercow, who previously said he would serve just two terms, | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
Traditionally the Speaker is unopposed, though some voters | :41:42. | :41:47. | |
in Buckingham said they would rather have a contest. | :41:48. | :41:49. | |
It's annoying not having a vote that counts. | :41:50. | :41:52. | |
You can't vote for the other major parties which is the entire point | :41:53. | :41:56. | |
It can be a bit annoying if you have different views to the Speaker, | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
but that's just the way it goes, I suppose. | :42:01. | :42:03. | |
Try to calm down and behave like an adult. | :42:04. | :42:06. | |
Politics can be a bruising business, as well as a test of strength. | :42:07. | :42:10. | |
On the tire flip today, Big Z, four times world champion. | :42:11. | :42:13. | |
Where they know a strong man - or woman - when they see one. | :42:14. | :42:21. | |
Wighton the strong woman. Plainly Theresa May is the strongest leader. | :42:22. | :42:43. | |
It depends what you mean by strength. It's important that you | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
were strong in your convictions, that you were strong in your | :42:49. | :42:49. | |
leadership of Hugh you were leading. leadership of Hugh you were leading. | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
But if also a question of being strong in understanding the other | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
side and making sure that everybody is united together. In going forward | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
and to go about what's you claim is and to go about what's you claim is | :43:03. | :43:12. | |
a test of strength. Whilst on the other hand suggesting that there | :43:13. | :43:15. | |
should be no opposition, but you should just rush head without | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
thinking properly all the consequences of it. That is | :43:21. | :43:22. | |
strength. That is possible strength. That is possible | :43:23. | :43:25. | |
foolhardiness. Possibly even reckless. What do you think? She | :43:26. | :43:32. | |
didn't need to call this election. Does that make her strength or could | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
backfire? I think she has done a very good thing. If you look at what | :43:38. | :43:41. | |
would have been the next General Election, in 2020, with negotiations | :43:42. | :43:51. | |
and 2019, it's really important that we guess, she gets it over and done | :43:52. | :43:55. | |
with by the time of the next General Election, otherwise it would all be | :43:56. | :43:59. | |
blurred into what we put into our next manifesto. She is very clever | :44:00. | :44:07. | |
to do it now and not later. Clever maybe, but what you are suggesting | :44:08. | :44:10. | |
there is the reason she has gone for election is not the one she was | :44:11. | :44:13. | |
giving us. She was saying she was doing this because the country is | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
coming together on Brexit but there is so much parliamentary opposition. | :44:18. | :44:24. | |
I think that is part of it as well. There is a lot of discussion in | :44:25. | :44:29. | |
Parliament. It is holding it back, a lot of the negotiations back from | :44:30. | :44:33. | |
all sides. What she wants to do is really have a strong mandate, which | :44:34. | :44:36. | |
I hope she will do, to take it forward and be able to be that | :44:37. | :44:39. | |
strong leader to go to Europe make sure we get the right Brexit | :44:40. | :44:45. | |
negotiations. That's what people want. Take what forward, that's the | :44:46. | :44:49. | |
question. She is advocating removing us from the single market, which in | :44:50. | :44:53. | |
Oxford and Abingdon will be disastrous for the economy. What | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
does she want us to unite behind? Her definition of united is to shut | :44:59. | :45:03. | |
everyone else up. Public opinion surely is strong on this, as it | :45:04. | :45:06. | |
wants to be strong and representing about. What's your calling for in | :45:07. | :45:11. | |
the Lib Dems, the second referendum, is not what the public want. That's | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
not true. We are hearing that people want to have more say. We have said | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
that the little system in this country is broken. We need | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
proportional representation to engage people more. In something as | :45:26. | :45:29. | |
important as coming out of the EU, the people need to have a say on | :45:30. | :45:33. | |
that final deal. I'm not going to sign a blank cheque to Theresa May | :45:34. | :45:43. | |
in the selection. It isn't going to enhance the position particularly in | :45:44. | :45:47. | |
negotiating with the EU. It certainly will. She will have that | :45:48. | :45:51. | |
extra time to be able to prepare for this to make sure exactly right. | :45:52. | :46:04. | |
Instead of having to do it in 2019, it's really important that she can | :46:05. | :46:08. | |
absolutely straight on the bushy Asians. She's not going to | :46:09. | :46:10. | |
concentrating on another General concentrating on another General | :46:11. | :46:13. | |
Election in 2020. She can literally... -- focusing on the | :46:14. | :46:22. | |
general elections. That's what we want to avoid with the second | :46:23. | :46:26. | |
something that the country is something that the country is | :46:27. | :46:30. | |
supposedly united on. When we voted for Brexit, Brexit is being asked | :46:31. | :46:36. | |
down, but the consequence of Brexit are certainly not done. Nor is the | :46:37. | :46:42. | |
country united on exactly what those consequences are going to be. It is | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
really not strong leadership to simply say, well, I'm going to go | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
with perhaps a small group of my own party, the far right of my party, | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
who want to see us undertaking a Brexit where we cut all ties with | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
everybody, we go off into the world with no trade deals, which actually | :47:03. | :47:08. | |
keep us associated with the EU, that we abandon all sorts of arrangements | :47:09. | :47:13. | |
which were... These are all the things you believe! She's not doing | :47:14. | :47:19. | |
that, she has talked about free trade with Europe. Those are the | :47:20. | :47:24. | |
sorts of things we are going to do. I don't understand where this had | :47:25. | :47:30. | |
Brexit comes from. If you listen to her,... That's what you are putting | :47:31. | :47:38. | |
through people's tourists. She needs a strong mandate but that doesn't | :47:39. | :47:43. | |
this camp of people saying she wants this camp of people saying she wants | :47:44. | :47:47. | |
to have more seats in parliament so she can water it down? Know, so she | :47:48. | :47:55. | |
can get the right Brexit. Free trade with Europe, which she has been very | :47:56. | :47:58. | |
clear on, and free trade with other countries as well. She will have to | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
give up some immigration control them. We have talked about | :48:03. | :48:07. | |
immigration control and the status of EU nationals. This is the point | :48:08. | :48:13. | |
is, we have in Scotland are gushy oceans. Article 50 has only just | :48:14. | :48:17. | |
time to put things in place. She time to put things in place. She | :48:18. | :48:20. | |
will now have longer to do that, she won't have the chance of the General | :48:21. | :48:28. | |
Election turning up in 2020. So this is the wrong time to call an | :48:29. | :48:31. | |
election. Those things could have been done anyway if that's what was | :48:32. | :48:38. | |
going to be the scenario. Before Article 50? Is quite untrue that | :48:39. | :48:41. | |
Parliament was somehow obstructing the process of Brexit, but what | :48:42. | :48:44. | |
an issue is what kind of Brexit it an issue is what kind of Brexit it | :48:45. | :48:48. | |
should be and what is best for Britain. That is not served by just | :48:49. | :48:53. | |
saying, I'm going down a certain direction. The Labour Party is not | :48:54. | :48:59. | |
going to make this any clearer. Our candidates going to say precisely | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
what they want to see? Absolutely. Labour has already said that there | :49:05. | :49:07. | |
are six tests for Brexit in the negotiations are complete. Should be | :49:08. | :49:14. | |
a parliament revote, if those tests had mats, Labour will not vote at | :49:15. | :49:20. | |
that point with... Why he -- that's why she called the election, because | :49:21. | :49:27. | |
of this sort of opposition. She won't be ignoring its because she's | :49:28. | :49:32. | |
not the sort of person. But also, we have had endless discussions | :49:33. | :49:35. | |
constantly holding her back, going forward is a lot with the Lib Dems, | :49:36. | :49:40. | |
the SNP and Labour as well. She really needs this a strong mandate | :49:41. | :49:43. | |
to get the negotiations absolutely right in the best interests of the | :49:44. | :49:48. | |
country. Let's move on a different Brexit because it will just be a | :49:49. | :49:53. | |
Brexit election. Are you going to be arguing other things? Reed of | :49:54. | :49:57. | |
course. An election is about the entire country and what kind of | :49:58. | :50:00. | |
country we want to be on what kind of values. We have some very strong | :50:01. | :50:07. | |
local issues that we wants to hold the Conservatives and the local area | :50:08. | :50:10. | |
to account for, which isn't just about Brexit. But Brexit is the main | :50:11. | :50:16. | |
issue, because what is happening as we are totally distracted in terms | :50:17. | :50:18. | |
debates, from the real issues that debates, from the real issues that | :50:19. | :50:25. | |
are facing this country. At a time when the economy isn't doing great | :50:26. | :50:28. | |
and people are beginning to feel the pinch again. She wants to take us | :50:29. | :50:33. | |
down a career pass down a big mountain. We have no idea what other | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
bottom. It's going to be the big issue of the selection. I'm | :50:38. | :50:40. | |
delighted we are having one so we can start you are what are some of | :50:41. | :50:44. | |
the issues. And then we can talk about the NHS, which is completely | :50:45. | :50:49. | |
underfunded. One of the big promises believe campaign, the ?350 billion | :50:50. | :50:55. | |
for the NHS, where is it? You have just brought it back to the EU | :50:56. | :50:59. | |
again! Because it is the main issue. These are connected to some extent | :51:00. | :51:05. | |
inasmuch as the kind of Brexit that we end up with also means what kind | :51:06. | :51:11. | |
of society we have the future. One of the things that really concerns | :51:12. | :51:16. | |
me about this election is that a lot of the issues, like what kind of | :51:17. | :51:20. | |
national health service we have in the future, what about our | :51:21. | :51:24. | |
children's education, was about things like social care, which is | :51:25. | :51:28. | |
eyes, for the future. Do we have a eyes, for the future. Do we have a | :51:29. | :51:33. | |
society which is inclusive on all those matters or do we have a | :51:34. | :51:36. | |
minimal state where those things don't happen? The danger is those | :51:37. | :51:42. | |
fundamental changes to our society may be smuggled in under the | :51:43. | :51:48. | |
Brexit. The election is about lots Brexit. The election is about lots | :51:49. | :51:55. | |
more than Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn is leading your party. Today have | :51:56. | :51:58. | |
already seen the talk about would he authorise a drone strike. What about | :51:59. | :52:04. | |
your policy on nuclear weapons? How can people trust to Jeremy Corbyn | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
over Theresa May on those issues? Journey is a very honest, decent, | :52:10. | :52:15. | |
caring man. I think on this particular occasion, if he was | :52:16. | :52:18. | |
guilty of anything it was stating guilty of anything it was stating | :52:19. | :52:21. | |
exactly the position that was in front of us, which is the | :52:22. | :52:23. | |
manifestos, because the election was manifestos, because the election was | :52:24. | :52:26. | |
called at a Tuesday's notice, have not yet... He was saying that the | :52:27. | :52:36. | |
manifesto is not yet out but what we do know is that that is already | :52:37. | :52:40. | |
Labour Party policy. That will pretty certainly be in the | :52:41. | :52:44. | |
manifesto. What was being stated is what is Labour Party policy right | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
now, it is about renewal of Trident. That is pretty likely to be in a | :52:50. | :52:52. | |
manifesto but the manifesto is not yet published. That is exactly the | :52:53. | :52:58. | |
position we're in. This is important for defence areas. That they get | :52:59. | :53:04. | |
that sort of answer. But also so is schools funding and your government | :53:05. | :53:08. | |
has had the last couple of years and the money is not going into schools. | :53:09. | :53:11. | |
Parents will be picky about that when they vote as well as the | :53:12. | :53:15. | |
leadership of Brexit. And we have more good schools than we ever have | :53:16. | :53:21. | |
before, particularly in Portsmouth. But the rest schools which might | :53:22. | :53:25. | |
under consultation. School reform under consultation. School reform | :53:26. | :53:31. | |
has been asked for by teachers for a very long time. We are looking at | :53:32. | :53:37. | |
the consultation to make sure no school misses out but in Portsmouth | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
are schools in 2010 and failing schools, we now have two outstanding | :53:43. | :53:45. | |
schools, a good school had lots of other... At the moment, the deficit | :53:46. | :53:53. | |
repayment has shifted up to 2022 when George Osborne wanted it paid | :53:54. | :53:58. | |
by last... The economy is starting to go up, it is growing. The CBI | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
forecast Joseph going out, manufacturing going on. Which we -- | :54:04. | :54:11. | |
would you mind if we lost the triple lock? I hope it would be in the | :54:12. | :54:14. | |
manifesto. It's very clear that pensioners like it. Of course I'm | :54:15. | :54:17. | |
not someone who will be making those decisions. Is going | :54:18. | :54:22. | |
... I don't know what being a manifesto. | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
Now, believe it or not there was some other | :54:28. | :54:29. | |
non-election-related news this week - here's our regular | :54:30. | :54:31. | |
On parade at Sandhurst, the Prime Minister warned | :54:32. | :54:34. | |
new officers of the volatility of times ahead - | :54:35. | :54:39. | |
In Alton, a careers fair for over '50s. | :54:40. | :54:48. | |
A growing number like gardner Penny Holmes enjoying part-tirement. | :54:49. | :54:56. | |
As assaults on prison staff reached a record high, | :54:57. | :55:01. | |
two Dorset officers spoke about their fears of attack. | :55:02. | :55:06. | |
Before you even start, your head's thinking, how am | :55:07. | :55:09. | |
I going to get through this without being assaulted? | :55:10. | :55:11. | |
They blame overcrowding, staff shortages and a growing | :55:12. | :55:13. | |
Chinese money is behind a plan to build a replica Titanic | :55:14. | :55:17. | |
Though descendants of those who died think it is in bad taste. | :55:18. | :55:21. | |
If he knew this was being replicated, I think he'd be | :55:22. | :55:24. | |
Finally the Badger Trust is warning new houses in Oxfordshire | :55:25. | :55:31. | |
are destroying sets, forcing animals | :55:32. | :55:32. | |
They want planners to do more to protect them. | :55:33. | :55:41. | |
That's the Sunday Politics in the South, thanks | :55:42. | :55:52. | |
Now were going to lose the prison and Courts Bill. We are losing a lot | :55:53. | :55:58. | |
of things that weren't going through. Does that bother you? | :55:59. | :56:04. | |
Hugely. Because it was such a shock to everybody, there wasn't time to | :56:05. | :56:08. | |
plan to make sure that things that were incredibly important like | :56:09. | :56:13. | |
prison reform going to happen. That said, we need to make sure the | :56:14. | :56:14. | |
direction the country is going in is direction the country is going in is | :56:15. | :56:18. | |
have this opportunity to put other have this opportunity to put other | :56:19. | :56:22. | |
points of view forward. The Liberal Democrats want a more restorative, | :56:23. | :56:25. | |
preventative justice system. So we don't have as many people there in | :56:26. | :56:27. | |
the first place. This is our chance the first place. This is our chance | :56:28. | :56:31. | |
to start talking about that. To you think the big law firms who were | :56:32. | :56:34. | |
campaigning against some of the changes won't that campaign? I think | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
it was one of those coincidences but I think it underlines the president | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
at nature of how the selection was thought about and how it was called. | :56:45. | :56:50. | |
parliaments and in full of things to parliaments and in full of things to | :56:51. | :56:55. | |
wash up. I'm very sorry that the prison and Courts Bill is | :56:56. | :56:57. | |
disappearing because I think there disappearing because I think there | :56:58. | :57:02. | |
are a lot of good things in it. And a compensation culture was something | :57:03. | :57:06. | |
I think all sides agreed on. It is just one of those accidents, you | :57:07. | :57:12. | |
might say. Actually, I think underlines probably the | :57:13. | :57:14. | |
responsibility of doing this in the way it was done. It could have been | :57:15. | :57:18. | |
done much better, we could have had a test in front of the country with | :57:19. | :57:24. | |
a reasonable order behind it. Took about seven weeks campaign and it is | :57:25. | :57:27. | |
a short one because of the local elections, but there is time for | :57:28. | :57:31. | |
people to get a little bit, why are we having to go through this again? | :57:32. | :57:36. | |
Already on the doorsteps people were saying that. As we go through and | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
find out, looking at the manifesto, it gives them another opportunity to | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
go out and vote which is one of the reasons I'm so against aggressive | :57:46. | :57:48. | |
alliance, because you want to vote for one party with their manifesto | :57:49. | :57:52. | |
rather than blurring the lines. Is a chance this will develop? In terms | :57:53. | :57:57. | |
of a progressive alliance, I very much doubt there is any kind of time | :57:58. | :58:03. | |
to do that. We will be appealing to voters from the aggressive alliance | :58:04. | :58:08. | |
in the electorate to come together behind one candidate. | :58:09. | :58:14. | |
Whitelaw last six there is a sort of, I'm normally Labour about... In | :58:15. | :58:25. | |
terms of the way the election has been cast, which is vote from me and | :58:26. | :58:29. | |
should be no opposition whatsoever, and that will be somehow united | :58:30. | :58:34. | |
country, the temptation, I would think, to vote tactically and said | :58:35. | :58:37. | |
it should be a proper debate going on here and other should not be just | :58:38. | :58:44. | |
homogenous representation in parliaments and making sure there is | :58:45. | :58:47. | |
the best representation in parliament could be on people of | :58:48. | :58:49. | |
like minds. Obviously we want to like minds. Obviously we want to | :58:50. | :58:52. | |
make sure that Labour wins the actions we have an alternative | :58:53. | :58:55. | |
parts of the country people will be parts of the country people will | :58:56. | :58:57. | |
saying to themselves, Dubai really saying to themselves, Dubai really | :58:58. | :59:02. | |
want to be the first past the post system is simply for that? People | :59:03. | :59:11. | |
says she didn't have a mandate because she wasn't elected by the | :59:12. | :59:15. | |
country. She is now having a General Election will stop everyone on the | :59:16. | :59:19. | |
streets that I have spoken to so far is very behind her. Of course now | :59:20. | :59:32. | |
she will have a mandate. She is actively ignoring 48% of the | :59:33. | :59:36. | |
going about this had Brexit. She is going about this had Brexit. She | :59:37. | :59:41. | |
talking about this coalition of talking about this coalition | :59:42. | :59:42. | |
chaos which is where this chaos which is where this | :59:43. | :59:45. | |
progressive alliance thing has come from. As Lib Dems, we will not be | :59:46. | :59:52. | |
forming a coalition with anyone. There is no coalition of chaos. It | :59:53. | :59:55. | |
cannot happen and it will not happen. I don't know where she is | :59:56. | :00:00. | |
going with this. The coalition was the last election. Is up to the | :00:01. | :00:06. | |
other parties but I think it's very clear that she's going to have a | :00:07. | :00:15. | |
very strong manifesto. We had a coalition a few years ago. That | :00:16. | :00:21. | |
wasn't a coalition of chaos, apparently? A lot of this is just | :00:22. | :00:29. | |
nonsense for the purpose of trying to frame an election. In a way that | :00:30. | :00:36. | |
ducks a lot of the real issues in front of us. That's what I want to | :00:37. | :00:43. | |
get on the floor. I'm going out with my positive message. I'm looking for | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
social reform which is what Theresa May has been talking about | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
breakthrough. I will also make sure that we get a very good deal out of | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
Europe and that's what she wants to do. | :00:54. | :00:54. | |
That's the Sunday Politics in the South, thanks | :00:55. | :00:56. | |
to my guests Layla Moran, Alan Whitehead and Flick Drummond. | :00:57. | :00:58. | |
Don't forget South Today and your local radio station will be | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
keeping you up to date with the election campaign | :01:02. | :01:03. | |
throughout the week and we'll be back next Sunday looking | :01:04. | :01:05. | |
For now, though, it's back to Andrew. | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
on issues like the NHS. Run out of time. Andrew, back to you. | :01:10. | :01:18. | |
Now, Ukip have made their first significant policy announcement | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
of the election campaign today with a call for a ban on wearing | :01:25. | :01:30. | |
But is it a policy that will meet with the approval of the man | :01:31. | :01:36. | |
who bankrolled the party's last general election campaign? | :01:37. | :01:38. | |
Hello, Andrew. Let me see if I can clarify some things, are you a | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
member of Ukip? I a patron of Ukip so I don't stop being a member. So | :01:46. | :01:52. | |
you are still a member? I am, apparently for life. Are you still | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
hoping to bankroll Ukip? Not at the moment. Why is that? The internal | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
problems we have had in Ukip have been aired, and a lot needs to | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
happen in the party in terms of professionalising it and I think it | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
is ill-prepared for this general election. Are you going to run in | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
Clacton? I will be if selected. For Ukip? Yes. Have you been to Clacton? | :02:17. | :02:24. | |
I've been with Nigel Mansell on the campaign. You will run for a | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
constituency you've only been in once? Yes, why does that surprise | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
you? You know nothing about it. I've just recently decided to become the | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
candidate there. Did you know where it is? Of course I do, your piece | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
the other night was completely wrong. I said I knew where it was | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
but I didn't know much about it. Maybe the people of Clacton will | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
regard you as a carpetbagger? Why? Because you have never been there. | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
Most politicians are carpetbaggers and I will be there for the right | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
reasons. I thought it was because of your visceral hatred of Douglas | :03:04. | :03:09. | |
Carswell. He only lasted 24 hours after I announced my candidacy so we | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
will see what happens. The main thing I am going to Clacton on | :03:13. | :03:15. | |
Monday to meet the Ukip councillors, see what the issues are and see if | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
they want me as a candidate. They may not want me. Who do you think | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
you will be up against? The potential Conservative candidate. | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
Who in Ukip? I don't suppose anyone in Ukip will stand against me, I | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
wouldn't have thought. Really? I would have thought. Money talks! Why | :03:37. | :03:44. | |
do you say that? You talked about having a pirate radio station to | :03:45. | :03:47. | |
blast into Clacton so it is not covered by the election rules. | :03:48. | :03:49. | |
You've been talking about financing a sort of right-wing Momentum | :03:50. | :03:56. | |
movement. I just wonder, has politics now just become a | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
Richmond's hobby? From my perspective the reason I'm | :04:01. | :04:03. | |
interested in it is if you have looked at what has happened in the | :04:04. | :04:06. | |
country, it's clear the Conservatives will have a massive | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
majority. -- has politics become a rich man's hobby. Only putting up | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
candidates not against Brexit MPs. Is Ukip over? I don't think so. The | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
electoral maths is interesting because first-past-the-post | :04:25. | :04:25. | |
effectively could help Ukip in this example. Ukip got one MP with 4 | :04:26. | :04:36. | |
million votes. What we are seeing is the total collapse of Labour. In | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
that situation there are certain seats up north in Hartlepool and | :04:41. | :04:43. | |
other seats like that, the total collapse of the Labour Party could | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
help Ukip to win a few seats. Is Ukip over? It looks that way, yes. | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
They haven't made much of a dent in Labour's vote in the north, they | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
don't really have a defining issue anymore and all the polls we have | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
seen published since the election was called show Ukip vote is going | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
to the Conservatives. Is Ukip over? It always happens when the | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
Conservative Party goes far to the right, really hard Brexit, there is | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
no space for BMP, Ukip and all of that. Are you associating the BNP | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
with Ukip? Or that, movements to the right of the Conservatives get eaten | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
up one the Conservatives move as far right as Theresa May has done. I | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
think what your enterprise shows is how it's really time to reform | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
funding of political parties. It is disgraceful that very rich people | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
can move in and bankroll the Brexit campaigned to the extent that they | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
did. We need proper state funding of parties. The union is bankrolling | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
Labour. I assume the reform would include trade unions? Indeed. Ukip | :05:49. | :05:56. | |
has lost its talisman in Nigel Farage, it was a one-man party, I | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
have to say, people like Tim. Having voted for Brexit its reason to be | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
has gone. It will still take votes from Labour and the Conservatives | :06:06. | :06:08. | |
but probably only from the don't knows. There are seats in certain | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
places where if enough Tories back Ukip dated when. Hartlepool is an | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
example. Were the Tories will never win. The demise of Ukip has been | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
forecasted many times before but I don't see a Tory candidate winning | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
in a place like Hartlepool. So we could see, and I think we will see, | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
the total collapse of the Labour vote. We shall see. The leader of | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
the party of which you say you are still a patron, Paul Nuttall, said | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
he would ban the Burcea and the niqab in public, what is your view? | :06:39. | :06:46. | |
-- the niqab and the Burcea? I'm not in agreement with that. If it is a | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
security issue at airports or public transport it could be acceptable but | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
I'm not in favour of curtailing people's writes. You have gone | :06:56. | :06:58. | |
further than him, haven't you? You tweeted you wanted to ban Muslim | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
immigration. In my view the problem we have had with the lack of | :07:04. | :07:06. | |
integration in certain communities has come about through mass | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
open-door immigration. If you are a must win you wouldn't be allowed in? | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
What I said in the tweet was I think they should be a ban on | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
immigration... You said Muslim immigration. That's what I believe. | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
If you are a world famous doctor coming to help one of our big | :07:26. | :07:28. | |
teaching hospitals in this country because you are a Muslim you could | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
not get in? We have to start somewhere, there are huge problems | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
in areas where 20% of the population don't speak the language, they | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
haven't integrated. You should read the rest of the tweet, it is control | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
of immigration from a 10-year ban on unskilled immigration. The first | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
thing you said was to ban Muslim immigration, it is in black and | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
white. I have said that, I do not dispute that. I was questioning | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
that. There is my answer, you cannot tell somebody's will adjust freedoms | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
but what you can do is stop adding to the problem. Doesn't that sound a | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
bit like the BNP? It's as like BNP and like Trump. Its, we hate | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
Muslims, fine, if that is what you are standing for, that is clear. The | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
final word is we have had open-door mass immigration from the | :08:17. | :08:18. | |
Conservative Party, we've had it from the Labour Party and its fine | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
if you are in north London to say these things, if you live in Oldham | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
and your community has been radically changed and you have a | :08:27. | :08:29. | |
whole population not integrating in, not speaking the language, something | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
has got to be done. We had better leave it there. Thank you for coming | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
in. I am en route to Clacton. We will see how you get on there. | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
Now, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron was on TV earlier today | :08:41. | :08:42. | |
and he was asked again about an issue that he's been | :08:43. | :08:45. | |
asked about repeatedly - his attitude to homosexuality. | :08:46. | :08:47. | |
when they asked you whether gay sex was a sin. | :08:48. | :08:57. | |
Come on, Robert, I've been asked this question loads | :08:58. | :08:59. | |
few days and I have been clear, even in the House of Commons, | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
It's possible I'm not the only person getting tired | :09:04. | :09:13. | |
Probably, but then why don't you just close it down? | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
Toby Young, why does he get into such a mess over this? I mean, he is | :09:18. | :09:29. | |
leader of the Liberal Democrats. Its 2017. I guess the reason he keeps | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
refusing to answer that question is because what the implication is that | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
he does think that homosexual acts are sinful, and he cannot bring | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
himself not to say that, or to say what Robert Peston and others want | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
him to say because he is an evangelical Christian who converted | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
at the age of 20, 21, and clearly he really struggles with this issue and | :09:53. | :09:55. | |
I think it will be really difficult for the Lib Dems to promote, or even | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
Lib Dem candidates like Vince Cable, to promote the idea of the | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
Progressive Alliance even though Tim has ruled it out, if he is not | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
prepared to say I don't think homosexual acts are sinful. What is | :10:07. | :10:15. | |
your view? It is disastrous if that is what he really thinks but Preston | :10:16. | :10:18. | |
did not push the hard. I'm not sure he understood the difference about | :10:19. | :10:20. | |
the question between gay sex and being gay. I think he just thought | :10:21. | :10:23. | |
he was going on saying I'm not anti-gay. He needs to command | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
immediately and clarify it. If you are right and he does actually think | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
it is a sin he is in real trouble. There is a slight parallel with what | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
police said before about Jeremy Corbyn, how his unilateral nuclear | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
policy would appeal to the hard core of the left. The problem for Tim | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
Farron with what he is saying here, while he is an evangelical | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
Christian, this will not appeal to traditional Liberal Democrats. An | :10:50. | :10:56. | |
LGBT community member cannot possibly vote for an MP who believes | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
that a sexual act between homosexuals is sinful. He has not | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
made that clear. Of course, he wants to stop Brexit as well so he is | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
neither liberal nor democratic. He will have seven weeks to make it | :11:09. | :11:11. | |
clear because I am sure he will be asked again. We have the chairman of | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
the Conservative Party on earlier, Polly. An important figure for the | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
Tory campaign. What did you make of what he said? I don't think he will | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
have him on very often, he didn't do brilliantly. I think they will bring | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
back chemical Ali, Michael Fallon, he can say anything with a straight | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
face, he can say black is white. Michael Fallon, chemical Ali? Why do | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
you say that? He can absolutely say black is white. For instance if you | :11:40. | :11:45. | |
look back at what he said, you challenged him about the energy | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
policy, when Ed Miliband came out with it, he said any kind of freeze | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
would stop investment, the lights will go out. You have him on, he | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
will say the exact opposite. He is magic at that. But I don't think | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
your guy today was up to the job. If Michael Fallon was chemical Ali, or | :12:07. | :12:13. | |
we should say chemical Fally, Patrick was more like comical Ali. | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
The whole Iraq war is rushing back at me. He is the warm up comedian, | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
there is another six weeks to go, just getting things started. What | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
did you think? I don't think he was too bad, it was difficult for him to | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
say exactly what was in the 2050 manifesto is going to be replicated | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
in the Conservatives' manifesto during this general election, he | :12:37. | :12:39. | |
doesn't want to be seen rowing back on stuff but on the other hand I | :12:40. | :12:42. | |
don't think he can conceal the fact they will be far fewer commitments | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
in this Conservative manifesto than in the last one, as you and I know, | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
it was full of rash promises last time because they thought they would | :12:51. | :12:59. | |
have to trade a lot of them away in the negotiations with the Liberal | :13:00. | :13:01. | |
Democrats to form a second coalition so they are saddled with policies | :13:02. | :13:03. | |
they don't particularly want to be hemmed in by. The forthcoming | :13:04. | :13:05. | |
Conservative manifesto will be much lighter and shorter with fewer | :13:06. | :13:08. | |
commitments. Different? Some stuff jumped from the 2050 manifesto? I | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
think so but we will see a commitment to run schools to | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
overcome that hurdle in the next parliament and I don't think, in | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
spite of what you think, Polly, that it will be a hard tack to the right. | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
I think if anything the mood music of the Conservative manifesto will | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
be a centrist inclusive one. The mood music will be because the | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
specifics would be there. She is good at saying governing for | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
everybody and the many and not the few but when you look at the hard | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
facts of what her and Hammond's budget looks like, you look at her | :13:40. | :13:42. | |
hard Brexit, it's a very different story. Or that, the music has | :13:43. | :13:50. | |
stopped for this week! Thank you. I will be back next week at the normal | :13:51. | :13:57. | |
time of 11am on Sunday morning. On BBC One The Daily Politics is back | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
at midday tomorrow and we will be on every day next week on BBC Two. | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
Remember, if it's Sunday, it is The Sunday Politics. | :14:06. | :14:35. | |
There'll be a couple of hours of just fantastic music, really, | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
all the Ella classics, as well as some very special guests, | :14:39. | :14:40. | |
we have Mica Paris, Imelda May, Dame Cleo Laine | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
'There's a side to Rory that the public doesn't see. | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
'Rory has suspected for some time that he may have ADHD. | :14:50. | :14:54. |