Browse content similar to 28/09/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Morning folks and welcome to The Sunday Politics, | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
live from the Conservative Conference in Birmingham. | :00:41. | :00:46. | |
There will be one less Conservative MP here after Mark Reckless defected | :00:47. | :00:48. | |
He joins us live from his constituency, where he has | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
It has not been the best of starts for the Prime Minister, as he | :00:54. | :01:01. | |
arrives in Birmingham for the last Tory conference before the election. | :01:02. | :01:03. | |
On top of the Reckless defection, a junior Tory minister has resigned | :01:04. | :01:06. | |
RAF jets have carried out their first mission over Iraq | :01:07. | :01:15. | |
Welsh secretary Stephen Crabb at the Conservative conference | :01:16. | :01:24. | |
on defections, devolution and defeating ISIS. | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
In London, how the richest 1% are pulling further away, and why those | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
priced out are choosing to move away. | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
And joining me, three of the country's most loyal journalists, | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
who sadly have yet to resign or defect to our inferior rivals. | :01:44. | :01:46. | |
Nick Watt, Polly Toynbee and Janan Ganesh. | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
And, of course, they'll be tweeting throughout the programme. | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
And you too can get involved by using the hashtag #BBCSP. | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
At the current rate of Tory resignations, | :02:00. | :02:02. | |
Mr Cameron could be speaking to an empty hall when he makes his keynote | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
address to the Tory conference here in Birmingham tomorrow. | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
It's been a classic car crash of a start to the conference, with a UKIP | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
defection, a minister shamed into resignation by a sex scandal and | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
Ed Miliband's memory lapses now look like a little local difficulty. | :02:18. | :02:23. | |
Here's what the Prime Minister had to say | :02:24. | :02:30. | |
These things are frustrating and frankly counter-productive and | :02:31. | :02:42. | |
rather senseless. If you want to have a European referendum, if you | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
want to get the deficit down, if you want to build a stronger Britain | :02:47. | :02:49. | |
that we can be proud of, there is only one option, which is to have a | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
Conservative government after the next election. | :02:54. | :02:55. | |
And Mark Reckless joins me now from Rochester. | :02:56. | :03:03. | |
Welcome to the programme. Why did you lie to all your Conservative | :03:04. | :03:10. | |
colleagues and mislead those who elected you? Well, I am keeping | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
faith with my constituents and keeping my promises to them. You | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
heard the Prime Minister saying that the Conservative led government was | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
dealing with the deficit and cutting immigration. The reality is, we have | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
increased the national debt by more in five years than even Labour | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
managed in 13, and immigration is back up to the levels we saw under | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
Labour. I believe in the promises I made in 2010, and I want to keep my | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
words to my electorate, not least to deal with the deficit, cut | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
immigration, reform the political system, to localise powers back to | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
the community, particularly over house-building. The government has | :03:48. | :03:50. | |
broken its word on all those things are. I want to keep my word to my | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
voters here, and that is why I have done what I have done, by moving to | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
UKIP. You have not kept your words to your Conservative constituency | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
chairman. You assured him 48 hours ago that you would not defect, and | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
you left his voice mail on the Conservative Party chairman's office | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
telephone, missing to come to Birmingham to campaign for the | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
Tories. This is your voice mail... I have just picked up your e-mail... | :04:20. | :04:40. | |
So, Friday night, telling Grant Shapps you are coming to Birmingham | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
to campaign for the Tories. The next day, you are joining UKIP. Why did | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
you are a? I sounded a bit more hesitant on that call than I usually | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
do, and I am not sure if that was the full conversation. But you | :04:58. | :04:59. | |
cannot discuss these things in advance, you have to make a | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
decision. I have decided the future of this country is better served by | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
UKIP then it is by the Conservative Party under David Cameron. I made a | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
lot of promises to my constituents, and I want to keep those promises. | :05:14. | :05:22. | |
That is why I am moving to UKIP, so I can deliver the change this | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
country really needs. In May of this year, you said that Nigel Farage, | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
quote, poses the most serious threat to a Tory victory at the election. | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
So, you agree, voting UKIP means a Labour government? I think voting | :05:40. | :05:45. | |
UKIP means getting UKIP. While in the past a disproportionate number | :05:46. | :05:48. | |
of UKIP people were ex-Conservatives, now, they are | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
winning a lot more people, from all parties. People are so disillusioned | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
with the political class in Westminster, that they have not | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
voted often for a generation. Those are the people Nigel Farage is | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
inspiring, and frankly, he has also inspired me. What he has done in the | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
last 20 years, building his party, getting people from all walks of | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
life, sending up for ordinary people, I think deserves support. | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
That is a key reason why I am moving. UKIP are now the agents of | :06:17. | :06:23. | |
change. You said it poses them a serious threat to a Tory victory? My | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
ambition is not a Tory victory. We made all of these promises in 2010 | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
as Conservatives, and they have been broken. We now hear from David | :06:33. | :06:35. | |
Cameron about English votes for English laws, supported by Nick | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
Clegg as well, but that is what we said in our manifesto in 2010, and | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
we have done absolutely nothing about it. It is not credible now to | :06:45. | :06:47. | |
pretend that you are going to do those things. They have omitted to | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
give every Scot ?1600 per year in definitely. If you want to stand up | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
for the English taxpayer, and really tackle the debt, then UKIP are the | :07:01. | :07:09. | |
party who will do that. But there is nothing principled about this, this | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
is just an attempt to save your skin. You said UKIP stopped you | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
winning in 2005 - UKIP did not stand in 2010, and you won. You are | :07:20. | :07:22. | |
frightened that UKIP would beat you in the next election, this is to | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
save your skin to me you think I am doing this because I am frightened, | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
you think this is the easy option, to abandon my position in | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
Parliament, but my principles on the line? On the contrary, you look at | :07:36. | :07:46. | |
MPs who have moved party before, almost none of them have given their | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
voters to chance to have a say on what they have done. I am asking | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
permission from my voters, and I am moving to UKIP because I believe | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
many of the people in my constituency have been let down by a | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
Conservative led government, and that what UKIP is saying appeals to | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
decent, hard-working people, who want to see real change in our | :08:06. | :08:13. | |
country. If they do not agree, then they can vote in a by-election and | :08:14. | :08:16. | |
have their say on who they want to be their MP. I am being open and | :08:17. | :08:24. | |
honest, giving people a say. I am trying to do the right thing by my | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
constituents, and whatever the risk is to me personally, I think it is | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
the right thing to do. It is what MPs should be in politics to try and | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
do for the people they represent. Your defection, coming after Douglas | :08:38. | :08:44. | |
Carswell's, confirms the claim that UKIP is largely a depository for | :08:45. | :08:46. | |
disaffected right-wing Tories like yourself, isn't it? On the contrary, | :08:47. | :08:53. | |
the number of people I met in Doncaster yesterday was | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
extraordinary. When I first went to Conservative conferences 20 years | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
ago, there was some enthusiasm for politics, I remember Norman Tebbit | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
speaking against Maastricht, people fought they could change things, | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
there was real politics. But I do not think you will see that at | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
Birmingham this week, it is PR people, lobbyists, corporate, few | :09:14. | :09:16. | |
ordinary members of. At Ancaster, people had saved up for months just | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
to get the rail ticket to Doncaster. People who believe in UKIP, who | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
believe in Nigel Farage, who believe in the team, as agents of change, | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
who can actually deal with a political class at Westminster which | :09:33. | :09:39. | |
has let able down. We want proper reform to the political system, | :09:40. | :09:42. | |
which David Cameron promises but does not deliver. Final question - | :09:43. | :09:49. | |
after the next election, the Prime Minister is going to be either David | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
Cameron or Ed Miliband, that is the choice, one or the other - who would | :09:53. | :09:58. | |
you prefer? Well, what we would prefer is to get the most UKIP | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
policies implemented. We want a first rate we want to deal with | :10:03. | :10:09. | |
immigration. I asked about who you wanted to be Prime Minister. We will | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
look at the circumstances. We need as many UKIP MPs as possible, to | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
restore trust in politics. If people vote UKIP, they will get UKIP. How | :10:21. | :10:33. | |
serious is this? I think it is very serious. It is the old Tory disease, | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
destroyed John Major, and it has been bubbling away again. It is | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
beginning to feel like the worst days of Labour in the early nineteen | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
eighties. It matters, because people care passionately. It is nothing | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
like Labour in the early 1980s, it is bad, but it is nothing like that. | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
There are these very strong strands. People like David Davis | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
writing a large piece in the Daily Mail attacking the leader on the | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
first day of the conference. That is the kind of thing that Labour used | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
to do. That is what David Davis does all the time! But this is authentic | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
in the sense that there is a real, genuine dispute about Europe. Some | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
of us were not around in the 1980s, but I imagine it is pretty bad. | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
There is the short-term problem of the by-election they might lose, the | :11:23. | :11:25. | |
media problem of the general election which they cannot win if | :11:26. | :11:28. | |
UKIP remain anywhere near their current level of support. But in | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
many ways the longer term question is the most pressing, which is, does | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
it make sense for the Conservative Party to remain one party, or would | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
it not be better for the hard-core of 20-30 intransigent Eurosceptics | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
to essentially join UKIP or form their own party? At least the | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
Conservatives would become more internally manageable. And probably | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
lose the next election. Probably, yes. That is what you are advising | :11:56. | :12:02. | |
them? If the reward is to have a coherent party in 15 years' time. It | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
is just as well you are a columnist, not a party strategist. I | :12:07. | :12:12. | |
was an anorak in the 1980s, who watched the Labour conference on the | :12:13. | :12:17. | |
TV. Were you wearing your anorak? Of course I was, that is how sad I am. | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
But once again the crisis from UKIP has forced the Prime Minister to | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
step in an even more Eurosceptic direction. Said on television what | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
he was trying not to say, which is that if he does not get his way in | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
the European negotiations, he will recommend to the British people that | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
we should go. He began by saying, as I have always said, and when they | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
say that, you know they are saying something new. He basically said, | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
Britain should not stay if it is not in Britain's interests. I think this | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
is big stakes for both the Tories and four UKIP. The Tories are able | :12:54. | :13:00. | |
to write off Clacton. Rochester is number 271 on the UKIP friendly | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
list. If the Tories win it, big moment for them. If UKIP lose it, | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
this strategy of various will be facing a bit of a setback. | :13:10. | :13:21. | |
To what extent are Mark Reckless's views shared by Conservative | :13:22. | :13:23. | |
The Sunday Politics commissioned an exclusive poll of Conservative | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
Pollsters ComRes spoke to over 1,000 councillors - | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
that's almost an eighth of their council base - and Eleanor Garnier | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
There is not a single party conference at the seaside this year, | :13:36. | :13:49. | |
and Sunday Politics could not get through them all without a trip to | :13:50. | :13:52. | |
the coast. So here we are on the shore in Sussex. There are plenty of | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
Conservative councillors here, and Tory MPs as well, but one challenge | :13:57. | :14:02. | |
they all face is UKIP, who have got their sights on coastal towns. | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
Places like Worthing East and surer and, with high numbers of | :14:09. | :14:11. | |
pensioners, providing rich pickings for UKIP. In West Sussex, the Tories | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
run the county council, but UKIP are the official opposition, with ten | :14:17. | :14:23. | |
councillors. We cannot lose any more ground to UKIP. If we lose any more | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
ground, if you look at the way it has swung from us to them, it is | :14:28. | :14:32. | |
getting near to being the middle point, where we might start losing | :14:33. | :14:35. | |
seats which we have always regarded as safe seats. So, it has got to be | :14:36. | :14:44. | |
stemmed, it cannot go any further. Our exclusive survey looked at the | :14:45. | :14:47. | |
policy areas where the Conservatives are vulnerable to UKIP. If an EU | :14:48. | :14:53. | |
Referendum Bill is called tomorrow, 45% say they would vote to leave, | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
39% would stay in. Asked about immigration... | :15:00. | :15:11. | |
It was those issues, Europe and immigration, that Mark Reckless said | :15:12. | :15:19. | |
were the head of his decision. I promised to cut immigration while | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
treating people fairly and humanely. I cannot keep that promise as a | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
Conservative, I can keep it as UKIP. When asked if Conservative | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
councillors would like an electoral pact with UKIP in the run-up to the | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
general election, one third said they support the idea. 63% are | :15:39. | :15:45. | |
opposed and 7% don't know. Conservative councillors who left | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
the party to join UKIP say it wasn't easy. I left because basically the | :15:51. | :15:57. | |
Conservatives left me. I saw it as a difficult decision to change, but | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
what I was seeing with UKIP was freed. Me being able to speak for my | :16:03. | :16:11. | |
residents. Back to our survey and on climate change 49% said it was | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
happening, but that humans are not to blame. Our survey showed that 60% | :16:17. | :16:23. | |
think David Cameron was wrong to pursue legalising gay marriage, with | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
31% saying it was the right thing to do and 9% not sure. In Worthing | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
councillors said gay marriage was divisive. That has really been an | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
issue here, it might have damaged the party slightly, and I think in a | :16:41. | :16:48. | |
way by setting a rule like that, it is a very religious thing and it is | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
almost trying to play God to make that decision. But some of the | :16:53. | :16:58. | |
party's toughest decisions have been over the economy. 56% in our survey | :16:59. | :17:04. | |
thought the spending cuts the Government has so far announced have | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
not gone far enough. 6% were not sure. They are prepared for | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
difficult decisions, but local activists say the party's voice must | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
be clearer. I think the message has to be more forceful, it has to be | :17:21. | :17:26. | |
specially targeted to the ex-Conservative voters who now vote | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
UKIP, especially in this area, the vast majority of UKIP people are | :17:33. | :17:35. | |
disillusioned Conservatives. The message has to be loud and strong, | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
come back and we are the party to give you what you want. With just | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
eight months until the general election, the pressure is on and | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
local Conservatives are searching for clues to help their party stem | :17:50. | :17:56. | |
the flow of defections. Joining me now is William Hague, the former | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
Foreign Secretary and the Leader of the House of Commons. | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
Tories like Mark Reckless are defecting to UKIP because they don't | :18:07. | :18:09. | |
trust the party leadership to deliver on Europe, do they? They | :18:10. | :18:15. | |
believe people like you and David Cameron will campaign to stay in and | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
they are right. They said before they defected that people should | :18:21. | :18:26. | |
vote Conservative to get a referendum on Europe, and that is | :18:27. | :18:32. | |
right of course. The only way to get a referendum is to do that and this | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
is the point, the people should decide. However a future government | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
decides it will campaign, it should be the people of the country who | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
decide. Can you say to our viewers this morning that is not enough | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
powers are repatriated back to Britain, you would want to come | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
out, can you say that? Our objective is to get those powers and stay in. | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
The answer to the question is I won't be deciding, David Cameron | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
won't be deciding, you the voters will be deciding. But you have to | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
give us your view. If you don't get enough powers back, would you vote | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
to come out and recommended? Our objective is to get those powers and | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
be able to stay in. You just get endless speculation years in | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
advance. I will decide at the time how I will vote. Surely that is the | :19:29. | :19:33. | |
rational position for everyone to take but I want a referendum to take | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
place. I understand that. As you pointed out to Mark Reckless just | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
now, unless there is a Conservative government, people won't have that | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
choice. Under a Labour government they will not get a choice at all. | :19:48. | :19:56. | |
Our survey of Tory councillors shows that almost 50% would vote to leave | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
the EU in a referendum. I think it showed, wasn't it 45, and 39%, but | :20:01. | :20:08. | |
again, I'm pretty sure they will decide at the time. They will want | :20:09. | :20:14. | |
to see what a future government achieves in a renegotiation before | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
they decide what to vote in a referendum. Unless David Cameron is | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
Prime Minister and there is a Conservative government, there will | :20:23. | :20:30. | |
not be a renegotiation. That is a point you have made four times. I | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
think they have got it. Your Cabinet colleague says we should not be | :20:36. | :20:38. | |
scared of quitting the EU, but you went native in the Foreign Office, | :20:39. | :20:43. | |
didn't you? You used to be a Eurosceptic, you are now the Foreign | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
Office line man. No, I don't think so! We brought back the first | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
reduced European budget ever in history. Even Margaret Thatcher... | :20:54. | :21:00. | |
Leaving the EU scares you, doesn't it? Not much scares me after 26 | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
years in politics but we want to do the best thing for the country. | :21:06. | :21:14. | |
Where we scared when we got us out of liability for Eurozone bailouts? | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
We were not scared of anybody. People said we couldn't achieve | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
things but we negotiated these things. We can do that with a wider | :21:22. | :21:29. | |
negotiation in Europe. Mr Reckless says he cannot keep the Conservative | :21:30. | :21:36. | |
promise to tackle immigration. You have failed to keep your promise to | :21:37. | :21:49. | |
keep net immigration down. You promised to cut it below 100,000, | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
you failed. It is over 200,000 people. We have cut it from 250,000 | :21:56. | :22:13. | |
in 2005, the last figures were 240,000. I think we can file that | :22:14. | :22:21. | |
under F four failed. It includes students, we want them in the | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
country. You knew that when you made the promise. But has it come down? | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
Yes, it has. Have we stopped the promise. But has it come down? | :22:31. | :22:37. | |
coming here because of our benefit system? Yes. None of that happened | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
under Labour. If Mark Reckless had his way, it would be more likely we | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
would have a Labour government. They have an open door policy on | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
immigration. You are not just losing MPs to UKIP, you are losing voters. | :22:53. | :22:58. | |
Polling by Michael Ashcroft shows that 20% of people who voted Tory in | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
2010 have abandoned youth and three quarters of them are voting UKIP | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
now. We will see in the general election. Politics is very fluid in | :23:09. | :23:14. | |
this country and we shouldn't deny that in any way but UKIP thought | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
they were going to win the by-election in Newark, we had a | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
thumping Conservative victory, and I think opinion polls are snapshots of | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
opinion now. They are not forecast of the general election and we will | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
be doing everything we can to get our message across. Today we are | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
announcing 3 million more apprenticeships in the next | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
Parliament. I think this is what people will be voting on, rather | :23:42. | :23:46. | |
than who has defected. Your activist base once parked with UKIP. Our | :23:47. | :23:54. | |
survey shows a third of Tory councillors would like a formal pact | :23:55. | :24:00. | |
with UKIP. Why not? It shows two thirds are against it. No, it shows | :24:01. | :24:09. | |
one third want it. I read the figures, it showed 67% don't want | :24:10. | :24:16. | |
it. We are not going to make a pact with other parties, and they don't | :24:17. | :24:20. | |
work in the British electoral system even if they were desirable. You are | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
sharing the Cabinet committee on English votes for English laws. Is | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
further devolution for Scotland conditional on progress towards | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
English devolution? No, the commitment to Scotland is | :24:38. | :24:40. | |
unconditional. We will meet the commitments to Scotland but we | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
believe, we the Conservatives believe, that in tandem with that we | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
have to resolve these questions about fairness to the rest of the UK | :24:49. | :24:54. | |
as well. That will depend on other parties or the general election | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
result. Are you committed to the Gordon Brown timetable? Yes, | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
absolutely. So you are committed to producing draft legislation by Burns | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
night, that is at the end of January. Will you produce proposals | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
for English votes on English laws by then? We will, but whether they are | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
agreed across the parties will depend on the other parties. There | :25:20. | :25:25. | |
was no sign that they were agreeable at the Labour conference. We will | :25:26. | :25:33. | |
produce our ideas on the same timetable as the timetable for | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
Scottish devolution. You will therefore bring forward proposals | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
for English votes for English laws by the end of January? Yes. And will | :25:42. | :25:47. | |
you attempt to get them on the statute book before the election? | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
The commitment in Scotland is to legislate after the election. You | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
will publish a bill beforehand? We will publish proposals beforehand. I | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
don't exclude doing something before the election, but the Scottish | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
timetable is to legislate for the further devolution after the general | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
election, whoever wins the election. Have you given thought as to what | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
English votes for English laws would mean? I have thought a lot of it | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
over 15 years. I am not going to prejudge what the outcome will be, | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
but it does mean in essence that when decisions are taken, decisions | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
that only affect England or only England and Wales, then only the MPs | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
from England and Wales should be making those decisions. You can | :26:40. | :26:42. | |
achieve that in many different ways. Is that it for English | :26:43. | :26:46. | |
devolution, is that what it amounts to? That is devolution to England if | :26:47. | :26:53. | |
you like, but within England there is a lot of other devolution going | :26:54. | :26:57. | |
on and we might well want to extend that further. We have given more | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
freedom to local authorities, there is a lot of scope to do more of | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
that, but that in itself is not the answer to the problem of what | :27:08. | :27:16. | |
happens at Westminster. You haven't just given Scotland more devolution | :27:17. | :27:21. | |
or planned to do it, you have also enshrined the Barnett formula and | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
that seems to be in perpetuity. It is widely regarded as being unfair | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
to Wales and many of the poorer English regions. Why do you | :27:31. | :27:35. | |
perpetuate it? It will become less relevant overtime if more | :27:36. | :27:42. | |
tax-raising powers... It goes all the way back to the 1970s, we made a | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
commitment on that, we will keep our commitments to Scotland as more -- | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
but as more tax-raising powers devolved, the Barnett formula is | :27:53. | :28:00. | |
less significant. If you transfer ?5 billion of tax-raising powers to | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
Scotland, 5 billion comes off the Barnett formula? It will be a lot | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
more complicated than that, but yes, as their own decisions about | :28:11. | :28:15. | |
taxation are made, the grand from Westminster will go down. And you | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
can guarantee that if there is a majority Conservative government, | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
there will be English votes for English laws after the election? | :28:25. | :28:28. | |
Yes, I stress again that there are different ways of doing it but if | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
there is no cross-party agreement on that, the Conservatives will produce | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
our proposals and campaign for them in the general election. Don't go | :28:37. | :28:42. | |
away because I want to move on to some other matters. | :28:43. | :28:47. | |
Now to the fight against so-called Islamic State terrorists. | :28:48. | :28:50. | |
Yesterday, RAF Tornado jets carried out their first flights over Iraq | :28:51. | :28:52. | |
since MPs gave their approval for air-strikes against the militants. | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
When you face a situation with psychobabble -- psychopathic killers | :28:56. | :29:04. | |
who have already brutally beheaded one of our own citizens, who have | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
already launched and tried to execute plots in our own country to | :29:09. | :29:13. | |
maim innocent people, we have a choice - we can either stand back | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
from this and say it is too difficult, let's let someone else | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
try to keep our country safe, or we take the correct decision to have a | :29:23. | :29:26. | |
full, comprehensive strategy but let's be prepared to play our role | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
to make sure these people cannot do not trust harm. | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
And William Hague is still with me - until July he was, of course, | :29:36. | :29:38. | |
Why have only six Tornado jets being mobilised? Do not assume that is all | :29:39. | :29:50. | |
that will be taking part in this operation. That is all that has been | :29:51. | :29:54. | |
announced and I do not think we should speculate. Even the Danes are | :29:55. | :30:02. | |
sending more fighter jets. There is no restriction in the House of | :30:03. | :30:04. | |
Commons resolution passed on Friday on what we can do. So why so | :30:05. | :30:10. | |
little? Do not underestimate what our Tornados can do. They have some | :30:11. | :30:15. | |
unique capabilities, capabilities which have been specifically asked | :30:16. | :30:19. | |
for by our allies. When you are on the wrong end of six Tornados, it | :30:20. | :30:23. | |
will not feel like a small effort. But there will be other things which | :30:24. | :30:29. | |
can add to that effort. We are joining in a month after the | :30:30. | :30:32. | |
operation started, we are late, we are behind America, France, | :30:33. | :30:38. | |
Australia, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, one hand tied behind our | :30:39. | :30:41. | |
backs cause of the rule about not attacking Syria - why is the British | :30:42. | :30:47. | |
government leading from behind? First of all, we are a democratic | :30:48. | :30:50. | |
country, and you know all about Parliamentary approval. You could | :30:51. | :30:56. | |
have recalled parliament. We have done that, with a political | :30:57. | :31:00. | |
consensus. Other European countries also took the decision on Friday to | :31:01. | :31:05. | |
send their military assets. Our allies are absolutely content with | :31:06. | :31:08. | |
that, and Britain will play an important role, along with many | :31:09. | :31:11. | |
other nations, including Arab nations. General Sir David Richards | :31:12. | :31:19. | |
Sheriff, who just steps down as the Nato Deputy Supreme Commander, he | :31:20. | :31:24. | |
condemns the spineless lack of leadership and the absence of any | :31:25. | :31:26. | |
credible strategy. It is embarrassing,isn't it? Of course, | :31:27. | :31:37. | |
they turn into armchair generals. We are playing an important role, we | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
are a democratic country. Your viewers will remember, we had a vote | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
last year on military action in Syria and we were defeated in the | :31:47. | :31:49. | |
House of Commons, a bad moment for our foreign policy. We have taken | :31:50. | :31:53. | |
care to bring this forward when we can win a vote in the House of | :31:54. | :31:56. | |
Commons, and that is how we will proceed. The air Chief Marshal until | :31:57. | :32:05. | |
recently in charge of the RAF, he says, it makes no sense to bomb Iraq | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
but not Syria. He calls the decision ludicrous. Of course, it DOES make | :32:11. | :32:17. | |
sense to bomb Iraq, because the Iraqi government has asked for our | :32:18. | :32:24. | |
assistance. This came up a lot in the debate on Friday, and the Prime | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
Minister explained, similar to what I have just been saying, that there | :32:29. | :32:34. | |
is not a political consensus about Syria in the House of Commons. When | :32:35. | :32:38. | |
we did it last year, we were defeated, and it was described by | :32:39. | :32:42. | |
all commentators as a huge blow to the government and to our foreign | :32:43. | :32:48. | |
policy. So, we will bring forward proposals when there is a majority | :32:49. | :32:51. | |
in this country to do so in the House of Commons. Professor Michael | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
Clarke, one of the world top experts on military strategy and history, he | :32:57. | :33:03. | |
says there are very few important IS targets in northern Iraq, that they | :33:04. | :33:07. | |
are all in Syria, and we are limiting ourselves to the periphery | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
of the campaign. First of all, just because you are not doing everything | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
does not mean you should not do something. Secondly, the United | :33:16. | :33:19. | |
States and other countries are engaged in the action against | :33:20. | :33:23. | |
targets in Syria. This is a coalition effort, with people doing | :33:24. | :33:29. | |
different things. Thirdly, if we were to put their proposal to the | :33:30. | :33:32. | |
House of Commons tomorrow, and it was defeated, we would not have | :33:33. | :33:37. | |
achieved a great deal. You do not know it would have been defeated. | :33:38. | :33:41. | |
The Labour Party has given no indication they would have supported | :33:42. | :33:45. | |
that. So, you are hostage to the Labour Party? We have to win a | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
democratic vote in the House of Commons, and the Labour Party is a | :33:50. | :33:53. | |
very large part of the House of Commons. You are asking us to pursue | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
a policy which at the moment could be defeated in Parliament. Is it not | :34:00. | :34:04. | |
embarrassing to be on the wrong side of so many of these military | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
experts? Why should we trust the judgment of here today, gone | :34:10. | :34:13. | |
tomorrow, politicians? We have the military experts with us now. We | :34:14. | :34:20. | |
have a national security council, we do not have sofa government, unlike | :34:21. | :34:24. | |
the last government. The national security council is chaired by the | :34:25. | :34:27. | |
Prime Minister. Alongside the Chief of Defence Staff and the heads of | :34:28. | :34:35. | |
the intelligence agencies. And we take decisions together with the | :34:36. | :34:39. | |
people who have the information now. So, you will know what British | :34:40. | :34:45. | |
and American intelligence says about Syria. The Prime Minister has said | :34:46. | :34:50. | |
there is a danger that the British-born jihadists will come | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
back and attack us. But the intelligence reports which you will | :34:55. | :34:56. | |
have seen are clear - Al-Qaeda and its associates are selecting, | :34:57. | :35:02. | |
indoctrinating and training jihadists in Syria, not Iraq. Does | :35:03. | :35:08. | |
that not make the Syrian exclusion even more ludicrous? I cannot | :35:09. | :35:15. | |
comment on intelligence. Is the situation in Syria I direct threat | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
to this country? Yes, it is. Have we excluded action? No, we haven't. | :35:21. | :35:25. | |
Could you come back to the House? The Prime Minister said, it was in | :35:26. | :35:30. | |
the motion put to the House of Commons, that if we want to take | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
action in Syria, we will come back to the House of Commons. But we have | :35:35. | :35:38. | |
not taken any decision about that and we would not do so if we thought | :35:39. | :35:44. | |
we were going to be defeated again. The government supports US strikes | :35:45. | :35:47. | |
on Syria, show you must relieve they are legal. Either way the legal | :35:48. | :35:54. | |
basis differs from one country to another, according to their reading | :35:55. | :35:58. | |
of international law. But you have supported it. We do believe that | :35:59. | :36:04. | |
they and Arab countries are taking action legally and we support their | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
action. But I understand your legitimate questions. But it comes | :36:09. | :36:15. | |
back to your basic question, why in Iraq and not Syria. Nonetheless, it | :36:16. | :36:21. | |
is important to take action in Iraq. We are also engaged in Syria | :36:22. | :36:26. | |
in building up the political strength of the more moderate | :36:27. | :36:32. | |
opposition and in trying to bring about a peace agreement, and we do | :36:33. | :36:36. | |
not exclude action in Syria in the future. If we propose doing | :36:37. | :36:43. | |
something, then we ask for the specific legal advice. Why would you | :36:44. | :36:47. | |
not ask for the legal advice anyway? Because you have to be sure | :36:48. | :36:52. | |
of the legal advice at the time, and also we do not comment on the advice | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
given to us by the Law officers. Mr Blair ended up publishing his. That | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
was because there was a huge legal dispute. So you have not had legal | :37:03. | :37:06. | |
advice yet that Britain attacking Syria would be legal? The legal | :37:07. | :37:11. | |
situation is unlikely to be the barrier in this case, let me put it | :37:12. | :37:14. | |
that way. Within international law, you can act in the event of extreme | :37:15. | :37:24. | |
humanitarian distress and elective self-defence, so one can imagine | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
strong legal justification, but of course, we will take the legal | :37:29. | :37:29. | |
advice at the time. watching The Sunday Politics. We say | :37:30. | :37:31. | |
goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who Scotland. Coming up here in 20 | :37:32. | :37:36. | |
minutes, The Week Ahead. Hello and welcome to | :37:37. | :37:47. | |
Sunday Politics Wales. It's not exactly been a dream start | :37:48. | :37:50. | |
for the Conservative conference. We hear from Welsh Secretary Stephen | :37:51. | :38:04. | |
Crabb about defections and resignations. And we speak to Nathan | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
Gill whose party, UKIP, is giving the Tories a headache. | :38:10. | :38:14. | |
Votes for 16-year-olds, it happened in the Scottish referendum, what | :38:15. | :38:17. | |
about Wales? And Finance Minister Jane Hutt has | :38:18. | :38:20. | |
been speaking to people across Wales as she prepares her budget. | :38:21. | :38:24. | |
Crisis, chaos - thanks to a defection and a resignation, there's | :38:25. | :38:26. | |
not much on the front pages to cheer up Conservatives this morning. | :38:27. | :38:30. | |
They're holding their annual conference | :38:31. | :38:32. | |
in Birmingham, their last before the general election, where the | :38:33. | :38:34. | |
Welsh secretary Stephen Crabb has been speaking to our parliamentary | :38:35. | :38:36. | |
Hello from a Sunni Birmingham. An interesting start to the week for | :38:37. | :38:52. | |
the Conservatives. Perhaps they were expecting a difficult time. You can | :38:53. | :38:59. | |
buy these stress balls for a pound. I think I will give one to Stephen | :39:00. | :39:03. | |
Crabb, the Secretary of State for Wales. Apart from the defection and | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
we ministerial resignation, what sort of week has it been? | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
We don't make it easy for ourselves. It is going to be a very important | :39:15. | :39:20. | |
week because of military action we are taking in Iraq through to | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
questions about securing the economic recovery for this country | :39:25. | :39:27. | |
and the big challenges of immigration and housing. Those are | :39:28. | :39:31. | |
the issues we are going to be focusing on. All these as issues are | :39:32. | :39:37. | |
exciting for the media -- other issues. | :39:38. | :39:46. | |
But there is stuff behind the defection. Your party is struggling | :39:47. | :39:51. | |
to convince Conservative members of Parliament that the Prime Minister | :39:52. | :39:56. | |
wants to leave the EU? I think it is coming through that | :39:57. | :40:00. | |
their way to get the referendum on ownership of the EU is by electing | :40:01. | :40:04. | |
the Conservative government. We know that UKIP is playing a wrecking ball | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
strategy. I was very sad that Douglas Carswell left. Mark | :40:10. | :40:16. | |
Reckless, UKIP can have him. He is a difficult individual. We have a | :40:17. | :40:24. | |
challenge to get our message clear on immigration, because those are | :40:25. | :40:28. | |
the issues people care about. On the EU, you would be repaired to | :40:29. | :40:35. | |
vote for Britain to leave the EU, just to reassure any more | :40:36. | :40:38. | |
Conservative MPs who think the government isn't serious. | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
If we don't get the changes that the Prime Minister wants to see in terms | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
of our relationship with the EU, a less intrusive and burdensome EU. If | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
you speak to businesses, they will tell you that the level of | :40:52. | :40:56. | |
interference is too much from the EU. Unless we get serious change on | :40:57. | :41:02. | |
that then yes, I would go into a referendum campaign saying this is | :41:03. | :41:04. | |
not in the best interest of Britain and Wales to remain part of this. I | :41:05. | :41:10. | |
am confident if we do this right, we can get those changes. | :41:11. | :41:16. | |
You mentioned the air strikes. Parliament has voted to go into | :41:17. | :41:19. | |
military action but we don't know where it will end. | :41:20. | :41:22. | |
We know it will be a long and drawn-out affair. I think the debate | :41:23. | :41:26. | |
on Friday in the Commons, the Prime Minister and the opposition were | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
very clear and realistic about that. This isn't a short-term fix and we | :41:32. | :41:36. | |
are not relying on air strikes alone. We are going to be involved | :41:37. | :41:44. | |
in some time to come. We have a responsibility to act to this | :41:45. | :41:47. | |
thread. Moving on, the tremors from the | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
Scottish referendum being felt in all the party conferences. His other | :41:51. | :41:55. | |
Wales will be central to the future of the debate but given that 45% of | :41:56. | :41:59. | |
Scots voted to leave, how are you going to ensure that Wales is | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
actually part of the debate? The pro-Minister also said that he | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
wants Wales to be at the heart of this. He picked William Hague, a | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
former Welsh Secretary to chair the devolution committee. He has a huge | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
knowledge of Wales and I will be working alongside him with that. We | :42:18. | :42:22. | |
are clear that Wales is not a bit part player in the scene and we are | :42:23. | :42:26. | |
going to be at the core. What does that mean? We are talking | :42:27. | :42:31. | |
about the future of the UK and the institutional framework that keeps | :42:32. | :42:36. | |
us together. Wales is very much at the heart of that and that is what | :42:37. | :42:40. | |
we will be talking about. What does it mean in terms of | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
policy? We have the Wales Bill going through Parliament at the moment to | :42:45. | :42:50. | |
devolve more powers to Wales. Your timetable is speedier than the | :42:51. | :42:53. | |
Scots, in a sense. The bill has a lot of support in the | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
House of Commons and it is in the House of Lords at the moment but | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
beyond that, we have the Silk Commission which has options in | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
terms of further devolution. That is the work we will be looking at and | :43:07. | :43:09. | |
we want to deliver on that. Some of it will require legislation in the | :43:10. | :43:14. | |
next parliament but some things we can do before then so should we. | :43:15. | :43:22. | |
That is the kind of thing we should be looking at as part of the Cabinet | :43:23. | :43:25. | |
committee on devolution alongside the work on Scotland and England. | :43:26. | :43:31. | |
You have heard from the Welsh government that yes, they want what | :43:32. | :43:33. | |
is being offered to Scotland but they want to be able to pick and | :43:34. | :43:38. | |
choose from that menu. You want the worst government to be more | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
accountable and responsible. Does that mean they would still have to | :43:43. | :43:45. | |
have a referendum before getting income tax powers? | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
I think the referendum is a good thing and we need to move in step | :43:51. | :43:53. | |
with public opinion. And forget the people of Scotland settled it by | :43:54. | :43:59. | |
saying they want the Scottish parliament to have tax-raising | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
powers. That question has never been put to the people of Wales and I | :44:05. | :44:07. | |
think it is important we stick to that principle. If it becomes clear | :44:08. | :44:10. | |
that every party wants this and there is a groundswell of public | :44:11. | :44:15. | |
opinion evident in Wales that they want to move ahead quickly with | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
income tax evolution, maybe there is a discussion to have. I think the | :44:20. | :44:24. | |
referendum is a positive thing and it would be irresponsible of Welsh | :44:25. | :44:27. | |
government not to have it. They need to show they are willing to use the | :44:28. | :44:31. | |
tax powers we are giving them. You know the Welsh government has | :44:32. | :44:34. | |
said that there are so many hurdles in front of it that it won't trigger | :44:35. | :44:39. | |
that referendum so you are effectively offering the Welsh | :44:40. | :44:44. | |
government a veto on accountability. The government needs to come clean | :44:45. | :44:48. | |
on what it really wants from this next stage of devolution, tax | :44:49. | :44:54. | |
devolution. Their participation in the Silk Commission seemed to | :44:55. | :44:58. | |
indicate strong support. They seemed to be a consensus for this next days | :44:59. | :45:03. | |
of tax devolution. It is worrying that Welsh Labour seems to be | :45:04. | :45:06. | |
backtracking. Listening to the comments not just from Carwyn Jones | :45:07. | :45:10. | |
but from Owen Smith in Westminster as well. I think the responsible | :45:11. | :45:16. | |
thing to do is get behind it and support it and recognise it as a | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
healthy next stage. One of the points they have been | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
making is that the income tax power model you are offering just doesn't | :45:26. | :45:29. | |
offer them enough flexibility. That is the model in the bill. They | :45:30. | :45:33. | |
supported it in the House of Commons stage of its passage. I am | :45:34. | :45:38. | |
open-minded about that and maybe we can look at that again. | :45:39. | :45:42. | |
I shall let you go and rivers yours each. Have a stress ball. | :45:43. | :45:50. | |
That was David Cornock talking to the Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb. | :45:51. | :45:56. | |
The Children's Commissioner for Wales has told this programme | :45:57. | :45:58. | |
that more work needs to be done in schools before | :45:59. | :46:01. | |
But Keith Towler said he agreed with calls to let 16 | :46:02. | :46:05. | |
and 17-year-olds vote in elections after the voting age was lowered | :46:06. | :46:08. | |
The issue divides opinion, as Cemlyn Davies reports. | :46:09. | :46:17. | |
Thousands of teenagers filing into a concert venue may not seem | :46:18. | :46:25. | |
particularly significant that the? This gathering of young people in | :46:26. | :46:28. | |
Glasgow earlier this year was part of an historic decision in British | :46:29. | :46:35. | |
politics. The BBC big debate brought together 16 and 17-year-olds from | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
all over Scotland to discuss the independence referendum and to | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
listen, not to a rock band, but two for politicians trying to secure | :46:45. | :46:53. | |
their vote. -- but two four politicians. There were calls for | :46:54. | :46:56. | |
the voting age to be lowered across the UK. The Liberal Democrats want | :46:57. | :47:01. | |
to see that happen and this week, their education spokesperson in the | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
Welsh assembly went back to school to discuss this issue. | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
There are some that are very well informed and others that might be | :47:12. | :47:15. | |
influenced by their peers and by members of their families. That is | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
the case for youngsters who are 18 and is certainly the case for people | :47:20. | :47:26. | |
much older than that. I don't really understand this demarcation between | :47:27. | :47:30. | |
16 and 17-year-old. Plaid Cymru and Labour also want to | :47:31. | :47:34. | |
see 16-year-olds given the vote. The Conservatives are less enthusiastic. | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
It is a question of maturity in terms of their knowledge of politics | :47:40. | :47:43. | |
and experience of the world. I'm not saying we can't have it and given | :47:44. | :47:48. | |
the issues that will, constitutionally as a result of what | :47:49. | :47:50. | |
happened in Scotland it is something we should be considering. I think we | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
need to be very cautious on our approach to giving votes to | :47:55. | :47:59. | |
16-year-olds. The suffragettes on the march... | :48:00. | :48:04. | |
Things were very different a century ago when women of all ages were | :48:05. | :48:09. | |
still fighting for the vote. That battle was won in 1918 but even | :48:10. | :48:16. | |
then, only with regard to some women over the age of 30. Ten years later | :48:17. | :48:22. | |
that fell to 21, in line with men. Dish voters will have gone to the | :48:23. | :48:26. | |
polls... In 1970, 80-year-olds were allowed | :48:27. | :48:28. | |
to take part in the general election. The Scottish -- | :48:29. | :48:36. | |
18-year-olds. The Scottish referendum was the first time that | :48:37. | :48:39. | |
16 and 17-year-olds have been allowed to vote in the UK. The | :48:40. | :48:43. | |
children's Commissioner hopes that will be the case again. | :48:44. | :48:46. | |
Children and young people are getting involved in their | :48:47. | :48:52. | |
communities and making a difference so the next step is to welcome them | :48:53. | :48:56. | |
into the democratic process. At this point do you think enough is | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
being done? For example, a 16-year-olds were given the vote to | :49:02. | :49:03. | |
take part in an election next week or next month, if the infrastructure | :49:04. | :49:08. | |
in place and the understanding for them to do that? | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
No, it isn't. We need to invest some real time in thinking through how we | :49:14. | :49:19. | |
can equip young people to understand and be prepared for a decision to be | :49:20. | :49:24. | |
made about lowering the voting age. Get conversations going and are | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
national participation structures with politicians and with Welsh | :49:30. | :49:34. | |
government, driven by the education curriculum are preparing young | :49:35. | :49:37. | |
people to think this through solidly so they can exercise their vote in | :49:38. | :49:41. | |
the right way. How long would it be until that | :49:42. | :49:46. | |
infrastructure is in place, for example, is the next general | :49:47. | :49:52. | |
elections who soon -- too soon? I don't think so. We should be able | :49:53. | :49:55. | |
to do it for the next assembly election. | :49:56. | :49:59. | |
More than 100,000 young people were registered to vote in the Scottish | :50:00. | :50:04. | |
referendum. Lowering the vote across the UK would affect 1.5 million | :50:05. | :50:10. | |
teenagers, 75,000 here. Currently there is a 2 tier system | :50:11. | :50:15. | |
of citizens. The state can make demands of 16 and 17-year-olds | :50:16. | :50:21. | |
because they can learn to drive and pay tax but they can't communicate | :50:22. | :50:24. | |
how they feel about these institutions. | :50:25. | :50:27. | |
I think that is something that has to change. But what do young people | :50:28. | :50:31. | |
themselves make of the suggestion they should be allowed to vote? | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
Is the only thing I would say is we would need more information before | :50:37. | :50:40. | |
we could make the decision. I feel like young people would like to have | :50:41. | :50:43. | |
a say in what happens in the country but I don't think we have enough | :50:44. | :50:46. | |
information yet. I know quite a lot of 16-year-olds | :50:47. | :50:50. | |
are very impressionable and we don't have enough expertise on who to vote | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
for. The Scottish referendum has raised | :50:56. | :51:02. | |
important questions about what the voting age should be. It will be up | :51:03. | :51:09. | |
to MPs in Westminster to decide if 16 and 17-year-old should be given | :51:10. | :51:12. | |
the vote, but there are calls for powers to be devolved to make | :51:13. | :51:17. | |
decisions like that in Cardiff Bay. The Presiding Officer has previously | :51:18. | :51:25. | |
said that we need it discussion about lowering the voting age but it | :51:26. | :51:28. | |
Tuesday is budget day for the Welsh government | :51:29. | :51:31. | |
when finance minister Jane Hutt will unveil next year's spending plans. | :51:32. | :51:34. | |
But with no majority in the Senedd and with the squeeze | :51:35. | :51:36. | |
Behind-the-scenes Finance Minister budget approved by the assembly? | :51:37. | :51:43. | |
Behind-the-scenes Finance Minister Jane Hutt has been talking to her | :51:44. | :51:49. | |
opponents to negotiate a deal. In public she has been around Wales | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
talking to public sector workers to hear their views on what to spare | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
from the cuts. She has been speaking to my colleague. | :51:59. | :52:02. | |
I have been so impressed by the commitment, determination and | :52:03. | :52:06. | |
willingness to be positive about how they can live under these very | :52:07. | :52:13. | |
difficult circumstances. It is very tough for them because it is 1.5 | :52:14. | :52:18. | |
billion yes that we have got to spend our budget so it has all been | :52:19. | :52:24. | |
about priorities. As a is difficult because people | :52:25. | :52:27. | |
want more money spent on their services and you can't offer that. | :52:28. | :52:34. | |
It is about getting back to the word priorities. What do they feel we | :52:35. | :52:38. | |
should be investing? A strong message coming over is that we | :52:39. | :52:43. | |
should do things to prevent things getting worse or prevent ill-health | :52:44. | :52:48. | |
or the kind of poverty that we know blights many people's lives. Also | :52:49. | :52:53. | |
things like if you look at prevention, every meeting people | :52:54. | :52:56. | |
have said that we need to invest in prevention. If we can help keep | :52:57. | :53:01. | |
people at home for treatment rather than admitted into hospital. | :53:02. | :53:05. | |
If you speak to people working in the NHS, they say they have made | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
these cuts already and they are finding it difficult. | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
Of course, people will say, should you spend so much money on arts and | :53:15. | :53:19. | |
culture and sport? If we need to spend more money on social services. | :53:20. | :53:24. | |
These are very tough decisions that ultimately, I have got to go away | :53:25. | :53:29. | |
and with my colleagues in the most government say, how are we going to | :53:30. | :53:32. | |
manage in these tough times? I have to say that this tool that I've | :53:33. | :53:39. | |
taken with people, all that they have wanted to do is say to me that | :53:40. | :53:45. | |
we can work together. We want to serve the people and use our | :53:46. | :53:51. | |
professional skills to the full. It has been remarkable. I have also | :53:52. | :53:54. | |
been going out to meet people who are using our services. I have met | :53:55. | :54:01. | |
apprentices and elderly people, as well as young people who are getting | :54:02. | :54:06. | |
into work. I can see what works because it is very important in | :54:07. | :54:10. | |
government that you check out, through proper evidence and | :54:11. | :54:12. | |
evaluation, what is making a difference. Sometimes you have to | :54:13. | :54:18. | |
say, if it isn't, we shouldn't continue with it. | :54:19. | :54:20. | |
On Tuesday when we see the government, will we see evidence | :54:21. | :54:24. | |
that the tough decisions have been made? | :54:25. | :54:28. | |
Tough choices in the budget next Tuesday. | :54:29. | :54:31. | |
Finance Minister Jane Hutt talking to Tomos Livingstone about Tuesday's | :54:32. | :54:33. | |
As we've heard, UKIP are causing problems for the Tories, | :54:34. | :54:38. | |
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the party is "parking its tanks" on | :54:39. | :54:42. | |
Labour's lawn and is emerging as the main opposition to Labour in Wales. | :54:43. | :54:48. | |
That was his message at the UKIP conference | :54:49. | :54:50. | |
in Doncaster this weekend, where he also a range of income tax cuts. | :54:51. | :54:56. | |
Nathan Gill is the UKIP MEP for Wales and is in our Bangor studio. | :54:57. | :54:59. | |
Let's start with these defections. Are you tapping up any Welsh MPs, | :55:00. | :55:11. | |
Nathan Gill? We are not just parking our tank on | :55:12. | :55:15. | |
the lawn of Labour, we are talking about driving a tank through the | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
valleys. I am not tapping up any of the Labour MPs personally but I'm | :55:21. | :55:25. | |
sure Farage is in conversation with him. He has indicated that is the | :55:26. | :55:29. | |
case so we are looking forward to hearing some more exciting | :55:30. | :55:33. | |
announcements in the future. What about Welsh Tories? David Jones | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
has apparently declined your invitations. | :55:39. | :55:43. | |
It is all about what we really believe in and do we believe in | :55:44. | :55:47. | |
Great Britain? To be really believe in giving people what they want and | :55:48. | :55:54. | |
party loyalty? -- do we believe. There are people in the Conservative | :55:55. | :56:00. | |
as well as Labour who said we will cut the deficit and cut immigration | :56:01. | :56:03. | |
into this country, getting us out of the EU. They are unable to do that | :56:04. | :56:09. | |
under the Conservatives or Labour and the only way is for them to be | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
honest and admit that UKIP are the only party in town when it comes to | :56:14. | :56:16. | |
this. Last week we published a poll that | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
showed that your party has picked up noticeable support in Wales, up | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
seven points and putting you in third place for the general | :56:27. | :56:29. | |
election. How much of that is down to Europe? | :56:30. | :56:34. | |
I think initially we were the party of the one issue that everybody | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
talked about, the EU. As we discovered in the Scottish | :56:40. | :56:43. | |
referendum, there is a deep? Great deal of disconnect -- a great deal | :56:44. | :56:52. | |
of disconnect. People just don't seem to connect with Westminster. | :56:53. | :56:57. | |
They vote for these MPs and they seem to represent their own parties. | :56:58. | :57:04. | |
We want MPs that represent the people of their constituencies and | :57:05. | :57:08. | |
what we want. Uncontrolled immigration, as an example, people | :57:09. | :57:12. | |
are furious about it because if you can't get local housing and your job | :57:13. | :57:18. | |
is dependent on the job market and there is a never-ending stream of | :57:19. | :57:22. | |
cheap Labour, no wonder people find it hard to find work. People want | :57:23. | :57:27. | |
politicians to stand up for the British people first and UKIP can do | :57:28. | :57:29. | |
that. Let's look at Europe and the in and | :57:30. | :57:35. | |
out referendum that David Cameron has offered. 14% support in Wales | :57:36. | :57:42. | |
suggests that you could tip the balance in some constituencies | :57:43. | :57:45. | |
against the Conservatives. That would make it less likely they would | :57:46. | :57:49. | |
get a majority and that there would be a referendum on the EU. | :57:50. | :57:55. | |
The Conservatives don't deserve another term in office. What they | :57:56. | :57:59. | |
have done is a disgrace, selling us out time and time again. As Douglas | :58:00. | :58:05. | |
Carswell and Mark Reckless have said when they defected from the | :58:06. | :58:09. | |
Conservatives to UKIP, basically it is all a ruse and David Cameron | :58:10. | :58:15. | |
wants to do what Mr Wilson did in the 70s and have a sham of a | :58:16. | :58:20. | |
renegotiation. A loaded referendum question. It doesn't matter because | :58:21. | :58:26. | |
it is crucial we have UKIP MPs in Westminster, that we hold the | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
balance of power and we can make sure we get a free and fair | :58:31. | :58:33. | |
referendum on the big issue that matters, the EU. | :58:34. | :58:39. | |
But better that referendum than no referendum at all is what some | :58:40. | :58:41. | |
voters will be thinking if they are Eurosceptic. Dali, voting for UKIP | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
could make it even more remote a prospect. | :58:47. | :58:50. | |
We have said all along that they'll abound in trouble. -- Ed Miliband is | :58:51. | :59:02. | |
in trouble. We are saying it doesn't matter if | :59:03. | :59:05. | |
you vote Conservative or Labour because they will give you the same | :59:06. | :59:09. | |
old. You will get a sham referendum. If you vote UKIP, you get UKIP. It | :59:10. | :59:16. | |
is crucial we get into Westminster, where we can make the difference. | :59:17. | :59:21. | |
If UKIP is about more than Europe, let's look at some of the income tax | :59:22. | :59:27. | |
policies that Farage has unveiled. Cuts in every tax band, no income | :59:28. | :59:34. | |
tax all the way up to ?13,500. How would you pay for this? | :59:35. | :59:39. | |
Why are people on a minimum wage paying tax? We pay ?55 million a day | :59:40. | :59:47. | |
to the EU. It all comes back to that. | :59:48. | :59:51. | |
We are paying ?21 million a day in foreign aid, which is a disgrace | :59:52. | :59:58. | |
when we have so many people reliant on food banks. We will cut that | :59:59. | :00:02. | |
budget and reduce it to ?1 billion a year... | :00:03. | :00:06. | |
Would that be enough to pay for your income tax cuts or would you still | :00:07. | :00:12. | |
pull out of the EU? We are going to do that as well, | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
that is what we are all about. We will save ?55 million a day from | :00:17. | :00:22. | |
that. We believe strongly that a pound spent by a British citizen is | :00:23. | :00:28. | |
better than a pound spent by the British government. | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
Next week we will be hearing from the Liberal Democrats | :00:32. | :00:34. | |
as they meet in Glasgow for their annual conference. | :00:35. | :00:37. | |
We're @walespolitics for all the latest political news in Wales | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
My thanks to you both. Andrew, back to you. | :00:41. | :00:57. | |
Here we are back in Birmingham with the Conservatives. The Tories | :00:58. | :01:05. | |
thought all they had to do was come here, have a rally, a jamboree, and | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
off they go to the races, or in their case the general election. Two | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
races later it hasn't quite worked out like that. Let's look at the | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
state of this conference as it gets under way. On our panel we are | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
joined by David Davis. You wrote an article in the Mail on Sunday this | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
morning which was an Exocet at the heart of David Cameron's modernising | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
strategy. It was designed to act as a lever. It was designed to cause | :01:40. | :01:46. | |
trouble. No, we are in the running for the next general election. One | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
of the characteristics of having a five year fixed term Parliaments is | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
that the last year is about campaigning. It is important we beat | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
Miliband, he would be a disastrous Prime Minister. You think the whole | :02:00. | :02:05. | |
modernising strategy was a wrong turn, that is what the article said. | :02:06. | :02:13. | |
Yes. Has that opened the door to UKIP? It has left a lot of people | :02:14. | :02:33. | |
disillusioned with politics. What do you do to get it right? Who was | :02:34. | :02:35. | |
listening to you? Frankly we need to take a more | :02:36. | :03:11. | |
robust series of policies. How many more UKIP defections will there be? | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
I do not think there will be any more. I would be very surprised. I | :03:16. | :03:23. | |
know Nigel Farage has a brilliant sense of timing, but I do not think | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
he has got the resources to do that, namely, another Tory MP. So it could | :03:29. | :03:34. | |
be another Labour one, maybe? I think an awful lot will hinge on | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
what happens in Rochester. Because that is not a slam dunk. Clack and | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
unfortunately looks like it will be a walkover for them. But Rochester | :03:46. | :03:57. | |
is a different scene. And so, there could be a kind of Newark situation. | :03:58. | :04:03. | |
When I campaigned in Newark, two labour families I spoke to said they | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
would vote Tory to keep UKIP out. How bad was the Labour conference | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
last week? One politician said after he had a really bad performance that | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
his television performance was suboptimal. I think that would be a | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
good way of describing Ed Miliband's speech. The problem for | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
Ed Miliband in memorising speeches is that we are not auditioning for a | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
new lines Olivier, we're rehearsing for Prime Minister. He failed the | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
Laurence Olivier test, and therefore failed the Prime Minister test. I | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
think the real problem for him was forgetting to mention the deficit. | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
He spoke from the heart about issues which she really cares about, the | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
NHS, the rupture between wages and inflation, and forgot the deficit. | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
Those issues are important, but if you are not addressing things like | :04:53. | :04:55. | |
the deficit, then people are really not going to be listening to your | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
messages on the areas that matter. Was it bad? Yes, suboptimal, I am | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
afraid. I hope that this ends the nonsense of leaders wasting their | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
time learning speeches off by heart. You could learn a Shakespeare | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
play in the time it takes to learn 70 minutes of a leader's speech. I | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
think we should just go back to sensible reading what you have | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
written. You can then alter it just beforehand. A lot of things were | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
changing, which is not surprising, but he did not have time to learn | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
it. It is a silly gimmick, it worked once or twice, but that is enough | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
for that. Despite some of the derision of Mr Miliband, the Tories | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
are flat-lining in the sun decks, they have been there almost since | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
the disastrous budget, the omnishambles, of 2012, Labour is | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
still several points ahead, nothing seems to change? And David Cameron | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
is now the leader in trouble. It is almost as if a week is a long time | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
in politics. I thought the Labour and friends was Saab -- | :06:00. | :06:06. | |
sub-suboptimal. It was so parochial. You could've watched the top | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
speeches without knowing that the borders of Ukraine, and Iraq and | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
Syria were in question. I hope, because of Friday's discussion in | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
Parliament, that this conference will raise its sights a bit, and we | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
will have something in Cameron's speech, possibly that of George | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
Osborne as well, which is a bit more global. People hoped UKIP had gone | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
away during the summer, people at this conference, I mean, but it is | :06:35. | :06:41. | |
back with a bang. They are still up at 15% in the polls, the Tories | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
languishing on 32 - what is going to change? UKIP won 3% of the last | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
election, I always thought they would get about 6%. If, by the turn | :06:51. | :06:58. | |
of the year, they are still in double digits, I think at that point | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
you can begin to wake of his party's chances of winning. I have | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
had three people say to me so far, come election day, it will be fine, | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
people will sober up and so on. It will be all right on the night is | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
not a very good strategy, frankly. When they get past 5%, I start to | :07:17. | :07:24. | |
bite into our 3-way marginal seats, with liberals, Labour and Tories, | :07:25. | :07:28. | |
and we have got about 60 of those in the Midlands and the north, so it | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
really is quite serious. And if I may steal one of David's lines, when | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
you were interviewing Mark Reckless this morning, and was not talking | :07:38. | :07:41. | |
about the EU referendum, he was talking about how he felt he had | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
broken his pledges to the electorate because the Conservatives he said | :07:46. | :07:49. | |
had failed on immigration and on the deficit, and those sort of | :07:50. | :07:51. | |
bread-and-butter issues could be really potent on the doorstep, which | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
means the Tories have got to run the kind of campaign they ran in Newark, | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
which is a real centre ground, Reddan but a campaign, in which they | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
would hope to get Liberal Democrat and Labour voters out to vote | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
tactically against UKIP. I think today we have seen Cameron been | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
pushed to the right. He has had to say, yes, I would leave Europe, | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
which he has never said before. It is a huge stepping stone, a big | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
difference. It takes the Tory party somewhere else. May be get them a | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
lot of votes. But it has not so far. But I think it loses a lot of | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
people. The industry organisations, for example. The prospect of going | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
out of Europe, but is quite a fight for them. Is it not the lesson that | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
you can out UKIP UKIP? Well, you do not need to, really. I agree, last | :08:46. | :08:55. | |
week was sub-sub-suboptimal. Hold on, that is enough subs! I would not | :08:56. | :09:04. | |
be crowing too much! But what I was going to say, he left out something | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
incredibly important, the deficit. But how many people outside the M25 | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
are thinking about the deficit? One problem we face with Miliband is, he | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
is good at politics and bad at economics, in a way. He comes up | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
with bonkers policies which people love, price-fixing, things like | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
that. Our problem will be about relevance on the doorstep. I do not | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
think at the end of the day it will be about Europe. But was there not a | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
moment of danger for you at the conference, that one area where | :09:39. | :09:40. | |
Miliband is potentially vulnerable is not having credible team with | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
business. Who turned up at the Labour conference, the head of | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
Airbus, saying, we have got to stay in the European Union? The danger is | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
that Europe allows the Labour Party to gain credibility with business. | :09:54. | :10:01. | |
There is some truth in that. But we are in effectively the home | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
straight, the last six months, and people will be fussing about prices | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
and jobs. Very parochial. They will not be saying, what does the CBI | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
think about this? It is, what is happening to me, in my town, in my | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
factory, in my office. That is where the fight will be. Is it not the | :10:20. | :10:28. | |
truth that if UKIP stays anywhere near around this level of support, | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
it is impossible for the Tories to win an overall majority? I would | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
say, if it is this level of support, it is impossible for the Tories to | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
finish as the biggest party, even in a hung Parliament. The Tories keep | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
trying to win back UKIP voters with cold logic - witches it makes Ed | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
Miliband becoming prime minister more likely. UKIP is basically a | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
vessel phenomenon, coming from the gut, and David Cameron has never | :10:56. | :10:59. | |
found the emotional pitch in his rhetoric to meet that. I wonder | :11:00. | :11:01. | |
whether we will see that moron Wednesday. It is just not him. I | :11:02. | :11:13. | |
hope we do. -- more on Wednesday. I hope you're right that we do | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
actually engage on emotion. So far with UKIP, our policy has been to | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
insult them. It does not work. I know that from my constituency. We | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
have to say to them, there is a wider Tory family, we understand you | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
are patria, we understand you are worried about your family, and we do | :11:32. | :11:37. | |
the same. What does it tell us about the state of the Tories, seven | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
months from the election, the economy is going well, they are not | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
that far behind Labour, and yet there is all sorts of leadership | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
speculation? It is extraordinary. They are doing well, they are in | :11:49. | :11:51. | |
with a shout. It depends. UKIP has to be kept below 9% of. -- below | :11:52. | :12:04. | |
9%. I think David Cameron is one of the few who speaks human, actually | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
talks quite well to people and does not look like a swivel-eyed loons. | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
Whereas a lot of people behind him do. You look at Duncan Smith and | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
Eric Pickles, they are all kind of driven, ideological men, with very | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
right-wing policies. And nice people! Don't hold back! He is not | :12:22. | :12:29. | |
the Addams family, he is basically quite human. I think a lot of people | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
do not realise how ideological he is himself and how well he has led his | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
party in the direction they all want to go. You go on about him being | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
this metropolitan moderniser, I do not think that is what he is, | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
really. It may not be visible from the guardian offices in the | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
metropolis! Everybody where you are, Polly, is a metropolitan moderniser. | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
And where you are, too. That is the nature of living in London. The | :12:59. | :13:01. | |
trouble is, when these people get into Westminster, they are part of | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
Westminster, too. If you could only win by being an outsider, the moment | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
you get in, you are done for. All teeing up nicely for Boris Johnson | :13:12. | :13:14. | |
to be the next leader? I do not think so! The point of my Exocet, or | :13:15. | :13:23. | |
lever, this morning, is that I think this is winnable. If we are good | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
Tories for the next six months, we can do this. It is by denying ground | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
to UKIP, not giving in to them, not buckling. Denying ground. Thank you | :13:34. | :13:39. | |
to our panel. They did all right today, but the normal. That is your | :13:40. | :13:42. | |
lot for today. I am back tomorrow. We will have live coverage of George | :13:43. | :13:48. | |
Osborne's speech to the conference. I am back next week in Glasgow for | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
The Sunday Politics at the Labour conference. How could you miss | :13:53. | :13:58. | |
that? Remember, if it is Sunday, it is The Sunday Politics. Bye-bye. | :13:59. | :14:05. |