23/04/2017

:00:36. > :00:39.It's Sunday afternoon - this is the Sunday Politics.

:00:40. > :00:42.Jeremy Corbyn wants to give everyone in Britain four

:00:43. > :00:44.extra bank holidays - but is the Labour leader up

:00:45. > :00:47.to being Prime Minister if he wins the election in just

:00:48. > :00:53.Theresa May says she wants a stronger hand to deliver Brexit -

:00:54. > :00:55.how will the Conservatives go about getting the bigger

:00:56. > :01:02.I'll be asking Party Chairman, Patrick McLoughlin.

:01:03. > :01:06.And I've been in Paris where voters are going to the polls in first

:01:07. > :01:09.round of the French Presidential election - what could be the impact

:01:10. > :01:13.And in the Midlands: unpredictable of contests?

:01:14. > :01:14.Will this be the most unwanted collection?

:01:15. > :01:18.Not the general election, but next month's poll for metro mayor.

:01:19. > :01:21.We'll also talk about the county elections too, in half an hour.

:01:22. > :01:23.Will the Remain majority punish the Tories for the decision?

:01:24. > :01:25.Or feel they may not like it but the Tories

:01:26. > :01:40.And with me has always ready for the marathon task of covering a snap

:01:41. > :01:44.general election, even working on bank holidays, the best and

:01:45. > :01:44.brightest political panel in the business. David Wooding, Polly

:01:45. > :01:48.Toynbee and Toby Young. So Labour's big announcement this

:01:49. > :01:50.morning was a crowd pleaser. Four more rainy bank

:01:51. > :01:52.holidays to enjoy - one for each of the patron saints

:01:53. > :01:55.of England, Scotland, But Mr Corbyn probably won't be

:01:56. > :02:01.getting the time off work if he wins And on The Andrew Marr Show this

:02:02. > :02:05.morning he was asked what he would do as Prime Minister

:02:06. > :02:08.if the security services asked him to authorise a drone strike

:02:09. > :02:11.on the leader of Islamic State. What I'd tell them is,

:02:12. > :02:15.give me the information you've got, tell me how accurate that is,

:02:16. > :02:17.tell me what you I'm asking you about decisions you

:02:18. > :02:27.would take as Prime Minister. Can I take you back

:02:28. > :02:29.to the whole point? Is the objective

:02:30. > :02:33.to start more strikes that may kill many innocent

:02:34. > :02:35.people, as has happened? Do you think killing

:02:36. > :02:37.the leader of Isis would be I think the leader of Isis not

:02:38. > :02:46.being around would be helpful, and I'm no supporter or defender

:02:47. > :02:48.in any way of Isis. But I would also argue that

:02:49. > :02:53.the bombing campaign has killed a of whom were virtually prisoners of

:02:54. > :02:56.Isis. So you've got to think

:02:57. > :03:02.about these things. Mr Corbyn earlier. David, is his

:03:03. > :03:07.reply refreshing damaging? It is damaging. He has clearly been

:03:08. > :03:11.freaked to the fire already in the first week, there will be lots of

:03:12. > :03:14.questions on his suitability as a leader and the damage it could cause

:03:15. > :03:19.to our national security over the weeks ahead and Andrew Marr has cut

:03:20. > :03:22.straight to the chase here. The other thing, of course, is the

:03:23. > :03:25.letters of last resort, one of the first duties of a Prime Minister

:03:26. > :03:31.when he walks into No 10 is to sign these letters on his own, on or --

:03:32. > :03:34.or on her own in a room, a very lonely moment, to decide whether he

:03:35. > :03:38.should press the nuclear button and that goes in the Vanguard submarines

:03:39. > :03:42.and is opened in the event of a strike and he has dodged a question

:03:43. > :03:46.so many times. One must wonder what he would do that. He has to make

:03:47. > :03:51.these decisions as Prime Minister. On the Isis point, refreshing or

:03:52. > :03:56.damaging? It sure is his base, the people who support him, that's the

:03:57. > :03:59.sort of thing they support info and maybe his tactic is that's all he's

:04:00. > :04:03.going to get, that is what the polls seem to suggest, in which case they

:04:04. > :04:07.will be pleased, and say yes, the man is a man for these who doesn't

:04:08. > :04:13.press buttons and shoot people down. But if you want to win you have to

:04:14. > :04:16.deal with your own weaknesses and reach out to other people. I think

:04:17. > :04:22.most people would say that's not somebody who could defend the

:04:23. > :04:26.country. I wonder if he was being totally honest in saying he would

:04:27. > :04:31.consider it he would ask for more information. He has previously been

:04:32. > :04:33.on the record as being against drone strikes in principle, he's

:04:34. > :04:37.campaigned against them, he wants to abolish drones. I think Andrew Marr

:04:38. > :04:41.let him off saying it was a drone strike rather than a Navy SEAL or

:04:42. > :04:44.SAS operation and he had the fact that they could be collateral

:04:45. > :04:50.damage. We that's not his position because he condemned the

:04:51. > :04:54.assassination of Osama Bin Laden even though there was no collateral

:04:55. > :04:57.damage. David is right on the Trident point, he fetched the

:04:58. > :05:03.question. We heard Niall Griffiths on this very show saying Trident,

:05:04. > :05:06.the renewal of Trident, would be in the next Labour Party manifesto. It

:05:07. > :05:09.turns out now we don't know and when he was asked he said that remains to

:05:10. > :05:13.be seen, his re-opened a can of worms. What he has said about

:05:14. > :05:18.Trident which was extraordinary was, we will rebuild the submarines but

:05:19. > :05:21.not have any nukes on them which is expensive and useless. And of course

:05:22. > :05:24.the Labour Party were forced soon after that interview to put out a

:05:25. > :05:30.statement saying it is Labour Party policy to renew Trident. So where

:05:31. > :05:34.are we? Do we know what the party's policy is? It is to renew Trident

:05:35. > :05:40.but he has started this review which involves looking at it all again. We

:05:41. > :05:45.know he is a unilateralist to start with but whether he can force this

:05:46. > :05:49.through is dubious. Does it matter, though, if the party policy is in

:05:50. > :05:53.favour of Trident, if the leader is not? The potential Prime Minister is

:05:54. > :05:56.not? They split three ways when they went to vote on it in the Commons.

:05:57. > :06:01.The party agreed they were pro-Trident and when it came to the

:06:02. > :06:05.vote they split three ways. I think it's difficult for them, it's always

:06:06. > :06:09.been a really difficult issue for Labour. The question is whether you

:06:10. > :06:13.want to seal off your negatives, whether you really want to try and

:06:14. > :06:16.reach out to people. There are an awful lot of people who will like

:06:17. > :06:22.what he said, there are an awful lot of people that think we have been

:06:23. > :06:25.involved in terrible wars, we have wasted a lot of money and blood and

:06:26. > :06:30.let's just get back from the whole thing, let's retreat from the world

:06:31. > :06:33.and not try punching above our weight. There is something to be

:06:34. > :06:38.said for that and it is a reasonable argument. He's been true to himself

:06:39. > :06:41.on this. I think he is and Polly is right, lots of people will agree

:06:42. > :06:45.with him, not enough to win a general election, the latest ComRes

:06:46. > :06:49.poll shows Tories on 50% and Labour on 25 and as my colleague James

:06:50. > :06:52.Forsyth in the Spectator said if this was a boxing match it would

:06:53. > :06:53.have been stopped by now by the revelry. We are not stopping, we are

:06:54. > :06:55.going on. So the political parties have had

:06:56. > :06:57.to move into election mode Stand by for battle buses,

:06:58. > :07:01.mail shots and your social media timeline being bombarded

:07:02. > :07:02.by political propoganda. But none of this comes cheap -

:07:03. > :07:08.Adam's been doing his sums. Democracy is priceless but those

:07:09. > :07:13.planes, trains and automobiles used in the last election cost money

:07:14. > :07:16.and we know exactly how much, thanks to the Electoral

:07:17. > :07:21.Commission database. The Conservatives flew David Cameron

:07:22. > :07:25.to every part of the UK in one day on a private plane costing ?29,000,

:07:26. > :07:31.in-flight meals extra. They shelled out ?1.2 million

:07:32. > :07:37.for adverts on Facebook. The most expensive item was their

:07:38. > :07:41.election guru Lynton Crosby. They bought ?2.4 million worth

:07:42. > :07:44.of advice and research from his firm Labour's biggest expenditure

:07:45. > :07:50.was on good old-fashioned leaflets, costing ?7.4 million

:07:51. > :07:53.to print and deliver. Hope they didn't go straight

:07:54. > :07:58.into the recycling. Cheap for all the

:07:59. > :08:07.enjoyment it gave us. To turn a normal minibus

:08:08. > :08:10.into Harriet Harman's pink bus Nick Clegg toured the country doing

:08:11. > :08:16.all manner of stunts transported although the party got a grand's

:08:17. > :08:29.discount when it broke down. Ukip's then leader Nigel Farage

:08:30. > :08:31.was accompanied by bodyguards Nicola Sturgeon's chopper

:08:32. > :08:40.cost the SNP ?35,450. Plaid Cymru spent just over

:08:41. > :08:44.?1,000 on media training And the Greens spent ?6,912

:08:45. > :08:58.promoting their tweets. It adds up to a grand total

:08:59. > :09:02.for all the parties of ?37,560,039. Jabbing at my calculator that works

:09:03. > :09:08.out at less than ?1 per voter. Adam Fleming there -

:09:09. > :09:13.and joining me now is the man responsible for the Conservative

:09:14. > :09:17.election campaigns - for the locals next month

:09:18. > :09:25.and the general election in June - Welcome to the programme. The Crown

:09:26. > :09:28.Prosecution Service is reviewing evidence from 14 police forces that

:09:29. > :09:33.your party breached election spending rules on multiple occasions

:09:34. > :09:39.in the last election. What are you going to do differently this time?

:09:40. > :09:45.Well, the battle buses are part of the National campaign spend. You saw

:09:46. > :09:48.them just on the shot that you did, all three parties had those battle

:09:49. > :09:52.buses so that's why we believe they were part of the national spend and

:09:53. > :09:55.it was declared that way. At least 30 people in your party, MPs and

:09:56. > :10:00.agents, being investigated because they may not have been right to

:10:01. > :10:02.include it in the national spend. Are you saying you are going to do

:10:03. > :10:10.nothing differently this time? You asked me about last time and the way

:10:11. > :10:14.the position is... Was. I asked you about this time. We will take a

:10:15. > :10:20.careful count and make sure that everything that we do is within the

:10:21. > :10:24.law. But as I say, the last election, all three parties had

:10:25. > :10:28.battle buses. It is your party that above all has been investigated by

:10:29. > :10:34.14 police forces. You must surely be taking stock of that and working out

:10:35. > :10:38.how to do some things differently. You are being investigated because

:10:39. > :10:42.you put stuff on the National Ledger which should have been on the local

:10:43. > :10:46.constituency ledger. Are you looking at that again? All of the parties

:10:47. > :10:49.had battle buses and they all put them on their national spend. I

:10:50. > :10:54.don't think any of the parties put them on the local spend. The other

:10:55. > :10:57.battle buses were not full of their party activists. Your party stuffed

:10:58. > :11:03.these battle buses with activists and took them to constituencies.

:11:04. > :11:07.That's the difference. And I ask again, what is different this time?

:11:08. > :11:11.Are you going to run the risk of being investigated yet again? We

:11:12. > :11:16.believe that we fully compliant with the electoral law as it was. What

:11:17. > :11:21.will happen if one of these, or two or three or four or five of these 30

:11:22. > :11:27.people, Tory MPs, or agents running campaigns are charged during the

:11:28. > :11:31.campaign? As I say I believe we properly declared our election

:11:32. > :11:34.expenses. What happens if they are charged? You asking me a

:11:35. > :11:37.hypothetical question, the importance of this election is about

:11:38. > :11:42.who is in Downing Street in seven weeks' time. Let me clarify this,

:11:43. > :11:46.you maintain that in 2015 you did nothing wrong with how you allocated

:11:47. > :11:48.the cost and the activities of the battle buses and you would do

:11:49. > :11:53.exactly the same this time round? What we did at the last election we

:11:54. > :11:58.believe fully complied with the law. So the battle buses this time,

:11:59. > :12:02.stocked full of activists, will still be charged to the national

:12:03. > :12:10.campaign even when they go to local constituencies? Will they? We will

:12:11. > :12:14.be looking at the way we do it, there is new guidance from the

:12:15. > :12:18.Electoral Commission out and we will look at that guidance. It is not the

:12:19. > :12:22.guidance, it is the lawful stop the Electoral Commission said that, if

:12:23. > :12:25.you look at the report they did on us, they said there was one area

:12:26. > :12:29.where we had over claimed, over declared, and another area we had

:12:30. > :12:32.and declared. We haven't worked out what to do

:12:33. > :12:36.yet, have you? We will get on with the campaign and

:12:37. > :12:38.start the campaign and I'm looking forward to the campaign.

:12:39. > :12:41.I'm trying to work out of the campaign is going to be legal or not

:12:42. > :12:45.because last time it seems it could have been illegal.

:12:46. > :12:47.I am sure the campaign will be legal.

:12:48. > :12:52.You started the campaign warning about the prospect of, the coalition

:12:53. > :13:00.of chaos. Mr Corbyn has ruled out a post-election coalition with the SNP

:13:01. > :13:02.and so have the Lib Dems so who is going to be in this coalition?

:13:03. > :13:04.Vince Cable said he was looking towards a possible coalition trying

:13:05. > :13:07.to stop a Conservative government. Is not the leader of the Lib Dems.

:13:08. > :13:14.He's an important voice in the Lib Dems. Who will be in it? Let's see

:13:15. > :13:17.because of the Conservative Party is not re-elected with a strong

:13:18. > :13:20.majority, what will happen? There will be a coalition stopping us

:13:21. > :13:25.doing the things we need to do. Who will be in it? It will be a

:13:26. > :13:28.coalition of the Labour Party, the SNP and the Liberal party. They have

:13:29. > :13:32.ruled it out. I think they would not rule it out if that was the

:13:33. > :13:36.situation. Like Theresa May not ruling out an election and then

:13:37. > :13:40.changing her mind? The things the Prime Minister said were very clear,

:13:41. > :13:44.once she had served Article 50 there was an opportunity, as we know

:13:45. > :13:48.today, there is going to be the start of a new government formed in

:13:49. > :13:51.France and in September we have the German elections. So it was quite

:13:52. > :13:57.right that we didn't get ourselves boxed into a timetable. That is why

:13:58. > :14:01.the Prime Minister took the view that they should be a general

:14:02. > :14:04.election to give her full strength of an electoral mandate when it

:14:05. > :14:11.comes to those negotiations. What about Mr Corbyn's plan for four new

:14:12. > :14:14.bank holidays, good idea? I'm not... If we get Corbyn in No 10 Downing St

:14:15. > :14:20.we will have a permanent bank holiday of the United Kingdom. We

:14:21. > :14:25.will have fewer bank holidays of most other major nations, most about

:14:26. > :14:29.major wealthy nations. What about at least one more? Well, look, he's

:14:30. > :14:34.talked about four bank holidays. Today would be a bank holiday and

:14:35. > :14:38.next Monday would be a bank holiday and the other week was a bank

:14:39. > :14:42.holiday too. I don't think it's very well thought out. It sounded more to

:14:43. > :14:46.me something like you get in school mock elections rather than proper

:14:47. > :14:49.elections. Your party is the self-styled party of the workers and

:14:50. > :14:53.you have no plans to give the workers even one extra bank holiday?

:14:54. > :14:58.What we want to do is ensure Britain is a strong economy and building on

:14:59. > :15:02.the jobs that we have created since 2010. We were told that by reducing

:15:03. > :15:07.public expenditure unemployment in this country would go up,

:15:08. > :15:12.unemployment has gone down and the number of jobs have gone up

:15:13. > :15:15.substantially. But no more bank holidays? Well, we will make our

:15:16. > :15:19.manifesto in due course but I don't think four bank holidays held in

:15:20. > :15:25.April, March and November are very attractive to people. When Ed

:15:26. > :15:34.Miliband as leader of the Labour Party suggested the government

:15:35. > :15:38.should control energy prices by capping them, the Conservatives

:15:39. > :15:42.described that as almost Communist and central planning. Do still take

:15:43. > :15:46.that view? You'll see what we have to say on energy prices. I didn't

:15:47. > :15:50.you about that, I asked you if you take the view... The Prime Minister

:15:51. > :15:53.made a speech at the Conservative Spring conference in which she

:15:54. > :15:56.outlined her dissatisfaction about people who are kept locked on a

:15:57. > :15:59.standard tariff and those are the issues we will address in the next

:16:00. > :16:04.few weeks when the manifesto was published.

:16:05. > :16:10.Would that be an act of communism? You will need to see what we say

:16:11. > :16:17.when we set out the policies. It could be. You could put a Communist

:16:18. > :16:21.act into your manifesto? I don't think you'll find a Communist

:16:22. > :16:25.manifesto in a Conservative manifesto which will be launched...

:16:26. > :16:29.You are planning to control prices? We will address what we think is

:16:30. > :16:33.unfairness in the energy market. Mr Jeremy Corbyn was reluctant this

:16:34. > :16:39.morning to sanction a drone strike. You heard us talking about it

:16:40. > :16:43.earlier against the leader of Islamic State if our intelligence

:16:44. > :16:47.services identified him. What would it achieve? When the Prime Minister

:16:48. > :16:52.gets certain advice in the national interests, she has to act been that.

:16:53. > :16:55.We've seen with Theresa May in her time as Home Secretary and Prime

:16:56. > :16:59.Minister, she's not afraid to take those very difficult decisions. What

:17:00. > :17:03.we say this morning from Jeremy Corbyn was a his tans, a reluctance.

:17:04. > :17:10.I don't think that serves the country well. What would it achieve

:17:11. > :17:15.if we take out the head of Islamic State he's replaced by somebody

:17:16. > :17:20.else. It brings their organisation into difficulties. It undermines

:17:21. > :17:24.their organisation. It shows we'll take every measure to undo an

:17:25. > :17:27.organisation which has organised terrorism in different parts of

:17:28. > :17:30.Europe, the UK. I think it is absolutely right the Prime Minister

:17:31. > :17:35.is prepared to take those kind of measures. Jeremy Corbyn said he

:17:36. > :17:40.wasn't prepared to take that. Because he wasn't sure what it would

:17:41. > :17:45.achieve. The Obama administration launched hundreds of drone strikes

:17:46. > :17:51.in various war zones and we in the west are still under attack on a

:17:52. > :17:57.regular basis. Mr Corbyn's basis was what would it achieve? It would

:17:58. > :18:01.achieve a safer position for the UK overall. The war on terrorists. But

:18:02. > :18:06.the Westminster attack, Paris has just been attacked again? There's

:18:07. > :18:10.been attacks which have been stopped by the intelligence services. We

:18:11. > :18:14.must do all we can to support them. The question was about drone

:18:15. > :18:19.strikes. Whether it is drone strikes or other action, we have to be

:18:20. > :18:23.prepared to act. Let's move on to Brexit. It is the major reason the

:18:24. > :18:27.Prime Minister's called the election? Not the only within but

:18:28. > :18:31.the main reason? It is one of the reasons. Now we start the two-year

:18:32. > :18:36.negotiations and then a year afterwards. Also the way in which

:18:37. > :18:39.certain people said they would try to use in the House of Lords or

:18:40. > :18:47.House of Commons to prevent us making progress. I think you'll put

:18:48. > :18:52.in your manifesto, it is the Government's policy, the Brexit

:18:53. > :18:59.negotiating position will be no more freedom of movement. Leave the

:19:00. > :19:02.single market and no longer under the jurisdiction Europe. You expect

:19:03. > :19:08.every Tory MP to fight on that manifesto. What will you do with Ken

:19:09. > :19:13.Clarke and Anna? They will have fought on their manifesto. They will

:19:14. > :19:16.understand the Prime Minister has the authority of the ballot box

:19:17. > :19:21.behind them. Will they fight the election on these positions? I'm

:19:22. > :19:26.sure they'll fight the election supporting the election of a

:19:27. > :19:29.Conservative Government and it's manifesto will quite clearly set

:19:30. > :19:34.out... You know they're against these positions. Ken Clarke has a

:19:35. > :19:38.prod tradition of expressing a certain view. Overall, the party's

:19:39. > :19:42.manifesto, it is not just individuals like Ken Clarke, it is

:19:43. > :19:47.what happens as far as the House of Lords are concerned, people said

:19:48. > :19:51.they'd use the House of Lords to prevent certain measures. You're the

:19:52. > :19:56.party chairman, will it be possible for people like Ken Clarke to fight

:19:57. > :20:01.this election under the Conservative ticket without sub describing to all

:20:02. > :20:07.-- subscribing to all of these Brexit conditions? Ken Clarke will

:20:08. > :20:11.fight as Conservative candidates. That wasn't my question. I know

:20:12. > :20:15.that. Will they be allowed to fight it on their own ticket and not

:20:16. > :20:19.subscribe to what is in your manifesto? The manifesto will be

:20:20. > :20:23.what the Conservative Party fights the General Election on. There will

:20:24. > :20:29.always be cases where people have had different views on different

:20:30. > :20:35.parts of the manifesto. That will be the guiding principles for the

:20:36. > :20:40.party. Philip Hammond says your election promises in 2015, in your

:20:41. > :20:44.manifesto not to raise taxes tied his hands when it came to managing

:20:45. > :20:49.the economy. Do you agree with him? No. The simple fact is we have to do

:20:50. > :20:53.the best things for the economy. We'll set out in our manifesto in a

:20:54. > :20:58.few weeks' time, what the policies will be for the next Parliament. Can

:20:59. > :21:04.I clarify, you don't agree with your Chancellor? What Philip was saying

:21:05. > :21:09.was some of the areas we wants to address as Chancellor, what the

:21:10. > :21:12.party will do, it will set out all the issues we're fighting on. It

:21:13. > :21:16.will set out clearly the choice we have in this country. That's the

:21:17. > :21:21.important thing. Let me put the question to you again. Philip

:21:22. > :21:25.Hammond said this week your election promise in 2015 not to raise taxes

:21:26. > :21:30.had tied his hands when it came to managing the economy. I ask you, do

:21:31. > :21:35.you agree with him? You said no. Philip expressed his view as to what

:21:36. > :21:40.he would like. What I'm saying is in a few weeks' time we'll set the

:21:41. > :21:44.manifesto which will set the policies, agreed with the the

:21:45. > :21:48.Cabinet. He's Chancellor. Doesn't he determine what the economic part of

:21:49. > :21:53.the manifesto is? We'll talk about that in due course. Will you have a

:21:54. > :21:59.lock on the taxes that you locked in 2015 on income tax, VAT, national

:22:00. > :22:05.insurance? That will be decided. You'll see that when we publish the

:22:06. > :22:09.manifesto in a few weeks' time. Will you rule out the possibility taxes

:22:10. > :22:14.may have to rise under a future Conservative Party? Conservative

:22:15. > :22:20.Government. We've taken four million people out of tax. Now, on average,

:22:21. > :22:26.people are paying ?1200 less tax than they were on the same salaries

:22:27. > :22:29.in 2010. I'm very provide of that. I can assure you, the Conservative

:22:30. > :22:32.Party will want to see taxes reduced. It is the Labour Party

:22:33. > :22:38.which will put up taxes. We have the evidence where this he did so.

:22:39. > :22:44.Council tax went up by over 100%. You haven't reduced the tax burden

:22:45. > :22:50.as a percentage of the GDP is now going to reach its highest level

:22:51. > :22:55.since the mid-180s which was when Conservatives were in power. The tax

:22:56. > :22:58.burden in this country under your Government is rising? We've more

:22:59. > :23:01.people paying taxes which is something, because we've a growing

:23:02. > :23:06.economy and more people... What about the tax band? You said you

:23:07. > :23:12.reduced the tax burden on your own Government's figures is rising? We

:23:13. > :23:16.have reduced the tax burden. The threshold at which people start

:23:17. > :23:22.paying. These are tax rates not the tax burden. It is rising. The tax

:23:23. > :23:27.rates have been reduced. You said tax burden. Perhaps I misspoke. Tax

:23:28. > :23:35.rates have been reduced. We'll leave it there. No doubt we'll speak again

:23:36. > :23:37.between now and June Is France now about to make it

:23:38. > :23:41.a hat-trick of shocks The prospect terrifies

:23:42. > :23:44.the governing elite in Paris. But they're no less scared

:23:45. > :23:47.in Brussels and Berlin, given what it could mean

:23:48. > :23:49.for the whole EU project, never mind the huge potential impact

:23:50. > :24:09.on our own Brexit negotiations. 11 candidates are contesting

:24:10. > :24:11.the first round of the presidential Only the top two will go forward

:24:12. > :24:17.to the run-off on May 7th. For the first time since General De

:24:18. > :24:22.Gaulle created the fifth Republic in 1958, it's perfectly possible that

:24:23. > :24:26.no candidate from the ruling parties of the centre-left or the

:24:27. > :24:29.centre-right will even make it The election has been dominated by

:24:30. > :24:36.the hard right in the shape of the who's never been elected

:24:37. > :24:43.to anything and only started his own party

:24:44. > :24:46.a few months ago. And the far left in the form

:24:47. > :24:48.of Jean-Luc Melenchon, a former Trotskyite who has surged

:24:49. > :24:52.in the final weeks of the campaign. The only candidate left from the

:24:53. > :24:55.traditional governing parties is the centre-right's

:24:56. > :24:58.Francois Fillon and he's been struggling to stay in

:24:59. > :25:01.the race ever since it was revealed that his Welsh wife was being paid

:25:02. > :25:07.at generous public expense for a job I've just come across

:25:08. > :25:21.this magazine cover and it kind of sums up the mood

:25:22. > :25:24.of the French people. It's got the five main candidates

:25:25. > :25:28.for President here but it calls them the biggest liar, the biggest cheat,

:25:29. > :25:31.the biggest traitor, the most paranoid, the biggest demagogue,

:25:32. > :25:34.and it says they are the winners The four leading candidates,

:25:35. > :25:44.Le Pen, Melenchon, Macron and Fillon, or in with a chance

:25:45. > :25:47.of making it to the second round. Only a couple of points separates

:25:48. > :25:49.them in the polls, Frankly, no one has a clue what's

:25:50. > :25:56.going to happen. Of the four, there is a feeling that

:25:57. > :26:01.two of them may be President But the two of them may not find

:26:02. > :26:14.themselves in the second round. Somebody said to me that the man or

:26:15. > :26:28.woman on the Paris Metro has as much a chance of knowing

:26:29. > :26:31.who will win as the greatest experts Because the more expert you are

:26:32. > :26:38.the more you may be wrong. The country has largely

:26:39. > :26:43.stagnated for over a decade. One in ten are unemployed,

:26:44. > :26:46.one in four if you are unlucky Like Britain in the '70s there is

:26:47. > :26:50.the pervasive stench There are three keywords that come

:26:51. > :26:58.to mind. Anger, anger at the elite, and in

:26:59. > :27:04.particular the political elite. And an element of

:27:05. > :27:10.nostalgia for the past. These three words were decisive

:27:11. > :27:14.in the Brexit referendum. They are decisive in

:27:15. > :27:26.the French election. Identity and security has been

:27:27. > :27:29.as important in this election France is a proud nation, it worries

:27:30. > :27:36.about its future in Europe It seems bereft of ideas about how

:27:37. > :27:41.to deal with its largely Muslim migrant population, huge chunks of

:27:42. > :27:44.which are increasingly divorced It is quite simply exhausted by

:27:45. > :27:55.the never-ending Islamist terrorist attacks, the latest only days before

:27:56. > :27:58.voting in the iconic heart of this If Fillon or Macron emerge

:27:59. > :28:09.victorious then there will be continuity of sorts, though Fillon

:28:10. > :28:13.will struggle to implement his Thatcherite agenda and Macron will

:28:14. > :28:17.not be able to count on the support of the French parliament, the

:28:18. > :28:20.National Assembly, for his reforms. But if it's Le Pen or Jean-Luc

:28:21. > :28:26.Melenchon then all bets are off. Both are hardline French

:28:27. > :28:29.nationalists, anti the euro, anti the European Union, anti-fiscal

:28:30. > :28:32.discipline, anti the market, Either in the Elysee Palace

:28:33. > :28:41.would represent an existential Brexit would simply become

:28:42. > :28:50.a sideshow, the negotiations could just peter out as Brussels

:28:51. > :28:55.and Berlin had bigger fish to fry. We're joined now from

:28:56. > :29:06.Paris by the journalist 8th Welcome to the programme.

:29:07. > :29:10.Overshadowing the voting today was yet another appalling terrorist

:29:11. > :29:17.attack in Paris on Thursday night. Do we have any indications of how

:29:18. > :29:21.that's playing into the election? That initially people thought this

:29:22. > :29:26.has been almost foiled in that the police were there as a ramp up. One

:29:27. > :29:30.policeman was killed. But the terrorist did not spray the crowd

:29:31. > :29:36.with bullets. It was seen as not having much of an effect on the

:29:37. > :29:42.election. This has changed. We now know the policeman who was killed, a

:29:43. > :29:47.young man about to the promoted, he was at the Bataclan the night of the

:29:48. > :29:54.terror attack. He was a fighter for LGBT rights. The fact he was

:29:55. > :30:01.promoted, happy within his job, he has this fresh face. Sudden, he's

:30:02. > :30:06.one of us. It took perhaps 48 hours for the French to process this. But

:30:07. > :30:12.now they're angry and this may actually change the game, at least

:30:13. > :30:19.at the margins. To whose advantage? I would say the two who might

:30:20. > :30:23.benefit from this are Marine Le Pen, she's been absolutely

:30:24. > :30:28.anti-immigration, anti-anything. And made no bones about it as she

:30:29. > :30:31.immediately made rather strange announcement in which she'd said if

:30:32. > :30:35.she'd been president none of the terror attacks which happened in

:30:36. > :30:43.France would have happened. Francois Fillon has written a book two years

:30:44. > :30:47.ago called Combating Islamic Terrorism he's has an organised plan

:30:48. > :30:51.in his manifesto. Unlike Emmanuel Macron who stumbled when he was

:30:52. > :30:56.asked the evening this happened what he thought, he said, I can't dream

:30:57. > :31:00.up an anti-terror programme overnight. The question, of course,

:31:01. > :31:03.that arrows was this is not the sort of thing that's just happened

:31:04. > :31:09.overnight. It's been unfortunately the fate of France for many years.

:31:10. > :31:14.Let me ask you this finally, what ever the outcome on May 7th in the

:31:15. > :31:20.second round, who ever wins, would it be fair to say French politics

:31:21. > :31:23.will never be the same again? Yes. Absolutely it's a very strange

:31:24. > :31:28.thing. People have no become really excited about this. You cannot go

:31:29. > :31:32.anywhere without people discussing heatedly this election. The anger

:31:33. > :31:39.that was described is very accurate. Very true. There was this feeling as

:31:40. > :31:43.for the Brexit voters and the Trump voters, vast parts of the people

:31:44. > :31:49.were being talked down to by people who despised them. This has to

:31:50. > :31:55.change. If it doesn't change, we cannot predict what the future will

:31:56. > :32:00.be. We'll know the results or at least the ex-the Poll London time

:32:01. > :32:01.tonight at 8.00pm. Thank for joining us from the glorious heart of your

:32:02. > :32:05.city. Now, the Green Party currently has

:32:06. > :32:08.one MP and they'll be contesting many more seats in June

:32:09. > :32:11.as well as hoping to increase their presence on councils in

:32:12. > :32:14.the local elections on 4th May. Launching their campaign

:32:15. > :32:15.on Thursday, co-leader Caroline Lucas made

:32:16. > :32:17.a pitch to younger voters. When it comes to young

:32:18. > :32:19.people they've been But one crucial way they've been

:32:20. > :32:24.betrayed is by what this generation and this government and the previous

:32:25. > :32:27.ones have been doing when it comes We know we had the hottest year

:32:28. > :32:32.on record last year, you know, you almost think what else does

:32:33. > :32:35.the environment need to be doing All the signs are there

:32:36. > :32:39.and it is young people who are going to be bearing

:32:40. > :32:41.the brunt of a wrecked environment and that's why it's so important

:32:42. > :32:45.that when we come to making that pitch to, yes, the country at large

:32:46. > :32:48.but to young people in particular, I think climate change,

:32:49. > :32:50.the environment, looking after our precious resources,

:32:51. > :32:54.has to be up there. And I'm joined now by the Green

:32:55. > :33:09.MEP, Molly Scott Cato. Welcome back to the programme.

:33:10. > :33:12.Promised to scrap university tuition fees, increase NHS funding, rollback

:33:13. > :33:16.cuts to local councils spending, how much would that cost and how would

:33:17. > :33:19.you pay for it? Like the other parties we haven't got a costed

:33:20. > :33:22.manifesto yet, it's only a few days since the election was announced so

:33:23. > :33:26.I will come back and explain the figures. You don't know? Like every

:33:27. > :33:32.party we have not produced accosted manifesto yet, we produced one last

:33:33. > :33:35.time but public spending figures have changed so we're not in a

:33:36. > :33:40.position to do that but we will be in a week or so. What taxes would

:33:41. > :33:44.you like to consider raising? We would consider having higher taxes

:33:45. > :33:49.for the better off in society. I think we need to increase the amount

:33:50. > :33:52.of tax wealthier people pay. How do you define better off? I'm not

:33:53. > :33:59.entirely clear what the precise number would be but I think 100,000

:34:00. > :34:02.people would pay a bit more, 150,000 quite considerably more but the real

:34:03. > :34:06.focus needs to be on companies avoiding paying taxes. I work on

:34:07. > :34:08.that a lot in my role in the European Parliament, we see an

:34:09. > :34:12.enormous amount of tax avoidance by companies moving profits from

:34:13. > :34:15.country to country and we need European corporation to make that

:34:16. > :34:21.successful. It has not made much difference yet. We have made lots of

:34:22. > :34:25.changes. Google turned over $1 billion and only paid 25 million in

:34:26. > :34:29.taxes last year. There was a significant fine introduced by the

:34:30. > :34:33.competition commission on Apple and in the case of Google we must change

:34:34. > :34:39.the laws so that people cannot move profits from country to country.

:34:40. > :34:42.Everybody wants to do it. But you couldn't face a big spending

:34:43. > :34:46.programme on the ability to do that. You'd have to increase other taxes.

:34:47. > :34:49.If you look at the cost of free student tuition, tuition fees and

:34:50. > :34:53.also maintenance grants to students, that would come in at about 10

:34:54. > :34:56.billion a year. One way of paying for that would be to remove the

:34:57. > :35:00.upper threshold on National Insurance, bringing in 20 billion a

:35:01. > :35:04.year, that's the order of magnitude we are talking about. It is not

:35:05. > :35:08.vast, and some of the proposals we have... That would be an increase on

:35:09. > :35:15.the better of tax? National Insurance on people earning...

:35:16. > :35:19.People earning above 42,000. You would have another 10% tax above

:35:20. > :35:25.42,000? I can't remember exactly how much the National Insurance rate

:35:26. > :35:29.changes by. But in government figures it would be 28 billion

:35:30. > :35:33.raised. I think it is up to 45, a bit more you pay a marginal rate of

:35:34. > :35:38.40%, you would have them pay a marginal rate of over 50%? We would

:35:39. > :35:42.put the National Insurance rate on higher incomes the same as it is on

:35:43. > :35:45.lower incomes. If you are a school head of an English department on 50,

:35:46. > :35:51.60,000 a year you would face a marginal rate under U of over 50%?

:35:52. > :35:56.It is not useful to do this as a mental maths exercise but if you

:35:57. > :36:00.look at other proposals would could have a landlord licensing system,

:36:01. > :36:03.longer term leases on properties, so young people particularly, but also

:36:04. > :36:06.older people who rent, could have more security which needn't cost

:36:07. > :36:11.anything. We could insist on landlords paying for that. The

:36:12. > :36:15.mental arithmetic seems clear but we will come back to that. How is the

:36:16. > :36:19.Progressive Alliance coming? It is going well, I have heard of a lot of

:36:20. > :36:24.interest at local level. Winterset this in contest, context, lots of

:36:25. > :36:29.progressives are concerned about the crisis in public services, prisons,

:36:30. > :36:32.social care system, and also about the Tories' hard extreme Brexit they

:36:33. > :36:37.are threatening. You want the left to come together? Theresa May has

:36:38. > :36:40.given us opportunity, she has taken a risk because she has problems with

:36:41. > :36:44.backbenchers, she doesn't think she can get through Brexit with a small

:36:45. > :36:47.majority so there is an opportunity and we are saying progressives must

:36:48. > :36:50.come together to corporate, Conservatives are effective at using

:36:51. > :36:55.the first-past-the-post system and we have to become effective as well.

:36:56. > :36:58.Do you accept this Progressive Alliance cannot become the

:36:59. > :37:02.government and Mr Corbyn is the Prime Minister? How could it happen

:37:03. > :37:06.otherwise? I think that is a secondary question. For me the

:37:07. > :37:09.primary question is who do people choose to vote for? Aluminium

:37:10. > :37:13.government afterwards comes after the election. In most countries that

:37:14. > :37:16.is the case. I understand that but we have the system we have and you

:37:17. > :37:20.accept this Progressive Alliance cannot be in power and thus mystical

:37:21. > :37:23.Burmese Prime Minister? Personally I think Mr Corbyn is less of a threat

:37:24. > :37:26.to the country than Theresa May, she has shown herself to be an

:37:27. > :37:33.authoritarian leader and she has said she doesn't want to have

:37:34. > :37:35.dissidents, which I would say is reasonable opposition, and what we

:37:36. > :37:38.are suggesting at the moment is there is a way of avoiding that very

:37:39. > :37:40.hard Brexit and damage to public services. You'd be happy to pay the

:37:41. > :37:45.price of having Mr Corbyn as Prime Minister? I do not see that as a

:37:46. > :37:48.price. People have the choice of Jeremy Corbyn or Theresa May as

:37:49. > :37:53.Prime Minister, that's the system that works. You would prefer Mr

:37:54. > :37:56.Corbyn? I would but votes are translated into seats and the

:37:57. > :37:58.Progressive Alliance is a step towards that.

:37:59. > :38:00.It's just gone 3:50pm, you're watching the Sunday Politics.

:38:01. > :38:02.We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland, Wales

:38:03. > :38:04.and Northern Ireland who leave us now.

:38:05. > :38:14.Coming up here in 20 minutes, the Week Ahead.

:38:15. > :38:17.Hello again, welcome to the Sunday Politics in the Midlands.

:38:18. > :38:20.And yet again, our part of the country is in the front line,

:38:21. > :38:27.Our marginal seats, always seen as the killing fields

:38:28. > :38:33.And before that, a hard-fought tournament for Midlands metro mayor,

:38:34. > :38:37.plus the fight for control of our powerful county authorities.

:38:38. > :38:40.That's our St George's Day pageant here today.

:38:41. > :38:45.Steve McCabe, Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak,

:38:46. > :38:53.and Mark Pawsey, Conservative MP for Rugby in Warwickshire.

:38:54. > :38:57.How did we manage to be caught on the hop by Theresa May's call

:38:58. > :39:02.Speculation had been rife for months, despite a succession

:39:03. > :39:07.of emphatic denials by one minister after another.

:39:08. > :39:12.But that all just seemed so last week when the Prime Minister made

:39:13. > :39:14.one of her first stops on the campaign trail yesterday

:39:15. > :39:18.in the weather-vane town of Dudley, with its two marginal seats -

:39:19. > :39:23.Every vote that's cast here in the Black Country

:39:24. > :39:26.is going to count and every vote that's cast here in the Black

:39:27. > :39:29.Country is going to be important for the future of our country.

:39:30. > :39:33.Because it is about delivering that strong and stable leadership,

:39:34. > :39:35.that strong and stable Government, that can take this country

:39:36. > :39:52.Theresa May in Dublin yesterday. Mark Pawsey, if all those arguments

:39:53. > :39:56.expressed by Minister after Mr so recently against an early general

:39:57. > :40:01.election held good as recently as that, what's changed? The idea that

:40:02. > :40:08.it's about delivering Brexit and analogy would be a distraction,

:40:09. > :40:12.what's changed? The most important decision facing our generation has

:40:13. > :40:16.been made, to leave the EU, and winger had to proceed with that. I

:40:17. > :40:20.was one of those and many others that was surprised about the

:40:21. > :40:22.election being called, the bass majority of MPs agreed when we went

:40:23. > :40:29.through the division lobbies last week. The more you think about it,

:40:30. > :40:32.the more sensible action right now is. Because the Article 50

:40:33. > :40:37.negotiations will take two years, I don't think we want to be concluding

:40:38. > :40:42.those negotiations as we start the five year election in 2020. If we

:40:43. > :40:49.get an action now and a strong mandate to do the negotiations with

:40:50. > :40:57.our European partners. It could just beat the extended Tory lead in more

:40:58. > :41:02.recent opinion polls. Opinion polls haven't been very accurate in recent

:41:03. > :41:07.years, as an jury you will know! The time is now right to make sure that

:41:08. > :41:11.we have a good run-up to make sure we have a strong coalition of people

:41:12. > :41:18.behind the negotiations we're having with Europe and get a great deal

:41:19. > :41:21.with our European partners. Mrs May talked in deadly yesterday about

:41:22. > :41:27.ordinary working people again and again. That's a clear threat to

:41:28. > :41:32.Europe party, the Sunday Times says she is parking her tags on Labour's

:41:33. > :41:37.lawn? I think ordinary working people will be asking why she's

:41:38. > :41:43.tax credits, when she's cutting tax credits, when she's cutting

:41:44. > :41:49.funding to their schools, 35 at 37 in my constituency are losing. Why

:41:50. > :41:51.she is cutting the police. If she is interested in Audrey, working

:41:52. > :41:58.people, why doesn't you do something to support those people? If you

:41:59. > :42:03.asked that question it a week ago, you would hurt the total opposite.

:42:04. > :42:07.This is nothing than opportunism. -- heard the total opposite. The

:42:08. > :42:12.question is what is coming down the line, what is beta into cutting and

:42:13. > :42:17.running now? We know, Mark, your local police force in Warwickshire

:42:18. > :42:21.is a number who sent papers to the Crown Prosecution Service over the

:42:22. > :42:25.Conservative Party's electoral spending at the last general

:42:26. > :42:31.election, raising the possibility of prosecutions in a number of key

:42:32. > :42:33.constituencies at a crucial, pivotal moment in this campaign? I don't

:42:34. > :42:39.think that is anything to do with the decision to take a night you

:42:40. > :42:42.now. The time is right. People have had the opportunity to see Theresa

:42:43. > :42:47.May of the best part of a year as Prime Minister. I'd been out on the

:42:48. > :42:50.colleagues, and overwhelmingly, colleagues, and overwhelmingly,

:42:51. > :42:53.people like that strong and robust, secure, stable leadership that

:42:54. > :42:54.Theresa May provides. Thank you both for now.

:42:55. > :42:57.The general election will now be the final leg of a real marathon,

:42:58. > :43:00.Nearly two million people have the opportunity

:43:01. > :43:03.to choose the metro mayor, who'll head the new Combined

:43:04. > :43:05.Authority covering Coventry, Birmingham and the Black Country.

:43:06. > :43:08.On Thursday, I hosted the only televised debate, with all six

:43:09. > :43:14.As Amy Cole explains, the top question from our studio audience

:43:15. > :43:18.was whether or not there should be an elected mayor at all.

:43:19. > :43:23.Six candidates for one job, and a big question for all of them...

:43:24. > :43:27.Do we need a metro mayor, or is it just another expensive

:43:28. > :43:33.It's been, perhaps, the defining issue of the campaign often

:43:34. > :43:38.characterised by hostility to the new mayoral role.

:43:39. > :43:41.In 2012, people in Britain and Coventry voted against having

:43:42. > :43:44.a mayor, and now they have a mayor that they didn't want

:43:45. > :43:51.One thing that's really clear, from all the hustings we have done,

:43:52. > :43:55.One of the main objections has been the cost of devolution,

:43:56. > :43:58.which one of the contenders says he would closely monitor.

:43:59. > :44:01.It is expensive, so I'm looking to keep the control of the cost

:44:02. > :44:03.of the combined authority, which have been running

:44:04. > :44:08.Who knows how many millions per year it's already costing.

:44:09. > :44:10.For the two front runners though, the role offers an opportunity

:44:11. > :44:13.for a region that's too often been overlooked.

:44:14. > :44:17.One of the reasons why this region has done relatively poorly over

:44:18. > :44:21.the last 40 years is that we have not had somebody championing

:44:22. > :44:24.the region around Britain and around the world.

:44:25. > :44:29.What this needs to be is part of a process of taking back control,

:44:30. > :44:33.real control, real power from the London Government that has

:44:34. > :44:37.let us down for 40 years in the West Midlands and finally

:44:38. > :44:39.starting to run the West Midlands ourselves.

:44:40. > :44:44.For the Liberal Democrats, it offers a chance to end politics as usual.

:44:45. > :44:48.I notice that Sion says this is about the London Government,

:44:49. > :44:52.But actually, it's the Labour Party and the Conservative Party

:44:53. > :44:58.The rank outsider summed up the mood of many questioning

:44:59. > :45:01.We already have Government in the West Midlands.

:45:02. > :45:04.We already have councils, council leaders.

:45:05. > :45:07.This isn't an extra layer of Government,

:45:08. > :45:13.And from the questioner, Mr Slater, a clear verdict.

:45:14. > :45:18.And when it comes to casting my vote, I'm going to spoil my paper

:45:19. > :45:22.and write across it, no mayor, please.

:45:23. > :45:24.With the election less than two weeks away,

:45:25. > :45:36.there's still plenty of work to do to convince the sceptics.

:45:37. > :45:43.And if you missed our debates, you can catch up with it on the iPlayer.

:45:44. > :45:50.We're also joined today by the Ukip MEP, Bill Etheridge. He said to me

:45:51. > :45:55.not long ago that if this metro mayoral role really is about

:45:56. > :45:57.devolution, then it is devolution from the people to the

:45:58. > :46:02.establishment. But that hasn't stopped your party from fielding a

:46:03. > :46:07.candidate. Bearing in mind that you obviously do take a dim role of this

:46:08. > :46:12.mayoral role, do you support Graham Slater, the man in this cert we have

:46:13. > :46:17.seen their in the audience, and his determination to spoil his ballot

:46:18. > :46:23.paper? His determination made sense, and this role is something very few

:46:24. > :46:26.people want. I stand by my comments. But Pete Durnell, our candidates, is

:46:27. > :46:29.standing on the platform of making the best of a bad job making sure

:46:30. > :46:34.the people of this area don't get ripped off any more than they are.

:46:35. > :46:42.So he's and anti-mayoral Mayor? You don't need to spoil your ballot

:46:43. > :46:45.paper, just put a cross by Pete Durnell, Ukip, and he will do his

:46:46. > :46:52.best to make this as painless as it can be. I take my hat off to him for

:46:53. > :46:59.standing. Bill is putting his finger on the point there, your Government

:47:00. > :47:04.is forcing this mayoral role down the throats of an electorate that

:47:05. > :47:06.has twice voted against it in a referendum in commentary, once in

:47:07. > :47:13.Birmingham, no wonder there is years of a low turnout? I am a great

:47:14. > :47:16.believer in the role. If we are going to have a combined authority,

:47:17. > :47:21.and in modern economies they work well when major metropolitan areas

:47:22. > :47:25.work together. We haven't had that in the West Midlands, we have lots

:47:26. > :47:30.of different authorities here, the idea is to bring them all together.

:47:31. > :47:35.I do think in Andy Street, the Conservative candidates, he is a

:47:36. > :47:37.strong candidates, he has brought the public and private sector

:47:38. > :47:41.together, he stood down as the boss of John Lewis, and he will bring

:47:42. > :47:46.those business skills together to manage the combined authority and do

:47:47. > :47:50.a great deal for the West Midlands. In an area like this, it is

:47:51. > :47:54.generally seen as Labour's election to lose. But if you do happen to

:47:55. > :48:03.lose it, and the poll suggested as a knife edge contest, that would be a

:48:04. > :48:08.serious blow to your party? I'm not convince we're going to lose. It is

:48:09. > :48:11.an unusual collection because it's a second-preference system, no one

:48:12. > :48:18.knows how that will work in this kind of setting. It could be the

:48:19. > :48:22.least worst alternative? The second-preference system distorts

:48:23. > :48:25.boating, that is a fact. I think in Sion Simon we have someone who will

:48:26. > :48:28.stand up for the area. After what the Government has done to

:48:29. > :48:36.Birmingham and the West Midlands, that's what we need. We saw Sion in

:48:37. > :48:41.action over the apprenticeship contracts. That is someone who will

:48:42. > :48:46.speak up immediately. Andy's nice enough guy, but we hear everything

:48:47. > :48:50.over John Lewis, if yeah so good, how come we end up in a situation

:48:51. > :48:54.where they are posting their lowest profits in the year he leaves? This

:48:55. > :49:01.is a conversation about the mayor not the business performance of... I

:49:02. > :49:06.didn't raise it, he did! The fact is there are lots of things in

:49:07. > :49:10.apprenticeships, also housing, transport, economic development,

:49:11. > :49:14.whether it is a role, surely, beyond what anyone local authority can do

:49:15. > :49:18.in its patch, but closer to the people than Westminster and

:49:19. > :49:23.Whitehall are. So, frankly, you should welcome these devolved

:49:24. > :49:26.powers? I welcome Paris coming away from Whitehall, absolutely. One of

:49:27. > :49:31.the main things I believe in politics is bringing power closer to

:49:32. > :49:36.the people, and it amusing to hear that Sion Simon is using this take

:49:37. > :49:42.back control line. He says he had at first. He should have copyrighted

:49:43. > :49:46.it. This scheme is absolutely not the right scheme. Nobody really

:49:47. > :49:53.knows what's got into it, it costs a lot of money, and everyone

:49:54. > :49:57.speculating, who knows. The mayor is responsible, the buck stops with the

:49:58. > :50:04.guy who selected. People ask me why am supporting a mayor, when it's

:50:05. > :50:09.bound to be a Labour mayor, given the electorate. We have a candidate

:50:10. > :50:13.looking to work hard. The Liberal Democrat candidate promised an end,

:50:14. > :50:18.if she's elected, to politics as usual. Is that every approach to the

:50:19. > :50:23.record of both your parties in Government? In terms of the raw deal

:50:24. > :50:30.that both Mr Simon and Mr Street say as had under the pair of you? They

:50:31. > :50:34.are the party that went into coalition the minute they had an

:50:35. > :50:39.opportunity, not an end to politics as usual there are! They said they

:50:40. > :50:41.won't go into collagen at this time. They made a pledge the last time.

:50:42. > :50:44.And we just can't get too much of a good thing.

:50:45. > :50:46.Because on the same day as that mayoral contest,

:50:47. > :50:49.polling will also be taking place in our Shire counties -

:50:50. > :50:50.across Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire,

:50:51. > :50:53.In what's bound to be seen as a dress rehearsal

:50:54. > :50:56.for the main event in June, Warwickshire has no party

:50:57. > :51:01.Our political reporter Sian Grzeszczyk says

:51:02. > :51:05.the Conservatives are vying for power with Labour.

:51:06. > :51:07.The battle for Warwickshire is well and truly on.

:51:08. > :51:10.And whilst the candidates won't be donning suits of armour,

:51:11. > :51:12.they know it's all to play for in the fight

:51:13. > :51:17.It's probably the last thing they're thinking about in a place

:51:18. > :51:20.like Warwick Castle, but how aware are voters

:51:21. > :51:23.that this local election is even taking place

:51:24. > :51:26.after Theresa May's surprise announcement?

:51:27. > :51:28.We're more aware that there's a local election.

:51:29. > :51:31.I don't think anyone really knew about it until the

:51:32. > :51:40.I think the bigger, national issues will play on our minds more.

:51:41. > :51:42.And I think we'll just drift through the local

:51:43. > :51:46.I do think that the local elections are just going to get

:51:47. > :51:48.The Conservatives are the largest party at Warwickshire

:51:49. > :51:53.But the council is under no overall control.

:51:54. > :51:58.whilst the Liberal Democrats have nine.

:51:59. > :52:03.The Green Party have two members, and there are also two independents.

:52:04. > :52:08.The Conservative leader is confident they will take back

:52:09. > :52:11.control of Shire Hall, and had this message for voters.

:52:12. > :52:16.I absolutely believe that the local council should be that safety net

:52:17. > :52:19.for people in hard times, who are vulnerable.

:52:20. > :52:24.So we believe that we should be looking to the future,

:52:25. > :52:28.investing in Warwickshire, building support for our workforce

:52:29. > :52:31.within Warwickshire, but being that catchall

:52:32. > :52:36.But heading north to Nuneaton, the county's Labour leader

:52:37. > :52:39.also has her eyes on the prize, despite depressing

:52:40. > :52:45.I can't deny it is a very tough time for Labour.

:52:46. > :52:47.But it's down to people like me, Labour Party people,

:52:48. > :52:52.You think you can take control of Shire Hall?

:52:53. > :52:55.I think we can win this election, because think some of the services

:52:56. > :53:00.that have being chopped over the years by the Conservative

:53:01. > :53:03.administration really need to be reinvented or made better

:53:04. > :53:08.Meanwhile, back at Warwick Castle, the Liberal Democrats are hoping

:53:09. > :53:11.this will be a real opportunity to hold onto the seats they have and

:53:12. > :53:18.People are being quite welcoming on the door,

:53:19. > :53:20.and we're already seeing locally, on our membership lists,

:53:21. > :53:25.We'll continue going forward around the position of children

:53:26. > :53:29.and families as an area which I think we need

:53:30. > :53:31.to because concentrating more, and that's children's

:53:32. > :53:34.It certainly doesn't seem to be performing correctly,

:53:35. > :53:39.The Green Party has had two councillors for the last four years,

:53:40. > :53:42.so what's their game plan this time around?

:53:43. > :53:45.Very much getting more seats in the county council.

:53:46. > :53:50.It would make a massive difference in our particular patches.

:53:51. > :53:52.And also, generally, at the county council,

:53:53. > :54:12.The contest for the county council certainly won't involve

:54:13. > :54:15.but the parties know what's at stake here,

:54:16. > :54:18.and they're running out of time in the fight for victory.

:54:19. > :54:24.She just about resisted the temptation to join in there. Also

:54:25. > :54:31.fielding candidates in Warwickshire are Ukip, the Socialist Coalition

:54:32. > :54:37.and associated Independent candidates. Your Government has been

:54:38. > :54:43.forced to take ?92.4 million out of the budget, and the leader of the

:54:44. > :54:46.council from your party has had a few things to say about that. So

:54:47. > :54:54.both nationally and locally, doesn't give your party and easy record to

:54:55. > :54:59.defend there? There is a lot of fun is to go into social care, and the

:55:00. > :55:05.additional to present that has been added to council tax bills does go

:55:06. > :55:09.to those bills. The budget at Warwickshire was agreed by the

:55:10. > :55:12.Labour group, interestingly, it was a joint budget presented by the

:55:13. > :55:17.Conservatives and accepted by Labour. So they recognise the good

:55:18. > :55:20.work the Conservatives are doing in getting services delivered. It is

:55:21. > :55:24.about making is your we get more for less, and councils have been adept

:55:25. > :55:31.at doing that in recent years. So it's all your fault in Warwickshire,

:55:32. > :55:36.Steve? So the anti-austerities of agenda that your party has been

:55:37. > :55:38.pushing during seven years of Conservative-led Government simply

:55:39. > :55:44.isn't cutting the mustard with the electorate, and the polls do back

:55:45. > :55:47.that up? This is a set of elections taking place and mostly Tory-held

:55:48. > :55:53.rural England. It will be interesting to see, and something

:55:54. > :55:55.that your viewers picked up in the film, how confusing will it be

:55:56. > :56:02.having a general election at the same time. How much impact that had?

:56:03. > :56:08.I think the bottom line for these elections is just what level of cuts

:56:09. > :56:12.can you sustain. And, actually, we saw that Tory councils have been

:56:13. > :56:17.trying to do secret, back door deals, because they can't sustain

:56:18. > :56:18.it. So from a to come here and kid on that a Tory budgets, who is the

:56:19. > :56:25.kidding? We have seen examples of kidding? We have seen examples of

:56:26. > :56:28.where Steve is coming from? Certainly councils of how to make

:56:29. > :56:31.difficult decisions, but the Government recognises that an ageing

:56:32. > :56:38.population needs more resources going into that sector. And that has

:56:39. > :56:41.happened. I mention that Ukip are among the parties fielding

:56:42. > :56:44.candidates. If you are to be taken serious eye as a national party,

:56:45. > :56:51.worry all the fighting 17 seats, one in three? The point is these

:56:52. > :56:56.elections are, in the shires, where in the past, when we ran before...

:56:57. > :57:02.You're a national party, you told me you are a party for everybody? We

:57:03. > :57:07.got it everywhere. Not much in Warwickshire. People going to go out

:57:08. > :57:11.there and campaign on the issues rather than party politics, because

:57:12. > :57:15.it should be about the local issues of the area. I'm cancel myself as

:57:16. > :57:20.well as an MEP, and we see doesn't matter what colour rosette you have

:57:21. > :57:23.on as long as you engage in the local issues, people support you.

:57:24. > :57:27.I'm confidently people standing there that they will acquit

:57:28. > :57:33.themselves very well for Ukip in the local people. Your colleague

:57:34. > :57:39.standing to become an MP, will you think of doing so yourself? I have

:57:40. > :57:46.submitted my name to be considered. I would like to fight the battle in

:57:47. > :57:52.Dudley North. Final thoughts from you, Steve, in Nuneaton,

:57:53. > :57:57.Warwickshire and Leamington, Rugby, even if you're going to have a hope,

:57:58. > :58:02.given Scotland and Upton of labour there, these are the ambitious

:58:03. > :58:08.targets you have two set -- meltdown of labour there. I haven't pretended

:58:09. > :58:13.this is going to be really tough, and I think this election is about

:58:14. > :58:15.saying to people, do not give her a massive majority and carte blanche

:58:16. > :58:25.to do whatever she likes. Because you do, you will the day. There are

:58:26. > :58:27.other areas where I think Steve... At ago thanks to you, Bill, for

:58:28. > :58:29.being with us. Let's catch up now with the rest

:58:30. > :58:32.of the political developments that have made the news here,

:58:33. > :58:34.during yet another Our round-up in 60 seconds

:58:35. > :58:37.is brought to us today Jeremy Corbyn was in Birmingham

:58:38. > :58:43.on Tuesday to make a local election announcement

:58:44. > :58:45.about carers' allowances. Just as the PM was poised to make

:58:46. > :58:48.that snap general election call. Not everyone wants

:58:49. > :58:51.an election though. Paul Farrelly was one of only 13 MPs

:58:52. > :58:57.to vote against a snap poll. Could it be because his

:58:58. > :59:01.Newcastle-under-Lyme seat is the region's

:59:02. > :59:04.top conservative target? Labour's Rob Marris is to stand down

:59:05. > :59:07.at the general election, just two years after making a return

:59:08. > :59:09.to Parliament And, after 20 years as Labour MP

:59:10. > :59:13.for Edgbaston, the former Health Minister and Vote Leave

:59:14. > :59:17.co-chairman Gisela Stuart I shall be on the campaign

:59:18. > :59:22.trail, but I shall not be So can I thank you and everyone here

:59:23. > :59:28.for the 20 years of a privilege. He was re-elected as the leader

:59:29. > :59:32.of Unite, defeating the union's West Midlands regional secretary,

:59:33. > :59:51.Gerard Coyne, after a bitter battle. A bitter battle, which to remind

:59:52. > :59:54.you, was also seen as a proxy battle over trying to stop Jeremy Corbyn

:59:55. > :00:00.leading Labour into the next election. To that went to plan them,

:00:01. > :00:04.didn't it, Steve? I would say that battle was a moral victory for

:00:05. > :00:08.Gerald Coyne, and the behaviour of Len McCluskey and suspended him is

:00:09. > :00:14.something you would associate with North Korea. It's total disgrace.

:00:15. > :00:18.What they need to be concerned about is turnout, 12 present members took

:00:19. > :00:26.part, that's not a massive mandate for anybody. We need that across a

:00:27. > :00:33.democratic system. The Tories want to tighten up on union ballots,

:00:34. > :00:36.briefly, if you would? The problem is the level of participation, but

:00:37. > :00:40.had to make it easier for people to vote, not to try and a train wreck

:00:41. > :00:44.the outcome. If the Tories are serious about reaching out to

:00:45. > :00:48.ordinary people, you have to take an interest in union politics. Yes,

:00:49. > :00:49.union people and now supporting Conservatives.

:00:50. > :00:51.My thanks to Steve McCabe and Mark Pawsey.

:00:52. > :00:54.Finally from me, a reminder that the last of our metro mayoral

:00:55. > :00:57.debates is coming up on Thursday, by which time there'll be exactly

:00:58. > :01:01.Hosted by Paul Franks, again with all six candidates,

:01:02. > :01:04.it's live on BBC West Midlands 95.6 from 7pm in the evening.

:01:05. > :01:08.This though is where we rejoin Andrew Neil.

:01:09. > :01:17.on issues like the NHS. Run out of time. Andrew, back to you.

:01:18. > :01:23.Now, Ukip have made their first significant policy announcement

:01:24. > :01:29.of the election campaign today with a call for a ban on wearing

:01:30. > :01:35.But is it a policy that will meet with the approval of the man

:01:36. > :01:37.who bankrolled the party's last general election campaign?

:01:38. > :01:44.Hello, Andrew. Let me see if I can clarify some things, are you a

:01:45. > :01:51.member of Ukip? I a patron of Ukip so I don't stop being a member. So

:01:52. > :01:55.you are still a member? I am, apparently for life. Are you still

:01:56. > :02:01.hoping to bankroll Ukip? Not at the moment. Why is that? The internal

:02:02. > :02:06.problems we have had in Ukip have been aired, and a lot needs to

:02:07. > :02:10.happen in the party in terms of professionalising it and I think it

:02:11. > :02:15.is ill-prepared for this general election. Are you going to run in

:02:16. > :02:23.Clacton? I will be if selected. For Ukip? Yes. Have you been to Clacton?

:02:24. > :02:26.I've been with Nigel Mansell on the campaign. You will run for a

:02:27. > :02:33.constituency you've only been in once? Yes, why does that surprise

:02:34. > :02:37.you? You know nothing about it. I've just recently decided to become the

:02:38. > :02:41.candidate there. Did you know where it is? Of course I do, your piece

:02:42. > :02:45.the other night was completely wrong. I said I knew where it was

:02:46. > :02:52.but I didn't know much about it. Maybe the people of Clacton will

:02:53. > :02:58.regard you as a carpetbagger? Why? Because you have never been there.

:02:59. > :03:02.Most politicians are carpetbaggers and I will be there for the right

:03:03. > :03:08.reasons. I thought it was because of your visceral hatred of Douglas

:03:09. > :03:11.Carswell. He only lasted 24 hours after I announced my candidacy so we

:03:12. > :03:14.will see what happens. The main thing I am going to Clacton on

:03:15. > :03:18.Monday to meet the Ukip councillors, see what the issues are and see if

:03:19. > :03:24.they want me as a candidate. They may not want me. Who do you think

:03:25. > :03:30.you will be up against? The potential Conservative candidate.

:03:31. > :03:35.Who in Ukip? I don't suppose anyone in Ukip will stand against me, I

:03:36. > :03:43.wouldn't have thought. Really? I would have thought. Money talks! Why

:03:44. > :03:46.do you say that? You talked about having a pirate radio station to

:03:47. > :03:49.blast into Clacton so it is not covered by the election rules.

:03:50. > :03:55.You've been talking about financing a sort of right-wing Momentum

:03:56. > :03:59.movement. I just wonder, has politics now just become a

:04:00. > :04:02.Richmond's hobby? From my perspective the reason I'm

:04:03. > :04:05.interested in it is if you have looked at what has happened in the

:04:06. > :04:10.country, it's clear the Conservatives will have a massive

:04:11. > :04:16.majority. -- has politics become a rich man's hobby. Only putting up

:04:17. > :04:23.candidates not against Brexit MPs. Is Ukip over? I don't think so. The

:04:24. > :04:25.electoral maths is interesting because first-past-the-post

:04:26. > :04:35.effectively could help Ukip in this example. Ukip got one MP with 4

:04:36. > :04:39.million votes. What we are seeing is the total collapse of Labour. In

:04:40. > :04:42.that situation there are certain seats up north in Hartlepool and

:04:43. > :04:46.other seats like that, the total collapse of the Labour Party could

:04:47. > :04:52.help Ukip to win a few seats. Is Ukip over? It looks that way, yes.

:04:53. > :04:55.They haven't made much of a dent in Labour's vote in the north, they

:04:56. > :04:59.don't really have a defining issue anymore and all the polls we have

:05:00. > :05:04.seen published since the election was called show Ukip vote is going

:05:05. > :05:08.to the Conservatives. Is Ukip over? It always happens when the

:05:09. > :05:12.Conservative Party goes far to the right, really hard Brexit, there is

:05:13. > :05:19.no space for BMP, Ukip and all of that. Are you associating the BNP

:05:20. > :05:22.with Ukip? Or that, movements to the right of the Conservatives get eaten

:05:23. > :05:27.up one the Conservatives move as far right as Theresa May has done. I

:05:28. > :05:32.think what your enterprise shows is how it's really time to reform

:05:33. > :05:37.funding of political parties. It is disgraceful that very rich people

:05:38. > :05:41.can move in and bankroll the Brexit campaigned to the extent that they

:05:42. > :05:47.did. We need proper state funding of parties. The union is bankrolling

:05:48. > :05:55.Labour. I assume the reform would include trade unions? Indeed. Ukip

:05:56. > :05:58.has lost its talisman in Nigel Farage, it was a one-man party, I

:05:59. > :06:04.have to say, people like Tim. Having voted for Brexit its reason to be

:06:05. > :06:07.has gone. It will still take votes from Labour and the Conservatives

:06:08. > :06:11.but probably only from the don't knows. There are seats in certain

:06:12. > :06:17.places where if enough Tories back Ukip dated when. Hartlepool is an

:06:18. > :06:20.example. Were the Tories will never win. The demise of Ukip has been

:06:21. > :06:24.forecasted many times before but I don't see a Tory candidate winning

:06:25. > :06:29.in a place like Hartlepool. So we could see, and I think we will see,

:06:30. > :06:33.the total collapse of the Labour vote. We shall see. The leader of

:06:34. > :06:37.the party of which you say you are still a patron, Paul Nuttall, said

:06:38. > :06:46.he would ban the Burcea and the niqab in public, what is your view?

:06:47. > :06:50.-- the niqab and the Burcea? I'm not in agreement with that. If it is a

:06:51. > :06:54.security issue at airports or public transport it could be acceptable but

:06:55. > :06:57.I'm not in favour of curtailing people's writes. You have gone

:06:58. > :07:02.further than him, haven't you? You tweeted you wanted to ban Muslim

:07:03. > :07:05.immigration. In my view the problem we have had with the lack of

:07:06. > :07:09.integration in certain communities has come about through mass

:07:10. > :07:13.open-door immigration. If you are a must win you wouldn't be allowed in?

:07:14. > :07:18.What I said in the tweet was I think they should be a ban on

:07:19. > :07:24.immigration... You said Muslim immigration. That's what I believe.

:07:25. > :07:27.If you are a world famous doctor coming to help one of our big

:07:28. > :07:31.teaching hospitals in this country because you are a Muslim you could

:07:32. > :07:34.not get in? We have to start somewhere, there are huge problems

:07:35. > :07:39.in areas where 20% of the population don't speak the language, they

:07:40. > :07:45.haven't integrated. You should read the rest of the tweet, it is control

:07:46. > :07:49.of immigration from a 10-year ban on unskilled immigration. The first

:07:50. > :07:52.thing you said was to ban Muslim immigration, it is in black and

:07:53. > :07:56.white. I have said that, I do not dispute that. I was questioning

:07:57. > :08:01.that. There is my answer, you cannot tell somebody's will adjust freedoms

:08:02. > :08:06.but what you can do is stop adding to the problem. Doesn't that sound a

:08:07. > :08:10.bit like the BNP? It's as like BNP and like Trump. Its, we hate

:08:11. > :08:15.Muslims, fine, if that is what you are standing for, that is clear. The

:08:16. > :08:17.final word is we have had open-door mass immigration from the

:08:18. > :08:20.Conservative Party, we've had it from the Labour Party and its fine

:08:21. > :08:25.if you are in north London to say these things, if you live in Oldham

:08:26. > :08:28.and your community has been radically changed and you have a

:08:29. > :08:32.whole population not integrating in, not speaking the language, something

:08:33. > :08:37.has got to be done. We had better leave it there. Thank you for coming

:08:38. > :08:39.in. I am en route to Clacton. We will see how you get on there.

:08:40. > :08:41.Now, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron was on TV earlier today

:08:42. > :08:44.and he was asked again about an issue that he's been

:08:45. > :08:46.asked about repeatedly - his attitude to homosexuality.

:08:47. > :08:56.when they asked you whether gay sex was a sin.

:08:57. > :08:58.Come on, Robert, I've been asked this question loads

:08:59. > :09:02.few days and I have been clear, even in the House of Commons,

:09:03. > :09:12.It's possible I'm not the only person getting tired

:09:13. > :09:16.Probably, but then why don't you just close it down?

:09:17. > :09:28.Toby Young, why does he get into such a mess over this? I mean, he is

:09:29. > :09:32.leader of the Liberal Democrats. Its 2017. I guess the reason he keeps

:09:33. > :09:36.refusing to answer that question is because what the implication is that

:09:37. > :09:43.he does think that homosexual acts are sinful, and he cannot bring

:09:44. > :09:47.himself not to say that, or to say what Robert Peston and others want

:09:48. > :09:51.him to say because he is an evangelical Christian who converted

:09:52. > :09:54.at the age of 20, 21, and clearly he really struggles with this issue and

:09:55. > :09:58.I think it will be really difficult for the Lib Dems to promote, or even

:09:59. > :10:01.Lib Dem candidates like Vince Cable, to promote the idea of the

:10:02. > :10:05.Progressive Alliance even though Tim has ruled it out, if he is not

:10:06. > :10:14.prepared to say I don't think homosexual acts are sinful. What is

:10:15. > :10:17.your view? It is disastrous if that is what he really thinks but Preston

:10:18. > :10:19.did not push the hard. I'm not sure he understood the difference about

:10:20. > :10:22.the question between gay sex and being gay. I think he just thought

:10:23. > :10:26.he was going on saying I'm not anti-gay. He needs to command

:10:27. > :10:31.immediately and clarify it. If you are right and he does actually think

:10:32. > :10:34.it is a sin he is in real trouble. There is a slight parallel with what

:10:35. > :10:38.police said before about Jeremy Corbyn, how his unilateral nuclear

:10:39. > :10:43.policy would appeal to the hard core of the left. The problem for Tim

:10:44. > :10:48.Farron with what he is saying here, while he is an evangelical

:10:49. > :10:55.Christian, this will not appeal to traditional Liberal Democrats. An

:10:56. > :11:00.LGBT community member cannot possibly vote for an MP who believes

:11:01. > :11:03.that a sexual act between homosexuals is sinful. He has not

:11:04. > :11:07.made that clear. Of course, he wants to stop Brexit as well so he is

:11:08. > :11:10.neither liberal nor democratic. He will have seven weeks to make it

:11:11. > :11:15.clear because I am sure he will be asked again. We have the chairman of

:11:16. > :11:20.the Conservative Party on earlier, Polly. An important figure for the

:11:21. > :11:24.Tory campaign. What did you make of what he said? I don't think he will

:11:25. > :11:28.have him on very often, he didn't do brilliantly. I think they will bring

:11:29. > :11:33.back chemical Ali, Michael Fallon, he can say anything with a straight

:11:34. > :11:38.face, he can say black is white. Michael Fallon, chemical Ali? Why do

:11:39. > :11:44.you say that? He can absolutely say black is white. For instance if you

:11:45. > :11:50.look back at what he said, you challenged him about the energy

:11:51. > :11:55.policy, when Ed Miliband came out with it, he said any kind of freeze

:11:56. > :11:59.would stop investment, the lights will go out. You have him on, he

:12:00. > :12:05.will say the exact opposite. He is magic at that. But I don't think

:12:06. > :12:12.your guy today was up to the job. If Michael Fallon was chemical Ali, or

:12:13. > :12:18.we should say chemical Fally, Patrick was more like comical Ali.

:12:19. > :12:23.The whole Iraq war is rushing back at me. He is the warm up comedian,

:12:24. > :12:27.there is another six weeks to go, just getting things started. What

:12:28. > :12:31.did you think? I don't think he was too bad, it was difficult for him to

:12:32. > :12:35.say exactly what was in the 2050 manifesto is going to be replicated

:12:36. > :12:38.in the Conservatives' manifesto during this general election, he

:12:39. > :12:41.doesn't want to be seen rowing back on stuff but on the other hand I

:12:42. > :12:45.don't think he can conceal the fact they will be far fewer commitments

:12:46. > :12:49.in this Conservative manifesto than in the last one, as you and I know,

:12:50. > :12:58.it was full of rash promises last time because they thought they would

:12:59. > :13:00.have to trade a lot of them away in the negotiations with the Liberal

:13:01. > :13:02.Democrats to form a second coalition so they are saddled with policies

:13:03. > :13:04.they don't particularly want to be hemmed in by. The forthcoming

:13:05. > :13:07.Conservative manifesto will be much lighter and shorter with fewer

:13:08. > :13:11.commitments. Different? Some stuff jumped from the 2050 manifesto? I

:13:12. > :13:14.think so but we will see a commitment to run schools to

:13:15. > :13:17.overcome that hurdle in the next parliament and I don't think, in

:13:18. > :13:22.spite of what you think, Polly, that it will be a hard tack to the right.

:13:23. > :13:27.I think if anything the mood music of the Conservative manifesto will

:13:28. > :13:31.be a centrist inclusive one. The mood music will be because the

:13:32. > :13:34.specifics would be there. She is good at saying governing for

:13:35. > :13:38.everybody and the many and not the few but when you look at the hard

:13:39. > :13:41.facts of what her and Hammond's budget looks like, you look at her

:13:42. > :13:49.hard Brexit, it's a very different story. Or that, the music has

:13:50. > :13:56.stopped for this week! Thank you. I will be back next week at the normal

:13:57. > :14:00.time of 11am on Sunday morning. On BBC One The Daily Politics is back

:14:01. > :14:04.at midday tomorrow and we will be on every day next week on BBC Two.

:14:05. > :14:34.Remember, if it's Sunday, it is The Sunday Politics.

:14:35. > :14:37.There'll be a couple of hours of just fantastic music, really,

:14:38. > :14:40.all the Ella classics, as well as some very special guests,

:14:41. > :14:43.we have Mica Paris, Imelda May, Dame Cleo Laine

:14:44. > :14:48.'There's a side to Rory that the public doesn't see.

:14:49. > :14:52.'Rory has suspected for some time that he may have ADHD.

:14:53. > :15:01.Here we have the first hydrogen bomb that went into service with