Browse content similar to 25/05/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good morning, welcome to the Sunday Politics. Senior Liberal Democrats | :00:38. | :00:44. | |
say the public has lost trust in Nick Clegg. They call for him to go | :00:45. | :00:50. | |
after the local election meltdown. And before the likely Europa rove a | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
catastrophe tonight. Labour and Tories struggled to cope with the | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
UKIP insurgency as Nigel Farage hosts his success and declares the | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
And in the West: Have Labour lost henhouse. | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
And in the West: Have Labour lost the plot? They blew it in some | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
target seats in the local elections including Swindon and Gloucdster. | :01:14. | :01:16. | |
Will Ed Miliband turn things round by next year? | :01:17. | :01:17. | |
disappeared, UKIP failed to show. More analysis in just over half an | :01:18. | :01:29. | |
hour. Cooped up in the Sunday Politics | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
henhouse, our own boot should - bunch of headless chickens. Nick | :01:34. | :01:41. | |
Watt, Helen Lewis, Janan Ganesh The Liberal Democrats lost over 300 | :01:42. | :01:45. | |
councillors on Thursday, on top of the losses in previous years, the | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
local government base has been whittled away in many parts of the | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
country. Members of the European Parliament will face a similar | :01:54. | :01:55. | |
comment when the results are announced tonight. A small but | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
growing chorus of Liberal Democrats have called on Nick Clegg to go | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
This is what the candidate in West Dorset had to say. | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
People know that locally we worked incredibly hard on their councils | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
and as their MPs, but Nick Clegg is perceived to have not been | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
trustworthy in leadership. Do you trust him? He has lacked bone on | :02:22. | :02:30. | |
significant issues that are the core values of our party. | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
This is how the party president responded. | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
At this time, it would be foolish for us as a party to turn in on | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
ourselves. What has separated us from the Conservatives is, while | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
they have been like cats in a sack, we have stood united, and that is | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
what we will continue to do. The major reason why is because we | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
consented to the coalition, unlike the Conservatives. We had a vote, | :03:00. | :03:09. | |
and a full conference. Is there a growing question over | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
Nick Clegg's leadership? Different people have different views. My own | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
view is I need to consult my own activists and members before coming | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
to a conclusion. I am looking at holding a meeting for us to discuss | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
the issue. I have been told by some people they do not think a meeting | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
is required, they think he should stay, and other people have decided | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
he should go. As a responsible Democrat, I should consult the | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
members here before coming to my conclusions. What is your view at | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
the moment? I have got to listen to my members. But you must have some | :03:50. | :03:55. | |
kind of you. Because I have an open mind, I do not think he must stay, I | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
am willing to say I have not made my mind up. From a news point of view, | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
that is my official position. I can assure you there is not much news in | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
that! I said earlier I am not going to say he must go must stay, I am | :04:14. | :04:20. | |
consulting my members. But you must have some kind of view of your own | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
before you have listened to your members. There are people who are | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
wrongfully sanctioned and end up using food banks, I am upset about | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
that, because we should not allow... I do not mind having a | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
sanctioning system, that I get constituents who are put in this | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
position, we should not accept that. I rebel on the issue of a referendum | :04:42. | :04:48. | |
on membership of the EU. I am also concerned about the way the rules | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
have been changed in terms of how parents are treated in their ability | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
to take children to funerals out of school time. There are questions | :04:57. | :05:03. | |
about the leader's responsible T for those policies. Nick Clegg has made | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
it clear he is a staunch pro-European, he wants the Liberal | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
Democrats to be in, he does not want a referendum, if you lose a chunk of | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
your MEPs tonight, what does that say about how in June you are with | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
written public opinion? There are issues with how you publish your | :05:22. | :05:28. | |
policies. I do not agree 100% with what the government is doing or with | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
what Nick Clegg says. I do think we should stay within the EU, because | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
the alternative means we have less control over our borders. There is a | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
presentational issue, because what UKIP want, to leave the EU, is worse | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
in terms of control of borders, which is their main reason for | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
wanting to leave, which is strange. There are debate issues, but I have | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
got personal concerns, I do worry about the impact on my constituents | :06:00. | :06:02. | |
when they face wrongful sanctions. You have said that. A fellow Liberal | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
Democrat MP has compared Nick Clegg to a general at the Somme, causing | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
carnage amongst the troops. I am more interested in the policy | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
issues, are we doing the right things? I do think the coalition was | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
essential, we had to rescue the country from financial problems My | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
own view on the issue of student finance, we did the right thing in | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
accordance with the pledge, which was to get a better system, more | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
students are going to university, and more from disadvantaged | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
backgrounds. But there are issues. But Nick Clegg survive as leader | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
through till the next election? It depends what odds you will give me! | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
If you are not going to give me is, I am not going to get! If you listen | :06:53. | :06:58. | |
to John hemming, he has got nothing to worry about. He does have | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
something to worry about, they lost 300 seats, on the uniform swing you | :07:04. | :07:12. | |
would see people like Vince cable and Simon Hughes lose their seats. | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
But nobody wants to be the one to we'll be nice, they would rather | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
wait until after the next election, and then rebuild the party. Yes | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
there is no chance of him walking away. Somebody like Tim Farron or | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
Vince Cable, whoever the successor is, though have to close the dagger | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
ten months before an election, do they want that spectacle? If I were | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
Nick Clegg, I would walk away, it is reasonably obvious that the | :07:43. | :07:45. | |
left-wing voters who defect had towards the Labour Party in 201 | :07:46. | :07:51. | |
will not return while he is leader. And anything he was going to achieve | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
historically, the already has done. Unlike David Miliband, sorry, Ed | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
Miliband or David Cameron, he has transformed the identity of the | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
party, they are in government. Had it not been for him, they would have | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
continued to be the main protest party, rather than a party of | :08:11. | :08:16. | |
government. So he has got to take it all the way through until the | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
election. If he left now, he would look like he was a tenant in the | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
conservative house. What we are seeing is an operation to | :08:27. | :08:29. | |
destabilise Nick Clegg, but it is a Liberal Democrat one, so it is | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
chaotic. There are people who have never really been reconciled to the | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
coalition and to Nick Clegg, they are pushing for this. What is Nick | :08:39. | :08:46. | |
Clegg going to do, and Tim Farron? -- what is Vince Cable going to do? | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
Vince Cable is in China, on a business trip. It is like John | :08:52. | :08:59. | |
Major's toothache in 1990. What is Tim Farron doing? He is behind Nick | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
Clegg, because he knows that his best chances of being leader are as | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
the Westland candidate, the person who picks up the mess in a year | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
Vince Cable's only opportunity is on this side of the election. But you | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
say they are not a party of government, but what looks more | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
likely is overall the -- is no overall control. You might find a | :09:27. | :09:33. | |
common mission looking appealing. They could still hold the balance of | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
power. A lot of people in the Labour Party might say, let's just have a | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
minority government. 30 odds and sods who will not turn up to vote. | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
If they want to be up until 3am every morning, be like that! When | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
you were in short trousers, it was like that every night, it was great | :09:55. | :10:02. | |
fun! The Liberal Democrats will not provide confidence to a minority | :10:03. | :10:05. | |
government, they will pull the plug and behave ruthlessly. Does Nick leg | :10:06. | :10:11. | |
lead the Liberal Democrats into the next election? Yes. Yes. Yes. I am | :10:12. | :10:20. | |
sorry, Nick Clegg, you are finished! We will speak to Paddy | :10:21. | :10:23. | |
Ashdown in the second part of the show to speak about the Liberal | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
Democrats. The UKIP insurgency could not deliver the promised earthquake, | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
but it produced enough shock waves to discombobulated the established | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
parties. They are struggling to work out how to deal with them. We | :10:36. | :10:38. | |
watched it all unfold. Behind the scenes of any election | :10:39. | :10:53. | |
night is intensely busy. Those in charge of party strategy and | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
logistics want their people focused, working with purpose and rehearsed | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
to make sure their spin on the results is what viewers remember and | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
take on board. A bit of a buzz of activity inside the BBC's studio, | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
kept and primed for the results What this does not show due is the | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
exterior doubles up for hospital dramas like Holby City, there are | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
doorways that are mock-ups of accident and emergency, but the | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
electorate will discover which of the parties they have put into | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
intensive care, which ones are coming out of recovery and which | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
ones are in rude health. We joined David Dimbleby. Good evening, | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
welcome to the BBC's new election centre. When three big beasts become | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
for on the political field, things have changed. Eric Pickles says we | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
will be seen off next year, we will see you at Westminster! This party | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
is going to break through next year, and you never know, we might even | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
hold the balance of power. Old messages that gave voters in excuses | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
to go elsewhere on the ballot paper exposed the older players to | :12:04. | :12:06. | |
questions from within their ranks. In the hen house of the House of | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
Commons, the fox that wants to get in has ruffled feathers. The reason | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
they have had amazing success, a rapid rise, partly what Chuka Umunna | :12:16. | :12:22. | |
says about being a repository, but they have also managed to sound like | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
human beings, and that his Nigel Farage's eight victory. For some | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
conservatives, a pact was the best form of defence. It would be | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
preferable if all members of UKIP and voters became Tories overnight. | :12:37. | :12:39. | |
That seems to be an ambitious proposition. Therefore, we need to | :12:40. | :12:46. | |
do something that welcomes them on board in a slightly different way. | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
Labour had successes, but nobody but they're wizards of Spain was | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
completely buying a big success story. Gaffes behind the scenes and | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
strategic errors were levelled at those who have managed the campaign. | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
They have played a clever game, you shuffle bedecked around, and if UKIP | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
does quite well but not well enough, that helps Labour get in. That kind | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
of mindset will not win the general election, and we saw that in the tap | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
ticks and strategy, and that is why, on our leaflets for the European | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
elections, we chose deliberately not to attack UKIP, that was a bad | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
error. Not so, so somebody who has been in that spotlight. If you look | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
at the electoral maths, UKIP will still be aiming at the Tories in a | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
general election. They are the second party in Rotherham, Labour | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
will always hold what the room, it is safe, there is no point being | :13:47. | :13:49. | |
second in a safe seat. UKIP have taken Castle Point, a Tory seat they | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
will target. The question for the next election, can they make a | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
challenge? The Tories will be under the gun from UKIP. The substance of | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
these results is UKIP not in government, they do not have any | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
MPs, they do not run a single Council, at dismissing them ceased | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
to be an option. The question is, who will they heard most and how do | :14:16. | :14:17. | |
you smoke the keeper's threat? Joining me now, day about and | :14:18. | :14:38. | |
Patrick O'Flynn. Do you agree not enough was done for the elections? | :14:39. | :14:45. | |
No, we have very good results around Hammersmith and Fulham, Croydon | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
Redbridge, and we picked off council wards in Haringey meaning that Lynne | :14:50. | :14:58. | |
Featherstone and Simon Hughes worked on. The Ashcroft polling shows that | :14:59. | :15:04. | |
in key marginals, we are well ahead and on course to win in 2015. I will | :15:05. | :15:13. | |
be putting Mr Ashcroft's poll to Eric Pickles shortly. On the basis | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
of the local elections your national share of the vote would be just 31%, | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
only two points ahead of the Tories, only two points ahead of Gordon | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
Brown's disastrous performance in 2010. Why so low? National share is | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
one thing but I am talking about what we are doing in the key | :15:35. | :15:43. | |
marginals. Clearly some were taken away from others like Rotherham but | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
we have got many voters back. You are only two points better than you | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
were in 2010 and use of your worst defeat in living memory. | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
That is the totality. What matters is seat by seat, that is what the | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
Republicans found in the presidential elections. Patrick | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
O'Flynn, you performed well in the local election but it wasn't an | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
earthquake. It is definitely true that Labour did well in London but | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
that is a double-edged sword because you have an increasing disconnect | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
between the metropolis and the rest of the country. Our vote share was | :16:21. | :16:28. | |
somewhat depressed not just because London is one of our weakest part of | :16:29. | :16:31. | |
the country but because most of the warts in London were 3-member wards | :16:32. | :16:38. | |
and we were typically only putting up one candidate. Even when they | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
fared well, it still tracked down the projected national share. I | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
think we did well, and what was particularly good was getting the | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
target seat list becoming clear before our eyes. Suzanne Evans said | :16:55. | :17:08. | |
that basically smart folk don't vote for UKIP. I think that is a tiny | :17:09. | :17:15. | |
fragment of what she said. She said London is its own entity and is | :17:16. | :17:18. | |
increasingly different from the rest of the country. One of the things | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
that is different from London as opposed to Rotherham is that we have | :17:23. | :17:28. | |
very big parties. I have a few thousand people in mind, Rotherham | :17:29. | :17:35. | |
has a few hundred. People don't go and knock on doors and talk to | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
people, in London we have always had to do that. London is full of young | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
voters, full of ethnically diverse voters, that is why you are not | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
doing well, you don't appeal to live there. I think London in general has | :17:49. | :17:55. | |
a very different attitude to mass uncontrolled immigration. Londoners | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
know that if an immigrant moves in next door to you, to use Nigel | :18:01. | :18:10. | |
Farage's phrase, the world doesn't end tomorrow. People in the big | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
cities know that, that is the point. What Diane Abbott is doing is try to | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
convince London of its moral superiority so I am delighted.. It | :18:22. | :18:28. | |
is a simple fact that immigrants do not end the world if they move in | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
next door. The economic recovery is getting more robust by the month, | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
you have a seriously to ship problem according to many people on your own | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
site. Maybe you're 31% of the vote is as good as it gets. Those who go | :18:45. | :18:52. | |
round bitching about Ed Miliband have been doing that before the | :18:53. | :19:00. | |
result. We have all polled very well. Ed Miliband does not polled | :19:01. | :19:10. | |
very well. He has actually fashioned some really effective policies. | :19:11. | :19:15. | |
Unemployment is tumbling, inflation is falling, growth is strengthening, | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
and you have a leader who claims there is a cost of living crisis and | :19:20. | :19:25. | |
he doesn't have a clue about his own cost of living. I think that was | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
poor staff work. That he doesn't know what goes in his own shopping | :19:33. | :19:42. | |
basket? I think his own staff could have prepared him for that. My point | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
is that the numbers are looking better, we know that, but people | :19:49. | :19:56. | |
don't feel better off. Then why are all consumer index polls better | :19:57. | :20:04. | |
They are feeling confident. They may be saying that, but people are | :20:05. | :20:07. | |
worried about their future, their children's future. That is not what | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
you buy today or tomorrow. If you ask people about their future and | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
their children's future and prospects, they feel frightened | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
What will be a good result for you in the general election? We need to | :20:23. | :20:29. | |
see Nigel Farage elected as an MP and he mustn't go there on his own. | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
How many people do you think will be with him? Who knows, but we will | :20:34. | :20:39. | |
have 20 to 30 target seat and if you put together the clusters we got in | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
last year's County elections with the one we got this year, you can | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
have a good guess at where they are. A number of people who voted | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
for you and Thursday say they are going to back to the three main | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
parties in general election. It would be foolish of me to say that | :20:58. | :21:06. | |
they are going to stay. Some have said they have just lent their votes | :21:07. | :21:14. | |
but voters hate being taken for granted. It is up to us to broaden | :21:15. | :21:21. | |
our agenda, and build on our strengths, work on our weaknesses. | :21:22. | :21:27. | |
Ed Miliband may have to do a deal with him. We have been here before, | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
but the UKIP bubble is going to burst and that may happen around the | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
time of Newark. Are you going to win Newark now? We are going to give it | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
a really good crack. We love being the underdog, we don't see it as | :21:46. | :21:54. | |
being the big goal -- the be all and end all. If you're going to get a | :21:55. | :22:00. | |
big bounce off the elections, not to go and win your shows people who | :22:01. | :22:09. | |
govern in Parliament, they don't vote for you. It is Labour who have | :22:10. | :22:13. | |
given up the campaign already so we need a really big swing in our | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
favour and we will give it a great crack. The bubble will burst at the | :22:18. | :22:26. | |
Newark by-election, trust me. Have you been to Newark? Newark will see | :22:27. | :22:36. | |
from local people... Where is it? It is outside the M25, I can tell you | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
that. My point is that we are set for victory in 2015. I want to run | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
this clip and get your take on it, an interview that Nigel Farage did | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
with LBC. What they do is they have an auditor to make sure they spend | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
their money in accordance with their rules. You say that is if there is | :22:58. | :23:05. | |
something wrong with it. Hang on, hang on. This is Patrick O'Flynn, is | :23:06. | :23:12. | |
this a friend in the media or a member of the political class? Do | :23:13. | :23:18. | |
you regret doing that now? What were you doing? No, I was trying to get | :23:19. | :23:27. | |
Nigel Farage to a more important interview with Sunday Times that had | :23:28. | :23:33. | |
painstakingly organised. He was on there? I have told the LBC people | :23:34. | :23:42. | |
next door that he was running over. So you interrupted a live interview | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
and you don't regret that? No, because just between us I wasn't a | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
massive enthusiast for that interview taking place at all. I | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
know what James O'Brien is like and I knew it wouldn't be particularly | :23:58. | :24:09. | |
edifying. But your boss wasn't happy with the intervention. Sometimes the | :24:10. | :24:17. | |
boss gets shirty. We all upset our boss every now and again, but anyway | :24:18. | :24:21. | |
you could be an MEP by this time tomorrow and you won't have to do | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
this job any more. You can then just count your salary and your expenses. | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
I will make the contribution my party leader asked me to, to restore | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
Britain to being a self-governing country. Are you going to stay in | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
the job or not? I would not be able to do the job in the same way but I | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
would maybe have some kind of overview. We will leave it there. | :24:46. | :24:54. | |
Yesterday Michael Ashcroft, a former deputy chairman, produced a mammoth | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
opinion poll of more than 26,00 voters in 26 marginal | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
constituencies, crucial seat that will decide the outcome of the | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
general election next year. In 6 constituencies people were asked | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
which party's candidate they would support, and Labour took a healthy | :25:12. | :25:25. | |
12 point lead, implying a swing of 6.5% from Conservatives to Labour | :25:26. | :25:33. | |
from the last general election. That implies Labour would topple 83 Tory | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
MPs. The poll also shows UKIP in second place in four seats, and | :25:39. | :25:50. | |
three of them are Labour seats. Michael Ashcroft says a quarter of | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
those who say they would vote UKIP supported the Tories at the last | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
election. As many as have switched from Labour and the Lib Dems | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
combined. The communities Secretary Eric | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
Pickles joins me now. The Ashcroft Paul that gives Labour a massive 12 | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
point lead in the crucial marginal constituencies, you would lose 3 | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
MPs if this was repeated in an election. It doesn't get worse than | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
that, does it? Yesterday I went through that Paul in great detail, | :26:24. | :26:31. | |
and what it shows is that in a number of key seats we are ahead, | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
and somewhere behind, and I think is Michael rightly shows... You are | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
behind in most of them. This is a snapshot and we have a year in which | :26:43. | :26:46. | |
the economy is going to be improving, and we have a year to say | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
to those candidates that are fighting those key seats, look, just | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
around the corner people are ahead in the same kind of seat as you and | :26:55. | :27:04. | |
we need to redouble our efforts The Tory brand is dying in major parts | :27:05. | :27:06. | |
of the country, you are the walking dead in Scotland, and now London, | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
huge chunks of London are becoming a no-go zone for you. That's not true | :27:12. | :27:20. | |
with regard to the northern seats. Tell me what seats you have? In | :27:21. | :27:26. | |
terms of councillors we are the largest party in local government. | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
After four years in power... You are smiling but no political party has | :27:32. | :27:38. | |
ever done that. You haven't got a single councillor in the great city | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
of Manchester. We have councillors in Bradford and Leeds, we have | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
more... You haven't got an MP in any of the big cities? We have more | :27:49. | :27:54. | |
councillors in the north of England than Labour. A quarter of those who | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
say they would vote UKIP and did vote UKIP supported the Tories at | :27:59. | :28:04. | |
the last election. Why are so many of your 2010 voters now so | :28:05. | :28:09. | |
disillusioned? Any election will bring a degree of churning, and we | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
hope to get as many back as we can, but we also want to get Liberal | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
Democrats, people who voted for the Lib Dems and the Labour Party. If we | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
concentrate on one part of the electorate, then we won't take power | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
and I believe we will because I believe we represent a wide spectrum | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
of opinion in this country and I believe that delivering a long-term | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
economic plan, delivering prosperity into people 's pockets will be felt. | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
On the basis of the local election results, you would not pick up a | :28:43. | :28:46. | |
single Labour seat in the general election. You make the point that it | :28:47. | :28:55. | |
is about local elections. Seats that Labour should have taken from us | :28:56. | :29:03. | |
they didn't, which is important .. I am asking what possible Labour seat | :29:04. | :29:07. | |
you would hope to win after the results on Thursday. Local elections | :29:08. | :29:12. | |
are local elections. The national election will have a much bigger | :29:13. | :29:16. | |
turnout, it will be one year from now, we will be able to demonstrate | :29:17. | :29:22. | |
to the population that the trends we are seeing already in terms of the | :29:23. | :29:25. | |
success of our long-term economic plan, they will be feeling that in | :29:26. | :29:30. | |
their pockets. People need to feel secure about their jobs and feel | :29:31. | :29:36. | |
that their children have a future. Maybe so many of your people are | :29:37. | :29:40. | |
defecting to UKIP because on issues that they really care about like | :29:41. | :29:43. | |
mass immigration, you don't keep your promises. | :29:44. | :29:54. | |
We have reduced immigration and the amount of pull factors. Let me give | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
you the figures. You have said a couple of things are not true. You | :30:00. | :30:06. | |
promised to cut net immigration to under 100,000 by 2015, last year it | :30:07. | :30:13. | |
rose by 50,000, 212,000. You have broken your promise. We still intend | :30:14. | :30:18. | |
to reduce the amount from non-EU countries. I want to be clear, I | :30:19. | :30:24. | |
have no problem with people coming here who want to work and pay their | :30:25. | :30:28. | |
national insurance and tax, to help fund the health service. What I have | :30:29. | :30:35. | |
objection to our people coming here to get the additional benefits. You | :30:36. | :30:41. | |
made the promise. It is our intention to deliver it. People | :30:42. | :30:48. | |
defect to UKIP because mainstream politicians to -- like yourself do | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
not give straight answers. Can you be straight, you will not hit your | :30:54. | :30:57. | |
immigration target by the election, correct? We will announce measures | :30:58. | :31:04. | |
that. People factor. Will you hit your target? It is a year from now, | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
it is our intention to move towards the target. Is it your intention, do | :31:10. | :31:18. | |
you say you will hit your target of under 100,000 net migration by the | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
election? We will do our damnedest. But you will not make it. I do not | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
know that to be fact. They also vote UKIP cos they do not trust you and | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
Europe, David Cameron has promised a referendum, he has vowed to resign | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
if he does not deliver one, but still your voters vote for UKIP | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
There were reasons why people voted for UKIP. A great deal of anger | :31:44. | :31:52. | |
about the political system, about the Metropolitan elite that they see | :31:53. | :31:55. | |
running programmes like this and the political programmes. We need to | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
listen to their concerns and address them. David Cameron has got a better | :32:01. | :32:10. | |
record on delivery. He vetoed a treaty, he stopped us having to bail | :32:11. | :32:16. | |
out the currency. Why are you likely to convert a night in the European | :32:17. | :32:22. | |
elections? If you do come third it will show they do not trust you on | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
Europe. Next year, we will face a general election, about having money | :32:28. | :32:34. | |
in people's pockets, about who will run the country. David Davis wants | :32:35. | :32:40. | |
to China and get the voters to trust the Tories on the referendum, he was | :32:41. | :32:44. | |
the pledge to be brought forward to 2016. He is a clever guy. But if you | :32:45. | :32:51. | |
are going to try to negotiate a better deal to give the population a | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
better choice, you cannot do that in a year, you will require two years. | :32:57. | :33:04. | |
You are an Essex MP, you know about Essex people, it must be depressing | :33:05. | :33:11. | |
that they are now voting for UKIP. I do not have any UKIP in my | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
constituency. I felt bad to see Basildon go down and to see the | :33:16. | :33:20. | |
leader go down. Do you know why that is? The Tory party does not resonate | :33:21. | :33:28. | |
with the Essex people in the way that the Margaret Thatcher party | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
did. That is why you did not get a majority in 2010 and why you will | :33:34. | :33:36. | |
not win in 2015. We need to connect better. They will want to know about | :33:37. | :33:43. | |
their children's future, will they have a job, a good education? When | :33:44. | :33:50. | |
it comes to electing a national government, they do not want to see | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
Ed Miliband in office. They are voting for Nigel Farage. In terms of | :33:55. | :34:00. | |
what government you get, do you want to see David Cameron in number ten | :34:01. | :34:06. | |
or Ed Miliband? Essex will want to see David Cameron. You only got 36% | :34:07. | :34:11. | |
of the vote four years ago, your party, occurs you did not get the | :34:12. | :34:19. | |
Essex people in the same numbers, like John Major or Margaret Thatcher | :34:20. | :34:23. | |
did. You need more than 36% in 015 to win the election. On Thursday, | :34:24. | :34:30. | |
your share was 29%. We were 2% behind Labour. They did not do very | :34:31. | :34:38. | |
well either. A year before, -- a year before the election in 199 , | :34:39. | :34:45. | |
they were on 43%. It is highly deliver the votes. We have a | :34:46. | :34:52. | |
campaign looking at the marginals. We know exactly where we are not | :34:53. | :34:55. | |
doing as well as we should be. I am a big fan of Michael Ashcroft. Do | :34:56. | :35:01. | |
you think he does this to be helpful? He is a great man and a | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
good conservative, I am a good friend of his. I think that his | :35:06. | :35:11. | |
publication was one of the best things that happened to the party. | :35:12. | :35:16. | |
You got 36% of the vote last time, you are down to 29, you need 38 or | :35:17. | :35:24. | |
39, you would get that if you had a pact with UKIP. There will be no | :35:25. | :35:32. | |
pact. I am a Democrat. It is like a market stall, you should put your | :35:33. | :35:36. | |
policies out there and you should not try to fix the market. Would you | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
stop a local pact? There will be no pact with UKIP. None. | :35:42. | :35:53. | |
It has just gone 11:35am. We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland and | :35:54. | :35:58. | |
Northern Ireland. Coming up here, we will speak to the | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
Good morning and welcome to the coordinator Paddy Ashdown. First, | :36:04. | :36:15. | |
Good morning and welcome to the Sunday Politics here in the West. We | :36:16. | :36:20. | |
are live here on BBC One to discuss the outcome of the local eldctions | :36:21. | :36:24. | |
and to look ahead to the European results which will be known in a few | :36:25. | :36:28. | |
short hours. One thing is cdrtain ` it wasn't a great night for Labour | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
in the local authority polls. Yes, they made some modest gains, but | :36:33. | :36:35. | |
they blew it in Swindon and Gloucester where victory was within | :36:36. | :36:39. | |
their grasp. And the reason was the UKIP effect. | :36:40. | :36:44. | |
And joining me this Sunday lorning to talk about votes, immigr`tion, | :36:45. | :36:47. | |
gaffes and all things UKIP `re four political figures from the south | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
west. Paul Hodgkinson for the Liberal Democrats. Thangam | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
Debbonaire for Labour. Neil Hamilton from the UK Independence Party. And | :36:56. | :37:01. | |
Peter Wright from the Conservatives. Let's start by looking ahead to the | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
big story of tonight when wd find out the results of those European | :37:06. | :37:09. | |
elections. The turnout here in the South West is the lowest since 999 | :37:10. | :37:15. | |
despite the wall`to`wall publicity. Neil Hamilton, doesn't this just | :37:16. | :37:18. | |
prove people don't feel as strongly as you do about Europe? It hs true | :37:19. | :37:26. | |
the European elections are ` minority sport. I do not know what | :37:27. | :37:29. | |
the actual turnout has been but around the country probably in the | :37:30. | :37:36. | |
low 30s at most. You make ott the whole country is up in arms about | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
the European Union but in f`ct they do not even vote. It is the | :37:42. | :37:47. | |
consequences of the European Union for them in their daily livds. So | :37:48. | :37:52. | |
why do they not vote? You would have to ask them. I certainly voted and | :37:53. | :37:58. | |
UKIP has been bringing back into the political system people who had | :37:59. | :38:04. | |
given up voting for many ye`rs. Much of our support last year was people | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
who had not voted for any other party in the past. There was talk | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
about deporting Europeans who have been here for six months and have | :38:16. | :38:20. | |
not got work. Is there a danger of actually chasing UKIP to thd right? | :38:21. | :38:26. | |
I think we have to wait and see the exact details. I have only heard | :38:27. | :38:31. | |
this briefly this morning. Would you approve? I think people are | :38:32. | :38:38. | |
concerned about immigration as an issue. It comes up time and again. | :38:39. | :38:42. | |
But throwing them out is solething else. We would have to see how | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
feasible business impact is under current law. Theresa May sahd this | :38:47. | :38:52. | |
morning she would examine that and if necessary work with European | :38:53. | :38:57. | |
partners to see how we can lake that situation better. Because there is | :38:58. | :39:01. | |
appealing that we need to do more on this issue. What would happdn if you | :39:02. | :39:07. | |
get beaten by UKIP tonight hn the European polls? I think this | :39:08. | :39:12. | |
discussion about being beatdn by UKIP is extraordinary. On Thursday | :39:13. | :39:17. | |
their vote share went down. In Bristol Bay took one seat, just one. | :39:18. | :39:24. | |
We did well in many councils across the South West. You have not taken | :39:25. | :39:32. | |
them seriously, they have stpporters that you have written off as being | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
right wing and as a result xou have lost out. The vast majority of | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
people did not vote UKIP. Lots of people voted Labour. We werd | :39:42. | :39:48. | |
predicted to make 300 counchl seat gains and we have surpassed that. | :39:49. | :39:55. | |
Several councils are now allost completely Labour across thd country | :39:56. | :39:57. | |
and in the south`west we have done well in different parts for | :39:58. | :40:01. | |
different reasons. Turning to the Liberal Democrats, is there a sense | :40:02. | :40:06. | |
of crisis in your party this morning. There is no sense of | :40:07. | :40:12. | |
crisis. To be honest the local election results on Thursdax were a | :40:13. | :40:15. | |
mixed bag. In Gloucestershire we did really well. We held our own in | :40:16. | :40:22. | |
Swindon and Gloucester. There is a strong chance that you could lose | :40:23. | :40:26. | |
your single European MEP in the south`west. I hope that does not | :40:27. | :40:32. | |
happen. Brian Watson has bedn a brilliant MEP. He has helped me with | :40:33. | :40:38. | |
many regional issues. He has worked exceptionally hard for 20 ydars I | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
hope that he will win. But the chances of your party the ilproved | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
without Nick Craig at the hdlm with Mike I do not think so. A slall | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
number of Lib Dems said this morning they would rather that he wdnt but | :40:53. | :40:56. | |
that is a small number. We went into the coalition for the good of the | :40:57. | :41:00. | |
country to fix the economy `nd that is what we want to stick with until | :41:01. | :41:08. | |
the end. The local elections were interesting because the two parties | :41:09. | :41:10. | |
in government here ` the Conservatives and the Lib Ddms ` | :41:11. | :41:13. | |
actually increased their majorities on the councils they run. So what | :41:14. | :41:16. | |
happened to Labour? Here's Paul Barltrop. | :41:17. | :41:27. | |
Here in Bristol and in all of our council chambers there has been no | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
change of political control. But what is important is what it means | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
for 2015 because these are key general election battle grotnds The | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
result in Bristol was very indicative. The Lib Dems suffered | :41:41. | :41:44. | |
badly. The Greens prospered, gaining two seats. But while Labour went | :41:45. | :41:47. | |
forward, their progress was hampered by the rise of UKIP. And thd mutual | :41:48. | :41:52. | |
hostility was obvious. I'm proud to be representing a ward that so | :41:53. | :41:55. | |
overwhelmingly rejected the politics of misogyny and racism and | :41:56. | :41:58. | |
homophobia and embraced instead the candidate who gave a damn about | :41:59. | :42:03. | |
them. We did not actually tdll a lot of lies and produce leaflets, but | :42:04. | :42:12. | |
there we go. UKIP is here to stay. Stroud and Gloucester are two of | :42:13. | :42:15. | |
Labour's top targets for next year, so a good local election result was | :42:16. | :42:18. | |
vital. But the sitting Consdrvative MPs watched with satisfaction as | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
their parties held their own to remain the largest on both councils. | :42:22. | :42:26. | |
And Swindon was the Tories' high point. | :42:27. | :42:33. | |
Local elections rarely see the party of government going forward ` taking | :42:34. | :42:38. | |
a seat from Labour. I'm just ecstatic. To have record result | :42:39. | :42:43. | |
after record result 12 months from a general election. This is all about | :42:44. | :42:47. | |
the infrastructure, the dry run It is unbelievable. We are going to be | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
very happy tonight. Across the West UKIP won just one | :42:52. | :42:55. | |
seat, but got lots of votes especially in traditional L`bour | :42:56. | :43:05. | |
areas of Swindon. There werd two conversations going on last night, | :43:06. | :43:09. | |
one in Westminster and the other in Swindon. Whether Labour leader said | :43:10. | :43:16. | |
we have been hurt by UKIP. H think this idea that the UKIP votd only | :43:17. | :43:21. | |
hurts the Tories will be blown away by these results. It was generally a | :43:22. | :43:29. | |
plague on all your houses. We lost votes to UKIP and that has cost us. | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
So the story of this year and last year is an election heavily shaped | :43:34. | :43:37. | |
by UKIP's success. Will thex make it three in a row? | :43:38. | :43:46. | |
Thangam, it is clear from what happened in Swindon that UKHP took a | :43:47. | :43:52. | |
number of your votes. They `lso took a number of Tory votes and possibly | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
Lib Dem votes as well. They stopped us getting control of the council | :43:59. | :44:04. | |
but we did get the popular vote That is blue`collar workers, your | :44:05. | :44:07. | |
core vote. It would be sillx to ignore that so we are not. We are | :44:08. | :44:13. | |
going to carry on knocking on thousands of tourists each week | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
What we mostly do is listen to what people are saying to us. Whdn they | :44:19. | :44:21. | |
say they are struggling with the cost of living, and we are tackling | :44:22. | :44:31. | |
fuel prices and private rent. If we do not communicate the policies well | :44:32. | :44:37. | |
enough we need to do a bettdr job. But we did hold the vote in Swindon | :44:38. | :44:42. | |
and lustre. We did really wdll in Exeter. So a mixed bag. Neil | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
Hamilton, for all the blustdr and celebrations going on in UKHP, you | :44:48. | :44:53. | |
are just one councils the up. Is that really much to celebrate? We | :44:54. | :45:00. | |
would like to have done better. But in Plymouth we missed four seats by | :45:01. | :45:03. | |
less than 100 vote in each case We are the main opponent of both the | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
Labour Party and the Tory p`rty up and down the country. In thd | :45:09. | :45:13. | |
north`east we got 47% of thd vote in Rather, ostensibly one of L`bour's | :45:14. | :45:28. | |
safest seats. You spoke in French, remember you do not like Europe I | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
was the national campaign dhrect your and thought I could not ask | :45:35. | :45:38. | |
people to be candidates if H was not a candidate myself. So I was all | :45:39. | :45:43. | |
over the country. You did f`il miserably. 300 votes or somdthing. | :45:44. | :45:54. | |
It was a relative success. Xou know it is a safe Tory seat. Petdr | :45:55. | :46:00. | |
Wright, Jacob Rees Mogg, he was talking about a packed with UKIP. | :46:01. | :46:05. | |
Does that not make some kind of sense? Well you have just hdard Eric | :46:06. | :46:14. | |
Pickles saying that no packdd will be undertaking `` no pact whll be | :46:15. | :46:32. | |
undertaken. We have performdd as a united government on many issues. | :46:33. | :46:37. | |
With UKIP there are a range of issues where we are not in `ccord | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
with their policies. UKIP are not prepared to give us a chancd. Give | :46:44. | :46:49. | |
me one or two examples wherd you're not in accord with their policies? | :46:50. | :46:54. | |
They wanted to charge peopld to go to see the doctor. That is not true. | :46:55. | :47:01. | |
And another? The other would be we want to go and we negotiate with | :47:02. | :47:09. | |
Europe before calling a refdrendum. UKIP just wants to pull us out of | :47:10. | :47:15. | |
Europe. He is still in love with you, as it where! Nice to hdar. | :47:16. | :47:22. | |
There is a body in the Consdrvative and Liberal Democrat bodies which do | :47:23. | :47:28. | |
agree on certain things. Getting the economy fixed. And we have done | :47:29. | :47:33. | |
that. After the mess made bx Labour. Zero hours contract is? Really? But | :47:34. | :47:39. | |
there is also a big difference between the Lib Dems and | :47:40. | :47:41. | |
conservatives because we want to have a fairer society. We h`ve taken | :47:42. | :47:49. | |
the edge off right wing polhcies. For instance employers firing | :47:50. | :47:54. | |
people, taking people out of paying tax at the bottom altogether. That | :47:55. | :47:58. | |
was the Lib Dem part of the coalition. So how do you turn this | :47:59. | :48:03. | |
around for the general election in what is your heartland, the West | :48:04. | :48:07. | |
Country? Well we have done well in many areas. Cheltenham for dxample. | :48:08. | :48:13. | |
And in Cotswolds we have bedn bucking the trend. We did lose in | :48:14. | :48:19. | |
Bristol and that is a challdnge But a couple of seats in Bristol West, | :48:20. | :48:23. | |
where we held the MP at the moment... You are the protest party. | :48:24. | :48:30. | |
We are the natural repository for those dissatisfied with the | :48:31. | :48:36. | |
coalition in UKIP. But we know from our own opinion polls that 60% plus | :48:37. | :48:41. | |
vote for UKIP because they think we have the right answers. You should | :48:42. | :48:49. | |
look on your website to try to find some! But many people who do vote | :48:50. | :48:52. | |
for you do not actually want to leave Europe. I just know that UKIP | :48:53. | :48:57. | |
is the new kid on the block and reigning on everyone else of my | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
parade. We are taking votes from the Tories in the South and throughout | :49:03. | :49:07. | |
the country. So Labour are not able to make the advances that they need | :49:08. | :49:14. | |
to do to win the next electhon. Are people punishing you for mistakes on | :49:15. | :49:17. | |
immigration? I was knocking on doors every day this week and did not hear | :49:18. | :49:26. | |
one single person mentioned immigration until Thursday when I | :49:27. | :49:30. | |
had a couple. We held onto our vote. Immigration was not the number | :49:31. | :49:38. | |
one issue in Bristol West. Certainly not where we wear. People wdre | :49:39. | :49:45. | |
talking about the environment. I think immigration is an isste which | :49:46. | :49:49. | |
comes up time and again on the doorstep, whether we like it or not. | :49:50. | :49:53. | |
Politicians are generally rdluctant to talk about it because thdy feel | :49:54. | :49:57. | |
there is a risk of them being classed as racist. That is part of | :49:58. | :50:03. | |
the issue that UKIP have tapped into. Do you think people are just | :50:04. | :50:07. | |
embarrassed about speaking `bout immigration to you. To me pdrsonally | :50:08. | :50:14. | |
or my party? That is an intdresting subject. Our volunteers said the | :50:15. | :50:19. | |
same thing but I do not think there would be a problem with immhgration | :50:20. | :50:23. | |
if there was real growth in the economy. I do not see that. People | :50:24. | :50:27. | |
are worried about their sons and daughters struggling to get decent | :50:28. | :50:33. | |
jobs. I am a businessman and bicolours `` by coach chief | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
executives and they all say businesses is rocketing ahe`d. The | :50:38. | :50:42. | |
economy is moving ahead. We will have 3% growth this year. Pdople at | :50:43. | :50:49. | |
the bottom are not feeling ht. We have to move on. Some of thd council | :50:50. | :50:55. | |
seats in the West were won by the narrowest of margins. And some of | :50:56. | :50:59. | |
those votes will have been cast because of last minute efforts by | :51:00. | :51:02. | |
local party activists. We sdnt Martin Jones to Stroud to whtness | :51:03. | :51:06. | |
what really goes on within the party machines on polling day. | :51:07. | :51:12. | |
Election day in Stonehouse. Labour activists make a last push. A few | :51:13. | :51:17. | |
votes could stand between stccess and failure, so they need to get | :51:18. | :51:24. | |
every known supporter to turn out. The mysterious people outside the | :51:25. | :51:26. | |
polling stations check who's already voted. | :51:27. | :51:32. | |
We just record the number of people who vote. The idea is that these are | :51:33. | :51:38. | |
checked against the register back at the committee room. | :51:39. | :51:46. | |
And this is the committee room. Actually, it's a local councillor's | :51:47. | :51:48. | |
conservatory, transformed into a political hub. | :51:49. | :52:05. | |
As these sheets come in I s`y 1 ,14 and Tim will either have it or not. | :52:06. | :52:09. | |
If he has got it, it is a L`bour supporter. Canvassing tells | :52:10. | :52:12. | |
activists who has already promised to vote for them. If they h`ven t | :52:13. | :52:16. | |
been out, or like Dot they can't, they're here to help. | :52:17. | :52:21. | |
Have you been to vote? Oh, xes. You have done your civic duty. | :52:22. | :52:27. | |
Absolutely. It's the same for Labour's | :52:28. | :52:31. | |
arch`rivals. Tories in Nailsworth fighting every bit as hard `s | :52:32. | :52:35. | |
Labour. Just one vote could decide the election. | :52:36. | :52:41. | |
But does the personal touch really make a difference in the 21st | :52:42. | :52:50. | |
century? It is hugely about the personal touch. So much abott | :52:51. | :52:53. | |
individual people and what they are doing for their communities. There | :52:54. | :52:57. | |
are lots of people who will vote differentially. A lot of people will | :52:58. | :53:00. | |
vote one way in a general and a different way in a local eldction. | :53:01. | :53:04. | |
Leaflets, shoe leather and face`to`face chats. | :53:05. | :53:06. | |
Traditional politics in the internet age. And the central tradithon of | :53:07. | :53:12. | |
our democracy, the secret b`llot. It means you never know exactlx who | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
anyone has voted for. The Conservatives gave you ` lift, | :53:17. | :53:21. | |
did you vote for them? I wotld vote for anyone. I do not understand | :53:22. | :53:27. | |
anything about politics. Local politics is changing, | :53:28. | :53:31. | |
technology is coming in. But for the grass roots here in Gloucestershire, | :53:32. | :53:37. | |
tradition still rules. Martin Jones there. Now there was | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
more to the political week than just the elections. Robin Markwell takes | :53:43. | :53:46. | |
a look back at what else happened in 60 Seconds. | :53:47. | :53:53. | |
Ed Miliband was left red`faced after an interview on BBC Wiltshire. He | :53:54. | :53:57. | |
struggled to recall the namd of the Swindon Labour leader when pressed | :53:58. | :54:02. | |
by Ben Prater. You do know who Jim Grant is, Mr Miliband? You will | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
enlighten me, I'm sure. The Swindon Labour leader. I think he's doing a | :54:08. | :54:13. | |
good job. Will he feel you support him enough if you do not know his | :54:14. | :54:19. | |
name? He is doing a good job as leader of the council. The Badger | :54:20. | :54:24. | |
Trust applied to the High Court to try to stop the cull. | :54:25. | :54:26. | |
The charity believes the government should have appointed an independent | :54:27. | :54:29. | |
team to oversee further badger culling this year. On Mondax an | :54:30. | :54:33. | |
attempt to list the home of Bristol Rovers as a war memorial was hit by | :54:34. | :54:36. | |
English Heritage. There had been concern the application could stop | :54:37. | :54:40. | |
the club from selling up. And move over Baywatch. A Bristol MP made | :54:41. | :54:43. | |
quite a splash in her swimwdar. Charlotte Leslie appeared in so many | :54:44. | :54:46. | |
newspapers with this picturd that she decided to recreate the pose 15 | :54:47. | :54:59. | |
years on. Like me she has kept her sh`pe. | :55:00. | :55:12. | |
Thangham, did you wince when you heard that from your leader? Grand | :55:13. | :55:20. | |
chaps did the same thing thd next day. That is not the import`nt | :55:21. | :55:25. | |
issue. When people go to thd polls they are worrying about the future | :55:26. | :55:31. | |
for their children. I do not think one single voter went to thd polls | :55:32. | :55:36. | |
on Thursday because of that. Is there an issue that people do not | :55:37. | :55:43. | |
see him as being Prime Minister Well I wore out a lot of shoe | :55:44. | :55:46. | |
leather this week and peopld were talking about jobs for their | :55:47. | :55:53. | |
children, housing, education. And Ed Miliband has the solution to all of | :55:54. | :55:58. | |
these things. I'm looking forward to telling people next year about what | :55:59. | :56:01. | |
we're going to do about the mess we have been left in. What UKIP do is | :56:02. | :56:09. | |
actually speak in human language. They're not politically correct | :56:10. | :56:21. | |
they do not have to pay attdntion to small details. You're so busy trying | :56:22. | :56:26. | |
not to offend that you fail to communicate? I think senior people | :56:27. | :56:31. | |
do worry about not tripping up on banana skin. But on a more local | :56:32. | :56:37. | |
level, I usually say what I think on a local level. And in | :56:38. | :56:41. | |
Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds sometimes that does not go down | :56:42. | :56:44. | |
well. But I like to say what I think. And you can use things like | :56:45. | :56:50. | |
Facebook and Twitter to say exactly what you think. UKIP will bd under | :56:51. | :56:55. | |
the spotlight continuously tntil the next general election, everx | :56:56. | :57:02. | |
candidate scrutinised. Everx elected president. And your record for that | :57:03. | :57:09. | |
is not great. There are a lot of social media archaeologists that | :57:10. | :57:14. | |
work all day long on Facebook and Twitter accounts. The only thing the | :57:15. | :57:21. | |
media are interested in are the stories with UKIP candidates. They | :57:22. | :57:26. | |
do not report the ones which you see daily in the local press whhch are | :57:27. | :57:34. | |
about Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates sayhng the | :57:35. | :57:37. | |
same things. Some of the more celebrated UKIP once, for | :57:38. | :57:47. | |
example... Not a single Labour candidate... That is outragdous | :57:48. | :57:56. | |
What we find is the is an exclusive spotlight on UKIP and not the other | :57:57. | :58:00. | |
way around. But you know about that so everyone should be careftl. I | :58:01. | :58:07. | |
think social media is dangerous for all candidates. It is very dasy to | :58:08. | :58:16. | |
come in at 11 o'clock at night after a couple of glasses of wine and make | :58:17. | :58:21. | |
a gas which could end your political career. What did you think when you | :58:22. | :58:29. | |
saw those pictures of Charlotte Leslie? I thought she looked in very | :58:30. | :58:35. | |
good trim! Are you really jtdging a Tory politician by what she looks | :58:36. | :58:42. | |
like? That is what you just did I do not think you can get too much | :58:43. | :58:50. | |
out of that. You want to judge an MP by what she looks like. It hs one of | :58:51. | :58:58. | |
those moments, she put hersdlf in that situation. Which was also a | :58:59. | :59:05. | |
disgrace. And we wonder why it is difficult to get more women into | :59:06. | :59:06. | |
politics. benefits system to make it | :59:07. | :59:11. | |
contributory. Thank you. With that, back to you, Andrew. | :59:12. | :59:17. | |
Welcome back. Mutterings among Lib Dems about Nick Clegg's leaderships, | :59:18. | :59:25. | |
as we reported at the top of the show, and tonight it could get even | :59:26. | :59:31. | |
worse when we get the results of the European elections. Paddy Ashdown, | :59:32. | :59:37. | |
former Lib Dem leader, joins me now from our Westminster studio. | :59:38. | :59:41. | |
Something has to change for the Lib Dems, if Nick Clegg isn't the change | :59:42. | :59:49. | |
what will it be? The messages we have about reducing tax on the | :59:50. | :00:01. | |
poorest, they now have traction We have been on many programmes of this | :00:02. | :00:05. | |
sort before, this idea that has been put about by these people who are | :00:06. | :00:11. | |
calling for a leadership election is the silliest idea I have heard in my | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
political career. It is not serious politics. This is the moment when we | :00:15. | :00:20. | |
need to get out with a really good message and campaign through the | :00:21. | :00:23. | |
summer in the context of the general election. Spending it on a divisive | :00:24. | :00:31. | |
leadership contest is ridiculous. At the very moment when our sacrifices | :00:32. | :00:38. | |
are beginning to gain traction, we turn in on ourselves. The question | :00:39. | :00:48. | |
is, can the Liberal Democrats hack being in government? If we were to | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
take this step, the anther would be no, and that would damage the party | :00:52. | :00:58. | |
forever. It is clearly a problem, you have had to come out and defend | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
Nick Clegg, we have not even had the European election results yet. It | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
could get even worse by midnight. I have been up here anyway, to argue | :01:09. | :01:14. | |
the party's case in the context of tonight. Let me try to put this in | :01:15. | :01:22. | |
scale. We have a website which people can join to show their ascent | :01:23. | :01:30. | |
to the fact that they like cake it is called Liberal Democrats like | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
cake, it has more people signed up than this website that is calling | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
for a leadership election. Something like 200, of course this happens | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
from time to time, the wonder is you are talking -- you are taking it | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
seriously. Your colleagues are taking it seriously, including | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
sitting MPs. People trot out a list of achievements that the party would | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
like to be associated with, he began doing just that, but you have been | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
doing that for months, if not for over a year, your ratings in the | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
polls are terrible, you had a terrible local election, and you | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
will probably have a terrible European election. It will cut | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
through much better in the context of an election, we have been talking | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
about the European elections. We have been here a long time, let me | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
take you back, we have had tough times, in 1989, we came last in | :02:30. | :02:35. | |
every constituency in Britain, save one, behind the Green party. One or | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
two voices said, you have got to ditch the leader, me, you had one of | :02:43. | :02:49. | |
them on earlier, John Hemmings, as I recall. One or two said we had to | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
change course, but we stood our ground, and in the general election | :02:55. | :02:57. | |
we not only re-established our position from a base of almost | :02:58. | :03:04. | |
nothing, we laid the basis and foundation for doubling our seats in | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
1997. That is what the party can do, they have a great message, and | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
insert of wasting the summer and autumn on a leadership contest, we | :03:15. | :03:22. | |
should be doing that. Nick Clegg had two opportunities to put part of | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
that message across in the debate over Europe, but the party poll | :03:27. | :03:33. | |
ratings fell after that. What Nick elected us to try to fill a vacuum | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
of antique European rhetoric. And he lost. He could not change the best | :03:40. | :03:48. | |
part of a generation of anti-European propaganda in a couple | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
of performances? He lost the second debate more than the first. It is a | :03:53. | :03:58. | |
long-term programme. Nick Clegg had the courage to take us into | :03:59. | :04:05. | |
government. He took that decision before the party and gained 75, 80% | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
support in a democratic vote. He has led the party with outstanding | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
judgement. He has showed almost incredible grace under fire, being | :04:20. | :04:22. | |
attacked from all sides, because some people hate the coalition, and | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
he has the courage to do what no other Liberal Democrat leader has | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
done, to stand up before the British people and say unequivocally, we are | :04:31. | :04:37. | |
in favour of Europe. He is a man of courage, integrity, decency, he is | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
one of the best prime ministers Britain has not got. In the context | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
of a general election, that will go through. I am devoted to the man, he | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
can do amazingly well in the general election. But he is losing local | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
elections again and again, the European elections, and he is on | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
track to lose the general election. European elections are not easy for | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
us. Whatever happens tomorrow morning, it will not be bad -- as | :05:09. | :05:17. | |
bad as 1989. We have had that line. In the context of a general | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
election, we fought our way back, this time, we have been in | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
government, we start from a higher base, we have a message to tell | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
about how we alone have taken the tough decisions to get this country | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
out of the worst economic mess it has ever seen, left to us by the | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
Labour Party. We can go out in the context of a general election and | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
fight for that. My guess is that the resurgence of the party in the | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
context of a general election will be far greater than you are | :05:48. | :05:56. | |
suggesting. We have done the Liberal Democrats, | :05:57. | :06:03. | |
that move onto the other parties. How bad a leadership problem does Ed | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
Miliband have? He has a continuation of a problem he has had for a long | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
time. The Labour Party thought they had a soft lead, and they have the | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
same situation, everybody is hanging on. They have to make a | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
breakthrough. The big thing is that lots of people at Shadow Cabinet | :06:21. | :06:27. | |
wish they had taken on UKIP, why was Labour turning its fire on the | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
Liberal Democrats? They should have been taking on UKIP, and UKIP taken | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
seats from them, such as in Rotherham. They have finally woken | :06:37. | :06:42. | |
up. I think there is a class war breaking out, the northerners have | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
taken against Ed Miliband and the Metropolitan sophisticates around | :06:47. | :06:53. | |
them... One Labour MP has said, we do not want these guacamole eating | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
people from North London! A number doing that. They wanted to take the | :07:00. | :07:06. | |
fight to UKIP, because UKIP is getting working-class, Northern | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
Labour votes. John Mann said it was ridiculous that the Labour Party did | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
not put posters in the North of England to say that Nigel Farage | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
regarded Margaret Thatcher as his heroine. But in a funny way, those | :07:21. | :07:27. | |
Northern Labour MPs are speaking for the South, because the Labour Party | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
will only win the general election if it takes back those seats in the | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
south, the south-east, a couple of seats in the south-west that Tony | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
Blair in 1997, and they acknowledge that. It is important to say they | :07:39. | :07:45. | |
did win the local elections, they got 31%, but that was only to bustle | :07:46. | :07:53. | |
-- two points hang-up the Conservatives. Neil Kinnock got 38% | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
in 1991, the year before John Major got the largest in of votes ever. | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
There is unease in the shadow cabinet about why Ed Miliband did | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
not take on UKIP on immigration earlier. But Ed Miliband says, we | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
should not be calling UKIP names, we should be calling them out, and he | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
would say he did call them out. The unease in the party has made the | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
results worse for them than they should have been, they did pretty | :08:23. | :08:28. | |
well on Thursday. Although UKIP took votes from them in safe seats, in | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
the end, it will not make much difference. UKIP is taking votes | :08:33. | :08:40. | |
from Tories in marginals. It made it appear that Labour have not done | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
well. Diane Abbott was right, a lot of the Labour MPs who came out on | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
Friday morning had been practising their lines in expectation of a | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
disappointing result. In the north, I do not think UKIP's status of the | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
main nonlabour right-wing party will damage Labour. If you have a | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
majority of 25,000... But in the South and Midlands, UKIP could break | :09:04. | :09:10. | |
the non-Tory vote in such a way as to cost Labour marginal seats that | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
they would otherwise win. As for the Tories, look back at 2009, UKIP 116 | :09:15. | :09:22. | |
or 17% of the popular vote in the European elections and fell to % in | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
the general election. You mentioned Europe, the Tories are anticipating | :09:28. | :09:35. | |
finishing third, they did not do well on Thursday, they seem to be | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
putting everything on Europe, we will beat UKIP in Newark. That is | :09:39. | :09:45. | |
the line I am getting from them The Liberal Democrats and Labour are | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
nowhere there, they both got 20 of the vote, the Tories got 53%, a | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
majority of 16,000. UKIP do not need to do well to have an enormous | :09:58. | :10:00. | |
increase on last time. This seed is a referendum on Tories against UKIP, | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
which we have not seen so far. I was there for the rocky road packed | :10:08. | :10:14. | |
David Cameron gave a piece of rocky road to Boris Johnson, saying, you | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
know you want it, Boris. The Tories must be a head, because at the | :10:21. | :10:28. | |
bakery stores, the blue buns outsold the UKIP buns. | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
Ed Miliband bit off more than he could chew when he turned launch | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
into a budgeted last week, but he is not the first politician to make a | :10:39. | :10:40. | |
meal of it. I love a hot pasty, the choice was | :10:41. | :11:35. | |
to have a small one or a large one, and I opted for the large one, and | :11:36. | :11:42. | |
very good it was, too. The significance of the Ed Miliband | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
business is more about the media, we can amplify nothingness, but because | :11:47. | :11:53. | |
the narrative is that Ed Miliband is accident prone, even eating a big | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
concern which becomes an accident. He is deemed to be weird, so we find | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
pictures that support the conclusion. It is a class issue you | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
reveal your social class by what you eat, what supermarket you go to You | :12:08. | :12:14. | |
can play somebody accurately. Politicians are largely of a | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
different class from the voters and as soon as you ask them about food, | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
it becomes apparent. To thine own self be true, David Cameron | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
pretending he was interested in Cornish pasties, he does the cooking | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
at the weekend, lots of posh food, do not pretend to be something you | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
are not. The problem for Ed Miliband with that picture, he has some | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
abnormal people working for him but what he does not have is a broadcast | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
person who can spot those pictures. George Osborne hired Theo Rogers | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
from the BBC, she has transformed... She may have been | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
guilty of the burger, but she has transformed his image on TV. That is | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
what Ed Miliband needs. You are correct, it Ed Miliband was 15 | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
points ahead in the polls, screwing up the eating of a bacon sandwich | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
would be seen as an endearing trait. We might not have even noticed it. | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
That is all this week, you can get those European election results with | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
David Dimbleby on vote went to 4 from 9pm on the BBC News Channel, | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
and from 11pm on BBC One. No programme next week, but we are back | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
in two weeks. If it is Sunday, it is the Sunday Politics. | :13:35. | :14:11. | |
This week, Britain has voted for its Members of the European Parliament. | :14:12. | :14:14. | |
What will the result tell us about the political mood here in Britain | :14:15. | :14:19. |