Browse content similar to 26/02/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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It's Sunday morning and this is the Sunday Politics. | :00:41. | :00:46. | |
Theresa May still has plenty on her plate, | :00:47. | :00:47. | |
not least a battle over Brexit in the Lords. | :00:48. | :00:49. | |
But after Thursday's by-election win in Copeland, | :00:50. | :00:50. | |
the Prime Minister looks stronger than ever. | :00:51. | :00:52. | |
Jeremy Corbyn's Labour saw off Ukip in this week's other by-election, | :00:53. | :00:55. | |
but losing to the Tories in a heartland seat leaves the party | :00:56. | :00:57. | |
The leader of Scottish Labour joins me live. | :00:58. | :01:08. | |
You look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
And in the West: mocked for talking about the impact | :01:14. | :01:23. | |
Local authorities raise tax and cut services this week. | :01:24. | :01:25. | |
The leaders of our two biggest councils will be with me | :01:26. | :01:27. | |
In London, will the rise in council tax in all but four local | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
authorities be enough to alleviate the crisis in social care? | :01:32. | :01:38. | |
And joining me for all of that, three journalists who I'm pleased | :01:39. | :01:40. | |
to say have so far not been banned from the White House. | :01:41. | :01:48. | |
I've tried banning them from this show repeatedly, | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
but somehow they just keep getting past BBC security - it's Sam Coates, | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
We have had two crucial by-elections, the results last | :01:57. | :02:06. | |
Thursday night. It's now Sunday morning, where do they believe | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
British politics? I think it leaves British politics looking as if it | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
may go ahead without Ukip is a strong and robust force. It is | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
difficult to see from where we are now how Ukip rebuilds into a | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
credible vote winning operation. I think it looks unprofessional, the | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
campaign they fought in Stoke was clearly winnable because the margin | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
with which Labour held onto that seat was not an impressive one but | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
they put forward arguably the wrong candidate, it was messy and it's | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
hard to see where they go from here, particularly with the money problems | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
they have and even Nigel Farage saying he's fed up of the party. If | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
Isabel is right, if Ukip is no longer a major factor, you look at | :02:52. | :02:58. | |
the state of Labour and the Lib Dems coming from a long way behind | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
despite their local government by-election successes, Tories never | :03:04. | :03:07. | |
more dominant. I think Theresa May is in a fascinating situation. She's | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
the most powerful Prime Minister of modern times for now because she | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
faces no confident, formidable opposition. Unlike Margaret Thatcher | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
who in the 1980s, although she won landslides in the end, often looked | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
like she was in trouble. She was inferred quite often in the build-up | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
to the election. David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams. And quite | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
often she was worried. At the moment Theresa May faces no formidable UK | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
opposition. However, she is both strong and fragile because her | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
agenda is Brexit, which I still think many have not got to grips | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
with in terms of how complex and training and difficult it will be | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
for her. Thatcher faced no equivalent to Brexit so she is both | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
strong, formidably strong because of the wider UK political context, and | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
very fragile. It is just when you think you have never been more | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
dominant you are actually at the most dangerous, what can possibly go | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
wrong? I think that the money of her MPs they haven't begun to think | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
through the practicalities of Brexit and she does have a working majority | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
of about 17 in the House of Commons so at any point she could be put | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
under pressure from really opposition these days is done by the | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
two wins inside the Conservative Party, either the 15 Europhiles or | :04:33. | :04:40. | |
the bigger group of about 60 Brexiteers who have continued to | :04:41. | :04:42. | |
operate as a united and disciplined force within the Conservative Party | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
to get their agenda on the table. Either of those wings could be | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
disappointed at any point in the next three and a half years and that | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
would put her under pressure. I wouldn't completely rule out Ukip | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
coming back. The reason Ukip lost in Stoke I think it's because at the | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
moment Theresa May is delivering pretty much everything Ukip figures | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
might want to see. We might find the phrase Brexit means Brexit quite | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
anodyne but I think she is convincing people she will press | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
ahead with their agenda and deliver the leave vote that people buy a | :05:18. | :05:24. | |
slim majority voted for. Should that change, should there be talk of | :05:25. | :05:27. | |
transition periods, shut the migration settlement not make people | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
happy, then I think Ukip risks charging back up the centre ground | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
and causing more problems in future. That could be a two year gap in | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
which Ukip would have to survive. As I said, Ukip is on our agenda for | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
today. Thursday was a big night | :05:45. | :05:45. | |
for political obsessives like us, with not one but two | :05:46. | :05:47. | |
significant by-elections, Ellie braved the wind and rain | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
to bring you this report. The clouds had gathered, | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
the winds blew at gale force. Was a change in the air, or just | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
a weather system called Doris? Voters in Stoke-on-Trent | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
were about to find out. It's here, a sports hall | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
on a Thursday night that the country's media reckon | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
is the true eye of the storm. Would Labour suffer a lightning | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
strike to its very heart, or would the Ukip threat proved | :06:23. | :06:24. | |
to be a damp squib? Everybody seems to think the result | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
in Stoke-on-Trent would be close, just as they did 150-odd miles away | :06:28. | :06:29. | |
in Copeland, where the Tories are counting on stealing another | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
Labour heartland seat. Areas of high pressure in both | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
places, and some strange sights. We knew this wasn't a normal | :06:39. | :06:45. | |
by-election, and to prove it there is the rapper, | :06:46. | :06:48. | |
Professor Green. Chart-toppers aside, | :06:49. | :06:50. | |
winner of Stoke-on-Trent hit parade was announced first, | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
where everyone was so excited the candidates didn't even make it | :06:54. | :06:55. | |
onto the stage for the result. And I do hereby declare | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
that the said Gareth Snell Nigel Farage has said that victory | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
here in Stoke-on-Trent But Ukip's newish leader | :07:04. | :07:11. | |
played down the defeat, insisting his party's | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
time would come. Are you going to stand again | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
as an MP or has this No doubt I will stand again, | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
don't worry about that. The politics of hope beat | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
the politics of fear. I think Ukip are the ones this | :07:31. | :07:39. | |
weekend who have got But a few minutes later, | :07:40. | :07:41. | |
it turned out Labour had Harrison, Trudy Lynn, | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
the Conservative Party That was more than 2,000 | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
votes ahead of Labour. What has happened here tonight | :07:52. | :08:02. | |
is a truly historic event. Labour were disappointed, | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
but determined to be optimistic At a point when we're 15 to 18 | :08:07. | :08:08. | |
points behind in the polls... The Conservatives within 2000 votes | :08:09. | :08:20. | |
I think is an incredible The morning after the night | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
before, the losing parties were licking their wounds | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
and their lips over breakfast. For years and years, | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
Ukip was Nigel Farage, That has now changed, | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
that era has gone. It's a new era, it is | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
a second age for us. So that needs to be | :08:43. | :08:45. | |
more fully embedded, it needs to be more defined, | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
you know, and that will We have to continue to improve | :08:51. | :08:52. | |
in seats where we have stood. As we have done here, | :08:53. | :09:02. | |
we've improved on our 2015 result, that's what important, | :09:03. | :09:04. | |
is that we are taking steps Can I be the first to come | :09:05. | :09:06. | |
here today to congratulate you on being elected the new MP | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
for Stoke on Trent Central. Jeremy Corbyn has just arrived | :09:12. | :09:14. | |
in Stoke to welcome his newest MP. Not sure he's going to | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
Copeland later though. Earlier in the day, the Labour | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
leader had made clear he'd considered and discounted some | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
theories about the party's Since you found out that you'd lost | :09:27. | :09:28. | |
a seat to a governing party for the first time | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
since the Falklands War, have you at any point this morning | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
looked in the mirror and asked yourself this question - | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
could the problem actually be me? In the end it was the Conservatives | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
who came out on top. No governing party has made | :09:46. | :09:53. | |
a gain at a by-election With the self-styled people's army | :09:54. | :09:55. | |
of Ukip halted in Stoke, and Labour's wash-out | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
here in Copeland... There's little chance of rain | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
on Theresa May's parade. In the wake of that loss in | :10:07. | :10:17. | |
Copeland, the Scottish Labour Party has been meeting for its spring | :10:18. | :10:20. | |
conference in the Yesterday, deputy leader Tom Watson | :10:21. | :10:22. | |
warned delegates that unless Labour took the by-election defeat | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
seriously, the party's devastation in Scotland could be repeated | :10:28. | :10:29. | |
south of the border. Well, I'm joined now | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
by the leader of Scottish Labour, Even after your party had lost | :10:34. | :10:48. | |
Copeland to the Tories and with Labour now trailing 16 points in the | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
UK polls, you claim to have every faith that Jeremy Corbyn would | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
absolutely win the general election. What evidence can you bring to | :10:58. | :11:04. | |
support that? There is no doubt the result in Copeland was disappointing | :11:05. | :11:07. | |
for the Labour Party and I think it's a collective feeling for | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
everyone within the Labour Party and I want to do what I can to turn | :11:12. | :11:14. | |
around the fortunes of our party. That's what I've committed to do | :11:15. | :11:17. | |
while I have been the Scottish Labour leader. This two years ago we | :11:18. | :11:24. | |
were down the mines so to speak in terms of losing the faith of working | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
class communities across the country, but we listened very hard | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
to the message voters are sending and responded to it. That's what I'm | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
committed to doing in Scotland and that's what Jeremy Corbyn is | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
committed to doing UK wide. The latest polls put Labour at 14% in | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
Scotland, the Tories at ten points ahead of you in Scotland, even | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
Theresa May is more popular than Jeremy Corbyn in Scotland. So I will | :11:54. | :11:59. | |
try again - why are you so sure Jeremy Corbyn could win a general | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
election? What I said when you are talking about Scotland is that I'm | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
the leader of the Scottish Labour Party and I take responsibility for | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
our policies here. Voters said very clearly after the Scottish | :12:13. | :12:14. | |
Parliament election that they didn't have a clear enough sense of what we | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
stood for so I have been advocating a very strong anti-austerity | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
platform, coming up with ideas of how we can oppose the cuts and | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
invest in our future. That is something Jeremy Corbyn also | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
supports but I've also made it clear this weekend that we are opposed to | :12:31. | :12:36. | |
a second independence referendum. I want to bring Scotland back together | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
by focusing on the future and that's why I have been speaking about the | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
federal solution for the UK. I know that Jeremy Corbyn shares that | :12:46. | :12:48. | |
ambition because he is backing the plans for a people's Constitutional | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
Convention. Yes, these are difficult times for the Scottish Labour Party | :12:53. | :12:59. | |
and UK family, but I have a plan in place to turn things around. It will | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
take time though. I'm still not sure why you are so sure the Labour party | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
can win but let me come onto your plan. You want a UK wide | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
Constitutional Convention and that lead to a new Federalist settlement. | :13:15. | :13:21. | |
Is it the policy of the Labour Shadow Cabinet in Westminster to | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
carve England into federal regions? What we support at a UK wide level | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
is the people's constitutional convention. I have been careful to | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
prescribe what I think is in the best interests of Scotland but not | :13:36. | :13:38. | |
to dictate to other parts of the UK what is good for them, that's the | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
point of the people's constitutional convention. You heard Tom Watson say | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
there has to be a UK wide conversation about power, who has it | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
and how it is exercised across England. England hasn't been part of | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
this devolution story over the last 20 years, it is something that | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
happened between Scotland and London or Wales and London. No wonder | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
people in England feel disenfranchised from that. What | :14:06. | :14:08. | |
evidence can you bring to show there is any appetite in England for an | :14:09. | :14:14. | |
English federal solution to England, to carve England into federal | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
regions? Have you spoken to John Prescott about this? He might tell | :14:20. | :14:22. | |
you some of the difficulties. There's not even a debate about that | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
here, Kezia Dugdale, it is fantasy. I speak to John Prescott regularly. | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
What there is a debate about is the idea the world is changing so fast | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
that globalisation is taking jobs away from communities in the | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
north-east, that many working class communities feel left behind, that | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
Westminster feels very far away and the politicians within it feel | :14:46. | :14:48. | |
remote in part of the establishment. People are fed up with power being | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
exercised somewhere else, that's where I think federalism comes in | :14:53. | :14:55. | |
because it's about bringing power closer to people and in many ways | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
it's forced on us because of Brexit. We know the United Kingdom is | :15:00. | :15:08. | |
leaving the European Union so we have to talk about the repatriation | :15:09. | :15:10. | |
of those powers from Brussels to Britain. I want many of those powers | :15:11. | :15:13. | |
to go to the Scottish parliament but where should they go in the English | :15:14. | :15:15. | |
context? It is not as things currently stand the policy of the | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
English Labour Party to carve England into federal regions, | :15:21. | :15:20. | |
correct? It is absolutely the policy of the | :15:21. | :15:30. | |
UK Labour Party to support the people's Constitutional convention | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
to examining these questions. I think it is really important. You're | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
promising the Scottish people a federal solution, and you have not | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
even squared your own party for a federal solution in England. That is | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
not true. The UK Labour Party is united on this. I am going to | :15:49. | :15:51. | |
Cardiff next month to meet with Carwyn Jones and various leaders. | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
United on a federal solution? You know as well as I know it is not | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
united on a federal solution. We will have a conversation about power | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
in this country. It is not united on that | :16:06. | :16:29. | |
issue? This is the direction of travel. It is what you heard | :16:30. | :16:32. | |
yesterday from Sadiq Khan, from Tom Watson, when you hear from people | :16:33. | :16:35. | |
like Nick Forbes who lead Newcastle City Council and Labour's Local | :16:36. | :16:37. | |
Government Association. There is an appetite for talking about power. | :16:38. | :16:39. | |
Talking is one thing. We need to have this conversation across the | :16:40. | :16:41. | |
whole of the United Kingdom, to have a reformed United Kingdom. It is a | :16:42. | :16:44. | |
conversation you're offering Scotland, not the policy. Let's come | :16:45. | :16:46. | |
onto the labour made of London. He was in power for your conference. He | :16:47. | :16:49. | |
wrote in the record yesterday, there is no difference between Scottish | :16:50. | :16:51. | |
nationalism and racism. Would you like this opportunity to distance | :16:52. | :16:54. | |
yourself from that absurd claim? I think that Sadiq Khan was very clear | :16:55. | :16:59. | |
yesterday that he was not accusing the SNP of racism. What he was | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
saying clearly is that nationalism by its very nature divides people | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
and communities. That is what I said in my speech yesterday. I am fed up | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
living in a divided and fractured country and society. Our politics is | :17:14. | :17:17. | |
forcing is constantly to pick sides, whether you're a no, leave a remain, | :17:18. | :17:22. | |
it brings out the worst in our politicians and politics. All the | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
consensus we find in the grey areas is lost. That is why am standing | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
under a banner that together we are stronger. We have to come up with | :17:32. | :17:45. | |
ideas and focus on the future. That is why I agree with Sadiq Khan. He | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
said quite clearly in the Daily Record yesterday, and that the last | :17:50. | :17:52. | |
minute he adapted his speech to your conference yesterday, to try and | :17:53. | :17:54. | |
reduce the impact, that there was no difference between Scottish | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
nationalism and racism. Your colleague, and Sarwar, said that | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
even after he had tried to introduce the caveats, all forms of | :18:02. | :18:04. | |
nationalism rely on creating eyes and them. Let's call it for what it | :18:05. | :18:12. | |
is. So you are implying that the Scottish Nationalists are racist. | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
Would you care to distance yourself from that absurd claim? I utterly | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
refute that that is what Sadiq Khan said. I would never suggest that the | :18:21. | :18:27. | |
SNP are an inherently racist party. That does is a disservice. He did | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
not see it. What he did say, however, is that nationalism is | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
divisive. You know that better than anyone. I see your Twitter account. | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
Regularly your attack for the job you do as a journalist. Politics in | :18:41. | :18:46. | |
Scotland is divided on. I do not want to revisit that independence | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
question again for that reason. As leader of the Labour Party, I want | :18:52. | :18:54. | |
to bring our country back together, appeal to people who voted yes and | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
no. That banner, together we are stronger, that is where the answers | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
lie in defaulters can be found. If in response to the Mayor of London, | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
your colleague says, let's call it out for what it is, what is he | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
referring to if he is not implying that national symbol is racist? -- | :19:14. | :19:21. | |
and that nationalism is racist? He is saying that it leads to divisive | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
politics. The Labour Party has always advocated that together we | :19:26. | :19:29. | |
are stronger. Saying something is divisive is very different from | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
saying something is racist. That is what the Mayor of London said. That | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
is what your colleague was referring to. He did not. You would really | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
struggle to quote that from the Mayor of London. He talked about | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
being divided by race. What does that mean? I think he was very clear | :19:49. | :19:54. | |
that he was talking about divided politics. There is an appetite the | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
length and breadth of the country to end that divisive politics. That is | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
what I stand for, focusing on the future, bringing people back | :20:04. | :20:06. | |
together, concentrating on what the economy might look like in 20 years' | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
time in coming up with ideas to tackle it today. Thank you for | :20:12. | :20:12. | |
joining us. Thursday's win for Labour | :20:13. | :20:13. | |
in Stoke-on-Trent Central gave some relief to Jeremy Corbyn, | :20:14. | :20:15. | |
but for Ukip leader and defeated Stoke candidate Paul Nuttall | :20:16. | :20:18. | |
there were no consolation prizes. I'm joined now by Mr Nuttall's | :20:19. | :20:20. | |
principal political Welcome to the programme. Good | :20:21. | :20:31. | |
morning. How long will Paul Nuttall survivors Ukip leader, days, weeks, | :20:32. | :20:34. | |
months? You are in danger of not seeing the wood for the trees. Ukip | :20:35. | :20:41. | |
was formed in 1993 with the express purpose, much mocked, of getting | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
Britain out of the European Union. Under the brilliant leadership of | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
Nigel Farage, we were crucial in forcing a vacuous Prime Minister to | :20:50. | :20:52. | |
make a referendum promise he did not want to give. With our friends in | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
Fort leave and other organisations. Mac we know that. Get to the answer. | :20:59. | :21:05. | |
We helped to win that referendum. The iteration of Ukip at the moment | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
that we're in, the primary purpose, we are the guard dog of Brexit. | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
Viewed through that prism, the Stoke by-election was a brilliant success. | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
A brilliant success? We had the Tory candidate that had pumped out | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
publicity for Remain, for Cameron Bradley, preaching the gospel of | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
Brexit. We had a Labour candidate and we know what he really felt | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
about Brexit, preaching the Gospel according to Brexit. You lost. Well | :21:34. | :21:36. | |
the by-election was going on, we had the Labour Party in the House of | :21:37. | :21:52. | |
Commons pass the idea of trickling Article 50 by a landslide. Are | :21:53. | :21:55. | |
passionate thing, the thing that 35,000 Ukip members care about the | :21:56. | :21:57. | |
most, it is an extraordinary achievement. I am very proud. What | :21:58. | :21:59. | |
would you have described as victory as? If we could have got Paul | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
Nuttall into the House of Commons, that would have been a fantastic | :22:03. | :22:06. | |
cherry on the top. Losing was an extraordinary achievement? Many Ukip | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
supporters the Stoke was winnable, but Paul Nuttall's campaign was | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
marred by controversy, Tory voters refuse to vote tactically for Ukip | :22:19. | :22:25. | |
to beat Labour, his campaign, Mr Nuttall is to blame for not winning | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
what was a winnable seat? I do not see that at all. This is | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
counterintuitive, but Jeremy Corbyn did do one thing that made it more | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
difficult for us to win. Fantasy. That was to take Labour into a | :22:39. | :22:43. | |
Brexit position formerly. Just over 50 Labour MPs had voted against | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
triggering Article 50. In political terms, we have intimidated the | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
Labour Party into backing Brexit. How much good is it doing you? It | :22:53. | :22:54. | |
comes to the heart of the problem your party faces. | :22:55. | :23:11. | |
You're struggling to win Tory Eurosceptic voters. For the moment, | :23:12. | :23:14. | |
they seem happy with Theresa May. Stoke shows you're not winning | :23:15. | :23:16. | |
Labour Brexit voters either. If you cannot get the solution Tolisso | :23:17. | :23:18. | |
labour, where does your Broad come from? In terms of the by-election, | :23:19. | :23:20. | |
it came very early for Paul. I'm talking about the future. We have a | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
future agenda, and ideological argument with Jeremy Corbyn's Labour | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
Party, which is wedded to the notion of global citizenship and does not | :23:29. | :23:33. | |
recognise the nation state. We know he spent Christmas sitting around | :23:34. | :23:36. | |
campfires with Mexican Marxist dreaming of global government. We | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
believe in the nation state. We believe that the patriotic working | :23:41. | :23:43. | |
class vote will be receptive to that. Your Broad went down by 9% in | :23:44. | :23:50. | |
Cortland. In Copeland we were squeezed. In Stoke, we were unable | :23:51. | :23:55. | |
to squeeze the Tories, who are on a high. Our agenda is that social | :23:56. | :24:01. | |
solidarity is important but we arrange it in this country by nation | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
and community. We want an immigration system that is not only | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
reducing... We know what you want. I do not think people do. You had a | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
whole by-election to tell people and they did not vote for you and. When | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
Nigel Farage said it was fundamental that you were winner in Stoke, he | :24:19. | :24:24. | |
was wrong? Nigel chooses his own words. I would not rewrite them. It | :24:25. | :24:31. | |
would be a massive advantage to Ukip to have a leader in the House of | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
Commons in time to reply to the budget, Prime Minister's questions | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
and all of that. But we have taken the strategic view that we will | :24:39. | :24:41. | |
fight the Labour Party for the working class vote. It is also true | :24:42. | :24:45. | |
that the Conservatives will make a pitch for the working class vote | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
might as well. All three parties have certain advantages and | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
disadvantages. As part of that page, Nigel Farage said that your leader, | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
Paul Nuttall, should have taken a clear, by which I assume he meant | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
tough, line on immigration. Do you agree? He took a tough line on | :25:04. | :25:09. | |
immigration. He developed that idea at our party conference in the | :25:10. | :25:13. | |
spring. Nigel Farage did not think so? Nigel Farage made his speech | :25:14. | :25:16. | |
before Paul Nuttall made his speech. He said this in the aftermath of the | :25:17. | :25:23. | |
result. Once we have freedom to control and Borders, Paul wants to | :25:24. | :25:29. | |
set up an immigration system that includes an aptitude test, do you | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
have skills that the British economy needs, but also, and attitudes test, | :25:34. | :25:39. | |
do you subscribe to core British values such as gender equality and | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
freedom of expression? We will be making these arguments. It is | :25:45. | :25:47. | |
certainly true that Paul's campaign was thrown off course by, | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
particularly something that we knew the Labour Party had been preparing | :25:53. | :25:58. | |
to run, the smear on the untruths, the implications about Hillsborough. | :25:59. | :26:01. | |
If you knew you should have anticipated it. Alan Banks, he helps | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
to bankroll your party, he said that Mr Nuttall needs to toss out the | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
Tory cabal in Europe, by which he means Douglas Carswell, Neil | :26:13. | :26:15. | |
Hamilton. Should they be stripped of their membership? Of course not. As | :26:16. | :26:21. | |
far as I knew, Alan Banks was a member of the Conservative Party | :26:22. | :26:24. | |
formally. I do not know who this Tory cabal is supposed to be. He | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
says that your party is more like a jumble sale than a political party. | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
He says that the party should make him chairman or they will work. What | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
do you see to that? He has made that statement several times over many | :26:40. | :26:41. | |
months, including if you do not throw out your only MP. Douglas | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
Carswell has managed to win twice under Ukip colours. Should Tibi | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
chairman? I think we have an excellent young chairman at the | :26:51. | :26:57. | |
moment. He is doing a good job. The idea that Leave.EU was as smooth | :26:58. | :27:03. | |
running brilliant machine, that does not sit with the facts as I | :27:04. | :27:05. | |
understand them. Suzanne Evans says it would be no great loss for Ukip | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
if Mr Banks walked out, severed his ties and took his money elsewhere. | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
Is she right. I am always happy people who want to give money and | :27:16. | :27:19. | |
support your party want to stay in the party. The best donors donate | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
and do not seek to dictate. If they are experts in certain fields, | :27:24. | :27:28. | |
people should listen to their views but to have a daughter telling the | :27:29. | :27:31. | |
party leader who should be party chairman, that is a nonstarter. You | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
have described your existing party chairman is excellent. He said it | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
could be 20 years before Ukip wins by-election. Is he being too | :27:43. | :27:46. | |
optimistic? There is a general election coming up in the years' | :27:47. | :27:50. | |
time. We will be aiming to win seats in that. Before that, we will be the | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
guard dog for Brexit, to make sure this extraordinary achievement of a | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
little party... You are guard dog without a kennel, you cannot get | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
seat? We're keeping the big establishment parties to do the will | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
of the people. If we achieve nothing else at all, that will be a | :28:10. | :28:12. | |
magnificent achievement. Thank you very much. | :28:13. | :28:14. | |
Sweden isn't somewhere we talk about often | :28:15. | :28:16. | |
should because this week it was pulled into | :28:17. | :28:19. | |
the global spotlight, thanks | :28:20. | :28:20. | |
Last weekend, Mr Trump was mocked for referring to an incident that | :28:21. | :28:29. | |
had occurred last night in Sweden as a result of the country's open | :28:30. | :28:33. | |
Critics were quick to point out that no such incident had occurred | :28:34. | :28:36. | |
and Mr Trump later clarified on Twitter and he was talking | :28:37. | :28:39. | |
about a report he had watched on Fox News. | :28:40. | :28:42. | |
But as if to prove he was onto something, | :28:43. | :28:45. | |
next day a riot broke out in a Stockholm suburb | :28:46. | :28:47. | |
with a large migrant population, following unrest in such areas | :28:48. | :28:50. | |
So what has been Sweden's experience of migration? | :28:51. | :28:59. | |
In 2015, a record 162,000 people claimed asylum there, the second | :29:00. | :29:02. | |
That number dropped to 29,000 in 2016 after the country introduced | :29:03. | :29:09. | |
border restrictions and stopped offering permanent | :29:10. | :29:10. | |
Tensions have risen, along with claims of links to crime, | :29:11. | :29:18. | |
although official statistics do not provide evidence of a refugee driven | :29:19. | :29:21. | |
Nigel Farage defended Mr Trump, claiming this week that migrants | :29:22. | :29:30. | |
have led to a dramatic rise in sexual offences. | :29:31. | :29:32. | |
Although the country does have the highest reported | :29:33. | :29:34. | |
rate of rape in Europe, Swedish authorities say recent rises | :29:35. | :29:37. | |
were due to changes to how rape and sex crimes are recorded. | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
Aside from the issue of crime, Sweden has struggled | :29:43. | :29:44. | |
Levels of inequality between natives and migrants when it comes | :29:45. | :29:50. | |
Unemployment rates are three times higher for foreign-born workers | :29:51. | :29:53. | |
We're joined now by Laila Naraghi, she's a Swedish MP from the | :29:54. | :30:06. | |
governing Social Democratic Party, and by the author and | :30:07. | :30:08. | |
The Swedish political establishment was outraged by Mr Trump's remarks, | :30:09. | :30:24. | |
pointing to a riot that hadn't taken place, then a few nights later | :30:25. | :30:29. | |
serious riots did break out in a largely migrant suburb of Stockholm | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
so he wasn't far out, was he? I think he was far out because he is | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
misleading the public with how he uses these statistics. I think it is | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
important to remember that the violence has decreased in Sweden for | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
the past 20 years and research shows there is no evidence that indicate | :30:48. | :30:50. | |
that immigration leads to crime and so I think it is far out. The social | :30:51. | :30:59. | |
unrest in these different areas is not because of their ethical | :31:00. | :31:02. | |
backgrounds of these people living there but more about social economic | :31:03. | :31:09. | |
reasons. OK, no evidence migrants are responsible for any kind of | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
crime? This story reminds me after what happened to the Charlie Hebdo | :31:14. | :31:20. | |
attacks in Paris when also a Fox News commentator said something that | :31:21. | :31:25. | |
was outlandish about Paris and the Mayor of Paris threatened to sue Fox | :31:26. | :31:29. | |
News, saying you are making our city look bad. It's a bit like that | :31:30. | :31:34. | |
because the truth on this lies between Donald Trump on the Swedish | :31:35. | :31:39. | |
authorities on this. Sweden and Swedish government is very reluctant | :31:40. | :31:45. | |
to admit any downsides of its own migration policy and particularly | :31:46. | :31:47. | |
the migration it hard in 2015 but there are very obvious downsides | :31:48. | :31:53. | |
because Sweden is not a country that needs a non-skilled labour force | :31:54. | :31:59. | |
which doesn't speak Swedish. What was raised as the matter of | :32:00. | :32:04. | |
evidence, what is the evidence? First of all if I can say so the | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
rape statistics in Sweden that have been cited are familiar with the | :32:10. | :32:12. | |
rape statistics across other countries that have seen similar | :32:13. | :32:16. | |
forms of migration. Danish authorities and the Norwegian | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
authorities have recorded a similar thing. It is not done by ethnicity | :32:22. | :32:26. | |
so we don't know. And this is part of the problem. It is again a lot of | :32:27. | :32:32. | |
lies and rumours going about. When it is about for example rape, it is | :32:33. | :32:37. | |
difficult to compare the statistics because in Sweden for example many | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
crimes that in other countries are labelled as bodily harm or assault | :32:43. | :32:47. | |
are in Sweden labelled as rape. Also how it is counted because if a woman | :32:48. | :32:52. | |
goes to the police and reports that her husband or boyfriend has raped | :32:53. | :33:00. | |
her, and done it every night for one year, in Sweden that is counted as | :33:01. | :33:06. | |
365 offences. Something is going wrong, I look at the recent news | :33:07. | :33:10. | |
from Sweden. Six Afghan child refugees committed suicide in the | :33:11. | :33:14. | |
last six months, unemployment among recent migrants now five times | :33:15. | :33:20. | |
higher than among non-migrants. We have seen gang violence in Malmo | :33:21. | :33:26. | |
where a British child was killed by a grenade, rioting in Stockholm. | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
Police in Sweden say there are 53 areas of the country where it is now | :33:31. | :33:34. | |
dangerous to patrol. Something has gone wrong. Let me get back to what | :33:35. | :33:40. | |
I think is the core of this debate if I may and that is the right for | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
people fleeing war and political persecution to seek asylum, that is | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
a human right. In Sweden we don't think we can do everything, but we | :33:50. | :33:55. | |
want to live up to our obligation, every country has an obligation to | :33:56. | :33:58. | |
receive asylum seekers. But you have changed your policy on that because | :33:59. | :34:04. | |
having taken 163,001 year alone, you have then closed your borders, I | :34:05. | :34:08. | |
think very wisely, closed the border which means 10,000 people per day at | :34:09. | :34:13. | |
one point were walking from Denmark in to Malmo, you rightly changed | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
that so he realised whatever ones aspirations in terms of asylum, it | :34:19. | :34:22. | |
sometimes meets reality and Sweden is meeting the reality of this. | :34:23. | :34:28. | |
Let's respond to that. We are not naive, we know we cannot do | :34:29. | :34:31. | |
everything but we want to try to do our share as we think other | :34:32. | :34:35. | |
countries also need to do their share. But let me say that, if you | :34:36. | :34:40. | |
look at what the World Economic Forum is saying about our country | :34:41. | :34:43. | |
they show we are in the top of many rankings, the best country to live | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
in, to age in, to have children in, to start into -- to start | :34:49. | :34:56. | |
enterprise. Why have you not been so good at integrating migrants? The | :34:57. | :35:03. | |
unemployment rate is five times higher among migrants than | :35:04. | :35:07. | |
non-migrants and that's the highest ratio of any country in the EU and | :35:08. | :35:12. | |
the OECD, why have you not been able to integrate the people you have | :35:13. | :35:17. | |
brought in for humanitarian reasons? I'm sure there are things we can do | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
much better of course but if you look for example at the immigration | :35:23. | :35:25. | |
that came in the 90s from the Balkans, they are well integrated | :35:26. | :35:30. | |
and contributing to our society. They are starting enterprises and | :35:31. | :35:32. | |
working in different fields of society, and they help our country. | :35:33. | :35:41. | |
Why have they not got jobs, the migrants that have come in? It takes | :35:42. | :35:47. | |
time. In the 90s we managed it and I'm sure we can do it again. Can I | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
put this into some context, it is clear Sweden has got problems as a | :35:53. | :35:55. | |
result of the number of migrants that come in, whether it is as bad | :35:56. | :36:00. | |
as Mr Trump and others make out is another matter, but perhaps I can | :36:01. | :36:04. | |
put it into context. Malmo, which has been at the centre of many of | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
these migrant problems, its homicide rate is three per hundred thousand. | :36:10. | :36:16. | |
Chicago, 28 per 100,000. It may have problems but they are not huge. No, | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
they are pretty huge and I think they will grow. The Balkan refugees | :36:22. | :36:26. | |
into Sweden in the 90s did bring a lot of problems and Sweden did for | :36:27. | :36:31. | |
the first time see serious ethnic gang rivalries. There was an upsurge | :36:32. | :36:34. | |
in gang-related violence that has gone on since. The situation in | :36:35. | :36:40. | |
Malmo in particular is exaggerated by some people, there's no doubt | :36:41. | :36:44. | |
about that, I have been there many times and it is undoubtedly | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
exaggerated by some, it is also vastly unpersuaded by the Swedish | :36:49. | :36:54. | |
authorities. -- understated. In 2010, one in ten Jews in Malmo | :36:55. | :37:04. | |
registered some form of attack on them. It got so bad that in 2010 | :37:05. | :37:14. | |
people offered to escort Jews... You have had a good say and I have got | :37:15. | :37:17. | |
to be fair here, what do you say to that, Laila Naraghi? There are | :37:18. | :37:24. | |
people trying to frame our country in a certain way to push their own | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
agenda. I regret that President Trump is trying to slander our | :37:29. | :37:34. | |
country. But what about the specific point on Malmo? If you speak to | :37:35. | :37:38. | |
people in Malmo and also to different congregations, they say | :37:39. | :37:42. | |
they are working together with the authorities to improve this. I say | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
again, there are a lot of people trying to spread rumours and lies. | :37:47. | :37:51. | |
Your situation is very like the situation we had in Britain when we | :37:52. | :37:57. | |
have these situations in Rotherham and elsewhere. 1400 girls were raped | :37:58. | :38:01. | |
in Rotherham before police even admitted it was going on. That | :38:02. | :38:05. | |
happened in Britain in the last decade, a similar phenomenon. An | :38:06. | :38:09. | |
upsurge in particularly sexual and other forms of violence and then | :38:10. | :38:13. | |
total denial by an entire political class is now something that is | :38:14. | :38:18. | |
happening in Sweden. I see it in Swedish authorities and the denial | :38:19. | :38:21. | |
that comes up and the desire to laugh and dismiss Trump but he's not | :38:22. | :38:26. | |
answer nothing and that's a painful thing for any society to want to | :38:27. | :38:33. | |
admit to. There are number of Swedes who think the establishment is | :38:34. | :38:40. | |
covering up the true statistics, that you don't break crime down by | :38:41. | :38:44. | |
ethnic crimes, people are suspicious of the centre-left and centre-right | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
parties now in Sweden. There is no denial and no cover-up. This is what | :38:51. | :38:54. | |
I'm speaking about when I say people are trying to frame it in a certain | :38:55. | :38:57. | |
way. The social unrest is not because of the ethnical background | :38:58. | :39:01. | |
of the people living there but rather because of different | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
socioeconomics conditions. There is no research that shows | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
immigration... But you don't do the research into it. Swedish | :39:12. | :39:14. | |
authorities deliberately ensure you cannot carry out such research and | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
after the attacks in Cologne in 2015 it was the first time then that the | :39:19. | :39:22. | |
Swedish authorities and press admitted that similar sexual | :39:23. | :39:26. | |
molestation have been going on for years in Sweden. Is it right to | :39:27. | :39:33. | |
think, given the problem is maybe not as bad as many people make out | :39:34. | :39:37. | |
but clearly problems, given these problems, is the age of mass asylum | :39:38. | :39:43. | |
seeking for Sweden over? You have cut the numbers by 80% coming in | :39:44. | :39:47. | |
last year compared with 2015, is it over while you concentrate on | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
getting right the people that you have there already? We want to do | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
our share, we have done a lot and now we are concentrating of course | :39:57. | :40:00. | |
on integration and making sure people get a job, and also | :40:01. | :40:13. | |
on big welfare investments because it's important to remember that for | :40:14. | :40:16. | |
eight years Sweden were governed by a government that prioritised big | :40:17. | :40:19. | |
tax cuts instead of investment in welfare. It may just not work. I am | :40:20. | :40:22. | |
grateful to you both, we have to leave it there. | :40:23. | :40:23. | |
It's coming up to 11:40am, you're watching the Sunday Politics. | :40:24. | :40:26. | |
We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who leave us now | :40:27. | :40:28. | |
the Week Ahead, when we'll be asking if the Government is facing defeat | :40:29. | :40:42. | |
Welcome to the Sunday Politics in the West. | :40:43. | :40:45. | |
Coming up: Building the dream - our local councils want to build | :40:46. | :40:48. | |
200,000 new homes, but do they have any chance of doing so? | :40:49. | :40:51. | |
With councils facing the squeeze, I'm joined by two people who've been | :40:52. | :40:57. | |
They are the leaders of our two biggest local authorities. | :40:58. | :41:03. | |
Baroness Jane Scott is the Conservative leader | :41:04. | :41:05. | |
And Marvin Rees is the Labour Mayor of Bristol. | :41:06. | :41:09. | |
It got rather rowdy in Bristol this week as the council set its budget. | :41:10. | :41:17. | |
Proceedings were interrupted and police called as a ?16 million | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
At other councils, services have also been slashed and taxes | :41:22. | :41:31. | |
raised, prompting even conservatives to complain. | :41:32. | :41:32. | |
We can say enough is enough, we can't take any more. | :41:33. | :41:40. | |
We're going to stand together, we're going to fight | :41:41. | :41:42. | |
And there were protests inside with pretty city councils | :41:43. | :41:52. | |
budget setting meeting even suspended while the public | :41:53. | :41:54. | |
Eventually, after six hours, the ruling Labour | :41:55. | :41:57. | |
Council tax up 5%, jobs lost and services cut. | :41:58. | :42:04. | |
The social glue that holds the city together is going to be eroded. | :42:05. | :42:09. | |
All the things that we take for granted are going to be eroded | :42:10. | :42:13. | |
and are going to disappear because of this. | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
Our libraries, our community partnerships, our leisure | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
How are parks going to pay for themselves? | :42:22. | :42:26. | |
The same day, 25 miles away and quite a contrast. | :42:27. | :42:31. | |
Wiltshire set their budget with the ruling | :42:32. | :42:33. | |
We are seen as a pioneer in terms of pushing the boundaries | :42:34. | :42:40. | |
and doing things differently from local government. | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
One big difference, it's a unitary authority, | :42:45. | :42:47. | |
Bristol and Wiltshire are similar in population | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
providing similar services, but in different ways. | :42:52. | :42:57. | |
A you years ago, Wiltshire reduced staffing and now relies more | :42:58. | :43:04. | |
Both councils have similar numbers of libraries, | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
but a third of Wiltshire's are run by volunteers. | :43:09. | :43:10. | |
Bristol, by contrast, staffs all of its branches | :43:11. | :43:16. | |
But not all Conservative councils are like Wiltshire as the Secretary | :43:17. | :43:21. | |
of State for Local Government should have known when he came to Somerset | :43:22. | :43:24. | |
this week for the launch of their campaign to keep control | :43:25. | :43:27. | |
What we've seen here in Somerset County, | :43:28. | :43:33. | |
through this manifesto, through some of the things that John | :43:34. | :43:36. | |
has already talked about, is just what a difference you have | :43:37. | :43:39. | |
made to people's lives right here the county. | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
There are reduced library opening hours, reduced bin collections, | :43:44. | :43:46. | |
absolutely no major road improvement schemes, | :43:47. | :43:52. | |
cuts to drug advisory services, cuts to youth clubs, | :43:53. | :43:55. | |
less funding to support the elderly in their own homes and | :43:56. | :43:58. | |
This was a debate on local government funding the previous day. | :43:59. | :44:04. | |
We have to now accept that in rural areas public services have not just | :44:05. | :44:14. | |
been cut to the bone, they have had all the | :44:15. | :44:16. | |
So, I try to find out if the Minister agreed | :44:17. | :44:19. | |
People want to see their council tax bill go lower rather than higher | :44:20. | :44:26. | |
so they accept that when changes do need to be made... | :44:27. | :44:28. | |
So if the investment is going into adult social care, | :44:29. | :44:31. | |
as it is in this coming financial year, I think pie | :44:32. | :44:35. | |
They won't be cut if you have the right administration. | :44:36. | :44:43. | |
But the MPs says, the Conservative MP here says they have cut things | :44:44. | :44:46. | |
like drug advisory services, youth club, support for the elderly. | :44:47. | :44:49. | |
What we've seen here is you've got the right leadership that | :44:50. | :44:52. | |
has been making some of these tough decisions. | :44:53. | :44:54. | |
That is to protect most vital services and that's | :44:55. | :44:57. | |
There was no hint that cuts in funding for local | :44:58. | :45:05. | |
On May the 4th, voters can decide who will take charge of cutting | :45:06. | :45:10. | |
Jane Scott, which cut did you feel the most unhappy about? | :45:11. | :45:20. | |
I'm always unhappy about making people redundant if I have two. | :45:21. | :45:27. | |
Not make them compulsorily redundant and I hope I don't this year. | :45:28. | :45:34. | |
You haven't mentioned a single cut in your speech. | :45:35. | :45:37. | |
No, but my cabinet member responsible did to talk about 200 | :45:38. | :45:41. | |
job losses and hopefully those will all come from | :45:42. | :45:43. | |
But support for adults with learning difficulties, | :45:44. | :45:49. | |
reduced adult social care, reduced the ground repairs, reduced. | :45:50. | :45:59. | |
Because we do differently in Wiltshire. | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
You can see with what we've done with children's centres, | :46:05. | :46:07. | |
And there are 867 volunteers, not 750. | :46:08. | :46:10. | |
We try to deliver services in a more modern way and I think | :46:11. | :46:22. | |
that is the key to the success of an authority. | :46:23. | :46:25. | |
That, and doing things in a more businesslike way as well. | :46:26. | :46:27. | |
OK, but your own government grant has been reduced by 17.6%. | :46:28. | :46:30. | |
That is austerity being delivered from central government locally. | :46:31. | :46:33. | |
Do you ever say to Theresa, that is enough? | :46:34. | :46:37. | |
As Conservative councillors, particularly, we talk | :46:38. | :46:40. | |
to our government about the fact that it has probably gone far enough | :46:41. | :46:43. | |
and that if you look at what the government is doing | :46:44. | :46:45. | |
and it's saying, no more grants from us, you're going to rely | :46:46. | :46:48. | |
on your non-domestic rates and your council tax, | :46:49. | :46:51. | |
But this is ruthless austerity, isn't it? | :46:52. | :46:53. | |
Marvin, it's people like you that have two implement it. | :46:54. | :46:57. | |
We are at city and local government level and it's a massive challenge. | :46:58. | :47:11. | |
When we first started down this path, one of the things I was very | :47:12. | :47:14. | |
concerned about was if people in Westminster hadn't really | :47:15. | :47:16. | |
taken account of the fact that there is a cost to the cuts. | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
If you impact on our ability to intervene earlier in people's | :47:21. | :47:22. | |
lives, you have two build physical resilience, mental health | :47:23. | :47:24. | |
into people's lives, jobs skills, they turn up requiring public | :47:25. | :47:27. | |
services later on in life so it can be a false economy. | :47:28. | :47:29. | |
Do you think people might ask, what was the point of electing | :47:30. | :47:32. | |
Labour mayor who's going to impose Tory cuts? | :47:33. | :47:34. | |
I don't think that's a justified question, | :47:35. | :47:38. | |
but that's been one of the arguments of the critics. | :47:39. | :47:41. | |
My point is that we've come in, we have a set of values and we've | :47:42. | :47:44. | |
been driving through what we do in local government | :47:45. | :47:46. | |
in a way that we believe is in line with our values. | :47:47. | :47:49. | |
Protecting the most vulnerable in all possible ways. | :47:50. | :47:51. | |
What I would also say is we've got to appreciate that Bristol is not | :47:52. | :47:56. | |
We have two big universities, a huge private sector, | :47:57. | :48:02. | |
other public sector organisations and a big voluntary sector. | :48:03. | :48:05. | |
The real art of getting outcomes for people in Bristol has to look | :48:06. | :48:08. | |
beyond just what the City Council does but to look at the collective, | :48:09. | :48:11. | |
combined impact of all those organisations. | :48:12. | :48:14. | |
Only today I was at a board meeting talking about | :48:15. | :48:16. | |
the Local Enterprise Partnership talking about inclusive | :48:17. | :48:20. | |
But you've still imposed ?60 million worth of cuts and you've got | :48:21. | :48:32. | |
It's what our party requires and it's competence. | :48:33. | :48:37. | |
One of the most important things we can do for Bristol | :48:38. | :48:40. | |
is deliver a financially competent local authority. | :48:41. | :48:42. | |
We have a challenging settlement from central government, | :48:43. | :48:44. | |
we also are dealing with a very challenging inheritance surrounding | :48:45. | :48:47. | |
mismanagement of the Council's finances and we are having to work | :48:48. | :48:50. | |
What was the cut that you found the most difficult? | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
Clearly, cuts surrounding children's services. | :48:56. | :48:58. | |
This was big because, with my background in public health, | :48:59. | :49:01. | |
I know that if you get children off to the best possible | :49:02. | :49:03. | |
start in life, you build resilience into their lives. | :49:04. | :49:07. | |
So, you are actually doing things you don't want to do? | :49:08. | :49:09. | |
We are all doing things we don't want to do at a local level. | :49:10. | :49:13. | |
It's about being a businesslike authority. | :49:14. | :49:18. | |
When I moved to a unitary council in 2009, the back office costs | :49:19. | :49:23. | |
for our council were 19% of our spend. | :49:24. | :49:28. | |
By doing that, you are cutting your back offices and that then | :49:29. | :49:33. | |
makes very little effect to your front line services. | :49:34. | :49:36. | |
That's what a lot of councils have got to get very strong on and do | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
Do you accept you might be able to take some advice from Wiltshire? | :49:41. | :49:44. | |
We are working closely with our core city partners and I'm also a member | :49:45. | :49:50. | |
of the global parliament of mayors so we are drawing on experiences | :49:51. | :49:53. | |
of cities all around the world as to how they manage | :49:54. | :49:55. | |
Again, we've got to get to a point where we understand that shaping | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
life in a city is not just about local government. | :50:01. | :50:02. | |
When we talk about cohesion in place, it's about the sports | :50:03. | :50:10. | |
offer, football clubs, big employers, health services. | :50:11. | :50:12. | |
How do we get the collective impact of those organisations? | :50:13. | :50:18. | |
Are you surprised, on a political point, that despite the cuts | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
which are happening in every single local authority, Labour | :50:23. | :50:24. | |
This is a Westminster focused conversation. | :50:25. | :50:35. | |
Labour is in charge of every core city, that's ten core cities. | :50:36. | :50:38. | |
That's a third of the population and a big chunk | :50:39. | :50:40. | |
So, if you take a Westminster view, which you shouldn't do | :50:41. | :50:44. | |
at a regional level, but if you take a Westminster view | :50:45. | :50:47. | |
of politics, Labour are having a tough time even though | :50:48. | :50:49. | |
Coming down to a city level, Labour are actually in power. | :50:50. | :50:59. | |
I think we should look at Copeland last night. | :51:00. | :51:02. | |
One of the biggest challenges facing local councils is how | :51:03. | :51:06. | |
In the West, we need another city the size of Bristol just to keep up. | :51:07. | :51:11. | |
But from angry locals to reluctant developers, | :51:12. | :51:12. | |
there are also lots of obstacles in the way. | :51:13. | :51:15. | |
They all love dressing up like builders but we still don't have | :51:16. | :51:27. | |
So, people of my generation, as the Community | :51:28. | :51:29. | |
Secretary said, can only window shop. | :51:30. | :51:31. | |
On any high street today, you will see young people with their | :51:32. | :51:34. | |
faces pressed against estate agents' windows dreaming of owning or | :51:35. | :51:36. | |
All of our local councils have their own | :51:37. | :51:42. | |
housing targets over the next decade or two. | :51:43. | :51:45. | |
Add them all up and you've over 200,000 new homes. | :51:46. | :51:50. | |
Or, to put it another way, another Bristol. | :51:51. | :51:53. | |
Despite these grand targets, supply is way | :51:54. | :52:00. | |
In Chippenham, it would appear to be an old-fashioned one. | :52:01. | :52:04. | |
It's the last nice scenic landscape in the | :52:05. | :52:06. | |
Steve Perry campaigns against urban sprawl on | :52:07. | :52:09. | |
I came here because we love the town, but the bottom line | :52:10. | :52:21. | |
is we're not building the housing people need. | :52:22. | :52:23. | |
We're providing housing that people don't need. | :52:24. | :52:25. | |
We're providing multinational housing developers | :52:26. | :52:29. | |
with huge profits for selling corporate houses to people who don't | :52:30. | :52:35. | |
A lack of affordable homes has seen campaigners take to the streets. | :52:36. | :52:43. | |
Take this plan for 135 swanky new homes on an old factory | :52:44. | :52:47. | |
Developers say they can only afford doing six affordable ones. | :52:48. | :52:53. | |
The strength of feeling in Bristol is immense. | :52:54. | :52:56. | |
People are desperate to have affordable housing. | :52:57. | :52:59. | |
Actually, this is a fact that is of national | :53:00. | :53:01. | |
If we don't have councils standing up to greedy, | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
profiteering developers now, what will happen is in a few | :53:07. | :53:09. | |
years we'll have a worse and worse housing crisis. | :53:10. | :53:13. | |
At a planning meeting this week, councillors said they | :53:14. | :53:17. | |
were powerless to change the plans and waved them through. | :53:18. | :53:21. | |
I've repeatedly asked the developers to | :53:22. | :53:23. | |
comment, but with planning in the bag, they've refused. | :53:24. | :53:27. | |
So, is the answer for councils to don their own | :53:28. | :53:29. | |
hard hats, high vis and build it themselves? | :53:30. | :53:32. | |
These are council houses built on council land. | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
This is your first interview in a hard hat | :53:37. | :53:42. | |
Absolutely, but hopefully not the last one. | :53:43. | :53:47. | |
You know, I'm hoping that I'll be spending a lot | :53:48. | :53:50. | |
of time going around building sites in Bristol seeing lots of new | :53:51. | :53:53. | |
In total, we're looking at sites that we are | :53:54. | :53:57. | |
They won't all be built straightaway. | :53:58. | :54:03. | |
Some of the schemes might take ten years, but we're | :54:04. | :54:05. | |
absolutely dedicated in having as many homes built as possible. | :54:06. | :54:13. | |
The Labour administration is planning to | :54:14. | :54:16. | |
pump millions into setting up its own housing company for more like | :54:17. | :54:19. | |
this in the hope of a housing wind of change. | :54:20. | :54:24. | |
Marvin, you always said in the election campaign, | :54:25. | :54:27. | |
You have a target - how is that going? | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
2,000 a year by 2020 so we have to build our capacity. | :54:32. | :54:34. | |
I'm not saying it will be plain sailing. | :54:35. | :54:38. | |
It will be a real challenge to get there. | :54:39. | :54:40. | |
It was always a stretched target but we've got committed | :54:41. | :54:43. | |
political leadership and we are breaking ground. | :54:44. | :54:44. | |
What are the biggest obstacles to getting housing built? | :54:45. | :54:48. | |
Among the challenges we face, and there are many, is our power | :54:49. | :54:51. | |
You were seeing their development on a private site that has minimal | :54:52. | :54:57. | |
affordable housing and we're very limited in the power we have to | :54:58. | :55:00. | |
It's one of the conversations that I, with the core cities, | :55:01. | :55:07. | |
the ten biggest cities outside of London, are going to be talking | :55:08. | :55:10. | |
How do you empower us as a city to make sure we get our share? | :55:11. | :55:16. | |
So, you're saying your hands are tied? | :55:17. | :55:19. | |
Well, the weighting of power when it comes to negotiations | :55:20. | :55:22. | |
is in the hands of private developers unless it's on our land. | :55:23. | :55:24. | |
One of the things we have done is stop selling off council-owned | :55:25. | :55:27. | |
land so we can have much more control over the mix of housing. | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
Do you have that problem in Wiltshire? | :55:33. | :55:35. | |
Yes, we always have the problem of the number of houses that | :55:36. | :55:38. | |
Interestingly, we are looking at perhaps modular housing. | :55:39. | :55:42. | |
That means build houses that are built off-site. | :55:43. | :55:45. | |
They are very different and there are a lot of new technologies. | :55:46. | :55:52. | |
But that's the way you will get more houses built. | :55:53. | :55:54. | |
Exactly, but these are very high-value houses | :55:55. | :55:59. | |
If you go across to the continent, you will see many of | :56:00. | :56:05. | |
So we want to look at that so we can get more of our 42,000 houses that | :56:06. | :56:13. | |
we're going to have to build by 2026 built out quicker. | :56:14. | :56:17. | |
How do you feel about the fact that, under this Conservative government, | :56:18. | :56:20. | |
most, or many millions of young people, can wave goodbye | :56:21. | :56:23. | |
Well, I think in Wiltshire that is our biggest priority. | :56:24. | :56:35. | |
Yes, we need to look at social housing for very specific people | :56:36. | :56:38. | |
but most of young people in Wiltshire, if they are in | :56:39. | :56:41. | |
good jobs, they want to buy their own homes. | :56:42. | :56:43. | |
So it's really important we get those houses built because, | :56:44. | :56:46. | |
at the moment, there's not enough for them. | :56:47. | :56:47. | |
This is one of the real crunch points. | :56:48. | :56:49. | |
I take the point about modular housing as well. | :56:50. | :56:52. | |
We have to look at all different ways of having | :56:53. | :56:56. | |
It actually comes into context of the previous | :56:57. | :57:00. | |
Some services we end up spending money on our because we haven't | :57:01. | :57:04. | |
provided people with stable homes in the first instance. | :57:05. | :57:06. | |
Of all the priorities we've set out, providing children and families | :57:07. | :57:10. | |
with stable homes in settled communities where they have | :57:11. | :57:12. | |
resilience built into the fabric of everyday life is one of the most | :57:13. | :57:16. | |
significant social policy interventions we can make. | :57:17. | :57:20. | |
And yet those sorts of services are being cut. | :57:21. | :57:23. | |
Yes, that's why I'm saying we have two build in other ways as well. | :57:24. | :57:26. | |
So, what I'm saying is some services come | :57:27. | :57:29. | |
in because we haven't provided people with those | :57:30. | :57:30. | |
We've talked about building homes, but homes and communities. | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
It's the community bit that we need to build on. | :57:36. | :57:44. | |
Rather than going to a GP, for example. | :57:45. | :57:57. | |
they have a good network of neighbours to do some of the work | :57:58. | :58:00. | |
of building resilience and relationships | :58:01. | :58:02. | |
You have a target of building 226 social homes over | :58:03. | :58:05. | |
That's not exactly going to go far, is it? | :58:06. | :58:10. | |
No, but that's what we're spending money on ourselves so those | :58:11. | :58:12. | |
will be very specific to our ageing population. | :58:13. | :58:14. | |
They will be sheltered housing and extra care housing. | :58:15. | :58:16. | |
What we will be expecting is our developers to provide the 30% | :58:17. | :58:23. | |
which they haven't provided in the past and we | :58:24. | :58:25. | |
And when you talk to developers and say, I want you to build | :58:26. | :58:29. | |
a housing estate like this one near Chippenham and I need them | :58:30. | :58:32. | |
to be affordable for people with young families, | :58:33. | :58:34. | |
First is that they can't afford to do that. | :58:35. | :58:37. | |
But you have two push them and we have delivered. | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
We've delivered 600 out of the 2000 in the last year. | :58:42. | :58:43. | |
We will continue to do that but those will be | :58:44. | :58:46. | |
Well, we will our waiting to see what comes out of the next | :58:47. | :58:54. | |
The big builders do have quite a lot of say when it comes | :58:55. | :59:00. | |
to the rules on housing because they want to | :59:01. | :59:03. | |
Yes, the viability assessment and they say they can't afford it. | :59:04. | :59:11. | |
But I want to make a point and let developers know loud and clear, | :59:12. | :59:14. | |
on the land we own in Bristol, we are looking for long-term | :59:15. | :59:18. | |
relationships with developers who have a proven track record | :59:19. | :59:21. | |
of delivering affordable homes on their sites. | :59:22. | :59:25. | |
Those who do not have a track record will struggle to get an answer to... | :59:26. | :59:30. | |
The other thing you need to say is not just our sites, | :59:31. | :59:34. | |
it's all public sector sites so we should be looking | :59:35. | :59:37. | |
The Ministry of Defence in Wiltshire, in particular. | :59:38. | :59:42. | |
Well, we've got a property being disposed of at the moment | :59:43. | :59:47. | |
by the MoJ and they haven't come to me to talk about it | :59:48. | :59:50. | |
and they should have which is a problem. | :59:51. | :59:52. | |
Let us have a look through the week in 60 seconds. | :59:53. | :00:05. | |
The MP for South West Wiltshire will look into claims lives were put at | :00:06. | :00:13. | |
risk by failures in the computer system that Dorset and Wiltshire | :00:14. | :00:18. | |
fast service use. I'm alarmed we appear to have a system that | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
routinely goes down. It's not acceptable to have ongoing issues of | :00:24. | :00:30. | |
this sort. The system needs to be sorted. A parish councillor in | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
Gloucestershire was asked to stand down after he was accused of posting | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
Winter was also suspended by Ukip. Winter was also suspended by Ukip. | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
Business projects across the West were given millions of pounds of the | :00:43. | :00:49. | |
mid-money and among them aside apart based at GCHQ and centre to develop | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
cars of the future at Bristol and cars of the future at Bristol and | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
Bath science Park. North Somerset Council is bringing | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
back traffic wardens after a 10-year absence, taking back enforcement | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
powers from the police. Drivers go where. -- beware. | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
So, that was the week. A couple of So, that was the week. A couple of | :01:10. | :01:18. | |
other things. Brexit. Use it in the House of Lords and you voted Out. | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
When you try and first-rate a hard Brexit will go along with what the | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
buy minister once? I will go along with what the Prime Minister once | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
but it's about what the people wanted in the referendum and they | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
clearly said they wanted out of Europe and we should deliver what | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
they want. Do you think they realised that it was out of the | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
single market and all the other bits and pieces? Absolutely, the people I | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
talk to know exactly what they voted for. What effect will Brexit have on | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
Bristol? Not good. It was the wrong answer to the challenge. I don't | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
have as much confidence that people were fully aware because during the | :02:00. | :02:05. | |
time, the debate was confused and full of bluff and bluster. So it's a | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
challenge for us and Bristol is an international city so we need our | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
international and global collectivity. Do you think the Lords | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
will succeed in confronting the Prime Minister even though she was | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
there glowering at them? I do think she will come back in again. I think | :02:24. | :02:29. | |
there will be challenges and amendments during the committee | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
stage, but I hope they won't go through because we just need to | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
think back to the referendum which said the people of this country | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
wanted out of Europe. And talking about Mr Trump. His state visit in | :02:42. | :02:50. | |
June. Should things get a bit noisy in London and they want to get him | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
act of the smoke, perhaps due Birmingham, or Bristol. Would you | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
welcome him? No, I wouldn't welcome him to Bristol but that is not a | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
rejection of the relationship with US. There are men is not a rejection | :03:05. | :03:07. | |
of the relationship with US. There are amazed that overseeing big | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
economies we can build international relationships with. But you would | :03:11. | :03:17. | |
not welcome Donald Trump? It is a bad brand of politics. What about | :03:18. | :03:23. | |
Wiltshire? The president of the United States, I'm sure would be | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
welcome at Stonehenge and that's the only places likely to want to come. | :03:27. | :03:33. | |
I think we have two not think of it as Donald Trump but as the president | :03:34. | :03:35. | |
of the United States. Thank you both Welcome back. Article 50, which | :03:36. | :03:54. | |
triggers the beginning of Britain leaving the European Union and start | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
negotiations, is winding its way through the Lords in this coming | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
week. Tarzan has made an intervention, let's just see the | :04:04. | :04:09. | |
headline from the Mail on Sunday. Lord Heseltine, Michael Heseltine, | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
my fightback starts here, he is going to defy Theresa May. I divide | :04:15. | :04:17. | |
one Prime Minister over the poll tax, I'm ready to defy this one in | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
the Lords over Brexit. There we go, that's going to happen this week. We | :04:23. | :04:28. | |
will see how far he gets. I don't think he will get very far, I don't | :04:29. | :04:33. | |
think Loyalist Tory MPs and Brexiteers are quaking in their | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
boots at the prospect of a rebellion led by Michael Heseltine. I sense | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
that many Tory MPs are already moving on to the next question about | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
Brexit, and the discussion over how much it will cost us to come out. | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
The fact they are already debating that suggests to me they feel things | :04:51. | :04:57. | |
will go fairly smoothly in terms of the legislation. When I spoke to the | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
Labour leader in the Lords last week on the daily politics, she said she | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
was going to push hard for the kind of amendments Lord has all-time is | :05:06. | :05:12. | |
talking about and they would bring that back to the Commons. But if the | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
Commons pinged it back to the Lords with the amendments taken out, she | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
made it clear that was the end of it. Is that right? That's about | :05:22. | :05:28. | |
right. This is probably really a large destruction. There will be to | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
micro issues that come up in the Lords, one is on the future of EU | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
nationals, that could be voted on as soon as this Wednesday, and then the | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
main vote in the Lords on a week on Tuesday, when there is this question | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
of what sort of vote will MPs and peers get at the end of the Brexit | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
process and that is what has all-time is talking about. He wants | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
to make sure there are guarantees in place. The kind of things peers are | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
looking for are pretty moderate and the Government have hinted they | :06:01. | :06:03. | |
could deliver on both of them already. But they are still not | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
prepared... Amber Rudd said they were not prepared... They may say | :06:09. | :06:14. | |
yes we are going to do that but they won't allow whatever that is to be | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
enshrined in the legislation. The question is whether we think this is | :06:20. | :06:23. | |
dancing on the head of a pin. The Government have already promised | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
something in the House of Commons, but will they write it down, I don't | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
think that's the biggest problem in the world. In a sense this is a | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
great magicians trick by Theresa May because it is not the most important | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
thing. The most important thing in Brexit is going on in those | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
committees behind closed doors when they are trying to work out what the | :06:45. | :06:46. | |
next migration system is for Britain and there are some interesting, | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
indeed toxic proposals, but at the moment Downing Street are happy to | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
let us talk about the constitutional propriety of what MPs are doing over | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
the next eight days. It seems to me the irony is that if we had a second | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
chamber that can claim some kind of democratic legitimacy, which the one | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
we have cannot, it would be able to cause the Government more trouble on | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
this, it would be more robust. Absolutely. I saw the interview we | :07:16. | :07:18. | |
did with the Labour Leader of the Lords, they are very conscious, of | :07:19. | :07:28. | |
the fact they are not elected and have limited powers. She was clear | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
to you they would not impede the timetable for triggering Article 50 | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
so we might get a bit of theatre, Michael Heseltine might deliver a | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
brilliant speech. It is interesting that Euroscepticism gun under | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
Margaret Thatcher in the Tory party but two offer senior ministers Ken | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
Clarke and Michael Heseltine are the most prominent opponents now but | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
they will change nothing at this point. She will have the space to | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
trigger Article 50 within her timetable. Let's move on. Let me | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
show you a picture tweeted by Nigel Farage. | :08:04. | :08:09. | |
That is Nigel Farage and a small group of people having dinner, and | :08:10. | :08:17. | |
within that small group of people is the president of the United States, | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
and it was taken in the last couple of days. This would suggest that if | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
he can command that amount of the President's time in a small group of | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
people, then he's actually rather close to the president. Make no | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
mistake about it, Nigel Farage is now to and fro Washington more | :08:37. | :08:39. | |
regularly than perhaps he is here. Hopefully that LBC programme is | :08:40. | :08:47. | |
recorded over in the state. He's not only close to the president but to a | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
series of people within the administration. That relationship | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
there is a remarkable one and one to keep an eye on. Will the main | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
government be tempted to tap into that relationship at any time or is | :09:01. | :09:07. | |
it just seething with anger? You can feel a ripple of discontentment over | :09:08. | :09:14. | |
this. We are in the middle of negotiating the state visit and the | :09:15. | :09:17. | |
sort of pomp and circumstance and what kind of greeting Britain should | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
give Donald Trump when he comes over later in the year. There is a great | :09:23. | :09:25. | |
deal of neurotic thought going into what that should look like, but one | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
of the most interesting things about our relationship with Donald Trump | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
is that there is a nervousness among some Cabinet ministers that we are | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
being seen to go too far, too fast with the prospect of a trade deal. | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
Even amongst some Brexiteer cabinet ministers, they worry we won't get a | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
very good trade deal with the US and we are tolerably placing a lot of | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
stalled by it. When we see the kind of deal they want to pitch with us | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
there might be some pulling back and that could be an awkward moment in | :09:55. | :10:02. | |
terms of our relationship, and no doubt Nigel at that term -- at that | :10:03. | :10:04. | |
point will accuse the UK of doing the dirty on Donald Trump. If there | :10:05. | :10:11. | |
was a deal, would they get it through the House of Commons? Nigel | :10:12. | :10:18. | |
Farage is having dinner with the president, not bad as a kind of | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
lifestyle but he's politically rootless, he won't be an MEP much | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
longer so if you look at where is his political base to build on this | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
great time he's having, there is one. Given that there is one I think | :10:32. | :10:35. | |
he's just having a great time and it isn't much more significant than | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
that. No? There's a lot to be said for having a great time. You are | :10:40. | :10:51. | |
having a great time. Let's just look, because of the dominance of | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
the Government we kind of it nor there are problems piling up, only | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
what, ten days with the Budget to go, piling up for Mrs May and her | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
government. The business rates which has alarmed a lot of Tories, this | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
disability cuts which are really a serious problem for the Government, | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
and the desperate need for more money for social care. There are | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
other issues, there are problems there and they involve spending | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
money. Absolutely and some people argue Theresa May has only one | :11:27. | :11:29. | |
Monday and that is to deliver Brexit but it is impossible as a Prime | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
Minister to ignore everything else. And she doesn't want to either. The | :11:35. | :11:41. | |
bubbling issue of social care and the NHS is the biggest single | :11:42. | :11:44. | |
problem for her in the weeks and months ahead, she has got to come up | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
with something. And Mr Hammond will have to loosen his belt a little | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
bit. I think he will in relation to the NHS, he didn't mention it in the | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
Autumn Statement, which was remarkable, and he cannot get away | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
with not mentioning it this time. If he mentions it, it has to be in a | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
positive context in some way or another and it is one example of | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
many. She is both strong because she is so far ahead in the opinion | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
polls, but this in tray is one of the most daunting a Prime Minister | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
has faced in recent times I think. Here is what will happen on Budget | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
day, money will be more money, magically found down the back of the | :12:25. | :12:31. | |
Treasury sofa. The projections are that he has wiggle room of about 12 | :12:32. | :12:35. | |
billion. But look at the bills, rebels involved in business rates | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
suggest the Chancellor will have to throw up ?2 billion at that problem. | :12:39. | :12:45. | |
3.7 billion is the potential cost of this judgment about disability | :12:46. | :12:47. | |
benefits. The Government will try to find different ways of satisfying it | :12:48. | :12:53. | |
but who knows. It will not popular. I'm not sure they will throw money | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
at the NHS, they want an interim settlement on social care which will | :12:58. | :13:00. | |
alleviate pressure on the NHS but they feel... That's another couple | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
of billion by the way. They feel in the Treasury that the NHS has not | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
delivered on what Simon Stevens promised them. But here is the | :13:12. | :13:18. | |
bigger problem for Philip Hammond, he has two This year and he thinks | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
the second one in the autumn is more important because that is when | :13:23. | :13:24. | |
people will feel the cost living squeeze. | :13:25. | :13:27. | |
The Daily Politics is back at noon on BBC Two tomorrow. | :13:28. | :13:30. | |
We'll be back here at the same time next week. | :13:31. | :13:33. | |
Remember - if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics. | :13:34. | :13:39. |