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My name is John Pete, I am the Brexit editor of the Economist | :00:24. | :00:31. | |
magazine. It is a great pleasure for me to be moderating this panel | :00:32. | :00:37. | |
discussing Brexit and free movement in Europe House. It is my pleasure | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
now to introduce the panel. And I will mention them all now in order | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
of speaking. We're going to start with Diane Mulhall, the Irish | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
ambassador in London. Ireland has a special interest in Brexit is | :00:53. | :00:54. | |
probably the country most concerned about Brexit after Britain itself. | :00:55. | :01:01. | |
Vicky Ford, MEP. She has just managed to make it. Then after Vicky | :01:02. | :01:07. | |
we will have have a role from the National Institute of economic and | :01:08. | :01:09. | |
social research, which has done a lot of work on migration. She is | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
going to be discussing some actual hard evidence, not just opinions. | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
And we are going to finish the opening discussion with Alex Barker, | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
of the Financial Times, who I'm sure you have all read some of his | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
columns, particularly his columns on budget contributions. He is the | :01:27. | :01:29. | |
Brussels bureau chief of the Financial Times. Each panel is going | :01:30. | :01:35. | |
to speak for about five or seven minutes. Diane Mulhall to start. | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
Thank you everyone for being here and to the European Parliament | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
offers for the invitation to be here. May I just start by making it | :01:43. | :01:48. | |
clear that we in Ireland regret that the UK is our closest neighbour and | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
most important external partner has decided to leave the European Union, | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
but we've got to accommodate ourselves to that reality and try to | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
minimise the damage that this will do to Ireland, to Irish - UK | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
relations, and of course to the European Union, which we will be | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
continuing to be a committed member of the European Union in the period | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
ahead. So it is a source of sadness to ask that this 44 year partnership | :02:21. | :02:28. | |
with the UK as fellow members of the European Union will come to an end | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
in the coming years. And we will have challenges to face in that | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
context, not least as a result of the fact that we are co-guarantors | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
of the Northern Ireland peace process. And of course we will | :02:45. | :02:52. | |
continue to occupy or have that responsibility. On the economic | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
front, two we trade between Ireland and the UK currently runs at about | :02:57. | :03:04. | |
?1 billion per week. It is a very significant trading relationship. | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
And obviously any devolution of that trading connection would be damaging | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
for both economies, but obviously especially for an economy like ours, | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
which is so much smaller than the UK economy. There are about 700,000 | :03:18. | :03:23. | |
people in this country in Britain who were born on the island of | :03:24. | :03:32. | |
Ireland. And many of those of course have children and grandchildren who | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
live here, and some of those have acquired a renewed interest in their | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
Irish identity, and the demand for passports last year went up by 40%. | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
And this year so far it was up by a further 70%. That is an indication | :03:49. | :03:55. | |
perhaps of the complexities for Ireland. I doubt if any other | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
country in the European Union has quite that number of people in this | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
country who are in a position to claim citizenship of any other | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
European Union country. So, how do we view the issue of free movement, | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
which is our specific concern this afternoon? What I would say is that | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
this issue is not a defining political issue in Ireland as things | :04:20. | :04:26. | |
stand. As it appears to be indeed in the UK. Now, you might say, well, is | :04:27. | :04:35. | |
that because free movement of people within the European Union hasn't | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
affected Ireland? That would be quite wrong, because it has affected | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
Ireland more dramatically, I would say, than it has affected the United | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
Kingdom. Let me just give you the figures. | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
cl As late as 20 years ago, back in the 1990s, Ireland had virtually no | :04:51. | :04:59. | |
immigration. We were a nation of people with an experience of | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
emigration, but very little experience of immigration. We were | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
unusual in European terms from that point of view. Today, according to | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
our census, which was published recently and was taken last year, so | :05:17. | :05:27. | |
the middle of 2016, 17.3% of the population of Ireland at the moment | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
was born outside the Irish state which means that we have one of the | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
highest percentages of immigrants in our population, or non-nationals in | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
our population of any European country and including a higher | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
percentage than is the case in the UK. | :05:46. | :05:52. | |
Now, our top immigrant community come from Poland, 122,000 people. | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
Out of a population of 4.5 million, it is not a small number, you can | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
see. The UK, 103,000. Lithuania, 36,000. Romania, 29,000 and Latvia | :06:04. | :06:11. | |
19,000. Now, those figures may seem modest enough, but if you want to | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
put them into UK terms, you have to multiply by 12 to get a proportion | :06:17. | :06:24. | |
of the population. The Irish population is approximately 1-12th | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
of the population of the UK. You can see, therefore, that in proportional | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
terms there are far more people from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
Ireland than there are in Britain. And indeed, I just did the | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
calculation of the top ten non-Irish communities in Ireland. And there | :06:42. | :06:49. | |
are 360,000 EU nationals in that group. That's only the top 10, 9 or | :06:50. | :06:58. | |
10, one is non-European. So, you are probably talking about a total | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
population of EU nationals, non-Irish EU nationals of more than | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
400,000, which gives you something like 5 million, if you multiply by | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
12. The figures I see in the newspaper suggest that the EU | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
non-national population in the UK of EU nationals is about 3 million. So | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
you can see there are significantly more EU nationals in our population | :07:24. | :07:31. | |
than is the case here in the UK. And indeed, another point I want to make | :07:32. | :07:39. | |
is that the population of non-Irish EU nationals has remained remarkably | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
steady in the last five years, since the last census. And in fact, you | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
would - and given that that last census, that last period between | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
2011 and 2016 included the period between 2011 and 2013, when the | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
Irish economy went through some considerable difficulties, the EU | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
population of Ireland has remained remarkably steady and indeed, if you | :08:06. | :08:19. | |
look back to 2002, only 15 years ago, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
were not even in the top ten of non-Irish communities in Ireland and | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
in fact, the second biggest non-Irish group in 2002, 15 years | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
ago, was Americans. So you can see how the free movement principle has | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
totally transformed Ireland's demography. It has given us an | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
enormous, now, population of EU nationals. And this has happened, | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
despite the difficulties that have occurred and that have arisen for | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
the Irish economy after 2009. Now, despite these figures, which are, as | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
I say, considerably higher than the figures for the UK and the fact that | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
will Ireland's population, Ireland's unemployment rate remains above the | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
UK level, currently 6.6%. Immigration is not a meaningful | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
political issue in Ireland. We had an election last year and there was | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
no evidence of any party or individual politician seeking to | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
rattle the cage on migration issues, and trying to make political capital | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
out of it. We have no populous anti-immigrant eurosceptic political | :09:31. | :09:32. | |
party. And by the way, we have a full range of political parties now. | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
There must be seven or eight parties represented in our Parliament. Which | :09:37. | :09:43. | |
is 150 members. So, I gracing has not become a political football in | :09:44. | :09:46. | |
Ireland in the way it has become in other parts of the Europe. As we | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
approach the EU-UK negotiations, we take comfort from the fact that | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
Ireland's special circumstances are being fully acknowledged on both | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
sides of the table and it's notable that Prime Minister May's Article 50 | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
letter stressed her desire to avoid a hard border in Ireland and to | :10:07. | :10:12. | |
maintain the common travel area between Ireland and the UK, which | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
gives the Irish community in Britain a special status here. In fact under | :10:18. | :10:24. | |
community is regarded as not being a community is regarded as not being a | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
foreign community for the purposes of European law. So, that status | :10:28. | :10:34. | |
will continue after Brexit. So the Irish community will have a special | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
status here in this country, at least that is the intention of the | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
British Government, supported by the Irish Government and of course, none | :10:42. | :10:44. | |
of our European partners have any reason to object to that situation | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
because, of course, the common travel area predates our membership | :10:50. | :10:56. | |
of the European Union in 1973. Now, it's not just the Prime | :10:57. | :10:59. | |
Minister's Article 50 letter that gives recognition to the Irish | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
issues, the ones I mentioned. The E ucht's negotiating guidelines also | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
stress the need to avoid a hard border in Ireland and to respect by | :11:10. | :11:12. | |
lateral arrangements and agreements between Ireland and the UK, which is | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
a reference to the common travel area and the special status of the | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
Irish and Brits. So although the Irish and Britain will have a | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
separate status under the common travel area, we will, as our | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
Government's latest paper makes clear and we published it yesterday, | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
a 50-page analysis of the Irish Government's position on Brexit has | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
been published and I tweeted a link to it | :11:43. | :11:55. | |
on my Twitter account on @danmlhall if you want it read it. So we will | :11:56. | :12:02. | |
be looking to an agreement on the rights of all EU citizens in the UK | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
and all UK citizens in the European Union that is "Wide, ambition and | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
comprehensive." So I would say, in summary, we are a country that has | :12:13. | :12:17. | |
been hugely affected by the free movement principle. It has not | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
created the kind of problem it has created elsewhere, in that there | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
have been no issues about EU nationals establishing themselves in | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
Ireland and many of them now have been there for quite a while and | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
settled there and this seems to be a good experience, from an Irish point | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
of view. We will be approaching the coming | :12:38. | :12:40. | |
negotiations as a committed member of the European Union and we will be | :12:41. | :12:48. | |
looking to see rights of European zints in the UK, the subject, become | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
the subject of a wide and comprehensive agreement, | :12:55. | :12:57. | |
guaranteeing their rights for the future. But, also, we will | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
acknowledge and recognise the fact that the Irish community in Britain, | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
post-Brexit, will, under UK law, have a special status in this | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
country for the future. Thank you for your attention. Thank you very | :13:10. | :13:12. | |
much, Ambassador. APPLAUSE | :13:13. | :13:24. | |
Round of applause, not least for the comprehensive paper your Government | :13:25. | :13:28. | |
has published on this, which I think is better than what the British | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
Government have published. Vicky Ford. Maybe I can pick up on some of | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
the points that the ambassador has made and take them more. I was born | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
in the UK, also born on the Ireland of Ireland and I spend a lot of time | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
in Ireland and sometimes, still, in Northern Ireland and I understand | :13:51. | :13:53. | |
what you have been talking about the benefits of Ireland as well, having | :13:54. | :13:55. | |
had free movement. In the referendum it was a key issue for many people | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
on the doorstep who voted Leave, it was the issue of free movement. I | :14:01. | :14:07. | |
also think that we in the UK sometimes think the only way to | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
interpret the EU approach to free movement is the way that we've | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
interpreted it and actually other countries within the EU put their | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
own types of control on free movement. So, if you were in | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
Brussels, for example, where I came from today, you know, you can't just | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
go and move and live in Brussels because in order to access any sort | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
of benefit or health care or education or welfare, you have to | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
have a Social Security number and you can't get a Social Security | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
number without an employer who is prepared to commit that they are | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
picking up the Social Security tab. So it is a very different type of | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
control that they have. And so different countries have approached | :14:52. | :14:54. | |
this in different ways. But as I said, that's sort of all in the past | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
and I know that the Government will be looking at the way in which we | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
decide our own approach to free movement. Theresa May has made that | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
very clear. So where I want to take it now, on some of the discussion on | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
citizens' rights because I think that's an area where people are | :15:12. | :15:14. | |
extremely concerned, both EU citizens living in the UK, and UK | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
citizens living elsewhere and I think that sometimes the press have | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
been doing quite a lot of initial, additional sort of stirring of | :15:24. | :15:29. | |
people's concerns here. Never. I think it is important that the Press | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
raise the issues, but we need to try and also - and these are really | :15:35. | :15:40. | |
important issues because they are people's lives - but both... I have | :15:41. | :15:43. | |
been doing European negotiations for eight years and it is an awful lot | :15:44. | :15:47. | |
easier when both sides actually agree with an issue. In this case | :15:48. | :15:55. | |
the EU, both Michel Barnier, who is the EU, both Michel Barnier, who is | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
negotiating from the for the European Commission on behalf of the | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
Council and the European Parliament, all agree that this is their number | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
one priority and they all agree that they want to resolve it. And in the | :16:08. | :16:15. | |
European Parliament, we had a vote, just before Easter, on our key | :16:16. | :16:23. | |
priorities for the EU negotiations, the top priority was that the | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
agreement should address the legal status of the EU 27 citizens, living | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
or having lived in the United Kingdom and of the United Kingdom | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
citizens living or having lived in other Member States. So, both sides | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
are saying that actually, we need to agree the rights on both sides. It's | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
a question of how soon they can get to the table to start that detailed | :16:48. | :16:54. | |
work. Now, therefore, in principle this should be very easy to bring | :16:55. | :17:00. | |
agreement. So maybe there is a bit of confusion as to what we actually | :17:01. | :17:09. | |
mean about which rights we are trying to make sure are respected | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
and for me it is the right to get on with your lives and for your | :17:14. | :17:17. | |
children and your family, your education, etc. The next step that | :17:18. | :17:24. | |
sort of happened today was Michel Barnier, who, as I said is the EU | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
Commissioner's chief negotiator, he has made a further statement today | :17:30. | :17:35. | |
about the citizens' rights and Michel, is a very practical and | :17:36. | :17:38. | |
pragmatic person who is trying to find solutions here. And most of | :17:39. | :17:46. | |
what he is saying, I think, will be reasonably easy to agree but there | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
is some of what he is saying that he wants EU citizens to have rights, | :17:53. | :17:55. | |
living here in the UK, that may be more than what a British citizen | :17:56. | :18:01. | |
has. And I think if, with great respect to our fantastic Irish | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
friends, if you are suggesting that an Irish citizen living in London | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
would have more rights than a British citizen living... | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
So, for example, one of the suggestions he has said is the | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
rights of a EU citizen who married someone from another part of the | :18:22. | :18:25. | |
world to bring that partner here, they should keep having European | :18:26. | :18:31. | |
rights, so what if that European right was ever faster, a more | :18:32. | :18:35. | |
automatic procedure than we would've had in the UK, that could raise a | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
challenge. He is also saying that an EU citizen living in the UK today, | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
should continue to be able to have any future rights that are conferred | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
of them shall as a European citizen, not just as a British citizen. | :18:50. | :18:55. | |
Again, you could imagine that could be quite complicated. So from the | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
basic premise, we want to keep parity. People should keep rights | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
they have today F you choose to come and live in the UK, you should | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
continue to be treated equally as a British citizen. That would be my | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
basis for the negotiations and I think it could get a bit tense if | :19:14. | :19:19. | |
the EU negotiators for the 27 start to ask for more. Just really quickly | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
on some of the other issues you are talking about. The issue of no hard | :19:24. | :19:31. | |
border in between Northern Ireland and Ireland is very important and I | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
think it is also very important then, in how we think about our | :19:37. | :19:42. | |
trade relationship with other parts of Europe as well. Most of the | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
things that are stopped at our external borders in any type of a | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
check are food or animals or plant groups. Over 90% of the groups that | :19:53. | :19:59. | |
get stopped for customs persons at the poverty Felixstowe would be port | :20:00. | :20:02. | |
or animal or food issues. So provided we have the same sort of | :20:03. | :20:07. | |
regulations on how we care for our food, plants and animals, do we need | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
to have hard customs processes not just between Northern Ireland and | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
the South, but, across the channel as well? So I have been doing a lot | :20:18. | :20:25. | |
of looking at how you can have more crafty customs processes and use of | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
digital technology so you wouldn't have to go back to old-fashioned | :20:30. | :20:32. | |
check containers and codes, etc and that I think is some very sensible | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
thinking that has been going Onyedinma that as well. | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
The reason I wanted to bring batting is because, you know, we've got this | :20:42. | :20:48. | |
big debate about we need to agree these citizens rights and the money | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
before we even start talking about what the end relationship would be. | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
And that's the way the EU negotiators are saying it, but I'm | :20:57. | :20:59. | |
saying that unless you have a bit more clarity about -- what the end | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
relationship is going to be, some of the other issues, like Wattel border | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
is going to be in Ireland, is challenging -- what your border is | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
going to be. Again, some of these issues are movement of people, tying | :21:15. | :21:17. | |
into what sort of relationship we want an provision of services. | :21:18. | :21:22. | |
Yesterday I was with the chief negotiator from the NHS, this | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
morning I was with the bar Council talking about whether or not we are | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
going to continue to have lawyers being able to offer their services | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
across the border. If that is part of our end relationship, it also | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
makes it easier to backtrack into some of those other discussions we | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
need to have about citizens' rights today. Final issue, nothing in | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
Europe ever stays still and we need to remember that the EU 27 are also | :21:48. | :21:55. | |
discussing their own future. And actually, there's a big discussion | :21:56. | :22:00. | |
happening within the EU 27 about what is the future of the Single | :22:01. | :22:05. | |
Market and services, what is the future within that of movement of | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
people and posting of workers is a very controversial issue at the | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
moment, especially between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. So will | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
we can't necessarily assume that the positions that the rest of our | :22:21. | :22:27. | |
European neighbours were taking five, three or even one year ago | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
will stay the same over the next few years as well. So these things are | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
moving. To sum up, both sides want to agree on citizens' rights. Both | :22:37. | :22:43. | |
sides want to agree on parity for both EU citizens here and British | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
citizens there. There may be some challenges if we start to ask for | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
more than the other side. But I do think that there should be an | :22:55. | :23:02. | |
amicable agreement on this point, because both sides have said they | :23:03. | :23:09. | |
want to agree. Thank you. APPLAUSE | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
Let's say that both sides are living in the same galaxy! Heather? So, Dan | :23:15. | :23:21. | |
and Vicky have very nicely discussed some of the political issues around | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
Brexit and free movement, and also some of the issues for citizens. I | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
want to focus on the implications for the economy and employers. As a | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
backdrop to this I have been carrying out research with employers | :23:36. | :23:38. | |
before and after Brexit, looking at why they recruit migrants, what the | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
obligations would be of restrictions on free movement, and what kind of | :23:44. | :23:47. | |
policies do they think would work for them. First of all I think it is | :23:48. | :23:53. | |
useful to say what is the problem, what are the challenges? I think the | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
main problem and challenges for the economy and employers is the fact | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
that the UK economy and some sectors in particular are very reliant on EU | :24:02. | :24:08. | |
workers. And so, for example, some of the sectors that we have been | :24:09. | :24:12. | |
focusing on such as hospitality, 200,000 workers from the EU are in | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
the sector, 125,000 in the food and drink production sector, and so I | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
know there is an idea, well, we could all do with a few less Prater | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
Mosher branches, who cares if they have to close down? But other key | :24:28. | :24:34. | |
sectors are determined on migrant workers -- on our Mosher. We have | :24:35. | :24:40. | |
30,000 from Poland alone. There was a report out this week, a Parliament | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
report on the health and social care sector which highlighted that the | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
health sector has 60,000 workers from the EU. And the social care | :24:49. | :24:54. | |
sector has 90,000. It is a lot of workers in key areas of the economy. | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
Why is that? The narrative that you will read commonly in the press is | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
that it is all about pay and exploitation. But actually research | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
consistently shows that it is because employers cannot recruit the | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
labour that they need. So currently we have, I didn't realise that | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
unemployment was so high, but in the UK it is 4.8%, 6.6% in Ireland. In | :25:17. | :25:23. | |
some areas of the UK where employers in these key sectors, food and | :25:24. | :25:31. | |
drink, it is very low indeed, it is more like 3%, effectively zero | :25:32. | :25:33. | |
unemployment. The jobs in some of those sectors historically, not just | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
now, are not attractive to UK workers. There is very little | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
evidence of preference. People say, you know, that Polish workers have a | :25:42. | :25:44. | |
very good work ethic and that is why they are favourite -- favoured, but | :25:45. | :25:52. | |
we search does not bear that out. What can be done? I think employers | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
really do want to attract more British workers. But there are quite | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
a few challenges to that. These are low paid sectors, they jobs where | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
the conditions of work or unattractive, working in a factory | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
is cold and noisy and pleasant. Those jobs have never really | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
appealed to British workers. -- and pleasant. They are low paid and do | :26:16. | :26:21. | |
not offer career prospects that young people want. Brexit has shaken | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
up employers in those sectors, in particular hospitality. They are | :26:27. | :26:29. | |
looking at how they can create better career pathways. But I think, | :26:30. | :26:33. | |
I mean, it is good that they are doing that, and I think that is | :26:34. | :26:36. | |
something that everybody would want to welcome, two up skilled workforce | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
and so on. But historically, if you look at those sectors, hospitality, | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
food and drink, manufacturing generally, they have always relied | :26:46. | :26:53. | |
on migrant workers, there are no two ways about it. I think it would be | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
fullish to think that we can turn things around even within the kind | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
of time frames that some of these employer organisations we are | :27:00. | :27:00. | |
talking about. They are talking about not wanting a cliff edge, | :27:01. | :27:04. | |
wanting time to adjust, a transition period away from free movement, but | :27:05. | :27:07. | |
I think in reality you would need much longer than even the ten years | :27:08. | :27:11. | |
that some of them asking for. I just really don't think that would | :27:12. | :27:17. | |
happen. But it does seem like as a result of the referendum we aren't | :27:18. | :27:20. | |
going to have free movement. First of all, the employers that | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
Wiesberger across the sectors were in denial and they felt it would | :27:25. | :27:26. | |
have to continue, -- that we spoke have to continue, -- that we spoke | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
to. They couldn't see any other way. In the months that have passed, they | :27:31. | :27:33. | |
have come to terms with the fact that they are going to have to work | :27:34. | :27:40. | |
with some new immigration system. So we have been discussing with them | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
what would work. They have got three priorities. You won't be surprised | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
to hear that the first one that Vicky talked about is about keeping | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
their existing EU workers, who are really important to them. We have | :27:54. | :28:01. | |
got two point something million EU workers in the workforce, and their | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
families and dependents, and students from the EU. Shortly after | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
we spoke to the employers after the referendum vote, there are immediate | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
concern was about these employees. There were cases where they had | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
hostile remarks, that they were very upset, and they were very concerned, | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
the workers were very concerned about their future. Employers have | :28:23. | :28:25. | |
spent a lot of time reassuring them about their future within the UK. It | :28:26. | :28:30. | |
is frustrating to them now. We have done some or research recently with | :28:31. | :28:33. | |
the same employers in the last month, they are frustrated that | :28:34. | :28:37. | |
those assurances have not yet been given. And I think it isn't just a | :28:38. | :28:42. | |
question of reassurances about them, it is about their families as well, | :28:43. | :28:45. | |
that they are able to bring over family members and they are able to | :28:46. | :28:49. | |
maintain a life for themselves and their families within the UK. That | :28:50. | :28:53. | |
is the number one priority of employers at the moment, because | :28:54. | :28:56. | |
they are concerned that they are going to lose the workers that they | :28:57. | :29:02. | |
have. The second concern is that new policies must address their need for | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
low skilled Labour. The idea that we can simply transport the system that | :29:08. | :29:13. | |
we have a highly skilled labour outside the EU to EU workers is | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
simply not going to work. I think that was ruled out pretty quickly by | :29:19. | :29:21. | |
the British Government, the fact that the ideal of a points-based | :29:22. | :29:27. | |
system was ruled out. I think at the same time it is very problematic, | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
what kind of scheme would you have that would cover low skilled | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
workers? There has been suggestions that sector -based schemes, I think | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
that is something that employers do find quite attractive, the idea that | :29:40. | :29:42. | |
their sector would be seen as having some kind of need. But there is all | :29:43. | :29:47. | |
sorts of difficulties around that. For example, how would you define | :29:48. | :29:52. | |
the sector? Some of these, you know, they are not very easy to define, | :29:53. | :29:56. | |
some of them have quite broad categories. Also, within a sector | :29:57. | :30:00. | |
there are shortages, say of production workers in the food | :30:01. | :30:05. | |
sector. No shortage of HR managers, for example. To have a scheme that | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
apply to the whole sector is probably not going to work. There is | :30:10. | :30:15. | |
also the idea of sector -based schemes, they would allow the | :30:16. | :30:18. | |
temporary migration. There has been a lot of discussion of having | :30:19. | :30:23. | |
temporary, one year or two year the users. Of course, the attraction of | :30:24. | :30:27. | |
that for the UK Government is that temporary stays of one year or less | :30:28. | :30:32. | |
do not appear in the migration statistics. The Government is | :30:33. | :30:36. | |
continuing to keep to its target of reducing migration to the tens of | :30:37. | :30:40. | |
thousands. And having temporary migrants rather than ones that stay | :30:41. | :30:44. | |
for a longer period and appear in the statistics would be appealing. | :30:45. | :30:52. | |
Not to employers. Because EU workers have very helpfully met the UK is | :30:53. | :30:55. | |
demand for low skilled workers, but they also have posts at all levels | :30:56. | :31:02. | |
within organisations, and employers have seen them as a source of | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
recruitment to more skilled level positions within their | :31:08. | :31:10. | |
organisations. I think it took some time for that to happen, | :31:11. | :31:13. | |
particularly for Eastern European migrants, but it is happening and | :31:14. | :31:16. | |
employers actually don't like the idea of having somebody for a short | :31:17. | :31:21. | |
period and bend them going home. The idea of a temporary scene is not | :31:22. | :31:28. | |
appealing to employers. We have had some discussion about the arrest | :31:29. | :31:34. | |
scheme. -- the wrist that scheme. It would be built on the current youth | :31:35. | :31:40. | |
mobility scheme, actually it currently applies to young people, I | :31:41. | :31:46. | |
think it is 18-30, from Canada, New Zealand and Australia. But there is | :31:47. | :31:51. | |
only 42,000 in the scheme. They have to have something like 18 or ?19,000 | :31:52. | :31:56. | |
in the bank, and they pay an additional 200 something pounds. It | :31:57. | :31:59. | |
doesn't really seem like a scheme that is going to take off unless it | :32:00. | :32:03. | |
is adjusted in some way. But it certainly would not appeal to most | :32:04. | :32:07. | |
employers in the sectors that I am talking about, Duminy who is just | :32:08. | :32:11. | |
here essentially in a holiday and is going to go back. -- somebody who is | :32:12. | :32:14. | |
just tear up essentially on a holiday. So the third priority for | :32:15. | :32:21. | |
employers is to have the minimum of bureaucracy. That doesn't really | :32:22. | :32:26. | |
seem very realistic at all. But they realise that actually immigration is | :32:27. | :32:34. | |
not really going to be policed at the border, the UK Government | :32:35. | :32:37. | |
doesn't want to stop tourists coming in, people coming in the short | :32:38. | :32:41. | |
periods, it is going to be policed in the workplace. We had a series of | :32:42. | :32:46. | |
Round Table discussions, one for the food and ring sector and the other | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
one for hospitality, and there were visibly disturbed and shaken by the | :32:52. | :32:55. | |
idea, when they realised, well, hang on, I don't have these passports and | :32:56. | :33:00. | |
angered. They currently do check -- I'm going to have to check. They | :33:01. | :33:03. | |
currently do check that their workers have the right to work it, | :33:04. | :33:07. | |
but we will have an array of different arrangements in all | :33:08. | :33:09. | |
likelihood, they are very concerned about that. One of their concerns is | :33:10. | :33:13. | |
that they are going to run foul of the law. We all know what happens to | :33:14. | :33:17. | |
employers when that happens. And the kind of bad publicity they would | :33:18. | :33:20. | |
have, locally and potentially nationally as well. But they do want | :33:21. | :33:26. | |
systems which are going to be very responsive. Currently, if you want | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
to recruit somebody from outside the EU have to go through quite a | :33:31. | :33:33. | |
lengthy process, you have to advertise the job for 28 days. That | :33:34. | :33:37. | |
is not going to work the employers in industries like food and drink | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
and hospitality that really need somebody straightaway. They are not | :33:41. | :33:49. | |
averse to the idea of having to give somebody a job offer before they | :33:50. | :33:53. | |
come to the UK. That might be something that we do end up with. | :33:54. | :33:58. | |
Currently that does apply to workers from outside the EU. But I think on | :33:59. | :34:03. | |
the downside, as far as perceptions from the public are concerned, that | :34:04. | :34:06. | |
would open the door much more to agencies. We will have much more of | :34:07. | :34:11. | |
a role of agencies going out to Eastern Europe in particular and | :34:12. | :34:14. | |
recruiting people, giving them the job offer, and then coming here. | :34:15. | :34:27. | |
So... Those are the three areas of priority for employers in terms of | :34:28. | :34:30. | |
new immigration policy. But I think there are two other groups that we | :34:31. | :34:34. | |
do really need to consider. First of all there is the public. What did | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
they vote for? Did they vote for the end of free movement of people, | :34:40. | :34:42. | |
there is a bitter dispute about that. But if you look at the kind of | :34:43. | :34:47. | |
immigration that the public does not like, it is immigrants who are here | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
for a short period of time, who don't saddle, who don't contribute, | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
he'll just basically get what they can, and send the money home. I do | :34:57. | :35:00. | |
fear that the kind of policies that are being thought of, considered and | :35:01. | :35:04. | |
develop now are going to lead down that path. The policies that | :35:05. | :35:07. | |
currently seem to be considered are those that would involve short-term | :35:08. | :35:12. | |
stays, that will in some way in Courage agencies. I think it is like | :35:13. | :35:18. | |
where Vicky has been an MEP, it will be quite visible. I think you will | :35:19. | :35:22. | |
have big groups of migrants being shipped in by agencies, staying for | :35:23. | :35:26. | |
quite short periods. That is exactly the kind of immigration that people | :35:27. | :35:29. | |
thought they were voting against when they voted to leave the EU. The | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
other group that I think we need to consider is migrants themselves. | :35:34. | :35:37. | |
Obviously, you know, they have a lot of choice about where they can work | :35:38. | :35:43. | |
within Europe. Speaking to employers, they are currently, there | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
is currently little evidence of the kind of mass exodus of EU migrants | :35:48. | :35:51. | |
from workplaces in the UK. I think it is because it is a case of wait | :35:52. | :35:55. | |
and see. Everybody is waiting and seeing. I think actually for quite a | :35:56. | :36:02. | |
few migrants who have family here, it is not easy... | :36:03. | :37:03. | |
Approximate Welcome to the great countive Nottinghamshire and in | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
particular here to Carlton at the head of the Gedling constituency. | :37:09. | :37:13. | |
And this is a constituency that we would like to see represented, after | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
the general election by our fantastic candidate, Caroline | :37:19. | :37:18. | |
Abbott. Here in Nottinghamshire, as I am | :37:19. | :37:38. | |
esure over the Midlands we have been out on the doorstep, as we do, | :37:39. | :37:42. | |
talking to the members of the public and one message comes back to us | :37:43. | :37:45. | |
time and again and that is people saying to us that they trust Theresa | :37:46. | :37:52. | |
May. Hear, hear. People say they trust Theresa May as a strong and | :37:53. | :37:55. | |
stable leader, working in the national interest that this country | :37:56. | :38:01. | |
needs in challenging times and at this general election, whether in | :38:02. | :38:04. | |
Nottinghamshire or any constituency across the UK, there is only one | :38:05. | :38:08. | |
leader who will secure us both the deal that we need, as we leave the | :38:09. | :38:14. | |
European Union and will secure the stronger Britain that | :38:15. | :38:16. | |
Nottinghamshire, the Midlands, the whole country needs to secure our | :38:17. | :38:21. | |
future and our children's futures. So, wherever you come from today, | :38:22. | :38:27. | |
whether from the great cities of the Midlands, like Nottingham, like | :38:28. | :38:31. | |
derby, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent and of course like Birmingham, or | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
whether you have come from the market towns like Newcastle under | :38:36. | :38:40. | |
lime or new washing or you have come from our former international towns | :38:41. | :38:46. | |
lying Mansfield and Ashfield where we are campaigning in | :38:47. | :38:48. | |
Nottinghamshire, places that the Labour Party have taken for granted | :38:49. | :38:55. | |
and neglected my whole life. Hear, hear | :38:56. | :38:55. | |
APPLAUSE. Wherever you come from today, there | :38:56. | :39:07. | |
is only one partied and one leader who is committed to building a | :39:08. | :39:14. | |
country that works for everyone and will work for every part of the | :39:15. | :39:17. | |
Midlands. That leader is Theresa May. | :39:18. | :39:23. | |
So, would you join me, would you join me today in giving a very warm | :39:24. | :39:31. | |
welcome, here to Nottingham, back to Nottingham, to the Prime Minister, | :39:32. | :39:33. | |
Theresa May. Thank you, thank you very much | :39:34. | :39:50. | |
everybody for that welcome. Thank you, Robert for those words and it's | :39:51. | :39:55. | |
great to be with you here in Gedling today as we put the local elections | :39:56. | :40:02. | |
behind us and now focus on this absolutely crucial general election | :40:03. | :40:10. | |
in just 29 days' time. And we can take absolutely nothing for granted. | :40:11. | :40:16. | |
Hear, hear And we are certainly not taking anything for granted as | :40:17. | :40:20. | |
regards our team. We have a great team here of local candidates, | :40:21. | :40:26. | |
standing across the east and west Midlands a great team and what I say | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
to people across the whole of the Midlands is this - this is the team | :40:31. | :40:34. | |
that I need behind me to ensure that we have that strong position to | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
shall negotiate the best deal for Britain in Europe. This is the team | :40:38. | :40:42. | |
that is going to be taking out our positive message on to the streets. | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
Ta message of strong and stable leadership in the national interest. | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
Of strengthening the UK's position in those Brexit negotiations, of | :40:53. | :40:56. | |
building a better future for the United Kingdom and every vote for me | :40:57. | :41:02. | |
and my local candidates is a vote that strengthens our hand in those | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
Brexit negotiations. And just stop for a minute to think what the | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
alternative would be, because it would be tow risk making Jeremy | :41:13. | :41:17. | |
Corbyn our Prime Minister. -- to risk making Jeremy Corbyn our Prime | :41:18. | :41:23. | |
Minister. Can you picture it? No. LAUGHTER Jeremy Corbyn sitting at | :41:24. | :41:28. | |
the negotiating table with the combined might of the negotiating | :41:29. | :41:33. | |
team and the 27 others countries ranged against him but the Liberal | :41:34. | :41:36. | |
Democrats and Scottish national parties are all lining up to prop | :41:37. | :41:42. | |
him up and the possibility of a Corbyn-led coalition of chaos is | :41:43. | :41:47. | |
real and a vote for any other party is to take a step closer to Jeremy | :41:48. | :41:52. | |
Corbyn sitting at that Brexit negotiating table. Now, we must stop | :41:53. | :41:59. | |
that, by winning support, here in the East Midlands and in the West | :42:00. | :42:03. | |
Midlands and across the whole of the United Kingdom. But we must also | :42:04. | :42:09. | |
expose the nonsensical policies that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party | :42:10. | :42:12. | |
are putting forward in this election campaign. Because they simply do not | :42:13. | :42:19. | |
add up. And we know Labour would wreck the economy and that would | :42:20. | :42:23. | |
render all their promises totally undeliverable. Now, by contrast, | :42:24. | :42:28. | |
what we are doing is taking positive, credible, deliverable | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
policies, out to voters. Policies like capping energy prices to | :42:33. | :42:38. | |
support working families. Like protecting workers' pensions against | :42:39. | :42:42. | |
irresponsible bosses, like bringing in new mental health laws to end | :42:43. | :42:45. | |
injustice. That is the positive message that we will be taking out, | :42:46. | :42:51. | |
over the next 29 days, out into our communities and out on to the | :42:52. | :42:56. | |
streets and it is a positive message and what I say to people is that it | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
isn't about how people have voted before. This election is about who | :43:01. | :43:05. | |
people want to lead our country for the next five years. This election | :43:06. | :43:10. | |
is about strong and stable leadership in the national interest. | :43:11. | :43:15. | |
And my instruction top candidates is very simple and very clear - take | :43:16. | :43:21. | |
nothing for granted. I want you to be out there, on those streets, no | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
stone unturned, no street unwalked down, no door unknocked on. I wanted | :43:27. | :43:33. | |
you to ensure that you are out there with the voters. Because it is only | :43:34. | :43:40. | |
by working flat out every day, until June 8th, that we will ensure that | :43:41. | :43:46. | |
we can gain the trust of the British people and earn their support on | :43:47. | :43:50. | |
polling day. So, that's what I want you to be doing. I want you to be | :43:51. | :43:54. | |
out there, campaigning hard and you know, over the years, as a Member of | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
Parliament, I have been - 20 years in Parliament now - over those years | :44:00. | :44:03. | |
I have learned how important it is to speak directly to voters and to | :44:04. | :44:07. | |
listen to their concerns. And that, as I say, is exactly what I want you | :44:08. | :44:14. | |
all to be doing. I've also learned across those 20 years that you | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
should never try to predict election results. LAUGHTER | :44:19. | :44:24. | |
I leave you with these thoughts on that point. If you recall back to | :44:25. | :44:28. | |
the 2015 general election, the opinion polls got that one wrong. | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
They got the EU referendum wrong and Jeremy Corbyn was a 200-1 outside | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
chance for the Labour Leadership. So we need to take our positive message | :44:37. | :44:40. | |
out there on to the streets. Making the case for that strong and stable | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
leadership in the national interest. Going out there, taking that message | :44:47. | :44:51. | |
to people. And it's by doing that that I think we can show people that | :44:52. | :44:56. | |
a vote for me and my team, my local candidates, is a vote for the | :44:57. | :45:00. | |
leadership that is needed, that strong and stable leadership to take | :45:01. | :45:03. | |
us through Brexit and beyond, a vote for me and my team and the local | :45:04. | :45:09. | |
candidate, my local candidates is a vote to strengthen our hand in that | :45:10. | :45:13. | |
Brexit negotiations and a vote for me and my team and my local | :45:14. | :45:17. | |
candidates is a vote that lock in economic security for the whole of | :45:18. | :45:21. | |
our country. By taking that message out, then we can win people's | :45:22. | :45:27. | |
support and by winning people's support, thenning, together, we'll | :45:28. | :45:33. | |
show that we will strive for Britain, we will fight for Britain | :45:34. | :45:35. | |
and together we will deliver for Britain. Thank you. | :45:36. | :45:37. | |
APPLAUSE Hear, hear. | :45:38. | :46:02. | |
Thank you, now we will take some questions, I see Andy. Is Andy? | :46:03. | :46:09. | |
Sorry, I can't see him into the lights? Do we have the BBC? Thank | :46:10. | :46:15. | |
you, Prime Minister, Alex Forsyth BBC nu.s Labour and the Liberal | :46:16. | :46:18. | |
Democrats have promised to pour billions more into schools, you have | :46:19. | :46:23. | |
repeatedly said that school funding is at record levels but it doesn't | :46:24. | :46:26. | |
take into account rising pupil numbers, will you commit to maintain | :46:27. | :46:30. | |
or increase per pupil funding and will you consider abandoning your | :46:31. | :46:33. | |
plans to change the funding formula, in light of criticism from within | :46:34. | :46:37. | |
your own party, and some headteachers who say they are | :46:38. | :46:40. | |
worried about ending up broke? Well, first of all school funding is at | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
record levels and we've also, within that we are putting record levels of | :46:45. | :46:53. | |
funding into early education. We've protected the school pupils' premium | :46:54. | :46:57. | |
worth ?2.5 billion but what matters in education is actually not just | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
about the funding, it is about the results you see and the education | :47:02. | :47:04. | |
you are providing for the children. What we see across the country is | :47:05. | :47:09. | |
1.8 more children in good or outstanding schools. That's | :47:10. | :47:12. | |
important because we want to ensure that every child gets a good start | :47:13. | :47:16. | |
in life and that's why our policy and what we are proposing is to | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
ensure a good school place for every single child. So that they get that | :47:21. | :47:26. | |
best-possible start in life. And on the funding formula issue, if you | :47:27. | :47:32. | |
look across the political spectrum, people have accepted for years now | :47:33. | :47:36. | |
the current funding formula is unfair. What we have done we have | :47:37. | :47:40. | |
put a proposal out. We've had comments on it and in due course we | :47:41. | :47:43. | |
will respond to it but everybody agrees we need to look at that issue | :47:44. | :47:47. | |
because the funding has been unfair over the years. ITV? Emily Morgan | :47:48. | :47:55. | |
ITV News. Prime Minister, do you agree with your party Chairman that | :47:56. | :48:02. | |
those who made complaints about the Tory Party electi expenses | :48:03. | :48:05. | |
politically motivated and wasted police time? Well let's see what has | :48:06. | :48:10. | |
happened in relation to this. I'm pleased what we see, of course, is | :48:11. | :48:14. | |
that after full and lengthy investigation, the legal authorities | :48:15. | :48:17. | |
have confirmed what we believe all along and what we have seen along | :48:18. | :48:23. | |
that the local spending was properly reported and declared and that the | :48:24. | :48:26. | |
candidates have done nothing wrong. Now, of course police time has been | :48:27. | :48:30. | |
taken up in relation to this issue. Those who made those complaints will | :48:31. | :48:34. | |
have to consider the basis on which they made the complaints but all I | :48:35. | :48:38. | |
would say is - actually, if we look at the expenses issue, we have seen | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
all the may scombreerts and the Scottish Nationalists being fined | :48:44. | :48:46. | |
for mistakes having been made on national expenses, we have paid our | :48:47. | :48:50. | |
fines and I sincerely hope the other parties are paying theirs. Prime | :48:51. | :48:58. | |
Minister, the Telegraph - Tim Farron says he is the only working class | :48:59. | :49:03. | |
leader in the election. Are you middle class or upper class and are | :49:04. | :49:08. | |
you proud of it? I'll fell you what I am, I'm somebody who is here to | :49:09. | :49:12. | |
work for ordinary working families up and down this country. Hear, | :49:13. | :49:15. | |
hear. APPLAUSE | :49:16. | :49:24. | |
And I want it make sure that it doesn't matter what background you | :49:25. | :49:27. | |
come from, it's up to you, your tappents and your hard work as to | :49:28. | :49:32. | |
how far you go in life and we want to create a better few toor for all, | :49:33. | :49:36. | |
for everyone across the country. Thank you, Faisal. | :49:37. | :49:42. | |
Prime Minister, I must follow up on the CPS issue, you said local | :49:43. | :49:45. | |
returns from fine, but the Crown Prosecution Service said there is | :49:46. | :49:48. | |
evidence to suggest that returns may have been inaccurate. Was there an | :49:49. | :49:53. | |
issue at CCHQ? Can you confirm to the public that this campaign has | :49:54. | :49:57. | |
learnt the lessons of that and you are returning a straight campaign in | :49:58. | :49:59. | |
2017? We have always reported expenses | :50:00. | :50:08. | |
according to the rules. What the CPS found clearly in those cases that | :50:09. | :50:13. | |
they looked local constituencies is that spending had been properly | :50:14. | :50:16. | |
recorded the candidates have done nothing wrong. And there was an | :50:17. | :50:21. | |
error made in our national return in 2015 in our general election, the | :50:22. | :50:24. | |
Electoral Commission finders for that we have paid that fine. Other | :50:25. | :50:32. | |
parties were also find and as I say I hope they have paid their finds, | :50:33. | :50:42. | |
as well. We have seen you in the Conservative Party advert on the | :50:43. | :50:45. | |
front page of one of our papers recently. Clearly you are trying to | :50:46. | :50:50. | |
win places like Mansfield. Do you truly believe that you can win in a | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
former mining town that has been Labour for nearly close to a | :50:56. | :51:00. | |
century? As I have just said, this isn't about who people have voted | :51:01. | :51:03. | |
for before, it is about who they want to lead the country over the | :51:04. | :51:07. | |
next five years. It is about who they will believe will have the | :51:08. | :51:13. | |
strongest negotiations and the strongest possible deal for Britain | :51:14. | :51:19. | |
in Europe. But matters for people in Mansfield and across the whole of | :51:20. | :51:23. | |
the Midlands. It is about locking in job security, incomes for people. A | :51:24. | :51:30. | |
strong economy to pay for our NHS and public services. This is about a | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
very clear choice. There is only one of two people who is going to be | :51:35. | :51:40. | |
premised on the 9th of June. Me or Jeremy Corbyn. Which one of us do | :51:41. | :51:45. | |
people want to leave the country for the next five years? I will take one | :51:46. | :51:53. | |
more question. Rowena Mason from the Guardian. What the CPS actually said | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
is that there is evidence to suggest that the local candidates returns | :51:59. | :52:02. | |
may have been inaccurate, so it is not right to say that all local | :52:03. | :52:07. | |
returns were correctly filled out. Will you apologise for that because | :52:08. | :52:10. | |
it might mean that some local candidates breached their spending | :52:11. | :52:15. | |
limits at the last election. The CPS has decided, they are an independent | :52:16. | :52:18. | |
body, they have decided that no charges will be against no candidate | :52:19. | :52:24. | |
in this matter. Candidates did nothing wrong. This is very | :52:25. | :52:30. | |
important. I've said it several times, candidates did nothing wrong. | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
What we're doing our the selection is going out there with a very | :52:35. | :52:37. | |
positive message which is about the future our country. This is a | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
critical general election for the future of our country. It is about | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
the leadership of our country for the next five years. It is about | :52:47. | :52:50. | |
ensuring we can take his country through Brexit, make the best deal | :52:51. | :52:54. | |
for the UK and beyond to build a better future for us, our children | :52:55. | :52:58. | |
and our grandchildren. Thank you. | :52:59. | :53:09. |