Patrick O'Flynn

Download Subtitles

Transcript

:00:17. > :00:23.Thank you, Peter, good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming

:00:24. > :00:27.along. This is a most unusual election. Not only does the outcome

:00:28. > :00:31.not appear to be in doubt but most commentators do not think the result

:00:32. > :00:35.is even going to be close, so it couldn't be more different to the

:00:36. > :00:38.contest we had in 2015. As a former political journalist I am on good

:00:39. > :00:43.terms with MPs from across the spectrum and I haven't met a single

:00:44. > :00:49.one over the last few weeks who doubts privately that Britain is

:00:50. > :00:52.heading for another Tory administration with an enhanced

:00:53. > :00:58.majority. A narrow party political times, Theresa May has time to the

:00:59. > :01:01.contest perfectly, before the substance of EU negotiations have

:01:02. > :01:04.got under way and while she is still on a political honeymoon at the

:01:05. > :01:09.official opposition is in total disarray. From the point of view of

:01:10. > :01:14.Ukip's self-interest, we could be forgiven for finding it galling that

:01:15. > :01:16.the ever pragmatic Tory party has lately donned so many of our

:01:17. > :01:20.clothes, and isn't it interesting, clothes, and isn't it interesting,

:01:21. > :01:23.by the way, that Theresa May is being ferried around the country in

:01:24. > :01:29.the very battle bus that was used for the Conservative Remain campaign

:01:30. > :01:35.this time last year? Rather like her, it has had a message reads

:01:36. > :01:40.comfort for Ukip is that when the comfort for Ukip is that when the

:01:41. > :01:45.Tories are turned with a bigger Daugherty it will be with an

:01:46. > :01:50.exquisite mandate to take Britain out of the European Union. -- a

:01:51. > :01:54.bigger majority. The very thing that we have campaigned for for so long

:01:55. > :01:58.and they have resisted for so long. The price of power for the pragmatic

:01:59. > :02:03.Conservatives will have been to receive an instruction from the

:02:04. > :02:04.electorate to return our country to the ranks of independent

:02:05. > :02:14.self-governing democracies. Ukip candidate great pride in that

:02:15. > :02:18.and if we can get candidates over the line in places where they are

:02:19. > :02:25.strong, it will assist us in performing to the central role over

:02:26. > :02:32.the coming period, that's to our pragmatic conservative colleagues

:02:33. > :02:36.honest on Brexit. From my point of view, this corporate trait of the

:02:37. > :02:41.Tory party to rank the attainment and retention of power ahead of

:02:42. > :02:45.advancing a principled agenda has always been a cause of regret. In

:02:46. > :02:50.the old question is asked, are you in politics to be someone ought to

:02:51. > :02:56.achieve something, we even Ukip without hesitation opt for the

:02:57. > :03:01.latter and I just hope the passage of time shows this Prime Minister is

:03:02. > :03:04.motivated either same spirit rather than that of her immediate

:03:05. > :03:08.predecessor who once famously remarked that he wished the Prime

:03:09. > :03:15.Minister simply because he thought he would be good at the job. Eight

:03:16. > :03:18.addiction but of course turned out to be incorrect. Speaking as the

:03:19. > :03:23.Ukip economics spokesman I want to set out another challenge for the

:03:24. > :03:27.Conservatives today. That is to shed their reputation being slavish in

:03:28. > :03:32.their devotion to the already wealthy and well-connected at the

:03:33. > :03:36.expense of aspirational working people. They will not achieve that,

:03:37. > :03:40.I suggest, through gimmicks such as I suggest, through gimmicks such as

:03:41. > :03:46.guaranteeing workers a year of unpaid leave to look after elderly

:03:47. > :03:49.relatives. I think people will recognise that as an unfair burden

:03:50. > :03:55.of uncertainty but small businesses and also as the government papering

:03:56. > :04:00.over the cracks of the structural damage it's done to the social care

:04:01. > :04:09.system through ?4 billion worth of cuts. The fact is that there is

:04:10. > :04:16.still a stench in the political Ayr left by the recently departed

:04:17. > :04:20.Cameron Osborne regime. A regime that for instance favoured the tax

:04:21. > :04:26.avoiding boot over the self-employed black cab drivers and cup top rate

:04:27. > :04:32.of tax for those earning over ?150,000 a year even as it was

:04:33. > :04:38.taking child benefit from families earning a third of that amount. --

:04:39. > :04:42.Uber. My challenge to the Chancellor Philip Hammond is to prove in this

:04:43. > :04:47.election campaign via the economic policies he sets out that the Tories

:04:48. > :04:52.are not mainly in it for the rich because despite his party's poll

:04:53. > :04:58.rating, that is what millions of voters still believe. He could do

:04:59. > :05:04.this in a number of ways. First and most important of all he could and

:05:05. > :05:08.should explicitly rule out unleashing a new national insurance

:05:09. > :05:14.raid on the self-employed. The pernicious measure he set out in his

:05:15. > :05:20.budget and that Ukip vehemently opposed would have picked two and a

:05:21. > :05:26.half million workers, 1.6 million of whom are basic rate income tax

:05:27. > :05:31.payers, costing them an average of ?240 a year. When he withdrew the

:05:32. > :05:36.measure he did so only because it contravened the terms of the 20 15th

:05:37. > :05:41.Tory manifesto which will of course fall into obedience after this

:05:42. > :05:43.election. The Chancellor said he still thought raising national

:05:44. > :05:50.insurance on the self-employed was the right approach. So if national

:05:51. > :05:53.insurance rises for the self-employed are not specifically

:05:54. > :05:58.ruled out in the Conservative manifesto, then we will note that a

:05:59. > :06:02.Tory tax bombshell is on the way, aimed not at the rich but at

:06:03. > :06:08.plumbers and plasterers, electricians and taxi drivers,

:06:09. > :06:13.hairdressers and personal trainers. All the signs are that Mr Hammond is

:06:14. > :06:18.planning a targeted attack on white van men and entrepreneurial women,

:06:19. > :06:21.people who work long hours to provide for their families and take

:06:22. > :06:28.pride in their locality and donation. People who drive

:06:29. > :06:33.themselves hard and occasionally perhaps there are fans quite fast!

:06:34. > :06:39.Ukip will always be on the side of such self-reliant people because we

:06:40. > :06:42.as a party or made up of people just like that, that is why we were the

:06:43. > :06:50.only party with a dedicated manifesto chap in 20 15th about

:06:51. > :06:53.helping small businesses. -- chapter. And that's why be wouldn't

:06:54. > :06:57.dream of plotting national insurance hikes to make our sums add up

:06:58. > :07:03.because we either that has the courage to confront unnecessary and

:07:04. > :07:09.wasteful public spending programmes such as the excessive foreign aid

:07:10. > :07:13.bill, the excessive public spending settlement for Scotland via the

:07:14. > :07:19.Barnett formula and the vanity project of HS2. Instead of lining up

:07:20. > :07:22.self-employed for punishment, Mr Hammond would do much better to put

:07:23. > :07:25.some real political effort into cracking down on the big

:07:26. > :07:32.multinational corporations which dodge tax in the UK. In the run-up

:07:33. > :07:35.to the 20 15th election, I argued for a tax backstop to be created

:07:36. > :07:40.that food for the biggest international companies, create a

:07:41. > :07:46.tax obligation based on their turnover in the UK. If they were

:07:47. > :07:49.continually unwilling to make a reasonable contribution to the

:07:50. > :07:53.running costs of our society. So I was pleased when the Treasury came

:07:54. > :07:58.forward with its diverted profits tax to do this very thing. Where

:07:59. > :08:04.there was evidence of aggressive tax avoidance. But diverted profits tax

:08:05. > :08:09.has to say the least, had a very slow start. I can only find

:08:10. > :08:15.reference to one company being asked to make a significant payment under

:08:16. > :08:18.it, this insipid approach and the Conservatives has come in the face

:08:19. > :08:24.of mounting evidence of continued aggressive tax avoidance by highly

:08:25. > :08:33.lucrative multinational enterprises. -- Diaggeo. Starbuck reported

:08:34. > :08:36.profits of 13 million on a UK turnover of 300 pounds and

:08:37. > :08:42.corporation tax contribution fell to just two points seven million pounds

:08:43. > :08:48.down from the year before. I ask how can a vast as Ms that sells coffee

:08:49. > :08:53.in paper cups all over the country for ?2.50 a pop end up paying

:08:54. > :08:58.corporation tax contribution amounting to much less than 1% of

:08:59. > :09:04.its turnover. With -- with the taxman be happy to accept pro rata

:09:05. > :09:10.contributions from an independence copy shop, good self-employed

:09:11. > :09:13.taxpayer submitting returns four times a year get away with that, I

:09:14. > :09:17.think we know the answer to those questions and as we also know,

:09:18. > :09:23.Cameron and Osborne's friends at the top of Uber channel many of their

:09:24. > :09:27.businesses profits through a complex financial network in the Netherlands

:09:28. > :09:30.thereby depriving the British public realm of significant sums. Its

:09:31. > :09:35.behaviour like this from the big boys that calls out the UK

:09:36. > :09:40.taxpayers, not the amount of national insurance squeezed out of

:09:41. > :09:43.the self employed in the geek economy. Yet time and again you see

:09:44. > :09:49.the Conservative Party giving favourable treatment to the rich and

:09:50. > :09:54.powerful and looking like it's dumping on the up and coming. It's

:09:55. > :09:58.not unattractive trait and neither is upon which Theresa May has yet

:09:59. > :10:03.found a way of taming. I also challenge the Conservatives who are

:10:04. > :10:06.stealing plenty of our policies to steal another one in the interests

:10:07. > :10:10.of working people and that's our proposed moratorium on immigration

:10:11. > :10:16.for unskilled and low skilled employment. In her 2015 Tory

:10:17. > :10:19.Conference speech delivered when she was Home Secretary, the Prime

:10:20. > :10:24.Minister herself pointed out the perils of wage compression in

:10:25. > :10:29.working-class occupations due to excessive immigration. Is she

:10:30. > :10:32.willing to face down the vested interests of corporate written in

:10:33. > :10:37.the interests of ordinary working families? The jury is out on that

:10:38. > :10:43.one but there seems little reason to be optimistic. And isn't it time as

:10:44. > :10:48.Ukip proposes to phase out the green levies placed on every family's

:10:49. > :10:52.domestic energy bill and paid in subsidies to already wealthy

:10:53. > :10:57.landowners who put up when farms on their land? In the wake of the

:10:58. > :11:01.financial crisis ordinary British taxpayers make huge sacrifices to

:11:02. > :11:06.protect the stability of the financial system. People earning an

:11:07. > :11:12.average of ?26,000 a year coughed up to bail out the banks, they should

:11:13. > :11:17.have changed the economic culture in Britain but to date, it has not,

:11:18. > :11:21.indeed George Osborne placed a very high priority on looking after the

:11:22. > :11:25.financial services sector and now in the form of his lucrative part time

:11:26. > :11:32.employment with Blackrock, the financial services sector is looking

:11:33. > :11:37.after him. It's small wonder then people working in industries such as

:11:38. > :11:41.fishing gear it they will be sold short by the Conservatives and in

:11:42. > :11:46.the fishing industry context bartered away in Brussels for a

:11:47. > :11:51.minor concession to the City of London. Whose mighty lobbying power

:11:52. > :11:56.can always blow them out of the water. The economic agenda of Ukip

:11:57. > :12:01.is to speak up not just for the left behind, but for the left out, those

:12:02. > :12:06.who work hard to quote Michael Howard's old phrase, played by the

:12:07. > :12:09.rules but have no special connections or market power. There's

:12:10. > :12:12.the Prime Minister and Chancellor go out of their way to prove

:12:13. > :12:17.differently, then despite an imminent election victory, their

:12:18. > :12:23.party will continue to be regarded as the one that auctioned off

:12:24. > :12:27.prestige internships for university undergraduates at one of its black

:12:28. > :12:31.and white fundraising balls, thereby going and extra mile to ensure the

:12:32. > :12:35.glittering prizes for the rising generation in our country are

:12:36. > :12:41.restricted once again to a privileged minority. Ukip will

:12:42. > :12:46.continue to be the party that speaks for those outside Tory magic circle,

:12:47. > :12:49.if we can get representatives into the House of Commons at the

:12:50. > :12:55.selection, that task will be so much easier. But even if we can't, that

:12:56. > :13:00.task will be done and if we can succeed in pressurising the Tories

:13:01. > :13:04.to change their economic outlook as we have done in changing their

:13:05. > :13:09.European policy, then that will be another feather in our cap. In the

:13:10. > :13:15.meantime, my head is two to two and a half million self-employed people

:13:16. > :13:21.is to think very carefully indeed be for voting Conservative. At this

:13:22. > :13:25.election because if you do so, you might as well be handing the

:13:26. > :13:30.Chancellor at the very dagger he is planning to plunge into your backs.

:13:31. > :13:37.Thank you. And has anyone got any questions? Sky News. Given the

:13:38. > :13:44.opinion poll ratings at the weekend, your leader has spoken about staying

:13:45. > :13:49.on the field. This election was never one to be about our vulture,

:13:50. > :13:54.we acknowledge the political context has changed a lot since 2015 and we

:13:55. > :13:59.never learnt in 2015 having a high vote share spread rather evenly

:14:00. > :14:05.across the country can result in grievous disappointment. So the key

:14:06. > :14:09.test for us is can we concentrate our vote and campaign well enough in

:14:10. > :14:13.the areas we are very strong to get some people across the line and

:14:14. > :14:17.also, to put down markers for the future about issues such as Brexit

:14:18. > :14:21.being the overarching issue, things we can hold the Prime Minister to

:14:22. > :14:29.account for over the next couple of years. I think the signs are quite

:14:30. > :14:33.good in a good cluster of seats for we are strong and within about half

:14:34. > :14:40.of those target seats, the canvassing returns are very

:14:41. > :14:47.promising indeed. Thank you. Policy question, the National wage, will it

:14:48. > :14:54.be raised or lowered, you mentioned the looked Hammond, aren't you risk

:14:55. > :14:59.of turning into a pressure group? Ukip, I don't think anyone has ever

:15:00. > :15:03.measured the success of Ukip according to a jar of how many

:15:04. > :15:06.people we get into the House of Commons, we are perhaps the

:15:07. > :15:10.political party that has also been the most successful pressure group

:15:11. > :15:16.of the entire 21st-century in terms of the EU agenda, the debate over

:15:17. > :15:23.mass immigration. But you know, I am setting something out and it isn't

:15:24. > :15:26.an unusual election, it appears a foremost conclusion that Philip

:15:27. > :15:30.Hammond will be walking back on to number 11 Downing St on less those

:15:31. > :15:37.rumours of disagreements between him and the Prime Minister turned out to

:15:38. > :15:41.be even more severe than we think. The Conservatives are over recent

:15:42. > :15:45.days, claiming to be called the party of working people and I think

:15:46. > :15:49.that's an assertion and claim that deserves to be very rigorous leak

:15:50. > :15:54.tested and I've set up to date lots of different ways in which that

:15:55. > :15:58.clearly is simply not true. A challenge for them to do much more

:15:59. > :16:05.radical things, too, away from their old bias towards the well-connected,

:16:06. > :16:09.privileged, the already wealthy. The minimum wage... On the minimum wage,

:16:10. > :16:15.I'm absolutely behind the minimum wage and actually minimum wage with

:16:16. > :16:18.an aspiration to be lifted towards the living wage but the level at

:16:19. > :16:22.which a minimum wage becomes a living wage, I think depends on

:16:23. > :16:26.other factors most notably the availability and cost of housing and

:16:27. > :16:30.I think under current immigration and population growth trends, I

:16:31. > :16:34.don't think anyone could be really confident in five years time the

:16:35. > :16:45.so-called living wage really will be that. BBC News you addressed the

:16:46. > :16:52.issue of Brexit, I hear you are railing against the axis of

:16:53. > :16:56.business, how does your message... I don't really associate the words

:16:57. > :16:59.lost and Brexit in the same sentence, I would rather see it as

:17:00. > :17:06.we'd have won the issue of Brexit and actually, the price but the

:17:07. > :17:10.Conservatives, their ratings in the opinion polls has been to accept our

:17:11. > :17:14.agenda, apparently accept it because they've timed the selection before

:17:15. > :17:20.the substance of negotiations has begun, before people can really test

:17:21. > :17:24.if they are now true believers. I've set out a few examples of the Tory

:17:25. > :17:31.party tending towards pragmatism over principle. So I think the

:17:32. > :17:35.Brexit agenda, we are still the true believers in Brexit, we have driven

:17:36. > :17:39.the agenda, we've now got to be there to keep the Conservatives

:17:40. > :17:43.honest on it because they need to know, don't they, if they come away

:17:44. > :17:48.from that, if they compromise Brexit away, there will be a political

:17:49. > :17:53.price to pay and certainly, I don't see the voters looking to the Labour

:17:54. > :17:56.Party, the Liberal party, the Green Party to make the Conservatives pay

:17:57. > :18:01.the price if they come away from Brexit so I don't agree that the

:18:02. > :18:05.word lost should be used in the same sentence as the word Brexit and

:18:06. > :18:18.Ukip. I think it's our greatest triumph. You talked about big

:18:19. > :18:20.business and companies, how are you distinguishing yourself? Because

:18:21. > :18:24.unlike the Labour Party we don't want to allow continued Unlimited

:18:25. > :18:31.immigration for working-class occupations which not only cause

:18:32. > :18:36.wage compression and stagnation of incomes, it also puts massive

:18:37. > :18:40.pressure on public services, on housing, and there is an employment

:18:41. > :18:45.effect as well, whereby some of our unemployed people don't get jobs

:18:46. > :18:49.because of excessive immigration and I think Theresa May also recognised

:18:50. > :18:55.that in the Tory Conference speech of Autumn 2015, so we couldn't be

:18:56. > :19:00.more different, I don't really think a Labour Party that is still

:19:01. > :19:03.proposing no limits on immigration into working-class jobs and

:19:04. > :19:05.neighborhoods can possibly claim to be the party of working people and

:19:06. > :19:19.The Telegraph. You have said the be believed.

:19:20. > :19:28.The Telegraph. You have said the Conservatives have largely accepted

:19:29. > :19:30.your agenda. Will you become part of the Conservative Party? I don't

:19:31. > :19:38.think that will happen at all. I'm almost certain it won't. There have

:19:39. > :19:42.been instances of people moving from the Conservatives to Ukip and from

:19:43. > :19:46.Ukip to the Conservatives in the ebb and flow of politics. But I am

:19:47. > :19:51.absolutely certain that Ukip distinctive party is going to

:19:52. > :19:55.continue. We will continue picking up items in the political agenda,

:19:56. > :19:58.whether that is now to do with the excessive foreign aid bill at the

:19:59. > :20:03.cost of underfunding for our National Health Service, whether it

:20:04. > :20:18.is as being bowled on the integration agenda, -- whether it is

:20:19. > :20:24.us being bold on the integration agenda. Yes, we are all for a

:20:25. > :20:29.multinational immunity, but everyone must subscribe to our values of

:20:30. > :20:34.freedom of speech and the law. I absolutely don't think there is

:20:35. > :20:37.going to be any soft merger, if you like, between Ukip and the

:20:38. > :20:47.Conservatives. We believe different things and we have a different

:20:48. > :20:57.approach to politics. What about the need to rebrand the party? More than

:20:58. > :21:00.any other party, Ukip is tied to a single identity. I think it is a big

:21:01. > :21:07.task and it was a task that Paul was task and it was a task that Paul was

:21:08. > :21:12.preparing over the months ahead with a significant staging post being the

:21:13. > :21:15.party conference in 2017, in the autumn. Before all party leaders

:21:16. > :21:20.were rudely interrupted by the Prime Minister foreshortening the

:21:21. > :21:24.Parliament. That will be a task in the years ahead. I still think that

:21:25. > :21:29.Ukip can do many things but it has got to do only one thing to be true

:21:30. > :21:35.to its roots and that is to be the guard dog of Brexit, or the

:21:36. > :21:42.insurance policy for Brexit voted as Nigel Farage has put it, and we do

:21:43. > :21:45.need to drive the government during the remaining 22 months of our

:21:46. > :21:56.formal membership of the European Union. Every. -- whether we are tied

:21:57. > :22:00.to freedom of movement, whether we have jurisdiction, what happens to

:22:01. > :22:07.the fishing industry and our maritime zone. All these issues,

:22:08. > :22:11.that is the first duty of Ukip. We have had many thousands of members

:22:12. > :22:12.who fought this battle when it was incredibly unfashionable and some of

:22:13. > :22:16.them have not lived to see the day them have not lived to see the day

:22:17. > :22:20.of the referendum victory, and we owe it to them all to pursue that

:22:21. > :22:28.agenda right until the end of March 20 19th, so that Britain resumes

:22:29. > :22:31.membership of the ranks of self-governing democracies. -- March

:22:32. > :22:36.2019. That will be Ukip's dream and 2019. That will be Ukip's dream and

:22:37. > :22:47.our top priority until it is achieved. Aren't you effectively

:22:48. > :22:55.helping the Conservatives by not standing candidates in seats with

:22:56. > :23:00.Tory margins? I think I have just laid out by the achievement of

:23:01. > :23:06.Brexit in the fullest possible way has got to be the very top priority

:23:07. > :23:10.of Ukip. When Paul Nuttall set out our approach to this election, we

:23:11. > :23:15.did make clear that we would be guided by the views of our branches.

:23:16. > :23:17.Many of our branches have had conversations with sitting

:23:18. > :23:23.Conservative members. Labour members as well in the case of Kate and

:23:24. > :23:28.Kelvin, for example. But sitting Conservative members and

:23:29. > :23:39.Conservative candidates in seats where a Brexit supporting

:23:40. > :23:45.place to Remain MP. We have put our place to Remain MP. We

:23:46. > :23:47.country before our party in standing aside in those seats. That puts a

:23:48. > :23:52.very heavy burden of responsibility on the people who will benefit from

:23:53. > :24:00.that to stay true to the agenda and to meet the assurances they have

:24:01. > :24:03.given. You might see a big swing of opinion a couple of years down the

:24:04. > :24:06.line of people we have stood aside for don't remain true to what the

:24:07. > :24:16.left describes as hard Brexit and the rest of us describe as Brexit.

:24:17. > :24:22.If you win no seat in the selection, will the party continue? Yes, the

:24:23. > :24:25.cluster of target seats, which we cluster of target seats, which we

:24:26. > :24:26.don't advertise by name, and in the best of those things are very

:24:27. > :24:30.promising. We are on the way to promising. We are on the way

:24:31. > :24:32.creating a political microclimate in creating a political microclimate

:24:33. > :24:34.some places, rather like the Green some places, rather like the Green

:24:35. > :24:40.Party very cleverly achieved in Brighton. And we would hope to get

:24:41. > :24:48.people benefiting from that over the line. Even if we don't under first

:24:49. > :24:52.we still have that absolutely we

:24:53. > :24:56.overarching agenda to see through the process of Brexit for the next

:24:57. > :25:01.two years and I think we have already begun to outline some new

:25:02. > :25:07.political ideas and a new political agenda, that again as a patriotic

:25:08. > :25:10.party we feel these issues need speaking up for and we can't rely on

:25:11. > :25:21.the established political parties to do the case of the integration

:25:22. > :25:25.crisis of our society. How many is a cluster? More than a handful and

:25:26. > :25:36.less than a barrow full! There you go. At the back? The Daily Mirror.

:25:37. > :25:56.INAUDIBLE. I think in that situation, the

:25:57. > :25:59.actual initial thing would be their presence would tell a Prime Minister

:26:00. > :26:05.who was arguing to you guys in the European Union this time last year

:26:06. > :26:13.that there is a real political price to be paid if she compromises the

:26:14. > :26:16.fundamentals of Brexit. Other than that it is to be there as Prime

:26:17. > :26:21.Minister's Questions in other House of Commons events arguing the case

:26:22. > :26:26.for our agenda on for instant reducing the foreign aid bill. Yet

:26:27. > :26:28.again we go into this general election with all the parties

:26:29. > :26:33.represented in the House of Commons wanting to spend more on foreign

:26:34. > :26:37.aid, even as we see the proliferation for instance of food

:26:38. > :26:42.banks in our own country, the health service and the social care system

:26:43. > :26:46.crying out for more resources. And indeed this issue of integration and

:26:47. > :26:53.British values and being patriotic about our own country. I think there

:26:54. > :26:56.are lots of things that are Ukip MP or MPs could do and that would be

:26:57. > :27:01.very advantageous to us but this show will go on whether or not we

:27:02. > :27:03.are in the House of Commons and we have shown before that we can

:27:04. > :27:13.influence the agenda from outside as well. Yes? Go on. Your candidate

:27:14. > :27:19.numbers this time are well down. Under 400. Doesn't that show that

:27:20. > :27:27.you can't get people to stand for you? If we had been absolutely

:27:28. > :27:31.desperate to, I am quite sure we could have fielded a candidate in

:27:32. > :27:35.almost every seat, as we did last time, but things have changed. The

:27:36. > :27:41.governing party is formally committed to Brexit. I hope and

:27:42. > :27:51.believe that when they do release their manifesto, it will say that.

:27:52. > :27:56.Our party, our branches, many of them are regarding this general

:27:57. > :28:00.election as a kind of second referendum, knowing that the Remain

:28:01. > :28:04.parties will collect any bit of evidence they can glean and stumble

:28:05. > :28:11.on to say there is buyers remorse out there. In many cases our

:28:12. > :28:16.branches have made an active decision to stand aside because they

:28:17. > :28:21.have had reassurance from another candidate best placed to win or hold

:28:22. > :28:25.the seat that they sign up to our agenda of the true Brexit. I think

:28:26. > :28:30.it is just a radically changed political context which accounts for

:28:31. > :28:34.the fewer number of candidates. Right. Thanks ever so much.