04/10/2011 Today at Conference

Evening all. Welcome to another roundup from the Tory Party

conference here in Manchester, where it's been pretty low-key

affair. Perhaps because party managers have been reluctant to

feed the party faithful any red meat. There's been nothing to

assuage their eurosceptic appetites, no tax cuts to gobble down and all

the time there have been -- they're being force-fed an increase in the

foreign aid budget while police numbers and defence are being cut.

It's not a very popular Tory diet. But Home Secretary, Theresa May,

thought she had something to fill the Tory stomach. Next year, across

England and Wales the public will vote for police and crime

Commissioners. One economister -- Commissioner for each police force

in the country. Responsible for setting police budgets, deciding

police priorities, holding the police to account and hiring and

firing Chief Constables. They will be powerful public figures and they

will, for the first time, make the police truly accountable to the

people. Some people question why we are reforming the police. For me,

the reason is simple. We need them to be the tough, no-nonsense crime

fighters they signed up to become. But right now, despite what police

officers want, too many of them are not. Stuck too often in the station,

instead of on the streets. Filling in forms, instead of catching

criminals. Thanks to Labour, the police became a bureaucratic

service, not an operational force. And that's why the first thing I

did as Home Secretary was abolish all police targets, and set Chief

Constables one clear objective: Cut crime. APPLAUSE. I haven't askeded

police to be social workers, I haven't set them any performance

indicaters and I haven't given them a 30 point plan, I have told them

to cut crime. APPLAUSE and as Conservatives, we understand

too the need to reduce and control immigration. Of course limited

immigration can bring benefits to Britain and we will always welcome

those who genuinely seek refuge from persecution but we know what

damage uncontrolled immigration can do. To our society as communities

struggle to cope with rapid change, to our infrastructure as our

housing stock and transport system become overloaded and to our public

services as schools and hospitals have to cope with a sudden increase

in demand. So we are taking action to reduce immigration across every

route into Britain. But these tough new rules need to be enforced and

we need to make sure that we are not constrained from removing

foreign nationals who in all sanity should have no right to be here.

APPLAUSE. We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act. The

violent drug dealer who cannot be sent home because his daughter, for

whom he pays no maintenance, lives here. The robber who cannot be

removed because he has a girlfriend. The illegal immigrant who cannot be

deported because, and I am not making this up, because he had a

pet cat. That is why I remain of the view that the Human Rights Act

needs to go. APPLAUSE. The Government's Commission is

looking at a British Bill of Rights and I can today announce that we

will change the immigration rules to ensure that the

misinterpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to a family

life, no longer prevents the deportation of people who should

not be here. APPLAUSE. The right to a family life is not an absolute

right, and it must not be used to drive a coach and horses through

our immigration system. APPLAUSE. The meaning of Article 8 should no

longer be misconstrued. So I will write it into our immigration rules

that when foreign nationals are convicted of a criminal offence or

breach our immigration laws, when they should be removed, they will

be removed. Our opponents will say it can't be

done, that they will fight us every step of the way. But they said that

about the cap on economic migration and we did it. They said that about

our student visa reforms and we're doing them. As Home Secretary, I

will do everything I can to restore sanity to our immigration system,

and get the numbers down. I will never be ashamed to say that we

should doering we can -- do everything we can to reward those

who do the right thing and I will never hesitate to say we should

punish those who do the wrong thing. APPLAUSE.

That's why we must trust the people, by giving them their say about

policing their communities, and it's why we must respect the people

by doing what they want and getting to grips with immigration. And that

is what I am determined to do. Thank you.

Theresa May. In fact, cat flap turned out to be largely a load of

fur balls. Neither Theresa May nor I knew that when I began my

interview with her just before lunch. I started by asking her what

would happen if judges simply ignored her new guidelines about

deporting foreign criminals? I have every expectation, Andrew, that

when we make the changes to the immigration rules, which will be

done through stat story instrument, second legislation, that the judges

won't ignore what we are saying, that they will actually listen to

what we have put into the immigration rules in terms of

making sure that there is that interpretation of Article 8. Are we

legally obliged to do that? parliament will set its will down

in the statutory instrument, it will set what is necessary, what we

expect judges to do. As I say, I have every expectation that when

they see parliament - well because... You have seen how they

ruled before, why would you have every expectation? For the good

reason I expect hen parliament gives a clear message by saying

here are the immigration rules, we are emphasising this point, it is,

of course, in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights,

that it is possible to make this balance between relative rights.

Indeed, I was looking at that, Home Secretary, because what you want

and what the caveats are in Article 8 aren't the same thing. You want

judges to take into account criminal offences, breaches of the

immigration rules to get into our country, living on welfare while

they've been here, not working. The caveats in clause 2 of Article 8

are about the interests of national security, public safety, or the

economic well-being of the country. They're not the same thing.

it's rather broader than that as you see, as you look at the end of

that it talks about the rights of others. So it isn't just very

specific categories in Article 8.2. It's general in terms of the

ability of a public authority to say we need to balance the

individual rights of this person to a family life, against the rights

of others in a whole variety of ways. One of the problems is it's

always been a relative right in Article 8, rather than an absolute

right but it's come to be interpreted in that more absolute

sense. As things stand at the moment, though, once you put these

statutory instruments down if the judges still continue to rule in

the way they have there's not much you can do about it? If they do, as

I say, if they do, I have every expectation they won't, if they do

we will look at further measures. Is it true you said one judge ruled

somebody couldn't be deported because they had a cat? Yes, that

was a case reported. We just had a statement from the judiciary saying

that's not true. Well, that was a case that was identified and that

was reported. Have your researchers done homework on this because we

have been told it didn't happen. Well, Andrew, I have not seen the

statement that's come to you from the judiciary. Obviously, I would

look at any statement about this. We will see if we can get it on air.

Let me move on to police numbers, which is a big thing. Boris Johnson

- first of all, he boasted of adding 1,000 extra police to the

London constabulary, and then said I can tell you that as long as I am

mayor I will not allow police numbers to fall below a level I

believe is safe or reasonable. How can that be true for London, and

not true for the rest of our country? Well, I don't think it is

the case that it's only true for London and not for the rest of the

country. He's adding 1,000, you are cutting 16,000. No, what is

happening - I am sure you know this full well, Government sets central

Government funding for the police. The police have a pre-set power.

They can raise extra money locally and Chief Constables will decide

within that budget how many police officers they wish to have. Now,

obviously the mayor is, if you like, almost a police and crime

commissioner, we have to make changes to bring them into line

with the elected authorities that we will be introducing next

November. But as mayor he is able to make decisions about how the

budget he receives is spent. thinks to keep those of us safe in

London who live there, he needed 1,000 extra police and he is going

to keep it that way. You are going to - there will be a reduction in

the number of police in the rest of the country. You both can't be

right. Well, I am not quite sure I completely follow the point you are

making. The point is quite simple. Let me make my point and you can

come back. Every Chief Constable will be making a decision about how

their budget is going to be spent and we have discussion with a

Police Authority. In London there is a mayor, as well as the

Metropolitan Police Authority. And Boris will be making decisions

about how the budget will be spent and how he wishes what he dishes to

do in terms of police -- wishes to do in terms of police numbers.

There are Chief Constables in spite of cuts are making sure they have

more police by changes to the way they police. There is a Chief

Constable looking at recruiting more police officers outside London.

So, people are looking within their budget at how they deploy their

resources in terms of the number of police officers. Is it your

contention that these cuts can be made without a reduction in the

number of police we will see on our streets? It's my contention that

the cuts can be made without affecting frontline services. We

have heard Chief Constables up and down the country showing that's

where they are putting a focus in terms of... Will there be more or

fewer police on the streets after these cuts, because people want to

see more. What I am doing is actually getting rid of some of the

bureaucracy that will enable police to get out there on the streets.

Will there be more police on the streets or fewer once the cuts have

gone through? What I want to do is get rid of some of the things tying

up the police and preventing them from getting out on the streets so

they can get out on those streets. Police numbers, we saw the impact

that had on the later nights of the riots. Since the riots, there's

some anecdotal evidence that crimes in places like Croydon have

drastically fallen. Do you have information on that? I haven't seen

the latest crime figures for those areas. But, of course, what

happened during the riots a number of people have been arrested

following the riots and some of those were taken into custody, a

significant number of people in custody and some sentenced. Does

that suggest that contrary to the Justice Secretary, short sentences

do work? Well, what Ken has been saying is that we need a suite of

sentences, a variety of sentences that can be applicable at different

times and different crimes. crime has fallen because the bad

guys have been put away, if I can use the veracular that would

suggest prison does work. We all think in Government that prison

must work better. As he was talking today, there is a big issue about

re-offending. If you look at the figures of those arrested in the

riots, about three quarters of them had a previous criminal record. A

quarter of them had more than ten previous offences. That tells us we

are getting something wrong in terms of dealing with re-offending,

that's what Ken has been talking. You don't know what's happened to

crime since the riots in the areas where they happened because if you

were in New York you would have daily figures on the spikes and

Wouldn't you want to know, given where the riots took place, what

has happened to crime since? What you're doing is giving an argument

for our directly elected police and Crown Commissioners because the

point in New York is that there is one person they're responsible for

policing and the equivalent is Boris Johnson in London. But this

is not about the election, it is about the system. If you do not

know what has happened in Croydon, you have not got the system. Police

forces will have different systems. I can assure you, talking to chief

constables, they will be regularly looking at figures that are

involved in crime in their area. Can I ask you, finally, on

immigration, the party's policy on the election was to get a net

immigration down to the tens of thousands. Into this and are made,

it was 103,000, 196,002 1009, 239,000 in 2010. Will we see a

reverse in that trend in 2011? expect we will see the figures

coming down soon. As he will know, it takes time for any changes you

put into the Immigration Rules to actually work their way through.

This is the first year from April that we have had the full economic

cap on migrants from outside the EU. The student fees are changes are

only now being put into place. We are putting into place the measures

that are necessary to bring down net migration. We have had the

statement, the spokesman from the judiciary says "The basis of the

decision was to uphold the original decision. The cat had nothing to do

with the decision." You can follow through. The cat is free.

Theresa May. If the Tories have a conference darling these days, it

is undoubtedly Boris Johnson, something that infuriates the

Cameron aficionados. Not long ago, gaffs used to follow him like night

follows day but not now. He is seeking re-election next year and

he may have his eye on and even higher prize. His message to

conference today was clear and serious. I have spent a fair bit of

the last two months tramping the streets of London, talking to

hundreds of people caught up in the riots. Their businesses were

attacked, what they were just appalled by what they have seen. I

have a pretty good idea of what Londoners want. They want to make

sure that nothing like this happens again.

APPLAUSE I can tell you, as long as I am Mayer, I will not allow police

numbers to fall below A-level that I believe is say for reasonable for

a great city like London. -- below a level. Police numbers are up from

one I was elected and the numbers of special constables has doubled.

I pledge you that I'm going to keep it that way. And, yes, I think what

Londoners once, talking to people, is for everyone together,

politicians, police, teachers, parents, to sort out the underlying

issues that cause these people to riots. At one of the best things to

have come from those events is the fierce desire to help to bring

communities together. And to show that those looters, those rioters

do not stand for London. I tell you who did stand up for London. It was

that man who sat on a looter's head, it was the woman who made a

fantastic speech in Hackney and scared them away. Is she here? I do

not know where she is. It was the restaurant workers who fought them

off with a rolling pins and salt pans. It was the room brigade of

Clapham that stood up for London. - - broom brigade. That's right,

Clapham. In my view, those people represented the true spirit of

London. Everything we do in City Hall is about putting the village

back into the city. And we are on target to build a record 50,000

affordable homes and we will do even more over the next four years,

but we are also insisting on homes that are big enough for families

with children, and rooms that are big enough for human beings, rather

than hot bits. None of us are getting any smaller, as you may

have noticed. But this time next year, this mayoralty, City Hall

will have, partly by getting rid of Creasey communist systems, planted

50,000 trees in London, and that is what I mean. We are putting the

village back into the city. There is nothing more like a village than

the sight of someone sailing elegantly past, bolt upright, on

one of those big blue bicycles. The bikes are going west and east, and

like some great tank movement, they are gathering themselves for

research north and south. From next year, you will be able to go from

Canary Wharf to Hammersmith, from Camden Town to Clapham, and guess

how many were rooted in the disturbances? Guess how many?

Anybody? How many? The answer is not three, not 10, but none. I do

not know whether we should be flattered or insulted by that. The

reality is that there was virtually only one thing safer than a bike

hire stand in London and that was a bookshop. Boris Johnson. Health and

education are being subjected to radical Tory Reform. Something that

has not been without its controversies. Andrew Lansley

responded to claims and today's papers that his plans for the NHS

would cause irreversible harm. But first up, the Education Secretary,

Michael Gove, trumpeting his school reforms. It was thanks to the

election of a Tory Prime Minister that we now have 1000 academies

opened. We inherited just 200 from Labour and we have increased the

number massively. At the same time, we now have 1.2 million children

benefiting from academy status, Academy education, and excellence

in education. It is an achievement of which you should be proud.

APPLAUSE New schools, but most importantly, a new attitude, for

the entire education system. This government is unambiguously on the

side of teachers. And we know that there are three things that are

critical if we are going to support teachers in the work they do. The

idealistic, inspiring, will change in work that they do. We need to

back them on discipline and give them a set of exams which are fit

for purpose. We need to make sure that they can take pride in their

profession. For far too long, the technical, the vocational, the

craft skills and the apprenticeship route has been undervalued. At last,

the coalition government is making sure that those who pursue a

vocational or technical course can hold their head up high with the

same degree of pride as anyone who pursues an academic course.

APPLAUSE We know that you cannot trust Labour on the NHS. In England,

we are delivering for patients. Labour have used the NHS as a

political football. We will not let them. We will always fight for our

NHS. Today, I can tell you at conference, we will offer personal

health budgets to the 50,000 people eligible for NHS continuing care,

budgets that will give them more control over how their needs are

met, allowing them to choose support and services that suits

them and their families. Truly putting patients at the heart of

care. APPLAUSE Labour, and their trade

union Popat Masters can push out all the ludicrous lies they like.

-- puppet masters. We will fight back with the lack -- with the

facts. You know my commitment to the health service. While I am

Secretary of State, the NHS will never be privatised or undermined.

Two weeks ago when Birmingham at the Lib Dem conference, the air was

thick with Tory bashing. There were times when it was hard to believe

that the two parties were in the same coalition. Would the Tories

retaliate in kind in Manchester? We smuggled lend them -- Lib Dem MP

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 40 seconds

Don Foster into the conference to You wouldn't see these in a Lib Dem

conference. I don't pretend you that these are not difficult days

and that there are not difficult days ahead, but together, we will

ride out the storm and together, we will move into the calmer, brighter

sees beyond. Thank you. APPLAUSE That was really strange.

I agree with everything George Osborne said. And yet he was not

assured in the way he delivered it. Frankly, the audience did not like

much of it. I'm just doing a bit of homework at the moment. One neuron,

what do you think about the role of the Liberal Democrats in the

coalition? They have been all right so far. They have been working well

with the Conservatives. There has not been anything that Major to

disrupt anything. Both parties are coming together, I think. I think

as long as David Cameron is liberal and Nick Clegg is Conservative, it

will last. I think they have done a good job in terms of choking off

the harder-edged right-wing conservative elements of the

government agenda. Therefore, it has had a benign effect. It is

working particularly well. By have much admiration for many of the

Liberal Democrats. The way that government ministers are talking

about their work together seems very different from the impression

that people like you and I get in It is hypocrisy of the people who

tell you to cut spending are then imposing ever bigger demands on you

to send them more money for spending which, by definition, is

less essential in many cases than the spending at home in your

domestic budgets. It is rather amazing, the Labour Party says that

the coalition government is cutting two deep and too quickly, and now

we have got the right wing of the Conservative Party saying that

we're doing it too slowly and not enough. Probably suggesting we have

got it about right. A back Boris T- shirt? I think not. But thank you.

Well, it is the end of the day and they have all gone off to enjoy

themselves in the bar. I have certainly enjoyed myself. I have

convinced myself that I'm certainly not a Tory but very many of the

Conservatives here seem to think that the coalition is continuing to

work well. So why did not need these after all. And that is it for

Manchester. Tomorrow, all eyes will be on David Cameron, who must use

his annual address to the Tory faithful to lift their spirits

because they are in need of some up left. And to convince the wider

public that he has the leadership and vision to see the country

through these tough times. And that, we're told, is exactly what he will

attempt to do. Joel will be with me here in Manchester tomorrow and we

will bring you not one but two daily conference -- Daily Politics

conference Specials, starting at conference Specials, starting at

noon with the build up to the speech. We will be back at 2:00pm

on BBC Two when we will bring you that David Cameron speech, live and