Cross Question with Iain Dale 22/05 | Watch Again

Iain Dale was joined by:

Steve Baker – Northern Ireland minister & Conservative MP for Wycombe
Anneliese Dodds – Labour’s party chair and Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, and MP for Oxford East
Alistair Carmichael – Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland – who is the party’s Home Affairs spokesperson
Richard Thomson – SNP MP for Gordon – who is the party’s International Trade spokesperson in Westminster

#iaindale #crossquestion #lbc

unx confirmed the general election will take place on the 4th of July conservative MP Tobias Elwood says things are starting to turn a corner for the Tories inflation is now down to 2.3% migration is starting to come under control now it will take some time for that to resonate with the cost of living crisis and so forth and I’ll put my hand up this is going to be the toughest election that I’ve ever experienced but labor leader Sak starma says a vote for his party will bring about change and former labor Home Secretary David blunkett told LBC he wasn’t impressed with the PM’s speech this evening he talked and this is really down to who’s advising him he talked about restoring confidence and pride in Britain restoring after 14 years I mean come on who who’s who’s putting these words together former culture secretary Nadine Doris told LBC it has left many MPS surprised why didn’t he just wait until after the summer recess and then then look at what was happening in terms of the economy the headro to make um fiscal announcements during the budget nobody can quite understand why he’s done it now I think that’s one of the problems in other news a Mudslide on the edge of the North York malls has left one person dead the Met Office says more severe rain and thunderstorms are expected and former postmaster Alan Bates says he has no sympathy for Paula venel after she broke down while trying to give evidence during the Horizon it inquiry the former post office boss has denied a cover up in the city the foot 100 closed down 46 point 8370 the pound buys $127 and €17 LBC weather heavy and persistent rain in the north tonight a bit drier further south and a low of 6° from Global’s Newsroom for LBC I’m Daryl Jackson this is LBC from Global leading Britain’s conversation cross question with Ian Dale hello a very good evening it’s 2 minutes past it’s a momentous day it’s a day that the general election has been called and I’m proud to be hosting our first election hustings that’s what it is really isn’t it because we’ve made a great effort to get somebody from each of the four main political parties in the House of Commons and we had to stand down two guests but they took it very well in fact one pulled out anyway from reform um but Yasmin alabi Brown she was going to be on the program tonight but she will be on a feature Edition but let me introduce you our panel we have Steve Baker conservative Northern irland minister and MP for Wickham who makes his second appearance within two weeks which is some sort of record analy dods who is Labor’s party chair and Shadow women and equality secretary and MP for Oxford East um I always want to call you a veteran of the program Alise but I always get really insulted when people call me veteran broadcaster so I won’t bless you Alis carmichel is liberal Democrat MP for Alney and Shetland and is the party’s home Affair spokesperson and Richard Thompson is s SMP MP for Gordon and is the party’s inter interntional trade spokesperson in Westminster they’re here to answer your questions I suspect they’re all going to be related to the election but frankly it’s up to you you can ask what you want 0345 6060 973 is the number to call you can of course text 8485 you can WhatsApp us as well on the phone number and say Alexa send a comment to LBC and we’d love it if you’d watch us on global player to call 0345 6060 973 tweet at LBC text 8485 cross question with Ian Dale this is LBC now apparently the prime minister is holding a campaign launch tonight at the EXL Center in London um he’s going to be making a speech there we will break into our proceedings here uh if and when that happens it might happen after 9:00 I don’t know but um that is taking place in East London tonight let’s go to our first caller who’s not far from East London Robbie is in charmford hello Robbie evening all this is very exciting I hope you’re as excited as I am about all of this um my question is um cross party neutral really and reflects on the conversation yourself and I had in during the local elections I wanted to ask as we gear up for this election campaign what will you and your party do at times of record low trust in our politics to increase the trust in our politics to ensure people stay engaged with our politics and as Ian was saying on his previous hour to make sure people turn out and use their vote was hard thought and hard one and don’t be so cynical about our politics what will you and your party do thank you well it’s a great question to start off with because I I hear this all the time doing phonin on LBC that the trust in politics I think is at an all-time low um analyst dods when you’re in opposition obviously you’ve got to gain the trust of Voters I mean particularly maybe after um what happened previous to K st’s leadership what’s your answer to Robbie I think it’s a really important question and I think that Robbie’s right actually many people in the country would for example ask themselves well am I better off than I was in 2010 no or public services working better than they were in 2010 no but often they would then say I’m not sure any politician can change that and that’s why labor has done something very different actually under under kir starmer we haven’t been throwing out a huge kind of Blizzard of policies or you know huge numbers of sticking plasters saying that everything’s going to change overnight people know that can’t happen they know that change is going to take time that’s why we set out those long-term missions they are measures that will take a long time to achieve of course we set out the first steps towards them last week but we’re being very upfront about that because I think people have become cynical you know they’ve had all those promises made to them and they’ve not seen that change that they’re so desperate for that’s why we’re doing things differently but a lot of people on the left who are not fans of Kama would accuse him of breaking virtually every promise he made during his leadership campaign and therefore they say well that encourages people to distrust politicians because he appeared to believe all of those things at the time but has now basically chucked them all in the rubbish bin the biggest promise that K starma made in the leadership campaign and I supported him during that campaign was to say that we had to be in a position as a labor party to change the country to put the labor party in the service of working people and K has changed the labor party and to make sure that we were reflecting people’s concerns that’s what he’s done and actually Kier set out those missions a long time ago that was last year when he set out those long-term missions he’s been really clear as I mentioned that change is going to take time but together we’re ambitious for Britain we believe we can achieve that change but all politicians are going to say they’re ambitious for Britain I mean that it’s not news for a politician to to say that is it I mean be odd if they said the opposite well I’m afraid over the last few years what we’ve seen is very often you know announcements made one day pretty much forgotten about the next or the following week we’ve not seen that follow through we’ve not seen that long-term Focus that’s what we desperately need as a country you know it’s very clear for example if you take the NHS you know we’ve been very upfront yes there are those first steps that we can take we said we would get those 40,000 additional appointments in place every week we set how we would pay for that but of course that’s just to get the NHS back on its feet we’ve said we want to make it fit for the future that’s the long-term Mission and that is going to take time Steve Baker well in relation to uh long-term policies I just point to the smoking band because whether you agree with it or not I happen to vote against it it’s definitely a long-term plan with a follow through on it but Robbie’s question is really the point question I mean I got into politics because I was so fed up with politics and po politicians I thought emigrate Mo nor stand and here I am you know we had a liberal Democrat candidate phone in from Cornwall who said exactly the same thing she was fed up with shouting at the radio she said well likewise um over the Lisbon treaty for me plus the Iraq War an extraordinary rendition but that’s another story for another day so what I would say to Robbie is I’m going to keep on doing what I do which is that I try and speak the truth as I understand it always in fact in my induction presentation I say to my staff there’s five tests of everything we say and everything we write is it true is it necessary is it beneficial is it rightly motiv and do we have permission and I always tell them the only thing that’s hard is permission because I don’t need analise’s permission to tell her that the labor part is a bad thing that will ruin our country but you know we do have to conduct ourselves with Integrity the Nolan standards uh in public life are there we should all abide by them I certainly seek to and I would Point people who are currently throwing things at at the radio and shouting themselves if you look at what I said about Wickham Hospital over the course of 14 years people the public have always demanded A&E back at Wickham hospital I’ve always been honest about it and here I go into now the fifth general election and I’m not expecting any of my opponents to be able to speak what I regard as untruths about A&E at Wickham hospital because I’ve won that argument by being honest I will remember fondly a libd voter sorry alist ringing me up heard of the libd influence on you yeah no I regard myself as an Old English liberal but a li down voter once rang me up to say I’m going to vote for you because you’ve been honest about the hospital well I mean you know politics is a contact sport we’re always going to get roughed up but what I’d say to Robbie is that um each of us can only do our best and I I believe as I think was said last time I was in the studio that all of us sitting around this table are trying to do the best for the people we represent as we see it and um I think if we could all take good faith for granted in our conversations we’d go a lot further I’m just looking at the pictures from the EXL Center uh the entire conservative cabinet seems to be there and it must a lot of presumably party workers because I can’t see how you could organize a campaign launch within a few hours without them just being party workers but we will hear from the prime minister in just a moment that’s probably probably are quite a few there aren’t I can see some MPS um but that’s just by way of of an apology if we have to break into your two answers here Richard Thomson from the S&P let’s start with you yeah I think to respond to Robbie I think politicians have to as Steve says speak the truth as they see it be honest be straightforward do the right things in the right way for the right reason and give people a reason to choose positively between the politicians who just make a noise and the politicians who are clearly in it to to make a a difference but I think what you also have to do is to give people a bit of Hope and to inject just the the tiniest bit of Discord into the the agreement that we’ve had so far I think that uh you know people can see that things are not better than they were in 2010 but I think people are struggling to see what kind of difference a labor party government would make at this point in time and they wonder even though they can see that things haven’t got better in the last few years and we’ve been through some pretty trying circumstances with brexit and the pandemic I don’t think people really have really got a clear idea about what might be better in the next uh Parliament so you know I’m quite clear when I go to to my voters in the northeast of Scotland when I speak to voters across Scotland I was among them last we you were indeed and I thought you did very well too on question time from at the beach ballroom with the shape of the room it was a lovely building it’s a fantastic place but I think what what my message is going to be is that in terms of the big issues that are coming up in the next parliament in terms of how we deal with brexit where we became the only country in the world to ever impose economic sanctions on itself when it comes to the energy transition when it comes to securing jobs for people when it comes to reinvesting in our Public Services you can trust snmps who are elected to Westminster to make the strongest possible case on all of these issues and that will be uh the thing that makes a difference because on too many of these issues the labor party in this Parliament I’m sorry to say have been silent but do you find on the doorstep that because of the shambles that’s been happening with the S SMP over the past year year and a bit in Scotland that that might impact on your ch aners I mean you can’t be held to blame for for what’s been happening in the Scottish Parliament but it’s it’s you can’t describe it as anything other than the chambles can you no I’m not going to sit here and pretend that everything’s been as I would have wanted it and in my party and we’re we’re working our way through that we’ve got new revitalized leadership in John swinny and Kate Forbes as his Deputy but I think it’s a lower order issue for most people they would prefer we weren’t in that state but I think people are looking at what’s going to happen in the the next government that is elected down here who is going to speak up for the values and the priorities and the policies that are important for them in the Westminster Parliament and I think we’ve shown over the period where we’ve had that dominant SNP representation from Scotland that is exactly what SNP MPS do they stand up for the people of Scotland and uphold the right to be governed and the manner that they would choose an K Mar for the liberal Democrats of course it was always a major selling point for lib demons that well you were different that you could trust lib dams then the Coalition came along and you had to compromise on quite a few issues tuition fees we all know about is that still affecting trust in your party do you think my say says that actually we have moved on from that but yes you’re quite right um and look let me break this down into two sides let’s talk about the campaign first and then how you govern after the campaign um because I’ll do something which is maybe a little bit counter intiative and I’ll say I agree with quite a lot of what an and Steve have said um now that doesn’t make for great combat of radio so let me just widen out the scope of the question little bit here you know it’s not just how politicians conduct themselves it’s about how the media portrays that political discussion and you know that if we’re always told that politician people want politicians to compromise and then when they do compromise suddenly you get shouts of betrayal because you’ve compromised your position so you know L that that’s the reality and I I think Analise is right probably you know not over promising you know Richard you go back to 2007 the SNP promising smaller class sizes abolition of the council tax juling the A9 these are all things that have not happened 17 years later and yes you know that has that has an impact that was actually done by the labor liberal Democrat Administration what you have here is a you know an election where I think there is a danger of that over promise but then how do you go about the business of politics and government on the other side of the election and the thing that I’ve noticed in my time in politics is in London and in Edinburgh and possibly even carduff and Belfast as well government has pulled control into the center away from local communities so that everybody gets in in England what London wants in Scotland everybody gets what people in Glasgow and Edinburgh want and that has has done some real damage to politics and the the the ability of people to connect with the business of government so the one thing that I would like to see regardless of what the economic circumstances allow us to deliver on the other side of an election is a government that actually trusts local communities to do more for themselves and I think that would be the first step along the road of restoring trust and politics right I’ve got three text messages or WhatsApp messages here um Jeff inent Alburn says a small issue but very important to her constituents what happens now with Diane Abbott and Le do so she’s under an investigation it’s been going on for a year obviously some sort of decision has got to be made over the next 10 days well there will be and I think the key thing here is ultimately that we have that independent process it is one that politicians don’t interfere in obviously a decision will be made it will be a fair decision but I’m not going to kind of provide commentary on that in a political way that would not be appropriate you are expecting a decision so that if she is found I don’t know how these things work but if she’s found innocent of whatever the charges are she will be able to stand as as a labor candidate well ultimately of course that decision is taken by the party uh just as you would expect but it is after that independent process you’ve been saved by richy sun because he’s just he’s just about to speak he’s coming onto the stage at the Exel Center looks very ulent I’m not quite suit has been dried obviously to be this evening great to be with you all the evening you are the lifeblood of our incredible party and I can tell by this reception that you are up for this general [Applause] election the last the last few years have been tough I know that you know that we’ve been dealing with covid which so badly upended our way of life and then the huge spike in our energy bills caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but together as we learned this morning we have got inflation down from 11% to 2% we have delivered on my first priority to drive inflation back to normal and we’ve shown the country that it is only this conservative party that can deliver the economic stability the foundation of our national success the economy is growing again faster than Germany France and the United States wages have been rising faster than prices for 10 months now the economy has turned a corner friends our plan is working [Applause] but but with this hard one economic stability comes a choice who do you trust to turn that Foundation into a secure future for you your family and our country now is the moment for Britain to choose its future to decide whether we want to build on the progress that we have made or risk going back to square one with no plan and no certainty now we all know that the only certainty with labor is that they will run out of money and raise your taxes and as Jeremy showed us just the other week labor would cost every working household more than £22,000 extra in taxes now this election takes place at a time when the world is more dangerous than it’s been since at any point since the end of the Cold War Putin’s Russia is waging a brutal war in Ukraine and he’ll not stop there if he succeeds that war has also made all too clear the risk to our energy Security in the Middle East the forces of islamist extremism threaten Regional and ultimately global stability China is seeking to dominate the 21st century by stealing a lead in technology and migration is being weaponized by hostile states to threaten the Integrity of our borders now these uncertain times call for a clear plan and bold action to chart a course to a secure future and it is we conservatives and only we conservatives who have that plan who are prepared to take that bold action to ensure that better future for our country and our children just look just look at our plan to cut migration and stop the boats with our Rwanda screen across Europe the penny is dropping that ours is the right approach but if labor become the next government they’ll scrap the Rwanda scheme and enact a de facto amnesty for Asylum Seekers making us a magnet for every illegal immigrant in Europe in every way labor would make our country less secure now labor want you to think that this election is over before it has even begun but we are going to fight we are going to fight every day for our values and our vision and the British people are going to show labor that they don’t take too kindly to being taken for granted [Applause] now on the 5th of July either K arm or I will be prime minister and he has shown time and time again that he will take the easy way out and do anything to get power if he was happy to abandon all the promises that he made to become labor leader once he got the job how can you know that he wouldn’t do exactly the same thing if he were to become Prime Minister if he doesn’t have the conviction to stick to anything he says if he doesn’t have the courage to tell people what he wants to do and if he doesn’t have a plan how can he possibly be trusted to lead our country especially at this the most uncertain of times [Applause] now now we we conservatives have got a clear plan with bold action to secure our future we’re working for a Britain where we have renewed confidence in ourselves and our communities a country where hard work will be met with Fair rewards and where the opportunities enjoyed by the previous generations will be there for future ones a country where our defense and our security is assured so let’s take that message and that vision of a secure future to every corner of our United Kingdom and let’s show labor that the British people people will never be taken for granted well that’s Rishi sunak prime minister and I suppose more importantly in this case leader of the conservative party speaking at the EXL Center in East London in front of a um sort of euphoric audience he he had all most of the cabinet there uh behind him I don’t know how many people in the audience the EXL Center is a massive place but I doubt whether that was uh filled um I think he’s actually just finished so it’s a very short speech uh Martin wasn’t impressed on WhatsApp he says he talks to he talks to us like he’s reading a story on play school is that for Steve Baker um that’s obviously not how I take it but you know Martin feels like that I’m sorry um I certainly won’t uh see I Tred not to talk to you like that Martin I think all the issues that we Face are extremely serious I think that rishy sunak knows that and um I think you can see the energy and the vision that he’s got there I mean I I think anybody objectively watching that would see a man brimming with energy and ideas and optimism I mean you know he he’s he’s got it and I hope public the public stick with him and give him a chance to to follow through Terry says can I pick your brains please Ian on what legal or conventional protocol is the prime minister allowed to make a party political speech on air this evening and does the opposition get an opportunity for election heing after him um I find this speech ugly and rather cheeky um well Terry the point of an election is that all politicians have a chance to make speeches I mean he’s only just called it um I think it would be odd if we didn’t cover the first major speech of the Prime Minister in the campaign if labor have an event and I don’t know whether you’ve got one later on tonight or not anise we will happily take kiss armor as well we as broadcasters are under obligations during an election campaign to be completely fair to all parties and that includes the S&P it includes the liberal Democrats it includes reform or any other party as well um right let’s go to another question did did you all have a go with on Robbie and Sh question you did didn’t you right a text question from Mark I just heard the PM say we’ve driven down inflation the fact is it’s very little to do with the government it’s Bank of England policy and worldwide prices which have caused that what do the panel think uh Steve let’s come to you well I suppose I should give you a long and detailed answer as somebody who’s been studying monetary economics for a very long time I think that Sur yeah I think that there’s something personally I think there’s something very wrong with monetary policy everywhere I think the bank of England do their level best um it’s a matter of fact that we’re now back within Target and that’s to be welcomed but I think there’s a complex range of factors about the supply and demand for goods and the supply of money which is usually created through banks lending that’s why when you raise interest rates less money’s borrowed that increases the money supply slower and um and so prices rise less quickly but but there’s so much confusion about monetary policy as sometimes as in the case of gas you know pu Putin invades um Ukraine that has effects on for example phosphates and therefore fertilizers driven up the combination of gas which contributes to fertilizer all that then feeds into the food supply chain so there’s a range of factors both monetary policy and Global events but what I’m absolutely clear about is governments can certainly make inflation worse they can make inflation worse by what they do uh with their fiscal policy and um you know rishy and there’s no getting away from it Rishi inherited a legacy where he needed to stabilize and I think anyone can see that Rishi by taking the advice of Nigel Lawson his mentor and mine um he he brought stability so you know let’s not pretend that markets are neutral in sorry markets are neutral to government intervention actually governments can her markets very aggressively if they make the wrong decisions um and markets can can be calmed by politician making making the right decisions so hering expectations these things all really matter to inflation and uh it’s not merely the the bank of England but of course the bank of England has a mandate they’ve now met that mandate and they’ve done it with um government contributions but it’s I’m afraid monetary policy and monetary economics is a bit complicated um okay Alis yeah L the bank of England has its role here and um I think it’s interesting to hear conservatives ER praising the the bank of England having had a proper go at it for the last couple of years um but recognize the role that they have played in here in terms of people’s cost of living and how much money they’ve got left at the end of every week or every month though inflation is not the whole story you know Steve was talking about Rashi sunak inheriting a difficult situation he inherited it of course from another conservative prime minister who was a person who created that difficult situation and if conservatives are going to accept credit for repairing the damage to the economy then they also have to accept responsibility for having created that damage in the first place and people still feel that and they will continue to feel it for some years after whoever wins the next election because of the decisions that Jeremy Hunt has made in relation to the freezing of tax thresholds so as people’s salary go up they tip up into higher tax thresholds where they are paying more tax and as a consequence they are going to struggle to to make hands meet for some time to come and the responsibility for that I’m afraid goes right the way back to L trust in quasi quaring and their disastrous mini budget may I just make a brief point about responsibility I mean to me responsibility is responding to a problem and rising to the challenge of setting it right and that’s what rishi’s done you know on brexit I hope you won’t people won’t mind me saying you know I made the apology that I made that worked very well to transform the relationship with Ireland and the EU resulted in the Windsor framework which was a big compromise over which I’ve spent some political capital and that’s about rising to the responsibility of setting things right and I think we have and you know I’m proud that we have so you’ve had that element of responsibility now you have to have the element of of accountability that’s what the election is about and when people come to cast their votes on the 4th of July or earlier if they have a postal vote then they will remember that this is a situation that was created by the right listens with the conservative party in the was created by Mistakes by Liz and and quazi I’m afraid Richard Thompson from the SNP yeah I think the trouble with the monetary policy of the bank of England is that if you only have one tool in your toolkit then every problem and it’s a hammer every problem starts to look a bit like a nail and the trouble was that the inflation that we experienced wasn’t caused by too many people having too much money uh that had cost them too little to borrow it was caused primarily by the the spike in Energy prices which is still working through the system in terms of Transport in terms of input costs in terms of fertilizers uh but also it was caused by some of the dff policy choices that were made um Steve’s been commendably candada in terms of the the issues that were caused by the unlamented trust Premiership but also brexit has C increased the cost of inputs it’s now there’s now an additional half a billion pound a year cost to Simply associated with trying to to to run a border and it is a hammered economic growth by about 5% and that is a headwind that we’re going to be running into forever so that is what is the way that they had to deal with inflation by putting up the interest rates rather than tackling the core inflation in the economy it was by putting up interest rates that drove out demand in the economy pushed us beyond the brink of recession and everybody is going to be paying the price for it for some time to come so I welcome the fact that inflation is down to the sort of levels this month that we’ve been more used to in previous years but it still doesn’t hide the fact that there has been this extraordinarily lengthy period where price were effectively out of control and we are going to be paying the cost for that in terms of household incomes in terms of the cost of uh renewing and refreshing our infrastructure for many decades to come and well I think at the moment the conservatives are trying to do a bit of a Victory lap around this reduction in inflation expecting people will be grateful to them the reality is of course that yes inflation’s down that doesn’t mean that prices have stabilized actually they’re still going up people are still feeling that they’re still feeling the weekly shop being more expensive and in particular of course they’ve seen their mortgages going up because of what Steve uh was you know speaking very honestly and openly about and I’m grateful to him for that that uh Liz trust disaster really with the mini budget that so many people are still feeling with the monthly mortgage payment so you know we do need to see in the future economic stability that’s why one of those first steps that labor set out last week was to ensure that we establish economic stability that actually represents change compared to the last few months that we’ve had under the conservatives to have that economic stability with the fiscal lot with the fiscal rules that labor set out and that will start to make that difference so that we can see the kind of economic growth that we should be aiming at as a country and which has been pretty much a pipe dream under the conservatives over the last years I’ve got a barge in here I’m sorry the IMF have only just been in and given us some quite good news not only on our growth but on our growth comparative to Europe and all these figures which go out there they all deserve really detailed treatment like the 5% growth that Richard mentioned I don’t know but I’m sure that came out of a model and is an estimate and a projection of what might have been it’s not like these are actually accounting figures but you know relative to European nations we’re doing pretty well and better than you know before we move the one key comparison if I may is between H what we know that was tried and tested which is growth rates under previous labor government and you cannot dispute the fact that they were significantly higher under labor than they were no no ST let not let’s not because we have to go to the news we’re already late 8:32 news headlines on LBC with Daryl Jackson a general election has been called for the 4th of July the Prime Minister has promised to fight for every vote during an announcement outside number 10 it follows news that inflation’s Fallen to 2.3% but Shadow Health secretary West streeting has told LBC labor won’t let the Tories run from their record he says there has been 14 years of Economic mismanagement and calamity the liberal Democrat leader SED Davy says the country has been waiting for this moment prime minister Richi sunak joins Nick Ferrari on LBC tomorrow morning from 6:00 LBC weather heavy and persistent rain across much of the north and west tonight mostly dry further to the south and east and a low of 6° Britain decides we will have a general election on the 4th of July follow it live and have your say only with LBC e e e e okay leading Britain’s conversation cross question with the indale Alexa send a comment to LBC 8:36 is the time Steve Baker is here conservative Northern Island Minister and MP for wiam analy dods the labor party chair and MP for Oxford East Alistar carmichel liberal Democrat MP for a and Shetland he’s the party’s home Affairs spokesperson and Richard Thompson s SMP MP for Gordon who’s the party’s International Trade spokesperson in Westminster what what are the main towns in Gordon uh alen Andi ly in BMI new do you want me to continue no that’s is coming into the Gordon and bucking seat that I am the the SNP candidate for right let’s go to a call in Scotland John’s in Glasgow hello John hello good evening Ian and panel what would you like to ask yes uh I would like to ask if any of the parties represented tonight uh if they’re manifestos will propose that Britain should rejoin the European Union as seems to be the majority view of the the the the general pro uh population Richard Thompson for the S SMP uh yes it will I mean I want Scotland to be in the European Union I again I uh very much regret the fact that we were taken out of the European Union against the will of the those who cast their votes in Scotland I’m very clear the best outcome is for all parts of the the UK to be back into the European Union Steve and I have sparred over the the situation of Northern irel land and I think many of the problems that we’ sparred over would not have Arisen at all had we uh stayed at least within the single market and Customs Union but I think we have to be realistic all the other three parties labor libd conservatives are either have fully embraced it or are at least accepting of the the situation that we’re in and I think that voters like yourself have an opportunity in Scotland to vote for something better to put our future back in their own hands and uh to to to go back into the European Union as an independent Scotland but uh I think that uh certainly whether you’re for Independence in Scotland or not uh the Democratic argument is about giving people the right to have their say on that in light of all the circumstances that have changed particularly since brexit but uh unambiguously whether Scotland’s in the union or as I hope is out of the UK Union before too long uh I am unambiguously clear that we should be back in the European Union and the SNP will make that case with gusto and why aren’t the liberal Democrats making that case alich we you make the case I mean I think we’re realistic in seeing yes we want to get it eventually we’ll see what’s in the manifesto come the publication of it we heard Davy recently saying that we would want to go back into the single Market as the first step of undoing some of the economic damage that has been done by brexit so that would be a sensible first step and you know it’s not going to be a quick or an easy process your first question was about how do we restore faith in politics well you know I think repairing some of the damage that was done by messages that were written inside of a bus or in my constituency fisherman promised a see of opportunity in the rest of it which the reality has turned out to be very very different would be a good step and you know that would be but as the third party at least in in England surely it’s a good idea to really have a differentiating policy now labor I mean we’ll hear from least in a second but it’s not going either talk about going back into the single Market you’ve always been seen as the mostan shaking her head that maybe won’t come across on radio but she’s confirming that people but they the camera is on you at the moment but as I say the the Liber have always been the most pro-european party so why not take advantage of that well you know look because we are being realistic here we’ve been through the long protracted Pro process of brexit we have really got you know some major challenges that the country has to tackle and we know because of the the way that a politics unfolded when we were coming out that that sort of constitutional wrangling is a massive distraction from doing these things so step by step the realistic thing to offer for those people who do see the future for the United Kingdom at the heart of Europe as liberal Democrats do and always have done is to go back into the single market and that’s what we have already committed to analy STS I suspect that a large proportion of your party membership would like to go back into the EU but K stama can’t promise any such thing can he because he he he wouldn’t win back some of the red wool seats that he needs to well the reality is of course that people have voted to leave the EU that decision has been taken now I’m someone who’s on the different side of the argument during the referendum I was campaigning for sorry for the UK to stay within the EU But ultimately you know it’s very clear in that referendum that wasn’t what people wanted and of course ran at the last general election saying that we would have another referendum and we lost that election that decision has been taken by the British people however the deal that we’ve ended up with under the conservatives is not a good deal for our country you know you have many countries for example that are outside the EU that have a veteranary agreement with the EU in fact Northern Ireland has a veteranary agreement effectively with the EU but the rest of the UK doesn’t we need to sort that out we need to have a security PCT between the UK and the EU we need to sort out the issues for example for our touring musicians know the number of musicians from Britain has gone through the floor who are able to tour in the EU that has been sorted out for many countries hasn’t it well the problem is though there’s many actually who still don’t have that kind of an agreement with the UK and that just means that the kind of EU tour that British musicians used to do is simply not viable anymore so you’re seeing much lower numbers of them but look these kinds of issues we can sort out we believe that we can put our country first that we can actually have those negotiations and deal with them but that’s not about re-entering the EU it’s not about entering the single market for example that decision’s been taken by the British people Tony Blair always said that he rather regrets the fact that he wasn’t more radical in his first term he had this massive majority and frankly could have got away with anything if he wanted to and he now thinks he made a mistake by that now everyone’s speculating about the size of a Laban majority but let’s say it was a massive majority surely that almost would give Kama the mandate to go much further than you’re in intimating that he would I mean just renegotiating things here here and there on veteranary agreements whatever it’s pretty small beer compared to what some people say the damage is that brexit’s done of course not a single vote has yet been cast in the general election so we need to see what what the outcome of it will be but actually I think the um missions that kir armor set out they’re long term but they’re very radical in terms of the change that they would bring you know decarbonizing our energy Supply by 2030 with GB energy publicly owned green Energy company that would be a huge change building 1.5 million new homes a huge change for people getting our NHS not just back on its feet but fit for the future again a huge change particularly for those people on an NHS waiting list at the moment so these would be very significant changes but ones where we’re being very upfront with the public about the fact that they will need first steps and they are longterm as I said before okay Steve well the privilege of conving and organizing the conservative Euros skeptic MP since 2015 has been a mixed blessing but one of the positive blessings is well indeed yeah but because I’m I think I don’t somebody will shout the radio but I’m regarded as a straight talker and I’ve ended up with very positive relations with EU embassies um I won’t name the countries but you know significant countries um and I can tell people a couple of things one they wouldn’t want us back it’s eight years on we’ve only just got out with the Windsor framework and they would not want us back they’re just they’re not in that space they’ve got enough problems I mean I I had a private conversation with one figure I mean it’s on the record somewhere but it wouldn’t be appropriate to put it out there now but we were talking about um people’s fears that labor would salami slice the country’s way back in and he just instantly and naturally heartily laughed the EU doesn’t want that to happen it’s just too much trouble having got us out however what I’m absolutely sure they do want because I’ve discussed it with individual member State ambassadors and the EU Ambassador himself and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me saying they want to deepen the relationship now what does that mean because Euros Skeptics will immediately feel on edge it means cooperation on the basis of being an independent nation state now a Veterinary agreement I’d be all in favor of a veteranary agreement of the kind New Zealand has because new New Zealand hasn’t subordinated itself to EU law but for all the I’m willing to compromise on the Windsor framework it has to be said we’ve achieved what we have on the wind in the Windsor framework because we’ve left in place some EU law which means in those areas in particular in relation to food from Farm to Fork EU law Reigns Supreme which causes immense tensions and by the way they’ve only been willing to do what they’ve done in Northern Ireland which is a deal unlike anything else they’ve done it’s not single Market membership it’s a much smaller proportion of EU law they’ve only done that because we all appreciate the really globally unique circumstances of Northern Ireland yeah the troubles it’s a divided Society it’s got the Belfast Good Friday agreement and crucially it’s got an infrastructure free border with a foreign country and that what’s been achieved in Northern Ireland is unprecedented and I think if things had gone throughout the brexit process the way I wanted I could certainly stand this statement up I might have been able to achieve more for Northern Ireland and a better set of arrangements for Northern Ireland one more acceptable to unionists and Euros Skeptics than has been achieved I could certainly show you the papers that I’ve either either wrote over the years or procured the writing of that just wasn’t possible so did what I would say is they to to everybody listening I can assure you the EU doesn’t want us back but do they want defense cooperation of sovereign equals um do they want touring M musicians would they be willing to get let young people travel around Europe yes and I would say yes to all of those things but the idea that they would put up with us applying for membership or I I really don’t think they’d want us in the single market and Customs Union because they know as I know that it would return British politics to a state of constitutional chaos and at a time like this they don’t need the United Kingdom as an unreliable partner which is what we’d revert to it would be a disaster sounds like that second referendum might have been quite a good idea after all Steve no well so look I wouldn’t have put citizens rights on the tables out of the block I wouldn’t I like people and I I welcome the European citizens in my constituency and I would never have put their rights on the table I would have seized the moral High ground and said you should stay you’re welcome to stay we value you in this country however we going to I don’t know yet how legally we’ll sort it out but let me tell you this you’re welcome please stay glad you’re here but by the way as of the vote you what a shame t a mate couldn’t bring herself to those forgive me this is a thing that’s really I’m passionate about I can definitely stand up that after the 2016 election I knew what to do and I knew how to do it and it would have been a better solution for Northern Ireland than we’ve got today but unfortunately I wasn’t in charge we we have to move on it’s 8:47 join me rishy sunak on LBC the Prime Minister Rishi sunak I spoke with his majesty the king to request the dissolution of parliament the King has granted this request and we will have a general election on the 4th of July live on Nick Ferrari at breakfast on LBC e e e e cross question with Ian Dale on LBC call 0345 6060 973 10 9 on LBC uh we are going to continue cross question after the 9:00 News until quarter 9 because rishy sunak so cruy stole 10 minutes of our discussion so Steve Baker Analise dos Alistar Carmichael and Richard Thompson have all kindly agreed to stay until quarter N9 so do keep your calls coming now here’s a WhatsApp question from will what does the panel say we do regarding Law and Order today the police have been told to arrest fewer people what have they what would their party do to make sure crime doesn’t pay now the National Police Chief’s Council has written to police chief constables and recommended only making arrests when absolutely necessary avoiding what it calls non priority arrests because of the lack of space in prisons and delays in court cases being heard across England and Wales Alistair as the liberal Democrat home Affairs spokes Bill surely um I think the most important thing that you need to do here is get a visible police presence back in the streets now we’ve had the 20,000 pled being being met and that’s good and as far as it goes but we’ve also reduced the number of Community Support officers in England uh by about 4 and a half thousand and that again is a very important part and the problem is that too many of our police officers are spending time in the back office in the police station because you’ve a in order to meet that pledge they’ve sacked so many support staff so work that could be done by people who are not police officers are now having to be done by police officers which means that they are not being a they’re not being being allowed back on the streets the problem then runs right the way through the whole Criminal Justice System you’ve got a lack of visible policing in the streets you’ve got a lack of appropriate policing in community by Community um then you have delays in getting cases into court which is an absolute nightmare for the people who have been the victims of crime and then you have got prisons are overcrowded to the point of breaking down and as a consequence people are going in there they’re not getting the rehabilitation that they need they’re not getting the help with literacy and numeracy that they will need then to get a job when they get out they will be put back out onto the street going right back into the sort of chaotic lifestyle sofa surfing with the people that they were in association with that led them to go into to prison in the first place and the whole thing just becomes a revolving a cycle of a downward spiral so you start with proper effective community policing because policing will stop sorry the riseing crime will stop if people think they are going to be caught they will think they will be caught if they see police IND the street now with great respect you haven’t answered the question would you remind me then question is what does the panel say we do regarding Law and Order today the well you’ve answered that bit today the police have been told to arrest fewer people what would your party do to make sure crime doesn’t pay well you kind of answered the last bit but this whole idea and the second part but not the question yeah but the middle part the main part the main question was today the police been told to ARR well look I mean that is just one illustration of the extent to which policing is on a breaking point in this country so you know the all the things that I’ve spoken about are things that need to be repaired in order to pull us back from that point and you know what you’ve got here was just one illustration because that was senior police officers being told that you know you can’t you if you CA if you arrest people in at the rate that you’re continuing to do then you risk bringing the whole the whole system down uh but we’re already in a situation where people are being let out of prison early because not because we feel that they’ve been rehabilitated or that you know they they’ve served their time but just because there’s a Quee of people wanting to get in to take their B right see Baker well I think first I should say I think the National Police Chief’s council is independent it’s not like a politician issued that instruction but of course there’s a real problem the first thing is more police officers have been recruited testing my ability to recall all the figures but I know I’ve been tweeting about new police officers in Wickham and Buckingham to replace the ones that were abolished by it is true that numbers were reduced and are being increased but the fact is they’re being increased we did of course inherit a terrible situation but it is what it is we’ve now got more police officers coming in we are expanding the prison estate again I remember tweeting out about that the Lord Chancellor made an announcement about that and unfortunately we do need to do it I do want to just touch on what police officers do though because the first thing I did when I got involved with politics was go and give some time to the Center for social justice and as a result um I I know a little bit about drug and alcohol rehab because I went and spent three days in um in rehab with ex offenders and um police officers unfortunately spend an enormous amount of time um dealing with the consequences of drug addiction as Al has indicated uh we do need to focus much more on rehab um police officers spend altogether too much time sitting in hospital with people who’ve got mental health conditions and again forgive me I’ve got all the recall but I do remember tweeting out about government announcements about what we’re doing to try and reduce the extent to which police officers spend hours and hours in hospital with mentally ill people now of course people deserve care but it’s not what police officers should be doing they joined quite rightly I’m looking at young people when I go and see police officers I’m getting old cuz I find myself looking at young people who join to catch criminals and improve people’s lives not to sit at bedsides with people who’ve committed offenses and unfortunately mentally ill um the other thing is family drug and alcohol courts there’s one in Wickham I went along it was so inspiring to see um they’re both young women with children who had been addicts and through the the family drug and alcohol Court their lives were transformed and they were able to be good moms to their children and off their drug and alcohal addictions so I think the truth is that we’re doing an enormous amount of police officers on Prison places on Rehabilitation but the awful reality of drug addiction is there’s always going to be a sea of work to do um Analise unfortunately the this is a situation that has just been getting worse and worse and worse over recent years and you know Steve’s right that the National Police Chief’s council is independent of government when as as will rightly said in his question they made that recommendation that be necessary to look at how often police are arresting but of course it was conservative politicians who said to judges that they had to take prison overcrowding into account when they were setting sentences with the implication that they should be putting people in prison for less time or not giving them a custodial sentence again it was conservative politicians who said it was necessary to have that early release scheme with criminals being let out of uh prison some of them 10 weeks early crisis La as it wasn’t the same scheme however we’ve got to be absolutely clear about that did not see the extent of this early release uh under labor governments and we did not see a situation where you had a really significant amount of money actually 4 billion pounds worth of public funds allocated to provide the prison estate that’s needed and only 1.3 billion pounds of it having actually got out of the door I think this is a symbol unfortunately of that lack of grip the lack of a serious plan yes this is about having more police obviously labor set out plans to deliver 13 thousand additional police officers it’s about having neighborhood policing in there it’s also about tackling those causes of crime you know the youth hubs that labor set out plans for the actions against knife crime and I would just say on Mental Health you know I do agree with what Steve said about the significance of this but of course anyone who very sadly has had you know a family member who’s had severe mental health problems or if they’ve suffered that themselves again they will know what has happened to those Services over recent years we need to make sure that we’re delivering addition Services after the cuts that took place and again labor set out plans to get us they fully costed ones Richard Thompson yeah I think you have to Target the police resource effectively where it can do the most good and where I think much of the police resource that can do the most good should be directed is in terms of community policing and having good relationships with the communities that they are policing there’s the more strategic aspects in terms of intelligence-led crime operations but fundamentally it starts with a being seen in the communities and people feeling safe but in terms of the overall Criminal Justice System we need space in our prisons clearly for those who need to be there but one of the the big frustrations that I have and I’m I’m sure we all have is the the the amount of police time that is taken up in terms of serving the in terms of cases going through court now I’m not sure there’s a single Silver Bullet to that but it seems that there’s an inordinate amount of time is spent hanging around waiting for a a slot in court where a police officer may or may not end up giving evidence so we have to I think at least try and find a better way of doing that because that would free up a considerable uh number of officers to to do what we would expect them to be doing but fundamentally um as well I think we need to be better at give non-custodial options Community Justice restorative justice and keeping people out of prison who need to repay a debt to society but who his interest would be better served in society’s interest would be better served if they didn’t cross the threshold of a prison let me say Richard 30 years ago when I was a boy prosecutor and verri District Court the problem of police time waiting in courts was a was a maor I wouldn’t have want up against you was a major problem it’s not as easy to fix only the second time I think in Cross questions history we are going to continue with cross question right up until quarter N9 uh let’s hope we can continue the standard debate if all election debates are conducted in this demeanor I I think the public will have been served very well you’re listening to LBC I’m Ian Dale it’s 9:00 on your radio on global player and play LBC leading Britain’s conversation this is [Music] LBC from Global’s Newsroom the conservatives have officially launched their general election campaign at an event in East London we are going to fight we are going to fight every day for our values and our vision and the British people are going to show labor that they don’t take too kindly to being taken for granted the Prime Minister Rishi sunak said her date of the 4th of July for the country to go to the polls insisting he can be trusted on the economy and global stability we’ve shown the country that it is only this conservative party that can deliver the economic stability the foundation of our national success the economy is growing again faster than Germany France and the United States wages have been rising faster than prices for 10 months now the economy has turned a corner friends our plan is working but the labor leader sakir starma says it is time for change look around our country the sewage in our Rivers people waiting on trolleys in A&E crime virtually unpunished mortgages and food prices through the roof well the announcement today follows news inflation is down to 2.3% labor party chair anelisa dods and conservative MP and Northern Island Minister Steve Baker have been speaking to Ian Dale tonight on Cross question yes inflation’s down that doesn’t mean that prices have stabilized actually they’re still going up people are still feeling that they’re still feeling the weekly shot being more expensive and in particular of course they’ve seen their mortgages going up I’ve got a barge in here I’m sorry the IMF have only just been in and given us some quite good news not only on our growth but on our growth comparative to Europe and all these figures which go out there they all deserve really detailed treatment but you know relative to European nations we’re doing pretty well in other news a Mudslide on the edge of the North York Moors has killed one person the death comes as heavy rain warnings cover large parts of England and Wales and the former head of the post office has admitted mistakes in the Horizon it system but denied a conspiracy to cover up the Scandal Paul of anels broke down several times while giving evidence to the inquiry in the city the foot 100 closed down 46 points 8370 the buys is $127 and €17 LBC weather heavy and persistent rain across much of the north and west tonight mostly dry further south and a low of 6° from Global’s Newsroom for LBC I’m Daryl Jackson cross question with iale on LBC this cross question extra time it’s 3 minutes past N9 on LBC Steve Baker Analise dods Alistar Carmichael and Richard Thompson with us taking your calls until quarter N9 uh mosha in sford mosha hi what would you like to ask hi my question to the panel is if the world is safer now when Norway and Spain and Ireland are rewarding the Palestinian terrorists with a state after October 7th at oh there was a sting in the tail there wasn’t there analy ODS well the situation obviously in the Middle East um in Gaza is is a really Dreadful one I think everyone’s been watching what has been taking place with um deepening concern obviously labor has said we we must have an international sorry an immediate humanitarian ceasefire we need to see the hostages uh being released but we do also need that two-state solution that has been you know labor party policy for a long time now we really need to make sure that we have a sovereign Palestine that’s secure and that we also have a sovereign Israel that’s secure as well and you know labor would work with uh other countries internationally to recognize Palestine uh we we don’t believe that that should be in the gift of any one country it needs to be part of that process but I think the immediate thing to do now really is to achieve that immediate humanitarian ceasefire that’s so definely needed let me just clarify that because Spain Norway and Ireland clearly think it is for their individual countries to do this you’re clearly sympathetic to a Palestinian state would a labor government in its first 6 months officially recognize such a state you know the really critical thing here is what’s actually going to yield results obviously what’s going to prevent the awful conflict that we’re seeing the humanitarian catastrophe and of course you’ve had those kind of declarations being made by different countries before we haven’t seen a resolution coming out from that we think the most important thing is to be working with other countries above all for immediate humanitarian ceasefire but then also towards that two-state solution as I said and we’ve be working with other nations in order to achieve the recognition of Palestine as well um let let’s go to Al Michael um your home Affairs SP not not Foreign Affairs but I have a I don’t know few decades degree in is the liberal Democrat position to recognize an independent Palestinian state it absolutely is and a Luke Masha in in the nicest way possible your a your question brings with it an implication that every Palestinians are terrorist and I’m afraid that’s simply not the case I visited Gaza in 200 s not long after Hamas had taken control and you know I heard things there that made me think I never wanted to have anything to do with AAS and I never have done um but there are some truly wonderful really enterprising people in Gaza who have been absolutely blighted and you know the place look like moonscape then and we’ve bombed the rubble till its dust since then so you’re not rewarding the terrorists you would be G the Palestinian people the something to which they are entitled if we say as Analisa has said that we want a two-state solution because I just do not understand how you get to a two-state solution without recognizing both the states okay Steve well the government’s policy and long-standing government policy is to support a two-state solution I support a two-state solution it’s a matter of fact that as a backbencher um I voted to recognize Palestine I think we need to recognize Palestine um but I can understand the motivation spread view among your colleagues um I well I think the vote passed in the commment I’d have to go back and check but uh a significant number of conservative I would just say it is the government’s policy to have a two two states and that to me does mean recognizing it but I’d be be clear here I’m still Bound by Collective responsibility I’m reflecting that that is as a matter of fact how I voted as an individual MP in the comment but the other thing I’d say really echoing Alistar my heart absolutely sank when I heard the gentleman’s question when Dreadful atrocities are committed of of course temperatures are high and people want revenge and they want to punish people but I refuse to judge a people or a nation by the actions of a criminal leadership and their henchmen if we did that through history you know I’m not going to name names people know who the nations are various times in in in human history n criminal leaderships have done perpetrated at atrocities on absolutely Mass scales and we know that actually in the long run in the medium to long run after you’ve waged the battle you have to rehabilitate and you have to give people a hope in a future so that they don’t turn to violence again you know we don’t judge Irish Catholics by the criminal actions of the provisional Ira we don’t judge Protestant loyalists by the criminal actions of the uvf and I absolutely determined not to judge innocent Palestinians by the criminal actions of Hass Richard yeah in exactly the same vein um the Palestinians are not Hamas Hamas are not the Palestinian people and we should be very very clear about that look the SNP has long called for a two-state solution also and I think that by recognizing a Palestinian State the Norwegians uh the Spanish and the government of the Irish Republic have uh have helped to remind us of what it is that we should be looking for here because let’s be clear despite the atrocities that Hamas committed last October um despite the the the response of the the the Israeli government to that the only solution to that conflict is a political one it’s not a military one it’s not one that can be enforced by the Israeli government it’s not one that can be enforced from outside it will require that a long-term ceasefire not just the humanitarian ceasefire or humanitarian pauses it will require that ceasefire but it also requires the International Community to be willing to step up to rebuild and reconstruct uh Gaza afterwards and uh that can only happen with the only way we can get security in that part of the Middle East through the two-state solution and that will require the efforts of the International Community but it will also require the recognition in order to give legitimacy to that end political goal Andy says such a refreshing change to be able to watch civilized debate between political opponents on Cross questions so unlike political exchanges here in the USA where the country seems to be slipping completely into autocracy right Adrian in tumbridge Wells Adrian hi what would you like to ask hello yeah my question is what would your respective political parties do to enhance the terrible state of the UK Armed Forces especially in this new Cold War we seem to be in okay Richard let’s come to you first uh I think that the for some time the UK armed forces in terms of their equipment um what they had they didn’t need and what they needed they didn’t have and I could point to the the nimrods aircraft Maritime Patrol aircraft that were chopped up which imperal the ability to defend the the Trident continuous nuclear deterrent at Sea course now my party is completely against the Trident or its replacement but I would like to see uh a better set of terms and conditions for those who do enlist and serve their their country and the Armed Forces I want to see a a reduction or I want to see an end to the the the the repeated reductions of salami slicing that there are in terms of all branches of the Armed Forces we need to re recognize sadly because of the increasing assertiveness of Vladimir Putin that the Greenland Iceland UK Gap from the north of Scotland to Iceland and and Greenland is once again of massive strategic importance and we need to have the the maritime Patrol facilities there in order to properly police that and see what’s going in either direction over that but we also need to be equipped against other threats asymmetrical threats like the threats to our Communications infrastructure and also threats our democracy through uh disinformation and misinformation so I think we need to be looking more at what some of our Scandinavian neighbors who are closer to a border or actually have b a border with Russia and look and the baltics in particular and look at what they are doing in terms of what they what the swedes would call Total Defense and how you have a great more resilient civilian population but also a better integrated set of armed forces for Force projection and making sure that we are preserving our democracy and our information and Civic space as well anelise well I think Adrian’s right that there are huge problems there obviously the overall number of people in our Armed Forces has fallen quite precipitously really I think we’ve got one of the lowest levels uh now of people in the armed forces since Napoleonic times I mean a huge shift that we’ve seen uh over recent years um we believe there needs to be a proper Strategic Defense review we committed to that quite a long time ago we think you need to look very carefully what the needs are right now of the Armed Forces you also need to look really closely at equipment as well where again been major failures and actually disturbingly a lot of waste as well which we need to make sure is not happening but I suppose just the final thing that I would say in response to Adrian’s question is we need to look at how we treat the men and women in our Armed Forces if you look at for example the housing H for some of the brave people who serve in our Armed Forces some of the state of that housing is absolutely appalling so lab said we really would focus on that because you know if people are living in conditions that are kind of damp unsafe Etc unsanitary that’s not what they deserve given the import job they do Steve well I’m a former Royal Air Force engineer officer as a young man I slightly push back against the idea that the defense is in a terrible State I mean when I was a young man I was working on Jaguar when Jaguar was older at the time than I was and its performance was an object of parody whereas now we’ve had tyon which is at last a high performance aircraft worthy of The Amazing air crew that we have Pilots that we have since it’s single seat um you know the F35 is an absolutely extraordinary platform the sa80 Firearms um shortcomings have been fixed I understand there’s a new light individual weapon body armor has been sorted out um Vehicles army vehicles far far better you know there’s a huge range where we’ve um improved matters service accommodation is being improved there’s always more to do but I would say the last thing we needed to be paying for is a vast standing army that we don’t need we need the right uh for ukra has shown us that we do need it well so that’s an interesting point because we’re not actually putting soldiers on the ground in Ukraine of course but what we are going to do as the UK is we’ve had an integrated review of course we’ve had an integrated review refresh and we’re going to be spending more money and I would commend any of your listeners to go and have a look at the paper which Ben Wallace um put out before he uh uh stood down as defense secretary it’s really good paper on what we’re doing in defense I think we’ve got an excellent record and by spending more money we will get more capability and I’ve got great deal of confidence in what we’re doing aliser the only thing that I think we’ve missed cuz I know we’re up against it for time here is the way we treat veterans after they’ve left ex actually I think that has an enormous impact on the way that members serving members of the Armed Forces feel and to pick up a Steve’s point about the standing army and and the rules for which it will be put look we have to understand we’re a member of the per a permanent member of the United Nations security Council because of the size of our economy our position geographically then we have an enormously significant strategic role to play here but the idea that we’re going to do that on our own is frankly for the B the biggest threats to our country come from Russia and from China and these are two countries that are too big to be tackled by any individual country on their own so initially through our membership and our operation in NATO but even then working with other countries across the world who share our values to ensure that we are going to be kept safe from some of the threats China in particular is a threat to our way of life H that really you know we have to take Serious and to recognize that there’s not much that we as an individual Nation can do yeah right our fun question is from Cara in Boren wood uh what exciting early summer plans are you having to cancel now that there’s going to be a general election in early July now even the royal family say tonight they will be postponing engagements that may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign well there you go Steve I am not going to announce on am my plans but I can tell you I’m going to keep to my plans um you know my wife go on holiday doing an election campaign my wife is very very very longsuffering I’ve been serving my constituents for 14 years I’ve come out and done some heavy lifting on the airwaves on several channels tonight I’m going to stick to my plans and we’re grateful for that Aly oh goodness Steve is going to get me into trouble here with the contrast because we had a a lot of plans for the halterm break and well I know and H I hadn’t managed to to go away for Easter had a great time in the the key areas where labor was campaigning for the local elections of course of my children which was fantastic but we did have some plans to be uh going to H Germany and visiting some friends there but uh yes we’ll be doing something a bit different I think next week I could give your children some German words that they could call you if you wish me to they already probably call me German well actually I I’m with Stephen as much as I’m not changing my plan one of the most important things that we’ve got in our family is my son is graduating from a PhD from Sterling University the end of June and we’re still going to be there for that um but I have to say In fairness that uh if we described to my children Now 23 and 27 what anaisa said I think they would recognize quite a lot of that from their upbringing to I’m afraid Richard um actually I’m not going to have to cancel anything because I took the decision that I wasn’t going to you know get tickets for the European championship to follow the tart Army and with an announcement today I feel quite Vindicated that I watch it the television but actually I plan to spend the entire summer pretty much campaigning in anticipation of an Autumn election so we now have the at least the clarity that as of uh the early hours of July the 5th I’m going to have a relatively clear summer one way or the other well I’m now having to wonder what I do about two of the shows at my Edinburgh Fringe events because we’re going to have an election preview with John Curtis Brian Taylor and Michael cck well it can be an election review I suppose now possibility that we could be in the run up to the second election at that point anyway if You’ got any free tickets anyway in a moment we are going to hear from Natasha Clark political editor she’s been at the EXL center with rishy sunak find out why Sky News had one of their reporters ejected from the event which seems on the face of it to be rather odd uh baroness Nikki Morgan will join us as well conservative peer and former cabinet minister and we’ll be taking your calls and questions if you’ve got any questions about how general elections are organized um electoral law broadcasting Law whatever you can give me well try me out I I know a little bit about uh the law in these things but I also want to hear more of your calls on why you think Rashi sunak has called the election now and thank you to our four panelists Steve Baker an do Alistar Carmichael and Richard Thompson thank you 0345 6060 973 it’s 9 minutes past 9 Britain decides we will have a general election on the 4th of July follow it live and have your say only with lb