Catch up on the latest political news from across Kent with Rob Bailey with Conservative Claire Nelson from Sevenoaks and the leader of Thanet District Council, Labour's Rick Everitt.
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00:02 - Welcome to the Kent Politics Show live on KMTV.
00:28 I'm Rob Bailey.
00:29 Tonight, it's been used to renovate a castle in Canterbury,
00:32 transform an Ashford Railway works into movie studios,
00:36 and attract creative industries
00:37 to Chatham's historic dockyard.
00:39 But now some people are saying
00:41 Kent has benefited too much from leveling up money.
00:44 Councils across the country called this week
00:46 for an independent review of how the cash was shared out.
00:50 Well, leveling up the studio tonight are my two guests,
00:52 Conservative Claire Pearsall from Sevenoaks,
00:55 and the leader of Thanet District Council,
00:57 Labour's Rick Everett.
00:59 Welcome, both of you.
01:01 Obviously, this has become quite a controversial thing.
01:03 Durham Council has been leading this quite a lot,
01:05 very, very critical of money being spent here in Kent
01:08 on a leveling up fund and not on their communities there.
01:11 And calling for change,
01:13 Claire, could this force
01:14 is some kind of political readjustment of this?
01:17 Is there a danger that we lose out in future?
01:19 - Well, I think there would be,
01:20 and I don't think Kent has had too much money whatsoever.
01:23 I don't think you could ever have too much money
01:25 when it comes to looking at the kind of projects
01:27 that are being funded.
01:28 And surely it's in the government's interest
01:31 to allocate the funds to the places
01:32 that actually need them.
01:34 And there has been a lot of criticism about the process.
01:37 It is incredibly difficult.
01:38 It's very expensive for councils to put a bid together,
01:41 and if they fail, then that is wasted money.
01:44 So I think that we need to look harder as a government
01:46 as to how the process works, how you apply for it,
01:49 how it is shared out.
01:50 But absolutely, Kent needs much more investment.
01:53 - There's been quite a lot of worry
01:54 about exactly that process.
01:55 Council's spending millions of pounds sometimes
01:57 putting together multiple bids
01:58 and then finding out that the rules have changed
02:00 and they no longer apply for the funding to begin with.
02:02 You've been through this process, Rick,
02:04 and I found it was successful.
02:05 It got 26 million pounds in total, is that right?
02:08 - Fanit's got about 70 million pound
02:10 across three different allocations of money.
02:12 So Fanit has done very well out of the funding allocation.
02:16 But the real challenge for us has been
02:17 that all this funding comes with strings attached.
02:21 There's a heap of bureaucracy around it.
02:23 They all have different criteria.
02:25 And it's been incredibly difficult for us
02:28 as a small district council to suddenly gear up
02:30 to being able to spend this money properly.
02:33 So it's a real challenge for us,
02:35 but I'm not complaining about the amount of money we've had.
02:38 I do think perhaps that the government in future
02:41 has to put more faith in local authorities
02:43 and spread the money more evenly.
02:44 Certainly attached to need and attached to disadvantage,
02:48 but I think that this bidding process,
02:50 which sets councils one against another,
02:52 is not really very healthy or appropriate.
02:55 - It is an interesting one, isn't it?
02:56 Because the point that Durham was making was
02:58 that there was some of the most deprived towns
03:00 in the country up north,
03:01 which were initially supposed to be the beneficiaries
03:03 of this kind of funding, have not got money.
03:05 And then Canterbury got money to restore a Norman castle.
03:08 And obviously it's one of those ones
03:10 where classic politicians comparison, isn't it?
03:12 Where they pick out the worst
03:13 and the kind of the very direct opposite.
03:15 But I mean, in your part of the world,
03:17 Swanley, I don't think has had any money
03:19 from the levelling up fund at all.
03:20 - No, no, it hasn't.
03:22 And that's always been the problem.
03:23 And when I was a district councillor
03:25 on Sevenoaks District Council, we did apply for money,
03:28 but they looked at the bid and sort of almost took the view,
03:30 oh, it's Sevenoaks, you're all right.
03:32 So you can't do it.
03:33 But that does include Swanley.
03:34 It also includes very rural areas,
03:37 such as parts of Eden Bridge, Penzhurst,
03:40 looking into that kind of area.
03:41 And then over to my own neck of the woods,
03:43 New Ashgreen, Hartley, Hodsall Street,
03:45 which are not hugely well off.
03:48 There are areas of deprivation in those,
03:50 but because you are deemed to be an acceptable area
03:53 and you're not in need of the money, you don't get it.
03:57 - You said obviously that Tampanet
03:59 has been successful with this money.
04:00 I wonder whether you can give us a bit of an update
04:02 about what's happening,
04:03 'cause these are funds that have been dripping through
04:05 over three or four years now, aren't they?
04:07 What progress is there with Ramsgate Port
04:09 and the new kind of Town Square
04:11 and all of the other projects that you-
04:13 - Well, the actual go ahead to spend the money
04:16 didn't really come until the back end of 2021
04:18 in terms of the levelling up cash specifically.
04:21 And the council had, I think at that point,
04:24 about two people working on regeneration.
04:26 So there's been a long period
04:28 in terms of gearing it up,
04:29 appointing project managers and appointing the specialists
04:32 that we need to deliver the projects.
04:34 The port in particular is an extremely challenging project,
04:38 legally, technically, and in terms of the work
04:40 that needs to be done to the infrastructure,
04:42 what you need to do to satisfy border force.
04:44 And that is moving forward.
04:46 And I think in the next six to nine months,
04:49 you'll see some outcomes
04:50 in terms of what's gonna happen at the port.
04:52 In terms of the actual infrastructure around the district,
04:56 and it is particularly in Ramsgate and Margate
04:58 where we've got money,
04:59 which is another source of discontent
05:00 because obviously broadsides people look at it and say,
05:02 why is all this money coming into Ramsgate and Margate?
05:05 And I can understand that.
05:07 We've got a number of projects
05:09 which we're really gonna take shape
05:11 over the next 12 months.
05:13 But at the moment, there's a lot of people saying,
05:15 well, nothing seems to have happened.
05:16 I can say an awful lot has happened,
05:18 but most of it's on paper.
05:19 - I've got to ask you about, obviously,
05:21 the port plans have been a little bit controversial
05:24 in the past.
05:25 And I know, obviously, Ramsgate,
05:26 there's been an aspiration
05:28 to bring ferry services back to Ramsgate.
05:30 The local MP described that as pie in the sky
05:34 at the end of last year.
05:35 Are you still hopeful that that could happen?
05:37 - Yeah, very much so.
05:38 I mean, I think that the issue with the port of Ramsgate
05:40 is the situation has changed.
05:42 Brexit has changed the market for freight
05:46 coming across the channel.
05:48 Dover is under stress.
05:49 I think we understand that from various directions.
05:51 So there is a big opportunity for Ramsgate.
05:53 We've got an existing port.
05:55 The access to the Ramsgate port is down the A2 and the A299.
05:58 It's not down the M20.
06:00 So why wouldn't we make use of Ramsgate?
06:03 It's a national asset, to be honest with you.
06:05 And I'm convinced that we're gonna make it work.
06:08 But what we've got to do
06:09 is protect the district council from the risks.
06:11 So we're actually looking for a port operator
06:14 to manage a row-row service rather than do it ourselves,
06:17 which we have in the past.
06:18 And then we've been the victim of market failure
06:21 in the ferry market.
06:22 We're protecting the district from that this time.
06:24 But as I say, it's extremely complex
06:26 legally and technically.
06:28 - It's an interesting part of the kind of the system of this.
06:31 Obviously, it's a conservative invention,
06:33 the levelling up fund.
06:34 Councils made bids years ago,
06:38 very, very complex, very difficult to deliver,
06:41 time passes, and at the moment,
06:42 that money is devaluing quite significantly year on year
06:46 to a point where what was a £26 million save bid
06:49 for Ramsgate Port in 2021
06:53 might be a significantly bigger pot of money needed now.
06:56 Do you think that's part of the problem, Claire?
06:57 And do you worry that some of these things
06:59 may actually run into financial problems in the future?
07:02 - Yes and no.
07:05 I mean, as you said, it's a really complex area.
07:08 And especially if you're looking at something
07:09 like a port, for example,
07:11 comes with a set of challenges quite unlike any other.
07:15 If you're looking at a Norman Castle
07:17 or if you're looking at Chatham Dockyard,
07:19 there are going to be different problems.
07:21 It's going to be quicker to resolve
07:22 and people will see the results a lot sooner.
07:24 So I do think that perhaps a bit more attention
07:27 needs to be paid to those more complex bids
07:30 and maybe hold the money into an account first
07:32 before handing it across so that it doesn't lose the value.
07:35 But equally, those district councils and town councils
07:39 are going to have to get the proper specialist help
07:42 that they need, which comes at a vast, vast cost.
07:44 And I think that that is in danger
07:46 of eating up most of the funds.
07:47 So it would be nice if perhaps the government
07:50 could look at some legal service aid in that respect,
07:53 perhaps with government lawyers coming in to advise first
07:56 before you would get a specialist lawyer in
07:58 to maybe cut the bills down.
08:00 - Okay, let's move on.
08:01 Next tonight, does talk of climate change
08:03 give you a sinking feeling?
08:04 In a series of special features this week,
08:06 Kent Online reported on the risk of rising sea levels,
08:09 flooding and coastal erosion.
08:11 And it explained that Kent is sinking
08:13 by one millimetre a year.
08:15 But will we need to build a new bridge
08:16 to get from Canterbury to Margate by 2050?
08:20 Rick, I'm sure you're not unfamiliar with maps like this.
08:23 They've been doing the rounds a little bit
08:24 over the course of the last kind of year or so.
08:27 And of course, there was a rather stark red line there.
08:29 We talk about the Isle of Fannip,
08:30 but we don't really think about it being an island
08:32 in the way that this suggests here.
08:34 How seriously are you taking this?
08:36 - We'll have to take it seriously.
08:37 But what we've got on the map there
08:39 is the Stour Valley really, it's the Stour Marshes.
08:41 So a lot of that area insofar as it's part of Fannip
08:43 is marshland already.
08:45 And it's largely not part of our local plan for development.
08:49 We're very familiar with flooding
08:51 and the risk of flooding in Fannip
08:52 because obviously we've got 20 miles of coastline.
08:54 We've got 11 miles of sea wall to maintain.
08:57 And we work closely with the environment agency around that.
09:00 So flooding is not a new issue to us.
09:02 And clearly we'd be concerned about that,
09:04 but there are very few properties in those areas
09:07 which are actually threatened by that map.
09:10 - And those are areas that aren't at the moment
09:13 identified for development in your local plan?
09:16 - No, so the local plan was updated in 2020
09:19 and it took into account obviously the flood risk.
09:22 So a lot of the development is on the land
09:24 around the villages, the hinterland of the villages
09:27 on the longer North Coast.
09:28 Now that's not very popular
09:29 because people don't want agricultural land developed,
09:32 which I absolutely understand.
09:33 And we would not want to do that either.
09:35 But the reality is if the government forces us
09:37 to have a certain number of houses and new homes,
09:41 we've got to find somewhere to put it.
09:42 We can't put it on the floodplain.
09:44 - Yeah, it's interesting obviously,
09:46 you'll be pleased to see, I suppose Claire,
09:48 that there's very little red in Severn Oast there.
09:49 (laughing)
09:51 It's kind of how you like it I expect.
09:52 - It is, yeah.
09:53 - But obviously all councils are having to deal with this,
09:56 aren't they?
09:57 And there is something of a kind of incongruity,
09:59 if you like, between maps like this,
10:01 which are looking at what Kent might look like in 2050
10:04 and a local planning system,
10:05 which encourages councils to look at 15 year periods.
10:08 Is it a bit of a danger sometimes that longer term risks,
10:12 particularly in terms of housing allocation and things,
10:15 might not be taken into account?
10:17 - I think they are taken into account.
10:19 There's an awful lot of modelling that goes on,
10:21 especially when you're looking at flood risk.
10:23 But it's also important to remember
10:25 that even though Severn Oast on this particular map
10:27 doesn't have all the red lines all over it,
10:29 there are pockets of the districts
10:31 that do flood and suffer from
10:33 really quite bad localised flooding.
10:35 And if it comes, you've got Dartford,
10:37 you've got the River Darent, all that Darent Valley area.
10:40 So there is a risk to that.
10:42 But I think that we're always mindful of the land
10:44 that we can use, the land that will have
10:46 the risks attached to it.
10:48 But a real basic fact is that we need
10:50 better flood resilience and we need better ways
10:54 of dealing with excess water.
10:56 And we've all seen it, roads being flooded,
10:59 drains being backed up, those need to be cleaned out.
11:01 Very, very simple measures.
11:02 Cleaning out the drainage ditches at the side of fields
11:05 where water can run off properly.
11:07 We need to look at those soak-aways,
11:08 we need to maintain the infrastructure that we have,
11:11 otherwise it will get worse.
11:13 - Rick, we've only got a very small amount of time left,
11:15 but coastal erosion is the other part of this, isn't it?
11:17 How much of an issue is that for you?
11:18 - Potentially it is.
11:19 I mean, 85% of the coastline in Thane is subject to,
11:22 potentially subject to erosion.
11:24 But as I say, there's been quite a lot of money invested
11:26 in schemes around the coast over the years.
11:29 Particularly vulnerable was the Margate Old Town
11:31 and there was some work done there,
11:32 which finished in about 2013,
11:34 which actually looks quite nice as well.
11:36 Actually improved the environment in Margate Town Centre
11:38 and that protected the Old Town
11:40 'cause there were about 200 properties there
11:41 that could have been flooded.
11:42 - I need to wind it up there.
11:43 It's time for a short break.
11:44 When we come back, we'll talk about what a big increase
11:46 in migrant boat crossings means for Kent this year.
11:49 And voters go into the polls in less than a month.
11:51 We'll find out more.
11:52 Stay with us.
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15:07 - Welcome back to the Kent Politics Show live on KMTV.
15:14 Next tonight, more than 5,000 migrants
15:16 have crossed the English Channel so far this year.
15:19 The record-breaking milestone was reached this week
15:21 when 16 boats carrying 791 people
15:24 were detected at the coast.
15:25 It means the total so far this year
15:27 is 43% higher than the same time last year,
15:30 despite the Prime Minister's pledge
15:32 to stop the boats almost a year and a half ago.
15:35 Still here with me is the leader of Thanet Council,
15:37 Labour's Rick Everett,
15:38 and Sevenoaks Conservative, Claire Purtle.
15:41 Thanks for being with us.
15:43 Rick, obviously you're on the coast there,
15:45 on kind of the front lines,
15:47 if that's the right way of referring to it,
15:48 of where this is happening.
15:49 I mean, what worries do you have
15:52 about the ongoing pressure that it puts on Kent
15:54 with the number of crossings still being so high?
15:58 - I think it's a concern not just for Kent,
16:01 but for everybody, isn't it?
16:02 And first of all, there's the humanitarian aspect
16:04 of these people taking incredible risks with their lives
16:07 to come across the Channel in small boats.
16:09 We don't particularly see a lot of them
16:12 coming straight into Thanet.
16:13 Obviously, we get the pressures
16:15 the whole of the county gets,
16:18 particularly in terms of unaccompanied asylum seekers.
16:21 And we've got the resettlement centre at Manston,
16:24 which the government's planning to invest in,
16:26 which doesn't suggest to me that they actually think
16:27 they're gonna stop the boats.
16:29 - You've got that settlement centre.
16:30 And also, obviously, there's been a lot of controversy
16:32 over the use of hotels as temporary shelter
16:35 for the sheer number of people that are coming across
16:37 and the difficulty.
16:38 Is that still happening in Thanet?
16:39 - On a very small scale, yes.
16:42 That's not been the major issue in Thanet,
16:43 to be honest with you.
16:45 But we have, like everybody else,
16:47 had accommodation that's been used in that way.
16:49 - The humanitarian thing, Clare,
16:51 is where an awful lot of people
16:53 will be thinking about this.
16:54 I wonder whether you're concerned
16:57 that the Conservative Party sometimes
16:59 has a habit of criminalising desperation.
17:03 We've got people crossing the Channel,
17:06 many of whom are fleeing persecution,
17:08 many of whom arriving here with nothing.
17:10 And the first thing they're done
17:11 is it's treated like criminals.
17:13 And obviously, we've had the rough sleeping
17:15 controversy this week as well,
17:16 where people who are forced to live on the streets
17:18 are now potentially going to be treated as criminals.
17:22 Do you think this is the right way
17:24 of approaching these kind of issues?
17:25 - No, I don't.
17:26 And if we look at the changes to the Vagrancy Act,
17:29 I think it is fundamentally wrong.
17:31 These are individuals who, not through choice,
17:34 are living on the street without a home to call their own,
17:38 and now are going to be criminalised
17:39 for potentially being smelly or making a noise.
17:43 And I'm not sure what the government thinks
17:45 it's going to achieve by putting a £2,000 fine
17:47 against somebody who has no money.
17:50 So I think it is wrong, I think it is immoral,
17:52 and I think that we have enough laws
17:55 around people causing a nuisance in the street
17:57 without adding to it.
17:58 And we need to look better at the reasons
18:00 behind homelessness, because they aren't simple,
18:03 and one size does not fit all when you're looking
18:06 at the issue of homelessness.
18:07 If we look at the migrant situation,
18:10 it's a shame that part of the Conservative Party
18:14 wants to see the back of everybody.
18:15 I think the majority of Conservatives
18:17 want to find a solution that is humane,
18:21 which is legal, and which serves the interests
18:24 of the country.
18:25 And that means that you need to be able to process the claims,
18:28 you need to find out if somebody has a legitimate right
18:30 to be in the United Kingdom.
18:32 And if they don't, you need to have those returns agreements
18:35 in place to be able to remove somebody.
18:37 And I don't think it's wrong to want
18:38 to be able to remove those who should not be here,
18:41 because then that allows space for those seeking refuge
18:44 who have a genuine claim to be in the United Kingdom.
18:48 How much of an appetite do you think
18:51 there is for more talk of Rwanda?
18:53 We've seen Rishi Sunak back on that policy again
18:57 in the last week or so.
18:59 Do you think people want to hear that?
19:01 No, I don't.
19:01 I think they're fed up of hearing it.
19:03 I think that we've had this since 2022,
19:06 is when it first came up, and it was Boris Johnson's
19:08 grand announcement.
19:09 And we have got precisely nowhere,
19:11 apart from spending an awful lot of money.
19:13 I don't think the Prime Minister's heart is in it,
19:15 to be perfectly honest.
19:17 I think that it's something that he had to take up.
19:20 I don't think it's ever going to work.
19:22 I don't think we should offshore people
19:23 that are our responsibility.
19:25 We don't need to shoulder that off to a third country
19:28 to deal with, because we can't.
19:30 We need to look at what we're actually
19:32 doing in this country.
19:33 And there's been talk very recently
19:36 of leaving the ECHR, which I think
19:38 the Prime Minister promised on a podcast somewhere this week.
19:42 Well, that goes round and round.
19:44 That's not going to solve your problems either.
19:46 It would be incredibly wrong to do so.
19:48 And it just feels a little bit, let's grab hold of the populist
19:52 notion and run with it, which never works.
19:54 It's never good policymaking.
19:56 It's not good governance.
19:57 We're going to be talking a little bit later
19:59 in this half about the general election.
20:01 And obviously, Rishi Sunak thinks
20:02 this is going to be a big issue.
20:04 If it's going to be a big issue anywhere,
20:06 it's going to be an issue on the Kent coastline.
20:09 How do you think this stuff goes down in Thanet?
20:11 I mean, I assume you've been out on the doorstep already.
20:13 The general election fever is already starting.
20:16 So I mean, are people concerned about this?
20:18 It's interesting that when it's in the news,
20:20 people are concerned about it.
20:21 But when it's not in front of them on the television,
20:24 they don't really talk about it.
20:25 And we found that in the local elections last year.
20:27 I think the Conservatives campaigned a bit around it.
20:29 And they ran up to the local elections.
20:31 And it went up the agenda on the doorstep.
20:32 And as soon as they stopped doing that,
20:34 people stopped talking about it.
20:35 So I'm not sure that it's in the forefront of people's minds.
20:38 I think the cost of living and all the issues
20:40 in their daily lives are what actually concerns them the most.
20:44 But certainly, it is an issue that's permanently out there.
20:48 I think from the Conservative point of view,
20:50 the perception is they've failed.
20:52 If I'm honest, I don't think there's any expectation
20:54 that anyone else is going to be able to solve the problem,
20:56 that anyone else has got the silver bullet that will do it.
20:59 So I think voters are fed up with it.
21:01 They don't like it.
21:02 But I think that they're pretty resigned to the fact
21:05 that politicians don't really have a solution.
21:07 I mean, the criticism of Labour is often
21:09 they don't seem to have a coherent policy on this.
21:12 Is that something that you hear?
21:14 Something you worry about?
21:15 Yeah, I think that Labour gets attacked.
21:17 And Conservatives will say, oh, Labour's
21:19 going to let everyone in and all the rest of it.
21:21 And that's completely untrue.
21:22 It wouldn't make any sense at all.
21:24 But I think it's difficult for Labour to differentiate itself
21:27 from--
21:28 clearly, Labour doesn't support Rwanda.
21:29 And I think everyone thinks Rwanda is just a gimmick.
21:32 But I think it's difficult for Labour
21:34 to articulate a different policy that's
21:36 going to be credible to the voters
21:39 when they're not in office.
21:41 Maybe when they get in office and they're
21:42 able to talk to the EU and engage in these processes
21:46 more closely, then that will become more credible.
21:48 I think it's an incredibly difficult problem to solve.
21:50 And ultimately, it's not in this country's ability to solve,
21:53 because it's rooted in what's going on elsewhere in the world.
21:57 Claire, I have to ask you before we move on.
21:59 I mean, obviously, this was a pledge
22:00 that was made at the beginning of 2023 by Rishi Sunak
22:03 that he would stop the boats.
22:06 It's a record-breaking first three months of the year.
22:09 This year, he's failed, hasn't he?
22:12 It's not gone how he would like it to go, that's for sure.
22:15 What are the consequences for him?
22:17 And what do you think the consequences--
22:19 I mean, how does that play out, do you think?
22:20 Have he made that pledge and missed it?
22:24 He shouldn't have made the pledge.
22:25 Nobody is going to stop the boats.
22:27 There is no politician around, no party
22:30 that will stop the boats.
22:31 It is ridiculous to even think that you
22:33 can do it if you don't have other things in place, which
22:37 nobody does.
22:38 But I think it just adds to that rhetoric of the prime minister
22:42 not understanding and not achieving.
22:45 So he's set out to over-promise and under-deliver,
22:47 which for a politician is one of the worst things you can ever do.
22:51 And well, that leads us nicely onto our final topic tonight,
22:53 because a new YouGov poll predicts a Conservative wipeout
22:56 in Kent at the next general election, with only seven seats
22:59 set to stay blue.
23:00 If the poll is right, senior MPs,
23:02 including Damien Green in Ashford and Greg Clark
23:05 in Sunbridge, Wales, would lose their seats.
23:07 And while the date of the general election
23:08 is still unknown, we have just a month
23:10 before some voters in Kent will go
23:12 to the polls in local elections.
23:14 Something of a dress rehearsal coming up on May 2,
23:17 certainly in Maidstone and Sunbridge, Wales.
23:19 Do you expect us to learn anything in those elections
23:22 that we don't know already?
23:24 Well, not in terms of the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner
23:27 election.
23:28 I think we'll learn absolutely nothing.
23:29 I mean, I'm not familiar enough with the political situation
23:31 in Maidstone and Sunbridge to be able to offer an opinion,
23:34 to be honest with you.
23:35 I think the Police and Crime Commissioner election
23:39 in particular is extremely difficult to campaign in,
23:41 because people are not interested in it.
23:43 And I don't really understand why we have it.
23:46 It is an interesting-- it's never had more than 20%
23:48 turnout.
23:49 It's a role that if, I think, if you walked down
23:51 any high street in Kent and asked people
23:53 what that person does, they wouldn't be able to answer it.
23:55 No, they wouldn't.
23:56 I'm surprised that we've kept hold of it for so long.
23:59 It's incredibly difficult to justify
24:01 why you actually have them, and why
24:03 the scheme previous to the Police and Crime Commissioner
24:06 didn't work or did work.
24:08 I think we've all got selective memories when it comes to that.
24:11 And also, policing has changed enormously.
24:12 I'm not sure that you need to add
24:14 another layer of bureaucracy.
24:15 But we are where we are.
24:17 As to other elections, not sure that we'll
24:20 learn anything from Kent.
24:21 It's a relatively small number of people
24:24 going to the polls in comparison to other parts of the country.
24:27 I think you'll see a bit of level of anger of voters,
24:30 which you get at every local election.
24:32 But the really big one are the polls
24:34 for the general election, which are looking quite interesting.
24:37 Not looking great for the Conservative Party.
24:39 But I don't think it's quite as dire as some of the polls
24:43 would have us believe.
24:44 And I think that those polls will tie them closer to time.
24:46 The real eyebrow raising thing that was in that YouGov poll
24:50 was Tunbridge Wells.
24:52 Kent has never had a Liberal Democrat MP.
24:56 And yet, the prediction is that the Liberal Democrats
24:58 could take Tunbridge Wells.
24:59 And obviously, that is one of the places
25:00 where there'll be a local election.
25:01 So is that something you'll be keeping a close eye on?
25:03 Of course.
25:04 I'm always interested.
25:04 It's neighbours my area.
25:07 And my new constituency actually will
25:09 be Tunbridge under all the boundary changes.
25:11 So I keep an eye now on that neck of the woods
25:14 rather than into the depths of Sevenoaks.
25:17 So yeah, absolutely, we'll be looking at it.
25:19 Be interesting to see the numbers that come through.
25:21 And also to have a good look at the candidates.
25:23 And you're obviously from the more one nation
25:25 end of the Conservative Party.
25:27 Losing potentially Greg Clark, losing potentially
25:29 Damien Green, a bitter blow?
25:31 Absolutely would be.
25:32 They've got enormous experience.
25:34 They're incredibly sensible, good MPs.
25:38 And I think that we need people like that in the party.
25:41 I think it's incredibly wrong for anybody
25:43 to want anybody to be wiped out just
25:45 because they don't like their particular branch of politics.
25:48 If the Conservative Party sees itself as a broad church,
25:51 then they should really welcome it.
25:52 And I think they would be a great loss.
25:54 We've got a very short amount of time left.
25:56 But obviously, the east end of the county
25:58 going very red in that poll.
26:00 Do you expect that to hold?
26:02 I'm very optimistic.
26:03 I mean, I think Polly Billington is going to beat Craig McKinley
26:06 in East Thanet.
26:06 We're not taking it for granted.
26:08 We've got loads of work to do.
26:09 But she's a great candidate.
26:10 And I think that that will help rebalance
26:12 the Conservative Party because Craig's quite right-wing,
26:14 as we know.
26:15 Any chance of Nigel Farage turning up
26:16 as a candidate as a sudden surprise
26:18 entry in the Thanet area?
26:20 I thought Nigel Farage has had enough of standing
26:22 and losing in Thanet.
26:25 Is it three times?
26:26 Twice, I think.
26:26 Twice.
26:27 OK, well, that's all from us here at the Chem Politics Show.
26:30 Thank you to both of my guests tonight
26:32 for coming into the studio.
26:34 We'll be back next week.
26:35 There's more politics news, analysis, and opinion
26:38 at Kent Online, including the Kent Politics podcast.
26:41 Stay with us because Kent Tonight
26:43 is coming up next with all the latest
26:44 news from around the county.
26:46 Have a great weekend.
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