The Blackpool Gazette and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Blackpool North constituency at next month's general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00:00We're going to take you to a new park.
00:00:05Oh yeah!
00:00:07We'll take you to a new park.
00:00:09Oh, I'm getting tired.
00:00:11I'm getting tired.
00:00:13You're getting tired?
00:00:14There's a guy driving the mountain car.
00:00:16He's getting tired.
00:00:18He's actually crying.
00:00:20He's crying.
00:00:22He's crying.
00:00:24He's a mean, mean driver.
00:00:27He drives the mountain car.
00:00:28That's his job.
00:00:29So he's the leader of the camp.
00:00:31He appears to be a good person.
00:00:34He appears to be a good person.
00:00:36He's a good man.
00:00:38He's a good man.
00:00:40He's a good man.
00:00:42He's a good man.
00:00:43He's a good man.
00:00:44He's a good man.
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00:00:58He's a good man.
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00:01:00He's a good man.
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00:01:24He's a good man.
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00:01:49He's a good man.
00:01:50He's a good man.
00:01:51That's the candidate on that end, isn't it?
00:01:56I know, that's why it was...
00:01:58Lillian, we're going to need to pull it forward because the candidate on that end isn't it?
00:02:03Do you want to pull it nearer to Lillian's?
00:02:05Pulling it forward is going to cut them off though.
00:02:07I need to bring it back.
00:02:10That's the only thing.
00:02:13Unless I go like...
00:02:16I'd have to go a bit further.
00:02:19Am I in the way?
00:02:20No, no, no.
00:02:22It's just getting everyone in before we change.
00:02:25Yeah.
00:02:26Can you not?
00:02:29Live, Facebook live.
00:02:31Yeah.
00:02:34That's everyone, isn't it?
00:02:36I know.
00:02:37No.
00:02:39Unless we go on a different angle.
00:02:42Try and leave it that way then.
00:02:43Yeah.
00:02:50Yeah.
00:02:54Yeah, I know.
00:03:16Just trying to fit everyone in before we change.
00:03:21Wow.
00:03:29That might be the best we're getting, I think.
00:03:37Yeah.
00:03:50Yeah.
00:04:21Yeah.
00:04:23Yeah.
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00:04:55Yeah.
00:05:10Yeah.
00:05:15No, I think this.
00:05:16Closing.
00:05:18Hello everybody. Is everybody here okay? Welcome to tonight's hostings organised by the Blackpool
00:05:40and the Blackpool lead in conjunction with Shelter Lancashire. Thanks to our candidates
00:05:49for coming along to answer questions and also to everyone here for coming out to the event
00:05:57tonight. I know we're in competition with the BBC's leaders debate that's on telly
00:06:04tonight and the Euros. I think this will be more interesting. So we aim to have a good
00:06:14discussion about local issues and just have an enjoyable evening. Thanks to this venue
00:06:26which is great. Apparently it's a polling station anyway so it's got a bit of political
00:06:31ink. Also I just need to tell you the fire thingy that we're not expecting any fire alarms
00:06:43to go off as a test so if it does go off it's I guess real and we'll now have a backdoor
00:06:49response from them. So we'll start the evening with each candidate. It's going to introduce
00:07:02themselves and outline their manifestos. So just to say Lorraine Beavers has been able
00:07:11to represent us at Clyde, Gunshore. There is the police and the Prime Minister of Lancashire
00:07:16but also I know is local to this area is representing her. So we'll go for you.
00:07:29Can we take a few minutes yet?
00:07:40Good evening everyone. If you can judge how far we can hold this event, I'm Paul Maynard.
00:07:47I'm the Conservative candidate for Blackpool North and Plymouth. I've got three minutes
00:07:51to tell you what I'm about. This is going to be quite a challenge. As many of you will
00:07:55know I've been the Member of Parliament now since 2010 for Blackpool North and Cleveland
00:08:00and with the new boundaries we are taking in some new areas. My fundamental point to
00:08:06you is that I am very happy to stand on my record of being a diligent, good constituency
00:08:11MP over the past 14 years. The work that I have done in Blackpool in particular to draw
00:08:17in funding for regeneration, to work across the party divide with Blackpool Council, with
00:08:22government, with the private sector, has helped bring in hundreds of millions of pounds
00:08:27into the town of Blackpool to start our regeneration process. No one says that regeneration of
00:08:34Blackpool is going to happen overnight but the foundations that we put in place are now
00:08:38visible in the town centre. Whether you're going to up with the street market, whether
00:08:42you see the new civil service hub that's going up, whether you've travelled already on the
00:08:46new tram extension up to Blackpool North station, you're seeing the benefits starting to arrive
00:08:51now. And that's the philosophy I want to adopt in Fleetwood in particular, which so
00:08:57far has not benefited from the government's levelling up programme. But by my lobbying
00:09:02and by the Ring of Ministers I made sure that it was on the short list of towns that would
00:09:07receive £20 million from the government as an extra payment on the levelling up programme.
00:09:12And now I want to take that same philosophy that I used in Blackpool of working across
00:09:17the party divides, working with councils, working with the private sector, to bring
00:09:22that same long-term focus to Fleetwood. Listening and speaking to people in Fleetwood I notice
00:09:28great frustration at what they often see as a toxic partisan nature of politics in Fleetwood.
00:09:34And in my view that I think is holding the town back. Because one of the most important
00:09:39things I think I can offer as a Member of Parliament is actually the moment an election
00:09:43is over, the party politics have to be put to one side. But of course the constituency
00:09:48game is in a way a bit misleading, Blackpool North and Fleetwood. It misses out the largest
00:09:53community wall in the middle, Thornton and Cleethorpes. And of course there, many of
00:09:58the issues, some people look to Fleetwood, some look to Blackpool, some look to Fleetwood
00:10:02itself. But the main focus I've seen over the past 14 years has been the consequence
00:10:07of gradual encroaching housing development, putting stress on local services, local medical
00:10:13care, secondary schools in particular. All of that has been stuff I've been working
00:10:17on. It's benefited for that matter Fleetwood, Thornton and Carlton, even when I haven't
00:10:22represented those areas. Improving access to primary care at Thornton Medical Centre,
00:10:26trying to rejig how meals are accepted for example. So I have a very clear vision of
00:10:34making sure that I protect local services, and also making sure that both Fleetwood
00:10:39and Blackpool's regeneration programme keep going.
00:10:44Hello, I'm Cactus Count Corrosion of Forlorn Hope. I'm the official mastering ludipathy
00:11:07candidate. We have a wide range of policies, including environment and climate change.
00:11:17We plan to move August between December and January in order to even things out, cut down
00:11:23on heating bills, especially for old people, that's very important. We want to bring back
00:11:285p stamp for sourcing postcards, because that's a big industry which has been neglected lately.
00:11:35We want to rename the Russell Watchtower to the Leaning Tower of Russell, and attract
00:11:47a lot more tourism there with the Eurostar station and an international airport. We're
00:11:53going to create lots of jobs by having an F1 racetrack and a Starship base and many
00:11:59other things like that. I think that's just for the start. But everybody here who votes
00:12:05for me, and if I win, if we come to power, everyone here will get a free car and all
00:12:12their parking advice for the past 20 years will be paid back. Trust me, I'm a politician.
00:12:19Good evening, I'm Geeta Gordon, and I am my own manifesto. I'm one of the people who
00:12:32has lived here, and I have worked through the care sector, with the social services,
00:12:41and then with the NHS through the pandemic. And just before the pandemic, I had a small
00:12:47business and because of the pandemic, my business also got ruined. And so I understand
00:12:54the hardships that people face, small businesses when whatever they are up against. And what
00:13:03else can I say that, at least I'm very, very proud to say that during the pandemic,
00:13:08I was one of the frontline workers. And with all that happened, the corruption, the lack
00:13:16of PPE, the lack of support, the stuff that the families went through, I've seen that
00:13:25firsthand. And that is the reason I'm standing today to speak up against all that, that went
00:13:32wrong, and especially past 14 years as well. And the other parties, the opposition, they
00:13:39did not offer any strong opposition either. So now it takes somebody local who needs to
00:13:46stand up and speak up. There comes a time when democracy is getting demolished. It's
00:13:55getting insulted. People's wisdom is getting insulted. Somebody needs to stand up. And
00:14:02the people who speak about democracy are the same ones who fuel the fire of division and
00:14:10make us feel that we cannot trust anyone. But there is a positive way forward with common
00:14:17people, somebody like me, an independent who's not afraid to speak up, who's not afraid of
00:14:23any bosses anywhere sitting in the Westminster. And as it is, an independent can speak louder
00:14:29as well, because not afraid of losing my whip. Whip is the power. I can't get suspended.
00:14:37I can't get kicked out of the party just because I'm speaking for the people. So there is a
00:14:42lot that we can do together if you vote for me as an independent candidate. Thank you
00:14:48very much.
00:14:49Good evening. My name is Bill Green. I'm the Liberal Democrat candidate for this constituency.
00:15:01I've lived on the file since about the 1970s. I have a very large family, but the significant
00:15:09thing about that family is that a number of them are in the care sector. And the main
00:15:15thing that certainly I'm standing for in this election is that we have got to actually
00:15:21look after the care sector. There are people being left to wallow in situations which are
00:15:30terrible. People have got to be looked after, and that means that the people who look after
00:15:36them have got to be paid the right amount of money. There's got to be people coming
00:15:41in. Just recently I looked at the number of jobs which are available in this particular
00:15:47area. A quarter of them are for care staff. Now, if that number of people are required,
00:15:54can you imagine the kind of things which are not happening for our elderly people, our
00:15:59people who are in care, who need care? That's both at home and sort of in establishments.
00:16:06So that's my main concern, looking after people who are in care.
00:16:18Good evening, Tina Rodherie with the Green Party. Tonight and all throughout this election
00:16:23we're going to hear just nothing but sad news. We all have a reason to complain, and
00:16:28everyone has a reason to be dissatisfied with this government and with our council. So what
00:16:34are the reasons that we would run? I would suggest you vote Green, Independent or for
00:16:39some party that isn't the main two, which I think is so important. We have been stuck
00:16:45in a two-party system for so long, and even when the Labour Party members voted to have
00:16:52PR involved so that we could get a better voting system rather than first-class votes,
00:16:57they didn't carry it through. Keir Starmer chose not to honour that 70% vote, I think
00:17:02it was. So I think I plead not just for myself but for the others here, and you can hear
00:17:08the passion that we bring. So you would think, and what you'll read in the press is, well
00:17:13why bother? You're not going to be the government. Well no, we're not. But what we are going
00:17:18to be is the challenge to the government. As Keith pointed out very clearly, that's
00:17:22what needs to happen. We can't just have a majority government yet again who are going
00:17:28to railroad through their ideas regardless of the diversity of us. Not all of us agree
00:17:35with Keir Starmer or agree with Rishi Sunak or any of the incarnations of him before him.
00:17:41Which is another thing really to think about, is we lay a lot of blame on that man as if
00:17:46removing Keir Starmer, sorry, as if removing Rishi Sunak would change anything. And yet
00:17:52prior to him we had David Cameron, Theresa May, Liz Truss and oh how could we forget
00:17:58Boris. So they were all part of this government. So we know there is no point to voting Tory
00:18:04again. And as nice as you can be as a constituency MP, how you can expect a vote from a town
00:18:11as impoverished as ours. We have poor education, I've come out of supply teaching and it was
00:18:17soul destroying. Soul destroying the classrooms, state schools, the overcrowding of classes
00:18:25and the inability to provide probably the most important thing to young people which
00:18:32is hope. Because there's not a lot to tell them. Because the jobs in this town are poor.
00:18:38When I spoke to a class recently about what would your career options be, what would you
00:18:43look at doing. They said we don't have a career in this town. We get a low paid job
00:18:48that's possibly seasonal with zero hours. And that's what we're giving them as a future.
00:18:54And that's not even to start on the fact that there's no denying my party is about keeping
00:18:59nature and the environment safe for them for generations to come. And we can't ignore it.
00:19:04It is a key part. It's what keeps us alive and healthy and well. And you look at Fleetwood,
00:19:11the disaster there of the landfill that's currently leaking and it smells bad. And no
00:19:17one's measuring the temperature, the content of the air because the environment agency
00:19:23is underfunded. Yep, okay, thank you.
00:19:33Good evening, my name is Dan and I am the Reform UK candidate for Wethel North and Fleetwood.
00:19:38And I am married with two grandchildren. I'm not a career politician, I would actually
00:19:44class myself as one of the Simon majority. And the reason that I got into politics is
00:19:49because I was sick and tired of seeing politicians running the country down and taking away our
00:19:55freedoms. So I only got involved just under two years ago. And what I have learned in
00:20:02a short time is that anything can happen and anything is possible. And this is an important
00:20:09moment for the UK, because this is perhaps the most important election we have had in
00:20:15recent times. The country, I think many of you will agree, is in a mess after 27 years
00:20:20of first Labour and then the Tories who have managed to break Britain. But at this election,
00:20:27the British people have a choice. We can have more of the same with a change in colour,
00:20:33I think from blue to red, but without a change in agenda. Because with Labour we will see
00:20:39more net zero, higher taxes, more immigration and definitely more woke. Or we can have a
00:20:48change in direction for the whole country with Reform UK that puts British people first,
00:20:54British business and our country first and foremost. Because sadly the election is over.
00:21:04Labour will be the next government. The only thing that it's really to question now is
00:21:10the size of their majority and who will be the opposition. And I would like to put to
00:21:15you that Reform UK will be the voice of opposition. The voice who will hold them to account and
00:21:22who will point out the bad ideas, the waste and present an alternative vision for this
00:21:28country. So let me just briefly talk about my plan. We have more jobs, year round jobs
00:21:38for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, delivered primarily through reopening Blackpool Airport,
00:21:43bringing the fishing back to Fleetwood, reopening the railway line from Fleetwood to Poulton
00:21:49and by taking on the police, bucking them and bringing 40,000 police in. Thank you very much.
00:22:06Yes, good evening. Clive Lynch from Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire. Sadly
00:22:11Lorraine couldn't make it tonight due to family commitments, so for tonight and one night
00:22:16only, I am Lorraine Weavers. And Lorraine has got a manifesto, an agenda for change.
00:22:24It's about change because it's about change from the government that we have now, which
00:22:30is without doubt the worst government we have had in history. The government that has given
00:22:36us record inflation, the cost of living crisis, the crisis in the housing sector, sewage in
00:22:42the seas, the way that this government has managed, mismanaged, not only the economy,
00:22:51but the way that they have given us Rishi Sunak, the man who gave us PPE and eats out
00:23:01to help out Rishi Sunak's mates. The party that have given us Lister Lettuce Trust, who
00:23:09crashed the economy in record time. The party that has given us Boris the Truth Dodger Johnson,
00:23:17who the rules didn't apply to him, did they? The party, the lies, the way that he not only
00:23:25discredited himself, but discredited politics, that has had an impact on all of us. And that
00:23:34is something that we do need to change. So if we vote for Lorraine Beepers and get her
00:23:41elected, we will see a Labour government that is committed to stabilising the economy, that
00:23:50is committed to investing, getting neighbourhood policing back on the streets, tackling the
00:23:56anti-social behaviour, to deal with investment in this local area that is so deprived, that
00:24:04needs the investment. We need people that will fight for this community. And I'll tell
00:24:10you, with Lorraine Beepers, of the 650 MPs that will get elected on July 4th, she is
00:24:18without doubt the one who not only deserves it more than probably any other, but would
00:24:26do the job better than any other, because of the way that she cares, genuinely cares
00:24:32about people. That actually, she wears a heart on her sleeve, that she will actually go out
00:24:39and make your life better. She's doing it for that, rather than doing it for herself.
00:24:46That is the kind of person, if Ken Loach came out of retirement to make one more film,
00:24:51it should be about somebody like Lorraine Beepers, a genuine working class icon, who's
00:24:57come from a working class council estate, who is now set to, in my belief, would make
00:25:05an amazing Member of Parliament. What a role model for women, working class people. No
00:25:12one better than Volodymyr Porbyshev. Time's up, thank you.
00:25:26Thank you very much for all of those instructions. We're going to move on to questions now,
00:25:35which have been submitted from our readers.
00:25:40We'll start with those.
00:25:59The first question is...
00:26:10Can you hear that?
00:26:26The first question is on the subject of tourism. It is, what would you or your party do to
00:26:34make this area more competitive and attractive to visitors, at a time when the cost of living
00:26:40crisis is impacting local businesses and hotels?
00:26:47We'll start with Paul at this end.
00:26:51No, we do talk about...
00:26:56How long do I have?
00:26:58Oh my word, 45 seconds to do tourism. Gosh.
00:27:04I'm not going to focus on the national issues at all, because you can all watch the TV and
00:27:08hear about that. Let's talk about the local issues, maybe. So there are two aspects of
00:27:12this. I'll talk about Cleveleys, the work at the town hall that I've been sitting on.
00:27:16It's precisely to work out how to attract more visitors to Cleveleys. It focuses upon
00:27:22attracting more coach visitors by improving coach parking, attracting the right businesses,
00:27:27like the new mobile store, which is doing just that, and that's why he's moved to Cleveleys,
00:27:31for that very reason. In terms of Fleetwood, in 12 seconds, it always used to be a resort
00:27:37town, before a resort, a destination that people came to. That's why regeneration is
00:27:42so important, and we have to get that right. It's been 20 million that I've now secured
00:27:46for Fleetwood, in a way that improves the visitor economy.
00:27:57Having just been to the Le Mans 24-hour race, I think we should introduce a 24-hour tram
00:28:04race between Stargate and Fleetwood, and that would attract a lot of people. For over 300,000
00:28:09people, that was one, we could get at least 300,000 people to watch the trams racing,
00:28:14and the buses.
00:28:17Thank you. Blackpool was always a tourism town, and look what they did to it. We lost
00:28:28everything. There was to be a Disneyland style of a fun park here. That never came here.
00:28:37So for tourism, let's start with that. It's all about people. Putting the people here
00:28:43first, the hotels, the smaller hotels are struggling. The taxi drivers are struggling.
00:28:49There are lots of unregulated, unlicensed taxi cars that run. So that is affecting the
00:28:58tourism as well. Then, how many of us know that our own Blackpool Rock, that we were
00:29:07so very proud of, that was destroyed. Cheap imports from China. I'm not against China.
00:29:14I'm not against Chinese stuff. Okay, thank you very much. But there is a lot we can do
00:29:20with putting our own industry here first. Thank you.
00:29:25I do not see how I can attract anybody to any place if you've got sewage in the seas
00:29:37and in the rivers. Therefore, the one thing we have got to do before we do anything is
00:29:45to clean our rivers, clean our seas, and definitely clean our beaches.
00:29:54Damn, I hate it when someone steals my line. So my line is, we have a brown flag beach
00:29:59which just sounds icky. And it's true. And that's how tourism is based on that. But I'd
00:30:04also like to add, we brought in hotels from big conglomerates rather than salvaging and
00:30:09saving and helping our small B&Bs that have now been left to wrack and ruin, which makes
00:30:14the town look terrible. Why did we not ease their tax burden and help them rather than
00:30:19bringing in big companies for whom the profits go to the shareholders who don't live here
00:30:23rather than the B&B owners who would have continued to add to the character of our town.
00:30:32Thank you. So all the people I've spoken to on the doorstep in the last few weeks, no
00:30:37one's talked to me about tourism. No one has mentioned that at all. They've asked me, how
00:30:40do I keep my young people here? How do I stop them moving out of the area? How do we
00:30:44have year-round jobs to keep people here? And so my plan is to get fishing back in Fleetwood,
00:30:49to reopen the railway line, and also to bring a film studio to the Fylde Coast, because
00:30:55that will actually open up opportunities for young people, for high-value, high-skilled
00:30:59jobs, which means we're not dependent on the tourism industry that's seasonal, that's up
00:31:04and down, dependent on the weather. I want to give an alternative and diversify the economy.
00:31:13Okay, much has been said, but I'll say the wire barrage, I know Lorraine is a huge supporter
00:31:19of that, because behind that you could have a lagoon that you could use for sports activities
00:31:25that would bring people in, and that would regenerate Fleetwood. The Blackpill Airport
00:31:31has potential for bringing more tourists into the local area, so if we can invest in that,
00:31:37get Blackpill back to the standards it used to be. So tackle HMOs, tackle anti-social
00:31:43behaviour, invest in the local community, work with the holiday industry, promote the
00:31:49town far more than what we're doing now. So there are a number of things that can make
00:31:54a real difference.
00:32:01Right.
00:32:10Oh, there we go. Anyway, thank you for those answers. So our next question is on the subject
00:32:17of housing, and how will you improve the amount, condition and affordability of housing in
00:32:25our area? What are you going to do to end the housing emergency? So we'll start in
00:32:32the middle with...
00:32:36Housing is a very big issue here, and when I held the caseload for young people in the
00:32:44youth offending team, that was, housing was one of the concerns that caused anti-social
00:32:52behaviour, because there was, the houses were overcrowded, the kids wanted to just
00:32:59go out, they didn't have anywhere to go, and also our houses are, many of them are
00:33:05damp. 74% of the rented accommodations, people depend on housing, and so not enough houses
00:33:16have been made. Although other parties will tell you that they've made affordable, they've
00:33:22built affordable houses, but that's a difference. They are not social houses. So social houses
00:33:29have not been built. So, thank you.
00:33:33This area is incredibly crowded. There is not enough space to build the number of houses
00:33:48that we actually need. So we need to look at the types of houses that we've got. I don't
00:33:54think that's an easy answer, so I'm not going to give you an easy answer off the top of
00:33:58my head. But one of the things that we've got to do, we've got to improve the houses
00:34:03that we've got, so that people can live in them.
00:34:10The condition of housing in Blackpool is appalling, and I've been a renter, and my daughter is
00:34:14a renter, and the state of the housing is awful. There was something the other day in
00:34:17the paper, and it was about the fact that homeless people were taking over abandoned
00:34:21bed and breakfasts, and providing their own solution. You know, there is a lot of property
00:34:26that's abandoned in this town that we should be bringing back into use, rather than just
00:34:30keep building out-of-town houses, with no services to keep up with that number of people
00:34:36moving into the area. So we have to make sure that, yes, we do need to provide more housing,
00:34:41bring it back into use, abandoned places. But more than anything, make sure that there
00:34:48is the services to cope with the number of people that would then be in that area, and
00:34:52to raise our standards. And I believe we're the only party, the Green Party, to be calling
00:34:56for a rent cap, because the state is some of the houses, and yet the rents are through
00:35:00the roof, and for what? Mould?
00:35:07So I don't think you can talk about the problem with the availability of houses under
00:35:10high... Sorry, sorry.
00:35:14I don't think you can talk about the availability of houses and the cost of housing without
00:35:18looking at the population explosion we've had in the UK in the last 20 years. Six million
00:35:23since the Tories got into power, and four million in the Blair years. Our proposal is
00:35:27to freeze immigration on a one-in-one-out policy, and allow the country to catch up.
00:35:32To keep up, we need to build a new home, a new dwelling every two minutes, to actually
00:35:36house everybody. Locally, we would prioritise the use of brownfield sites, and also we would
00:35:42have a policy to build social housing and affordable housing. But if we don't address
00:35:46the demand end, there's no point in trying to talk about supply.
00:35:54Yes, I mean, there definitely is a crisis in housing within Blackfield, within Cleveland,
00:35:59and within Fleetwood. I mentioned HMOs, and I should have said that it's houses in
00:36:04multiple occupation, and that in some ways, the cheap accommodation is what is the blight
00:36:09within the local area. And we need to tackle that, we need to tackle the absence here in
00:36:15landlords, the people that run down the properties, that means that people who end up in those
00:36:21properties end up being in the worst accommodation ever. And that then affects and impacts on
00:36:29the whole standard of living of the area itself. And so by tackling the crisis that we have
00:36:36here, stopping the absence here in landlords, making sure that we have quality checks on
00:36:42that accommodation, bringing those up to standards, giving young people jobs to work
00:36:47on them to bring them up to standard. That's the way to do it.
00:36:57So three very quick ideas that I think really will matter in this part of the board. First
00:37:01and foremost, Blackfield Council and Wye Council have to do improper centres of rough sleeping.
00:37:06That never gets done in 14 years, so the council doesn't access all of the funding it could
00:37:11get from the government to deal with rough sleeping. That's simply not right in my view.
00:37:15They've never changed their methods. Second thing I'd like to do with Tina on this, walking
00:37:20up and down the streets, as we all did during this election campaign, we're seeing far too
00:37:24many vacant houses. They need to be brought back into use, so we're not going to build
00:37:28on out-of-town sites. The challenge though, is that the VAT limit on new build is zero,
00:37:33and the VAT limit on bringing older properties back into use is 17.5%. That has to change,
00:37:39we have to have a flat rate in my view, and then the bias in favour of a new build disappears.
00:37:50Call me loony, but 120,000 people have come over in dinghies and they've all found housing.
00:37:58So what we do is everybody who hasn't got a house over here, you catch the ferry to
00:38:03the function, you come back in the dinghy, you sit down in the corner and fetch it all.
00:38:22Thank you for all those answers, all good answers, all very interesting.
00:38:30So our next question is on the subject of transport, and is quite specific to the constituency,
00:38:39and it's come from one of our readers once more, and this is, what would you do to ensure
00:38:44money saved from the cancellation of the HS2 project is invested in the reopening of the
00:38:52Fleetwood to Poulton rail link?
00:38:56So I think it's shocking that we've had 14 years of Paul, and we've had no rail line,
00:39:03we've had Cat Smith Labour, we've got Lorraine Beavers who's proposing to come in, yet her
00:39:09previous government under Labour, with Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, did nothing about the
00:39:13rail link in Fleetwood. It's been left behind for decades, and Reform UK are about sorting
00:39:18this out and getting the town connected back up to the rail link, connecting it up to the
00:39:23rest of the UK. It's one of the only towns, possibly the only town that hasn't got a connection
00:39:28to the main line rail link. So if you want a party that's going to back this area and
00:39:36local people, then that will be Reform UK.
00:39:43Lorraine Beavers has been a campaigner on this for many years, and been part of the
00:39:49committee that has been dedicated to fighting for the restoration of the rail link. But
00:39:55you specifically asked about fighting for the funding from HS2. What an appalling kind
00:40:01of example that was, wasn't it? That they gave money, that actually built the HS2 up
00:40:07to the Midlands, and then they scratch it, and they give money all over the country,
00:40:12but not where it's needed the most, which is here. So what we would do is get an MP
00:40:17that would actually fight for the funding for this area, rather than MPs that allow
00:40:24that actually this money that should have been ours to be given to other parts of the
00:40:29country, specifically in the South and the Midlands. We need the funding here. That's
00:40:34what we would do.
00:40:39So the reopening of the Field Department Fairground has been a long-term project of mine. In 2019
00:40:45it became government policy. Still in the Department for Transport there is a scheme
00:40:50called Restoring Railways, and over the past five years, notwithstanding post-COVID and
00:40:55the increase in infrastructure expense and cost of that infrastructure, that programme
00:41:00has been moving forward. Infrastructure takes time, I know that, as a form of military-provided
00:41:05infrastructure. These things don't get built overnight, but the project remains in process.
00:41:11Network Rail have done the surveying that it needs. Northern Rail have looked at what
00:41:15the best form is. They've relied upon the tram freight solution to plug it into the
00:41:19wider Blackpool tram network. So all the elements that need to go together to make the project
00:41:24happen are in place. What we now need to do is move forward and actually get space for
00:41:29the ground. If we hadn't applied COVID, that would have already happened, in my opinion.
00:41:33Call me loony, but if we stopped giving our money away, and if we stopped having this
00:41:45invasion of people in hotels, we'd have lots of money.
00:41:50HS2 project was massive, and a lot of money was taken away from Blackpool North and Fleetwood.
00:42:04They saved it, but they didn't give the money to us. So plain and simple solution, we will
00:42:10connect, improve our railway links here, improve our stations, and fill all the potholes, and
00:42:18improve the lives of the people over here. So money that's not been given to us, we ask
00:42:23it all back. Thank you.
00:42:30Of all the people speaking on this platform, you can tell that everybody's in favour of it.
00:42:34But why has nothing been done? You've got a conservative on the right here, 14 years,
00:42:40and they've done nothing about it. They talk about it, but they've got a plan. There's
00:42:45a plan, but that plan's no good. It's not being done, and nothing is happening. And
00:42:51that's the story of this government for the past 14 years. And unfortunately, I fear what
00:42:57might happen with Labour being there, with no real opposition. And that's got to come
00:43:02from the other parties.
00:43:07I echo what Bill said. As a Green Party, obviously, we're entirely in favour of more green
00:43:13transportation, like decent rail links. And I think this should go ahead. But as Bill
00:43:17said, it's all well and good that we all stand here and go, yeah, let's do this. But who's
00:43:21going to actually do it? And if Keir Starmer gets the majority we expect him to get, who
00:43:27will hold him to account and make him do that? Because he won't have to listen to anyone
00:43:31else to get the votes across. And I feel like we would be neglected.
00:43:44Right, thank you for those answers as well. So the next question probably affects everybody
00:43:54and is another very important issue, which is, the question is around social care. And
00:44:02what plans does your party have to fund social care in the constituency at a time when councils
00:44:09are struggling to pay for this vital service?
00:44:18I won't repeat what I said at the beginning. But the one thing which I do want to say is
00:44:24that whatever we do with care, it's got to be done with the two other parties, major
00:44:30parties there. It's like the NHS was officially following the Second World War. There is no
00:44:36point, one party said we're going to do this because Theresa May said what she was going
00:44:42to do, and look how badly that went down. And then the other party changes it. We have
00:44:47got to work together. That's the reason why Liberal Democrats are strongly putting forward
00:44:53this proposition regarding care, because we need to pull the other two parties together
00:44:59and for everyone to work together to provide the service, which is absolutely needed.
00:45:07Social care at NHS is suffering from an absolute lack of staff. Sometimes some of those immigrants
00:45:13coming over are the people who would be caring for us if we weren't so busy trying to keep
00:45:17them out. And I think when it comes to care staff, the problem in that sector is the same
00:45:25problem in all the sectors. We don't pay them what they're worth. They are worth far more
00:45:30than so many other professions. And we're all going to depend on them. We have done
00:45:34since the day we were born. And how dare we treat them with such disrespect. I've just
00:45:38finished caring for my stepfather for three years and I watched the care staff that came
00:45:42in to help us. And these people were my gods, you know. They deserved so much and they got
00:45:47so little and their time was short and they had to dash between people and remove that
00:45:52dignity of care that each person absolutely deserved.
00:45:57So you might be surprised to hear for a party that's right at centre, we do have a clear
00:46:08policy on social care. And I would agree with some of the other panellists here that the
00:46:12two main parties have talked about it and when it's come to the crunch they have shied
00:46:16away from it because it's a vote loser. But we are a party of common sense, Reform UK
00:46:21and what we have said clearly in our contract is that we will look at the social care because
00:46:25we don't expect to be in power this time. We will look at the social care, we will involve
00:46:29other parties and we haven't ruled out the need for more funding which could mean higher
00:46:33taxes but it means we can provide a decent level of care for people who deserve it. Thank you.
00:46:43Let's not pretend there's an easy solution to this one because it's going to be an expensive
00:46:48solution but it's a crisis, social care is in crisis in this country and that crisis
00:46:55is one where people are being let down, they can't afford to pay for the care, we haven't
00:47:00got the staff to deliver the care and there's a knock on impact in the NHS because we can't
00:47:07discharge people from the hospitals because they haven't got the care packaging in place.
00:47:12We need a strong Labour government to deliver the social care that they've talked about,
00:47:19the Tories have talked about for years and delivered absolutely nothing. We need a party
00:47:25that cares about people, that understands the impact of the finances and understands
00:47:30actually that you just can't put a cap on people's families and their houses to pay
00:47:36for this, you've actually got to invest in it from a sensible government. That is the
00:47:41way we'll solve this crisis.
00:47:48So I don't think anyone can fail to doubt the challenges our social care sector faces
00:47:53both locally and nationally. We're seeing an ageing population that has an inevitable
00:47:59consequence of more people needing social care both in their home and eventually residential
00:48:04care. The challenges that we face, they're trying to make sure that we don't wait until
00:48:09people need to go into residential care to provide adequate levels of help. Actually
00:48:13the solution to much of our care crisis lies in primary care, lies in hospital at home
00:48:19to help fill hospital beds. So my frustration as a politician over many decades has been
00:48:26that when people discuss social care policy they think it actually starts in the residential
00:48:31care, it doesn't. It starts in keeping people healthy in their own homes in the first place
00:48:36and that's how you create a more sustainable care sector in the longer term.
00:48:46Call me loony, but if we keep bringing immigrants in to do the social care then the immigrants
00:48:53are going to get old, so you need more immigrants to look after the immigrants who got old,
00:48:57who need social care and don't get it. So perhaps what we need to do is to not have
00:49:04as many people in the country.
00:49:15Social care is not a single suit. I've been a care worker and when I first started working
00:49:22as a carer I realised very fast that it's not a very well respected job. It's not very
00:49:29well paid, not very well trained. Why? The carers do as much and sometimes even more
00:49:36than the nurses. One. And second, we definitely need a social care arrangement that actually
00:49:45runs parallel to the NHS. Thing is, lots of people, we are living longer, we are getting
00:49:52older and living longer, we are healthier, but many people, they suffer from Alzheimer's
00:49:58and Dementia, their houses are taken away and sold off. That shouldn't happen. So if
00:50:04cancer is taken as an illness, so should be Dementia and Alzheimer's, so we need a social
00:50:11care that works. Thank you.
00:50:21Right, thanks for those answers. If I could just ask Crackers, I think we've got your
00:50:27point on that issue and if you could maybe give us some other of your policies when you
00:50:33answer, that would be great. Yeah, for the next question. Yeah, great.
00:50:39If you've got a policy that's a good policy, then if you repeat it, what's the harm in
00:50:43repeating a good policy? Well, I just want to hear more of your wider
00:50:47policies, I think that's what we'd like. Anyway, this question is around young people
00:50:57and their needs. So is it fair that young people are paying less because of their age
00:51:07even when they are doing the same job as older colleagues? Now I think this is in
00:51:13reference, this is a question that came in to us, I think it's in reference to the living
00:51:17wage, I believe only applies to workers aged over 21, with younger workers only eligible
00:51:23for the minimum wage. So quite an interesting question that's come in, so I'm sure all our
00:51:29answers will be good. I'm pleased with this question because one
00:51:33of our key policies is to pay young people the same rate for the same job that other
00:51:38people pay. My granddaughter here is 19 and she's an amazing worker, but she has worked
00:51:43in low, ridiculous pay at like £4 an hour for doing exactly the same work for her colleagues,
00:51:49different in jobs obviously where you've had to work for years to gain that experience
00:51:53to be a doctor or a brain surgeon. However, when you're filling shelves at Tesco's or
00:51:58doing a straightforward job, why on earth should they be paid less?
00:52:01I also think it undervalues and demoralises them, which when I said about schools and
00:52:07how we took away their hope, I sometimes wonder, and even when we do things like this, is how
00:52:12much sadder can we make them? And we talk about the increase in the mental health crisis
00:52:17for our young people, well no wonder, and you said it last week at a Hustings, what
00:52:22was it, the shit something?
00:52:25Shit Life Syndrome.
00:52:28And I credit that entirely to Peter, but it is so true and we shouldn't give them that.
00:52:42So we are, actually the reason why we're talking about young people and their opportunities
00:52:47is the reality is we're all getting poorer because of the population explosion I talked
00:52:52about earlier, wages are going down in real terms, the GDP per capita has been going down
00:52:57in the last six quarters, none of the main parties want to talk about this, in fact they
00:53:01want more immigration, but really what it means is it's not just British workers, it's
00:53:05young people and the poorest who are most affected by this, and that will just get more
00:53:10and more worse the more this goes on. So our policy is to cap immigration, which would
00:53:14deliver a high wage, high growth economy for British workers, including young people, and
00:53:19for opportunity for young people to have a future here and have a good career.
00:53:28The answer to the question is the exploitation of young people is wrong, that actually young
00:53:33people deserve the fruits of their labour like anybody else, if they do the same job,
00:53:39the same work, they should get the same pay, they've got to save up for mortgages and the
00:53:44cost of living like everybody else does. But let's not forget that it was a Labour
00:53:48government in the face of the opposition from the Conservative that brought in the minimum
00:53:53wage, that's brought in the real living wage, that actually pays low wage workers the wages
00:54:00that actually gets invested back into the economy, rather than the tax kind of grabs
00:54:06of the richer people. When people talk about caring about poverty and the low pay, it is
00:54:14the Labour Party that have delivered the policies and will deliver them in the future and support
00:54:19low paid people.
00:54:25So on one level I think we have far too many low paid jobs across the Fylde Coast as a
00:54:30whole, irrespective of what age you are, there's already much more investment in regeneration
00:54:35across the whole of the Fylde Coast, but for young people in particular I understand the
00:54:40frustration. The area where minimum wage legislation was put in, there was obviously
00:54:45concern that if we want to drive young people out of the jobs market, if we price things
00:54:50too high, would our pros not take them on? I think that probably is the case now, 30
00:54:55years on from that legislation first going through, and looking at whether that is still
00:54:59the case and whether it meets the needs of a modern economy, many young people now are
00:55:04going straight into work, rankoting apprenticeships galore, nobody is right that they should be
00:55:09paid the same amount and not be paid a lower rate.
00:55:20The questions are getting harder. One leading logic would be if you've got a young person
00:55:28with no experience and you've got an older person who has got more experience and as
00:55:35an employee looking at them and saying I've got to pay you with no experience and I'm
00:55:40actually going to turn up on time and I don't know about your work ethic, but you've got
00:55:44a good record, who should I pay for the same money? Maybe young people are expecting too
00:55:51much or they ask too much.
00:55:54Well everyone deserves equal pay and why didn't you? Why didn't you give any? Young people
00:56:11should get what they deserve because they do work harder and for example my own daughter
00:56:17when she worked in a bakery after her school was over, she was the one who used to wake
00:56:23up in the morning and turn the gas ovens and everything on in the bakery shop and
00:56:29she was always given more work because she was getting paid less of it. So what happens?
00:56:35Our young people, they are leaving town, they are gaining skills, even if you say we'll
00:56:41get them apprenticeships and things, they will get those skills but they will leave
00:56:45because they know they have no future over here but definitely we can speak louder about
00:56:50it and make a difference.
00:56:58My understanding is that you can have somebody work as hard as they like but if there is
00:57:04poor investment in supporting that worker they will not produce as much as they should.
00:57:09The government for the past 14 years has totally decimated the economy, therefore people have
00:57:16not been invested in the workplace and therefore the young people are not having the opportunities
00:57:23to actually make the money which they deserve.
00:57:37Thank you for those answers. Now we are moving on to this question which came in, how will
00:57:46candidates conduct themselves in terms of transparency and ensuring local issues are
00:57:52raised in Parliament on behalf of the constituency should they be elected?
00:58:03Well I'm probably the one who can go away and check on day work for you how I have been
00:58:07raising local issues in Parliament. Of course when you are a minister on the front bench
00:58:11you can't do so and you do it behind the scenes in the voting lobby where you can read
00:58:15to ministers warmly by their throats if that's what you want them to do. But as a backbench
00:58:20MP there are so many ways in which you can raise issues, not just by asking questions
00:58:25but by holding debates. So when I have been a backbencher I focus a lot on issues of financial
00:58:30vulnerability, of loan sharks and making sure that people have more financial resilience
00:58:35because I know the extent of the poverty that exists particularly in the centre of Blackpool.
00:58:39So I've worked with so many charities and interest groups, I've been a consultant who
00:58:43has come home with a trust to end the need for food banks and served on their commission
00:58:47into that. But there are many ways as an MP you can raise local issues, it isn't just
00:58:51by shouting your mouth off in the chamber of the House of Commons.
00:59:00I'll promise you anything, vote for me.
00:59:10So having worked in the public sector, my whole life, my working life has been following
00:59:16some disciplines, code of conduct. So as a trainee nurse I have followed the principles
00:59:24of respect, care, compassion and honesty. One has to follow these rules so I have a
00:59:32good grounding in these virtues. Thank you.
00:59:40The way in which I would address the problem is that I would want more devolution. The
00:59:46people who are best able to deal with your problems are people who live in this area
00:59:51and whilst MPs, the one or two that come from this area going down to London will do their
00:59:57best and I believe the majority of MPs do do their best, they just have not got the
01:00:02time or the capacity to deal with the local issues. Therefore we've got to take the power
01:00:08away from London and bring it up to the regions and make sure that there is the capacity there
01:00:15to deal with the problems that this region has and address them distinctly.
01:00:24I think one of the key things to consider as well is if you're not Labour or Tory and
01:00:28you're in the House of Commons and you still manage to be an MP then you will work with
01:00:33others, you will cooperate to bring forward our issues and I don't think I have ever
01:00:39stood down from something that really matters to me. I spent eight years fighting cracking
01:00:44and I wouldn't give up, I was like a dog with a boat along with the other residents
01:00:48until we had that done with and I would do the same to stop the landfill, to improve
01:00:52the tourism, to make sure that our children's voices are heard and that they aren't just
01:00:56written off because you're just somewhere up north.
01:01:04So I don't know what it is about Tory MPs when they come to the Fylde coast but we've
01:01:08got Mark Menzies in Fylde whose private life is incompatible with his public life, we've
01:01:14got Scott Benton who is a cash for questions guy for the gambling industry and anyone else
01:01:19who cares to pay him and even Paul, bless him, has had his own little scandal with over
01:01:24a thousand pounds for printing.
01:01:27It's not just a matter of whether or not, it's a matter of whether or not, as your
01:01:32MP I will make sure that I put this constituency first and I will not have my hands in the
01:01:37till like your average Tory MP in this area.
01:01:40Oh!
01:01:58Can I just ask for calm please and let Clive answer the question and then we'll go back
01:02:05to Paul and give him a right to reply since that raised something that I feel he deserved
01:02:10out of it.
01:02:11Okay.
01:02:13Well I know that Lorraine Hevers is absolutely committed to fighting on behalf of her constituents.
01:02:19She doesn't want to be a minister, she wants to fight for the investment in the local community.
01:02:25You know there is a fact that we do need change.
01:02:28We do need change from the standards I mentioned before about some of the issues that we're
01:02:34having to fight with this government, with Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and others over
01:02:39the last few years.
01:02:40We need change because we need to build that trust back into politics.
01:02:45We need people to actually believe that politicians can make a difference and I'm confident that
01:02:51Lorraine will absolutely do that.
01:02:53Thank you.
01:02:58Thank you.
01:02:59I'll keep it brief.
01:03:00At the end of the year a member of my local association made a complaint about me because
01:03:03I wasn't falling out within the association.
01:03:06Following that the budget was thrown my way across the front page of the Sunday Times
01:03:10and everything else.
01:03:11So a six month investigation took place in Parliament by the Compliance Officer and they
01:03:16went through everything they could possibly go through and they determined that we should
01:03:20have been paid £4.50 a month more for one particular item of equipment.
01:03:25We had an agreement with the Parliamentary authorities over how we paid for different
01:03:29aspects of our office and they looked down and said we should be paying £4.50 a month
01:03:33more for that, which I was perfectly happy to pay.
01:03:36There was no criticism of me.
01:03:38The report was clear that I, quote, reasonably believed, unquote, that the agreement we had
01:03:43with them said we could cover this item of equipment.
01:03:46The Compliance Officer determined otherwise and I was quite happy to pay.
01:03:49I think that's a logical question.
01:03:51£1,200!
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01:07:19Thank you.
01:07:20APPLAUSE
01:07:27I, like Paul, am a grammar school boy.
01:07:30When I went to grammar school and did biology,
01:07:33there was a male and a female.
01:07:36So far as I know, that's not changed!
01:07:39LAUGHTER
01:07:40APPLAUSE
01:07:44I think it's quite straightforward.
01:07:46Treat everybody with respect
01:07:48what we're done by. It's not much more difficult than that.
01:07:55Yes, but. There was a report came out recently called the CAS report that raised some red
01:08:03flags. So yes, we need to treat people with dignity. We need to help young people who
01:08:08are looking to transition, but we need to make sure they are getting the right help.
01:08:13We also need to understand why some women have concerns about safe sex spaces or personal
01:08:21care, hospital care, sports, prisons, those sorts of things. But like we said, this is
01:08:27not a woke issue. This is a humanity issue, looking at something and asking us to have
01:08:34a civilised conversation, not use it to divide parties and communities and families. So I
01:08:40think we need to take the heat out of the argument and speak about it in a proper, sensible
01:08:45way.
01:08:54Ron Barker, Blackpool Sound Green Party. This is directed at the Reform Party candidates.
01:09:01What is your view of what Nigel Farage said in regarding partly supporting puberty?
01:09:08Well, my name is Dan. I have a name, Dan Barker. So, Nigel Farage made a comment, and it's
01:09:15been widely misreported and twisted in the media. But I will tell you what he meant by
01:09:23it. He said 10 years ago, 10, 14 years ago, he saw coming the conflict with Putin. So
01:09:28by advancing the EU and NATO to the east was going to give him an excuse for what he wanted
01:09:33to do for 20 years, which is invade Ukraine. That is all he said. He didn't say he supported
01:09:38Putin, and he's made it clear that he doesn't. Let me finish, he's made it clear that he
01:09:43doesn't support him. I watched the interview, and I read his article. He did not say he
01:09:50supported Putin.
01:09:51I did say that. I said, what I said on TV, and what I said regarding Putin, and I said
01:09:56he was supporting Putin.
01:10:05I'm of the generation where I was born immediately after the Second World War. And that war happened
01:10:11because people sat back and allowed things to happen. When you see things which are wrong,
01:10:16you've got to say that they're wrong.
01:10:20Thank you.
01:10:25Corbyn loony. There's two sides to every argument, and no one is giving the Russian
01:10:31side. Now, as someone who's quite well-travelled...
01:10:36One side, two sides, and the truth.
01:10:41Exactly. Okay, a quote from a Russian friend of mine. I've been all over the world on business.
01:10:48And a Russian friend of mine says, why are you treating us like this? Why is the West
01:10:53treating us like this? You've got far more in common with us than you have with the Africans
01:10:59and the Arabs and anybody else.
01:11:02And it just seems we're not hearing the Russian point of view. If you saw the Tucker Carlson
01:11:10interview, two hours with Putin, listen to what he said.
01:11:18Like probably many in the constituency, I've met with the Ukrainian refugees who came over.
01:11:29They've been welcomed by local churches, by local families. I've had to listen to their
01:11:33tales of what they experienced in the aftermath of the invasion, the fears and concerns they
01:11:39had. I think you need to listen to the people who have experienced invasion to properly
01:11:44try to understand why it is right that we oppose what Putin is doing at the moment,
01:11:48and why we must not sleepwalk into a wider conflagration, and why we need to be opposed
01:11:52and stopped.
01:11:57I'm not going to go right into it, but I am going to ask the question about why we're
01:12:02so sympathetic and understanding to Ukraine, and they deserve it. They deserve that. What
01:12:06about Palestine? What about Palestinians? Why is there so little understanding, not
01:12:11speculating? Why is the Palestinian child not as important as Ukrainians? And why is
01:12:17it that we gave the Ukrainians, and I'm glad we did, the right to escape that war, but
01:12:21we do not give an outdoor to anyone to stack in Palestine?
01:12:30Any more questions?
01:12:38Would the candidates please explain why you do, or do not, want people like me to be represented
01:12:46in Lancashire? Proportional representation. Hundreds of thousands of people across Lancashire
01:12:55have no chance whatsoever of having a Liberal Democrat, a Green, or a Reform MP. Why on
01:13:04earth not?
01:13:09I'm possibly the only Conservative MP who has ever brought a bill forward to the House
01:13:14of Commons to introduce proportional representation, so I think my record, the Ukrainian Hansard
01:13:20stands for itself.
01:13:28So Reform UK's stated policy, as well as a lot of other reforms to the electoral process
01:13:33in the courts, is to introduce proportional representation. We've got that, it's very
01:13:36clear. And I would say that Labour have said that for such a long time, the chance of a
01:13:42big majority now, and lo and behold, Keir Starmer has backed off, there'll be no proportional
01:13:46representation. But when you think about the Brexit party, who got 4 million votes, and
01:13:53got no seats, or maybe one seat, and then you've got the SNP in Scotland who got 3 million
01:13:57votes and got 50 odd seats, there's something fundamentally wrong about that process, where
01:14:02people's intentions and preferences for who they see in the House of Parliament is not
01:14:06represented in the seats. So I would say you should ask Conservatives and Labour why they're
01:14:10not willing to give people what they want and allow proportional representation.
01:14:19It is a debate within the Labour party, it has been for quite a while now. The Labour
01:14:24party has said they've got other priorities in the immediate future, and I think dealing
01:14:29with the cost of living crisis and a lot of the other economic situations, make sure
01:14:35that we are stabilised is really important. But I will say on a personal point of view,
01:14:40that I agree, that I do think that actually politics should be more inclusive, that actually
01:14:46we should have a look at electoral reform, and ways in which we can make sure that people's
01:14:52votes do count more than they do under this system. At the moment this seems to be the
01:14:59worst system we've got, but there's got to be a better way of doing things, it's an ongoing
01:15:07debate, and I do think you make a valid point.
01:15:14So the first pass voting system that we have keeps us stuck in this two horse race, where
01:15:19it will either be Labour or it will be Tory. And so, as I just heard that hesitancy in
01:15:25what you said, Clive, you said, well we're going to deal with the cost of living crisis,
01:15:29and I can hear the future Labour government. We're going to deal with that, and then we're
01:15:32going to deal with this, and then we're going to deal with that. We're going to keep on
01:15:35pushing this can further down the road, even though 70% of the membership said they wanted
01:15:40proportional representation. So how dare they ignore their membership? And if they ignore
01:15:45their membership, what the hell are they going to do to the majority to the rest of the country?
01:15:54If I recall it correctly, I think there was discussion some years ago, in 2007 or something,
01:16:03and at that time Labour did not support it. They in fact wrote to everybody saying that,
01:16:08oh this is not the correct form of voting or election procedure or something. I think
01:16:15it was pushed down ages ago.
01:16:19I don't even know how to describe the word, some of the comments here about immigration,
01:16:43so I'm a foreigner, I come here to this country to do science, to do some good and to do research,
01:16:50to help people. I pay my taxes, actually I pay twice, because to enter this country I
01:16:58need to pay NHS fees, plus my taxes they are discounting from my salary every month. So
01:17:06I found some of the comments to be shocking. So I just want to understand from each candidate
01:17:13what would be the policy or the ideas to deal with immigration to make sure that people
01:17:20that are here for a reason, they have the right, they are treated fairly.
01:17:26It's going to sound slightly controversial but please allow me to finish the sentence.
01:17:33We should stop the votes. We should absolutely stop them by providing the correct routes
01:17:39to our country. The simple reason we have this huge backlog and that it looks so disastrous
01:17:46is that we stopped most of the legal routes to get here and then we took part in wars
01:17:52that made people's lives so miserable and difficult that they had to escape those places
01:17:57to come here. And now we're going to have a climate crisis where people are experiencing
01:18:01greater floods and greater droughts and that will impact food production and the ability
01:18:06to live in even other countries. So in order to stop the influx of immigration, allow it
01:18:12to happen correctly, so that we end up with our doctors and our nurses and our care workers
01:18:17and this rich, vibrant society that benefits all of us.
01:18:26Of course you're leaving again, but if your country is at war, how Britain was with Germany,
01:18:32my parents didn't run off as refugees somewhere, they stayed and fought for their country,
01:18:39as did my grandparents in World War I.
01:18:46Did everyone just die then?
01:18:48Well, that's what war is about.
01:18:56I'm trying to stay loony about making a point. My parents didn't run off, my grandparents
01:19:01didn't run off, but it seems that everybody who's got war or some kind of stress in another
01:19:06country, oh we've got to go somewhere else, and they come here and they bring their problems
01:19:11with us. Are those people going to fight for us if we end up in a war?
01:19:24I don't know what your name is, but I would just like to apologise.
01:19:37Politics is about the political, and all that I've heard from most people, not everybody,
01:19:48is a selfishness, a lack of humanity, a lack of dignity, and at the end of the day, immigration
01:19:56happens for many, many different reasons, and we have to treat it with dignity and understand
01:20:03it before we make very flip comments, and I understand that you're the loony party,
01:20:09but I've got to say, it has to be said that we're all human beings in this room, and I
01:20:17can't see Christ here, which concerns me, and I don't want to vote for anybody who cannot
01:20:24see the greater good of what they're doing, and some people do, I do not see that, and
01:20:28I'm appalled.
01:20:34Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have my 14th great grandchild born. Now that means
01:20:44that she is likely to be living in 80 plus years from now, but what world will she be
01:20:52living in? We are destroying the world. We do have people who are economic migrants,
01:21:00but we're going to get more in the coming years, because we are allowing their world
01:21:07to be destroyed by our greed. We have got to stop the climate change. Their world, their
01:21:15food is being destroyed, their land is being destroyed, their water is drying up. They're
01:21:21going to move to where they can see that there is water, food and riches, and that's here.
01:21:31I think we'll move on from that question, it's been quite a contentious debate, but
01:21:39I think it is an important subject, and I hope that the lady in the back hasn't been
01:21:45upset, but I think we do need to talk about it, so we'll move on to another question.
01:22:01Thank you. I'd just like to say that as a nation, we have a proud record of people
01:22:11fleeing persecution, and as has already been alluded to, in the last war we had a fascist
01:22:22nation, the Second World War, and we've opened our homes, well, you know. It's a different
01:22:32situation, the economic migrants, that is a completely different situation. If you're
01:22:39seeking persecution, fleeing persecution should I say, then the first safe country that you
01:22:46land in, then you would automatically, you would think, seek help there, not cross the
01:22:55Channel and risk your lives. I know there's criminal gangs against it, but you mentioned
01:23:03about what are we doing about helping the Palestinians, I suggest you ask that question
01:23:08to the rich neighbours, like Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, not the British populace, that
01:23:17is not... The question is, you've got to, what is your policy on that, is it an open
01:23:30door policy?
01:23:31I think we need to move on to, I think we've done World Politics, it puts other places
01:23:36to debate that, which I know it's interesting, but I think we want to, we're going to move
01:23:43on to the next question, but thank you for your comments, I think we're now into the
01:23:47debate.
01:23:48Hi, mine's a multi-layered question, so to all of you, where do you stand on the NHS
01:23:54in terms of privatisation, and in terms of the local area, the difficulties that people
01:23:59try to get an NHS dentist, not having seen a dentist for many years because there just
01:24:04aren't any slots for anybody to go into, and also for Conservatives, Labour and Reform,
01:24:12will you defy the whip when your parties want to privatise the NHS? Because they have actually
01:24:19said that that's what they're going to do.
01:24:21I've always believed the NHS should be free at the point of use, you should not have to
01:24:26present a credit card when you go into A&E or when you're waiting for an operation, that
01:24:30doesn't mean the NHS should not use spare capacity in the private sector to try to bring
01:24:35down waiting lists for example, to my mind that just makes common sense that you take
01:24:40advantage of all healthcare capacity in the UK.
01:24:43Yes, dentistry has been a problem, not just locally but nationally, the government has
01:24:48now at last begun to take action, both locally and nationally again, we're seeing more dentist
01:24:54appointments being made available across the powerpoof because we've changed the funding
01:24:57formulas to encourage dentists to offer more appointments, we now need more dentists to
01:25:03come back into the NHS and away from the private sector, perhaps the biggest way that could
01:25:08be changed in my view is to make sure that you don't have to train a year longer to be
01:25:12an NHS dentist than to go into the private sector, that's a fundamental flaw.
01:25:17Privatisation of NHS bit by bit, breaking it up and back door entry of private investors
01:25:31and profit making happened a long time ago with Tories and then it was extended by the
01:25:38Labour. So no, all the departments that have not been very helpful, the privatised sections
01:25:46need to be brought back and the dental service needs to come back under the NHS whole as
01:25:56a state service, there is no need to have it as a private practice or something because
01:26:01it's about our basic health, rotting teeth causes other illness inside the body as well,
01:26:08we can't afford a private practice over there.
01:26:13The point about the NHS is real, the pressure on the NHS at the moment is extreme, the waiting
01:26:23lists are off the scale, people are dying before they get their appointments and we
01:26:29need to invest heavily to resolve the crisis. Now I'm against privatisation within the
01:26:39NHS, I think it should be free at the point of use as has been said, but I think there's
01:26:44a capacity issue and I think the Labour government, should they come in, are taking a pragmatic
01:26:51view about the use of privatisation in terms of not paying for the service but in terms
01:27:00of delivering the service for the public. Until we get such a situation where we resolve
01:27:07the waiting lists and resolve the backlogs that we have at the moment, because we can't
01:27:13carry on with the way we are, we need investment.
01:27:20So to answer your question, just to be clear, our policy is for the NHS to remain free at
01:27:24the point of use, free at the point of use, there's no point in privatising. So what we
01:27:28do know is that 11% of GDP are putting more money into the NHS than ever before, can I
01:27:33make my point back? You can't talk over me. No, no, I'm telling you the truth and it's
01:27:37in all our literature and our leaders say it everywhere as well. So 11% going into GDP,
01:27:42you can't just put more money, it's not the problem, we've got to sort out the capacity
01:27:45issue and our plan is to reduce waiting lists within two years by more use of the private
01:27:50sector. If you can't get a doctor's appointment in three days you get a voucher, if you can't
01:27:53see a consultant in three weeks you get a voucher, if you can't get an operation in
01:27:57nine weeks you get a voucher and we will get the waiting list down in two years.
01:28:03Voucher to use the private sector.
01:28:06Farage said he's going to, Farage actually said, Farage said he wants to bring insurance
01:28:17back to the UK, that is essentially privatisation.
01:28:21Look, all we can do is get our people.
01:28:25I'm not going to lie to you.
01:28:28One of the issues that I would wish the governments would actually address is the staffing issues
01:28:38and that is to do with the fact that some of my daughters who are involved in nursing
01:28:43find that they get better pay by being a bank nurse than they do by being a regular nurse
01:28:50and that cannot be right.
01:28:53And then we have to look at that other little problem that we have which is there's a heap
01:28:58of doctors and locums who can't get work and that's because the way that the government
01:29:04structures it is they give a health authority X amount of money and they tell them okay
01:29:09you need to have this service, this service and this service and what's left is what you
01:29:13pay your doctors with and there is not enough money to go around to hire them.
01:29:18And then they're looking now at that new grade of doctor which is a grade down from regular
01:29:22doctor.
01:29:23We've been chastised as a party.
01:29:25There was a, during the debate, not the debate, the interviews the other day and Nick Robinson
01:29:30said to one of our leaders, Adrian Ramsey, he poured out Lego bricks, there was blue,
01:29:36red and then there was green and this was how much we were going to tax and it was like
01:29:40a little bit for blue, a little bit for red, this massive mountain of green.
01:29:43We're going to tax the billionaires, not you.
01:29:46So that was misleading.
01:29:47And then what you have to ask yourself is why, why are we willing to tax to get that
01:29:52much money?
01:29:53Because our, everything is broken.
01:29:55You can't say as Labour and Tory we're only going to take this much money because we can't
01:30:00afford more.
01:30:01We have to make that money be affordable.
01:30:08We've got three more questions and we're going to take those and then can you get back to
01:30:13me?
01:30:14We have a lot of people in this constituency and throughout the final course who are on
01:30:22universal credit.
01:30:23They are the most vulnerable people that we have.
01:30:27What I'd like you to tell me is what are you going to do to make sure that the universal
01:30:34credit reform takes place so that people who are the most vulnerable and marginalised
01:30:42actually are able to afford some basic necessities?
01:30:53So Reform UK's policy is about making work pay for, we're going to raise the threshold
01:30:58to £20,000.
01:30:59That will bring 7 million people out of tax, giving them on average £3,000 per year, which
01:31:05will mean there will be a lot less people on benefits because people are stuck in a
01:31:09benefits trap where it's not worth working more than 16 hours a week when you lose your
01:31:14benefits, so they stay on the benefits, they're in this trap.
01:31:17We want to give them the way out of that and we want to make work pay for those who are
01:31:20on the lowest pay in this country, which means that we would have more money to look at people
01:31:25who need that safety net, who need credit, who aren't going to be able to get back to
01:31:29work, rather than the 9.2 million people we've got now who are productive, working age, who
01:31:34are not working.
01:31:36For whatever reason, if some of those are genuine, a vast number of them I would say
01:31:40are not.
01:31:47When I was working, I was working for a company called Hewlett Packard, and we were directly
01:31:52involved with the development of the software related to Universal Credit.
01:31:57And when it initially was developed and thought about, it was going to give you what you wanted
01:32:04and what you were trying to talk about, but basically it's been chopped and chopped and
01:32:09chopped.
01:32:10And you're back around again to the same things, that we have all the problems.
01:32:15The economy's been screwed by the Conservatives.
01:32:19We've got to change that, otherwise we can't afford anything.
01:32:24So it's about demonising people again, the ones who are unable to work and rely on welfare.
01:32:35What about taxing the people who are not paying enough, and what about the windfall taxes?
01:32:42What about getting money from there?
01:32:45Why prosecute the poor?
01:32:53Universal Credit is probably the centrepiece of our welfare state, and it's really important
01:32:57that that functions well and delivers on its policy intentions.
01:33:01And while we've been increasing Universal Credit by the rate of inflation in the past
01:33:05two years, it's really important.
01:33:07My concern or observation, as a minister in that very department, is that there are so
01:33:12many other pots of money in the welfare system, other benefits, that people don't always
01:33:17access as much as they might others do.
01:33:19When I'm in charge of pension funding, for example, it drives me mad, the fact that there
01:33:23are three quarters of a million people out there eligible for pension funding who are
01:33:27not claiming it.
01:33:28We need to make sure that people are made aware of what it is that they can obtain.
01:33:32It isn't just about Universal Credit, there are many other benefits beside, which often
01:33:37go unclaimed, and we need to make sure that everybody gets targeted support to claim what
01:33:42they're entitled to.
01:33:49The Conservative government has systematically underfunded the benefits system and the public
01:33:54sector and the infrastructure of the country for the last 14 years.
01:33:59They've created a mess in every service from the NHS, the homes and the roads, the sewage,
01:34:05and even within the benefits system, because fundamentally, they don't believe in it.
01:34:10They believe in the small estate solution.
01:34:13They believe in this, you know, you can drive down the estate because they don't usually
01:34:18do that because they're the party for the wealthy.
01:34:21Well actually, in this constituency, there's an awful lot of people that are dependent
01:34:26on those benefits because of the lack of jobs and the lack of investment and the lack of
01:34:32care that is being given to people within this constituency, and that is what we need
01:34:36to do.
01:34:37We need to drive up the jobs and investment and actually start caring for people rather
01:34:43than just because we don't use those services, we don't need them.
01:34:50Another question we should ask ourselves is who is that benefit for?
01:34:53Because when you work full-time at Tesco, you will still need a top-up from Universal
01:34:58Credit.
01:34:59So if we're doing that, then why is Tesco getting away with paying so little that those
01:35:04people on full-time hours require a top-up from the rest of us?
01:35:08It seems like a lazy, loony, biting decision.
01:35:13So yes, that's my point.
01:35:18I was suggesting that that was her point.
01:35:22Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
01:35:33So everybody's fit, able and it's possible for them to get into a well-paid job and not
01:35:38require help.
01:35:39I require help.
01:35:40I can't afford to live on wages.
01:35:52I've read all your manifestos and you've all got a green commitment.
01:35:58My understanding is by 2030 we're going to go to wind turbines and solar.
01:36:04Have you got a detailed plan?
01:36:07Because that works out at 500 wind turbines a month for the next six years.
01:36:15That means you've got to set up factories and not buy from China.
01:36:20From that you can then create jobs.
01:36:22So what I would like, I don't think you'll make it but I hope you do, what I would like
01:36:27is whoever gets elected, have you got a plan and can you guarantee that a chunk of those
01:36:35jobs come to this area?
01:36:41We're going to make a party manifesto that gives a clear commitment to create the Great
01:36:47British Energy Company which will be based, the headquarters is based in Scotland, but
01:36:51it will be about using the windfall taxes that have been mentioned to create a company
01:36:57that invests in new technology, to invest in green technology, to create jobs and investment
01:37:04particularly for young people around the country.
01:37:07So they have got a plan.
01:37:09They've got a fully costed plan that will actually create new jobs, new opportunities,
01:37:15drive down the cost of energy because we will be less reliant on energy coming in from
01:37:22abroad.
01:37:23It will be created within this country and that from the figures will drop the cost for
01:37:31energy in this country by around 20-25%.
01:37:35So we have got a plan.
01:37:37We'll just have to wait and see what works.
01:37:39Where do the jobs come here?
01:37:41Where do the jobs come here?
01:37:43They're all basically in this country.
01:37:45No.
01:37:48Can I just ask, do you think when you talk about the jobs he's talking about with this
01:37:51Great British Energy Company that it's to do with people actually producing energy because
01:37:55it's not?
01:37:56It's investment.
01:37:57It's just investment.
01:37:58There's no production of energy and there's no actual workers producing energy.
01:38:03It's a finance thing.
01:38:04The government puts in a pound and for every pound they put in, three pounds comes from
01:38:08the private sector which turns it into a 75% owned private sector initiative for finance
01:38:14only.
01:38:15This has nothing to do with our energy.
01:38:16We need to decentralise power in all the ways.
01:38:20So how would we benefit here?
01:38:22We would benefit here with local power.
01:38:24Local power, solar on our rooftops.
01:38:26We don't have to do wind farms all over the countryside or solar all over it.
01:38:31We have like solar rooms and then there's tidal.
01:38:33There's a lot of ways we can produce energy.
01:38:36I'm talking about a proper plan, a detailed plan.
01:38:38Okay, so a detailed plan also on that when we're talking environment and energy would
01:38:42be that we employ people in the sector to insulate your home and save you money.
01:38:47How long do you know it will take to get nuclear?
01:38:50Less than 20 years it will take to get nuclear.
01:38:52Or 15 for cracking or all the other ones.
01:38:56It's quick.
01:38:58You're not an engineer.
01:39:00No, but our leader is.
01:39:03So our policy for reform is to scrap net zero because it's impoverishing this country.
01:39:10We're about to lose our steel industry in Wales and those jobs are going to go to India
01:39:14or China in less good environmental conditions.
01:39:17The emissions are simply being sent offshore with the jobs and it is madness.
01:39:22You want to talk about British jobs, sir?
01:39:24It's about keeping the jobs here, about being energy independent, about our oil and gas
01:39:28industry and yes, more nuclear.
01:39:30With Rolls Royce, SMRs, jobs in the UK, a huge export market to follow.
01:39:35Do not believe on Corbyn camera today a Labour MP admitting that it's going to cost hundreds
01:39:40of billions of pounds a year for their net zero 2030 policy.
01:39:45They are lying blatantly to us about net zero.
01:39:48They are ideologues on a scale that I think even the Green Party would be embarrassed about.
01:39:53Give him a big round of applause.
01:39:58You can have as many wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear power stations, any form of
01:40:04generation you like if your grid can't cope with that extra capacity and you're not building
01:40:09the right things.
01:40:10But the biggest challenge to all politicians, and I'm not an engineer either, is how do
01:40:14we make our grid capacity sufficient to take on board all these renewables.
01:40:19The best local contribution that renewable energy can make is quite simple.
01:40:23It's the wire barrage.
01:40:25From that, have a good local job, have a good local power generation and it can help power
01:40:30the whole of Fleetwood, the whole of this constituency.
01:40:32That to me is the most fundamental difference we can make locally.
01:40:40One particular issue this area has to address is the fact that Blackpool is not a city and
01:40:46a lot of development is going into cities.
01:40:49If you look, you'll see that they're expanding because they've got better infrastructure,
01:40:53better roads, etc, etc.
01:40:55If we want more development to take place in Blackpool, Blackpool has got to become a city.
01:41:07Hi, Paul Barnes, Community Organiser at Shelter Lancashire.
01:41:10I don't know if any of the candidates actually look on the community chats on Facebook, but
01:41:15you've got about 10 different housing issues every single day.
01:41:19Now, one in particular yesterday was a member and she's been living in her house for 16
01:41:24years.
01:41:25She had some issues with damp and mould.
01:41:28She told the landlord, she told the council and now she's got Section 21 and has to be
01:41:33out in two months with three children.
01:41:35She's terrified.
01:41:36She doesn't know where she's going to live in two months.
01:41:40After all that, while the council hasn't been putting in enforcement notices and quick
01:41:46enough, so they can't do revenge eviction, the main question is what are the candidates
01:41:54going to do about abolishing Section 21 and actually doing something about renters'
01:42:00reform?
01:42:04Abolishing Section 21 is in our manifesto, as is a rental plan.
01:42:08Did you say Blackpool Community Chat?
01:42:09Yeah.
01:42:10Oh, I get there on a daily basis.
01:42:11You guys do great work.
01:42:12Thank you.
01:42:17Any issue that comes from here needs to be sorted by the MP who's elected next.
01:42:24So, whether it's Section 21 for eviction or anything, that just needs to be spoken about
01:42:31and spoken louder.
01:42:33Thank you.
01:42:35It's fair to say that Prorate House is one of the biggest categories of casework that
01:42:41I deal with as an MP.
01:42:43I'm sure many of my colleagues in Parliament say the same.
01:42:46I think our biggest challenge as a Parliament, as a nation, is to get rental reform right.
01:42:50It's been very difficult for the last government to do that.
01:42:53I deeply wish that that bill had got through.
01:42:56I'm very supportive of the original intentions of it, so I hope that we are able to win it
01:43:00back speedily.
01:43:01There's a difference it can make to the sort of people that you campaign on behalf of.
01:43:09If nothing else, it's a human one.
01:43:12I sympathise enormously with the mother and the kids who you mentioned, and anybody else
01:43:23in that situation.
01:43:24It's an awful situation for everyone.
01:43:31Likewise, I echo those sentiments.
01:43:34I did touch on this earlier about it being such a huge issue within this constituency,
01:43:41and housing is another of those areas.
01:43:46Housing defines the poverty and the deprivation and all the ills of societies that we have
01:43:54within Blackpool and the Far North Coast, because there's a correlation between that
01:43:59deprivation and crime and antisocial behaviour and mental health.
01:44:05All the ills of society, we need to resolve that by intervention, by making sure that
01:44:11the landlords make the standards of properties far better than what they are, more selective
01:44:20about how they work and the absentee landlords.
01:44:25It's a huge issue, but the last point is, we need an MP who understands and who cares
01:44:31and would worry about that.
01:44:39I'm very sorry to hear about your situation you've outlined tonight.
01:44:42I've got to say, from my feedback in politics, that's happening up and down the country
01:44:46everywhere.
01:44:47Fundamentally, we've got a problem.
01:44:48There's not enough housing, there's not enough rental properties, because, and I'm sorry
01:44:51to keep saying this, we've had a population explosion and housing has not kept up with
01:44:55it.
01:44:56Well, let me say to you, sir, Section 21 rent controls, whilst they sound like a good idea
01:45:00and they would certainly seem to address the immediate issue, they would actually force
01:45:04landlords out of the market.
01:45:06So, what we need is a more fundamental look at how we provide housing, whether there's
01:45:09more through the council, we need to build more properties, we need to take the role
01:45:13of landlords to the task, not by changing prerogative legislation, but by licensing
01:45:17landlords.
01:45:18And that's happened in lots of places around the country, and it's been very effective.
01:45:21You deal with the rogue landlords, and you let the good landlords carry on doing their
01:45:25business providing housing to you.
01:45:48Thank you.