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00:00It's the Express and Star here with Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden, he's retained
00:09his seat again and how do you feel about that?
00:14Well I feel great, it's a real honour to be re-elected as the MP for Wolverhampton South
00:19East once again. It's a very humbling thing to stand as an elected representative and
00:25to ask people to turn up and vote for you and I'm aware of the responsibilities that
00:30entails and I'll continue to do the best job I possibly can for the wonderful people of
00:37this constituency.
00:38You've won the seat several times but how is this campaign different to you personally
00:43as your Labour's national campaign coordinator?
00:48Well it was very different for me personally compared to other campaigns because normally
00:53I'd be in the constituency canvassing every day. Because I was Labour's national campaign
00:59coordinator that wasn't possible at this election and I had to spend quite a lot of time at
01:05Labour Party headquarters planning and organising the campaign but I was here as much as I possibly
01:11could be because it's really important to be out there, knocking doors, meeting your
01:15voters and I was able to do a little bit less this time but still as much as I possibly
01:21could.
01:22What about the turnout?
01:23I think turnout's a concern and I think people do feel beaten down. They've been promised
01:31a lot and sometimes it hasn't delivered and one of the things we tried to do in the campaign
01:37this time was to have quite a responsible manifesto that didn't over promise and we
01:42actually took some stick for that because people were saying well there's this problem
01:45and that problem and the next problem and you're not promising enough and I would rather
01:50under promise and over deliver than the other way round. So I think it was right to talk
01:57about first steps, that's what we talked about in the Labour campaign, getting the NHS waiting
02:02list down, getting some economic growth back, hiring some more teachers. We were not promising
02:07the earth because I think when you do that instead of inspiring voters sometimes you
02:14just turn them off.
02:15And has Keir Starmer been in touch or what time did he get in touch to say well done?
02:20Yeah I spoke to Keir shortly after the exit poll came out. We've worked very closely together
02:27on this campaign over the past year and particularly over the last six weeks I've obviously been
02:32in touch with him pretty much every day. So we spoke and I think he's done a really good
02:39job in changing the Labour Party and I think he's going to be a good Prime Minister.
02:43Are you looking forward to being in the Cabinet?
02:45Well that's up to him. I don't know about that yet. It's a matter for the Prime Minister
02:53to appoint the Cabinet so whether anything happens on that front I'll have to wait and see.
02:57And how long have you got to enjoy this moment?
03:03Not long. The British system is very hasty in its turnover. It's not like America where
03:09you get a couple of months as a transition. In the British system everything moves later
03:14today. We're now in the wee hours of the morning here. So I think things will move pretty fast
03:21and you don't get too much time to dwell on it.
03:24Thanks Pat.
03:25Thank you.