Kent Politics Show Special: Election 2024 (22:41-23:18)
Watch back KMTV's live coverage of the UK's 2024 General Election results.
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00:00Okay, we're back with us in our KMTV studio here. That was a report from Oliver back when
00:11Ed Davey was doing an obstacle course, however you want to see that reflect the campaigns.
00:16Plenty of jokes in there. Of course, joining me still is Kent Online's Matt Ramson and
00:20Councillor Barry Lewis as well from Thanet District Council as well. We were just looking
00:25at some of those exit polls and discussing that between us. What were you shocked by,
00:30Barry? Just a correction, I'm Kent County Council. Kent County Council, I apologise.
00:36Well I'm not surprised at East Thanet going Labour. I've been working with Polly Billington
00:43for the last year, but I'm amazed at Herne Bay going Labour. Roger Gow has been MP for
00:5440 years and has always been a moderate Conservative. And we've really not put that much effort
01:07into Herne Bay and Sandwich compared with East Thanet. Why do you think that is? I think
01:13we've got a brilliant candidate, Helen Whitehead, who's well known in Thanet. And I just think
01:22the Reform Party, when you dig into the figures, probably have split the right wing vote in
01:30half, probably. And Helen's come through the middle, if you like. And how disappointing
01:39a night would it have been for Labour in Tunbridge, Wales? For the Liberal Democrats. Sorry, we
01:46misspoke there. We just obviously saw that from Ed Davey and hopefully making big gains
01:50down there, but it doesn't look that way. Massive disappointment, I would say, for the
01:54Lib Dems. They had the hardest start on taking it. A lot of money put on them doing so, but
02:00they just couldn't get over the line. Yeah, there's been quite a few shocks as well. And
02:06I think we're going to be coming shortly to one of our reporters in Canterbury. It's the
02:13Canterbury two counts. There's some places that two counts are happening in the same
02:18room. So Canterbury and Herne Bay and Sandwich as well. We're going to be coming to our reporter
02:24Oliver Leader de Sacks now. Oliver, what's it like where you are?
02:31Westgate Hall is packed all, packed out. Obviously, votes being verified at the moment. Ballot
02:37boxes still coming in. A few of the candidates have arrived. Amelia Randall for Reform UK,
02:43a Herne Bay and Sandwich candidate. She is one of five candidates for that seat.
02:50And there's a few others. Angie Kerwin, also Herne Bay and Sandwich. The mood on the floor,
02:56it's just quite a hectic night. We've seen all the different camps coming in. And obviously,
03:01those local exit polls are showing that Labour's set to have quite a good night if the polls
03:06come to pass. 99% plus that Labour hold Canterbury. Good news for Rosie Duffield and her camp.
03:14And also, 86% chance that Helen Whitehead unseats Roger Gale and takes Herne Bay and
03:21Sandwich. Formerly North Thanet, this seat has been in Conservative control for decades.
03:28Roger Gale has been a Conservative MP since 1983. So, it could be a shock result later today. Only
03:38a few of the pollsters thought Herne Bay could go to Labour. So, it's going to be an interesting
03:43night here and also a very long one. So, we'll have to wait until around 5.30 in the morning
03:48to find out about Herne Bay and Sandwich. Oliver, thank you very much. I'm sure we'll be coming to
03:54you a few times through the night as it all unravels. So, stay awake and stay alert, as we
03:59are trying to do back in the studio here too. Okay. I just want to have a readout. Rishi
04:07Sunak's tweeted to the hundreds of Conservative candidates, thousands of volunteers and millions
04:11of voters. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your support and thank you for your vote.
04:16And Kirstarma, Sir Kirstarma, to everyone who has campaigned for Labour in this election,
04:20to everyone who voted for us and put their trust in our changed Labour Party, thank you. So,
04:25as they should or shouldn't do at this point, it's just an exit poll. Of course,
04:29we keep reiterating that, but it does reflect the mood. Yeah. I mean, the thing about exit polls
04:34these days is they're so scientific. It can't be that far wrong. I mean, Kirstarma will be
04:40Prime Minister this time tomorrow, no doubt about it. And Sunak will rue the day he called the
04:45election in May because, as I said earlier, everything's gone wrong for him and they've
04:50taken a hell of a beating. And that call for that general election on the 22nd of May that day,
04:57there have been rumours and rumours, we hear it in the newsroom and us as journalists,
05:00we all start to, it feels like Christmas is starting. We keep joking about that. But why
05:06do you think it was at that moment? Plenty of people were asking, you know, the post office
05:11scandal was still wearing away. Why do you think that was the time? I suspect they knew they had a
05:17summer of small boat crossings, which was going to sour the public mood even more. But even with
05:23that, the economy is on the bounce. Things are looking up. We were talking about planning for
05:27a November election at work the day before he called it for July. So, I can't wait for the
05:34post-mortem and we understand why he decided to go when he did. I don't know what you think, Barry.
05:40I've heard so many different reasons. I mean, one reason could be that he jumped before he was
05:47pushed, because there was rumours that the number of Conservative MPs were plotting to get rid of
05:54him. So, if that was true, he might have said, enough's enough. And he, as I said, jumped before
06:02he was pushed. And also, it seems very strange why, if he was going to go in the summer, he didn't go
06:08in May, because he had a disastrous May local election. So, he couldn't have picked a worse
06:15moment, could he? Kent is historically so blue. I mean, we had that one Labour MP until Natalie
06:20Elphick defected. But why do you not think that reform have done better here in Kent?
06:26I mean, the devil's in the detail here. I bet they have done very well in terms of votes cast.
06:31It's just that because of the voting system, their vote share is way across the different
06:37constituencies, but not enough to win a majority in any single one. I'd wait until tomorrow to
06:43look at what reform have done in Kent, but I think it'd be big.
06:46Do you think a lot of people will be, we're talking about votes being wasted,
06:49being thrown away, being spoiled. Do you think that people will turn to reform as a way of
06:57protest, wasting their vote if they're looking for that big change,
07:02but knowing that it probably won't amount to a result?
07:06I look at it slightly differently. Historically, if you were on the right of politics, you had one
07:12party, the Conservatives, to vote for. And if you're on the left-ish, you had the Liberals,
07:18Green and Labour to vote for. So, this is the first election where the right have had two parties
07:23together, and the devil's in the detail. I think if you add up the reform and Conservative votes
07:30together, you might get very near the Labour vote, because I think we're a bit early to
07:38analyse it that closely. I wouldn't be surprised, say in East Thanet, that reform might come second.
07:44That's a guess, but I've got that on the... On your cards.
07:51I've been out today, and that's a possibility. Word on the street, yeah.
07:56It's going to be a very close second for...
07:59Where we saw reform campaigning a lot, just this week, walking up and down Rochester High
08:03Street in particular, our Hustings event that we hosted, reform were a very loud presence there,
08:09for sure. They tried to make themselves heard. In Medway in particular, thank you both very much
08:14for joining us in the studio here. I think we're going to head back on over to our studio with
08:19Rob now and discuss more of that Medway-focused vote with George and Vince as well.
08:29Well, welcome back to Medway Park. I'm still here with Vince Maple, the leader of Medway
08:34Council from Labour, and George Perfect, the Conservative opposition leader here at Medway
08:39Council. And as I said a little while ago, there was a bit of a microcosm, a little kind of dress
08:45rehearsal for tonight, one year ago. It was.
08:47Labour took power here in Medway. And it's interesting to look at some of the lessons
08:53that maybe that's learned, maybe some of the things that that's told us about what to expect
08:56from Labour. One of the big campaign issues, certainly from the point of view of the
09:01Conservatives throughout the last six weeks, has been about tax. And I wanted to ask you,
09:05Vince, a year ago, March 2023, we had a press release come out from Medway Labour after a
09:12speech by Keir Starmer saying Medway Labour backs no rise in council tax.
09:19Come this year, you were asking the government for permission to raise council tax by 10%
09:24and to do it without a referendum. Now, if I was a cynical Daily Mail journalist, I'd be
09:29calling that Medway Labour's secret plan, secret tax bombshell for Medway.
09:35Keir Starmer has been accused multiple times that he has secret tax plans.
09:39Is this the kind of thing that maybe we're going to see from Labour?
09:41No. So let me just clarify both elements, because it's important to answer those questions.
09:46So that was a national policy. And that was very much a case of there would be a windfall tax,
09:52last year, where the energy kind of businesses were making huge, huge profits. They're still
09:59making reasonable profits. And I think obviously time will tell what happens with that,
10:02particularly from the business perspective. It's right to say that we wrote to government,
10:07that is correct, based on actually advice from CIPFA, who are the sector leaders.
10:12They said we needed to do a couple of things. That was their recommendations.
10:15I trust experts. There's no point in bringing in expertise like that and
10:19going, that's all very interesting, but I'm just going to ignore you. So it was the right thing to
10:23do. Government wrote back to us and said, we're not going to do that. And that's fine.
10:28That was only, there was a number of places that asked for that, but only a couple were given
10:31permission. Those very high profile councils, which are well documented. And then we were given
10:38exceptional financial support. Of course, that's no extra money, that is more flexibility.
10:42And around 20...
10:43It's more borrowing, effectively.
10:45Effectively, but there's about 20 councils of all political persuasions that requested that,
10:50and that was granted. So that's a good thing. I thank the government for that.
10:54And we'll see where we go, obviously, as we talk to the new government, whoever they might be.
10:58I have to ask, if Sakhir Starmer had been in number 10 at that point,
11:01we'd have a 10% council tax rise in Medway right now, wouldn't we?
11:05Not necessarily. I mean, I think to be fair to the previous government,
11:09their position was pretty consistent. They were in a position to say,
11:13their position was pretty consistent. They only granted that exceptional
11:18flexibility around the council tax levels to those who were in extreme financial circumstances,
11:26and effectively had served a section 114 notice. Of course, we haven't done that.
11:30We brought in SIPFA to try and avoid doing that because of the financial mess we'd been left,
11:35I have to say, by George's predecessors. So we've gone through that process,
11:39and that's why we brought in SIPFA.
11:41So, well, we've got a reporter, Cameron, down in the count room.
11:45I want to go over to him now and just get an update from him on what's happening
11:48as the results start, as the votes start to come in. Cameron.
11:54I've just about caught my breath from that opening, that one box.
11:58Now we have a flurry of votes coming in. As you can see, there is plenty of action going on.
12:03We haven't had any indication yet of when those counts will be called.
12:08We know that from those exit polls, it looks like all of those three seats will go to Labour,
12:16but as we've been hearing for the almost first hour of the show, that is complete speculation.
12:21But as I said, counts are going on, very active here. There's a lot of deliberation going on,
12:27digesting those exit polls. So plenty more to come from here over the course of the evening.
12:34Like I said, just about caught my breath, got those steps up all ready for today,
12:38and we're going to be here hopefully hearing from those candidates across the evening.
12:47Welcome back in. George.
12:52George, the tax was such an important part of it. We've just been talking about that. I mean,
12:57what do you now expect to happen? How will this result affect people out there,
13:02their daily lives, their personal finances? Well, look, I think the Prime Minister said
13:06it out during the campaign, and I think we've just heard from Vince there a slight change in
13:11position. As you correctly referenced, there's still a live press release on the Medway Labour
13:16website, or there was earlier in the week, referencing the fact that Medway Labour supported
13:21no rise in council tax. Come 12 months later, they were expressing significant disappointment
13:27that levelling up Secretary Michael Gove didn't take that decision without a referendum to
13:32increase council tax. So I think, look, we've seen the track record here in Medway. We've also seen
13:37it around other fees and charges as well. So I think as the Prime Minister laid that out,
13:43I think we're going to have to wait and see what Keir Starmer does. But we know that Labour can't
13:47be trusted on tax rises, and we've seen it here locally in Medway. And the Prime Minister
13:52demonstrated the numerous examples coming to that figure, which I won't get us into a debate
13:57about again, which is of significant concerns. We'll have to wait and see, I think.
14:03Well, let's be really, really clear. There is an exact comparison between, if this poll is right,
14:08Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, and myself taking over last year. And that's dealing with the
14:12financial mess that our Conservative predecessors have left. The Conservatives locally left the
14:19finances in a very, very difficult place. They built a budget based on reserves, then used more
14:24reserves to make it balanced. That's not smart money. That's not safe money. And we've seen
14:29similar, you know, the way that the central government have badly managed the economy means
14:35that Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves will have to take some difficult decisions in the same way
14:39that we have as well. I think actually, Rob, I think actually that Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves
14:44are going to be inheriting an economy that's actually in the best place it's been in a number
14:47of years. Whether it be the fact that the Prime Minister got inflation down to the 2% target,
14:53whether it be the fact that people have got unemployment low, we've got the fact that the
14:57pandemic-related aftershocks, particularly around energy and the war in Ukraine as well,
15:02have reduced, means that actually the economy is in a good place. We're probably going to see
15:06interest rate cuts later in the year. And actually, I think the economy is in a good place. In terms of
15:11the Council, look, we've been clear, Medway Council does have a difficult financial settlement.
15:17I'm looking very much forward, though, to what Labour are going to do on local government,
15:20because actually a few weeks ago, actually on the KMTV sofa, Vince was talking about, just the day
15:25before the manifestos were coming out, about wanting to see more money for local government.
15:30Well, I don't see any new money coming from Rachel Reeves or Keir Starmer. So I'm looking forward to,
15:34at the budget, which will have to be set in February by Vince, and providing a reply to that,
15:39because I'm still not seeing Angela Rayner coming forward with any money. She's talking big on
15:44housing, local government, which is an important part of her brief. We're still not hearing
15:47anything. So looking forward to hearing about that. Well, maybe we'll pick up that conversation
15:50in a moment. But I think we're able to go over to Kent's newest constituency, the Weald,
15:55expected to be a very safe Labour speech. And Yaya, I think, is over there with us.
16:01Hi, Rob. Hi, Rob. Yeah, I'm here at the Storr leisure centre waiting for the results of the
16:08Weald. I'm sure you can hear a little bit behind me there's some noise going on. The
16:12counters have been tallying up for a few minutes now, but we're expecting the rest of the results
16:17to come in by 11.30. I'm at the media desk with some other journalists. We've been introducing
16:22ourselves to a lot of constituency agents, making sure that they know we're here, just making sure
16:29that they're all running around, making sure that everything's running smoothly. As Rob said,
16:33the Weald is Kent's newest constituency, and it's also the biggest geographically. It's been made up
16:39of rural Ashford and rural Maidstone, so it's a very rural seat, and it's expected to be a very,
16:45very strong Tory hold. So yeah, currently just waiting for the rest of the ballots to come in.
16:51Only the postal ballots here, expected to be a Tory stronghold at the Weald. And yeah,
16:57that's all we have for now. Thank you very much, Yaya. Well, yes, a very safe Conservative seat
17:05there. And of course, an interesting kind of divide opening up. We've been observing that when
17:10you look at the map between the areas of Kent which are more rural, more affluent, the areas
17:14of Kent which often have those pockets of sometimes quite severe deprivation, particularly on the kind
17:19of coastal borders of Kent. It's quite an interesting divide opening up if this poll
17:25goes the way it does. Anything about that kind of surprise you, Vince? Is that kind of how you
17:30expected this to go? Well, I mean, I think certainly one of the things that people were voting on
17:35across the country, across the county, across the three constituencies here in Medway,
17:39is cost of living. There's no doubt of that. And families have been struggling and actually
17:43families who perhaps have never struggled before. So I was very proud that we brought forward
17:48the Medway cost of living plan last year in our first 100 days. And I think actually,
17:53it's examples like that where again, we've had new Labour councils in a number of those areas
17:58that if the polls are correct, we are likely to make gains tonight. They've seen the Labour and
18:03local government delivering for them with those difficult financial challenges. Local government
18:08as a whole is in a difficult place financially. I think most people would recognise that.
18:13So I think there's partially that as well, that they've seen their council step up at the time
18:18when they need them the most, particularly, I say those who have been accessing support. And
18:22we've heard that on the doorstep a number of times, actually, not just the council,
18:26our voluntary sector colleagues, you know, a number of charities and other organisations,
18:32faith-based organisations, all stepping up to support. People have been struggling. So I think
18:36that's part of the reason they've been looking for change. And this is, I mean, obviously, change has
18:40been the key word for Labour, hasn't it? But the reality is that it's not going to be overnight
18:45change, is it? It's going to be slow change. People who think that their living conditions
18:49might get better by the autumn even, they're probably going to be disappointed, aren't they?
18:54It's going to be a challenge. And some of the stuff in the manifesto, over 120 pages within
18:58the manifesto, a lot of those things will take at least a parliament, at least a parliament,
19:03if not longer. It's always difficult because, of course, your term of office, same as myself and
19:08George, we've got four years that we'll put forward. But there are some things, you know,
19:13my friend and colleague, the deputy leader, is doing some work around care for Medway.
19:17That will fundamentally change how we deal with adult social care. And the impact of that will
19:21go far beyond one term. So it is that balance in a manifesto, that balance in the kind of
19:26trying to deal with the here and now versus being strategic. Actually, good politicians,
19:32of all political persuasions, will take that longer term view and not just think about,
19:37well, when am I next back at the ballot box? That's got to be the better outcomes.
19:42Although sometimes those, of course, can be difficult financially, practically, organisationally.
19:47We've got a trip around the county will continue now. And Dartford is a very interesting seat.
19:53It is the longest bellwether seat in Britain. It has gone with the government all the way back
19:58almost 200 years. And Keeley Greenwood is there with us tonight watching the start of the count.
20:08So I'm here in Dartford. The ballot boxes have arrived. There's 45 counters upstairs
20:16counting the crosses in the boxes. We do the final vote at about 4am. And at the moment,
20:25it looks like it could be a defeat for Gareth Johnson. It could be going the
20:29Labour way, similar to the rest of the country, it looks like.
20:38We're back. And George, we've been discussing here some of the issues from the campaign. You
20:43were talking a little while ago about how interest rates, as you say, are predicted to come down,
20:48about the inflation rate has come back down to target, all of which raises the question of why
20:53Rishi Sunak didn't wait for those benefits to trickle through to the public before he called
20:57this election. There's already been a lot of criticism about that, but that's only going to
21:01intensify now, isn't it? Well, I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of commentators.
21:06And I'm sure even at the moment, there's probably a lot of people on the internet and
21:10others speculating about why the Prime Minister took the decisions that he did. Obviously,
21:15we still don't know the full result of the election. But I think the Prime Minister and
21:19his Chief of Staff took that decision based on what they thought was the best information in
21:24front of them. If this exit polls to be believed, obviously, it doesn't look like that was a good
21:30decision. In politics, sometimes you have to take decisions, sometimes you get them right,
21:34sometimes you get them wrong. But, you know, we'll have to wait and see. But I think we had
21:38the election and we'll have to wait and see what the result is. Because the point you made earlier
21:43is that the economy is being inherited in a slightly better position. I don't think many
21:47people would really agree with that. It's not exactly a 1997 situation where John Major handed
21:52over essentially a fully functioning economy after some very, very difficult periods earlier in his
21:58premiership. The problems are still there at the moment, aren't they? Well, we've got major
22:02problems. I mean, Vince was just talking about social care. We are in a situation at the moment
22:07where we've got not – and this isn't just a problem here in the UK. I mean, if you look at
22:11other G7 nations, but also other similar nations to ourselves in the Anglosphere,
22:17including in Australia, New Zealand, in the US, but also on the continent in Europe,
22:23we've got a number of challenges, particularly low levels of growth in a number of countries.
22:28And this isn't just a problem that we've had here in the UK over the past few years, but also in
22:32Europe and in Oceania. We've got an ageing population. We've got higher levels of need
22:41on public services. And we've got a population that isn't generating, because of those low levels
22:48of growth, the same level of income into the exchequer. And that's part of the challenge both
22:52that Jeremy Hunt's faced as Chancellor, but also in terms of the wider package and
22:57view that many have in terms of public services is why it's so challenged. And because we've got
23:04several hundred thousand more people long term at six since the pandemic, coupled with those,
23:10as I just mentioned, ageing demographics makes it very difficult. And that makes the financial
23:14situation challenging. I think the question for the new government, and this would have been
23:18the same if Rishi Sunak's Prime Minister or Kirstarma, the problem remains, how do you get
23:23Britain growing? I think Rishi Sunak's been starting the work on that, and I think Jeremy Hunt
23:29has as well. But I think it's that long term question. And that's not just, as Vince just
23:35referenced, for one parliament. That's a question for 10 to 15 years. And it's a global issue.
23:41George Perfect, Vince Maple, thank you very much for joining us. We're going to throw back now to
23:44Abbey Hook in the studio over at KMTV. Thank you, Rob, and all of those over there at the
23:52Medway Count. Still joining me in the studio is Councillor Barry Luss and Kent Online's
23:57Matt Ramsden. Matt, you were just talking to me while we were watching along there about reform
24:03and perhaps why Rishi might have called, back to that earlier conversation, why he might have called
24:08that election in May. We were talking about why he called it when he did. But we didn't mention
24:14the Farage factor. And I think Rishi thought he'd call a snap election and that would rule
24:20Farage out of standing. He'd catch him by surprise for various reasons. That's backfired
24:26spectacularly. Farage came back, he got hold of the Reform Party, became its leader, re-energised
24:34the party and attracted thousands and thousands of people wherever he went. And they basically
24:40cannibalised the Tory vote right across the country in places where the Tories thought they'd win,
24:46definitely. And it just added to this really, really dire campaign. And what Barry was saying
24:52earlier that it added another option, you know, before on the left side there's plenty of options,
24:57Conservative were the only, but perhaps it's split some of those votes for sure.
25:02Absolutely. I just can't believe how soon that played his hand. It looked like sometimes he
25:12was trying to lose. The whole campaign was a disaster. And Farage came through looking
25:22normal compared with, you know, the betting scandal, the D-Day fiasco. And the right wing
25:30voters had a choice between an organisation called the Conservative Party that had
25:38done everything they could to ruin the country, in my opinion. And Farage got that protest vote.
25:48Do you think it really is down to the campaigns then? Because this is the question that we talk
25:53about a lot. Is it just down to a bad campaign? Or are people so set in their views? We have people
25:58that turn up on polling day and just don't know until they put that cross in the box.
26:03No, this was a tired government at the end of its life. Whether the campaign
26:10had been better or not, they would still have lost. They would have lost less badly, that's for
26:15sure. But the Conservatives were always going to lose this election. There's an old saying in
26:21political campaigns, which comes from James Callaghan in the 70s, so you'll remember Barry,
26:26he said, when the sea changes, that's it, there's not much you can do about it. And the sea changed
26:31this time and they knew they were going down. And as Barry says, they had a bad hand, which they
26:37played very badly. Okay, well, we're gonna head over now to Sittingbourne and Sheppey.
26:43Gorda Henderson's seat and it's looking to stay Conservative. Joe Crosley from Kent Online
26:49is there now. Joe, what's it like where you are? Yeah, atmosphere's really good at the moment.
26:55Everybody's a little bit nervous, obviously. Just had a lovely chat with Gordon, as you mentioned,
27:01and he's saying he's never confident with these sorts of things. Even in 2019, when he had a
27:0724,000 majority, he wasn't confident. But other than that, everybody's sort of settling in. The
27:15posts, the votes even, sorry, they're all coming in. And yeah, it's all kind of starting to get
27:24underway here. Joe, thank you very much. Just a waiting game, isn't it? But I'm sure we'll hear
27:29from you in the coming hours as well and see how that picture develops. But thank you very much for
27:34the update there. Much quieter count compared to the others, I must say. It seems to be very
27:39bustling at all the others, all the different mics that we're picking up here this evening.
27:46What from the exit poll here in Kent do you think is not incorrect, but perhaps could sway?
27:54Interestingly, Sittingbourne and Sheppey, I'm really interested in how reform goes there,
27:59because there'll be a big vote there. It's predicted that the Tories will keep hold of it
28:05with Ayesha Cuthbert, who's Gordon Henderson's replacement. So I'll be interested to see how
28:12that pans out and how close that is. I'll go back to her and Barry and sandwich.
28:18Your jaw hasn't quite left the floor, Barry, since you saw the exit poll for Kent.
28:22I remember in 1983, fighting Roger Gow when I had hair. And we've been foes ever since,
28:34and he's always been on the winning side. And to get in perspective, he's 80 and Helen Whitehead,
28:43who I love, is young enough to be his granddaughter. And I just shocked. I mean,
28:54I'm delighted. It's the best news, if it's true, I could imagine. But until I see the result,
29:02I'm holding my breath. You talking about age there is switching my brain over to
29:07the Donald Trump and the Biden conversation about age.
29:10Can I also say, talking about age, there's a generation movement in Thanet with,
29:19you know, the old guard moving out and the new guard moving in. And I think not just fresh
29:25faces, but younger people might bring more dynamics to Kent politics.
29:31Yeah, well, it was a seat we covered recently, Oliver Reporter. He was down there. He was
29:36speaking with Roger Gow and the other candidates. And Roger, fairly confident of his position.
29:43Just as you're speaking there, it's been a seat that's been that way for four years.
29:50Matt, what do you think some of the main takeaways from this evening will be? What are people going
29:55to be shocked about? Us as journalists and us as councillors and politicians, we have very different
30:02views of what we expect and what we predict. We sort of have a different view of it. But
30:05those people sitting at home, when they're looking at what we're talking about, what really
30:09matters to them? Because sometimes the jargon can can get a bit confusing.
30:13Yeah, we talk about in Kent what people will be shocked about. So I think if you look at the exit
30:19polls, it was predicted that Medway would go totally red. That was something on the cards. But
30:26you know, I wouldn't be surprised if Chatham and Aylesford had stayed blue. It just goes to
30:31show you what a big personal vote Tracey Crouch had there. Very popular MP. So I think Medway
30:38going completely to Labour will be a bit of a surprise. We heard rumours about Gravesham
30:44and Reform. That could be a bit of a surprise how well they've done there as well. But yeah,
30:49we keep going back to Herne Bay, don't we? That's a big surprise.
30:52Definitely, as it develops as well over the night for sure. Barry, I'm interested to know,
31:01in your part of Kent, what are some of the key issues that people were talking to you when you
31:05were out walking the streets canvassing? What were some of those key things that people really
31:10wanted, focused on? A lot of what we see is wait times, NHS, what were some of the hot spots?
31:16I can only talk about Thanet because I spent six weeks walking every street in Thanet.
31:24I think the dentist thing that we haven't mentioned. People waiting, having their teeth
31:33rotting and waiting. National Health Service, East Kent Trust, hasn't got a very good reputation.
31:42People phoning up eight o'clock in the morning, getting through at ten o'clock,
31:47waiting an hour to get through and then being told they should have phoned at eight o'clock.
31:51That is absolutely disgusting. Health, cost of living. I was at a sure start today and I'm
32:03taking numbers, as you do, and what rolls up? The fare share van with all the free food for the
32:12starving, literally starving families in that part of Margate. That's reality.
32:20The only growth industry in Thanet has been food banks.
32:23Moving to another part of the county we haven't come to yet, our reporter Elisa O'Pare. She's in
32:29Tunbridge, where Tom Tugendhat is going to hold on to his seat there. There's been talks about
32:36running for leadership as well. Elisa, what's it like where you are?
32:39Hello, Adi. The count did start about an hour ago. If you can see here, there's a lot of people.
32:47Tunbridge is a historically conservative constituency and it does look like Tom Tugendhat
32:51is going to keep the seat as the MP here. There's a lot of people going here, as you can see, again.
33:04I'll be sure to keep you updated, Factunia Studio.
33:09Elisa, thank you very much. We're just speaking to Joe before you as well,
33:14saying that different counts, it's busier than others. It depends, I suppose, what view you've
33:18got of the count there, but you're up on the balcony. All right, we'll leave you to it a long
33:22night ahead and we'll hear from you soon, Elisa. Thank you very much for that update.
33:25Are we actually seeing some declarations coming in? As expected, Sunderland South,
33:31that's coming in now. We'll be sure to bring you more details of that as we get it.
33:36I think we're going to a report now. I think we're going to come to a report now just hearing
33:43in my ear. It's a chance for constituents to meet their parliamentary candidates,
33:51but at this Canterbury hostings, the Labour hopeful missing. Rosie Duffield says she's
33:56not attending any due to safety concerns, citing previous death threats. The former Labour MP has
34:03attracted controversy over their views on trans women, arguing there should be protected spaces
34:09where those born male are not allowed to go, and it didn't take long for a constituent to ask a
34:14question on this. I think we should address the question that is partly the reason she isn't here,
34:21and that is what do the candidates think is a woman? Adult, human, female.
34:27I really don't need to go into the detail of it. I mean, that's about all I have to say.
34:34What I think about first before anything else is about those young people who need our help,
34:42and that is as a teacher, as a former teacher, and I think just as a human,
34:48that's where we should be starting. For me, the broader discussion about women's rights,
34:54we should absolutely be having it, but we shouldn't be having it at the exclusion of
34:58trans rights. There are two sexes and two genders, and it's a dangerous safeguarding
35:06issue to confuse children otherwise. The Liberal Democrat, and the clues in the name,
35:13you know, have the best life you can be. I can't imagine as a young person, if you're in a body
35:18that you don't recognise yourself, how difficult and uncomfortable that may be. Rosie Duffield
35:23didn't want to comment on this. And there we go, two hours of lively debate, lots of issues
35:30brought up, housing consistently brought up throughout the questions, even when it wasn't
35:33related. And Rosie Duffield, the former Labour MP here in Canterbury, she got a few mentions, but
35:40what do the constituents make? I originally thought that I was going to vote Labour.
35:45A big thing for me about not voting Labour now is the fact that she didn't come tonight.
35:49You can always increase security, but you've got to face your constituents.
35:54In a way, the debate was a little about the person that wasn't actually here.
35:59You know, people can twist things so easily. And I think it's the opportunity that we've had
36:04tonight to hear from candidates directly. I think that that was a missed opportunity.
36:10We were allowed to ask her two questions earlier on a video call, like all of the
36:15sixth form students. But yeah, it's sad that everyone else here wasn't able to do that.
36:19Yeah, she came with answers that were very good, very real. And I think that the people who
36:24weren't here, weren't there to see that, have really missed out.
36:28With two weeks to polling day, constituents will now be making up their mind about
36:32who to vote for. And the Labour candidate says she's holding a recorded Q&A next week.
36:37Gabriel Morris in Canterbury.