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MODERATOR: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome
to the Labour Leadership Hustings 2020.
Thank you, everyone very much and welcome to the South West
Hustings, this morning.
My name is DianaCornell and I will be moderating the hustings
today and keeping the candidates in check.
I want to say welcome to all of you and particularly to our
leadership candidates for coming to the south west, it's a
beautiful part of the world with its own challenges.
We do hear a lot about the north of the country, but obviously
Labour needs to win here as well.
(APPLAUSE) I just want to say... I will go through the running
order and the way it will work, some of you will be familiar
with that, who have watched it live already on Facebook, but I
want to say before I start, that I am the
leader of Stroud District Council, it's one of only four
councils led by Labour
in the south west. And it is worth remembering that Labour is
still in Government locally and our councils across the south
west are pioneering councils that are unV8ing in
ways, for example, in housing and climate change, reaching
carbon neutrality, I must say in Bristol and Plymouth and
particularly in Stroud we have local elections in May and it's
really crucial and I have invited our candidates to come
and campaign with us,
because we really need their support. So, I have a little
script here, just to run through, so you are familiar
with the proceedings. It's quite well-organised, so this event
gives you all as members as chance to ask candidates
questions on the issues that matter most to us as Labour
voters affiliate members and supporters. The aim of
guidelines I will follow is to ensure the event fair to all the
candidates and they are treated equally. Earlier on in the green
room I went through the questions you have submitted,
there is a fantastic range of questions and it was a challenge
to select some of them, but I hope we have agreed on a broad
range of topics also with a flavour for where we are in
south west as well. Each of the candidates will have 40 seconds
to answer the question and a further 40 seconds, it's not a
lot, but if you are a good politician you can say
a lot in 40 seconds and a further 40 seconds to answer any
follow up questions I might ask. They do have a timer down there
and I know sometimes they are naughty and try to go over, but
I will tray to make sure they stick to it, because if we stick
to the time it means we get as many questions in as possible
and I think that is only fair. Candidates are also respond to
any points other candidates have made and I will make sure that
candidates have an equal amount of time to do so. I will be
putting your questions to the candidates on your behalf and I
want to thank you for submitting so many. Before we came out on
stage the candidates drew lots to decide which one of them will
stand at which podium, so the candidate behind podium number
one which is Emily Thornberry, will answer the first question
first and going down the line they will each answer the
question in turn and then we will keep it going, so each time
a different person answers first, if that makes sense. I
have a grid hear to remind me of how we are going to do that!
Sounds complicated, but it will be fine. Each question will be
asked to every candidate, we won't have opening statements,
we will go straight into the
first question, but candidates will be finishing off with a
statement. I would ask you to treat the candidates with
respect and also, obviously the candidates treat each other with
respect, I think the hustings so far have been conducted in a
really good way and we do obviously want you to share your
appreciation and support in the usual way, because I am sure
this matters a lot to us. But can we ask that we don't have
too much extended clapping because the more clapping we
have, the less we are going to fit in, we really want to get a
lot of questions in. So, without further ado, let's get started.
So aim going to start with Emily, I have a question here to
get us going, so
this is a question about football from Bristol South. I
am going to read this question and for anyone who I know
personally don't be offended, this is not my question. Given
that we are in Ashton Gate, home of the greatest football team in
the
world, Bristol City FC, not my question, I am just reading it,
I was wondering what the candidates favourite football
chant is, Emily?
EMILY:
EMILY: So, I represent Arsenal, that is my constituency and I
will tell you that
I am therefore an Arsenal supporter, but I don't care
about football! I am sorry I really don't.
I know I am supposed to and I know politician are supposed to,
but you know what I am a girlie and I have other things I spend
my time thinking about and I am sorry guys, I know there are
some women who support football teams as well and I do support
Arsenal and I will go to the games and I am pleased we do
well, but in the end, aim interested in other things!
MODERATOR: Thank you, Emily, Lisa.
LISA: This is a very anti-rugby league question. I don't think
we should accept this
level level of division in the Labour Party.
My step dad was a livelong Bury FC fan,
his last words just before he MODERATOR: Thank you, Emily,
Lisa. LISA: This is a very anti-rugby
league question. I don't think we should accept this level of
division in the Labour Party. My step dad was a livelong Bury FC
fan, his last words just before he died to my step brother were
"what is the score? " When the stadium closed down a few
years ago it was so devastated and there so much to say in a
football model that that is allowed to happen and people
lose something that important but the same sentiment applies
in Bury, so it's coming home is my choice, Labour is
Coming
so devastated and there so much to say in a football model that
that is allowed to happen and people lose something that
important but the same sentiment applies in Bury, so it's coming
home is my choice, Labour is Coming Home.
KEIR: Thank you all very much for coming, Lisa lent across and
said did I stitch this question up? Because I am a massive
football fan
and one of my boyhood memories
is Five O'clock Sports Report, I remember that forever.
I am an Arsenal fan and a season ticket holder, so I am sorry
about that. Extended happening will not know that
and our chant is 1-0 to the Arsenal, which is about as
unoriginal you could get.
I went to see the Arsenal Barcelona game in Paris and we
were singing 1-0 to
the Arsenal and they had these fantastic songs, it put us in
our place.
What I would say more seriously is grassroots football really
matters, the money much too much at the top and it's the clubs at
the bottom that need the
resource and we need to turn that
around. REBECCA: So I am a united fan
and there is one great legendary footballer, who in many hundreds
of are years from now
will be known as in the same way as
Plato and Socrates, he is the king, King
Eric, my favourite football chant is "to turn that around.
REBECCA: So I am a united fan and there is one great legendary
footballer, who in many hundreds of are years from now will be
known as in the same way as Plato and Socrates, he is the
king, King Eric, my favourite football chant is "ooh, ah,
Cantona." MODERATOR: I will be going to
Lisa to start this question off. This is a question from Chris in
Stroud, quite rightly much has been said about Labour losing
many seats in the midlands and north, however to win Labour,
Labour must win not many other seats also in the south and
south west. What would you do to persuade voters to vote Labour
in these areas? LISA: My answer to that is that
the scale of the challenge is awesome, but it's ours for the
taking. Over the last few years I have spent time in every
region and nation of this
country, in city seats, suburbs and towns and villages, there is
no affection or enthusiasm for the Tories but to win people's
trust back Labour
has to change. We have to show people we are rooted in the
communities and we have as much riding on this as the people we
represent and most of all we have to work with pioneering
councils like Stroud to help show the change and the
difference that Labour makes, so that in 2024 when we are asking
people to vote for us, who are two or three years old, last
time there was a Labour Government, we will be able to
point to what is
happening in the communities and say that is the difference
Labour make, trust us to deliver real, radical change.
MODERATOR: Keir. KEIR: Thank you very much for
that question. We often forget that if you draw a line
from London to Bristol and look south
there is over 120 seats Wii have a handful of them. So we have a
huge job to do, we won't win if we don't win in the south, south
west and the south east and as I have gone around talking to
people, campaigning in the south, the south west and the
south east, what I am really aware of is that the towns and
the villages and lots of the issues that are there in the
south are not dissimilar to the issues across other parts of the
country. If you go around the Kent coast or further along
around here you get the same issues. We have to listen to
what people are saying to us, I think they want more power and
control and they want investment in their areas, but we need to
be here making the case because we are not going to win without
winning the
south as well as the rest of England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern people are saying to us, I think
they want more power and control and they want investment in
their areas, but we need to be here making the case because we
are not going to win without winning the south as well as the
rest of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
>>: Look, there is no difference between someone who is
struggling in Bristol, compared to someone who is struggling in
Blythe and we have to have a message that speaks to every
single community in
whatever income bracket I fall within. Unfortunately, in this
election, although we had many of the greatest
policies I think we have ever had from
our green revolution all the way to Democratising our economy we
didn't have a message of aspiration that spoke to our
community and proved that the Labour Party was the party of
empowerment and improving people's lives, so that is the
first thing we need to do. The second thing is about making
sure
that we create a mass movement, a year-round campaigning force,
not just in General Elections, but making sure that all of our
members are rooted
within their communities and they are visible.
We have to rebut the attack, we have
been too nice, I will be honest, we have to rebut the smears and
fight tooth and
nail against the smears that are coming against us from the
press. Finally we made to know who the enemy
is and we have to unite as a party.
MODERATOR: You are doing very well, but all of you are
slightly going over, so if you try to keeptooth and nail
against the smears that are coming against us from the
press. Finally we made to know who the enemy is and we have to
unite as a party. MODERATOR: You are doing very
well, but all of you are slightly going over, so if you
try to keep on eye on the clock there.
>>: I can't see it. MODERATOR: Can't you?
MODERATOR: You are doing very well, but all of you are
slightly going over, so if you try to keep on eye on the clock
there. >>: I can't see it.
MODERATOR: Can't you? We can move it. Is that better?
>>: Great, yeah, thank you. MODERATOR: Okay, good. Emily.
EMILY: Without a doubt we have to win seats across the whole of
our nations because we cannot be a party that just represents a
part of the country and it's right, struggle is struggle and
poverty is poverty and it doesn't matter where you come
from.
I was, can I come from Guildford, but I launched my
campaign in Guildford,
people went Guildford, no, actually Belfield council
estate, there is poverty in London, the south east and south
west and poverty across the whole of our country. We have to
be a party of the safety net, but we also have to be a party
of opportunity and that opportunity is making sure that
not only that we invest in education, but that we give
people a chance, we cannot continue to insist that people
leave their parents and move to London in order to be able to
get opportunities.
We have to have a proper industrial strategy, an active
industrial strategy that brings jobs to the whole of the
country, we must rebalance our economy and we cannot do that
without a Government that believes that you can actually
make a difference in Government
and we link that industrial strategy with our Green
Industrial Revolution, but people to have to believe that
we
mean it and that we will do
it. MODERATOR: Thank you for those
answer, you are cheekily going over the time limit, I am not
picking on anyone in particular, you are all having a go. Right,
good politicians. Good question now, I am going to start with, I
think we are over to Keir to begin with one, what were you
thinking at 11.00pm last night, this is a question from
Tom from Bath CLP. KEIR: I was thinking about the
state of our country, it was for me a sad moment leaving the
Europe Union. Sad because we are losing something
which I believed in as a peace project above all else, but also
I was reflecting on the fact we have argued uphill and down Dale
for three-and-a-half years about the deal we may or may not do
and we haven't done anything about the underlying reasons why
people voted in the way they did,
bus I think it was years of political
failure and economic failurereflecting on the fact we
have argued uphill and down Dale for three-and-a-half years about
the deal we may or may not do and we haven't done anything
about the underlying reasons why people voted in the way they
did, bus I think it was years of political failure and economic
failure that led so many people to say "we need change." So it
renewed my determination that we need to bring about fundament
and change in this country and shifting power and wealth and
resources.
So we need to look forward,
forward, leave/remain as a divide is over, but the future
is about changing
this country
determination that we need to bring about fundament and change
in this country and shifting power and wealth and resources.
So we need to look forward, leave/remain as a divide is
over, but the future is about changing this country forever.
>>: I was very sad last night, but we need to acknowledge in
the last General Election many of our constituents didn't
trust us on Brexit, if they were leave voters they thought we
were trying to overturn the referendum result, if they were
remain they thought we weren't being strong enough. enough. I
think the debate is over what we need to be thinking about is
building a Britain after Brexit. We cannot spend the four years
waiting to tell our constituents we told you so and we knew it
was going to be this bad all along, we have to protect them,
hold the Government to account and make sure that they get the
best possible trade deal, that protects workers' rights and
protects consumer and health and safety standard and
environmental protections but ultimately build that economic
vision for the future that will rebuild our communities and
provide the hope
that people need. MODERATOR: Emily.
EMILY: 11.00pm last night I was really down. I thought as if the
blow of losing the General Election was bad enough now we
were leaving the European Union as well. Although there was much
crowing last night I was one of the ones who was really worried
about what the hell is going to happen next. What is going to
happen next?
We need to have a deal with the European Union and we need to
make sure our biggest trading partner is kept close to us and
we also need to be close
to them in security and cultural reasons. I am concerned about
people who don't know if they can stay in the country. We
don't know if we will have that deal by the end of the year,
frankly I don't think we will and I don't think Boris cares.
What has he done in the last month, he
has tried to make sure that big Ben bongs, providing a 50 pence,
these are the things he cares about, we need to be out there
and fighting and making sure that he does what he supposed to
do which is making sure he has a good deal with the European
Union and he looks after our country.
We may well be back in no-deal territory I am afraid by the
summer, because they won't have done anything by that stage.
MODERATOR: You are going over. EMILY: We need to have someone
leading the fight on the right side of the
argument all along. MODERATOR: I feel like I need a
red flag to wave. Lisa.
LISA: I was feeling defiant at 11.00pm last night. I am someone
who campaigned for remain, wanted to remain and when we
lost the
referendum went out and made the case
for a close political and alliance with the E lost that
too. Over the last three years we have allowed the Tories to
divide us. That is what they do, we divide and
rule, we should never have accepted the terms of that
fight, we have looked backwards when we should have been looking
forwards to the country we can
be and we missed the point of the political earthquake which
was a clamour for more control and agency across the country.
Let's learn from where we have been and think about why we are
going. The future lies in investing the skills in this
country and attracting talent from around the world so that we
can
build the high wage, high-skilled xherks outside of
the EU, but with our future
very clearly pointing towards
the country. Let's learn from where we have been and think
about why we are going. The future lies in investing the
skills in this country and attracting talent from around
the world so that we can build the high wage, high-skilled
xherks outside of the EU, but with our future very clearly
pointing towards Europe. - economy outside of the EU.
MODERATOR: Thank you, someone let out some fireworks around
the back of my
house so I played Ode to Joy loudly. Moving on so what does
global Britain mean to you? I think that is a good follow on
question to what we have just heard and we are starting with
becky now. REBECCA: It recognises that we
are an internationalist party and we need to rebuild our own
economic foundations but we do that from an internationalist
perspective. I want Britain to lead the world in a
greel Industrial Revolution and sell our technologies overseas
and help to develop the economies of those countries
overseas who are struggling, giving them a bright, green
future in the same way we are going to give our own
communities that bright green future of security and well-paid
jobs.
I also think that a globalised society recognises the role that
Britain has to play in defence and foreign policy, about making
sure we are a force for peace, that we forge diplomatic
relationships with countries across the world and make sure
that Britain says
very much stability and peace across the
world. EMILY: The Tories mean by global
Britain they mean trade, but we mean more than
that, we mean making sure we act unilaterally, we are a
unilateral
country we have always had our voice amplified by speak to
other countries who have similar views and values and it
seems to me we have a role on the security council, frankly
most international law was written by British lawyers and
it's because we are unilateralists we need to
continue to play that role. But our place on the security
council
is not to be a Donald Trump mini me, we have to have our own
voice and make sure we have a leadership role when it comes to
peace and when it comes to ensuring that countries come
together and yes, it's about international leadership when it
comes to the green deal. We need to make sure we are protecting
our planet, we need to make sure we are pushing ourselves in the
right way and in a world where there are more and more of these
big men who think they can trample all over international
law and international institutions, we need to bring
other countries together and we made to stand up to them and say
no, the future of our world is too precious to allow you to
play with it in this way, we have to stand up to them and we
will
with a Labour
Government. LISA: We are a better country
than the Tories would have you believe. In my part of the
world, in Lancashire,
years ago the Lancashire textile workers came out and stood
shouldered to shoulder with the Indian cotton pickers uniting
the two sides of my family from India to Lancashire. That is why
I say as we move out of the European Union, to try and seek
a close relationship with our European friends and allies.
We have to use the leverage we have to recapture that spirit,
we should not be signing trade deals with countries who haven't
signed up to the Paris agreement and we should use the leverage
we have to raise up standards, not for people
here, but for working people across the world.
KEIR: This is an important question, as of today we stand
on the international stage alone, again.
Therefore, what we stand for absolutely matters and I am an
internationalist, I have always believed in internationalism and
our parties always believed in
internationalism, solidarity across forwardism, we made to
make that case, because there is a danger that we turn in on
ourselves,
people
people interpret that as a country that draws into itself.
So we need to make the case for peace and justice as our
principles and values and I want to be the Labour Party Prime
Minister of this country that goes forward with those value,
reestablishing that for Britain on the international
stage and making the case for human rights-based foreign
policy, a human-rights based trade policy, so we are actually
forging our way forward, I also want to be the British Prime
Minister that leads the way on climate change by much stronger
agreements. The Paris Agreement is all very well, but it's just
not strong enough, we could lead on the international stage,
let's step up to that and not withdraw
from
it. MODERATOR: Apologies, I think I
forgot to say that question was from Jane from Bristol West.
So moving on related questions, so this is from Alex, also from
Bristol West, we have chosen many other CLPs as well, this is
a question on women and equality and we will be back to starting
with Emily to take this first.
With Trump's administration seeking to undermine laws which
protect the rights of women what will you do to make sure these
rights are protected at home and abroad? abroad?
EMILY: Donald Trump by his appointments
to the Supreme Court is trying to
undermine ReVWade. We have to make sure we are a beacon of
women's rights, our rights are hard won
and it seems to me there must be no black lied sliding, if the
law is introduced so it is not criminal to have
an abortion in Northern Ireland they should come over to the
United Kingdom. No back sliding as for making sure that women's
rights are the same across the world. I fear that with the
growth of big men and people like Donald Trump who think it's
okay to sexually assault women and still be President of the
United States,
we made to have more women leaders on the international
stage, to say you are the sexual prod for, this is not the way to
behave, the women of the world say no, we will not be
humiliated, we are
powerful and we fight back. MODERATOR: Lisa.
LISA: When I was first elected to Parliament I used to say to
young girls in my constituency, you must step forward, you must
get involved and make your voice heard and I want to see you as
the politicians of the future. Ten years later I hesitate
before I say that because I am not sure that I want to subject
them to what women like me
and Becky and Emily have to put up in politics. So I want to see
Labour out there, much bolder, flying the flag, speaking up,
speaking out, men and women in this party, about the importance
of women leadership at every level in our communities, when I
say we push power down, that is because it's women across this
country who are delivering real change and if we want to create
that world we have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We
need women in positions of responsibility in our party, not
just at the front, but behind the scenes where policy is being
made and I never want to
see women shouted down in CLP meetings again, I have seen far
too much of it in
the last few years and I
want it to stop. KEIR: As the only man on this
panel, let me make this clear and make it a pledge. I will be
no lesser champion of women's rights than any of the other
candidates on this panel. That is what I have done all my life
as
a lawyer, as director of public prosecutions, fight for women's
rights,
whether that is hate crime, whether that is violence against
women and girls, where we did a huge amount of time when
I was at the Crown Prosecution Service or whether it's fighting
alongside others against the sort of abuse that is
much more directed against women than it ever is as men.
All of us politicians get abuse but I get less because I am a
man and I will
stand up against that all the
time. REBECCA: I am proud of our
party's record in standing up for women's rights. I think over
the next four years we are going to be faced with a Government at
home that is equally as bad as Donald Trump frankly. And we are
going to have to fight Boris Johnson against the cuts he has
made to rape crisis and women's refuge and we are going to fight
them every step of the way on basic human rights such as the
right to choose.
We are also going to have to fight for trans people within
our party and within society and demand self ID to be legislated
for. But we have to look beyond this and look at the bigger
economic picture, the vast majority of cuts have fallen on
the
shoulders of women in society and unless we see an economic
revolution right across the country, we will never be
able to address the disparity of paying income between women and
their male counterparts. That cannot be done in the piecemeal
fashion, that requires building our economy up from the ground,
scrapping universal credit and make suring we have a welfare
system that supports people in
this fit for purpose and tackling the
gender pay gap vigorously.
MODERATOR: Okay, thank you, as a woman councillor, the only woman
who is leading a council in the south west it is important to
encourage women into politics.
We have been as women members of the party encouraged by the
outcome of the
election, both the deputy leader and
leader we have a good mix of men and women standing. That is a
great measure of the talent we have in our party. But, of
course, so the men don't feel out I have chosen a question, a
question which I think is extremely important. This comes
from Alison in north Somerset and I am going to be starting, I
think with Lisa now. So what measures would be put in place
to raise the aspirations, horizons and educational
attainment of the white working class, in particular those of
boys and young women who occupy the lowest rung in the ladder of
national educational achievement?
LISA: So before I came into Parliament I worked with
children and young people first at Centrepoint and then migrant
and refugee children.
Young people from working class backgrounds are ever bit as
aspiration
Elle as their younger peers until they reach the age of 14,
when somehow the society we have beats the aspiration out of
those young people and tells them there is no use having
dreams because they don't have a plan. The first thing I would do
is to restate that education maintenance allowance and a
programme called Aim Higher which lifted the number of young
people from my constituency that went on to university by 40% in
just six years, one of the greatest legacies of the last
Labour Government, one of the first
things the Tories took the axe to, we should never ever let
them forget it, we bring it back and we make those dreams
into
reality. KEIR: Putting our money in our
primary schools and our 0-5s. SureStart was fantastic.
My life was a learning mentor, working in primary schools with
white working class boys who were struggling, not because
they had learning difficulties by because of the circumstances
they were living in at home. It was a fantastic Labour project,
it was making a real difference and it's all been cut, its a
disgrace, so we have
to put our money in to our young people 0-5 and then at primary
school in particular, because if we don't catch it there, it is
so much more difficult to deal with it at secondary school and
beyond secondary school. That was one of the fantastic things
we did that wasn't embedded and has been stripped away by the
Tories and is
absolutely dis
catch it there, it is so much more difficult to deal with it
at secondary school and beyond secondary school. That was one
of the fantastic things we did that wasn't embedded and has
been stripped away by the Tories and is absolutely disgraceful.
>>: Funnily enough I was talking to the train conductor on the
way down and this is the point he made. I would lake to say
that aspirational is socialism, it's not about social mobility
for a select few who are lucky to climb a ladder and succeed.
This is about every single one of us in every community being
able to reach our potential and we don't have that system at the
moment.
So we made a cradle to grave education
service, we need to make sure that apprenticeships are worthy
of the name and start bringing up our young people and training
them in the skills of the future and alongside that we have got
to have an industrial strategy that
actually creates the jobs of the future, the Green Industrial
Revolution will do that and the industrial strategy that I have
been working on over the last four years will work towards
doing that, but
we also have to make sure that we have security in those jobs
and that means
making sure that we roll out sectoral collective bargains and
ensure that Trade Unions have access to every single workplace
and we ban zero hour contracts. MODERATOR: Can you wrap up now.
REBECCA: For me the role of Government is...
MODERATOR: I think you have... sorry, Becky. I know it's
difficult for you, but you have been all doing well, but I am
trying to, I am getting evil eyes from the other candidates
when we go off the time allowed. We still have quite a lot of
questions through, so I think we are back to Emily now.
EMILY: I think it is about, you can't
expect people to have aspiration if they don't have the
opportunities and there
aren't the things for them to be then able to inspire to do.
Where we have a country that is stripping out jobs for people,
where they cannot see what is the point of doing well at
school, what is the point of going into an apprenticeship, if
it's not really teaching you very much, it's
very difficult in those circumstances toable to inspire
to do. Where we have a country that is stripping out jobs for
people, where they cannot see what is the point of doing well
at school, what is the point of going into an apprenticeship, if
it's not really teaching you very much, it's very difficult
in those circumstances to simply say "we need to have aspiration.
" What we need to have is opportunity. We can only have
those opportunities if we change the way our economy works, as I
have already said. We need to have proper jobs for people up
and down the country and then of course what we need to be doing
is making sure that our education system is worthy of
its name and there are things, particularly at SureStart,
particularly at 16 where people do need to have additional money
in the educational maintenance allowance and we need to have
more male teachers so that boys can identify with them more
closely and we need to make sure that when kids are 12, 13, they
want to find another role model and there isn't necessarily a
male teacher that we have a youth service and
the youth service is there as an alternative series was role
models for young boys to aspire to and be able to see there are
other ways that. Is how it works and we are ignoring this at our
peril.
MODERATOR: Thank
you. You are doing exceptionally well because you are being asked
some complex questions and answering them succinctly.
I am going to move on to housing now, certainly in Stroud and
Bristol we have been building some of the first council
houses in generations, so we are proud of our record on that, but
it is a
crucial issue that didn't come up during the General Election.
It's a question from Tony in Chippenham. He says some
estimates suggest that the shortfall in housing may be as
much as three million households and it's not even meeting
current demand.
What should party policy be in addressing this housing
shortfall and to tackle the inequities in the housing
market. I think it's Keir to start this one.
KEIR: More houses at affordable rates.
It's basic, it should have happened and it hasn't happened
and it's across the whole country. This affects
everything, poor housing people can't afford is distressing
because you are living in poor circumstances. In my
constituency we have huge amounts of overcrowding because
we haven't got enough council housing and social housing and
then it's not just the temporary period you are living in
overcrowding or poor conditions, it affects the children and so I
get parents coming to me in my surgery with a note from school
saying their children are failing at school because they
can't learn at home. Before you know it, those kids are then on
the street, because if you have too many children in an
overcrowded house they will go on to the street and that leads
to other problems. This is not just a housing issue, it's a
massive issue and we made more housing and council housing and
social housing at rents and rates that people can actually
afford. I don't mean the definition of affordable
housing, I mean that they can actually afford. It's
disgraceful we are in this place, we absolutely need to
make a commitment of it, don't see it as a housing issue, see
it as a much bigger social justice
issue, because that is what it
people can actually afford. I don't mean the definition of
affordable housing, I mean that they can actually afford. It's
disgraceful we are in this place, we absolutely need to
make a commitment of it, don't see it as a housing issue, see
it as a much bigger social justice issue, because that is
what it is. >>: Housing is a basic human
right and
we are not providing our people with that human right at the
moment.
We need to see a dramatic council house building
programme, like the one we set out in the last manifesto, we
need to
ban the right to buy unless those houses
are replaced on a like for like basis, we need significant
controls on private tenancies to provide fair rents and security
so that families and
individuals can put down roots within communities. But we also
need to look at the quality of housing, many years ago, the
Labour Party was proud to roll out a set of quality standards
for homes and that seems to have been rolled back over the last
40 years. We need to be the generation that
brings back that demand for quality, whether it's insulating
your home or making sure it's in a space or a lighting place or
area that is fit for purpose. That is the quality of life that
people
deserve and we are the party to lead on that.
MODERATOR: Emily. EMILY: The answer to the housing
crisis is to build more homes. We need to build more homes,
that is the only way we can address the housing crisis and
we need to do it by way of carrot and stick. So we need to
have Government money going into building more affordable housing
and social housing and council housing but we also need a stick
and we haven't got a big enough stick at the moment and we need
to pass some laws to make sure we do. What we need to be doing
is this, we need to be saying to those who are land-banking, you
use it or you will use it, we will make sure that areas are
zoned for housing, you have five years to build, if you don't
build within those five years the council is taking it over
and as for all of these empty
flats for these people who are this
China, let's buy a gold bar or buy a flat in Bristol, no, you
are not allowed to buy a flat in Bristol as an investment and
keep it empty, if you
keep it empty, you lose it. Intergenerational justice, it is
not fair that younger people are never considered for social
housing and they are too young and not seen as a priority need
and it's not fair they can't afford
to buy, so
what do they this they go into the
private rented sector
which is Dickens ian. That is how you deal with the housing
crisis. You have to take it seriously and it has to be a
priority.
It is a question of leaving an entire generation behind who are
not able to find anything but prey carous housing, it's a
shock and a shame and we must do
something about it. LISA: I can't follow that!
that! The housing crisis that we have, we have two. It's a
consequence of an economic model that is broken. There is the
housing crisis in towns like many and many of the towns we
lost at the last election, where you have got board up homes for
housing that we are building is completely unaffordable,
£450,000 houses in places where people have average household
incomes of
£25,000 a year and it's a consequence of jobs having
departed those areas and the young people with them, but the
flipside is what is happening in Bristol. Where are those young
people going? They are moving to the cities.
So we are overheated one part of the economy and we are
completely underusing and underappreciating another. That
is why you have the high house prices and the inability of
young people to get on the how housing ladder.
That is why you have these rogue landlords able to get away with
treatment in the private rented sector.
If we want to sort this out we need to look to councils like
Liverpool where
they have brought in a Liverpool housing register which the
Tories have banned. We have to say this is the difference
between us, they are out there doing this and they are trying
to stop us. Elect a Labour Government and this
could change. MODERATOR: Thank you, I think,
Becky you are due to start this one. This is a question from
Teresa from Bristol West. It's about social care. I am a
hospital doctor working with older people.
One of the challenges facing the NHS is
delayed discharges due to lack of social
care in the community, how are you going to address the funding
for social care
and long-term care? REBECCA: We have a model that if
you work hard and you contribute you will be looked after when
you are older or fall on hard times and unfortunately that has
been broken by the current Government. It's happened over a
number of years and it's happened because they want to
privatise the NHS, there is no two ways about it, they have
been running it into
the ground and in terms of social care
they, don't want us to have a publicly owned social system,
they want those who can afford to pay to pay for their own
social care. Now, it's not an easy question to answer, but we
need dramatically more investment in social care, we
need to look at the creation of a National Care Service, we need
to recommit to the pledges that we set out in our manifesto
about free personal care and ensuring that people can stay in
their own homes for as long as they possibly can. But it's also
about rebranding the
whole social security framework and reiterating that contract to
people within our community so they understand
what it's for, because for too long, we
have let Tories away with the argument of scroungers and those
who afford it should go private and do what it is they want to,
because they deserve to do that. That is not what we believe in,
we need
to rebrand social security and social care.
MODERATOR: Emily.
EMILY: In this country there are elderly women put to bed at 5.
00pm in the evening and told they have
to stay there because there is no one to look after them. There
are people with disabilities who don't get washed every day,
there are
people who have to choose between being washed or having a
meal cooked for them.
We have slid too far to the right and we need to sort it
out. Just as our country believes in the
National Health Service if people knew
how bad it was, let's find out, let's not make that happen,
let's sort it out. It is a question of a safety net, is it
a question of who we are as a country, we look after the
elderly, and the marginalised and the weak, that is who we
are, because it could happen to us, at any time, it could happen
to anyone in our family and the British way is that we look
after one another and we put our arms around one another. We put
our arms around each other and our national religion is the
National Health Service frankly it's little poor
sister is social care, we pay for it, frankly and I think we
pay for it out of national taxation, let's not mess around,
let's make sure we extend our National Health Service, in the
end it undermines the National Health Service. People go into
the NHS in crisis because there has been no one there to
look after them and then they can't get out afterward because
they have no one to look after them.
It makes no sense, if you have dementia, as my father did,
there is no
way you get that care paid for, because somehow or another it's
not a physical disability, so we have to, so if you are over a
certain income it has to be paid for. Basically if you get
dementia it's a 100% tax. That is not fair, we should all be
looking after one another and frankly
it's a women's issue, because in the end, it's women who hold up
the sky and we are the ones who have the responsibility at the
end of the day and we are the ones who are living longer and
are likely to need our scare. MODERATOR: Thank you.
EMILY: And they will be look after us in
our old age we have to sort this out.
MODERATOR: MODERATOR: Okay, Lisa.
LISA: We have to be honest that if we
want proper social care for our families
and for my family and for yours we have pay for it. Tax is not a
bad thing, tax is the contribution we make to a more
civilised, more caring society and when
we allowed bedroom tax, one of the most callous policies I have
seen, I am
afraid we won the battle, by lost the war. We have to go out
and make the case for a tax system that is sustainable. That
means it has to be fairer and more feasible. We can't keep
taxing earned wealth and income, we have to start taxing unearned
wealth and have the courage to go out
there and make that case and win that argument, so that in the
wealthiest
country in the world, or one of them at least, our older people
don't have to
fear growing old without dignity andincome, we have to start
taxing unearned wealth and have the courage to go out there and
make that case and win that argument, so that in the
wealthiest country in the world, or one of them at least, our
older people don't have to fear growing old without dignity and
warmth. Bobby Kennedy once said "some people look at the world
as it is and say why,
I see the world as itgo out there and make that case and win
that argument, so that in the wealthiest country in the world,
or one of them at least, our older people don't have to fear
growing old without dignity and warmth. Bobby Kennedy once said
"some people look at the world as it is and say why, I see the
world as it should be and say why not? " That is the spirit we
need to
recapture for the next Labour Government in 2024 that will
sort in settlement out
for good.
KEIR: Social care is in a complete mess. Anyone who works
in it or experiences it, knows it needs a complete overhaul
from top to bottom. The provision isn't there, the
funding
isn't there, the staff are treated very
poorly, poor conditions, poor pay and always attacking those
conditions.
So if you are staff, it's likely you are not paid to go between
trips to dispense the care you need to dispense,
so it needs a top to bottom overhaul and we need to
recognise the skills that the staff in the sector actually
have and have a proper framework for them. Of course it needs to
be joined up with the NHS, I agree with many of the points
that others have made on this panel and it's good we are all
making similar points for the future of our party, but I will
tell you this, not being able to
deal with this for five years is the price for failure, because
it's all very well saying this now, this morning in this hall,
but we are not going to be able to do this for four or five
years and think of the many thousands and thousands of
people who are going to have to put up with poor social care,
that is the price of losing elections
and we made to
we need to understand
that. MODERATOR: This is very much a
question that pertinent to local Government and we have the local
Government hustings next week, so these question will go into
that, it's important, although we
are not going to be in power for some years local Government is
doing more, I think we will is a chance to explore
that in nor detail next week. I have a couple of questions
around climate change, this one is going to be, I think we are
going to start with Emily first.
This is from Malcolm in Bridgewater, this question is to
say we are in the rural south west, we are in Bristol now, but
we will take in this the broadest possible sense. What
specific actions could the candidates take to deliver
sustainable agriculture to address climate change
and the decline of biodiversity? EMILY: So we are leading the
European Union and there is a challenge now for our
countryside as to where we go next and what it is that we do.
The difficulty is going to be that although many farmers feel
that this is
a new opportunity that there are new horizons, there are concerns
about how we will be able to sustain ouring ary culture
without the fund which has been sustaining particularly smaller
businesses.
The question is going to be where does ouring ary culture go
next and to reflect needs? What we need do is something about
the supermarkets who screw the lid down on
our farmers and demand things that are unachievable for those.
The way we are able to buy milk at the price it costs the
farmers to produce it
is wrong and we need to make sure our farmers are properly
supported. When you have such large supermarkets that are
monopolies the farmers are caught by the short and curlies,
we need to make sure we have a more sustainable model and
farmers are able to bring
their stuff to market without being so dependent on the big
supermarkets who take the Mickey in the way they do. That needs
to be changed and if the supermarkets won't do it
themselves, I think since we are leaving the European
Union and we are going to be changing be changing the way we
do our farming and we should be up for doing it and
taking on the superneeds to be changed and if the supermarkets
won't do it themselves, I think since we are leaving the
European Union and we are going to be changing the way we do our
farming and we should be up for doing it and taking on the
supermarkets. >>: When I was the shadow
climate change
secretary we worked across this country to deliver real change.
They were investing in clean energy
schemes and peat restoration schemes and planting trees
across the country. Between us we made a pledge to cut the UK's
Karen footprint, even at a time when the Tory Government was
axing solar energy and blocking new wind.
We may the be in power but we should never believe we are
powerless. To really tackle this climate emergency
we need to build the broadest coalition that stretches not
just across the
Labour Party, but includes things like
Caroline Lucas, she is not on enemy, we have to end the
tribalism and tackle climate change now.
KEIR: We need a sustainable agricultural policy. Powers
nows, as of today are coming back to the United Kingdom that
were excited in the UK and we need to decide where those power
need to be exercised. I think they need to be done as local as
possible and reenls in the south west
should have a say over what our agricultural policy is going
forward we should do simple things, we should eat less meat.
I am a vegetarian, I don't want to enforce it on anyone, but we
do on our kids.
We need to move away from a meat-based economy.
Thats to be part of our wider policy. On the wider question of
climate change we have to support the Green New Deal and
we have to stop the argument that
says something is is good for the economy but bad for the
environment.
If it's bad for the environment it is
bad for the economy and that has to be hard wired.
question of climate change we have to support the Green New
Deal and we have to stop the argument that says something is
good for the economy but bad for the environment. If it's bad for
the environment it is bad for the economy and that has to be
hard wired.
>>: Time is running out if we didn't win the election election
we would be well on the way with our green revolution, but time
is not on our hands we have to do what we can to push the
Government
take the action required to meet net zero. Leading scientists
with he have to have the majority of work done by 2030.
It's not a lot of time.
The farming community plays a huge role in this.
Being is he specific, we need to have a huge rewilding programme.
It's necessary for our bee population,
because we wouldn't have any agriculture, if we didn't have
bees, I
didn't know this, but they are integral to our ecosystem and we
made to reforest the whole of the United Kingdom and go
way beyond the plans the Government has set out and we
also need to empower the Farning community to adopt the
technologies of the future.
Technologies are being developed now, world-leading technologies
now, here in the UK that will allow our farmers to
farm in a more sustainable way, whether it's moth radars that
allow them to know
when the moths are going to come over
and infest their crops so they don't
have to spray pesticide all year around. Our farming community is
not able to take part in that because they can't afford it,
because they are in hock to many of our leading supermarket
chains and the supply chains they are part of. The Government
needs to play a direct
role in supporting them financially.
MODERATOR: Thank you.
I am going to come back to Lisa now and going to ask a
supplementary question to that. Our council, Stroud council is
the first to become carbon neutral in Europe. Thank you. As
a Labour group we recently announced we are going to
attempt to a run a carbon negative election campaign which
means we will monitor our carbon
emissions and seek to take out of the atmosphere more carbon,
like locking it through planting trees and admissions. I wonder
if you might look at our own emissions as a party and maybe
we could
become the first carbon negative political party, that would be
exciting if we could do that. I will start with Lisa.
LISA: I have always been ambition an tackling climate
change and five years ago as the shadow secretary I called for a
Green Industrial Revolution, but if we want to tackle climate
change we have to have not just dreams but a plan. We have to be
honest about where we are. There are councils around this
country, not just Stroud but Lambeth who are
leading the way in going carbon neutral by 2030, we are not
going to be in Government until 2024 and at the moment this
Government isn't on track to meet the target by 2050. Every
single one of us on this panel accepted at hustings that we
would need to rely on goes for decades to come and if you do,
what is the realistic plan that we are going to use to take this
forwards? That is going to take the energy of everyone in our
movement and that is why I say, don't challenge me and the other
candidates to go further and faster and sign up to pledges,
we are all committed to tackling climate change, before we
had the Green New Deal we had Barry
Gardner championing this case, before
that we had Ed Miliband. This is a movement which has always
sought to advance the status quo, rather than arguing amongst
ourselves about who is more ambition on climate change we
ought to be reclaiming that legacy and going out together to
tell the world that story.
If we don't, if we twied each other that is how the Tories
win, over and over again, that is how we let people
down, we can do
better. KEIR: Can I support Lisa on
that, because I think everyone on this panel, there are some
issues like this, where everyone on this panel genuine and
sincerely wants do the right thing or our party, our movement
and our country and that includes on environmental damage
and climate change. We need to pull that together, so that we
are all working together, rather than
seeking to divide people on this issue, I support Lisa on that,
can I say well done and fantastic that the councils are
doing the work they are, whilst we are out of power, our local
authorities are the last line of defence for many of the
communities that we want to represent, but they are also
doing innovative stuff as well and on climate change and carbon
emissions they are leading the way and we need to hold up our
local authorities and celebrate what they are doing and showcase
them and say this is what Labour in power can do and pull it
together, share best practice and I think that there is too
much distance, sometimes, between the leader of the Labour
Party and our local authorities.
I would like to close that distance and work more closely
with you and I will finally say for our local authorities, thank
you for everything you are doing, you don't get the
recognition that you deserve.
Thank
you. >>: I think it's important for
us as a party to lead in terms of emissions reduction. The fact
is we need to meet the vast majority of our emissions
reductions by 2030 and we are not in Government and if we
don't press the Government to take more radical action, when
we are in
Government, in 2024, the impact on our communities and the
industries that we support will be even more detrimental than it
is now. We talk about just transition, we have to fight for
a just transition and develop the plans that will implement
the change needed as quickly as possible and I am proud to
support the conference motions that went through at Labour
Party conference this year, calling for that action. I think
every single Shadow Cabinet department needs to have a plan
that
looks in detail at how they decarbonise every sector within
their department. That is a huge task, but we don't have the
time, we are trying to give a world
to our children and grandchildren, we can't mess
about with this, it's that serious. It's also the biggest
economic lever we have had to transform our economy, so if we
get this right, we won't just save the world, but we will
reindustrialise our communities and provide hope for
many generations to
can't mess about with this, it's that serious. It's also the
biggest economic lever we have had to transform our economy, so
if we get this right, we won't just save the world, but we will
reindustrialise our communities and provide hope for many
generations to come. >>: I was part of the delegation
that
went to Government with Ed Miliband, I
was proud of that role we took, but we have fallen so far back.
What we have to do as a Labour Government is listening to local
communities and frankly eight miles down
the A4 we have the Severn plant and what
is being done with it squat nothing. Experts tell us that
tidal lagoons might overcome the challenge, frankly are the
Tories listening to them, absolutely not?
We hoped that with the Swansea tidal lagoon project that it
might well be
able to lead the way in terms of energy
production here, 5-10% of the energy we use this it country
could be used.
If we don't do these things all of this
talk of zero emissions is just breathing out more carbon, we
have to be different and a party of a Green Industrial Revolution
that means it and we have to lead the way and we need to be
listening to local communities and we must be
brave and radical and believable and
credible.
MODERATOR: Just under 15 minutes left,
brilliant, some of it is great. So, I think we have had a few
more questions here about the party itself, so I am going to
take this question, I think we are starting with Keir now,
which is from Tim in south Swindon. Question is how will
you make the party more democratic and empower members
and
he has written how, emphasis on how?
KEIR: Firstly we celebrate the fact we
are a party now with 580,000 members,000 members, that is
fantastic. We are the largest political party in Europe, we
need to as transparent and democratic as possible. The
first thing we need to do is make sure the culture in all of
our meetings is such that everyone feels that they
can be part of our party and part of our movement, that their
voice is heard and all members have that collective voice, so
there is a cultural thing before we get to the rules here, let's
make sure
we respect each other and unite our party. Beyond that we need
the greatest democracy in our party, I think we
should ensure that all
decisions have input for our members, whether that is policy
or selection of our candidates, we need to get on with that
process as quickly as possible, so there is open and transparent
and our members can take the decisions and there
is no imposition from the NEC, except in completely
extraordinary circumstances, but the most important thing is that
each and every member
feels I can go along and I can be heard and I will be respected
and proud to be
participate of the collective
decision-making. >>: I think our communities
won't trust us to Democratise politics and our
economy if we can't even Democratise our own party and
make sure our members have the role and the respect they
deserve within our party. And that has got numerous facets to
it, firstly, members should be an active
part of the policy-making process, right from their CLP
meetings, not just at conference. Secondly members
should have the right to open selections, so that they can
hold their members of Parliament to account, as they hold their
councillors to account. We want to make sure that the talent we
have within our party rises up, as well as our great MPs and we
have many great MP, some of them are here today, are respected
and rewarded by their local members, but being an MP is not
a job for life and that is why we need to trust our members to
make decisions on this. We need to have properly resourced
political and economic education within our party, so our members
are empowered to have those policy discusses with that
robust background behind them and we
need a new BAME organisation to allow
BAME members to self-organise as, as was agreed at Labour
Party Conference.. they are the basics of a professional and
accountable organisation and they are certainly the things I
will be
pushing for as leader.
REBECCA: In 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn was elected as leader of
the Labour Party people were full of hope and they
thought there would be greater democracy in the Labour Party
and I am afraid we haven't seen it. When the coup happened
against Jeremy Corbyn, I did not, I believe he was the
member's choice and it was my duty to stand by him and make
him the best leader he could be, that is what I have done and
that is what I will always do, I tell you what, let's go back to
a few basics, we are talking about democracy
here, why is it all of our parliamentary
candidates are not being freely selected by local patients at
the moment.
Why is it all of the Tory seats all of them had their
parliamentary candidates imposed on them? Why did that happen?
It's wrong. Local parties should be selecting their own cant
dealts and from across the country people have had
candidates forced on them at the last minute, I
think, when someone becomes a member of Parliament, so
marginal seats, you were
able to select, in Labour seats, if you were in a Tory seat then
everyone got their candidates because you were third tier, got
your candidates imposed on you, that is wrong, because you need
have a focal point for community campaigning and that wasn't
happening. That does seem to be to be anti-democratic, the other
point I would say is of course MPs must remain close to their
local parties and they must listen to them and campaign with
them, because if they did they will be deselected, because of
course being an MP is not a job for life, we do our campaigning
as a team and as an MP in our local area, I am a member and I
listen to our members and our community,
if you don't, that is the end of be deselected, because of course
being an MP is not a job for life, we do our campaigning as a
team and as an MP in our local area, I am a member and I listen
to our members and our community, if you don't, that is
the end of you. >>:
LISA: If we want to meet the clamour for more agency in this
country we have to walk the talk and not just talk the talk.
There is no use telling people in Scotland who are attracted by
the independence movement we are going to empower them if we
treat them as a branch office of UK Labour.
I would like to see the leader was Scottish Labour and Welsh
Labour in my Shadow Cabinet, but also councillors, assembly
members and MSPs and defeated candidates forming part of our
front bench teams so we get the right policy. We should give our
members the right to make policies at regional conference
as
well so we are driven by the ground up, let me disagree with
something, the MPs
I want to get rid of are Tories, not
Labour. So let's give our members the real
power, we want to get the right candidates, no more parachutes
and stitch ups and imposing people who are friends of the
leadership on to local areas, let's Democratise the process
properly.
democratise the process properly.
MODERATOR: If you, we are coming to the
end of times, which is a real shame and
there is a lot of great of great questions to answer. If you
could keep this quick. Back to Becky with this one, this one
question is from Emily in and the question is what is one
thing you have done as a constituency MP that you are
most proud of. REBECCA: One of the things
yesterday was
in my Salford constituency. EMILY: One of the things was
yesterday
in my Salford constituteiness I, a lot of the time you see heart
break and when
you are in power it becomes quite demoralising. Yesterday a
constituent came in with a bottle of wine to say thanks.
What had happened to his husband, his husband had
suffered a terrible accident
and he suffered brain injury and he went through, over the last
few years various
care plans and ended up in a care home
where those in the care home said there is no hope for him,
he is not going to
get better, we will have to manage the situation.
But he never gave up, he kept films him on different drugs and
different care
plans and he said, Becky look, my Daniel is in, there he just
needs the right care.
So I promised we would get consultants in and speak to the
clinical commissioning group and we will get a review done and
the review happened over Christmas and the review said
the outcome was good if he had a different
care plan and he was moved into a different care setting he
would be back home within two years and potentially
able to get a job and back in employment. From where he was as
a practical vegetable having hope for the future, that made
me realise how important my job was to fight for people who
didn't
have a
a different care setting he would be back home within two
years and potentially able to get a job and back in
employment. From where he was as a practical vegetable having
hope for the future, that made me realise how important my job
was to fight for people who didn't have a voice.
>>: There was a Somali woman who had come to see me and she had
brought her younger children with her and left her
older children with her husband under a tree.
Elshabab was in the area and we presumed he was killed, we
couldn't get
the other children over because she had refugee status.
We tried to get him over, he applied for British citizenship,
she got it, she applied, they said you need to have a certain
income to bring your children over, so she got herself two
jobs and they tried to bring the children over, then they said,
the children are too old. I had been in the touch with the Home
Office and I said these children are at
risk, Elshabab is in the area and guess what the eldest child
was murdered by them and then we applied to get the children over
and they continued to say open, I said this is the family, these
are Islington people, they deserve to be
with us and we need to make sure we welcome them and I put out an
appeal and people stopped me in the street and gave
me 5 and ten pound notes.
We raised the appeal so we won. The reason we won was the judge
was
told that is ling stone wants this family and this family
deserves justice.
I was never prouder as a member of
Parliament helping that
me in the street and gave me 5 and ten pound notes. We raised
the appeal so we won. The reason we won was the judge was told
that is ling stone wants this family and this family deserves
justice. I was never prouder as a member of Parliament helping
that family. >>: A few years ago, a group of
young people from Wigan and Lee college told me to tell me at
one stroke of a pen the coalition Government had erased
their chance to carry on at college.
The EMA meant everything to young
people in my constituency, kids from large families, who
couldn't go to university because they couldn't get
through college.
I said what are we going do about it?
So we designed a petition, I worked with some other Labour
MPs to do the same in their constituencies and we put buses
down, we got them down to Westminster, we marched in the
streets many of them for the children who came after them and
not for them because they knew how much they mattered. It of
the proudest day of my life seeing them in central lobby,
chasing
Tory and Lib Dem MPs into cupboards because they were too
scared to front up to 16-year-old whose don't have the
right to vote.
At the end of that that process, we didn't win it for everyone,
but we did win the right for those young people who had
started to
carry on at college thousands people in my constituteensy, why
does it matter? Because it shows the leadership that we
need as a Labour Party going forwards, a leadership that
comes from a clamour of noise outside, that hears it, that
acts on it and opens the door to change.
It takes a
movement. KEIR: Let me tell you, but I am
reluctant, because I don't want to make a big thing of this,
seriously. We have got a terrible knife crime
problem in my constituency at the moment
with young boys, mainly, being stabbed. We were in the middle
of some of the massive Brexit fights in Parliament and
I was on the front bench fighting in
some of those dramatic votes and Georgia Gould who is the leader
of Camden Council said there has another murder, a Somali boy,
she said I am going to see the mum.
I knew it was my moral duty to go with
her, so I left Parliament and I went up
to see mum with Georgia, no press, no statements, just to go
and stand with the mum who had just lost her boy.
One of the hardest things I have ever
done, I was there to hug her, to be with her, to offer her
support, though she couldn't take it in and Georgia and I
have done that every single time, too many times.
Then I I went back to Parliament and didn't make anything of it.
That is my proudest moment. MODERATOR: Thank you for those
stories, I think that was all really moving and it reminds you
that you are constituency MPs making a difference to peoples
lives as well as all of the things you will be doing as the
leader of autoyou are party and you will remain constituency MPs
so that of moving to hear those stories.
So
we need to finish back on 1.00pm and all of you are invited to
make a two-minute statement.
We will begin with Emily and once we have finish wed will
move on to the next. Over to you, emily.
EMILY: It's great to be back in Bristol, I come here many times
whether it was chairing a mayoral campaign or helping with
local and regional campaigns it does feel like a second home.
For me this campaign is not really about who is going to
take us to the left or to the right, but who is going to take
us forward.
I put myself forward for this because I believe that I am the
best person to take this forward and to take this fight to Boris
Johnson. How are we going to beat him?
We must never let this happen again.
I put myself forward as forward as someone who has taken him on
for two years as Foreign Secretary and I have
exposed him as the lying manipulative fraudster that he
is. I want to have the opportunity to do that again to
show he is just the bad and will be the worst Prime Minister we
have had.
It's going to be a long, tough fight, so that is the other
reason I stand, I am battle hardened, aim experienced,
because I am strong and I am a resilient campaigner and I need
to be able to lead this fight.
Ever since I was 17 I have been involved, a party activist and
throughout my life I have represented miners on strike in
the 8 #0s, I have marched against the Iraq war, stood up
in Parliament for the rights of Palestinians and every campaign
that we
have fought together I have been at the frontline of that
campaign and I want to continue to do it. When this leadership
is over and people have said this leadership campaign is
over, people have said maybe the cameras will turn away, I can
assure you the cameras do not turn away when I speak and I can
continue to be a voice for this party and I will be your
campaigner
in chief and whether you have community campaigners or local
elections I will be with you. You need to have someone to
inspire you, we have five hard years in front of us, let us do
it together and I can lead you.
Give me an opportunity, nominate
your campaigner in chief and whether you have community
campaigners or local elections I will be with you. You need to
have someone to inspire you, we have five hard years in front of
us, let us do it together and I can lead you. Give me an
opportunity, nominate me. >>: As we leave the EU I want it
talk to you about the city we stand in and the country that I
seek to lead. A city that was built on the backs of slavery,
now led by Europe's first directly elected black mayor,
who is showing compassion to refugees and action on climate
change. This is the Britain we can be, a country that
understands its past, but knows where it's going, that knows
that
the path of least resistance, never points to towards progress
and it takes
a movement, like the Bristolians who stood up against the company
who refused
to employ black and Asian drivers, they
changed our destiny and mine. My dad came to this country from
India
in the 50s, he fought those battles all his life, it led him
to the Race
Relations Act one of the greatest gifts that Labour Party
has given.
Compare that Tories, they say we are a small island nation that
punches above
its weight, never asking why we are punching at all.
The self powered country I lead will be something that is
different, where
people like Benjamin can accept the order of British intlence,
not the empire.
But seeks not to alienate them, but to remake the country as it
should and can be, written, as he said, in verses of fire. To
do this we have to find the courage and there are moments in
history when we
have, but it starts with us, six weeks ago I set myself on that
path, if you want a better world you have to go out and fight for
it. If you want a different sort of leadership, you have to go
out and vote for it and I am asking you today to join me, so
that we can create this world as
it is and we can tell our children that we carried forward
the torch of progress, we will win and when we win
they will know that we did it
together. KEIR: We are here because we
lost the general election.
That was definite That was devastating, for our party, our
movement and for the millions of people that desperately needed
change after ten years of Tory rule, who are now not going get
that change. We didn't just lose one election, we
have lost four, four in a row, the next
one is probably 2024 and if we lose that Labour will have been
out of power for a
longer period than any time since the Second World War, a
whole generation will have been let down, I came into
politics to change lives, to better millions of people's
lives and that is why you are all in politics and that is why
you are here and we don't achieve that by losing
elections. So have a choice as a party, in this. It's your
choice. We can either mope around for the next four year,
head in hand, arguing about
why we lost, blaming each other and we
can do that, we do that well. If we do that we will lose.
Or, we could unite and rebuild, that doesn't mean ditching the
radicalism of the last five years, it means building
on it, so that it's thick for 2024, for
the late 2020s and the 2030s, relentlessly focussed on the
future. It means having the courage to say we are the party
that sticks up for the vulnerable and doesn't
discriminate against them, the party that knows that
the free market economy model is busted, trickle down didn't
happen, we wouldn't have the inequalities we have now if the
free market worked, we have to build a different economic model
and have the courage to say power should be closer to
people, invert the political model.
Bottom up, not top down and that the Green New Deal has to be
hard wired into everything that we do and we stand for peace and
we stand for justice.
I am asking you to be part of the next stage of history.
We can do this, like those that have gone before us, every
Labour Government had a team of people, member, supporter,
Trade Unions pulling together for change. This is our time, we
are responsible for this leg of the journey together. If we pull
together we can shape and influence what comes next. How
proud would you be of yourselves and our party if you were part
of what happened next? If you were part of taking us from
where we are now back into power where we can change lives for
millions of people. That is why I am standing for leader of the
Labour Party and I am asking you to be part of that team.
Thank
If you were part of taking us from where we are now back into
power where we can change lives for millions of people. That is
why I am standing for leader of the Labour Party and I am asking
you to be part of that team. Thank you.
>>: I never expected to be standing here today. I learnt my
politics sitting at the top of our stairs, listening to my dad
when
he came home from work, talking about
pay disputes redundancies and worse. I learnt my politics
working in a pawn brokers and that was after many years of
Conservative Government and you could see what it meant when the
Government washes its hands of its people and that is what has
happened over the last ten years and that is why the election
defeat was so hard for us all to take.
We shouldn't be under any illusion about the scale of the
defeat or the
challenge ahead, but we can't afford to be despondent and we
can't afford to retreat from our transformative agenda
that we fought so hard to secure. So I have set out where
I stand on
putting democratic public ownership of male, rail, energy
and water and more at
the heart of an agenda for a green aspirational socialist
economy.
I set out a plan for a democratic revolution to abolish
the House of Lords, devolve real power and end the gentleman's
club in Westminster. I will challenge the Government to sign
up to our plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, to meet
our climate targets
by 2030 and I have pledged to empower you, as members, in
selections on policy-making and with a programme of political
education, turning us into a
year-round campaigning force in every community.
None of this will be easy and no one will get a free ride from
the media, but
as the party that was born out of struggles, in workplaces and
Town Halls and in communities across the country,
it's our job to get out, to argue with
conviction and to inspire people to vote Labour again. This isn't
rhetoric, this is vision, that is the only way that we will
convince our communities to trust us again and that is the
party I believe in
and that will be our path to
power. >>: Thank you all for coming,
you have
been a brilliant audience, for any of you staying we have the
deputy leader hustings at 2. 00pm, but can we have another
thank you
to our fantastic candidates. (APPLAUSE).