Backing Robert JRI: Focus on the Economy:-
Gareth Davis Shadow exj Secretary of the Treasury is with us now who are you backing I’m backing Robert jri why number of reasons but principally my air of interest is on the economy as a former treasury Minister I think he has identified some of the challenges that we Face going forward namely uh having an offer for younger people uh making sure that our towns are not left behind and making sure that we have the infrastructure we need obviously we have made progress on all of those areas in government but he has a platform and the ideas that resonate most with me in terms of where we want to go and where we need to go.
Tackling Regional Disparities:-
I also think he’s a very strong performer I think he’ll hold this labor government to account uh very effectively and I think he’ll unite the party you say uh not leaving towns behind uh in what way well he grew up in uh wolver Hampton and uh is from the East Midlands.
I represent an East Midlands um constituency with two towns of Grandam and Bourne uh and we’ve seen over uh many years uh a focus on metropolitan cities uh both in terms of government funding but also investment from outside uh organizations and businesses and we need to spread opportunity around the country that’s why we got elected in 2019.
On a leveling up agenda we made some progress but we need to make more progress going forward and I think he gets that not just because of the way I grew up but because uh he appreciates that in order to grow our economy to tackle productivity that’s been pervasively low over decades we’ve got to get every part of the country moving and uh towns are a big part of that so what do you make of uh his comments on mass migration turning cities such as Birmingham into segregated communities.
On Mass Migration and Segregation Comments:-
I think he what he was saying is that it wasn’t the whole city of Birmingham it wasn’t just Birmingham it’s pockets of uh communities and certainly pockets of cities which are not as integrated as they should be or could be and I think it’s important in leadership elections like this setting out uh the challenges we face as a country being honest about those challenges and having difficult conversations and one of those is about the fact that clearly some communities are not as integrated as uh they should be and we would like them to be and that’s what he was saying at the hustings how does talking about segregated communities help with integration how can it possibly help .
Migration and Border Control:-
I think like I said it’s about uh having an honest conversation about this getting it on the agenda so that we can make progress and uh I think there’s two parts to it one is ensuring that we work with Community leaders and public bodies and the police and schools to uh bring about a more cohesive integrated society which makes our country better and secondly it is about having an honest conversation about Mass migration where legal migration has significantly increased over the last um you know a couple of decades and we need to tackle that that’s why he’s calling for a legal cap.
On migration to ensure that we can get that down and we can be a bit more uh controlled in terms of who’s coming to the country and then once they’re here how they integrate into our country and our society uh when he was on the show last week actually was talking about how his policies had helped with stopping the boats we saw so many people needlessly lose their lives yesterday so how effective has that been going forward well it’s a complete tragedy .
What happened uh yesterday and this this week and there’s a number of tragedies that we can point to and that’s exactly why we absolutely have to tackle this issue it’s why we had government a very long time to be able to do that and threw a load of money at it and it didn’t work we we were making progress we had challenges for sure that you and I have talked about before legal challenges uh you know in terms of uh making progress with having a third country process uh application and those coming to our country labor has numbers have gone up% the numbers have gone up 30% in the last year of your government well we needed to get control of it and we had a plan to process overseas and to make sure that if you come here illegally you do not stay here and have that deterrent effect having that deterrent was the key to tackling uh illegal migration that deterrent has now been abandoned and and left with no plan in place by this labor government and robbers.
Set out uh plan to tackle that we if we don’t tackle that uh one it will lead to more tragedies that we’re seeing recently it will embolden The Gangs to bring more people over under dangerous conditions and the public will absolutely not trust us again if we can’t have a clear plan to tackle what is a major issue for you have 14 years to do that well the issue of the Boat Crossings is a relatively new phenomenon since 2018 before that they were coming across in in lorries and it you know we’ve never been shying away from the fact that it’s a really complicated issue very complicated in terms of legal um uh issues and challenge which is why you again uh Rob and his leadership campaign has set out a plan to to overcome some of those legal challenges but now it falls on the labor government to tackle this like we were trying to do with a deterrent effect they say it doesn’t work and that’s why they’re going at it a different way well that.
I don’t know what that different is you do you know that they’re going after the gang Masters that’s their plan well we were going after the gang Masters and well we did actually reduce it uh significant but the thing that would have stopped the boats ultimately is stop people getting on the boats in the first place and that’s having that’s what planning to do should I call the government I’m not I’m not sure that is.
Grille: Accountability and Action:-
We’ve not seen any kind of deterrent effect coming out from this labor government and I I encourage them to come out with it because for less than two months so far so we’ll have to wait and see won’t we talk to me about Grille Before I Let You Go should legal action follow uh this longer waited report well clearly gral was a tragedy and we should never forget those who uh died and the survivors it’s why we launched and commissioned the the public inquiry in the first place uh and took action in government to both you know fund the remediation and identify buildings of risk but also strength and regulation uh the reports out later today I can’t obviously prejudge what it’s going to say uh but I would certainly encourage uh government and we would support any measures to strengthen action to make sure that that tragedy never happens again tragedy or a crime.
I’m not going to get into that I’m sure you followed the I’m sure you followed the inquiry and you know exactly uh what came out in the first phase of that inquiry so I put it to you again is it a tragedy or a crime it’s a complete tragedy uh any loss of life under those circumstances is uh we need to learn from and do everything we can as I say government we did put in place billions of pounds to uh make sure that buildings at risk are tackled and identified as well as strengthening the regulation but this is not something that uh should stand still we should con constantly review .
Leadership Contest: Who Will Be the First to Leave?:-
What action government can take and the review out today the report out today will have recommendations and we’ll look at those very carefully okay it’s good to see you thanks very much indeed who’s going to be first out in the leadership come not longit we’ll see who do you think no idea we’ll see you think they’ll stride don’t you no idea we’ll see okay it’s good to see you thank you.