tv Dewbs Co GB News July 5, 2024 6:00pm-7:01pm BST
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say, first and foremost, i am sorry the tories got absolutely battered, didn't they? >> and let me ask you this, a labour landslide, which all of us pretty much were expecting, but they got it with just 30 odd percent of the vote. is our system broken, do you think? and also let me ask you then, about that tory party. what does the future look like for them? who do you think should be their next leader and what is their what's their plan now? what do you think it should be? also reform then it's got its five a side team now , what should the side team now, what should the future of that party be and how was their outcome for you? do you think they should have had more or not? your thoughts? on. all of that and more. but first the 6:00 news. >> michelle, thank you very much. and good evening to you.
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it's just after 6:00. and as michelle mentioned, there, reform uk has secured a fifth seat in the general election after a recount in basildon, south and east thurrock. james murdoch , the last minute murdoch, the last minute candidate, has won with a majority and narrow won of 98 votes over labour's jack ferguson. and in a video on social media, nigel farage has been seen cheering saying go on my son as he celebrated the news. well, that unexpected win tonight for reform comes after nigel farage was heckled as he took to the stage in central london. earlier, mr farage was . london. earlier, mr farage was. thank you mate, where are you from? >> where are you from? oh well, that makes sense. >> you always say well for any. yes >> are you downwind of a couple of renee ? you've had a bigger of renee? you've had a bigger lunch than i've had . lunch than i've had. >> mr farage was forced to repeatedly delay his speech while security staff removed the protesters. he joked that it was good preparation, though, for his new role in the house of
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commons. it's after reform secured now five seats despite receiving a bigger share of votes than the liberal democrats. and speaking at that conference earlier, the reform leader said the political system needs a makeover. >> don't show us very interesting things. if we had proportional representation, we'd be looking at nearly 100 seats, but equally equally, first past the post inverts the other way, where labour get almost the same number of votes they got. well, if that less fewer votes they got under corbyn, and yet 200 more seats. it is very much my view that our outdated first past the post electoral system is not fit for purpose, and we will campaign with anyone and everyone to change this electoral system . change this electoral system. >> well, sir keir starmer is wasting no time putting his top team together after becoming the new prime minister. he's appointed angela rayner as deputy prime minister. david lammy will be in charge of foreign affairs, while yvette
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cooper heads up the home office and john healey becomes the defence secretary. earlier, rachel reeves, who's now in charge at the treasury, gave her first speech to staff there. the new and first ever female chancellor in the uk said her central mission is to restore economic growth to deliver on this mission, i want to be the most pro—growth treasury in our country's history. >> that will mean doing what the treasury does best building growth on a rock of economic stability. but it also means taking on new challenges and new responsibilities to fix the foundations and to rebuild britain . britain. >> rachel reeves there, well before appointing his new cabinet this afternoon, sir keir starmer gave his first speech outside downing street, promising to rebuild trust in politics. >> this wound, this lack of trust can only be healed by actions , not words. i know that, actions, not words. i know that, but we can make a start today
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with the simple acknowledgement that public service is a privilege and that your government should treat every single person in this country with respect. >> and earlier, the now former prime minister rishi sunak apologised to the public and revealed he'll be stepping down as the leader of the conservatives. he said he'd heard voters anger as he spoke outside number 10 for a final time to the country. >> i would like to say first and foremost, i am sorry i have given this job my all, but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the united kingdom must change, and yours is the only judgement that matters. i have heard your angen matters. i have heard your anger, your disappointment and i take responsibility for this loss to all the conservative candidates and campaigners who work tirelessly, but without
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success.i work tirelessly, but without success. i am sorry that we could not deliver what your efforts deserved . it pains me to efforts deserved. it pains me to think how many good colleagues who contributed so much to their communities and our country will now no longer sit in the house of commons. >> those are the latest gb news headlines. for now, i'm sam francis and i'll be back with you in the next hour for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com forward slash alerts . slash alerts. >> thanks very much for that. i'm michelle dewberry and i'm with you until 7:00 tonight. and what a night last night was everybody. goodness gracious me alongside me to try and understand, unpack some of it. we've got the director of the popular conservatives, mike littlewood , and the former littlewood, and the former labour minister bill rammell.
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good evening to both of you. good evening to both of you. good evening. my overwhelming memory of last night is elvis presley. if anyone came to the gb news election watch party, you will know what i am talking about. a fabulous evening was had by all of us there, and i do just want to take a second to say thank you to each and every one of you that came along. it was brilliant and i'm still singing, viva las vegas and lots more in my head tonight, look, there's lots we need to unpack. have you followed all the twists and turns today? many of you will have very strong opinions. tell me very briefly. where were you last night? >> i was at the count in harlow, my former constituency. >> good night for you. >> good night for you. >> it was fantastic. although i made the mistake of looking at the sky news projection for harlow before i went to the count and it said we were going to lose. but as soon as i got there, it was fairly clear labour was going to win. >> well, that's what you get for watching sky news and isn't it? you should have put gb news on. you should have put gb news on. you might have felt better. you didn't have a projection. where was you last night? >> i was in a flat with some of
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the other pop con staff with and my abiding memory wasn't as good as viva las vegas. it was. if you're going to watch television for that long, you have to reach for that long, you have to reach for the button, because otherwise it goes on standby and switches itself off every two hours. and we had a full 16 hour marathon. >> did you? i woke up, in bed alongside a gb news baseball cap. it was a very fascinating night. i'll leave it at that. look, get in touch with me all the usual ways. gb views and gb news. com is the email you can get in touch on our website gbnews.com/yoursay. or of course you can tweet or text me. it's been a massively action packed day. so let's cross live then, shall we? to our political correspondent olivia utley, you are live in downing street's. bnng are live in downing street's. bring everybody up to speed with what what what today had to hold . what what what today had to hold. >> well, yeah, i am here in downing street with a new prime minister behind us, and he has now assembled most of his new cabinet. last night was absolutely extraordinary. a night to remember in british
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politics. the labour party have won with a majority just shy of what tony blair achieved back in 1997. it is a phenomenal victory, particularly as they came from so, so far back, perhaps even more remarkable than the political earthquake of 97. that said, it must be caveated a little bit in that won labour with quite a small proportion of the vote share just 35. in fact, only 3% more than jeremy corbyn lost with back in 2019, which i think explains the speech from keir starmer that we heard at about lunchtime today. some people were expecting radical, bombastic, gleeful, were expecting radical, bombastic, gleeful , triumphant. bombastic, gleeful, triumphant. that's not actually what we heard. in fact, the best way i would describe it is sort of small c conservative. he talks about treading more lightly on people's lives, about public service, about the country coming first. he isn't gleeful and triumphant because he knows that even though he has won this
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huge majority, there is a big, big mountain to climb and we have seen a huge conservative majority be transferred into an even bigger labour majority. and what starmer might be beginning to worry about when the dust has settled, maybe in a few months time, is that that majority could switch back again. now a little bit more on the cabinet he has assembled. there are very few surprises. most of the shadow cabinet that he has been appointing over the last three and a half years as labour leader have indeed been appointed, been appointed to the roles they were expected to coven roles they were expected to cover. so wes streeting is health secretary now. he's a relatively right wing labour mp and has planning big, big reforms to the nhs, which actually might make some conservatives rather happy if that cooper has been made home secretary after quite a lot of speculation that he might be turned down, snubbed at the last minute, david lammy has been made the foreign secretary. there were a couple of surprises . there were a couple of surprises. thangam debbonaire, in bristol lost her seat to the greens. she
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was going to be culture secretary, a job which has now gone to lisa nandy. the cabinet is now mostly in place. we are expecting the first cabinet meeting tomorrow. next tuesday, mps go back into the house of commons. it will be fascinating to see what goes on. what i'm perhaps most excited about is the fireworks we can expect from the fireworks we can expect from the five new reform mps. as you heard in the headlines, there, that count of four has been increased to five after a recount. they are promising to hold labour's feet to the fire, and with 17% of the vote share behind them , i expect they are behind them, i expect they are going to be quite a formidable force in british politics going forwards. >> and have we got the official turnout figure then what do we know what that was ? know what that was? >> the turnout figure was 60, which is very low. i think it's the lowest in the last sort of 5 or 6 elections. that too is a bit of a problem for labour. i mean, i'm not i don't want to take away from labour's huge triumph, really. last night. but
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60% turnout suggests that there is big apathy for all the major parties. it's also worth noting that the share, the combined share of the conservatives of labour of the vote was only 50, which is the lowest in modern history. neither the conservatives nor, to some extent labour were that popular at this election. 60% of the vote share 60% turnout, with only 35% going to labour means that actually 80% of the country didn't vote for keir starmer, didn't vote for keir starmer, didn't vote for labour to be the next government. keir starmer knows that he has to win around those people to and govern for those people to and govern for those people to and govern for those people as well. >> olivia, thank you very much for that. see, obviously, credit where it's due, i think it's an absolutely fantastic result for the labour party and of course, many people your side of the fence and i'm sure you two are delighted with that result. but when i sit there and i hear that you've got 400 odd seats on just 30% of the vote, we've got a
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turnout that was 60. do you really feel that that's a strong result? >> look, we have the electoral system that we have, and this is a stunning victory for the labour party. and it's partly confidence and endorsement of laboun confidence and endorsement of labour. but it's also a massive rejection of the conservative party. but i acknowledge the turnout was low. actually, the last time the turnout was this low was 2001. what's 2001? got in, combination with today an expectation of a massive labour victory. and that does depress the turnout. but you know, the key to this will be labour delivering in office. and i think we can do that. >> yeah. i mean where i, where i'm from. hull. one of the seats there, i got elected on a ten, a ten out of 41. i'm talking about hull east or east hull as we would call it, 41. i mean, i don't know if that's the lowest in the country, but it's
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certainly one of them. that means like 60% of the electorate there didn't turn out well. >> you have the right to vote, but not an obligation to vote. i rather agree with olivia. my reading of it would be there wasn't great enthusiasm for any of the parties. i mean, i should start by also saying congratulations to bill and the labour party. democracy requires losers consent. and i think far too often the team that's been beaten finds a million. and one reasons why the result was unfair or whatever. the labour party had won this fair and square. with that said, that victory is colossal but fragile. 34% of the vote, you know, imagine they don't have a particularly popular time in office. and in five years time, they've lost 5 or 6% of that vote, then they're in real trouble. it's possible, i think, in today's politics that whilst if you get a bit more popular, you can double your number of seats, if you get a bit less popular, you can halve your number of seats. or in the conservative party's case, lost two thirds of them. i think those sort of swings and results
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are actually going to be the norm in politics going forward. it's not going to be a stable thing in which we just look at a handful of swing seats. i think most of the countries on the table now, i want to know what you think about this. >> did you stay up and watch it and if you did as well, which of the seats were your kind of moments that made you go, oh my gosh, look at this. didn't see that coming, which ones were you particularly happy about? which ones were you particularly unhappy about, and how do you feel about the conversation that we're just having here in terms of the turnout? how do you get people to, engage better or more with this system? >> well, i think part of the problem is, and i would say it wouldn't i? but i think the tories have trashed politics and government over the last 14 years. the lies, the chaos and division . division. >> and if that's the case, then you would have had a massive turnout on behalf of you to get rid of them. but we didn't. we had a low turnout. >> but the problem, michel, is that what they've done, the lies of johnson, the chaos of liz
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truss infects all parties so that people's reaction is you're all the same now. the challenge for labour. and that's where i think keir's speech outside of downing street was really important . you know, public important. you know, public service, commitment to delivery of that starmer speech in a second. >> by the way, i'll just get that queued up ready to go and delivery in government now if we can do that then i think we do have a sustainable coalition. >> what i was struck by looking at some of the polls yesterday, 22% of labour's vote were people voting tactically for the labour party. so there was a real determination to get the tories out. but if we start delivering, if we bring economic growth, if we start the major house building programme, i think we can keep that coalition together in a way that the tory coalition that was assembled by boris johnson at the last general election was just unsustainable. do you accept that then that essentially it was the behaviour of your lot so bad that's now disengaged people across the population more broadly? i think the post—mortem for the
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conservative party is going to take quite a long time, and i fear it's going to be pretty bitter as well, there's a large number of people that, fingers of blame can be pointed at. and i would think when any party goes through a traumatic result like this, it needs to try and go through the so—called five stages of grief pretty rapidly. otherwise we're we are likely to be thrown into a leadership election in which everybody will just scream and shout at each other, and it will just be a question of the blame game. so i hope there's a proper post—mortem. it is very difficult to stay in office after 14 years, right? no party has won five elections in a row in our lifetimes, so i think defeat was always on the cards, but it is a very severe defeat that raises a large number of questions. i think the first of those is how the reform parties managed to take so many votes, which i think otherwise in, if you like. normal times would have gone into the conservative column. that wouldn't have been enough to have beaten the labour party, but it would have mitigated the scale of defeat in about just shy of 100 seats. >> that's right. yeah. which is
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remarkable. >> it is remarkable. so it's a party like, you know, i've tipped my, i've tipped my hat to bill and his party. the same to the reform party. and the electoral system does not favour them at all. they've had to get i mean, they've they've got within spitting distance of the conservatives and won only five seats and the conservatives won 121. so there's an awful lot of questions to be asked. i think about the conservative party, not so much , you know, what it not so much, you know, what it did wrong, but how its structures are wrong. what is its coalition? who is it trying to appeal to, i think actually brexit is not so much a cause of realignment in british politics. a realignment was happening and the conservatives were trying to appeal a bit to sort of remainer, liberal democrat areas in the south and red wall voters in the south and red wall voters in the south and red wall voters in the north. you've probably got away with that when you could run on an anti jeremy corbyn ticket, but much, much harder to run that game if you're just running on an anti keir starmer ticket. so vast questions for the conservative party. i would say not in my
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view, existential questions for all that's been said, the conservatives have come a clear second are absolutely, unambiguously the official opposition and the ball starts in the court of whoever the next leader of the conservative party is, to try and knock it into shape again. and if they do, voters will come back. that's the nature of politics, an element of that. i agree with that. you know, if you looked at where we were at a week, ten days ago in the polls, an awful lot of people were thinking that reform was going to come second. and the tories third, you know, and the lib dems could be the official opposition. absolutely. yeah >> but the tories archewell reform a lot changed since then, didn't it? i think that i mean, let's be honest, there was a campaign against reform that was absolutely staggering really. i felt reform at last came under some scrutiny . some scrutiny. >> and the longer the campaign went on, the clearer it was that nigel farage doesn't like answering questions and doesn't like being asked to justify his stance. and i think he was exposed in that sense.
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>> but when you say they came under scrutiny, which i doubt by the way, they should, as should every party that's making promises and wants to represent us. so i have nothing against scrutiny. but are you seriously telling me that the amount of scrutiny that reform was subjected to was the same equally as all parties? so for example, you've got the likes of a for channel doing, undercover investigations . do you a for channel doing, undercover investigations. do you think they did that into any other party? or they then reform the labour party has faced massive scrutiny during this campaign and, you know, from the tory party, we've faced a farage at large about what we intended to do once we were in government, >> you know, the bit that's changed from your political opponents, isn't it ? opponents, isn't it? >> and that is politicking. >> and that is politicking. >> well, reform reform are our political opponents, right? whether you're a conservative or rob burrow, they're fair game. no, but but the media have scrutinised all the parties, and i think it's clear reform and nigel farage don't like it. >> you honestly don't think that there was a campaign? that was for me, it felt like it was coming from all sides to try to attack and undermine reform,
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whether it was the amount of, time spent going through, god only knows what historically, trying to dig up dirt on candidates. i don't feel there was that much effort put into the rest of candidates on the slate for example, we had, it feels so good now to be able to say candidates names are the consequences without feeling edgy, that i'm about to spend ten minutes reading out lists of people's names. so liberating. but for example, you had the situation in your party where you had girvan in clacton, who described his favourite drink as being, white mans tears. he said he was standing for black and brown people and if the opposite, if nigel farage says my favourite drink is a pint of black man's tears, or i'm standing for the white man, i'd have been out that door quicker than a quick thing from kwik land, but it was glossed over. well it was. >> i remember discussing those comments on i think it's on your show or on somebody else, so it certainly was scrutinised and labour candidates in position. >> well, it might have been, it
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might have been discussed briefly. >> he didn't fight an effective campaign. >> he stayed in position and he was he was on the ballot as the labour candidate. >> if that was nigel farage. that said, my favourite drink is black man's tears , he would not black man's tears, he would not have been anywhere near standing. >> but michelle, you're not you're not complaining about scrutiny. you're suggesting that different parties are held to different parties are held to different standards, which is a rather different thing. scrutiny should be applied across the board , and you've just proven it board, and you've just proven it was applied to the labour candidate in clacton because we discovered his twitter history. >> i have no issue with scrutiny. >> what i'm saying is i feel that there was an unfair campaign, that focused desperately in on trying to undermine reform where other parties didn't have that same level of, i would say to some element conspiracy surrounding them. >> i don't think it was a conspiracy. i mean, i think, look, i mean, the issue about the reform party , which i think the reform party, which i think made it interesting and a cause of legitimate inquiry, was, as nigel farage and richard tice
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confessed, it was a complete start up party. so we didn't really know anything about their 600 candidates. so you had to go and find out. we knew a lot more about the conservatives and laboun >> tell me, oh yeah, it was so interesting in this new start up that we had nothing better to do then, inform ourselves about them, i think. >> but there was a bit more to it. >> but there were so many more reform candidates who bluntly were far right extremists , you were far right extremists, you know, but on support, supporting the british national party, appeasing hitler, someone saying that we should have, you know, done a deal with hitler in the second world war. these are views that are way out of kilter with where the british public are. and i think a lot of those stupid opinions, were very swiftly dealt with, wasn't there? >> there was people removed from the party who were very quickly. what do you think to it all at home? there's a lot i want to talk to you about after the break. do you think it's time essentially to reform the political system in this country? many people do. let's look at that . and of course, our look at that. and of course, our brand new cabinet. what do you
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hi there. michelle dewberry with you till 7:00. the director of the popular conservatives, mark littlewood and the former labour minister bill rammell alongside me. look, let's listen to a clip from nigel farage, because there's a lot of conversation today about reforming the electoral system. and it's all to do with the amount of vote share that people got versus the amount of seats. so, for example, the labour party got 412 seats on about 33, 34% of the votes . lib dems, they got 71 the votes. lib dems, they got 71 seats and their share was 12. reform got five seats with a higher share 14. let's listen to what nigel farage had to say.
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>> on that note, show us very interesting things. if we had proportional representation, we'd be looking at nearly 100 seats, but equally equally , seats, but equally equally, first past the post inverts the other way where labour get almost the same number of votes they got. well, if that less fewer votes they got under corbyn and yet 200 more seats. it is very much my view that our outdated first past the post electoral system is not fit for purpose, and we will campaign with anyone and everyone to change this electoral system . change this electoral system. >> what do you think to that mark? >> he's got a point, and i'm unusual as a conservative who actually is very open minded to some form of electoral reform. the conservative party as a whole hasn't got much to complain about in these results. they've consistently supported the first past the post system. and if you live by it, you should die by it as well. but let me try and muster a case for the present system. it doesn't produce a completely fair result. it really doesn't. but it does produce . typically it it does produce. typically it produces decisive results and
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there is something to be said for that that generally speaking, the biggest party, if it's sufficiently ahead of whoever's second forms a government and the people can be seen to have decided overnight, if you have a pure proportional system, you know what? whether you go up 5% or down 5, it doesn't make that much difference. and a government is always cobbled together in smokeless rooms. i should say, in today's world, between 4 or 5 political parties and you get a mish mash. so i like the kind of clarity and the decisiveness of first past the post, but i worry that it first past the post, but i worry thatitis first past the post, but i worry that it is now in a multi—party system , out of kilter, and i'd system, out of kilter, and i'd like to find some way of amending it such that at least the smaller parties get a good chunk of the vote aren't necessarily propelled into government, but at least get something approaching a fairer chunk of the seats. what do you think, bill? i'm a supporter of proportional representation, so in that sense i agree with nigel farage, but i think his critique of the lib dem performance is unjustified. one the lib dems
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geographically concentrate that their vote and that is effective to a big, big element of their vote was tactical. so it actually represents much more than 13. you know, i know friends of mine are lifelong members of the labour party who who happily voted lib dem last week. so it's more significant. but one of the major reasons that i'm in favour of pr one, yes, it's clearly unfair. if a party gets 15 to 20% of the vote and virtually no mps, but it will stop what we've experienced for the last 14 years with the right wing of the tory party dominating the government's agendain dominating the government's agenda in government. now, if we had pr, i'm not i'm not one of these people who thinks that that means the tories would never govern. they would, but they'd be forced to the centre ground in to order win. >> and do you think actually we might. we just talked before the break about turnout and things. many people, because i've said this loads of times, i typically don't vote in general elections. i did, i did this time , and i i did, i did this time, and i have the previous two because i was running in them. so i
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completely understand why people don't go out and vote. and this first past the post system, when you're saying yes, it gives decisive results. it does . also, decisive results. it does. also, the flip side of that is it makes you feel there's no point going out because in my seat labour will always win or lib dems will always win or whatever your c is and it stops that turnout. >> yeah , the truth of it, >> yeah, the truth of it, i mean, i hate to say this in any individual case, michel, whether you vote or not doesn't make the damnedest bit of difference. >> unless a candidate wins or loses by one vote and you'd voted for that candidate. so i don't believe that a proportional system would suddenly everybody would think their vote counted. it doesn't it doesn't especially matter if a given individual goes, yeah, your one vote would not have affected the election. not just so it's more a question of civic duty, but there'll be millions of people like me. and the other argument that used to be made for electoral reform, which again, i'm sympathetic to, was that there's vast numbers of safe seats across the country and therefore the only votes that count are those in the 100 or so seats that are contested
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between the major parties. well, the last two elections have proven that to be wrong. it seems that there is no such thing as a safe seat anymore, we've seen, you know, safe labour seats fall while they win a landslide majority. the conservatives have gone from a comfortable majority to losing two thirds of them. so i actually think your vote does count. and also your engagement in the local political community counts. not just a question of voting. if you actively support one candidate or another in your area, you can now make a meaningful difference. >> brian on the website, he just got in touch and said, essentially, michelle ford's percent of the people didn't vote. they sat at home and they couldn't be bothered. so therefore he says, labour have won, so you reap what you sow. i don't actually think, brian. it's a case of people couldn't be bothered. i know there will be bothered. i know there will be some people like that. i don't doubt it, but i really don't doubt it, but i really don't think that's why a lot of people don't vote, just that they burn idle. quite frankly, i think it is a little bit more complicated than that. diane says she does absolutely think
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the political system is unfair and needs change, lots of people are actually saying exactly that same thing, that it's proportional representation that they want. do you reckon it'll go to a referendum and that we'll be given a choice or not? well unlikely, even though i probably welcome that the problem is that the people who win under the system don't really have an incentive to change it. >> so although bill's been very honest about his proprietor tendencies, generally, if you benefit from the first past the post system and win a colossal majority, discussions about reforming the system are put to one side, so it's quite difficult to actually get that done. so there's no prospect of it happening any time soon. in this parliament. but the reality is every electoral system has its flaws, its downsides and its drawbacks , the question moving drawbacks, the question moving forward is whether our multi—party system , which we do multi—party system, which we do have now, is so fractured that it's not sustainable under first past the post. and i think there's a compelling argument that it's not. >> that's fair, >> that's fair, >> someone on my website says,
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please, can you talk about sectarian politics? i mean, we know what they're referring to there. we're referring to the people, the pro gaza, activists essentially , that got elected essentially, that got elected into parliament. what do you think to that, mark? >> yeah, this, really caught me somewhat by surprise, actually, and it seems to have caught the labour party a bit by surprise. >> two of their, you know, shadow cabinet. well, one of them down, john ainsworth lost surprisingly , wes streeting surprisingly, wes streeting nearly lost his seat. didn't think anybody saw that coming. this is a problem for all mainstream political parties . to mainstream political parties. to combat this, i don't have an easy way of doing it. other than that, all reasonable political parties need to be wholly united against it and prefer any one of the mainstream parties to win to any one of the sectarian parties to win on the upside, george galloway lost his seat and i consider him to be a sectarian politician as well. yes, best result of the night. in many senses, is a disgusting man who deliberately divides communities . deliberately divides communities. >> well, a lot of people obviously like him. hence he won his seat there in the
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by—election. i guess , one much by—election. i guess, one much lower turnout. >> and he was able to, you know, it was overturned and labour messed up in that by—election big time. yeah. we, we, we had a flawed candidate that we then immediately disowned . immediately disowned. >> but a lot of people are very angry aren't they, about what's going on in gaza. they see the images of predominantly children, let's face it, getting maimed. you know, killed. it's awful. it's horrendous. and a lot of people that is the issue thatis lot of people that is the issue that is closest to their hearts. they feel more passionately about that than perhaps they do whatever it is that's going on the ground here and absolutely. >> and that sentiment has been weaponised by far left and extreme muslim extremists who have weaponized the gaza issue. now, you know, i think it was right that we had support for the state of israel when they were horrifically attacked. it's also right that we call for an urgent ceasefire, but crucially, that we politically move towards a two state solution to resolve. >> did you see what happened
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with jess phillips? >> awful. when she was basically announced as the winner? essentially there was so much, i would call it aggression basically towards her. i thought it was really awful, actually. and i think she really held her own very, very well. and at one point she even said to these people , you know, ultimately you people, you know, ultimately you don't like a strong woman standing up to you. and i think she was absolutely right. >> i totally agree with her. >> i totally agree with her. >> and i think one of the really sad things in politics today is there's an awful lot of inadequate men who, for some reason, find it acceptable and necessary to challenge women in pubuc necessary to challenge women in public life in atrociously crude terms. >> i actually think it's more deeper than that. actually. i think that there are some, people that have islamist tendencies that actually don't think that women are equal to them. they would look at women as less than. and i find that quite a problem. >> i think there's an element of
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that. but if you look at the abuse that women politicians and women in the media face almost on a weekly basis, it comes from across our communities and across our communities and across the political. it would be nice in our democratic politics if we could have a convention that people should be as noble in victory as they are gracious in defeat, >> there was a lady at my, at the election party. the watch party last night, actually. and when that jonathan ashworth, result was, broken, basically she said she was a jewish lady, and she said it made her feel really quite anxious because, of course, he lost, to that pro—palestinian independent. she said, as someone that was jewish, that rising sentiment was really quite distressing to her. what do you make to all of that and how actually do we combat this? your thoughts on all of i'll see you in two.
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hi. i'm michelle dewberry with you till 7:00 tonight. mark littlewood and bill rammell remain alongside me. we didn't actually touch on jeremy corbyn. what was your response to that outcome ? outcome? >> disappointed. i think you know , corbyn was a stain on the know, corbyn was a stain on the labour party, a stain on british politics and i, i, i'm delighted he's been expelled from the labour party and. but but but it's interesting, i was talking to some people who canvassed there and they said that people were saying, yeah, we're voting laboun were saying, yeah, we're voting labour, we're voting for jeremy corbyn because he'd been around for so long. he was the face, historically, of the labour party. so he's back. i don't think he will have enormous influence as one independent mp to, you know, what do you think about that at home? >> should we take a second to run through the new cabinet then? have you seen it, are you impressed with it? i don't actually think there were many surprises. none? >> none. >> none. >> i mean, the only surprise is, are the two gaps he had to fill because the shadow cabinet
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members lost their seats? >> yeah, i don't really think, but i think that's a virtue. >> i mean, i think keir is determined, unlike previous leaders, he's not going to constantly chop and change with his top team. he wants them to work seriously, develop their portfolios, and you are going to see some continuity because literally you will know all of these. >> i mean, i'm not teaching you anything new because it's exactly as discussed before, you've got angela rayner, of course. she's the deputy, you've got she also is secretary of state now for levelling up, housing communities rachel reeves. chancellor pat mcfadden, chancellor of the duchy of lancashire. lancaster sorry, yvette cooper home secretary lammy, foreign. commonwealth. development wes streeting health. i mean, it's just it feels a little bit boring because we already know it . because we already know it. >> but david lamb i think the pubuc >> but david lamb i think the public can do with boring after what we've experienced. >> is that what we need a little bit of? because it has been actually pretty. i mean, i look at you pretty action part of the fence. it's been awful. >> yeah, i mean, i actually i
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actually said, i actually said to bill before we came on air, i could do with a few months, possibly a few years of boring. i mean, i can't remember when the last boring political year was. probably got to go back to 2005 or something. and one of the statements in keir speech outside downing street that really resonated. we're going to tread, more carefully on your lives. i don't think people want the constant mayhem and chaos. and the interesting thing, having touched in the earlier side of the programme about labour perhaps not coming to power on a wave of public enthusiasm and ecstasy, we'll see. maybe public expectations in what labour can deliver are actually quite low. the nightmare for labour government would be if expectations were now colossal and in a few weeks time people were saying, well, why hasn't it happened yet? we'll see. that's just a guess on my part. but actually the promise and over deliver is was actually one of the virtues of labourin actually one of the virtues of labour in 97. and i think that's got the opportunity to happen. >> now one of the views at home is asking about the amount of experience in the field that
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people need to have to be appointed to some of these roles. how important is it, if at all, in your view, that if you're going to be involved, i don't know, secretary for housing or for defence or whatever that you've had experience in that field, does that matter? >> no, i don't think it does. and actually, if you come to a brief without experience, it means you come to a brief without prejudice. of what works and what doesn't work. but i tell you what, this cabinet is much more experienced than the cabinet that came for in labour in 1997. you know, people like yvette cooper, david lammy, john healey all served with me in the last labour government. so they do bring knowledge and experience of how whitehall works and how you move it in a positive direction and what about the role of women? >> i've heard a lot being said today about all. for example, we've got our first female chancellor and all the rest of it do you is that something you focus on as well? >> obviously, as you can see, i'm not a woman, so it's i'm,
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it's never much bothered me given i think we've broken through that barrier. so it doesn't just didn't cross my mind that rachel reeves was the first woman chancellor. i just, i mean, oh, really? okay. i mean, we've had three women, prime ministers, you know. does that really make history? you know, i mean, for all i know. well, lisa nandy isn't the first woman culture secretary, but you know what i mean. we put that tag on it quite a lot. i would hope that we've got to an age in which people are judged on their talents. and the prime minister appoints the best chancellor. he's got male or female, tall, short, fat, thin. and i wish we wouldn't go on about it so much. no, i actually think it's been a big battle to get women's representation to where it is. we're now at 40, close to half , we're now at 40, close to half, and i think that's a positive development. >> so you had all female shortlists, didn't you, for a while. and they still were they still a thing in this election or not. are they gone back? >> no. we've still got women only shortlists. i almost lost out to women only shortlists. so i'd thought the harlow constituency in 1992, there was a strong chance harlow was going to be a female only shortlist in
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1997, and because 50% of the seats had to be eventually it wasn't and i succeeded. so at a personal interest level, it's kind of like i can understand concerns about it, but without women only shortlist, you would never broken the grass glass ceiling. >> i think women only shortlists are a bit ridiculous because as long as you've got within the selection panels that are making the decisions, if you've got mixed, it's for me. it's not just about your gender, it's about what's your experience? what do you bring to the table and all the rest. so as long as you've got a mixture of people making the decisions, you should have the best people for the job presented as potential candidates. i would never, ever want to get a job, literally just because no guy was allowed to apply. i would be absolutely mortified. and every day i went to work, i would sit there thinking i am a token , member of thinking i am a token, member of this team, and i'm here because a guy wasn't allowed to compete against me. and actually, as a strong, capable, successful
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woman, i feel i can compete against men. i don't need you to remove men to make me as a female, successful. i think it's a bit pitiful, but. >> but , a bit pitiful, but. >> but, michel, the a bit pitiful, but. >> but , michel, the reality a bit pitiful, but. >> but, michel, the reality in both the tory party and the labour party, you talk about, you know, balanced electorates, they weren't they were predominantly men and, you know, faced with good, capable, impressive women , they impressive women, they repeatedly chose not to select them. and i think but the issue, them. and i think but the issue, the issue for the issue, i think for all political parties, i would like to feel it's almost problem solved now that you're referring to something back in the 90s. >> we need diversity across all fronts. what's your educational background? you know, what's your international knowledge? not just gender, certainly. >> look, you know what, there's a very special part of the week, and that's drew brees having it opens after the break. and i'll tell you what we're discussing over a beer. what's the for the tory party. who should
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hi there. i'm michelle dewberry. this is dewbs & co seven, this is dewbs& co seven, alongside the director of the conservatives. mark littlewood and the former labour minister bill rammell. remain look, it's friday, so you know the drill. jubun friday, so you know the drill. juburi tavern is open. cheers to all of you guys. cheers to both of you. and especially cheers to you, the labour party on your victory. ultimately, whatever we might think and politically disagree, the success of the labour party will be the success ultimately of the country. so i shall drink to that and cheers . shall drink to that and cheers. >> cheers. >> cheers. >> i would raise a glass to keir starmer but it's friday and it's after six, so working so i won't waste my time with that . let's waste my time with that. let's talk about the future of the labour party. sorry. the tory party then. lots and lots of people are getting in touch asking what does the future look like? >> yeah , well it's uncertain. as >> yeah, well it's uncertain. as i said, i think there needs to be a calm period of reflection. i fear it will be factional. i don't know who i want to be the
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next leader of the conservative party, but i know the traits i'm looking for, which is an explanation not actually just at what went wrong in this general election . but why have we made election. but why have we made such poor progress over 14 years in government from a conservative perspective, bill will be delighted that we made poor progress. but 14 years of tory government taxes at their highest level in our lifetimes, regulation at its highest level even regulation at its highest level ever. big deficits , ever. big deficits, disappointing growth. and i think that, you know, there have been some successes. there have been some successes. there have beeni been some successes. there have been i think some of the education reforms have worked well. whatever you think of brexit, i think getting that over the line was a challenge. and was done well. but in so many areas, if you just taken a snapshot of britain in 2010 and a snapshot today, you would not have assumed there had been 14 years of conservative government. so they need to answer that question. i think they need to answer a question about engagement in the within the party as well. the party's become very undemocratic. the chairman of the party was on a short list of one. you were
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arguing about all women shortlists. this was an all chairman of the party shortlist, right? you had to be the chairman of the party, north korean. and he nearly lost a very safe conservative seat on the back of it. so it needs to be a lot of change in the in the party as well. and you need to work out what you're going to do with reform and nigel farage. i want someone who can answer those three questions. bill, i think the first thing you need to do is to show some humility and contrition. and i found it staggering after the exit poll came out last night, the first thing the tory party did was put out a statement saying labour's going to lying, saying labour's going to lying, saying labour's going to lying, saying labour's going to put up your taxes and be soft on defence and security. they need to think and listen as to why they've lost so heavily and really reflect upon that in order to be able to move forward in terms of, you know, what kind of candidate who i actually think penny mordaunt probably would have been their best match. she's now lost her seat. >> so out of the bunch you've got then who would you be backing? >> i really, genuinely haven't decided yet. i mean, i will decided yet. i mean, i will decide and i'll make it public.
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i'll happily say on your show when i have decided i do want someone who can win back voters from reform, i don't think this has been an especially right wing government, actually , i wing government, actually, i think it's been quite a leftish government, >> welcome , nigel. >> welcome, nigel. >> welcome, nigel. >> i think i don't rule that out. i don't rule that out. but it's not about nigel farage. it's about the 4 million people who voted reform a good chunk of whom would normally vote conservative. the conservative party does not own those votes. but a question needs to be asked about how one might win them back. if bill's party had lost a vast number of votes to another centre left party, labour would be asking how do we earn those people back? it's not about farage, it's about the 4 million votes. but do you know what you can't out farage for sure. and i think it would be really dangerous for the conservative party to welcome nigel farage into the party. you can't win from that position in british politics where you do have to be or at least present yourself as being in the centre ground, and you can't do that with the farage agenda, so you can't out farage, farage, they go, cassie
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says michelle, what about suella, >> she says that suella was very humble yesterday and feels that she was definitely making a leadership bid, there you go. who would you back and what do you think the tory party should look like? that can be your homework or pick it up on monday. that's all for now. thank you very much. have a great weekend. tom harwood up next. tonight's >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on gb news >> hello. very good evening to you. here's your latest gb news weather forecast coming to you from the met office. this weekend's looking relatively cool and showery for many of us, but before then we do have some heavy, persistent rain around today. we've had a waving front across southern parts, bringing some wet weather here, and then a pulse of heavy, persistent rain is pushing its way north eastwards across england. as we go through this evening and overnight. clearing through though, as we go through the early hours of tomorrow morning.
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that being said, there will be some heavy, persistent rain lingering across northern parts of scotland which could cause some localised issues elsewhere, some localised issues elsewhere, some showery rain but also some clear skies under which, away from the towns and cities, we're likely to dip into single figures. so a bit of a fresh start for the time of year if we look in more detail. and as i mentioned, there will be some heavy, persistent rain across some northern parts of scotland. we could see some high totals building up chance of a bit of flooding and some difficult driving conditions here. heading further south though, and there will be some showers, perhaps across parts of northern ireland and into northern england to watch out for some heavy , watch out for some heavy, showery rain affecting more central parts of england and into wales. two and then across more southern parts of england. we're likely to have just a mixture of sunny spells and a few scattered showers around as we go through the day. some of the heavier, more frequent, showery rain should clear away of sorts, but there will be plenty of showers around as we go through the afternoon, particularly towards the north and west . further south and and west. further south and east, perhaps a greater chance of seeing something a little bit dnen of seeing something a little bit drier, but even here 1 or 2
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showers are possible . there will showers are possible. there will be some blustery winds around and with temperatures below average for the time of year, it is going to feel relatively cool for most of us overnight. the showers should largely die out, so sunday is actually likely to start mostly dry for many places. but quite quickly we're going to see a rash of showers developing, many of us likely to catch some showers and they could be heavy, possibly even thundery at times too. and temperatures still on the low side for the time of year. monday at the moment looks largely dry before more wet weather arrives later on. bye bye . bye. >> looks like things are heating up. boxt boilers sponsors of weather on
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got a new government. yes. the people have spoken. and for the first time in more than 14 years, we have a labour prime minister >> i invite you to all join this government of service in the mission of national renewal. our work is urgent and we begin it today , just two hours before today, just two hours before that, rishi sunak was speaking outside number 10 with a message for voters who had just kicked him out. >> i have heard your anger, your disappointment, and i take responsibility for this loss . responsibility for this loss. >> and it was a record breaking
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