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tv   BBC News The Context  PBS  May 23, 2024 5:00pm-5:31pm PDT

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. >> that is why we need ramonda.. i want to make it click crystal clear to everyone. if you come to a country illegally, you will not get to stay. will be able to remove you to a safe alternative because that is how you break the cycle. >> you have the power, the chance to end the chaos, to turn the page and to rebuild britain. >> in terms of the big picture today, what we have had from the party leaders fanning out across the u.k. is setting out their broad campaign messages. we will hear them diddly. ♪ >> it was the first day in the
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six weeks of campaigning avaible. you can sense the urgency among the leaders. sunak in wales, starmer in kent. the first minister of scotland traveled to edinburgh. we will have a roundup of the election news including reform u.k.'s pitch to voters as it targets tory seats for the first time. tonight, the story that was buried yesterday. we will nobe overlooking it tonight. the highlights from today's proceedings at the post office inquiry. good evening. the absolute rule of political campaigning is consistency and repetition and in these first 24 hours, the leaders of the two biggest parties were keen to impress with their slogans will be in the coming six weeks. for the prime minister, it is continuity. the risk he says of swapping leader in the midst of what he believes is the beginning of an economic recovery. for care starmer, it is change and an end he says to the cori
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-- the tory chaos. we will hear it in every corner of the country. the prime minister has been to events in england, wales and scotland at the labor leader traveled to kent. the liberal democrats and the s&p were out and about competing in the key swing states -- key swinseats. >> placards and cheers and babies getting attention from politicians. keir starmer is the fan of visiting lower league football grounds where he hopes labor can win. he was in gelling him this morning. his deputy within two. >> thank you kid whatever service people try to access these days they find it is like wading through treacle. >> red cards are not usually welcome for folk on a football pitch but expect to see many of these in the next month spelling out labor's core message.
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>> we have had 40 years of going round and round in circles getting absolutely nowhere. chaos and division feeding chaos and division. if you want change, you have to vote for it. if you vote labor, it is a vote to stop the chaos. it is a vote to turn the page. it is a vote to rebuild our country together. thank you very much. thank you. >> a general election is about winning seats and staying in them. rishi sunak just about managed that in derbyshire as he made the case the economy is on the up. >>nflation down from 11% when i got this job. down back to normal just over 2%. energy bills falling by hundreds of pounds. wages have been rising by faster than prices for almost 10 months now. >> the conservatives and labor
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have a very different approach to dealing with people crossing the channel in small boats. labor would scrap the tory plan to send migrants to rwanda which rishi sunak claims could make a big difference. >> how do we stop the boats? i'm very clear that requires bold solutions. that is why we knew rwanda. got to make it crystal clear to everybody. . if you come to our country illegally, you will not get to stay. >> the prime minister told us today he did not expect anyone to be sent to rwanda before the election. within hours, mr. sunak visited a murray in south wales having a go with a kit pit there was an awkward moment when he said this. >> looking forward to the football? >> wells have not qualified for the euros. the football tournament starting
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next month. england and scotland have. in edinburgh today, the scottish national party have their general election launch. >> on july the fourth, independence day, make sure your voice is heard. i expect the next six weeks we will see the tories and labor really going at it. they will be going hammer and tongs to discredit each other. i will be going hammer and tongs but not against anyone. i will be going hammer and tongs to put scotland first. >> in cheltenham in gloucestershire the liberal democrats were sorting out their choreography. some in party colors from head to to. leader ed davey has a phrase we will hear a fair bit of p. >> if there deal where everyone cavities and home that is secure and clean and and affordable retirement when the time comes.
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a fair deal where every child has a decent school where they can have the opportunity to realize their potential. >> the next six weeks will involve a fair bit of tickertape and assorted electioneering paraphernalia. there are those keen to pick it up. >> with us every night through this political campaign or at least most nights, we might give you one or two off will be our political correspondent rob watson. also here with us tonight to tell is what will happen in the final week of the parliament, hannah way to from the institute for government. we should say to kick it off some important news tonight from parliament. they have rushed through one of the crucial bills. tell us about it. >> we have seen some of the bills the government wanted to get onto the statute book past already. they got the victims and prisoners bill. the post office horizon bill
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both nearly there if not already passed. and so there has been high degree of party consensus behind the passage of those bills. >> what happens in the final week of a parliament before it is dissolved? what does it feel like around westminster? >> for those involved in the process of getting the last few bits of legislation through, it is extremely hectic. there is a lot of horsetrading. the opposition deciding which bits of government legislation they want to about to get onto the statute books. lots of it for different political reasons they might not. for other people, i was in parliament this morning and it is very quiet. people are just coming in thinking about clearing up their offices. mps cannot be in -- >> so they do clear up now?
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the man with the van comes this week. they cannot come back after the election. >> they cannot use their parliamentary offices, email addresses or anything like that during the election campaign. >> right. rob, you've been following everything since 5:00 this morning. such as the nature of political campaigning. the first bit of news from the prime minister was the flights for rwanda will not believe before the election. how is that gone down with this party? >> let me give you other news first. that is to say hannah who is also with us, i saw her at 7:00 a.m. this morning at bbc westminster so she has also been working really hard so well done, hannah. nice to be with you again. yes, there will not be any flights but it is pretty clear mr. sunak remains keen to use it as a dividing line with the labour party to say there will not be any flights before the election.
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if you vote for me, there will be flights taking off. if you vote for labor, there will not be because they said they will not continue with it. >> and yet keir starmer went to kent, a constituency that will have had its fair share of migrants and asylum-seekers. the council paying for hostiles and that sort of thing. not what you would call traditional labor heartland. is that significant? >> it is significant. it is a recognition labor needs to win an awful lot of seats from the conservatives if it is going to form a majority government. it is worth stepping back for a second and reminding ourselves although the conservatives are massively historically unpopular , somethi like 20 percentage points or so behind labor, labor needs a massive swing. it needs over 12 swing -- 12% swing to form a majority government. it is worth bearing that in
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mind. absolutely you need to go to places if you are labor where you have not been doing so well in recent years and come up with that message. you already know it by now. time for a change. >> change and chaos definitely the slogan words he has been using today. can we talk about the other parties? there are around 70 or 80 seats the liberal democrats will be contesting directly with the conservatives should there is reform who launched early today. without nigel faraj which might be a disappointment to mr. tice but how significant will there performance be on the final result and the status of the parliament? >> potentially, very influential. i should say i bumped into one of nigel for auch's mates -- nigel faraj mates who said nigel faraj is giving up his tv job for the next few weeks so you will see plenty of him. it matters for the obvious reason that if you think about it, the problem if you are the
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conservatives in addition to being massively unpopular is you have your vote being nibbled away at from the left whether that is from the liberal democrats in constituencies in the south of england and from north of england but you're getting attacked by the reform party which to remind everyone is pro brexit, pro-immigration from the rig. absolutely it matters. >> 650 constituencies across the country, not every constituency looks the same as it would have in 2019. how significant are the undary changes? >> when we see the election results we are going to see how significant they are. what we are saying labor needs, around a 12% swing to get a majority e al., -- majority at all. with the boundary changes the swing is close to 13 for to 14%.
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that has made their job harder. there are now fewer seats in wales and scotland with the rebalancing of constituencies by population size. it will have an impact. we'll have to wait and see every individual mp i think is trying to wake looking at the bits of their constituencies they have lost. some mps have lost constituencies altogether. they have had to if they have chosen to do so look for a different seat to stand in because the foundry changes have gotten rid of their seat altogether. . it is a little unpredictable. we will have to await the fourth of july to see what impact it has. >> speaking of someone who went without my driving license at the council election, it's to our public service bit. who is eligible to vote? what do they need to do before july 4? >> knew to be regiered as a voter. need to do that in good time.
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if you are going to be at home where you want to vote you need to get a postal vote. if you're going to vote in person, you need to take your photographic id and check the list of permissible ids. there are quite a lot but not everything you would expect might work as a photo ids necessarily on the list. do look at that list on the official website. i'm sure it is on the b's websittoo. >> i'm looking at it. you have to register by the 18th of june. we need to take our id with us. also you can register if you are living abroad in the constituency where you were previously on the electoral roll. final thought about scotland. the s&p won 48 west mr. seats. first minister launched his campaign in edinburgh. the yugo pole. it does tend to suggest broadly
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there is a 10 point lead. what difference could scotland make to who controls the house at the end of it? >> difference. any of us old to remember back beyond 15, 20 years would know that labor used to pretty much utterly own scotland and its 59 seats. i think the 59 has come down to 57. hannah will no doubt correct me. at the moment labor only has one seat. if it was to gain 10, 15, 20 and if you think about that minton that -- that mountain labor has to climb to form an electoral governing majority throughout britain, absolutely doing well, doing better in scotland would absolutely make a difference. >> brian taylor will be here with us at 9:00 so we will talk more about things north of the border. you have had such a long day. we do appreciate it. hannah, rob, good to see you. there will be back on the the course of the next six weeks.
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around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news. for our u.k. viewers, let's take a look at other stories today. detectives investigating the finances and funding of the snp have sent a report of their findings to scotland's prosecution service. the report has been savinykh to the crown office four weeks after the former chief executive peter morel was charged with embezzling s and p funds. a 10-year-old girl who died in mudslide well on a school trip is described by her family as a happy bubbly girl. we are hairless -- leah harrison from darlington died after heavy rain on the edge of the north york moors on wednesday. the final report into the grenfell tower fire is to be published on september the fourth. 72 people died in the fire seven years ago next month. investigation showed inflammable clotting and insulation played a part in the rapid spread of the
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fire. 19 organizations are under police investigation. so as we were discussing just before the break, the commons house tonight past the post office offenses bill. legislation. will get w.a.r. real assent tomorrow which means all those prosecuted for theft, falls accounting and other offenses will have their offenses quashed. our political correspondent has the latest from westminster. >> this bill raced through the house of lords today. the key point is both the conservatives and labor supported it. they wanted this legislation to go through. it clashes the conviction of the postmasters who were wrongly convicted in the horizon scandal. obviously we were talking about it at length earlier in the year and the government announced this legislation. it is quite radical legislation because it overturns decisions
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by the criminal courts. more than 900 sub postmasters were wroly prosecuted. what this legislation does, it overturns their convictions and that unlocks the process for many of them to claim compensation. both labor and conservatives wanted to see this through. as you say, this is part of the washup process. that is the term used for rebels in the process of going through the house of commons and house of lords that have not become law. 's has passed its final stage in the house of lords and when it gets real assent, it will become law. >> the barristers question for a second day the former chief executive. she has denied she tried to close down an independent review of the convictions. she said the executives felt the review was becoming too expensive and not meeting its objectives. more than 900 sub postmasters
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were prosecuted because of the faulty software which removed money from branch accounts for which sub masters were blamed. the inquiry has seen an email were suggested the post office was looking to limit this review to two or three cases which she has denied. >>ot trying to close anything down. it is important i say that. >> let's bring in former. sub postmistress penny williams love each how you -- sub postmistress penny williams. lovely to have young the program. i would if i get your reaction tonight the bill has gone through parliament and convictions most likely from tomorrow will be quashed. >> that is good news i think. those people that were convicted. i on the other hand -- maybe it is not a personal thing and that is quite important to some people. generally i guess it is good. i was fortunate i was not prosecuted so therefore i was
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not convicted >> i know you s through some of the inquiry in the last couple days. many of us were surprised by the election announcement yesterday. it was not front page news this morning but tell us what has angered you the most about what you have heard in the last two days. >> in the last two days really anger me. it is not anymore surprised me. i really find it incredulous somebody like that who has got such an important position, the most important position in an organization such as the post office seems to have absolutely no idea about what she is supposed to be doing, what she was meant to be doing, any background to the job she was meant to be doing and just letting other people do it for her. she is responsible for all of
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that. >> stay with us because i went to come to this point about whether she knew what she was doing. the inquiry heard on the seventh of july 2013 the post office pr director mark davis sent paul of the nels and email advising her how to respond to the findings of the forensic accountant report. that came from second site. they had identified the software bugs in the horizon i.t. system data from which they used data to prosecute hundreds of sub postmasters. in the email, mr. davis said if we say publicly that we will look at past cases, we will open this up very significantly to front page news. it would have he said a ballistic impact. she replied i will take your steers. suggesting she put the reputation of the post office ahead of the concerns of the campaigner which counselor jason beard challenged her own.
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>> you did take the advice of the pr guide, didn't you? >> i really don't remember it relating to the decision. >> hang on please. >> the email you had sent to which this is a response posits should we look back 12, 20 months in separation or should we go back further? why aren't we going back further five to 10 years? and this says you cannot do that. you will be on the front page. that is a grossly improper perspective, isn't it? >> yes it is. yes it is. >> you hea the groans of the people watching in the gallery. as you say, either she is not telling the truth or she was highly ignorant of what her job was bybee -- while being paid thousands of pounds for it. there is this telling text message, and exchange with the former boss dame green in which
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i think this was a text message sent at the beginning of the year in which she said i think you knew. do you think there is legal jeopardy here? >> do i think there is legal jeopardy? >> i know that alan bates has been seen to see the metropolitan police this week. do you still think there are things like perverting the course of justice come obstructing the court of justice? would you still like to see prosecutions and a police inquiry? in which case, what she is saying at the moment becomes pertinent, doesn't it? >> ok. it does not make any difference to me whether she gets prosecuted or not because unfortunately even if she has prosecuted, and anybody else as well, they may well be prosecuted which is another huge amount of money that is going to be spent on something which
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could have been stopped a very long time ago. i don't really think we would have achieved anything by doing that. i think they have shown themselves already to be entirely incompetent apart from anything else. as mr. bates said, the most positive thing that could be done is to dismantle the post office as it is and rebuild it in a much more modern, more for want of a better word user-friendly way which would mean this kind of thing could never happen again. >> i'm really struck how after everything you have been through with this, how reasonable you sound about it, you seem as if you have come to terms with a lot of what unfolded. in that sense, ivgw7&'&4w wondeu
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want from the inquiry. you are sitting there for long hours listing to the evidence. what is it that drives you to go there every day? >> i think it is absolutely fascinating maybe in macabre way if you want to put it like that. i look at joe hamilton sitting there every single day. i just am truly incredulous at their fortitude in doing that because they really had the most awful time. i did not. on nowhere on the same scale. my world collapsed in a very minor way to do nothing in comparison to them. but in all honesty, i want to because it is fascinating. none of it has surprised me. they would do whatever they needed to do or thought they needed to do to cover up what they know went wrong. and for miss finals to say she
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did not see the report, no one gave it to her, she has not read mr. altman's review, i have read mr. altman's review. you could punch a few buttons and get online. i don't understand this business of i don't know is absolute rubbish. i don't understand the inquiry seems to have made -- you cannot anyway.hem to tell the truth i don't know what prosecuting them, how you get any more out of them. we know what has happened. we need to make sure it never happens again. >> we will have to leave it there. >> putting them in jail is not going to work. >> we will have to leave it there. thank you for coming on the program. we will keep in touch with you.
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significant news tonight though announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.
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