lame duck, that is trying to get into downing street on the back of alex hammond's coattails. they know, they now know they can not win the election on their own. so they are preparing to answer the ransom note of higher taxes more borrowing, weaker defense breaking up our unions, that is what we got to stop. never mind talk of ducks. i'm looking at alex sammon's poodle. [shouting] >> thank you, mr. speaker. on friday, together with local businesses and local enterprise partnership i will be launching a new campaign gateway to growth calling for link road to the ring roads that will help deliver millions of in investments new jobs to the bristol area and provide the area with the access to the motor way it needs.

as part of long-term economic plan will the prime minister look for the case? the. >> first of all let me pay tribute to my honourable friend and his very hard work for people in kingswood and bristol more generally. he is absolutely right we do need to see better transit schemes in bristol. i know the transport sector will be happy to look at campaign in the case he makes. he will note, want me to say it great historian and someone written about richard iii, we shouldn't let this day pass without noting that richard iii will be buried tomorrow. it is worth remembering someone did in their relatives to get the top job and the country ended in chaos. >> order.

>> you have been watching the prime minister's questions from the british house of commons. the parliament is now in recess until after the election. on c-span.org you can find past prime minister's questions and other british public affairs programming. >> monday, on "the communicators," more from the consumer electronics show. throughout your day if there is something you want to capture you just take it off your risk. it will expand it will be as easy as gesturing. you will toss it and it is completely autonomous, there is no remote. it is smart enough to know the direction you toss it.

it will compose a photo, take a photo, and combat autonomously -- come back autonomously. >> a british election preview featuring prime minister cameron and ed miliband. at political "q&a" with rick larsen. after that, another chance to see british prime minister cameron take questions from the house of commons. >> the u.k. general election is may 7. british prime minister james cameron -- david cameron and labor leader ed miliband appeared on a question-and-answer program. this weekend, the london times says that polls show that mr.

miliband won the debate and leads in the general poll. this program is one hour and 15 minutes. welcome to cameroon and miliband live. tonight will be the debate between two men, one of whom will be the next prime minister. david cameron and ed miliband are the only people with a genuine chance of forming the next government. tonight, we will see what they're made of. kay burley: over the next 90 minutes both men will face jeremy head-to-head and also answer the questions of our studio audience. david cameron will be interviewed by jeremy, then join me to take questions from our

audience. after that ed miliband will face questions from the studio and we finish with his head-to-head with jeremy. so let's get to it. the elections start here and now. first off, the prime minister and leader of the conservative party, david cameron. [applause] jeremy paxman: david cameron, do you know how many food banks were in this country when you came to power? prime minister cameron i don't have exact figures but i know they use the fuji -- the banks have gone up in their many amazing volunteers to man those of banks and provide an important service. jeremy paxman: there were 66 when he came to power. there are now 421. 900,000 people took food parcels last year, free food parcels. you talked about broken britain and fixing it. you haven't. it is more broken than it was. prime minister cameron: i don't

accept that. if you look at what's happened with our economy to our 1.8 in a million more people in work than when i became prime minister to -- jeremy paxman: is increasing food banks a market success? prime minister cameron: there has been increasing food bank usage. that's partly because of the difficulties we face as a country. it's also jeremy, because we trained -- because we changed the rules, the previous government did allow job centers to advertise the existence of a bank. that that would be bad pr. i thought i was a wrong decision, a poor decision so we allowed them to point people towards the banks defended them. the big picture is here, is we want to get more people back to face, we've turned the economy around and it's jobs -- jeremy paxman: it's unacceptable in a rich country like ours that there are that number of people depending on free food they. prime minister cameron: obviously i want few people to be using food banks and i want more people to have the security of the job but we have created 1000 jobs for everyday this government has been in office. that's a statistic but behind the statistic are people who are

able to provide for their families, who are earning a wage can were able to build a better life. prime minister cameron: how many of those jobs are zero hour contract? -- jeremy paxman: how many of those jobs are zero hour contract? prime minister cameron: about one in 50 jobs. jeremy paxman: do you want -- prime minister cameron: some people choose your hours contracted for instance, students because they want the flexibility -- jeremy paxman: what about -- prime minister cameron: hold on a second to we outlawed government to do this, the idea of exclusive zero hours contract we can only work for one business. we said that shouldn't happen but it is a myth, some people want to say that jobs that have been created, that's not true -- spent i'm not saying that. jeremy paxman: i am saying there are 700,000 people on zero our contracts. could you live on one?

prime minister cameron: i want to make a country where people have worked. jeremy paxman: could you live on zero our? prime minister cameron: that is not the question. jeremy paxman: it is the question item asking. prime minister cameron: if you are a student it may work for you. what we have outlawed our exclusive zero our contracts. jeremy paxman: a colleague of mine spoke to a man in the northeast, patrick he drove for hours to and from work and he does not know how long he will be on and he gets six pounds. how is that any way to live? prime minister cameron: i want more people to have part-time -- not part-time work full-time work. that is what is happening in our economy. we had a difficult two years

following the longest and deepest recession in our country's history and we are coming out of that and we created 1.89 million jobs. that is 1000 or drive -- a day. the majority of those have been full-time jobs. most of them have been relatively well-paid occupations . only one in 50 jobs is a zero hours contract and some people choose those contracts and you asked me do i want more people to have the dignity of work, yes do i want a higher minimum wage yes. and we have seen it increase above inflation for the first time in many years and i want to see that go through. in terms of what the government does do, we have cut taxes so we have taken the lowest paid people in the country out of the tax altogether so we can earn 10,600 pounds before you start paying income tax that is important and has been a priority.

jeremy paxman: you could not live on a zero hours contract. this is one of the things that people find problematic about you. you would choose for example to appoint a man involved in tax avoidance to your government, another rich person. but you would choose to appoint to the heart of government a rich newspaper editor to which television presenter what do you have in common a-qwex? -- common with all of these very rich people? prime minister cameron: let's take these and term because i do that is completely unjustified. stephen green who was the head of hsbc had been appointed by my predecessor, drawer -- gordon brown, to run the advisory council. i appointed him in a move welcomed across the political spectrum in the british industry as someone who had run a bank responsibly.

i don't know whether that was wrongdoing subsequently at hsbc, we will have to see. jeremy paxman: did you ask him about it? prime minister cameron: i did not ask him that specific question, we went through the normal procedures, proper checks including by the revenue into somebody's tax affairs and it was probably dealt with. if you want to raise the issue and i said very clearly i didn't what happened and i will not comment extensively, i just answered a question explaining he was a friend of mine but i am absolutely clear, treating the people you work with badly is not acceptable and they made that decision. the dispersions that you are trying to cast is ridiculous. the government i've led the last five years has an economy

growing back to work, the taxes in the country and i'm not saying we've achieved everything we set out to do. the economy is stronger. jeremy paxman: art from broken britain, one of the slogans last time was the country is overwhelmed in debt. how much money have you borrowed? prime minister cameron: we cut the budget deficit in half. as compared to gdopp. jeremy paxman: you know what the figure is? prime minister cameron: you are going to tell me, jeremy. jeremy paxman: nearly 5 billion pounds. prime minister cameron: that is a lot less than the previous government. the annual deficit has come down by one half as a share of gdp. and that, the total stock of debt as a part of the national income is falling. we haven't finished the job.

the british people are working incredibly hard on that plan to turn the economy down, having public services that we can afford and creating jobs and livelihoods for our people. if you are saying we haven't gone fast enough to cut the deficit i would agree we need to complete the job. what all of my political opponents have been saying we should borrow more, spend more contacts more. jeremy paxman: it is merely the chasm between what was said and what was done, let's take immigration. let's -- you promised you would reduce immigration at the level, from the 1990's, tens of thousands a year. do you know how many women? jeremy paxman: it has not been cut to tens of thousands. we have cut down from outside the european union, that is down

by 13% and we closed down about 800 bogus education colleges but in spite of the european union. it's not least because we've created more jobs in britain and the rest of the european union put together. the european union economy has been so stagnant people have come here to work so what we need to do now is keep the economy working but fix the broken welfare system. i am going to make this point if you would let me. there are some key changes i'm going to make. if you come from europe to written you cannot claim unemployment benefit, if you do not have a job in six months you have to return to the country you came from and work here paying into the system before you get the benefits out of the system and while you are here you cannot send it child benefits home to the family if they are in another country. those changes, key welfare changes will reduce immigration. jeremy paxman: that's not what you said last time. you said " no ifs, ands or buts

we make a promise to the british people that we would reduce to the level in the early 1990s. " you have not done it. prime minister cameron: it is still that is still the right ambition. we achieved the cut. but we haven't achieved it for the welfare changes in order to do it. jeremy paxman: but you accept you have not met the commitment. prime minister cameron: i fully accept that. jeremy paxman: there is a credibility problem. one of the things you said and you repeated it again. yesterday, i think. you said exactly the same thing before the last election, we have no plans to raise b.a.t . and then the moment you got into government you raised b.a.t. prime minister cameron: there is a crucial difference.

we are to work very carefully. we know what is necessary and our plans do not involve tax increases. it is very clear about that. we know what needs to be done. because people watching at home want to know what is the scale of what needs to be done. we need to save one out of every hundred pounds that the government spends. i think it is the right approach to try to find 1 pound of waste. rather than to put up the taxes which my opponents want to do. you have a choice to bear down on waste and get the public spending under control. that is the choice. jeremy paxman: you said one thing and did another. prime minister cameron: we said the most important has for the government was to get the economy growing. and to get the deficit down. i would say on any analysis we have had an appalling inheritance.

the deficit was bigger than greece's. it is difficult there's difficult ones, ones that were hard to take. the right thing for the country, and the result -- there's a connection between the decisions we had to make and the fact that we have the fastest growing economy. we create 2 million private-sector jobs, 750,000 in the british economy. the british economy is working. we need to make sure what we want isn't just good on the page , i want people to feel that they can get a job, they can have a livelihood and buy a home and get a good school place for their children. they can enjoy retirement. that is what this plan is all about. jeremy paxman: in the spirit of transparency, can you tell us more of this 12 billion pounds in welfare cuts are going to come from? prime minister cameron: let me explain there is an adjustment that needs to be made and the other political parties voted

for this and we said that breaks down into 13 billion that needs to be saved in the government departments. 12 billion in welfare. " king down on tax avoidance. when it comes -- and cracking down on tax avoidance. we have identified for instance freezing work benefits to raise some of that money. but the 12 billion compares with 20 billion that was saved in the last parliament, in this current parliament by the government on welfare. jeremy paxman: you know where the cuts will fall? prime minister cameron: is it possible to make the savings and will for a like we made 20 million. jeremy paxman: do you know it, you're not telling us or do you

not know? prime minister cameron: we need a 20 billion we will be able to find a further 10 million. let me give you more examples to cut the welfare cap to say no family should get more than 26,000 pounds a year in welfare , we are going to reduce that to 23,000. jeremy paxman: that's not within the -- prime minister cameron: we think that is the right thing to do. young people, when they leave school they should be either learning or earning and giving an apprenticeship. they shouldn't be able to go straight on to unemployment benefits and housing benefits. changing welfare isn't just about saving money, it is about trying to help people. jeremy paxman: it is about transparency. and you don't tell us what you're going to do. but me ask you something else about foreign policy because we are going to be out of time shortly.

what is the biggest foreign-policy disaster? prime minister cameron: other people will highlight the difficult things we have to deal with. i would highlight getting out of the euro bailout scheme so it is taxpayers are not giving money to greece. i think we have a very challenging situation today. jeremy paxman: do you regret going to libya and promising, you use the word promise, that the people of britain will stand by you as you build your country and your democracy? the regret saying that? prime minister cameron: first of all i think it was right with france and america to stop when he was going to butcher his own people in benghazi. if we have not stepped in if i , hadn't ordered of those planes into the sky we wouldn't see a -- would have seen a massive catastrophe of people butchered

it was the right thing to do. i do not accept that we left the libyan people after that. we put in aid and military training and assistance. it just not house -- just has not been possible to date to get the different libyan parts of government together to get them to put on weapons -- put down weapons but we are still trying even now to bring that about but it has been an acceptable situation. -- a difficult situation. jeremy paxman: can i ask you one quick question about europe? what would it take for you to vote no in the referendum on the participation in the european union? prime minister cameron: if i did not think it was beneficial for written to be in the european union i wouldn't argue for the membership but i think the situation today is that what we need is a reform and then a referendum that the british

people, not me but the british people watching at home have that choice. jeremy paxman: by implication then surely the current membership is intolerable. prime minister cameron: i think we need to improve. it works to an extent but europe is not working properly and that is why we need the renegotiation and why i think those who think have a referendum straight away would be giving the british people a false choice. i want to give them a proper choice stated in the reformed organization or leave. but it will be the british people's choice. there's only one way to get a referendum and that is to make sure we stadium after the election -- stay in after the election because none of my opponents were promised a referendum. jeremy paxman: you're not going to stand for a third term. that means that a vote for

cameron is a vote for two or three or four years after which it is someone else. prime minister cameron: i said every day what i was doing is just getting an honest answer to an honest question because i think people need to know that sort of thing. are you one of those leaders who like chairman mao thinks he can go on and on and on or do you think i have really been passionate about what i doing and turning this country around and passionate about completing this work. after 10 years and two terms, i think politicians do have a date by which they need to say it is time for someone else to take over. it is important to remember we are not indispensable. jeremy paxman: david cameron thank you. coming next, questions from the studio audience.

kay burley: welcome back to cameron and miliband live, the battle for number ten. the pre- minister has been interviewed by jeremy and notice -- now it is the turn of the studio audience put their questions to him. without further a do, prime minister here we go. , let's start with matthew. matthew: what do you think are ed miliband's best qualities? prime minister cameron: that's a tough question to start. [laughter] prime minister cameron: