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. what you time on the what -- what won't -- what -- watch the meantime alone -- anytime 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 required. it is smart enough to know the direction you toss it. deadly pressure of your tallest -- -- and we pressure of your

tallestoss. it will compose a photo, take a photo and come back autonomously. >> a british election preview featuring prime minister cameron and ed miliband. after that, the senate hearing on the latest research and treatment for alzheimer's disease. and then discussions of ways to improve the process for federal elections will stop -- elections. >> the u.k. general election is may 7. british prime minister james david cameron and labor leader ed miliband appeared on a wide -- live 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. 36-32. this program is one hour and 15

minutes. jeremy paxman: welcome to cameroon and miliband live. the battle for number 10. good evening. 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 there were in this country when you came to power? prime minister cameron i don't have the exact figures but i know the usage of the banks have gone up in their many amazing volunteers who 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 now than it was. prime minister cameron: i don't accept that. if you look at what's happened to our economy there are 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 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 food banks if they needed 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. -- free food aid. 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 , who are 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 zero hours contracted for instance, students because they want the flexibility -- jeremy paxman: what about -- prime minister cameron: hold on a second. 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 -- hour contracts. could you live on one? prime minister cameron: i want to create a country where more people have full-time work.

jeremy paxman: could you live on zero hour? prime minister cameron: that is not the question. jeremy paxman: it is the question i am asking. [laughter] 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 walked for hours to and from work and he does not know how long he will be on and he gets six pounds. he worked between eight and 12 hours a week on average. 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. it has been difficult. we had a difficult two years following the longest and deepest recession virtually in our country's history and we are coming out of that and we

created 1.89 million jobs. that is 1000 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 the minimum wage increase now above inflation for the first time in many years and i want to see the government does do, we have that i through seven pounds onto eight pounds. and crucially -- see that go through seven pounds onto eight pounds. 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. i am going to be personal if i may for a second. you would choose for example to appoint a man involved in tax avoidance to your government another rich person. that you would choose to appoint to the heart of government a rich newspaper editor to which television presenter who thumps a colleague. what do you have in 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.

but nobody criticized the appointment at the time. jeremy paxman: did you ask him about it? that cific question, we went through the normal processes you would go through in appointing a minister. 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 simply answered a question explaining he was a friend of mine, he is a tablet, and i hope it will be resolved. -- talent, and i hope it will be resolved. but i am absolutely clear, treating the people you work with badly is not acceptable and they made that decision. the aspersions 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. but the country is immstronger. jeremy paxman: but get to the

economy then. apart 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 gdp. jeremy paxman: how much money have you borrowed? prime minister cameron: did you think it is -- 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. was borrowing. look, the annual overdraft of the deficit has come down by one half as a share of gdp. and debt, the total stock of debt as a part of the national income is falling. we haven't finished the job. we have been working to a plan and 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.

that is what we have been doing. now, if you are saying we haven't gone fast enough to cut the deficit i would agree we need to complete the job. but all of my political opponents have been saying we should borrow more, we should spend more, we should tax more. jeremy paxman: it is merely the chasm between what was said and what was done, let's take immigration. you promised at the last election that you would reduce immigration to the level it was at the 1990's, tens of thousands a year. do you know how much it has been? 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 inside of the european union. immigration has increased. 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. which is that if you come from europe to britain 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, you have to work for four years 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. it'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 it was at in the early 1990's." you have not done it.

prime minister cameron: it is still that is still the right ambition. we achieved the cut. inside the eu we have not achieved it. 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 have not met the commitment that i made. 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. we are not going to raise b.a.t. you said exactly the same thing before the last election, we have no plans to raise b.a.t. you said it to my face twice. and then the moment you got into government you raised b.a.t. prime minister cameron: there is a crucial difference on this occasion. we are the government. we have been able to look very carefully at the books. we know what is necessary in the next parliament and our plans do not involve tax increases. it is very clear about that. we know what needs to be done.

let me explain because people watching at home want to know what is the scale of what needs to be done. we need to save for the next two years 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 is what my political opponents want to do. so you have a choice. bear down on waste and get the public spending under control. or put up the taxes. that is the choice. jeremy paxman: but again, 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. budget deficit -- we inherited a situation in which britain's budget 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 of any western economy. we created 2 million private-sector jobs, 750,000 in the british economy. the british economy is working. now 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 where this 12 billion pounds in welfare causes -- welfare cuts is 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. and 5 billion from cracking down

on tax avoidance. when it comes to the welfare, 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. so this is well within the range of what we can do if we continue with the plan we put in place. jeremy paxman: do 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: i do not want to be rude, but do you know it, you're not telling us or do you not know? prime minister cameron: we need to go through all of the parts of the welfare government but 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. we are going to say when it comes to young people, when they leave school they should be either learning or earning and doing an apprenticeship. looking at higher education. 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 he has to a very simple -- let me ask you a very simple question about something else, foreign policy because we are , going to be out of time shortly. what has been your biggest foreign-policy disaster? prime minister cameron: other people will highlight the difficult things we have to deal with.

i would argue that some good things we have done is cutting the budget, the first government to do that. getting out of the euro bailout scheme so that british taxpayers are not giving money to greece. i think we have a very challenging situation very in libya. -- date in libya. -- hubei in libya. -- topdayday in libya. 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? do you 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 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 political assistance. it just has not been possible to date to get the different libyan parts of government together to get the warlords to put down weapons but we are still trying even now with people out there 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 in britain's interest to stay 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. in the referendum by the end of 2017. jeremy paxman: by implication then surely the current membership is intolerable. prime minister cameron: i think

we need to improve on our current membership. this organization works to a certain extent, we get trade and cooperation, 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, stay 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 i am prime minister after the next 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, if you are successful, for cameron as leader of his party and prime minister perhaps for two or three or four years after which it is morris johnson or uncle tom probably -- cobbly.

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 having another term, 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. i am not some person who thinks you are indispensable. we are not indispensable, it is important to remember that. 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 prime minister has been interviewed by jeremy and notice -- now it is the turn of the studio audience put their questions to him. there is matthew. let's have your question matthew. matthew: mr. miliband. mr. miliband -- prime minister cameron: we disagree with each other sometimes passionately, rather noisily, but we all believe in public service and trying to do the right thing for our country. one thing i admire about ed, when we had to take difficult decisions of sending forces in to try to defeat isil,