has become _ conservative mayor ben houchen has become a _ conservative mayor ben houchen has becomehouchen has become a poster boy for his county. i a symbol of the tories' demolition of labour's red walll in previous elections. in 2021, he took a whopping 73% of the vote. _ this time, though, the contest is expected to be a lot closer. i a recent opinion poll put- lord houchen and his labour rival, chris mcewan, neck and neck. the lib dem simon thorley is also standing. _ the future of the high street some of the _ the future of the high street some of the issues, _ the future of the high street some of the issues, there _ the future of the high street some of the issues, there are _ the future of the high street some of the issues, there are lots - the future of the high street some of the issues, there are lots of- of the issues, there are lots of empty— of the issues, there are lots of empty shops _ of the issues, there are lots of empty shops out _ of the issues, there are lots of empty shops out there. - of the issues, there are lots of empty shops out there. child i of the is

re—elected in a landslide in 2021, ben houchen is now hoping to buck the national trend.al labour stalwart hopes to win back what was once a heartland for his party — a win for chris mcewan would ease keir starmer�*s path nationally. and the lib dem outsider placing the fight of child poverty at the heart of his campaign. over the past decade or so, tees valley felt neglected by the party that thought it was the area's champion. and so voters delivered a series of bloody noses to labour, twice electing a conservative mayor and then injecting labour from the prized parliamentary seat of hartlepool in a by—election, the lowest of low points. and so that's why this mayoral contest reverberates way beyond here. a tory win and rishi sunak will grab a lifeline. a labour win and keir starmer, well, he will believe he really is on a roll. i think this is the headline grabber. if rishi sunak holds on to this, then that's what he will be trumpeting, he will show that he does have that indefinable quality to reach out to these former areas that borisjohnson won, so that's big for hi

re—elected in a landslide in 2021, ben houchen is now hoping to buck the national trend.our stalwart, hopes to win back what was once a heartland for his party, and a winnerfor heartland for his party, and a winner for chris heartland for his party, and a winnerfor chris mcewan heartland for his party, and a winner for chris mcewan would ease keir starmer�*s pass nationally. and the lib dems outsider, placing the outsider of child poverty at the heart of his campaign. 0ver outsider of child poverty at the heart of his campaign. over the past decade or so, tees valley felt neglected by the party that thought it was the area's champion. so voters delivered a series of bloody noses to labour, try electing a conservative mayor and then injecting labour from the conservative mayor and then injecting labourfrom the prized parliamentary seat of hartlepool in a by—election, the lowest of low points. —— injecting labour. that is why this may or context reverberates further beyond here, the tory win, and rishi sunak will grab a lifeline. a labour win and keir starmer will believe t

re—elected in a landslide in 2021, ben houchen is now hoping to buck the national trend.art of his campaign. over the past decade or so, tees valley felt neglected by the party that thought it was the area's champion. and so voters delivered a series of bloody noses to labour. twice electing a conservative mayor and then ejecting labour from the prized parliamentary seat of hartlepool in a byelection — the lowest of low points. and so that's why this mayoral contest reverberates way beyond here. a tory win and rishi sunak will grab a lifeline. a labourwin, and keir starmer, well, he will believe he really is on a roll. i think this is the headline grabber. if rishi sunak holds on to this, then that's what he will be trumpeting. he will show that he does have that indefinable quality to reach out to these former areas that borisjohnson won. so that's big for him. but to overturn a 73% share of the vote last time round for labour would again be a massive triumph and show that they really are coming home to their former heartlands. and just talking to various people who've b

actually, ben houchen taxpayers.chen has never imposed a mayoral precept in two fairly. and actually at the same time , he's actually at the same time, he's saved teesside airport and secured a new freeport for teesside. no wonder people will be voting for him again. teesside. no wonder people will be voting for him again . yes sir. >> iain duncan smith, mr speaken >> iain duncan smith, mr speaker, can i ask my right hon. >> friend if he has seen the video that is doing the rounds of the theft in the shop on my in my constituency station, road of boots the chemist in a space of boots the chemist in a space of eight minutes, two threatening individuals robbed thousands of pounds out of that shop and they're not alone. >> this is happening again and again, and again. >> in fact, one of my team went out and photographed them, leaving brazenly, not caring and even spitting at the police. >> will he now please say to the home secretary through to the police, this is not a petty crime. >> this is a threat of violence and m

friend is absolutely right to raise the great work of ben houchen, and i share his concerns about theour candidate. over £130 million of unfunded spending showing that labour can't be trusted. and we all see the results of this. mr speaker, in labour run birmingham taxes going up by 20. and that is the story of what labour in local government means working people paying government means working people paying the price. and it's exactly why he and i completely agree on this . the people of agree on this. the people of teesside should vote ben houchen and vote conservative and look all good. >> thank you very much, mr speaken >> last year in shropshire, 10,000 people waited for more than 24 hours in a&e. >> that's 10,000 people over 65 waiting on hard plastic chairs or in trolleys in our accident and emergency department. >> the prime minister tells us he's got a plan for the nhs. but what people in north shropshire want to know is how long they are going to have to wait for him to get on and fix the issues where we are. >> yeah, well, mr speaker, with the record funding that we're putt

the middle east, the midlands mayor, andy street, looks like he might be in jeopardy, as might be ben houchen, if they don't go very well for the conservatives, as predicted, rishi sunak is going to be facing more letters of no confidence. isn't he ? confidence. isn't he? >> well, i have no idea what is going to happen in the elections because that's up to the people of who voted for them. i'm confident that we've got strong candidates and that they will succeed and win . you mentioned succeed and win. you mentioned andy street, a brilliant candidate that's got so much investment into to birmingham and the broader. >> so these elections won't be the bloodbath that's been predicted. >> then ben houchen in teesside seen seen what he has done to transform that area that is conservative candidates in action. i'd urge all of your viewers to vote for those conservatives. all right. >> candidates, we're getting into party political broadcast territory , not to be a commentator. >> all right. well, oliver dowden , thank you very much dowden, thank you very much indeed for your time this morning. yeah

my right honourable friend is absolutely right to raise the great work of ben houchen and over—65s share working people paying the price and that is exactly why he and i completely agree that the people of teesside should vote ben houchen and vote conservative. last year in shropshire, 10,000 people waited for more than 24 hours in a&e.10,000 people over 65 waiting on hard plastic chairs or in trolleys in our accident and emergency department. the prime minister tells us he has a plan for the nhs, but what people in north shropshire want to know is how long they are going to have to wait for him to get on and fix the issues where we are. mr him to get on and fix the issues where we are.— him to get on and fix the issues where we are. ~ ,,, ., ,, where we are. mr speaker, with the record funding _ where we are. mr speaker, with the record funding we _ where we are. mr speaker, with the record funding we are _ where we are. mr speaker, with the record funding we are putting i where we are. mr speaker, with the record funding we are putting into i record funding we are putting into the nhs,

. >> yeah so labour mayor andy burnham and his tory counterpart ben have united against ben houchen havecrap fa controversial plans to scrap fa cup replays. so this is the fa's blaming the new format of the champions league, which will cause changes to the calendar. so it's doing away with these replays, but it's feared the lack will be hugely lack of replays will be hugely damaging clubs lower down damaging for clubs lower down the football pyramid, particularly outside the particularly those outside the football get football league. so you get these playing big these small clubs playing big clubs lots of clubs and they make lots of money from i've got no idea money from it. i've got no idea what replay is honest. what a replay is to be honest. >> they play another >> it's why they play another match after the first match to decide the tie, because why would because if would they do that? because if there a tie and football is there was a tie and football is one great games where one of those great games where you play an entire you can actually play an entire game no one wins. and so g

>> look, if andy street and >> look, if, if andy street and ben houchen lose their seats, the mayoralther candidates do really badly. candidates only do really badly. yeah. other candidates do. and we do really badly in the local elections. it will be very, very difficult. so he might not be prime minister. he may not be, you know, conservative mps might think, got till think, well, we've got till january 2025 if we could change. bofis january 2025 if we could change. boris johnson turned it around in six months so he could come in six months so he could come in a white charger. in on a white charger. >> no he has, he's an mp. >> no he has, he's not an mp. well, would you prefer to well, who would you prefer to see party at this see lead the party at this stage? >> ee- w— >> oh my god, i don't know. >> oh my god, i don't know. >> indeed. right. got >> no indeed. right. we've got to break. i'm being to go to a break. i'm being told. am i go to a break? but i could talk to you all morning. here's the plot, it's nadine's, very. i mean, much talked about book. when's the next book coming c

more potholes filled, lower debt and lower council tax, vote conservative, because whether it is ben houchenple in glass houses shouldn't throw stones because in birmingham, and across the whole of this country councils are facings black holes because of his government's austerity programme, and i would also warn the deputy prime minister that tory councils have faced 114 notices and birmingham council has had over £1 billion taken from their budget from some of the poorest people. more than 16,000 families face losing their homes after the party's mini budget, mr speakerand their homes after the party's mini budget, mr speaker and mortgage bills continue to soar. meanwhile, the former prime minister parades round the world in a twisted promoting a new book saying the mini budget was her proudest moment. so since she won't apologise to those people losing their home will he? what the prime minister has done since he has taken office with the chancellorers is to restore stability to our economy, inflation halved, and more down to 3%, and as a as a result of that in an increasingly dangerous w

what they're most worried about is the loss of ben houchen, the teesside mayor who won with 72% of thevote. i think it was last time . think it was last time. obviously it would be very, very badindeed obviously it would be very, very bad indeed for morale if he ended up losing that mayoralty. there are plenty of other councillors who think that they are at risk of losing their seats too. and of course, if it is catastrophic for the conservatives, then it does seem quite likely that quite a few mps will start to think, well, hang on a minute. yes, changing leader , six months before an leader, six months before an election isn't a great look , but election isn't a great look, but do we want to sort of go down with this ship ? they might just with this ship? they might just think maybe now is the moment for a final roll of the dice. >> if rishi sunak is still polling so, so badly and morale becomes that low, then i think , becomes that low, then i think, yes, we can expect a number of letters of no confidence in the prime minister. that said, i think it's unlikely that it would reach th

ben houchen in tees valley conservative mayor andy street in the west midlands.hey both lost that . would send they both lost that. would send a very worrying signal. and i think then there could be a flurry of letters going in. whether it would be enough. i don't know. but yeah, some talk of penny mordaunt being lined up to be. she doesn't want it. well, why would you want it at this point, given the chances are they are going to be out of office, why would you not want to wait and be rishi with the poisoned chalice? exactly. so i personally think it's unlikely. but then, you know, boris johnson got an 80 seat majority. they got rid of him. we had another prime minister for seven weeks. they got rid of her. i mean, politics has been crazy, so never say never. so never say never. >> so never say never. >> yeah , true. anything's possible. >> so disability benefits, welfare benefits , particularly welfare benefits, particularly those to do with mental health. if you're receiving those people should be worried that those may not last. well well certainly mental hea