Murnaghan 29.06.14 Interview with Grant Shapps MP, Chairman Conservative Party

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOTT MURNAGHAN: The Prime Minister suffered an embarrassing defeat in Europe last week.  He fought hard to stop Jean-Claude Juncker being elected as President of the European Commission but in the end he was thwarted, leaving Britain rather isolated.  So what of his dreams of EU reform?  Well the Conservative Party Chairman, Grant Shapps, has just been to Germany to try to rebuild bridges with Angela Merkel’s party, she will of course be key to any renegotiations and we’ll be speaking to Mr Shapps in just a moment.   Well let’s say a very good morning then to the Conservative Party Chairman, Grant Shapps, who joins me from Welwyn in Hertfordshire.  So Mr Shapps, Mr Cameron was comprehensively outvoted, ignored, even duped by the most powerful nations in the European Union, what positive came from the whole exercise?

GRANT SHAPPS:   Well look, I think when you have a principle about the way the European Commission President should be chosen you stick to that principle and the principle is quite clear, it should be down to the heads of state and not to the parliament.  Our Prime Minister stuck to that principle and I think that’s absolutely right and you ask what’s been achieved, well people in Europe, European leaders know that when Mr Cameron says he is going to do something, that is what he does and that will help also when it comes to renegotiating also with Europe.

DM: Well it could be ignored in the same way.  Do you think he’ll get the sympathy vote when he comes up with his list of reforms that he wants for the UK?

GRANT SHAPPS: Look, I don't think it’s a question of that and people in Europe just a few weeks ago sent a very strong message about the way that they see Europe developing, concerns about that, both in this country but across Europe and I’m afraid too many European leaders have turned a tin ear to those concerns.  Now our Prime Minister, I think we can be proud of him, he hasn’t done that.  What he has done is stick to his principles, said that he has a clear sense that we want to listen to European voters and that means not doing more of the same, it does mean changing Europe so that it works better for all of us and that’s why I think it’s so important that he stuck to his principles and I do have to say, those in this country, for example the leader of the Labour party Ed Miliband, who said that they did not want Juncker, that they agreed with David Cameron on this principles issue and then criticised him afterwards which shows that they themselves are very weak.  I think that is really unforgiveable.

DM: But it’s all very well having the principles, it’s about what you achieve isn’t it?  Couldn’t this exercise be seen as a way as an outlier for those renegotiations, if of course your party is re-elected into government, and he was outvoted 26-2.  It’s not very hopeful for a positive outcome.

GRANT SHAPPS: Well look, if people are looking for a track record, who would have imagined four years ago we would have a Prime Minister who would veto a European fiscal treaty for the first time, who would bring down, cut the overall European budget, who would get us out of Labour’s disastrous bail-out fund that would have cost us £8 billion as a country, people probably would have thought that that was impossible. I’m proud of our Prime Minister and I’ll tell you what, I’ve been receiving emails all this weekend from members of the public saying thank goodness we’ve got a Prime Minister that in Europe does what he says he’s going to do.  I think that’s really important and the fact that European leaders will understand that through this vote in fact means that when it comes to renegotiating, if the Conservatives win the next election – it’s the only way we can have an in/out referendum – people know that we’re serious and they know that we’ll deliver.

DM: But that’s the very point isn’t it, it’s interesting what you said there about the positive emails and communications you’ve been having from people in the UK, this is an argument that you cynically decided to have for the UK audience given what’s happened with UKIP, given all the furore there is about the European Union, you thought this will make the Prime Minister look good and strong on this issue.  We’ll deal with those European leaders when we have to but now is not the time.

GRANT SHAPPS: No, this is a problem across Europe.  You mentioned me seeing my counterpart in Merkel’s party, the CDU, where we have much in common to do with the way we want to see free trade expanded, that agreement signed with the United States for more transatlantic deals and rolling back frankly the kind of socialism that has been so damaging in countries in Europe and elsewhere who have not managed to build their economies.  Britain now has the fastest growing economy in the advanced world and the reason for that is because we have stuck to our principles and the idea that you go to Europe, having been elected on a platform, having appealed for votes on a platform of reducing European democracy, bringing powers back to the nation state, having less Europe in other words – to then go to Europe and simply vote for more Europe is simply unacceptable and that’s why our Prime Minister did this country proud by saying no, that’s not on, we’re not going to have that and actually just in terms of the immediate outcome, is also – and was not much reported on – but had agreements this week to ensure that this process can’t be repeated again and indeed Europe accepts that it isn’t always going to be about ever closer union for every country.  Now that’s a significant breakthrough, the first time that Europe has conceded that point.

DM: You talk about Chancellor Merkel, she is of course key to any process on the still rather vague specific powers you want repatriated, we were led to believe a few weeks ago that Angela Merkel agreed with Mr Cameron about Mr Juncker.  Well look what happened in the end.  Have you any reason to believe she will support any of the UK’s demands if and when it comes to renegotiation?

GRANT SHAPPS: Well as I say, it’s not up to Chancellor Merkel, in a sense it’s not up to us as British politicians, it’s up to the public.  If they vote Conservative, and it’s the only way to get an in/out referendum on Europe, the British people will get their say for the first time since the 1970s about our position in Europe and whether we want to stay in the European Union after we have negotiated reform.  Now people can have that say, it doesn’t require me as a politician here, our Prime Minister or even the German Chancellor to have that say, it’s going to be up to the British people but you’ll only get it if you vote Conservative.

DM: Can I just ask you about a few other issues away from Europe, this issue of Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammed, his family campaigning for  him to be granted asylum in this country, they say he is being tortured in Lebanon.  He is not presumably the kind of character you’d like see back here?

GRANT SHAPPS: Look, these matters have processes attached to them where the Home Secretary and others would look at it.  It’s not something that I’d want to get into commenting on.  People will have their own opinions but there are proper processes and places to deal with these things.

DM: Proper processes, but you have to be in this country to make an asylum plea and he is not going to be allowed back in.

GRANT SHAPPS: Those are the processes, that’s right. 

DM: Okay, you cleared that up for us.  Let me ask you about your own party and this issue of diversity, in particular the number of women, the gender issue within your party.  You’d admit that only having 16% of your MPs as female is a lamentable state of affairs and Nicky Morgan, the Women’s Minister, last week said that all options were on the table, were being considered, including all women shortlists.  She’s been slapped down, can you clear that up for us, Chairman.

GRANT SHAPPS: First of all it is true to say we made dramatic progress at the last election, getting far more women elected on the Conservative side than ever before.  Of course the Conservative party was the first party to have a female MP, a female Prime Minister and we gave women the vote so we’ve got a good track record but there is much, much more to do.  We live in a country where half the population are women and I am absolutely determined as party chairman to be as reflective of the overall population as possible and we’ve got good news on this front.  In fact the positive news in terms of the number of women being selected as candidates for us including in our most winnable seats has actually continued to rise.  Most people haven’t spotted this but actually we have been selecting more women candidates including this weekend where Seema Kennedy has been selected in Ribble South so we are making great progress.  I want this party to be representative of the country as a whole and if you think you have got a part to play in it then you’re welcome in our party, please got to Conservatives.com, sign up, join in and be a party of it.

DM: But this specific question of all women shortlists, absolutely ruled out?

GRANT SHAPPS: Well as I say, what most people haven’t noticed is that we are now up to about 35% women selected for the next general election as candidates including in many, many seats that we would very much hope to win so we’ve been making dramatic progress that perhaps hasn’t been noticed largely because we’ve just got on with it.  We haven’t gone around shouting about it but I’m very, very keen that this party represents the country as it really is and we have every one of those candidates, a postman in the south-west through to many great women selected throughout the country.

DM: I’ll have one more go.  Of course, everyone will go along with that but it’s the methods of getting more women into parliament for all parties, you would not countenance within the Conservatives, as Nicky Morgan seemed to indicate, all women shortlists, yes or no?

GRANT SHAPPS: As I say, we are massively increasing the number of women, I don't think we’ll need to do things which are draconian like that.  It’s better if you can attract people because they want to join the part, because they want to be part of it and as I say, with about 35% now and rising selected for our seats as women, I’m very confident that we are making great progress in this area.  Come and join us.

DM: And also the issue of being too posh when we’re talking about diversity, what about this party of opportunity thing you’re getting together for the party conference?  You’ve found 14, only 14 MPs within the Conservative party, who seem to have sufficiently deprived childhoods and they have come up with statements like this – we had no bathroom, a tin bath outside, an outside toilet, a scrubbing board not a washing machine, no telephone, we just shouted through the window.  It sounds like a Monty Python sketch.

GRANT SHAPPS: Every now and then you read something in the newspaper which is completely untrue and that was one example.  I have a lot to do with the party conference as you can imagine and it was the first I’d heard of it, not true at all.  Look, we actually have people from lots of different backgrounds, I’m from a state school background, I just mentioned we’ve got a postman down in the south-west but there’ll be people – and you need people from all sorts of different backgrounds in order to successfully represent the country as it really is and I welcome that.  And I’ll tell you what, there was a survey out a couple of weeks ago that showed that the Labour party have 50%, half of their candidates are professional politicians.  We have got people from right across the sphere, a real mixture and I think that’s all to our strength and as I’ve mentioned once or twice, if you want to join in go to Conservatives.com, join us and we’ll be even more diverse.

DM: Let’s just clear this up, you have no plans to showcase the Conservatives as a party of opportunity – I used to be up at five a.m. to do the papers at W.H. Smith, to get through college I got up to sweep a factory floor at four a.m.  This is not going to happen?

GRANT SHAPPS: Well I’m delighted if people want to share their experiences but there absolutely nothing official in that story at all, it’s the first I’ve seen it.  No, we’re getting on with the job and just in the same way that you were surprised to learn that we now have 35% women selected as our candidates, we’re making great progress there, actually we prefer to get on and do these things, not talk about them but do them and then people can see that we’ve actually achieved the objective of being a party that properly represents Britain today and that is the modern Conservative party.  We represent this country as it is and that’s exactly as it should be. 

DM: Chairman, thank you very much indeed. Chairman of the Conservative party, Grant Shapps there.