The Battle for Number 10 29.05.17 Jeremy Corbyn Q&A

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SKY NEWS – MAY V CORBYN: THE BATTLE FOR NUMBER TEN – 20.30 – 29.05.17

PART ONE: JEREMY CORBYN Q&A

FAISAL ISLAM: Let’s get things started then and introduce the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn.

JEREMY CORBYN: Faisal, lovely to see you, how’re you doing?

FAISAL ISLAM: At this point I should point out that the audience members have been carefully selected to provide balance, a third are declared Conservative supporters, a third are for Labour and a third are undecided. So let’s get started with our first question with comes from Ines.

INES: Mr Corbyn, in your speech following the Manchester attack last Friday you stated that no government can prevent every terrorist attack and that we need a foreign policy that reduces rather than increases the threat to this country. Islamic State have clearly stated that anyone who doesn’t abide by their ideology is their enemy so why should we soften our foreign policy if it is blatantly obvious that there is no room for negotiation?

JEREMY CORBYN: It’s not about softening our foreign policy, it is about absolutely condemning what happened in Manchester. Innocent lives were taken, young women and girls out enjoying themselves for the evening – that’s the society we live in, that’s the society I want to live in and nobody should be allowed to take that away from anybody. The person who committed it did an appalling and abominable and atrocious act, as did apparently those who were conspiring within the police investigation is ongoing. My point was that we have to have a foreign policy around the world that doesn’t leave large areas without any effective government such as in Libya at the present time, which can become a breeding ground of a place of enormous danger to all of us and indeed any Western country in Europe or in North America. My point was absolutely condemnation, my point was we need more police not less, that’s why we’re pledged to provide 10,000 more police on our streets and we want a foreign policy that didn’t leave large areas of the world ungoverned so that we had a more secure future for all of us. Do not allow this to become an attack on our multicultural society or on the wonderful faith of Islam, this is a perversion of Islam what was done in Manchester as indeed other attacks have been. What we need is a strategy that protects us but a foreign policy that engages with the rest of the world as well to bring about a safer world for all of us.

FAISAL ISLAM: I’ll just throw that back at Ines, does that satisfy you?

INES: I think it’s just, in terms of foreign policy are you going to look the other way if there is any military intervention that is needed in that area, to support the coalition that is fighting IS?

JEREMY CORBYN: Well the coalitions that are dealing with IS in Syria are complex, they are sometimes fighting each other as well. My whole point is that we have to cut off the funds for IS, cut off the arms for IS, cut off their publicity as far as we can but also bring about a peace process in Syria by reconvening the Geneva talks including all the neighbouring countries as well as Iran, but also bring about a constructive dialogue in Libya so that we don’t have huge areas of that country with all its oil wealth underneath it, ungoverned and a prey for this kind of thing. There are desperate people in Libya living in refugee camps, let’s give them something positive and some hope by bringing about stability in that country. It’s up to all of us to engage with that because if there is ungoverned spaces around the world then actually everybody is under threat.

FAISAL ISLAM: Well let’s move it on, a related question from Callum McNeill.

CALLUM McNEILL: Good evening Mr Corbyn. The horrific events in Manchester are not the first time this nation has faced terrorism, you and two of your senior colleagues openly supported the IRA, how can we really trust you in stopping terrorism?

JEREMY CORBYN: I wanted dialogue in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s, I did make contact with Sinn Fein when they were not allowed to travel, their leadership was not allowed to travel to Britain for example. I wanted there to be a process and that peace process came about by the actions of people such as John Hulme, such as Gerry Adams, such as David Trimble who eventually brought about the ceasefires with both governments, both the Conservative and later with the Tony Blair led Labour government and that brought about the Good Friday Agreement which respects all the historical traditions of Ireland which is obviously fundamentally bringing about peace. I think we should all be pleased that we’ve achieved a great deal through the Good Friday Agreement and do you know what, that Good Friday process, recognising those differences, has become a bit of a model for peace processes around the world where people who were not talking to each other and worse than that, now travel the world together in order to promote peace and dialogue in the Middle East, in Colombia and in the past in South Africa. I think we should be pleased about those achievements.

FAISAL ISLAM: Is it worth clarifying for Callum, did you vote for the Good Friday Agreement?

JEREMY CORBYN: Yes, I did, absolutely yes.

FAISAL ISLAM: Callum talks about can we trust you on stopping terrorist threats, let’s talk about something practical – armed police officers, do you think there should be fewer, more, the same, none?

JEREMY CORBYN: I think there should be what is necessary in order to save and protect life. I want to live in a society that is safe and secure, ideally nobody wants to see armed police officers anywhere, the reality is at the moment they are there and they have been necessary.

FAISAL ISLAM: Just a quick come back from Callum, your thoughts Callum?

CALLUM McNEILL: Mr Corbyn, you didn’t actually answer my question. You have openly supported the IRA in the past and I can give you an example – attending a commemoration for the eight IRA men who were killed in Loch Gaul. Now in your words it was to honour them, maybe you can share with the electorate why those IRA men were actually killed.

JEREMY CORBYN: The commemoration I think you’re referring to was a meeting I was at in London where there was a period of silence for everyone who had died in Northern Ireland.

CALLUM McNEILL: Mr Corbyn, the event was actually to commemorate the people who were killed in Loch Gaul and the reason they were killed in Loch Gaul was because they were on their way to kill British policemen.

JEREMY CORBYN: The contribution I made to that meeting was to call for a peace and dialogue process in Northern Ireland. It’s only by dialogue and process we’ve brought about the peace in Northern Ireland and I think that is a good thing and I think going forward we need to make sure in the Brexit negotiations there is no return to any form of hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

FAISAL ISLAM: Okay, thanks Callum. John Dare?

JOHN DARE: Mr Corbyn, like many voters I approve of many of the policies in your manifesto, the problem I have is I don’t see you as someone who could effectively run this country. How can you convince me that you are the man for the job?

JEREMY CORBYN: We wrote this manifesto, which I’m glad you approve of, by consensus within the Labour party and our affiliated groups and organisation and from the contribution of hundreds of non-affiliated political groups who have very important views to communicate to us. We put those forward and in government we will carry this manifesto out. This manifesto is about investing in our future, it is about investing in our young people for the future so that we don’t have super-sized classrooms, we don’t have massive waiting lists in hospitals, we don’t have a million people waiting for social care, we don’t have thousands of people sleeping on our streets. The choice is quite clearly there: this manifesto, investing for the future, taxing more a bit for Corporation Tax and for the very wealthiest, 95% will pay no more or you can go down the road of continuing austerity, continuing cuts in all areas of public expenditure and an ever-widening gap between the richest and the poorest in our society. I am very proud of this manifesto, proud to lead this party and do you know what, I’ll be very proud to put this manifesto into action by legislation and by government and I’m looking forward to the chance of doing it.

FAISAL ISLAM: Mr Corbyn, John’s question was actually he likes the manifesto but it was your own leadership he was questioning. Can you just address that?

JEREMY CORBYN: Well I’m sure when John and I get to know each other we’ll get along fine and we’ll get to like each other, I’m sure we will. John, people have perceptions about each other but do you know what, in life I meet lots of people. Some I agree with, some I disagree with, some I profoundly disagree with but I always want to get to know them because everybody I meet and everybody you meet knows something we don’t know. We should never be so high and mighty you can’t listen to somebody else and learn something from them. For me leadership is as much about using this as using this.

FAISAL ISLAM: Okay moving on to Roxanne.

ROXANNE: Hi, Mr Corbyn. I’d like to know for people like myself who voted to leave the European Union and have voted Labour in the past, how are you planning to deal with immigration? The Conservatives have pledged a number, why won’t you?

JEREMY CORBYN: When we leave the European Union we accept the results of the referendum, it’s taken place, it’s happened, we accept it and the priority has to be negotiating tariff free trade access to the European market to protect jobs in this country, that we will do. It also has to be about the future relationship with Europe because they are after all our very close neighbours. On the issue you mention of immigration, the free movement is implicit in membership of the European Union, it obviously stops when we leave the European Union. In the future there has to be managed migration and it has to be based on the needs of this country and our economy and of the rights of family reunion. I’m not going to stand here and put a figure. Our Prime Minister has done that now in the third election running and has got nowhere near meeting that figure. I would say we have to have managed migration, we have to have protection of EU nations living here just as much as there should be protection of British nationals, of which there are very many, living in other parts of Europe. But we should also remember that if people hadn’t migrated to this country we would have a much worse health service, education system and transport system than we have. The contribution it’s made to your living standards and mine by people who’ve come here is huge but I’ll tell you what will change, we will not allow companies to bring in whole groups of very low paid workers in order to undercut often fairly low paid workers in this country thus destroying their working conditions. So that is part of that managed process. At the moment we have some disgraceful undercutting and we have huge impacts on different communities. The other point I’d just make on this, and I can see Faisal moving his hands, is that we would also reinstate something that Gordon Brown introduced when he was Prime Minister which was an impact fund for communities that had had an influx of new residents and needed support on vital local services. So we accept the result, we negotiate with Europe, we have a good relationship with Europe and we manage our own future.

FAISAL ISLAM: Just help Roxanne out here. You won’t give a number but the current net figure is 248,000, higher, lower, the same?

JEREMY CORBYN: Well I would have thought under a managed migration system it certainly wouldn’t go up anymore, it would probably – and I don’t want to held to this – come down. That’s a probability but I would say we have to recognise that we do have serious skill shortages in this country because we have not invested enough in education and training for a very long time in this country, we need to turn that round.

FAISAL ISLAM: Miranda, where’s Miranda?

MIRANDA: Hi, hello. By contrast I’m a Remain voter and I feel that the Labour response to Brexit has been lacklustre, I don’t really see a big difference between the Tory and Labour responses but it’s a really big issue for me. Can you tell me why I should vote Labour instead of Lib Dem as part of the 48%?

JEREMY CORBYN: Because we have to accept the reality of the result of the referendum. It happened, it was a democratic choice, more people voted in that than any other recorded vote in our history and so it’s there, it’s a decision. That doesn’t mean we’re … we’re leaving the European Union it doesn’t mean we’re leaving Europe as a continent, it’s still there obviously and we’re going to have to have a relationship with it. I’ve said and in our answer to our friend over there I said we would guarantee the rights of European Union nationals in Britain to remain here and indeed within days of the referendum Andy Burnham who was then our Shadow Home Secretary, proposed that resolution in the House of Commons and it was in fact carried by a huge majority although the Conservatives chose not to take part. There is going to be a relationship with Europe, our universities must have a close relationship with Europe, we will defend working rights such as working time directive, maternity leave, paternity leave, all those very important things we’ve gained from the European Union, we’ll protect those in the future and we will also remain part of a number of very important agencies such as policing and intelligence sharing as well as environmental protocols. It is no good one side of a sea polluting it and the other side not, you’ve both got to agree not to pollute the sea, you have to work together to achieve things. So what I say to you is the result is there, it happened, let’s build a sensible good tariff free trade relationship with Europe. Every car that’s made in Britain or most of the cars that are made in Germany, the parts come from both sides of the Channel, you could say the same with aircraft, you could say the same with an awful lot of other manufacturing industry. That’s going to carry on and it will have to carry on otherwise we’ll destroy our own manufacturing industry but I’ll tell you what we won’t do – we won’t threaten Europe with turning this country into a sort corporate tax haven with low tax, low wages and low investment. We want high wage, high investment, growing economy with good relationships with our neighbours and of course with the rest of the world.

FAISAL ISLAM: Well on that Maneet, where’s Maneet?

MANEET: Good evening Jeremy. I am a proud Mancunian and a small business owner brought up in a Labour voting household by salt of the earth parents who gave me their best. Why have you made it impossible for me to vote Labour in this election with your ruthless short-sighted policies such 26% corporation tax, the abolishment of zero hours contracts, £10 an hour minimum wage and now you want to put VAT on my children’s school fees.

JEREMY CORBYN: Corporation tax was 28% in 2010, this government has reduced it and proposes to reduce it further. We’re going to put it up to 26% and why are we doing that? Because this country is badly divided by the richest and the poorest. You put corporate tax and tax at the top end down, the division gets greater. Are you happy that so many of our children are going to school with super-size classes, so many of our children are going to school hungry, are you happy with so many people waiting for hospital operations, a million waiting for social care? You don’t address these problems by ignoring them. I appeal to you as obviously a traditional person who supported our party, recognise that we’re all better off when everybody is better off and your children want to get a home of their own in the future, if we build the homes for them both to rent as well as to buy, then they have got a better chance. Your children I’m sure would like to go to university, I do not believe we should charge fees for our students to go to university because we all benefit from them graduating and becoming well-qualified citizens. So what we’re proposing in this manifesto is transformational because for the first time for many years we’re saying this younger generation should not be worse off than we are or ones that went before, they should actually be better off. This is about rejigging the way that we run our economy but I would also say to anyone running a small business, I work with small businesses, I talk to them and I listen very carefully to what they have to say. They are often very badly exploited by much bigger business who delay on payments, often don’t pay at all and force them out of business. We want a society and an economy that invests and a legal system that protects those that are working really hard. Surely a £10 an hour minimum wage, a living wage, a real living wage, by 2020 would mean we actually spend probably a bit less on working tax credits but it would also make an awful lot of people a lot better off and do you know what, they’d spend the money in the local economy, it would be something that would be good for all of us. I appeal to you, think again how did we get our welfare state in Britain, how did we get our National Health Service? We got it because the Labour party was bold enough in the post-war period to invest in the future, our Labour government will do the same.

FAISAL ISLAM: I’d like to get one more in quickly, David Gerrard, where’s David?

DAVID GERRARD: Hi, given your long standing support for nuclear disarmament would you be prepared to use the nuclear deterrent and if so, in what circumstances?

JEREMY CORBYN: I want to live in a world that is free of the danger of a nuclear holocaust. Any nuclear weapon used anywhere in the world is a disaster for all of us and I spent my life working with peace organisations, working with the United Nations over the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to bring about global disarmament. I would see my responsibility as our Prime Minister to contribute to a world of peace in the future, that means being very serious about the dangers, very serious about promoting what China is trying to achieve in Korea with the sic party talks, be very serious in what President Obama achieved in his agreement with Iran but also look at the other threats that we face as well. Cyber-attacks are very serious, we saw that with the attack on our National Health Service only a couple of weeks ago. Random acts of terror such as we saw in Manchester are a real threat as well. We have to defend our way of life, our society and our country by an intelligent engagement with the rest of the world and I want to bring about our contribution to a more peaceful world.

FAISAL ISLAM: Can I just use the practical implication of David’s question which is in eleven days’ time you could be Prime Minister and you would have to write those letters of last resort to the Trident submarine commanders, are you going to write those letters?

JEREMY CORBYN: I will write the appropriate letter to our commanders who are obviously very responsible, very loyal naval officers.

FAISAL ISLAM: Okay, well that brings us to the end of our first question and answer session of the evening, thank you very much Mr Corbyn.

JEREMY CORBYN: Thank you.

FAISAL ISLAM: And coming next, Mr Corbyn head to head with Jeremy Paxman.