Sunday with Niall Paterson Interview with Karen Bradley Culture Secretary

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SKY NEWS, SUNDAY WITH NIALL PATERSON

NIALL PATERSON: It’s been a bumpy week for the Conservative party to say the least. They were supposed to emerge from conference energised, enthused and united but instead the PM faced a challenge from within her own party and is reportedly weeks away from reshuffling the Cabinet in order to secure her position and to discuss all that we are joined in the studio by the Culture Secretary, Karen Bradley. Lovely to see you, let’s get the big serious question out of the way first. Do you think Theresa May will be in a position to order those Downing Street themed Christmas cards this year?

KAREN BRADLEY: I do, absolutely, yes. This is a woman who puts public service and the country before anything else and she is as resilient as anybody, you saw that on Wednesday at her conference speech. This is a woman who didn’t flinch when someone got on the stage, she had no idea what that man was going to do and she kept going through that conference speech and I am absolutely certain she will keep on going, delivering the right deal for Britain and Brexit and also delivering on those policies she set out in her conference speech.

NP: You must be the first Secretary of State that I’ve talked that hasn’t used the word unity so thank you, people are beginning to get a little bit tired of it because clearly the party is not completely united at the moment. The Sunday Times reported this morning that four of your colleagues in the Cabinet are minded that she should go and in fact one of them actually approached the Sunday Times rather than waiting for Tim Shipman’s phone call.

KAREN BRADLEY: Well look, is this speculation? I don't know, I’m not anybody who has been contacting the Sunday Times about anything, I can assure you of that. But actually we are talking about less than 10% of the party, the parliamentary party potentially maybe, possibly looking for her to move on, that’s not a very large number when you look at another nearly 300 who are determined to keep her in place and I say again, this is about the country and putting the country first. We need to get that deal for Brexit and we need to deliver on our policies.

NP: But it is clearly having an effect on the country, the parliamentary party is one thing but if you take a look again at the polls, I mean it is pretty clear that this continued talk about should she go, should she stay – 55% say that she should resign ahead of the next general election. I mean that causes you at least to reflect on her longevity.

KAREN BRADLEY: Well we could talk about polls, we could talk about the questions that have been asked. What you have done there is amalgamated three different questions to come up with a 55% number which doesn’t actually reflect the questions that were necessarily asked and I think the question asked, should she stay to deliver Brexit, was a much higher number of people who said she should stay.

NP: You are absolutely right, 42% said that they thought that it would be damaging to the Brexit process …

KAREN BRADLEY: Yes.

NP: … if Theresa May left now but she does need to reassert her authority doesn’t she? We are told that there is a reshuffle pending, is that the case?

KAREN BRADLEY: I have no idea about any of that, this is speculation. I am determined to get on with my job and …

NP: Based on an interview that she gave to the Sunday Times, you’re here to explain what she meant by it. Is she going to reshuffle the Cabinet in the next few weeks?

KAREN BRADLEY: We all have to be careful about the words we use because journalists like you will extrapolate from any words that we used and the meaning may not be what was intended. What she said was she wanted the best people around the Cabinet table, she has also said before she believes she has the best people around the Cabinet table. The important thing is …

NP: It is where they sit around the table that is perhaps the issue isn’t it? Let’s be honest about it, if Theresa May is to hold a reshuffle, if she is to re-establish her authority, there is one name that needs to be dealt with and we both know who that is.

KAREN BRADLEY: There’s a lot of if’s there, there were two if’s at least in the question and I think …

NP: Yes, all related to her continuing as Prime Minister. If she is to reassert her authority through a reshuffle one name needs to be looked at and again, we both know who I’m talking about here don’t we?

KAREN BRADLEY: I know who you’re insinuating but I think the important thing is that …

NP: [Cough] Boris [cough].

KAREN BRADLEY: ... is that we get on with delivering on what the country has asked for. You talk about what people think in the country, I’ve been in my constituency this week, everybody first of all felt incredibly humanity for her, they really wanted to say that they cared about her and they saw that she was struggling on that stage on Wednesday and …

NP: So if they feel sorry for her but still not want her to be Prime Minister …

KAREN BRADLEY: It’s not feeling sorry for her, it’s feeling anyone could be in that position. I suspect you go on occasionally, even you, with a cold occasionally and get through the show. She did that.

NP: To be honest I spend my days in my bed whenever I have the opportunity but no, no, let’s stay on this topic of the reshuffle which you are not going to be speculating about but seriously, what does it say about Theresa May’s authority if she doesn’t move the Foreign Secretary? It is not just questions about the challenges that she’s made to his authority, there are some fairly fundamental questions about his competence. I want to show you a quote that Boris Johnson made talking about Sirte, ‘They have a brilliant vision to turn Sirte into the next Dubai, the only thing they have got to do is clear the dead bodies away.’ What do you make of that?

KAREN BRADLEY: Well that was a comment that he made at a fringe meeting at conference, presumably trying to be witty, I don't think it was terribly witty, I don't think it was funny but it is incumbent on all of us …

NP: It’s more than not witty, it’s more than not funny, it’s deeply, deeply offensive. When I think of Sirte I don’t think of the tourism opportunities that it affords, I think of the images which you will have seen as well, of the lifeless bodies of children being pulled from the rubble. Are those the dead bodies that he is talking about clearing?

KAREN BRADLEY: As I say it is incumbent on all of us to remember that when we speak the words that we use, the words that we say, the comments that we make will be used, they will be recorded and they will be remembered. It is a very important life lesson for all politicians and I suspect Boris is reflecting on that himself after those comments.

NP: If it was a first offence maybe I would accept that. Amber Rudd describes him as a distraction, I put it to you with those comments about clearing away of dead bodies which has led the Libyan parliament to ask for an official apology from the Foreign Secretary of all people, the ultimate diplomat. I put it to you that he is not a distraction, he is an embarrassment.

KAREN BRADLEY: Well as I say, I am sure he is reflecting on the comments he made and regretting that he even considered making those comments never mind that they were actually said but the important point is that we get on with the job. The Prime Minister has set out policies in her conference speech that we need to deliver on, we need to get that right deal with Brexit but we need to make sure we deliver on those policies and when we identify the injustices, when we identify things going wrong, we act on them.

NP: Let’s indeed talk about policy because as you say there is quite a lot, let’s start with your brief: the Fox takeover of this place, what’s happening with that at the moment?

KAREN BRADLEY: Well you will know that my position is, people are bored of me saying it but it’s a quasi-judicial position. There are rules set out in the Enterprise Act about the way the Secretary of State must behave with regard to any media merger. I am following those rules as set out by Parliament and at the moment I have instructed the Competitions and Markets Authority to look at the merger on two grounds and they will report back to me in order for me to make a final decision.

NP: Still, you must have a view, maybe it’s a personal view perhaps, about the corporate culture at Fox News. Senior figures from the CEO down have clearly behaved abominably towards women in their charge, what is your view on that?

KAREN BRADLEY: As I say, it is quasi-judicial, I have to look at the evidence. I have asked the Competitions and Markets Authority to look at the evidence and to report to me their view on two grounds, media plurality and commitment to broadcasting standards and I have asked them specifically to look at those issues so that I can make a decision based on the evidence and based on the rules as set out in the Enterprise Act.

NP: Does it anger you in the 21st century to see senior corporate executives behaving in that manner towards women?

KAREN BRADLEY: I think it would be entirely inappropriate for me to make any comment because this is a legal process and what I don’t want is to end up in anything I say being used in some way against the evidence and against the decision that is taken.

NP: I understand that perspective so let’s deal then, shall we, with some of the big policy announcements that we had from conference. Help to Buy, explain this one to me because I’m no expert on macro-economics but increasing demand without increasing supply does seem to me to be a pretty daft way of dealing with the crisis in the housing industry.

KAREN BRADLEY: Well we talked about increasing supply as well but the thing is …

NP: What, eight additional council houses per local authority?

KAREN BRADLEY: … but there are far too many people, particularly young people, who see owning their own home as a distant idea that they are never going to be able to be part of. It’s not the only part of the solution to the housing crisis, there are many other things that we need to do, but Help to Buy is part of the solution to make sure more people can get a foot on the housing ladder.

NP: In terms of young people, as you mentioned, clearly the party has something of a problem. The average age of a Conservative party member at the moment is 72 and it has dramatically increased over the past couple of years. How do you recruit young people back to the Conservative party, if indeed they ever thought of being part of the Conservative party, when your offer on tuition fees, your offer on higher education, is so much less substantial than that being proposed by Jeremy Corbyn?

KAREN BRADLEY: Well you talk about less substantial, it’s an honest and a proper offer that can be delivered and the trouble is that nobody really knows what the Labour party are offering because it was going to be wiping out all debts, it was going to be no debts, it was … nobody knows. And none of it was…

NP: There is clarity when it comes to tuition fees, they say they will get rid of those, it works in Scotland surely it could work in England?

KAREN BRADLEY: But we want properly funded universities with people being able to go to university from all backgrounds and we’ve seen a higher number of young people from deprived backgrounds going to university and a higher proportion of young people going to university are from lower socio-economic groups. Now this is a policy that works in terms of well-funded universities and making sure that graduates pay back a proportionate amount and the fact that we are increasing the salary that you have to start paying back fees at to £25,000 reflects the fact that actually graduates need to have a substantial income before they could start to pay this back but …

NP: Sure but it also saves the individual students, what, £360 a year? Now I don't know where people are buying houses these days where ten years of putting away 360 gives you enough for a deposit but it’s piecemeal stuff. The problem the Conservatives have at the moment is where’s the big picture thinking, where’s the radical policy agenda that people can get behind in the way in which the Labour party clearly has done with those aged 18 to 35?

KAREN BRADLEY: I think making false promises we can’t deliver on is not a way to engage any voter, young or old and on tuition fees we have said we want to look at the whole policy of tuition fees so this is a first step in terms of making sure that the payback period starts at a fairer salary level but we need to look at the whole way that it works to ensure that it is delivering, so that people who want to and should go to university can do so. But I think there is more to it than that. You say why are people Conservatives, why would they become Conservatives? I am a Conservative because I don't think government has all the answers, I am a Conservative because I think you need to give people what they need to get on, you need to give them the opportunities, you need to give them aspiration. That’s why creating three and a half million jobs since 2010 is something that matters to young people, that’s why taking people out of income tax altogether, four million out of income tax altogether, matters.

NP: Isn’t the problem in terms of the policy agenda, isn’t it all directly linked to the leadership? If you can’t unite the Cabinet on the issue of Brexit which you clearly can’t, how can you unite them around for example say a massive programme of home building?

KAREN BRADLEY: I think that’s simply not true and the Cabinet is united, the Cabinet was united behind the Florence speech, we had a Cabinet meeting and we were all allowed to have our say and we came out with a unified united front on that – I’m sorry I’m using the unity word but you have asked me.

NP: I knew you’d say it at some point in the interview!

KAREN BRADLEY: Well you did ask but we are also united on how we get, for example, houses built so that young people have a chance to own their own home. These are really important things, we can’t do any of it without a strong economy, you can’t pay for anything without a strong economy, it is those taxes that pay for things.

NP: I am so sorry, we will have to leave it there, Culture Secretary, thank you so much for being with us on Sunday with Niall Paterson.