Latest / Trumponomics / Tory Landslide, Now What? (Bloomberg Westminster Bonus Episode)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Yeah, this one nation Conservative government has been given a
- 0:07Speaker 1: powerful new mandate to get Britit done. I will discuss
- 0:11Speaker 1: with our party to ensure there is a process now
- 0:15Speaker 1: of reflection on this result and on the policies that
- 0:18Speaker 1: the party will take. This is so unique an outcome.
- 0:21Speaker 1: There's there's been a party that's gone to the country
- 0:23Speaker 1: for the fourth time of asking and increased its standing
- 0:26Speaker 1: in Parliament. There is a clear desire and endorsement for
- 0:29Speaker 1: the notion that Scotland should not be landed with a
- 0:32Speaker 1: Boris Johnson government and Bripto of Europa Gainsto will. Hello,
- 0:40Speaker 1: you're listening to Bloomberg Westminster, a special hour long election
- 0:44Speaker 1: results program. I'm a very very tired Sebastian side. Good afternoon.
- 0:48Speaker 1: I'm Caroline Hepka. Yes, the Toys have won their biggest
- 0:52Speaker 1: majority since under Margaret Thatcher. It really was a huge
- 0:58Speaker 1: result for the party and really a massive chain for
- 1:00Speaker 1: the country. Yeah, I mean redrawing the electoral map, getting
- 1:03Speaker 1: some certainty. Finally, let's just have a little listen to
- 1:06Speaker 1: what the Prime Minister had to say as he addressed
- 1:07Speaker 1: his supporters early this morning. With this mandate and this majority,
- 1:11Speaker 1: we will at last be able to do what there
- 1:18Speaker 1: we go, so a bit of clarity on Brexit. Then
- 1:20Speaker 1: we'll have a talk throughout the program about the route
- 1:22Speaker 1: ahead really as we look to be exitingct ON on
- 1:25Speaker 1: January the thirty one investors at least to please assets
- 1:28Speaker 1: lifting across Europe, from the pound to the euro to
- 1:30Speaker 1: the UK stocks. It's what they've certainly been looking for
- 1:33Speaker 1: for a long long time. Absolutely, and we've got a
- 1:35Speaker 1: cracking lineup for you this hour man who read the
- 1:38Speaker 1: leader of the Women's Equality Party because we have a
- 1:40Speaker 1: record number of female MPs in this electoral cycle. Also,
- 1:45Speaker 1: Bloomberg's head of Economics Stephanie Flanders, will be with us
- 1:48Speaker 1: to break down what we can expect from this new
- 1:50Speaker 1: Toy administration. And Alan Wager, the research associate at UK
- 1:54Speaker 1: in a changing You, will also be here to talk
- 1:57Speaker 1: us through all the implications for Brexit, the UK EU
- 2:01Speaker 1: trade negotiations. We've got a lot of angles covered, We've
- 2:04Speaker 1: got a lot to talk about. Let's get right into it.
- 2:06Speaker 1: Joining us now live from Westminster is Bloomberg's Roger Hearing,
- 2:09Speaker 1: and here with us in the studio is Bloomberg Opinions
- 2:11Speaker 1: Tres Raphael Toores let's start with you. You watch the
- 2:14Speaker 1: whole thing, someone up for us an unexpectedly strong showing.
- 2:17Speaker 1: Then what won it really for Boris Johnson? Was it
- 2:19Speaker 1: the anti Corbyn vote? Was it the pro Brexit vote?
- 2:22Speaker 1: Talk us through all the issues? Yeah, so I think
- 2:24Speaker 1: most people will say that two things. Want it for
- 2:26Speaker 1: Johnson Brexit, want it for Johnson. People really took to
- 2:31Speaker 1: his message that the get Brexit done message. In fact,
- 2:34Speaker 1: it cut both ways. So it cut for the Brexitters
- 2:38Speaker 1: who you know, clearly want to see their mandate carried out,
- 2:42Speaker 1: but it also worked for moderates and remainders who may
- 2:47Speaker 1: accept the vote and just don't want the argument anymore.
- 2:51Speaker 1: So that was one thing that worked clearly. The second
- 2:53Speaker 1: thing that worked for Boris Johnson was he was very
- 2:57Speaker 1: lucky in his opponent here, Jeremy Corbyn, was you know,
- 3:00Speaker 1: historically unpopular candidate. His message was wrong, his uh you know,
- 3:05Speaker 1: entire sort of record on foreign policy worried people. The
- 3:10Speaker 1: anti semitism uh row within the Labor Party has cut
- 3:14Speaker 1: through to voters, I think in a way that Labor
- 3:16Speaker 1: really didn't expect. And even the economic policies at Corbin unveiled.
- 3:20Speaker 1: He threw the kitchen sink at this very radical socialist offering.
- 3:24Speaker 1: That didn't work. But I would argue there was a
- 3:26Speaker 1: third thing that worked for Boris Johnson uh in this election,
- 3:29Speaker 1: and that um is that he was seen as the
- 3:32Speaker 1: politician of change. And that is kind of surprising given
- 3:36Speaker 1: that he's been a senior member the Tory Party, which
- 3:39Speaker 1: has been in power for nearly a decade, had four governments,
- 3:42Speaker 1: and yet Johnson was able to portray himself as the
- 3:46Speaker 1: change politician. Really fascinating. Let's get to Bloomberg's ro Ja Herring.
- 3:51Speaker 1: You've been standing outside the Palace of Westminster, so you've
- 3:55Speaker 1: seen all the politicians coming onto the Green for their interviews.
- 4:00Speaker 1: We had some Toy politicians on air this morning on Daybreak.
- 4:04Speaker 1: You a sort of sounding absolutely joyous. Does give us
- 4:07Speaker 1: a flavor of this result? Well, yes, I think joyous,
- 4:11Speaker 1: but also absolutely frozen, because I have say it's been
- 4:14Speaker 1: the most startlingly awful weather down here. Talk about a
- 4:17Speaker 1: December election problem, but certainly know that the Tories we've
- 4:21Speaker 1: been speaking to ice have all been extremely happy, as
- 4:24Speaker 1: you would expect they would be. And this is interesting
- 4:27Speaker 1: because we have seen the Tory Party hugely divided in
- 4:30Speaker 1: the recent past. You know, they managed to alienate and
- 4:33Speaker 1: indeed get rid of a large number of quite prominent Tories,
- 4:37Speaker 1: several of whom have been calling for the voters to
- 4:40Speaker 1: support the opposition. So this was a triumph on so
- 4:42Speaker 1: many different levels. And I had one extra element to
- 4:45Speaker 1: what Rose was saying three points. I'd had a fourth one,
- 4:48Speaker 1: which is the squeeze, because at the beginning of this
- 4:50Speaker 1: campaign we were talking about how the Lib Dems or
- 4:54Speaker 1: the Brexit Party would split votes in such a way
- 4:57Speaker 1: as to put pressure on the Tories particul kill also
- 5:00Speaker 1: potentially on Labor and that really was the dog that
- 5:03Speaker 1: didn't bark. If you look at the figures. The Lib
- 5:05Speaker 1: Dems clearly didn't do well, but the Brexit Party didn't either.
- 5:08Speaker 1: So in the end that was the dog that didn't bark.
- 5:11Speaker 1: But then Roger there were more winners. In Scotland, the
- 5:14Speaker 1: SNP a strong message there for a second referendum, and
- 5:17Speaker 1: in Northern Ireland we saw those in favor of reunification.
- 5:20Speaker 1: They're also playing through. Well, this is going to put
- 5:23Speaker 1: some level of pressure on Boris Johnson, isn't it. It's
- 5:25Speaker 1: certainly well. I mean the Northern Ireland thing is absolutely
- 5:27Speaker 1: crucially are quite right Sebastian, because that is the if
- 5:31Speaker 1: you like, the the Achilles Heel of the Brexit deal,
- 5:33Speaker 1: because you've got the two borders that Boris Johnson in visages,
- 5:37Speaker 1: one dawn the Irish Sea and one between Northern Ireland
- 5:40Speaker 1: and the Republic. And how that's going to work and
- 5:43Speaker 1: the difficulties it will cause for business people in Northern Ireland,
- 5:46Speaker 1: quite apart from anything else, is a very point. The
- 5:49Speaker 1: DUP were completely alienated, of course from Boris Johnson before
- 5:53Speaker 1: all this, but they have been one of the big
- 5:55Speaker 1: losers for the first time I think in recent history anyway.
- 5:58Speaker 1: There are fewer Unionists representing Northern Ireland in this building
- 6:01Speaker 1: behind me than people who are nationalists or uncommitted, and
- 6:05Speaker 1: that is going to make a big difference. And Scotland,
- 6:08Speaker 1: of course, that's the other thing. SMP didn't have a
- 6:10Speaker 1: clean sweep, but they did extremely well. The pressure for
- 6:12Speaker 1: a second independence referendum, I would say it's almost unstoppable,
- 6:16Speaker 1: despite the fact that Boris Johnson has set his face
- 6:18Speaker 1: against him. Turning to Terra's the points that Roger is
- 6:23Speaker 1: making there there is some some strains around Brexit. Of
- 6:27Speaker 1: course with with Northern Ireland, do we actually end up
- 6:30Speaker 1: getting a softer Brexit deal now because Bois Johnson has
- 6:34Speaker 1: such a big majority, but also because of the separatist threats. Obviously,
- 6:40Speaker 1: Scotland in a voted to remain yes as the as
- 6:44Speaker 1: the polls were still open yesterday, I was thinking that
- 6:47Speaker 1: if this were to be a majority of say ten
- 6:49Speaker 1: votes or twenty votes, we are right back where we
- 6:52Speaker 1: were when Teresa May was trying to get things through,
- 6:55Speaker 1: in that the right of his party would be able
- 6:57Speaker 1: to sort of hold him to ransom. That is clearly
- 7:00Speaker 1: not the case. He has a whopping majority and all
- 7:04Speaker 1: the authority to go first after Brexit within his own party.
- 7:07Speaker 1: But he also um could drive a harder bargain with
- 7:11Speaker 1: Europe in the sense that you know he's not going
- 7:13Speaker 1: to have to go back to Parliament and and you
- 7:16Speaker 1: know try to uh scrounge for those votes. Um he
- 7:20Speaker 1: will be I think of these two unionist issues, I
- 7:24Speaker 1: mean it's to say it was a very good night
- 7:26Speaker 1: for English nationalists, it was a bad night for the
- 7:29Speaker 1: British Union. Of the two issues Scotland and Northern Ireland,
- 7:32Speaker 1: I think the Scottish issue is the more pressing um
- 7:35Speaker 1: in the short term because the SNP are going to
- 7:38Speaker 1: want that vote now. He may be able to delay
- 7:40Speaker 1: things until the Hollywood, uh, the elections in but you
- 7:45Speaker 1: know that that's really on the horizon. Yeah. Indeed, what
- 7:48Speaker 1: of course we've got uh now speaking actually the head
- 7:51Speaker 1: of the SMP. So this is Nicholas Sturgeon, who's hailing
- 7:55Speaker 1: the emphatic victory for her party, the Scottish National Party.
- 7:59Speaker 1: As a menting on the election results, she's saying Sebastian
- 8:04Speaker 1: that Scotland has yet again said no to Brexit. Yeah,
- 8:08Speaker 1: that's going to put Johnson in a tricky position there really,
- 8:11Speaker 1: Remember it was about sixty forty the first time around.
- 8:14Speaker 1: Very much a resounding no once again, as she says,
- 8:17Speaker 1: and that further shows the splits in the country. There's
- 8:20Speaker 1: so much talk from him about reuniting the country, remember
- 8:23Speaker 1: Scotland as part of that. That's not going to be easy.
- 8:26Speaker 1: Roger talks to me about the North of England and
- 8:28Speaker 1: the Midlands. We've seen a very big shift in the
- 8:31Speaker 1: electoral map. A lot of seats that have never been
- 8:33Speaker 1: Conservative before have gone to the party. Is this here
- 8:37Speaker 1: to change or is this a case of vote lending.
- 8:39Speaker 1: What's your sense, Well, first of all, I just have
- 8:42Speaker 1: to give you a kind of cultural feeling. I mean,
- 8:44Speaker 1: I'm I'm pretty ancient, it has to be said. I
- 8:46Speaker 1: remember being under Thatcher, and I mean the red wall
- 8:49Speaker 1: didn't break then he has broken. Now. Names I never
- 8:54Speaker 1: thought would ever be considered as a Tory possibilities, County Durham,
- 8:59Speaker 1: around that sort of area, and it's gone. I think
- 9:01Speaker 1: it's a it's a huge change, and it may be
- 9:03Speaker 1: a cultural change in the sense that we may be
- 9:05Speaker 1: seeing a realignment. Now whether that realignment will follow perhaps
- 9:09Speaker 1: as one person suggested, that the towns will go for
- 9:12Speaker 1: the Tories and the cities will go for Labor in
- 9:14Speaker 1: future that kind of thing, or maybe not even the
- 9:17Speaker 1: Labor Party, maybe some new version that will come that
- 9:20Speaker 1: will represent that sort of interest, that sort of ground.
- 9:23Speaker 1: But it's easy, I guess to be a bit apocalyptic
- 9:25Speaker 1: about it. But but to answer your questions, I ask you,
- 9:27Speaker 1: I think this is more than simply a cosmetic change. Okay,
- 9:32Speaker 1: today's where do you think that leaves the Labor Party?
- 9:36Speaker 1: The Liberal Democrats. Also that the leader of the Liberal
- 9:38Speaker 1: Democrats resigning, Joe Swinton again a kind of generational shift,
- 9:43Speaker 1: a young female leader resigning. The other two roads failed
- 9:48Speaker 1: spectacularly here, the far left some would call it, and
- 9:52Speaker 1: the anti Brexit road. They both failed. Yeah, I mean
- 9:55Speaker 1: I think the Liberal Democrats, you know, they had they
- 9:59Speaker 1: were beset by number of errors, uh not least their
- 10:02Speaker 1: decision to go for a revoking Brexit policy. But I
- 10:05Speaker 1: think what we learned here is that tactical voting does
- 10:09Speaker 1: not work when the uh, when the two parties just
- 10:12Speaker 1: simply can't agree with one another. So had you had
- 10:15Speaker 1: a Labor government, that Labor Party that the Lib Dems
- 10:18Speaker 1: could support in government, we might have seen something different.
- 10:21Speaker 1: But your question about the Labor Party, I think is
- 10:23Speaker 1: the key one. I mean, this is her Majesty's loyal opposition.
- 10:27Speaker 1: As I was listening to Labor politicians throughout the night,
- 10:31Speaker 1: you could just see the fight in that party over
- 10:34Speaker 1: what went wrong, with Corbin's defenders saying it was Brexit
- 10:38Speaker 1: and others saying, no, it's not just Brexit, it's Corbin
- 10:40Speaker 1: himself and Corbin is um and this radical agenda. There's
- 10:44Speaker 1: now going to be a leadership battle royal in that party.
- 10:48Speaker 1: But the structure of the party in the way they
- 10:50Speaker 1: choose the leaders really stacks it in favor of the
- 10:53Speaker 1: supporters of Corbin and McDonald to begin with, and so
- 10:56Speaker 1: it's going to be very difficult for that party to
- 10:59Speaker 1: change in the way it needs to to win back
- 11:01Speaker 1: some of these voters. In a way, the Tories, you know,
- 11:04Speaker 1: they've won the twenty nineteen election, I think they're already
- 11:06Speaker 1: going to be feeling pretty good about so with less
- 11:09Speaker 1: than a minute on the clock to raise it's Corbin
- 11:11Speaker 1: is m dead as it had its day. I think
- 11:13Speaker 1: Corbin is um should be considered dead and buried. I
- 11:16Speaker 1: don't think that means it will be considered dead and
- 11:18Speaker 1: buried by the Labor Party, but you know, it just
- 11:21Speaker 1: may take them another defeat to learn. Yeah. Well, look
- 11:24Speaker 1: the turnout also that we were closely watching, given that
- 11:27Speaker 1: Roger's freezing it out there outside of Parliament and we
- 11:30Speaker 1: were all, you know, in the rain yesterday. Actually the
- 11:32Speaker 1: turnout was strong and the majority for the Conservative Party
- 11:36Speaker 1: really quite stunning, at the largest since the nineteen eighties.
- 11:40Speaker 1: So our thanks to Bloomberg's Roger hearing Life from Westminster
- 11:44Speaker 1: and also Bloomberg Opinion columnists Terra's Raphael for joining let's
- 11:49Speaker 1: talk about one of the other big issues going on, Caroline. Yeah. Indeed,
- 11:52Speaker 1: this is the record number of female MPs who have
- 11:56Speaker 1: been elected to the House of Commons in the general election.
- 12:00Speaker 1: Some two hundred and twenty women have won seats. It's
- 12:04Speaker 1: up from two hundred and eight two years ago. But
- 12:06Speaker 1: don't cheer too soon, because actually female MP's will only
- 12:09Speaker 1: make up thirty four of the Commons. And that's why
- 12:13Speaker 1: I'm pleased to welcome Man Do Reid, who is the
- 12:15Speaker 1: leader of the Women's Equality Party, who joins us. Now
- 12:19Speaker 1: very we'll welcome to Blueberg, Westminster. Thank you for joining us. So, look,
- 12:24Speaker 1: you put up candidates in opposition to MPs or prospective
- 12:30Speaker 1: parliamentary candidates who you felt, you know, their record on
- 12:33Speaker 1: women's rights or women's issues were particularly negative, and you
- 12:38Speaker 1: feel that you've had some success in that sense. Our
- 12:42Speaker 1: specific tactic was actually to um target MPs who had
- 12:45Speaker 1: unresolved allegations of harassment or violent or aggressive behavior towards
- 12:51Speaker 1: women on their record. So we wanted to highlight that
- 12:54Speaker 1: issue because when you're looking at the experience of women
- 12:57Speaker 1: in Westminster, it's really really important to understand the backdrop
- 13:00Speaker 1: an environment within which they were operating. So we targeted
- 13:03Speaker 1: five MPs, as I say, with those unresolved allegations before
- 13:05Speaker 1: a single vote have been counted. Four of those, because
- 13:08Speaker 1: of the pressure we applied, actually stood down and the
- 13:11Speaker 1: final one, um Ivan Lewis lost his seat last night.
- 13:14Speaker 1: So for us, for the Women's Equality Party, uh you
- 13:17Speaker 1: could you could say are our general election campaign was
- 13:20Speaker 1: a resounding success. And what about the statistic that Caroline
- 13:23Speaker 1: alluded to a moment a record number of female MPs.
- 13:26Speaker 1: Was a good election for women in general? Um, I
- 13:28Speaker 1: think representation is really important and it is one of
- 13:31Speaker 1: the goals that the Women's Equality Party pursues. However, um,
- 13:35Speaker 1: you know, thirty four percent is not where we need
- 13:38Speaker 1: to be. It's an improvement and that's a positive thing.
- 13:41Speaker 1: It's also worth looking at how that breaks down, um
- 13:44Speaker 1: within Westminster. So the Tories actually have only returned twenty
- 13:48Speaker 1: four percent of their MPs um as who are women,
- 13:51Speaker 1: whereas a Labor Party have done really well and over
- 13:53Speaker 1: fifty of their new cohort of MPs are women. So
- 13:56Speaker 1: there's there's a mixed picture. But you have to remember
- 13:58Speaker 1: is what happened in the run up to the election.
- 14:01Speaker 1: Several senior MP's cabinet level MPs, talented, brilliant women stood
- 14:05Speaker 1: down and cited many of them cited abuse and harassment
- 14:09Speaker 1: as their reason for doing so. So we have a
- 14:11Speaker 1: situation where there's lots of newcomers and that's fantastic, but
- 14:14Speaker 1: actually the kind of bottom of the pile, it will
- 14:17Speaker 1: be a while before they progress and developed to those
- 14:20Speaker 1: senior levels, to those cabinet level positions. And so yes,
- 14:23Speaker 1: there's something to celebrate if you're looking at the raw numbers,
- 14:26Speaker 1: but it's a much more complicated picture. And for women
- 14:28Speaker 1: to really have an impact on the impact we need
- 14:30Speaker 1: them to have in the context of a damaging Brexit
- 14:33Speaker 1: that's on the horizon, we need women all throughout the system.
- 14:37Speaker 1: Junior senior across the board. What did you make then
- 14:40Speaker 1: of the manifestos and what do you think of the
- 14:42Speaker 1: toy Party manifesto in particular. Obviously, given the landslide victory
- 14:47Speaker 1: that they have had, it was seen as a set
- 14:51Speaker 1: of manifestos with little content, you know, specifically aimed at women.
- 14:56Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say. I think it is
- 14:58Speaker 1: fair to say that, and when you look at the
- 15:00Speaker 1: interpiece of the Tory manifesto, get Brexit done. Hang on
- 15:03Speaker 1: a minute. Brexit is not going to be um impact
- 15:07Speaker 1: neutral on women. Brexit is going to result in women
- 15:11Speaker 1: bearing the burden of the economic consequences that this country
- 15:15Speaker 1: has to shoulder as we leave the European Union and
- 15:21Speaker 1: in January, and none of that has been factored in.
- 15:24Speaker 1: Has there been an a sort of impact equality impact
- 15:27Speaker 1: assessment of Brexit looking at the gender impacts of it. No,
- 15:30Speaker 1: And it's irresponsible to do that in a climate where
- 15:33Speaker 1: so many of the services that women rely on are
- 15:36Speaker 1: already on the back foot, have already been decimated, and
- 15:39Speaker 1: women's unpaid care work is just assumed um to be
- 15:43Speaker 1: something that will prop up the economy and and and
- 15:46Speaker 1: keep everything going. Hang on a second. We had Joe
- 15:48Speaker 1: Swintz in the head of the Liberal Democrats, youngest ever leader,
- 15:52Speaker 1: female leader. You know, we've just come out of a
- 15:55Speaker 1: phase of having a second female Tory prime minister, you know,
- 16:00Speaker 1: doing reasonably well compared to let's say other European nations
- 16:03Speaker 1: and global developed countries at least. So we've had two
- 16:07Speaker 1: Tory female prime ministers out of how many prime ministers,
- 16:10Speaker 1: it's a tiny sample. Those are break They have to
- 16:13Speaker 1: benchmarkt against other developed countries. I mean, you know, in
- 16:17Speaker 1: only seventy years, it's that we got the vote, right. Um.
- 16:21Speaker 1: I think it's really an oversimplification to zoom in on
- 16:25Speaker 1: the few women who have rosen to the top in
- 16:27Speaker 1: hostile conditions, conditions who have had to endure the the
- 16:33Speaker 1: environment which actually creates it makes it much more difficult
- 16:37Speaker 1: for for women to sort of fulfill their potential. They're
- 16:39Speaker 1: not welcomed in these in these environments, and so I
- 16:42Speaker 1: think to point to those two examples doesn't really help
- 16:45Speaker 1: us analyze the way politics is dysfunctional when it comes
- 16:49Speaker 1: to serving women's needs. So how do you address that?
- 16:51Speaker 1: Because an election is a democratic exercise and the last
- 16:54Speaker 1: election we saw Theresa May do so badly and Boris
- 16:57Speaker 1: Johnson do very well based on a very similar strategy,
- 16:59Speaker 1: and of course this time we saw Joe S Winston
- 17:01Speaker 1: get absolute battering. I mean, that is exactly why if
- 17:05Speaker 1: you're talking about the campaign we run in the Women's
- 17:08Speaker 1: Equality Party, we recognize that the environment, um, the structural
- 17:12Speaker 1: barriers that women face need to be addressed in order
- 17:15Speaker 1: to get us to where we need to be, to
- 17:17Speaker 1: get us to a place where men and women are
- 17:19Speaker 1: sharing power equally and that's serving um society as a whole.
- 17:24Speaker 1: And so you know, if you don't address the fact
- 17:26Speaker 1: that one in five people who work in Westminster have
- 17:29Speaker 1: reported that they've been harassed, um, you're not creating a
- 17:33Speaker 1: level playing field for women. You're having a situation where
- 17:36Speaker 1: women have to put up with um uh. You know,
- 17:41Speaker 1: a working environment that actually isn't as hostile to men,
- 17:45Speaker 1: and so women have to have more resilience and that
- 17:47Speaker 1: takes its toll. You know, the women who stood down,
- 17:49Speaker 1: many of them prior to to the election. Those are
- 17:52Speaker 1: women who had served maybe um nine or ten years.
- 17:55Speaker 1: The men on average who stood down, you know, voluntary
- 17:57Speaker 1: off their own accord. They had long careers in parliament.
- 18:01Speaker 1: So women are being hounded out and men are leaving
- 18:03Speaker 1: on their own terms, and we are all poorer because
- 18:05Speaker 1: of that. You know. Joe Swinston, she lost her seat.
- 18:08Speaker 1: That's that's the voters saying no thank you to her.
- 18:10Speaker 1: But that's not because she's a woman exactly. And look,
- 18:14Speaker 1: I mean, these are depressing figures that the you that
- 18:18Speaker 1: you are highlighting. But I suppose again on the flip side,
- 18:21Speaker 1: could one not argue that at least with this Toy
- 18:26Speaker 1: administration coming in, it's the end of the austerity years,
- 18:30Speaker 1: which many people again have raised the issue that it
- 18:32Speaker 1: has disproportionately affected women. So at least, you know, we're
- 18:35Speaker 1: back into spending mode, which might help to lift many
- 18:38Speaker 1: of those women and families, you know, perhaps out of
- 18:42Speaker 1: out of more difficult circumstance. Any economists worth his or her,
- 18:46Speaker 1: and that it's usually his worth worth their salt, um
- 18:49Speaker 1: is going to tell you that, Um, the prospects aren't
- 18:53Speaker 1: bright and rosie when it comes to dealing with the
- 18:56Speaker 1: immediate aftermath of leaving the European Union, and when things
- 19:00Speaker 1: aren't bright and rosy economically, what there does is results
- 19:03Speaker 1: in a situation where women are carrying a disproportion at burden.
- 19:07Speaker 1: So you can say that it's post asterity now, but
- 19:09Speaker 1: we're entering a new phase where we've got economic challenges
- 19:14Speaker 1: that haven't been analyzed for the impact they're going to
- 19:18Speaker 1: have on women, And the manifesto said nothing that. So
- 19:21Speaker 1: why when all of these statistics are so dire, why
- 19:24Speaker 1: have we had so little impact in terms of changing
- 19:27Speaker 1: the political system. Does it mean that we have to
- 19:30Speaker 1: have you know, entirely balanced lists for for candidates which
- 19:34Speaker 1: we did not see, I mean, gender balanced candidates which
- 19:37Speaker 1: we didn't see in the last election. You know, what
- 19:40Speaker 1: is it that you would be pushing for for for
- 19:43Speaker 1: the administration? Now? The bigger picture is a proper electoral reform,
- 19:49Speaker 1: so proportional representation to make sure there are representatives and
- 19:54Speaker 1: our parliament is responsive to the people. I mean, look
- 19:58Speaker 1: at what about a female leader for for the Labor
- 20:00Speaker 1: Party there? Yeah, I think that's um, I think there's
- 20:03Speaker 1: a good chance of that happening this time around. There's
- 20:05Speaker 1: some strong women who will be in the running. But
- 20:07Speaker 1: you know something, I've gotta say, there's something that makes
- 20:08Speaker 1: me a little nervous about that because, um, the idea
- 20:12Speaker 1: of finally the Labor Party this time around putting a
- 20:15Speaker 1: woman at a woman at the helm makes me nervous
- 20:18Speaker 1: because of the glass cliff phenomenon. She will be inheriting
- 20:21Speaker 1: a really really difficult set of circumstances, a bit like
- 20:24Speaker 1: the reason may inherited right in media after the after
- 20:27Speaker 1: the referendum. And um, I think, you know, we need
- 20:30Speaker 1: to look really carefully. If a woman does take the
- 20:33Speaker 1: helm at the Labor Party, watch what challenges she's facing.
- 20:36Speaker 1: So what about a compromise them, what about a job
- 20:38Speaker 1: share because it's something that's been touted and it's the
- 20:40Speaker 1: Green Party that doesn't already. Um, and then you get
- 20:43Speaker 1: that gender balance and also you have easier living arrangements
- 20:46Speaker 1: in terms of childcare and all the rest of it
- 20:47Speaker 1: opens up those options. Look, I'm all for creative solutions.
- 20:51Speaker 1: I'm off for breaking um down some of the assumptions
- 20:55Speaker 1: about how politics should work so that it's more inclusive
- 20:58Speaker 1: and more accessible and more people. Absolutely, I I think
- 21:02Speaker 1: the Labor Party needs to have a long hard look
- 21:04Speaker 1: at its constitution and the way it operates because actually
- 21:07Speaker 1: some of the some of those kind of maladaptive behaviors
- 21:10Speaker 1: have resulted in their downfall. They're so tribal, they really
- 21:14Speaker 1: struggled to collaborate. Um. It is often seen as a
- 21:18Speaker 1: hostile environment for women in that party. So they got
- 21:21Speaker 1: a lot of work to do. Okay, so Labor has
- 21:23Speaker 1: a lot of work to do. What about Joe Swinson?
- 21:25Speaker 1: Was her downfall due to sexism? Earlier you sort of
- 21:29Speaker 1: said no, you discounted that, but but just explained you
- 21:33Speaker 1: don't think that that was a factor. Then here, Um,
- 21:36Speaker 1: I think the whole the Libdens entire general election campaign
- 21:42Speaker 1: clearly didn't go to plan right, UM, And I think
- 21:45Speaker 1: a lot of miscalculations were made, um in terms of
- 21:48Speaker 1: the strategy that they went for. I mean I remember
- 21:52Speaker 1: shortly after Joe was elected as leader and she went,
- 21:55Speaker 1: you know, all guns blazing into her party conference, full
- 21:58Speaker 1: of beans, full of positivity, UM, really believing. UM. I
- 22:03Speaker 1: guess the Lib DEM's own hype a little bit there,
- 22:07Speaker 1: h and actually probably overplayed their hand. But she's not
- 22:12Speaker 1: alone responsible for that. They would have been a team
- 22:14Speaker 1: of strategists. I know she's she she is ultimately accountable
- 22:18Speaker 1: as the leader, but I don't think it's to do
- 22:20Speaker 1: with her being a woman. The fact that the Lib
- 22:22Speaker 1: Dems made some really huge strategic errors. And what about
- 22:26Speaker 1: Boris Johnson very quickly, A lot of talk about him
- 22:29Speaker 1: having a woman problem doesn't seem to have come through
- 22:31Speaker 1: the election result. Yeah, I've got to say, I am
- 22:36Speaker 1: quite astonished, um at the majority you know Boris's Tories
- 22:42Speaker 1: have managed to combine in this election. UM. I I
- 22:45Speaker 1: would have thought so much of the stuff that um
- 22:49Speaker 1: Boris Johnson's associated with would have turned voters off in
- 22:53Speaker 1: in sufficient proportion so as to at best result in
- 22:56Speaker 1: them having a slim majority. It's but I think what
- 22:59Speaker 1: one of the things as that happened is a little
- 23:00Speaker 1: bit like the Trump campaign in twent sixteen. He reached
- 23:03Speaker 1: this sort of teflon stage where it didn't matter what
- 23:06Speaker 1: people said or what people reminded the public. He had
- 23:10Speaker 1: done some of his attitude, some of his approaches to
- 23:13Speaker 1: doing things, and yeah, he became invulnerable. Man, do thank
- 23:17Speaker 1: you so much for joining us this morning. That's man,
- 23:19Speaker 1: do read, leader of the Women's Equality Party, talking us
- 23:22Speaker 1: through the election result here on Bloomberg Westerns. Let's get
- 23:28Speaker 1: right over to Roger hearing you're standing by. Who have
- 23:30Speaker 1: you got for us? Roger? Well with me? Is? Francis said? Great?
- 23:33Speaker 1: The General secretary of the Chip Traders Union Congress. Do
- 23:36Speaker 1: you see Francis welcome, Thanks very much for being with us. Um,
- 23:39Speaker 1: I guess you're not in the celebratory mood this morning.
- 23:42Speaker 1: This is a deeply disappointing result for labor, but more
- 23:45Speaker 1: importantly for the ordinary people that labor was promising to
- 23:50Speaker 1: transform their lives. Well, not least the trade union part
- 23:54Speaker 1: of that. Because trade unions are big part of the
- 23:55Speaker 1: labor movement. They gave firm support to Jeremy Corbyn. Was
- 24:00Speaker 1: that a mistake? I think it's important that the trade
- 24:03Speaker 1: union movement has a political voice. We've always understood that's important,
- 24:08Speaker 1: that we needed to win good rights for people at work.
- 24:13Speaker 1: But clearly it's disappointing. The only thing I would say
- 24:16Speaker 1: is that you know the pressure is on Boris Johnson.
- 24:20Speaker 1: Now this could end up being the shortest honeymoon ever.
- 24:23Speaker 1: Would you say that he's got a whacking majority on
- 24:26Speaker 1: which he's got to deliver? You know, are we going
- 24:29Speaker 1: to see real investment in the North, Are we going
- 24:31Speaker 1: to see the NHS saved? What kind of deal is
- 24:34Speaker 1: he going to negotiate on Brexit? And will it be
- 24:37Speaker 1: one that protects people's dolls? All right, that's what's to come,
- 24:40Speaker 1: But but let's let's actually focus on what has been
- 24:43Speaker 1: because that is important. This was a situation in which
- 24:46Speaker 1: Jeremy Corbyn promised an awful lot he didn't deliver, at
- 24:49Speaker 1: least as far as the voters are concerned. We know
- 24:51Speaker 1: that now. Do you think now we need to have
- 24:54Speaker 1: a change of pace with the Labor Party following a
- 24:58Speaker 1: non coorbinist line, if we can put it that way,
- 25:00Speaker 1: What we do know is that many of Labor's individual
- 25:03Speaker 1: policies were incredibly popular, from bringing Rail back into public
- 25:08Speaker 1: control to banning zero hours contracts and funding the NHS.
- 25:13Speaker 1: So I think the problem here wasn't the individual policies
- 25:17Speaker 1: within the manifesto. We could, you know, question whether sharper
- 25:22Speaker 1: prior to well, we know that Labor lost in both
- 25:26Speaker 1: Brexit both leave and remain voting areas, So I'm not
- 25:31Speaker 1: sure it's as simple as Brexit. I think people were
- 25:33Speaker 1: tired of it. I think the conservative message of let's
- 25:38Speaker 1: get it done certainly resonated, but I'm not sure it's
- 25:40Speaker 1: as simple as that, because we've still got that big
- 25:43Speaker 1: debate about what kind of Brexit. Well, yeah, okay, let's
- 25:46Speaker 1: part Brexit and say it was Jeremy Corbyn. The number
- 25:49Speaker 1: of Labor candidates I've spoken to, I'm sure you must
- 25:52Speaker 1: have the same who said this was the problem on
- 25:54Speaker 1: the doors, that people didn't like it. Well, without doubt,
- 25:58Speaker 1: leadership was a factor, and I think Jeremy Corbyn himself
- 26:01Speaker 1: described himself as a marmite leader. Um, and of course
- 26:05Speaker 1: none of our political leaders are doing too well in
- 26:07Speaker 1: the popularity stakes, but clearly it should be a time
- 26:11Speaker 1: where Labor doesn't descend into dissunity, but instead takes a long,
- 26:17Speaker 1: hard look at what did go wrong, Listen to the
- 26:19Speaker 1: people who voted for the Conservative Party who should have
- 26:24Speaker 1: been natural Labor supporters, and learned some lessons alight. One
- 26:27Speaker 1: of the lessons is perhaps having a different leader. Who
- 26:29Speaker 1: would you like to see leaving leading the Labor Party.
- 26:31Speaker 1: I think it's far too early. Jeremy Corbyn has already
- 26:35Speaker 1: said he's not taking the party in for the next election.
- 26:37Speaker 1: He has and he's also said that we need a
- 26:39Speaker 1: period of reflection. What I what I do know is
- 26:42Speaker 1: that we need a leader who has the values of
- 26:47Speaker 1: Labor in terms of looking for a fairer society and
- 26:50Speaker 1: a decent economy that can fund our public services. Perhaps
- 26:53Speaker 1: a woman. Labors the last major party not to have
- 26:56Speaker 1: a woman as a leader. Again, Labor has the opportunity
- 27:00Speaker 1: city within its leadership team, and I think it should
- 27:05Speaker 1: the opportunity of making sure there's a woman in the
- 27:07Speaker 1: leadership team. But I think the big issue here is
- 27:10Speaker 1: we need somebody with vision who can inspire trust and
- 27:13Speaker 1: confidence in our heartlands what should be our heartlands that
- 27:18Speaker 1: they will deliver the real bread and butter changes that
- 27:22Speaker 1: people want to see in Britain today because you know,
- 27:25Speaker 1: inequality hasn't gone away. And I can tell you this,
- 27:28Speaker 1: I think the Prime Minister is going to have to
- 27:30Speaker 1: deal with some of these difficult issues. You're going to
- 27:33Speaker 1: have to deal with him. Back to the point for
- 27:34Speaker 1: the next five years, you and the trade union movement.
- 27:37Speaker 1: You've got someone who isn't naturally an ally. How are
- 27:40Speaker 1: you going to deal with him? Well, we always seek
- 27:43Speaker 1: to represent working pupil's views, whoever's in government. We've always
- 27:47Speaker 1: done that. You know, I've met with Conservative prime ministers before.
- 27:51Speaker 1: All we ask for is a fair hearing and we
- 27:53Speaker 1: think we've got a case to make. So I look
- 27:57Speaker 1: forward to meeting the new Prime Minister and to do
- 28:00Speaker 1: that to us already written in the sandwich not sandwich
- 28:06Speaker 1: is Maybe I would hope that any Prime Minister of
- 28:11Speaker 1: the country recognizes it's important to speak to the leaders
- 28:14Speaker 1: of what is a movement of six million people and
- 28:18Speaker 1: still growing. All right, Francis O'Grady, thank you very much
- 28:21Speaker 1: joining us here. That's Francis A Grady, Secretary General of
- 28:24Speaker 1: the Trades Union Congress, speaking to here live outside the
- 28:27Speaker 1: House of Commons, where I think there'll be more people
- 28:29Speaker 1: that she will not be sympathetic with in there than
- 28:31Speaker 1: they happen in the past. So a bit of a
- 28:34Speaker 1: bit of a job for you to do. Francis Grady,
- 28:35Speaker 1: thanks for me with us, and back to you. Carolina Sebastian,
- 28:39Speaker 1: thank you so much. What you're hearing their live outside
- 28:41Speaker 1: of Westminster and listening into that conversation is blue Berg's
- 28:45Speaker 1: head of economics, Deephanie Flanders. Welcome to the program, Thanks
- 28:47Speaker 1: for joining us. Look what do you make of this? Then?
- 28:50Speaker 1: The Tory landslide biggest majority since the TUC the Trades
- 28:56Speaker 1: Union Congress. They're going to have a very tough time
- 29:00Speaker 1: of things, no doubt. It's been a massive loss for labor. Yes,
- 29:04Speaker 1: and I think that's obviously. I mean, a lot of
- 29:06Speaker 1: the focus today is on just the sheer extent of
- 29:09Speaker 1: the labor loss. I mean, in a hundred years, a
- 29:13Speaker 1: party that's been in opposition for nine years has never
- 29:16Speaker 1: lost seats. So even just that alone, that single achievement,
- 29:19Speaker 1: let alone the fact that it is by you know,
- 29:22Speaker 1: it is the worst result that that labor has achieved,
- 29:26Speaker 1: even worse than than Michael Foote, who had previously been
- 29:29Speaker 1: the sort of by word for for failure. Look, I
- 29:32Speaker 1: think that I mean the issue for them, um, and
- 29:34Speaker 1: I think they'll be debating this is, you know, why
- 29:37Speaker 1: they lost, but also where to go from here. I
- 29:39Speaker 1: think a lack of clarity and their message was probably
- 29:42Speaker 1: more important even than the substance of their proposals. You
- 29:45Speaker 1: know that that is why there will still be a
- 29:47Speaker 1: debate about what the direction of their proposals should have been.
- 29:50Speaker 1: They've been secured by geography. You know, we knew they
- 29:53Speaker 1: had a problem that they weren't, if you like, extreme
- 29:56Speaker 1: enough for many in the for those in Scotland, um.
- 30:00Speaker 1: But they were trying to hold together remainders in the South,
- 30:03Speaker 1: but also those Brexiteers in the North, and that has
- 30:05Speaker 1: has skewed them and it worked much more into conservatives
- 30:08Speaker 1: favor than maybe some people had thought. And then if
- 30:10Speaker 1: you think on top of all that was the particularly
- 30:13Speaker 1: unpopular leader. But it was the cocktail of all those things,
- 30:17Speaker 1: which they're now going to have to unpick. I'm not
- 30:19Speaker 1: sure you can unpick a cocktail, but they are now
- 30:22Speaker 1: going to have to think about what the because I
- 30:24Speaker 1: think it's not just as simple as this was a
- 30:26Speaker 1: very left winger ject Maybe in the eighties you could
- 30:28Speaker 1: have said, well, that was a very left wing manifesto,
- 30:31Speaker 1: wasn't the party, country wasn't ready for it. It's a
- 30:34Speaker 1: lot more complicated things going on, not least the way
- 30:36Speaker 1: that Brexit has just driven the party into into shattered
- 30:40Speaker 1: And what about some of these more radical proposals because
- 30:42Speaker 1: during the election they polled quite well. Do we have
- 30:44Speaker 1: to discount that now or is this an appetite for
- 30:46Speaker 1: it maybe from a new labor leader. Yeah, I mean,
- 30:48Speaker 1: that's what I think is interesting and maybe and I
- 30:50Speaker 1: think one of the sort of dismay that you heard
- 30:53Speaker 1: this morning, particularly from Northern MPs or x MPs, was
- 30:58Speaker 1: that you heard that the Conservators had managed to win
- 31:01Speaker 1: over these disgruntled working class voters in the North who
- 31:05Speaker 1: have plenty of things to be disgruntled about with the
- 31:09Speaker 1: word Brexit, but no explanation of how Brexit was going
- 31:13Speaker 1: to help with any of the things that they're concerned about.
- 31:16Speaker 1: Even when they talk the Conservatives talk about more spending,
- 31:19Speaker 1: they're clearly going to have to deliver or more spending
- 31:21Speaker 1: on the end in National Health Service, on infrastructure, all
- 31:24Speaker 1: of these things. But the amounts are very small. I
- 31:26Speaker 1: mean they have. We had a debate on this Economics
- 31:29Speaker 1: podcast about with the head of the Institute Fiscal Studies
- 31:31Speaker 1: about the substance of the fiscal proposals. And the funny
- 31:35Speaker 1: thing is that the manifesto, the Conservative manifesto was had
- 31:39Speaker 1: almost nothing in it apart from Brexit. Was a very
- 31:42Speaker 1: modest increase in spending, both on the investment side and
- 31:45Speaker 1: particularly on the current spending side. So how Boris is
- 31:49Speaker 1: going to deliver to these new MPs is a real question.
- 31:52Speaker 1: So what's the top line path of the economy from here?
- 31:55Speaker 1: Because on one hand you've got Boris Johnson promising all
- 31:59Speaker 1: of the spending, but then we just have Mandy Read
- 32:00Speaker 1: from the Woman's a Quality Party talking about the economic
- 32:02Speaker 1: hit for Brexit. How do those two things work together well?
- 32:05Speaker 1: And that's once again so we kind of the days
- 32:06Speaker 1: like this, we always end up we're talking very long term.
- 32:08Speaker 1: You know, next election, what's going to happen, but also
- 32:10Speaker 1: what's going to happen next week. Um, he clearly has
- 32:13Speaker 1: Brexit to deal with. It won't be done in January.
- 32:16Speaker 1: No one ever thought it would be. But it is
- 32:19Speaker 1: true that you know, when I say how hard it
- 32:21Speaker 1: will be for him to deliver to those working class
- 32:24Speaker 1: voters while still maintaining kind of a traditional conservative focus.
- 32:28Speaker 1: That's he's made it even harder for himself with the
- 32:31Speaker 1: kind of Brexit deal that at least at the moment,
- 32:33Speaker 1: seems to be on the cars. The deal he did
- 32:35Speaker 1: with the European Union is a pretty heart is a
- 32:37Speaker 1: harder form of Brexit, more damaging, particularly for the manufacturing
- 32:41Speaker 1: sector potentially than Theresa May's deal was. The people who
- 32:46Speaker 1: will be immediately hit by that will be people working
- 32:48Speaker 1: in those factories, often around the Northeast, around exactly the
- 32:52Speaker 1: places that have just voted Conservative. So that is something
- 32:55Speaker 1: we will see how those two things measure up. But
- 32:57Speaker 1: the bigger, the bigger majority of paper gives him capacity
- 33:01Speaker 1: to be more flexible in doing that deal and maybe
- 33:03Speaker 1: even taking longer to agree it with the European Union. Yeah, indeed,
- 33:07Speaker 1: Mr Johnson of course thanked those people who might not
- 33:10Speaker 1: traditionally vote Tory for their vote, sort of pledged to
- 33:14Speaker 1: keep their trust as it were. Look when it comes
- 33:16Speaker 1: to the markets, though, there seemed to be a great
- 33:18Speaker 1: deal more panic about the Labor Party win even the Brexit.
- 33:23Speaker 1: But do you think that overall, boys Johnson administration and
- 33:26Speaker 1: the current Conservative Party is actually going to be pro business,
- 33:30Speaker 1: because it has been quite a cautious welcome from some
- 33:33Speaker 1: of the business lobbies this morning. I mean instead a
- 33:35Speaker 1: bit of an imposible, but I think I think if
- 33:38Speaker 1: the Corbin platform had had been slightly less comprehensive in
- 33:43Speaker 1: its desire to reorganize the state, the role of the state,
- 33:47Speaker 1: and and and to put taxes onto business, then business
- 33:50Speaker 1: leaders would have had more of a challenge thinking who
- 33:52Speaker 1: do I really want to win? I think going into
- 33:54Speaker 1: this election there was not only the sort of extremity
- 33:59Speaker 1: of some of the Corbin proposals, but also the fact
- 34:01Speaker 1: that Labor was very unlikely to get a majority, So
- 34:04Speaker 1: you're going to be looking at much more uncertainty even
- 34:06Speaker 1: if you didn't have a Tory victory. Has led them
- 34:09Speaker 1: being some would say, surprisingly positive about a definite Brexit,
- 34:13Speaker 1: which may be quite a hard brexit under under president
- 34:16Speaker 1: of president under Boris Johnson. But I do think when
- 34:21Speaker 1: you look, you know a lot of the estimates before
- 34:24Speaker 1: the election. Funnily enough, even though we knew there was
- 34:26Speaker 1: a lot of city suspicion of Jeremy Corbyn actually saw
- 34:29Speaker 1: the economy larger under Jeremy Corbyn in the next few
- 34:31Speaker 1: years then under Boris Johnson, in part because of the
- 34:35Speaker 1: extra spending that he was doing and because of the
- 34:37Speaker 1: softer form of Brexit or indeed no Brexit not on
- 34:40Speaker 1: the cards now. Some great analysis there, Thank you so much,
- 34:42Speaker 1: Stephanie Flander's head of economics here at We're hanging in there,
- 34:47Speaker 1: aren't we, Caroline, Just not long now and we can
- 34:48Speaker 1: all go to sleep. After that huge victory for the
- 34:51Speaker 1: Conservative Party, the biggest majority since nine seven, back in
- 34:54Speaker 1: the days of Thatcher, we're now very much looking to
- 34:56Speaker 1: a Brexit that will happen by January thirty one, and
- 34:59Speaker 1: we've had European leader speaking as well. We heard from
- 35:02Speaker 1: trancelor Angler Merkel over in Germany. The talks on the
- 35:04Speaker 1: future relations are going to be complicated, she says, yeah,
- 35:07Speaker 1: no price is there. The EU Council President Charl Michelle
- 35:11Speaker 1: urging the UK Parliament to approve that Brexit pat quickly,
- 35:14Speaker 1: no doubt about that now they have the numbers. He's
- 35:16Speaker 1: also repeating the need for an EU level playing field
- 35:19Speaker 1: with the UK. The question there is are they going
- 35:20Speaker 1: to get that? Are they gonna be willing to give that.
- 35:22Speaker 1: And then the EU Commissioned President la under Lyon says
- 35:25Speaker 1: it expects the UK Parliament to ratify the Brexit agreement.
- 35:29Speaker 1: She says the goal is close ties with the UK
- 35:32Speaker 1: post brexit, and again it's a question of is this
- 35:34Speaker 1: the sort of brexit the boris Johnson Watts. We just
- 35:36Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, absolutely. Merkel also saying that the UK
- 35:39Speaker 1: will be a competitor at our front door, so that
- 35:42Speaker 1: will raise some eyebrows, and La fonte Lion also citing
- 35:47Speaker 1: the need for the UK not too dump, so no
- 35:50Speaker 1: UK dumping after Brexit, so that again when it comes
- 35:54Speaker 1: to the future relationship. So look, sounding just a little
- 35:58Speaker 1: bit more tense when it comes to the UK EU relationship.
- 36:01Speaker 1: You know, matters must be resolved swiftly, but potentially I
- 36:06Speaker 1: sense these leaders very much looking to the UK being
- 36:09Speaker 1: a competitor now with the EU, now that we have
- 36:12Speaker 1: this decisive victory of the Conservative Party and Brexit likely
- 36:16Speaker 1: to be done at the end of January. Alright, well,
- 36:18Speaker 1: let's continue this conversation. It's fascinating. It's really the big
- 36:21Speaker 1: issue here, what happens to Brexit? What form does it take?
- 36:24Speaker 1: I'm going to throw over to Roger Hearing, Dan Westminster,
- 36:27Speaker 1: you've got another guest joining us for this fascinating conversation. Roger,
- 36:30Speaker 1: we have indeed sitting down with me here and what
- 36:32Speaker 1: is I have to say getting more and more freezing
- 36:34Speaker 1: by the moment is Alan Wager. It's got a very
- 36:36Speaker 1: nice and warm hat and an Alan's research associate at
- 36:40Speaker 1: UK you know, changing at Europe Group. And how should
- 36:43Speaker 1: we describe the group? It's it's a think tank basically
- 36:45Speaker 1: an academic think tanking from King's College, London, with we
- 36:48Speaker 1: focus on Brexit and what's gonna happened with Brexit? Indeed, well, okay, good,
- 36:52Speaker 1: good opening there. So how does this change things in
- 36:56Speaker 1: terms of Britain's exit from the European Union. Well, it
- 36:58Speaker 1: means we're definitely leaving on the thirty one of January.
- 37:01Speaker 1: And you know we couldn't have said that this time
- 37:03Speaker 1: yesterday that was the case. And in it gives Boris
- 37:06Speaker 1: Johnson a great deal of room for maneuver. He's got
- 37:09Speaker 1: three options now. Basically he can go for a w
- 37:12Speaker 1: T oh no deal brexit on December twenties twenty. He
- 37:16Speaker 1: can go for a sort of bare bones, stripped back
- 37:19Speaker 1: free trade deal that suthing that can be sort that
- 37:21Speaker 1: can be negotiated within eleven months, or we can try
- 37:23Speaker 1: and extend the process. But he said he won't. He
- 37:25Speaker 1: said he won't. But Boris Johnson is renowned for his
- 37:28Speaker 1: flexibility as a as a politician and as a political
- 37:31Speaker 1: operator our day, and maybe the fact that he has
- 37:34Speaker 1: a majority we think of seventy six means he won't
- 37:37Speaker 1: have to rely on the people who might be perhaps
- 37:39Speaker 1: most hostile to that, the E r G, et cetera. Yeah,
- 37:42Speaker 1: I think that the r G have have lost their
- 37:44Speaker 1: influence as every other party has as the Democratic Union
- 37:46Speaker 1: as party, not a party, a party of sorts for
- 37:51Speaker 1: a while. But yeah, they they they they they've been
- 37:54Speaker 1: absorbed into the into the into the Boris projects. So
- 37:56Speaker 1: whenever he comes up with as a solution to Brexit,
- 38:00Speaker 1: will have the vote of probably every single member of
- 38:03Speaker 1: the Conservative Party in the House of Commons. And that's
- 38:05Speaker 1: a completely different ball game to the sort of fractured
- 38:08Speaker 1: politics we've had in the last three years. We're about
- 38:10Speaker 1: to see a period of party discipline, homogeneous parties and
- 38:14Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a lot easier for Broast john
- 38:16Speaker 1: than those circumstances to you know, bend and and try
- 38:20Speaker 1: and work out what's easiest than what's best for him
- 38:22Speaker 1: to manage the economy. Probably so and early days, I know,
- 38:25Speaker 1: but I'm going to put you on the spot. What
- 38:26Speaker 1: do you reckon is going to be his route? Ah?
- 38:30Speaker 1: I think you'll try and go down the route of
- 38:32Speaker 1: of agreeing a deal within eleven months and then maybe
- 38:35Speaker 1: try and extend towards the end of twenty and the
- 38:39Speaker 1: last sort of ditch efforts, say the EU being difficult
- 38:42Speaker 1: to negotiate with as a way of sort of justifying
- 38:45Speaker 1: the extension of that transition period to sort of soften
- 38:47Speaker 1: the brexit um the impact of Brexton in the short terms.
- 38:52Speaker 1: I think you'll sort of try and use EU in
- 38:54Speaker 1: transigence to as a as a method to to extend
- 38:57Speaker 1: the transition period beyond December twenty twenty. So Angler Merkel
- 39:02Speaker 1: just now within the last few minutes saying that the
- 39:04Speaker 1: EU UK future relationship talks need to go very fast,
- 39:08Speaker 1: but that the short time frame will be the biggest challenge.
- 39:10Speaker 1: But actually both Merkel and Fronte Leine Vodeline sounding um
- 39:15Speaker 1: a little bit tougher. I I suspect in what they're saying,
- 39:18Speaker 1: you know, talking about the UK should not you know,
- 39:22Speaker 1: pursue any dumping when it comes to brexit, so post
- 39:25Speaker 1: to Brexit that there should be no well I'm assuming
- 39:28Speaker 1: trade dumping of various kinds alluding to So it sounds
- 39:33Speaker 1: like they're getting tougher, are they, Yeah, so that they'll
- 39:36Speaker 1: sensence as an opportunity. The EU, just as in the
- 39:39Speaker 1: last stage of the negotiations, has the power in the negotiations.
- 39:42Speaker 1: That's the larger partner. It's flexible, it's it doesn't have
- 39:45Speaker 1: this deadline, so it will it will use this, this
- 39:48Speaker 1: self enforced deadline by the UK to to extract the
- 39:53Speaker 1: best possible h deal with between the UK EU, and
- 39:57Speaker 1: that will be a suboptimal deal for the UK. And
- 40:00Speaker 1: that's just the matter of fact that it's exactly the
- 40:02Speaker 1: same strategic problem that the uk UH faced when it
- 40:07Speaker 1: when it when it triggered Article fifty had said it's
- 40:09Speaker 1: of an artificial deadline and we ended up being um
- 40:12Speaker 1: um losing out basically in the in the in the
- 40:15Speaker 1: negotiations as a result. And that's what's gonna happen here probably.
- 40:18Speaker 1: But alan the interesting point now is that we have
- 40:20Speaker 1: a period during which nothing changes, essentially towards the end
- 40:23Speaker 1: of this year, um in terms of relationship. We don't
- 40:26Speaker 1: have a say in Europe, but we we essentially don't
- 40:29Speaker 1: change the way we work. So the the economic downturn
- 40:33Speaker 1: that could come from any of this, we're not going
- 40:35Speaker 1: to feel that for a while either. Yes, we're gonna
- 40:37Speaker 1: have a period probably of Boris Johnson maintaining even increasing
- 40:41Speaker 1: his popularities on the vhone. Now, I mean he's going
- 40:44Speaker 1: to leave the European Union on the thirty versa of January.
- 40:48Speaker 1: That will obviously be a sort of triumphant moment for Johnson,
- 40:50Speaker 1: and then there won't necessarily be that direct hit from
- 40:53Speaker 1: Brexit on the economy. Felt for another, for for another,
- 40:57Speaker 1: for for for another few years, and for another couple
- 40:59Speaker 1: of years. If he tries to extend the transition period,
- 41:01Speaker 1: it's win win for Johnson here. But alan his message
- 41:04Speaker 1: politically was get Brexit done, and we know it's not
- 41:07Speaker 1: gonna be done in October thirty one. These talks are
- 41:09Speaker 1: going to go on as we As we've mentioned, are
- 41:11Speaker 1: the public ready for that? Are they expecting it to
- 41:13Speaker 1: be more straightforward? I mean, yeah, I work for a
- 41:17Speaker 1: Brexit think Tank and we and we we we we
- 41:18Speaker 1: said obviously, you know, Brexit is going to continue to
- 41:21Speaker 1: be a key issue facing the UK government, is going
- 41:24Speaker 1: to define what the government does. But for many voters,
- 41:28Speaker 1: when they hear that we've left the European Union, it's
- 41:30Speaker 1: possible at that point that they then zone out of
- 41:32Speaker 1: the process and the politics of it sort of drains away.
- 41:35Speaker 1: So we might we have a situation where well, that's
- 41:37Speaker 1: perfectly right, and I think that's what that's what you know.
- 41:40Speaker 1: I would argue that, you know, getting Brexit done isn't
- 41:42Speaker 1: that simple. But perhaps if if Boris Johnson can sell
- 41:46Speaker 1: it as we've left the European Union, everyone might focus
- 41:49Speaker 1: away and they might move from page one of the
- 41:51Speaker 1: news to to page or nine in the newspapers. And
- 41:53Speaker 1: that's that's maybe what Boris Shohn's is hoping for. Okay,
- 41:56Speaker 1: this from President Donald Trump this morning, Congratulations to boys
- 42:00Speaker 1: Johnson on his great win. Written in the United States
- 42:02Speaker 1: will now be free to strike a massive new trade
- 42:05Speaker 1: deal after brexit. How possible is it that we can
- 42:08Speaker 1: get a U K EU trade deal and a UK
- 42:12Speaker 1: US trade deal well as as as as was pointing
- 42:16Speaker 1: out in the Selection and As you know, Jeremy Corbyn
- 42:18Speaker 1: tried to use the NHS as a way of sort
- 42:20Speaker 1: of instrumentalizing this this this problem. These two trade deals
- 42:24Speaker 1: are going to be in conflict. If you're in the
- 42:26Speaker 1: orbit of the United States, that's a very different sort
- 42:29Speaker 1: of economic model too. If you're in the orbit of
- 42:31Speaker 1: the the European Union as a very different regulatory space.
- 42:35Speaker 1: You know, we use the example of colorinated chicken, but
- 42:37Speaker 1: it does work as an example. If you want to
- 42:39Speaker 1: have a deal with the US, then you have the
- 42:41Speaker 1: Colorina chicken. You wanna have a deal with the EU,
- 42:43Speaker 1: you can't have a back door to the Colorina chicken.
- 42:45Speaker 1: So it's a it's a real it's a real um,
- 42:48Speaker 1: it's a real either or choice in a way unless
- 42:51Speaker 1: you unless you yeah. And that's the that's the problem
- 42:54Speaker 1: that's sort of facing Boris Johnson. Is it probably politically
- 42:57Speaker 1: is he has promised this trade deal with the US
- 42:59Speaker 1: and if that's and pay off and that can't come
- 43:01Speaker 1: to fruition, then then maybe that will be something that
- 43:04Speaker 1: can be pinned on him and alan what about the
- 43:07Speaker 1: positions to negotiate. If you look at Europe, you've got
- 43:10Speaker 1: this very public sprat spat between Macron and Merkel. Merkel's
- 43:13Speaker 1: week at home, she's got the threat from the SPD
- 43:16Speaker 1: and in the US you have an election coming up,
- 43:18Speaker 1: so there's uncertainty on on both sides. Are there in
- 43:20Speaker 1: a position to drive this hard to Boris Johnson, I
- 43:25Speaker 1: think they will be in a position in the European
- 43:26Speaker 1: Union because of the premier, these these these EU leaders
- 43:29Speaker 1: have largely outsourced the negotiations to the Commission, who will
- 43:33Speaker 1: have a lot more continuity within their political uh you
- 43:36Speaker 1: know environment. I get the point you make about Merkel
- 43:39Speaker 1: and uh and and Mcoron and that the tensions that
- 43:42Speaker 1: are opening up there. I mean, you know, the US
- 43:44Speaker 1: trade deal issue is just isn't going to be resolved
- 43:48Speaker 1: and there isn't gonna be a deal with with Trump.
- 43:49Speaker 1: So I guess it is in a way a bit
- 43:51Speaker 1: slightly moot what what the outcome is in those in
- 43:53Speaker 1: that in that in that, in that contest. But I
- 43:56Speaker 1: think I think for the the EU UK trade trade talks,
- 43:58Speaker 1: they will for the for the European Union, they'll they'll
- 44:01Speaker 1: still have some continuity and mere Barnier is continuing as
- 44:04Speaker 1: as head of those talks. So so I mean Alan
- 44:06Speaker 1: is there not a possibility in the end that given
- 44:09Speaker 1: as usually, that it might start going to being the
- 44:11Speaker 1: back of the newspaper rather than the front. That the
- 44:13Speaker 1: people over there behind us and the civil servants down
- 44:16Speaker 1: the room might say, let's have a Brino, let's have
- 44:18Speaker 1: a Brexit in name only. Let's actually change almost nothing,
- 44:22Speaker 1: because frankly, that's what we all want. I don't think that, yeah, well,
- 44:25Speaker 1: it would have a softer Brexit than perhaps Jacob rees
- 44:28Speaker 1: mog once. But I'm not sure that there's going to
- 44:30Speaker 1: be politically possible to stay in the Customers Union or
- 44:32Speaker 1: the Single Market. So if you said three years ago,
- 44:35Speaker 1: is that brexit in name only, it's definitely not. I mean,
- 44:37Speaker 1: it's it's gonna be uh, it's gonna be a pretty
- 44:40Speaker 1: tough form of brexit for the Europe, for the UK economically. Yeah,
- 44:45Speaker 1: I think we're in a situation where, uh, you know,
- 44:47Speaker 1: it's it's whether or not there'll be there'll be a
- 44:49Speaker 1: trade deal, it'll be a'll be a one of loose arrangement. Alright, Alan,
- 44:52Speaker 1: thanks very much indeed for doing that, Alan Wager their
- 44:55Speaker 1: research associated at UK in Enanging Europe. Caroline Roger, thank
- 45:00Speaker 1: you so much. For joining us at live from Westminster
- 45:02Speaker 1: this morning. Just a final thought then, as we wrap
- 45:05Speaker 1: up this election special Roger, just looking ahead to the timetable. Now,
- 45:11Speaker 1: when will we see Parliament actually sit now that we
- 45:13Speaker 1: have the results? Well, there is an interesting question where
- 45:17Speaker 1: I asked Tobias Ellwood and earlier this morning. He didn't know.
- 45:20Speaker 1: But we do know that they want to get it
- 45:22Speaker 1: through the second reading by Friday, so I guess that
- 45:26Speaker 1: means possibly Monday morning. We'll we'll watch and see. But
- 45:28Speaker 1: at the moment I think it's just too cold for
- 45:30Speaker 1: anyone to come down here a little alone in Scotland.
- 45:32Speaker 1: But we'll see. Perhaps they are all on the planes
- 45:34Speaker 1: on the way back, all wrapped up and muffled up
- 45:36Speaker 1: and ready to vote. So it's Christmas ruin then, Roger,
- 45:40Speaker 1: for you and I possibly and for them too. Now
- 45:43Speaker 1: I don't think i'll see over Christmas, but we'll see.
- 45:45Speaker 1: We'll see great stuff. Roger hearing their live outside of Westminster.
- 45:50Speaker 1: That's it for this hour of Bloomberg Westminster, our special
- 45:53Speaker 1: election coverage. Really, this is a historic day for the
- 45:58Speaker 1: Conservative Party, biggest win since Margaret Thatcher, a trouncing for
- 46:03Speaker 1: the Labor Party, and it comes down yet again in
- 46:06Speaker 1: this election to a two horse race. This as we
- 46:09Speaker 1: looked to boys Johnson and who he's going to pick
- 46:10Speaker 1: for the cabinet that will be next. Yes, so many issues,
- 46:13Speaker 1: not at least to mention the future of Scotland, Northern
- 46:15Speaker 1: Ireland and North of England. If you're listening to bloom
- 46:17Speaker 1: Local Westminster, Bloomberg Westminster listen weekdays at noon on D
- 46:21Speaker 1: A B digital radio in London