Latest / Green Benches with Deiniol Brown / Rachel Gilmour MP: Standing up for Rural Communities and What Should the Liberal Democrats Be?

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Rachel Gilmour MP: Standing up for Rural Communities and What Should the Liberal Democrats Be? · Green Benches with Deiniol Brown

0:07
SPEAKER_00: Order, order.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: The other person that really,
0:10
SPEAKER_00: really set me on my liberal path,
0:13
SPEAKER_00: because I did join the Liberal Party,
0:14
SPEAKER_00: the Liberal Democrats didn't exist, was Margaret Thatcher.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: I thought that her policies and her politics were despicable.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: My message to this government, I mean, they're no worse than the Conservative government.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: For goodness sake, give my farmers a chance.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Let them invest and grow their businesses for the future because we need them.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Food security isn't national security.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: One of the first announcements he made was on the £2 bus cab.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: That's great, but I don't have enough buses.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: Give me the buses and let my constituents get to college and get to work
0:52
SPEAKER_00: and you might make a difference.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: It's the elephant in the room.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, the figures are going to go through the roof.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: And we talk about living well with cancer and living well with this and living well with that.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Why can't people live well with dementia?
1:04
SPEAKER_00: I think if there was ever a time where liberal values are needed more, now is that time.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Green Benches with Daniel Brown,
1:15
SPEAKER_01: a new feature of Politics UK where we're talking to current MPs
1:18
SPEAKER_01: about their background,
1:20
SPEAKER_01: political inspirations, campaigns they're working on and the issues of the day.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm here today with Rachel Gilmour,
1:29
SPEAKER_01: MP for Tiverton and Minehead,
1:31
SPEAKER_01: also my local MP,
1:33
SPEAKER_01: here to talk to her about her upbringing,
1:37
SPEAKER_01: her politics,
1:39
SPEAKER_01: the Liberal Democrats today and some of the issues facing Tiverton and Minehead
1:43
SPEAKER_01: and rural economies across the UK.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for joining us.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: OK, so to kick it off, just thought I'd ask you about your early political influences.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: What influenced you when you were growing up?
1:58
SPEAKER_01: I know your father was involved in local politics as a conservative councillor.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: How did that impact you and what were your other influences?
2:06
SPEAKER_00: So my father was a conservative town councillor in Wellington where I was brought up
2:12
SPEAKER_00: and then he became a conservative district councillor.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And I learnt...
2:18
SPEAKER_00: At a very early age,
2:20
SPEAKER_00: when I won a scholarship to the Ladies College at Cheltenham,
2:23
SPEAKER_00: having been educated at local schools in Wellington,
2:27
SPEAKER_00: that I did not share his values at all.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: I always say that the combination of a good education and a conscience made me liberal.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: And I think that puts it into a nutshell, really.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: I would say the other person that really,
2:39
SPEAKER_00: really set me on my liberal path,
2:43
SPEAKER_00: because I did join the Liberal Party,
2:44
SPEAKER_00: the Liberal Democrats didn't exist, was Margaret Thatcher.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: I thought that her policies and her politics were despicable.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: I could see the problems,
2:55
SPEAKER_00: even as a teenager,
2:57
SPEAKER_00: of aspects of the conservative mantra,
3:00
SPEAKER_00: for example,
3:01
SPEAKER_00: selling off council houses and not allowing councils to build anymore,
3:04
SPEAKER_00: and the disastrous consequences that we're still feeling today about that.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Her complete lack of compassion for her fellow human being, I found literally repellent.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: And I joined the Liberal Party when I was 17 at the Ladies College after a Hustings
3:21
SPEAKER_00: for the general election.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: And based on what you've just said,
3:25
SPEAKER_01: I can see why you didn't join the Conservative Party,
3:27
SPEAKER_01: but some people might ask why you didn't join, for example, Labour.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: What was it that turned you specifically towards the Liberal Party compared to,
3:35
SPEAKER_01: for example, Labour or other parties that were around?
3:38
SPEAKER_00: I think it's partly because I was brought up in the South West.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: So it was always the Liberals who were chomping At the conservative heels down there.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: But it was also things like the internationalism that the Liberal Party still represents.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: The idea of championing the individual and recognising that the right to be
3:57
SPEAKER_00: an individual is more important than practically anything else.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: And virtues or values like compassion,
4:05
SPEAKER_00: like kindness,
4:07
SPEAKER_00: like respect,
4:07
SPEAKER_00: all the stuff that's summed up in the preamble to the Liberal Democrat Constitution.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't believe in God.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: But I do believe in the values of the New Testament.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: And so I've brought my four children up according to the values in the preamble to
4:20
SPEAKER_00: the Liberal Democrat Constitution and the values of the New Testament.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: And I would put kindness as probably the most important quality that anybody can have.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: And this is something I've wondered myself,
4:33
SPEAKER_01: having grown up in West Somerset,
4:35
SPEAKER_01: why do you think it is that the Liberals or the Liberal Democrats today have been
4:39
SPEAKER_01: that kind of counterpoint to the Conservative Party there rather
4:43
SPEAKER_01: than any other party?
4:46
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of it's tradition.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of the issues that we care about passionately really fit
4:51
SPEAKER_00: into what's going on in the countryside.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: And by countryside,
4:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean in rural areas,
4:57
SPEAKER_00: so championing our farmers,
4:59
SPEAKER_00: championing The environment and looking after our local communities.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we say and we say with good reason that Liberal Democrats work all year round.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: I was telling a constituent of mine recently that I've just been out canvassing
5:12
SPEAKER_00: in Minehead and he said, what are you canvassing for?
5:14
SPEAKER_00: There isn't a general election.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm knocking on people's doors because I genuinely want to know what's
5:19
SPEAKER_00: on their minds so that I can better represent them as an MP.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: And I think our council councillors do that, too.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's that demonstrable care For our communities and the ability
5:31
SPEAKER_00: to work hard on their behalf.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: And your constituency,
5:37
SPEAKER_01: my constituency is a vast constituency and it has many different communities
5:43
SPEAKER_01: within it.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: How have you found,
5:46
SPEAKER_01: you know,
5:46
SPEAKER_01: as an MP dealing with that size of the constituency and just the diversity
5:51
SPEAKER_01: of communities within it?
5:52
SPEAKER_01: Has that been a challenge for you?
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, it's a very big constituency.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: It's 1250 square miles.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: But I think having been brought up there has been absolutely invaluable.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, in the general election campaign, I didn't have to use a sat-nav once.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: I know all the little shortcuts and how to get from this village to that village,
6:11
SPEAKER_00: and more importantly,
6:12
SPEAKER_00: where that village is,
6:13
SPEAKER_00: and literally knocking on doors and seeing people that I'd been to school with or
6:17
SPEAKER_00: whose parents I remembered.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: So I think being local is really,
6:20
SPEAKER_00: really important,
6:21
SPEAKER_00: and it gives me an in-depth of understanding that I wouldn't have
6:25
SPEAKER_00: if I'd been parachuted in,
6:27
SPEAKER_00: which, of course, is something that the Liberal Democrats Tend not to do.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's important.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: And although I know it upsets some people,
6:34
SPEAKER_00: particularly in the West Somerset side of my constituency,
6:36
SPEAKER_00: that they were being,
6:37
SPEAKER_00: as they put it,
6:38
SPEAKER_00: lumped in with Minehead and Tiverton rather than with Taunton,
6:43
SPEAKER_00: there are issues that cross my constituency.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: We have a problem with access to health care.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Our schools aren't as well funded as they should be.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Public transport Is a massive block on aspiration,
6:59
SPEAKER_00: whether it's getting children to sixth form colleges or people to work.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: So there are themes that run through my constituency.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: So to me, it makes perfect sense that I represent Chiverton and Minehead and West Somerset.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: And of course,
7:13
SPEAKER_00: as I'm famous for saying in this place,
7:15
SPEAKER_00: I do represent the most beautiful constituency in the UK.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: I have to agree with you on that one.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: It might prejudice the interview, but I have to agree there.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: And you've had a lot of experience working with organisations that work
7:28
SPEAKER_01: with rural communities, the National Farmers Union, the Environment Agency.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: Has that prepared you well for the job of a Royal MP?
7:36
SPEAKER_01: And how has that influenced maybe your politics now that you're on the other side of
7:41
SPEAKER_01: the coin as a legislator and someone here in Parliament?
7:46
SPEAKER_00: I think my work particularly for the National Farmers Union was really,
7:49
SPEAKER_00: really important and remains so.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, one of the things that I did there was rather than just accepting the myths
7:55
SPEAKER_00: about my farmers and the rural communities was actually to do a lot of research.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: And what my understanding therefore is probably at a deeper level than Somebody
8:06
SPEAKER_00: who hasn't had that experience.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: The Environment Agency was quite frustrating.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a natural civil servant.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a box ticker.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: I like to get things done and I wouldn't return to the civil service.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: But again,
8:19
SPEAKER_00: it's given me some Some fascinating insights into the impact of climate change,
8:24
SPEAKER_00: particularly on a constituency where we have the West Somerset Coast,
8:27
SPEAKER_00: where coastal erosion is going to be an increasing factor,
8:30
SPEAKER_00: where increasing sea levels are going to cause very real problems.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: And of course, for my farmers, my farmers are on the front line of climate change.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: They can tell you now what's going to be happening in three or four years
8:42
SPEAKER_00: because they work the soil.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: They understand the impact of not having enough rain or having too much rain.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: So I think working for both those organisations was really, really important.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to come back to the issues that farmers are currently facing in a bit.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: But I was also just really interested in what was the moment that you kind
9:02
SPEAKER_01: of thought, this is the time that I would like to be an MP.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: I know you've run several times before,
9:08
SPEAKER_01: but what was it that motivated you to put yourself up for that first time
9:11
SPEAKER_01: that you wanted to be elected?
9:14
SPEAKER_01: What kept that kind of passion and that hunger to become an elected member going?
9:19
SPEAKER_00: I think, I mean,
9:20
SPEAKER_00: the first time I stood was in Nottingham North,
9:22
SPEAKER_00: which I didn't, you know, it was it was that's where I was at the time.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: And then I stood for Totnes and then Taunton Dean in 2015.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: And I think getting underneath the skin of a constituency
9:34
SPEAKER_00: and really understanding it and seeing the opportunities that you could make and
9:38
SPEAKER_00: the changes for good that you could make as a member of parliament Is really,
9:42
SPEAKER_00: really important.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: And of course, when you don't win, it's very, very disappointing and difficult personally.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: I'd actually said I'd never stand for Parliament again after 2015.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: But when the boundary changes happened and I realised that I lived in the heart of
9:57
SPEAKER_00: the new constituency,
9:59
SPEAKER_00: the constituency where I was almost brought up,
10:02
SPEAKER_00: where I knew so many people, where I understood the issues, where I care.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Passionately about my constituents.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: And I really do.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that I fake or I mimic.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: I really care about my constituents.
10:16
SPEAKER_01: And I think that people have a lot of maybe assumptions about
10:19
SPEAKER_01: a royal constituency like Tiverton and Minehead and that,
10:22
SPEAKER_01: you know,
10:23
SPEAKER_01: there maybe aren't too many issues and that things are just very sort of easy,
10:27
SPEAKER_01: easy there.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: The issues that a Royal MP such as yourself have to deal with is maybe,
10:34
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, issues about the village green or something like that.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: But as we both know, there are massive issues there that do need to be faced.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: Have you found a sort of lack of understanding about rural communities here
10:49
SPEAKER_01: in Westminster from maybe,
10:51
SPEAKER_01: for example, at the Environment Agency as well, from these institutions?
10:55
SPEAKER_01: And what have you maybe found since becoming an MP,
10:58
SPEAKER_01: the things that have been most misunderstood?
11:02
SPEAKER_00: I think that West Somerset wasn't particularly well represented for 23 years.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: And so there was a dearth of understanding at civil service level
11:12
SPEAKER_00: and therefore ministerial level about the real issues that Tibetan
11:16
SPEAKER_00: and Minehead faces.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: You know,
11:19
SPEAKER_00: I don't suppose anybody had said here previously,
11:23
SPEAKER_00: you know, on the social mobility scale, Minehead is 324th out of 324th.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: So educating civil servants and educating ministers about the very real issues
11:36
SPEAKER_00: that face my constituents is my job.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: I am lobbyist in chief for Timberton and Minehead
11:42
SPEAKER_00: and I take absolutely every opportunity to make sure that the people that need
11:48
SPEAKER_00: to know, know that we need help and how that help can be delivered.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: And as you've alluded to already,
11:55
SPEAKER_01: it has been a very tough year for rural communities with the drought and now
12:00
SPEAKER_01: in Devon and Somerset as well, the blue tongue outbreak among livestock.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: What do you think the lessons are for the government when it comes
12:09
SPEAKER_01: to addressing these rural issues and treating them with the kind of amount
12:13
SPEAKER_01: of gravity that they deserve?
12:16
SPEAKER_01: And how have you personally tried to take these issues to Parliament and pursue change?
12:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's take blue tongue as an example, shall we?
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Bluetongue was a foreseeable disease.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: It started off in Africa.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: It came to Northern Europe and it spread to the UK.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Last year, we had a small cluster of it around Dalverton.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Had DEFRA tested the midges before this year,
12:38
SPEAKER_00: they would have found out that they were living over the winter because because
12:41
SPEAKER_00: of climate change, they don't die.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: So had DEFRA adopted the Boy Scout motto of Be Prepared,
12:48
SPEAKER_00: They would have known that it was coming again.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: They would have been able to warn my vets, which they didn't do.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: It was the vets that got in touch with me and told me about the severity of it.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: They would have made sure that my farmers knew that they needed to vaccinate.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: They would have made sure that there was enough vaccination available.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: They would have made sure that they opened more than one laboratory to test the blue tongue.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: So it was taking two weeks.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: For my farmers to get their livestock tested because only the laboratory in Purbright was open.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: They didn't open Newton Abbott and they didn't open Edinburgh.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I wrote to DEFRA.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, luckily, I didn't go on a summer holiday, didn't go on a holiday this year.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: So I was there pressing the red button,
13:28
SPEAKER_00: writing to DEFRA right from the get go and had a meeting with the Parliamentary
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Under Secretary of State towards the end of July, beginning of August.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: But I don't feel that there's any sense of urgency.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel that there's any real understanding of the impact that this has
13:46
SPEAKER_00: on my farmers who are absolutely up against it.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: And the letter I'm just writing here is about the Sustainable Farming Incentive,
13:55
SPEAKER_00: where, again, they've lost out.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, £233 million was up for grabs.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: It went within six hours.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: And my farmers who don't have the resources to be that fleet of foot Have just lost out again.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: And it's very, very, very frustrating.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: But I would say that because I'm a member of the or I'm co-chair of
14:16
SPEAKER_00: the all party parliamentary group on farming,
14:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm probably better placed than many rural MPs to make an impact and create change.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about the sustainable farming incentive actually.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: And I did want to ask from your perspective, has this been a disaster?
14:33
SPEAKER_01: And why do you think that the government potentially made the mistakes it did in
14:39
SPEAKER_01: the design of this policy?
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Because they don't know what's going on.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And they haven't shown any resolve or interest.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: To really, really,
14:49
SPEAKER_00: as the expression I keep on using,
14:51
SPEAKER_00: get under the skin of what goes on in rural communities, how farmers operate.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: For example, again,
14:56
SPEAKER_00: going back to Bluetongue,
14:58
SPEAKER_00: the extra costs it imposed on my farmers,
15:01
SPEAKER_00: just the picking up of dead stock, for example, that's £27 a carcass.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Farmers annual Farmers' year, financial year, doesn't go from April to April.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: It tends to go from September to September or October to October.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: So they are their most cash poor at the time that Blue Tongue hit.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: And they're trying to plan.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: They are farmers, but they are businessmen.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: And like any businessman, they can only operate a successful business.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: If they could invest and plan for the future.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: And that would be my message to this government.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're no worse than a conservative government.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: For goodness sake, give my farmers a chance.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: Let them invest and grow their businesses for the future because we need them.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Food security isn't national security.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: And talking about growth and investment brings me
15:50
SPEAKER_01: to our latest Prime Minister Andy Burnham and his model or vision of growth,
15:56
SPEAKER_01: Manchesterism,
15:57
SPEAKER_01: seems to me to be quite an urban vision of growth and you yourself,
16:01
SPEAKER_01: I believe you're the co-chair of the Rural Business and Rural Powerhouse, ABPG.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: Have you seen this kind of...
16:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm Deputy Chair.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: Deputy Chair, apologies.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: I gave you an upgrade there.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: Do you feel that this vision is giving adequate focus to rural communities?
16:24
SPEAKER_01: What's been your sense of what the government's saying?
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Andy, if I may be so familiar,
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Has talked about, you know, changes for every postcode in the country.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: He's talked very specifically about constituencies which are coastal with a rural backdrop.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Hello, Andy.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: That's Tiverton and Minehead.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: I think one of the first announcements he made was on the £2 bus cab.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: That's great, but I don't have enough buses.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Give me the buses and let my constituents get to college and get to work
16:55
SPEAKER_00: and you might make a difference.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: So again,
16:58
SPEAKER_00: it's these I mean,
17:00
SPEAKER_00: I hope they're not just trite expressions of giving false hope
17:03
SPEAKER_00: and I will be lobbying.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I wrote to him on day one and I'm going to ask him for a meeting
17:08
SPEAKER_00: because there are some things that with a very small tweak and
17:13
SPEAKER_00: without massive cost implications could make a significant difference to the lives
17:17
SPEAKER_00: of my constituents.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: And you say that you hope these aren't trite expressions.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: You know,
17:24
SPEAKER_01: obviously Andy Burnham has only recently been in his post,
17:28
SPEAKER_01: but do you feel like the kind of momentum behind this change is stalling a bit
17:33
SPEAKER_01: or do we have to wait for the budget to see how this kind of vision
17:37
SPEAKER_01: of growth is going to play out?
17:39
SPEAKER_00: The bottom line is there is no money.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Andy Burnham has no more money than Keir Starmer had.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: So the budget I think is going to be tricky.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: He's going to have to deliver some very hard messages and make some very stark choices.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: But if he uses the evidence that people like myself as a rural MP can provide him,
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Then he might be able to introduce services that will really make a difference
18:05
SPEAKER_00: to people's lives without spending ridiculous amounts of money.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: So in June,
18:10
SPEAKER_00: I produced my dementia report,
18:12
SPEAKER_00: which was researched and produced about the dementia situation in my constituency,
18:19
SPEAKER_00: where we've got a very elderly population and an elderly deprived population.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't just about finding the problems.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: It was also about finding the solutions.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: In October,
18:29
SPEAKER_00: I'll be publishing my social care report,
18:31
SPEAKER_00: which will do the same thing, but about social care.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: And it's not about spending huge amounts of money.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: It's just about recognising what works and what works in a rural context,
18:43
SPEAKER_00: which is not the same as an urban context.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: For example, introducing these health hubs.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: If you put a health hub in Bridgewater and Taunton and Exeter,
18:53
SPEAKER_00: that doesn't help my constituents.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't keep the urgent treatment centre at Tiverton open full time
18:58
SPEAKER_00: and it doesn't keep the urgent treatment centre at Minehead open at full time.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: They've just taken away the scanners from Minehead Hospital where their pledge
19:06
SPEAKER_00: in their manifesto was to double the number of scanners across the country,
19:10
SPEAKER_00: particularly in rural areas.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: All I'm asking them to do is say what they said they were going to do in their manifesto.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: And do you think there needs to be more of a form of recognition of how the kind
19:22
SPEAKER_01: of rules of infrastructure and growth differ between urban and rural constituencies?
19:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
19:30
SPEAKER_01: I suppose there's a kind of intermediate space between urban and rural that maybe
19:35
SPEAKER_01: a constituency like Taunton, which is near your constituency, would have.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: But then there's constituencies like yours,
19:42
SPEAKER_01: which are vast rural spaces and
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what one thing that would really make
19:47
SPEAKER_00: a difference?
19:48
SPEAKER_00: And I've had the meeting with the local government minister to try
19:50
SPEAKER_00: and press this home and I've raised it in a Westminster Hall debate.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Rurality should have an impact upon funding.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: By definition,
20:01
SPEAKER_00: my constituency is more dispersed in some places than any other constituency
20:07
SPEAKER_00: in England in the most rural parts of West Somerset.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: So why on earth isn't morality put into the equation when they're handing out money
20:17
SPEAKER_00: to local government?
20:18
SPEAKER_00: We've got more roads, therefore they cost more to upkeep.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: It's 25 miles from Minehead to the other side of Taunton.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: We need more buses.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: We need a train between Taunton and Minehead so that we can Get people to work so
20:37
SPEAKER_00: that we can get my students to Richard Jewish College in Minehead,
20:40
SPEAKER_00: where at the moment,
20:41
SPEAKER_00: great though where Somerset Community College is for the sixth form,
20:44
SPEAKER_00: they just don't have the number of A level choices that they need.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: So it's again, I'm not asking for huge amounts of money to be spent.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm just asking for a recognition that the the imperatives in my constituency as
20:59
SPEAKER_00: a coastal constituency with a rural backdrop are different to the imperatives in
21:04
SPEAKER_00: an urban constituency.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
21:06
SPEAKER_01: and I'm also really interested to know through your APPG work on the farming APPG
21:11
SPEAKER_01: and the Rural Business APPG,
21:14
SPEAKER_01: are there some examples that you've been looking to of real success stories
21:18
SPEAKER_01: on rural growth and development and investment, maybe in the UK, maybe abroad?
21:23
SPEAKER_01: Where have you kind of seen things that you think we should be doing more of that
21:27
SPEAKER_01: into the minehead?
21:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think some of my regenerative farmers are an absolute inspiration.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: And I've been able to take very real case studies back to the farming APPG and talk
21:39
SPEAKER_00: to them about how If you understand the impact of climate change,
21:43
SPEAKER_00: how you can work with nature to actually make money.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about farmers making money, shall we?
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Not just breaking even.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: And I've got some inspirational farmers in my constituency,
21:55
SPEAKER_00: and I have raised their case studies with the APPG.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: And I'm hoping that the APPG will visit my constituency within the next few months.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: I think there's loads of really good things happening into the minehead.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: I've got some very, very Exciting businesses.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: I've got Shearwell on the top of Exmoor,
22:16
SPEAKER_00: which makes tags for cattle and sheep all over the world.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: And they've got innovative technology.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: They build their own robots.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: Who would have thought it?
22:26
SPEAKER_00: I've got Singers, another technological company in Roadwater.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: I've got Hepco in Tiverton.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: I've got these fantastic companies who are ahead of the game.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: And actually government could learn a lot from them.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: I actually have a friend who works at Singer's and it is a weird concept to say
22:49
SPEAKER_01: that there is a sort of state of the art robot building company in this tiny,
22:55
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know if it's a village.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: A small village in rural West Somerset.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't seem like the kind of location for it, but yeah, it seems to be an amazing business.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Just to say quickly,
23:13
SPEAKER_00: I've got an economic development summit happening in November and I've got 30
23:18
SPEAKER_00: of my biggest businesses together.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: They've got a turnover of over a billion pounds between them.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: And I have been lucky enough to get the minister to attend by Zoom.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's quite an achievement.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: I think it's an achievement for me.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: I think it's an achievement for my small businesses or my medium sized businesses
23:33
SPEAKER_00: that government is prepared to listen to them and get to know what they're good at
23:38
SPEAKER_00: and the help that they need.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to ask you as well about your private member's bill on specialist support
23:45
SPEAKER_01: for dementia that you've got going through Parliament.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Personally, this is something that I think me and many others Um, can relate to.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: I actually, um,
23:58
SPEAKER_01: my grandmother was careful when she had dementia,
24:00
SPEAKER_01: um, in the community hospital in Williton, which was really good.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, it was, uh,
24:06
SPEAKER_01: you know,
24:06
SPEAKER_01: it's not particularly close to,
24:08
SPEAKER_01: to where I live in Bishop Sadiad, but that she was looked after amazingly there.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Williton hospital is, is a godsend for all sorts of reasons.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: My interest in dementia is, again, partly personal.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, my mother suffers from it and I struggle with that.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: It's very, very sad.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: But it's just it's the elephant in the room.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, the figures are going to go through the roof.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: And we talk about living well with cancer and living well with this and living well with that.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Why can't people live well?
24:37
SPEAKER_00: And my dementia report really shone a light onto what could be done
24:42
SPEAKER_00: to support people with dementia,
24:44
SPEAKER_00: but also importantly,
24:46
SPEAKER_00: their carers and their families, because unpaid family carers are the unsung heroes.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: And what stage is that bill out currently?
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Second reading, I think, is February.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: And I suppose by then we'll have an insight into whether the government are going
25:01
SPEAKER_00: to support it or not.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: I hope they do.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: I've got the backing of Professor Shubhi Banerjee,
25:06
SPEAKER_00: who's one of Europe's leading dementia experts,
25:09
SPEAKER_00: who contributed to my dementia report.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: So it's not coming without some heft.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: And what would be the sort of ideal outcomes you'd look for in terms of policy from that?
25:21
SPEAKER_00: I think if we go back to the report,
25:22
SPEAKER_00: it talks about finding local hubs for supporting people who have dementia and
25:29
SPEAKER_00: for their families.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: At the moment, it's very piecemeal.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: It's very ad hoc.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to mention any names.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: But for example, there is a fantastic support charity in Minehead.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: But they have to rely on grant funding.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: They can't plan ahead because they don't have the budget mechanism to do so.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Similarly, I've got other charities, again, charities in in the more rural areas.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: But again,
25:56
SPEAKER_00: it goes back to things like,
25:58
SPEAKER_00: you know,
25:59
SPEAKER_00: if you've got poor local transport,
26:01
SPEAKER_00: how do people How do carers get the help that they need?
26:05
SPEAKER_00: How do people get to them to support them?
26:08
SPEAKER_00: And we've got to shine a light onto that real sense of localism
26:12
SPEAKER_00: that is absolutely crucial in a constituency like mine, 1,250 square miles.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: And very recently,
26:22
SPEAKER_01: we've seen Andy Burnham announce that he'll be putting a National Care Service on
26:28
SPEAKER_01: the manifesto for the 2029 election.
26:31
SPEAKER_01: Do you welcome this?
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, God, with open arms.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was delighted that Ed Davey went to the meeting with him in the summer
26:38
SPEAKER_00: when unfortunately the Conservative leader couldn't find the time to do that.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Social care is the number one.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Andy Burnham is right.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: If we don't get social care right, the NHS will, you know, it's on its knees already.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: It will only get worse.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how he's going to pay for it.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Frankly, I don't care.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: I want social care for my constituents.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: I have a few questions about that, but I think you've answered that very, very clearly there.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to move on now to talking a bit about the Lib Dems as a party.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: You recently had your party conference.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: I actually went on the Sunday and attended a few talks.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: I have to say I did really enjoy myself.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: But I did get a bit of a sense of a lack of clarity about how
27:26
SPEAKER_01: the Lib Dems define themselves, their political identity.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: And you hear this is something that a lot of people say.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: What do you say to those people who maybe say that the Lib Dems lack a clear identity?
27:38
SPEAKER_01: And how would you define the Lib Dems identity yourself?
27:42
SPEAKER_00: I think that what people want in politics is they want truth.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: And they want to know where that truth comes from in terms of your values.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: So we're going back to the beginning of our conversation.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: I think if there was ever a time
27:59
SPEAKER_00: where liberal values are needed more, now is that time.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: You know,
28:05
SPEAKER_00: pragmatism,
28:06
SPEAKER_00: compassion,
28:09
SPEAKER_00: taking some very bold steps,
28:11
SPEAKER_00: but explaining why you're doing it,
28:13
SPEAKER_00: thinking outside the box,
28:15
SPEAKER_00: seeing good examples from across the world and Using them if they'll work in the UK.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: Not being too proud to acknowledge that we could be better at things than we are at the moment.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: And that internationalism.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: We will not get growth in this country until we have closer ties with Europe.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean undoing the European referendum, the Brexit referendum.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean undermining that.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: But I do mean,
28:42
SPEAKER_00: you know,
28:44
SPEAKER_00: having people working across Europe I do mean rejoining the internal market.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: At the moment,
28:53
SPEAKER_00: if I speak to all the companies in my constituency,
28:57
SPEAKER_00: it's causing them so many problems.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: We are paying to import and paying to export.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: And we have 500 million people on our doorstep in Europe who could be
29:09
SPEAKER_00: and should be our biggest consumers.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: To me, it's a no brainer.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: So it goes back to the core values that I mentioned at the beginning
29:18
SPEAKER_00: of this interview,
29:20
SPEAKER_00: which are the values that drive me on a daily basis to get out into my constituency,
29:26
SPEAKER_00: to talk to my constituents and to bring what matters to them back to
29:30
SPEAKER_00: the green benches.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: And the Lib Dems,
29:33
SPEAKER_01: you know,
29:34
SPEAKER_01: the last election have become quite a strong electoral force in Parliament and are
29:41
SPEAKER_01: a big part of British politics.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: I think it was their your best election results in 100 years or something like that.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: However,
29:50
SPEAKER_01: it sometimes could feel like maybe the Lib Dems are shying away from taking
29:54
SPEAKER_01: that sort of larger Position in British politics.
30:00
SPEAKER_01: Do you feel that the Lib Dems are shying away from this?
30:03
SPEAKER_01: And what do you think maybe the Lib Dems could do to claim a bit more of that centre ground?
30:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't necessarily think that the centre ground is where we need to be,
30:11
SPEAKER_00: but that's another story.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that over the next few months our policies on tax and
30:18
SPEAKER_00: the NHS will become clearer and I know
30:20
SPEAKER_00: that we are positioning ourselves very differently certain to the Conservative Party
30:25
SPEAKER_00: and there will be differences between us and the Labour Party.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: There are some big bold decisions that need to be taken
30:33
SPEAKER_00: and there are some big bold statements that need to be made.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: And if the British public mean it when they say that they want change
30:41
SPEAKER_00: and they want things done differently,
30:43
SPEAKER_00: the Liberal Democrats can be trusted to deliver on that.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think we will leave it there if that's OK.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: That was Rachel Gilmore MP.
30:56
SPEAKER_01: Absolute pleasure to speak to you and thank you very much for your answers.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: See you back in the past.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Hold it, hold it.