Latest / UK Column Radio / Andrew Bridgen | A Thousand Words (Part 1 of 3)

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Andrew Bridgen | A Thousand Words (Part 1 of 3) · UK Column Radio

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You know, you've got a hood over your head and someone's kicked
0:03
you in the face and your nose is bleeding.
0:04
Then you put onto the floor of a helicopter that which takes off
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and you hear the door shut and you hear the helicopter take
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off. And then a few minutes later the
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door opens. You haven't landed.
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And then you were thrown out of a helicopter that hasn't landed.
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I owned my own fairly big house in its own grounds and I've got
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my Aston Martin and I've got the Range Rover and I've got a
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trophy wife. And we were a long way from the
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cameras and we thought we were having a confidential
0:33
conversation. It was me telling Boris
0:36
confidentially that we're definitely going to win the
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referendum tomorrow and Boris's face.
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Eugenicist Malthusian, yes. What have you got against
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Stanley? Andrew, thank you for inviting
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us to your home. Thank you very much for coming.
1:13
Thank you for letting us use your.
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Home, but I haven't seen the picture yet, so we'll save that
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to the end. Yeah, yeah.
1:21
As you know, it's a long format, so we've got plenty of time.
1:26
What I'd quite like to. I'm quite interested in people
1:29
as much as what's going on out there.
1:31
You're a local lad, aren't you? I am.
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I've got a great affinity with northwest Leicestershire.
1:36
Yeah, I mean the way you talk about your constituency and the
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people. We worked miracles here, yeah,
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and I'm very proud of northwest Leicestershire, so.
1:48
And did you grow up far from me? No, I was actually bought up.
1:53
Well I was. I was born at Burton Hospital
1:55
because that's where the maternity ward is.
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So most people around a lot, a lot of people around here would
2:00
have Burton on Trent as their place of birth because that's
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where the maternity hospital is. But I was to the age of 6.
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I was living in Tamworth in Staffordshire which is about 10
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miles away as looked after by my maternal grandmother till I was
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6 and then moved back to my mum and dad then and my.
2:28
Why was that? Why did you end up with your?
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Grandmother, we didn't have didn't have room.
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My father kept a shop in Tamworth and they only had a one
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bedroom flat above the shop and my mother had three sons by the
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time she was 21 and this wasn't room.
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Right. OK, so I was ousted.
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It's like, you know, there's so many in the bed.
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Roll over. Yeah, roll over.
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Yeah. So my my.
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How did that fit? Do you remember?
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Did that make you feel? Do you remember the feeling of
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not? Is that stuck with you at all?
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Let's. See, I think it probably does.
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But I mean, I mean, my grandmother Lavinia was a lovely
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lady. Yeah.
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And I remember that she was, she had a lovely voice, a perfect
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pitch when she was cleaning the terraced house.
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And I went to school in Cross Street in Kettlebrook for a year
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at primary school because I was 6 when I was from when I was 5.
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Then my my middle brother Anthony also was looked after by
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my my maternal grandmother. Right.
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So you weren't you? Weren't I, wasn't there.
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I was had. Your brother with you.
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Well, it would have been for about a year until he was born
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and and then we all went back to the the family home and my
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father had bought a small holding that nether sale, which
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is right on the border with Leicestershire.
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It's only a few miles away, the most solely village in
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Derbyshire, right on the border. And and that, that was
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interesting. So a bit, a bit of a culture
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shock. So a little cottage out in the
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middle of nowhere in about in in and we didn't have mains
4:12
electricity, so we had a 1A1 kilowatt Lister engine and, and
4:19
you had to wind it with a handle to get it going and it went off
4:23
at night. So we didn't have a fridge or a
4:26
freezer or or any of that. And if if you put anything on,
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there's only one kilowatt. So if you put the no electric
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kettle or anything, if you put too many things on the
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television used to drop to a little pin in the middle of the
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bit of the screen in the winter bath night was a was an
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experience you weren't looking forward to, as I remember.
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And I went, we all went to the, the Junior School in Nether
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Sale, which was Saint Peter's, which is, I think when I left to
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go to the comprehensive, I think it was 64 pupils, three classes,
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64 pupils, very small. We used to walk to school, walk
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to school and, and walk. Well, we're often dropped off,
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but we always walked home. And yeah, they were, they were
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happy, they were happy days really.
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And and then I had another bit of a culture shock when I went
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to the local comprehensive, which was the pingle at
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swaddling Coat, 1200 pupils which having spent, you know, to
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the age of 11 at a school with 60, it's a bit of a difference.
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Did you have to fight for your fight for yourself there or was
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it a fairly easy? It was a very comprehensive
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education, Jake, I'll tell you that.
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Yes, you had to. Some really good teachers there,
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some not so good, but some very good teachers and I actually
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enjoyed it. I enjoyed my time at school.
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You're quite competitive, quite strong willed, not competitive
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in a negative way necessarily, but did you feel driven when you
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were at school? Did you want to do the best?
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Were you motivated to? Well, I was, I was fortunately
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in the top set for all the subjects I was doing and that
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was all streamed. So although it was a
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comprehensive school, it was all streamed, right, You know.
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So all the people that I was in lessons with, they weren't, they
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weren't. It wasn't a full cross section
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of the school. You met those in the playground?
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Yeah, I was. I was captain of the rugby team.
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Position. Well, I used to play all over
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the place. I played fly half, I've played
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right wing. I played a lot more rugby at
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university and and I won my first election at at Pingal
7:17
School because I was, I was voted head boy of school.
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It was 1980 and that was quite interesting.
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So I was the head boy and we had two deputy head boys.
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We had a head girl, Alison Boehm.
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Her name was 2, deputy head girls 2.
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Fancy. I'm trying to remember well.
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Probably. I think you probably when you're
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16, you'd fancy anything. Fancy anything pretty much as
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long as it was female. Yeah.
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And I had a load of prefects and the the prefects had privileges,
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but they had to do duties and that was mostly like policing
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the school at break time and lunchtime.
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And I think the major, the major job of the head boy was to
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prevent the other pupils from burning the school down.
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I was, I was pretty successful. You know, there were a few small
8:25
fires while I was there. But I mean, after I left, they,
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they did burn the whole school down.
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Oh really? Yes.
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Not. Because you'd left.
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Not no, I'm not taking It was always amazing because the fires
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always used to Well, generally there's nothing we can do about
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it because the fires normally broke out at the end of the last
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week of the summer holidays. So did you quite enjoy the
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responsibility, the kind of authority?
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I'm, I'm ashamed to admit I probably did.
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Yes. Yeah, Well.
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Do you know that's you don't have to be ashamed?
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Everyone's, everyone's different, aren't they?
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Everyone's got a certain drive. Well I, I did like that.
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I I I admired the headmaster, Mr. Mr. Bradley, who was an ex
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RAF Vampire pilot. You know, the, the Vulcan, the
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V. That no.
9:07
The No. It's a sort of twin tailed
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little. It wasn't a very long or famous
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jet fighter which called the Vampires.
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He would have been in the 50s. He was a an ex RAF pilot and
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yeah, he was, he was a really good committed man.
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It was interesting that many, many years, many years later
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when he'd retired, he was a constituent of mine.
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And I knocked on his door. I knocked on his door in
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probably 2008. So you're talking, you know, 28
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years, 30 years later and asked him to vote for me as many of my
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teachers had retired and lived here because it was right next
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door. And and he said to me, call me,
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call me Joseph. And you know what?
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I couldn't. I couldn't call him.
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I just couldn't call him Joseph, and even when I was his elected
10:12
member of Parliament, he was always Mr. Bradley because he
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was my headmaster and that's. Those things stick with you from
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childhood, don't they? Yep.
10:23
So I think I did 11 O levels. Nobody's going to know what O
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levels are soon, are they? We were the last first year to
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do GCSE. So O levels were.
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Yeah, my brother did O levels. And then I went into the sixth
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form at the Pingle and it I always intended to do.
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That's why I probably could have gone to another school, but that
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was the only one in the area that had the sixth form.
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So so I went there and what did you?
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Do A levels. Biology, yeah.
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Chemistry. Oh, OK.
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Mathematics, OK. And we did a general studies as
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well where you had to. We did general studies, yes.
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So you there was a kind of early inkling that you would.
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I always, I always wanted to go to university.
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Nobody in my family had ever gone to university, right?
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I wanted to go to university. It would have only been about,
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what, 4 or 5% of people went to university in those days, yeah.
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Before they wanted everyone in debt.
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Exactly. Well, they didn't get me in debt
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because I had a full grant which they could afford to do that,
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couldn't they? In those days with only a few
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percent of people going to university.
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And I had a look around which university I wanted to go to and
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I, I wanted to stay in the Midlands.
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I like the Midlands, so I had a look at Leicester, Birmingham,
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Nottingham, Keel, OK, and being a country boy, I looked at
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Nottingham University's campus and it's sort of 300 and odd
12:10
acres of Parkland and you've got Woolerton Park next door.
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So although it's in the city, it feels like you're in the
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countryside, right? I just fell in love with the
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campus at Nottingham and so I applied 1st and 2nd for
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Nottingham. First of all to do Biological
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Sciences and secondly to do zoology.
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So I was really keen on going to Nottingham and I got 2A's and
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2B's at at A level so I went to Nottingham.
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Nottingham was very also a very interesting university because
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so in 8083 it was the only university in UK with more women
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at it than men. Oh right, OK 51 it's a bonus.
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And also the girls worked much harder than the blokes.
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So the grades at Nottingham, the girls were enhancing the
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academic prowess. So by by sort of 84, Nottingham
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was in the top four or five universities in the country.
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And then every other university realized that the girls work
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harder, more dedicated and they get going to get high grades.
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So if you want to move up the So it was an arms race, but
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Nottingham started it. And yes, but there were a lot of
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women. I mean notoriously Nottingham
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had a a gender bias anyway. Right.
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I mean, I've got 22 nursing colleges.
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OK, Yeah. I played a lot of rugby at
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university. I was playing three times a
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week. I had the privilege of playing
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rugby with Brian Moore, England hooker.
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Oh, OK. He's two years older than me,
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he's two years older than me. He looks a lot.
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He's had a hard life, right, OK. And my probably my rugby claim
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to fame is that, I mean, obviously Brian was already
14:05
playing for England, but he played for the university
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sometimes he played for Nottingham.
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But he had a very bad scrum. He was a hooker.
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You've had a very bad scrum collapse and, and injured his
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back and nearly was never going to play again.
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He nearly broke his back and he had to referee for sort of at
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least half a season And and I'd I'd broken my collarbone playing
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rugby in the first year and it. Was always happening, wasn't it?
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Yeah, so. And my sort of physique had
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changed and I ended up moving from playing right wing to
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playing hooker, which was Brian's position.
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And I was playing in a game that Brian Moore was refereeing and I
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was playing hooker and the the opposition hooker kept he was,
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he was foot up every time in the scrum.
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Oh, OK. So and, and eventually I got, I
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got pretty racked off with it. So when he put his foot up, I
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just kicked it right on the shin.
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And then the front, the front rows erupted.
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And of course I'm bound in with these two props on the side of
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me and the other hooker head butted me straight in the face.
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And it's very hard when you you couldn't unbind, you know what I
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mean? So it's like someone's going to,
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but Brian Moore threatened, threatened the throat to send me
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off for a rough play. So that's rough, isn't it?
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If Brian Moore thought it was rough play, it was pretty rough.
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What it is to be young and insane.
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Well, that's kind of reflected in how you are now, I guess,
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isn't it? I mean all that, you're not
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afraid of a fight. Well, Nigel Farage said that to
15:56
me a couple of years ago. He said that the the problem
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with you, Andrew, is he said you're always looking for a
16:02
fight. Right.
16:03
And I said, no, that's not true, Nigel.
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But if there's one going, I'm not going to walk away from it.
16:09
Right, yeah, The Righteous Brothers are an arts collective
16:12
fronted by me, portrait artist Jake Fern, and for the last
16:15
three years we've been producing images that have had us
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cancelled and our show's pulled. It seems, though, that things
16:19
might be changing, with four of our limited edition prints
16:22
coming under the hammer at Roseberry's auction house in
16:24
London on February the 18th. You can find more details in the
16:27
full catalog at Rose website. If you're interested in buying
16:30
original art, posters, prints, or merchandise, head over to the
16:34
Righteous brothers.uk. Alternatively, if you're
16:37
interested in commissioning A portrait by me, head over to my
16:39
personal website, jakefern.co.uk.
16:43
Because there is a difference. Because there are people who get
16:46
the feeling that they're just always trying to play out some
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kind of. Child well saying.
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That they just want a fight all. The time, well, I mean, I can,
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you know, obviously we used to have a few games in the rugby
16:58
club at Nottingham and we used to go on a few pub crawls and
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things. And apparently at the time in
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the early 80s, Nottingham was supposed to be the most violent
17:06
city in England. But I never saw any.
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But I mean, I know that, you know, you could, you could go to
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the the nicest village in England, go to the local pub and
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if you really wanted a fight, you can have one, can't you?
17:19
If you want one, of course, 1. So I mean, that's just, but no,
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I didn't, I didn't see any trouble really at all.
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But now it was Nottingham was good.
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I I studied Biological Sciences. What was it about science that
17:36
that you did? You did the logic of.
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It the logic of it, the fact that you could challenge it and,
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and, and especially getting involved in genetics in the
17:45
early 80s. I mean, the doubling time for
17:48
knowledge in genetics when I was a student was six months.
17:53
I remember the the textbook was Edwin Lewin Genes and it was
17:57
volume 1, two and every few months there was, you know,
18:02
volume 10. It was the books were coming out
18:04
as they were being updated or the editions because say the
18:07
doubling time for knowledge, the doubling time, no twice as much
18:12
in six months than we did. So I specialized in in genetics,
18:21
virology and behaviour. Interesting.
18:24
And just because I was actually out for an easy life and it was
18:28
something I was really interested in.
18:30
So me find a subject that you're interested in, it's not a bind,
18:33
is it? So that was the only reason I
18:41
remember my my final year project was on transmembrane,
18:46
detecting transmembrane proteins from amino acid sequences.
18:50
And actually I'd miss computers completely.
18:54
I'd never ever been on a computer while I was at school.
18:58
So I did night classes for I think.
19:01
That's it was there weren't that many computers around them, were
19:03
there? I mean, no, but I mean, it was
19:05
at a university. Yeah, but the computers at
19:07
Nottingham University in those days were about the size of this
19:10
kitchen in this in the in the basement, air conditioned and
19:15
you had terminals upstairs. And they did a thing where they
19:19
linked up with a university in America and they used our
19:23
computers at night when no one was using them.
19:26
And we used. Yeah.
19:27
And this is to have, you know, all these terminals, how things
19:31
have changed so quickly. But so I had to do, I had to do
19:35
night classes because I just didn't know anything about
19:38
computers. I learned to code in a
19:41
scientific language. And I wrote a program which
19:44
could detect trans membrane proteins.
19:46
Obviously the potential signal proteins receptor proteins on
19:50
the outside of cells by by finding you know 4-3 or four
19:56
sequences of amino acids that were like lysophilic, either
20:02
like fat, like being in in cell walls, potential trans membrane
20:07
proteins. Is that something that you still
20:10
follow? Do you follow the I?
20:12
Do you follow the science? I try to follow the science.
20:15
It's been very difficult over the last few years to follow the
20:18
science you have to follow, but now you have to follow the
20:22
money. Yes, I was actually offered the
20:25
chance to do a PhD in genetics by the university at the end of
20:30
my course, but I I decided to join the Royal Marines instead.
20:38
Oh, you did. Yes.
20:40
I didn't know that about you. Yeah, OK.
20:44
I only put in for it as a Commission for four years for a
20:47
short Commission, but I was offered a full career Commission
20:51
and they said we'd take great offense if you didn't accept it.
20:55
OK. And that was, that was, that was
21:00
interesting. That was interesting.
21:02
I don't know who's going to pay. I think my, I think the
21:05
training, the training year in the Royal Marine Commandos was
21:10
in 86, seven was, I think it was a quarter 1,000,000 lbs.
21:19
When you got to play with like, you know, 3 helicopters and
21:24
artillery and the mortar line and tanks and things.
21:29
It's quite interesting here, yeah, yeah.
21:34
That's yeah. OK.
21:34
So in some ways you're different to a lot of people that we come
21:40
across in the movement tend to be I'd say the majority of
21:45
people who are freedom people now have come from a kind of
21:49
left wing sort of anti authoritarian standpoint.
21:53
And they've probably shifted into a more central kind of
21:56
well, not central. These things are arbitrarily
21:59
it's a joke, the whole left right thing.
22:00
But the. Left right thing is illusion.
22:03
But there is a kind of mindset, I mean, so you describe, you
22:05
know, perhaps more of a left brain kind of approach, logical
22:10
science, interest in science, interest in order in the
22:14
military in the that's quite different from a lot of the
22:17
people who might be, you know. I can't, I can't say that, that
22:24
the mindless orders. I mean, I, I don't mind.
22:28
I'm a bit of a rebel, really. Well, obviously you are.
22:32
But I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't mind following orders as
22:38
long as they're good orders and it makes sense.
22:41
But I mean, obviously I find, you know, I mean, I mean, you
22:45
know, burning with an iron, the dimples off your boots and then
22:49
polishing the toe caps. I found that, you know, I, I did
22:54
what I had to do, but I couldn't say that, you know, it wasn't
22:57
like or, or being told you've got to used to have to Polish
23:02
the bottom of your boots, the soles of your boots.
23:04
Well, you can imagine running up and down the stairs when the
23:08
soles of your boots are polished, but also what that
23:11
does to the floor. Yeah.
23:14
And And then being told you've got to get a toothbrush and
23:18
clean the stairs. I don't know.
23:20
I think I look back on my experiences in my earlier life
23:26
before I realized the magnitude of the challenges we're facing
23:31
in the world currently. And a lot of it I think was was
23:34
essential training to get me into the position where I was
23:41
mentally able to stand up. And I think a lot of things I
23:47
think, you know, doing, studying the right subjects at
23:52
university. I think, you know, being trained
23:58
in the Royal Marines as an officer, you know, I think when,
24:03
when I was ostracized in Parliament for sort of 20 months
24:07
and no one's talking to you and, and they're, they're jeering you
24:11
in the chamber and you have to eat all your meals on your own.
24:13
I mean, if they thought they were torturing me, I mean, it's
24:17
nothing compared to what real torture is.
24:20
You know, I remember once on one exercise, you know, being
24:26
interrogated at, at Oakhampton Battle Camp.
24:31
You know, you've got a hood over your head and someone's kicked
24:34
you in the face and your nose is bleeding.
24:36
Then you put onto the floor of a helicopter, which takes off and
24:41
you hear the door shut and you hear the helicopter take off.
24:43
And then a few minutes later the door opens.
24:45
You haven't landed. And then you were thrown out of
24:48
a helicopter that hasn't landed. I mean, the first, you know, 2
24:52
seconds of falling, you, you've got a few thoughts going through
24:56
your head until you hit the ground.
24:58
And then the next thing is your rucksack and rifle and on the
25:01
back of you and and someone shouts, don't let us catch you
25:03
again. Yeah, you know, I mean, they are
25:08
experiences. And in early 88, my, my mother
25:20
rang up and said that my father had got to have his hip replaced
25:23
at 48. There's no one to look after the
25:26
family and you'll have to come home and, and look after us.
25:30
And, and I did and set up a company called my father had
25:35
this small holding in a fruit and veg business, which had
25:39
always, he'd made money to live, but it wasn't, wasn't a business
25:45
you could really scale up. And and I formed AB Produce
25:54
Limited with my little brother and started that with 1000 lbs
26:02
and a £74,000 loan from my father which we repaid in 12
26:07
months. And my mother and father went
26:09
and retired into Spain and we kept them on the payroll and
26:13
built the company up 22 years. I was the MD and chairman to £30
26:20
million business built a new factory in northwest
26:25
Leicestershire down at Measham on the Westminster in
26:28
Westminster industrial estate. That's interesting isn't it,
26:32
that in about 2001 built a new factory there.
26:36
I'd we'd won awards in just over the board in Derbyshire,
26:40
Derbyshire Business of the Year. We'd I'd become chairman of the
26:44
East Midlands Institute of Directors.
26:49
So I was on the council that was running 116 pound Mile in
26:52
London. I did that for nothing, one day
26:55
or two days a month while I was running my business.
26:58
We'd grown that every year, making over £1,000,000 a year
27:06
profit by the mid 90s. But it was on the old farms
27:14
site, the oldest old smallholding site.
27:16
And the problem was the roads weren't very good.
27:18
And although we'd improve the roads with laybys and things,
27:21
the growth of the business was upsetting some of the locals who
27:27
didn't want to see lorries going by there.
27:29
Yeah, she's always a problem. The other half of the village
27:33
liked it because they worked at, at, at my, at my plant.
27:38
So we've got a problem expanding because the business needed
27:42
still to expand and it was getting harder and harder to get
27:46
planning permission to expand the business.
27:48
And I think it came home to me when I to get a little, a little
27:51
tiny building, not 1% of the footprint of the, of the
27:57
buildings. We've already got to link 2
27:59
buildings together for a process that we were doing took sort of
28:03
18 months and a lot of effort. And then I realised there was
28:06
really no future at that site to grow the business.
28:09
We could stay there and make money.
28:11
We couldn't grow. And so I went and spoke to the
28:15
village and had a public meeting and said, look, we've got a
28:18
problem. I want to grow the business.
28:21
We can grow this business and it's it's very good for the
28:23
local area. A lot of people work there and
28:25
we were employing about 150 at the time.
28:30
What we could do is complete breach for planning at the time.
28:39
It's it's planning law now because they they bought it in.
28:41
But I said, look, I'm going to build a new factory just down
28:46
the road at Measham, 4 miles away, so that everyone who works
28:50
at the factory will still be able to work at the new factory
28:52
because we're only just moving down the road.
28:55
But it's what I'm going to do with the old site.
28:58
I mean, it's all business development and I can rent that
29:01
out to 20 different companies or businesses.
29:06
You'll have more traffic than you've got now and you won't be
29:10
able to say who it is because, because they're, there'll be 20
29:14
different businesses renting a little unit each.
29:16
I said, or we could pull the whole lot down and we could
29:22
build some houses on top of the brownfield site and, and that'll
29:26
be nicer for you. And they said they'd rather have
29:29
the houses. So I made an application to the
29:32
local planning authority and they, it was voted through,
29:37
although it's outside the plan. And I'm going to invest
29:42
£10,000,000 in Meesham and build a new bespoke factory,
29:47
state-of-the-art on an industrial estate.
29:50
And, and I was going to float the company on the stock market
29:55
on AIM, the Alternative Investment Market.
29:59
That's why the company's called AB Produce PLC because we were
30:02
ready to go. And then the Planning
30:04
Inspectorate, this is under the Labour government, they, they
30:10
said to have an objection and, and pulled the planning
30:12
permission. So the flotation on the stock
30:16
market dropped, yeah, 1/4 of £1,000,000 wasted on the fees.
30:22
And I was pretty annoyed. And also the locals are fairly
30:26
annoyed because they thought they were going to get rid of
30:27
this traffic problem. And yeah, so it was actually
30:33
George Cox who was director general of the Institute of
30:35
Directors and and Ruth Lee, he was the economist and they were
30:39
meeting with Gordon Brown. And they said to me that my own
30:44
personal example was a was a very good sort of example of red
30:49
tape stifling business and development.
30:52
And he's actually stifling everybody because everybody
30:55
locally what likes the plan. And.
30:59
And so Tony Blair sent some civil servants to meet me from
31:02
London. Oh, really?
31:04
Yeah, and they were, they're the first times I've ever met these
31:06
sort of people. They're a bit different.
31:08
And I, and I said, well, you know, you've refused the plant.
31:12
And he and he put in for 10 houses.
31:14
They were large detached houses. And then and I said, well, they
31:18
said, well, we'll put in, put in for a bit less and and we'll,
31:22
we'll make sure it goes through this time.
31:24
I mean, you know, that's what they said.
31:27
And I said, well it was only 10 to start with and they're
31:30
already massive houses. What do you this is under
31:33
Labour. Good.
31:33
So we'll just make the houses bigger, you know what I mean?
31:37
So we ended up putting in a planning permission for five
31:39
enormous houses, 5 enormous houses, which which went through
31:46
and I sold the site I think for £1,000,000.
31:50
So it was £200,000 a plot in 2000, which is, and that, that
31:57
post code, Woolstitch Park, it's called, is the most expensive
32:01
housing post code in Derbyshire. Yeah.
32:05
And they were built by a by by a builder and they're very nice,
32:08
very nice development. And that, that allowed me to
32:11
move, get on the plan. But, and by the time all this
32:15
had been resolved, another 18 months had gone by, the company
32:18
was profitable. We got money in the bank.
32:20
Interest rates have gone up because they've been so funny.
32:22
Failures on aim of companies that haven't made it, they'd
32:25
increase the cost to £1,000,000 to float sort of 1/4 of
32:28
£1,000,000. And I weighed it all up and said
32:31
we don't need to borrow the money.
32:32
I'll just borrow the money from the bank.
32:33
We'll, we'll build the new factory.
32:37
And we built, I built the new factory at Westminster
32:41
Industrial Estate and the cost went from I think the business
32:49
rates went from 25,000 a year on the on the rural farm site to
32:54
150,000 a year. So I needed to grow the business
32:59
and we have the capacity with the building.
33:02
So basically trebled, trebled quadruple the size of the
33:06
business and paid back all the investment by 2006, six years
33:13
paid, paid all the money back for the factory and everything.
33:16
And it was happy days. I'd met through through the
33:22
Institute of Directors, I'd met all of Tony Blair's ministers
33:27
who were to do with business. And I think that basically
33:32
confirmed my worst fears that these were absolutely useless
33:36
and got a clue. And, you know, I was in a
33:40
position where I was, you know, I owned my own fairly big house
33:48
in its own grounds. And I've got my Aston Martin and
33:52
I've got the Range Rover and I've got a trophy wife and two
33:56
kids going to private school. I don't really, I mean, the
34:02
company was the group. There was a group of companies
34:05
by then. There was a company called
34:06
Bridging Investments, I'd formed the, the group was making
34:09
£3,000,000 profit a year and I was paying tax personally on
34:14
1,000,000 lbs and I and I hadn't, you know, I didn't
34:18
really need anything else. So what was I?
34:24
You know, I don't, I had done like 20 years building this
34:27
business up. How did you?
34:30
How were you feeling then inside at that point you feel content,
34:35
satisfied, like you'd achieved what you wanted to.
34:37
Or was there something gnawing at you that we didn't feel quite
34:40
right? Well, like it was the fact that
34:42
we'd done, we'd built this business up and and I could see
34:47
if we tried to, if we applied the same principles of valuing
34:51
people. Yeah.
34:55
And the right leadership, we could do a lot better.
34:58
And and NW Leicestershire where we are, I mean, it was always
35:03
considered the most deprived part of Leicestershire, right.
35:07
Coalville was the most deprived town in Leicestershire.
35:12
And the poor relation. And I don't think, you know, it
35:17
deserved better. It's actually a wonderful place.
35:20
Yeah. NW Leicestershire is the
35:26
probably the constituency furthest from the sea anywhere
35:28
in the UK and we're also centre of population in the UK.
35:32
So if everybody in the UK wanted to walk the shortest distance
35:37
and meet up somewhere you would be Appleby.
35:41
Appleby Magna at the South end of northwest Leicestershire and
35:48
I used to go to a pub in a little village with a few
35:54
friends on a Friday night. It seems like a different
36:00
lifetime, a lifetime ago now and and, and the conversation would
36:05
always go the same way. This is around 2005 six that,
36:10
you know, the government make it harder for you to do business to
36:15
employ people and get on and the areas couldn't is not is not
36:19
good enough. The government's not good
36:21
enough. And it was like being in a, in
36:24
a, in a loop of every Friday to the point where I was dreading
36:27
it. And, and I think it was
36:31
definitely one point of Marston's pedigree too many.
36:34
And I, I just, I just, every, every Friday we have this
36:39
conversation, people, you know, there isn't anybody else to help
36:43
us, right? So how about this for a plan?
36:47
I'll put the money up for the leaflets.
36:50
We'll all join the local Conservative Party in northwest
36:53
Leicestershire who probably only have about 55 members and
36:56
haven't put a leaflet out in 10 years.
36:59
You all stand for councillors, I'll stand for MP.
37:02
We'll take over the area and and then we'll sort it out
37:06
ourselves. And, and I think they must have
37:09
had one drink too many as well because they all said yes.
37:11
They all said yes. I said I'll, I'll fund the
37:14
political campaign and then we'll be in charge.
37:17
Then we can't moan, can we, because we'll be in charge.
37:19
It's our problem. And and mysteriously, that
37:24
happened. Nobody wanted to be the
37:26
Conservative candidate for Northwest Lesterish because it
37:29
was seen as an unwinnable seat. Oh, was it?
37:31
Yeah, yeah. 83rd target seat on the 2010.
37:38
I'd given a, a, a, a lump of money to the Conservative Party
37:44
in the 2005 election. I think, I think from memory
37:46
that the Conservatives had a half a percent swing to them.
37:49
I worked out at that rate we got a Labour government for the next
37:53
120 years or something. So I said, you know, we need
37:57
direct action. So you still obviously had faith
38:01
in the system at that point? Mainly because I didn't know the
38:03
system. I had no faith for the
38:04
politicians I'd already met. But I was I was hoping that the
38:07
conservative ones would be rather better.
38:12
How I was disappointed. Well, yeah, but that's the
38:15
journey we go on, isn't it? Yes, it's a journey.
38:17
It's a journey I had to go on. So believe it or not, you have
38:23
to go and do an exam, the test to, to be a Conservative
38:28
candidate and you have to pay the Conservative Party.
38:31
Well, I think, well, a long time ago it was £250.
38:34
So money making scam. I think 70% of people don't,
38:38
don't pass. And you know, having been in the
38:42
military, we, we, I remember at no time, at no, no notice at
38:46
all. So they didn't really want
38:47
people like me. It was all the Cameron's a
38:49
listers and it was all already Dai.
38:52
You know, they wanted a lot more women candidates, I think
38:55
minorities, gay. But I didn't take any of those
38:59
boxes. But anyway, I paid my 250 lbs
39:03
and kept saying, you know, when the selections were coming up
39:07
for North Westchester and South Derbyshire, the only seats I'd,
39:12
I'd ever have wanted to, to stand in because they were my,
39:17
they'd been my homes. And that sort of two days
39:23
notice, I was told, oh, someone's dropped out of this
39:26
selection. And it was somewhere like a
39:29
hotel at the side of the motorway at Newport Pagnell or
39:31
somewhere go, you know, we've got to be there at 9:00 on the
39:34
Saturday morning or something, or Friday, whatever it was.
39:37
And I went down there. And obviously, you know,
39:41
military selections are, are interesting and you can sort out
39:44
what's going on. And I've done all that and, and
39:47
went down to this hotel and there came the old trick on us
39:53
when you went into the reception and they said go through to that
39:56
room there. And then someone came out.
39:58
So, so say it was supposed to start at say 10:00 and this
40:02
chappie came out and said, oh, there's been a bit of a delay.
40:07
The room's not ready for the exams to start.
40:09
So just have a coffee and. Oh, yeah, as if they're not
40:14
spying on you. So all, all these people for the
40:17
test were there. They put some, you know, bits
40:21
and bobs out and coffee and whatever in this room and, and
40:25
there were chairs and things and, you know, there's that chap
40:28
in the corner with a newspaper with.
40:30
The with the holes cutting. Basically, yes.
40:32
And and I thought, oh, for goodness sake.
40:35
So I went and did all that, you know, my name's Andrew Bridge
40:38
and all that, all that. Yeah, all that rubbish.
40:42
And then, then, then after about 20 minutes, this chap comes out.
40:46
The room's now ready for the exams to start.
40:48
OK. As if they hadn't already
40:50
started. And as I was walking to the exam
40:52
room, I went by this chappy with the newspaper and tapped him on
40:56
the shoulder. And I said, my name's Andrew
40:58
Bridget, and I hope you've made a note of all that interacting.
41:01
I was. And he just burst out laughing.
41:03
Oh, he did. Yes, he did.
41:04
Oh, right. OK.
41:05
I mean, it was, yeah, it was, it was like a very bad spy movie.
41:10
Yeah. And the, yeah, there's a lot of
41:13
psychological profiling in those exams, so you couldn't really
41:16
say whether you've got the right answer or not.
41:18
I mean, fair bit of role-playing, which was
41:22
interesting and scenarios and interacting with the other
41:25
candidates and they, they were spying on you at lunchtime as
41:28
well. They didn't they never stopped
41:29
spying on you. So it was all very interesting
41:32
and I was, I was pleased to pass.
41:34
There were only 13 people applied to be the candidate for
41:36
Northwest Leicestershire. I mean, I think they the cycle
41:39
afterwards. Next door is Charnwood, which
41:42
has always been a conservative seat.
41:43
I think there were 220 candidates for that seat for the
41:50
Conservatives applicants for the the seat because it was a, a
41:53
shoo in, but Northwest Leicestershire was not.
41:58
And I got into the last three candidates here for the
42:02
Conservative candidates. And then the party decided
42:05
they'd throw it out because they didn't have many members throw
42:08
it out into an open primary. So they just put coupons in the
42:10
local paper and, and anyone could vote and I got 6066% of
42:18
all the votes. And so I became the candidate
42:21
for Northwest Leisure in 2006. My my friends, small business
42:27
people stood for the council and I ran that campaign and funded
42:31
it in 2007. And mysteriously we had the
42:35
biggest swing in the country against Labour.
42:38
The council here had been basically Labour since 83 when
42:41
North Worcestershire was created and we took the unwinnable
42:47
Labour seat down to only 5 Labour councillors out of 38 in
42:51
one night from control. Labour was so arrogant they even
42:54
put the council tax up 8% in election year.
42:57
They were so sure that they were going to win 8% increase in
43:01
council tax when we got in. We didn't put the council tax up
43:06
for 15 years. It was the longest in the
43:10
Library of the House of Commons N NW Leicestershire's council
43:13
tax freeze was the longest ever industry in the UK, 15 years, no
43:18
rising council tax from the District Council.
43:21
And I built this factory in northwest Leicestershire and I
43:26
was actually as, as the Institute of Directors
43:29
representative. I was on the East Midlands
43:32
Assembly, which was one of the first things we got rid of when
43:35
I got into Parliament. But their their civil servants
43:40
said to me, that said to me many years before in the late 90s
43:45
that I was building my new factory in the least business
43:49
friendly planning district in the whole of the East Midlands.
43:54
And that's what it was. I mean, apart from, you know,
43:56
bringing 300 jobs and investing 10 million, you the way the
44:01
planning department officer spoke to you, you thought you're
44:03
bringing bubonic plague. Yeah, they wouldn't.
44:06
They were not business friendly. And obviously there's a lot of
44:10
allegations around the area when we took over in 2007 that, that,
44:16
you know, some, some local councillors were known as Mr. 2%
44:22
and they wanted 2% of the build cost.
44:26
Well, I mean, people don't want to play those sort of games.
44:28
And speaking to developers and architects, they wouldn't apply.
44:33
It was so much aggravation. They wouldn't apply a planning
44:38
application in northwest Leicestershire, so it meant that
44:41
the whole area had not developed.
44:44
So it was a bit like fallow ground, but it just needed
44:48
cultivating. So the advantages in Northwest
44:51
Leicestershire were that we've got very good communication in
44:56
center of the country and we've got an airport E Midlands
45:01
Airport, which is the biggest dedicated cargo handler in the
45:05
UK. So if you wanted one big shed
45:09
and you want to distribute over the country, 4 hours, four and a
45:13
bit hours, lorry driving time from here and you can get back
45:17
in the same day 84% of all the chimney pots in Great Britain.
45:22
All right. So if you you know distribution
45:26
and logistics, big opportunity. We've got the M1, we've got the
45:30
M42, got the A50, we've got the airport central the country.
45:38
So that's what we decided to push on.
45:41
Massive business growth, big sheds, A third of all the jobs
45:47
in Northwest actually now are logistics or transport related.
45:51
I just commented to Vicky on the way here.
45:53
How many trucks and lorries? Are absolutely that's.
45:56
Every crazy, Yeah. Yeah, we're, we're and also as
45:59
part of my MD and Chairman of Northwest of AB Produce PLC, we
46:06
also, we also ran 12 HGVs, our own transport fleet.
46:11
So I was actually, I was a qualified transport manager.
46:14
I was the only one in Parliament, which is completely
46:17
in line with the employment profile of Northwest
46:21
Leicestershire. We've got this area which was
46:26
supposedly the, the, the most deprived in Leicestershire and
46:32
with a team who were quite, I was quite determined to do
46:35
something about it. And, and you know, I, when I was
46:39
running my food business, it was the best in the industry.
46:42
And I like, I like it being the best in the industry.
46:44
And I don't think it's a coincidence that that 12 years
46:48
after we took control of the council, NW Leicestershire was
46:51
delivering the highest economic growth in the UK from a lower
46:55
base, but by by 12 years and it wasn't a full time job.
47:02
It was just a matter of making the right decisions, making the
47:05
right decisions. And it was fallow ground, so we
47:08
had plenty of headroom for building new factories and
47:11
houses because no one had wanted to build.
47:14
Sure. So by the 2019 election, we got
47:24
1.2 jobs in the constituency for everyone of working age.
47:28
So people have to travel in to this area to work, which keeps
47:33
the keeps the wages going up because there's a their most
47:37
sustainable, the most sustainable way of improving
47:41
paying conditions is to create a strong demand for labor.
47:48
And we did. And the skill sets are people
47:53
want this job security. So I can't give you job
47:55
security, but if your skill sets are transport, logistics,
47:59
warehousing or even, you know, the office functions for those
48:05
sort of businesses, you could get yourself or a HGV lorry
48:11
driver or a forklift driver, you could leave your job in the
48:14
morning and find another job in the afternoon here.
48:17
I mean, that's that. I can't give you job security,
48:19
but I can give you employment. I can give you employment
48:22
security. Yeah.
48:23
Yeah. And that and that means that
48:25
people have to pay proper wages to hang on to staff.
48:30
Sure. Yeah.
48:30
So that was really good for the people.
48:34
So by 2019, NW Leicestershire moved from the poorest area of
48:39
Leicestershire to the richest. It's the only part of
48:42
Leicestershire here where the average household income is
48:46
above UK averages. OK.
48:50
I'm very proud of that. Yeah.
48:52
And we'd also built about 800 houses a year, 800 houses a
49:00
year. And we, you know, the
49:04
government's building. Beautiful.
49:06
But they adopted Labour, have got rid of it.
49:08
Now their houses have to be aesthetically improving.
49:11
The built landscape that we developed that here 12 years
49:16
ago, 14 years ago and we've been doing it and I presented it to
49:20
the government and parliament and they have eventually adopted
49:22
it 10 years after we've started it.
49:24
We called it Building for Life Better by design and it's easier
49:28
to get planning permission if the houses are not boxes.
49:32
So we built good quality housing and because we've built enough,
49:37
house prices in Northwest Leicester are about 30% less
49:41
than the UK average. So you imagine a situation where
49:43
you've got above average household incomes for the UK,
49:47
but house prices is 30% less. So I'd sussed out when I first
49:52
became the NPR, I said I wanted to make Northwest Ester a better
49:55
place to live, work and to visit.
49:58
Well, most people I spoke to they to make them happy, they
50:04
wanted a well, a reasonably well paid job locally.
50:08
We've got the jobs now. They wanted to be able to buy a
50:11
House of good quality locally that they could afford to do 30%
50:15
less than the UK average, pay the bills, go out on a Saturday
50:19
night and go and have a holiday, hopefully from East Midlands
50:24
Airport for a couple of weeks in the summer.
50:26
I mean, I don't think they weren't asking for that much,
50:28
were they? And that's, that's the
50:30
definition of happiness. We delivered it and it's
50:33
interesting that with all those as indicators, by 2019,
50:42
helpfully just before the 20/19/19 December election, the
50:47
the government bought out there had updated their happiness
50:50
index and NW Leicestershire unsurprisingly was the happiest
50:54
place to live in the Midlands from the most deprived.
50:58
And you know, it's unsurprising then that at that 2019 election,
51:08
and bear in mind I'd I'd led the leave campaign for the whole of
51:10
the East Midlands against Ken Clark, the Bilderberger.
51:15
Yeah, sure. Who's who was the MP next door
51:18
in Rushcliffe in Nottingham and it was humiliating for Ken.
51:22
Clark is a big beast of the Conservative Party.
51:25
You know, how many jobs have he held?
51:27
You know everything except for Prime Minister in the whole of
51:32
the East Midlands it was really only Rushcliffe was the only
51:34
part of the whole E Midlands that voted to remain.
51:37
Everywhere else voted to leave. So it was 5941 in the East
51:41
Midlands and NW Leicestershire was 6139 leave.
51:54
And I knew we'd, I knew that Leave had won when I saw the the
51:58
turn out figures. So we 7079.8% turn out in
52:07
northwest Leicester in the referendum.
52:10
People will turn out if they think there's something to vote
52:12
for and real change. And I knew those people weren't
52:15
coming out to vote for the status quo.
52:18
And it had been very interesting because leading the Leave
52:22
campaign in north in the East Midlands, the day before the
52:28
referendum, Leave had rung me up from London and said Boris is
52:35
coming up to you for the eve of Pole.
52:38
And so Boris Johnson came up to I'll meet you, Ashby de la
52:42
Zouch, the market town, and we'll walk up Market Street and
52:48
all the TV cameras turned up and everything.
52:50
And I was also, we're making a little documentary, I think it's
52:52
called Brexit, a very British coup.
52:55
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can remember standing on
53:00
the Royal Hotel car park with Boris and we have both had
53:04
forgotten. We got the radio mics on and we
53:06
were a long way from the cameras and we thought we were having a
53:08
confidential, A confidential conversation.
53:12
But it was one of those Gordon Brown moments.
53:14
You remember him with the bigoted woman?
53:17
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it.
53:19
Was a bit like that, but, I mean, it wasn't anyway as bad as
53:22
that. But it was me telling Boris
53:24
confidentially that we're definitely going to win the
53:26
referendum tomorrow. On Boris's face, that was not
53:31
what he wanted, Right. He tried to talk me out of it.
53:35
Seriously. Yeah.
53:36
He said no, no, no, no, no, no. He said Boris.
53:39
I said, I don't know how many doors you've knocked on, but
53:44
we're gonna win. No, no, he said.
53:48
He said. It'll be close.
53:49
It'll be close, Andrew, I said, well, maybe Boris, I said, but
53:53
not round here. Sure.
53:55
And. So what, what?
53:57
How did? What were you feeling when you?
53:59
Well, I realised did. I smell a rat.
54:00
Or did you just. Well, I just think he was being
54:03
negative at. The time I smelled a rat but I I
54:07
I now realise I've seen looking back bigger.
54:09
Stinkier rat than you. Well, yeah, close party gate,
54:13
yes. And well, I, I tried to persuade
54:18
Boris early on to be a Leaver. And I mean, he he was Leave,
54:24
remain. He, he was, you know, he, he
54:27
wasn't really bothered and, and I think he now looking back, I
54:32
mean, what Boris, Boris, all his family are, are Remainers.
54:36
His father was an MEP. Of course, where his father was
54:38
a eugenicist. His, well, eugenicist
54:42
Malthusian. Yes.
54:45
What have you got against Stanley?
54:48
Yeah, I haven't. Read his book.
54:51
I don't. Think no and, and I, I, I tried
54:54
to persuade Boris to stand for, to, to be on the leave side side
54:58
and he he said, oh, are you backing leave?
55:01
I said, well, of course I'm going to back leave.
55:03
Yes. And obviously about sovereignty.
55:08
And anyway, he eventually did. But I mean, Boris had just
55:12
looked at it. I mean, Cameron had made a huge
55:15
tactical error in that he had decided to place himself in
55:22
charge of the Remain campaign. So sure was he that he was going
55:26
to win. And obviously, Boris, he likes
55:35
the stardom. I mean, the crowd that the stage
55:38
was very, very crowded on the Remain side and they weren't
55:41
going to let Boris have much of the glory, were they?
55:43
OK. So if Boris wanted a bit of
55:45
stardom, the only the only place he could get that was on the
55:51
Leave side. So.
55:53
Because we were desperate on that side for a few big, big
55:56
beasts. So do you think he's making
55:58
those decisions or do you think now looking at it?
56:00
Well, no, no, he'd made that decision that he would be on for
56:04
leave. Most of the Conservative type
56:07
voters would probably vote to leave, but but leave would lose.
56:12
So we'd stay in the EU, but Boris would be seen as a hero
56:15
and he would eventually be leader of the Conservative
56:17
Party, you know, the vanquished hero.
56:21
And it didn't come out to plan. I mean, there's no way that
56:24
anyone I can remember. Is it Mr. Oliver who was
56:31
Cameron's, one of Cameron's special advisors?
56:37
And in the middle of of the referendum campaign in 2016, we
56:45
had a Conservative party away day at a big hotel in Oxford.
56:49
We had had them every two years. And the reason we hadn't had it,
56:52
I mean the party was sort of 2/3, one third 2/3 for remain,
56:56
1/3 of the MPs were were for leave.
56:59
It was like a civil war. And for two days in Oxfordshire
57:04
at this hotel, we were told we were having a party meeting and
57:07
we don't mention the R word, right.
57:09
So I had a whole, like a whole weekend where the party came
57:13
together to discuss policy and nobody mentioned the R word.
57:18
And we were in the, we were in the referendum and it was a bit
57:23
bizarre and Cameron hated me anyway.
57:28
He'd he'd come, he'd come to Northwest Fishery in 2008 and
57:32
told me that this area was a dump and I wasn't going to get
57:35
any money from the party and I wouldn't be an MP.
57:39
And I said, well, you'll see about that.
57:41
I don't need the money. I've got my own money.
57:44
And if you really think that this area is a dump, Dave, I
57:48
said, what what makes you say that?
57:49
He said, oh, I came to Colville in 2005 with Michael Howard in
57:53
the election. What A SH1T hole.
57:57
I said, well, like, you know, this is, this is my, you know,
58:00
I'm not, I'm not a flown in candidate.
58:02
This is this is the area I live in, you know, and I said, if you
58:04
really think that best thing is you never come here again, don't
58:08
come here again and I will win it.
58:19
And I wrote to the government, I said, look, you know, this is
58:21
killing people. And then I was told that there
58:24
was no link between lockdowns and, and suicide rates.
58:28
I mean, clearly it occurred to me that the people in #10 had
58:31
got access to the, the best scientific advice available,
58:35
haven't they? They weren't worried about
58:37
killing granny. There were 50 civil servants and
58:42
young advisers all just standing there, not mass, not socially
58:46
distanced, watching it all. He said it was an absolute
58:49
pantomime. Boris Johnson could not have had
58:51
COVID. I didn't have the best of
58:53
childhoods myself. And I've, I've just got this
58:56
thing. I can't stand anyone doing
58:58
anything to children. And yeah, why are you willing to
58:59
die on that hill? Because that's the hill you're
59:01
killing my people on. I know he's sold his soul to the
59:04
devil and he is not. He's not what he purports to be.