Press Office

Aired: Sunday, 28 February, 2010 10:00
Sunday Live with Adam Boulton

Any quotes used must be attributed to Sky News, Sunday Live with Adam Boulton 

ADAM BOULTON:
All to play for, if that poll putting Labour just two points behind the Tories is correct and a man who will be pleased to hear such news is the Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw MP who will be defending the highly marginal seat of Exeter, from where he joins me this blustery morning. Mr Bradshaw, thank you very much for being with us, I know it is only opinion poll but there does seem to be a trend of the gap getting pretty close, do you believe it?

BEN BRADSHAW:
Well, you’re right, it is a bit risky to comment on just one poll but there has been a recent trend, hasn’t there, it does look as if the public, now they are giving a long, hard look at the Conservatives, increasingly don’t like what they see and it does look as if they are beginning to give the government some credit for the way we have handled the biggest financial crisis the world has seen since the 1930s and that is coming through in the polls.

ADAM BOULTON:
Of course it also points out, doesn’t it, that the electoral system is unfair on the Tories because the Conservatives could be ahead yet all the analysis suggests they would have fewer seats than Labour.

BEN BRADSHAW:
Yes, which makes it … it’s even more incredible to me that the Conservatives are so against reforming the electoral system. I mean David Cameron likes to portray himself as in favour of change but he is the only party that wants to stick with that current system which, you’re right, does look as if, because they pile up votes in rural areas it works against them in the event of a very close result. 

ADAM BOULTON:
What do you reckon to your own prospects?

BEN BRADSHAW:
Well you call this seat highly marginal, others might call it semi-marginal, it always used to be a Conservative seat before 1997 with the exception of a very brief period in the 1960s, my majority is around 8000. The Tories really ought to be trying to win this seat back but I find on the doorstep here and what we’re finding in the polls, that there is no real enthusiasm for David Cameron. People give us credit for what we’ve achieved in places like Exeter, they are worried about the Tories plans to slash and burn in the economy, that that would tip us back into a deeper and longer recession and there is no sign of a Conservative resurgency. I am not taking anything for granted, I’m working very, very, very hard and it will be very close but I think what is coming through in the polls here is certainly what I have been experiencing on the doorstep here for some weeks now.

ADAM BOULTON:
There was a meeting of the Cabinet, a regional meeting of the Cabinet in Exeter, was that a boost for you do you think?

BEN BRADSHAW:
Well it was just outside Exeter actually at the racecourse but it was great to have a lot of Cabinet ministers here visiting schools, hospitals, saying thank you to people who work in our court service and in other public services who are delivering such great services to my constituents but look, I mean we faced criticism for taking the Cabinet into the regions, I actually feel it is very healthy to get Ministers and Civil Servants out from the Westminster village, out from London because the world does look very different from places like Exeter than it does from London.

ADAM BOULTON:
The argument is of course that you are using government announcements to bolster a Labour election campaign out in the regions when you go to places like Exeter.

BEN BRADSHAW:
Except that any Minister worth his or her salt usually spends a day a week out on visits travelling, I certainly do, most Ministers would do that on a Thursday or a Friday and the fact is that we just had a lot of Ministers coming to one region and I think the south-west, we often feel down here that we’re not taken as much notice of as we should be because we’re a long way from London and certainly the constituents of mine who met Gordon Brown and met the fellow Cabinet Ministers were very pleased to have the opportunity of doing so and they gave them a real grilling.

ADAM BOULTON:
Would you accept that the claims made about Gordon Brown in Andrew Rawnsley’s book appear to have been substantiated by this latest tape?

BEN BRADSHAW:
No, no. I mean the claims last week were wrong weren’t they, they feel apart within 24 hours.

ADAM BOULTON:
Which ones?

BEN BRADSHAW:
The ones with this hotline which then went into meltdown and has now had to cease operation that no one bothered to check whether it was true or not and we’ve now had more claims, actually about someone I know very well. Stuart Wood, the person at the centre of these claims, is a good friend of mine, he is actually the Special Advisor who was responsible for my departments work in Downing Street. Look, he’s worked for Gordon Brown for nine years, he’s still there, he loves working for Gordon Brown, he has refuted in a very clear statement the claims made in Andrew Rawnsley’s book.

ADAM BOULTON:
But he is on tape saying ‘he pushed me and went out of my way, I was shocked’. That’s Stuart Wood.

BEN BRADSHAW:
If you look at the statement he has issued today about Gordon Brown passing him on the stairs, he was in a bad mood. Look, Gordon Brown is a determined, strong leader, he is impatient for change, is that the sort of leader you want, a leader who can take us through the worst economic crisis the world has seen since the 1930s, which has meant it has had far less impact on jobs, on people’s businesses, on home repossessions than people expected or the Tory recessions that we suffered in the 1980s and 1990s, or a Tory party that is now falling apart with the narrowing of opinion polls. There are clearly deep divisions over policy, over strategy and tactics and I know what sort of leader I would rather have for our country.

ADAM BOULTON:
If you are returned to office after the general election, are you going to keep the current trend in the BBC licence fee?

BEN BRADSHAW:
Well we’ll have to wait and see what the review which is going to be published soon into the future of the BBC comes up with. It’s not for politicians to dictate to the BBC how it manages its own resources. Yes, we will enter into negotiation with the BBC when the time comes for the next licence fee to be agreed and we will have discussions then about the size of it, whether it needs to go up, stay the same or go down but in the meantime it is very much up to the BBC, Adam, and you wouldn’t expect a politician to interfere in that because that’s one of the founding bases of BBC that it is independent from government and politicians.

ADAM BOULTON:
Yes, but you do effectively end up setting the licence fee and the reason I was asking you is obviously we have had what looks like a preview of some of the BBC’s own internal work in the Times this week. Does that look to you to be shooting in the right direction, to be the sort of sufficient action taken by the BBC, to cut back on its websites, maybe cut some of its minority radio channels?

BEN BRADSHAW:
Well I’d rather comment on the actual report when it’s published, rather than a leak which I understand the BBC has challenged. We all recognise I think, and the BBC itself recognises otherwise it wouldn’t have embarked on this review, that it needs to be sensitive to the impact that it has as our main broadcaster with a guaranteed income from the licence fee, it has to be sensitive about the impact its activities have on the commercial sector, particularly when the commercial sector has been going through a very tough time because of the global recession and the advertising revenue going off onto the internet and things like that. So it’s right that the BBC looks carefully at what it does and people like me who care deeply about the BBC and think it is a great broadcaster, as of course is Sky, want the BBC to survive but they want the BBC to do the things that it’s good at, that it does that nobody else does, like really good news and current affairs, great drama and those sorts of programmes, and I think it’s great that the BBC is recognising that and we have to wait to see though what it comes up with and I’m happy to comment on the actual report when it’s published.

ADAM BOULTON:
A lot of people seem to think that BBC6 radio is pretty good, have you ever listened to it?

BEN BRADSHAW:
I haven’t, I’m afraid, no. I have listened to lots of BBC radio channels and lots of programmes but you’re right, I think there is always a challenge when any broadcaster – I mean if you stopped doing something at Sky that some of your fans appreciate, you’d get some angry emails and push back from it, so whatever the BBC drops or stops doing, there are bound to be people who aren’t happy with that but hey, look, that’s the job of leadership, that’s the job of strategic management, sometimes you have to take difficult decisions but let’s wait to see what the BBC comes up with before we weigh in and give a commentary on it.

ADAM BOULTON:
Just finally on the BBC, on this philosophical question of size, is it too big, should it therefore be not only making cuts but maybe giving some money back to the licence payer? Do you agree with that, do you think it is too big and actually what it should be looking for is to reduce the licence fee?

BEN BRADSHAW:
Well the BBC is free at any time to say look, we don’t need all the money we’ve got, have some back but it’s very, very important that government and also political parties in between the years when the licence fee is set, don’t give a running commentary on issues like that because that would be a very serious breach of the BBC’s independence but I think there is a good reason to have a debate in the run up to the next licence fee, which we shall have if we’re in government, as to how big the BBC should be, how big the licence fee should be, even if we should continue to have a licence fee in the long term as the best funding mechanism for the BBC. These are bound to be matters for discussion, I think it is important that we have that debate and it is important that the public are involved in that debate because in the end they are the people who pay for this service and consume the programmes.

ADAM BOULTON:
Ben Bradshaw, thank you very much indeed for joining us I think from the banks of the Ex is it there?

BEN BRADSHAW:
Nice to talk to you, yes, absolutely, the banks of the Ex, yes.