Shadow Policing Minister Matt Vickers has accused Sir Keir Starmer of "losing control of his party", amid claims of planned cuts to special educational needs support.Speaking to GB News, Vickers said the Government's Benefits Bill and subsequent MP rebellion against the Prime Minister was a "sham".FULL STORY HERE.
00:00We'll stay in Westminster, though, and try again, shall we, to talk to Matt Vickers, the Shadow Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire.
00:06Have you got us, Mr Vickers?
00:09I can hear you loud and clear.
00:11Lovely, and we can hear you too, and thank you for braving the rain for us this morning.
00:15Look, we're talking to you about 7-7, 20 years on from the horrors of that day.
00:20What are your reflections this morning?
00:24I mean, utterly horrendous, horrendous situation, and I think, you know what?
00:28The memories that you hear from people of that day, of what went on, of the panic of knowing where the family members, where they were, they were travelling to work.
00:35Have we got hold of them? Have we got in touch with them?
00:37You know, the panic of everybody in London that day.
00:40I wasn't in London, but I've heard from lots of people who were panicked.
00:44But for many people, they're still living with the consequences of that day.
00:48I'm due to meet some victims tomorrow to talk about that incident, talk through their stories,
00:53see whether we've learned all the things we can possibly learn from what was a horrendous and horrific day.
00:59Feel as though the UK is any safer now, two decades on, because I'm caught by the front page of the Daily Telegraph this morning.
01:09They're saying that terrorists inside British prisons are teaching other criminals how to make bombs.
01:15So this is a national threat in plain sight that's happening right now.
01:21I think we live in an increasingly dangerous world with terrorists and fanatics and terrible things happening on the international stage.
01:30But actually, we've got some incredible people working in national security in this country who work day and night,
01:35who are constantly getting involved in these issues and preventing all sorts of things,
01:39the advent of technology and where we've got to now.
01:42But actually, when you talk about prisons, one of the big debates is around what happens to foreign national offenders,
01:47the pressure on prison places, whether those people should be deported, which is my party's policy,
01:52whether we should be supplying that Human Rights Act to those people who come from abroad
01:55and commit horrendous crimes in this country.
01:59Can we talk about Sakhir Starmer facing a fresh backbench revolt, potentially?
02:05These are over-controversial plans to overhaul special needs educations.
02:09This is about pupils that might have autism or ADHD currently getting personalised support at school.
02:15That is now potentially being scrapped.
02:18What do you make of those plans?
02:22Well, I think Keir Starmer's been in office a year and he's completely lost control of his own party.
02:27We saw it last week with that welfare bill that became an absolute sham.
02:31But actually, this is a really serious issue for many people across the country, for many constituents in my part of the world.
02:37And those education and health care plans guarantee, give legal guarantees to young people with special educational needs
02:44that they can get the care and the support that they need in educational settings.
02:48They need protections. They need this support.
02:50And I think it's right, hopefully, that some of those backbench MPs on the Labour benches are going to get stuck in
02:55and hold him to account so that these youngsters can get the care and support that they need.
03:00The position of the Tories right now, because there's a leaked tape over the weekend from Baroness McLean,
03:05who is one of the top aides to Kemi Badenak, as you will be aware.
03:09And in this leaked tape, she has heard saying that the Tories have finished apologising to the public now,
03:14after a year of this Labour government.
03:16They now need to look to the future and focus on policy.
03:20But then you've got other top Tories saying, no, we need at least two years of reflection.
03:25What's your position on all of this?
03:29So I hear lots of people giving us lots of strategic advice and having lots of opinions.
03:33But actually, it's all about context.
03:34We've just talked about SEND and education and health care plans.
03:38Actually, we've got a record to be proud of on that in the sense that lots more to do.
03:41But actually, record investment in creating SEND school places and alternative provision, that's progress.
03:47When you look at things like immigration and you see how tough that was and how badly wrong it was,
03:52when you look at the record of what's going on, it's on us to get involved in the issues of the day,
03:55look at them in the context and have the debate of the day so that we can deliver that value for our constituents.
04:01Not have a discussion about where we are, where we were and what went wrong.
04:03I'm sure the last government got lots of things wrong, but by gumma, this government getting lots more wrong.
04:08Matt, talking about delivering for constituents, how does 100 million quid to Syria deliver for constituents?
04:19I'm genuinely curious because if the bank is broke, there's no money to go around for all sorts of projects, all sorts.
04:28Why are we giving 100 million quid to Syria? Do you agree with that?
04:35I must admit I've missed the detail on this one.
04:38But I think actually whenever we're putting money abroad, we need to look at how it's being spent,
04:43where it's being spent and how it could possibly be in our national interest.
04:47All too often we send money abroad for the wrong reasons.
04:50And actually we see the challenges back home in this country.
04:53We see the damage that this Labour government are doing to our economy and the cost that it's having for real people.
04:58We look, you know, whatever it might be, unemployment on the rise, inflation almost doubled since this government came to office.
05:05And the amount of money that we're paying to borrow is now through the roof.
05:09The debt interest is higher than the amount of money we're spending on education.
05:12It's all going the wrong way.
05:14OK, Matt, because we're out of time with you this morning, but thank you for braving the rain for us.
