The Kent Politics Show - Friday 24th May 2024
Catch up on the latest political news from across Kent with Sofia Akin joined by Conservative Councillor for Thanet John Davis and Green Councillor from Kent County Council Paul Stepto.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Today welcome to the Kent Politics show live on KMTV. These are our guests for
00:04 tonight. Before we get into the chat I'll tell you a little bit about what's to
00:07 come tonight. Well it's fair to say the phrase a week is a long time in politics
00:13 certainly applies this week not only in Kent but across the country. A general
00:17 election's been called as you may have heard. South Dannet MP Craig McKinley has
00:22 returned to Parliament after his battle with sepsis and since announced that he
00:26 will not be running in the in the general election along with Tambridge
00:31 Wells MP Greg Clark they both won't be running and of course the leader of the
00:37 Labour Party Sakia Starmer's been at Gillingham FC's stadium not to watch a
00:41 game but actually to launch his party's campaign and also on tonight's show
00:45 we'll be unpacking so much more than that. So where do we begin? Well let's
00:50 start with the news that shocked most that a general election will be held on
00:54 the 4th of July. There were originally talks it'll be held in the latter half
00:58 of the year technically it is in July but Rishi Sunak announced on Wednesday
01:03 it's going to be a summer election. The last July election was in 1945 after the
01:09 Second World War. Along with this some Kent MPs have announced they won't be
01:13 running in the summer election. So we will now introduce my guests for today
01:18 so thank you to both of you for joining us today. We've got Conservative
01:22 Councillor for Thanet John Davis and Green Councillor from Kent County
01:26 Council Paul Steptoe. Welcome to you both. So been a lot happening this
01:31 week hasn't there? First I wanted to start by talking about the fact
01:35 that we've now seen four Conservative MPs announcing in Kent that they won't
01:39 be running in the general election. We also saw a few weeks ago Natalie Elphick
01:43 defecting to the Labour Party. So first of all how does that feel to know that
01:47 so many Conservatives aren't running? Are they jumping ship or what are they doing?
01:51 I think there's a variety of reasons and obviously I wouldn't
01:56 want to speak for any individual. Let's not go too deep into what went on in
02:00 Dover because that was absolutely bizarre and as I say I don't even want
02:06 to dwell on that but pure virtue signalling in terms of somebody hopping
02:11 ship when they were leaving anyway so absolute meaningless gesture. In terms of
02:17 Greg Clark and others as I said I can't comment for their final
02:24 decision however it doesn't mean to say that you've seen the end of any of them
02:28 basically because a man with a valid opinion whose time has come will be
02:32 heard. With regard to Craig of course a completely separate
02:39 set of circumstances. The man is an inspiration to anybody I think and to be
02:46 as recovered and fully active and to have kept the constituency running
02:51 business as usual whilst he has gone through what he has is beyond
02:56 credibility to be honest. Let's watch that clip actually of when Craig did
03:00 return for his first Prime Minister's questions for about eight months since
03:05 his sepsis battle. We can watch that video now.
03:09 [Applause]
03:37 So I'm sure that we've all seen that clip by now and I think what's even
03:41 more remarkable is usually clapping isn't allowed in the House of Commons
03:44 isn't it? I'll stick with you for now John. I wanted to ask if we saw
03:48 Craig taking to Facebook and X today to say that unfortunately he would have
03:54 to be standing down he was sad to kind of announce it. So do you think that the
03:58 Prime Minister shouldn't have called the general election so soon or at
04:01 least should have let his party know he was going to be calling it? I am be as
04:06 candid as I always am. The Prime Minister has his own reasons for calling the
04:11 election and it wouldn't be wrong of me to be in any way critical or judgmental
04:16 without a lot more information in front of me. There is no doubt that it may well
04:23 have informed Craig's position and again I'm not speaking for Craig but he has
04:28 done incredibly well to get to this point. However as his statement says
04:34 and I believe he would hold his seat but 70 to 80 hour weeks when you're in a
04:42 condition that most people would have folded in, is that realistic and is it
04:45 fair on him and on his family indeed I have to say who you know I think they
04:51 need that time and will benefit from that time and Craig's made a brave
04:55 decision of having announced his comeback. It's a very brave decision but
05:00 I think it's his decision and it's certainly for his and his
05:03 family's best. I would like to say I would put and I'm not a gambling man in
05:08 any way I'd put money down that we haven't heard the last of Craig
05:12 McKinley and he will campaign on the issues that he said he will. How he goes
05:17 about that obviously maybe it will be different so in the past but I think all
05:23 of us as indeed the respect shown in the house yesterday showed a round of applause and
05:27 jackets off. Let's bring you in Paul. I wanted to say actually you could see
05:31 kind of politics aside you saw Sakiya Starmer shaking Craig's hand and you
05:36 kind of saw how much unity there was in the House of Commons perhaps the most
05:40 maybe there may have ever been and so yeah I wanted to ask you now that we
05:45 know that Craig won't be running what do you think this kind of means I mean do
05:49 you kind of have any ideas of what could happen there or what this could mean as
05:52 well? Well first of all respects to Craig because he's been very brave and
05:57 really determined to overcome his illness and his subsequent disabilities
06:02 so hats off to him there and interestingly he and I share an
06:06 alma mater we both went to Birmingham University. Oh wow. Small world. But I don't think we share
06:11 political views he's a bit of a climate change denier. Yeah well as to what will
06:16 happen in South Fennet I don't know I don't know what the electorate is like.
06:21 Well the thing I wanted to bring up as well actually is the fact that actually
06:25 the polls there's a poll in particular currently suggesting that it's actually
06:30 a seat that Labour has a 98% chance of winning so do you think that may I mean
06:35 I know Craig's reasons for stepping down are because of his health but that...
06:40 Craig's decision will be nothing to do with any poll like that and... Yeah I don't
06:43 necessarily mean Craig's but looking at the polls kind of across the country
06:47 this is a a county that's always been very blue but it is looking like it's
06:52 going to change I'm sure it's something you would want to talk about Paul
06:54 yourself as a Green councillor. Yeah I don't think well in
06:59 Tunbridge we've got a very good candidate called Anna Cope who's a
07:02 teacher and who's very intelligent and also very emotionally intelligent I
07:06 would say and although the Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat his last majority was
07:14 over 20,000 but you know because we've done well locally we think and the
07:19 boundaries have changed we think Anna does stand a good chance of eating into
07:24 Tom's results. I don't know how much you pay attention to polls but in
07:29 Tunbridge in particular it's actually one of the few seats that it's
07:33 saying likely Conservatives could still hold on to 69% chance at the moment on
07:39 one of the polls. Yeah we'll see we'll see but yeah starting campaign well we've
07:45 already started campaigning but in Tunbridge Wells the Liberal Democrats
07:50 have taken control of the council and I think they have their eye on they
07:55 already had their eye on that seat before Greg Clark stood down. We'll be
08:00 hearing from the the candidate the Lib Dem candidate in Tunbridge, Mike Martin
08:04 in our show later on but yeah I wanted to ask about actually the local elections
08:10 we've had local elections this year and last year and we did see Kent's
08:13 political map changing drastically it was a county as I said before that many
08:18 many of the councils were Conservatives either in overall control or a minority
08:23 control but we did see the Greens making gains last year and this year as well we
08:27 know Folkestone is green controlled and also now Maidstone has a green
08:32 leader so do you think the results of local elections could be reflected in
08:37 the general election or are people voting for completely different things? I
08:40 would hope so some people tell us on the doorstep oh we vote green locally but we
08:44 don't vote green nationally and we're trying to turn that round we're hoping
08:48 that our record of what we do locally will inspire people to vote for us
08:52 nationally. Last year in Tunbridge we started off with three councillors we
08:57 kept those seats and we got five new councillors and we were within a
09:02 whisker of getting three more seats we were five or six votes in each case and
09:07 had an independent not decided to side with the Conservatives they wouldn't
09:12 have retained control of Tunbridge and Morley. We saw how many seats
09:20 the Conservatives did lose at those local elections does it make you
09:23 concerned for the general election? Well Fanwick as usual bucks the trend and this is where
09:28 never ever write any of us on Fanwick I have to say because we went from a minority
09:36 Conservative administration across to a majority Labour administration who
09:41 are currently still hanging in there. Were this election to follow that
09:47 pattern obviously then there would be a big red swing but that's not the
09:51 information we're getting when we're talking to residents it's not the
09:55 information and it's not the feedback there's a very vociferous red element in
10:01 certain parts of South Fanwick because of course although we're Fanwick within the
10:05 district we straddle two parliamentary constituencies. We've seen the
10:11 boundaries changing as well which will come into that. Fanwick is changing massively.
10:15 Which you know has taken traditional blue wards, moved them across and
10:22 we now have town centre wards which have flipped every which way we've held them
10:27 the Reds have held them I wouldn't like to say that any fluctuating town centre
10:32 ward you can actually guarantee an outcome at any time because of the
10:35 turnover of residents and the change in dynamics. Yeah that's been
10:40 something in Tunbridge as well that the boundaries have changed and so I think
10:43 some of the the areas that we've got will possibly be less favourable to...
10:48 It's gone from Tunbridge and mooring to Tunbridge now hasn't it because of the boundary changes.
10:52 I think it's important we drive a car looking forward but we also have to look
10:57 at where we are at the moment and again we're uniquely advantaged in some ways
11:02 particularly in South Fanwick because under the levelling up scheme and a
11:07 combination of levelling up town centre but government sponsored regeneration
11:12 grants Ramsgate's sitting on a pot of 50 million at the moment. We're gonna have
11:16 to continue this because it's time for our ad break so we'll carry this
11:20 conversation on straight after the break. See you in just a few minutes.
11:25 you
11:28 you
11:30 you
11:32 you
11:34 you
11:36 you
11:38 you
11:40 you
11:42 you
11:44 you
11:46 you
11:49 you
11:51 you
11:53 you
11:55 you
11:57 you
11:59 you
12:01 you
12:03 you
12:05 you
12:07 you
12:09 you
12:11 you
12:13 you
12:15 you
12:17 you
12:19 you
12:21 you
12:24 you
12:26 you
12:28 you
12:30 you
12:32 you
12:34 you
12:36 you
12:38 you
12:40 you
12:42 you
12:44 you
12:46 you
12:48 you
12:50 you
12:52 you
12:54 you
12:57 you
12:59 you
13:01 you
13:03 you
13:05 you
13:07 you
13:09 you
13:11 you
13:13 you
13:15 you
13:17 you
13:19 you
13:21 you
13:23 you
13:25 you
13:27 you
13:29 you
13:32 you
13:34 you
13:36 you
13:38 you
13:40 you
13:42 you
13:44 you
13:46 you
13:48 you
13:50 you
13:52 you
13:54 you
13:56 you
13:58 you
14:00 you
14:02 you
14:04 you
14:07 you
14:09 you
14:11 you
14:13 you
14:15 you
14:17 you
14:19 you
14:21 you
14:26 [Music]
14:42 Hello and welcome back to the Kent
14:46 Politics Show live on KNTV.
14:48 Well today we've been talking all about
14:50 the general election with news that
14:52 two of Kent's MPs have stepped down
14:54 today, meaning four in total
14:56 now aren't contesting seats.
14:58 We've also, we've seen the Labour leader
15:00 Sikir Starmer in Medway launching
15:02 his campaign this week too. Well let's
15:04 take a look at Starmer in Medway yesterday
15:06 and why he chose to launch his campaign
15:08 in Kent. With
15:10 Kent such a historically conservative
15:12 county, why are you launching
15:14 here in Medway today?
15:16 Well Kent is very
15:18 important to us, it's very
15:20 important to me. I grew up on the Surrey-Kent
15:22 border, I know this area very very
15:24 well. What we're doing is
15:26 signalling how
15:28 big the challenge is that we face.
15:30 Not a single vote
15:32 has been cast, we have to earn
15:34 every vote. We had good election
15:36 results in Kent
15:38 in recent years. We
15:40 wouldn't want to build on that
15:42 but we will take our arguments
15:44 with confidence
15:46 to Kent and to other parts
15:48 of the country.
15:50 Well still joining me tonight is Conservative
15:52 Councillor for Thanet, John Davis and Green Councillor
15:54 from Kent County Council, Paul Steptoe.
15:56 Welcome back to you both. I wanted
15:58 to start with you
16:00 John, to ask you how does it feel
16:02 to have Starmer in Medway
16:04 in three seats that are currently held by
16:06 Conservatives, is it a threat to the party?
16:08 I think it's more
16:10 a tribute to how concerned they'd be
16:12 that they like to come on and
16:14 grandstand and virtue signal on our turf.
16:16 The polls are currently
16:18 looking pretty good for Labour in Medway though.
16:20 It's an election campaign. I mean look, everybody
16:22 is entitled to say their piece.
16:24 I'd be highly surprised
16:26 I mean, at the end of the day if you only
16:28 go and talk to the converted then you're
16:30 not really taking your message
16:32 out there are you? So
16:34 it is probably quite right that they
16:36 come and speak to people in Kent
16:38 because again, you know, the electorate's entitled
16:40 to an opinion and
16:42 Conservatives do respect other opinions
16:44 unlike other parties that rely on
16:46 groupthink.
16:48 At the end of the day
16:50 what is important
16:52 forget the national platitudes
16:54 you know, six pledges may as well
16:56 be tins of polish lined up on a desk.
16:58 Some of Labour's pledges while we're talking about those
17:02 actually are quite reflective of the Conservatives
17:04 I mean things like rebuilding
17:06 the NHS, sort of cutting
17:08 NHS waiting times and
17:10 their talks about border security
17:12 some would argue that's because
17:14 the Conservatives haven't fulfilled those pledges.
17:16 We have to have those overarching
17:18 policies because you know
17:20 those who stand for nothing fall for anything
17:22 so you need to make it clear what you stand for.
17:24 The reality is
17:26 a worthwhile goal is
17:28 always out of reach
17:30 and in no way excuses
17:32 underperformance and some of the things
17:34 that need addressing but
17:36 if we look at the reality at the moment
17:38 again and the Prime Minister has been saying it
17:40 in the last couple of days
17:42 inflation's back down to a little over 2%.
17:44 Okay, there was much crowing
17:46 it's not 2%. That's the control of the Bank of England
17:48 though. It may be
17:50 but on the other hand
17:52 it's still reactive and it's still
17:54 policies that have helped drive that.
17:56 The
17:58 immigration
18:00 situation is confounded
18:02 at every turn by left wing
18:04 opposition and I'm sorry
18:06 that's yourself included
18:08 and exercising
18:10 every vexatious
18:12 reason they can to hold up a process
18:14 and then saying "Oh, you haven't got rid
18:16 of this problem." Well
18:18 what I believe a good election
18:20 is based on is
18:22 constituencies. Every
18:24 MP needs to be connected
18:26 with their constituency to be aware
18:28 of the issues, not
18:30 parachuted in because we
18:32 have a Labour
18:34 wannabe in Thanet who
18:36 will not answer questions,
18:38 still won't be drawn on a position on the airport
18:40 even though that fortunately was approved
18:42 to be reopened this week
18:44 and we can get on with the job of
18:46 creating jobs in Thanet
18:48 because that's what's needed.
18:50 Craig McKinley, I was saying, his
18:52 legacy as an MP
18:54 is to have been the MP in an area that's
18:56 had phenomenal financial
18:58 help given the scale and the size
19:00 of it. There is over
19:02 £20 million in levelling up
19:04 and town centre funding.
19:06 Michael Gove's just announced
19:08 an additional £20 million to be spent
19:10 over five years supporting community
19:12 initiatives and everything and
19:14 in the current scenario we actually
19:16 have a very
19:18 rosy future
19:20 so long as the local administration
19:22 continue and deliver the opportunities
19:24 that have been given to them by the
19:26 Conservatives and the Conservative legacy
19:28 from our administration.
19:30 I think the electorate are wise enough to
19:32 see that but whoever stands
19:34 in any ward, it's about their
19:36 engagement with the community
19:38 and being
19:40 on top of those things and being
19:42 accessible. Let's talk
19:44 about, so the Green Party co-leader
19:46 Carla Denyer
19:48 has also said this week
19:50 that she thinks people aren't inspired by
19:52 Labour either, I mean she would say
19:54 that as sort of an opposition party
19:56 but I wanted to ask
19:58 I mean currently as
20:00 it has been historically, it's look at
20:02 you know Conservative and Labour are kind
20:04 of at the top so why
20:06 aren't people as convinced by Green
20:08 policies?
20:10 I'm not sure really. I know
20:12 we're hoping, there are four seats
20:14 we're hoping to win which is Carla's going
20:16 for Bristol Central, we want to keep Brighton
20:18 Pavilion, Hereford
20:20 North and Waverney Valley
20:22 and I think we feel that we've got a really
20:24 good chance there. And Tunbridge
20:26 of course as well.
20:28 But I wanted to go back to something John said
20:30 I agree with your point about
20:32 people being parachuted in, I mean is it something
20:34 the Conservative Party does as well?
20:36 When we need to.
20:38 And it's not
20:40 an ideal scenario but
20:42 we don't do it as a matter of habit let's say.
20:44 And I also wanted to ask you about
20:46 inflation, when you're on the doorstep
20:48 do people say "Oh, inflation's
20:50 worrying me"?
20:52 Actually, yes
20:54 in that they often refer
20:56 to cost of living
20:58 rather than it as
21:00 just inflation in itself.
21:02 And that, what's a big issue again
21:04 and I've been talking a lot recently
21:06 about the Airbnb situation
21:08 and the rental market. Cost
21:10 of living, everybody looks at supermarket
21:12 baskets and all these sort of
21:14 parameters. What they need
21:16 to look at is the housing market
21:18 and the rentals market because an overheated
21:20 housing market along
21:22 with the debacle of
21:24 I think it was well known
21:26 there are hundreds of Airbnbs
21:28 available for rent and less than
21:30 a dozen at times long term
21:32 rentals in the Ramsgate area.
21:34 That's not sustainable and it
21:36 means that because of the lack of supply
21:38 caused by
21:40 empire builders
21:42 the community is at risk
21:44 because of that. And talking about housing
21:46 These are the issues we have to address and the answer
21:48 by the way is not to build loads more
21:50 houses on green fields which is what our
21:52 Labour administration would like to do.
21:54 But looking at councils have local plans to meet and have
21:56 a number of houses to build
21:58 perhaps are the right houses
22:00 being built? People are crying out
22:02 for things like social housing and
22:04 more affordable housing and houses for different
22:06 types of people with different needs.
22:08 I'm really glad you've asked that because it's such a key thing.
22:10 We need social housing. Now I'm going to
22:12 speak as a Conservative and I do believe
22:14 that mistakes are made but again
22:16 no one's perfect. The
22:18 loss of the housing stock has got
22:20 to be replaced because
22:22 even if the great dream works and everybody
22:24 in the rising tide raises all ships
22:26 people will always do those
22:28 service jobs that are not
22:30 rewarded any more than they can be.
22:32 They're entitled to secure a roof over
22:34 their head and a decent standard of living
22:36 the same as anybody.
22:38 So I think we've got two markets really. You've got a
22:40 social market and then you've got the free
22:42 market.
22:44 So we must protect that social market
22:46 but in a way
22:48 and in a sustainable way.
22:50 Too much is made of it. At the moment
22:52 we've got an administration claiming to
22:54 have bought over 200 houses
22:56 in the last year for social
22:58 housing which would be marvellous if we
23:00 had. But out of that
23:02 23 people have actually been moved into them
23:04 and the rest have still got
23:06 even spades to go in the ground in the next
23:08 year or two. So I think it's important
23:10 that there's, and again with the election
23:12 it's even more important that people don't fall for
23:14 political spin and fine words because fine
23:16 words butter no parsnips. We
23:18 need to take action and give the
23:20 housing to the people that need it.
23:22 The problem with a lot of the developments
23:24 in Thanet, and I don't know your area
23:26 but in Thanet in particular
23:28 is who are they for? We have a fairly
23:30 static population if you look at
23:32 the, according to the census
23:34 and yet we have a local
23:36 plan which has granted
23:38 again government algorithm
23:40 numbers. But it's now been
23:42 accepted that's wrong.
23:44 And I and many others think we need to
23:46 rip up our local plan and re-address
23:48 the whole thing. I mean of Labour and
23:50 Conservatives there's not been a lot of talk around
23:52 housing but Greens have been
23:54 talking about housing haven't they?
23:56 So I agree with John that we need more
23:58 social housing. I think the elephant in the room
24:00 there is right to buy.
24:02 Because why shouldn't an authority or
24:04 a housing association build more properties or buy
24:06 more properties if the tenants are going to be able
24:08 to flog them, to buy them
24:10 at a discount so many years down the line.
24:12 And the other
24:14 thing is
24:16 affordable. Because affordable is
24:18 80% of market rate
24:20 if you're buying or if you're renting.
24:22 So in Tunbridge, you know, affordable
24:24 is still a lot of money.
24:26 That's a really good point and I would
24:28 bring in here that one of the good things that's
24:30 going on in Thanet is
24:32 when affordable housing is
24:34 described it comes
24:36 within the local housing
24:38 allowance rate. And that
24:40 I think is a very fair parameter
24:42 in that that has its own
24:44 calculation as the percentile of the
24:46 market. But it
24:48 does mean that for something to be
24:50 described as affordable
24:52 it's accessible as well
24:54 at whatever your financial status.
24:56 And that
24:58 is something that's changed in the last 12
25:00 months or over the last 12
25:02 months and will continue to improve.
25:04 I wanted to quickly ask you both
25:06 before we... Oh no, don't worry.
25:08 If I could just, right to buy
25:10 is vital because it
25:12 gives people a hand
25:14 up, not a hand out.
25:16 But the
25:18 issue that you raise I agree with.
25:20 The money has to be reinvested
25:22 into replacing that stock
25:24 so that then you get this organic growth
25:26 which benefits all.
25:28 We really don't have long left now. I wanted to quickly
25:30 ask you both. No, don't apologise. In about
25:32 nine, do you think that the general election
25:34 was called at the right point?
25:36 For the Conservatives
25:38 probably not.
25:40 But I presume that Mr.
25:42 Sunak was hoping that
25:44 or was perhaps thinking things will get worse
25:46 before the autumn so
25:48 he'd be in a worse position if he
25:50 left it. And quickly the same
25:52 from you. Was it called at the right time? I think it
25:54 probably suits other parties more than
25:56 some of our MPs and they've expressed
25:58 that sentiment publicly.
26:00 It is what it is. We've got
26:02 six weeks of hard campaigning
26:04 and job to get done.
26:06 Let's put it
26:08 out there and let's allow democracy to do
26:10 its job. Thank you for having
26:12 us today. Thank you both for coming in.
26:14 I'm sure it's not the last we'll hear from you in a busy
26:16 six weeks we're going to have. Thank you to both
26:18 of you. That's all from us here at the
26:20 Kent Politics Show. Straight after the break
26:22 we'll have a brand new episode of Kent Tonight. All the latest
26:24 news across Kent. See you soon.
26:26 [Music]
26:38 [Music]