00:00out from from the list that we had. Somebody asking, they wanted an opinion from all the
00:07candidates on public service versus self-interest first. Mark, stay with you on that one. Public
00:15interest versus self-interest. Public service rather versus self-interest. Yeah, there are
00:23set principles that all politicians should work to. I'm not going to take any swipe to
00:31anyone here because I'm sure they're all upstanding and of the highest integrity,
00:36but it undermines our democracy, I think, when politicians do act in a
00:46unprofessional way, if I can just put it like that. Because what we all get painted with is
00:55you're all the same and I don't believe that. I believe everyone up here on this table is doing
01:01this because they want the best from their perspective and given their values and policies
01:09and they want to try and do the best. So
01:12to me, one of the things that is really fulfilling as a politician is when you get stuff done,
01:23when you achieve things, when you improve people's lives and that must surely trump,
01:29it is a really selfish position to say I'm going to do this for my own benefit.
01:33And those known principles, I think they are, put out those principles by which politicians
01:40should behave and they should be held to account and they should have the most severest consequences
01:46if they do not hold to those principles because people are putting their trust in you
01:51and I will always hold your trust and integrity in politics.
01:59I think we can honestly say, all four of us, I think we're fair. You don't know who you're voting in,
02:10you don't really know us, but you do hope that you're going to vote somebody in who's fair.
02:18But you might take somebody on as a job at work or in the nursing or at the post office
02:23and they might not turn out to be how you want them to be. You just have to
02:27look at the person, hope we're fair, I think all four of us are fair and I hope we play by the rules.
02:35But yes, politicians should be held to account, it shouldn't be brushed under the carpet
02:42and if any of you all do get to Westminster, don't be like the schoolyard or as though you're
02:48all in the zoo. I think we all need to just come down to brass tacks, work for the people and
02:54stop trying to get points off each other.
03:03I think it's hugely important and one of the sad things the last 14 years has been
03:10the decline in standards and because when you start to accept those standards for yourself
03:13you start to accept it from everyone else as well and that's why regulators stopped regulating
03:19and sued Stars Flame to give you an example. It has to be about service before self, it has to be
03:27about constituency before career, it has to be about country before party, so it's not just
03:33the integrity of individuals, it's the integrity of parties as well. I think we're overdue Labour's
03:42proposal for a statutory standard system for MPs and Ministers, it's time that's
03:47put on the footing that can't be interfered with by party politics. One of the things for me is
03:55I've got two kids in this constituency and I don't want to gift them a mess
04:00because we had a substandard MP but it's not just on me, even if I'm elected it's not just on me,
04:07it's not on the 649 other people in the House of Commons, it's not on the far too many currently
04:14in the House of Lords but that's another thing we're going to address. It's on all of you as well,
04:19hold us to account, don't snipe on Facebook, come round and tell us exactly what's wrong.
04:26Make sure that you turn out and vote. Now by now you might have decided you're going to vote for me,
04:31if so please vote and tell your friends. By now you might have decided I'm the last human being who
04:36should ever go to Westminster. In that case vote for one of these other people, not the ones who
04:41didn't turn up because frankly turning up is an important part of the job.
04:52And when you choose to vote for them tell your friends because this election might well be that
04:57close. So it's important, voting is just the start of it, it's about being held to account.
05:04Read your local paper, I'm sure you'd like me to say that, you can't get a robbery that easily,
05:09but read your local paper. We're having to fund people like Paul from bits of the BBC licence fee,
05:17because there's not enough interest in what's going on locally and nationally. The electorate
05:24has responsibilities too, it's not down to any one of us if we're elected because by now you've
05:30decided not to vote for the people who didn't turn up, it's down to everybody because a better
05:35society doesn't start in Westminster, it starts in Wheatland, it starts in Wharton, it starts in
05:42Frakkington, it starts in Luton St Hans, it starts in Polk, it starts on your street, it starts in
05:47your house with the way you choose to behave to other people because you can set a standard that
05:54the rest of us have to follow from where you are and darn right MPs should set a much higher
06:03standard from the apparently lofty heights of Westminster, but it's all of us together because
06:11as some Prime Minister said before he decides to leave after a small inconvenience,
06:16we're all in this together, we really are, 70 million of us in this country,
06:21we can all be part of the solution or we can all be part of the problem, I know which I choose.
06:34As your party made that a harder task for you, is it harder for you to get a hearing as a result?
06:41I think one of the things that's quite often amusing to watch and which is why I don't
06:46partake in it is from either of the parties when someone from the other party gets caught doing
06:51something they shouldn't have done and then everyone piles on on social media to try and
06:55score some points out of it, the press do some digging and it turns out someone from the other
06:59party's also been up to it and everyone ends up with egg on their face and politics looks poorer
07:04for it, so for me actually part of it is not about, it's about not getting involved in that
07:10bloodslinging, that cheap swiping at individuals, actually sometimes how you treat people when they
07:15get something wrong and are down is actually more a testament to your character than it is
07:20when you treat people on the up and for me about integrity in public life is what drove me into
07:27politics about, I started out as a candidate in district council then I became a county councillor
07:33then I became the police commissioner and now I'm stood here today vying to be your next member of
07:39parliament. I've worked my way up from grassroots community politics where actually it's about
07:44whether the dog poo gets cleaned up and the potholes get filled in and you're dealing with
07:48the things that matter to people day in and day out, I'm not considering yourself to be this aloof
07:56senior person who's dealing with things far more important than what matters to individuals.
08:01Like I said earlier on I've knocked on with my team, we've knocked on about six thousand doors
08:06around Fylde now, I actually believe politicians often hide from the public too easily and you
08:13should be out there talking to the people that you serve, you can't go to Westminster
08:17and be claimed to be representing and be the voice of a constituency if you're not talking
08:22to your constituents and I would like to say actually that this has been a clean election
08:28in Fylde, it has actually been a pleasure to debate already tonight but also throughout this
08:34election, the first time I met Anne she gave me a massive hug and a glass of wine and it has been
08:41a really clean election and actually for me that is actually a key part of it that is on us as
08:47politicians, yes as individuals, I don't doubt the integrity of any of the people on this stage,
08:51I don't doubt that people are in it for the right reasons but it's also one of us to keep
08:57the discourse clean and to keep it about the policies and not about the people.
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