00:00Well, let's head straight to Westminster, shall we? We're joined by Shadow Home Office Minister Matt Vickers this morning.
00:05Good to see you this morning, Mr Vickers. And can I start by asking you about the rape gangs?
00:09Good morning, the sun's shining.
00:11I'm glad it's shining. It's set to be good this week.
00:14Let's talk about the rape gangs, shall we?
00:16Because the Labour peer, Maurice Glasman, has joined forces with Nigel Farage to back a parliamentary bill
00:23that calls for a statutory inquiry into the abuse gang scandal.
00:27Now, GB News understands that there's Labour backing for this as well, but only privately so far.
00:32They haven't come forward to support it publicly.
00:34Are you, the Tory party, prepared to work with reform and Nigel Farage on this issue?
00:42Well, you can talk about those five MPs, but what I'll talk about is the issue.
00:46This is a huge issue across the country. We've heard more than 50 towns affected.
00:49We need to do whatever it takes to drag the government to having that national inquiry
00:53so that these victims can get justice, so that those people responsible for these things are held to account,
00:59but also so that anybody who's found to have covered it up, we know there is evidence out there
01:03that people covered this up, yet not one of those people has been convicted for doing so.
01:07We need national inquiry and we need one now.
01:09Can I ask you about this rap group, Kneecap, who have emerged in a video, November 2023,
01:18where one of the band members appears to say,
01:21the only good Tory is a dead Tory, kill your local MP.
01:26And there's another video that the Metropolitan Police are currently looking at,
01:29where it appears to show a band member shouting,
01:32up Hamas, up Hezbollah.
01:35That was a performance in London.
01:36Now, the band have apologised, it must be said, but they have received funding from the UK government,
01:43£14,000 from an arts fund, and they're also scheduled to perform at Glastonbury this summer.
01:49Should they be dropped from Glastonbury and should they lose that arts fund?
01:55They most definitely should.
01:57There is no place for this sort of stuff in Britain, for those sort of threats.
02:01Yesterday we sat in the chamber, we saw the two plaques on the wall,
02:04the plaque of Sir David Amos, an incredible parliamentarian whose life was cut short,
02:08he was stolen from us.
02:09We saw Joe Cox and what happened there, horrendous situation,
02:12two incredible parliamentarians who had a lot to give.
02:15This is a threat to individuals, but it's also a threat to our democracy
02:18and our ability to have debates, have discussions and argue the case
02:22for what needs to happen in Britain going forwards.
02:24It can't be allowed to go on.
02:25Glastonbury should ditch them, and that money should be returned to the taxpayer.
02:28Can I talk to you about pensions, please, and the triple lock?
02:34Because we heard from Kemi Badenoch yesterday saying that there's currently,
02:39as of now, no change on the triple lock.
02:44Does that mean then the door is open to means testing in the future of the state pension?
02:49You should judge us by what we do.
02:54Actually, we protected that winter fuel payment for pensioners across the country
02:57while the Labour Party trashed it.
02:58They stole it from people without notice.
03:01Every week I speak to people in my surgeries who are struggling to make ends meet,
03:05usually single people, usually widows, people on one income, on a fixed income,
03:08struggling to get by, who had that £300 stolen from them.
03:12The triple lock was a hugely beneficial thing to many pensioners.
03:15We brought it in, we protected it, and we continue to fight the corner for it
03:19as we march forwards.
03:21Yesterday, small boat crossings passed 10,000,
03:24the earliest point in the year since records began.
03:28How do you think this has got so out of control?
03:31I mean, the government, we were speaking to them yesterday,
03:34blamed the dire inheritance that was left by you.
03:39That is rubbish.
03:40When you look at where we were at, the numbers were coming down.
03:42The number of people arriving was coming down.
03:44The number of people who were arriving in small boat and being removed was going up.
03:48We were reducing the number of people staying in hotels.
03:50Under this government, in the last nine months,
03:52we've got a record number of arrivals.
03:55We've got more than 30% more people arriving.
03:58We've got more people staying in hotels, 28% more in hotels,
04:028,500 more people in hotels.
04:04And of those people who are arriving here illegally,
04:07less of them are being removed than were being removed before the election.
04:11It's a recipe for disaster.
04:13But we've had a bill in there to look at what the future of border security in this country looks like.
04:17They're removing all the deterrents that were put in place.
04:19They're allowing people who arrive here illegally to become British citizens.
04:23What sort of message does that send to people across the globe
04:26who might want to come here illegally, break into our country?
04:30It's completely wrong.
04:31It's balmy.
04:31But we knew what was going to happen before the election when this lot got in charge.
04:36Thank you for your comments, Matt Vickers.
04:38We're taking them board.
04:39People will have their say on them throughout the programme today.
04:42We say goodbye to you.
04:43Appreciate your time.
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