Participants
- Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, Conservatives
- Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader, Labour
- Daisy Cooper, Deputy Leader, Liberal Democrats
- Stephen Flynn, Westminster Leader, SNP
- Rhun ap Iorwerth, Leader, Plaid Cymru
- Carla Denyer, Co-Leader, Green Party
- Nigel Farage, Leader, Reform UK
Defence and national security
Angela Rayner
- Thanked the serving armed forces personnel
- Committed to the nuclear deterrent
- Committed to 2.5% GDP spending
- Solve accommodation issues
Daisy Cooper
- Maintain the nuclear deterrent
- Reverse cuts to troops
- Increase spending year on year to 2.5% by the end of the next Parliament
- Solve accommodation issues
Nigel Farage
- Recruit 30,000 into the army full time
Penny Mordaunt
- Prime Minister has apologised for leaving the D-Day commemorations
- Treasure veterans
- Committed to spending 2.5%
- Accused Labour of lacking credibility on the nuclear deterrent
Angela Rayner
- Clear that the nuclear deterrent will be maintained
Carla Denyer
- High priority to tackle issues such as veteran homelessness
- Biggest threat is climate change
- Spend defence money more effectively
- Climate change will create conflict
Stephen Flynn
- Spend money on conventional defence forces rather than nuclear deterrent
Rhun ap Iorwerth
- Properly fund the conventional armed forces, not by spending money on the nuclear deterrent
Nigel Farage
- Raised £100,000 to send veterans to D-Day commemorations
Nigel Farage, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Daisy Cooper
- All criticised the Prime Minister for leaving D-Day events
Health and Social Care
Daisy Cooper
- 8,000 more GPs with guarantee of appointment in 7 days, mental health hub in every community, free personal care, end dental deserts – costed in the manifesto via taxes on big companies
Stephen Flynn
- Spoke of his personal experience of the NHS between the ages of 14-32 as a disabled man
- No tuition fees in Scotland
- Criticised austerity for contributing to NHS waiting times
Angela Rayner
- 40,000 new appointments every week by ending the Non-Dom tax loophole
- Put more home care services in
Penny Mordaunt
- Extra workload for the NHS due to covid backlog
- Keep the economy and budget strong and public spending will go up
- Criticised Labour for cutting the NHS budget in Wales
- Increase the number of healthcare professionals
Rhun ap Iorwerth
- Committed to free at the point of need NHS
- Take no profit out of the NHS with no privatisation
Nigel Farage
- NHS model isn’t working and spending more money doesn’t work
- Change the model to something similar to France
Daisy Cooper
- King’s Fund analysis shows different funding models don’t make a difference to health outcomes
Carla Denyer
- NHS has been underfunded
- Investment in the NHS, including £30 bn on health services and £20 bn on social care and one-off £20 bn capital investment – paid for by reforming the tax system
Immigration
Stephen Flynn
- Migration is essential to public services and businesses, especially given ageing working populations
- End the demonisation of migration and the race to the bottom on migration
Nigel Farage
- Net migration has gone up, with millions of people migrating over the past few decades
- Many people arriving are not economically productive but dependents
Rhun ap Iorwerth
- Change the tone of the debate which is framed around bigotry
- Proper processing of asylum claims and migration for public services
Penny Mordaunt
- Cut personal taxes so people keep more of their own money
- Immigration is too high so would introduce an annual cap on migration
- Suggested Labour would allow uncontrolled immigration
Angela Rayner
- Scrap the Rwanda scheme to pay for a new border command
- More training for UK people to fill gaps that currently rely on immigrants
Daisy Cooper
- Care workers would receive a higher minimum wage and then invite people from other countries when there are still skills gaps
Carla Denyer
- Meeting a migrant in the NHS, they are more likely to be treating you then ahead of you in a queue
- No arbitrary immigration cap numbers
Cost-of-living
Rhun ap Iorwerth
- Get rid of the two-child benefit cap
- Making sure people are heard by the Labour Party when it comes in
Angela Rayner
- Liz Truss crashed the economy
- Priority is to secure the economy
- Windfall tax on big oil and gas companies and GB Energy will give money back
Penny Mordaunt
- The economy is doing better and outperforming some other countries like the US
- Personal taxes will be cut
- Accused Labour of raising taxes by £2,000 (the moderator Mishal Husain reminded everyone that this figure has been criticised by the UK statistics watchdog)
Carla Denyer
- Reframed the cost-of-living crisis as an inequality crisis
- Green economy to create well paid jobs, for example on a national insulation programme
- £15 minimum wage for all ages, uplift to universal credit and removing the two-child benefit cap
Nigel Farage
- Increasingly people opting not to work
- Taxes on energy bills go to wind farm companies
- Reduce net migration to zero
- More people being raised into the higher tax brackets
Stephen Flynn
- 14 years of austerity
- Brexit has impacted the economy more than the covid pandemic and is an unmitigated disaster
Daisy Cooper
- Lib Dems fought the Conservatives every day while in coalition
- Windfall tax on oil and gas companies
Delivering election promises
Penny Mordaunt
- Clear pledges that you can measure progress against
- Pledge to lower taxes
- “GB” in “GB Energy” stands for “Giant Bills”
Nigel Farage
- Worst election campaign in lifetime, dull leaders, and a broken political model
- Need proportional representation in Parliament for real change
Angela Rayner
- Will not promise anything that cannot be funded
- Will not put taxes up for working people
Carla Denyer
- Politics at its root is about people
- Green Party is ‘coming of age’
Stephen Flynn
- 100,000 children have been lifted out of poverty
- No tuition fees in Scotland
- Nationalised water company
Rhun ap Iorwerth
- Rebuild trust, honesty and fairness
Daisy Cooper
- Conservative promises at the last election have been broken
- Tuition fees is a sore subject
Climate
Nigel Farage
- Pursuing unrealistic climate policies
- Sensible approach is using new technology and not sacrificing economic growth
- Carbon emissions have been exported to other countries
- Will need oil and gas for the next 30 years, net zero is a bad policy
Carla Denyer
- Nigel Farage is misleading everyone
- Labour roll-back on their climate investment pledge was disappointing
- Nation-wide insulation programme
Angela Rayner
- Economic growth is not divorced from looking at climate policies
- Green transition via the Green Prosperity Plan
- Creation of GB Energy
Stephen Flynn
- Net zero is economic growth
- Scotland as the producer and leader of green energy
- Create and protect new jobs through a just transition
- Middle ground of protecting Scottish oil and gas jobs while creating transition
Daisy Cooper
- Tackling both economic growth and the climate emergency at the same time through measures such as insulating homes
Rhun ap Iorwerth
- Devolution of the Crown Estate to make the most of natural resources
- Wales is owed money from HS2
Penny Mordaunt
- Do net zero at a pace people can afford
- GB Energy will not produce any energy
- Build UK supply chains for things like batteries
Angela Rayner
- GB Energy will bring energy and clean jobs to the UK
Crime
Carla Denyer
- More officers on the streets
- Not all crime can be tackled by being ‘tough’
- Causes of knife crime are complex with youth services being closed
Nigel Farage
- Do Stop and Search
- Bring in tougher prosecutions
Daisy Cooper
- Change the model of policing to focus on community
- Suspicionless Stop and Search is not valid and should not be used
Penny Mordaunt
- Offline crime is down, with more police on the streets
- More police embedded in communities
Angela Rayner
- Educate young people and put 13,000 more neighbourhood police on the streets
Rhun ap Iorwerth
- Crime highest in areas of most poverty
- Zero tolerance on knives
- Devolution of justice and policing to make systems work for Wales
Carla Denyer
- Asked other members of panel to join her in signing Citizens UK pledge for a counsellor in every school to help with mental health and youth violence
Stephen Flynn
- Investment in areas that need support the most to prevent people turning to violence
Nigel Farage
- Approach to crime is wrong as low-level crime is growing
Final thoughts
Angela Rayner
- 14 years of chaos – it is time for change
- Fully costed plan will secure the economy and borders and bring down NHS waiting times
- GB Energy will bring down bills and create jobs
- More neighbourhood police and 6,500 teachers
Stephen Flynn
- SNP believe in investment in NHS, action of cost-of-living crisis, rejoining the European Single Market and creating economic growth through delivering net zero
- Fight for Scotland’s right to choose its own future
Carla Denyer
- Labour Party has changed…into the Conservatives
- Green Party is on the cusp of breaking through
- Green MPs would protect the NHS from privatisation and push the next Labour Government to do better
Rhun ap Iorwerth
- Vision is a positive one
- Send Labour a message to stop taking Wales for granted
Penny Mordaunt
- Choose Labour for higher taxes, higher bills and pensions raided
- Conservative plan is working: cut taxes, protect pensions, defend the nation
Daisy Cooper
- Liberal Democrats would fix NHS and social care, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and put an end to the sewage scandal
Nigel Farage
- Reform UK is about to become a political phenomenon – join the revolt
Source: Randall’s Monitoring