Conservative Party Chairman offers 'people some hope'

On Sunday 20 December Andrew Marr interviewed Conservative Party Chairman Eric Pickles.

Please note 'The Andrew Marr Show' must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

ANDREW MARR:

Now, as we heard earlier in the paper review, there's reports that the Conservative Leader David Cameron plans to start the New Year with what will effectively be the beginning of a long election campaign. Well the man running his machine, who we recently learned began his political journey as a Communist and he's a very popular figure at Westminster, is the Tory Chairman Eric Pickles. Welcome, Mr Pickles. Thank you for coming in.

ERIC PICKLES:

Thank you.

ANDREW MARR:

There's a piece I think in the Mail on Sunday here from David Cameron saying actually you know there is good news ahead; it's not all darkness. Is that going to be integral to what you're doing in the New Year?

ERIC PICKLES:

I mean you've got to recognise that we've got a very big deficit, our finances are in an appalling state, but people are going to be educated, people need to use hospitals, unemployment needs to be addressed, particularly youth unemployment. So yeah, sure, you've got to offer people some hope. It's been pretty grim so far.

ANDREW MARR:

And are we going to see in effect the beginning of an election campaign from the start of January?

ERIC PICKLES:

Well one thing is certain; that next year is going to be the General Election year. Now whether it's 25th March or 6th May or even if you dragged it on right the way through till June, we're off and running. We're in the regulated period. And the General Election well probably started some time ago, but certainly the New Year, new start, and we want to get rid of this rather dreadful government.

ANDREW MARR:

And you want to begin that right at the beginning of the year? We're going to see some fireworks, are we?

ERIC PICKLES:

Well I'm not going to go through the strategy now, if you'll forgive me.

ANDREW MARR:

(over) You're very welcome, you're very welcome.

ERIC PICKLES:

Okay, well I just have a plan here. We'll go through it now. We will recognise that in order to win, we need 117 seats for a majority of 1. That's a big ask of any party, so we're really saying to our activists you can't rely on the polls, you can't rely on anything other than straightforward hard work.

ANDREW MARR:

And do you accept that you know you've laid out as a party some of the tough choices that have to be made and all the rest of it, and that you're going to have to put quite a lot of flesh on those bones between now and whenever the election is?

ERIC PICKLES:

Sure. I mean the closer we get to the election, all the political parties are going to have to be very explicit about the nature of the deficit, things that are going to need to be done. And that doesn't just apply to us, but it also applies to the Labour Party who for the past few months have really been playing catch up on the deficit.

ANDREW MARR:

You mentioned it might be March, it might be right up to the end of May, beginning of June I suppose. What's your sort of thinking about that? I mean presumably a lot of this is about whether or not the government decides it's right to have a budget?

ERIC PICKLES:

Yuh. I mean if they decide not to have a budget, it is going to look very much like cut and run, but there are some advantages in not actually facing the British people the consequences of their poor management of the economy. So there is that. But Mr Brown is a well-known ditherer, so I suspect he may still be deciding right up against the deadline.

ANDREW MARR:

Hmn. It has been, as we were saying earlier on, an absolutely appalling year for politics generally, with all these expenses claims, and you know I think you've been involved, everyone's been involved …

ERIC PICKLES:

(over) I certainly have.

ANDREW MARR:

… and now there's a row about who's going to pay what back. What, if anything, can be done, do you think, over the next year to make people a little bit more trusting of their politicians?

ERIC PICKLES:

I think transparency's the obvious thing. I think that's probably the best medicine. We now will put all our claims on the web, as we make it. I think there's a case for Parliament generally doing that, and I don't think there's going to be a possibility of a fresh start until we've had a General Election.

ANDREW MARR:

Hmn. And one of the areas that the Labour Party's obviously going for your party on is the whole non-dom thing. We've had Lord Ashcroft being singled out; Zac Goldsmith having to change his tax arrangements. That's embarrassing.

ERIC PICKLES:

The Labour Party gets I think something like four and a half million pounds from non-doms. The Liberal Democrats get half a million pounds from non-doms. What we've done - and again it's the Tory Party taking the lead - we're saying that you can't be a Member of Parliament of either Houses unless you pay tax in the United Kingdom, and we will be legislating to that effect early on if it doesn't go through the present Act.

ANDREW MARR:

Well if it comes through straight after Christmas, you'd be happy as a party to vote it through …

ERIC PICKLES:

(over) Yes.

ANDREW MARR:

… and make that happen?

ERIC PICKLES:

Yes.

ANDREW MARR:

Well that's very interesting. And, finally, again looking ahead, in your waters how do you feel you're doing? Because we were talking about the opinion polls earlier and some are up and some are down …

ERIC PICKLES:

That's right.

ANDREW MARR:

… all over the place. Will you accept that the country's still looking pretty warily at the Conservative Party; they haven't finally agreed that they want you as the next government?

ERIC PICKLES:

Yes, I absolutely agree with that. I don't think the deal is done. I think it's our election to lose, so I think we have to make a compelling case to be elected. That's been part of our strategy. I mean I think we'd be very foolish to look at the polls this morning and say oh well, the job's done, that's it. We've got to get out there, explain our message and explain how we're going to mend our broken society and take care of our broken economy.

ANDREW MARR:

So when you pick up a paper like the Observer today and see a huge swing in your favour this morning, how do you … Do you sort of suppress any elation and think well I don't entirely believe that either?

ERIC PICKLES:

Well the one thing that I've taken up this year is I've become involved in Twitter, and I sent out a Twitter to everyone last night saying you know no complacency; it's hard work in the constituencies that'll make the difference. To me a very good poll and a very bad poll have the same kind of effect.

ANDREW MARR:

Eric Pickles, for now … Don't go away, but for now thank you very much indeed.

ERIC PICKLES:

Thank you.

INTERVIEW ENDS

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