Election rumours 'chase each other madly' - Peter Hain

On Sunday 28 February Andrew Marr interviewed the Welsh Secretary Peter Hain.

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

Peter Hain spoke live from Swansea

ANDREW MARR:

And now to a man, now to Peter Hain in Swansea. Thank you very much indeed for joining us …

PETER HAIN:

(over) It's a pleasure. Labour's in good cheer down here in Swansea, ready to take on the Tories, Andrew.

ANDREW MARR:

But you must have been pretty flabbergasted by that poll and you must be privately saying to yourself well one poll means nothing?

PETER HAIN:

It's part of a trend, that poll, and it shows that people are more and more questioning David Cameron and more and more suspicious and fearful of the Conservatives as we come up to the election. And that's what I've been feeling on the ground campaigning, talking to people; that, yes, there have been all sorts of reservations and this and that about our government - it's not surprising after thirteen years in power - but they're more and more taking a long, close look at the Tories. And the more they do that, the more worried they are because on the one hand the Tories change their policies from time to time - sometimes within the same day as on married tax allowance by David Cameron. On the other hand, people are really fearful of this almost relish for deep and savage cuts that the Conservatives and George Osborne and David Cameron are planning.

ANDREW MARR:

Well I'll talk about that later with George Osborne. But what about these latest kind of bubbling rumours around the place that we might have an election called as early as this coming week?

PETER HAIN:

Well there are all sorts of rumours that swirl around and chase each other usually.

ANDREW MARR:

Can you kill that one off?

PETER HAIN:

That chase each other madly in the Westminster village of which you and I are part. And really what I think …

ANDREW MARR:

Sorry, but can you kill it off is all I'm asking?

PETER HAIN:

Kill what off? There will be a …

ANDREW MARR:

Can you tell us, can you tell us …

PETER HAIN:

… there will be an election …

ANDREW MARR:

… that we won't wake up next week and find an election being called?

PETER HAIN:

There will be an election called in due course when the Prime Minister's ready to call one and when the country is ready for a General Election. And we all know that that's not too far away.

ANDREW MARR:

So it could be tomorrow?

PETER HAIN:

The most important thing at the moment … I don't know when the election will be called if you're wanting to talk days or weeks or months. It will come in due course. You don't need to panic, Andrew.

ANDREW MARR:

Never panic.

PETER HAIN:

What the country will want, what the country will want is a very clear choice between a Conservative Party that is now falling all over the place in a very deep wobble and a Labour Party which has come through a tough time and Gordon Brown has come through a very, very tough time with all sorts of things being thrown at him still there, still moving forward and wanting to take the country forward out of this recession, as we've started to do. And people are very worried about their mortgages, their jobs, their families futures …

ANDREW MARR:

Sure.

PETER HAIN:

… should the Tories take over.

ANDREW MARR:

Sure. The question of course of who is throwing what at whom has been much debated at Westminster this week. But can I ask you about your own position because you've reached out to the Liberal Democrats recently. You've said there's lots of things that connect the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, lots of common causes, and that looks a little bit to some people like preparation for a hung parliament or an indecisive result at the election.

PETER HAIN:

No, I'm saying that what is absolutely vital to the great, decent, progressive majority in Britain is that we stop the Tories winning power. And I think it's absolutely crucial, and most people in Britain agree that if we can have a situation in which the Tories can stop … we can stop the Tories winning government, then whether Labour's had an absolute majority or whether Labour doesn't have a majority, we should be the majority party because we're the only party that can form an alternative government to the Tories. And that there are many Lib-Dems, many …

ANDREW MARR:

Sorry, can I just interrupt you there?

PETER HAIN:

If I can just finish this point and then by all means. There are many Liberal Democrats, there are many Plaid Cymru supporters, Greens in Scotland, SNP supporters who fear a Tory government; who know that in our case in Wales, it would be a terrible … have a terrible impact on Wales, as they did in the past. And in the key Tory Labour marginals, in the battleground seats that will determine the outcome of the election, I'm appealing to Lib-Dem supporters and Plaid Cymru and SNP and Greens and others not to abandon their principles, not to say they sign up to every one of Labour's policies, but to say they favour a Labour government, a progressive Labour government compared with a reactionary Right Wing Tory government that will take us back to the past.

ANDREW MARR:

Or, as you put it before, they want to stop the Conservatives getting an absolute majority. So the obvious fair corollary of what you're saying is that Labour supporters in seats where there are non-Conservatives challenging should switch their support to back them.

PETER HAIN:

We're standing Labour candidates in every constituency.

ANDREW MARR:

No but come on, come on. You've appealed for Liberals to back Labour and you're not saying that Labour supporters where the Liberal Democrats are ahead should do the same thing?

PETER HAIN:

The point I'm making, Andrew …

ANDREW MARR:

(over) It's a simple ...

PETER HAIN:

(over) … is every party will stand …

ANDREW MARR:

(over) It's a simple, fair, obvious point that people understand.

PETER HAIN:

Every party will stand their own candidates and we'll be competing against each other in every seat - in a seat like mine where Labour is very strong, in other seats where we're not. But the outcome of the election - everybody knows this, you do as well - will be determined in these key Labour-Tory battlegrounds. That will be determined whether David Cameron walks into No. 10 with George Osborne trailing a cuts programme behind him, or Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling stay in charge having taken the country through this desperate worldwide recession, now the recovery starting. And that is the big choice before people and that'll be determined in the Labour-Tory battlegrounds. Whatever happens anywhere else is in a sense secondary. And that's why I'm saying to people …

ANDREW MARR:

Okay.

PETER HAIN:

… please avoid a Right Wing reactionary Tory government. What are they offering?

ANDREW MARR:

(over) And in that … Sorry, in that spirit you would happily sit round a cabinet table with the likes of Vince Cable or Nick Clegg or some of those people?

PETER HAIN:

I don't even know if I'll be in the next cabinet.

ANDREW MARR:

Yuh, but let's suppose you are.

PETER HAIN:

I want to see a majority Labour government and I want to see Labour the largest party in this parliament to stop not for our own sake as a party, not for my sake or Gordon Brown's sake, but to stop a really reactionary right-wing Tory government coming into power. And every time they put forward their policies, what are they saying? They won't abolish hereditary peers, they'll bring back fox hunting and they'll impose a cut for the richest people in inheritance tax cuts.

ANDREW MARR:

Okay.

PETER HAIN:

That's a return to old Right Wing policies and I really don't think the decent majority in Britain want that.

ANDREW MARR:

Well we'll see. Peter Hain, thank you very much indeed.

PETER HAIN:

It's a pleasure.

INTERVIEW ENDS

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