The Express & Star talk to former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Dudley candidate Marco Longhi, during their visit to The Old Glasshouse Sports Bar, Dudley.
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00:00Hello, Mark Andrews from the Express and Star. I am at the Glasshouse Sports Bar in Dudley
00:06Town Centre. I am joined with former House Secretary Suella Blatherman and the suspected
00:12parliamentary candidate for the new Dudley constituency, Marco Longhi. Welcome to you
00:18both. So good morning, hello Mrs Blatherman. If I was to ask you to give the Prime Minister
00:28to the mark out of 10, what would that be? Listen, we're all fighting to save our country
00:35from Labour and I'm fighting 10 out of 10 with everything I've got. I know Marco is,
00:42to prevent this country from being ruined by a Labour government. Whether that's nationally
00:51or locally, Labour MPs do more harm than good when it comes to immigration, when it
00:58comes to taxation or on a whole host of other issues relating to woke identity politics
01:05that we need to bring to an end or whether it's net zero mania. Their plans are uncosted
01:12and frankly dangerous for the British economy and that's what I'm fighting to prevent.
01:18So do you think the Prime Minister is doing a good job? Listen, I mean every election
01:23campaign is incredibly challenging. I think this is our fourth in election campaign since
01:291997 and this is one of the tougher ones, there's no doubt about that. We see the polls,
01:35we can't ignore those polls but we're all fighting as part of one team and we're fighting
01:41to stop Labour getting into power. Do you think there's a realistic possibility of the
01:45Conservatives winning this general election? Listen, I mean I think we see the polls, the
01:52only poll that does count is the poll on election day. I know that's a cliche but it is true.
01:59They look very concerning at the moment and I think we have to prepare ourselves for the
02:03prospect of a clear start with government. What I think is really important is fighting
02:06very hard to ensure that strong Conservative MPs are returned to Parliament so that there
02:11is a meaningful opposition. So with that being said, are you preparing to view what will
02:17happen in the event of looking to the future, if you like, beyond the election and the prospect
02:23of having a clear start with government? Is that something, in a lot of ways, that is
02:27where you're looking at? Well what I'm looking at is day by day. We've got seven days left
02:32till this general election and I know Marco is, I am, every single member of the team
02:37here that I've met in Dudley who is fired up, motivated and keeping the fight alive
02:44here because we are getting a good response on the doorstep. There's a lot of support
02:48for Marco's track record of delivery here, for local people, on local issues, for the
02:52local community. That's what people want to see and hear about and that's what people
02:56want to vote for on 4th July here in Dudley. And Marco, what do you think of that? Do you
03:00feel that it's a case of looking to the longer term as well now, looking for after the election?
03:05Well I think in these sorts of situations you do an options analysis to consider all
03:09possible outcomes and as Soheila has just said, my focus is relentlessly on Dudley and
03:15Dudley people. That's always been the case since day one of my election on the 12th of
03:21December 2019. So I've always put Dudley people first and even if that has ruffled a few feathers
03:28by calling out so-called asylum seekers, I've banned them from my surgeries as you know
03:35that caused some controversy and I've been very, very strong on immigration and Soheila
03:41and I have exactly the same thoughts on that. This is what matters to the people of the
03:47black country and to Dudley people and I have no shame whatsoever in representing Dudley
03:54people's voices in Parliament. And I think this is a mistake that a lot of MPs when they
03:59reach Parliament, they make. They like to be Westminster's voice in the constituency.
04:04It has to be their constituents' voice in Westminster instead. They forget that word
04:11representation and how it should be used and I will always put Dudley people first.
04:17And if there was this situation and your party was looking for a new leader, would you like
04:23to see Soheila as the party leader?
04:25I would be delighted to see Soheila as leader and everybody I speak to on the doorstep always
04:30look up to Soheila and obviously the Conservative Party has a range of candidates who would
04:37make good candidates as leader. We are from a traditional Conservative, we call ourselves
04:46real Conservatives. I think it would be fair to say that in the past the Conservative Party
04:51has seen strength in being a broad church. I think it's also been a weakness as well
04:57unfortunately and there have been those who have been very loud and larger in numbers
05:03than perhaps people like myself in Soheila who have not taken the line and pushed it
05:10harder in Number 10 in order to stop the boats for example, to exit the ECHR and the United
05:19Nations Convention on Human Rights because that's what really needs to happen if we're
05:24going to stop these. But we could have stopped them a lot sooner had we done that and Soheila
05:29and I have been pushing for that kind of thing but Number 10 took a different view.
05:35Do you feel, I mean you said yourself Eugene, James, of seeing the planes taking off for
05:41Rwanda, we're probably not now going to see that now. Do you think it was a mistake to
05:45call the election before the first planes had taken off?
05:49Well listen, I think I made my views very clear back in December and January. The concept
05:55of the Rwanda plan is the right one because we need to have an effective deterrence. People
06:00are dying. People are dying in the Channel to get to the United Kingdom illegally. That's
06:05a crisis. Therefore we need to do everything necessary to stop people dying and the needless
06:11loss of life in the Channel. The people smuggling gangs are the ones who are profiteering out
06:20of these people coming to the country illegally. A deterrence in the form of the Rwanda scheme
06:27which means that if you come to the mainland UK you will not be able to stay here, you
06:32will be relocated humanely and properly to another safe country, Rwanda, is exactly the
06:38model that will work and it's something similar to what worked in Australia to control their
06:44illegal maritime immigration several years ago. So the concept is the right one. I've
06:50been calling for many months, as has Marco, for a robust delivery mechanism of that concept
06:58which means effectively leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, cutting off all
07:03of the individual claims which enable people to game the system, to play the courts and
07:10to use human rights laws against the British people effectively in a totally immoral and
07:16unjust way. So the concept is the right one. I disagreed with the Prime Minister on how
07:22he went about delivering it. I very much will keep calling for the UK to leave the European
07:28Convention on Human Rights. That is the only way we properly take back control of our borders
07:32and properly take back control of our laws and finish off the job of Brexit because fundamentally
07:37we've still got a foreign court in Strasbourg controlling our borders. We saw in June 2022
07:44when the court in Strasbourg intervened at the 11th hour pursuant to an opaque process
07:51by an unnamed judge to thwart the democratically elected government's will to get the flights
07:59off to Rwanda. That was a gross undermining of the government's ability to control its
08:08borders. That's an example of the egregious behaviour of the European Court of Human Rights
08:12in Strasbourg. That's why we need to leave that court. People here in Dudley voted to
08:16leave the European Union in high numbers. I voted to leave the European Union. Marco
08:21voted to leave the European Union. We both campaigned for Brexit. We cannot continue
08:25our membership if we are serious about controlling our borders and I'll continue to campaign
08:30for that. Leaving the ECHR is not a bad thing because there are many, many countries out
08:37there who are not members of the ECHR and these are very upstanding countries where
08:43everybody would be happy to live in. The other point is we could then replace the ECHR with
08:49a British Bill of Rights if even necessary. Normally when the United Kingdom does something
08:55like that lots of other countries follow. What we would then have is a British Bill
09:00of Rights that would not be subject to the sorts of abuse that we have here because people
09:04say Winston Churchill would turn in his grave if we left the ECHR. Not at all. Winston Churchill
09:10is turning in his grave when he can see all of these boats arriving on a daily basis and
09:15that very legislation that was set up in post-Second World War era being abused in
09:20the way it is being abused now. We have to state a few words on what Labour's plans
09:28are for this. They say that they are going to smash the gangs. I'd really love to know
09:33how they are going to do that. When there's a lot of money involved and the reason why
09:39these gangs exist is because there's huge sums of money exchanging hands. You're talking
09:45billions of pounds here. Now have we ever been able to smash drugs gangs for example?
09:53Yes we've become an awful lot more sophisticated about how we combat them. Yes we've pumped
09:59huge sums of money in combating them. Have we solved the problem? No we haven't because
10:04these gangs reinvent themselves and always find a different way. The only way, and it's
10:11worked in Greece and it's worked in Australia, is to have that deterrent effect which is
10:15if you come to this country illegally you are deported. That is a tough message but
10:22then when the demand moves away, when those people who think oh it's ok because we will
10:29get into the UK and then we will stay, if people then realise that they'll be deported
10:33they just won't come anymore. That's how you smash the gangs because there will be
10:37no more demand for their services. It's the only way.
10:41Keir Starmer has said that this country is too liberal on immigration. Is he right?
10:48Has he said that? Yes. Didn't he also say that every piece of immigration law has a
10:52racist undercurrent to it? Well I don't think that would be different. He's saying that
10:56this reflects the enigma of Keir Starmer I think. He will say whatever he needs to say
11:01to whoever he's speaking to depending on the audience just to get through the moment.
11:05He's also said he wants to give all of the people here illegally an amnesty. That's
11:10130,000 people here illegally rather than being deported which is we've already lined
11:15up some people here in Dudley to be deported and I had this organisation Hope Not Hate
11:20for me saying, well actually, because Keir for Calais contacted me and said can you help
11:24these people in Dudley, stay in Dudley? And I said thank you for letting me know, I'm
11:29going to write to their Home Secretary to see if we can expedite their deportation.
11:33And then of course you can imagine what happened after that. So no, look, we know what the
11:40people of this country want. We know that even those people who perhaps feel a little
11:45bit uncomfortable talking about immigration or illegal immigration, so-called asylum seekers,
11:52we know that even in areas that are not red wall areas, people are sick to their teeth
11:59with this. It's a matter of competence and that is why we are being judged so harshly
12:05by the electorate and my view is that where it's worked elsewhere, having that tough
12:10message which is come to this country legally, your application will be assessed in a third
12:15country, whether that be Rwanda or another country. But you will not be able to stay
12:20in the United Kingdom. You will see those numbers dropped and when we first announced
12:24the Rwanda plan, votes stopped for three weeks. It's when they realised that we weren't
12:30serious about it, that they started coming back again.
12:34How important an issue, and we've talked a lot about immigration, is it the biggest
12:38issue in this area?
12:39On the doorstep it is the biggest issue, absolutely.
12:42And you would echo that?
12:44Well, listen, I think that Marco knows Dudley best and I've known Marco for several years
12:52since he's been in Parliament and he's one of the strongest, strongest, most straight
12:59talking advocates in Parliament and in the Conservative Party for stopping the boats
13:05and controlling our borders and he's been very courageous time and time again on behalf
13:09of the people of Dudley, speaking up for them. Even when there's been a backlash,
13:14even when it might have ruffled feathers, even when people say, oh well that's cruel
13:18and unkind. No, it's on behalf of his constituents that he's put his head above the parapet time
13:23and time again and said this is a crisis, people who come here illegally don't have
13:29the right to stay, we are a fair and compassionate country but the numbers are out of control
13:33and it's about competence. He's absolutely right to voice those concerns faithfully and
13:39with diligence on behalf of his many constituents who are telling him how fed up they are and
13:44that's why I'm here, that's why I'm here in Dudley to support Marco because he, out of
13:49all the candidates standing here, he's the only person who can win here and the only
13:53one who will be a steadfast and strong voice to stop the boats and to get migration down.
14:00There is nothing cruel about saving lives in the Channel and actually there's nothing
14:05cruel about saving lives if we are able to ensure that these people can live in their
14:09own countries because no one ever talks about the harm that many, many people come when
14:14they travel from their country of origin, whether it be Somalia, they have to cross
14:19through Africa to get to Calais, we only talk about the people who come to harm in the Channel.
14:23What about all of those undocumented ones that actually leave Somalia because they can
14:27see that it's a different life in the UK?
14:30And it's about fairness, it's about people who are jumping the queue, they're coming
14:36here, it's costing the British taxpayer millions of pounds a day to accommodate many of these
14:42asylum seekers in hotels around towns and cities across the country, it's putting pressure
14:47on resources, it's putting pressure on accommodation, it's putting pressure on communities, the
14:51people of Dudley feel it, the people of Fairham on the south coast feel it, it's throughout
14:56the country and so politicians need to find the courage within themselves to speak honestly
15:03about this because otherwise they're doing a disservice to the millions of British people,
15:08law-abiding, patriotic, common sense people who have voted time and time again for control
15:14of their borders and I can't think of a stronger advocate than Marco.
15:18Given the numbers we're talking about for Rwanda, would it really make a difference
15:22to the chances, 1 in 1000 chance of being sent to Rwanda anyway, would it make a difference
15:27to people?
15:29It will make a difference because of the costs, the costs of illegal migration are extortionate,
15:37it costs £6 million a day to accommodate the many thousands of asylum seekers we've
15:44got in the system who have come to this country on the boats, it is a total undermining of
15:50our laws and our rules and our frameworks, it is fundamentally unfair and we need a compassionate
15:59humanitarian solution to this crisis which is, to my mind, presents itself in its strongest
16:05form by relocating people to a safe country of Rwanda.
16:08I've been to Rwanda three times actually in the last decade, it's a safe country, it's
16:13a humane country, it's a country which has a track record of resettling 100,000 refugees
16:19already, I've met some of those refugees in Rwanda, they've had nothing but gratitude
16:25to Rwanda for the home that they were given, the school that their children went to, the
16:30opportunities they had to be resettled and live their lives.
16:33That's why this is the right solution, it's humanitarian but it also provides a robust
16:39deterrence that we need to smash the gap which breaks their business models, which means
16:43that they cannot trade on the aspiration of many thousands of people who want to live
16:51in the UK.
16:52Oh yes, if you tell me a small number of people and the chances, the odds of getting, of being
16:56devoted to the ones that are so small, is it that we have to make a bigger deterrence?
17:00That is not the case actually, I don't know where you have these figures from because
17:05once planes take off, people, every single illegal immigrant will be thinking, is it
17:11really worth my while spending thousands and thousands of dollars on these smugglers
17:17and then undertaking a very, very dangerous journey when there is a chance now, a stronger
17:22chance because it's been proven that I wouldn't be deported and the answer will be no, perhaps
17:26we will try elsewhere.
17:28The point is they won't be taking that dangerous journey across the channel, putting their
17:32own lives at risk and then also abusing the system here in the United Kingdom.
17:36So those flights must take off.
17:40Now what we have heard from Keir Starmer is that he will abolish the Rwanda plan even
17:45when it's proven to be working.
17:48This is absolutely crazy.
17:50He is just wanting to make that point and even when we know that there are European
17:54countries looking at what we are doing and some of them have actually been deporting
17:59to Rwanda.
18:00So the United Nations has used Rwanda as a place for settlement for refugees.
18:06This is Keir Starmer trying to keep some of his own party MPs happy and saying the things
18:12he is saying.
18:13He will say something different to a different person, not even every single day, every minute
18:18of the day, just in order.
18:20He is so desperate for power, he will say and do anything.
18:24We saw that last night when the Prime Minister challenged him on his position and he was
18:30just unable to respond to the issue.
18:33Listen, David Tennant is a dangerous fool and to speak in such a way I think was totally
18:43unnecessary and offensive.
18:50I think that we all need to conduct ourselves in these debates when we are dealing with
18:57sensitive issues like transgender rights and the right of women to single sex spaces
19:03with respect and civility.
19:06We need to maintain respectful discourse in our public life.
19:11I don't think it was necessarily right to bring race into the discussion.
19:17This was not an exchange about race or ethnicity and I think we need to ensure that we stick
19:25to the substance of these various debates and talk about the merits and the demerits
19:30of them in a rational and respectful way.
19:32I am very clear that we need to ensure that biology prevails in this very concerning area
19:42of debate.
19:43The right of biological women to single sex spaces, whether that is women only wards,
19:50women only toilets, women's sports, women's dormitories, all of that must be protected
19:58because of the threat that predatory men may cause and also because of a woman's right
20:06to dignity and privacy actually.
20:09Whether it's in sports, whether it's in schools where we've seen the very harmful consequences
20:15of gender ideology run rife and we've seen many children undergo irreversible and devastating
20:24surgical treatment or surgical intervention which has subsequently been shown to have
20:31been totally inappropriate thanks to the landmark Cass review.
20:35This is a very serious issue and politicians of all stripes need to be very robust on protecting
20:42children and protecting women and girls.
20:49One more question, I've got to ask you this one.
20:51The betting scandal, do you feel that the Prime Minister has dealt with it satisfactorily?
20:57Listen, I'm not part of the government, I'm not part of the leadership team.
21:01It's obviously very disappointing to have heard these stories.
21:06I'm not involved in the details.
21:07We plough on at the local level.
21:09I'm fighting on my track record.
21:11Marco is fighting to get re-elected based on the track record of delivery here for Dudley,
21:17the people of Dudley and the community and the great town of Dudley.
21:20I am absolutely honoured to be here today to meet some of his fantastic team and to
21:26see the great development that's taking place, the fantastic investment that's coming into
21:32Dudley thanks to Marco's hard work and the bright future that awaits Dudley.
21:37But people need to vote for Marco on the 4th of July to ensure that a lot of those
21:41plans are seen through and we get some of the positive developments coming in the pipeline to Dudley.