Julia Hartley-Brewer Ties Labour MP Into Knots Over Gender Bill

I'm joined Now by Shadow Justice Minister labor mp uh Ellie Reeves good morning to you Ellie good morning thank you so much for joining us I do want to talk about announcement case Thomas making today and do you remember but I also want to talk first of all about what you made of Boris Johnson uh at the Privileges committee yesterday he didn't deny that he thought it was a kangaroo court he still said hand on heart he did not and deliberately or recklessly uh mislead a parliament what did you make of his evidence and what do you think the outcome will be well the committee is a highly respected committee uh cross party and I think they should be able to get on and do their job without uh intimidation or fear um but it was intimidating well you know we've heard some stories of pressure from conservative MPS and I hope that the committee can do their job properly and they are highly respected the MPS on that committee but in terms of Boris Johnson's uh evidence yesterday I don't think it will wash with the public people made huge sacrifices during the pandemic uh following the rules that Boris Johnson himself made people didn't see loved ones as they were dying grandparents didn't see grandchildren women had to go into labor Wards on their own all policies by the way the labor party is supported and called for yeah and there's the rules that you know I stuck two people up and down the country stuck to because we were doing what we thought was the right thing to do and when you see those pictures of Boris Johnson at Social Gatherings uh frankly it's insulting to everyone that did follow those rules but where the rules wrong or was he wrong I think Boris Johnson was wrong he's been fine I still think the rules were right that stopped people saying goodbye to loved ones or being with their Partners as they gave birth or meeting their grandchildren or children going to school I think well it's not a sacrifice if it's if it's the law to do something we weren't given the choice were we well we followed the rules people followed the rules I followed the rules because I lost my job otherwise well it was about keeping people safe it was about do you still think they were the right do you still think the rules were right we were right to support those rules yes we had to keep people safe uh and those people those rules kept people safe those rules did help to keep people safe during the the pandemic and it was right that we did have rules in place and I think when people see those pictures of Boris Johnson they will find uh it really insulting because you know people did make those sacrifices uh and it was about keeping people safe okay let's also talk about um inflation as inflation figures yes they're up to 10.4 percent uh surprise it was going up not down um interest rates as a result we're expecting will be raised by another quarter of percent to 4.25 by the bank of England monetary policy committee today um big pressure on people in their finances um what would labor be doing differently that would be helping people right now well we're in a cost of living crisis uh people are already paying a mortgage penalty following the uh quasiacartang budget back in the uh Autumn and we've got a government who uh who aren't making the choices to help working families and the budget just last week we saw a tax cut for the wealthiest one percent and their pension pots whilst working people face the highest tax burden for 70 years labor would make different uh choices we would tax fairly for example by ending the non-dom status and putting that money into more training places for doctors more midwives more nurses so it's about those political uh choices and this government isn't on the size of working people okay let's talk about what Kirsten was going to announce the days ago a big speech in Stoke on Trent today and is going to be talking about uh how he wants to have violence against women and girls who's got four he says ambitious Targets on fighting crime what are they and how is he going to do it well that is against women and girls has become epidemic in society and there's is it getting worse I I think it's getting worse do you think it's getting worse or is it getting worse well you know we hear day after day of uh stories of violence against women crime statistics going down isn't it well on domestic abuse uh since 2015 uh the number of reports of domestic abuse has uh doubled but uh charges for domestic abuse have halved so these are real issues and that's why labor have set out a number of measures to tackle violence against women and girls for example tougher minimum sentences of seven years or uh rapists um setting up a domestic abuse register putting uh uh domestic abuse call handlers in every police control uh control room and having specialist rape and serious sexual uh abuse units in every police force across the country as well as specialist rape calls to Fast Track these cases through the system because at the moment people are waiting three years for their cases to get to courts which means that during that time rapists are walking three we would punish criminals and protect uh communities and that's lacking from this Government after 13 years of the conservatives I I I've always got told off by your press office when I asked this but I always find it quite strange we're all concerned about violence against anybody you know women and girls um but it's very difficult to take labor seriously on this issue when you don't even protect your one of your own with your own MPS Rosie Duffield when she stands up for who women and girls actually are and you've got a leader who doesn't seem to know what constitutes a woman whether a trans woman is woman or not um can we trust that labor would protect women when labor still endorsed as a policy which basically brought down Nicholas sturgeon which would taught intents and purposes allow a rapist to go in a prison cell with women well to start with we didn't support uh the labels labor in Scotland it was very uh clear that the the bill that was brought forward in Scotland was an SNP Bill and it wasn't supported by Neighbors in Westminster and uh we have also been very clear that uh the the the the the the the the Isla Bryson should not have been in a female why not if if care starmer believes that a trans woman is a woman then that woman should be in a woman's jail so either he you know you can't you can't believe a trans woman is a woman and also believe that Isla Bryson convicted rapist who complains to be a woman a trans woman it shouldn't be in that jail well we're really clear that uh not that the Isle of Bryson shouldn't have been in a women's uh prison why not and actually I think we need to take the heat out of some of this uh debate um she you know we've said time and again shouldn't have been in uh Ellie he you cannot come on my show and talk about how label want to tackle violence against women and then refer to a double rapist a man who used his penis to rape two women convicted sentenced to jail and then refer to him as she well we've set out a comprehensive plan for tackling violence against women and girls uh under the conservatives rape prosecutions are at 1.6 that means that for every 100 reported rapes only at one person just over one person is being charged for this this is a government that is letting down women and girls every single day women are scared to walk the the streets they have lost uh confidence that they are being kept safe after 13 years of of a labor government and we are the of the conservative government labor the only party that have a plan to tackle violence against human girls and to end final question could be a different topic Michigan chose a good day to bury bad news released his uh tax return yesterday well some details of it not the full uh uh document that you could put into hmrc it showed he's made some sort of four or five million quid paid a million quid in tax a lot of this money coming on capital gains uh from a trust in a blind trust in America is there anything to see here does any of this matter oh she's saying that I earned this five million pounds across three years he's paid a million in uh tax uh working people are facing the highest tax burden for 70 years and really seems to be playing a much lower tax rate than he would uh you know the general public could pay on that so I think you know there are questions about the choices that the conservative so would labor if labor win the next election as the pulse predicts you will next year would labor impose uh capital gains tax at the same rate as income tax well that's not something that we're talking about at the moment but we'll need to see where we are as uh we approach the next election what we have said is that we'll make fairer tax choices for example ending Norm Dom status uh ending tax loopholes uh for uh private schools and private equity and that's what a labor government could do have a fair attack system Ellie Reeves really appreciate you joining us sir labor and Peach Shadow Justice Minister um [Music] thank you [Music]