Starmer meets Macron on first day of Paralympics

well good evening and welcome to the South Paris Arena here where you may hear Kieran some supporters and some noise in the background here because this is where the par table tennis has been happening all day and let me tell you they have been loud they have been rockers and they've been here in big numbers thousands upon thousands have been streaming in here all day on day one of these par Olympic Games been very similar next door with the botcher and the gold ball as well we'll get back to the sport in just a moment but before the sport even began this morning I caught up with the British prime minister say Kia Starman I asked him a range of questions but I began by asking him for his favorite and most memorable Paro Olympic moment in 2012 was the first time I saw par Olympics live in London and we were there to watch the blind long jump and it was just incredible because I didn't quite know what to expect the whole stadium went completely silent and then there was the Clapping in of the athletes you know Clap by clap stride by stride to make sure that they hit the board exactly at the right time and for me that was a real moment because um I really began to understand all of the training all of the discipline all of the thinking and the fact that the whole crowd wanted and were willing on the athletes and doing their bit as well was really fantastic um former par Olympic Legend baroness tany gry Thompson she spoken this week about a very humiliating experience that she had early this week where she was coming into London on the train there was no assistance there was no help to get her off the train you had to get out of her chair crawl on the floor to get off the train you want to bring National Rail back under Labor's control can you guarantee that when that happens that experience very embarrassing will never happen again for a disabled person disgraceful unacceptable I'm glad she spoke out because I know that for that one example there are many med the other examples where people with disabilities have not been able to access transport um other facilities frankly we've got to stop that so as we reform the railways yes of course that will be in our sites um but I don't wait that long I think that this should be a basic requirement I'm very pleased and happy to go out and make that clear whether it's trains or other forms of Transport you shouldn't be able to carry people from place to place if you haven't got the facilities to ensure everybody can get safely on and off the train or plane or whatever it may be proba there are up to 32,000 young disabled children who are not getting the access to activities and sports that's required what are you going to do to ensure that the necessary and the requisite um enforcement of the national curriculum is in force to ensure that every young disabled child does get access and is included in all PE lessons in schools I think this is really important I think that the curriculum needs to be broad enough for sport and culture to be a central part of growing up for every single child whether they're a child with disabilities or not and the number of children who can't get the access that they need in relation to physical education to sport is unacceptable we need to address that we're looking at the curriculum and the way I would put it is this there will be young people and children who are going to be watching over the next few days the Paralympics children with disabilities and they're going to get that spark they're going to begin to think that could be me and they will have that amb I we have to match that ambition by making sure they have access to the sport that they need and I'm absolutely determined that we will do that and your speech this week you mentioned that it's going to get harder for everybody before things get better there are disabled people across this country who are paying more for their fuel bills per month when you talk about things getting harder for everybody did you include those disabled people who are already struggling and would you be in favor of a discounted tariff for those disabled people well where people are struggling we obviously want to put support in for them um but what I was saying earlier this week on Tuesday my speech is that we've inherited a broken economy broken public services and if we're going to fix it and we will we have to fix it we promise change and we'll bring about change but if we're going to bring about change we have to get rid of the rot completely before we do so yes it's going to be tough it's going to take longer and I need to level with the public on that this is going to be really hard but the promises the rebuild the hard work will be repaid with a much better country much better public services for for people uh with disabilities um but for everybody across the country the British prime minister talking to me earlier this morning now to the sport itself a very disappointing start for the multi-g gold medal winning par Olympic star kadina Cox she had a very distressing fall off of her bike during her 500 met time trial on the first turn she fell off of her bike and it was very distressing very shocking for the arena there she's a very much loved star of the par Olympic movement and games itself um but we'll see more of her and other events throughout these games better Joy on the track for dfine stranger she won a silver and she was presented her silver by the movie star and the Kung Fu Legends Jackie Chan and another silver came for Steve bait and Chris leam in the 4,000 meter individual Pursuit so very disappointing start for kadina Cox but a better start for the wider Paro Olympics GB and cycling team here on day one of these par Olympics