 Rhyw hwn i'r rai iawn, i'n siŵr i'r ffordd o'r ffordd o'r ffordd o'r cyfrannu'r ysgolion gan gofyn, ond y mae'r ysgolion ar y ffordd y gymryd Michael Gove. Michael, ydych chi'n fawr i'r ffordd o gweithio i'r ffordd o'r Bermingham, ond yw'r rhagwch yn ychaf o'r cyfrannu. Mae'r yw'r hoffa, dwi'n pray yw 12 oed yn y Manchistag, byddwn i'r ysgolion i'r gwaith i'r gweithio i'r gwladau yn gyfrannu, ond mae'n ymdweud ond mae'n dweud o'r cyffredig oes yn ddech chi. Ond oherwydd, rydw i'n ddim yn gweithio'r rhaid i'r cyffredig o'r cyffredig ac i'r lle. Rhaid i'n gweithio ar gyfer, Andy. Rhaid i'n gweithio. Oedd ymddangos ar Birmingham yma yma. Mae'r cyffredig yn y fath o'r byd yn hyn o'r hyn yn y lle yn y ddiolch. O'r Bwrdd Birmingham yn ychydig yn y rhaid i'r cyffredig o'r lle. ond y llynllun o'r ffodol'i ddechrau, dwi'n tro i chi'n dda, ond y cyfnodd, ond y cyfnodd a'r cyllidau'r ddweud yn ystod, chi'n dweud y ffordd o'r gwrs iawn, a y ddweud o'r ffordd o'r ddweud. Mae'r ffordd o'r ddweud yn ystod yn y newyddau newydd, roedd gyrryd, yng Nghymru, yn northfield, ac am unrhyw o'r gwrs iawn yn y ddweud, yn y ddweud hyn i hystodol yn y ffodol. Yn ystod y gallu llyfr o'r llwyddoedd yma, mae'n rhaid i'n gwneud ymlaen i'r ymddangos y coronavirus, a rhaid i'n gwneud ymlaen i'r eich eich centau ar y bwrdd, mae'n ymlaen i'r busnes, o'r hosbeth, o'r hirio'r hwnnw, a'n ymlaen i'r hwoes yn ymlaen i'r hefyd, ond mae'n rhaid i'r hefyd i'r hefyd yn y rhaid i'r hefyd. Mae'n amlwg ymlaen i'r prifyddiad o'r Prif Weinidog yn ymddangos, I remember vividly the news that the Prime Minister had been taken into hospital and then into intensive care. I think it was a moment when the whole country held its breath and rallied round. Boris made an amazing recovery. He's now back at the heart of government displaying enormous energy. He's the liveest wire in the room, but there is a lot that we do need to do because as we come up to the end of this year, not only do we need to make sure that we are dealing with the virus effectively, we've also got to build back better, our economic recovery needs to gather steam, and we also need to make sure that the particular challenges that we face at the end of the transition period in December 31 were ready for, but the new opportunities after January 1, we also take advantage of. So, Michael, I'm sure there will be mountains of discussion about the government's coordination of the attack on the pandemic, but I think this morning I want to ask you about some of the other things that you are directly responsible for, and of course we'll have some questions from delegates, virtual delegates just in a little time, but I'm hoping for a scoop in this first question and I push my luck. We know you're the man at the heart of the Brexit negotiations, so what chance this free trade deal? Well, I'm optimistic. The principal negotiator is David Frost, Lord Frost, and I'm one of his wingmen helping to make sure that we get this over the line, and it's been a tough process because the EU has never had to cope with any country leaving its orbit before, and it's a bit difficult. As we leave the nest and we become good neighbours rather than uncomfortable lodgers, the EU has to adjust, and several of the aspects of adjustment have proved difficult for the European Union, recognising that we share the same high environmental and workforce standards that they do, but we want to do things in our own way, is a bit difficult for them, and also there's a very vexed issue to do with fisheries. The EU think that they should have exactly the same access to our waters outside the European Union as they had inside, but I think that with goodwill we should be able to get a deal. The Prime Minister is talking to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen later today, and again, I suspect that there'll be one or two ups and downs on the way, but I am optimistic that we will get a deal, but if we don't, we have been making extensive preparations to be ready for anything. The British people voted for us to leave, we are determined to honour that, but obviously if we can secure a negotiated outcome and a free trade agreement, that would be hugely helpful for sectors of the economy, not least the automotive sector. Absolutely, and I have to say, take this opportunity while I have your ear, that really, really matters to the West Midlands of course, the future of the car industry, so we're very much behind you in that negotiation and hoping for that free trade deal. Well, again, Andy, you've been an amazing champion for not just the whole economy of the West Midlands, but in particular for the automotive sector, and we know that JLR and other companies are flagship British manufacturing concerns, and it's also the case that they're forward looking, I remember visiting with you, and looking at the future of transport and recognising that we're at the cutting edge of technology, we want to do everything possible to make sure that those great manufacturing companies and the thousands of jobs that depend on them are safe and are capable of taking advantage of the new opportunities that free trade will bring. Again, our colleague Liz Tross has got a free trade deal with Japan, the world's third largest economy, better than the deal that we had when we were in the EU, so let's hope we get that EU deal and that we can get the other trade agreements as part of that suite of free trade deals as well. Thank you, very encouraging that bit. Now the other big subject of course that taking us right back to last December's general election is of course levelling up, so it was so right at the heart of the Conservative promise back in December, and it's tough to keep the focus on that one when the pandemic has come and blown us and attacked us all, but I know you are absolutely resolute in that commitment, so just tell us a little bit about how you think that'll shape up. The Prime Minister, as I said during the crisis and has told us in the Cabinet that far from retreating from levelling up we need to double down, and the reason for that is that as we look at the impact of COVID on our country, it's reinforced a key insight at the heart of Boris' approach towards the future of the country, and that is that while talent is spread equally across the country, opportunity is not. And we know that there have been some vivid examples of the way in which COVID has hit some communities worse than others, and we also know that the economic difficulties that COVID has inevitably created will have an impact on some parts of the country greater than others, and so what we really need to do is to build back better by being a more cohesive country, and that means specifically making sure that in the West Midlands, in the Northwest, in Teeside and in Tyneside that we make the investments required in order to give people the economic opportunity and the chance to recover, which is so important, and that means everything from looking at free ports, which will be opportunities for all of us to make sure that there can be new, enterprising free trading centres of excellence in areas like Teeside. It also means that we need to look at big transport projects. The government has backed HS2. It's vitally important that we build on that with improved transport links across the country, but we also need to look at skills as well, and the Prime Minister outlined earlier this week his approach through the lifetime skills guarantee to making sure that vocational and technical education, so critical to our economic recovery, is something we invest in, and in one area that I'm particularly close to, we're also looking at government jobs. Far too many government jobs tend to be in the Westminster and Whitehall village. We have an amazing civil service and it's drawn its resources and people from lots of different communities. I think we now need to give back to those communities as well, and I think we need some of the big government departments and the big decision makers, not in London, but closer to where the action is in the West Midlands, the North West, Teeside and Tyneside. That is a very encouraging answer because actually I'm going to turn to the iPad now and the questions that have come in and the first one in a sense you have covered. It simply says it's from an anonymous contributor. Are you going to move government departments north and if so, will you make sure there are jobs for local people? So I think in a sense you've answered that, Michael. Yes, absolutely. And again, one of the things in the past is that people of great talent from across the United Kingdom have looked to London and felt that London is the place that they have to go in order to make sure that their career can develop. I wanted to be the case that whether you're in Middlesbrough or in Mansfield or in Manchester, that economic and career opportunity is close to home in the community that you care about. And that's part of what levelling up means and the civil service can play a part in that. And one of the things that we do need to do is to make sure that there are centres of excellence so that you have men and women in the civil service, men and women in the private sector and men and women in academia working together. And that's one of the things, if I may say so, about the West Midlands, which is you've got great higher education institutions, great further education colleges, and you've also got an amazing private sector economy. Government needs to play its part as well in helping to bring that together so that if we're looking, for example, at the future of the car industry and transport, you've got the innovation of our brightest technologists, you've got the smarts that you see in some of those top companies, but government also needs to play its part as well in the new energy technologies that will fire up that recovery. And just an example of where that's working well, which isn't about the car industry in the West Midlands. If you take Homes England, they have recently moved their second headquarters to Coventry. Brilliant that actually we've got that government agency thinking about our whole approach to building more homes, and it's been, as I understand it, extremely successful. Yes, and a part of the world that's very dear to me, the northeast of England, you have in Newcastle University excellence in the life sciences field, and I think one of the things that we do need to do is to recognise that our universities are often at the heart of economic success, and we have great universities across the UK, so in places like Newcastle we really should make the most of the constellation of talent that is there, and government has a critical role to play. Brilliant, so you've wetted the appetite of lots of people around the country for that now, so they'll all be looking forward to welcoming those government organisations. Now the next one, while we're sticking on geographies, this is from Scotland, and it simply says with the Scottish election next year, what is your message to Scottish voters who want to protect the union? Well, I think we're all aware that next May there are going to be really important elections in Wales, in the West Midlands, in Teeside and of course in Scotland, and in Scotland the choice essentially will be between Nicola Sturgeon and Douglas Ross. The Scottish Conservatives are the second largest party in Scotland and they are the strongest voice for keeping the United Kingdom together. I have friends in Scotland who are Labour and Liberal Democrat voters and have a lot of time and respect for them, but Keir Starmer recently has said that if Nicola Sturgeon were to win a mandate that he sees it, a majority at the next Holyrood Scottish Parliament elections, he might consider a referendum. I don't think a referendum isn't anyone's interests at all. So if we want to have a strong pro-union voice, then it's Douglas Ross and the Scottish Conservatives. But more broadly the question will be, what is it about the United Kingdom that is so important particularly at the moment? I think the Covid crisis has reminded us actually that we are stronger together and when it comes to the economic response that has helped to protect jobs in Scotland and livelihoods in Scotland, it's been the broad shoulders of the UK Treasury. It's been the great policy making genius of Rishi Sunak that has meant that we've been able to recover together. In a way I think we've had the best of both worlds. We've had a devolved Scottish Parliament that can make decisions close to the ground that it thinks are right and a strong UK government backing it up every step of the way. If Scotland were independent, then unfortunately the economic recovery would be much more difficult. The UK Treasury can borrow money on international markets more cheaply. The pound sterling enables us to invest in a more secure and powerful way. And of course the UK internal market means that the unfettered access that Scottish businesses have to the rest of the UK sustains more than half a million jobs. All that would be put at peril if there was constitutional uncertainty. The other thing about the United Kingdom is that it's a success story about inclusion. If you look at the UK, you've got the four different peoples together but it's more than just Scotland, Wales and England and Northern Ireland historically. Modern Britain, you'll know from the west but I know from London and Surrey is a success story of inclusion and if you look at our Conservative cabinet, Rishi, Alloch, Suella, Priti, there's no other government anywhere in the world which is so inclusive as our own and that reflects the fact that the UK is all about working together and I think if there's one lesson to take away from the difficult last 12 months it is we're stronger together and that's why the United Kingdom is something in which we want to invest and strengthen. Excellent and this won't surprise you having had the Scottish question, someone had to put a question in from Wales so to show our completeness over this and I'll ask you to be brief on this because some other big questions coming up. It seems that the Conservatives are looking at losing a lot of seats in Wales. I'm not so sure about that but what do you say to the Welsh public to stick with the Conservatives? Well I think actually there's a chance that we could have for the first time a Conservative first minister in Wales. In the last general election we won seats in Wales and we've got fantastic new MPs like Sarah Atherton and Wrexham who are doing a wonderful job for their constituents Virginia Crosby and Ines Mon, a seat that's been labored in Plaid Cymru, Conservative MP doing a brilliant job and I think the thing that we can argue is if you want investment in Wales it's far better to have Conservatives in Cardiff Bay working with Conservatives in Westminster in the interests of all and a Conservative Government in Cardiff Bay will ensure that you get value for money, investment in infrastructure, whether it's on the M4 or whether it's the links between Holyhead and Merseyside. We can work together in that area. No disrespect to the individuals in the Welsh Labour Party who are currently in office at the moment but they just don't have the ability to deliver for Wales in a way that Conservative politicians would. If I may say, that was the story of the West Midlands as well. People said there is no chance of us winning and we did and we've been to the Labour establishment so my message to the Welsh is be confident. Exactly and as a result you've been able to deliver because you're working effectively with Conservative Government in Westminster that is the secret source for Wales's economic recovery, cooperation between Cardiff and Westminster with Conservatives in power in both. Excellent. The next question comes from Councillor Ed Gretton and again it's about another issue very close to my heart actually. To boost our economy and jobs are we bringing forward as many infrastructure projects as possible particularly he's called out road but of course there's rail, internet and everything else? Yes, again it's a passion of Boris's. Leveling up is about making sure that economic opportunity is spread more equally across the country. That makes sense because if we can unleash talent in every part of our country we can perform better on the international stage. One of the things that's held us back in the past is that certain parts of the country have punched above their weight others have been overlooked and as a result the talent there hasn't been given the chance to flourish. That's bad for the individuals, bad for the communities but also bad for all of our economy and we need to work together and critical to that is linking people up. I mentioned HS2 brief the earlier controversial with some but absolutely necessary in order to make sure that the economic spine of the country is strengthened but we also need local rail infrastructure we need local road infrastructure we need to improve the public transport system and that's an investment not just in light rail and metro and in bus networks but we also as you quite rightly point out needed to think about infrastructure which will enable digital growth in the future 5G is going to be critical to that and I think we need to emulate those countries like South Korea which recognise that government investment in digital infrastructure helps unleash the private sector's creative energies to generate the jobs that will drive prosperity in the future. So councillor Ed, I think we can call that a pretty catagoric answer there Michael and I have to say thank you for the support for HS2 really critical to the Midlands going forward. Now you mentioned changes as a result of Covid and this one from Dr Mario Trabuco simply says what do you think about the working from home revolution as a chance to actually be part of the levelling up agenda through the redistribution? I think it's a very perceptive question I think that working from home has of course been enabled by the digital infrastructure that we have so people particularly obviously in office roles have found that Zoom and if I'm allowed to say Microsoft Teams have enabled people to work in new ways. I think the future for many will be a mixture of working from home and working in the office the future won't be completely one or the other it will be a combination. As human beings we thrive on social contact but it can also be the case that working from home means that it is easier to combine work and family life and it's also sometimes the case that productivity can be far greater when freed of some of those distractions and able to concentrate on the task in hand. Of course we also know that there are some jobs which you just obviously cannot do from home and that's why during the course of this crisis it's very clear that in a COVID secure workplace whether that is a factory or a school then life can go on not quite as before but people can be working in that environment that they've been used to but the key thing about the changes that have been enabled from working from home is exactly we can look at the future and say you don't need to have a concentration of people in a white hall department operating in that way. You can have the decision makers dispersed you can have people who are operating digitally who may come in for particular meetings but who can live and work and contribute to the life of the communities that they love outside London or outside some of our major urban centres. So thinking more flexibly about how we work can help with levelling up and it can also help once the economic recovery really takes hold. It can also help with making sure that people can have more time for the family life that is at the heart of the happiness of so many. Lovely. Lots more we're here on this I think over coming months. Now you touched on this a little but I'm going to push you a little bit more on it because it's a question coming from Lynette. Obviously we know there will be significant redundancies on the back of COVID despite everything that's been done that is unavoidable but the response to it Lynette asks will there be support and encouragement for UK industry and manufacturing in particular? Yes. We recognise that you can't have a successful economy in a country like the United Kingdom unless manufacturing is part of it and a successful economy depends on obviously financial business services it depends on innovation but financial business services need manufacturing as the bedrock which they support and innovation comes in many cases from manufacturing. Now that manufacturing can be in areas which Britain has led on in the past like aviation and aerospace as well as the automotive sector it can come from areas where we are strong but where we can be even stronger like pharmaceuticals it can also be in areas like life science politics and artificial intelligence and so on but we absolutely need to invest in these areas and we need to make sure that we've got the workforce required so that involves both the people who will be the technicians and the fixers of the future that's why the lifetime skills guarantee and investment in technical and vocational education counts so much but it will also come from some of the cutting edge technology in which our great universities are investing but it will also come from making sure that we have a strong free market culture in this country so people are prepared to take risks, invest and reap the reward the final thing that I would say is that of course there's going to be some inevitable as you say churn in the job market one of the key things about the lifetime skills guarantee is that it acknowledges that as some industries employ fewer people others will employ more and we need to be there for people at every stage in their life to help in the past people have worried about the job destroying impact of technology so people worried when cars were invented that would be the end of the line for people who are working as groups people obviously worried when you had some of the digital breakthroughs that we've had that would mean the end of employment in particular areas yes but it also meant that new jobs were created so one of the areas in which the UK excels which is the computer gaming industry there are thousands of jobs there employing people who are creative, highly skilled, technically adept those jobs simply didn't exist 30 years ago so there will be new jobs in the future but we need to be agile and government needs to help and we need to be there for people who at a time which is full of possibility is also potentially disorientating saying we will support you so that's why the retraining is so important so if I may just say it was lovely to hear the Prime Minister call out what we called our digital boot camps when he did his speech on Tuesday great success, piloted, great to see that now being taken nationally but it's exactly what you're talking about Michael now the next question is completely different and I know you feel very strongly about this I'll read it out word for word Sean Hegerty asks how can we help those who say they are unable to openly share their political opinion in fear of backlash from friends, family unions, employers and so on Well I do sympathise because one of the things that is a feature of our times is that you sometimes see particularly on social media what's being called cancel culture and that means that if people say something that others deemed to be beyond the pale then they're told your views are wrong or disreputable or unworthy I think free speech is so important it's the way in which society moves forward and makes progress we test ideas we should always do that in a courteous way and a respectful way and learn from others and if any of us find that a strong contrary views put forward we can always learn from that but one of the things that is particularly difficult I think is that there are some workplaces where people who are conservative or right of centre feel that it is something that they have to hide I think that we should welcome in any workplace a range and a diversity of views and one of the things that I've tried to say about government service overall is everyone who's a civil servant wants the government to succeed absolutely that's the professionalism at the heart of it but also I want people with different perspectives on life I want people who have perhaps spent a significant part of their time as a carer and who bring a particular sense of experience and compassion people who may not have had an easy time educationally in the first part of their life but who are flourishing later and who therefore know what adversity means and in the same way I think in every workplace you benefit from having people maybe some people who are conservative maybe some people who are liberal who feel that their own life experience is valued because it goes back to what we were talking about earlier countries only succeed when you think that everyone is valuable and you may disagree with someone but if you make the effort to understand you benefit as a result and we're all stronger Excellent, so Sean I hope that's encouraging answer for you and we've got time for just two more questions if we're relatively quick so the first one comes from Lynn Jameson and again I think this is very interesting it's been a really tough time in government because of the challenges across a whole question of communication during the crisis unprecedented challenge really so what are your reflections on that and how government needs to think about the communication process Yes it has been difficult in particular because of Covid it's a new virus and we've all had to respond as we discover more about how it works and people understandably say well we were recommended to do this a few months ago and now we're recommended to do that and the reason why is that as we know more about the virus we can be more precise in the advice that we offer but I would say that my friend Matt Hancock has been very good at establishing clear messages at critical moments so the hands face space message about how we protect others and also the rule of six some people don't like it but it is certainly clear about how we operate these are real gains we have an amazingly gifted communicator in our prime minister and also a very warm and authoritative communicator in our Chancellor of the Exchequer I think the important thing for all of us to do is just to make sure that we provide them with the platforms in order to get that message out because we also briefly have a media and I used to be a journalist on trying to say oh there's confusion and thrives on criticism that's fair enough, that is their job but our job as conservatives is to make sure that the clear leadership that the PM, the Chancellor Matt and others are showing is reflected in the messages that we get across and of course the other thing is that for people listening and watching if you think there are ways in which we can sharpen our message let us know because we benefit from having a huge array of members who care about this country and want us to get it right and of course all that will be tested as we move through the next stages of Brexit now the last question maybe I've done it as they do on the television and the radio slightly different question at the end a little bit more personal question so you've held all sorts of senior jobs in government and the question comes from Jake Attenborough and it simply says which has been your favourite and why the job that I least expected to have has been my favourite and that was being environment secretary I loved being education secretary because it's a passion of mine being justice secretary and working in prisons trying to break the cycle of crime was fascinating but as environment secretary I had a chance to play a role in making sure that the I think one of the biggest challenges that we'll face in the next 100 years which is climate change and the loss of biodiversity we could develop the right answers to that I met amazing people people not just in the world of agriculture and fisheries but also people who are responsible for maintaining and enhancing the beauty of this country one of the wonderful things about the whole of the United Kingdom is that notwithstanding some of the problems that we've had over the last 20 or 30 years it's still an amazingly beautiful biodiverse naturally rich place and you can find nature if you look for it in the heart of our cities as well as in our countryside and we need to value nature more I think all of us recognize that in the course of this crisis because as Emmanuel Macron said there is no planet B we need to make sure that we hand on this earth in a better state to the next generation and having a chance to play a part in that role and to meet those amazing people and to contribute to perhaps one of the most important causes of our time but that was a privilege and I suspect Michael you look back in years to come some of the things you planted the seeds of it that's not a terrible pun to see come through I do hope so but lastly can I just say a huge thank you for your honesty and openness in this and hopefully we've covered lots of ground in a really short time piece of time thank you so much Andy and good luck in the next few months for anyone who's listening one of the most important decisions that people will be making next year is who will be the mayor of the west midlands combined authority and Andy I hope that people recognize the amazing job that you've done and that you are returned with a thumping majority that's very generous of you thank you very much Michael really appreciate your support thank you