 Ym ni oedd ymddangos i'r Gwll Pwyllty 50. Yn oedd yn pad yn cael wiren, mae hyn yn unig. Dyna'r hynny'n ei wneud, yr cofnodig a'r cofnodig a'r cofnodig ar y cwrs dros mae'n gweithio y cair yma ar gyfer y canneddau. Yn yn y gallu'r ysgriffflennu am y tynnu ym Ynrydd Creserthio RennAll ac ar y tynnu pryd Leogol, yn yna'r gweithio efallai ardal o gweith, cerdry i'r eich dweud yng Ngheirio'n gyfan neu Ion Boris Johnson, ac rydw i'n ddweud y gweithio y hashtag ar Twitter, ddim ddigon o'r ffordd. A o'r Facebook, ddim ddigon o'r ffordd. I hope you enjoy this evening's hostings and I hope you enjoy the chance to question our candidates. So, let's get going and I'm going to introduce you to our host for this evening, Hannah Vaughan Jones. Hannah, over to you. Brandon, thank you very much. Hello everyone, I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones, I'm a journalist, I'm a CNN anchor as well. It's my privilege to be at this hosting, the second of course of 16 overall that we're going to see in this leadership contest. Now, this one is a bit different as Brandon has already stated. This one's digital only which means, whereas in all the other hustings it's only the Conservative Party members who get to ask questions of the future leader. This time it means the floor is open to you. And you can ask questions as Brandon was just saying either on Facebook or on Twitter. Just go to the Conservatives pages and Twitter feeds as well. I should stress as well that the party, not the chairman's office nor the candidates or their campaign teams have been privy to the questions that we've already had in advance. As they come in, I will just cycle through them as quickly as I can and try to get as broad a variety as possible. If you are able to just leave your name with your question and the hashtag of course and also perhaps say where you are in the country because it will be interesting to get a big broader spectrum from across the UK as well. Now, the format for this evening, slightly different again to the other hustings as well, just an hour long, the two parties have flipped a coin for this and Jeremy Hunt is going to be the first candidate up. He will give a three minute statement and then we'll go straight into the questions and answers section. Then we'll be a very quick turnaround and Boris Johnson will then take the lectern as well for his three minutes and questions and answers. So enough from me for now. Let's introduce the first candidate running to be the next party leader and the next prime minister of this country, Jeremy Hunt. Well, good evening ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming along to this exciting first online hustings for the Conservative Party and we are in a very serious situation for our party and our country. But don't lose heart. If you choose me, I'll be the first prime minister we've ever had who has a background as an entrepreneur. That means negotiation is what I did every single day of my life and right now we've got to negotiate our way outside this crisis and I will do that by being someone who the EU will engage with but also someone who doesn't blink and someone who's prepared to walk away if we don't get what we need. I'm also someone who is Foreign Secretary wants Britain to walk tall in the world. My dad was in the Navy. I followed him around the country from Plymouth to Portsmouth from Surrey to Scotland and I know how important Britain is as a country that upholds democratic values across the world and that's why I've said I will increase our defence spending to beyond 2% of GDP on top of our 0.7% aid commitment because I want us to send a signal to the world at the point of Brexit that the Britain that has had such a crucial role in defending both our security and the values we believe in, that Britain is here, it's back and our voice is going to be loud. I'll also be the first Prime Minister who's been responsible for our NHS. We conservatives should always have a social mission and I want our next social mission to be education. Nearly a quarter of our primary school leavers still don't reach the right standard for reading and writing and I want us to be the conservative government that abolishes illiteracy and really says the party of opportunity is going to make sure that every single young person has opportunities. As they start out on their life. And finally politics is about winning elections and I'm a campaigner. I'll be the first Prime Minister for half a century to have won a marginal seat and I make two promises. By the time we fight an election again I will get more young people to vote conservative as the party of aspiration we need to have young people on board. And secondly I won't fight an election until we've left the European Union because to do so will be absolutely fatal for our party. The crocodile lurking under the water of British politics is the most hard left dangerous anti-British anti-Western Labour party we have ever had. It will be a total betrayal of our country and our values to let them anywhere near Downing Street and I never will. Thank you very much. Right let's get straight to some questions then people have been writing in already and one here on the unity of the Union of the United Kingdom. Clovis says on Facebook how do you propose to unite all the countries in the UK after Brexit so that we stay together? Well I don't want to go so far as to say I'm the living embodiment of the union but I do have Welsh blood and I have Irish blood and I had two very happy years of my childhood in Scotland. And I just want to be very straightforward about this. I will never allow our union to be broken up. Never never never. I want to give a specific on this though because I think it is important. I think we were complacent before the 2014 independence referendum in Scotland. We had what felt like a close shave at the time and I think we've been complacent after that referendum. We need to be constantly thinking about how to strengthen the bonds of our union and I want to make sure that we're doing that. OK Jim on Facebook has written in to say as you have both held the office of Foreign Secretary, both candidates that is, what do you consider to be our greatest current international security threat and what is our greatest international economic opportunity post Brexit? Well it's a very good question and the biggest threat at the moment is clearly the tension in the Middle East and as Foreign Secretary you wake up every morning worrying about that and this situation is not one where either Iran or the United States wants a war. But a bit like with World War I sometimes the most terrible conflicts can be triggered by accident and that's what we have to absolutely make sure does not happen. But I think the bigger strategic challenge because I think a job of a Foreign Secretary is always to look beyond the next few months to the next few years and the next few decades is the rise of China. And we don't know really which direction China is going to go in. It's not an democracy. We don't share all their values but we want China to be a terrific success and we want to be friends with them. And I spend a lot of time thinking about China not just because of my wife, got the nationality right. But I spend a lot of time thinking about China because I think that is something that we need to get right and we need to find a way to live alongside China as it grows. On the question of Iran you've said recently that we stand by the United States. Does that mean to the detriment of the relationship that the UK has with European allies going forward? Well actually on Iran we have a disagreement with the United States. We signed up to the Iran nuclear deal which the United States originally signed up to and then came out and I do very strongly believe that today the situation would be a whole lot more dangerous if Iran had nuclear weapons. So on that we have a disagreement with the United States administration. But what I never have a disagreement with United States is what President Trump said when he came here just a few weeks ago for the D-Day celebrations. He said that the alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom is the greatest in history. And I think we always need to remember that there are no countries that have done more than are two countries to defend freedom, human rights, the rule of law, our values and that's why we should always treat that relationship as absolutely sacred. President Trump also made some comments about the NHS when he was over as well and some controversial ones. Nigel on Facebook says do you believe in the NHS concept of treatment free at the point of demand? Yes I do and actually Nigel the most popular tweet I've ever done was one when I took on President Trump when I was health secretary and disagreed with something that he'd said about the NHS. I think this is part of our DNA in this country. My dad bought me up saying that one of the best things about Britain was it doesn't matter who you are, rich or poor, north or south, young or old, city or countryside, you don't have to worry if you can't afford health care because in this country it's free. And we are I think one of the first countries in the world to introduce universal health coverage and since then most of the rest of the world has wanted to follow suit and I think we can be really proud of what the NHS stands for across the world. What was it that President Trump said in that tweet that you disagreed with and how would you address concerns about creeping privatisation? Well you know I was health secretary for longer than anyone else has been and I think the proportion of NHS money spent on the private sector went up by one or two percent. I mean the tiny, tiny fraction was sort of six percent, seven percent or something like that from memory so there's no privatisation agenda. I took the power to decide that away from politicians and gave it to doctors on the front line. What President Trump saw was some demonstrations for the NHS in London I think and he tweeted this shows that the NHS is a national disaster or something like that so I said no. I think it's the people, even though they probably disagree with me, probably even a few placards saying they disagree with me, they are actually demonstrating because they love the NHS and so he misunderstood what they were saying. Let's get back to some more questions then. Jonathan on Twitter has said both of you have talked about securing the rights of EU citizens no matter how we leave. What talks have you or will you have to make sure the rights of British citizens in the EU are also protected on day one? Well I've been as foreign secretary responsible for having discussions with all European countries about the rights of Brits in European countries and they've all said that they want to make sure that Brits are able to carry on about a million, just under a million, living and working in EU countries as they do now. If we had a no deal situation then it becomes more difficult. I will give full rights to the three million Europeans in this country, they do a fantastic job. I mean I saw what 20,000 nurses, 10,000 doctors from the EU, what the contribution they make is absolutely phenomenal. I believe that most European countries would reciprocate in that situation, I think they would do the right thing but of course you can't guarantee that. A question about infrastructure now, Alex on Facebook has said as Prime Minister would your government support major transport infrastructure projects like HS2 and the third runway he threw? Well I'm aware that what I'm going to say now is not going to be popular with all Conservative Party members but I will back the third runway and I will back HS2 because if the Conservative Party is not the party for the whole country we are nothing and I think it is absolutely essential at the point of Brexit that we show some confidence to the rest of the world and HS2 is our biggest infrastructure project. What would it say to the whole world if we paused it or said we weren't going to do it anymore? It would say has this country lost its mojo and I want us to be the fastest growing, most dynamic, most exciting, greenest, most high tech country in Europe and for that we've got to have these big projects. Back to party politics now really, Peter on Twitter says if you become Prime Minister how confident are you that you can beat Corbyn and Farage at the next general election with a healthy majority? Well I'm very confident I'm a campaigner but you know if we have an election before we've left the European Union it doesn't matter how brilliant a campaigner it doesn't matter how charismatic a leader you are we will be thrashed and we'll put Corbyn in Downing Street so my absolute commitment is that I won't provoke a general election until we've left the European Union but once we have and I believe I can negotiate an exit from the EU and I said I'll leave without a deal if that's the only way to leave once we have then there is so much opportunity for us to put Corbyn back in his place because the truth is that all the things that Corbyn talks about standing out for people on low incomes the party that actually does that is the Conservative party which was the party that introduced the national living wage which is the party that's created a thousand jobs every single day that it's been in office which is the party that's got house building up to near record levels it's the Conservative party and we don't just talk the talk when it comes to social justice we walk the walk If the key to general election success is winning over those voters who've turned to the Brexit party then how do you intend to win them back? It's very very simple the only way to win back voters who've gone to the Brexit party is to Brexit we've just got to get on with it and then we'll get them back How do you reassure people that you're not just going to seek extension after extension because you have said that you are open to perhaps going further than October 31 in Halloween? There's very little difference in practice between my position and that of Boris I have said it's true that if we got to the last week of October we had a deal with the European Union there was some legislation going through the House of Commons it hasn't quite got through I'm not going to rip it all off rip it all up and leave without a deal Can you tell us with the British public about that as to whether a deal was feasible and likely? We're all going to know by the time we get to October if there is a deal to be done we will know that and I have been very clear and I've said in this leadership campaign that if we get to October and there is no prospect of a deal then I'm prepared to leave without a deal I will leave without a deal and I will as Prime Minister have the mandate to do that because I've said so ahead of being elected but I would do so with a heavy heart because of the risks to businesses up and down the country and the risks to our union but in the end you know I'm Foreign Secretary I've been to 29 countries as Foreign Secretary in the last year and everywhere I go people respect this country because we are one of the most robust democracies in the world and what does that mean we're a country where people like me do what people like you tell us to do and that means we're going to leave the European Union because that is what the democratic wish of the people was A question of character now which has obviously come up quite a lot over the last week or so Alex on Twitter says everyone has their own faults could you explain how you would mitigate the potential damage caused by your own? Very good question from Alex Except that everyone does indeed have their faults I certainly have plenty of faults and so that's why I think it's very important that you know this leadership campaign does not become one where we talk about each other's personalities talk about the decisions you take as Prime Minister of course the judgments you would take faced with the national crisis that we're in of course How would I mitigate against my own faults? Well I think one of the things that I have found in the jobs that I've done is that it's incredibly important to communicate with the people that you are responsible for and I've said before that in the junior doctors strike I was doing the right thing but I didn't get the message across as effectively as I needed to junior doctors who are very hardworking people So as Prime Minister I will do social media very differently to how it's ever been done before because I think in this day and age you need to be talking to the people that you're responsible for the whole time not just at set piece occasions there's got to be constant contact and it's very easy to get busy and wrapped up in big matters of state and forget the need to communicate So that's what I'll do Did your opponent have faults? Look everyone's got faults but I think it would demean this competition if we started pointing figures at each other because he could find just as many faults in me I'm sure if he looked at me and you know so I don't think we should go there Another question and this is coming from Twitter so thank you all to everyone so far for sending your questions in again use the hashtag ask the next PM Dehena says how will you ensure that the north gets its fair share of government spending and of future economic growth? Well this is really important because the Conservative party wins the majority of seats in the south east, the home counties, the seats that I represent but we can never form a government unless we win seats in the midlands and the north and on principle if we are going to be the government of the United Kingdom we have to be a government that wants to spread prosperity throughout the whole country I've talked about HS2 but let me give you two other things Northern Powerhouse Rail, I'm backing it, we'll do it and I've said many times I think our big opportunity is to be the world's next Silicon Valley I think you know with our top universities, with our tech entrepreneurs we've got more of those than anywhere else in Europe with our life sciences industries it really could be Silicon Valley and Britain the two great centres of tech innovation and we've got a tech triangle the London Oxford Cambridge triangle but I will have a northern tech triangle as well so that the north of our country also gets to benefit from that tech revolution What about specifically on the Northern Powerhouse and Rail in particular what additional funding are you committed to? Well I have looked at the funding for HS2 for Northern Powerhouse Rail for the roll out of fibre optic cable which we need to do much more quickly than the 2033 target that we've got at the moment and my fiscal rule is that borrowing will fall as a proportion of GDP over the economic cycle because we should not be racking up debts for future generations and all these numbers are affordable within that envelope Will some of these infrastructure projects fall by the wayside in the event of a no deal Brexit? Not if I'm Prime Minister no because I think it's really important if we have an economic shock like that that we show confidence to the world and that we demonstrate that we are going to be the most modern dynamic entrepreneurial economy we're going to do these big infrastructure projects I lived for a couple of years in Japan and they had their first high speed train between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964 two years before I was born we're going to have ours in 2026 it'll be better than the Japanese one but it will be a little bit late and I don't think we should make that mistake again Back to Brexit now, Steve on Facebook is asking would you support a unilateral reduction of tariffs post Brexit to a free trading nation? This of course harks back to the ongoing row over GAT 24 what a no deal Brexit would mean and the different interpretations of it Well first of all I think we've got to knock this GAT 24 thing on the head you can only get an agreement not to introduce tariffs if both sides agree to that so there isn't... I'm afraid there isn't a no deal route to take advantage of GAT 24 I'm not going to get drawn into those kinds of comments and I certainly wouldn't say it's a lie because that suggests that someone is doing something deliberately and I just don't think we should get into that discussion but it is factually the case that you need both sides to consent to article 24 of GAT but to answer your question what would I do in terms of tariffs because it's a free trading nation so I would never want to put up tariffs if we could possibly avoid it I think if you look at the growth of other countries around the world they've generally avoided tariffs however there are specific sectors which I think you need to look at carefully whether it's the ceramic sector or the farming sector where on a temporary basis we might have tariffs just to make sure that the economic shock was mitigated Litsa on Facebook says, do you propose any reform to combat electoral fraud for example to prevent the abuse of the postal voting system? We do need to combat electoral fraud but the big innovation that we need and Brandon will probably kill me for saying this because I'm not sure what the Conservative Party's official position on this is but we do need to find a way to introduce online voting because the whole world is going online if we can bank online, if we can do our Christmas shopping online if we can book our holidays online surely we can find a way that is fraud proof to have online voting and that is the way the world is going and I think that will encourage much more participation in our democracy A question about the fishing industry now Anthony on Facebook, what are your plans to restore the UK fishing industry? Well I was in Aberdeen and in fact the largest white fish market in Europe on Sunday at the weekend and it's pretty impressive I have to say and when you talk to the fishing industry they say that Brexit is the biggest opportunity the industry has had for half a century because under the terms of the common fisheries policy we only keep 40% of our catch but independent coastal states like Norway keep 85% of their catch and so it's a very big opportunity for us to leave the EU and so my pledge is that we will remain an independent coastal state and we will negotiate fishing quotas on an annual basis Looking to the armed forces now do you think that soldiers from the 1970s and 80s should face criminal prosecution for things that happened in for example Northern Ireland? No I don't and it's a very difficult issue and I want to solve that issue because I've had constituents who've come and talked to me about it and I think people who have served their country coming to the end of their lives deserve our gratitude for their service but I don't want to pretend that there aren't difficulties in solving this issue and the main thing and I want to be honest about this the peace in Northern Ireland was hard one and under the Belfast Good Friday Agreement there is a need to treat both sides in the same way however angry we may have felt about what happened so this is a difficult issue to solve but I absolutely do think that we need to get a better deal for our armed forces This is a question from Jose on Twitter In 2014 there was just under 24,000 knife and sharp instrument offences and in 2018 just under 40,000 and this year so far is looking to be at a record high What will you do to reduce these numbers and gain control of the situation? Well I think it's the right question to ask I do think the reduction in police numbers went too far I think it's very important that we as conservatives and also it's important that folks at home watching understand the difficult decisions that we had to take in 2010 when we had the worst financial crisis since the Second World War and because we took those difficult decisions and put the economy back on its feet I was able to negotiate an extra £20 billion for the NHS in my last period as health secretary so we were right to take those decisions but in one or two areas I think that with the benefit of hindsight we can see it went too far and the reduction in police numbers is one and the social care system is another so that is something I would look to change There has been another question about that as well about the impact on police morale whether you accept the fact that morale is low as a result of that reduction and whether you would make a commitment to numbers I do make a commitment to increase police numbers I'm not going to give an answer on air now because I think it's something that needs work needs to be done but yes as I said I think we went too far on that Darren on Twitter again has said what was the most significant thing you learnt from being a foreign secretary that you think you would take then into the role of prime minister as a foreign secretary obviously going into the role of prime minister I think in foreign policy you always have to balance up the need to be friendly with other countries with the need to be tough in standing up for British interests and I think I knew this in theory before but I've seen it in practice as foreign secretary and when I was health secretary I made it my mission to listen to patients as well as to the doctors and nurses who do such a great job but to make sure as the elected representative I was always listening to the people who were using the NHS and that's why I try as foreign secretary to listen to people like Nazanin Zagari Rackliff's husband Richard the families of people who've got loved ones in other countries and you know let's be clear there will be a diplomatic price to be paid for countries that don't treat our citizens properly and that is I'm afraid not the only example across the world This will probably be the final question then this is Alexis on Facebook lots of questions have come in about social care and this is no different when are county councils going to take mental health seriously in the education setting and provide suitable education and as children are being failed through the lack of provision to meet their needs right now? Well I will never forget as health secretary getting a letter from a father whose daughter, teenage daughter had killed herself I obviously won't say any names and I won't even say the part of the country but what was sad was that this daughter was known to us in the NHS but we hadn't spotted the degree of risk that she was at with really tragic consequences and when I looked into this and started to try and understand the issues around mental health better I discovered that nearly half of all mental health conditions are established before the age of 14 so the real trick with mental health is to catch these conditions early so I set up a programme when I was health secretary that said we're going to have mental health support in every secondary school in the country that is going to mean employing an extra 19,000 people it's going to take time to train those people up so it's not going to be an overnight solution but if we did that we would be the first country in the world to really say that we're taking children's mental health seriously and as part of that we've got to encourage people to talk about it because the other thing I learnt is that if we all feel low from time to time it's a totally normal thing but if you don't say anything to your friends and the people around you they can't help you and that's something that we've all got to change as a society Jeremy Hubb your time is up Jeremy Hubb, thanks very much indeed thanks very much so one candidate down one still to come obviously Boris Johnson will be making his way through very shortly we are still streaming as I understand it live on Facebook on the Conservatives page and you can also still watch this on Twitter as well a couple of announcements just to make if we haven't had a chance I haven't had a chance to ask your question tonight and you want to say something that's perhaps a bit more detailed as well you still can to views.conservatives.com forward slash leadership and you can then of course let the next Prime Minister know what matters most to you so that address again for those people who perhaps find that there isn't enough space in the comment box or I haven't had enough time to read out your questions if you've got something more detailed to say the address is views.conservatives.com forward slash leadership now as I said at the very beginning this is a slightly different style and we're going to get straight on with it with the next candidate now please welcome Boris Johnson good evening thank you Hannah, good evening everybody thank you very much thank you so much great to be here and very exciting to join everybody who's watching online or by whatever means you're communicating with us listen folks, I think that I'm the right person to unleash on this particular project now because our party clearly is facing a crisis we're losing votes both to the New Brexit party and to the Liberals I've never known us to be down on 17 points in the polls I've never known an election when we scored only 9 points it was in the European elections so we need to do three things and we need to do them well number one we need to come out of the European Union on October 31st and we need to get it done and I would respectfully say that we need somebody who believes in that project who's campaigned on that project for many years and who knows how to get a good deal out of Brussels and it is absolutely vital that we prepare for a no deal outcome if we're going to get the deal that we need and I don't think that's where we're going to end up I think it's a million to one against but it is vital that we prepare and I think actually that's agreed amongst everybody standing in this or the last two people standing in this contest number two we need to unite our party and unite our country and I'm not sure what I would like to do is bring the whole country together in the way that I think I was able to bring London together if you look at where London was 11 years ago when I became mayor people talked about a tale of two cities and we lifted the whole place up it was people at the bottom of society the bottom quartile who actually saw their life expectancy increase the fastest and we did it through infrastructure through cutting crime massively and using new technology that is the formula that is the way we should be bringing our whole country together and I want to raise education funding I want to put in fantastic infrastructure across the north across the midlands Wales the south west there's a huge amount that we can do and of course a policy that I'm delighted has now also become common ground we should massively accelerate fiber broadband for the entire country there are parts of there are pueblos in Spain where they have better access to full fiber than we do in whole towns in the UK lastly but most importantly we want to get ready we want to mobilize our party our country get ready to fend off and I don't want an early election at all I want to keep going for as long as we possibly can but then we must get ready to defeat Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party who would be an economic and political disaster for Britain I would just remind you that the last time I had to face an emanation of the London Labour left in an election our party was 17 points behind in London when we came from behind and defeated we did it then we can do it again and I hope with your support that we will thank you very much so over to our online audience now and I'll start with the same question started with your opponent Jeremy Hunt this is from Clovis on Facebook and she says how do you propose to unite all the countries in the UK after Brexit so that the union stays together? well thank you I think that is a crucial question it's often asked and particularly people ask of Scotland and they say wouldn't the Scottish people Scots be more likely to break away and I say on the contrary Hannah they'd be less likely to break away because actually if you do Brexit sensibly and effectively you take away so much of the ammunition of the SMP because after all are they really going to want to rejoin the European Union to join the euro to join Schengen to submit Scotland to all the full panoply of European laws an independent country of course they're not with all the problems and complexities that were set up of course they're not and actually get Brexit done right I think we can cement and intensify the union and funnily enough there are things that you need to do on coming out of the out of the EU legally to underpin the whole UK single market and we will use every opportunity to strengthen the union not just with Scotland but also obviously with Northern Ireland as well I believe as a matter of policy when it comes to fighting other parties which I've been doing for a very long time in the name of the Conservative party don't give them the oxygen of publicity and that works I think when I was fighting it's a pretty clear now when I was fighting absolutely not when I was fighting the second time I think I fought in London I'm not certain that UKIP even stood against me that what you do is you talk about what you're doing we should be proud as Conservatives of our agenda we're going to take this country out of the European Union on October the 31st and fulfil the mandate of the people that's what we're going to do and in so doing we will take the wind out of the sails of the two other parties that I've mentioned that have sprouted like puffballs saprophytically feeding of the decay in trust in politics at the moment that's what we're going to do and we're going to prick those puffballs if that's what you do to a puffball saying with Brexit then Nuno on Facebook says what will be your stance on immigration from other European countries and how hard will you work in order to prevent your immigration policies from being seen as xenophobic don't forget folks that when I was mayor and indeed throughout my political career I really don't think there's been any other mainstream Tory politician who has been so strongly committed to our society being open to talent and open to immigration look at every single speech I've ever made as mayor of London or indeed as foreign secretary but I do think it should be controlled and I do believe therefore that it is right to a gopher, an Australian style points based system so that the needs of the UK economy can be properly met yes I do want talented people to be able to come here and yes I do want the agricultural sector to be able to satisfy their requirements as well it's incredibly important but it's got to be done on the basis of a system of democratic control and so what I would like to do is get my advisory committee to look really properly at the Australian style points based system Would you go as far as to secure the rights of EU citizens in the UK your opponents have done that? Well I think I said it the other night I'm glad that obviously so many policies are suddenly miraculously becoming common ground between us but that's good these are acts of theft which we conserves wholeheartedly condone I'm absolutely in favour of that this is something that frankly we should have done three years ago and actually if you look at Hansard for I think the Monday or the Tuesday after the referendum I stood up behind the then Home Secretary in the House of Commons and said that we should immediately make a super-erogatory gesture to the 3.2 million guarantee their rights in law in the UK just because that's the right thing to do they contribute to our society they're law-abiding people by and large and they deserve that protection lots of lots of questions coming in over the nature of your cabinet should you become Prime Minister Alan said on Facebook will you appoint a passionate Brexit Chancellor to make sure the Treasury takes a more positive approach to Brexit? I certainly think that we want a government that takes a more positive approach and let me perhaps leave it at that because I think it would be I've made no promises to anybody about this question I haven't I've been I've learned a terrible lesson from three years ago I've made no promises whatever not that I've made anybody then but he got incredibly complicated I've made no promises and I think that's the right way to do it but we will have a very talented government I really believe this and I can see lots of colleagues actually here in this audience tonight I don't think in all the time I've been really following Tory politics there's ever been a time when there's been so much talent in the House of Commons on the Tory benches I've never known it so there's a lot to choose from I think you may have offered in Dale a cabinet position the other on Saturday but anyway we'll go over that you'll have to seek election first Rowan on Twitter says as a young Conservative myself how would you get young people to vote Conservative at the next to general election? I think number one it's about housing and home ownership the prospect of home ownership number two we've got to talk up the incredible things that we're doing on the environment and these are things that passionately engage young people and I think the third point to remember is that in my experience I've been asked this question literally for the last 25 years young people really in the end they're going to want all the same things they're going to want good jobs they're going to want economic progress but there's one crucial thing that I think we can do to help young people to get there and that is somehow to alleviate what I think is at the moment the excessive burden of debt as a result of their university education and whether it's heard as a result of their fees or their maintenance costs we need to do something to help now the solution may lie in the interest rate or it may lie elsewhere I think we need to look at all of it but we've got to do something because there's no doubt that is a key thing but there's a whole package of things we should be doing for young people David on Facebook says the UK was and still is in some areas a top level engineering powerhouse what is your position on supporting engineering sectors which have been third place do you say the financial and certain technology sectors I think that's a brilliant question and thank you because I agree with that and this is the UK was the home of the first industrial revolution thanks to the innovative brilliance of British engineers and they came up with solutions to things and they devised whatever it happened I hope you have a long list of things that were invented here from the theory of nuclear chain reaction to the machine gun to you name it and it's still happening here we are the world's leaders in battery technology unbelievable a fact I owe to a colleague who told me about it a year ago I didn't believe it but it's true so the 21st century motors all the pioneering stuff is still going to be done in this country 200 years on it's absolutely incredible and to promote engineers we've got to do more for further education in this country and more for practical qualifications because absolutely to encourage girls into STEM and we did a lot of that when I was mayor we had a whole program to get girls doing coding because that is fantastically important back to Brexit now Mitchell on Facebook says Boris if you cannot get a deal through Parliament before October 31st to ensure a no deal exit would you call a general election or ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament it would be absolutely crazy for any of us to think of going to the country of calling a general election before we get Brexit done If you can't get it through Parliament what do you do? Do you suspend Parliament? I think the first thing is to recognise that politics has changed since March 29th and I think colleagues do see that we are facing not just the Tory party but also Labour we are facing an existential threat we may be on 17 points but they are on 19 points and they managed with heroic incompetence in the recent council elections the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn we all need to get this thing done and we need to move forward and that's why I think that they will want to get Brexit over the line on October 31st and then move forwards and when that election comes eventually I just remind you that I think we are going to need to be ready to wallop Corbyn for six and I repeat my earlier point I think I am certainly the best place to do it If time is against you which most would argue it is if you become Prime Minister as far as Brexit is concerned would you consider suspending Parliamentary recess the summer recess? I am a great believer in the natural common sense of my friends and colleagues on the Tory benches I think that common sense is breaking out across the House of Commons I think we can get this thing done without having to resort to such a desperate expedient and I am just looking at some of friends looking at me with what they call a wild semise anxious about their summer holidays I think we can get this done my friends without having to suspend recess There are a lot of people who have written in with questions asking specifically that in the real world companies when there's an existential crisis or any kind of crisis holidays are cancelled why doesn't that apply for MPs? I think that maybe the answer to that question very frankly is that I'm not convinced that Parliament can necessarily sort out the problem that Parliament has helped to create I think perhaps more sittings of Parliament not what we want is everybody coming together coming together to in a spirit of responsibility collegiality and let's get this thing done suggest that you are prepared to sort of bypass Parliament in order to get your deal through no I don't think I didn't pick that up from my answer I was listening to it as I said it didn't seem to me it didn't seem to me that I said that at all I know there is a look there are some people who talk about I think you are driving Hannah at this proroging thing is that what you want to come to look look I just returned to my earlier point I think our colleagues really are starting to come together they are thinking about this in a very mature and sober way I am not attracted to archaic devices like proroging let's get this thing done as proud members of a representative democracy that asks the people of this country a question that received a very clear answer promised faithfully to put that answer into effect and now we got to do it Steve on Facebook says would you support a unilateral reduction of tariffs post Brexit to a free trading nation I think that to any free trading nation on the principle that that Adam Smith would say that that was the economically sensible thing to do I think we would have to look at it I think I would be more interested obviously in bilateral reductions if we are talking about non EU countries I think obviously we are going to want to do free trade deals with others and the work will begin pretty much straight away on that but I don't think we want unilaterally to lift our tariffs and forgo the opportunity to negotiate better access for UK firms to their markets when you say the work will begin straight away is that as soon as you enter 10 Downing Street or is that on November 1 well the work is actually Liam to be fair has already done a great deal of preparatory work in so far as he's been legally allowed to do it under the doctrine as you know sincere cooperation with the EU it's been quite difficult for him to make much progress sorry, forgive me, Liam Fox trade secretary there is clearly as soon as we come out November 1 legally that's it we take back control of our tariff schedules in Geneva there are things that we can already start to do and we can offer them in anticipation of the completion of that deal with the EU that's a fantastic moment for the United Kingdom we should be proud of that we should be going on that and it will also mean that we have to complete the FTA with the EU and make sure that we've got to deal with them too okay, Catherine Facebook says please outline your housing policy particularly with a view on the leasehold scandal well I think that we have too many people who simply cannot get the housing they need and I want to see more housing more possibilities of home ownership for people across the country particularly for young people and say my policy on housing is to encourage better more housing but not on green belt sites and I think it's very very important to be clear about this I think we've had a lot of pressure on the south east of England and it comes frankly in areas where it's caused a great deal of unrest and a lot of good conservative councillors lost their seats in the recent elections because of the protest against the rate of construction on the green belt now we've got to be very careful about what we do the answer is to use good transport infrastructure to liberate development on brownfield sites and that's another way to do it and I would if you look at what we did at Vauxhall Battersea Nine Elms we were able to get huge developments going there by extending the northern line and if Sadiq Khan had any gumption at all he would be going ahead now with cross rail 2 which has the potential to generate that whole area I think the conservative goal at the moment let me tell you Hannah, in the Lower Lee Valley alone you could build 200,000 homes on brownfield sites if you got a cross rail 2 going I'm not going to but we're not building enough at the moment that's the truth but there are areas where you can do it and if you want a vision for the country and how we can take this country forward we've got to recognise that there is huge pressure on housing and on the cost of housing in the south east of England because we haven't got that levelling up of the whole of the country and if you put in better infrastructure and if you put in full fibre broadband and if you increase the quality of education around the country then you'll actually enable people who are currently migrating leaving towns around the UK to come to the great metropolis and come to the south east the most productive region in the whole of Europe you'll enable them to make their lives start their businesses in those towns and to bring jobs and growth to those areas and that is what we should be doing and if you look at what we did in London I hate to bang on about this but it is true we were able with great transport infrastructure to diversify the hubs and the nodes of economic growth and that's the way to do it lift up around the country Can you outline your housing policy with a view on the leasehold scandal Well remind me what Catherine would explain exactly what she wants to do She just says Catherine on Facebook says please outline your housing policy particularly with a view on the leasehold scandal I don't know exactly which leasehold scandal she's referring to but I will be happy to write to her Catherine you're going to get a personal letter I will write to you and do my best to help Stephen on Facebook I don't want to make a pledge now but I've indicated earlier that that is one of the areas where I think people are under particular pressure Steve on Twitter says I work in steel in the UK where we face an enormously uneven playing field Steel makers only pay half as much for electricity in France than they do in the UK How would you level that playing field I think that is a massive issue I think that is a huge issue I think that is a huge issue I think that is a massive issue and I think we need to look at the cost of electricity in this country and we need to consider whether there are things we can do on state aids that are currently forbidden by EU rules and there may be things we can do on procurement that are forbidden by OGEU processes that would enable us to help steel companies and to help the workers at Scanthorpe I mean there may be things that we can do I really feel for what is going on there and I would certainly want to help I ask this question to Jeremy Hunt as well this is from Jim on Facebook as you have both held the office of Foreign Secretary what do you consider to be our greatest current international security threat and what is our greatest international economic opportunity post Brexit I think that the reality is that we face a a variety of of different threats we face clearly a security threat from terrorism which results from is generated by associated with an arc of instability in the Middle East running through to South Asia we clearly face a real problems from our relationship with Russia and the way Russia behaves and we need to manage that and it's very very difficult and I was very proud that when I was Foreign Secretary we faced a very serious challenge when the Screeper poisoning took place in Salisbury and we were tasked with trying to persuade other countries to support the UK by expelling Russian spies and they did to a degree that we really found quite extraordinary and they we thought we'd get about 30 expelled actually we got about 153 from 28 countries around the world What do you make of recent reports that allege that certain cabinet members do yourself would be a security threat as Prime Minister Well you know I think the great thing about this campaign is that the maximum I've tried to follow is Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment Never Speak Ill of a Fellow Conservative and I'm sure everybody will know that This is the question about knife crime Graham says what will you do as Prime Minister about the extremely worrying rise in knife crime particularly in London Well I've just I hate to take to remind you of this Hannah but I'm going to and I see Nick Dubois and others who remember this well 11 years ago when I began as Mayor of London there was an absolutely almost identical spate of of knife crime in our capital and we were losing young kids teenagers at the rate of about 30 a year and I tell you what we did a programme of stop and search and we got the police out on the streets we kept police numbers high over a period of about a year they took 11,000 knives off the streets of London and do you know what the murder rate serious youth violence came down by 32% crime overall came down by about 27% but the murder rate came down by 50% and that was because we had a very proactive approach to policing and if I may say you've got to back to the police so we've asked you what I would do now I would give the police what they call political top cover political top cover to do what they signed up to do and to those who say that stop and search is discriminatory or divisive come on actually I've talked to the mothers of kids whose lives are at risk and they want us to do this I've talked to the mothers of victims for I haven't said there's actually nothing when a kid is walking down the street we're going to equip with a bladed weapon there's nothing more kinder or more loving that you can do than to ask him to produce that weapon and turn out his pockets it's almost invariably him of course and that's the right thing to do I want to ask you about the NHS same question that Jeremy Hunt had as well Nigel on Facebook says do you believe in the NHS concept of treatment being free at the point of demand and are you concerned about creeping privatisation under my premiership the NHS will be free to everybody at the point of use of course and that wouldn't change even with absolutely not particularly not in the event of some free trade deal with the United States I was going to ask you specifically about the United States President Trump said that it was still on the table I knew you were going to say that the NHS was still on the table I think he unless I miss my guess I think the President later retracted his remarks did he not well do you trust President Trump then well I certainly can trust very much in the version B of what he had to say okay final question then Scott on Twitter says how will you rebalance investment between the north and the south he says of England that is the crucial question and just get back to everything that I have been saying I do think that we need to be I want to be the Prime Minister who does not just for Midlands connectivity but also for northern powerhouse rail what we did with the tube upgrades and crossrail for London as I said it's so socially just you're letting people on modest incomes commute easily to their place of work it's a fantastic liberator transport is the great unsung liberator and engine of social justice it really is we should do that but it's also a question of investment in education in technology and recognising that there are literally hundreds and hundreds of towns in the UK because London is brilliant the big cities of the UK are also starting to do brilliantly but then there are about 300 or 400 tonnes where actually some are doing well but some economically less well and society is less happy and that was part of the Brexit vote don't forget but there are things you can do there are ways you can stimulate activity and ways you can bring on the economic growth in those areas and it's about infrastructure it's about education it's about technology but it's also a bit about devolution and inspiring local pride and initiative and as conservatives we should be doing that as well Boris Johnson thank you very much and thank you to all of the viewers who've been watching online tomorrow I will be with both candidates in Bournemouth as the hustings continue to be available for questions from the Conservative Party membership but remember you can still continue to ask questions to the conservatives to the candidates as well and the questions can go in slightly more length than I've had time to get through this evening views.conservatives.com forward slash leadership and thank you so much for your contribution this evening