ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SKY NEWS, SOPHY RIDGE ON SUNDAY

SOPHY RIDGE: Party conferences are supposed to be about uniting the party, engaging the members, announcing policies. Needless to say, accidentally exposing the mobile phone numbers of everyone attending isn’t quite part of the plan so let’s talk now to the man in charge of conference for the Conservatives, the party chairman, Brandon Lewis. I’ve got to ask you first about what happened with the Conservative party app, I mean this is not the start to conference that you wanted. How seriously are you taking this?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well any breach of data is a serious matter, that’s why we are taking it seriously. We are investigating, we have already contacted the Information Commissioner and we’ll be giving a fuller report to them. We’ve spoken to the company that supplied it who themselves have put out a statement apologising for the error that they made but this will affect people, if somebody has guessed or already knew somebody’s email address and was therefore able to log in as them so there will be a limited number of our delegates here but we are contacting the delegates concerned to lay out to them exactly what has happened and what they can do about that but any breach is a serious breach and that’s why we are fully investigating it and are taking it very seriously.

SR: Well you say it is a limited number of delegates but these are some potentially very important people affected. I mean the Foreign Secretary for example, the former Foreign Secretary is one of them. Who is responsible for it and how many people are we actually talking about?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well I can’t go into the details at the moment in terms of the numbers because we are doing that investigation at the moment, working with the company who supplied the app, who supply companies like Barclays and Nissan and eBay for conferences and things around the world but it is serious, any breach of data is serious, which is why we are taking it seriously.

SR: So who is responsible for that?

BRANDON LEWIS: Within finding out about this issue yesterday within half an hour we had fixed this problem, the company have shut that security issue down so that is now functioning fully, properly and securely. There are a number of delegates where if somebody logged in who already knew their email address, they would have been able to see the photograph, the email address that they’d used to log in and, if it was there, a mobile phone number and that has affected a few people, as you’ve rightly outlined, and we are working with all of the delegates at the conference to let them know exactly what has happened.

SR: You see it’s easy to talk about this as an embarrassment but actually it could be serious couldn’t it? You and I both know how toxic our political discourse can be at the minute, people in the public eye get rape threats and death threats on Twitter, can you look me in the eye and say that those threats are not now going to be sent to somebody’s mobile phone number because someone happened to guess their email address?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well as I say, we are working …

SR: You don’t know that do you?

BRANDON LEWIS: We are working with all the delegates at conference, we did a full investigation to see what exactly and who exactly was able to be accessed in this way. You had to already have had the email address and then fraudulently been able to go and access …

SR: You could guess the email addresses for some quite possibly.

BRANDON LEWIS: For some people, yes you can and actually one of the things we have got to be careful about in our society, and I have talked about this a lot over the last few months, is that ability to have a proper robust debate but with respect, without that kind of hard abuse that we are seeing, I would argue, from many on the hard left, particularly on social and digital media. Now security is…

SR: But you’re not helping that, are you, by potentially opening …

BRANDON LEWIS: As I say, I am not at the moment saying any breaches is anything other than serious, that’s why we are taking this seriously, that’s why we dealt with it within half an hour of being aware of it yesterday, that’s why the company put its statement out and we will be putting a full report in with an investigation to the Information Commissioner’s office.

SR: Did you consider resigning?

BRANDON LEWIS: Look, at the moment I’m focused on making sure that conference goes well, that the attendees have a really good conference, that yesterday we got that app sorted as quickly as we possibly can and get to the bottom of exactly how that happened and why it happened.

SR: Okay, let’s move on to things that I’m sure you are perhaps more comfortable talking about, which is the message that you are going into this Conservative party conference with because what we’ve seen in the last week or two is a whole range of Conservative MPs effectively coming forward and saying you are not offering a distinctive enough vision compared to Labour. The list here, Sam Gyimah, Liz Truss, Jacob Rees Mogg, Robert Halfon, Priti Patel, Boris Johnson, all have spoken out. So can you tell me what is the distinctive message that these MPs can go out and sell on the doorstep?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well there are a couple of things I would say to that. First of all I think one of the strengths of the Conservative party is in the [arm] and you have this great wide [tent] of people buzzing with ideas and you’ll see a lot of that this week at conference as the government will be outlining our ideas and our plans for the next period in time in government to take our country forward in a really positive way and actually that’s in big contrast …

SR: But what is the distinctive message then?

BRANDON LEWIS: As I say, I think two things, I think that is in big contrast, what we saw last week was old hat ideas that actually will affect pensioners, really damage pensioners in terms of the equity proposals, the changes in Corporation Tax will affect jobs. What we as a party will be outlining this week is how we want to make sure we are giving opportunity to people – a good education, a chance to benefit from more jobs in our economy, to have job security and the investments we’re making in both infrastructure and in our public services.

SR: You see I asked for the distinctive message and the things that you listed there are things that most parties could probably say aren’t they? You know, we want to give a good education, we want to give opportunities – what is distinctive about what you’re offering?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well I think there is a very big difference between us and the Labour party.

SR: I know what you are going to say about Labour but what about …?

BRANDON LEWIS: You are saying, Sophy, what’s distinctive, what is distinctive is that these are things we are doing and we are outlining very firm plans about how to take them further in the future. Not things that can’t be afforded, not things that can’t be delivered but things we are doing and things that we can do in the future to make people’s lives better.

SR: So what’s the vision, what is that distinctive vision?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well it is about making sure we are providing the things that matter to people every day, about making sure that they do get a good education, we’re building more homes for people to be able to get a home of their own for them and their family, to make sure we are investing in our NHS in the long term to make sure that it continues to be a world leading health service. That is how we invest in our public services and the biggest investment programme in our infrastructure and our roads and rail that we have seen in a generation, making sure we are getting our country read and fit for the future.

SR: I just want to have a look at what Robert Halfon said in particular. He wrote, he is the MP for Harlow, “The problems with the Conservatives is that the Corbyn description of what’s going on resonates with millions of people, failing railways, increased homelessness, families struggling despite working every day. Our infrastructure under strain, high streets closing, crime on the rise.” I mean all these things are true aren’t they? Can you really say that people’s lives are better now compared to when you first came into power eight years ago?

BRANDON LEWIS: Yes, look, there are nearly two million more children getting good and outstanding education since 2010, there are about 1000 new jobs being created a day since 2010. For housing we have actually increased – Labour left us with the lowest level of house building since about 1923, that’s 75,000 homes a year. We are back up to 220,000 and rising so we are delivering, getting to that average we want to build of 300,000 homes a year. We are investing more in our NHS than ever before, so yes, we are doing those things and we’ve also got to make sure we take the opportunity of a week like this to be talking about that and explaining why that is good and why it is delivering things for people as opposed to Labour’s promises that just can’t deliver and often, as we’ve seen in the last year, they then renege on later anyway.

SR: You are announcing a policy today around housing and Stamp Duty, just quickly explain what that is.

BRANDON LEWIS: Well what we’ve recognised is that people have said for some time that they get frustrated particularly in our cities and somewhere like London, that people from overseas will come in and buy properties when actually they want to see British people, people in the UK, having first option on those properties so what we’re doing, we’ve already changed the rules so that properties have to be advertised here in the UK but for people overseas, people who are not UK tax payers, will pay an extra Stamp Duty. We are going to consult on the figure but around 1%, we are going to consult to see if that’s the right figure and the money, the income from that will go into rough sleeping, helping some of the most vulnerable people in the country.

SR: You spoke a bit earlier about how you are hoping you are going to be able to talk about the domestic vision if you like, does it worry you sometimes that it feels like all the bandwidth is taken up by Brexit at the minute? I mean obviously it’s very important, six months before leaving the EU but for you, you’re in charge of getting votes, it’s not really the most exciting thing to be standing on the doorstep is it?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well Brexit is, as you say, it’s a huge issue for our country, one of the biggest projects the government has undertaken of any type since probably the Second World War and it is hugely important that we get this right, that we get the deal with the European Union that delivers to the country and respects the referendum, so it is a big issue and the media and people around the country are interested in that but what we saw this year in the local elections where we had a really good set of results, and what you’ll see at conference this week, is us talking about what happens after Brexit as well, that domestic agenda, as I say, delivering for people in their lives every single day.

SR: You mentioned the local elections there, obviously the last general election was a bit of a disappointment for you to say the least. Labour say they are on an election footing, they are ready to go, are you ready for an election?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well I’m working on the local elections for 2019, the next general election is 2022 and that’s …

SR: But it might come before that, are you ready to go if there is an election earlier?

BRANDON LEWIS: I’m not working on hypotheticals, the election we are working on, the next elections are the local elections next year. The general election is 2022 and no, we didn’t get the result we wanted last year but we did show in the local elections this year when Labour said they were going to win pretty much every council seat I think certainly in London if not the country, actually Labour didn’t do that. We had the success in the local elections this year making gains all over the country, taking back control of a council in London, in Barnet, and actually Labour didn’t win any of those councils so I think we showed in those elections that we can do that job, we can win those local elections but that was just stage one. There is a big piece of work for us to do and we have got big local elections next year.

SR: Will Theresa May lead the Conservatives into the next general election?

BRANDON LEWIS: I hope she will and I think she will, yes, because this is the Prime Minister who is bringing her country together, getting that deal with the European Union. I am confident we will get a good deal with the United Kingdom and the EU that delivers on the referendum, delivers for our economy in the future and with that strong domestic agenda delivering for people right across our country, I think that’s a powerful message to go into the next general election with.

SR: Now while we’ve got you, I want to ask you about Sky’s campaign for an independent commission to see leaders’ debates at general elections, is that something you’d welcome?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well I’ve not yet seen too many times where quangos and commissions have given us the perfect answer to everything. I think we have got to look at where we are at the general election, look at what is happening in the country and make a decision at that point.

SR: At the same time, the whole point of having an independent commission is to take it out of the hands of politicians and also the broadcasters so that it’s an independent body working out the details, that’s got to be a good thing hasn’t it?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well I think actually …

SR: Don’t you want to see more democracy?

BRANDON LEWIS: Well actually I do and that’s what the general election itself is about, people going out and voting based on information they get from their local candidates, what they get through the national media, social and digital media I think will be increasing at the next election, possibly to the point where it overtakes many other things if we are looking three or four years down the line so I think we do need to look at this much nearer the time and take a decision based on what is happening in media across the country.

SR: So you are not ruling it out, you think it could be a good idea?

BRANDON LEWIS: I’m not ruling it out, I’m not ruling it in either. I think we need to look at where we are a bit nearer the time.

SR: Okay, Brandon Lewis, thank you very much.