ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE BATTLE FOR NUMBER 10, SKY NEWS & C4

KAY BURLEY: Welcome back to Cameron and Miliband Live: The Battle for Number Ten.  The Prime Minister has been interviewed by Jeremy Paxman and now it’s the turn of our studio audience to put their questions to him so without further ado, Prime Minister, here we go.  Let’s start with Matthew Brown, where are you Matthew?  Let’s have your question Matthew.

MATTHEW BROWN: Prime Minister, what do you think are Ed Miliband’s best qualities?

DAVID CAMERON: Well that’s a tricky one to start with but thank you, Matthew, for the question.  I think that all of us who put ourselves forward all actually believe in serving the public, in trying to do the right thing, we disagree with each other sometimes passionately, sometimes as yesterday in the House of Commons rather noisily, but we all believe in public service and trying to do the right thing for our country.  The one thing I admire about Ed is when we had to take difficult decisions about sending British forces in to help with others to try and defeat ISIL, the murderous death cult in Iraq, he stepped forward and said yes, this is the right thing to do, David, let’s do that together and vote together in the House of Commons and I admired that.

KB: But you did call him weak and despicable didn’t you?

DAVID CAMERON: We do sometimes in the House of Commons use phrases that perhaps afterwards we think was a bit over the top.

KB: Was that over the top?

DAVID CAMERON: I remember the same day he called me dodgy and something else, so sometimes … I took my children yesterday and Nancy and Elwen, they’re nine and eleven and they said afterwards, do you know dad, if we behaved like that at school, it wouldn’t be so good.  I tried to explain that sometimes it gets a bit heated but there is a point to it though, it’s the time of the week when the Prime Minister has got to demonstrate that you are across all of the issues and so it does make the government accountable to parliament in a way that if you are not across the issues then things will change pretty quickly so it does have a point but we don’t always behave as well as we should do.

KB: Let’s bring in Bridget Sanbailey next.  

BRIDGET: Prime Minister, in a few months’ time I will be 79, I am a retired professional and following a road traffic accident I’ve been left with physical challenges yet I remain proactive in the community.  I am passionate about the provision of care for the elderly and feel we should be treated with dignity and respect.  Would you, Prime Minister, consider it appropriate to appoint a cabinet minister for older people, one who would show empathy with older people?

DAVID CAMERON: Well Bridget, first of all thank you for your advocacy for these causes because they do really matter and I think making sure we treat retired people with dignity and security in their old age after a full working life is one of the most important things we can do as a country and that is why I have been so clear that the pensioner benefits like the free TV licences, the free prescriptions, the winter fuel payments, they will continue for everybody.  I think it should be your right and we need to make that very clear.  Now I was asked this question the other day about should we have a dedicated older person’s representative in the Cabinet.  I will think about it but I am a little bit worried about it on this basis, I don’t want older people’s concerns to be restricted to one person in the Cabinet.  I want every one of my Ministers to be thinking how do we treat senior citizens properly, I want my Health Minister to be thinking how do we treat people in our hospitals and our care homes, are we doing this right?  I want to make sure that our Education Minister is thinking about through life education, that some people want to continue with forever.  I want to make sure that our Defence Minister is thinking really carefully about veterans and their needs as they grow older so I’d be worried about possibly having one person and saying they were the only person who thought about older people.  In the end as I said to this meeting the other day, if we’re not doing right by older people then don’t blame all my ministers, blame me because I lead the government and I think we’ve got to get this right.  But pensions have been absolutely key to this government, about uprating pension in line with earnings, prices or 2.5%, the so-called triple lock, so that pensioners have been protected from some of the difficult decisions we’ve had to take.  

KB: Thank you Prime Minister, let’s bring in Tom Cosgrove next.  Hi Tom, you approached us via the Sky News app, where are you Tom?  Hi, what’s your question for the Prime Minister?

TOM: It has been argued that we haven’t seen anything yet in terms of cuts to public services, how intense would these be from a majority Conservative government?

DAVID CAMERON: Right, what I’d say is that we have had to make difficult decisions and a lot of those decisions I didn’t want to have to make but I became Prime Minister at a time when the economy was close to the brink, when our budget deficit actually was forecast to be higher than Greece’s and we had to make important decisions to get the deficit down because a big deficit means higher taxes, it means higher mortgage rates, it means lost jobs, it means an economy in chaos and I wanted to stop that.  What we have done so far is get the deficit down by half as I was saying to Jeremy and what we need to do in the next two years is basically similar to what we’ve done so far.  We have got to find £1 out of every £100 the government spends and save that rather than putting up people’s taxes.  So if you think of the department spending changes, it is similar to what we have had to do in previous years and similarly for welfare.  It is achievable.  I wouldn’t stand here and say that if I didn’t believe that, I really want to do this without putting up taxes on hard working people because you don’t tax your way to growth, you don’t tax your way to jobs.  We want to keep a strong economy, make these savings and make sure that we do put aside money for a rainy day so that when the next crisis hits, and crises do come from time to time, we don’t get pushed over the end and that would be so irresponsible because in the end we’ve got to make sure we are not just doing right for this generation, we’re doing right for our children and grandchildren.  We don’t want to load debts on their heads that they won’t be able to pay so what we are suggesting is manageable, it’s doable, it will require efficiencies but we can also make important commitments like saying the NHS is special, that will get extra money every year as long as I am Prime Minister.

KB: Presumably Tom, you would want a specific example would you of where the Prime Minister is going to save money, where the cuts might be?

TOM: Yes.  

DAVID CAMERON: Well I gave a good example of saying look, benefits, in work benefits, things like unemployment benefits should be frozen for two years, that will save £2 billion.  That isn’t an easy decision to make but I think it is important that people can see it’s better, people are better off in work and we try and keep on creating those jobs as we’ve done and we find savings, including from efficiency.  This parliament we have saved something like £20 billion by just being a bit smarter.  We still don’t have one company that owns all the government’s buildings and makes sure we use them efficiently so let’s do things like that. Businesses have to do this every year, they don’t get more efficient and then say that’s it, I’ve finished.  They think every year how can we save money, how can we provide a better service without spending so much money?  We’ve had to do that, one example just quickly, policing.  

KB: Well Prime Minister, while you’re talking about policing, let me bring in Zaid Malik who is a police officer, it’s almost as if we planned it and we didn’t, he is from the West Midlands.  You have been a police officer for 22 years haven’t you, Zaid?

ZAID: I have, Kay, thank you.  Prime Minister, my question to yourself is would the Conservatives reverse their decision to cut back the police service which is now more than ever overburdened and walking a tightrope without a safety net?

DAVID CAMERON: Well first of all Zaid, thank you very much for your service in the police, I know that you put your lives on the line every day to keep us safe and I have huge respect for what the police do for us.  I was about to say what a brilliant example the police have been over the last five years.  We did have to make reductions in spending on the police so police budgets came down by some 20% but at the same time the police have done such a good job that crime has come down by almost 20%.  We managed to get officers out from desk jobs onto the streets, we put more civilians into some of those roles and the police did this themselves, forces were combining and ordering equipment and things together so I think there is still some more efficiency that we can get out of that but in the end we’ve got to back the British police who are the best in the world to do a great job and they will always have my support.

KB: As far as Lincolnshire police are concerned though, Prime Minister, the Chief Constable there said it was on the verge of collapse, he said that last December.  

DAVID CAMERON: I don’t accept that.  I understand that they are under pressure…

KB: Is he wrong?

DAVID CAMERON: I think if you look at Lincolnshire, in that county as well crime has come down because the police are doing a great job.  There is more we need to do using modern technology to make sure that crime continues to fall under this government and if we do that then we should be saving money as well.  

KB: Were you happy with that response, Zaid?

ZAID: No comment.  

KB: Okay!  Rosemary Fraser is joining us now, hello to you Rosemary, what’s your question?

ROSEMARY: Good evening, Prime Minister.  It is 20 years this year since the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act in the UK yet if you are disabled you are still twice as likely to be unemployed, it’s getting harder year on year to get vital social care support, attitudes towards disabled people are hardening and hardening.  I’d just like to know what you would do going forward to change that for Britain’s eleven million disabled people.

DAVID CAMERON: I have a very simple view about this which is we should do everything we can to help disabled people face as few disadvantages as possible and to get genuine equality in our country.  The Disability Discrimination Act was brought forward by my good friend and colleague William Hague, twenty years ago, and I think it has led to some really good changes but you’re right, the job isn’t done.  One of the things I think we need to focus on is as you say, getting more disabled people into work. This year has been a good year, we’ve got I think 140,000 more disabled people have got jobs but the gap between the disabled unemployment rate and the unemployment rate for the whole country is still too big, I want to see that cut in half over the next five years and I think we can do that but we need a culture change from employers as much as from anybody.  There are some employers who are absolutely brilliant, who really go out there and want to recruit disabled people because they know if they don’t they are missing out on some of the brightest, best talent in our country but not all employers are that good and that’s why we have established something called Disability Confident to try and encourage all employers to take this approach.  So I would say we’ve done some good work, we’ve got more to do but in the end it all comes back to the bigger picture of a strong and growing economy.  If we keep the economy strong, if we keep creating jobs we can keep solving some of these issues.  

KB:  Are you happy with that response Rosemary?

ROSEMARY: I’m partially happy with the response but I still think there is an awful lot more that needs to be done.  You mentioned employment, social care is vital to help people to get into and flourish in employment, year on year that’s becoming more and more difficult.  The Independent Living Fund was closed, that really helped a lot of people.

DAVID CAMERON: It is important that local councils have the resources to do this.  We’ve just established a new fund, the Better Care Fund, that starts on 1st April, it has £5 billion in it, to try and bring health and social care together more in our country and that could help with some of the issues you are raising but thank you for the question.  

KB: Let’s bring in Cara Montera, good evening.  

CARA: Good evening, Prime Minister.  How are you going to convince the British public to not opt out of the EU?

DAVID CAMERON: Well I think the best way, and by the way thank you Cara for the question, we were just getting into it with Jeremy back there.  Look, I think Britain is at its best when we’re out there trading and co-operating and working with others in the world.  We are an open country, we’re a trading nation, we’re part of all the  most important networks whether it’s NATO or the G8 or the European Union and we need them to work for us but I think the problem with the European Union at the moment, it’s got some good aspects but too many things that drive people mad.  People see that it is trying to become too much of a state rather than an organisation, it is trying to take too much power and I think what we need is a new deal with Europe where we say look, we want to be in Europe for trade and co-operation, we want that Common Market that we were promised all those years ago but we don’t want to be part of an ever closer union. Maybe the eurozone countries with their own currency, maybe they need to do that, we don’t and we are going to keep the pound as our currency, or at least we will if I am Prime Minister.  So if I can get a new deal from Europe, and I believe I can, I’ve sat round that table for the last five years with those other countries, if I can get that better deal then I think there is a real prospect of saying to the British people you choose, you can stay in on this reformed basis which will be good for Britain or if you want you can leave but the British public have got to be given another choice.  We haven’t had one since 1975 and it’s time we did.

KB: Okay, remember what we said, Prime Minister about the questions being quite short?

DAVID CAMERON: Yes, sorry, good point.  

KB: We’ve got two more.  Karen Hall is with us, hi Karen.  

KAREN: Would you like to see more NHS services provided by private companies, yes or no?  

DAVID CAMERON: I’m happy if there are charities or independent organisations that can provide a great service free as part of the NHS, if it’s good healthcare that’s what matters to me.  I love our NHS, it has done amazing things for my family.  I will never forget taking my desperately ill young son Ivan to hospital night after night, getting into A&E, getting amazing treatment, everything that they gave him. I want to make sure that that is always there for families in our country.  Now that will always be predominantly a National Health Service provided by National Health Service providers, the private sector, the independent sector is a tiny proportion of the total, I think it’s gone from 5% to 6% under this government, a tiny increase but if there are organisations like for instance Marie Curie, Cancer Care or Macmillan Nurses who provide brilliant care for loved ones or hospices which aren’t part of the NHS, if there are great organisations like that who are helping our loved ones and they’re free and the NHS and our taxes are helping to pay for them, that’s okay by me.  

KB: The lady with her hand up there in the blue dress, madam?  What would you like to say?

WOMAN: I am just a little bit confused because I do remember very clearly five years ago that you made some very serious pledges about the NHS and I saw your billboards, it’s safe in our hands and the no top down reorganisation of the NHS.  Clearly the reality has been very, very different, there has been huge top down reorganisation of the NHS.  No forced closure of A&E and maternity units was actually in your manifesto and where I live in my borough we had to take you and your government to court to keep our hospital open so I feel very let down with Conservative policy on the NHS and I am just wondering, if you don’t do what you say, the promises you made last time have been broken as far as I’m concerned so how can we trust you next time?

DAVID CAMERON: The biggest promise we made about the NHS at a time when we were going to have to make difficult cuts in public spending, as anyone who was Prime Minister when I was Prime Minister would have to do, we said we will not cut the NHS and we haven’t.  We’ve increased spending on the NHS by over £12.7 billion over the last five years and because this is a really important point, what we did in terms of changing the NHS is we got rid of 20,000 bureaucrats in the NHS and we put that money into 9000 more doctors and 7000 more nurses and as a result were treating more patients. If you take something like cancer, we are seeing 460,000 more people and looking at their potential cancer than we were five years ago so the biggest promise we made, more money, safeguarding that money and treating more patients has been kept.  If you elect me again as your Prime Minister with a strong economy, because that’s the key to afford this, we will go on investing in our National Health Service.  

KB: Prime Minister, we are almost out of time but we have just got time for one more quick answer if you would please and that is from Ladeep Jaychand who has actually lost her voice but has persevered tonight so that she can ask you a question in person.

LADEEP: If you could redo one thing from your time as Prime Minister what would it be?

DAVID CAMERON: Oh, if I could redo one thing as my time as Prime Minister what would it be?  Well the thing as I said I haven’t delivered, I promised less noise at Prime Minister’s Questions and more politeness, that certainly didn’t work out, I fully accept that.  Look I think the most important thing I’ve had to try and do is turn the economy round, get people into jobs, get the deficit down, get the economy growing because we were on the brink.  I wish that some of the things that we’ve done like for instance the Help to Buy Scheme which has got many more people able to buy their houses, I wish we’d done some of those things quicker, I wish we’d done some of those things sooner because in the end you are going to have to make this huge choice in 42 days’ time, who runs the country? All I’d say, what I’ve learned in the last five years is nothing that you want to do will work without a strong and growing economy.  The schools we want for our children, the hospitals we want when we’re ill, those things need a strong economy.

KB: Okay, have you ever had three shredded wheat?  

DAVID CAMERON: I have actually but that was a long time ago.   

KB: We’re out of time, Prime Minister.  Would you like to show your appreciation? Thank you Prime Minister, thank you very much indeed, thank you.