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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now in November this year, people in England and Wales will be able to vote for the first elected Police and Crime Commissioners. They are being brought in to replace Police Authorities. In a moment I’ll be speaking to former Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Prescott, who is keen to stand as one and the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, ACPO, Sir Hugh Orde, who once threatened to resign if elected Police Commissioners became the law. Also watching the discussion are our Twitter commentators, they are Oliver Wright, the Whitehall editor of the Independent, political correspondent at The Times, Anoushka Asthana and Mark Littlewood, Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs. They provide their reactions via Twitter which you can read that on the side panels and you can also follow on our website, skynews.com/politics and join in as well using the hashtag #murnaghan. Well let’s say a very good morning to Lord Prescott who joins us from Hull. Have you spoken about the ambition to become a Police Commissioner to your leader, Ed Miliband, who said this was the wrong policy for the wrong time?

JOHN PRESCOTT: Well I think you are talking about our opposition to the Bill, in fact I voted against it as well but you know, I voted against the Common Market but the people said we should go in and I played a part in that. I want to make sure this opportunity for the people’s voice should increase the accountability and the transparency of our police force that I do believe could do with some improvement.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well apply some of your own arguments when you voted against the Bill to yourself, you therefore will not be swayed politically, you won’t meddle, you’ll make sure that the costs are kept down?

JOHN PRESCOTT: Well it’s not only about cost. You’ve got to remember now that the government decided to cut the costs and also the police forces, that means each police force is now having to consider its priorities. Now in those new priorities, I think it’s important that the people’s voice and the people in an area should have a say with the police and what those priorities are. There are going to be difficult times, there are going to reorganisations and in this case there will be a people’s voice and I’ll make sure it will be heard.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: But you are political, you do have an ideology, you do have a background. None of that will be brought to bear if you are elected?

JOHN PRESCOTT: Well I don't know what you mean by that. When I was a Minister and a Cabinet Minister we were constantly dealing with police and policies, in fact a number of these policies were brought in on the initiative of the politicians. There is a balance on this, there is the operational responsibilities of the police, they will keep that and how that balance works out will be worked over time. I believe the government are going to bring out some memorandum on that but you know, the operational parts we don’t want to question. The priorities of how they apply and how the money is prioritised and used is a legitimate question.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Do you buy any of the argument that – and Yvette Cooper the Shadow Home Secretary made it – that the elections, not in your case but the elections that take place could potentially be manipulated and you could see for instance, and she said this, a member of the British National Party becoming a police commissioner.

JOHN PRESCOTT: Well that was some of the fears that were expressed by our party, they were genuinely felt about it but look, the government has decided to implement it, there will be an election, the Labour party doesn’t opt out of elections because they find that the government is implementing a certain policy. Those fears that have been expressed by the party need to be sure that they don’t come about and in the case of a regional police board, if I had a voice in that I’d want to make sure it was the people’s voice that … Look, if you look at my own Humberside Police Authority, they were the worst in 2006 according to the national comparison and then they have improved remarkably in reducing crime so reorganisation is going on. There is some criticism about how they are almost bottom of the list about the Crime Reporting Bureau, you know, people get jobs depending on the report on the police in certain areas. Now these are matters you can discuss with the police, ask them what their priorities are. I’ve already found out, and I know from being an MP, whether you reply to calls quick enough, whether the police profile is high enough – all these are legitimate concerns of the public which I intend to put in my region to the police.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay well it’s interesting that, you mentioned about responding to calls and this point being made about a tendency, an ability for the commissioner to intervene. Now we know, and you voiced them very well, your concerns about Metropolitan Police when it came to investigating your concerns all those years ago about phone hacking, in certain instances then you would be tempted to stick your oar in.

JOHN PRESCOTT: Well let me be clear, I don't think the regional police are the same as the Metropolitan Police, I’ve always been highly critical of them and what we’ve seen in the last two years and going on at Leveson now is the very serious matter of the relationship between the press and the police. I mean I’m accused of being double faced by the Sun yet their editors and reporters are being arrested for paying the police. Now that’s got to be fully investigated, what I’m concerned about is that relationship. Greater transparency, greater accountability but above all that the police can take into account in their strategies what the people want in the area.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Yes, but do you intervene on what you decide or what the people decide? Now the people have elected you but they are not speaking to you on a daily basis, it’s where is the accountability?

JOHN PRESCOTT: Yes, that’s an important point, it’s the strategy … Look the police have a general strategy for what they are going to do over the next three years and they update it. All that happens here in Humberside and what I will talk over with the police of course is the priorities inside that strategy but they carry it out and that’s what this framework of policy is, about the people having more influence in that strategy. It may be the simple things, I had to wait 45 minutes before anybody came or two hours, I hear these complaints, people want a high profile police presence. These are matters which people are concerned about. I want to talk to the police and I’m sure they would accept it, about that strategy and what the priorities are. If you are going to cut down the amount of police, and that’s what’s happening at the moment, 20% cut in their resources in my area, you’ve got to change some policies. I think the people are entitled to have a voice and I intend, if I was elected, I’d intend to be that voice for them.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: But there are those in your party, Lord Prescott, hearing that, and you’re being realistic about the cuts and that feeding through to manpower, that it is a form of collaboration. You opposed those cuts or many of them as a party yet you are going to be there managing that change.

JOHN PRESCOTT: Well hang on, we opposed what’s happening in the health service, all sorts of things, but we put forward alternatives. Oppositions have to do that, we provide the opposition. In this case it’s an elected post, we disagreed with the framework for it, we don’t opt out of it, we have to play a part in it to make sure the fears that we have about this particular policy do not materialise in the way we fear they might.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay, Lord Prescott, thank you very much indeed for your time. Lord Prescott there joining us live from Hull.

JOHN PRESCOTT: Thank you.