ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: So the government has announced a policy to tax foreign lorry drivers this morning but is it just to distract us from the confusion of their airport policy? Let’s find out right now because I’m joined from a haulage firm in Derby by the new Transport Secretary, Patrick McLaughlin. A very good morning to you, Secretary of State, tell us about this policy of charging foreign lorry drivers in this country what already happens of course to UK lorry drivers on the continent. How much, how will it work, how will it be administered?

PATRICK McLAUGHLIN: Well as you’ve rightly said, we’ve been looking at this issue now, we consulted on it earlier in the year and next month we will be publishing the results of the consultation and what I can say is that we will also be bringing forward a Bill to parliament to impose the same, a charge on foreign lorry drivers that drive in this country. You rightly pointed out that our companies are charged when they drive in Germany and other European countries so we are going to be putting it right and I am here in a distribution centre in Belper this morning and the person who runs this particular distribution centre has told me that it will actually lead to more jobs being created in the British haulage industry.

DM: That’s great news. Can I stay on the roads for a little bit with you, Mr McLaughlin, looking at the motorways which of course a lot of those lorries travel up and down, it has been talked about for many years hasn’t it, the issue of tolling and that would tick so many boxes in terms of current government thinking, wouldn’t it? You want some big, big projects, infrastructural projects, you want private sector involvement and you need more revenue, wouldn’t building toll roads do all that for you?

PMcL: Well we have got some toll roads built, we have one not too far away from here, the M6 relief route, which is a specific addition to the national road network and it is charged, toll charged, but we are looking at investment. We are investing a huge amount already in the roads and I’ll be making an announcement in the not too distant future about some of the improvements that we are going to be making to the national road network but as far as special projects, where there is a special project which adds to additional road capacity, then tolling can be looked at.

DM: Looked at. You mentioned the M6 extension, in terms of the total road network it is a tiny, tiny proportion and not done on your watch, are we going to see more?

PMcL: Well, you say the M6 was not done on our watch, it’s been done over a long period of time but there is a proposal for the A14 that we’re looking at at the moment which will bring relief on that particular route but we are looking at those proposals and we are not in a position at the moment of making any announcements.

DM: And what about the speed limit on these motorways? Your predecessor but one talked when he was in post about lifting the speed limit to 80 miles an hour are you thinking along those lines?

PMcL: Well what’s very important is that we never lose sight of the issue of safety on our roads and first and foremost in my mind will be road safety but I will look at the evidence, there is a consultation taken place on that, I want to look at the evidence on that but nothing will detract me from what is safe overall and road safety and our record on road safety has to be paramount in my mind.

DM: So just looking but what about personally, everyone knows who drives on motorways, most people do 80 or thereabouts already.

PMcL: Well what we have to have in our mind is that speed does kill and a lot of the very serious accidents that take place on our roads will involve cars which are breaking or disobeying the speed limits so when we are ready to make an announcement on what we are going to do with motorway speed limits I will make it.

DM: Okay, I know you are thinking about a lot of things and, as we say, you’re just in post so thinking about that, thinking about tolls, announcing that lorry charge, what about the thorny issue of airport capacity? The review goes on, does it mean that it’s really something that you don’t have to think about because it will take us up to the next election?

PMcL: No, we are thinking about it, it was right that the Davies Commission was set up, that’s something I announced a few days after I became Secretary of State but obviously a lot of the work was being done on that by the government beforehand. Look, we have a commitment that there will be no third runway in Heathrow Airport built during this government’s period in office. We need to have a proper look at the whole question of the aviation industry, it employs directly a quarter of a million people, it is a massive industry but it does come with complications, it comes with complications for those people who live in the areas of the runway so setting up a Commission to give us a proper report that can look at all the options, all the different options, whether it’s option that the Mayor of London wants, whether it’s the option of improving some of the other airports – that is I think the right way to go and we’ll await the report. We are going to get an interim report in 2013 so to say that we’re just not doing anything about it at all is not the case.

DM: Okay, so just to be crystal clear about this then, you’ve got the interim report in 2013 but the commitment of no further runway at Heathrow, that’s just until 2015 and if in the end the recommendation is that Heathrow should be expanded, you could go for it going into that election or perhaps after, if you win it?

PMcL: Well look, I’m not going to start pre-judging what the Commission is going to come up with ….

DM: No, no, I’m just saying that it’s clear that you commitment on no further runway only lasts until the next election.

PMcL: Look, we’ve set up a Commission to give us the best advice, I don’t want to pre-judge anything that that Commission says. I will shortly be announcing the other members of the Commission and we’ll await that report.

DM: But it’s a simple question, if the report recommends an expansion of Heathrow you could go for it after 2015?

PMcL: Well let’s see what the report says. If it says that but it may say something else, I want it to look at all the options and I’m not going to this morning say if this comes out we’ll do that, that is for the future. What I am determined to do is to make sure that the Commission has access to all the information it needs and to make sure we get a broad based Commission to properly look at this particular subject.

DM: Yes, I fully understand that but all I am saying is that you are free to look at and consider that option which you are not free to do now because it was a manifesto pledge and because it’s in the coalition agreement, a third runway.

PMcL: That is correct and that remains the position, the Prime Minister made that very clear a few weeks ago in the House of Commons.

DM: Okay, so you can look at it in 2015?

PMcL: The Prime Minister made the position, it will not be looked at in this parliament.

DM: Okay, very clear about that one. So on to – so we’ve got roads, we’ve done air, what about rail? High Speed 2, it seems to have cost the last Welsh Secretary her job, do you really want to plough on with that?

PMcL: Well look, there is no major piece of infrastructure which is uncontroversial when has first started out. If we just look at what happened with the Channel Tunnel, that was very controversial. It has made a huge addition to our national rail network. I understand people’s concerns who live on the route, of course I understand that but this is not something for the next five years, this is a long term infrastructure project and I think it is right that we press forward with it. We’ll go out to the proper consultation, there is a huge process to go forward but we have made clear that we are very committed to HS2, not just going up to Birmingham but beyond Birmingham too and it is one of those projects that I think is right for the long term future of this country. The easy thing for government to do is not to do these infrastructure projects, part of the problem we’ve had is that infrastructure projects have been cancelled. We are determined not to do that, we are pulling forward for Britain so that Britain can compete internationally in the world.

DM: But the pressure is on though isn’t it, to come up with some big infrastructural project right now because of the desperate need for a stimulus for growth but based on our discussions this morning, you’ve got an awful lot of reading and thinking to do. There doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency.

PMcL: Oh there’s every sense of urgency, I completely reject that. The whole government … the easy thing for governments to do is not to do anything but infrastructure projects, big infrastructure projects like HS2 do take many years. You can’t do them overnight, you couldn’t do airport expansion overnight but there are a lot of other areas that we are looking at, that we are trying to make sure that we bring forward and speed up some of the infrastructure decisions that we’re making and to get them implemented a lot quicker. Remember as a junior minister back in the Department of Transport in 1989 when Cecil Parkinson, the then Secretary of State, announced that he had got the agreement to build Cross Rail. Well we are only just building it now, so these infrastructure projects in the past have taken a huge amount of time. One of the things that the Prime Minister told me when he appointed me was that he wanted me specifically to look at the way we do these infrastructure projects to see if we can speed them up.

DM: A real sense of that time scale. You mentioned a previous job there, can I ask you about your last one? You’ve got your ear to the ground as Chief Whip, within the party are you hearing, are you aware of the mutterings about Mr Cameron’s leadership?

PMcL: Well I’ve seen mutterings about lots of Prime Minister’s leaderships during my time, there was quite a few mutterings about Margaret Thatcher’s leadership, everybody seems to forget that now. There was mutterings about John Major’s leadership and there was a huge row about Tony Blair’s leadership, in fact Tony Blair for the last five years of his Premiership had a Chancellor trying to undermine him. At least we’ve got a Chancellor who is working full steam with the Prime Minister to address the economic problems that we inherited.

DM: It’s interesting that you haven’t denied that there are mutterings there but we remember that the mutterings that you mentioned, Mrs Thatcher, I mean the mutterings grew to a rebellion which ousted her.

PMcL: Yes, after ten years. The Prime Minister is doing a very difficult job and he is determined to do the things that are right to get this country moving. If David Cameron had managed to inherit the economy that Tony Blair inherited, his job would be a lot, lot easier.

DM: So what is your message to those, we think there are fourteen of them so far within the party who have written letters about the Prime Minister, is your message to them button it, give him more time?

PMcL: My message is that the government is getting on with the job and we won’t be diverted by side issues.

DM: Do you think is about fourteen so far?

PMcL: I’ve no idea.

DM: Okay and can I just ask you in terms of your appointment, as you say just relatively new in post, it’s been said one of the problems, and it came from your own back benches, was that the public focus on the posh boys, we all know your background is very far from that, from the pit. Do you think you have been appointed on your abilities or because of that background?

PMcL: I hope I’ve been appointed on my abilities. I am very honoured to be the Secretary of State for Transport, I think it is a great job to do. It is a job that I was first appointed to as a Junior Minister by Margaret Thatcher in 1989 so it’s very nice to go back to the Department as its Secretary of State and I will do the best I can for that job.

DM: Okay and we are very honoured to have you on the programme, Secretary of State, thank you very much indeed there, Patrick McLaughlin there.

PMcL: Thank you very much indeed.