ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: So then, the European elections are just four days away and the party leaders are travelling up and down the United Kingdom to try to get the vote out and vote for them of course.  Well this week I went to meet both David Cameron and Ed Miliband on the campaign trail, you can watch my interview with the Labour leader at eleven o’clock and my interview with the Prime Minister is coming up in just a moment but first let’s have a look at some of the polls because the challenge facing the main parties is stark if those polls are to be believed.  A Comres survey for the Independent on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror today puts UKIP 11% ahead of any other party on 35% when voters are asked who they will back in the European elections, Labour are unchanged in second place on 24% whilst support for the Conservatives, well they’re in third place down on 20 points.  The Greens meanwhile are up two points on seven which means they’ve leapfrogged the Liberal Democrats who’ve slumped to just 6% with another two point drop.  Well when I met the Prime Minister this week he was on the campaign trail in the Port of Tyne in South Shields and he has been travelling all over the United Kingdom canvassing for votes so I started out by asking him how he thought the European election campaign was going for his party.

DAVID CAMERON: I’m happy that in the campaign we’ve been able to get across our very clear message which is look, Labour and the Liberals think there is nothing wrong with Europe, UKIP think there’s nothing right with Europe, we think you’ve got to get stuck in, change it, get a better deal for Britain and give people a referendum.  I felt in this campaign we’re the only party with a very clear message about what we want to get done.  People want answers and so I’m enjoying the campaign. 

DM: But that old question then arises, if there were a referendum now you’d have to vote no wouldn’t you because there is so much wrong with the European Union. 

DAVID CAMERON: That’s why I don’t want a referendum now because you’d be giving people an unacceptable choice, the status quo which isn’t working properly or leaving altogether which would be bad for Britain, so let’s make the changes, get the better deal and then have the referendum. 

DM: Prime Minister, after the beating you are going to take in the European elections, are you preparing for elements of your party to go headless chicken again over Europe?

DAVID CAMERON: I love the way we have to talk about the outcome of an election before it’s happened, surely we should be talking about the issues in this election. 

DM: Well you can’t deny the polls.

DAVID CAMERON: Look, I’m not a pollster, if you want to talk about the polls get a pollster on.  I’m a participant, I want to talk about why people should vote Conservative in these European elections because of the vision we’ve got for reforming Europe, improving Britain’s position in it and then holding an in/out referendum and I can tell you what it is we want, how we are going to achieve it and why I believe we can get it.  People said to me, you’ll never cut the European budget, I did.  People said you’ll never get out of those bail-out funds that mean we have to pour our money in the eurozone, I got us out of those funds.  We can make changes, so I prefer to talk about the issues of the election rather than the polls.   

DM: Okay, do you think your hand has been strengthened by the figures that showed when the floodgates when the floodgates were supposed to open for Romanians and Bulgarians to come here as much as they like to the UK, they actually didn’t come.  Has that strengthened your hand, your argument? 

DAVID CAMERON: I think it’s encouraging that we are creating jobs in Britain and the overwhelming majority of those jobs are going to British nationals who are being trained and educated in our schools and are ready for the workforce.  Over the last year something like 70% of the new jobs, more than 70% have gone to British people, that’s good news.  Obviously we have to wait and see what happens with these figures from Romania and Bulgaria and what have you but I think the best thing we can do is get rid of benefit tourism in Europe, that’s part of my goal but we’ve got to realise that a proper immigration policy needs a proper welfare policy so it doesn’t pay to be idle and it needs a proper education policy so that you are training people for the jobs you’ve created.

DM: You are talking about your goals on net migration, we know that aspiration to get net migration down to tens of thousands, we’re going to see the ONS, the Office for National Statistics figures for net migration published on polling day, you are going to be way, way from that mark, you are never going to get it down by the General Election.

DAVID CAMERON: Well let’s analyse what we’re doing here.  We’ve got the migration from outside the European Union which we have cut by one third and we’ve done that because we put a cap on the number of people that can come here for economic reasons, we’ve reformed family visas and we’ve closed down 700 bogus colleges so we’ve taken really tough action, it is working. Obviously as a growing economy, we have seen with the weakness of the eurozone, quite a lot of people coming from France and Spain and Italy, coming into the UK. 

DM: And that’s the reason why you are not going to get it down to tens of thousands. 

DAVID CAMERON: But the point of having this target is because it’s what I want and the British people want and ….

DM: You want it but it’s not going to happen, you admit that.

DAVID CAMERON: We are working towards it, we are doing everything we can to make sure we deliver on it and we should continue to do that. 

DM: So that is still your target, you’re not going to revise it?

DAVID CAMERON: I want to see net migration down to the tens of thousands….

DM: By the time of the general election?

DAVID CAMERON: … not only because it is right for the British economy because we should be training our own people for these jobs but also if you look back to the 1980s when net migration was in the tens of thousands, we were an open economy then but do you know what, immigration wasn’t a big political issue because it was properly under control and that’s what I want to achieve again.   

DM: It’s one of the issues you disagree with Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems on, after the heavy pounding that has been passing between the coalition partners over the last few weeks, what are relations like personally between you and the Deputy Prime Minister, still at the rose garden level or below that?

DAVID CAMERON: Relations are good, we have a working relationship because we are both committed to the long term economic plan we put in place for Britain to turn our economy round and we know that we have to make the coalition work for Britain.  Of course you get tensions and pressure, I’m not going to deny that for a second but if you look at the results of what the government has done – we said we’d get the deficit down and it’s down by a third, we said we’d get Britain back to work and we’ve got one and a half million more people in jobs.  We’ve also done some quite fundamental reform to things like welfare and education that I think the government can be proud of and the country can be proud of so this coalition government will last the course, will keep getting the job done and then at the next election people can decide, I hope, for a Conservative only government.

DM: What about the leader of the opposition though, he’s got under your skin hasn’t he by that election broadcast, you’re too posh to be in touch with the British people and you’re not as intellectually self-confident as he is. 

DAVID CAMERON: I’ll leave the intellectual arguments to everybody else but the truth about that broadcast, if you have got a year to go before an election and you’ve got nothing positive to say about your own policies, I think you do have a problem and the truth is, the next election will be decided about who is best placed to run our economy, keep turning our country round, keep providing jobs, give people the stability and security that they need.  We are demonstrating in government that we can do that.  The job isn’t finished and my pitch at the election will be very simple, we’re on the right track, don’t let’s turn back and blow it with another splurge of Labour spending and borrowing and taxing, let’s stick to the plan.   

DM: Just on that charge about being too posh, does that make you out of touch?  Can’t people who are blessed with a better background and more money, can’t they understand what’s going on in the wider community?

DAVID CAMERON: I don’t think that’s what matters, what matters is do you understand what needs to be done, are you capable of delivering change?  Can you be the person who helps grow our economy, create those jobs, cut people’s taxes, help grow our communities?  That’s what people will judge me, my team, my government on and not anything else. 

DM: Can I ask you, one of the biggest factors in the economy at the moment, we’ve seen, some people are calling it a bubble in areas of the housing market, in some areas of the housing market.  I was talking to the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and he says there are deep, deep structural problems which the Bank of England can do nothing about within the housing market and that is not enough houses are being built.  He says the Bank of England doesn’t build houses, that’s over to you, Prime Minster, you are tying one hand behind the Governor’s back. 

DAVID CAMERON: I agree with what he said, first of all we have given to the Bank of England the duty to make sure that bubbles are dealt with in our economy and they have all the powers they need to do that but he is absolutely right when he says fundamentally we need to build more houses in Britain.  Now we have reformed the planning system to simplify it, we’ve made sure that we have given financial backing to build …

DM: You’ve done all that but the houses physically are not there. 

DAVID CAMERON: Well housing starts have increased, the building of houses is going up.  If you talk to any housing developer at the moment or builder, they will tell you that the Help to Buy scheme that the government has put in place has been hugely helpful at bringing forward more development, more house building.  We’re training apprentices in the building trade and elsewhere to make sure that we can deliver on these houses but we need more, yes. 

DM: A quick question about the Chilcot Inquiry, when is that going to be published, is that a source of frustration to you?

DAVID CAMERON: Well it’s frustrating but it’s not in my gift.  This is an independent inquiry, I want to see it published soon, my understanding is that they will be able to publish before the end of the year and I very much hope they can deliver on that timetable.  The public wants to see the answers to the inquiry and I think we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer.   

DM: Finally Prime Minister, on the World Cup, it’s often said that Prime Ministers fates are tied up with the performance of the England team in a World Cup, you must be hoping for a great performance from Roy Hodgson’s boys. 

DAVID CAMERON: Well I am, I’m a huge fan and I think he’s a great manager. Look, I he’s put together I think an exciting young team, he’s got some wisdom and experience there with Rooney and Lampard but he has got some great young players.  I’m sure the whole country will get right behind them and fingers crossed, everything crossed for a great result. 

DM: What do you think, can they get out of their group, could they win the World Cup? 

DAVID CAMERON: Well, anything is possible and the whole point about being an England fan is that you have got to dare to dream and I will definitely be daring to dream, I’ll be shouting myself hoarse.  I was in a hotel in Scotland last night talking to some Scottish editors and I’m sure they’ll be right behind us too!

DM: I’m sure they will.  Do you accept that point about Prime Ministers fates, that you can get a bit of a bounce if England do well?

DAVID CAMERON: Well I don't know, I think these things can sometimes be overwritten.  At the end of the day my view is that people treat elections in a very serious fashion and they answer the question in front of them.  The question, I was saying yesterday, the question in front of the Scottish people is in the United Kingdom or out of the United Kingdom and not Alex Salmond’s fate or my fate.  The question at the next election will not be how do you feel about the England football team or the football manager, it will be do you want to stick to the long term economic plan that’s delivering for Britain or do you want to hand the keys back to the people who crashed the car in the first place, the Labour party who want to borrow and spend and tax?  That will be the question and I think people address elections in a pretty serious way in our country.

DM: Okay, Prime Minister, thank you very much indeed. 

DAVID CAMERON: Thank you. 

DM: David Cameron there talking to me in the Port of Tyne in South Shields ahead of the local and European elections.