Murnaghan Interview with Liam Fox MP, Conservative leadership candidate, 3.07.16

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now the Home Secretary, Theresa May, looks to be storming ahead in the race to become the next leader of the Conservative party and Prime Minister, at least if the polls are to be believed but two of her rivals, Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom, have warned the country’s next leader should be a Brexiteer.  Well I’m joined now by another of the five candidates, Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary, who of course also backed the Leave campaign and a very good morning to you, Dr Fox.  You are not seen, you must have seen the polling yourself, you’re not seen with the best will in the world likely to win this race so are you in it just to inject some serious policy thinking?

LIAM FOX: Well we are not electing a leader of the opposition who’s got four years or five years to play themselves into a role, we are talking about someone who in ten weeks’ time will be the Prime Minister and the next day will be getting a call from Mr Putin, will be asked to make judgements on international security, who will have to set the nuclear instructions for our deterrents so we need to have some serious understanding that this cannot be a rerun of the European referendum, it cannot simply be a personality contest.  This is not a game, this is about who will be the head of government at a very difficult international time.

DM: And does it have to be one of you three, you on the Brexit side?   

LIAM FOX: Well I think when it comes to negotiating you have to think about this.  It’s not just whether we’re keeping faith with the British people which of course we must, the question is how much credibility would you have from the other side.  So you have got 27 other governments negotiating with us, will they think that somebody who voted to Remain is actually committed to the position that the British public brought forward in the referendum verdict?  

DM: So if you were elected you would for instance therefore, to show that seriousness and the commitment to get us out, you would trigger Article 50 as soon as possible?  This is the process by which the UK announces it’s leaving.

LIAM FOX: As soon as we’ve got the ground rules established, I think we have to understand that there is now a clear difference between the European Commission and the faceless bureaucrats of Brussels who have this ideological approach to everything and the elected governments, the German government, the French government in particular who have elections next year, who will want to come to practical solutions.  The intervention by the Trade Commissioner this week was just beyond bizarre when she was asked …  

DM: So no negotiations until you leave?

LIAM FOX: The next question she was asked was, but wouldn’t that be detrimental to every single European economy?  And she said yes.  Now who on earth would operate a stupid rule like that?  So we need some common sense so that the French government and the German government are able to make sure they can continue to trade with the UK, export to the UK and maintain their own jobs and prosperity.

DM: Just to be explicit, Dr Fox, on the issue of Article 50, the first day in Downing Street you would trigger that?  

LIAM FOX: No, no, I said as soon as we’ve got the ground rules established.  I think we’ve want to get the new government in place, we’d want to get to see the views of our partners, what our room for manoeuvre is as soon as we can but my aim would be that Britain would be leaving the European Union on the 1st January 2019 and I think we actually have to aim for a date.

DM: So by Christmas time really.  So who are you going to back, who will you back if you fall out of the …?

LIAM FOX: I have no intentions of thinking about anything other than going forward and I think we have to set out some ideas that we will put immediately into operation.  I think we’ve gone through a period of drift, I think we’ve kicked so many things into the long grass the long grass is full.  I think we have to start making some decisions, we’ve got to give the go ahead for the upgrade of our nuclear deterrent, we’ve got to go ahead with a new runway at Heathrow, we’ve got to go ahead with Hinckley but we have to question whether that is the right model and very quickly make that decision.

DM: But that urgency you describe, I mean there is some discussion within your party isn’t there, saying Theresa May is miles in the lead, why don’t all the rest of you for the good of the country just give her a coronation?  We need a new Prime Minister.

LIAM FOX: We also need to have debates about these very big issues and that’s what I want to inject into this contest.  I want to talk about why we have an obsession in meddling in the structures of the health service rather than concentrating on the medicine, to get us better patient outcomes.  I want to make sure that the process of government is much more streamlined so that we can get better results for the money that we put in and I think that we need to start to ask big questions about how we go forward and ask them very quickly.  

DM: Do you have any views on those campaigning on the Brexit side as well, Michael Gove and his conduct in terms of some say doing in the Prime Minister, being part of that and also how he dealt with his relations with Boris Johnson?

LIAM FOX: Well all through the referendum campaign I said let’s stick to the issues, let’s not impugn the character or the nature, honesty or integrity of our colleagues and that’s how I intend to approach this.   

DM: There are plenty of others in the party who are saying all kinds of things which I won’t repeat here, some of them pretty strong about his conduct, cuckoo in the next was one of the milder ones.  

LIAM FOX: Well I’ve heard them and it’s up to my colleagues to make their own judgement.  My role in this is going to be to keep us on the very big issues that the new Prime Minister will have to deal with and as I said, the day after they come to be Prime Minister they’ve got to take that call from President Putin asking what Britain’s policies are going to be.  We need to have people there who have experience of those big security and big foreign policy issues.  

DM: So it would be Theresa May then if it’s not you.  

LIAM FOX: Well as I said, it’s up to my colleagues to make their own case but I think that we have to recognise this is not a parlour game we’re playing, this is about the future security and wellbeing of the British people.

DM: Liam Fox, thank you very much indeed.  Former Defence Secretary there, Liam Fox.