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FAISAL ISLAM: Good afternoon, you’re watching a Sky News special, live from Facebook’s central London offices.  We’re giving young voters the chance to put party leaders on the spot live throughout the day on TV, online and across social media.  Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg for the Liberal Democrats, the Labour leader Ed Miliband and leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett have already answered their questions.  I’m Faisal Islam, this is Stand Up Be Counted: Ask The Leaders.  And now it’s the turn of the Conservatives and the current Prime Minister, David Cameron.  Prime Minister, thank you very much for making it.  Okay, let’s kick straight in, Michael Adams has the first question.

MICHAEL ADAMS: Hello, how are people on zero hour contracts expected to pay for their food, rent, travel and then expected to plan for their financial futures?

DAVID CAMERON: Well what we want, Michael, is to make sure that we’ve got decent jobs for everybody.  In this economy we have seen more people get work, about 1.75 million more people getting work since I became Prime Minister but there is no doubt, you are right, there are some zero hours contracts where people are abused so we’ve said these zero hours contracts where companies can effectively forbid you from working for anybody else, we’ve said that is wrong and we’ve legislated to stop that.  Now some people though value having flexible contracts, some individuals value it, some businesses and others value it so I don't think it would be right to ban these contracts altogether but it is right to ban the abuse and that’s what we’ve done.  

FI: Is that convincing for you?

MICHAEL: One of my problems is I think for young people these contracts can be really good for working parents and things like that but young people can get pressured into signing these contracts and working irregular hours and we don’t have any money and we don’t see careers, we just see these small dead end jobs, we don’t actually see careers where we can build a future.

DAVID CAMERON: I think you’re right, Michael, we want an economy and a country where if you work hard and you get the qualifications you should be able to get a decent job and that’s one of the reasons why we have spent so much, invested so much in apprenticeships.  As the Deputy Prime Minister was saying earlier, Nick Clegg, okay the apprenticeship minimum wage is not that high but the training you get and the experience you get should mean you go on to get a really good job having been an apprentice so my vision for the country is as you leave school everyone should have the chance either of doing an apprenticeship or going to a university, that’s what we should encourage and then you are going to get more well paid jobs and fewer badly paid jobs, that’s the key for the future.

FI: There is somebody who wants to come in at the back.

WOMAN: Hi David, you say that it’s good for people to go to university but at the same time there are graduates and undergraduates who have no jobs, what do you say to this?

DAVID CAMERON: What we should do as a country is to make available apprenticeships and university places so that everyone who feels they can benefit from going to university can go.  So one of the things we’ve done as a government, there used to be a cap on the number of students who could go to university and we’ve taken that cap off so that it’s someone’s choice whether they want to go.  I think we need good careers advice in schools so we give people better information about what different choices can lead to but today in Britain, because we are creating so many jobs, because we have got more vacancies than at any time in recent years in our economy, people coming out of university do have the chance of getting a job …

WOMAN: How?

DAVID CAMERON: How?  Well by applying for work.

WOMAN: What work?

DAVID CAMERON: There’s lots of work, there’s lots of jobs being created here in Britain.  Okay, we’re standing here in London, I became Prime Minister four and a half years ago, compared with four and a half years ago there are over 400,000 more people in work.  Now of course some of those will be less well paid jobs but we have also been creating jobs in more skilled trades as well so if you are saying to me that people leaving university, there aren’t jobs for them, we’ve got more vacancies in our country than we’ve had for the last five, six, seven years so the jobs are there.  I would advise when it comes to my own children who are still at primary school, I would advise them as they go through school to think about either doing an apprenticeship or think about going to university rather than leaving school at 16 or 18, I think that’s the future for our country and I think it’s good that we’ve got well-funded good universities in Britain although that took, as I know you’ve been discussing today, that took some difficult decisions about tuition fees and such like but it means our universities are some of the best anywhere in Europe so if you are a young people in Britain today and you go to a good school and a good university, you have got every chance of a good career.  

FI: Elizabeth just wants to come back on this.

ELIZABETH: I think as a young person I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ve got to pay tuition fees but actually I am really concerned about the young people who are going to university and therefore don’t have student finance in place, don’t have other resources to help them into that transition to adulthood and I think the government needs to be doing more to support those young people.

DAVID CAMERON: Do you mean people who are leaving school without going to university?

ELIZABETH: Young people who believe that university isn’t right for them because on an apprenticeship, as we mentioned earlier, there is not enough to support yourself but at university I get support with living which is fantastic but young people at 18 shouldn’t feel like they need to rely on their parents anymore if they choose not to go to university.  I don't think it’s good enough at the moment.

DAVID CAMERON: I think the right approach for a country in the modern world, with the world changing around us and new countries on the rise, the right thing is to try to say to young people is look, leaving school at 18 rather than having an apprenticeship or going to university, you are more likely to have a successful career and a well-paid job if you do one of the two.  The truth is with apprenticeships, actually most people who do apprenticeships, that adds to your power to earn money later on in your life. I was at Dagenham the other day at the Ford works, people doing a four year apprenticeship there, at the end of those four years I asked them what they were going to be earning and they hoped to be earning up to £30,000 after a four year apprenticeship so it’s a good thing to do an apprenticeship.  

FI: We are going to move on, Francesca second question please, thank you.

FRANCESCA: Why did Britain fly the Saudi flag at half-mast if the country has such an appalling human rights record?

DAVID CAMERON: The reason for doing that was there is a long-standing relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and our United Kingdom here, a relationship between our monarchs, a relationship between the governments.  We don’t agree with a lot of things that the Saudis do, we don’t agree with the way they treat people for instance criminals and we make very clear those differences but when their King died, as a mark of respect we thought it was right to show that respect.

FRANCESCA: But isn’t that disrespectful to the people who the Saudi King has sentenced to a thousand lashes?    [Applause]  You mentioned that there is a relationship between the British government and the Saudi monarch and vice versa but that’s not a relationship that I am going to guess from that round of applause, that’s not a relationship shared by the citizens.

DAVID CAMERON: Well look, I’ll try and answer your question really directly because I know how concerned people were about that because they look at things that happen in Saudi Arabia and think why do we have this relationship.  Let me tell you as Prime Minister why I think it’s worthwhile.  We have a relationship with Saudi Arabia over things like trying to achieve peace in the Middle East but crucially over fighting terrorism.  Now I can tell you … please, one point then I promise I’ll shut up.  You have been listening to politicians all day but I can tell you one time since I’ve been Prime Minister a piece of information that we’ve been given by that country has saved potentially hundreds of lives here in Britain.  Now you can be Prime Minister and just say exactly what you think about every regime in the world and make great headlines and give great speeches but I think my first job is to try and keep this country safe from terrorism and if that means you have to build strong relationships sometimes with regimes that you don’t always agree with, that I think is part of the job and that’s the way I do it and that’s the best way I can explain it.  

FI: Just on that question Prime Minister, Abraham has a follow up.

ABRAHAM: Hi, so you’ve spoken about the relationship that we have and about how this is informed by fighting terrorism, do you think oil has anything to do with it? [Applause]

DAVID CAMERON: Yes, of course, yes.  I think it’s very important to answer that question directly and say yes, of course Britain needs to have relationships with countries that we trade with including those that we buy oil and gas from.  We can’t make all our own oil and gas here in the UK, we’re doing well because we’ve got North Sea Oil but yes, we do have relationships with these countries but it is perfectly possible …

ABRAHAM: To turn a blind eye to human rights abuses?

DAVID CAMERON: Well that’s not what we do.  It is perfectly possible to go to those countries as I do and raise human rights abuses with them.  Indeed I would argue that if you have a relationship with them and you have a way of talking to them, they are more likely to listen to you than if you just cut yourself off.  As I say, it is very easy as Prime Minister to grandstand and make the speeches and say this and say that but actually you have no influence in the world if you do that whereas if you have a relationship, when you think they are making a mistake you can say that to them and I think you have got more chance of being listened to.

FI: Okay, moving on to the next question, Sam.

SAM: Hello, with the war on drugs failing, would you consider treating drugs as a health issue rather than a criminal one?

DAVID CAMERON: First of all it is good that drug use is actually going down and not up and I think that’s partly because we have been taking not just a medical approach to it but also a more educational approach to it.  The real focus of this government on drugs has not been to change the laws, I don’t support that, it is still a criminal offence and we should still go after people that deal and sell to young people and all the rest of it, but we have tried to put more emphasis on educating people properly about the dangers of drugs and much more emphasis on treatment and by treatment I don’t mean just giving people substitute drugs but trying to help get people off drugs and I think that’s partly why we see drug use coming down. So we haven’t cracked it but it is heading in the right direction but I wouldn’t change the criminal law, I think that would be a mistake.  For lots of parents they would feel, hold on, I am trying to keep my children away from these things and if you change the criminal law I think you send quite a signal and it is hard then for parents to work out how to talk to their own children about it so I’d say keep the law as it, focus on the treatment, focus on the health, focus on getting people clean.  

FI: Convinced, Sam?

SAM: Not convinced but I am ….

FI: Anyone want to come back on this issue on drugs?

WOMAN: My dissertation this year is actually on drug policy and a few years ago you said that you would reconsider this and I don’t believe anybody who is in politics is in this for the wrong reasons, you’re constrained but wouldn’t it be better just to say that and then people would maybe relate to you more because until you became Prime Minister you were for it.

DAVID CAMERON: No, no, I said on the Home Affairs Select Committee that had a good look at this, we didn’t actually come down on the side of legalisation.  We had a good look at it.   Look, if you are saying that politicians are constrained because they have to think about what other people think, then yes that’s true but that’s part of being in a democracy, trying to represent people’s opinions and understand people’s concerns.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about it, I think changing the law and decriminalising drugs when we are trying to reduce their use, I think that will probably lead to an increase in their use so I don’t support it but I don’t think the criminal law is the whole answer to drugs, I think the answer to drugs is education, is treatment and trying to help people lead drugs free lives and as I said, I think there are some signs of success there.

FI: I’m going to push on to a question from Facebook from Christopher Iddon, why are the Tories going to scrap housing benefit for 16 to 21 year olds when every pensioner still gets the winter fuel allowance?

DAVID CAMERON: Well the reason for this is because I think as I was saying earlier, when young people leave school I think there should be opportunities to earn by doing an apprenticeship or getting a job or opportunities to learn by an apprenticeship or going to university but I think the option of leaving school, signing on, moving out of home, getting a flat and living on housing benefit, I don't think that is any start to a life at all so I don't think it should be an option.  Now of course there are some people who for whatever reason cannot live at home and have to be away from their parents and they we will always help but the option that some people have today of leaving school, signing on unemployed, getting a flat, getting housing benefit, I don't think that is a good option for young people and I don't think it should be available.

FI: Does anyone want to come back on that?  

WOMAN: I think that that’s a very bad approach because you’re using the example of a small minority of people that just sign on for the sake of signing on to punish a large majority who actually do sign on for so many reasons, they have kids or they can’t leave home because of family issues and problems.  As somebody who actually left home at 18 and decided to go back to FE college and I’m now at uni, housing benefit was the only way that I could do it and I think you are making a big mistake by taking that away from young people.

DAVID CAMERON: Well I don’t agree that this is somehow a tiny minority of people.  What I am saying is that if you have to leave home, if you can’t stay at home then of course you should make that benefit available but today as we speak, there is the option as you leave school to go and sign on, to get unemployment benefit and then to get a flat and housing benefit and I just think that is a bad way to start your life.  It is much better either to go on and do an apprenticeship or go to university or go to college or get a job, those are better options and I don't think that this idea that you can somehow opt out of working life and training, I think it’s a bad approach and we shouldn’t do it.  

FI: Okay, over the Brendan for the next question.

BRENDAN: It is a sort of follow on question from that which is what will you do to improve the housing crisis across the UK and tackle high rents particularly in London?:

DAVID CAMERON: We have got to build more houses is the short answer.  At the end of the day, if you don’t have enough of something it becomes too expensive either to buy or to rent so the short answer is build more houses which we are now doing.  We’ve reformed the planning system, houses and flats are getting built.  I actually agree with something Nick Clegg was saying to you which is making sure that as well as the six month assured tenancies there are longer tenancies available as well but the big thing I would like to do is to build more homes that young people can buy, what we call starter homes.  So basically build them, sell them at 80% of the normal market price and reserve them and say these are only to be bought by people under the age of 40, you can’t sell them to buy to let landlords who go on and rent them because I think lots of people who leave school, leave university, get a job, start working, they are earning enough often to pay a mortgage but they can’t get the deposit together and I want to see those people be able to achieve the dream of owning a flat or a home of their own.  

FI: Just a follow up point on this issue from Tim.  

TIM: It seems to me that a lot of problems mentioned are all about the deficit, the lack of money and yet in the past few years while your government has been in power there just seems to be money wasted on needless exercises, the badger cull for example that wasted millions of pounds and that ended up costing more than it saved.  

DAVID CAMERON: Well let’s take the badger cull because that is probably the most unpopular policy for which I am responsible and I am going to try and explain to you, Tim, why I think it is the right thing to do.  We have lost £500 million by paying compensation to farmers whose cattle have caught TB and if we don’t do anything about this scourge of TB – which by the way is terrible for badgers as well as terrible for cattle – it is going to cost us a billion pounds over the next ten years.  Now sometimes in politics you have got to do the thing which you believe is right even though you know it’s unpopular.  Now I know it is very unpopular culling badgers but I profoundly believe that part of the way, only part of the way but part of the way of trying to create some areas of the country that are TB free is to do this.  So it is very, very difficult but I believe it is the right thing to do and in the end you have to make choices as a politician and sometimes it means doing something that people don’t like.

FI: Tim, you were supposed to ask about housing but you asked about badgers.

TIM: I’m sorry.

DAVID CAMERON: Well we’ve covered lots of subjects, that’s good.  

FI: Rebecca.

REBECCA: What would be the future of devolution in Wales and Scotland under your party if you were to win the next general election?

DAVID CAMERON: Well a bright future for devolution because we’ve agreed, all the parties have agreed with respect to Scotland, there should be a stronger Scottish parliament so whoever wins this election, there will be a bill in the Commons straight after the election.  If I am Prime Minister it will be in the first Queen’s Speech, it will go through a stronger Scottish parliament.  I think we’re going to get a stronger Welsh parliament too, there are talks going on right now and they finish on about 1st March so I think we’ll see good progress there but I want something else which is I think that it’s right that if Scotland has its parliament and Wales has its parliament and they decide housing and education and welfare and things like that in those countries then it’s right that in the Westminster parliament when English MPs are discussing these issues, they should have the decisive say, so-called English votes for English laws, so I want to fix that one too.

FI: Are you convinced by that Rebecca?

REBECCA: Yes, I think so.  

FI: Lots of convincing going on today. Right, let’s take one from Facebook, from Karen McDonald, ‘Which party leader will eradicate the farcical Prime Minister’s Question Time?  Don’t we have enough comedies on TV without having this rerun over and over again?’

DAVID CAMERON: Ah, now this is … Amen!  Look, at five minutes to twelve every Wednesday I can tell you, I put my head in my hands and think, why have I got to do this?  It’s a nightmare.  But does it have a purpose?  Maybe you all think it hasn’t but there are two points to it I suppose.  One is that  Members of Parliament from whatever party, they can ask you any question you like so you have got to try and be on top of your game and on top of everything that’s happening.  That has a knock-on advantage because it means that as Prime Minister you have got to know everything that’s going on in your government and so it does enforce some accountability of the departments and the Ministers to you and through you to Parliament.  So yes, it is noisy and crazy and infuriating and all the rest of it but there is some sort of point to it.  Does that make any sense?  

FI: What do you think, Chris?

CHRIS: I think PMQs is horrible, I think it’s one of the biggest disengagers for voters and I think it’s really petty.  I think everybody involved, including yourself, you stand there and you shout at all the members of the House, it’s disgusting and I think it’s horrible.  [Applause]

DAVID CAMERON: I have every sympathy.  Maybe I can get you a ticket and you can come and sit in the House of Commons chamber and you would see the noise that is in there and that is why sometimes you do have to shout just to try and make yourself heard.  I agree, look, it is not representative of what parliament does, 98% of what parliament does is scrutinising legislation, questioning ministers more responsibly, the work of Select Committees, making sure our laws make sense, there is some really good work done in parliament.  This is like one piece and you’re right, it is like the Roman circus but look, the last person who asked to change it – if I said let’s get rid of this, I think people would think you’re running away from accountability so I don't think I can do it but I do wish we could make it a bit more responsible.  

FI: Sheila, a quick point on this?

DAVID CAMERON: Yes, what are you going to do to engage young people in politics or into voting?  As Chris said, Prime Minister’s Question Time is not engaging, we just see a load of people who are supposed to be running our country and are supposed to be more responsible than us just shouting at each other and just passing the blame and we don’t actually get any answers.  A lot of young people think I can’t trust them because I can’t even trust them to act civil and run our country in a proper way but then 16 year olds are deemed not able to vote because of this when we have got 40+ year olds arguing in a place that is supposed to make laws and supposed to run our country so I am just thinking, what are you going to do to engage young people more and see that actually no, you can make actually make a change?

DAVID CAMERON: I think the best thing I do as a local MP is to go into secondary schools and sit down with the sixth form and have a proper reasoned debate, say a few words about what I think about politics but then lots of time for loads of questions and answers and I do that in secondary schools in my constituency, I try and do it in other parts of the country.  I think that is probably the single best thing because then you are talking to people whether they are 16 or 18 about the things they care about.  I think more of that would be a good thing.

FI: Okay, we are going to move on to Hannan’s question.

HANNAN: Hi David, as a young British Muslim I have seen the community is experiencing the negative effect of counter-terrorism laws so what I’d like to ask is what your government doing to support and engage the vast majority of the Muslim community who are not engaged in any terrorist activities and who want to take a strong leadership role to tackle this issue?

DAVID CAMERON: I think the most important thing we can do is literally to engage with, as you say, the overwhelming majority of British Muslims who want nothing to do with this appalling extremism and terror and one of the things which I think has been really impressive in recent months and years is when one of these outrages takes place, the first people to get out there whether on Twitter or on the television or radio or wherever, is the leaders of the British Muslim community condemning what has happened.  I think that is incredibly powerful.  I saw President Obama the other day actually highlighted the ‘Not in my name’ hashtag campaign that was on Twitter from British Muslims and said that was an example to the whole world but I think we need to do more to explain to everybody that the people we are talking about is a minority of a minority, it is a tiny, you know, but they are spreading a poisonous narrative of extremism and terror that we’ve got to fight.

HAMMAN: Is your government doing anything to actually engage with the leaders, the community leaders, the mosque leaders to actually take a responsibility and also a leadership role because right now you have the Prevent programme that Ed Miliband mentioned earlier is under the police control.  Leaders are not involved, they are not really part of this process, they have not really been given …

DAVID CAMERON: You are absolutely right, we have the Prevent programme which is more about trying to prevent people from getting involved in terror so that is more of a criminal justice intervention but then through the Department of Local Government we have a big engagement programme with British Muslim communities and British Muslim leaders to talk to them about these issues, about how we fight Islamophobia, how we include people better in our country, to make sure that when these appalling things happen British Muslims are the first to come out and condemn them so I think there is a good programme.  What my government did was it split these two programmes apart on the advice actually of a very senior Liberal Democrat legislator who said that they got rather muddled and that it was better to have a Prevent programme to steer people away from terror and then have an engagement programme through the Department of Local Government to try and bring communities closer together.

FI: Okay, we’re going to move on, Lisa.

LISA: My university started selling sanitary products profit-free, I just want to know if you’d do the same.

DAVID CAMERON: That sounds a really good idea, which university is that?

LISA: The University of East Anglia.

DAVID CAMERON:  What are you reading?

LISA: English Literature.  

DAVID CAMERON: Enjoying it?

LISA: Yes.

DAVID CAMERON: Do you think it’s worthwhile?  We were having this conversation earlier about universities and degrees, are you confident?

LISA: I love it, yes.

DAVID CAMERON: It sounds like a great idea.

FI: Just to clarify, I think you were talking about VAT.

DAVID CAMERON: Oh VAT, sorry VAT.  This is a long standing campaign.  I have had a look at it in the past, I think it is quite difficult.  Some VAT things you can change, other VAT things if they are linked to other products it’s quite difficult to do it within the framework of European laws and I can’t remember the answer.  I think it’s very difficult to do but I’ll have to go away and have a look and come back to you, Lisa.  

FI: Okay, we are going to go to a Facebook question now from Daniel Green, ‘What are your views on online voting and do you think 16 and 17 year olds should be allowed to vote in elections?’

DAVID CAMERON: Right, well if you think I’ve said some unpopular things so far wait for this.  I am afraid you have got to have one age of majority and I think 18 in my view, and I understand the case for votes for 16 and 17 year olds but my view is that 18 is a better age, it is the age where so many other things kick in and I think it would be better to save that voting age for 18.  Online voting, I mean I don’t have any objection to it but I think in a way we are asking the wrong question.  The reason people don’t vote is not because it’s too complicated to go down to the polling station, the reason people don’t vote is because they don’t think it makes enough of a difference so I think we ought to focus on trying to make sure our politics is delivering the things people want rather than simply trying to work out how do we make it easier to vote.  

FI: Okay, follow up on that.

MAN: You say that you don’t think online voting is the right thing or is it because that politicians are afraid of what would happen if people would vote from home or on their mobile?

DAVID CAMERON: No, I don’t have any great objection to it as I say.  Some people say why don’t we vote on a Sunday, make it easier when some people aren’t working.   Some people say why don’t we vote for three days in a row rather than just one day, why don’t we vote online, have more postal voting?  These are all good ideas to discuss but I think the reason people don’t vote is not because it’s too complicated to go down to the polling station so I think we are slightly missing the point.  So I don’t have any objection to these methods if we can make sure there is no fraud and all the rest of it but I think it’s not really why people aren’t voting.  

FI: Okay next question from Poppy follows on quite nicely.

POPPY: Hello.  We were talking about what discourages people from voting and I think for me something that comes into play is that I kind of agree with some policies of one party and agree with other bits of another party so it is kind of hard to align myself specifically with one party, so now looking at the coalition do you think that cross-party initiatives will be kind of steering the progression of democracy in government in the UK?

DAVID CAMERON: Well the coalition was a bit of a new departure, we hadn’t had one for 70 years in our country and I hope it showed that when there isn’t a decisive result politicians can put aside their own political interests and try and work together.  Look, all the ones you’ve heard from today, we have different views about all sorts of things but we all actually love this country, we want to serve our country, we believe that our political system can deliver, that’s what brings us together.  I think one of the things we ought to try and do is maybe more free votes, maybe more occasions when parliament isn’t voting because people are whipped by their party to do so. I also think we have had quite a few referendums in recent years and I think that’s a good way to ask people their view.  I think you ought to all have a view on Europe and whether we should stay in the European Union, we haven’t had a vote on that in this country since 1975 and that’s why I’m saying if I am Prime Minister after May 7th we’ll have a vote on that.  So that’s one way to break down some of the party restrictions – free votes in parliament, we’ve got on tomorrow on whether you should be able to transfer DNA in order to avoid some genetic diseases for children, that’s a free vote, so more of those and maybe some more referendums.

FI: A follow up on this from Holly.

HOLLY: About people feeling disengaged from voting, Natalie Bennett mentioned earlier it has been a hundred years since women got the vote nearly, why aren’t any parties taking it serious that women still aren’t being paid as much as men?  I  feel that if I was a woman looking to vote, if a party said that they were going to take that seriously they would automatically have my vote.

DAVID CAMERON: I am taking it seriously, I think it’s a very important issue.  It’s a scandal.  The pay gap for under 40s has now almost gone so we have made some good progress, it shouldn’t have taken so long but it has almost gone.  Over 40s though there is still a pay gap and we need to address that.  We have brought in this thing where any company that is found to have got this wrong at a tribunal then has to have a pay audit throughout their company to see whether they need to change all their practices.  There are a lot of things we need to do, make childcare easier and more affordable, encourage women back into the workforce when they’ve had children, lots of things we can do, make sure public appointments for women are taken up, make sure that politics has got better representation of women where my party was one of the back markers, we’re doing a bit better now and we need to keep at it.

FI: Convinced, yes or no?

HOLLY: Not particularly.

FI: Okay, maybe we can do some more convincing later if you want to.  We are going to go to the last question from Charlie.

CHARLIE: Hi, David. If you look around this room, people that are engaged in politics come from a multitude of backgrounds, however just 4.2% of MPs in the House of Commons are from an ethic minority despite 12.9% making up the population.  Just over one in five women are MPs in the House of Commons. So given this can we say that parliament is a truly representative institution and can we really trust you to create policies which encompass the concerns of marginalised groups?

DAVID CAMERON: I think the short answer to your question is that today parliament is not properly representative of the country.  It has changed and got better in that there are now more women MPs and more members of parliament form black and minority ethnic communities but not enough.  My party is a good example, before the last election we had 17 women MPs, we’ve now got over 50.  That is still not enough when you think I’ve got 300 members of parliament but it’s progress.  Before the last election we had very few members of parliament from black and minority ethnic groups, we now have British Sikhs, British Asians, black British people on the Conservative benches.  Our Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid is a British Muslim, a full member of the Cabinet, a second generation immigrant so I think we are making progress but we haven’t done enough.  I think a really important thing about our country is that actually people can come from other parts of the world and in one or two generations I want to see them be able to sit round that cabinet table or be captains of industry or senior judges in the land.  It’s happening and it’s a precious thing we’ve got but we’ve got to push it harder and faster.  

FI: Just one last follow up.

VINENDA: Hi David, I’m Vinenda and you were talking about how parliament is not only not representative but you said that everyone should have a view but why should 16 and 17 year olds have a view if your party isn’t willing to listen to us, isn’t willing to understand or try to take into consideration the fact that things have been done towards us but we are not being listened to because we can’t vote?

DAVID CAMERON: I think we should listen, we should listen to everyone in our country but we have a responsibility, members of parliament have a responsibility to decide who gets to vote.  My view is that we should have a vote on this, I think it’s time, I still think 18 is the right age because it’s the age when so many other things of majority happen but it is  a perfectly legitimate debate whether it should be 16, 17 or 18.   Personally I go for 18 and I find quite strong support for that around the country but let’s by all means have the debate and have the argument.

FI: We’ve got to leave it there, we appreciate your time Prime Minister, thank you very much.  That’s it for this session, thank you David Cameron, let’s have a round of applause for the Prime Minister.

DAVID CAMERON: Thank you very much.   

FI: If you still have questions for Mr Cameron he’ll be answering those in a live Facebook Q&A as soon as he comes off the set and you can join in the debate on social media, just use the hashtag ask the leaders, thank you very much.