ITV Tonight are to profile all of Great Britain’s largest political parties.
Ahead of the 2024 General Election, ITV continues its election coverage with a series of The Leader Interviews - Tonight programmes featuring Great Britain’s largest political parties.
The first programme broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX at 8.30pm on June 6th will feature Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey.
On STV in Scotland and ITV1 Border Scotland, the programme will also feature the Scottish Green Party’s co-leader Patrick Harvie, and in Wales it will be solely an interview with the Plaid Cymru leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth.
In a wide ranging interview, the Liberal Democrat leader shared his views on the Post Office scandal, Brexit, his time as a minister in the coalition government and his particularly colourful approach to campaigning.
We asked whether the Lib Dem’s plans on health and social-care add up and whether taxes will need to rise to pay for them.
"We're saying that some taxes on big corporations are going to have to go up. We've also got [the] approach of spend to save. Some of the investments we want to make in our health, and social care will actually save money over a period of just a few years. I think the Liberal Democrat approach of investing in public services to save money later is exactly that. It's prudent financially and it's the right thing to do" - Ed Davey
With four weeks to go until polling day, we profile the leader of Plaid Cymru and hear about his hopes for this election and his vision for Wales.
Asked whether Welsh independence might be sliding down Plaid Cymru’s list of priorities, Rhun ap Iorwerth reiterated his commitment and invited voters to back him:
"I’d go independent tomorrow, but it's not up to me. It's up to the people of Wales. What we're asking people to do with this is come on that journey."
"If they share our ambition, if they do want Wales to be prosperous, if they do want us to break away from those shackles that have meant we've stagnated economically for so many generations, well, push the envelope with us, push the boundaries of what we're able to do." - Rhun ap Iowerth
Fielding more candidates for a seat in Westminster than ever before, we sit down with the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie, to hear him set out his vision for a greener Scotland.
We ask Patrick if some of the Scottish Green Party pledges, such as committing to not building any new roads, were unrealistic. Here’s what he said:
"Of course, there'll be some areas where whether it's for safety or to connect a new housing development to the road network there does need to be new infrastructure and we have to invest in the infrastructure, but we need to do that without generating more carbon emissions."
"We’re not about to say cars should be banned, that would be absurd. But we do need to use them less just like aviation, you know, no one's talking about digging up the runways to plant cabbages, but fundamentally you cannot continue with the kind of economy that lives beyond our environmental limits, because ultimately it cannot be sustained."
All episodes are on ITV1 at 8:30pm tonight
Useful Links
https://greens.scot/
https://www.partyof.wales/election
https://www.libdems.org.uk/