The West Country Debate November: Immigration, falling inflation and NHS waiting times
Catch up on November's edition of The West Country Debate
When Rishi Sunak decided to sack then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Monday 13 November, he may not have suspected he would experience such a rollercoaster week.
By the next day, he was being accused of 'magical thinking' and of lacking the leadership needed to take the country forward by Braverman.
The reshuffle also led to Danny Kruger, Conservative MP for Devizes, accusing the PM of "abandon[ing] the voters who switched to us [in 2019]" and "sacrificing the seats we won from Labour".
And on Wednesday 15 November, the Supreme Court rejected the government's plan to process asylum seekers in Rwanda on the grounds they might not be processed fairly or treated safely.
That ruling was a big blow for the government's plans on how to tackle immigration, which also include housing asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm on Portland.
These issues, plus the government finally achieving it's first key pledge of halving inflation have all caused controversy in Parliament this week.
On the panel for November's edition of The West Country Debate:
Sir Ben Bradshaw, outgoing Labour MP for Exeter
Cllr Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party and parliamentary candidate for the new Bristol Central consitutency
Anthony Mangnall, Conservative MP for Totnes
Immigration, unlawful policies and the Bibby Stockholm
The panel disagreed about the Supreme Court's ruling that the Government's Rwanda immigration plan. Mr Mangnall said he was "disappointed" at the decision but said "we have to respect the rule of law [and] respect the courts."
He added that Conservative colleagues who have pushed back against the judges' decision "are wrong" but backed Rishi Sunak's "robust Plan B", which will see a treaty drawn up with Rwanda.
But Ms Denyer disagreed, and said she "welcomed" the court's ruling, calling it a "good decision". She called on the government to abandon it's plans of "warehousing migrants on barges - that's clearly inhumane."
Sir Bradshaw said that the government could have used some of the £140 million that has already been spent on the Rwanda scheme to reduce the backlog of claims for asylum. He added that money being spent on plans to house migrants on the Bibby Stockholm should be put towards policing the UK's borders abroad.
NHS waiting times for the region's hospital
Official figures released by Parliament on Wednesday revealed that the NHS trusts that run Torbay Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary are among the ten worst for waiting times for non-urgent operations.
Former health secretary Sir Bradshaw described winter pressures as "pretty meaningless... because now they go on all year". He added: "Don't forget, by the end of 13 years of Labour government, we had the shortest waiting times, the highest patient satisfaction.
"All of that is gone now, not just with hospitals. You can't see a GP, you can't get an NHS dentist in Devon, the whole thing is broken," he said.
Ms Denyer argued that "13 years of Conservative austerity is a large part of why we've ended up in this position" and called the NHS "grossly underfunded."
But Mr Mangnall argued that "record levels of funding are going into the NHS".
"We have got 20,000 new nurses, 10,000 new doctors... We are upgrading Torbay Hospital with a £50m package. But we can't talk about waiting lists without talking about the impact that the pandemic had," he added.
Mr Mangnall also said that the NHS needs reform rather than extra funding alone.
Falling inflation and the cost of living
The panel also discussed the government achieving their first pledge of halving inflation before 2023. On Tuesday, figures from the ONS showed inflation in the year to October 2023 had fallen to 4.6% from 10.7% last year.
Mr Mangnall said it showed the government was taking the economy "in the right direction".
He called for the government to continue it's freeze on business rates for the hospitality and tourism industry, and said he had been lobbying his colleagues to do so, in order to support small businesses.
Ms Denyer said the government can claim little credit for inflation falling as this is "largely due to energy prices, the Bank of England and global effects".
She added that we remain in an "inequality crisis".
"This is about the difference between those who have [wealth and assets] and those who have not," she said.
Sir Bradshaw warned the government not to scrap inheritance tax to win votes, ahead of a general election next year, as this would leave "the incoming government an even bigger mess - if we do win the election."
If you missed October's edition of the West Country Debate you can catch up here.