and we are joined 0k, plenty more from these tonight and we arejoined by 0k, plenty more from these tonight and we are joined by senior politicians from seven parties who will be listening and responding to what everyone has got to say. they are, for the conservatives. representing the labour party, said area champion. the scottish national party. ukip, the liberal democrats and plaid cymru join us and for the green party, their co—leader. also, give them applause. applause . also, jonathan blake is working with bbc reality check looking at the numbers promises we will hear about by working out what really stacks up. and it is going through comments we have been getting all day on #bbcdebate. first, tonight, after two devastating terror attacks in two weeks, including in manchester, security has become a bigger part of the election campaign, in particular how best to protect british people from future attacks. police numbers in england and wales have fallen by almost 20,000 since 2010 and numbers have gone down in northern ireland. although in scotland they have been more 01’ although in scotland they have been more or less increasing the last 30 yea rs. more or less increasing the last 30 years. police budgets in england and wales were reduced by almost a fifth between 2010 and 2015 and since then they have been protected and counterterrorism funding has risen with inflation. since 2000 various governments have introduced nine anti—terrorist laws including the ability to stop suspects from re—entering the uk and keeping people deemed a threat under house arrest. the current threat level is that severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. there have been three attacks in the last 77 days in the uk, although the home office say intelligence services have prevented five since the attack on westminster in march. we can get your thoughts on the best way to protect british people. my name is benjamin, i am 18. across the wake of the terror attacks i found the dialogue has been about unity between political parties and people from different walks of life. why is it the conservative party has been divisive by saying enough is enough and we are too soft on terror? 0k, some more of your comments. are too soft on terror? 0k, some more of your commentslj are too soft on terror? 0k, some more of your comments. i am jessica, i want to know what we are going to do to stop attacks happening in the first place, instead of worrying about how many police you have on the streets to deal with it when it is happening. i understand the conservatives want to introduce terror offences, what else will be done? we hear they are on watch lists. what will we do to tackle extremism? i am 22 and live across from manchester arena and did not get much sleep on the night of the attack. i went to the one love manchester when manchester and the uk is coming together, it seems westminster is intent on tearing itself apart. what will we see from you in terms of solution? from the conservatives, what will tom seek tonight? i will try to cover all three comments. i came to the country in 1978, i was 11 and could not speak english. my parents had to flee iraq from a dictator. my pa rents flee iraq from a dictator. my parents embraced the country that rescued them and we integrated and i learned english within six months and went to university and built a great business. i am the candidate now, i was the mp for stratford upon avon. this country has incredible values of freedom, opportunity, democracy rule of law, tolerance. 0ne democracy rule of law, tolerance. one of the things we have not done well is integration but also for too long we have tolerated people who have preached extremism and hatred, people who preached intolerance to oui’ people who preached intolerance to our values and way of life. misogyny, all sorts of things. we have to call those people out in our communities. the mainstream muslim community is equally targeted by extremists, by these criminals, because they target muslims as well as people outside the religion. what we have to do is come together as political parties and as a community and call—out intolerance and say it is wrong, our society is not like that. we are proud of what we are. what manchester did at the concert was incredible and that should be oui’ was incredible and that should be our role model of how we deal with this. i would like us to come together. let's not tear chunks out of one another but say how can we work together to get the right legislation through parliament? not just legislation, also how do we call out these extremist? tom, can you give more detail about the types of things, the conversation the politicians are having that switches you off? it is the aggressive nature of politics, especially prime minister's questions and debates, i watched the leaders debate and it was a complete noise. i see it translates into social media. we are on facebook, twitter as young people and the moment somebody puts a political point of view, we get the same aggressive comments that you seem same aggressive comments that you seem to throw back at each other, especially labour and conservatives and we have seen labour pointing the finger at theresa may and saying this is your fault, these people died because of you as home secretary. it is not right to blame one person. it is not right and we should pull back from that. one thing i would say is what you see on wednesday afternoon, my ministers questions, is not what we do. if you look at the committee stage of any bill, the foreign affairs committee i sat bill, the foreign affairs committee isat on, bill, the foreign affairs committee i sat on, where we had a fantastic report into the intervention in libya. sited on many news programmes in the campaign as being a good report. that was cross—party and we work together in committees and that work together in committees and that work is the real work of parliament. i hope young people get to see that. sadly, most of it takes place in the background, rather than the other bit of politics. i have to to defend my party, we deliberately through this campaign have not done the name—calling. what you say about theresa may, we aren't looking at her record. six of the seven years she was the home secretary in charge of police and security and i think it acceptable to look at policies and decisions politicians make. but i agree it is unacceptable to name call. to go back to the bigger picture, i would say in the last five years it has become more axa doubled to use despicable language which i would say is getting close to hate crime, on social media. politicians use it, posters we are seeing. the brexit campaign was a vile example of that. glad it feels in this election that has calmed, but we have to have zero tolerance of that. to look at the big picture, it is notjust a knee jerk reaction of bringing in more police and legislation. we need, from the youngest age, to teach people about respect and tolerance and embedding bat and bringing back things like the youth service, which has been decimated in the past seven years. the place where young people can be channelled if they are saying things that are too upsetting, controversial, radical. that system is not there now. we see schools under resourced and youth services disappear and community police are not there. those levels that would have been like canaries, when things are going wrong, we could have said let's put support around that person. with that gone it becomes inevitable it is only when someone does something utterly despicable andl does something utterly despicable and i am really sorry for the people impacted in what has happened in these atrocities. we should notjust be waiting until that moment. we should have done something decades before. applause we can get more of your thoughts. applause we can get more of your thoughtslj we can get more of your thoughts.” am claire from manchester and i have am claire from manchester and i have a question for everybody. after the re ce nt a question for everybody. after the recent horrible attacks i have seen more armed police. is that something you would look at installing permanently? what is everybody's review? brian paddick, you have an experience as a retired police officer. you want to put more money into local police but would it be armed police? there are two macro issues. you have to have the police to respond as you said. when an incident like this happens. in london there was a great number of armed response vehicles who responded quickly to deal with the incident. i am concerned in other parts of the country there might not be enough armed officers because there are 1000 less than ten years ago, 1000 fewer armed officers. that is one aspect but the most important as far as we are concerned is this erosion of community policing. as well as the 20,000 police officers well as the 20,000 police officers we have lost since 2010 we have lost 24,000 we have lost since 2010 we have lost 211,000 support officers and the police community support officers area big police community support officers are a big part of those community teams. it means that some communities begin to lose trust and confidence in police because they do not have a local officer they can relate to and when that happens it means you do not get the intelligence. did people see the report is the day after the london bridge attack. 0ne report is the day after the london bridge attack. one of the neighbours of one of those involved said, i remember, early on saturday, he was over a friendly and then started talking to me about hiring a van. now it makes sense. maybe if have suspicions, and there had been local community officers, maybe he would have talked to them about his feelings. we know that guy was already on the radar of the security services and may be the services may have put two and two together. we don't think we need more draconian powers. there are lots of powers the police and security services have they are not using. we need to make sure they use them effectively.” they are not using. we need to make sure they use them effectively. i am 21 and from manchester. just going from what you were saying, due to the colour of my skin, in the wake of the awful attacks that have just happened, i of the awful attacks that have just happened, lam of the awful attacks that have just happened, i am genuinely afraid to go out into the city, my home of countless years. why? i am mostly afraid of hate attacks, not even terrorist attacks, maybe young people, notjust online, but being in public, i take the tram to university and i am afraid to take the tram now. i'm afraid somebody might say something and you do not wa nt might say something and you do not want to engage in confrontation. what are the different parties doing about this? some of it has to be about this? some of it has to be about understanding what is going on. these people carrying out terrorist attacks believe in a violent political ideology. that wa nts to violent political ideology. that wants to overthrow democracy and overthrow our liberal values. that is completely different from the muslim religion. the muslim religion is not about overthrowing democracy, it is about worshipping allah and living a good life. we have had insta nces living a good life. we have had instances where people following at islamist attack, this violent ideology, people start attacking sikhs because they do not know the difference between muslims and sikhs. david, from ukip, how would you respond? i'm glad you mentioned the word islamist because this is the word islamist because this is the root of the problem and we have to be honest. it is an ideology. there are some islamic writings that are problematic and we have to admit that. some writings that appear to advocate violence. you mentioned muslims earlier who are a peaceful group of muslims who practice islam ina group of muslims who practice islam in a peaceful ways. we have other groups, what i call islamists, who would take these writings that are problematic and say they have to be applied literally at all times, not just seventh century arabia but 21st—century britain, and france, and everywhere else there have been islamist attacks and we need to deal with the problem and put police back on the street. we need 20,000 more police to do community policing because that is a gap left after the 20,000 police that have been cut. we need to deal with saudi, qatari funding of islamist mosques and stop radicalisation. and this lady who wa nts to radicalisation. and this lady who wants to know what she should do because she fears going out because of the colour of her skin. i say to anybody watching, it's an idea, it's nothing to do with the colour of your skin. everyone needs to realise that. you have behind douze and sikhs as well, hindus. we need to deal with islamism, we've got to be honest about that. can you understand when a mainstream party like ukip is putting out its so—called integration policy, which says that — so—called integration policy, which says that - we need to integrate. sorry, can i speak, that says that muslim women shouldn't be able to wear headscarfs. we didn't say that, burkhas and niqabs, get it right. 0k. it also says that children basically non—white children when they come back to school should be checked to see if they've had genital mutilation. we need to stop fgm. but by humiliating and separating children is that an a cce pta ble separating children is that an acceptable way forward ? separating children is that an acceptable way forward? diane abbott put that forward in 2014. david, can i please possibly speak. can you see that a mainstream party saying that is actually exacerbating a and normalising hate crime. it's not hate crime. everyone should be able to be free to criticise an ideology. to talk about writings in the koran and to talk about sharia law, we need to talk about these things. we need to talk about these things. we need to talk about the ideas there and how it affects people and how they encourage islamism, which has led to violent mass murders. we need to talk about that. we need to be honest about that. would you like to reply? i feel like you may not have actually answered what i said personally, going into the depths of the different categories of islam. i mean, you obviously are aware of them. i wasjust mean, you obviously are aware of them. i was just talking about in general, my safety, my well being, not talking about my religion or the different categories, just in general, how can we stop other individuals attacking other individuals attacking other individuals in the wake of something like this? i mean there's been a lot of unity and i've seen that. i feel like there's been a sort of permission for people to start attacking others. whereas i didn't see if before. —— it before. my facebook is full of people just attacking each other. that'sjust facebook is full of people just attacking each other. that's just on social media. i'm not talking about being out in the public, just people yelling at you. i don't want to go out because my parents are afraid i will have to hear that i wouldn't have had to. the best way to deal with that is to make sure we don't have another terrorist attack. we need to deal with what causes these things to happen. can i come in here? i think it feels to me like over the last 20 years in this country we've had a lot of politicians pandering to rhetoric around migration. we've allowed the debate to go way too far in one direction. when i think we reached a low point in the referendum, i'd like david to address this, when nigel farage stood in front of that breaking point poster with pictures of syrian refugees, which had a remarkable similar rarity to nazi propaganda, that was abominable. i would like david to condemn that. this is a poster, it was about immigration. it's a real picture. it was in the guardian in october 2015, i believe. people have real concerns about the level of immigration that we've had over the last 20 years. do you not think — we've had over the last 20 years. do you not think - i will finish, if you'd let me, you asked me a question. we need to address the rapid mass immigration that we've had over the years of blair, brown, cameron and may which is far, far higher than it was before. people are concerned about the effects on integration in our country. people are also concerned about the effects it's having on housing, and on our public services, on our hospitals being overstretched. schools and so on. people do want it to be brought back into balance. so, the blaming of migrants — back into balance. so, the blaming of migrants - not blaming migrants at all. please get it right. the blaming of migrants is a cover up for policy failure. we've had successive governments ‘ for policy failure. we've had successive governments - you've said it again. i'm not blaming migrants. have not invested in the nhs, our public services, have given us the lie of austerity independent return they say it's the migrants to blame for the housing crisis. it's the migrants to blame for the pressure on social services. that's a lie. we need to call that out as much as we need to call that out as much as we need to call out the racism. applause many people are worried because we have had three attacks in three months. if we can hearfrom giles who lost a fred in the manchester —— friend in the manchester attack. who do you trust to keep you safe and what do you feel needs to be done? there's a common thread that most politicians here are missing, that we're not looking at a religious issue here as such. what we're looking at a criminal one. i think that we need to look at methods going forward, whether that be more policemen and women in our communities, monitoring the things that are going on, but there are resources in place to put forward threats and issues that are going forward. i need to ask the politicians here for young people as well to not make this issue about extremism in the sense of it being an inherent part of islam, but to look at it as a criminal thing as well. what would make you feel safe going about your day—to—day business? i suppose more police presence is something that has definitely helped here in manchester, seeing so many police forces out protecting us is something that visually helps. but equally more work done amongst politicians to work together to find a common solution that isn't looking for divisive politics. that's the way forward. nadhim zahawi from the conservatives, under theresa may as home secretary, there was a 20% cut in police funding, 20,000 fewer police officers on the streets, fewer armed officers compared to last year. so how can people trust you to keep them safe? so on, as you saw on the programme on the clip earlier, so the 2015 police budget was protected — earlier, so the 2015 police budget was protected - but that came after five years of deep cuts. that was on your programme, five years of deep cuts. that was on our ro ramme i'm five years of deep cuts. that was on your programme, i'm not disputing that. but on counter—terrorism the police asked for more funding, we delivered that. on cyber another 1. 9 billion is going into cyber security. i think the lady at the front mentioned what's happening on social media and so on, and your very good point about the criminal aspect to this. what theresa may wa nts to aspect to this. what theresa may wants to do is work with other countries to get to a place where our security agencies and security services can work with the online platforms so that we can have a way where your information is secure and you can talk to your friends and eve ryo ne you can talk to your friends and everyone else in a secure place but those people who are using those safe places can't use them any more. we need to make sure there are no safe places on the internet for these people. that's a big area that we wa nt these people. that's a big area that we want to focus on as well. we want to look at legislation, if you know someone to look at legislation, if you know someone is about to be ram cried how do you bring them back away from that —— radicalised. how do you deport those who shouldn't be here in the first place? those are the sort of thangs we want to look at if we are back in government after thursday. kate forbes from the snp. the police force is devolved in scotland so it's within the competence of the scottish government. we have been maintaining our police numbers over the last few years. ultimately cuts are a political choice. that's why in the aftermath of the atrocities and the hearts of everybody in scotland is with in manchester and has been with manchester over the last two weeks. there are questions to be asked about where we are best to deploy our resources. we believe that law enforcement, at every stage of the process, needs to have the resources to do theirjob properly. we have legislation there, but they need resources. in scotland we have made the decision over the last, the snp has been in government since 2007, to increase the number of police on the beat as it were. and to make sure that we have the resources we need, so in the aftermath of the atrocities, whilst we were very grateful for the offer of the armed forces to come in and patrol our streets, we did not need to call on that resource. we were able — we had enough capacity within the police force to do that. fflur elin? plaid cymru would like to see policing devolved to wales, so we can keep our community safe in wales. what we also do need to do is prevent extremism of all forms from happening, so that we can tackle this and investing in youth services, in community services, so we are promoting community cohesion rather than division, it's crucial. politicians have such a responsibility here, when you have a public platform not to target individuals or target a specific religion. by doing that, we are increasing the division and hate within our communities and within society and we have to be so careful. we also need to look at how we are combatting extremism. the prevent agenda, currently run by the conservatives, many people say they are feeling targeted (inaudible) if people are targeted that is not going to promote community cohesion. that is not going to help to bring people who maybe feeling isolated back into community. we have to leave it there. our audience here tonight has been selected by an independent external organisation to ensure all parties have fair representation. now we will hear from people around the uk as well tonight, because nick is looking at what people have been saying on social media. yes, i may be up in the cheap seats, but i'm armed with question and queries from you. you guys have been using the hashtag bbc debate all day to rant, rage and to raise concerns. i want to pick up on a point that was made on the floor, about the nervousness and anxiousness on the streets at the moment. luke says: "having raised then lowered the threat level, london was hit by an attack. does this mean that security is underfunded? josh has tweeted us. he says, "our security services should receive more funding to allow for better digital protection." that's something theresa may has been mentioning this week. sharon says, "deport and detain anyone on the terrorism list." john says, "deport and detain anyone on the terrorism list."john raises says, "deport and detain anyone on the terrorism list." john raises a question that a lot of people have been talking about, "should all our police be armed? with events in london and here in manchester, it's no surprise that security has moved up no surprise that security has moved up the election agenda. you guys say the nhs is still a massive issue too. be it nursing bursaries or waiting lists, you've been sharing your stories like ellie, who says, "we should be working to maintain the phenomenal nhs service, rather than trying to destroy it." i'd be interested to hear what the parties have to say about that. well, doctors, nurses, hospitals, mental health services is what we're talking about next. the future for the nhs. we spent more on health than ever before. in fact, 30 p out of every £1 that the government spends on services goes on health, yet the nhs is still struggling. why? well, we're getting older and we're living longer. 13 years longer in fact than since the nhs was formed. 0lder people cost more to look after. caring for the average 85—year—old costs six times as much as a 25—year—old. but there are other factors too. we're getting fatter and new drugs are getting more expensive. then, there's social care. cuts to local services for the elderly mean more are ending up in a&e for treatment. that puts more pressure on hospitals. although like we said at the start, nhs spending is at record levels, year on year increases in that spending are at an historic low. let's get your views on the nhs and health. i'm a pharmacy student. so asa health. i'm a pharmacy student. so as a pharmacy graduate i'll be working for the nhs next year and hopefully many more years to come. i believe the nhs is a great asset to our country and believe the nhs is a great asset to ourcountry and i'm believe the nhs is a great asset to our country and i'm very excited to be part of the workforce. however, reading about the recent pay rise cuts in the media and the increasing pressures on nhs staff, unfortunately, i've had to think about other ways that my future, other things that i've had to do in the future in terms of my career. one of them was looking at working abroad, because obviously, the pay isa abroad, because obviously, the pay is a lot better and pressure on staff is a lot less. i know amongst other health care students, this is a current theme that they're thinking about doing. so my question is: how would you ensure that the nhs remains attractive for future generations to work for? sarah champion, labour. this is genuinely the biggest problem that we have at the biggest problem that we have at the moment. all of us, all the parties here are coming out with different figures of how much we're going to invest in the nhs and social care. just to say that labour has the biggest figure, but it's still a drop in the ocean. the greens do! it's still a drop in the ocean, all the independent people are saying what we need is more investment than we're able to financially commitment. what labour is looking at is as well as putting the money is, we're looking at overhauling the service. we're looking to make sure staff are both recognised, respected and rewarded. not demonised as they have been in the last couple of years. we're looking at how we can integrate social care and the nhs so that both of them have parity. to be quite honest, if you go into hospitalfor an operation, and you can't get home again because there's no—one in the community nursing to take care of you or there's no health worker to come and take care of you, you get stuck in hospital, which is the worst place for you and then bed—blocking begins. we're looking at very actively, i mean, labour created the nhs. we're still incredibly proud of it. we're looking at making sure that we get back down to the 18 weeks to have your appointment to have your operation. we're looking at getting back to four hours wait in a&e. we do that by radically trying to rethink. we do that by talking to the staff. we do that by having an independent regulatory body that looks at the budgeting and that makes the right decisions for the nhs, whether that's, you'll know community pharmacy is being cut to the bone, whether that's negotiating the bone, whether that's negotiating the best deals on the price of the drugs we get and to be quite honest, u nless we drugs we get and to be quite honest, unless we take the politics out of this and get really grown up, we're not going to have an nhs left. the one thing that we're particularly passionate about, i'd love to hear your views on this, the tories are going for something called the naler report looking at selling off land and assets for the nhs. we paid into this. we created this. we own this. it should be us, the population of the uk that makes the decisions about what we do with our nhs, not just the politicians. you promise a large amount of money, how will labour paver that? we pay our taxes and we have a pot of money and we base projections on the figures the government are using at the moment and we have made specific recommendations and one is the top 596 recommendations and one is the top 5% earners in the country will pain 596 5% earners in the country will pain 5% more and the rest of us won't and we are “— 5% more and the rest of us won't and we are —— will pay 5% more. we are looking at getting corporation tax back to the levels it was before. the tories brought it down to 19% and we are looking at putting it back up to 26%. we need to invest in our country. the conservative party? that sounds reasonable until i tell you that when we dropped corporation tax from 28 down to 19% we brought £7 billion more into the exchequer. labour obsessed about tax rates and we ca re labour obsessed about tax rates and we care about what comes into the exchequer so we can spend it on the nhs. you need a strong economy to have a strong nhs. your leader, political hero, hugo chavez, venezuela, it floats on a lake of oil and has the oil reserves after arabia but today it is bankrupt because like your leader, hugo chavez promised everything to everyone. today if you are sick in venezuela you are dead because there is no medicine. there is nothing moral or decent about crashing and economy. when you tell people you will raise corporation tax you have to tell them it does not raise them any more money. the ifs looked at your figures and said you will not raise that money, money, where will it come from? the question put to you. you must be honest. you have not provided costings in your ma nifesto. not provided costings in your manifesto. where will you get money from? we will put 10 billion in and an extra two billion and we are committing another 8 billion by 20 22. you need a strong economy. hang on. i want to hearfrom you, you have been nodding furiously. can we get a microphone? tell me why you are nodding? i am nodding because it makes sense because how can you spend money you do not have? young people are burdened with debt, student debt, house prices are astronomical. labour want to borrow even more money and who will pay that back? my generation will have to pay those debts back will stop why borrow more when we have to pay it back? applause we have been very clear. you have not been cleared. diane abbott cannot add her sums up. can i answer? we have been clear we are not looking at borrowing unless it is for capital investment. we are looking at making sure we are com pletely looking at making sure we are completely within our means on the spending on revenue spending and we have had that independently verified. the only figures in the tory manifesto of the page numbers. why will you deal with corporation tax when it will ring in less money? —— bring in less money. the ifs said... (inaudible). the only figures in the tory manifesto of the page numbers. rather than thinking about going in to support the nhs you are thinking about looking overseas. we are promising to lift the pay cap for public sector workers including people working for the nhs, which is capped at the moment up 1% the nhs, which is capped at the moment up1% and the nhs, which is capped at the moment up 1% and we want wages to increase in line with inflation. in terms of funding the nhs, there is an interim measure, and we promise to put an extra six william pounds a year by putting 1p on everybody's rate of income tax. 1% extra. you might think why should everybody pay for that? it means the top 50% of earners will pay 95% of that money. it isa earners will pay 95% of that money. it is a progressive way of doing it. we are being honest. we cannot keep borrowing, it has to be paid for and we think it is worth paying for. i'd interim measure until we get an independent body to say this is the amount of money each year the nhs has and then you have a debate in parliament and the parliament either agrees with that body and there will bea agrees with that body and there will be a separate line in your tax return saying this is the money going to the nhs and social care, and that is the way sustainable long—term plan we have to fund the nhs and social care. some of that funding is going towards mental health and you want to legalise cannabis, as a party, some forms of which have been linked to mental health. is that problematic? cannabis gives a small proportion of people with a propensity to schizophrenia, to trigger it. it is a small proportion of people. we have been the champions of mental health. norman lamb in the coalition was the champion of mental health and we got the tories through greater parity between physical and mental health. we introduced waiting times for mental health that never existed before. as far as this extra 6 billion is concerned we want to earmark 1 6 billion is concerned we want to earmarki billion for improvement in mental health. and to improve gp services because we know by spending money on those issues we get the best return on that investment by investing in those things. let's hear from investing in those things. let's hearfrom more of investing in those things. let's hear from more of you.” investing in those things. let's hear from more of you. i am sophie, a student living in manchester. mental health has been publicised re ce ntly mental health has been publicised recently and is more spoken about. i have dealt with mental—health problems from a young age and found out 50% of disorders are established by 14 and it is an issue in children and needs to be addressed at a younger age. what would you do to increase awareness for younger children, and how would you improve interventions in the nhs to make it more available to get help at a younger age? it is not focused as much on children at the moment, it is more older generation. i think it needs a focus on young children. the 11.4 billion putting into mental health if you can identify it early enough, every school will get support to identify if there are mental health issues with children because if you identify it early enough and treat it, you prevent it from becoming a bigger problem. promising 10,000 new mental health staff in mental health services, 6700 have been cut since 2010. we say in the manifesto we will invest another billion on top of the 11.4 billion into mental health and look at the mental health act to ensure legislation is fit for purpose as well as getting people back into work. our target is1 million people with disabilities, whether they are mental health issues, or physical, back into... jonathan bartley, what with the green party do? we would have parity in the nhs with mental health. to take up the issue more broadly. in schools, we are creating children who are effectively economic units to compete in a global marketplace, testing them to death and we need a better education syste m death and we need a better education system where we allow children not to be subjected to that rigour. i took a stabbeds test. i think i got 9796! applause but the stress was huge. the issue of stress and mental health is something we have to address and i am astonished to hear you talk about the conservative government's record. when you look at social services and employment support allowa nce, services and employment support allowance, these are people the government act sets are too sick or disabled to work at the moment yet they have just put in a cut of 30% for new claimants in the work—related activity group, people the government act sets are too sick or disabled to work. we know people are committing suicide because of sanctions to do with benefits, primarily who are mentally ill. it is despicable. unless we have this conversation about it it will go on and on. i cannot accept the platitudes around mental health from this government. we need parity of esteem for physical and mental health and social care. something we all agree on across the political spectrum. i heard on reality from the main parties. labour seems to have a magic money tree that does not exist. jeremy corbyn comes out like santa claus saying i am going to do this, but there is no money to do all of these things. the conservatives talk about a strong economy but they are cutting the nhs to the bone. £11 billion, we know where we will get it from. we will get it from brexit, from not paying the eu membership fees, 10 billion a year, and we will cut the overseas development budget back to the useful part and not spending money on giving to countries for space programmes and nuclear weapons rather than spending it at home on hospitals, investing in doctors and nurses. we will be able to give out bursaries to nurses and midwives and we will be able to pay back student fees with students studying medicine, so if you study medicine, pharmacy, science, you will get your fees paid back. if you work in the nhs for ten years after graduating. i think that is a good deal we will give. i am a student nurse and basically i wanted to say i no tuition fees are paid for by the nhs that nurses and midwives get, but i don't get the same amount of money in terms of loans and grants, and i am constantly having to cut it fine with how much i am getting to spend with how much i am getting to spend with my rent and living costs and also touching on mental health, i have suffered mental— health also touching on mental health, i have suffered mental—health problems and not only is it me suffering from these, because of the nature of my degree course and colleagues i worked with, it is strenuous and it can be something that takes a toll andl can be something that takes a toll and i have to pay for my own medication and so do other people in our generation. i want to know what you think about mental health, especially student midwives and nurses because we do not have the money to support ourselves. if we work for the nhs, what if the nhs will eventually be privatised, it is said, what if that happens and there is no nhs to work in for the ten years and then get the money back and have this repaid? it will not be privatised by ukip. we will fund bursaries for nurses and midwives. we are not going to privatise it. we will give bursaries to you. going back to the original question when we we re back to the original question when we were in coalition be earmarked 25 million for children's mental health services every year and the reality is we know the money is not getting through to the front line to deliver services. you raised the issue would bursaries, which this government has now stopped. it is a ridiculous thing to do. we will reinstate those things. why is it ridiculous? we are seeing lots of eu nurses and midwives already going back to continental europe because they are uncertain about the future because of brexit, so it is a ridiculous time to do it and we would reinstate it. i have suffered from clinical depression. i know what it is like. lam not depression. i know what it is like. i am not only passionate about this, for me it is personal. at election time a lot of people talk about supporting mental health and it goes back to reviewing people'srecords and to raise awareness we need to fund it and put the money where it is most important. in scotland under the snp we were one of the first governments to establish a minister for mental health and we have doubled the number of places for child psychologists, going back to the point of putting the money where it is most critical, from a young e, it is most critical, from a young age, and making sure there is support. it comes back to the idea of everything being integrated, so education, health care, we have integrated health and social care so there is not the same extent of bed blocking because we are able to support people at the point they come into contact with social care and the health service and there is streamlined support so when they ask for help they are not left hanging for help they are not left hanging for a long time before they get help. health is devolved. you have the power to give nurses a pay rise and get rid of that 1% cap, why haven't you? you're right that health is devolved. 0ur overall budget is still set by westminster. we're seeing cuts under the conservatives in all the other areas of competences, we're also seeing cuts to the scottish budget itself. we made the decision that in order to protect jobs, we made the decision that in order to protectjobs, we had to maintain this cap. in our recent manifesto we said we will reconsider it and ensure that nurses and doctors are paid in line with inflation. plaid cymru want to deal with problems in the nhs. you're right staff are feeling pressure. that's why we want to train an extra thousand doors, and 500 nurses half of which will work in our communities over the next ten years. we want a long—term approach. on mental health, plaid cymru secured an addition 20 million for mental health support in wales by being an effective opposition. it's not enough to just by being an effective opposition. it's not enough tojust identify problems. we have to be teaching children about mental health because we all have mental health and sometimes it will be better and sometimes it will be better and sometimes worse, just like with our physical health. we need to teach people about mental health so that when we're feeling poorly, then we have to resource support for it. in wales some people receive treatment, because of poor funding in health support have to travel to england to receive their support. that's actually really problematic. if you wa nt actually really problematic. if you want to transition home, you want to do that slowly, one night at home, back in, two nights at home, it's very difficult to do that when you're travelling across miles and miles and hours and hours. we want to continue investing in mental health support. continue investing in our nhs. and on making savings. we want to integrate social care into the nhs so that we have a social care and nhs system working effectively together. because firstly, without good social care, you know, people are going to not be able to row cover. —— recover. it's putting strain on the gps and hospitals. that's why it's crucial they are broad together. for patients' dignity and to have good care, it's crucial we have good care in the communities and again, people can have that transition from hospital into good community care and back. we should say when we talk about health being devolved in scotland, wales and northern ireland, we're talking about the powers for health being decided by the governments there and not by mps in the house of commons. what can you tell us about the nhs, lots of numbers? we're hearing a lot about mental health. it's difficult to establish how much is spent on mental health, because there is no specific budget and because of the way the nhs works, it's commissioned in different ways by different bodies. it's warning saying though the conservatives and labour have both promised more money for the nhs, they haven't specified how much of that will go on mental health. what we can look at is staffing levels. back to 2010, we see the numberof levels. back to 2010, we see the number of specific mental health specialist nurses has fallen by around 6,500 from 45,000 or so in 2010 to almost 39,000 last year. in terms of psychiatric doctors, there are around 8,500 specific psychiatric specialists in england. they've fallen by a smaller number, around 23, between 2010 and last year. that's an idea of the level of staffing in england only for mental health specialists. nick what's happening online? let's stick with the nhsjust happening online? let's stick with the nhs just for a moment. happening online? let's stick with the nhsjust for a moment. it's something that everybody has experience of. everyone can relate to. first of all, emily has tweeted us, "my biggest concern is the recruitment of mental health nurses after cutting the burstery." we'll return to that in a second. "my mum has worked in the nhs for 25 years. i think the wage allocation and outsourcing to agency ises wrong." another one says, we can't fund the nhs without a strong economy. but can we have a strong economy without a healthy population? let's return to that issue of bursaries. i spend half my time at unny then i work as a nurse. the tories have cut loans and bursaries. you guys are often called generation rent, group of people who will struggle to buy their own home. housing is another big issue. we've had alesha get in touch, "excessive rent and a lack of affordable house aring ruining the lives of young people." i think there's going to be strong views in there's going to be strong views in the audience on this one. yes, buying and renting a house is something people here are very keen to talk about too. homeownership has dropped to its lowest level in more than 20 years. why? well, for starters, the cost of buying a house in the uk has never been higher. 0n buying a house in the uk has never been higher. on average it's going to cost you £215,000. it's cheaper in the north—east and way more expensive in london. 20 years ago the average house would have cost around three—and—a—half times your yearly salary. now it's seven—and—a—half times. if the cost of your lunch had gone up at a similar rate, a roast chicken would now cost 5 is quid and a loaf of —— 51 quid and a loaf of bred would be a fiver. if you do have the cash there aren't enough houses. last year 170,000 were built, quite a way short of what's needed. then there's renting. 4. 5 million properties in england are rented. 0ne renting. 4. 5 million properties in england are rented. one million more than at the start of the decade. those are the reasons why homeownership has dropped to its lowest level in more than 20 years. 0k, lowest level in more than 20 years. ok, let's hear your thoughts on housing and renting. hello, my name's daniel. i'm 24, from manchester. i live with my girlfriend and two children. we are renting at the moment. we'd like to buy somewhere. i'm wondering what each party is going to do in terms of helping young families like myself be able to afford to get onto the property ladder? anyone over here? yeah. my name's arif. i'm 23. university student. the average deposit in this country for a first—time buyer is £32,000. that's more than double what it was just ten years ago in 2007. my generation are having to buy their first homes much later in life. and have their mortgages longer for sometimes 35 years compared to what your generation had. what realistic solutions are you going to implement in orderto solutions are you going to implement in order to bring a radical change to this problem? 0k. in order to bring a radical change to this problem? ok. i'm 20 and from manchester. i go out around manchester. i go out around manchester quite often. i can see the amount of homelessness increasing drastically. i've realised that a lot of the parties are offering more housing, but my question is — how are you going to cap or maybe abolish foreign investors that are looking to invest and you know bias etc which they already have where we have our own people like on spice, i'm sure you're aware of spice, the drug and how you can, you know, just prioritise our own people rather than rich foreign investors. lady down here. my name's georgia. i'm 23. i'm from cambridge but i live in leeds. most of the political parties have pledged to tackle the housing crisis, but similar promises were made in the last election. the tories have failed quite spectacularly to meet the number of houses they've promised every year. we've heard from older voters that young people have it easier, more opportunities. but i can't sell my iphone to buy a new house. i'd like to know what the politicians here this evening are going to do to address the uk's housing shortage. now both conservative, labour governments coalition have consectively failed to build enough houses. what are you going to do? first of all, please don't hate me, my first house cost £33,000, which you're saying is the average deposit. i can't actually imagine how you look at having a home of your own. i think that's one of the saddest things because to have that security of something that's yours, whether it's a long—term secured rent, whether that's a council house or somewhere you buy. i mean that's a fundamental human thing to do. the flip of that is seeing the homeless levels rise and knowing that's to do with government choices around pay, around accessibility, around bidding houses. what labour is looking to do is basically, fundamentally build more houses. it's also about getting young people so that they have the skills to build those houses. it's then about having a million new houses over a five—year period and making sure that half of those go into social housing, so whether that's with housing associations or with councils, so that they're there. they're secure and they're an asset of this country. it's also about making sure that you have landlords who are honourable. because the level of rent increases is ridiculous. we're going to make sure that's capped to innation. we're going to make sure that —— inflation. we're going to make sure that landlords have to provide a safe home so that all the checks are done for you. we're going to have to try and also make sure thatjust getting rid of tenants, when they don't want them or to get more people in and bigger deposits, that's got to stop. we will bring in legislation to make sure that stops. again, with everything that labour's proposing, what we're trying do is think big, think how we can help everybody have a secure home and help the economy by putting those skills and the money back in the country. the final thing talking about foreign investors. if people wa nt to about foreign investors. if people want to invest in this country, fantastic, we'll take their money. but we want to make sure that they do invest in this country because they are using our roads. they'll be using our education and benefitting from the economy that we want to see growing. nadhim zahawi, conservatives. in the short-term, help to buy has helped about 350,000 families to bridge that gap in terms of the deposit. you can probably pay the monthly payments on the mortgage but it's the capital needed to put down the down payment. in the longer term, ithink down the down payment. in the longer term, i think that your point, we pledge to build a million homes by 2020. we're running at froxly 189,000 -- 2020. we're running at froxly 189,000 —— approximately 190 thousand at the moment. we will target by 2020. we will add another half a million by 2022. we want to work with councils and housing associations so we build more council housing and if people live in those houses for 15 years they can have a right to buy those. that's a good thing to do, to own your home. to your point, about homelessness, there's a brilliant colleague of ours, i think both parties support him bob blackman, shout out to bob. he delivered the home isness bill that went through parliament and had cross—party support. the government supported it. the conservative party in their ma nifesto conservative party in their manifesto have pledged to cut home isness by half in the next five yea rs. isness by half in the next five years. you do accept it's gone up underyour years. you do accept it's gone up under your government? we can deliver on that pledge. what do you make this afternoon?” understand what he's saying. i've seen that initiative myself. even still, sometimes the amount that you still, sometimes the amount that you still have to put down it can be quite strenuous. we struggle to get that much funds together. i don't think that initiative itself is — cani think that initiative itself is — can i answer that quickly. forgive me. have you looked at shared ownership as well? that's another thing to look at where you pay part re nt thing to look at where you pay part rent and then eventually end up sharing the ownership, housing associations in my area do a lot of that. they operate in other areas. it's worth looking at as well. more of your stories. hello. my name's sammyjo, i'm from manchester and i'm 25. since i was 16, i've saved and done the right thing. got a help to buy isa. i've got the opportunity to buy isa. i've got the opportunity to buy isa. i've got the opportunity to buy a house and something that's concerned me is one of the party idea from the labour party in terms of changing chasm, which could see it -- of changing chasm, which could see it —— council tax, which could see it —— council tax, which could see it triple. i know some other party leaders are thinking of this idea. i can now afford it, but is my council tax now unaffordable. ijust want to, ijust tax now unaffordable. ijust want to, i just want some tax now unaffordable. ijust want to, ijust want some — ijust want tax now unaffordable. ijust want to, i just want some — i just want a clarification from you as parties that i can afford it? the garden tax. that's an absolute out-and-out lie. i think the tories are outrageous. it's in your manifesto. to be putting lies in there. it's in your manifesto. we are not having a garden tax. it is nonsense. let's hear from the green party. what would you do to solve the housing crisis? i think tariq touched on this. we feel that none of the other parties are facing up to the real issue. yes, there is an issue of supply. when you look at the 2011 census, we have a 140 million rooms in this country for 65 million people. we have more bedrooms per head of population than we've had at any time in our history. that's kind of puzzling. what's going on here? what we have a broken housing market, where housing has been turned into a speculative commodity. with know buy to let investors and foreign investors are coming in and driving up prices. when you have something like help to buy, all it is doing is helping out developers, who say thank you very much that gives us another chance to put up prices further. we have to get rid of the subsidies. we subsidise the buy to let market by 6 at £3 billion a year. —— 6. 5 billion a year. you can lend against that, lift the cap against local authorities and then the housing is built and paid through housing benefit or private rental. you can put notjust rent controls like rent caps, like labour wa nt controls like rent caps, like labour want to, do but that will only cap the increases in rents. but rent controls allow prices to be stabilised and in some cases brought down if you give the powers to local authorities. there is so much we can do. the problem is the political will to take on those investors who are pushing up the price of housing and making housing into commodities and making housing into commodities and not homes. applause what do you make of what you are hearing from the politicians about housing? i think a lot of what has been said is positive in terms of building more council houses. some of the reforms in the 80s could have been damaging to the market in a sense we have given private companies, the onus is on private companies, the onus is on private companies to build houses that are often smaller and worse quality than the houses built by local authorities. it is making it much harder for young people to really access the property market. hearing about support for local authorities and housing associations to extend their remit and perhaps start building houses again, start being properly in charge of their town planning, it can only be a good thing. ukip, david kurten. in 1996, the average cost of the house was about three times the average salary. they were affordable. now it is 8-10 salary. they were affordable. now it is 8—10 times the cost of an average salary. the housing market has got out of balance. it is an issue of supply and demand. we hearfrom all the parties we are going to build more houses than we have at the moment, about 150,000 a year is the amount built over the last 20 years. it will not happen this time, it has not happened the last 20 years, it will not happen again. the reason it is out of balance is because of a huge population increase, mostly due to rapid net immigration. there has been 4 million net immigration since 1997 stop those people need to be housed and that has driven up demand without bringing the supply in and the supply is not going to come. in ukip we have a policy of bringing immigration act into balance. it will take 20 years to get the housing market back into balance because it has taken 20 years to get it out of balance. if we don't, the population of the country will be 80 million by 2050, and there are simply not enough homes for 80 million by 20 50. we have to be honest and ukip are and we will deal with it. brian paddick, liberal democrats. we have to be honest and stop blaming immigration for everything. applause what we are planning to do is to promise 300,000 new homes a year, if the private sector, which the tories rely on, does not deliver that, the government must directly commission housing where it is needed to make sure we get to that level. in terms of people who cannot afford a deposit, we have a scheme called rent to by. you rent a property from a housing association and pay market rent, but, gradually, by paying rent, but, gradually, by paying rent, you build up a share in that property. at the end of 30 years, it when you are just paying the rent, you will own the property. if you wa nt you will own the property. if you want to move you will take whatever you have built up in terms of deposit when you move. it is as if you are renting, at market rent, but because it is a housing association, the property will be yours in 30 years. hello. i'm 19 years old. how do you feel about housing and renting? i was homeless at the age of 17 for a year renting? i was homeless at the age of 17 fora yearand renting? i was homeless at the age of 17 for a year and after that year i was phoned to ask if i wanted to stay on the housing list for homelessness. there was no communication or that year. i want to know what is going to change.” live in mid wales. plaid cymru? plaid cymru want to build 10,000 new affordable houses over the next ten yea rs affordable houses over the next ten years and we want to make owning and running a household more affordable and create a welsh energy company to allow us to use welsh natural resources to bring down the cost of energy across wales and we want to scrap the necessary bedroom tax and we wa nt scrap the necessary bedroom tax and we want to scrap letting agency fees so it is cheaper to rent. the scottish national party. if we make it simple we need three things. more supbly, it simple we need three things. more supply, the right houses and we need good jobs that pay well. we need more houses. it comes back to looking at what parties' records are, not what they say now in a campaign. over the last parliament in scotland, the snp exceeded the target of building 30,000 affordable homes and buy affordable i mean houses that reflects what people are earning, what the average earnings are in the area, which can be a variety of homes, it can be social rent, council houses, shared equity but to make sure there is an increase in supply of affordable homes are also looking, while housing is devolved, there are policies made at westminster that have a negative effect in scotland. since 2013 the snp government has spent about 400 million trying to mitigate the effects of the bedroom tax and we are disturbed to see the scrapping of housing benefit for 18 to 21—year—olds which will have a negative effect on people in scotland in need of housing support. we are building more and the right types of houses but we need help from westminster. jonathan, housing isa from westminster. jonathan, housing is a big issue for young people. you are working with bbc reality check. just to clear up a disagreement is not long ago between labour and conservatives about what the tories call the garden tax in the labour ma nifesto, call the garden tax in the labour manifesto, labour proposes a consultation on what to do about council tax and business rates, which are paid by small businesses and council tax is what we pay on the houses we own or rent. the institute for fiscal studies says it makes more sense for business rates and council tax but we should bear in mind the last time council tax was reviewed in 1991, when everything was worth less than now. calling it a garden tax could be controversial because council taxes based on the value of the property including the land around it, so the tax is already on the value of the land and home. thank you. a reminder, the audience tonight has been selected by an independent external organisation to ensure all parties have fair representation. what is coming in on #bbcdebate? this is an issue that always riles you when we talk about it on newsbeat. this person says so many people want to move out they cannot afford it and there is nowhere for them to move to. the next, anonymous, although i suspect it is from sammyjo, can someone tell me why my council tax goes up? i cannot see what has changed. we know it will be hard to afford a house without a job and you have told us thejob without a job and you have told us the job market is tough. josh without a job and you have told us thejob market is tough. josh has beenin thejob market is tough. josh has been in touch. he says people think we wa nt been in touch. he says people think we want everything handed to us, we don't, we want access to it. and joe says, is austerity working when the deficit has not been reduced by that much and wages have not gone up? thank you. finding a job, being much and wages have not gone up? thank you. finding ajob, being paid enough and making sure your contract is fair is what we will deal with next. the number of jobs in next. the number ofjobs in the uk is at a record level. the highest since records began in 1971. unemployment is at its lowest level in 40 years and youth unemployment is down. when you put it together, it sounds pretty good. but let's take a closer look. 3.5 million people working here are not from the uk. almost1 million people on zero—hours contracts, which do not guarantee any work whatsoever and disproportionately affect 16 to 24—year—olds. and just because you have a job does not mean you are rich. 0ne have a job does not mean you are rich. one in eight workers living in poverty. and a warning that this yea r‘s poverty. and a warning that this year's wages will not keep up with prices. hello. i am jack, 22, and studying for a masters in manchester. the government has made a lot of the fact unemployment has gone down which seems great on the surface, but what you fail to mention is a lot of these jobs are insecure, zero—hours contracts, part of the gig economy, or, worst of all, exploitative apprenticeships in things like customer service for asda, and one for sandwich artistry for subway. it is a hand—out to corporations to give them a workforce they can employ in minimum wage jobs and give them no skills. how do you plan to tackle these exploitative apprenticeships? applause 0k. applause ok. i am 21, from glasgow. i finished a government funded apprenticeship but i am recently unemployed. the question, what will you do to create more jobs? what we re you do to create more jobs? what were you doing? digital marketing. it and administration. it was more ofa it and administration. it was more of a sales role, on the phone speaking to customers. what were you paid? was it useful? i learned about being in the workforce and being responsible. in terms of going from that, and i was told it would be high ability, i did not come into employment after it. i learned a lot but the way it is made out like a stepping stone to get into work, that is not always the case. kate forbes, snp. if you wa nted case. kate forbes, snp. if you wanted an example of how austerity has not worked in the last seven yea rs, has not worked in the last seven years, youth employment is a good place to start. the conservatives like to say they are looking after the economy and meeting targets but they have failed to do that and so they have failed to do that and so the economy has not grown at the extent it should have. austerity has kept the economy back, which means you do not have the same job creation. it is notjust about people in employment, it is about what they are paid. the snp feel strongly people should be paid a fairwage, strongly people should be paid a fair wage, they should be paid the real living wage, not the rebranded living wage. the cut—off should not be aged 25. why should somebody aged 26 and a different ways from somebody aged 24 doing the same job? we have said we are committed to raising the minimum wage in line with the real living wage so it is over £10 over the next parliamentary term. it comes back to ending austerity and ensuring people have money they can spend, so there is more money going around the economy, which means the economy grows and we are more productive. nadhim zahawi., conservatives. more people are in work, but a lot of the work is low paid, low hours, insecure and disproportionately affecting young people when it comes to zero—hours contracts. we would introduce the national living wage, the conservative chancellor did that at £7 50 and we pledge to increase it to 60% of median wage to continue to go to 60% of median wage to continue to 9° up to 60% of median wage to continue to go up with inflation. i spent a year as the apprenticeship adviser. we are putting half a per cent of the wage bill of a large corporation, any company with a wage bill of £3 million, half a any company with a wage bill of £3 million, halfa per cent any company with a wage bill of £3 million, half a per cent is taken in the apprenticeship levy, to deliver £3 billion of investment into apprenticeships. when i looked at this, the american 's said can we look at what you have done? we delivered 2 million apprenticeships in the five years when david cameron was prime minister and set a target of3 was prime minister and set a target of 3 million this parliament. we we re of 3 million this parliament. we were doing something good. it can always get better. apprenticeships are something that our pioneering, a teaching assistant can become a teacher on a degree apprenticeship. and be paid as well as getting the degree apprenticeship. when you look at germany, one of the insights i took is that in germany, businesses we re took is that in germany, businesses were embedded in the education syste m were embedded in the education system so that every child had exposure to both the opportunity of going to university, or going on an apprenticeship. the system was sta ble apprenticeship. the system was stable and i am glad, labour worked with us on the apprenticeship levy and supported it. on zero—hours contracts, which you mentioned, the problem with the zero—hours contracts when we came into office and employercan contracts when we came into office and employer can say you are on this contract and you are exclusive to me and you have to sit at home and wait until i win game. we changed legislation to say it should be equal. if you want me to give you my timel equal. if you want me to give you my time i should be able to go to three, four employers. it was the liberal democrats in coalition. you will have your chance to speak. relax. we introduce the idea that the employee can decide to have three, four contracts with different employers and they can choose. there was an interesting (inaudible). they offered all 30 hours contracts employees to go on a permanent contract. said we do not want to, we'd prefer the flexibility, whether they were students, whatever reason, they were students, whatever reason, they wanted flexibility. you have to be careful before we tar a section of the workforce by saying they are all bad. people sometimes preferred that, especially if they are studying and want to work certain hours. brian paddick, liberal democrats. 40% who do zero—hours contracts want to continue but we wa nt to contracts want to continue but we want to make sure that it is not used as a way of exploiting people. if people are working regular hours there should be a legal right that those people to move on to fix contract rather than zero hours. i am afraid taking the minimum wage and recalling it the living wage does not make it a living wage. has anyone here had a zero hours contract? 0k. let's get some microphones to you. my name's rachel. i'm from inverness in the scottish highlands. i am on a zero—hours contract. my company calls it a relief contract, just because it's not as scary. but i'm a youth worker for my local authority. as kate has previously mentioned, my budget comes from my local authority, which comes from holyrood, which comes from westminster. now, if there are more cuts made to the budget, myjob's on the firing line. we've been extremely lucky in highland that we've had our internal budgets cut which i can't believe i'm saying this, only means that the proinjects that i do with young people are being cut. myjob is not on the line yet. myjob being cut. myjob is not on the line yet. my job involves being cut. myjob is not on the line yet. myjob involves working with young people and giving them the bench mark to their future. if our budgets are being cut in westminster, and that path follows me to the highland council, how on earth ami me to the highland council, how on earth am i going to prepare the ye. generation of young people, the next generation of your electorate to be skilled for thejobs of generation of your electorate to be skilled for the jobs of five years' time? who else is on a zero-hours contract? hi. i've been on one since i was 17. i've always really enjoyed being on it because it gives me flexibility. what do you do? i work in retailand do flexibility. what do you do? i work in retail and do promojobs as withle. i think the —— as well. i think the question should be about what the minimum wage should be in terms of long—term contracts. i've finished uni. how am i expecting to get a job when some are paying 16,000 a year, how can i pay for £800 rent a month. it should be focussed on the minimum wage rather than zero hours contracts. sarah champion, labour, zero hours contract work for this lady you want to ban them. we want to ban exploitive ones. we don't think it's fair. we think everybody deserves a proper living wage start agent £10 from the age of 18, because to be quite honest, prices of a loaf of bread or a bus fare are the same if you're 18 or 28. it's also taking it back a step. so we want to get apprenticeships, good quality apprenticeships, good quality apprenticeships on a par with university degrees, when as at the moment they seem to be drifting and there's a stigma associated with apprenticeships, which is nonsense. businesses are crying out for well trained people. what we'll do which isa trained people. what we'll do which is a really big thing, scrap tuition fees. to come out of a degree with £40,000 debt is crazy. what we'll be looking at doing is finally getting rid of the gender pay gap. i do not understand why it helps anyone and definitely our economy when a woman is earning on average 18% less than a man doing the samejob. we've had labour brought in legislation around equal pay in 1970, and we're still atan equal pay in 1970, and we're still at an 18% pay gap. what we'll look at an 18% pay gap. what we'll look at doing is getting a national investment fund. we'll have banks, regionally so that small businesses, particularly can go to that and grow their business to bring in more employment in the area. but what we're looking for, particularly, is that high earning jobs rather than just about doing jobs. so 3% of gdp will go on research and development. that's what we're seeing as the fastest way to grow our economy. applause any more questions aboutjobs? applause any more questions about jobs? just a quick one to sarah, following that point. you mentioned it being crazy that students are coming out with #40£,000 worth of — that students are coming out with #40£,000 worth of - £40,000 that students are coming out with #40£,000 worth of — £40,000 worth of debt. labour in power if it was so crazy, why didn't you make the change when you were in government? we brought in £1,000 as opposed to £9,000. and then trebled it. there's a big difference between a contribution and £9,000. he's right you trebled it. there's a brilliant piece — you trebled it. there's a brilliant piece - yeah. in terms of your policy, you want it to go to completely free. if that was your ideology now. why has it changed ten years ago, back in let's say 2007, you still had £3,000 roughly tuition fees and maintenance fees. if you're so against students having debt, why ten years ago, when you were last in power, why didn't you abolish it then? i've only been here four yea rs. then? i've only been here four years. what we're doing now is looking at what changes we need for the future. i'm good, but i can't change history i'm afraid.” the future. i'm good, but i can't change history i'm afraid. i think it's time to get a reality check. i'm glad you said that. going back to your point about mcdonald's asking people on zero hours contracts asking people on zero hours co ntra cts if asking people on zero hours contracts if they wanted to transfer, they d as with other corporate employers, they do find that zero hours contracts work for a lot of people. let's remember there's multinationals companies concerned about their corporate image and may play by the rules that other employers may seek to get round. it's worth highlighting the difference between the national living wage, we've heard a lot about it, 7. 7. £7.50 an hourfor over 25s. it, 7. 7. £7.50 an hourfor over 255. if it, 7. 7. £7.50 an hourfor over 25s. if you're under 25 you can expect a lot less, anything from 7. 05 down to 3. 50 expect a lot less, anything from 7. 05 down to 3.50 an hour, if you're on an apprenticeship, you're more lykinsly to get. under —— likely to get. under 25s are at a disadvantage when it comes to earning a minimum wage. an idea of how many people are on it, kpmg, the global accounting firm, looked at this in 2006, and found out that just firm, looked at this in 2006, and found out thatjust over 20% of people in the uk were paid less than the voluntary living wage, which is 8. £8.45 outside of london. we don't have much time left. i know a lot of you want to talk about brexit. i'm ricoh smith, i'm18 years old. 17. 4 million people voted to leave the european union last year. march this year, theresa may triggered article 50 taking the stance of a hard brexit, account woman be trusted — i wa nt brexit, account woman be trusted — i want to know from the politicians who can truly deliver a brexit that isa hard who can truly deliver a brexit that is a hard brexit? nadhim zahawi, can theresa may be trusted with brexit? yes, she can. i don't think there's a thing as a hard or soft brexit. there's a good brexit. what theresa may — there's a good brexit. what theresa may - it's all very basic. we hear good deal, bad deal. it's base being, what does it —— basic, what does it mean? theresa may set out her 12 points for the negotiation. she gave an important speech at lancaster house a few months ago. controlling our borders, making sure that we have the best trade deal possible with our european partners. we remain european. we'rejust coming out of the eu institutions. we have to keep it brief, because we don't have much time left. we need to get round all the parties to be fair. the important thing is making sure we have a trade deal that works for the uk sure we have a trade deal that works forthe uk and sure we have a trade deal that works for the uk and for europe. we cooperate and make sure that we deliver the defence and security for europe and we have 140,000 workers for example in our nhs who are european. we have to secure them and brits living in europe. labour is very clear that we want to maintain an incredibly strong partnership with europe. we're very aware of the terms of that are going to be changing. we cannot be going into this all bluster, throwing the baby out with the bath water. what we need to look at is workers' rights, environmental protections and security as well as forming a really strong trading relationship. to the gentleman there, you're right, we need to get out and we need to get out ina need to get out and we need to get out in a timely fashion. what i do worry about theresa may's speech, some of it was good. but she seemed to indicate that we might have transitional arrangements in many areas for an unlimited and unspecified number of years. people voted to come out. we want our fishing waters back. we want to control our borders. we want to come out of the single market. we want to do it in as quick a time as possible. we need to get on with it. brian paddick, liberal democrats. what we say is we don't know what the final deal is going to be. who is it, once we know what the final deal is, who is it who should decide whether that is an acceptable deal or not? should it be politicians or should it be you? we think you should it be you? we think you should decide. we think that we should decide. we think that we should stay in the single market because that's going to be best for the economy. it's going to be best forjobs. it's going to be — if you wa nt forjobs. it's going to be — if you want to go and move to europe, if you want to go and work there, if you want to go and work there, if you want to fall in love with somebody from the european union, then you have got to have free movement and that's what we stand for. kate forbes, snp? we respect across the uk a majority voted to leave the eu. but in scotland 62% voted to remain. 0ver leave the eu. but in scotland 62% voted to remain. over the last year nicola sturgeon put forward compromise solutions in a way to recognise the majority vote to leave but also scotland's position in voting to remain. all those proposals and discussions have been soundly rejected and so we're now in a position of saying, well, once we know the deal, whenever that might be over the next two years, we will give people in scotland the opportunity to choose between a hard brexit, that doesn't take into account scotland's interests, and independence in the eu. jonathan ba rtley? independence in the eu. jonathan bartley? we want a ratification referendum. we will fight for environmental rights, freedom of movement, i'm passionate about freedom of movement and the next generation having those benefits, when i had in my generation. it's not fair to short change the next generation and take away those freedoms, those rights that we've enjoyed. this generation is getting short changed enough as it is. it's saddled with private dead from the public sector. it's not getting the opportunities and jobs we want. we should have a say for them in the final deal. clan clap plaid cymru? i think -- applause you say there's no such thing as a ha rd you say there's no such thing as a hard brexit, wales has 200,000 jobs with tariff free trading with the single market. in wales we have some of the poorest areas in europe, when we're looking at gdp. a good deal with the european union is absolutely crucial for the people of wales. what plaid cymru want is a mandate from the people of wales to go to westminster, to put wales on the political agenda and make sure that our voice is heard in those negotiations. let's get a few more closing thoughts on brexit from you guys. brexit has a significant impact in terms of education. i want to know from the parties in terms of like how will they address that and support education, because the brexit makes it more difficult to utilise resources internationally. students gaining funding, but still studying in the uk? how do you feel about brexit? lied like to return to the point about workers' rights that sarah champion made. going forward with negotiations about the human rights bill that's something that lg bt rights bill that's something that lgbt persons in society look towards to work, live and marry those we love. heading forward i want it to be really important to both parties, in whatever negotiations they do, that those rights must be affirmed and upheld in a society that is often changing. thank you very much. a few closing comments from online. yes, whoever is in charge come the end of the week, they will have to deal with that almost straight away. as we've seen tonight, there are lots of views still. here's a couple. james says, "when will people realise this election is for the best brexit not for a future government? then richard, "the 48% of us who voted to remain are being forgotten. the whole referendum was a mess." tonight's debate has been quite well behaved, but craig with a parting thought, "what about a new campaign rule where you can't bad mouth other parties? the insults arive relevant." mouth other parties? the insults arive relevant. " back mouth other parties? the insults arive relevant." back to you. this has been newsbeat with the final debate, a big thank you to our guests tonight and to all the audience here in manchester. if there is anything that you still wa nt to there is anything that you still want to get your head around in the last day before the election, then you should really do a search for bbc reality check. from all of us here, in manchester, good night. tonight at ten — police name the third london bridge attacker, an italian man of moroccan descent whose name had been flagged to the british authorities. he was 22 year—old youssef zaghba who'd been living in east london the british authorities were alerted after he'd tried to travel to syria last year. and questions about another attacker, khuram butt, who'd been reported for violent and extremist behaviour. i said that in my estimation they are a national security threat, they are dangerous individuals, and that information was passed onto so15, counter—terrorism police. there was another arrest today in east london — but 12 people have been released without charge. an australian nurse, kirsty boden, was the 3rd victim to be named — she was killed as she ran to help others during the attack.