very good morning to you thanks so much for joining us good morning um we LED off with Mel stride the government Minister this morning with that breaking news that Sky News understands Hamza YF is considering resigning today um is labor ahead of course potential Scottish parliamentary elections but certainly ahead of a general election um celebrating the turmoil within the S SMP at the moment well I think there's chaos uh in the SMP and you know people of Scotland are being let down so I'm not sure there's much to celebrate in relation to that you've got one in six uh Scots on NHS waiting list failing Public Services a failure to get to grips with the cost of living crisis and you know no one uh uh voted for Hamza Yousef um and given all of the chaos I think there should be an election up in Scotland so that people from Scotland can uh can can have their say on what's Happening up there at the moment they're being failed by an SNP government in Hollywood and a conservative government in Westminster um do you think it's likely that he will resign I don't know the uh answer to uh that but certainly uh the way things have played out in uh recent days it looks like he's got a few uh friends uh left so we'll need to see what happens in the coming days um I was talking with Mel stri earlier as well about the latest uh migration numbers and the the idea that Ireland being disappointed that they're seeing a pickup in numbers of of Asylum Seekers reaching their Shores is a sign that in a week in after the bill passing that the Rwanda plan is is working what what's your take on I don't think that the Rwanda plan is workable if you look at the figures for Saturday 359 people uh cross the channel in small boats now that's more than the capacity of the Rwanda scheme so they weren't deterred by uh the votes in Parliament last week we've seen 7,000 people across the channel just this year the scheme uh will only take 1% uh of Asylum Seekers uh if and when the flights take off you know even Robert J Robert grick the former immigration Minister swell bravman former uh Home Secretary have said that you know a symbolic flight might take off but actually it's just a gimmick and it's not going to tackle the issue what about the idea that Ireland might want to return Asylum Seekers to the UK what would Labour's response be to that well we don't know what conversations have taken place between the government and the government in uh Ireland uh and what I would say is that given the numbers that are still crossing the channel it doesn't look like the scheme is acting as a but specifically on the idea of of of Ireland wanting to return Asylum Seekers to to the UK would labor say no to that well I I I think that you know we don't know what conversations are taking place but one thing uh I would say is the returns uh of Asylum Seekers have collapsed um by uh 14 uh% there's no real plan to tackle the small boats there's no real uh broad point and and we've heard your very clear answer that the Rwanda plan isn't working and isn't workable what about specifically the idea that Ireland might want to return assim Seas to the UK well you know we used to have the Dublin agreement in place which uh allowed for uh returns to uh EU countries the the government ripped that up and didn't replace it with anything which is why uh we've seen a huge reduction in in uh in in returns huge increase in uh Hotel use so the government have failed to get to grips with these issues we're spending millions of pounds every day on hotels because the government haven't cleared the backlog uh and they're not returning people and they don't seem to have a plan to deal with any of that um also wanted to touch on the uh mental health reforms that labor have been talking about an offset I guess by the announcement today by by Mel shride and the working pension secretary about trying to reform benefits that are paid to long-term outof work sick people specifically those because of mental health reasons do you think it is right to to look again at some of those laws and rules particularly as it relates to to mental health or not well people that can work should work but we've seen a huge uh collapse in support for uh mental uh ill health which is why today Labor have set out uh a plan to tackle and prevent mental ill health so under labor we would put in place 8,500 new specialist uh mental health workers we'd make sure that there is a mental health support worker in every school supporting young people uh so they don't go into adulthood with mental health problems as well as setting up Mental Health Community hubs with Open Access in communities so focusing on the prevention of mental ill health so the government have made these statements but actually they've not got a plan to tackle mental ill health in in our in our communities there's a suggestion in the interv with Mel stri that actually a job itself is part of not not solely but part of the solution uh to to some people's mental health issues do you think do you think that's true that a job is is a sort of gives a rewarding sense in that yeah I think work is really important it's really uh important for uh dignity for uh self-respect um but at the moment the benefit system isn't set up to support people into work for example if uh you are on uh personal Independence payments uh you're not encouraged to seek work and if you do take a job then you lose your benefits and have to go through reassessment that's why we have said that we'd reform it so that you can try work without losing your benefits and without having to go through a lengthy and stressful reassessment process so that would help to get people into work giving it a go giving them the confidence to take the plunge and another aspect of that would be reforming um uh uh access to work assessments so that people know what AIDS and support they might get in a job uh before starting work again encouraging people to take that plunge into work and you know I know that the government have published a green uh paper it's a consultation rather than actually um uh any firm proposals to get to grips with this this issue which has happened on their watch local elections on on Thursday what what would Victory look like in those local elections for for labor is it such a poor result for the conservatives that Rishi Sak's leadership comes into question or in fact do do you want to face Rishi sunak in the next general election well with the local elections we'll be looking at our progress in areas where we uh need to win the Parliamentary seat in order to uh form a government we're not taking any votes for granted in these elections we're speaking to voters and fighting for uh every uh every every vote um and we'll see what happens on uh Thursday but we'll be looking at our vote share uh and also whether we're making progress those seats that we need to win at the general election Ellie re thanks so much for joining us much appreciated labers a deputy national campaign coordinator