We'll time now to talk to the government now. I'm joined by David Teecey-Davis, who's Secretary of State for Wales. A very good morning to you. Thanks so much for talking to us. I want to kick off by talking about the gambling allegations in the party. Two conservative candidates are currently being investigated over allegations of betting on the date of the general election, as well as the party's director of campaigning. Is the party expecting more names to emerge as part of the Gambling Commission's investigation?

I have absolutely no idea, none whatsoever. The news of those two was a complete surprise to me. I just want to put on record, I certainly haven't bet myself and I haven't made any bets on anything for many years. I didn't know the election was coming until probably the morning I had an inclination. I wasn't absolutely certain even then. I have no idea who, if anyone has placed any bets and what further investigation is going on. What I will say, I repeat the Prime Minister's words, it's It's relatively unacceptable if people have broken the rules in any way. There is an investigation going on by the Gammaly Commission. I welcome that. Anyone who's found to have broken the rules will be kicked out of the conservative Party.

Why not suspend conservative candidates immediately?

Well, there's an investigation going on at the moment, and I'm not going to comment further on that. But the Prime Minister has been absolutely clear anyone who's broken the rules to be thrown out of the conservative Party. He couldn't be more clear than that. I completely agree with him.

In the meantime, mistrust in politicians has already been low. Do you accept this could be the final straw for some voters who are already frustrated by party gait about COVID PPE, for example?

Well, I mean, these are Very different matters, aren't they? But I agree, a lot of people are frustrated with politicians in general, and certainly right here in Wales. But of course, let's not try and pretend this issue of mistrust is because of only one political party, because I tell you right now that there are a lot of people deeply unhappy about the fact that the First Minister of Wales was willing to take £200,000 as a donation from a convicted criminal and is refusing to stand down despite not being able to win a vote of no confidence in a Senate as a result of that.

Okay, let's move on to the issue of a defection. There are some politicians who are disaffected. We're talking about the public there. But Chris Skidmore, former Tori Energy Minister, said that Richie Sunak's bid to turn net zero into a culture war issue. He's described it as the greatest tragedy of his premiership, and he's going to vote Labor now. How worried are you about that?

Well, I know that Chris has become a bit distracted because of the work he's doing for the renewable industry, I believe it is. Perhaps that's also impacted on his political views now. He's become much more interested in working in industry. I'm not in the least bit bothered about it. I think it's very important Rishis stands up for ordinary working people in this country who do have concerns about the potential costs of net zero. And that's why, for example, we were quite right to put the ban on petrol and diesel cars. Yet we can make net zero by 2050, but it's vital that we do that without impacting on people's living standards. And Labour's plan for net zero of the electricity supply by 2030 will have a huge impact on bills. They will push them up, as will their decision to stop giving licenses for oil and gas. It will not only bills, by the way, but it will make us more dependent on energy from outside countries, some of which are not very stable.

It's pretty unusual, though, isn't it? This is a former minister, former Tori Energy Minister. He's the most senior fit bigger yet to switch support to labor? This must be a pretty big blow.

Well, as I say, Chris is busy doing other things at the moment. He's working in the renewable industry himself. I think it has been for some time, even as an MP, he was able to find the time to to get out there and find himself a job in the renewables industry. Perhaps he feels that we're not going to be supporting people like him with senior roles in the renewable industry because of our decision that instead we're going to prioritize working people in this country who don't necessarily want to be forced into doing things before they need to and who don't want to see their bills going up. Chris may well think it's fine to not give out licenses for new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, and he may have an electric car. He may not be too worried about the impact on his own bills. He has got a very well paid job, as I understand, in the industry. But for many working people, and I stand with them, they feel that we should be able to continue getting oil and gas out of the North Sea. There are 100,000 jobs at risk if labor go ahead with their plans to cancel that, as well as the impact on energy security, as well as the impact on bills.

So I think we're absolutely in the right place on this.

We're focused on social care on the show today. Your party has been vowing to reform social care for years. Boris Johnson said he had a clear plan to fix it once and for all, and yet 14 years on, nothing has changed. Is that a source of shame at all for the Tori Party that people are still being forced to spend all their life savings for care costs?

No, but obviously it's a very difficult debate because if we decide that we're going to underwrite all care costs and that will have an impact on taxation, and there'll be other people saying, Well, wait a minute. I'm paying higher taxes so that somebody else can pass on a house to their children, but I'm not going to get it myself. So it becomes a very, very complex debate, which is why I think one of the few occasions I've agreed with one of my labor counterparts in Wales was when she suggested that something as complex as this is going to need cross-party agreement because obviously we have to put in place a plan that's going to be there for many years. It's the nature of dealing with social care is that you need to have a certain direction out that's going to work for 20 years. There's no point in one party doing something and then another party winning an election and coming in and changing it.

Well, yeah, and Sir Andrew Dylnot, who came up with the idea of a cap on costs for individuals. We've spoken to him. He's told us that both you and the Labor Party don't want to talk about social care because you're worried that it'll prompt questions about tax rises. From what you've just said, he's right, isn't he?

Well, I don't know what exactly he said, but clearly, if we decided to underwrite all social care in this country, then, of course, there'd be an impact on taxes, and we'd have to be completely honest about that. I think, though, in the past, I remember reading the report, but I must admit that was a little while back, but I think he also talked about an insurance type of scheme as well. I think that that is something that we're well worth looking at, but I'm not in a position to start making a policy on the hoof today.

A quick question. I know that you're launching the Conservatives Wales, I should say, Manifesto today. Tell us what's planned, and are you confident it's going to shift the dial?

Well, yes, I am, because obviously, I've done a lot of canvassing anyway within Wales, within Monmouthshire. I know that whilst there are criticizes of the conservative government. A lot of criticism of the Labor government. We've had a Labor government in Wales now for 25 years. We've got longer waiting lists than people in England. We've got lower educational standards than people in England. We see money that has been given to the Welsh Labor government that is not being passed on for things like childcare, for example, the 30 hours of free childcare, or business rate discounts for small businesses like pubs and restaurants. People are really fed up. You started by asking me about gambling. When I go out, people are saying, Why was the first minister taking 200,000 of pounds from a convicted criminal? Why wouldn't he stand down despite losing a vote of confidence? And in the manifesto today, what you're going to see is policies such as a rollback of the 20-mile-an-hour blanket speed limit, which has caused furie across Wales, as well as costing taxpayers 30 million of pounds, decisions to try and push ahead on infrastructure projects that we need. There's the statements around nuclear, for example, the nuclear power station at Wilda in North Wales could be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the country and certainly easily the biggest in Wales.

No mention of that in the Labor Manifesto, but I don't want to give away too much, but you will definitely see plenty of mention of that and reassurances that that's going to be in there. And of course, our commitment to single-sex spaces, which is not being supported by Labor at the moment or any of the left-wing parties, I believe it's absolutely wrong that women should be forced to take part in sport with people who are physically male or to share spaces with them, and we'll see that commitment there as well.

Okay, well, David, at TC Davis, we appreciate your time this morning. I'm sure there are lots of issues there that will be discussed throughout the day. But for the moment, thanks very much indeed. Thank you.