Transcripts For BBCNEWS Newscast 20240704

Hello. Hello, laura. And hello, henry. Hi, henry. Hi. So last night, i was at my friend toms birthday party, and hes a very good amateur poet, and he did a lovely poem saying thank you to everyone whod come to the party. Happy birthday, tom. But hes also a big newscast fan and an even biggerfan of sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Even happier birthday. So i thought, why not combine all those things together and do a poem about this weeks sunday with Laura Kuenssberg . Oh, my god. Here we go. Are you ready . Eat your heart out front row. White howards Double Barrelled Chef on sunday with laura kay. Politicians exaggerations going to get slayed. But first, this breaking news, a picture of recovering kate. But with all the twitter gossip, did it come too late . Rachel reeves bets all on economic growth. Vicky atkins asked why nhs productivity sloweth, but waits this weekend episode has no pad, fear not newscasters you can always call up add. I think thats extremely good, tom. And we all say one and all newscasters, happy birthday, tom. I was going to try and think of something that rhymed, but i cant. So happy birthday. Adam. I think what we need is tom for our next episode to rate your poem. 0k. Im just wondering, henry, youll know this. When. When do they pick the next Poet Laureate . Does the person have to die . I think they are on ten year terms. Like, does this have to die or . I think they on ten year terms, its that. Its that. And its been Simon Armitage for a few years. I dont know. 0r until they fall out with someone or say the wrong thing. So we have term limits potentially for our Poet Laureate, but not our prime minister. I mean, i dont actually i think we dont know. Well try and find out by the end of todays sunday newscast. Newscast from the bbc. Hello. Its laura in the studio. And its adam in the studio. And its henry at home. And henry, what have you just found out . I have just googled what i confidently asserted earlier. The last two Poet Laureates did ten years in the job which suggests adam will be free to become Poet Laureate in 2029. A ten year tenure. What were you i have just googled y confidently asserted earlier, which is how long people are Poet Laureate for. And the last two Poet Laureates, Andrew Motion and Caroline Duffy did ten years in the job, which would suggest that adam will be free to become Poet Laureate. Succeeding Simon Armitage in 2029 also means its a ten year tenure. But i think there as well. Laura, right, what were you looking for in your interview with Rachel Reeves, which lets remind people, was different this year because it came after the budget rather than before . Yes, it did. And we wanted to try to get her really to explain as much as shes possibly willing to and maybe a little bit more to the audience about what she would do if shes lucky enough to win the election with the labour party and move into numberii. Although she was a bit coy about whether or not shed actually move into number 11, however, and i think labours in this tricky position, whereas for, for Rachel Reeves own economic and political beliefs, largely following the tories spending rules, is the right thing to do. Now, she absolutely believes that for economic reasons at labour and think, oh, theyre not going to spend enough, voters tend to look at labour and think, oh god, theyre probably going to spend more. However, she has a problem, politically, whereas on the left a lot of people in the labour party say hang on a minute, of course we should spend more because Public Services in some places are on their knees. Theres also a different problem politically because some voters, including some we heard from on the show today, say, well, i look at both of you and youre kind of the same. So we were trying to get her to open up a bit more about some of the things that she wants to do, how close she really is to the conservatives. And in the context of this weeks budget, where the missing £2 billion Thatjeremy Hunt nicked was going to come from the government Thatjeremy Hunt nicked was going to come from. The government made their announcements on wednesday. It is now sunday. And i think your viewers would want to know that i was doing the work properly, that i wasnt just plucking numbers out of the air, but that i was methodically going through all the government documents to identify the funding streams so that all my sums add up. And i think theres one thing that you and your viewers know about me is that everything in our manifesto will be fully costed and fully funded, including this pledge. And i will do the work properly, as i always do, to make sure that our sums add up. I mean, lets sort of make sure our sums are adding up. Sojeremy hunt stole the policy of changing the taxation of non dom. So thats people who live in the uk but dont pay tax on their overseas earnings. In the uk but dont pay tax so that disappeared. In the uk but dont pay tax plus spending government money to cut National Insurance because thats how tax cuts basically work. Arithmetically that then adds up to that makes the black hole for labour slightly bigger. Whats your kind of back of the Envelope Calculation of how far down they are . Its a couple of billion pounds because the non dom Tax Abolition which labour had said that they would do. Butjeremy hunt has now gone ahead of them and done was specifically hypothecated i think is the word for particular policy. So labour said that that was going to fund a host of policies to do with the nhs and also Breakfast Clubs in primary schools. And that costs i think roughly a couple of billion pounds on labours estimates and that is a couple of billion pounds that they are going to have to raise elsewhere because they said very quickly after the budget that theyre still committed to those spending plans. So, i mean, look, Ithink Rachel Rees would have been politically negligent if she hadnt given at least a little bit of thought to what alternative ways they might raise the money if the government ended up going back on its previous policies and abolishing non dom tax. What i thought was really interesting in her interview with laura and in that clip we just heard, is that shes almost trying to make a virtue of the fact that she wont tell us. Shes saying, look, you know me, im methodical, im going to go through this slowly. Shes trying to say, look, the fact that labour havent very quickly said, ok, this is how well fund it instead is itself a sign of her fiscal prudence and fiscal responsibility. I think thats quite an interesting kind of Comms Manoeuvre that shes trying to pull off. I suspect what actually lies beneath it is that they worry that if they come out now and say this is how were going to fund it instead, and if the general election doesnt take place until after the next fiscal event, after an Autumn Statement in october, say, you know, the fear might be that the conservatives would make that Revenue Raiser as well and leave them having to find a third way to pay for all of. And we are in this sort of weird limbo, actually, i think, for both parties, whereas they dont want to put too much out into the Public Domain labour because theyre worried about the tories nicking it. And they also dont particularly want it to be the kind of mental levels of scrutiny that there will be in an election campaign. They dont want that right now. Similarly for the tories, you know, its like dangling this and i know actually were going get rid of National Insurance over the course of the parliament and so rishi sunak. Doubling down on that in an interview with the sunday times today. But, you know, we are still, in political terms, still miles off from actually getting into the manifestos. But the parties have to say more. But they dont really. They dont want to give us the whole story. So were in this slightly weird sort of limbo period, which is one of the reasons why when we tried to press Rachel Reeves today, i think quite rightly, would she admit if they win the election, that there wont be lots of extra money for Public Services, but not just that, that some bits of government would actually see real terms cuts. I tried very hard to get her to confirm that today. She did, she did tacitly say yes in code. Lets have a listen. Well, at the moment, the government have not set out their plans by individual departments, so we havent got a Spending Review. I will do a Spending Review quickly when i if we win the election. But thats not something thats possible to do from opposition. But i do know that Public Services need more money. Thats why we will make that initial injection. But remember also the Office Of Budget Responsibility is forecasts are based on the governments plans and the governments plans do not include our comprehensive plan to grow the economy. 0k, laura, theres a lot going on there and ive heard that three times. 0k, laura, theres a lot going on there and ive heard that three times. I still couldnt fully do the decoding. So you do it for me. So i think if you put that together with something she said later on, she said, we wont be able to do things as quickly as we want to and it might be slower than id like or Something Like that. Im sort of paraphrasing, but what . So she sort of tacitly said, yeah, in some bits of government it might be eye wateringly tight. What shes also saying is true is that she doesnt know and we dont know exactly what the numbers are going to look like by the time of a general election. Lets hope for everyones sake, actually, the economy is looking a bit perkier than it is now. But what we were supposed what we were trying to drive at is what her instinct is as. And when growth turns up, whats her instinct to give you, you and everybody listening a bit more back and to keep more of their own cash . Or is it to put money as soon as they can into Public Services . And yes, there is a little bit that theyve earmarked going out. And of course, actually its a huge amount of money, 1. 7 billion or whatever it is, its a lot of cash. But in the context of a government budget, it is a rounding error. I think people the treasury would say. So we were trying to sort of get to her instincts and i think she did tacitly say today, yes, the first year, if we win, might be absolutely horrific. But to sweeten the pill, therell be a Cash Injection to sweeten the pill to be top up somewhere. And my instinct is actually as soon as i possibly can to put more money into Public Services. But henry, you might disagree, because when youre watching at home and listening, you know, you get people different people take different things. Well, one thing one thing that i think is certainly a little bit overoptimistic in what rachel reese said there was. Oh, well, the pr dont factor in at this stage. Labors plans to grow the economy. Therefore things might be slightly more generous than they look at the moment. I mean i think even on labours own terms, their plans to grow the economy, which mean which entail reform of various Public Services and particularly reform of the planning system, that that is not going to bear fruit, even if youre extremely optimistic about it, thats not going to bear fruit for several years. So i dont think that affects the early years of the public spending envelope that labour have available. I mean, i think for that reason, one thing i dont know if its the same for you guys, one thing that increasingly crops up when i speak to labour people about the plausible scenario in which theyre in government by the end of the year is they say theyre going to be really unpopular. Thats what labour people fear very early on because a lot of people will have voted for them hoping, thinking that things will very quickly feel different and actually because of a combination of the circumstances which they will inherit, but also of course labours own choices about how to respond to the circumstances they inherit. They think that for a while, perhaps a period of years after that, potentially getting into government, things would still feel pretty similar to how they feel at the moment, especially, or including in those crucial Public Services. But thats so interesting, though, because my ears really picked up when Rachel Reeves started talking about tony blair and education, education, education, because im old enough to remember a time when his name was banned from being mentioned by labour politicians. And i wondered, is that her trying to create a bit of hope and recapture, recapture, a bit of nostalgic, sort of like reverse old optimism . I think thats right. Because, laura, in your piece that you wrote for the website, her mentor was alistair darling, who gave her three pieces of advice. And the third piece of advice was always leave people with a bit of hope. But actually, if your colleagues are then also saying to you, hang on, were going to be really unpopular because were going to do hard things, then it must be a really hard balancing act to know how much hope to offer. I think its really i think its a really, really, really difficult set of circumstances, both economically and politically. How do you make voters feel excited about what labour might offer when you know that theres not much in the tin when you rattle it around . And of course, politics is not all about promising spending money. Theres a lot of focus at the moment across the political spectrum about how you spend public money better. Nobody listening to this would think that money is absolutely the only answer. And yet it is, of course, a big part of political promises. And this is not going to be a chequebook election. You know, weve all covered and newscasters will all remember elections as well. Hilarious. Well, when people say were going to spend 400 gazillion Million Pounds on giving everybody free something, or were going to spend £20 billion on making all children be happy or whatever, that is not going to be that kind of election where people are. Its a competition of big cheques, which for certain people would be Electronic Bank transfers will not compare to each other. The other thing i was thinking about, though, which older newscasters will remember to perhaps as i do, is Gordon Browns miserly decision to give was it 75 p on the pension per week just after they had taken office and how that even for a government that had a massive majority felt that they had a sort of surge in enthusiasm that went down like a cup of sick. And that when you were talking about that. Henry that made me just think of that moment. And i think they are sort of prepared for that. Right. And also also they know theres this sort of anti politics mood out there at the moment. How do you make anybody believe that a politician might have any answers . Although i have to say, actually, our Programme Inbox and my inbox had actually quite a lot of positive messages coming straight in about Rachel Reeves sounding competent, sounding like she was a breath of fresh air. Maybe it was herfriends and family, i dont know. But its talking about Rachel Reeves and friends and family. Thanks to your piece this week on the website, were learning more about her as a person. And theres the two anecdotes that really stick out for me. Theres theyre going to her gran� s in kettering. Yeah. Also signalling middle britain. You dont get much more middle england than kettering. No offence to people in capturing its lovely place, and collecting the 20 ps from all her relatives that she was dragged around and then her sister splurging them all in the toy shop and Rachel Reeves saving them up for a rainy day. And then the other thing about her going this Charm Offensive in the city and weve all been to events where like theres far too much catering and like lose of pastries that no ones ever going to eat. And so she asks permission from her hosts. And so she asks permission from her hosts if she can put them in her handbag and take them back to her office. I know. Well, as she said, we asked her about it on the telly and good on her. She would say technically she leant into that story. She said, well, thats what youll get with Rachel Reeves as a chancellor. No, actually, its interesting the focus on Rachel Reeves as a person. Shes been in politics for longer than keir starmer and in many ways. Say much more political person. She was involved in the labour party at university, should be an mp since 2010, but she she really had a proper long wilderness period. I mean, it was alluded to by Michael Howard on your panel, laura, who said that unlike keir starmer, she refused to serve underjeremy corbyn. And thats true. And she was know she had been a fairly prominent member of ed miliband Shadow Cabinet. But when they lost in 2015, she retreated to the backbenches. She was chair of the business select committee, did some work on outsourcing on the collapse of carillion, if you remember that. But its sort of what you call in newspapers back of the book stuff, you know, it was stuff on sort of page 23, you might see a Rachel Reeves quote and she hadnt really worked with keir starmer. And ive asked people before what was the, you know, when did keir starmer decide that he wanted her to be a Shadow Chancellor because they hadnt really worked together and no one really seems to know. But he at some point decided that. I mean, she wasnt his initial Shadow Chancellor, by the way, although i think he might have wanted her to be. But she at some point decided that she was the person who he wanted alongside her. And keir starmer doesnt have a long sort of lineage of economic thought in the way that some leaders of Political Parties do. So she really is setting the tempo and the parameters for this potential Labour Government and that makes us such a central and important figure. And at least for now, she has absolutely won the argument in the Shadow Cabinet that you do not promise a single penny. You know, and i talked to lots of her colleagues this week. It was absolutely like, yeah, we have understood this message. We all get it. Lots of us want more money for projects that we would like to say that we would do if we win the election. But we all get it. She has won that argument. I also remember when she got the job, it was just after labour had been absolutely dumped in the hartlepool by election, which was a very perilous moment for keir starmer. Yeah, existential, we read. And he apparently, according to tom baldwin, even thought about quitting at that point. His biographer, Rachel Reeves, was actually brought in to bolster starmer� s credibility. You know, it was almost like she was the one doing not doing him a favour because it was obviously her dream job. And for years, it sort of felt inevitable that she was going to be everybody thought, oh, well, shell probably be the Shadow Chancellor. And if labour is ever in power again, she would be the likely person at sort of near the front of the queue for thatjob. But it is interesting thinking about her politics because shes that very rare beast in westminster. She really doesnt seem to yet have any enemies and shes quite self deprecating. Shes got a very good sense of humour. We saw a bit of that today. Shes well liked and well respected, but some people are also very interesting. On how good at Small P Politics is. She understands what colleagues care about. Shes very good at, you know, dropping the odd little text here and there, making people feel that theyve been understood. Now, her friends say thats because shes a good person. Shes a decent person. Some of the conversations i had that was also a little bit of scepticism, not saying that that was artificial, but just actually thats part of being a very canny politician, is making sure that nobody� s any doubt about what you think. But you make other people feel as if theyve been listened and understood, and if youre decent to them, they dont. Then mind if youre really tough, right . So you can get away with being hard and being well respected if you are also extremely courteous, thoughtful and all the rest without making enemies. Lets see if that survives this first year in 2025, because i mean, that is i mean, i guess the thing for a chancer is that a Spending Review is technically done by the Chief Secretary to the treasury. Chancellor. So you can load some of the political pain off onto them. But there is one thing saying to your colleagues in government, in opposition, look, we need to be cautious. We need to hold the Purse Strings tight for political reasons as well as economic reasons. But when you get into government, i think some of those Cabinet Ministers, as they then would be rather than Shadow Cabinet ministers, will start to chafe at it a little bit more. I can see a world in which Rachel Reeves, obviously were getting well ahead of ourselves here. But i can see a world in which she tries to, if she does indeed move into numberii, move across to number ten afterwards. And one of the friends i spoke to for this piece this week did say that they believe very much that she did have that higher ambition. But it is not what drives her right now. No, ive never asked her about it. I dont know. But that is definitely a view. And i think, you know, shes clearly someone who many people in labour circles and i think also in conservative circles believe is is likely to be one of the most significant political figures of their generation, which is why, you know, we spoke to her at great length this morning and why, you know, we wrote a big piece about her yesterday because focus groups say people dont really know anything about her, but she is somebody who were all going to learn much more about in the next few years, but also we might about victoria. Well, i was going to say last, last word. Im going to have the last word on Rachel Reeves. He says, so, i mean, as a guest here on sunday, going to say, fine, but were in a bizarre political situation where youve got the labour Shadow Chancellor saying theres going to potentially be quite. Saying theres going to potentially be quite big Spending Cuts in some government departments. When im in charge, im in favor of cutting the tax that people pay when they sell their second homes. I mean, thats going to annoy a lot of people on the left of our party. Welcome to 2024, everybody. Looking glass. I should write a poem about that. Maybe you can. Yes. Anyway. Laura, introduce us to victoria atkins. So victoria atkins is the Health Secretary. Shes not been the Health Secretary for very long, but shes also actually a bit like Rachel Reeves, although shes come into politics later, shes part of the sort of coming generation of people are probably going to be around for quite a long time. Shes got a safe seat. Shes probably going to be around and shes ambitious and is already in a big job as Health Secretary. And she uses the nhs all the time. She uses the nhs all the time. Did she tell you she uses it every time. Well shes got a i mean look, if you are the Health Secretary at the moment in a post pandemic world where youve got absolutely appalling Waiting Lists in england, same in scotland and wales, frankly, but different people are in charge of it in those parts of our country. Same in northern ireland, but she has a sticky wicket and her hope and she got some money out of the chancellor in the budget is if you spend three or £4 billion on productivity, basically getting more bang for your buck by having better i. T. And Better Technology that will start to see improvements in the Health Service quite quickly. Whats hard for her is that so many newscasters know bits of the nhs is sort of crumbling. Theres all sorts of problems with buildings. Fax machines are still used, hospital i. T. Can be absolutely terrible. And shes sort of now, i think, henry, like ministers are in several government departments. I dont want to say desperately that seems very unkind, but frantically trying to make some good in what time theyve got left before the election. And its that kind of frenzy thats sort of unfair. But, you know, there is that kind of really youre going to do this now . I think its i think of a piece with the budget this week where jeremy hunt, the sort of broader argument he was making, straddling all the specific policies, was trying to argue that the country has turned or is turning a corner. And i think thats probably what Cabinet Ministers like victoria atkins in Public Service departments are trying to do as well, because it would be absurd for them to pretend that everything is hunky dory. But if they can say, look, these are things that are happening soon and theyre a sign that things are Getting Better and theyre a sign that the hard years werent wasted or, you know, stick to the plan, as they would put it. I think thats kind of the fairly delicate political argument that people like victoria atkins, who i guess Gillian Keegan is another example the Department Of Education are trying to make. And if they can pull it off, then perhaps they can claw back some public support because its always Worth Remembering the tories poll rating is not bad at the moment. It is dire, historically dire. But the risk is that people just think the sort of rhetoric and language they use is just so absurdly at odds with their experience of Public Services. I think thats the thing that is really tricky and or the reality of the, you know, the nhs still has fax machines and shes sitting saying, well the Potentialfor Ai is amazing. How do those two things stack up in the same conversation . I love reminiscing about the nhs and Social Care Levy because remember that was when i was a day to day political journalist as well. And remember, laura, you and i spending hours phoning people when there was a sort of like Auction Going on in government about how big the increase should be. And some people were like, it should be one percentage point. And then sajid javid was like, it should be three percentage points. And then its like day by day it just went up a bit, down a bit, up a bit, died a bit, up a bit, down a bit. And then the last minute they finally agreed to do it. And it wasntjust an idea like they passed legislation to make it happen. Yeah, they did. But George Osborne passed passed legislation to do it before in the donor reforms. Andrew dilnot, an expert in this field whos very cross that nobody� s basically done it. And this is not a new issue. Its not a new problem, and its not going to go away just because our politicians dont want to crack it. Anyway, weve talked about a lot. Weve been down memory lane. Weve been talking for a long time. We talked about Rachel Reeves a lot. Weve talked a bit about victoria atkins, both people. Im sure well talk about more. But tonight, lots of people will be talking about the oscars, but youll have a double helping of newscasters. So im going to say our excitement tomorrow. So im going to stay up all night, watch the oscars. And theyre me and katie russell. Shes going to be in her hotel room in l. A. Fabulous. And were going to do a special episode of newscast which will be streamed on the iplayer at 7 a. M. , then available as a podcast. And then therell be a normal classic daily newscast in the evening, and ill just be sleep deprived. Amazing. What wonderful, Tasty Morsels you are offering up for our wonderful newscasters. Its been wonderful having you with us this weekend. Thanks for having me. Also on oscars, if youve seen any of the oscar nominated films and you want to send us a little review, whether its anatomy of a fall or oppenheimer or barbie or whatever newscast at bbc. Co. Uk or whatsapp us on 03301239480. Thats probably enough. Bravo. See what i did there . Its been lovely having you come back another time, but me and paddy will be back next weekend and hell be here twice tomorrow with the wonderful, Dazzling Katy Razzle from la. Henry, always wonderful to have you with us. Great to be with you. Bye, everybody. Bye. The newscast. Newscast from the bbc. Hello there. March so far has been quieter, but colder and the Wind Direction has played its part. Weve seen an easily wind so far, and in the last few days, its brought a lot of cloud in off the north sea and temperatures struggled along those exposed coasts only around six degrees. But the story is set to change as we go through the next few days. With the Wind Direction swinging round to a South Westerly, temperatures may well peak into the mid teens, but theres still a chance of seeing a return to some showers or longer spells of rain. Monday, however, will be a quieter story. This weakening Weather Front Still Producing a cloud thick enough for some drizzle. First thing monday morning, a lot of cloud and some fog around as well early on. Some showery outbreaks of rain moving out to the far north of northern ireland, into the far north west of scotland. And still, the Wind Direction coming from an easterly. Here, always that little bit cooler, eight or nine degrees. But out to the west, with the best of any brightness, we could see temperatures peaking at 12 celsius. Now, as we move into tuesday, this Weather Front could bring some showery outbreaks of rain into wales and Southern England for a time. Its a really messy story on tuesday. Therell be outbreaks of rain drifting their way steadily east, drizzle as well a little bit further north. But the far north of scotland could cling onto some sunshine here, not quite as warm, around 6 to 8 degrees, but further south, well see temperatures peaking at 13 celsius. Low pressure will sit to the north by the middle part of the week and this trailing cold front will introduce the risk of more rain. But the South Westerly winds starting to pick up the milder air moving in. So despite a lot of cloud around potentially on wednesday, there should be some breaks in the cloud. Temperatures will start to rise. Highs of 16 degrees. Brighter, with a few scattered showers, into the far north and west. So as we move into thursday and friday, weatherfronts will continue to bring the threat of showers or longer spells of rain. And some of the showers could be heavy and thundery, but the Wind Direction will continue to push this milder air across the country. So temperatures on the rise, particularly in comparison to march so far. So, yes, there is a risk of some showers or some heavier rain from time to time, but it will be mild with it, with highs of 16 celsius. Welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, im steve lai. The headlines. A ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid to gaza prepares to leave cyprus after securing all necessary permits to travel. Its the final day of Chinas National Peoples Congress well look at what the government in beijing could announce about the year ahead. The princess of wales thanks the public for their support as Kensington Palace shares the First Official photo of her since she underwent surgery. And the biggest night on the Entertainment Calendar is finally upon us. Will oppenheimer dominate the 2024 oscars . Welcome to bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk