Transcripts For BBCNEWS Newscast 20240908

Weve bounced back, with laura kuenssberg, for the Weekend Newscast, because youve been off, ive been off, and im very happy to be back. I feel were being gloriously reunited. Its extremely nice to see you, although i saw you on the television quite a few times over the break, which was very exciting. Yes, thats a Sort Of trial, in every sense, especially for the viewer. But parliaments been off. Theres been a lot happening. And you have been out on Matt Chorley� s new programme on 5 live with some of your analysis. Here it is. We can hear some. Theres no arguing about whether or not potatoes were a vegetable. Well, if you had potatoes, i would have said you could have potatoes and chips and mash. Oh, yeah. Right . Is chips not in it . No. Well, thats a dish. Thats an entirely separate category. Ah, anyway well, you know. I mean, i can tell you about avocados and tomatoes. Definitely not fruit. 0h, theres more. Theres more. You see, matt turley, whos got a new programme, Just In Case anybody. Well, theres no one. There isnt anyone who doesnt know about that. I went on yesterday to talk about what were doing this weekend, but i came on after a quiz about vegetables. And you know me, uh, i felt unable to resist. I dont want to talk any more about Matt Chorley. Im fed up with him. You have had an interview with the Prime Minister, which is why you were actually there. It is. Um, and we have been in Downing Street this morning, uh, to do Keir Starmer� s first big interview since he became Prime Minister. Its his first Sit Down Interview in number ten. Congrats. Thank you very much. Um, and we were. We went in and we spoke to him for about half an hour in the cabinet room, which is something thats really quite unusual. So, its really, really interesting. We spoke to him about lots of different things, at great length. The whole interview will be on Bbc One tomorrow morning, but i can, this afternoon, bring you a flavour of the kinds of things that he was going to be saying, and im sure Matt Chorley will really want to know that we did manage to get the name of the new kitten, but im not going to tell you that today. Youll have to wait till tomorrow. Right. Because larry is going to have a companion and. Two companions. Yeah. I mean, its almost. Its almost as if newscasters prefer that news to the actual news, but we are going to go ahead with saturdays newscast. Newscast. Newscast, from the bbc. Hello. Its paddy, in the newscast studio. And its laura in the newscast studio. Hello. Fresh from Downing Street. Fresh from Downing Street, yes. Um, we have been speaking to the Prime Minister. We talked about lots of things this morning, which will be on Bbc One tomorrow. I think there are a couple of things that just really stood out to me when you walk in. Yes, the messaging from Downing Street has been extremely bleak about their inheritance. They Cant Fall over themselves but tell us everything has been the tories� fault and how awful what they have discovered under the bonnet of the country is. However, seeing him and his team in Downing Street, it is obvious from space how incredibly good they feel to be there. Really . Yeah. And to have the conch, to have the responsibility to be there, actually now able to act. They are giving, in the month that you and parliament have been away, theyre giving the exact opposite impression. 0h, we came in to mend your house, the skirting boards, but the whole house is collapsing. Theres damp. Dry rot. The roof� s gone. Asbestos. You wont believe it, weve had to. Oh, dear, weve had to call the council. They give the complete opposite impression. Its staggering. Its awful. I cant believe it. Theyve run out of apocalypse now and i think they do genuinely believe some of that. Well, i think this, actually, somebody inside government put it this way to me, and ive written about it for the website today, actually. They said, yes, it helps because this is true. We have found things are worse than we thought and things we genuinely believe are terribly, terribly awful. Secondly, its a good political thing because its what many people in the country think. They believe they won because people thought the country was in a mess, right . So theyve hired a new team to get in, to sort it out. Clearly, it is also expectation management, because particularly in the budget, but also, across the piece, they are going to make decisions that they know might not be popular. Um, and it also, from a political point of view, and we kind of, well, henry and You And Me talked about this a lot before the summer and we kind of predicted it. They are trying to put the tories� name on all the things that are nasty in the country. You know, the big bin of rubbish, they put the tories� name on it, is their plan. But how long can that strategy last . Because its not that attractive, is it, to keep blaming Someone Else . Well, i interrupted your main point, which is having met the Prime Minister in the cabinet room, youre getting energy, youre getting good vibrations. Yes. And i think Thats Something which weve not heard from a journalist whos been close to the power. I think you can just see that they are very pleased and excited to be there. That doesnt mean they think its going to be easy. It doesnt mean they think, oh, wonderful, this is going to be a walk in the park, and how great, were going to take credit for lots of things, and were going to be terribly popular. Ijust mean from a Sort Of human point of view, theyre like, wow, were here we worked hard for this. And ifeel, and i think weve said this before, actually, with Keir Starmer, youve seen over the years, its like every newjob hes got, hes grown a bit more in confidence. Its almost like he Sort Of grows another inch. And i think now, you can see somebody who looks. It might not last for very long, but my impression of him today was somebody who appears to be very comfortable in his skin, and people who know him well and know who Rachel Reeves has said, someone said to me the other day, theyve both fallen very naturally into doing the jobs. You know, just in terms of the function of what you have to do all day, how you run things, suddenly having civil servants, filling your diary, having meetings that really count, rather than in opposition when, you know, you can stand and shout and hope that somebody might pay attention to some of what you say, but youve got no guarantee, and you certainly have got no guarantee you can change very much. So shall we listen to your Keir Scoop . Yes, so the thing that was very striking in all this discussion of the terrible inheritance, which has been very focussed on the economy, what were going to get this week, in other doom laden news, is a very serious report from a very eminent doctor, Lord Darzi. Not the first time hes done a review for a government, its worth saying, but he has done a quick look atjust how bad things are in the nhs, and ill take you through the findings in just a sec. But this is how Keir Starmer described what the report had found, and the fact he claims what the former government did to the nhs was, to use his word, unforgivable. Everybody watching this who has used the nhs, or relatives have, know that its broken. They know that its broken. That is unforgivable, the state of our nhs. The last government broke the nhs. Ourjob now, through Lord Darzi, is properly understand how that came about and bring about the reforms. Starting with the first steps, the 40,000 extra appointments. But weve got to do the hard yards of reform as well. And as i say, i think its only a Labour Government that can do the reform that our nhs needs, and well start on that journey. Just to give you a taste of what the Darzi Report is expected to find on thursday, the bits that have been shared with us so far focus on how bad things have got in terms of childrens health. The report has found that there were more than 100,000 infants who had to wait more than six hours in Accident And Emergency in england last year. There are 800,000 children and young people on nhs Waiting Lists for hospital treatment. 175,000 of them have waited more than six months. And there are 35,000 children on Waiting Lists in England Whove had to wait more than a year for treatment. And there are 500,000 children, according to Lord Darzi, whove been on Waiting Lists for mental health treatment. So if you look just at whats been happening with kids whether its because of covid, whether its because of they also identify the lansley reforms, the health secretary, some time ago now, but who could have unpicked how the nhs works, and those reforms are absolutely slammed by Lord Darzi. Whatever the reasons are, these are the really pretty grim headlines that Lord Darzi is putting forward this week about the impact of problems of the nhs on childrens care, particularly. So we will have on Radio 4 tomorrow the health secretary, wes streeting. And do you think that they, the incoming Labour Government, needed an independent reviewer . Because their message is already, hes already told us its broken. Yeah. Wes streeting has already said that on day one. Yeah. So they needed someone who was actually a medical person to come in and say, here are some things i have found. Im not wes streeting. I think thats right. I think they need, or they wanted maybe they didnt need it i think they wanted to have a baseline. Right . This is the view. This is the kind of audit, right . So in the same way that Rachel Reeves got The Treasury to do the audit in, in five weeks or whenever, however quickly they did it, um, to do that audit that came up with the £22 Billion economic black hole, they call it, and the 22 Billion is in some ways a bit of a contested figure. And we talk to Keir Starmer about that tomorrow, so wait for that one. But i think its quite important how they came up with that figure. But its like a baseline. Here are the things that an eminent independent person has found that are wrong. This is his diagnosis you see what they do there . Of the state of the nhs, and it is probably quite useful for them politically to have a baseline. Its probably also quite usefulfor Nhs England and the nhs to have a kind of, here are the problems, because theres that old adage, right . If you dont know what the problem is, you Cant Fix it. Um, but it does also allow them again to shout about how grisly what they call the inheritance has been for the former government. And also, theres an overlap here, which is that Rishi Sunak, as Prime Minister, confessed that he had not met one of his targets, which was to reduce nhs Waiting Lists. Yep. So he agreed he would have not achieved the progress we wanted in cutting Waiting Lists. So theres two Prime Ministers agreeing that the Waiting List Problem is too big for the country. Yep. Rishi sunak and Keir Starmer. And then, of course, the Wiggle Room there is that Rishi Sunak pinned some of the blame on striking medical staff, including doctors. In comes old keir, saying, were sorting that out. Yes. So Thats Part of the way were going to crack the nut. They hope. Contested. But theres an interesting thing in all of this, right, that ive been thinking about a lot in the last few days, is when does a new government become responsible . So president truman, american president in the � 50s, had on his desk a little sign that said the buck stops here. Up until now, Keir Starmer� s been saying, if he had a sign on his desk and i didnt ask him if he had a sign on his desk, maybe i should have done the sign on his desk might say, oh, it wasnt me. Um, but at what point does it start becoming their responsibility . Now, of course, if somebody� s been in charge for 14. 5 years, and then somebody comes in and they havent even been in charge yet for 100 days, of course its legitimate to point to your predecessors. Of course it is. But at what point does it start to shift . So, you know, labour strategists at the Moment Sort of think, well, were chiming with the public because people believe that the country is in a bad state and that they think that the tories mucked it up. Theyre starting to hear, im told, back from their Focus Groups that this fabled 22 Billion figure is starting to cut through. But at what point, if you are then a shivering Pensioner Injanuary and we have a really bad cold snap, and you think, i cant turn my thermostat up because ive lost my Winter Fuel Allowance, do you think to yourself, oh, that old Liz Truss . That old borisjohnson, that old Rishi Sunak . Or do you think, i cant believe that Keir Starmer took Winter Fuel Allowance away from me, as a labour Prime Minister . This team are so adamant, one of them said. I dont care if people feel sick of the message about the inheritance. You know, its that old adage, actually, you have to make people feel sick when they hear something to be sure that its cut through. Well, i have an answer for you, at what point will it become a changed sign on the desk . How about i start with this week . Two events one, a vote in parliament, at which there will be a rebellion, and at which Rosie Duffield Mp was heard on Radio 4 this morning. Yes. And two, the release of prisoners, longer prison terms. Punishment is popular with the british public. Very much so. Letting cons out is unpopular with the british public. Now, i know its going to be allied to its all their fault, but actually, its your decision. Its your decision, as the government, to do this, and they will have a revolt. You might know better than me how big it will be. A0 mps, who knows . Who knows . Theyll have a revolt, and that will be feet on the flame. Thats what its like to be in power. And i think, i could go as far as to say the sign will wobble this week. Well, maybe it will. And i wonder, also, if we will start hearing just a slight shift away from the Sort Of doom and gloom. 0h so a whisper reached me that somebody whos in the Sort Of labour supporting Business World was hopeful that, actually, there might be a bit of a shift away. Because what is one of the other things that the government is trying to do very, very hard is attract international investment. Say, roll up, roll up, come in and invest here now, if the message thats coming out at 11 on the amplifier, if it was spinal tap, saying, everythings awful, the countrys in a terrible mess , is that the message that you want to be putting around the world, even if it might be the message you very deliberately want to give to your domestic audience . Yeah. So theres all sorts of different things going on. But youre right. Prison stats, massive. Winter Fuel Allowance is massive. Both of those decisions, they say, have come about because of what happened before, but they are their decisions. You know, theyre cockahoop about being in government. But to govern is to choose, you know, and every single number ten administration ive covered and goodness me, im quite old now, theres a lot of them they have all, in time, been stunned by how much comes onto their desk, how much they get the fierce heat of blame for things that actually have got absolutely nothing to do with them. Because if youre in government and if youre in number ten, you are it, whether you like it or not. Will they suspend mps from the party who vote against withdrawing universal Winter Fuel payments . I dont know the answer to that. I think theyll have to make a decision. Newscasters being a Clever Bunch will remember that when some mps, left wingers like John Mcdonnell voted against labours Kings Speech, they were suspended, but voting against the Kings Speech because thats the Sort Of big programme of government is a bit different to rebelling in the kind of debate that the tories are forcing in the commons this week. Now, that might sound a bit technical, but i think also, Downing Street will want to take a careful line here because if they start kicking people out or suspending them every time they are voted against, that might provide quite quickly an awful lot of grumpiness in their very, very enormous new parliamentary party. And also, ive got to say, you cannot believe just how many of them there are. I went to Prime Ministers questions this weekjust to go and get a flavour of what the new House Of Commons looks like, and there are so many labour mps, theyre sitting around on the other side, because theres not space enough for them on the government benches. I mean, it is a transformed place and, you know, youve got Nigel Farage is, like, squashed in between the dup and his other reform colleagues. Youve got. Youve then got people who had, you know, Jeremy Hunt who, for years, weve known as somebody who was responsible for great matters of state. Now hes sitting, looking a Bit Cross on the opposition benches. And the people who are looking really knackered because theyre the Cabinet Ministers are all the people who, not so long ago, were looking Sort Of, you know, Bright Eyed and bushy tailed. I mean, it is such a transformation, in a physical way, of the kind of political landscape. But on those two things that you mentioned, prisons and Winter Fuel Allowance, those are both very big problems for this government. Do you think that theyve got more heat than they expected . For 1. 4 billion in savings pre announced, initially, there was going to be no vote. Is this a sign that they know what theyre doing politically . Because i heard ed balls, on his podcast, imply this wasnt exactly how youd plan it to be, for the sake of this one policy, when Parliament Wasnt sitting, to get all this heat. Its been weeks and weeks of it. While youve been away, its been all ive been talking about. I dont. I mean, i dont know. I think that. So theres two theories that ive heard. One is actually that, yeah, they didnt realise it was going to be quite this bad because suddenly, they find themselves with people who had been supporting them very, very strongly, including lots of Sort Of charities and campaigners whod be saying, yes, hurrah, were going to have a new government , who then, just a few weeks later, are like, oh, no, we didnt know you were going to do this so i think there has been a bit of kind of being. They do seem, in a sense, to have been a bit spooked about it. Theres another argument, though, that ive also heard, is that actually, it does no harm to have a big row that displays how tough theyre willing to be, in order to get their main message across. Now, that would be cynical but, hey, thats politics. But sometimes, these kinds of ploys can be too clever by half. You know, you go back to the Shivering Pensioner with the thermostat. How are voters going to feel about this in a few months . But already, in Downing Street, the question is not how people are going to feel about it in a few months, its how theyre going to feel about it in two years, three years, four years, when it comes, when the moment comes to vote again. But i have to say also, Old Sceptic as i am, ive heard plenty of incoming administrations saying, oh, well, its not about the day to day. We have to keep the eyes on the prize. Its all about the long term, difficult decisions. Im willing to do things that are difficult for my eventual goal. But sometimes, those day to day pressures actually become too much, and they are forced into doing things that they had no intention of doing. And thats already a challenge. You know, Someone Else in government was saying, seeing with the riots and the big row about Winter Fuel, its already made them wonder, oh, weve got this clever plan for doing mission related government. Were already thinking, ah, how are we going to do that . As well as these 400 other million things that are flying into Downing Street every single day. You know, Keir Starmer is going to the White House next week. How do you just casually fit that in, when youre in the Run Up to the budget and the Run Up to the party conference season, and youve got a big vote on Winter Fuel, and youre dealing with grenfell, and youre dealing with all these other million things . And thats the reality of what its like in number ten, right . Yeah. I mean, just a quick word about the tories. Yes. Weve got you back here. Robertjenrick, who im told is the front runner, has done a walkie talkie, social media video, walking and talking at the same time. Gosh, can he walk and talk at the same time . he can. Thats amazing . Saying he can see what Keir Starmer� s up to. Hes taking from pensioners and giving it to train drivers because its his mates writing big cheques each way, the unions. And, of course, we know, newscasters Will Say Business is always donating to the tories, so we understand theres been that Fault Line for a long time. Not so much these days well, theyve been giving. But do you think thats going to be the Red Meat for the tories . Its like, well done with the pensioners, who we gave the Triple Lock to, youre giving it to train drivers . Well, its a neat politicalframing to use an awful Bit Ofjargon and its what Rishi Sunak did at Prime Ministers questions this week. He said, how did you decide to give money to train drivers and take it off pensioners . So its. I mean, its a neat and effective bit of communication. Um, and i think that weve seen, you know, the tories are not going to be able to push this government around, because they are so humbled and they are so small. That does not, however, stop them at all from Playing Clever Opposition politics and thinking of neat little grits in the Labour Oyster where they can get a story up. You know, theyre the ones whove pushed this debate this week. Um, thats a pretty Topsy Turvy thing. Youve got a tory opposition complaining about a Labour Government taking money from some vulnerable people in society, right . I mean, talk about a switcheroo but it was interesting, the tories have even been using winterfuel as some of their, um, you know, Fundraising And Membership emails. So obviously, journalists end up seeing these as well. But the tories have been pushing that out, saying, ah, were going to have this debate, were going to stop them doing this. So its a very deliberate thing thats coming from the conservatives as a party, notjust from Leadership Contenders like robertjenrick. Can i say that newscasters often say, can we say things that are true, without saying, one party says this, one party says that . So im going to try something out and youll tell me if im wrong. Pensioners got richer under the conservatives. Well. Because of the Triple Lock and because of measures introduced by George Osborne and David Cameron, there was a wealthier pensioner at the end of 14 years than there was at the beginning of 14. So, i think it depends how you count it, as these things always do. However, it is true that pensioners, as a group, are not, as a group, in the kind of position that they were in in the 1990s and the 2000s. So when David Cameron and George Osborne came of political age, pensioners were much more vulnerable financially. And thats why when gordon brown, for example in what a lot of people would say is an early political mistake gave pensioners a really miserly increase, that was Sort Of seen as a big kind of political disaster. And thats why David Cameron and George Osborne made huge play of protecting pensioners� incomes. Also, pensioners go to vote and they very often vote conservative. But they made great play of protecting pensioners� income because at that point, pensioners were very often seen as one of the poorest groups in society, if not the poorest group in society. That is no longer the case. So, can we say that� s absolutely true in all senses, that pensioners are better off now than they were in 2014 . No, we wouldn� t say that in every case. But we can say that their Sort Of financial status, as a group, has moved up the rankings. Since you� ve been away, we� ve been running adam� s feature of the newscast of thousands, where newscasters help us to reach the number 1,000 by submitting numbers from their lives or the news. Hello, newscast team, i� m loving your chats. I� ve been listening for a long time now. Well, that� s because the chats are very long, ruth. I have a personal. It could be only one episode probably was a girl when she started. I� ve got a personal cast of thousands number, if you want another 50. This week, i� ve been working in Hospital Pathology for 50 years. I� m Sort Of retired, but supporting various Tasks Part time. Ruth, we say congratulations and thanks. Tomorrow, i� m taking a home baked Courgette Cake to my lovely colleagues. Keep up the chats. Now, 50 takes us from 278. 9 Plus 50 to 328. 9. What on earth are you talking about . so, it� s basically started with six tory leadership candidates, added to the six, the weight of the stonehenge stones. And it� s been adding. You� ve probably been listening to it but, like me, you haven� t got a good maths brain. Take it from me, it� s a very successful feature. I� ll take it from you. Join us tomorrow, when we� ll have. Yes, do. More from the Prime Minister, more from wes streeting. More from kate winslet. Ah yeah. So tomorrow, we� ve got kate winslet, Keir Starmer and tom tugendhat, who is vying, who is the first in a series of interviews with the tory leadership candidates. You� ve got wes streeting, who else is on in Broadcasting House . We have got a reformed prisoner, to the point about releasing prisoners. We� re also going to talk about, where are the british apples in the supermarkets . So we end as we began, Fruit And Veg good memory. It was a long time ago, that. Oh, dear. Well, you� ll be on Radio 4 at 9 00 tomorrow morning. I� ll be on Bbc One tomorrow at 9 00 tomorrow morning, and then we� ll be reunited for our second Weekend Newscast of the new political season. Goodbye till then. Goodbye. Newscast. Newscast, from the bbc. Hello there. This mixed Weather Pattern continuing throughout the weekend. We� ve got a thundery low sitting to the south of the uk, that� s going to continue to push northwards over england and Wales Tonight to bring some Heavy Rain, maybe some thunderstorms for some of us, a risk of localised flooding. But it will stay drier across scotland and Northern Ireland. This is the low starting to push northwards as we head into this evening and overnight, sending a band of rain northwards. Some of this will be heavy and thundery in places. It will continue to journey across the midlands into northern and eastern england and wales as the night progresses. In the middle of the low, we could see some clearer spells for a time across the midlands and South East, but a few thundery showers may return into the South East by around dawn. But scotland, Northern Ireland, a much quieter night here, with clear skies, low Cloud And Mist Hugging North Sea coasts once again, and temperatures generally for most of us low to mid teens. So for sunday, then, it could be quite a thundery day across england and wales. Some Heavy Rain for northern and eastern england, Down Into Western england and wales. Elsewhere, lots of sunshine, but this will set off some slow moving Thundery Downpours into the afternoon. Much of scotland, cloudier, but still some sunshine in the west, same too for Northern Ireland. Not as warm generally, i think, temperatures high teens, low 20s, so it could be quite wet and on the cool and breezy side for the great North Run across North East England for sunday. That may be better for many people competing in the run. But as we head into the evening and overnight, it looks like that rain, which has pushed northwards, will start to return eastwards again, as some of it will be heavy across the north east, but lighter and patchier further south. Clearer skies for scotland and Northern Ireland, Turning Cooler here. A slightly fresher night for england and wales and southern scotland, but there will still be a lot of cloud around. Now, into monday, we see that area of low Pressure Start to pull out into the near continent. It takes its Weather Front with it, so the breeze, the cloud, the rain slowly easing from eastern areas. Skies brighten up for large parts of england and wales. Scotland, Northern Ireland see another Weather Front moving in, another low Pressure System here, that will bring some showery rain later in the day here. Temperatures on the lower side. We� ve lost the humidity as well. High teens for most. But temperatures come down even more as we move deeper into the week. We open the floodgates to an arctic northerly. So after having near record breaking early september temperatures, we� re going to be going below the seasonal norm for this upcoming week. It will feel chilly both by day and by night. Live from london. This is bbc news. Sir Keir Starmer meets with his irish counterpart in dublin, aiming to reset their countries� relationship post brexit. In his first major interview since the election, the pm tells the bbc the tory government broke the nhs. Everybody watching who has used the nhs know that it� s broken. They know it� s broken. It� s unforgivable, the state of the nhs. The last government broke the nhs. Protests have Ta Ken place across france over the appointment of Michel Barnier as the country� s new Prime Minister. And oh, no, not them the two players with irish ancestry scoring the winning goals for england in dublin. Hello. It� s five years since a british Prime Minister visited the republic of ireland, after tensions over brexit, but sir Keir Starmer is in dublin, saying the moment is right for a meaningful reset in relations. He� s been holding talks with his opposite number simon harris. Our Ireland Correspondent Sara Girvin reports