Scottish first minister announced his resignation. Humza announced his resignation. Humza yousafs admitted that he underestimated the level of upset that he would cause by cutting political ties with the greens. He will now continue in his post until a replacement can be found. An emotional mr yousaf says hes quitting to help repair relationships across the political divide. No ella whelan certainly bear no grudge against anyone. Politics can be a brutal business. It takes its toll on your physical and Mental Health. Your family suffer alongside you. I am in absolute debt to my wonderful wife , my beautiful wonderful wife, my beautiful children and my wider family for putting up with me over the years. Im afraid you will be seeing a lot more of me, from now on. Now on. Now on. The race to replace humza yousaf starts now. Former deputy yousaf starts now. Former deputy first minister john swinney says hes considering it carefully. Ive got lots of things to think about and theres the whole question of my, my family and i have to make sure that i do the right thing by my family. Theyre precious to me. I have to do the right thing by my party and by my country. So theres lots to be thought about and ill give all of that consideration in the days to come. Two men have appeared in court charged with murder after a torso was found in a nature reserve in salford. The 68 and 42 year olds spoke only to confirm their names and dates of birth. With the help of polish translators. Greater manchester translators. Greater Manchester Police believes that human remains at three other locations belong to the same victim , a man belong to the same victim, a man in his 60s. The initial discovery was made by a member of the public at kersal dale wetlands. More than three weeks ago. A man has admitted killing ago. A man has admitted killing a pensioner who was on a mobility scooter in west london. 87 year old Thomas Ohalloran was stabbed in the neck and chest in august of 2022. Lee bowyer committed what was described as a motiveless attack just five days after being released from prison. He denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility. Dozens of migrants have been rescued from the channel after their small boat got into difficulties off the french coast. Now its understood a number of people were pulled from the water and taken to the port at calais. The latest rescue operation comes after Senior Border force officials raised concerns that people in small boats are using children as human shields to evade police. Last week, over 900 migrants crossed to the United Kingdom. A debate on whether kingdom. A debate on whether assisted dying should be legalised for terminally ill people is underway in westminster. Earlier on, campaigners gathered outside of parliament calling for change. Assisted suicide is currently bannedin assisted suicide is currently banned in england, wales and Northern Ireland. In scotland, though, its not a specific criminal offence. But those who help others to end their own lives do risk being charged with murder. Opponents say Vulnerable People could be pressured into ending their lives , and were ending their lives, and were being warned to brace ourselves for even more food price rises with beer, biscuits and bread among items expected to jump. The wet weather means harvests of barley and wheat could be down by as much as a fifth. Storms and flooding throughout the last few months have forced british farmers to constantly delay sowing their crops. The warning comes just as food pnces warning comes just as food prices are beginning to fall. That, of course, following soaring inflation sparked by the global gas price crisis. Its global gas price crisis. Its easy for me to say, well, for the latest stories , sign up to the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code its on your screen right now or go to gb news. Common alerts. Now back to. Michelle. Thanks very much for that. Rafe Michelle Dewberry. Im with you till 7 00 tonight alongside me, the writer and conservative parliamentary candidate alex dean, and the political commentator joe phillips. Dean, and the political commentatorjoe phillips. Good evening. Good evening to you. You. Youre very welcome. You you. Youre very welcome. You guys you. Youre very welcome. You guys at home are also very welcome tonight. Indeed you know the drill by now. Its not just about us in the studio. It is about us in the studio. It is about you guys at home. Whats on your mind tonight . Packed on your mind tonight . Packed show coming up for you. Im really interested as well. Do you think that if as an mp, you decide to cross the floor. So as weve just seen happen a few days ago, do you think a by election should have to be called do you think . Actually, i do, normally, but not this close to a potential general election. Get in touch on that one as well. And humza yousaf, do you care that hes resigned . How interested are you in that story . Gbnews. Com yoursay is how you can get hold of me on the website. Of course you can email me or tweet or text me all the usual ways, but now you know. We know by now that it does feel a little bit like the welfare state. The benefit system is, certainly under scrutiny, to put it mildly, from our government. Weve been hearing , weve been hearing, conversations about whether things like, anxiety , things like, anxiety, depression, etc. All over medicalised. Well, one medicalised. Well, one potential, exploration that the government are focusing on at the moment is whether or not if you are indeed receiving certain benefits instead of getting cash paid to you , you could perhaps paid to you, you could perhaps instead get vouchers. I can tell you now, people at home, some people have received these benefits. Theyre not happy about that. They say that the government is overreach, controlling , alex, do you controlling, alex, do you support this idea . I do, i think when the state is, supporting people like this, it has an interest in and a right to, you know, how that resource is being allocated. Resource is being allocated. There should be a safety net in society below which nobody can fall. But that doesnt the same fall. But that doesnt the same thing as just saying give people cash and if youre earning your own money, you can spend it how you like. But if youre in your in receipt of money from the state, the state is entitled to say its for this and not for whatever you like. In effect, im afraid its not their money, its the states, but what have you physically cant work so you dont have the opportunity to gernan your own cash and spend it freely in the way that you would like to, and also that choice has been taken away from you. Then choice has been taken away from you. Then youll be using these vouchers to get what theyre meant for, not for whatever you like. And i think part of the interesting thing about that is one of the things about the last, piece of research from the house of commons into people who are in receipt of Long Term Disability benefits, was the very significant portion of them who said i would actually like to work. I feel disenfranchised, not because, im at home, but because the system isnt flexible enough to find a way to empower me to work. Im suffering from the soft bigotry of low expectations. Here. Take this handout and never come back to work in society again. Thats not what i want to do. So philip, well, i think its there are various levels of benefits. And the one that were talking about is the pip pip. Yeah, the pip pip, which is the cash one. I mean, if you are severely disabled or, you know, you absolutely cant work, you are on incapacity or disability benefit and all of those sort of things. The pip thing is much more discretionary. Yeah, and it allows people to use it, you know, so i used to work with a woman who had Cystic Fibrosis quite a lot of the time. She was absolutely fine, but then she would have an attack and she would have an attack and she would need to use taxis. She couldnt use public transport. I mean, she was working, so it gives people an element of flexibility and independence that i would argue allows them to lead more , working lives and to lead more, working lives and perhaps , you know, use it for perhaps, you know, use it for things like taxis in order to get to work, i think there is a whole different issue around this, question of Mental Health. And i think we have over medicalised the normal ups and downs that we all feel anxiety, sadness, grief , worry, you know, sadness, grief, worry, you know, all of those things. And whilst weve been over the last few years having conversations and quite rightly encouraging people to talk about Mental Health issues and not hide it away, it seems as though weve what weve missed is the conversation that is that is perfectly okay to feel like that. Its not an illness. And i think thats illness. And i think thats where we need to do something. And im not sure thats something that government can fix. I think thats right. And you know, its right for things to move away from the stigma where you cant talk about such things. But it swung so far now that people sort of where ive got a Mental Health badge of pride and now ive got this problem, i should be in receipt of funds from the state. Well, hang on a minute. In the upswing that weve seen during and after covid, the vast majority of people whove been signed off because of an understandable people anxiety levels going up when we were under house arrest was completely understandable. But people have been signed off. The majority of people for life from work. And thats what i was saying about the soft bigotry of low expectations, the idea that the state should never come back and check in a year, five years, ten years time. Are you still so unwell that you cant work . And the awful irony of this is that we heard only last week of the tens of thousands of unpaid carers. Well, they are, unpaid carers. Well, they are, you know, theyre looking after a loved one at home, but if they go a penny over their earnings level, theyre now being pursued for thousands and thousands even. And there was a woman talking about it, you know, she shed been sending in her payslips to dwp for years and years and years. And now theyve said, oh, you owe us £20,000. So, you know, those are people who are probably working part time juggling a little bit here and there according to the care needs of disabled or very sick relatives and things. And theyre being persecuted. And theyre being persecuted. And that seems to me that we, you know, we dont seem to have any consistency in either sympathy or economy. Let me ask you this though, right . Because many people will be agreeing with them, perhaps some of the sentiment youre expressing, but then therell be people at home that are also saying, well, hold on, its all well and good. The tories trying to clamp down on people that are poorly, they cant work whatever. But the fact of the matter is, many people perhaps might be more ill than they would have ordinarily been because they cant access treatment on the nhs. Yeah, theres certainly an issue there about the fact that we turned our National Health system into a National Covid system into a National Covid system for several years, and the backlog is impacts of what we did in that process. I think when the review is finally concluded, 2026 2027 into covid, i think the review may be quite likely to find that what we did in that in the course of that did more harm than good. That is to say, building up that backlog, making people stay at home did more harm than people got. Ill know that people cant Access Healthcare because of those waiting lists. I think those waiting lists. I think its about is it 1. 9 million or something . Its come down every month for the last five, so i think its at 1. 6 or 1. 7 now, but its not good. Im agreeing. Its a lot of we know that they cant access the health care is now the right time to be doing this clampdown then is it just basic electioneering . No. So the reason i dont think it is electioneering is that the point i was making about people being signed off for life happening over this penod for life happening over this period of time . The idea that you just get told you can sit in your house and well send you a check every month and you dont need to do anything else. I think thats wrong. And its part of the spur to encourage people who can work, perhaps in a different way to the way that they work before to return to they work before to return to the workplace and interact with their fellow men and women in society is a good thing. One of the most empowering, empowering things someone can have is a job. One of the most empowering things people can have is a sense of contributing to their own lives, and not just being a recipient. But, you know, this tory government, the conservatives they invented this system. They constructed this entire system to try and simplify the benefits thing. And theyre now trying to dismantle it. And there are other issues. I mean, its not just access to health care. Why why have so many campaigns about obesity or exercise and things that would make and help us lead healthier, you know, sugar bands, for instance, good Quality School meals, things like that. You know, if youre going to have government intervening at some point, saying you can only spend this on this, you know, maybe who knows with some mates that have set up some system of whatever it is they want to spend money on it, why are we not actually doing more to encourage and help people to lead healthier lives . And, you know, there are things like, you know, the smoking ban, which im sure has been discussed ad nauseam, but there are other things that we ought to be doing. But in the meantime, you know, as michelle says, you cant get to see doctors. You certainly if youve got Mental Health issues, you cant get on a waiting list. Just put some context into this in case youre not familiar. Apparently about 2. 6 Million People of working age currently receive pip every month. The annual cost of pip is currently around £22 billion. Its forecast to rise by 50 over the next four years, and apparently about 360,000 people get pip for anxiety and depression. Let me just ask you this. So, alex, you know, an element of this will be. Yes, great. Try and get people back into work. But an element about this as well. Well be looking at trying to, prevent fraud. And therell be lots of people saying so, you know, the energy and the passion that the tories are putting into stopping fraud at the lectures. I dont mean to be rude, but the bottom end of the chain, are they applying that same kind of energy to the top end of the chain, those billions that were lost in fraud throughout the covid pandemic, things like the vip lanes , things like the vip lanes, perhaps drives me crazy. The level of fraud that i am sure we suffered as a country dunng sure we suffered as a country during covid. A number of companies that claimed covid relief that were not active at companies in Companies House seems to me 60 days there you there there is a clutch of businesses that you can write to and say, we expect you to give it back. Yeah. And youll flush out a, a, a non trivial amount. So thats the story. But are the tories going after those people with the vigour that they are . Im, im saying to you, i think youre almost certainly right that the government hasnt pursued this vigorously enough. I also think that companies. Well, thats a very good question. Were talking about thousands of companies that receive this, kind of this, these kinds of payouts. And i simply cannot for the life of me understand why the tax man who pursues, to your point, people over piffling sums going back years when it looks like the tax man made the mistake, not the individual. But just give you another example. The number of another example. The number of Companies Whose whose income on their tax has declared was x and their tax has declared was x and their income that they declared relief against was. Why . I mean, if youve got that mismatch, then surely youre going to, lets assume charitably , youve lets assume charitably, youve made a mistake. You can return the differential easy to demand that money back. And if the persons got an explanation, then then let them make it. But they were either lying then or they were either lying then or they were either lying then or they were lying there. Well, exactly. And, you know, its a really fair point. Its low hanging fruit. Fruit isnt it . Get to the poorest people who havent got the wherewithal to fight it. But you know, meanwhile, all these companies, some of whom were set up just days they hadnt were set up just days they hadnt been trading for 60 days and they were getting Government Funds for dodgy ppe equipment. Its not just these companies that defrauded the loans, its things like the vip loans. People will be completely still that that has not been focused on, and i just wonder what do you think to it at home. Do you think the priorities are right in this government . Do you think it is fair , actually, that you it is fair, actually, that you chase, down . I dont know, look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves. Do you think we should be tackling this, end of the scale . And are we focusing enough on the bigger end of the scale . Tell me briefly, though, joe, whats your whats the labour partys thoughts on all this benefit stuff . Theyve said theyll have a look at it. I mean, im not a spokesperson for the labour party, but. No, but you used to advise them. Do you think theyre Strong Enough . No i didnt. Oh lib dems sorry. Its calling you the labour party. Ive got no idea. Scarlett mccgwire i know you do. You often do. You often do. But where do you think the labour party are on this . Well, they people are saying that theres not enough distinction and differentiation between, the labour party and the tories. Well, do you think theyre harsh enough on this issue, they have said theyll look at it. And i think just to go back to alexs point, who says this isnt electioneering . It is because its precisely to push labour into, well, whats your position . I can tell you the labour Party Position will be to avoid it because i dont want to upset people who are on benefits or have great sympathy for those who are and o