Good evening. Big asks are going to be made of the public in octobers budget, the Prime Minister said today, in a major speech in the number 10 garden. Sir keir starmer warned that his government had inherited a black hole in the public finances of £22 billion. He said those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden. The conservatives responded by saying his speech was an indication that labour had been planning tax rises all along. In a moment, well look ahead to what may be in the budget with our Business Editor simonjack, but first, our deputy Political Editor Vicki Young Reports on the Prime Ministers speech. Blue skies and sunshine, but the Prime Minister didnt come here to paint a rosy picture. He has accused the conservatives of wrecking the economy, leaving him to put it right. There is a budget coming in october. And it is going to be painful. We have no other choice, given the situation that we are in. Those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavie
Borisjohnson, largely absent up behind him, with the manager, iea boris johnson, largely absent from the table. Clearly not very happy and there is no love lost between the former leader, former Prime Minister and the outgoing First Minister. There was also another tricky exchange when Mark Drakeford discussed simon hart, the Welsh Secretary for the uk government throughout the pandemic. He was giving evidence on friday when she said she felt as though the Welsh Government was making decisions during the pandemicjust for the during the pandemic just for the sake during the pandemicjust for the sake of it, to be different to the uk government. Mark drakeford completely refuted that and noted simon hart did not give any evidence to back up that theory. Also Mark Drakeford said that simon hart got to the stage where he did not have much to do with the start of the pandemic, otherthan much to do with the start of the pandemic, other than essentially borrowing bothering Mark Drakeford about
the moment, i cannot say a lot about the ukrainian reaction and the response to what happened. so for the ukrainian defence ministry has not confirmed that this military aircraft could have been downed by the ukrainian forces suit no confirmation from their side. ukrainians say this has asked for comments from the general staff, the defence ministry. the general staff replied that for now, they don t have enough information and they still have to try to find out what happened there. of course, the prisoners of war and the issue of swaps is one of the most sensitive and difficult things and issues of ukraine now. thousands of ukrainian military are still in the russian community and there was an expectation that new groups of prisoners could have happened but again, military intelligence that is in charge of these swaps of prisoners of war said that for now, they are not ready to provide any official statement or confirmation or denial whether any prisoners were scheduled. to