towards a bigger economy? path towards a bigger economy? i'll ask my panel. i'll be joined by ed barker, a talented saxophonist and clarinettist from london whose remarkable journey harmoniously spans music and politics. from performing as the solo saxophonist of george michael to collaborating with conservative members of parliament. there has been a significant shift in the politics and military situation in the middle east following israel's recent actions against hamas, hezbollah, the houthis and iran. has the west been humiliated , as it has called humiliated, as it has called repeatedly and ineffectually, for a ceasefire, whilst israel gets on with the job of dealing with our dangerous enemies? stephen daisley, contributor for the spectator, will share his view with me and drinkers have been warned about a drop in the quality of french wines after poor weather conditions have hit this year's harvest in the vineyards. sommelier jacinta madison williams will be here to convince us that english wine

may be the way forward. and before all of that, your headunes before all of that, your headlines with tatiana sanchez . headlines with tatiana sanchez. >> michael, thank you very much. and good morning. the top stories. while the king says he's greatly saddened by the sudden death of alex salmond, the former first minister of scotland, the alba leader died yesterday afternoon, aged 69, from a suspected heart attack dunng from a suspected heart attack during a trip to north macedonia. in a message issued by buckingham palace, king charles also said his devotion to scotland drove his decades of pubuc to scotland drove his decades of public service. we extend our deep condolences to his family and loved ones at this time. mr salmond had made a speech at the institute for cultural diplomacy forum, and is understood to have collapsed at lunch time in a crowded room. the alba party said it understood he'd suffered a heart attack, although there will be a post—mortem examination to confirm the cause of death. >> his legacy is the fact that he got independence into the

mainstream. the snp , certainly mainstream. the snp, certainly when he was the first leader of it, that is, to say, in the early in the 1990s and when he became leader the second time, it was still a fringe party. independence was very much parallel to the greens in the respect that they're there. you're aware they're there , but you're aware they're there, but you don't actually know what a government would look like. salmon achieved the question. he achieved the right to have the question. he achieved a reputational boom for the snp by having it done legitimately , having it done legitimately, professionally and pragmatically with the uk government. and that is an incredible legacy . is an incredible legacy. >> that was the columnist alastair stewart there paying tribute. well, tributes have continued to be paid across the political spectrum as well. tony blair saying he was very sorry to hear of his death. the prime minister, sir keir starmer, had this to say. alex salmond was a monumental figure of scottish and uk politics. he leaves behind a lasting legacy. the former first minister of

scotland, nicola sturgeon, said she was shocked and sorry, adding i cannot pretend that the events of the past few years, which led to the breakdown of our relationship, did not happen. however, it remains the fact that for many years alex was an incredibly significant figure in my life and we formed one of the most successful partnerships in uk. one of the most successful partnerships in uk . politics. in partnerships in uk. politics. in other news, robert jenrick says he'll make sir. jacob rees—mogg, the chairman of the conservative party, if he triumphs against kemi badenoch in the party leadership contest. as chairman sir jacob, who lost his seat at the general election, would be put in charge of the party's campaigning operations. mr jenrick told gb news this morning that jacob has been a tireless campaigner for the grassroots, and he understands better than anyone the need for party reform. >> we want to have a different way to select candidates, so we end the favoured sons and daughters of the leader being parachuted in. that was a disgrace. i want to stop members just getting emails asking for money, but never asking what do

they want and where do they want they want and where do they want the party to go? let's build a mass membership democratic organisation. i think jacob will be a great asset to that. >> elsewhere, jonathan reynolds says it's not the government's position that p&o ferries is a rogue operator. despite a press release, this week calling them a rogue employer. p&o ferries owner dp world will attend the international investment summit tomorrow. they'd previously threatened to pull out of the event, and a £1 billion port investment. that's after the transport secretary, louise haigh, criticised their employment strategy and called for a boycott, while sir keir starmer says miss hague's call for the boycott of the ferry firm was not the view of the government, the operator was criticised by politicians from both main parties back in 2022, when it suddenly sacked 800 british seafarers and replaced them with cheaper, mainly overseas staff, saying it was necessary to stave off bankruptcy. while the business secretary told gb news camilla

tominey that the billion pound investment will go ahead quickly on this issue. >> that's not the government's position. the issue obviously with p&o ferries is we're not going to recoil from that. we thought it was wrong. the fire and rehire that we saw those workers being sacked and then taken back on on fewer terms and conditions , but we have changed conditions, but we have changed the law. it was lawful under the conservative government. it will be unlawful under this labour government. so where companies accept that, acknowledge that can work within that framework, we'll of course talk to them about investments. and i can tell you they're coming to the summit and the investment will go ahead . go ahead. >> shadow secretary of state for work and pensions mel stride criticised tomorrow's summit. >> certainly not on the eve of an investment summit in which that business had at that point pledged to invest £1 billion in the uk economy. and this is a general problem. so this, this investment summit has been shackled by the fact that , shackled by the fact that, firstly, it's come before a budget. so everybody is wondering what taxes are going to be levied on businesses. and

i expect there will be a number, possibly national insurance for employers, which . employers, which. >> and finally, the uk is among 40 nations strongly condemning attacks on united nations peacekeepers in lebanon . earlier peacekeepers in lebanon. earlier this week, israeli troops fired on un headquarters in southern lebanon, injuring two peacekeepers for the second time in as many days. it comes as lebanon's health ministry says at least 15 people have been killed in the last day by israeli airstrikes on three different villages. that's after the israeli military accused hezbollah of firing over 300 projectiles at israel . projectiles at israel. meanwhile, hezbollah rocket barrages triggered sirens right across northern israel overnight and also into early this morning in haifa, the third biggest israeli city and host of one of the country's biggest naval ports. sirens and explosions blared across the bay and people

also rushed to nearby bomb shelters. an israeli army spokesperson said in a statement that five projectiles were identified crossing from lebanon into israeli territory and were successfully intercepted by the iaf . and those are the latest gb iaf. and those are the latest gb news headlines. for now, i'm tatiana sanchez. more from me in an hour for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gb news .com forward slash alerts . alerts. >> thank you. tatiana sanchez. alex salmond is dead. he led the scottish nationalists into government. he won an overall majority in 2011 under an electoral system designed to prevent that from happening, and he secured a referendum on scottish independence in 2014. let's discuss his career with

matthew laza former head of broadcast for the labour party , broadcast for the labour party, and aubrey allegretti, chief political correspondent for the times. i got to know alex salmond reasonably well in 2011, which was at the very height of his powers. i was making a documentary about him during the 2011 election, which , as i say, 2011 election, which, as i say, he won with an overall majority. under a system designed to stop any party achieving that, it was any party achieving that, it was a remarkable career. how do you assess it, aubrey? >> well, i mean , he obviously >> well, i mean, he obviously pushed scotland to the brink of independence and in the pursuit of ramping up what his sort of planned objective was up the agenda, he was very successful in that endeavour. obviously, ultimately, we know that ten years ago he came close. but ten percentage points separated? yes and no. and i suppose it's really been since that point that his sort of influence, his power has diminished and declined . but he has obviously declined. but he has obviously laid the ground for the snp to be able to remain in government

in scotland despite the difficulties he's faced with his predecessor, nicola sturgeon. >> matthews had a pretty torrid last ten years of his life following the referendum, and it's good to be reminded by aubrey, actually, that it was a ten point margin. i think some of the bulletins today have said that it was, you know, terribly close. it wasn't. no, it was it was a much bigger margin than brexit, which followed shortly afterwards. >> i mean, i remember the night of the referendum, i was working for the labour party. we were, you know, we thought it was going to be a lot closer than it was. but i also remember what that referendum unleashed in the on the clockwork orange, the glasgow subway, just before, on our way back from campaigning, we were kind of basically racially abused for being english. so, i mean, i think the problem with alex salmond obviously is a massive and towering political figure in scotland . but one of the issues scotland. but one of the issues is what he unleashed, and i don't think he always kept as close to rain as he might have done. on the forces that were unleashed, whether that sort of cultural nationalism that he liked to call it slipped over into being a more unpleasant nationalism. but, you know, clearly it's an incredible

impact to i mean, that election in 2011 to win a majority, as you say, in a system which was literally designed so that no party could ever win a majority, you know, it's not just one of the biggest achievements in scottish politics over the last 50 years. it's frankly one of the biggest political achievements in british politics for anybody to have achieved that. so, you know, he was a complex man, but he was clearly a very talented one. >> yes. on the point of his complexity, i don't think he was charismatic. i didn't find him charismatic, but he was very, very forceful. he was a he was a fighter. he was a very argumentative man. we were heanng argumentative man. we were hearing earlier on gb news that interviewers found him very difficult to deal with. i was quite surprised at the way that he rather rushed around after me, wanting to be liked. i was rather taken aback by this. do you have any thoughts on the sort of personality that it was that became so dominant in scottish politics, played such a role in uk politics? >> well, i imagine that the length of the sort of fight and the campaign that he endured going into parliament, when i

think there were three scottish national mps in 1987, all the way up to the sort of height of his power in 2011, really made him a sort of very argumentative and brittle figure. he would have never sort of got to that point if he hadn't kept the faith through those sort of long decades, and he was obviously strategic as well. he was instrumental in helping transform the snp and sort of relinquish its sort of tartan tories former image into reaching into more of the sort of labour heartlands in scotland. and so for those two reasons, obviously incredibly successful in getting to where he did, i think, matthew, if i may say this to you, i think one of the reasons he was so successful at the time was that labour politicians who came out of scotland and had a lot of talent came out of scotland. >> absolutely. they went down to england, they made their careers at westminster, and although he did serve in the westminster parliament, simon was clearly someone who was going to make his career in scotland. and i think that was a very damaging contrast at the time that there

was hardly a figure of consequence in the labour party who would stay in scotland to fight. absolutely. >> i mean, that was and he saw an opportunity, ironically, of course, because i think he preferred westminster to holyrood as a chamber because obviously it's more combative. and that suited his personality. but he spotted that the scottish talent liked to get the liked the sleeper. south and wanted to play the sleeper. south and wanted to play on the biggest stage. so robin cook and others, you know who . gordon. gordon brown. who. gordon. gordon brown. alistair. darling. alistair darling . yeah. we can. we can darling. yeah. we can. we can list. we can list them all with donald dewar. basically the only person who kind of wanted to make their career in scotland. and that career was obviously tragically cut short by his own premature death. so he absolutely spotted that opportunity that effectively. labour was creating a complacent power vacuum in scotland . and he power vacuum in scotland. and he exploited it brilliantly because, as you say , he i mean, because, as you say, he i mean, he could start an argument in an empty room. and what he used to love to do is to wind the labour party up and effectively what he did is he made the snp more of a threat even before they were

psychologically for the labour party. and it paid off. and you've got to respect him for that. >> we've been talking about alex salmond. i'm going to change the subject now. labour's been in office for 101 days. unlike the dalmatians of that number, their record has been splotchy. downing street has witnessed bitter infighting, which has resulted in the defenestration of sue gray, the chief of staff. sir keir starmer and cabinet colleagues have been exposed as being besotted with personal freebies, even while they impoverished pensioners by abolishing the winter fuel payments . one of the payments. one of the government's mps has quit the labour party in disgust. the administration continues to speak of its commitment to economic growth. but has that been helped by making public sector pay awards without agreements to improve productivity, by increasing the power of trade unions and by giving employees rights from the first day? what do we think, matthew? do we think that labour is achieving its agenda of trying to grow the economy from which everything else will follow? >> well, the problem with trying to grow the economy is it doesn't happen instantly. i

mean, what i've been struck by. and so i think they've laid some of the fundamentals, the planning reform, you know , et planning reform, you know, et cetera. those sort of big long term decisions , they've made the term decisions, they've made the right decision, the right music. and in some cases already started to do the right things. for example, angela rayner called in a big film studio project that she's probably going to approve that was previously going to kind of stuck big cultural industries, hugely important. but i was the ghost writer for blair's 100 ghost writer for blair's100 days by the late derek draper, which myself, tristram hunt, are now at the v&a and gloria de piero of this parish. and i were all paid a pittance by derek to write it. and what you don't have in these 100 days is we had, as we plotted through blair's first months in office, is you don't have the kind of clear, easy wins that people think are examples of change. oddly, for people on the sort of centre left, the more power to the unions. what labour would say is more power to workers. the fairness at work agenda, which was delivered last week, is probably something that people can see, you know, and clearly understand that it's controversial and nobody's going to agree with it. but that's a clear, you know, that's

something clear and different. and clear red water. what you don't have is all that low hanging fruit in 97 freedom of information, devolution to scotland and wales, all those things that were started in the first 100 days, which gave the appearance of a action but be a vision and we're slightly falling into track two production targets on the economy, which i worry about, you know with with keir quoting billions of investment here and billions of investment here and billions of investment there. billions doesn't mean anything. it's how you're feeling it on the ground that matters. >> and matthew, i put it to you to that the other thing that's lacking by comparison with the last time that labour started a new period of government is popularity. i mean, there was that absolute wave of popularity back in 1997. i remember it very distinctly, but it's not there now. how. >> now. >> no. and i mean, it was never going to be quite the same because it wasn't quite the same sort of generational cultural shift that you had after the 1987 election. but yes, i remember being on the phones when labour thought it was going to gain a by—election. in fact, i think there were two by elections that they hoped to gain in the few months, certainly after the 97 election. and at the moment somebody said to me, oh , we should get andy to me, oh, we should get andy burnham back. i said, we should

find him a seat. i said, where is where would you find a seat that was safe enough to get him in? and that's a pretty extraordinary start. so yes, i mean , nobody's going to disguise mean, nobody's going to disguise the fact that the government has got a big job on its hands. >> aubrey, what did you think about the list of measures i mentioned that i was implicitly arguing would actually counter the objective of growing the economy ? economy? >> i think the difficulty labour have got is that they've left this very sizeable vacuum over the last three months between announcing that there is a huge £22 billion fiscal black hole and then the budget itself, and into that sort of pause , all of into that sort of pause, all of the concerns about labour's start in government. and i actually think mel stride, who was talking earlier, made an interesting point about how businesses who are looking at the uk and preparing to gather here to at the investment summit tomorrow on monday, are slightly nervous that in about a fortnight's time they're going to be hit with corporation tax rises or an increase to national insurance for employers. so i think the difficulty they've left themselves is having this

big void into which all of the anger and frustrations about the government have been poured , government have been poured, with very little sort of definition left after that point, it will be easier to assess on a sort of more long term basis whether or not they're going to be successful in growing the economy. but ultimately, we're only getting a one year spending review. this is going to have to be something thatis is going to have to be something that is judged probably more better. next spring when we get the multiyear spending review. >> but giving more power to trade unions, giving the pay rises , allowing employees to rises, allowing employees to have rights on day one of their employment, can it be argued that those things help to improve economic growth? >> i suppose it can, but the devil will be in the detail and the government has been relatively successful in managing to kind of keep together roughly businesses and trade unions on this. and indeed the secretaries of state sort of advocating on their behalf. but the issue is that lots of these reforms won't come into force until 25, 26. and so it's during the course of those consultations that will probably get to see just how much sort of back—pedalling there is because of concerns that actually giving

more rights to employers, sorry, employees comes at the risk or the detriment of employers pulling out of the uk ? pulling out of the uk? >> matthew. is labour more incompetent by having a budget as late as the end of october? or are the conservatives more incompetent by not having a leader in place when that budget occurs? >> oh, i think it's about 5050 on that. i mean, labour would argue that it's rishi's to blame because he called the election in rather unusual for british political timetable in july, which meant that, you know , you which meant that, you know, you can't really do a budget in august. i personally think they should have done a budget in september and just, you know, try and shoehorn it in in the in the small time the parliament comes back before the party conferences, frankly, a budget being more important than the party conferences. so, you know, i think it is absolutely right. it's created a huge vacuum, and you've got this slightly odd thing of having an investment summit before asking people to invest billions before, you know, what the rules are that they're under, which they are going to be investing. so, you know, the what we saw last week with the departure of sue gray was important. but it's not it's not enough to say it's all about the grid. we need to see things

like the prime minister's performance has got to improve. i mean, for example, on this dp world row, which has now been diffused, but it could have been diffused, but it could have been diffused if he if rather than the prime minister saying it's not the view of the government saying i wouldn't have put it like that. now that's media training 101, you know, because obviously now he appears to the left in the party, not, frankly, the left of british opinion, not just the left of the labour party like he was being sort of sucking up to dp world and not supporting the workers. so it's about kind of fleet of foot ness, which we certainly have lacked over the last 100 days. and the prime minister needs to find some pretty quickly. >> aubrey, very briefly, the last word , the budget. i mean, last word, the budget. i mean, it could be a reset. also, of course, we know that many budgets come undone in the most horrific way. where's your betting ? betting? >> they certainly do, and i'm not sure it bodes well for the government to have sort of two resets so close together, and certainly so start so close to the start of coming into government. but yeah , budgets government. but yeah, budgets are rich pickings for journalists. i mean, they provide almost endless seams of

stories and they'll be cut so many different which ways. so there are a lot of bear traps. and obviously the biggest problem labour has is that some of the policies it wants to enact, it's now been found, may not generate enough revenue or indeed any revenue they might push people out of the country. so those are the sorts of difficult decisions they're going to have to balance. >> you just heard a journalist licking his chops with the budget to come very much, very good. very many thanks to matthew and aubrey. they're going to rejoin me in the next hour to discuss the ethics of political assassination. after this coming up break, we will be carelessly whispering with george michael's solo saxophonist, ed barker, who will explain how there can be harmony between the worlds of music and politics. news to me. i'll be back in three minutes. you're watching michael portillo and gb news, news channel

welcome back to sunday with michael portillo. ed barker, a talented saxophonist and clarinettist from london, has had a remarkable journey in the music industry, marked by significant achievements and an unusual crossover into the political sphere. having honed his musical skills from a young age, he played in both the national youth orchestra and the national youth orchestra and the national youth orchestra and the national youth jazz orchestra. in 2012, he became the solo saxophonist for pop legend george michael . his reputation george michael. his reputation in music opened doors in politics, where he's worked with various leading conservative members of parliament and played a role in a number of major campaigns. to tell us more about the harmonious relationship between music and politics, i'm delighted to be joined by ed barker. this is quite puzzling, actually. how does a how did a reputation in music get you into politics? >> it's a good question. it's probably a question i'm still wrestling with at the age of 40. how is it, how has it happened?

but somehow i've managed to do both. and i still enjoy doing them both at a, you know, as a as a high level, i think it's i think it's a simple thing of when you're in politics, you're known as the saxophone guy. and when you're in the saxophone music industry world, you're known as the weird conservative political guy. and so it's just something people can remember you by, regardless of how good you by, regardless of how good you are at either of those two things. i think it's just a device that people can kind of just latch on to, to remember you. >> it's the word weird, because i imagine that most people in the music industry are probably somewhat to the left. certainly all the ones that i've met are. i mean, i can't imagine you and george michael discussing tory politics with with approval or maybe i'm wrong about that. >> no, i didn't tend i don't tend to talk politics with people. kind of when i'm not in politics somehow is and whenever there are political disagreements, you know, people kind of i think gb news actually gets closest to kind of embodying the spirit. people are very kind of up for learning from each other's kind of experiences and views and not biting each other's heads off, but yeah, predominantly in the

music industry, i would say people are kind of the left, but there are things that we can bond over. and i think when the brexit years came that that changed a lot of things. and when some of these free speech issues have come along, that's changed things as well. and , you changed things as well. and, you know, i think the political landscape maybe has shifted and it's not so much left and right anymore. but yeah , broadly anymore. but yeah, broadly you're right. yeah. so it was you're right. yeah. so it was you know, there are a few frowns when they realised that i was working for a conservative mp while i was on shows with george michael. and, you know, when i've been in the wings of theatres and they've been kind of brexit related inquiries dunng of brexit related inquiries during the kind of heated moments of the brexit campaign , moments of the brexit campaign, strange moments. but people have just kind of got through it with a smile and seem to, and it seems to still be happening. >> tell me about your early career. you were playing with two orchestras, the national youth orchestra and the national youth orchestra and the national youth jazz orchestra. if i've got those two right, so you are equally you are equally happy with classical and jazz. >> yeah, i would say probably. i find, you know, the world of classical music and rachmaninoff is probably my biggest musical hero. i've had to resurrect one person. it would probably be him . person. it would probably be him. so yeah, national youth

orchestra, but i was on the saxophone. i actually auditioned on clarinet and they put me through to the final audition. and then they said, if you play the saxophone, can you can you bnng the saxophone, can you can you bring it along? and i didn't play bring it along? and i didn't play the saxophone. so i thought, well, maybe if i learn the saxophone quickly and cobble something together, they might just put me in on clarinet and then they rejected me on clarinet and put me in on lead saxophone after a four weeks of, of study. so i think that was kind of given me a message. and then the main reason i really wanted to move to london was just to play with niger national youth jazz orchestra and bill ashton's and mark armstrong's brilliant big band, and it really taught me everything kind of, you know, suddenly puts you together with the country's best and aspiring musicians, and you just learn from each other. and i only really got a job in to politics pay the rent so that i could just be in a, in that band. really. so, so kind of it was an accident, really getting into politics to begin with. i just wanted it so that i could be in london around the best musicians ihappened london around the best musicians i happened to be in belgium the other day discussing adolph sax. >> oh yeah, because i think he

invented the saxophone in in brussels, and it was put to me that, you know, he invented an instrument for which there wasn't a repertoire, and that repertoire comes long after his death. and it's mainly in the field of jazz, that saxophone. so did did the saxophone push you into jazz, do you think? >> i think i was always interested in jazz. i used to get told off at school for kind of swinging the quavers, as we say, when we were playing , you say, when we were playing, you know, classical pieces of music. so i think i always had a bit of an inspiration of, for some reason, i always wanted to be a bit rebellious because jazz is, you know , the it's the thing you know, the it's the thing that marks jazz out as unique is that marks jazz out as unique is that you pretty much making the thing up as you go along, whereas classical music is written out. but yeah, you're right, the tune that i played in the national youth orchestra, classical orchestra was gershwin, and he was really what most people think of as kind of jazz, maybe classical crossover. but no, it led me into the world of jazz. and then that then leads you, i think, quite naturally, into the world of p0p, naturally, into the world of pop, because really, jazz was just pop in its day. and so

there's that whole kind of crossover between jazz and pop as well. >> tell me about your greatest moment of success with george michael? >> oh, it was it was actually, i was more flattered to have been given the gig by the person that gave me the gig, rather than i mean, i was obviously flattered to be working with the best pop star of all time, but the recommendation recommendation was an idol of mine. it was a guy called nigel hitchcock who i'd written a book with, and he'd taught me everything he knew. and he was in the national youth jazz orchestra years before me. and, you know, when you get a call from him to do a gig for him, it's kind of the word of god, almost. and so but then playing with george michael, i mean, i didn't i didn't actually think because i was so in my jazz bubble at the time, i didn't really think too much about it. and then suddenly when he walked into that first rehearsal, it was it was shocking how good he was, actually, you know, this is this isn't a pop star. that was just a p0p isn't a pop star. that was just a pop star. and the musicality kind of came second. it was just even little things. like when we were rehearsing, he was facing the orchestra. you know, i think a real musician would do that.

and. and it was just note for note, even in rehearsal. it was just it was the rehearsal was really for us rather than for him. he knew what he was doing and it was just musically perfect. so i learnt a lot about that. and also seeing him, you know, make every single person in a stadium or an arena feel completely like they'd had their moment with him. he managed to involve all parts of the of such a big audience, and then doing the solo for him was, yeah, possibly the scariest moment of my life. so whenever i've been in political dramas and moments, nothing's really come close to kind of that feeling of dread every time that kind of moment happens. so . but no, a wonderful happens. so. but no, a wonderful moment. and i'll never forget it. >> those are beautiful tributes and rather briefly , because and rather briefly, because we're kind of running out of time. but it seems to me that music and politics are almost opposites, because politics is full of soloists and, and music has to be there has to be a conductor and people have to play conductor and people have to play together. so have you found that a difficult contrast ? that a difficult contrast? >> that's true. but i think

politics and music and maybe this is