think that's cede clearly. and i think that's one of the most interesting findings in this study, is that those who are of african descent or of caribbean origin are actually quite positive about britain's history in abolishing the slave trade . and these are the slave trade. and these are points that very, very rarely get made because they're so overshadowed by unrelenting negativity. and when you have somebody like david lammy as our foreign secretary ranting in parliament about reparations, you know, these people do not represent the majority of ethnic minority groups in this country, clearly. and, you know, if unfortunately, we don't have a conservative government or we don't have a non—labour government, but you would hope that these statistics would be something that can be cited in the future , and hopefully more the future, and hopefully more studies can be done to back this up. i think this is actually what people's daily experience is. when they speak to people in their lives, and that clashes and contrasts horribly with what we're being told in the media.

>> these discussions get dominated. don't they, by activists and people who are extreme on the issues when most people are pretty relaxed about that type of thing. but emma webb, thank you very much indeed, writer and broadcaster. we'll speak again. thank you very much. >> this is good afternoon britain on gb news. lots more coming up today, including an interview with a cabinet minister after this . minister after this. >> good afternoon. the top stories, the prime minister says he will do everything in his power to galvanise economic growth. speaking at the international investment summit earlier today, sir keir starmer said the government will make sure that every regulator in the country takes growth as seriously as businesses. the government has today unveiled investment deals worth billions of pounds in al, life sciences and infrastructure. it comes as and infrastructure. it comes as a row over criticism of p&o ferries that reportedly jeopardised a £1 billion investment by its owner, dp world , has been smoothed over. world, has been smoothed over. the government aims to show it's making progress on its mission to deliver economic growth after marking 100 days in office for

teenage idf soldiers have been killed and more than 60 wounded in a drone strike on an army base in northern israel. it's the deadliest attack on an israeli base since israel stepped up attacks on hezbollah in lebanon last month . lebanese in lebanon last month. lebanese terror group hezbollah have claimed responsibility for the attack. this comes as the un peacekeeping mission says israeli tanks have forcibly entered its base in southern lebanon. the health ministry there says 51 people were killed by israeli strikes across the country yesterday in gaza, hamas run authorities say an israeli attack on a school used as a shelter killed 22 people yesterday, including reportedly 15 children and the perfume bottle carrying the russian nerve agent that fatally poisoned a british woman contained enough poison to kill thousands of people. the inquiry into her death has been told today. 44 year old mother of three, dawn sturgess, was pronounced dead at salisbury district hospital in july 2018.

the novichok poisonings inquiry looked at the. is going to look at whether she died after she was caught in the crossfire of an illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt. she collapsed at her partner charley rowley's home on june 30th of 2018 after coming into contact with that perfume bottle containing the substance. it followed the attempted murder of former spy sergei skripal and his daughter yulia and then police officer nick bailey, who were poisoned in salisbury of march that year. were poisoned in salisbury of march that year . and those are march that year. and those are the latest gb news headlines. for now i'm tatiana sanchez. more from me in half 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 slash

>> good afternoon britain. it's

36 minutes past midday now. the prime minister has made his case for investment into the uk today when addressing business leaders at his first international investment summit in london. >> yes, he cited britain's amazing education sector as one of the many reasons to invest in this country. >> yes, interesting . really. it >> yes, interesting. really. it was a switch in tone from the prime minister because for months we've heard sort of the, the, the narrative that we must tighten our belts, that actually things were much worse than the government really thought when they arrived here. you know , the they arrived here. you know, the prisons are overflowing. there's no money. all these infrastructure projects have to be cancelled, all the rest of it falling down. and he sounded like sort of the caricature of philip hammond back when he was chancellor. he was called eeyore in the press because he was so dour and down. well, it seems that the prime minister has switched from being eeyore and is now almost boris johnsonian in his boosterism. listen to

this. this is what he said. make no mistake, this is a great moment to back britain. we have an amazing education system, the largest tech sector in europe . i largest tech sector in europe. i life sciences, clean energy, creative industries . i mean, it creative industries. i mean, it sounded like something from bofis sounded like something from boris johnson. >> yes, perhaps without the references to the classics or peppa pig to the roman empire or to peppa pig. yes. but yes, lots of lots of very good, positive sounding noises coming from this investment summit. i just wonder, as you say, how it fits with the narrative. up until now from the new government that everything is going to get worse before it gets better, how we're going to have to tighten our belts, how, you know, we're all predicting that there will be a tax hikes coming down the line. so how does it fit.7 is this the big reset. >> is this a new tone from the government. is it all going to be sunny positivity and things can only get better from here on out. well there's a new team in downing street a new chief of staff perhaps that's changed the messaging somewhat ,

staff perhaps that's changed the messaging somewhat, but of course education was one of those key elements that the prime minister mentioned as a reason to invest in britain a success story for britain. one of the reasons why these big american firms, these big international investors, should come to the uk because of our educated workforce in those particular industries that really matter, those growth industries. >> okay. well, i believe we now have the education secretary, bridget phillipson, on the line from the summit. thank you very much indeed . bridget, can we much indeed. bridget, can we start with that sort of change of tone that we're hearing from the prime minister? all this talk of how fantastic this country is to invest in, including the education sector, including the education sector, including our brilliant schools and universities. bridget phillipson, you haven't always been so positive about our country's record on education. >> our country is a great place to come and do business and

today's investment investment summit is all about that. >> making clear that we're open to the world and we welcome new investment. >> and there's been a number of big announcements today demonstrating our commitment and business kind of confidence in what we're delivering when it comes to education. >> the question that you ask our universities for example, are world leading, both in terms of research, technology . and it's research, technology. and it's the reason that lots of people from around the world want to come and study here. and our schools, our teachers, our staff do an amazing job. there are still lots of big challenges. i'm under no illusions about that. and skills is one area where we need to do things differently. as a country, i've heard that today from businesses that i've met with and that's why we're setting up skills england to make sure that across government, we're driving that work around skills to create more apprenticeships and to make sure that we're working with businesses to deliver the skills and the well—paid jobs that we need. you do see the point about this shift in tone. >> it was only in september of this year when you knew in the job as education secretary said , job as education secretary said, things are getting worse in education. look at the raw

numbers. don't look at the rankings. we're down in reading, down in maths, down in science and now you're saying that education is brilliant in this country. and that's one of the reasons people should come and invest in it . invest in it. >> oh, it's undeniably true that we are going backwards when it comes to those pisa scores that you identify. and we've got to turn that around. we also see a growing gap. yes, we're falling backwards. we're just falling backwards. we're just falling backwards less quickly than some other countries . other countries. >> that's not a record to be proud of, i'm afraid, and i'm determined to turn that around. >> but alongside that, we see it. >> unfortunately, we're moving in