>> hello! good evening. >> hello! good evening. >> it's me, jacob rees—mogg on state of the nation tonight. the prime minister smiled and waved the rich and powerful at today's investment summit in london. determined to make britain sound like an attractive place to do business. >> meanwhile, labour is piling on regulations, making it harder for businesses to thrive while cosying up to the eu and hinting at a reset with brussels and the chancellor, rachel reeves, seems to be planning to increase employer national insurance contributions. a tax on jobs to raise money. how can they claim to support growth while burdening the very employers who create jobs .7

create jobs.7 >> should david lammy hand over billions of pounds of your money to caribbean nations in reparation for slavery? one canbbean reparation for slavery? one caribbean leader thinks so and is also calling for a summit to work through a reparatory justice system for slavery. a science secretary says labour will handle these calls sensitively, but surely we should just say no. taylor swift gate takes another sinister turn as it's claimed. the attorney general, lord hermer, was drafted to in approve pop star taylor swift's taxpayer funded that's you vip blue light escort in the summer. downing street has previously insisted the decision was solely made by the metropolitan police, but an intervention by a law officer of the crown now makes this a constitutional matter, and is cincinnatus about to make a comeback? >> boris johnson gives his strongest hint yet that he may return to frontline politics, lauding his own record in office and raging at keir starmer over chagos and freebie gate. is it

time to bring back boris? state of the nation starts now . of the nation starts now. >> i'll also be joined by my most rambunctious panel author and broadcaster amy nicole turner, and daily telegraph columnist and historian tim stanley. as ever, let me know your views. it's a crucial part of the programme. email me @gbnews. com but now it's your favourite part of the day. the news bulletin with mark white. >> good evening. the main headunes >> good evening. the main headlines from the gb news centre. the us musician music mogul sean diddy combs is facing fresh allegations of sexual assault , fresh allegations of sexual assault, including an offence against a 16 year old boy. just against a 16 year old boy. just a warning of some flashing images now the new wave of allegations filed today accuse him of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting the

teenage boy. more than 100 alleged victims are now believed to be in the process of launching lawsuits against the musician . the israeli prime musician. the israeli prime minister has accused the terror group hezbollah of using un peacekeeper positions in lebanon for cover to launch deadly attacks against israel. benjamin netanyahu said the drone attack that killed four idf soldiers and wounded dozens of others on sunday was launched from the cover of a un position. he urged un peacekeepers to move out of harm's way after several were injured in recent days. and he said israel had the right to defend itself against hezbollah in the north of lebanon. today, at least 18 people were killed in an airstrike on the town of aitou. lebanese officials have blamed israel for the attack, which would signal the first major strike into the christian

majority northern region since the current conflict began . the the current conflict began. the chancellor has defended labour's decision to wait three months before delivering the new government's budget. rachel reeves spoke to gb news at the launch of labour's international investment summit in london, amid promises of billions of pounds of extra investment from a number of us tech companies. the chancellor said the government has been busy laying the ground for her first budget. >> my first week i called in a number of planning decisions. i ended the moratorium on onshore wind . we set up the process of wind. we set up the process of creating a national wealth fund, and we're announcing that that is now up and running today. but it's important that we get our budget right, and that means taking time to go through the proper processes . proper processes. >> meanwhile, the summit brought confirmation that stansted airport is to undergo a massive

transformation. that's part of a £1.1 billion investment in the airport. with a five year construction programme, will expand the main terminal building by a third. now it will also see the existing building refurbished to bring it up to standard. the development also includes the creation of 5000 new jobs as part of the construction and redevelopment process. it will also deliver a 14 megawatt solar farm on site. it will help power the airport's infrastructure . nasa has infrastructure. nasa has successfully launched a probe to for search life on one of jupher for search life on one of jupiter's moons. the europa cuppen jupiter's moons. the europa clipper, launched from florida's kennedy space centre after it was delayed for several days because of hurricane milton. no

damage was caused to the facility. the rocket safely took off earlier today. now it's bound on a five and a half year journey to jupiter. and then, of course, that moon europa. it'll then begin scanning deep below then begin scanning deep below the moon's icy crust, not looking directly for alien life , looking directly for alien life, but looking for the signs of organic compounds in the moon's deep subsurface ocean that might well point to life on this jovian moon. absolutely fascinating insight into the potential for life out there in our solar system. we wish the europa clipper the very best of luck on that mammoth five and a half year voyage to the biggest planet in our solar system, jupiter . well, there you are. jupiter. well, there you are. you're right up to date with the

latest news. we are back with more for you 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 . slash alerts. >> welcome back. a congregation of the world's most sought after enterprises took place in london today, as the prime minister spoke to over £40 billion worth of potential investment , of potential investment, promising to make britain the place in which to invest and do business. here's what he said. >> in times like this, economic growth is vital , as it has growth is vital, as it has always been. if we are to steer our way through a great period of insecurity and change and on to calmer waters, because when working people benefit from that

growth, when every community enjoys the fruits of wealth creation , it stops a country creation, it stops a country turning in on itself and against the world. >> and remarkably for a regulatory socialist, the reverend starmer sounded almost farage like as he talked about the virtues of a bonfire of bureaucracy in the hope of removing obstacles to growth . removing obstacles to growth. >> we will rip up the bureaucracy that blocks investment. we will march through the institutions and make sure that every regulator in this country, especially our economic and competition regulators, take growth as seriously as this room does . seriously as this room does. >> however, it doesn't seem all those attending were convinced by the pm's flirtation with the free market. the chief executive of google, eric schmidt, did not hold back when holding an in—conversation event with the prime minister. >> i was shocked when labour became strongly in favour of growth . growth. >> wealth creation is the number

one mission of a labour government . government. >> did you hear that ? >> did you hear that? >> did you hear that? >> well, not a great start for investment summit when a potential investor doesn't even believe you care about growth. the labour government's claims it's all about growth and investment. but their actions tell a very different story. they're talking about investment, yet at the same time, they're itching to slap more regulations and costs on employers, making it harder to run businesses efficiently and making people less likely to take people on to create jobs. last week saw proposals to make it harder to employ people and this week the talk is of making it more expensive by extending employers national insurance contributions. and then there's this obsession with the eu. they want a so—called reset with brussels , with david lammy brussels, with david lammy meeting eu officials earlier today, it's clear they're more interested in placating european bureaucrats than standing up for british interests. the reset is essentially trying to reverse the brexit gains and, crucially, fall back into the high cost,

low growth eu's regulatory clutches. as for national insurance contributions, rachel reeves talks with a forked tongue. the manifesto clearly said, quote, we will not raise the rates of national insurance, unquote. even paul johnson, the director of the institute of fiscal studies and by no means a tory, said to increase them, would be a straightforward breach of labour's promise. it also has important economic consequences if it increases the cost of employment without boosting productivity . this boosting productivity. this leads to less job creation and slower growth . to leak these slower growth. to leak these proposals during the investment summit just shows how incontinent this government's efforts at communications are. let's look at what reeves said to gb news christopher hope on the budget. >> your manifesto says we will not increase national insurance, but you're looking at increasing employers national insurance. aren't you breaking a manifesto pledge with that? >> well, you've read our manifesto and in black and white it said we will not increase taxes on working people. and that was national insurance income tax and vat, not

employers. that was not in the manifesto. >> that's absolutely not true, is it? it said we will not raise the rates of national insurance. so i think miss reeves should go back to school and learn to read once again, because labour isn't interested in real growth or indeedin interested in real growth or indeed in telling the truth. it's more focused on expanding government controls, re—engaging with the eu and making it harder for businesses to thrive. and it's the rest of us who will suffer. as ever, let me know what you think. mel. margaret gb news com. but i'm now joined by an enormously successful businessman, the founder of carphone warehouse and the chairman of the national portrait gallery, david ross. david, thank you for coming in. >> good evening. good evening jacob. and it's very nice to see you. >> you're a businessman. what would you like to see that would increase growth? >> well , firstly, i think it's >> well, firstly, i think it's fair to say that a lot of businesses have been very heartened by the sort of messages that were coming out of the government today, and they clearly going down a route of encouraging businesses to believe that britain is open for

business and that they want inward investment. and i to listen to it, you'd almost have heard you'd almost have thought that could have been david cameron and george osborne, because that was the sort of agenda they proposed. the issue is , with the upcoming budget, is, with the upcoming budget, the government is going to have some stark choices because ultimately business needs a low tax, low regulatory environment in order that it can get on and do business. and as you pointed out, grow productivity , making out, grow productivity, making employment more expensive , employment more expensive, making employment less flexible and more complicated does not help businesses grow the economy, employ more people. and fundamentally, it doesn't help drive productivity within the economy . driving productivity economy. driving productivity involves higher skilled jobs. getting more people more people doing more productive jobs in to order improve our overall gross domestic product per head. simply growing gross domestic product in a growing population environment doesn't help us grow

gross domestic product per head, which are fundamentally undermines everybody's financial well—being. so i think between now and the end of october, i think the prime minister and the chancellor have got some real decisions to make about whether they believe growth is their number one, number one point on the to do list or whether employment rights and taxation is the number one thing on the to do list. and i very much hope that it's growth and productivity, because with growth and productivity will come better employment rights and more high quality jobs. >> and if you were to be positive from the government's point of view, it's done quite well. it's got google here. it's got lots of major investments. goldman sachs people representing £40 billion worth of potential investment. it's managed to kiss and make up with p&o and get them to attend the conference. is that an achievement? is that the sort of thing that the conservatives would have been able to do, or is it a new government that's drawing this interest? >> look, i think that the

previous government was pretty ambitious in terms of bringing new, new investment into the united kingdom, but that, in a way, was their job because that was their mantra. i think what's impressive here is that a labour government has made a clear statement that it wants to attract inward investment, and it has gone and approached all of the sort of people that you would hope to be coming in, you know, now. infrastructure. clearly, there's a huge amount of latent capital available in the infrastructure funds and in infrastructure generally in to order make that money. want to come here, though, you have to have a very clear modus operandi and understanding between the investors and the government as to what is an appropriate level of return, what is an appropriate employer employee relationship? so there'll still be some work to do to get that money from being in a fund to being invested in the uk. >> and in some sense, we're at a bit of a crossroads now, aren't we? because you've got one part of the government saying we're really keen to get investment

and you've got a budget looming and you've got a budget looming and you've got employment proposals that are anti—growth and that they will have to decide between now and the 30th of october which way they're going to go. >> i absolutely agree with you on that particular point. i think we've got two slightly different narratives coming out. one is we're pro—growth, pro—investment, and the other is we're very pro making employment rights more restrictive and making it more expensive to employ people. and sometime between now and the 30th of october, i think some very tough decisions are going to be going to have to be made. >> how important is the employment issue? because we've got broadly full employment. we've been bringing in lots of immigrants to fill vacancies. is it actually beneficial to make employment a little bit harder because it cools the employment market? and to your point, it will stop attracting people from overseas who tend to get low wage jobs. it might help boost gdp per capita. >> i'm not sure i would look at it in that sense. if i look at

one of the greatest hiring experiences i've had in my life, which was to recruit people in, we recruited a lot of young graduates into carphone warehouse, gave them great training, paid them salaries well in excess of what they might have earned anywhere else . might have earned anywhere else. that wasn't because of restricted employment practices. that was because of the freedoms that were available in the in the early 90s and late 90s to recruit young people, give them great opportunities , pay them great opportunities, pay them fairly and give them opportunities way beyond any whatever any government regulation would have said. so my own view is that we should be encouraging these high quality jobs to come into this marketplace. and the reality is, as an international employer, you can seek to put your business in ireland where you get a very low regulation and low tax regime. you can put it in the united kingdom or you can put it elsewhere in europe . put it elsewhere in europe. capital and employment are mobile. quality of talent, quality and capital are mobile .

quality and capital are mobile. and these people will make investments wherever they see the most flexible and appropriate regime through which they can make money. but the idea that employers are not committed to giving the best deal possible to their workforce, i think is not fair and undermines the value of uk employers and investors will look to their net return, won't they? >> so that's after any taxes. so every time you put taxes up, companies have to get a better price. otherwise it's not worth investing in a particular country. >> i mean, whether you're putting up national insurance employers, national insurance, or whether you're putting up capital gains tax, the reality is that capital requires a return. it's a fact of life, that capital requires a return, and the market will seek those economies in which it can find the most predictable and most appropriate rate of return. and i don't think the idea that capital has a rate of return is at odds with wanting to recruit and retain the best employees possible. you know , in order to

possible. you know, in order to make a return, we need great people and we need to treat them fairly, and we need to train them and equip them for for the them and equip them for for the the workplace. but at the same time , if you invest a pound to time, if you invest a pound to get £2.50. if it goes back to the government and that's a five year investment, that becomes quite a limited investment for a number of the funds that are thinking about these, sort of that are looking at these sort of investments . of investments. >> and this ties in as a final thought, with the promise of stability, because investors want to know that if they invest today, it will be the same tax regime in five years time and they won't get windfall tax and sudden increases in taxation. that distort their investment objectives. >> i think in terms of stability, one of the great things that the government is should be able to do is make long term commitments on tax rates. it makes investments so much easier, and it also rates. it makes investments so much e