we go. labour's tanking the economy while sending your money to malawi. next. >> good evening. i'm will hollis with your top stories at 9:00. nothing of a sensitive nature was discussed between the duke of york and a suspected chinese spy. according to the duke's office. a statement says the duke of york followed advice from his majesty's government and ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised. the man, known only as h6, was said to be a close confidant of the prince and reportedly invited to the duke's birthday. in other news, the prime minister has said the world should be cautious about what comes next in syria.

speaking during a virtual meeting of the g7, sir keir starmer told allies while welcoming the syrian regime's collapse a new government should be credible and inclusive for all syrians. for viewers watching on television, these pictures are from damascus, where syrians are celebrating the first friday night since the collapse of the regime back to the uk. the economy shrank for the uk. the economy shrank for the second month in a row in october, as concerns about the budget continue to weigh on confidence. the office for national statistics said output fell 0.1% , following the 0.1% fell 0.1%, following the 0.1% decline recorded for the previous month. the figures showed zero growth in powerhouse services sectors, with manufacturing and construction declining at a pace of 0.6% and o.4%, declining at a pace of 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively. the ons says activity had stalled or declined, with pubs, restaurants

and retail among sectors reporting weak months. chancellor rachel reeves said she was disappointed by the data, remaining with the government. the government has unveiled a clean power action plan to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030. number 10 claims the move will protect households from any future energy spikes, boost growth and tackle the climate crisis. meanwhile, some government backed researchers have warned secretary of state for energy and climate change ed miliband's plans could actually increase energy bills well earlier. gb news spoke to the energy minister, michael shanks. >> reforming the planning system to make sure we build things faster than we are at the moment is important, but we're not removing the right of communities to have a voice in that process. what we're saying is at the moment, the planning process is often just drown in paperwork for years and years, which doesn't help communities, but also doesn't get really essential infrastructure built.

>> the widow of former england rugby player tom voice says he's she's overwhelmed by the support received since he went missing. his wife anna said absolutely devastated and heartbroken doesn't even describe how we feel. the 43 year old's body was recovered yesterday and his identity confirmed after a five day search of the river, and the player's car was swept away while trying to cross a ford in northumberland during storm darrah. and your last one for now. police are asking the pubuc now. police are asking the public for help after vandals targeted christmas decorations in east anglia. captured on cctv. at least five incidents of people cutting wires on christmas lights have been reported. police say the mindless vandalism by the so—called suffolk scrooge has brought hurt and financial costs

to young and old in the area. well, those are your latest headunes well, those are your latest headlines for now. at 9:00, let's get you back to patrick christys for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code or go to gbnews.com/alerts. >> today, it was revealed that britain is on the brink of recession. the economy shrank again. just remember that we had net migration of nearly a million people. and yet britain got poorer as the news of our imminent recession broke. what were labour up to.7 well, we had anneliese dodds off to drive growth in malawi and zambia. how about a bit of growth here, minister? she put this out. we're going to pay for 7.5 million children in malawi to have a better education right here at home. we've got schools

building portacabin villages after they had to evacuate because the school was built using crumbling concrete. and children in surrey might have to be homeschooled now because labour priced their parents out of private schools and the state sector can't cope. maybe we could help our own kids, minister, but it's par for the course for labour. starmer announced £84 million in additional foreign aid almost as soon as he became pm. your energy bills are going up again and pensioners are freezing to death in their own homes. but labouris death in their own homes. but labour is going to spend £ii.6 labour is going to spend £11.6 billion abroad in overseas climate aid. this comes after eco fanatic ed miliband literally celebrated the loss of jobs in port talbot. after we shut our last coke plant. labour has just sent £11 million to syria. they then decided not to remove the new syrian regime from our terror watch list. so they have just handed £11 million to terrorists, haven't

they? we calculated that around 36,000 pensioners could have been kept warm this winter, had labour chosen to prioritise them instead. talking of giving money to terrorists, david lammy has just announced £13 million is being sent to unrwa. unrwa had to fire nine staff in august after an internal probe found that they may have been involved in the hamas terror attacks on israel. starmer sent £4.75 million to italy to help them tackle the migrant crisis, yet he refuses to take us out of the echr to help deport foreign criminals from britain. labour has committed to sending £3 billion a year, every single yean billion a year, every single year, for as long as it takes to zelenskyy in ukraine. meanwhile, they're set to make cuts to our own armed forces. rachel reeves decided to hammer british farmers with a death tax in a bid to raise around £500 million a year. she also decided to give around £500 million to foreign farmers so we can help them out instead. illegal immigrants are now being housed in disused care

homes again. could we not be looking after our own a bit more here? oh and starmer. yep, there here? oh and starmer. yep, there he is. he decided to start discussions about reparations to commonwealth countries that could cost us billions of pounds. look, my point is this our economy is tanking. people feel poorer, a recession is looming. we have people in dire need from cradle to grave in this country. and all this labour government cares about is sending money abroad and growing other people's economies. as thoughts of my panel, we've got former conservative mp anna firth. we've also got the director of the centre for migration and economic prosperity, stephen walsh. and of course, we've got the former labour party adviser, matthew torbitt. and i'll start with you and little bit tone deaf, i think, to be helping to grow the economies of malawi and zambia at the moment. >> it's completely and utterly outrageous. i mean, this is just typical, isn't it, of a government headed up by a prime minister who has openly said he prefers to be in davos. you

know, this government is more concerned about spending money all over the place in foreign countries. i mean, the particular the particular outrage here is that we over a quarter of under—fives in some depnved quarter of under—fives in some deprived areas of great britain are not reaching the educational standards that they need to be. and yet we have got money to be educating children in malawi. it's completely outrageous. >> i mean, how can they actually justify that? seriously? so on the day our economy shrunk again, looming recession, children in the surrey area, they're saying that they're basically going to have to be home schooled because they can't go to private school anymore because the parents can't afford it. and there is shock, horror, no space in the state sector, crumbling schools left, right and centre. you know, i mean, class size is way above the 30 mark. and there we are out there in malawi doing the old saviour bit. >> i'm finding it hard to understand what is the logic about it. initially, one gets the argument that they say this is to help soft power of government in these particular countries. but then you look at

the numbers that the labour party are using. what did you just say? 50, 11 million to syria? to whom? to what? well, when the european union has spent ,40.5 billion since the pandemic started, have they? which power is more powerful? that that amount of money. and secondly, when you look at the way that you influence these countries, we know over, if you look at history, that this way of paying money to foreign countries actually has distorting effects. the food programme in the 1950s to the 60s destroyed the agricultural markets in in pakistan and india by flooding them with cheap agricultural projects. it creates disillusionment in countries and a reliance on foreign entities. how many ambassadors from nigeria and o