shrunk since labour took power in july. flagging business confidence, a fall in private sector hiring and sluggish retail sales have all been blamed for the slump. does this mean more tax rises in the spring, or could growth be just around the corner.7 and should school teachers be allowed to work from home in the midst of a recruitment and retention crisis? the government is considering how to introduce more flexibility around teachers pay more flexibility around teachers pay and conditions. should teachers be offered time away from the classroom, or is this a recipe for falling standards of education? and as the reform party continues to attract new members, questions are being asked about the party's relationship with elon. musk. is the owner of x and tesla trying to buy uk politics? and will the government try to prevent the world's richest man donating money to reform? and it's christmas, a time for peace and goodwill to all. should we set aside political differences dunng aside political differences during time with friends and family? and should we even cut our politicians a bit of slack?

yvette cooper is certainly hoping so. and joining me tonight, i've got my panel, ben habib, former co deputy leader of reform uk, and tom buick, visiting professor of the university of staffordshire. but first your latest news headlines with sophia wenzler. >> miriam. thank you. good evening. it'sjust >> miriam. thank you. good evening. it's just gone 6:00. these are your headlines. the suspect accused of killing unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson has pleaded not guilty. luigi mangione is facing 11 charges, including first degree murder and terrorism. if convicted, the 26 year old could face life in prison without parole. in addition to the state's case, a federal case against mangione is running concurrently. one of the charges, murder through use of a firearm, would make him eligible for the death penalty if he's

convicted. however, his defence attorneys called the situation highly unusual, noting conflicting theories between the state and federal cases. morrisons has cut the price of items, including turkeys and champagne for all shoppers after assistance. glitch caused chaos, with loyalty discounts failing and christmas deliveries cancelled. customers reported their mastercard savings didn't apply at tills, and some deliveries or click and collect orders were running late on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. the supermarket's website also experienced outages. now sir keir starmer is heading abroad again over the new year after drawing criticism about his frequent overseas trips to various summits. the prime minister is enjoying his first christmas in the role and according to number 10, he'll be spending it with his family over the coming days. however, instead of doing so at downing street or their family home, the starmer's will head to the grace and favour country residence of

chequers in buckinghamshire after spending christmas day there. the prime minister and his family are going to head overseas. germany's right wing alternative fur deutschland party is holding a rally in front of the magdeburg cathedral, near the scene of the christmas market attack that killed five people and injured over 200. police have arrested a 50 year old saudi doctor, identified by local media as talib a, who had lived in germany since 2006. afd is the second strongest party at present, polling at about 18 to 20% of the vote, or 10 to 15 points behind the centre right christian democratic union and its bavarian sister party. and king charles will deliver this year's christmas message from the fitzrovia chapel, a former hospital chapel in central london. it's the first time in over a decade the speech isn't recorded at a royal residence, with the king choosing the location to highlight healthcare workers and foster unity between

faiths. the ornate 19th century chapel was once part of the middlesex hospital, and now hosts exhibitions and community events. this year's message comes as the king continues treatment following a cancer diagnosis earlier in 2023. and you can watch the king's speech on gb news tv and radio on christmas day at 3:00. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to miriam 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. >> welcome to dewbs& co with me, miriam cates, and joining me until 7:00. i've got my panel, ben habib, who is the former co deputy leader of reform uk, and tom buick, a visiting professor at the university of staffordshire. and as always, please do let us know what you

think about the topics we're discussing in today's show. get your views in @gbnews dot com forward slash your c. now we're all trying to get into the festive mood, but the uk's stalling economy is definitely becoming a dampener on the christmas spirit. the latest gdp figures released this morning show that the uk economy flatlined in the third quarter of this year. so between july and september the economy stood still at 0% growth. this was revised down from a previous estimate of 0.1% growth, and this was down from 0.5% growth in quarter two. now the chief secretary to the treasury, darren jones, has been commenting on those latest figures. >> so look, this labour government is going into 2025 with absolute resolve to work with absolute resolve to work with investors, wealth creators and workers across the country to stimulate economic growth and improve living standards for workers across the country. this is our number one mission as a government, and we start from a disappointing set of economic statistics as we end 2024. but

that's why we're going to fight every day, to make sure that we improve the lives of working people across this country. >> so will labour's measures taken in the budget stimulate growth and improve living standards across the country, or is growth going to be a long time in coming? ben, what do you think? >> i think, you know, easy question, easy question. you don't grow an economy by taxing it and overregulating it. and since labour came to power, they've we talk about taxation, but actually their regulations have sprouted all over the place. if you read the king's speech, it's a plethora of business constraining regulations. and of course, the last budget was extremely constraining on business. in fact, they targeted largely the private sector, the employment, the national insurance on on employers. national insurance wasn't the increase wasn't levied on the public sector workers. it was targeted entirely on the private sector. and if you believe, as i do correctly, in my view, that it's the private sector that

generates the wealth of this country, and if you go after it with excessive taxation, as government after government has done, leaving us now with the highest tax burden as a proportion of gdp since world war ii, you will eventually kill the goose that lays the golden egg. and we saw an immediate impact on the british economy from her budget. hiring went through the floor and she kept saying this is not going to impact workers. this is going to impact workers. this is going to impact businesses. the first thing that happened was an impact on workers. and of course, if people are laid off, you lose. the exchequer loses the revenue that it thought it was going to get, and it picks up a burden because it's got to pay up a burden because it's got to pay more in benefits. actually, i think i know you want to go to tom, but i just i think the position is much worse than us going into recession. we're undoubtedly going into a recession, but that recession is going to come with a weakening pound, imported inflation, inflation anyway, high interest rates and a downward spiral,

which will make it difficult for the government to finance its own needs. i think we are facing, in 6 to 9 months time, a sovereign debt crisis for the united kingdom. >> well, on that, tom. i mean, the government certainly inherited an economy that was up to its neck in debt. it insists that it had to raise taxes. but do you think labour are regretting raising those taxes mainly on the private sector, as ben has just said, it's worth just reminding viewers and listeners what that inheritance was. >> i mean, the national debt went up to £2 trillion. we borrowed three, £300 billion, actually, during the pandemic. i think there's still an open debate about whether that was wise. you know, how many lockdowns did we have? 3 or 4 lockdowns. so, you know, i think in future years historians will look back and i think they'll look back and i think they'll look at two massive strategic errors actually made by western finance ministers. one, i think, was the response to the global financial crisis in 2008, 2009. george osborne tried to cut his

way to prosperity back in 2010. i don't think the conservatives then have made it any easier by then, in a sense, trying to borrow their way to prosperity. i mean, i agree with ben on the sort of 1509 00:09:14,336 --> 00:09