simon jack was watching. >> london's financial district was brought to a standstill this morning as td the guildhall, a place of commerce for 600 years were closed for some very urgent people. inside the engine room there are a couple hundred of the world's most powerful business people with hundreds of billions to invest. the idea is the thing to spend as much in the u.k. as possible. the precincts maybe agent but the -- maybe agent but the message is modern. we are laser focused on growth. that seemed like news to the former boss of google. >> i was shocked when labor became strongly in favor of growth should >> wealth creation is number one mission of a labor government should >> >> his promise to these highrollers was a new era of stability after four prime ministers and six chancellors in years. >> we have a golden opportunity to use our -- to end the culture of chop and change. the policy churn, the sticking past a politics that makes it so hard for esther's. >> that seemed to go down well. >> stability for investors and predictability is always important for us as an investor.

here is our business editor simon jack. >> tomorrow my heading out for a shift at a local care home.sn't know how many shifts she will get from week to week as she is on a zero hours contract which makes life and her finances hard to manage. >> i don't know how many hours i will get each month, so i have to be careful with what i'm spending. i just never know how to plan. i don't know if i'm going to get hours next month or not. >> that is the kind of job insecurity the government wants to address with a raft of new employment rights. at the moment there are one million workers on zero hours contracts. under new plans, there will be a right to a guaranteed hours contract based on average hours worked over a 12 week period, but a right to opt out for those who prefer. currently nine million people cannot bring a claim because they have been employed for two years. new protections offer protection from dismissal from day one but subject to a nine-month probation period during which it will be easier to dismiss employees only if they prove unsuitable for the job. right now, employees ar

simon jack, bbc news. so tomorrow is the big day.e for us now. so what else can we expect to see in the budget? this is going to be a budget of big changes. where will it sit in the history of chancellors and tax raising budgetserase all of them from last half—century. read labour, blue for conservatives. rising taxes above the line and a smaller number of tax—cutting ones below. look were each election falls and you see a pattern of big tax raising budgets in the first year or two after them. let's take the biggest of those historic budgets. you will see norman lamont is in here, denis healey, rishi sunak and his mid—pandemic tax rises. barbara rachael reeves sit among or her male predecessors? if the briefings are correct this is where we think are budget will stand, not far from the biggest tax rise in recent memory, expected to be about £40 billion, about half of that will be in the form of a rise in employer national insurance stop the rest could come from all these measures here because of that does seem like a huge amount and

simon jack, bbc news.— faisal will be watching proceedings closely and is here for us now. so what else can we expect to see in the budget? this is going to be a budget of big change. one for the history books. so where will it sit in the past half century of chancellors and their tax raising budgets? here is all of them — red for labour, blue for conservative with tax rising budgets above the line and a smaller number of tax cutting ones below. now have a look at this — where each general election falls, and there's a pattern of big tax rising budgets in the first year or two after an election. getting the bad news out of the way early on. now, let's take the biggest of those historic tax rising budgets — that's as a proportion of the whole economy. you'll see norman lamont in there. denis healey a couple of times and rishi sunak�*s mid—pandemic tax rise. but where will rachel reeves�* budget sit among all her male predecessors? if the briefings are correct, this is where we think her budget will stand. n

simon jack, bbc news.—later debts. money wellness — one of the uk's biggest debt support agencies — say they've seen three times the number of people needing help with this kind of debt in the last year. the typical person asking for help now has more than two buy—now—pay—later debts — that's up from last year. and the average debt is around £330 — but even smaller levels of debt can be tricky to manage, as our cost of living correspondent colletta smith has been finding out. itjust takes its toll, especially on my family, as well, because i don't ever see them, hardly. buying now and paying later was normalfor morgan. he thought spreading the cost of a few expensive things would help, but it didn't because he fell behind on his repayments. i had to pull a loan out to pay klarna off. but then i had to pay that loan off and i had to pull another loan off and itjust kept going on and on and on. so i was just spiralling myself into a bigger black hole. so he switched to night shifts for a higher wage, despera

simon jack, bbc news.t any increase would be well and truly eroded if labour announces tax rises on working people. do stay with us here on bbc news. hello. for most of us, it's been quite a cloudy, gloomy day, but relatively mild. in eastern scotland, where the sun came out in aberdeen, the temperature reached 16 celsius, five degrees above the average, and about that further south in cardiff and london, despite the cloud. now the outlook for the next few days — very little change. it is going to stay mainly dry and mild. now we say dry, it'll still be quite damp in the morning, especially where the mist forms and you get thicker drizzle from thick, low—grade cloud. now not much real rainfall on the way. in fact, if we look at the rainfall accumulation across parts of europe, you can see how that rainfall pattern follows where the jet stream moves and brings weather fronts. we're in the middle of an area of high pressure, hence little appreciable rain on the way. now here it is, that high pressure over us

simon jack, bbc news.ast year. the inquest, which is expected to last three days, will examine what might have been done to prevent her death. nick garnett has more. brianna ghey leaves home and takes a bus to meet up with friends on a saturday afternoon. two 15—year—olds — scarlettjenkinson and her friend eddie ratcliffe, marked here by the letters x and y — are waiting for her. the three head off to a country park in warrington. in a quiet area of the park, they attack brianna — a frenzied, brutal, sadistic attack, stabbing her 28 times before the two teenagers run off, leaving her to die alone. i sort ofjoked and said that because if brianna doesn't come home soon, i'll probably have to ring the police. got to the front door and the front door was open, and it was two policemen stood in the house and they said that they'd found a body. and i remember the first thing that i said to him was that i knew — i knew that something was going to happen. you are under arrest. it didn't take long for the police to

simon jack, bbc news. what will today's budget mean for public services? will it end austerity?erify. we have been hearing in the run—up to the budget about complaints from cabinet ministers about being forced to accept more spending cuts in their day—to—day budgets. we've been hearing in the run—up to the budget about complaints from cabinet ministers about being forced to accept more spending cuts in their day—to—day budgets. yet rachel reeves also says she will end austerity, which is taken to mean no more cuts in departments' budgets. so how do we reconcile these things, which seem to be somewhat contradictory? well, let's start with the context, first of all. this shows the department's day—to—day budgets, adjusted for inflation since 2010. so health is 38% higher. health has been a protected department. but look at transport — no higher today than it was 1a years ago. and justice, well, that's 14% lower. and communities and housing still almost 60% lower. these are so—called unprotected departments. we will have to wait to see the detail of their new spending settlements t

simon jack, bbc news.given a rare public speech outlining the complex set of threats to uk national security. he said there had been a marked rise in state—backed threats from russia and iran, who he said were using organised criminals to do their work for them in britain. 0ur security correspondent frank gardnerjoins us now. tell us more about what he has been saying. i tell us more about what he has been sa inc. . , tell us more about what he has been sa inc. ., ., , tell us more about what he has been sa in. ., ., , ., ., ,, saying. i was amongst “ournalists watchinu saying. i was amongst “ournalists watching at the h saying. i was amongst journalists watching at the counterterrorism| watching at the counterterrorism operation centre, a rare public appearance by ken mccallum, who normally inhabits the shadows because he is the boss of m15, the domestic intelligence agency. he accused russia, particularly russia's military intelligence arm, the same people accused of carrying out the salisbury poisonings

speaking to our business editor simon jack at the conference, chancellor rachel reeves once again refused to rule out imposing national insurance contributions on employer pension contributions — a direct tax rise on business. we were clear in our manifesto that it we were clear in our manifesto thatitis we were clear in our manifesto that it is working people that bore the burden of higher taxes under the last government so we made that commitment not to increase taxes on working people. increase taxes on working eo - le. �* ., increase taxes on working --eole. ., . , people. but not necessarily their employers? _ people. but not necessarily their employers? those - people. but not necessarily l their employers? those were people. but not necessarily - their employers? those were the commitments — their employers? those were the commitments we _ their employers? those were the commitments we made - their employers? those were the commitments we made in - their employers? those were the commitments we made in our. commitments we made in our manifesto. further detail on what we will be doi

simon jack, bbc news.orted a new wave of israeli air strikes on southern beirutjust hours after israel's army ordered civilians to evacuate the area. our correspondent jonathan head is in beirut. jonathan, what's the latest? good morning. a third night where we have had repeated air strikes in the capital. we cannot count, keep count of the ones in the rest of the country, most in south lebanon where hezbollah is strong. six warnings given and six powerful explosions before midnight. we have yet to see the damage in those areas but it follows a day in which people in this city were able to see the effects of these incredible israeli bombs for themselves. dramatic video when we saw the bombs coming down. striking close to what were multistorey residential buildings and seeing the building is literally pancake down into rubble. that is what israel is doing wherever it believes there is hezbollah infrastructure in the basement. often there are warnings and people can get out, often they are not enough. 18 peo

simon jack, bbc news. former husband is on trial for drugging herand inviting more than 50 men to rape her, has taken the stand for the first time. the 72—year—old arrived at court earlier today, to give evidence against him and the other men on trial. she said, "i want all women who have been raped to say, "madame pelicot did it, i can too." i don't want them to be ashamed any longer. madame pelicot�*s former husband is charged with recruiting men online to attack his wife while she was under the effect of heavy sedatives and sleeping pills, that he administered to her in secret for a decade. all the men on trial deny the accusations. addressing herformer husband as mr pelicot, and saying she could no longer bear to use his first name, she said, "i am trying to understand how this man, who to me was perfect, could have done this. how can he have betrayed me at this point? how could he let these strangers into my bedroom? the trial continues. two manchester arena attack survivors have won a landmark case a