Sky News Breakfast: Protests against harsh lockdown rules intensify in China

Good morning everyone, it's seven o'clock, you're welcome to join us on the

breakfast

show here on Sky News this Monday morning in mainland China. The largest Senate protest since the President Square massacre in 1989. Boiling fury and resentment over the government's zero cover. Politics spills into the streets of cities across the country. One of the triggers was the images of crowds at the World Cup without masks showing how the rest of the world has overcome the

lockdown

and restrictions. Also this morning reporting here that The Army could be drafted into frontline positions in hospitals to help support a strike-hit NHS speaking to business secretary Grant Chaps and unions later this hour, it's Monday 28 November.

Sky News witnesses more arrests this morning as the Chinese Communist Party's attempt to contain the biggest challenge to its authority in more than a generation. The arrests occurred here in Shanghai, where people have been openly critical of the government. Many have told us that they want their freedoms back. They are preparing to send in the army. Military personnel could drive ambulances. and fill frontline positions in hospitals during strikes, this week we will find out if thousands of paramedics will go on strike by joining the cleaning staff. Porters and pharmacy technicians. Good morning from Qatar, where we will have the latest, as England and Wales are in the final. preparations ahead of his crucial match tomorrow out of the jungle and back home former health secretary Matt Hancock faces questions over his political future after finishing third in I'm a Celebrity hello friends, not that bad, unfortunately you all will have to walk to the place it's fall it's what it is I don't know arrested on his way to the dance how the police caught 20 people in black ties in the back of a horse box and a Jurassic ride a replica of what could have been the Largest animal ever created Walking the Earth will be on display at the Natural History Museum in the morning.

All the protesters in Shanghai have chanted with the Chinese Communist Party and free the people. Anger and resentment over the country's zero coverage policy has sparked the largest protest since the 1980s in cities. Across China this morning there are more people on the streets than there are more arrests witnessed by our own team. Let's get more. Helena is waiting for us in Shanghai. What's going on? Helena. Good morning abroad. Good morning Kate. Well, if the environment is good. last night in the city it was emotional and angry the atmosphere in the city this morning is very, very tense, in fact, we are broadcasting to you from quite a few streets away from where the main site of the

protests

was last night and the night before.

We were there this morning and frankly it's not safe for us to live stream from there right now the moment we picked up the camera the police were pointed at us immediately after us. There have been many arrests in recent days. I actually witnessed the police dragging a person away from that kind of hot spot. If you like, we weren't quite sure what he had done, maybe he just took too long and several foreign journalists were also arrested. In the last few days there was a very, very tense atmosphere, but it is worth saying that there were young people who went to the intersection where people had been gathering for the last few days, they were not making it obvious that they were there to protest, but I think it was It was pretty clear to everyone that that was the reason they had gone there, but what has been seen in China over the last few days is truly extraordinary, incredibly rare, and these are the scenes we witnessed last night in Shanghai as night fell in Shanghai.

Gathered in hundreds of angry ordinary people facing off against the authorities remained largely silent. Words may be dangerous here, but there was a power in them. The fact that their very presence was withheld from them spoke volumes. The roads are completely blocked here by police, but that hasn't stopped hundreds. of other people gathered here holding signs, pieces of white paper that are becoming a real symbol of the process. It's hard to express here how incredibly unusual these scenes are in China. Their anger is a fire on the other side of this vast country, supposedly covered

rules

.

Trapped those who were within ten lost their lives the straw that broke the camel's back it seems that for many in a pressure cooker without a lid in the crowd we met this group of young friends brimming with passion and Incredibly Brave with me people spontaneously applauded her for speaking and chanting freed the people from there. a feeling that people are really angry is like that, um, really annoying, it's not that we are really angry because there are other countries, our interview was suddenly interrupted by this, the police charged in arresting everyone who could run and come back, but They did not disperse.

What makes

protests

like the one we saw last night so extraordinary is not only the candor with which people are calling for things like the fall of the government, something almost unheard of here, but also the fact that similar protests have been springing up in multiple cities simultaneously and that hasn't happened for many decades in this country and I can't overstate how extremely risky it was for every single person that went to that protest last night, they were taking enormous personal risks to be there and the fact that they came out in such numbers and with such bravery it was truly extraordinary, so all eyes on what happens next, whether there will be repeats of protests both here in Shanghai tonight and in other cities, it is not yet clear what seems likely in this city is that if there are more Gatherings, they will be suppressed much more quickly and potentially much more aggressively, that is how it feels now, but the Chinese Communist Party now faces a huge dilemma: what to do, whether to crack down militarily, whether to offer any concessions on the possibility of withdrawing some of those covert

rules

that make people so tired and that pose risks to them, not only of a big covert outbreak, which they want to avoid, but also of sending a message to people that the protests they function as something they would want too. to avoid it in the next 24 48 hours or so, I think it's really critical for this country that is already experiencing a historic period.

It is good for now. Thank you so much. In fact, at home, the Army could be hired to drive ambulances and replace the functions of the Front Line Hospital. under emergency plans to deal with possible attacks this winter, let's talk more to Sadia, who is waiting for us at St Thomas' Hospital across the river here in central London this morning, so it hasn't been announced yet. confirmed, but it is suggested that the army could get involved. If it is necessary good morning foreigners k no, it has not been confirmed and there has not been a formal request from the health department to the Minister of Defense, but it is a contingency plan, so the Army is analyzing contingency plans and the government.

It is also looking at contingency plans and one of those things is a protocol called Maca, which means military aid for civil authorities, and all of that is aimed at ensuring that the NHS continues to provide services if the strike is as bad as NHS leaders fear. health. Now it could be anyone who remembers the last time the strikers went by ambulance. Ambulance drivers went on strike from late 1989 to early 1990. The May record saw the Army, Navy and even the Royal Air Force get involved in trying to transport patients while those drivers were on strike. and of course we have seen the Army in more recent days during the pandemic as they set up mobile testing units for covert testing and handed out PPE, but it is one thing for the Army to deploy during a pandemic and quite another to see soldiers in the streets during normal times, but this just goes to show the kind of expectation about the strains the NHS could be under this winter and it's not just ambulance drivers, of course, who will go on strike last week, the Royal College of Nursing. announced that its members across England, Wales and Northern Ireland will go on strike on December 15 and 20.

We know that hospital cleaners. Porters. Pharmacy technicians. Midwives. Young doctors. All of them are considering the possibility of going on strike. The government is looking for ways to try to convince these workers. who is aware of the difficult conditions in which they work and some of the things they are considering are things like free coffee, free

breakfast

, free parking, a very controversial topic until now, all these things it seems that they are analyzing to try to convince. workers who do care, but new pay packages are not being considered because the treasury is convinced that will only fuel inflation.

Okay, thank you very much, let's talk about it in more detail. Kevin Ryan, head of public services at the Trades Union Congress, is with us. Now hello, good to see you, thank you for joining us on the show, sit down with you, Armed Forces personnel might be working in our hospitals. Well, I guess it doesn't sit well with me that the hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers are feeling so stretched and exhausted in terms of pay and let's face it over the last 10 or 12 years that the only thing they feel they can do to try to The government listens to them is to take industrial action, I mean new years and years of having the agreements of their peers below inflation with them so desperate that they are taking industrial action, you already know, it is a real plague for this government, really, we have reached this stage. 90 salary increases were said.

It is what nurses actually want. Can anyone justify a 19% increase in their salary? Well, at the moment that reflects the fact that there have been years of below-inflation pay rises and, in real terms, nurses are about £5,000 a year worse off than they are. They were in 2010, so the logic of you, if you will, of that peer claim is there for everyone to see nurses, healthcare workers, ambulance drivers and the whole list of workers who are reporters, just uh uh , just described. Are they all that big? worse in real terms than that type of claim by payers simply returns them to the salary levels that in real terms they were experiencing in 2010 it does not seem right to me that we praise our health service so much as to applaud them through the pandemic and yet , in real terms the situation is so worse that they feel the only cost of action they can bear is to push back and demand a really significant wage increase through a strike, yes, but I mean, the country doesn't have any money Right now he's got it right.

The government would like you to believe this is an economic choice, but it is a political choice if they taxed capital gains and inheritance tax at the same rate as income tax and there was enough money to pay. Each and every healthcare worker gets that pay raise, but they choose to tax workers and not tax wealth, so these are political decisions the government is making. There are resources available that they just don't choose to take to the table um the government would say in response to that I guess there's a fine line between taxing the richest and taxing them as wealth creators to the extent that they decide to go and take their finances elsewhere part of this global economy. a balance absolutely no one is going to turn a mother back, but the fact is that shareholder dividends have increased three times faster than wages in the economy, so there is a balance to be struck, but the balance right now It seems very much favor uh wealth uh in the country and a lot of uh harm uh and ham uh working people that we all depend on and the balance has been so bad I say that the workers feel so desperate that they are taking the measures that they are taking cooking a TUC afford to pay their stuff an extra 19 I guess well, it's not the same scenario that our stuff hasn't had uh years and years of inflation below inflation uh wage increases, so we have a good relationship with our unions and we, uh, you We know we calculate what we can afford to reproduce our stuff and we pay them well, public sector workers, literally, working in the food banks because they've been so stretched for so many years, yeah, but I guess So my question is: could you afford it? paying 19 extra is what was asked for this year or what is being done is that the business is in such a state that you can't actually do that at the moment, well, what the TUC and all our unions have never said. is that you know that employers should not pay unaffordable wage increases where private sector employers can afford to pay wage increases that aredoing in many cases and therefore should and the difference between, if you like, the private sector and organizations like the TUC and the public. sector it is the government's decisions that are impacting those wages and the government is choosing, they are choosing not to tax capital wealth and they are choosing to tax workers and keep workers on the hook, that is a political choice, it is different than uh to which the private sector organizations that had to minestrone sky from the government yesterday said that 19 is unaffordable so what you are saying you say that is not the case and the NHS can afford to pay nurses 19 more this year, I'm saying that the government is making policy decisions to, you know, favor wealth in this country and put pressure on workers if the government were to introduce capital gains and inheritance taxes at the same rate as the income tax.

It will be very difficult to pay the inflation-busting nurses and parents. Would you think it's affordable for the NHS this year to pay 19 given where we are? Well, I'm not in negotiations with the NHS Empire. here representing the TUC today and who in turn represents the unions and what I'm telling you is that if the government had a fairer tax system, the NHS could absolutely afford to pay workers, yes, but I mean we've just seen the autumn budget we're not going to get another autumn statement or We probably won't get anything until at least the spring so given where we are are you saying the NHS can still afford to pay 19 nurses as we speak And if they don't receive it, will they leave? going on strike it seems like the British public are caught between a rock and a hard place, well the British public are absolutely caught between a rock and a hard place, the people who can move that stone or move that difficult place, either government making different options on taxes uh this strike vote with the ambulance workers of England and Wales and it's we expect later in the week the results of that, how do you expect it to go well from what I hear, the anger that is at the other side? the Health Service in all areas of education and many public services and parts of the private sector economy is that people feel they have no choice but to band together to try to oppose the pay arrangements they have in place, so I would expect that balance was in favor of industrial action and it's a really sad situation where workers feel so bad that they have to take that action and do you think military personnel can do as good a job as the ambulance man ? and women, well, I doubt it and to be honest, I mean you know these professionals have been working so hard in the industry and so well trained for so long, you know, there's life in extremity coverage too. place throughout the Health Service, of course, but no one would expect the Army to do the same quality of work as professional paramedics and ambulance staff, so it must be accepted that in that case patients' lives will be put at risk. at risk, as I said.

Our unions have life and limb coverage. Agreements established throughout the Health Service. No one wants to do this to harm patient care. You know that everyone I have come across in the NHS is an incredibly committed professional. and they feel so desperate that they have to take this action, but there is life and Loom coverage and people will obviously be very aware of the impact and risk of the action they are taking, okay, it's good to talk. to you, thank you for taking the time to join us this morning, thank you, I am waiting to find out what is going to happen as far as the ambulance service is concerned, also the nurses on strike, the postman on strike, the railway workers are on strike at nine in the morning. union leaders joined Thursday morning to answer your questions as the country faces a wave of strikes not seen in a generation.

You can tweet me at Cape early with your questions. These questions can be asked in writing if you prefer. Send us a short video and we'll also have an email address you can send it to, so Thursday at nine o'clock ask the union leaders. Do you have any questions for unions? Do you support their action or feel it will impact your ability to do your daily job, let us know what you think, tweet me directly at K Burley, use the hashtag cabley or you can email us and I will send you that email address. in the fullness of time, within moments he was joined by the business secretary, who is Grant Chaps, of course, he also spoke to the former Brexit secretary, David Davis, as he calls on the prime minister to bring in emergency legislation to help reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel on Small Boats and the shadow business secretary of the Labor Party, who is Jonathan Reynolds, will be with me shortly after eight o'clock to speak to Grant Sharps about this morning.

Hello gentlemen, thank you for joining us on the program, let's start with the Union. In closing, how do you feel about the possibility of the military being brought in to fill the void if ambulance workers go on strike? Yes, I saw that story. I don't think that is correct, other than to say that the government always looks at contingency and plans, but there are no immediate plans to do so and in fact the NHS has quite well-versed planning for all types of disruption, of course, ideally, I would love to see those strikes. pervert um I don't think anyone wants to see strikes in our NHS, it hurts everyone and benefits no one.

Okay, our nurse deserves a pay rise of 19. Well, we follow, it's worth saying that we follow the NHS pay review body when it comes to uh. nurses, what I think is a £1,400 pay rise this year, is on top of three per cent last year, I think, when inflation was lower and there was a lot of frost elsewhere, but you know, I'll leave that to you del to the experts on this um and I think the main message for everyone is and we don't want to see strikes in our NHS, you know we'll rely on it and um you know we want to see it run normally, the guy that's there now, doing his previous job Mark Harper, the transport secretary, is saying we can't afford a 10x pay rise, an inflation-busting pay rise for anyone, would you agree with that?

Yeah, I mean, we've seen how this works before, um, I mean, you have to go back several decades, but there's high inflation, if you then feed high inflation with high deals, um, you end up in a spiral that never ends and that's what happened in the 1970s, we are very determined not to be in that situation now. it won't benefit anyone um and you know we all know the reason for this we all understand that Putin invaded Ukraine he made energy prices go up he made inflation go up uh we shouldn't go in, but we shouldn't chase that inflation otherwise we won't get it the system that within a year we will have seen it fall to half the current level according to the independent budget responsibility officer, we want that to happen because inflation is truly the evil that we must all defeat, but for the benefit of the entire society, Yes, although you know that the unions do not agree with you and are beginning to align with this government.

You certainly weren't particularly committed to transport unions when you were transport secretary. Jake Berry, the former chairman of the Conservative party, said that yesterday. It was a big mistake on his part and his successor is now having conversations with Mick Lynch and the like. In retrospect, do you think you should have committed to the Union sooner and we wouldn't have been in this position? Of course, the unions were constantly saying uh, we have to talk, although the real discussion must be between the employer and the unions themselves and, as has been shown, in fact, the last two transport secretaries (I was transport secretary ago three years) both have spoken to the unions.

This doesn't seem to stop them from announcing a whole new set of strikes, so it rather demonstrates the point we've all been making, including myself and the current Transport Secretary, that the only way to resolve these strikes is through the unions. and management, um, the rail operators, the rail network, to discuss these things, and rather, it's a lie, the idea that if we just sat down and talked, this would all be over, as the unions have been claiming That's simply not true. because they are still on strike, yes, on the contrary, if you had sat down and talked to them, maybe you would not be in this position, well, why would it be like that? um we're still in that position with the last couple, why is your why? is the trans transport secretary present saying he will sit down and talk to them now and you just didn't want to entertain them, they said because the only resolution for this is between management and the so it shouldn't be chatting with them, but I mean, it's not that you shouldn't do it and in fact I had spoken to Mick Lynch in the past, he was the head of the rmt, it just doesn't seem to resolve it one way or another and I can prove that.

That point because the last two transportation secretaries have talked to them. I had a situation where I allowed the unions and management, who are the only people who can resolve this, to speak directly. Actually, it turns out that it doesn't matter which way. If you ignore this in the union, you seem absolutely determined to cause maximum disruption to the working people of this country. It's time for them to stop bragging and you know, fix this. Fortunately, in reality, when it comes to railways, there are many. of modernizations that could be carried out, many of them that could help pay for the increase, but they don't want to modernize, they want to stay stuck in the 1970s and before instead of modernizing the railway and that is a great shame. because it is costing all the passengers a lot because of that in the transitions tell me about what is happening in China, obviously you have seen the images during the night, great stability, their biggest protest since Shannon Square, is what we are saying here in Sky News this morning.

Does that mean instability for us as a nation? Well, we're watching very carefully what's happening there. It is a reminder. I think many of us will have forgotten because we haven't been in

lockdown

for over a year. I guess, but actually it's still happening there and it's a reminder that the way we got out of the situation was with the mass vaccination started here in the UK with the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, with the UK being the first to vaccinate and, therefore, the first important one. economy to come out of lockdown, they didn't follow that approach in China and said they had gone for zero covid, um, still in the days when we'll remember it when we're locked down here and people are clearly getting impatient.

Um, I, uh, you know, I'm watching with concern because I think it's very important to the issue of stability, um, for example, vaccines are the way forward to allow societies to unlock, yes, but are they? How worried are we about this instability? I mean, I know. that the boss is going to speak at the Guild Hall tonight and he's going to talk about solid pragmatism and that's what we have to do to take on countries like China and Russia. I wonder how that solid pragmatism really works, when we are seeing protesters and accredited journalists being arrested and beaten.

Well, there can be absolutely no excuse for journalists who are simply covering the ongoing trial for being beaten by the police. I know it's a considerable concern, but regarding The Wider. problem, you know, can you imagine if we would have been locked down for another year if we hadn't acted so quickly and managed to mass vaccinate people in this country? When I see those photos, it kind of takes you back to the worst. It's been a couple of years since lockdown and people are clearly getting quite fed up with it, but in terms of our attitudes towards China, it will be that solid pragmatism that will always say that China is a reality, but we always need to, you know, remind ourselves that they don't.

They manage the same system of democracy in which we are lucky to live. Tell me about your energy saving campaign that you are launching today. Is this the same one Liz trusts? She said we were. It's not going to go well, all I know is about the campaign I'm launching, which is a billion pounds to help people get better at money, but is it okay? This is billions on top of the 6.6 billion that has been spent before, so this money is for people who have not been able to benefit from the previous plans and we will help hundreds of thousands of households, but in addition I also announce that we will help better inform people about how they can save energy.

By the way, one of the tips is something that I have been able to use at home, it is called boiler flow and it is actually in the boiler where you can lower thetemperature, which is often set at 75 degrees, for example for 60 degrees, this is not your thermostat, it is in the boiler itself and can potentially save you a lot of money on your mg costs each year, so these are actually tips simple ones like this one that we will announce and there are 18 million pounds. campaign to support that too, lots of practical help to physically improve people's homes and also advice to make sure people can save money by being more efficient in homes, onshore wind energy, where are you on that at the moment? lots and lots of onshore wind energy in this country we have the most offshore wind energy in the world of any country in the world um and uh you know I think offshore energy has the potential to really produce.

I'm sure we already have plenty of onshore wind power. and we have more, there will be more over time, but particularly when communities are in favor, that is the key test for onshore wind to provide any benefit to a community at a local level and that has always been a principle for us for a long time. a lot of time. It looks like Simon Clark, the former leveling up secretary, Michael Gove, who is now the leveling up secretary, eh, but they both support imposing the government's hand on onshore wind and Simon Clark says they are five MPs away from forcing the government to do what they want.

I don't recognize it in those terms at all, but Simon Clark, um, has introduced an amendment which I haven't studied all the ramifications of yet, but it actually essentially says exactly what I told him, which is that local people should have a very active opinion in this, which in fact is a government policy. There are always different ways to skin a cat so to speak but we will look closely at what is proposed but it looks like the government might be backing down on this not exactly what we have been saying all along Rishi said the other week that when it happens on land it has to happen with the local um against, he says he said he was against staying on the coast when he said that earlier during the summer I think you're being too black and white with this I've always said yes, I pushed him absolutely and he said he was against it, he said he had spoken the day before and he said he was against Shawan.

So, I've always said it and, in fact, he's always said that when onshore wind happens, it has to happen with local consent. What's being proposed is something that would ensure local incentives to say: I haven't studied all the ramifications. that in terms of planning changes uh but presenting it as kind of massive golfers is completely false you know we need and I'll talk about this later in the week. I just talked to you about measures to reduce energy use and we also need to make sure we reduce more energy. Okay, I'm wondering if I could ask you two questions real quick.

I know that you have to flee at the time when you were Minister of the Interior. You were Minister of the Interior for six days. I think I'm right in saying, um, I heard that David Davis is writing to the Prime Minister to say that anyone from safe countries like Albania should summarily reject his request, do you agree? So what I would say is: I, you know, I. I have looked at this issue in some detail having briefly been Home Secretary, where countries are not uh, where people's lives are calmer and clearly and there is no case for asylum and then clearly that needs to be addressed quickly. and efficient and that's what I would say on that topic.

I'm so sorry, but I actually have one of your rival stations calling. It's okay, and I need to calm down. I think we're out of time. Okay, we have 12 minutes with you. That means we've done 12 minutes and four seconds, so let me ask you in another 10 seconds Matt Hancock, should I be able to come back with the Conservative whip now? Look, I don't think you should have gone to the jungle in the first place and you know it's often said that politics is or entertainment for ugly people. He should be back here with us ugly people in Parliament, doing the job for his constituents and that's what I think he should have always done. funny, you're actually quite iffy gentlemen, it's a pleasure to talk to you, as always, thank you very much for joining us, thank you, thank you, top stories for you this morning and there have been clashes and arrests in Shanghai during unprecedented protests. across China against the country's covid restrictions, hear there Mr Chaps say that as a member of the government he is keeping an eye on that, the business secretary says the only way to resolve Stripes is for the unions to talk directly to management , but described inflation as an evil we must all defeat and get out of the jungle and return home former Health Secretary Matt Hancock faces questions about his political future after finishing third in I'm a Celebrity Tamara is here thoughts this morning morning good morning , days Kay Well, Richie sees Knox facing several rebellions from all sides within his own party and I think we have an indication from Grant Chaps, the business secretary, that he may be preparing to bow to a rebellion over onshore wind farms .

I remember very well when you spoke to you during the leadership campaign you said you didn't think we needed more onshore wind farms you plan to relax the ban imposed by David Cameron I remember there was a big outcry David Cameron said we should restrict onshore wind power it's a plan to relax that it was wrong and he wasn't going to go ahead, that was the difference between him and Liz Truss now some Conservatives including Boris Johnson, Liz is confident that other former cabinet ministers who are now causing trouble on the back benches are trying. to bring back onshore wind they say it's good for growth, good for the environment and good for local energy and I think Grant says I think we're all trying to achieve the same thing, make sure local people are happy with This seems to open. the path towards a compromise and with which he will soon have to withdraw some laws related to the construction of more housing because many conservatives were angry about it.

You can see that he faces so many difficult battles with the match of him. Is it going to be avoided? another and therefore how much of what the machine told us in the summer that it was going to do is actually going to happen uh yeah, let's wait and see too um I mean obviously we're being a little flippant about Matt Hancock, but it's there a very real possibility that he will not be able to stand as a Conservative MP in the next election there is a deadline of December 5 that's right, how did he get through the morning?

I was talking about Matt Hancock with a frog on his head um so he came third last night who would have predicted that from the start if the whip of course had been removed? um she'll need to get it back first of all that would be the first battle now that Nadine Dory is back uh 10 years ago so when she went on the show she got the whip when she came back so that will be her first battle and the Suggestions in the papers this morning that he is looking to leave politics slapped by a spokesman for Matt Hancock.

I can tell you they say that. He is not certain that he will leave politics and he is already communicating with public relations firms and they say that a spokesperson told us that he has no intention of resigning or walking away and that he has not had any conversations with any public relations firms and as for confirmation on whether he wants to run in the next elections the reason why we have seen so many conservatives in recent days say that they do not want to run is because December 5 is when they have to decide and some of them are already taking their seats. affected by changes in the limit, so the exact seat they were in may not exist in the same form.

I think Matt Hancock's constituency is one of those, so we'll be watching this space on that, but they say he has no intention of retiring. now continuing until the next election ok for now tomorrow thanks let's take a look at the morning papers if we start with this morning's financial times starting with protests in Shanghai as police struggle to disperse large crowds In a growing wave of discontent over China's zero-tolerance Covid policies there is an image of the protest on the front page of the Times, but the paper lays out plans to bring in army personnel to help with the strikes as a strike looms.

NHS. The business secretary says he has no knowledge of that. The Guardians say Brexit has worsened doctor shortages at the NHS, leading to more than 4,000 European doctors deciding not to work in the UK, and son claims there have been secret talks to remove Matt Hancock from politics and show business, which was foolish on the part of his team. this morning according to tomorrow to the World Cup in Qatar now where there have been more protests and Germany still hasn't won a game although you know, to be fair, last night they played quite well and were saved from defeat against Spain thanks to that late goal. but the Germans are currently bottom of their group and will need to win their final match to have any hope of progressing to the knockout stages. a Group F showdown to progress rather than reach the last 16 England and Wales will hold their final training sessions before the two teams meet tomorrow night in one of sporting's oldest rivalries. uh Alistair supporting us in uh Doha, it's the game that everyone here in the UK is waiting to see Alistair good morning good morning yes, I'm sure it will split households in the UK and it will be watched by millions at home, it will be watched by Thousands of Welsh and English fans who are here in Doha is also a crucial match, without a doubt for the Welsh they have to beat England and hope that the results in the other match between the United States and Iran are favorable.

It's an uphill challenge for Wales, but there are no injury concerns. We know there will be press conferences later for both teams and they hope that with a good degree of support behind them in the stadium and the fact that they know it is a World Cup and we have seen a number of surprises so far, their La hope is that they can do the same against England as they did with England again. They are training today. There is a bit of pressure on Gareth Bale to make some changes. After that draw against the United States when England were booed off the field.

The England manager says he is not worried that the group stages rarely go smoothly, but Harry Kane has a minor knock on his ankles so there could be a tempting nation to rest him for the latter stages. England ratings understand that it is not absolutely guaranteed, but things. They have to go very badly for them not to qualify and the other is Phil Foden, who a lot of people want to see come into the team to add a bit of spark to the team and that could be the case with England. sitting in a good position at the top of the pack Gareth Southgate decides to bring in some new faces tomorrow okay for now thanks looking at some of the other headlines today now riots broke out in several Belgian and Dutch cities after Morocco beat Belgium At that party we mentioned a moment ago police arrested a dozen people in Brussels and detained eight more in the northern city of Antwerp.

Two police officers were injured when fireworks and glass were thrown at them in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. A landslide killed at least 14 people attending a funeral in Cameroon, local officials say the service was held on a football field in the country's capital, one of Africa's wettest cities, it was carried out held a vigil for the six people killed in a mass shooting and a Walmart store in Virginia last week, local Congressman Robert Cortez Scott said more needs to be done to solve America's problems with gun crime. fire. Chesapeake now joins a list of too many communities forced to endure the unbearable now that we know we can do better.

Another country suffers from gun violence like the United States, so we must stand up and do something about it. Please have expressed their despair at the deaths of two more teenagers from knife crime after another weekend of violence in the capital. Kern Solanki and Charlie Bartolo, 16 years old. were found stabbing in south east London yesterday police say their deaths are linked and in a separate case one man was shot in south London and another died after a street fight Emma hasmore foreigner a steady stream of teenagers came to cry by laying flowers at the site of another fatal stabbing in the capital, just a mile from this estate in Thamesmead, police stood guard at the scene of a second murder, this time in Abbey Wood, boys aged just 16 years died of starvation within minutes of each other, colleagues fromhomicides are investigating and are treating the two murders as related.

I can assure everyone affected by these murders that expert detectives will work tirelessly to uncover what happened and provide answers to the young victims and families. The 999 calls started coming in around ten minutes past five on Saturday. Paramedics that afternoon attempted to save the boy's life, but both were pronounced dead in the street. Police named them as Kiani Solanki, who was murdered in Thamesmead, and Charlie Bartolo. By mid-afternoon, dozens of people had gathered near the site in Abbey Wood. to remember another young life lost they licked candles and placed them next to the flowers and released balloons into the sky for both communities it has been an unbearable shock ambulance they try to do the best they can and I think unfortunately they have to lose the child but then it is very sad and since then all the people in the community will be mourning the child.

The deaths come in another weekend of violence. London figures from the Metropolitan Police show violent knife crime rose by 15 in October compared to the previous month. Anne-Marie's cousins ​​are local Abby Wood councillors, two 16 year olds, her babies, two 16 year olds, think the police want to hear from anyone who has seen a dark SUV or 4x4 type vehicle with silver bars on the ceiling anywhere in the days before. teenagers stabbed as their families become the last left to mourn an unbearable loss in an epidemic of violence Emma Birchley Sky News South East London now returning to the protests that have taken place in cities across China over repeated lockdowns of covid and the strict restrictions of the country. joined Now by Victor go, he is a businessman and commentator who previously worked as an English interpreter for former Chinese leader dengia ping hello boss, thank you for joining us on the show this morning, what is your interpretation of what is happening right now?

Is it exhaustion? Frustration Firstly, it is very rare for many cities in China to witness demonstrations almost at the same time, secondly, the protests largely focus on the dynamic zero coffee policy that China has practiced for the last three years. I would say that China is in the transition period, moving from a strict quarantine, etc. To a more flexible paradigm, in the future our original goal is to minimize deaths and infections. I now believe that we must pursue two goals: minimizing deaths and infections, on the one hand, but also ensuring that people's daily lives and work processes will be less affected or disrupted by the policies now coveted.

I think the protesters are demanding that they get complete freedom. They have legitimate reasons for asking that. On the other hand, I hope you also realize that any people or people are really against the virus and China has already made unprecedented spectacular achievements in minimizing deaths and infections among the Chinese people for the past three years and now we must do everything we can to ensure that the transition to the new roadmap will be less costly in the future, so why are the Chinese people demonstrating in such numbers and in such a way? way we haven't seen in a generation?

You're right. I think many people are uncomfortable and many people are suffering from closures or repeated closures, etc. In that sense, they have legitimate reasons to demand greater freedom and more specific policies, to prevent infections or deaths among the people, on the other hand, I think they do not fully understand why the dynamic zero coffee policy has been introduced and practiced. for the last three years at the same time because ultimately the fact that we are all alive and many of us are still healthy is due to the dynamic zero coffee policy itself, because this has really prevented massive amounts of infections among the Chinese people, minimizing the deaths among the Chinese people.

I think the government needs to communicate to the people more eloquently what they have been doing for the last three years and why there are so many interruptions and inconveniences and whether there is corruption involved in testing, for example. making illegitimate money from testing, etc., they need to be brought to justice, so I think a lot of things need to be done at the same time, but I would personally say that the Chinese government and the entire Chinese nation have really made a spectacular achievement in minimizing deaths and infections over the last three years, it's time we move towards a better paradigm to achieve two goals instead of just one, it's good to talk to you, thank you for joining us on the show this morning, much appreciated, thank you.

Thank you very much for inviting me, thank you, thank you. More than 50 Conservative MPs have written to the Prime Minister calling for a change to modern slavery laws to try to reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats. Join one of the signatories now. Former Brexit Secretary David Davis Hello, it's great to see you, thanks for joining us on the show, what do you want to happen? Well, what is happening right now took 12,000 Albanians in one year out of a safe country that you know is a member of. the European convention on human rights as we stand and I want two things to happen we want two things to happen at the same time uh those people be told that they cannot apply for asylum here immediately a summary decision on that there are no arguments for asylum from Albania here secondly, to those who use human trafficking laws we should say: look, if you have been a victim of human trafficking, surely the correct response is to return you to your own home in your own village in Albania, if you want to prosecute it further beyond that, then talk. after that, but you go home, the point is to change the response time for an Albanian landing on our shores from years to days or weeks and that is the goal and we believe it is possible if we do not do it as soon as possible. homeless people will never be able to cope with the number of applications they will receive, it's already 420 days to get a decision, it will get longer and longer and eventually all those decisions will allow people to say: "The central office doesn't agree." agree" you because of the 55 percent of asylum applications by adult Albanians um, they have been allowed to stay no, what has been happening to you if you become two two groups of young men, which is the big majority and, uh, women and children, women and children, starting with about 85 approval, that is because the central office itself has not correctly interpreted the asylum laws, if so, it is the central office and not the album.

It is a mixture, at the end of the day, the fault of these lands of It is the Albanian gangs that bring them here, not the Albanians themselves because they are all kinds of failed people, it is the Albanian gangs that bring them here, but the simple The truth is that the Ministry of the Interior is interpreting asylum laws to say if you are in our country. Not Albania, if a government is oppressing you, that's what the asylum laws are like. So you've been talking about China. Someone came from China saying my government is going to kill me, we give them asylum, but if they face criminal gangster activities within their country. own country, that is a misinterpretation of these internal laws that it was never designed for, well interestingly the Albanian Prime Minister says that he is not going to allow Albanians to be scapegoated because of a failed policy here in the UK .

Well, I mean, I'm not escaping individual Albanians from what I'm saying is in The Gangs before you cross the channel, if you're a migrant, the Albanians are gangs, let them know how to use the loopholes in our law, What I want to do is close those loopholes, so if you want, I agree with the Albanian Prime Minister that we must solve our own problem. He also needs to sort out some in terms of traffic out of his country. Okay, you talk about how people can't come here if you come from a safe place. country surely that means France Yeah, well, yeah, well, I mean there's a secondary issue here that we haven't addressed in this because it's been going on for years and no one seems to be able to solve it and that is that any uh Asylum.

The real primary right of searchers is to be able to stop at the first safe country they reach, so it could be France in this case, if they have crossed Europe, it's six other countries, right, but we can't enforce that, but what we can do is say that you are Albanian and you return to Albania, isn't that the problem we can't enforce? Isn't it that where there are problems there are several links in this problem? which we are not addressing also because we are focusing on the one that is quicker to fix. I mean this is if the government passes emergency legislation in a very, very unusual way.

I mean, I normally oppose a lot of legislation, but it's very, very unusual. It's a very, very strong argument for this to be a very short bill that will be passed and we could basically tell the Albanian population that now anyone who crosses the channel will be turned back and when that starts to happen there will be no further deterrence, remember. The Home Office's argument about the Rwanda policy, for example, is that this is a deterrent. I think there's no greater deterrent than if someone in your town pays thousands of pounds to a people smuggler and then ends up back in town three weeks later, yeah, um, I'm glad you mentioned Rwanda because how Are you doing with this question?

Well, I'm not a fan of this. I mean, I have to be careful because no, not everyone who signed a letter agrees with me on that, but I am not a supporter of Rwanda's policy because we have spent 140 million and everything indicates that even if it works no more will be needed of 200 people, it's a very bad idea, it won't work, yes, but my The point is that this is legislation that was passed by this government in the House of Commons and has not been successful. Why do you think emergency legislation that is rushed through as you describe it is going to be more effective because it addresses the two main loopholes that people smugglers use to bring people into Britain illegally, that's what it does.

The two main loopholes, one is in our, uh, in our law, the other is in our trafficking law and interestingly, in November 2021, I think it was uh Sweden looked at this and said we're going to prevent anyone from applying for asylum. from a safe country, in this case Albania and you know, they have passed zero as no one has taken them to court, um, tell me about um, the Tory Exodus, while I have you, um, many young people, I will describe them as Danny Davidson in particular, I mean, she wasn't even born when you became everyone is a young man with your son, what's going on?

Oh, well, I think people, uh. some people are deciding no, they've gotten into politics, they've enjoyed it for a while, now they don't know, I mean William Bragg, he said he had a great time, he was chairman of the committee etc. while he's still young enough to have another career, he'll go and do that, you know that kind of thing, that kind of thing. I can't tell you the answers to all of those, I mean, you know I'll be here until I die in the harness I suspect that um, although I'm right in saying that your electorate will be affected by the limits again, oh bits again, you know, yeah, the third time, I mean, I end up with about half of my current electorate, um, but what has been the case, well, I mean, for over a decade now, um, in the eyes of the commission boundaries we have at least too many MPS for what was the old humicicide which is East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire so they had to reduce them and uh then one will go and the boundary change or the boundary commission battery change commission um Do you think they have the best interests of their constituents and others in mind when they propose these new limits?

Well, I'm sure they intend to um if you understand exactly right, there is a consultation process and we are currently engaging in a consultation process on that and we have actually spoken to them. I will rather write to you about a component of my current electorate to try to ensure that it remains united rather than divided. Center this piece on that piece. Can I ask you about wind farms? Where are you on that? I'm not in favor of this so-called conservative rebellion in favor of liberalizing the law and wind farms I have one right next door, I mean, almost as close as the camera in my house, um, uh, but yeah, it wasn't there, yeah, frankly, but yeah, it ruins the horizon, but what's the bigger point here.

We have offshore wind farms coming, we have to be sure that when we move towards net zero, we do it in a way that takes the population with us, takes the nation with us and that For me, that applies to whether these are massive wind farms or solar parks now that we are covering half the country with large stretches of the country anduh, in solar parks, well, let's go down, let's make it less responsive to the ideas of local people. um Before I let you go, it would seem that one way for Conservative MPS to be popular is to go I'm a Celebrity, do you think that's what Rishi's cynics are doing, no, certainly, no, no, I mean, look, I have had to do it. spending time in a jungle eating horrible things but never on television and I wouldn't recommend it it's good to see you thank you very much for taking the time to join us this morning I really appreciate it thank you