Press Preview: Thursday’s papers

Press Preview: Thursday’s papers

Hello there you’re watching the Press preview a first look at what’s on the front pages as they arrive in the next half hour we’ll see what’s making the headlines with the political commentator Benedict Spence and The Observers Chief leader writer Sonia soda welcome both so

Let’s see what is on some of those front pages while the times reports that labor will promise a big expansion of child care including plans to create thousands of new Nursery places the mirror looks ahead to the budget on March the 6th their assessment richy helps the rich

Get richer the guardian leads with an admission from a senior metropolitan police officer that victims of domestic abuse have lost trust in the force according to the financial times the world’s biggest defense companies have seen an increase of more than 10% in the orders being made to them in the last

Two years with the war in Ukraine cited as the main reason the I reports that hundreds of homes which their owners were forced to sell to make way for an highspeed to highspeed rail line between Birmingham and Manchester that was never completed are now being rented out and making their landlords an estimated

Profit of 9 million a year the front page of the Daily Mail is about the plan for inheritance tax cuts reporting that the chancellor will use them to underline the political divide with lab the star leads on the Travel chaos caused by storm Garrett and a reminder that by scanning

The QR code that you see on your screen during the program you can check out the front pages of tomorrow’s papers while you watch us and we are joined tonight as I mentioned by Benedict Spence and Sonia soda so welcome both let’s start with this news of the budget we now have a

Date spring budget March 6 let’s take a quick look at the Ft a lot of uh um papers have it um obviously on their front pages um here it’s budget set for March 6th everyone saying that well everyone some people implying that this could be a sign that perhaps we’re going

To get a spring election Benedict do you think we’re going to get a spring election I’m not sure we are going to get a spring election because I think that what you’re going to see is that the budget is going to be framed in a

Very sort of big you know this couple of months away still and here it comes here it comes it’s coming down the line almost like some sort of big film release uh building up the anticipation because uh so much of what has gone before has been just a damp squib from

The conservatives for so long they have failed to sort of grasp the imagination of the public they’ve got one last chance I’m not even really sure if it is a last chance to be honest but one last chance to kind of get a message across but then they’re inevitably going to

Need a bit of time to sort of let people know that it’s working because I think the one thing that we would probably all agree on is that actually most members of the public whatever they hear from the government they just go yeah well you’ve been saying that for however long

You’ve been in power for 13 years it’s not going to happen uh so I’m not convinced it’s going to be early it could be I mean we know there might be something that they spring on us and they go ah but you can only have it if

You vote for it now um but you know we wait and see I suspect it’ll probably be later in the year Sonia I agree with that I think um what they’re doing I mean there always was always going to be a budget in spring anyway and you know the conservatives have been trailing

These tax cuts which uh we’re going to be able we’re going to go on to talk about what some of them might potentially be but I think by having the budget in early March um the government is leaving themselves time to go for uh you know an

April potentially or more likely a May election and to have some of those um announcements land I think it’s very unlikely though so I think they’re leaving them space to do that just in case there’s um a change in the political mood and their position um in

The poll CH polls change uh but I think it’s very unlikely I think it’s psychologically very difficult to go for an early election when you are as far behind in the polls as the prime minister Mr uh Rishi sinak currently is so I would be very surprised um but I

Think they’re just giving themselves the maximum leeway um uh for just in case they have this budget and it starts to change things and then you know they decide to go for a spring election it leaves that option open but like Benedict I don’t think it’s going to

Happen and let’s look at some of the things that might be planned so front page of the Daily Mail because it’s all about inheritance tax basically from page of the mail hunt plan to slash death tax by half and then if we look at the mirror different take

Rishi helps the rich get Richer there it is uh the mirror so you know a lot of talk around inheritance tax a lot of talk around helping firsttime buyers so I guess perhaps the government trying to appeal to all sorts of different groups of Voters yeah so um will they won’t

They there’s been this big debate about inheritance tax and certain conservatives are very keen for inheritance has to be scrapped and which is why I think you’re seeing some people brief it into the papers what that mirror headline is referring to is when you look at the substance of it

Inheritance tax is only paid by 3.7% of Estates um on death so it’s a tax that very few people end up paying um a tax cut so if you were to scrap it Al together which is certainly being talked about analysis by the um ifs The Institute for fiscal studies suggests

That half of this tax cut would go to a States worth £ 2.1 million or more and the average tax cut would be 1.1 million 90% of Estates you know they’re just you know that people are never going to see the benefit yet abolishing it would

Leave a huge hole in the budget of 7 billion going up to 10 billion in a few years time what the conservatives will be gambling on is that it’s a very unpopular tax even though so few people end up paying it because people are worried they might end up paying it they

See it as a tax on aspiration on passing things on your kids so that is what the gamble is but I think it is fundamentally we wealth is under tax in this country already compared to income it is fundamentally the wrong thing to do I mean this is the thing up until now

Not many people have paid it but and the torist know this very well because this is their voter base um a quarter of pensioners now live in households that will become elgible to pay this very in a very short space of time and I think that that does sort of focus the Mind

Rather a lot on people who perhaps aren’t necessarily just voting thinking about this current election but future elections to come um because it’s correct to point out that actually you know wealth hasn’t been taxed in this country there’s been there’s a dreadful sort of uh concentration of it at the top end of

Society and the that has benefited pensioners in particular very well by also not building enough houses but now a lot of pensioners Might well be starting to look to their grandchildren or children for example and saying well what can I potentially do to help those people get on the ladder and it might

Actually then counter intuitively prove very popular to say well actually we want to give as much as we can to people uh lowered down on the rungs there is also just that fact that a lot of people do just feel fundamentally that it’s not very fair that you tax throughout your

Life and then on top of that the government might come along and take another chunk right at the end so even people who don’t pay it I think fundamentally feel that it doesn’t sit right with them I suppose the fundamental question is whether you think Rishi sunak can do anything to

Turn the fortunes of the conservatives around I mean I think that’s a very good question and for me I think I mean you should never write anything off in politics but it is very very difficult to see how the Prime Minister can turn this around because fundamentally the

Next election I think is going to be fought on the state of the economy and what people have experienced over the last 13 years in terms of cost of living crisis what’s happened to their household budgets you can’t turn that around in a year you know inflation

Might fall well that very high inflation that we saw a year ago inflation of 10% that’s baked in people are paying more for things and their wages are not going as far and we’ve not seen real wage growth but we we have to say it might

Simply be a sort of a a sabotage election if you like if things are that bad for the conservatives they think well how can we make things as difficult for the labor party as possible and I think the labor party understands that you see that in the very cautious way

Actually that they’re not promising people the Earth they recognize the the the country is in a very bad state but let’s take inheritance tax for example as I’ve just said a cure of House of pensioner households at some point soon will be eligible to be paying that well

That’s rather a loss of income potentially for a labor government that it might actually be looking forward to in the next 5 to 10 years that the conservatives could potentially get rid of so right there they’re creating this isn’t necessarily done with the best intentions of the country but they’re

Creating a very difficult situation where they’re saying to the labor party well you’re not going to be able to have that income and if you try to reverse that policy well that’s going to make you very unpopular for the next 5 years which takes us to the front page of the

Times which actually mentions labor and it says labor will promise big expansion on child care so they’re offering Nursery places um so Sonia first of all I guess labor has to prepare for a snap election I mean they’re not going to know but they have to be ready and what

Do we know about this specific promise well um you know they’ve been they’ve been making very positive no noises about child care over the last year uh you know o over the last year so we know it’s an area they’re interested in it’s an in area that working parents are very

Interested in uh because in the UK we’ve got some of the most expensive child care in Europe some really shocking figures actually in this Times report which is that labor have done some analysis that shows that in some areas of the country like in Sunderland for example there are only 12 child care

Places for every 100 CH children under the age of five we all know I’m sure stories of how expensive it is um to get child care parents who literally cannot afford it parents who cannot find places and we’ve got an issue with employment in this country as well where too many

People are out of work and the the the fact of the matter is um investing in early years child care it’s good for children because they do better particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds if they’ve had that education in the early years it’s better for family amilies because it helps them

Do better economically and also it’s better for the economy because we’ve got too many parents who are out of work because they can’t find child care so it’s a bit of a no-brainer policy from labor the question will be how are you going to get these extra child care

Places and how much funding will they require up front there’s something um in the CH report suggesting that they will be attached to primary schools which will be very popular uh with parents but that will obviously require some sort of startup funding but I guess labor is going to need policies

Obv for the year ahead yeah absolutely and to be fair we’ve seen them come up with quite you know they’re in a tricky spot because they can’t as as Benedict was just saying they can’t promise the Earth they’ve got some really tight spending rules that they say they’re

Going to spit stick to but they have produced a fair few policies already for example on early years they put they’re going to be investing money into breakfast clubs for example so all children get access to free breakfast clubs quite a cheap policy but a very effective policy if you look at the

Education evidence so I think we can be expecting to see more of these but the tricky thing for them is you know public services are in a state now where they require investment they say they will raise the money for that through economic growth I think the question is

What if you can’t get economic growth without investing upfront in things more in things like the NHS and child care okay and bened do you think a lot of this is actually cutting through with the electorate I think it will to a demographic that is already going to

Probably votee labor at the next general election I think that this is simply rewarding them but it’s also um a morally good thing to do because actually I’d say broader than everything it’s a civilizational issue actually when you talk to young people they talk about not being able to get on the

Housing ladder not being able to afford child care and that is preventing them from having children that causes a demographic demographic bomb at some point as several other countries developed countries are saying so this is long-term care we need to look at it in those terms making sure that people

Are able to have children in the first place is vitally important and I do feel you know ironically the conservatives all supposed to be about nuclear families and what have you they’ve completely left that by the wayside their record on uh housing on child care this is something where labor could do a

Lot of good especially seeing as it anticipates it probably will win the next election it can afford to be quite unpopular on things like housing policies but this is something that I think you’re right will will be quite popular whatever Way’s been it Benedict and Sonia thank you for now stay with us

Of course it’s reported that the Home Secretary will not face disciplinary action from the Prime Minister over his joke about drink Spike we’ll discuss that Next welcome back you’re watching the Press preview with me now Benedict Spence and Sonia soda um okay let’s go to the mirror page six this story that broke a couple days ago and it’s about the Home Secretary and the prime minister is not going to act over uh James cleverly’s spiking

Joke now this is a slightly offc color joke that he made about spiking his own wife’s uh drink um what do you make of the fact Sonia a of the joke itself and B the fact that the Prime Minister isn’t going to do anything about it well it

Doesn’t surprise me that the prime minister is standing by the Home Secretary because I mean he’s lost quite a few home secretaries of late um but I do think that this joke was in appalling taste I’m not somebody who gets easily offended um you know if someone’s uh

Making a joke and you know jokes are made in political circles you know we’ve all we’ve all been to dinners we’ve heard them but I think this joke was particularly inappropriate because I mean it’s about a crime and a particularly terrible crime you know spiking a drink with reynol uh the Home

Secretary was joking about it kind of in relation to his wife and I just think it sends a terrible signal spiking is a really serious crime we’ve got a massive issue with male violence against just made an announcement about it absolutely absolutely um and you know tone matters

And tone matters in terms of young men in this country and boys and thinking about their attitudes to um women and girls so I personally think that this does really matter I think it was an appalling taste and I think um it’s right for politicians through other

Parties to be calling it out Benedict he did apologize though um almost straight away so what do you think uh I think I mean obviously the apology is very important he didn’t waste any time no prevarication anything like that I think the fact that the Prime Minister hasn’t

Necessarily uh seen fit to do anything about it it might be because behind closed doors privately James cleverly has been very apologetic it may be because they don’t want to draw too much attention to it it all may also though be you know we hear stories don’t we all

The time about how Rishi sunak is on uh thin ice well if you sort of look around and think who might be a good Challenger to Rishi sunak there aren’t that many but I suspect James cleverly would probably be one so actually having somebody like that being you know

Potentially very Gaff prone um on your in your corner so to speak because you haven’t reprimanded him for making a joke might be more sensible than you know going in two footed so to speak but beyond that as Sonia mentioned you can’t really have another Home Secretary again

Can we I think you just yeah I think we just sort of assume now that when you’re in the home office bad things are going to happen to you it’s cursed and that’s just the way that it is I mean you know waiting the last person to come out of

It successfully was Theresa May and then she suffered throughout her Premiership so I think you just need to look at it as being a very curs thing but a year maybe till the next general election potentially there I mean who knows we could have a New Home Secretary one not

Any names do you want to like throw up I mean who who fancies some pain for the next six months let’s see I’ll tell you what let’s leave that hanging and go to the Financial Times front page there uh Global defense order books bulge as Ukraine puts budgets on the war footing

So basically uh a lot of Defense firms seeing a spike in their orders because of the war in Ukraine yes uh 10% higher I think that’s what the FG says um and what this piece says it points out is that very often you will see things as

It were backlogged after a war has broken out is that actually it’s only then that you start to see people ramping up their spending it is concerning though um obviously when you have a 760 billion extra um uh dollars worth of equipment sort of being ordered

But let’s be very clear we were put on notice some years ago actually NATO countries in particular put on notice that they needed to be pulling their weight fer when it comes to defense Russia was very clear actually about what it wants to do uh China has been

Very clear actually what its long-term intentions are and you notice actually who it is that’s putting in the orders it’s countries like Poland it’s the Eastern European countries it’s countries that stand potentially to uh lose the most if conflicts continue to break out as they’re likely to do you

Know War doesn’t just go away because we all fancy that it will um and when you’ve got major Powers actively saying what it is that they plan on doing or even smaller powers like Venezuela saying we will invade Guyana at some point you do have to take it seriously

So it makes a lot of sense that countries are starting to put these orders in yeah I think um I I agree with all of that um it feels like times have really changed and um you know one in terms of global conflict and one place that we’re

Seeing that is in these sorts of budget so yeah yeah let’s take a look now at um the star from page of the star and storm Garrett which is causing travel chaos I don’t know whether that’s the A9 but the A9 in Scotland had people stuck there um

For hours uh and hours and it’s almost a Christmas tradition isn’t it well it’s I think it’s just the worst timing possible really so um just as people are on the move after Christmas spending Christmas with their family he trying to get around the country um the storm has

Sort of put a stop to that you know I’ve got a friend who’s sort of stuck up in Cumbria because there weren’t any trains uh running uh South today uh there’s the motorways Apparently Bristol Airport one plane had to attempt a landing three times because it was so windy it was

Quite interesting actually some of the news reports say that the Met Office deliberately name this storm because one of the reasons that they name the storm is because the impact it will have on the country not just you know its W its weather measurements and they wanted to

Be clear with people this is quite a serious storm that’s going to have a big impact on travel plans particularly during a holiday period so that’s why they decided to name it but it um it’s pretty appalling timing I think for people who are trying to move around the

Country after Christmas yeah Sonia Benedict thanks for that and we’ll of course see you in the next hour let’s take a look at the weather now

Welcome to our round-up of the front pages for Thursday 28 December.

Tonight’s reviewers are political commentator Benedict Spence and The Observer’s chief leader writer Sonia Sodha.

Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/thursdays-national-newspaper-front-pages-12427754

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