Trump Blames Immigration for French Unrest as UK Parties Clash Over Defence Spending, Youth Jobs and Reform Vetting

The opening weather outlook said a frontal area would bring thundery rain and some hail, with the liveliest conditions along the south coast. The rain was expected to push eastwards and bring wet weather to much of England and Wales into the early hours of Monday.

The forecaster said there would be a frost across the north, with mist and fog patches under a light breeze, and a relatively mild start further south, though cloudy with some outbreaks of rain. Temperatures were expected to struggle a little, around 12 to 16°C in parts of the north, and Northern Ireland was set to see the best of the weather by Tuesday.

Donald Trump blamed the unrest in France on immigration, writing on his Truth Social account, 'France is burning.' The US president also ordered France to close its borders and take control before it's too late.

The report said more than half a million people had marched over the failing education system and the cost of living. Many demonstrations turned into what was described as the most violent unrest the country had seen in recent years, with more than 2,000 people arrested and hundreds of police officers injured. One protester died after suffering a cardiac arrest. French President Emmanuel Macron was to address the nation that evening.

The same bulletin reported that four service members had died in a fire at a military base in Alberta, Canada, according to Prime Minister Mark Carney, with dozens more seriously injured. The defence minister described the incident as tragic but had not confirmed its cause. More than 1,000 personnel are stationed at the base.

Donald Trump endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the Israeli elections later this month, calling him a great warrior prime minister. Posting on Truth Social, the US president said the Israeli prime minister had been an even greater partner for peace in combating the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Presenter asked whether Labour's Alex Ballinger, a former Royal Marine, agreed that Defence Secretary John Healey should resign because he would not reach 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, the pledge over which Healey had resigned. Ballinger said the government had a good story to tell on defence spending.

Ballinger said spending had risen from 2.3% at the election to 2.7%, the largest proportion of GDP spent on defence since the 1990s and more than the 2.5% target. He said the threats from Russia on Europe's east, and the state the armed forces had been left in, meant more investment was needed.

On the 3% figure, Ballinger said he expected the government to meet the NATO commitment of 3.5% by 2035, but that the route would not be clear until the spending review. The presenter pointed out that the spending review had been expected in the spring and was now due in the autumn, describing the delay as a problem of procrastination.

The presenter accepted that 2.7% was more than the 2.5% target that had been achieved. Ballinger agreed that it was a good result in a relatively short time, but said the government needed to go further, citing Russian threats and cuts to the navy and army numbers.

The presenter pressed the point that Healey would not reach 3% by 2030, the pledge on which he resigned, and asked how he could continue as chancellor. Ballinger said he did not know and repeated the 2035 NATO commitment.

The presenter said the prime minister seemed to think Russia had interfered in the 2016 Brexit vote and asked whether Ballinger agreed. Ballinger said he thought everybody agreed Russia had interfered in the Brexit debate, while noting that a 2020 report had found no such interference and that MI5 head Ken McCallum had said there was no interference that affected the outcome.

Ballinger, who sits on the foreign affairs committee, said Russia had interfered in elections across Europe, including in Romania and Moldova, and had tried to interfere in the Brexit debate through its channels and online trolls. He said the important point was that British people were smart enough not to be influenced by that interference, and that it was still important for the public to know about such attempts.

The presenter argued that the biggest concern on the doorstep in Hartlepool was the cost of living, and that voters would not want to pay billions back to Brussels. Ballinger replied that it was not a binary choice between rejoining the EU and paying Brussels a load of money.

He said there were many steps on the journey that could improve the UK's relationship with the EU, and pointed to countries such as Norway, Switzerland and Turkey as non-members with better arrangements, arguing the people of Hartlepool would appreciate an honest conversation about the costs of Brexit and alternatives.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Weightley said it was tough for young people, citing 1 million young people not in employment, education or training, and 174,000 more young people unemployed under the current Labour government.

Weightley blamed the government's jobs tax and employment rights bill for making it more expensive and riskier for businesses to employ young people, citing a salon owner who said she would not keep on her apprentices in the coming year because of extra costs. She said the Conservatives would scrap the jobs tax for young people aged 21 to 24. When asked why the national insurance increase was not scrapped altogether, she said plans were being costed and identified £71 billion of savings, a substantial part of it from welfare.

Asked why the Conservatives had not done this in government, Weightley said the pandemic made it very hard for young people to get work experience or holiday and weekend jobs. She said face-to-face benefit assessments had moved remote during the pandemic and that the government should have gone back to face-to-face assessments.

She said a Conservative government would double the number of apprenticeships for young people, remove stamp duty to help young people buy a home, and redesign the sickness benefit system, bringing back face-to-face assessments. The presenter also cited a Centre for Social Justice finding that four in five new jobs since 2010 had gone to foreign workers.

The presenter raised a case in which a local adviser was alleged to have told a candidate to delete supportive Tommy Robinson messages before vetting. The guest said that person was not part of the vetting team and was only giving local advice.

The guest also said he had been told by a party colleague that a woman had been sacked after undercover reporting, and said it showed the party was new and had no large network of think tanks or staff. Asked whether Reform was being treated unfairly, he said the party was under more scrutiny because it threatened the Conservatives, Labour and the establishment. He admitted: 'We do, but we haven't done it perfectly.'

The presenter raised a Reform activist's questioning of whether Zia Yusuf is British, and the guest said that was certainly not helpful, linked to Yusuf's own statement that he is British but not English. The guest said he had seen himself as British first and English second as a young man, but at about age 30, after devolution created Scottish and Welsh institutions with nothing comparable for England, he began to see himself as English first and British second.

The discussion also covered whether Robert Lowe should be invited back into Reform, and whether two members who resigned over a donations sting should return before an external investigation was complete. The guest said he personally could not trust Lowe and would wait until the external process had concluded.

The forecast said Storm Adam would bring heavy thunderstorm rain to eastern Spain and some southern areas of France, moving eastwards over the following few days and bringing unsettled weather to parts of Italy and Croatia.

A guest argued that looks do not help a tradesperson fit a door or kitchen, and that clients rely on reputation and reliability rather than good looks. The presenter agreed that ability to do the work was key, but said pretty privilege and the halo effect existed, and that people judged each other when first meeting. An attractive plumber or tradesperson was more likely to be hired and viewed positively, though this could not carry someone through a career of 10 or 20 years.

A panellist said they suspected taxes would be raised again in the budget on 28 October, with capital gains tax discussed. The panellist said thresholds would be kept the same, creating fiscal drag as inflation and wage rises pulled more people into higher tax bands, and noted there was no sign of cuts to welfare spending while defence spending was committed to rise.

The presenter noted that Healey had resigned over the 3% GDP target but was now chancellor, and asked why he had not been required to resign again. The panellist said Healey had been a short-term appointment that calmed a Labour leadership split, and that his budget would be scrutinised.

The guest said the orthodoxy that migration, whether skilled or unskilled, is a great thing for the economy was only partly right. He argued the UK must do a better job of training people already here to enter the workplace. He said the benefit system meant many people had to choose between a badly paid job and claiming benefits, and that migrants were more incentivised to work.

The presenter raised a Mail on Sunday report that traders had placed £7 billion of bets against the pound ahead of the budget. The guest said traders were likely thinking the government would have to borrow more and would not reduce spending, pointing out that a previous attempt to reform welfare had failed to get through despite a majority of 170.

Host Josh Howie said the BBC had been accused of brainwashing children after its education website was revealed to be pushing pro-migration, net zero and inequality views. He said Bitesize has a game called 'increasing migration' that encourages children to choose open borders and grant amnesty to illegal migrants, and that it praises Black Lives Matter and features Greta Thunberg.

Howie introduced historian and author Dr Bella Dera, who was asked whether she was surprised by the report, given the site is used by pretty much all pupils in the state system. The transcript ends before her answer.