channel good morning. it's 30 and this is the briefing with me, emily carver on your tv and radio . so carver on your tv and radio. so on the show this morning, fresh polling shows labour on a whopping 50% of the national vote. gdp figures show a glimmer of hope for the uk economy . it's of hope for the uk economy. it's revealed we've had 15 housing ministers since the conservatives to power and with knife at an all time high can be done. as he showed today. but

first let's get the headlines . first let's get the headlines. good morning it's just gone 930 i'm running jones in the gb newsroom. rescue workers say the 72 hour golden period of findings alive is closing following monday's earthquakes in southern and northern syria . in southern and northern syria. a number of dead has now risen to over 21,000, but there are still glimmers of . a ten day old still glimmers of. a ten day old baby has been rescued alongside his mother . baby has been rescued alongside his mother. the pair spent more than 90 hours under the rubble before freed. the world health organisation warns though the death toll is expected to rise. still 70 members of the uk international search and rescue team have joined the effort to try and find people in amongst the rubble. journalist stuart tango describes the as desperate

. the chancellor warned the uk isn't out of the woods yet. its after the latest figures show the economy narrowly avoided falling into recession in the final quarter of last year. the data from the office for national statistics reveals economy saw zero growth between october and december the final month of 2022 saw gdp down by 0.5. but overall , the annual gdp 0.5. but overall, the annual gdp rate grew by 4.1. labour's calls for urgent measures to be brought forward to help families with the cost of living crisis. the chancellor as welcomed the figures but warns that still more to be done. the fact that we have avoided recession in fact we're the fastest growing major country last year shows there underlying resilience in there underlying resilience in the uk economy . but we are not the uk economy. but we are not out of the woods. inflation is still much too high that causing pain for families up and down the country, which is why we need to stick to our plan to

inflation. if we do that and play inflation. if we do that and play to our strengths, science and technology , we really can be and technology, we really can be one of the most prosperous countries in europe . labour has countries in europe. labour has comfortably held west lancashire in the by—election after ashley dalton was voted in as the country's newest mp . she secured country's newest mp. she secured 8000 more votes than her conservative counterpart for the region. in her acceptance speech, she demanded a general election telling the tories to move out of the way . tv online move out of the way. tv online on dab+ radio. this is gb news. now it's back to the briefing with . with. emily good morning and welcome to the briefing with me. emily carver sitting in for tom. so a little bit of good news. new gdp data shows the uk economy avoided

recession a whisker last year, but with drug company astrazeneca choosing ireland over the uk for its ne w £320 over the uk for its new £320 million factory and the cbi calling for lower taxes. is it time jeremy hunt scrapped that planned corporation tax hike? then knife crime deaths have reached a record in england and wales, according the owen s. there have been 282 homicides committed a knife in the year to march 20 to a whopping 19% rise on the previous year. what's to blame for this fatal rise? and it's been that we have had not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but 15 housing ministers since the conservatives came to . is this conservatives came to. is this rapid turnover to blame for the government's failure to get to gnps government's failure to get to grips with the housing crisis? but first this morning, the latest results of the gb news people's poll . the conservative people's poll. the conservative vote remains at a flat 21% this week, leaving labour with half of the national vote to the

poll. this comes just after the west, lancashire by—election saw labour's ashley dalton voted in the new mp with 8000 more votes than her conservative counterpart. i'm joined now matt goodwin, professor of politics in the school of politics and international relations at the university of kent. matt, thank you very much for joining us this morning. so conservatives on 21, labour on 50% kind of governing come back from such dire levels . support well, in dire levels. support well, in theory , yes, they can come back. theory, yes, they can come back. emily although in practise, no party no governing party has come back to go on and win the next election from this kind low. so we are seeing the conservative party still at this real historic low level of support, low . and this, of support, low. and this, of course, is coming more than 100 days since rishi sunak's appointment as pm. so we don't really have any evidence of a bounce in the polls for the

conservatives. perhaps at months or so away from the next election. it's not looking good to put it simply. now, now you're polling also talked about brexit. apparently people think that the labour party would be as good at brexit as the conservatives . yeah so this is conservatives. yeah so this is again, i think a real, really troubling finding for the conservative party because they longer own any of the issues that you might expect. the conservative party to own. in this case we asked voters, who do you think is the best party to manage brexit? labour's actually ahead of the conservative. and it's the same story, by the way on the economy. cost of living the nhs .even economy. cost of living the nhs . even immigration. even immigration. sorry some recent polling . so the key point in all polling. so the key point in all of this , emily, is when parties of this, emily, is when parties don't own issues, it makes it very difficult for them to go on and win the next election. you think about margaret thatcher. she owned inflation and she owned industrial relations. you

think about tony blair. he owned pubuc think about tony blair. he owned public services. he owned education, rishi sunak and the conservatives today don't really own any big issue in british politics. that's a really big problem for them. thinking that the polling also shows people are missing. boris johnson . are missing. boris johnson. yeah, so this is an interesting one. we asked all voters of the three prime ministers we've had since 2019, which is your favourite among all voters. bofis favourite among all voters. boris johnson comes top followed by rishi sunak. liz truss barely the radar actually 2% of voters choose liz truss. but among conservative voters, people who voted conservative in 2019, i mean boris johnson , a phenomenal mean boris johnson, a phenomenal lead, 52% of those voters say bofis lead, 52% of those voters say boris johnson, 80% say rishi sunak. so johnson may be struggling among a certain section the electorate and certainly unpopular your sort of remainers, your londoners and so on. but actually among 2019 conservatives he is still by a long way as the best minister

that we've had since the 2090 general election . very general election. very interesting indeed. thank you very much, professor matt goodwin . the politics of goodwin. the politics of politics in the of politics and international relations at the university of kent taking us through that latest polling data. it seems people still wish bofis data. it seems people still wish boris was the prime minister. let me know if you do. i'm moving on. amidst the cost of living crisis , been keeping tabs living crisis, been keeping tabs on how both prices and the economy are doing. we tell economy are doing. we can tell you gdp figures you now that gdp figures released in the last few minutes show economy fell by 0.5% in show the economy fell by 0.5% in december but the figures have remained relatively stable over the final quarter of the year and have even grown by 4.1% across the whole of 2022. i'm delighted to be joined by david paige, head of macro research, axa investment managers . is paige, head of macro research, axa investment managers. is this a little bit of a glimmer of for the uk economy ? well the uk economy? well potentially, i mean we're not in recession but but that's fairly low bar there had been an

expectation that we would see a slight shrinkage in the economy in q4 . but as it slight shrinkage in the economy in q4. but as it turns out, as you say, it's been flat. that's because it was march. we saw marginally better growth come through over , which helped keep through over, which helped keep the economy flat. but we look at what happened in december. the economy flat. but we look at what happened in december . the what happened in december. the service sector fell back by nought point 8% on the month. it was a huge fall. looks like it's probably impacted some extent by some of the strikes , perhaps some of the strikes, perhaps consumer spending being restrained because people couldn't enjoy some of the consumer services. and that really sets the economy up for a pretty weak first quarter, which we would hope see some some recovery come through in that sector in january . so as we look sector in january. so as we look to 2023, yeah, we didn't quite end up in 2022 in a recession, but that recession looks like it's in the post. we certainly expect to see contraction in q1 . we are expecting in q2 . well, . we are expecting in q2. well, so that that gives us the two quarters of decline and actually with a flat for q4 you're

looking an economy that's basically contract terms course of four quarters already quite a long run bank of england of course thinking that that recession could last longer. so yes through a very narrow prism it's marginally better than we thought, but it is far from great right? right. well, also news today is that the drug giant astrazeneca has decided that it would be better off having its that it would be better off having it s £320 million factory having its £320 million factory in ireland in dublin rather than in ireland in dublin rather than in the uk . they cite the tax in the uk. they cite the tax regime in this country as being the reason for that. do think there's more and more pressure on jeremy to axe that corporation tax that is planned for next month ? well not really. for next month? well not really. i mean, the uk sort of obviously stands at a disadvantage edge to tax rate to ireland which is a very small economy that operate on on very low tax rates in tried to sort of have an economy based on that if we compare the uk to sort of other peers at that the uk corporate tax rate

is very low more likely i think what's been impacting foreign direct investment over the last few years has been the massive political uncertainty and say that that been invoked by fast brexit in itself then very poorly managed brexit. the lack of direction that we've had an almost say the sort of frankly government incompetence that we've seen which culminated it obviously worst days of obviously in the worst days of the truss government which to be fair pm sunak does seem to be addressing to some extent now i think when business is sorry, when business is running easily sorry. i'm sorry what can be done then to boost into this country if it's not working at the moment, what can be done ? i the moment, what can be done? i think we need clarity of where the growth strategy comes from , the growth strategy comes from, includes sort of addressing some the issues of trade that have been significantly up in the air since the brexit period and really haven't been pinned down. we need competent a longer term government planning coming

through and we need an economy thatis through and we need an economy that is going to have energy security as well. and these are all massive for any government to deal with . yes, they are to deal with. yes, they are indeed. to deal with. yes, they are indeed . how do you forecast the indeed. how do you forecast the next year, do you think that the economy will do you think that jeremy hunt and rishi sunak's strategy to tackle inflation first and then focus on growth is the right one? yes do i mean, obviously the prime deliver of back to price stability as the bank of england but what the bank of england but what the bank of england be able to manage, for example, is to restore price stability against a backdrop where the government was providing fiscal support and, otherwise trying to inflate the economy. so it's good see the economy. so it's good see the institutions of government moving together . and yeah, i moving together. and yeah, i think, you know, longer term is based a framework of long, based on a framework of long, long term price stability and security in that long term price stability. so we do think that that's important and. i think from a household perspective , from a household perspective, you know, we've all suffered

from from very sharp increases coming through in pricing, real incomes have really struggled. that's passphrase and we've seen such weak economic activity why we it be recessionary we think it be recessionary range 2023. so as we get inflation under control and with wholesale gas prices moving a little bit lower, that might accelerate that process in the second half of this year. that is something that i think consumers and businesses alike can look forward to, is providing relief that might start see the economy growing again. thank you very much indeed. that of course, indeed. that was, of course, david page, of macro david page, head of macro research at axa investment manager . research at axa investment manager. thank you very much for joining us this morning on briefing. now moving on last year saw a staggering 19% increase compared to the year before and homicides with a knife. before and homicides with a ane.the before and homicides with a knife. the number of people killed with a knife in england and wales has reached highest level since records began. 76 years ago. that's to according office for national statistics areas worst affected were the west midlands, london, greater manchester and cleveland . i am

manchester and cleveland. i am delighted to be joined by norman brennan, a former police officer who for over 30 years and a prominent campaigner. issues pertaining to law order. thank you very much indeed , norman, you very much indeed, norman, for joining us this morning forjoining us this morning i mean, these numbers are staggering seeing the number of fatalities at the hands of a knife . what do you think the knife. what do you think the causes are for this rise? what is this many causes ? but the is this many causes? but the first point i'd like to make clear is that these were foreseeable, predictable and preventable . as a serving police preventable. as a serving police officer myself , i was stabbed in officer myself, i was stabbed in the chest by an armed burglar. that devastating effect on my life and i realised devastation of knife crime. so . on 13th of of knife crime. so. on 13th of december 2000 or four, along with people like damilola taylor's father and many other families affected by knife crime, i went to number ten downing street and for uniform, something officers don't do, i wrote a to the queen and every mp and told them that i that

knife crime would become an epidemic. if it wasn't effectively dealt with . many effectively dealt with. many people listened. nobody acted . people listened. nobody acted. what are we talking about? almost 20 years on knife crime out of control on the streets of britain . only two years ago in britain. only two years ago in london , we had the highest london, we had the highest homicide child rate on record 30 children were murdered , 27 was children were murdered, 27 was stabbed to death to , were killed stabbed to death to, were killed in an arson. a one shot. what do we to do about it? we need actually need to act . we've been actually need to act. we've been skirting around the issues for ages. we need to introduce five years, mandate three sentence, prison sentence for those found on the streets with a knife, without lawful or reasonable excuse . that's what the law is . excuse. that's what the law is. five years imprisonment is identical to that. if you are armed with a gun , you're more armed with a gun, you're more likely to be stabbed death three times than shot to death . yet times than shot to death. yet you can still walk of court with

a fine , a conditional discharge a fine, a conditional discharge . and these are lethal weapons. and the caveat to serious it really is, emily, is. and the caveat to serious it really is, emily, is . in the really is, emily, is. in the past three years my colleagues within policing . sees 37,000 within policing. sees 37,000 knives. so anybody that says that stop and search doesn't work. every single one of those knives, emily could have another person or could have cost the carrier their life. i believe that the true figure is probably ten, 15, 20 times that size. now is a major problem and nobody's seems to grasp it. we need messed up and search said. we don't have police officers to do it. we cannot criticise or certainly the police get criticised by some sections of the community, but it's often the community, but it's often the families within those communities that are pleading in mortuaries with their child lying dead on a military slab

two metres away. the police and fall into the arms bereft of police officers praying and that we do all we can . well if the we do all we can. well if the police do the best that they can but the judiciary don't play their part i'm afraid it's a circle. we just don't seem to be able to break. so, norman moore stop and search and harsher penalties for those caught with knives. do you think it's time to call a national emergency on this? does cobra need to get involved . is that serious? is a involved. is that serious? is a national emergency . it involved. is that serious? is a national emergency. it is so serious that i'm afraid crime in britain , homicide, which is my britain, homicide, which is my expert subject as well, is subject. that's not a sexy subject. that's not a sexy subject . it rarely gets any subject. it rarely gets any attention . and i'll tell you the attention. and i'll tell you the how serious i think it is that some times there are certain demographics that kill each other and somehow there are a few people in society that think

, well, it's just one criminal killing another criminal. but when it ever been right for any parent to have to plan a funeral rather than a for their child. and don't forget this generation has to hand over to the next generation in the best possible and safest streets possible . and safest streets possible. police, i'm afraid of lost control of the streets . not control of the streets. not their fault. they were reduced by 22,000 police officers . about by 22,000 police officers. about 12 years ago. they can barely cope with everyday crime. so who is tackling knife crime ? we need is tackling knife crime? we need a massive education programme. we need mental laws to take some of these to one site where noy join the police and just beforehand was addiction green era. that was respect moral fibre community spirit and police officers like myself have interacted with the public. we could see some of kids that were going right and often we'd sit down, take our homie off and

speak to them like a human being should be spoken to with care , should be spoken to with care, compassion and tell them the vision we have for them and how they could turn their lives around. and you know what, emily? in many cases we able to redirect some of these kids that we now see out of control on our streets who have no hope. they have no hope for the future, no hope for or vision for a good purpose in life and lost. and when you lost, you have no value of life . you don't have any of life. you don't have any issues whatsoever . carrying issues whatsoever. carrying a knife, taking a life , or even knife, taking a life, or even losing your own. now if we've got kids in 2023 with that ethos , what hope have we got for the next generation? well there you go. sober analysis. thank you very much. norman brennan, former police officer who's also said that over 30 years and is a prominent campaign donor on issues relating to law and order. thank you very much for your time. this morning. now moving on to our last story of

today's program with the appointment of redditch as rachel mcclean is the latest in a long line of housing ministers. let's take a little look back on ministers of for state housing since 2013. there go we have lucy fraser october to february 2023. praise of sorry , we have lee rowley . then sorry, we have lee rowley. then we have marcus jones and then we. stuart andrew february 22 to july 22. chris pincher february 2020 to february 22. esther mcvey july 20, 19 to february 2020. malthouse then we have dominic raab january 2018 to july 2018. alok sharma june 2017 to january 2018. gavin barwell july 2016 to june 2017. brandon lewis then we. chris hopkins , lewis then we. chris hopkins, mark prisk and finally grant shapps right that we go a long list of housing ministers. we've had more than our fair share there. i am joined now freddie

poser, director of priced out uk freddie 15 housing ministers since 2010. is this the reason why we failed to get to grips with the housing? well, it certainly can't help . i think certainly can't help. i think that it's a symptom rather than the cause of the issue when the position was created many years ago, housing was seen as the first public service. then a real political heavyweight be in that job. now it's seen as this junior position that you get . junior position that you get. then you move up and you can see the consequence of that. we've had 15 in since 2010, we've had six in the last year. so no one's staying in the role and paying one's staying in the role and paying attention to this crucial issue. and there's a huge amount in the in—tray for the housing minister to deal with. there's mould in buildings as the building safety crisis. there's the housing crisis itself. there's this takes real political will and someone puts in a lot of effort and you can't

do if you only got like the last housing minister three months in the job. so what we need and i'm sure rachel clayton's got a amount of experience in planning an infrastructure and i'm sure she she can do a good job but we need someone stay in that job. focus on the issues and actually deliver the change we need to see. yes. i mean, you could say this about many department s many home secretary of state positions in this country and ministerial positions are very they always change hands. it's always a new person doing the top job. and it's not very it doesn't to be an effective way of doing government. if you had a business that constantly changing its chief, you'd probably have the same problem. so what should the new housing minister be focusing on day one? well, i think part of the issue is the supply of housing. think the real cause of? our housing crisis, we haven't built enough homes for many decades . this is homes for many decades. this is a particularly thorny political issue and other secretaries of state in levelling up and

ministers have have tried and failed to grapple with this question . we need to make sure question. we need to make sure that houses are being built. one of the things that a housing minister can do best at the moment is pay attention to the levelling up bill and street votes, which are in the levelling up bill. i think those have a lot of promise to deliver quite a few houses, but more generally we to take a generally they we need to take a look at what is stopping these houses getting built and what central local and you central government local and you know the housing minister sort of playing those what of playing between those what can that happen a lot can make that happen now a lot of viewers will either of our viewers will either themselves have children who themselves or have children who are renting in the private rental market. and if they've had a look at rightmove, oh, what's a spare room .com and all sorts of sites that show properties they'll see that rents have sky. what can the government do when it comes to that of course under the labour party, including sadiq khan have been talking about rent controls . that seems to me the wrong solution. what should the government be doing when it

comes to the rental market? unfortunately, the rental market is big issue and. is a real, really big issue and. i agree with you. rent controls are not a solution will only make the problem worse in the long term, whilst a privileged few rent controlled few stay rent controlled housing. we see this across the world when it's tried it does not make things better. it makes it can really kill cities. so i think rent control is a bad answer, but that doesn't necessarily mean we have a better answer, especially in the short in the medium and short term in the medium and long term, we need to get that supply need to, in our supply up. we need to, in our cities, especially in london, need to, you know, increase gentle density, slowly, make better use of existing land. so more people can live here and rents fall and that values per unit come down. what do you say to people who might be sitting at home thinking, i don't want any more in my area? you know , i any more in my area? you know, i bought my home or rented my home when, you know , for a reason in when, you know, for a reason in an area that was densely populated . what do you say to

populated. what do you say to those people? are they being selfish? well everyone's you know, everyone's always selfish in the market. that's that's how these things work. i think we need to find ways to bring people like that along with us. i think previous secretaries, state and housing ministers have tried to ignore those concerns and simply hasn't worked. so and it simply hasn't worked. so things , street votes and other things, street votes and other policies in those vain try? well, can we actually well, how can we actually generate consensus that generate the consensus that leads to more building? the outcome building outcome we need is more building . it's about finding solutions. they're going get they're going to work to get us there get more building there that we get more building is but i would like more is needed. but i would like more beautiful buildings to be built. there are some absolutely monstrosities out . thank you monstrosities out. thank you very much indeed. freddie poser, director of priced out uk. that's all we have time for this morning on the briefing but don't worry. coming up it's esther and phil.

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tv , the people's channel, tv, the people's channel, britain's news . britain's news. channel go . good morning. you're go. good morning. you're watching and listening to gb news. this is friday morning with the very esther mcvey and the very host philip davies. but quite like you like that, dear. oh, i'm i'm going to sex chat line later . i oh, i'm i'm going to sex chat line later. i won't be cold and we've got a great show lined up for you today in the week, hs2 is reportedly going be scaled back. we debate whether is the time to put it out of its misery once and for all and stop hs2. does your mp deserve a medal for their service? we'll be joined by the chairman of the house of commons committee as recommended just that and what you one of the people underwhelmed by the cabinet reshuffle this week we'll be looking at what it will