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Well, this is Sky News. In just a moment, the press preview, a first look at what is on the front pages. First, though, a reminder of our top stories this evening. The identity of the alleged Chinese spy who befriended prince Andrew and met prime ministers has been revealed as young Tung Boh, who says he has done nothing wrong. Bashar al Assad has issued his first statement on being toppled from power and leaving Syria for Russia, saying he'd wanted to stay and keep fighting.
And France is racing to send crews and supplies to its overseas Indian Ocean Territory of Mayotte where the authorities say they fear 100, even 1,000 may have been killed in a powerful cyclone. Well, hello there. You're watching the press preview. A first look at what is on the front pages. Time then to see what's making the headlines with The Sun's deputy political editor, Ryan Saeby, and The Guardian's political editor, Pippa Creera.
Welcome, and great to see both of you. So as ever, let's take a look at the front pages, shall we? Starting with The Eye and the revelation of an alleged Chinese spy at the heart of the British establishment and his connection, of course, to prince Andrew, his lead story for The Eye, which says Britain is tightening surveillance on suspects from China, while Buckingham Palace is telling the prince not to come to Sandringham for Christmas. Ryan's paper, The Sun, concludes that Andrew has effectively been stuffed at Christmas. Alleged Chinese spy linked Prince Andrew's name that is the front of Pippa's paper, the Guardian.
The Metro steals a famous line from James Bond. The name's Yang, Tungbo Yang. The Mirror asks how many more Beijing spooks could be operating in the UK undetected, while the Daily Mail asks why prime minister Keir Starmer is still fostering closer ties with China or sucking up as the paper puts it. Daily Express leads with a warning from a former head of NATO that the UK must boost defense spending off a scrapping 20,000 troops or perhaps even 1 of its aircraft carriers. Financial Times reports that businesses are cutting back on hiring new people and blaming the budget, in particular, the extra burden of the increase in employers' national insurance contributions.
And finally, the star says Ebenezer Scrooge is alive and well living in Fulham and charging his friends and family £75 for Christmas dinner. Reminder, we're scanning the QR code that you'll see on screen during the program. You can check out the front pages of tomorrow's newspapers while you listen to our guests. So let's head to Ryan and Pippa. Nearly a clean sweep of, China related news.
Your paper then, the Guardian Pippa, alleged Chinese spy linked to prince Andrew is named. What have we learned about him given his denials, his, assurances that he's done nothing wrong in his statement?
Yeah. And he's outed himself today, the the the individual formerly known as h 6, amid threats from politicians that they would use use privilege in the House of Commons to name him. I mean, the bottom line was we all knew we've all known who he was for days because it's been all over the Internet, both social media and international news outlets. So I think probably he didn't really have any option other than to sort of to out himself in this way. But it's absolutely fascinating because we, we, The Guardian and other and other, organizations have talked about him being an alleged spy And if you sort of mine into the detail of exactly what his role was, obviously he denies being a spy, but it seems that he was what I would probably refer to as an agent of influence.
And he was a member of this United Front Work Department, which has been central to the Chinese Communist Party's ambitions, for a century. I mean president, Chairman Mao no less, describes, the the UF, the UFWD as it's snappily known as 1 of as 1 of the Chinese Communist Party's 3 magic weapons. The other being the the People's Liberation Army and the party's propaganda arms. So it's been absolutely central to China's efforts in this area for a very long time. But Prince Andrew is possibly 1 of the more unusual targets targets of it because you know you might question here what influence he actually has and I think the point here is that not that Prince Andrew was, privy to state secrets, which would have been damaging, you know, whether it's sort of about cyber security or nuclear or, you know, our our infrastructure, which might would have been damaging whether it's leaked to the Chinese.
Instead, that an association with him may have been helpful to open up doors to other people, whether that is, in in royal circles or whether that is in business. And it looks like here, certainly from the court doc documents, suggestions were that it was about introductions to businesses and also potentially could provide the Chinese with leverage when it came to sort of, you know for political interference as well. So it's not I think when you're thinking about him being an alleged spy we shouldn't sort of think about it through the prism of you know James Bond but or sort of how we would classically define the spy but instead he's somebody who potentially is at a really key place in society, potentially in business and potentially in politics and that could open doors. Yes.
So if you're if you as an agent of influence, your main role is to make people think a bit more brightly about China with your doubters, you make them, you know, a little bit cheerier about them, then what's the big deal? What's the difference with being a lobbyist or a trade envoy, for example? And if if if there's you know, what what what's the fuss about is what I'm asking. For someone like Ian Duncan Smith who who complained in the comments as we heard earlier, 40,000 of these people from the United Front, you know, permeating every part of British society. You know, people are falling into into different camps over this, aren't they?
I think you've got the issue of, you know, was this guy acting as a British spy? Now there must be some reason. We still haven't really got to the reason why, the security services actually, stopped this guy from from coming into into the country. So I think it would be good to know the actual background to the decision that they they've actually made. But as paper says, you've got the the difference between the spy and the Asian influence.
I think that has just triggered the sort of backlash across Westminster about the influence of of China on this country.
And When we while you're talking, let's look at the Daily Mail then, which is which is on this. Do do continue.
Yeah. And I and I just think Keir Starmer's in a very, very difficult position on this. He's got how close does he does he get to China? He he was over, had meetings, he's over in Brazil the other week, I think it was, where he had the meeting with president Xi. So he's got to have a relationship with them because there's, you know, obviously such a, you know, an economic powerhouse.
You can't shy away from that. But on the other hand, he's got to listen to this what the security services say, about that. And, obviously, there were with the with the British economy not doing particularly well, you have to stick close to them.
And people talking about classifying different countries. China should be in a different category. Tom Toobinhardt really, you know, talking about this today in the in the comments. What you know, why would that make a difference in how people deal with people from China? So And does it become discriminatory to Chinese people at the end
of the day? So what this particular, element of this debate is about is something called the foreign interests register which, actually I wouldn't say Britain is unique in not having 1 but I should say many other countries do have an equivalent and sort of look on Britain with surprise that there's not any sort of system when people working for foreign governments come to the UK to register here and that could be sort of you know people working in embassies as civil servants effectively but that obviously can also be those who are in it from a sort of security perspective and what Tom Tucano who's the Conservative former Security Minister has been saying the last couple of days is that and said again in the comments today, is that when the Conservatives left government this foreign interest register was ready to be published but that they'd had a big row some time ago about whether there should be an enhanced level and that enhanced level would would have sort of stricter conditions and would cover presumably Russia, Iran, you know Syria maybe and certainly China. And then at the time there'd been a pushback from big businesses with interests in China, things like HSBC, Prudential, Standard Chartered, businesses like that that said that it would make their lives far too complicated when it came to, when it came to, doing their day to day business.
But they'd thrashed out all those rallies inside government and they'd come to the conclusion despite the Home Office's, because of the Home Office's concerns about the national security aspect of it that that's where they needed to fall and that China there's no point to this register unless China was in that enhanced tier. And what they're now saying today is what he's claiming is that Labor have to Labor are now unclear and having all those debates again about whether to put China in that enhanced register.
I think 1 of the fascinating things is this big row that's clearly brewing between the Home Office and the Treasury. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is said to be going to, China in the New Year. She doesn't want to offend, you know, the country maybe in any way, and then you've got the, you've got the the the the home office who who who want to clearly have a have a crackdown. So you've got, this, you know, this row that is starting in in Whitehall. And how how do you resolve it when you have these 2 massive interests in play?
Yeah. And the eye, suggesting that the UK needs to toughen up surveillance on China suspects. We're gonna spy on the suspected spies by the sound of it. And it's us as householders. You know, every time you do online shopping, you're very likely buying something from China.
So what, you know, there's so much trade that goes on whether you know it or not. So we're in a sort of peculiar position, aren't we, here in the UK, really?
Yeah. It was a very difficult 1. And as and as Ryan says, I think that the fact that Rachel Reeves and the business secretary Jonathan Reynolds are expected to go out to, to China in the 1st couple of weeks of the new year, probably will expect Keir Starmer to go out himself at some point. He, as Ron said mentioned, he met Xi Jinping, became the first British prime minister in I think since 2018, to meet a Chinese premier. It's you know, they will be aware alive to, what it might look like if they turn up in China wanting to sort of do deals, trade, talk about the economy if they sanctioned them effectively, at home.
So they've got this big China audit, which they're doing. We're not expecting that to be published till March, conveniently after they've been to China. I'm I'm sure that wasn't a factor in their decision about the timing of it all. But, but you know, it's these things are very, very, delicate balances. Starmer said today he was on a trip to Norway and he was asked about this in the press, a very short press conference earlier and he said that their strategy, unlike some of the more recent governments, is to engage with China, not going back to sort of the golden era if as they called it of David Cameron and George Osborne, but to engage and that that would mean some cooperation, economic cooperation, but it would also mean being aware of sort of competition and it would be and being aware of I forgot what the other c was but it's something to do with security anyway.
But, but they would they would have those 3 c's as their as a sort of their lodestar when it came to negotiating with China, but it's definitely a very difficult balance for them to strike.
Yeah. China, another review. Who'd have thought it? Hey. But there we are.
And just onto your paper, the outcome of course is, is not so great for Prince Andrew as you so so slightly undelicately put it in your, in your
Yeah. No. Exactly. It was a really difficult situation for the for the royal family, but it does seem that Prince Andrew has learned probably from the, the Jeffrey Epstein incident where they've actually acted quite quickly. So instead of letting that instant drag on, either Prince Andrew or his advisers have have actually just, you know, cut cut him short from the, from the sort of Christmas festivities and and just said you you're not going.
It's just sort of how it looks to to the rest of the world if you see prince Andrew walking up to the church on Sandringham on on Christmas day. And I think this year he he's he's just got to sit sit it out.
And if, you know, Chris Yang, as he was known over the, you know, couple of decades he lived here, met, you know, Prime Ministers and all sorts, is is it being unfair on on Prince Andrew to focus on him, or was there too much of a closeness, do you think?
Well I mean he was he was effectively given permission by Andrew to represent his business interest in China. He was, he was very involved in this this pitch to the Palace, dragon's den type scheme that he had. You know, maybe he was maybe he was an obvious target. I mean, in the court documents which I'm sure you've read there was a really interesting line, a sort of a note to Yang, for points to take conversation points to have with Prince Andrew and it warned him that Andrew was in a desperate situation and will grab on to anything. So they clearly thought that he would potentially, be, you know, a sort of a readier, an easier target, for, you know, for cozying up for influence because of his own financial situation, because of, you know, his clear interest in the trappings of of, of, you know, of royalty, and and they felt that he would be, you know, an obvious target for that and, you know, it looks like it.
Yeah. Very interesting. And just and just very quickly, Ram, would it help be helpful if we found out why security pulled him over? And and would that help us understand the seriousness of this, do you think?
Yeah. Definitely. I think 1 thing as well because it seems like maybe the security services aren't there to be questioned by the media as much as, as politicians, maybe whether they came out to be answer questions on it. Do you think perhaps, you know, in terms of transparency, that's 1 thing they they they could probably look at. But just maybe, you know, a couple of sort of bullet points of, exactly why they, or why why they did it.
It would it would just denied it.
Yeah. It it would it would just clear the whole thing up.
Okay. We'll see what happens, shall we? Lots more still to come. Is an increase to tax on businesses leading to a hiring slowdown already? Discussing that next.
How are you? Good
morning. Good morning.
Nice to see you. How are you feeling?
Looking forward to getting into the parliamentary chamber.
Are you any further forward to making a decision? No.
No. It's an important day to day.
All of the claims were in line with my parliamentary duties, so I'm making that clear to you, Connor.
He was a a scot through and through.
He's a very good politician.
Alex Hammond was controversial. He was a disruptor, but above all, he was respected. Will you resign if you lose this week?
Again, I'm not planning to, of course, lose the vote in the conference. I'm planning to win that vote in the conference.
His face said it all.
My intention to stand down as party leader.
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Now that you're up to date, we can go into a bit more detail.
Things can change incredibly quickly. Taken by surprise.
Have you ever known a moment like this in British politics before? Yes. Cheers.
We'll start with breaking news.
Let's get the latest on the ground.
So by the end, we'll hopefully all understand what's going on in the world. Just that little bit better.
Well, welcome back. You are watching the press preview with me now, Ryan Saeby and Pippa Crerar. Welcome back, to both of you. Ryan, let's go to the Financial Times, shall we, about corporate confidence and specifically hiring people for jobs.
Yeah. No. It seems like there's been a a real problem, I would say, since the budget. But, actually, I think it's got goes back to sort of the beginning of July when when Labor came to power, them sort of painting a a sort of doom and gloom image and then coming up with the figure at the end of July of saying there's a a 22,000,000,000 pound financial black hole. And I think that just put gave the gave the business community, certainly, the jitters.
And, and I think from then, there has been a real sort of lack of confidence. And when they've come to making decisions about investment in their own company or taking people on with new job jobs, they've actually sort of erred away from doing that. And I think that and then we had the growth figures last week where we saw, GDP down for 2 months in a row. It led to some economists to say that, effectively, we're on recession watch, which is kind of the last place that a new government wants to be in.
Yes. Indeed. You know, investment stalled because of uncertainty, and then investments, you know, continue to stall Yes. Because of the walloping of on business. Yeah.
So the growth budget will will be what in the end?
Well, I mean it's it's a problem, that the growth figures were so the growth predictions were so anemic in budget in the first place and since then we've had a series of economic announcements which suggests that they could be even worse than those figures and Rachel Reeves has been quite open about saying it's not good enough, we need to do better, we want more. She obviously is blaming it on the on the economic inheritance from the Conservatives but there comes a point if if some of the gut the and I agree with Ryan it's not just about the announcements in the budget it's about the tone that they set beforehand that they were talking down the economy when actually they needed to be to be talking it up. Now there's a caveat about this particular piece of research which the Feet has splashed on in that, the the it reflects sentiment based on the balance between companies reporting improvements and deteriorations and it can exaggerate moves apparently in the economy when many groups are hit by the same shock and official data so far isn't actually showing that there are that there that redundancies, have risen in recent months or that the number of payroll employees has fallen.
So I think there's a little pinch of salt here that companies will kind of they'll talk about the war and about the worst, and actually reality may not quite reach that point but it is definitely a problem for the government that they appear to have hit business confidence when they're putting their whole economic strategies predicated on growth and we've heard a lot in the last week or so about planning and house building and how that is going to deliver growth but that is not a quick fix. It doesn't happen overnight and Rachel Reeves is in a position where she doesn't want to have a budget next spring. They're going to do the spending review instead But if the government fails to meet their their their key fiscal rule that they, that they cover, day to day expenditure without having to resort to more borrowing, then they she's gonna have to she's gonna have a, a gap to plug, and she may end up being forced to have a budget in the spring after all.
Yeah. Very interesting. Yeah.
As I said, 1 of
the 1
of the big problems for the government is we can talk about GDP figures and all that, but actually what they want to do is make sure that people feel better in their pockets, and that we're a long, long way away from that.
Yeah. And the inheritance obviously was post COVID, post war in Europe, post energy crisis. You should remember where why the government spent so much, I guess, at the end of the day. Very quickly, 2 stories and watch as we can. Maybe just jump to the last 1.
Yeah. Could we just jump to the last 1? Apologies to, Kem and Badenoch's idea towards a flat rate of tax. But anyway, this guy here is gonna charge people £75 for Christmas dinner. He's even got a card machine to do it.
But actually, if you host on your own and pay for all your stuff, it is wallopingly expensive, isn't it?
It is. I mean, I'm having 15 people on on Christmas day. I hope you're listening family. Because I might get out my get my card reader and I live in the limousine for for, for 5 days. So it's not cheap but fortunately I'm a classic Scot and will be making sure that we sort of be big vats of stuff that everyone has to you know, turkey stew for 3 days afterwards and all the rest
of it.
I'll make sure I'll make sure I stretch the finances as much as I can.
Home dug potatoes. I'm just seeing it obviously. Yes. Nobody I mean, London got This is, you know, this is an alternative way of approaching it, isn't it?
If you do spend alternate years with other families, you you can even it it evens itself out. But actually, just getting the turkey is expensive than all the other bits on top, whether it's alcohol
or kids presents.
Presents as well. Yeah. These things add up.
We're we're still selling a bit of bah humbug ourselves. Let's stop there. Ryan and, Pippa, thank you both very much indeed. Thank you. See you for more in the 11, obviously.
Let's take a look at the weather now. Mild, unsettled over the next couple of days. Heavy rain and strong winds at times turning colder on Thursday. A mainly dry and fairly mild start tomorrow then. Northwest Scotland and the west of Ireland will be wet.
Ireland and Northern Ireland will stay mostly wet through the morning. The rain will become more patchy. Scotland and Northern England will see outbreaks of rain becoming widespread. Wales and the bulk of England, meanwhile, do look mainly dry. Windy in the west, coastal gales developing, it will be mild.
Ireland and Northern Ireland will see heavier, more general rain returning from the west during the afternoon. Well, coming up, our press preview continues in Sky News at 11. We'll have more on the naming of an alleged Chinese spy with links to prince Andrew. The most significant day of this conflict They keep telling us that they won.
This is what's left of it.
Don't save a vehicle.
Why only in America
people want their country to work?
Just wanna drop in a normal life.
Why are these homes empty?
I want you to be honest with people. That has
happened.
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