[Music]
Hello there. You're watching the press
preview. A first look at what is on the
front pages as they arrive. It's time to
see what is making the headlines with
political commentator Adam Bolton and
comment editor at the Telegraph,
Annabelle Denim. They'll be with me from
now until just before midnight. So,
let's see what is on some of those front
pages. And after the court ruling to
stop a hotel in Essex being used to
house asylum seekers, the Eye says that
a number of Labor councils are now also
planning legal action over hotels in
their areas. That story is also the main
item in tomorrow's Guardian. Likewise,
the Times as well. Labor councils
explore migrant hotel legal action is
their headline. The Mail, meanwhile,
calls it a labor revolt. The problems
all that creates for the prime minister
and his asylum policy highlighted in the
sun with this headline, no vacancies.
Meanwhile, in the FT, the jump in the UK
inflation uh to its highest since
January last year is the lead, which
also points to the widening prices gap
with countries in the Euro zone. That's
at around 2% there. The Express warns of
more misery for consumers over energy
bills with big rises expected later this
year despite government efforts to cut
them. The trial of 68-year-old
Christopher Brain, a former priest found
guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault
and celebrating verdicts on five other
charges, including rape, is the top
story in tomorrow's metro. The Telegraph
looks ahead to tomorrow's GCSE results
with the education secretary telling the
paper that failure to ensure that white
workingclass children succeed is holding
the country back. And finally, the Star
says the country is suffering from oasis
blues after the emotional high of the
band's recent tour. So, welcome now to
Adam Bolton and Annabelle Denim. Good to
see you both. I don't know if you're
suffering from the Oasis blues. We may
never find out because we're going to
start uh Adam with the front page of The
Sun. In fact, many of the papers, most
of them, in fact, are focusing on this
migrant hotels issue in the Sun's
headline, no vacancies.
>> Yeah. And also above that, it's got
Prime Minister's asylum nightmare. And
this really is a nightmare uh for the
government now because it's become a
very salient issue following that ruling
in the courts yesterday that in Eping
Forest in the Bell Hotel uh they got 28
days to move the migrants elsewhere.
Immediate problem for the government. No
one knows where elsewhere is. We've seen
ministers on television today unable to
answer that question. And um Zakir Stal
with that no vacancies headline
reminding that he uh told a select
committee at one point that he thought
there were plenty of places migrants
could go. But again when asked give us
some details he couldn't come up with an
answer. And what the government is now
worried about uh as it also says on the
front of the sun that local other
councils are now considering going to
court to see if they can get migrants
kicked out of hotels in their areas and
that includes uh two Labor councils, the
Whirl, which interestingly is the uh
patch of the immigration minister Andrew
Eagle and also uh the um Tamwwell worth,
you know, a classic uh marginal. And of
course, the point is that these
councilors do have to stand for
election. And undoubtedly in saying my
local electors don't want these people
in hotels in my own patch, they're
probably absolutely right.
>> Yeah. Interesting. We move on to the eye
as well. Their front uh page focuses
specifically on the Labor element of
this. Labor councils threaten new legal
action over asylum seeker hotels is what
the eye says. Uh Annabelle, look, it's
one thing uh reform merging its councils
to do whatever is within their power.
People would expect that, but Labor
councils elections or not doing this is
an added problem for the government,
isn't it?
>> This will certainly tighten the screws
on Karma on the government. Yes, but I
do think it was inevitable that they
would be looking to their own interests
and how on earth they're going to
neutralize the reform threat. Farage uh
now controlling some 12 councils across
the country. So of course it isn't just
those two um from Labour but others as
well and one wonders just how far this
ripple effect may now spread because
ultimately which council wouldn't want
to bring a case were they given the
opportunity to do so given the threat of
local protests against these asylum
hotels which are often placed in town
centers. they can really feel like
they're the beating heart of some
communities which are now being packed
full of often undocumented unvetted
young men. Now, Eping of course is an
unique case because you did have that
charge of sexual assault against an
asylum seeker there which we haven't
seen in uh other asylum hotels, other
councils up and down the country. But um
nevertheless, it it does appear to be in
some council's best interest. And we got
Kemmy Bnock pile on the agony embargo
till uh this evening. Uh she's
encouraging to me Tory councils to fight
asylum hotels. Uh I'm writing to uh you
to tell you how EPI achieved this
victory for their community and to tell
you that we back you to take similar
action to protect your community. Now
you know she's leader of the opposition
uh and she might consider this fair
game. Although of course it's worth
remembering that actually more people
were put into more hotels by the last
conservative government and actually
Labor have been reducing the numbers
although there still tens of thousand
>> that mean yeah 32,000 people currently
across around 200 hotels and the
question as Adam says is where are they
going to be put and no government
minister seems able to answer that
question now there is the possibility
that you could put them into some unused
housing social housing but that will you
know if you think people are upset about
asylum hotels we've got housing crisis
in this country. If you start filling
what vacant properties there are with
asylum seekers, then that will cause a
lot of public discontent.
>> There are many more asylum seekers who
are not in hotels. They're being housed
somewhere.
>> Yeah, it's about a third, I think, are
in hotels. Yeah,
>> but you know we did have uh before the
summer recess, we had a lot of people
complaining about homes of multiple
occupation
uh in areas of the country uh groups of
young men or individual young men
amounting to groups being put into these
communities and those communities
weren't happy either. And then you know
if we go back still further when the
idea was to use military camps again we
had a lot of public uh discontent about
the fact that that you know in in the do
area yeah that that the people being put
in in their area. So you know it's very
very unclear what can be done about
this. Labour's answer is they're just
going to drive down the numbers
>> and by the end of this parliament
uh which is another three and a half
years they say uh they won't have people
in hotels.
>> But imagine for a vet Cooper 2029 is
currently feeling like a very long way
away.
>> I mean the only thing she's got going
for her is this quote uh that the legal
judgment was one narrow court judgment.
That's what she describes it as. hoping
that the specific, you know,
circumstances will mean that others
won't be able to follow.
>> Yes. Could end up being the case. As you
said, Annabelle, there were some
specifics around the Eping case that
other councils may find uh puts them off
to you say, you know, would they bring
would they bring it if they had the
chart. I thought councils were strapped
for cash. It's not it's not cheap
bringing a legal challenge to something,
is it?
>> No. And one imagines that the more of
these cases that are taken to the high
court, the longer it will take for them
to get a ruling. And what happens in the
period, there's a very real risk that
there's going to be a lot of unrest that
might be stoked as a consequence of
councils bringing forward those cases,
but actually they're not going to get
any response anytime soon. So
potentially some backlash there.
>> The Guardian focuses on the Labor
elements of this as well, but let's uh
whis past that one and move to the FT
with a slightly different story.
unexpected acceleration Annabelle in
inflation. Why they say they focus on it
widening the gap with Eurozone peers. So
inflation for last month ticking up to
3.8% airfares and the rising cost of
certain foods especially the likes of
beef going up by a quarter uh in a year
is is is uh eye watering. Um but the FT
focus on the fact that uh in the Euro
zone inflation is hovering around about
2% on average. I think 1.8% 8% in
France, 1.7%
in Italy. They're doing something which
you would assume means imports will be
cheaper. And we heard from a strawberry
farmer just in the in the 10:00 news
there saying we can't we're going to
have to pass on costs.
>> No, that's I mean that's right. So 1.8
percentage point gap between the UK and
Euro area inflation. It does look as
though the Euro zone has been able to
tame this much better than the UK where
you know it's 3.8% 8% nearly double the
Bank of England's target. And yet just a
couple of weeks ago, the Munchy Policy
Committee made that decision to lower
interest rates to 4%. Now, you have to
wonder whether Andrew Paley and uh the
rest of the team there are wondering
whether that was uh a wise decision and
whether perhaps they brought it down a
little bit too quickly, but you know, to
answer your question, why is inflation
so sticky here? Well, it's in large part
a consequence of government policy. It's
the fact that uh you know we've got wage
growth as a consequence of the rise in
the minimum wage that was brought in by
the Labor government. You've got price
growth which is in part uh the result of
rising staff bills after employer
national insurance was increased in the
in April following the October budget.
So there are deliberate policy decisions
which have been made which have perhaps
led to inflation remaining higher than
another country. worth saying that
perhaps you know when you make the
comparison to Euro's own countries worth
remembering that Germany has been
formally in recession whereas we haven't
uh been formally in recession and as we
keep on being reminded uh the UK has had
the highest growth in the G7 and that's
the problem if you stimulate the economy
with things like increasing the minimum
wage uh then that's probably going to
drive inflation so you know there is an
element of swings and roundabouts but
it's certainly not good news.
>> No. And and some of those policy
measures uh you mentioned, Annabelle,
the government's saying, "Well, they're
trying to raise money that way." And
your own paper, its headline is Reeves
ice tax rate on pension lump sums. And
this time, last night, uh the front
pages were focusing on uh a potential
mansion tax on houses uh being sold for
more than one half million pounds. Uh
tonight on the Telegraph, Annabelle, uh
looking at pension lump sums. Quick word
on that. Well, you have to wonder with
all this tax kite flying whether the
government is just laying the
groundwork. So when Reeves does raise
them again in her October October
budget, having previously said that she
wouldn't need to uh the public perhaps
slightly desensitized to it and there's
less of a backlash rolling is what
you're talking exactly. Uh but um at the
moment pensioners can withdraw as a
quarter of their pot tax-free on
retirement uh with a cap but the
Treasury is now looking at reducing that
in order to raise billions of pounds.
But as you say we've also had the
suggestion there might be some sort of
mansion tax um and and further crackdown
on inheritance tax. It's the big issue
for Rachel Reeves is that Labour
ultimately with that manifesto tax
triple law not to raise uh income tax
national insurance or VAT has made it
left itself with very little wiggle
room. You know where is it going to go
next because we did see that 25 billion
pound increase in employers national
insurance at the last budget. So they
haven't got much wiggle room here and
yet it does look as though they're
confronting an enormous black hole.
Well, there was one estimate last couple
of weeks ago that suggested it could be
as big as 50 billion pounds. So, they've
got to try and find the money from
somewhere, all the while hoping, praying
for more growth, but it's going to be
very difficult if the Bank of England is
holding interest rates.
So,
>> those pesky black holes don't go away,
do they? Thanks both for the time being.
Coming up, among the stories we'll be
discussing this on the front of the
Guardian, Israel says it will expand its
Gaza offensive.
We arrive. A secret hospital hidden in
the Myanmar jungle. Treating the victims
of this bloody war. This is Myanmar
today. Its military rulers don't want
the world to see. But we have.
>> I fight for my own future. I fight for
my generation future.
>> This is an actual crime. They don't care
for death.
My my army is only a couple of
kilometers away.
>> So this is a major humanitarian
disaster.
>> A lifeline for millions of people living
on both sides of one of the most
volatile international borders. It's
dams like these that have become
infliction points between the two
nuclear armed neighbors, which could
potentially lead to water wars in the
future.
A terror attack has shattered the peace
and tranquility of Kashmir. At least 26
people have been killed and has many
injured when militants fired upon them.
I'm Neville Lazarus and I'm skies
reporter based in Delhi. The old and
young all weary after being trapped for
days as the worst floods have hit Kerala
in a century.
>> 3 days we are on a rooftop. They have no
food, nothing.
>> The roads have been inundated. The only
way out is to get people by boat. There
have been reported deaths and many
injuries, several critical.
>> Many families will grapple with the
unimaginable loss of one of the worst
disasters in India's aviation history.
>> The spiraling violence between two
nuclear armed neighbors that harbor
decades of hostility just seems to be
getting worse by the day. Garbage dumps
like this not only threaten the lives of
millions of people but also pose a
deadly consequence on the environment
and climate. It is a source of death,
decay, disease and pollution for
hundreds of thousands of people living
in its shadows.
>> There is so much disease because of this
garbage. Sometimes it's so difficult to
just breathe. Companies like these are
helping India in its trajectory to be a
serious player in space exploration.
Over the next 45 days, an estimate 400
million Hindu pilgrims are expected to
converge here in Pria Raj on the banks
of the holy river Ganga and Yamuna. It's
a real kaleidoscope of people from all
walks of life.
Hear that whistle and that crunch. We
know that they're coming from the south
of the city where there's a column uh of
Russian armory. I'm Alex Crawford and
I'm Skye's special correspondent based
in Istanul.
>> Look at that sheet of flames. And that
has happened within minutes. And now
it's coming from both sides and it's
moving this way.
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News app. Get the full story first.
Welcome back. You're watching the press
preview here on Sky News. With me in the
studio, political commentator Adam
Bolton and comment editor of the
Telegraph, Annabelle Denham. Let's uh
delve straight back into the front
pages. Let's start with the Guardian. Uh
this part, Adam, and Israel says it will
expand its Gaza City offensive. We heard
earlier in the evening, Benjamin
Netanyahu wanting to speed things up. We
don't know from what to what because
some of these uh reserveists being
called up are being asked to report next
month. Um but what is the Guardian
saying about it?
>> Well, the Guardian is really confirming
that it's happening because it's been
talked about, but now we've actually had
the defense ministry, their spokesman
Effie define saying that the callup is
taking place. Now this is a call up of
60,000 reservists and the idea is they
will fill in while the regular uh
Israeli forces go into and the phrase
they're using is conquer Gaza city and
of course they've already been uh trying
to uh move people out in into
concentrated camps from that area. Now
this is an expression of determination
by the government led by uh Netanyahu as
we know from the demonstrations at the
weekend. It is by no means universally
shared uh by the Israeli population and
you know the question will be what
happens to the hostages because uh a lot
of people in Israel think the priority
should be to get the hostages out. uh
Netanyahu is in the process of rejecting
the latest offer uh coming uh from Hamas
to release some and and go forward. So
um it just looks like the war goes on
and the hostages will cons continue to
be collateral damage. And of course
underlying all this
is the fact that here we are nearly
three years in.
>> Yeah. and the massive forces of the
Israeli Defense Forces and you know
nearly 100,000 people dead of whom the
majority are civilians and Hamas is
still there is still there still calling
shots and that objective stated right at
the beginning by the Israelis of
eliminating Hamas it just hasn't
happened. Yeah,
>> I think that's a really important point,
Adam, because in so many ways the IDF
has been remarkably impressive and has
allowed Israel to reshape aspects of the
Middle East. I mean, it's defanged
Hisbala to the north, the Houthis, um,
and launch those very targeted effective
strikes on Iran. And yet in Gaza, it
seems unable to achieve its ultimate
military objectives of rooting out Hamas
and returning those hostages. And you
know, partial the ceasefire earlier this
week, the terms that Hamas were willing
to agree to of that partial return of
hostages is simply not something that
Israel would be able to countenance. So
on it goes. 1.2 million people believed
to be in Gar city already, most of it
reduced to glass and rubble. And you
just wonder what will happen to the
human humanitarian crisis catastrophe
that's underway there.
>> And the other thing they did say today
from the defense ministry or or the war
ministry effectively was they expect
this operation this aspect of operation
Gideon's chariot as they call it to go
on into next year.
>> Yes. So, it's going to be a very long
>> It certainly doesn't seem like it's
going to end anytime soon. Like you say,
despite uh that offer of a ceasefire via
Qatar and Egypt on behalf of Hamas, it
looks like, as you say, we're hearing
from uh the Israeli government that they
are pressing ahead with this. Thanks
both for the time being. We'll return to
the papers after the top of the hour,
but first, let's take a very quick look
uh at the weather.
Breathtaking views
with clear skies ahead. The weather
sponsored by Kata Airways.
The next couple of days will be sunnier
than we've seen recently, but it will be
quite cool overall, especially in the
east of the country. The bank holiday
weekend though does look a little bit
warmer when it arrives. Before then, uh
there'll be a dry start tomorrow with
sunny spells for most, but it will be
quite cool in rural parts of the north
and the west. Southeast England and
North Sea coastal areas will keep a
chilly wind. The morning will stay dry
with bright or sunny spells, best in the
southwest. It'll be rather cool again,
chilly near England. Still windy east
coast, but eastern Scotland will see the
wind easing off. By the afternoon, it'll
bring a little uh little overall change,
although it will look a bit sunnier
later on.
Breathtaking views with clear skies
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You're watching Sky News. Coming up next
at 11:00, the latest on councils across
England. Several of them preparing legal
challenges to asylum seeker hotels in
their areas. You're watching Sky News.
Don't go away.
I'm David Blevens and I'm Skye's senior
Ireland correspondent.
I've spent 30 years reporting the
journey from conflict to peace. The end
of the political stalemate, the start of
a new chapter for Northern Ireland.
Catholics and Protestants now facing the
same threat.
>> If we both contract CO 19, religion's
nothing.
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