Posts by rogue2457

A Treasury minister fell apart on LBC this morning over a key part of the government's 10-year infrastructure plan. Economic Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds appeared this morning on LBC to talk about the £10bn Lower Thames Crossing, but was unable to answer basic questions including where it starts and ends or how much it costs. The project, which will be the UK's largest road tunnel, has been awarded £590m by the government. Building the Lower Thames Crossing, linking Tilbury in Essex and Gravesend in Kent, will cost an estimated £10bn. It will link the A2 and M2 in Kent with the A13 and M25 in Essex, cutting out the need to use the Dartford Crossing. In a car-crash exchange with an increasingly incredulous Nick Ferrari, Ms Reynolds, the MP for Wycombe, was asked where the crossing 'starts and lands.' "Well...it's...you'll forgive me, I can't recall the exact landing zones," she said. "So the crossing you're talking about, you don't know where it is?" said Nick. "It's...the Lower Thames Crossing, which has been in planning for many, many years...and it's to enable essentially people to not have to take the Dartford Tunnel which is a huge problem..." she said. Nick then asked her "how much is it going to cost?" She said: "It's going to cost quite a lot of money. "But we today are announcing £590 million towards that cost, we'd already put some money in the Autumn Budget into this project but we want this to be a public-private partnership..." "But how much is the crossing going to cost, Secretary?" asked Nick. She said it would cost 'several' billion pounds, to which Nick replied: "It's ten billion to put you out of your misery, it's not several, it's ten." She also mistakenly referred to the existing Dartford crossing as the "Dartmouth tunnel". Nick went on to ask her when people in London might expect Hammersmith Bridge to reopen. "I'm not here to talk about the Hammersmith Bridge, I'm not a transport minister", she said. At one point a clearly exasperated Nick Ferrari asks her: "Is there much point in continuing this conversation?" The funding for the Lower Thames Crossing is part of the Government's 10-year plan for infrastructure. A new structures fund will also invest in repairing bridges, flyovers, tunnels and other transport infrastructure such as roads. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said that the Lower Thames project is "essential for improving the resilience of a key freight route and is critical to our long-term trade with Europe". "It will speed up the movement of goods from south-east England to the Midlands and the North, crucial to thousands of jobs and businesses," she added. Rachel Reeves has said that ministers are "going all in by going up against the painful disruption of closed bridges, crossings and flyovers". The Chancellor added: "This is a turning point for our national infrastructure, and we're backing it with funding to support thousands of jobs and connect communities, delivering on our plan for change." Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #nickferrari #ukpolitics #uk #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup

Lewis Goodall presses Labour's Darren Jones on whether Keir Starmer should apologise to those who called for a national inquiry into grooming gangs. #lewisgoodall #groominggangs #LBC #keirstarmer #ukpolitics #rochdale #rotherham

Lewis Goodall is joined by economic advisor and candidate for the Chancellor of Cambridge University, Mohamed El-Erian, to discuss the economic impact of the conflict between Israel and Iran. Israel's attack on Iran's main nuclear enrichment site overnight on Friday marked a dramatic escalation in tensions between the two countries. If this conflict were to continue for more than a few weeks, Mohamed El-Erian believes that it will directly hit the UK 'in the pocket' as he argues, 'the magnitude will depend on the duration of this conflict.' The conflict has already seen restrictions to the Straits of Hormuz, a significant oil shipping link to the rest of the world, as roughly 20 million barrels per day pass through. Mr El-Erian predicts that this restriction, and a possible future blockage, will significantly increase global oil prices and how much we in the UK pay at the pump. The chief economic advisor at Allianz warns of a state of stagflation in the UK: a slowing down of the economy coupled with increasing prices of goods. If this is true, he tells Lewis that the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, should be 'very worried.' Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #lewisgoodall #israeliranwar #netanyahu #nuclear #nukes #iran #middle school #warzone #conflict #economy #oil #price #inflation #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup

Grooming gang survivor, Ellie Reynolds, says Sir Keir Starmer 'was left with no choice' but to launch a national inquiry into the scandal, telling GB News: 'A lot of things will start coming out about the corruption.' #KeirStarmer #uknews #GBNews Keep up to date with GB News at gbnews.com or on X @GBNEWS Support GB News by becoming a member from just £5 per month: https://gbnews.com/support

Choking scenes in online pornography should be made illegal to help counter 'an avalanche of violence' towards young women and girls, a Labour MP has said. Speaking exclusively to GB News, Jess Asato told how she will go to Parliament next week and call for a change in the law to ban the scenes, which are already outlawed in other forms of 'offline' pornography. #Adult #uknews #JessAsato #GloriaDePiero #GBNews Keep up to date with GB News at gbnews.com or on X @GBNEWS Support GB News by becoming a member from just £5 per month: https://gbnews.com/support