Meanwhile, the chancellor announced tougher benefit sanctions on those who are capable of working. But choose not to. And a National Living wage rise to £11 an hour. Wage rise to £11 an hour. We promised in our manifesto to raise the National Living wage to two thirds of Median Income and ending low pay in this country. At the moment, this country. At the moment, its £10. 42 an hour and were waiting for the low Pay Commission to tell us next Years Commission to tell us next years recommendation. But i confirm today, whatever that recommendation, well increase the National Living wage to at least £11 an hour next year. Least £11 an hour next year. Thats a pay rise for 2 million workers. Chancellor well, liz truss has called on him to cut Corporation Tax back to 19 in his next autumn statement. Speaking at a fringe rally at conservative Party Conference in manchester today, the former former Prime Minister urged the tory leadership to axe the tax cut bills and build homes. Her comments come after jeremy hunt told gb news no substantial tax cuts were possible. This year. But ms truss said businesses are choosing not to locate in the uk and they shouldnt be treated like a cash cow. In other news, like a cash cow. In other news, a Second Police force is investigating allegations against the comedian russell brand. In a statement, thames brand. In a statement, Thames Valley police said its received new information relating to harassment and stalking allegations dating back to 2018. They added it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation. It ongoing investigation. It follows an investigation by the sunday times and channel 4. Russell brand denies all accusations of criminal obe and lastly, Junior Doctors and consultants in england started a three day walkout today. Thats the longest ever period of joint strike action until thursday morning at 7 00. Theyre delivering whats being described as Christmas Day levels of staffing their last joint strike in september led to almost 130,000 appointments, having to be rescheduled. The government says the walkout is doing a massive disservice to patients. This is doing a massive disservice to patients. This is gb doing a massive disservice to patients. This is gb news across patients. This is gb news across the uk on tv in your car , on the uk on tv in your car, on your Digital Radio and now on your Digital Radio and now on your Smart Speaker by saying play your Smart Speaker by saying play gb news. This is britains news channel. News channel. Good evening. Well, its the first time ive been inside the security barrier at a conservative Party Conference since, believe it or not, the 19805. Since, believe it or not, the 1980s. But theyve let me in. And what ive seen over the course of the last 48 hours is very interesting. First thing to say, and its a really positive thing is the number of young people here has literally people here has been literally astonishing. Were that astonishing. Were told that young people arent interested in conservative politics. Theyre switched off from the whole this place was whole thing. This place was absolutely with them absolutely heaving with them today. What ive also seen is a party split in so many different ways. There isnt really time to talk about it. Theyre split still on brexit. Many of them appear to be embarrassed about the whole thing. They dont even want to talk about immigration, legal immigration, which i think is elephant in the room at is the elephant in the room at this conference. Goodness only knows they stand on knows where they stand on the hs2 extension. I could go on to net zero policies and much else. I went the conservative. I went to the conservative Democratic Organisation dinner last was pretty much last night. It was pretty much open rebellion there on the stage today. The main event was the chancellors speech and well discuss that in just a moment. But it was a fringe event headed by liz truss. Thats where the buzz was, thats where the energy was. Thats where the energy was. Thats they were queuing thats where they were queuing for to get into the for simply ages to get into the room and not all of them did. Room and not all of them did. What is interesting is this what i saw today was not the usual battle of personal vanities for whos trying to get to the top and who may lead the party after the next election. What i saw today was a battle of ideas. I today was a battle of ideas. I think there is a pretty broad acceptance s realistic acceptance s realistic acceptance. Yes. They cant win acceptance. Yes. They cant win the next election. What is going on now is a battle for the conservative party is going to be after the next election. To be after the next election. To my mind, thats very necessary because i see the modern Day Conservative Party and labour party. Frankly as two forms of social democracy , big social democracy, big government, big spend , big tax, government, big spend, big tax, big deficit, huge immigration numbers and frankly, not much to choose. Numbers and frankly, not much to choose. So i went out earlier choose. So i went out earlier and asked delegates a very simple question can you win the next election . Have a look. So the big question is, can you win again next year . Yes i think i mean, obviously, my seat changes significantly under the boundary changes. But the seat that a third of my seat goes into whitehaven to work at and i think absolutely is in play for the conservatives. I think most of cumbria is in play for the conservatives lives. I dont know. It depends on the strategies. It depends on the strategies. You know, i think if we were up against a more more charismatic, you know, kind of andy burn and wes streeting and i we would be in dire straits. Its going to be a struggle. I think bit of honesty here, a i think a bit of honesty here, a bit of honesty here. Its going to be a huge struggle, isnt it . What would it need in your view . Well somehow fulfil all manifesto promises within the next year. I think were doing very well. Rishi sunak definitely the man the job hes doing an man for the job hes doing an amazing job. Its possible doable. Its possible its doable. Its herculean task, though. Its a herculean task, though. Yes because i think theres enough conservatives who want whats right and we all stand for traditional values. For traditional values. And as long as Everybody Knows stand for. Knows thats what we stand for. Found in the last 20 what i found in the last 20 minutes or so going around is the older conservative loyalists would support the party, whatever it said, whatever it did at a pure tribal loyalty amongst the younger generation, theres a lot more thought. And i think the frankness is they all know theyre going to lose the next election. The real battle of this conference is who wins intellectually after the election. And thats why liz truss is here shouting as loudly as she is. Economics dominated as she is. Economics dominated today. I mentioned liz truss today. I mentioned liz truss earlier. Hes a very quick clip of what she had to say at 12 30 today. So lets start with axing the tax. Yes, we need to unleash tax. Yes, we need to unleash business across britain. We need people to want to invest in our country. We need businesses to be able to export and to grow, to create new jobs, to create new ideas. And thats why im new ideas. And thats why im calling upon the chancellor at the autumn statement to put corporation back tax, back down to 19. And frankly , if we can to 19. And frankly, if we can get it lower, the better. Get it lower, the better. On the theme of taxes , here on the theme of taxes, here was the chancellor of the exchequer , jeremy hunt, giving exchequer, jeremy hunt, giving the main speech on the stage at 2 00 this afternoon. Conservative will always protect public services, but we also honest about the taxes that pay also honest about the taxes that pay for them after a once in a century pandemic and the Biggest Energy crisis in a generation, the level of tax is too high. We were right to protect jobs and families. And thanks to rishis families. And thanks to rishis furlough scheme , we recovered furlough scheme, we recovered faster from the pandemic than others. But with an ageing population and a war in europe, pubuc population and a war in europe, public spending is still growing faster than the economy. Faster than the economy. To analyse all of this, im joined by Liam Halligan gb news is business and economics editor and by lord frost, the negotiator of our brexit deal. Liam you chaired the liz truss meeting earlier on. It was like a revivalist meeting , wasnt it . A revivalist meeting, wasnt it . I mean, there was a real buzz in that room, a sense that the conservative party has gone too far away from where it should be. It reminded me of that Famous Church in the blues brothers. B rothers. Brothers. I b rothers. I expected brothers. I expected people to start bat flipping down the aisle, so it to me, i mean, it it really felt to me, i mean, it would be written up as splits and gaffes and the tory party at war one another. It felt to war with one another. It felt to me democracy because there me like democracy because there you had a Prime Minister who, of course, was voted in by tory activists openly challenging a Prime Minister who wasnt voted in by tory activists. In by tory activists. Yes, i mean, they were her voters in that room were absolutely. And the media was there. The worlds media was there, and it was deliberately timed. Nigel it was deliberately timed. Nigel it was one before the was one hour before the chancellors speech and it was an open challenge to the chancellor. I want you to cut taxes now and liz truss wasnt alone. She was joined by former home secretary priti patel , home secretary priti patel, former business secretary Jacob Rees Mogg , former environment rees mogg, former environment secretary jayawardena, and secretary ranil jayawardena, and within my questioning of those four people we learnt that the conservative growth group , a conservative growth group, a group of backbenchers, is now 60 strong and of those 60 backbenchers as many have pledged, that if at the autumn statement or the Spring Budget next year , the chancellor raises next year, the chancellor raises the total share of gdp that is, taxation. Its currently 37, the taxation. Its currently 37, the highest its been for many, many years. If taxation goes up in years. If taxation goes up in the next big fiscal statement, those mps have pledged to not vote with their government. Now but hes not going to do that in an election year, is he . Well, lets see. Lets see. He certainly said today that he wasnt going you know, he was wasnt going to you know, he was pushing back against the idea that conservative parties that the conservative parties can taxes. I dont think can cut taxes. I dont think that means that he wont cut taxes before the general election. I its election. I think its a function of timing. I think hunt function of timing. I think hunt and sunak , what they want to do and sunak, what they want to do is want to save the big is they want to save the big tory tax cut, the clear blue water as near to the next water for as near to the next general election as they possibly can after years of possibly can after 13 years of taking to the highest tax taking us to the highest tax burden since so that means burden since 1951. So that means not in the november statement, as truss and her acolytes as liz truss and her acolytes want, possibly in the spring want, but possibly in the spring and thoughts on the hunt speech , the hunt speech, the , i thought the hunt speech, the centrepiece speech, centrepiece of the hunt speech, of was raising the of course, was raising the minimum well thats very minimum wage. Well thats very easy for a government to do in line with inflation because businesses for that extra businesses pay for that extra minimum wage, and medium minimum wage, small and Medium Sized Enterprises in particular, that often pay the minimum wage in hospitality , pubs, in hospitality, pubs, restaurants and so on. Theyre the ones that will have to foot that bill, he said he wants to freeze the size of the civil service, but apart from that it was thin gruel. Nigel was pretty thin gruel. Nigel only lasted minutes. I was only lasted 15 minutes. I was amazed at how short it was and i know jeremy hunt well. Hes quite an eloquent guy, despite his sometimes robotic delivery. It felt to me as if this was a speech that had been written by committee and that thinks it shows me how nervous downing street is. Well, lets lets get on to the conservative party. Lord frost. I the conservative party. Lord frost. I mean, the conservative party. Lord frost. I mean, there was frost. I mean, there was a battle for ideas going on, which in one way was very refreshing today. The party is split on today. But the party is split on every single issue. Its split on hs2, on zero. Half the party hs2, on net zero. Half the party still doesnt believe in brexit. I mean, youre all over the place, arent you . Well, we i think the philosophical bounds of conservatism bit wide conservatism has got a bit wide in recent years. We definitely we definitely need to. Need to. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Dear oh dear. Dear. Oh dear. Dear. Oh oh dear. Dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Down. We need to narrow down. We need to give people what the activists want, what i want. But what people at the growth rally wanted, which is a bit of the old religion which is what we know delivers result, what delivers growth, which is cutting cutting spending , cutting tax, cutting spending, small estate deregulation on lifting some of the burden of net zero. And yes , the subjects net zero. And yes, the subjects that werent talked about, which were immigration and brexit and brexit. B rexit. Brexit. Brexit, no. Talk about fringe brexit, no. Talk about fringe meetings , talking about brexit, meetings, talking about brexit, but almost no talk on the stage about arguably the one real achievement of this government since 2019. I put it to you that half of your party are embarrassed by brexit, but i do think that some of the partys embarrassed by brexit and it is a great, great pity because it is becoming established outside this room that that brexit is somehow failing and it is not true. Weve seen from the economic figures in the last few weeks that growth is much higher than people thought. Investment is well above its 2019 level. Weve got good trade programmes going ahead. Got good trade programmes going ahead. What we need to do is ahead. What we need to do is explain and we need to use the benefits. We need to use this benefits. We need to use this legislative freedom to deregulate, to boost growth and control the borders. Control the borders. But its linked, david, to the other elephant in the room net migration is running at all time records. There is no prospect of it going down. And this is without even discussing whats happening in the English Channel where, by the way, 900 have in the last three days have come in the last three days and more going to come and there are more going to come tomorrow. The reason people think brexit is failing is because one of the functions of a sovereign state is the ability to control your borders. The to control your borders. The basic promise and belief that by voting for brexit, we would be in control and the numbers have gone up. You see why theres gone up. Can you see why theres such disappointment red wall . I absolutely can. I share it. Immigration an legal illegal is too high. It is far too high and we need to bring it down. And illegal immigration is within our powers. The government decides the conditions for visas. I know it can change that if it wishes and it needs to change it wishes and it needs to change it , not necessarily with a snap it, not necessarily with a snap of the finger , but we need a of the finger, but we need a programme to get it down very, very dramatically in the next year or two. The truth guise of isnt the truth guise of whats really going on here that sunaks made some comments over the course of the last couple of weeks. Its seen that the labour lead perhaps is a bit softer than we believed before, but most here, mps most delegates here, most mps realistically they cant realistically know they cant win election. Isnt win the next election. Isnt whats really happening here a battle what the party is battle for what the party is going to after an election defeat . I think thats true. Nigel. When and i were the when you and i were the conservative Democratic Organisation dinner last night, priti patel gave a speech in which she lauded gb news nice. Yeah, but it was basically a leadership pitch for who is going to control the post. Sunak party. And in the interviews you did there with delegates , which did there with delegates, which you showed, it was interesting that the older people, many of whom will have conservative voting friends, thought they could win. But the younger people in many ways are a lot more representative. Many of them have votes, friends them have votes, have friends who arent conservative voters, and they think that theyre going lose. Look in the last going to lose. Look in the last few weeks, sunak has actually started to do some politics. He started to do some politics. He started to do some politics. He started to get beyond. I want to be nicey nice to everybody and be nicey nice to everybody and be a grown up. And he started to make some decision. Ins. The art of Political Leadership is understanding that youre going to people you to annoy some people when you make decisions. Bringing the ban on petrol and diesel cars, pushing it back to 2035, allowing drilling in the north sea, all of these things annoy the johnsons. They annoy the the johnsons. They annoy the political and media class. But a political and media class. But a lot of the silent majority out there across the uk wil