Keir Starmer has been challenged over the government’s welfare cuts and the employer tax rises coming next month. The questions about Labour’s economic decisions come a week before the chancellor delivers her spring statement.
Wednesday 19 March 2025 19:53, UK
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Finally, Sophy Ridge asks entrepreneur and philanthropist David Ross what he wants to see from the spring statement next week.
He calls for a “low regulation, low tax economy which encourages people to come here”.
He says some of the businesses he is currently involved with have offices in the UK and across Europe, and adds: “The employment opportunities at the moment are not coming to the UK because people are choosing to employ back office and choosing to employ other senior managerial roles out of European countries, not out of the UK.”
Ross goes on to say that “people need to feel that Britain is open for business and that this is an environment that encourages employment, encourages entrepreneurship, encourages the taking of risk”.
“And I’m not sure that the messages that we’re giving out at the moment are giving that message.”
He points to the government’s Employment Rights Bill as an issue for him, saying that combined with the employers’ national insurance hike will “curtail employment”
“We want to be the most competitive, most job friendly country in the world,” he says.
“That involves encouraging employers to do the right thing because they benefit from doing the right thing – not tying them up in knots and getting them into tribunals the whole time.”
Entrepreneur and philanthropist David Ross, founder of Carphone Warehouse, has long backed the Conservative Party, and is believed to have backed both Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick’s leadership campaigns.
Sophy Ridge asks him why he backed both, and he explains that he did not know either candidate particularly well at the start of the leadership contest, so he “just wanted to make sure that there was the best competition possible to get the best leader”.
Asked how Badenoch is doing leading the Tory party, Ross replies: “She’s doing a great job. But I think time will tell that she will be a great leader for the Tory party.”
‘Not convinced Reform UK the answer to our problems’
Of Reform UK, Ross says he was at school with one of their MPs and is a “close personal friend” of another”, but adds: “I think they know me well enough to know that I am a committed Tory.
“Also, I’m not convinced that Reform is the answer to all of our problems.”
He says he cannot work out what their education policy is, or what they want to do on health, adding: “We need a government that understands education, understands health, and understands these other priorities. And that is not at the moment the Reform Party.”
Ross also rejects any suggestion that he would want to see Boris Johnson return to frontline politics, saying: “I’m a 100%, fully paid up Kemi supporter.”
We are now speaking with entrepreneur and philanthropist David Ross – the founder of Carphone Warehouse, and also the David Ross Education Trust, which runs 36 academy schools.
He tells Sophy Ridge that he got into the education because he was once asked to visit a school in Grimsby that was struggling and to give some advice, but he described the school experience as “terrible” and “awful”.
“I thought even I could do better, and that was really my driving force,” he says. “It was the community that mattered to me, people that mattered to me. And I just felt that collectively, we could do a better job for those children, and we have done.”
Ross goes on to say that he has concerns about the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that is making its way through parliament at the moment.
‘Restricting academies won’t improve education’
The four “main priorities facing education” at the moment are “behaviour, attendance, teacher recruitment, and teacher retention, and special educational needs”.
“It’s absolutely nothing to do with the freedom of academies, and that being restrained that’ll have any impact on those four priorities,” he says of one of the effects of the government’s bill.
Ross points to things his academies are doing to drive attendance, such as literally going to pick children up from home to bring them to school, and says: “It’s those freedoms that enable us to do the innovative, different things that can become best practice.”
Sophy puts to him that not all academies are as successful, and many are very poor, so suggests that the controls the government is bringing in could be useful.
But he argues that poor academies should become part of a “great trust” to drive up performance.
He says “every child should be entitled to a great education”, but argues that “restricting the freedom that we have to operate is not a way to make it better”
Away from Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge for a moment, we just want to bring you some news from the House of Commons.
The Conservative Party had one of their allocated opposition day debates today, and they tabled a motion on the winter fuel allowance.
It calls on the government to publish data on:
The motion also calls on the government to set out how it plans on ensuring all pensioners eligible for pension credit it receive it ahead of next winter – and demands an apology from the government for “the misery caused to vulnerable pensioners” this past winter.
Given Labour’s huge majority in the House of Commons, it will not surprise you to learn that the motion was rejected.
The result of the vote was:
By Tamara Cohen, political correspondent
Teenagers are routinely seeing inappropriate violent or sexual content, “doom-scrolling” and being contacted by strangers online, according to an exclusive survey for Sky News.
More than 1,000 young people aged 14 to 17 in Darlington schools told us what they see and experience online when looking at apps commonly used by teenagers.
Their answers raise troubling questions about whether government and tech companies are doing enough to protect children online amid a growing debate among parents and campaigners about how far to restrict children’s access to smartphones and social media.
Of those surveyed, 40% spent at least six hours a day online – the equivalent of a school day. One in five said they spent upwards of eight hours a day on their phones.
Some of the findings in the under-16 group were striking, including that 75% had been contacted by strangers through social media and online gaming.
Nicholas Prosper was just 19 years old when he murdered his mother, his brother and his sister.
He shot his mum in the head, at close range. His brother had over 100 knife wounds on his body.
His sister was found under a table, as if she had been hiding there. He had intended to rape her – but his mother woke up and disturbed that plan.
But Nicholas’ only regret was that he hadn’t killed more people. He wanted to kill children, at his old primary school. Four and five-year-olds. Thank god that didn’t happen.
So often in these cases, we talk about the murder weapon. In this case, it was a shotgun. How did the killer get it? How can we stop people getting similar weapons in the future? What laws do we need to change?
But it’s not the object doing the murdering. It’s the person behind it.
Of course, we don’t know why people kill. But we do know this killer – like many other killers – watched violent material online.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This terrible case has exposed deep and longstanding weaknesses in private firearms sales, and we are urgently looking at how we can tighten these controls.
“But it also shows an urgent need to look at the very disturbing way some young people are becoming fixated with extreme violent material online and the real dangers to our communities as a result.
“From tech companies to law enforcement to schools, and right across society, stronger recognition of the nature of this threat is needed, and stronger action to prevent this kind of terrible violence.”
And it comes as many of us have watched the chilling Netflix series, Adolescence, which highlights the influence online content can have on young men.
We need to talk about online content
At PMQs today, Sir Keir Starmer said he would back a call for screenings of the show in parliament and schools, having watched the programme with his own children.
We know Kyle Clifford – jailed recently for killing his ex-girlfriend, her sister and her mother – also watched some disturbing content online.
Of course, some would argue that these people watch violent material because of who they are – and I’m in no way suggesting that watching things online will turn you into a killer.
But still – we need to have a conversation about the content people are viewing online.
Surely that time is now.
Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live now on Sky News.
We will be discussing the teenager who was planning a mass shooting at his old primary school after he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 49 years for murdering his family (more here).
We will also be talking to entrepreneur and philanthropist David Ross about schools and the state of the Conservative Party.
Our deputy political editor Sam Coates sat down with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey this afternoon, and he will in the studio with Sophy to dissect it.
On the panel tonight are:
Watch Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge from Monday to Thursday on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on the Sky News website and app or on YouTube.
Another Wednesday, another edition of Prime Minister’s Questions, with MPs from across the House having the opportunity to question Sir Keir Starmer.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch got her usual six questions, and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey got two, before all parties put their priorities to the PM.
Below, our political editor Beth Rigby and presenter Jayne Secker break down this week’s session and discuss all the key issues raised…
Our weeknight politics show Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge will be live on Sky News from 7pm.
We will be discussing the teenager who was planning a mass shooting at his old primary school after he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 49 years for murdering his family (more here).
We will also be talking to entrepreneur and philanthropist David Ross about schools and the state of the Conservative Party.
Our deputy political editor Sam Coates sat down with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey this afternoon, and he will in the studio with Sophy to dissect it.
On the panel tonight will be:
Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.
Watch Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge from Monday to Thursday at 7pm on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on the Sky News website and app or on YouTube.
By Alexandra Rogers, political reporter
A Labour MP has broken ranks over the government’s £5bn benefit cuts, saying they will have a “devastating” impact on coastal communities like his.
Chris Webb, the newly elected MP for Blackpool South, said the measures announced by the work and pensions secretary on Tuesday were “not what any of us stood on in the manifesto”.
He told Sky News the government had “forgotten” coastal communities like Blackpool, which has the lowest male life expectancy in Britain and where nearly half of children live in poverty.
Mr Webb, who is the first of Labour’s new 2024 MPs to publicly criticise the reforms, said he was concerned they had been “rushed” to coincide with the timing of next week’s spring statement – echoing criticism from Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride.
And he warned Liz Kendall’s welfare changes – in particular the tightening of the eligibility criteria for one of the main types of benefit, personal independence payments (PIP) – could push more children below the breadline.
“This is a devastating blow for people already using food banks, already waiting for mental health support,” he said.
“And in places like these coastal towns that have been forgotten these past 14 years, there just isn’t the jobs to get these people back into work.”
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