gb news. way. >> good afternoon. britain it's 12:00 on monday, the 13th of may. >> britain faces an increasingly dangerous world and would be safer under tory rule. that's a message from the prime minister as he warns the country changing governments at this time would put us all at risk. >> meanwhile , sir keir starmer >> meanwhile, sir keir starmer is set to meet with labour's newly expanded team of mayors. today he'll talk up how his party is best placed to deliver levelling up for the regions. does this all feel a bit like an election yet.7 >> election yet? >> a little bit and a health minister has apologised after a report finds shockingly poor quality maternity care in our nhs. we'll speak to the mp who headed up the parliamentary birth trauma inquiry.

>> and you'll never guess what has upset ursula von der leyen, the president of the european commission she's not particularly happy. why people were forbidden from flying eu flags at eurovision. yes, eurovision was more stringent on this stuff than the last night at the proms. >> she's kicking off over eurovision, she's kicking off so her representative, one of the spokespeople at the european commission, has accused eurovision bosses of handing a gift to their enemies of europe with this flag band. so were no european union flags were allowed to be flown. and they're saying this is handing, this is handing a gift to the enemies of europe , to the eurosceptics. europe, to the eurosceptics. >> i love this quote. the quote from her official spokesman is it is certainly regrettable to ban the flag. that is the flag of all eu members and other council of union members. i cannot find why the logical explanation for why the ebu is doing this and what does this

serve? well, of course, the explanation is that in order to stop all sorts of protests and palestinian flags and all the rest of it, they said the only flags allowed to be brought in to the auditorium were the flags of the contestants . and last of the contestants. and last time i checked, the european union didn't have one contestant at the eurovision song contest . at the eurovision song contest. >> i'm sure ursula von der leyen wishes it was so, but no , she wishes it was so, but no, she wishes it was so, but no, she wishes it was so, but no, she wishes it wasn't a competition at all. >> there was just one entry because of course, when you when the european parliament elects the european parliament elects the european parliament elects the european commission president , there's only one president, there's only one candidate and they can vote yes or no . i bet she wishes or no. i bet she wishes eurovision was like that as well. it's a beacon of democracy. >> beacon of democracy. let us know what you make of that. it is quite funny to see the european commissioner kicking off over eurovision. i mean truly, truly, i think more important to talk about nothing more important. i think they're a tad worried about those elections coming up where there could be rather a lot of eurosceptics voted in, despite all the propaganda gbnews.com/yoursay is the way to

get in touch. let's get your headunes. headlines. >> very good afternoon to you. it's just coming up to 12:03. leading the news this afternoon. the prime minister has said only the conservatives can protect people in the dangerous but transformational years ahead, as he singled out china, iran and russia as threats to the uk, setting out his pre—election pitch to voters this morning, rishi sunak promised what he's called bold ideas to create a more secure future. he also claimed the country is at a crossroads, with a clear choice between the conservatives and laboun between the conservatives and labour, a choice, he says that's between the past and the future. >> despite having 14 years with nothing to do but think about the future, labour have almost nothing to say about it. no plans for our border, no plans for our energy security, no plans for our economy either. and no principles either. keir

starmer has gone from embracing jeremy corbyn to natalie elphicke , all in the cynical elphicke, all in the cynical pursuit of power at any price. so labour have no ideas what they did have. they've u—turned on. >> in other news today, sir keir starmer is facing more questions following natalie elphick's defection last week amid claims the former conservative mp attempted to interfere in her ex—husband s trial for sex offences. former shadow minister jess phillips says questions have to be answered. but labour's chairwoman anneliese dodds has questioned why the conservative party didn't call for an investigation themselves four years ago, when mrs. elphicke was still one of their mps . a major parliamentary mps. a major parliamentary report on maternity care has found. some pregnant women have been mocked or shouted at and denied basic needs such as pain relief. it also shows mums to be are often treated as an inconvenience and risk suffering lifelong injuries as hospitals

cover up endemic failures. the conservative mp, who led the birth trauma report, described the quality of maternity care as a postcode lottery. the cross—party report is calling for a national plan to improve services, led by a new maternity commissioner, who would report directly to the prime minister three men have been charged today in yorkshire with foreign interference after they allegedly assisted hong kong's intelligence services. a total of 11 people were detained earlier this month, almost all of whom were arrested in northern england. the metropolitan police says the three men from that group were charged under the national security act, and they'll appear in court today. scotland yard says though it's not related to a separate case involving russia and the public, they say don't need to be concerned . health need to be concerned. health news and dementia is now costing the uk £42 billion a year, with experts saying the bill will more than double in the next 20 years. the alzheimer's society says only 1.4% of funds are

being spent on diagnosis and treatment, with families forced to cover around 63% of the cost. the charity says relatives of those suffering with the condition are typically spending anywhere from £29,000 up to £81,000 every year . universal £81,000 every year. universal credit claimants who work less than 18 hours a week have been told to look for more work . from told to look for more work. from today. the earnings threshold rises from the equivalent of 15 hours a week to 18 hours at the national living wage. the new rules will affect at least 180,000 people, according to the department for work and pensions , as well as part of the government's sweeping changes to the welfare system , which prime the welfare system, which prime minister rishi sunak says will help people move into well—paid jobs. help people move into well—paid jobs . sir keir starmer is set to jobs. sir keir starmer is set to meet labour's expanded team of mayors later to establish what he's calling a gold standard for local economic growth across the country. the labour leader will unveil plans for the party's manifesto focused on driving prosperity across all regions.

it follows labour's recent successes in the local elections, securing key areas including the west midlands and nonh including the west midlands and north yorkshire . former labour north yorkshire. former labour adviser kevin mayer told us that the party wants to get regional economies moving . economies moving. >> we've got these mayors in position a lot , you know, position a lot, you know, they're pretty much all a clean sweep of labour mayors now at the moment they can work effectively with a strong labour government to drive and embed economic growth in the regions for the first time, really in the last 40 years. so it's pretty significant . it's pretty pretty significant. it's pretty deep. and i think what it what it tends to show is that the thinking of the starmer camp now is looking past an election and actually looking to how they would actually govern the country and bring about real radical change. >> and finally, before we hand back to tom and emily, if you're worried about screen time, well, there's some good news. the internet may actually be good for you. a worldwide report by the oxford internet institute, which analysed 2 million people across 168 countries, found a possible link between being

onune possible link between being online and being happy. researchers found that life satisfaction was 8.5% higher for those who had online access, compared to those who didn't. but it doesn't mean that scrolling your smartphone is always a good idea, with experts cautioning that the study didn't consider the impact of social media. for the latest stories, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen, or go to gb news. com slash alerts now. more from tom and . emily. from tom and. emily. >> good afternoon britain. it's 12:08 now. rishi sunak is attempting to win over voters as he says the next election will be a choice between the future and the past. but who is the past and who is the future. >> in a speech setting out his plans for the country, the prime minister warned of the dangerous transformation years, stating more will happen in the next five years than the last 30. >> well, in response , the labour

>> well, in response, the labour leader, keir starmer, who's facing fresh pressure over the defection of natalie elphicke. well, he's laying out his ambitions to improve regional growth. it all feels a little bit like a general election campaign. >> yes, he's out parading the newly elected labour mayors. have they got a bit of a clean sweep? almost apart from the tees valley, apart from the tees valley? well, joining us now is our political political editor, christopher hope, who was at the speech. why don't you remind us, tell us exactly what rishi sunak was saying in this speech. and what impact you believe he's trying to have . trying to have. >> well. hi, tom. hi, emily. good to see you again. exactly. well, it certainly was the pm here setting out his plans of why voters should look again at the tory party and try to eat into that large labour lead. i think for me, the timing is interesting. he gave a wide ranging speech across setting out the, the risks of the future with al, how that can help us, the risk from this axis of, of

our enemies against this country, iran, china, north korea , russia. he gave us a real korea, russia. he gave us a real broad brush, almost a security speech, saying, don't risk everything by backing keir starmer. he name checked him and saying how he backed jeremy corbyn when jeremy corbyn wanted to scrap nato . he even said he to scrap nato. he even said he wanted to scrap the army. i'm not sure on that one, but he certainly was very clear, saying don't risk everything with the untried labour party. he's a flavour of what you had to say. despite having 14 years with nothing to do but think about the future. >> labour have almost nothing to say about it. no plans for our border, no plans for our energy security, no plans for our economy either. and no principles either. keir starmer has gone from embracing jeremy corbyn to natalie elphicke, all in the cynical pursuit of power at any price . so labour have no at any price. so labour have no ideas what they did have. they view turned on.

>> the pm, they're setting out what he thinks is the choice facing voters this autumn . i facing voters this autumn. i think they are seeing examples of how they can make the case that keir starmer will do anything to get himself into 10 downing street. he used the even the taking natalie elphicke accepting natalie elphicke last wednesday as a labour mp. of course, this rather right wing tory mp for dover into the party making that clear, he'll do anything to , to get into power. anything to, to get into power. of course, what he didn't say was natalie . elphicke was was natalie. elphicke was happily ensconced in the tory party for all those years to . party for all those years to. >> yes, it is interesting. it sort of does feed a little bit into this narrative that we've been hearing time and time again from rishi sunak that labour has no plan. we're going to, i suppose, hear a lot more about that in the coming months and weeks. but chris, it's interesting seeing rishi sunak taking on a foreign policy speech. he's traditionally been a very domestic policy focused person. of course, his portfolios before becoming prime minister were all economics related, were all domestic . this

related, were all domestic. this is almost new territory for him, but i suppose it's crucial in order to create that dividing line with keir starmer . line with keir starmer. >> yeah, he is that kind of individual who's globally facing. he's got a house in california. don't forget he's married to a wife who's part of a of a of a almost a first family in india. given the given that given their wealth , he is that given their wealth, he is globally facing, but he has spent the past nearly two years focusing on domestic politics because that's where i think he had to restore the party's faith amongst voters. after the disastrous ending to liz truss the us time in government. also the us time in government. also the issues with boris johnson. so i think he is clearly saying now's the choice. i think the timing is fascinating . he was timing is fascinating. he was asked in the questions afterwards, will you now say there'll be no election in july? tom and emily, he wouldn't even say that. he repeated again that there will be no election in the second half of the year. and that, of course, starts on the 1st of july. he thinks that whole question of when will the election be called is a labour

game to focus voters on the procedure of politics, rather than the substance of what is trying to deliver? it was a very, very wide ranging speech. it wasn't a speech that would have been given maybe even ten days ago, when the pm said that we are heading for a hung parliament with labour as the biggest party, thereby giving power to keir starmer , he is now power to keir starmer, he is now saying here's a reason why you can vote for us. don't risk everything. the world's a dangerous place. don't risk it on the untried keir starmer. >> and is that going to work with keir starmer heading up the labour party? because of course it was a very strong line of attack from the conservatives when jeremy corbyn was the leader, because he had a very different idea when it came to foreign policy. keir starmer doesn't seem to have that much of a different position than the current government on these issues. but yet rishi sunak is trying to win votes by saying labour winning the general election would embolden vladimir putin. i mean, did he provide evidence for that ? evidence for that? >> well, he evidence says that labour won't say for now how it

will get the 2.5% of spending on defence of gdp . now the tories defence of gdp. now the tories have set out their plans. they've been questioned by groups like the ifs, but clearly the labour are saying we'll get we'll afford that when we can afford to get there . and having afford to get there. and having that dividing line, i think, is where the hanging of this entire , argument that britain is safer under sunak than starmer come the election. >> well , the election. >> well, christopher hope, thank you very much for that latest analysis. there from westminster. it really does feel like that general election, even though we don't have a date for it. that campaign is already underway . underway. >> when do you suspect it will be? have you changed your mind? >> no. i've always been a november man, i think. i think november, november of november. well, there you go. it's as late as possible within the cycle without feeling like this is a christmas election. yeah. so he doesn't want i think i think if i were prime minister right now, when i was 20 or even 30 points behind in some polls, i'd say i'd want to do as long as i can in office without it looking, frankly, ridiculous. i think

december or january would look ridiculous. and you don't want people trudging around when the christmas lights are up. so i think november is the last possible reasonable time to go. >> i think the problem is, the last time i saw rishi sunak, the prime minister, getting exercised about something, it was artificial intelligence or changing a levels. yes, important issues, but not exactly the bread and butter of what people are talking about around the dinner table. unless they perhaps are dining at a tom harwood house. >> do you think that that entire conference, it was all for my benefit. >> it was all for your benefit. it was all for your benefit, for the i, for the tech bros. but they'll enjoy it. it is interesting, this whole dichotomy of safety with rishi sunak and dangerous change with laboun >> it wasn't so long ago rishi sunak was saying i'm the change candidate. if you want change, stick with me. it seems that that that narrative giving up on that that narrative giving up on that been rather been dropped. >> he's also saying, you know, don't don't base me on your assessment of me on liz truss

and her 49 days. but it's all a bit it's all a bit tricky for him. joining us now is the spectator's political correspondent james hail. james interested to know your perspective. we want to look at what, rishi sunak has been saying today as compared with, what keir starmer is out and about doing today. he's parading his new labour mayors, the regional mayors, talking about local issues , levelling up, etc, local issues, levelling up, etc, etc. and rishi sunak is out there talking about foreign affairs . affairs. >> well, i think there is an interesting common ground here which emily, which is that both of these speeches are going to be a response to those local election results, about ten days ago, rishi sunak is out there trying to reposition the debate, talking about security, focusing on things where he feels most comfortable talking about . comfortable talking about. meanwhile, keir starmer is using this occasion to try and show off those labour gains at the local elections, just over a week ago by unveiling all these new measures he's got, he's got richard parker in the west midlands, obviously he's got, i think 11 of the 12, main mayoralties in england right

now. and this is obviously his chance to get them all together in a room and suggest that labouris in a room and suggest that labour is now the truly national party of britain and is going to finally be able to deliver the regional economic development that has eluded every other government since the war. it's quite funny, actually, and i don't know if this is a facetious point, but obviously a lot of the local elections for labour candidates seem to focus on foreign affairs, whereas for conservatives they were talking about bin collections. >> maybe rishi sunak looked at the local elections, thought, my goodness, the west midlands was won by a guy who keeps tweeting about gaza. perhaps rishi sunak secret electoral source is to talk about foreign affairs now to. >> absolutely. and i think that that will be very much an implicit point from today's speech, tom, which is that the tories will say labour can't be trusted on foreign affairs and just look at, for instance, how split keir starmer's party is. and that was really the, i think, a kind of key theme that rishi sunak was stressing here today was how much the party hasn't changed since jeremy corbyn. i think the next election is going to almost be dominated by two unofficial

running mates. labour is going to talk about liz truss and the tories are going to talk about jeremy corbyn every opportunity. and clearly a lot of tories are very keen to kind of exploit the so—called gaza effect, since the october attack on israel. and i think that really it shows perhaps. yes emily. >> oh, no, i was just going to say, although the party has, has changed quite a lot in recent days insofar as they now have a right wing mp in the shape of natalie elphicke. >> and we were also wondering who's coming out on top with this whole debacle, because labour are trying to say, you know, we've got you, we've got lots of tory mps defecting to us. how fabulous the conservatives are pointing out that this might show that keir starmer doesn't have , doesn't starmer doesn't have, doesn't have principles, where do you stand on this? what do you think is going on? >> well, i mean, one labour mp said to me that it was a defection too far in that this was someone on the right of the party who'd never showed any previous interest in working with the labour party. and the whole argument was that this was intended to be someone who was sort of human bodyguard for keir starmer, who could deflect

attacks on small boats during an election campaign . but for that election campaign. but for that to work, you need to be credible. and i think that natalie elphicke is neither on policy or personality, particularly credible and we've seen in five days now of this constant kind of left wing backlash on this. we've now got the robert buckland story that's come out about him , allegedly come out about him, allegedly trying to be lobbied by her over her husband's trial a few years ago. and i think right now it seems almost too clever by half, perhaps. and i do think the irony is sort of, you know , keir irony is sort of, you know, keir starmer's tried to appeal to a lot of one nation tories to get them to try and defect. and it turns out the only ones who are defecting right now are the likes of natalie elphicke, a sort of hard line erg brexiteer. i'm just glad mark francois isn't defecting as well. >> it is interesting though, james, because obviously the calculation that the labour head honchos have taken here is that most people won't be listening to this detailed political analysis. most voters will be lucky if they catch five minutes of political news in a month. most voters will catch the headline, maybe hear something in the background while they're out and about on the radio or whatever, and all they'll hear

is all these tory mps are defecting to the labour party. they won't drill down into what particular policy positions. natalie elphicke took herself just it. will this create this general sense that the labour party is a more broad church , party is a more broad church, that it's changed, that if you voted mopping up the tory dregs, you're, you're you're safe to come over to labour. >> that is exactly their calculation. but what i would say is that he is storing up longer term difficulties with his parliamentary party, and it might not matter now when a 25 points ahead in the polls, anything goes, the labour party will let things slide. but repeatedly we see this again and again. whether it's gaza , the again. whether it's gaza, the rochdale, the 28 billion, there are issues with starmers team and i think that he is making a role for his own back in the long term post—election, in terms of how he is managing his parliamentary party. and you can put off those problems for so long. but in government, five years together, those kind of things create angst. as we've seen with boris johnson, your mps can help bring you down. >> yes. and the unions are kicking off off too, aren't they, it's all getting a little bit tricky. a little bit tricky. it was an interesting

calculation that keir starmer made. thank you very much, james james heale spectator's political correspondent. good to speak to you as always. yeah. >> i think that point that james made, finally, there is the most important one potentially. and you saw it a lot with the conservative party in the run up to the election. in campaign mode, everyone rose together , mode, everyone rose together, dissented, sort of limited. and everyone knows that there's a goal to reach for in the near term, and that's winning a general election. but once that general election. but once that general election. but once that general election happens, suddenly it becomes a bit more of a free for all, and you get rebellions and you get disrespect and you get infighting. and especially when you have differences of strategy at the top of the team, as you saw with the 28 billion sue gray saying one thing, he's now chief of staff and the team of rachel reeves saying a different thing. and sort of there's that battling internally that then creates problems for good governance. yes. >> and , you know, the likes of >> and, you know, the likes of jess phillips have been very vocal about this defection. not very happy at all, particularly with regards to the, the sexual allegations against her former husband, we're going to park that for now, because still to

come, the king is to formally hand over the role of colonel in chief of the army air corps to the prince of wales. today, that's prince harry's old regiment will be there this. good afternoon, britain. we're on gb news. britain's election

channel. well. good afternoon. britain. it's 12:25. now. king charles it's12:25. now. king charles will bestow the role of colonel in chief of the army air corps to prince william in a huge showing. showing of support for his eldest son. >> yes . the prince of wales will >> yes. the prince of wales will succeed king charles. and as head of the regiment, as william continues to step up his public dufiesin continues to step up his public duties in the wake of his father's cancer diagnosis. >> well, joining us now to digest this is the royal commentator richard fitzwilliam , commentator richard fitzwilliam, richard, this is a big day for prince william , but this is prince william, but this is prince william, but this is prince harry's old regiment. is

there some controversy here? >> there is a lot of controversy here. yes, this change was initially announced in august of last year . however, the joint last year. however, the joint engagement today and it is a very significant there's no doubt the king when prince of wales 31 years as colonel in chief of the army air corps, this was founded in 1957 and he hasindeed this was founded in 1957 and he has indeed chosen prince william to succeed him. however over the engagement itself was arranged , engagement itself was arranged, and just about a week ago last tuesday to be precise, as we all remember, prince harry came to britain and a statement was put out by his spokesperson that the king, who as we know is suffering from cancer and receiving treatment , was too receiving treatment, was too busy to meet him or words to

that effect. an hour later, this joint engagement was announced . joint engagement was announced. and now that was clearly no coincidence , and a royal source coincidence, and a royal source has disputed the fact that the king couldn't or didn't want or wasn't able. depending on what line you take to meet with his son, the whole thing is rather extraordinary , but there's extraordinary, but there's absolutely no doubt that prince william is someone who has very considerable experience of flying. he was with the raf search and rescue in wales and then subsequently the east anglian air ambulance. so so as a rescue service in 2015 to 17. so there is no question this is in good hands but controversial . in good hands but controversial. the timing. absolutely. >> so richard , it's your view >> so richard, it's your view that the timing of this is almost a message sent out by the palace, to those that have left

the former senior royals , i the former senior royals, i think there's absolutely no doubt about it. >> royal activities don't occur by accident. but this specific piece of timing, it's obvious that it was intentional. and that it was intentional. and that being the case, i do think that being the case, i do think that we have to wonder whether what the sussexes spokesperson said, was in fact , certainly it said, was in fact, certainly it wasn't, shall we say, as the palace appeared to see it. >> there's a bit of a recollections may vary , going on recollections may vary, going on here, richard. but the sussexes, harry and meghan have been having the most fabulous time in nigeria . nigeria. >> oh yes, indeed, as a private visit, i think it was a great success.i visit, i think it was a great success. i think there's no doubt that, the only reason it was a great success was because they are members of the royal family, hence the interest. this is the problem . they want it is the problem. they want it both ways. in this particular case, this was related to invictus. and last year nigeria ,

invictus. and last year nigeria, competed for the first time in the invictus games in dusseldorf. and subsequently there is thought that , perhaps there is thought that, perhaps in 2029, it's a possibility that nigeria might host the games. so the visit was linked to that. and yes, you could see meghan in a variety of , rather impressive a variety of, rather impressive outfits. yes, indeed. there was , outfits. yes, indeed. there was, talk of mental health at a school. there were a great deal of when it came to sporting activity. harry visited kaduna. the nigerian government is engagedin the nigerian government is engaged in a very brutal war against boko haram. no. the visit was most successful. what we were discussing earlier, it felt almost presidential , rather felt almost presidential, rather than royal because of course they are not working royals , they are not working royals, just the most fabulous pr for them both in the sense that it was the first time they've done this. >> i was since briefly being in jamaica. and remember, that was quite controversial too, because , jamaica is moving towards a

republic, but it has to have a referendum first. so that was a for a film premiere. but this was a three day visit. and yes, it was very much in the way you can say royal or presidential mode and the way the individual events were chosen. and of course, there was one where meghan, you know, she's a great feminist. she's talking about women achieving their full potential. should remember that, it's queen camilla. of course , it's queen camilla. of course, who champions, who championing against, domestic abuse and violence. it's the duchess of edinburgh who goes to ukraine and, meets those who been terrorised by war women. meghan talks. she perhaps doesn't do that much. but equally, as you say, it was indeed colourful. so we'll have to wait and see what they do next. they are unpredictable . they always have

unpredictable. they always have been. it will be interesting. meghan's american riviera orchard, rather a ponderous title, i thought, but that's her lifestyle blog . and then, of lifestyle blog. and then, of course, her netflix program, richard , have you not been sent richard, have you not been sent a sent any jam? >> you're not being sent any jam to share on your instagram . to share on your instagram. >> you know, that hurt. now you mention it and i haven't. perhaps it hasn't yet arrived. >> i think surely it's in the post. surely it must be 50, pots of jam . of jam. >> i think something like that were sent, but the odd thing was they didn't get many a—list endorsements . make of that what endorsements. make of that what you will. >> yes, i think you had to be a model or a fashion designer to get your hands on one of those first jams. >> i wait my i await my parcel. i await mine, thank you very much. >> richard fitzwilliams. always fantastic to speak to you. have a great day, right. we've got a lot coming up on the show. we do indeed, there's this been this parliamentary report that has found maternity services in the nhs are of shockingly poor quality. we're going to speak to

the mp behind that report, the one who led the birth trauma inquiry can be really interesting conversation, really shocking details, actually gruesome details of what women have been through, in maternity services, up and down the country. this is good afternoon britain. we're on . gb news. britain. we're on. gb news. >> very good afternoon to you. just after 1230, leading the news this afternoon, the prime minister has said only the conservatives can protect britain in what he's called the dangerous years ahead, setting out his pre—election pitch to voters this morning, rishi sunak singled out china, iran and russia as possible threats to british security. he also promised what he's described as bold ideas to create a more secure future. he says the country is at a crossroads, with a clear choice between the conservative and labour. sir keir starmer is meeting labour's expanded team of mayors to establish what he's calling a gold standard for local economic

growth. the labour leader is unveiling policies that he says will drive prosperity across the regions . it follows the party's regions. it follows the party's recent wins in the local elections across the west midlands, north east york and nonh midlands, north east york and north yorkshire . as we've been north yorkshire. as we've been hearing, there are calls for a national plan to improve maternity services led by a new maternity services led by a new maternity commissioner after an inquiry found shockingly poor quality care across the uk. more than 1300 women gave evidence to the birth trauma report, with some revealing they'd been treated as an inconvenience and now have a lifetime of pain. the conservative mp who led that parliamentary report has described the quality of care as a postcode lottery and dementia is now costing the uk £42 billion a year, with experts saying the bill will more than double in the next 20 years. the alzheimer's society says only 1.4% of funds are being spent on diagnosis and treatment, with families forced to cover around 63% of the cost. the charity

says relatives of those suffering with the condition are typically spending anywhere from £29,000 up to £81,000 every year . that's the latest from the newsroom. another update at 1:00. until then, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen, or go to gbnews.com slash alerts

i >> -- >> good afternoon. britain. it's 12:37, and we're looking at live pictures of prince william and king charles. they are , of king charles. they are, of course, on the day of a pretty important ceremony bestowing upon the prince of wales a new title. >> yes, a new title . he will

>> yes, a new title. he will become the colonel in chief of the army air corp, which was prince harry's old regiment. some people are saying it's a bit of a kick in the teeth for prince harry. others are saying it's just a great day for prince william. and of course, the royal family as a whole. now there at the army aviation centre in middle wallop, which i believe is in hampshire and there is the king there. they're looking at, some kind of helicopter, i believe. aircraft there. yeah, i have to say, middle wallop is probably my favourite place name in britain. >> it's brilliant. it is the best of us. >> makes you proud to be british middle wallop. >> what other country? what other country would have a place like that visited by their hereditary heads of state? but no. this is, of course, a pretty poignant moment, not just because of the history of this title. being with prince harry. there's this sort of, title. being with prince harry. there's this sort of , severance there's this sort of, severance that continues, you thought that megxit was all over a few years ago? no, it just keeps on continuing. it's like those years of negotiations, of

extracting the united kingdom from the european union, no, all sorts of similar, parallels that can be drawn. >> now, this role was, previously held by his majesty the king as prince of wales for 31 years. he's now handing it down to his eldest son, prince william. there. they're stopping there for a, to take a lovely photo with the regiment there, that's pretty majestic , isn't it? >> there it is. i think, looking at sort of impressive military hardware, you can't get a better photo op. really, than than standing in front of an enormous helicopter with, with what? is that sort of giant gps or radar beacon on the top of it? >> well, it looks fantastic either way. and there they are, walking away from the scene for us, but of course, it's been a tncky us, but of course, it's been a tricky year, difficult year for the king and of course, for prince william, with his wife being unwell . all the princess

being unwell. all the princess catherine, so this is a moment. it shows prince william is very much determined to continue on with all of his various, public dufies with all of his various, public duties and all of the honours that are bestowed on him. >> step up for prince william as well. he's having to do so much more, because , of course, the, more, because, of course, the, the, the diagnosis of the king. but also of his wife as well, prince william really taking on far, more, far more quickly than i think anyone expected. and in that there's a bit of a stepping up, a bit of an echo of what his grandmother went through at a very young age, not expecting to become queen in 1952, as she did, all sort of thrust upon her. i think there is a there is a sort of ricochet of that idea that this family that the royal family in britain does tend to sort of have duty thrust upon them. and and, and it's fascinating to see so many of them rise to that occasion and them rise to that occasion and the timing of all this.

>> we were speaking to richard fitzwilliams, royal commentator, a little bit earlier and he was saying that this is deliberate timing, probably from the palace. we've had a little bit of controversy over , the timing of controversy over, the timing of controversy over, the timing of the trip to nigeria from the sussexes and then this, of course, happening today. has it all been decided, we've seen also a royal source say that recollection's vary over why prince harry did not meet with king charles the other day when he was in the united kingdom of course, for that anniversary of the invictus games. but as we see, the royal show carries on andindeed see, the royal show carries on and indeed this event today, this handing over of titles was only organised a couple of weeks ago, which is a little bit cunous ago, which is a little bit curious because that was around the time that we were hearing of prince harry's visit to britain and his visit to nigeria, as well as richard fitzwilliams was saying this all sort of ties together.

>> there isn't anything that is organised by the royal family that doesn't have meaning behind it. and perhaps this is this is a message there , of, dare i say a message there, of, dare i say it, the king's favoured son. >> yeah. well, yes. yes, perhaps , prince william there chatting away. and also king charles, too. it is great to see king charles out and about. of course, after his cancer diagnosis , sticking to his diagnosis, sticking to his pubuc diagnosis, sticking to his public duties there. as i said before, it's been a rather a difficult, a difficult year, certainly difficult few months, for him at the helm , but those for him at the helm, but those are the wonderful pictures from middle wallop . middle wallop. >> yes. middle wallop, of course. this is where the raf set up a base in the middle of the second world war and started training new pilots. a lot of history at this particular, raf base, this is where i think a lot of the bombers , were lot of the bombers, were trained, in preparation for, for

the, invasion and liberation of western europe. >> well, yes. so now prince william is has taken over officially the command of prince harry's former regiment. so make of that. what you will be. will we? we will be back with our royal correspondent on the scene very shortly indeed. please do send your views and posts your comments by visiting gb news. com forward slash your essay to get in touch. >> yes, steve has already been in touch. we were talking a little bit earlier about this theme of a general election with events from both rishi sunak and keir starmer. today they're getting out and about, well , getting out and about, well, steve says sunak and the lying tories are the reason why we will not vote for them. stop the boats. and he would get in again . but it's all too late. >> and pj says listening to the prime minister's speech, i had a job to stay awake. i've heard it all before. yes, we have heard quite a lot about defence spending, quite a lot about how dangerous the world is, that we're on the cusp of world war iii. if we don't do more, will the actions back that up?

>> luckily, our boys in middle wallop will sort it all out . but wallop will sort it all out. but spike says sunak is saying, what they plan to do in the future. what about those plans that they did not carry out in the past? and that cuts to the nub of it, doesn't it? a lot of this election will be about trust. you've got two politicians here leading both major parties who've said some things in the past and then famously have turned around on doing what they said they would do, perhaps, perhaps more so, more profoundly so in the case of the leader of the opposition who said he was going to nationalise everything and raise all the taxes, and now he's saying precisely the opposite. but there are plenty of u—turns from the conservatives as well. >> and that multi—billion, green new deal . yes. we're waiting. new deal. yes. we're waiting. we're waiting to see if that makes the manifesto . makes the manifesto. >> well, they're saying we're going to do it all, but we're not going to spend the 48 billion that it costs. i don't quite work. i mean , are they quite work. i mean, are they sort of magic it up for free? i mean, i well, anyway, still to come, we'll be finding out how a record number of wild swimming spots have been designated as bathing sites in england.

>> but is there a chance of some sewage making its way into the water? we'll get to the nub

gb news. >> good afternoon. britain. it's 12:48 now. a record number of wild swimming spots have been designated as bathing sites in england ahead of this summer. >> yes, the environment agency will immediately start monitoring the water quality at 27 sites. these are sites that the government had proposed. >> well, joining us now is our south—east of england reporter, ray, addison and ray, i can see that you're in a suit and tie. are you wearing swimming trunks underneath that ? underneath that? >> i can't comment about what i'm wearing below the waist, but i'm wearing below the waist, but i can tell you that i'm here at the river avon, which is in the tiny village of fordingbridge in hampshire. and as you were saying, it's one of the

government's 27 designated bathing water sites. now that is a mix this year of rivers like this one and beaches like goring beach in worthing, west sussex, where i was this morning during breakfast. now other locations include devon , dorset, north include devon, dorset, north yorkshire and cumbria as well, and giving these sites the status of bathing water sites means that the government is now legally obliged to test the water for pollutants during the bathing season. now that runs from this coming wednesday , i from this coming wednesday, i think the 15th of may, all the way through to the 30th of september, and the environment agency will be responsible for monitoring those pollution levels, and then they'll have to see if any action needs to be taken. so that could be talking to the local water company about sewage discharge. it might also mean talking to local farmers

about chemical runoffs from their fields as well. now locals tell me that this is the spot where everybody comes when the temperature heats up to take a bit of a dip, and i've had a look at the water. it looks pretty clean, and certainly the ducks appear to be enjoying it. but who am i to say it's very but who am ito say it's very hard to know what exactly is lurking below the surface now, why have the tory party decided to designate so many of these sites this year? because last year they only listed an additional four. this year we've jumped to 27. well, the cynic in me might suggest that it's because we've got a general election coming up . we know that election coming up. we know that the tory party has received strong criticism from some members of the public about levels of water pollution, and they've seen the results of that in certain polls as well. we know that some sites have been found to contain bacteria like e coli , which can make you very, coli, which can make you very, very ill indeed . and it's

very ill indeed. and it's interesting to note that 22 of the 27 sites are in tory constituencies, as well. now, the water minister, robbie moore, has mentioned something. yes, he mentioned something. he said i'm fully committed to seeing the quality of our coastal waters, rivers and lakes rise further for the benefit of the environment and everyone who uses them and the environment agency as well. just saying that last year , 96% of sites met last year, 96% of sites met minimum standards and 90% were classified as good or excellent . classified as good or excellent. so you never know, might might take a dip myself. >> well, that would be rather nice. but ray, it doesn't appear as though, if i understand you correctly , it doesn't appear as correctly, it doesn't appear as though these areas have been given the green light, that you are absolutely free from excrement. you're absolutely free from pollution if you decide to dive in. but they are just going to be monitored going forward . forward. >> yeah, you've hit the nail on the head there. there is there is no, validation of these sites

as it will. they're just saying, okay, we we're going to add them to the list. so i think there's something like close to 500 sites. so something like 470 odd sites. so something like 470 odd sites now across, across england and wales. and they're committing to check the pollution levels. so you sort of dive in at your own risk, if you will. in fact, just off camera, there's a little sign over here from the council which says warning deep holes in river. you are advised not to bathe. and so it's not a green light to, you know, to go running and diving in for a number of reasons. and certainly people should follow that that warning there from the local council as well. but the river avon, if you know it's very long, it stretches winding and there's lots of places, places to take a dip and try and cool off. >> you've got along to a government designated bathing spot, at which point the local council says, please don't bathe. i understood this correctly . correctly. >> well they're talking. i think that sign is referring specifically to this location where i am now. the river avon.

it's i've you know, i've had a quick look at it on the map. it's very windy and it's quite long and it's, you know, lots of different locations. so there'll be some areas where i presume, although obviously i'm not no expert on this, i would presume there are some areas where there are not deep holes that might cause danger, and there's be areas like this where the council would rather you didn't take a dip . take a dip. >> well, at least you don't have to have a lifeguard at every single bathing site around the country. thank you so much, ray. really great to speak to you. thank you for going along to the river avon for us south east of england. reporter ray addison, ever been while swimming? >> yes, yes i have, i grew up in cambridge and there is a lovely stretch of the river cam down by a place called grantchester meadows, with a rope swing that hangs over it, and you can sort of swing in, splash into the water. what fun. which i did on many, many hot summers. yes but also i used to holiday down in salcombe. yeah, quite a bit. where there is a, there's a river that sort of floods into a beach called south sands. and

i've got fairly strong memories of being told as a young child , of being told as a young child, don't play in this bit of the river on the beach because it's all polluted, because there might be. i don't think this is a new problem . a new problem. >> but this is the problem, though, isn't it? these some of these bathing sites look beautiful. they look like you'll have the most refreshing , have the most refreshing, refreshing dip. and then actually you find that you get a little unwell. yes, but hopefully these designated designated sites will now be looked after so meticulously that you will never have that risk. >> this the thing i mean, it was something like less than a quarter of sewage overflows were even monitored ten years ago. now all of the sewage overflows are monitored. and this announcements means that even places that don't have a direct overflow near them, they're going to be monitored just for general water quality. so, i mean, the quantity of monitoring thatis mean, the quantity of monitoring that is now going on is just unlike anything that we've seen before. so. so perhaps it's still quite a lot more. >> there's still quite a lot of excrement being pumped out though, isn't there , when it though, isn't there, when it rains a lot into our potential bathing sites. anyway let us

know if you fancy a fancy a dip, but coming up rishi sunak warns the country changing governments at this time would put us all at risk. could he possibly, possibly be right ? risk. could he possibly, possibly be right? this is good afternoon, britain. we're on gb news, britain's election . channel. >> with a brighter outlook. with boxt solar , sponsors of weather boxt solar, sponsors of weather on . gb news. on. gb news. >> hello again and welcome to the latest forecast from the met office for gb news. another fine and warm day in the east today. >> but turning cloudy elsewhere with wet weather moving in from the west . this with wet weather moving in from the west. this area of with wet weather moving in from the west . this area of low the west. this area of low pressure displacing the high that brought so much fine weather at the weekend. this next low arriving as we go through the afternoon, bringing spells of wet weather for northern ireland, wales and the southwest . heavy and persistent, southwest. heavy and persistent, particularly for the higher parts of south wales and southwest england. 50 to 60mm in

places that could cause some localised impacts . it's also localised impacts. it's also going to be blustery with a gusty wind, particularly towards the far southwest. to the east, however, warm sunny spells, temperatures up to 24 or 25 celsius somewhere like hull or south—east scotland, but it's not going to last by the end of the day. the rain is advancing eastwards . it's the day. the rain is advancing eastwards. it's pushing into many central parts of the uk, although it is tending to ease by this stage. further showers arrive into the southwest, along with a gusty wind and temperatures holding up at 12 to 15 celsius overnight, so we start off tuesday with a lot of cloud cover. the initial band of rain affecting much of scotland away from the northeast of scotland, as well as northern england and into the east. but brighter skies are more prevalent elsewhere , albeit with prevalent elsewhere, albeit with quite a number of showers and a much cooler feel . with much cooler feel. with temperatures across the country back to the mid to high teens and not feeling very pleasant, where we've got the persistent rain, that warm feeling inside

from boxt boilers, sponsors of weather on gb news

news. >> well. good afternoon. britain. it's 1:00 >> well. good afternoon. britain. it's1:00 on monday the 13th. >> may britain faces an increasingly dangerous world and would be safer under tory rule . would be safer under tory rule. that's a message from the prime minister today, as he warns, the country changed. governments at this time could put us all at risk . risk. >> meanwhile, sir keir starmer has met with labour's newly expanded team of mayors. he's talked up how his party is best placed to level up uk regions. doesit placed to level up uk regions. does it feel like an election yet? tom >> just a little bit. well, in non—political news, the king has formally handed over the role of colonel in chief of the army air corps to the prince of wales. that's prince harry's old regiment. hmm'hmm .

regiment. hmm'hmm. >> now we're going to be asking whether the home office should pubush whether the home office should publish a crime rates based on nationality. now, this is something that denmark does. so they put out essentially what some are calling a league table of crimes per national city. now it seems the news today is there seems to be a bit of a backlash coming from the civil service. they're saying, no, this would be too difficult. no, we don't want to amend a bill to make this possible. >> is this the famously politically neutral and impartial civil service? >> apparently so . >> apparently so. >> apparently so. >> how interesting. of course, this has been proposed by the member of parliament, neil o'brien, and endorsed as well by robert jenrick. they wrote a report. we interviewed neil on this program last week. he's been saying that lots of other countries around the world collect this data, publish this data, and that through knowing this data, you get to deal with

problems. and if there's a specific problem in a specific community, you can get on top of that. and everyone can live much more happily together if it's sorted out. but it seems strange that people don't even want to collect the data and understand the reality of what's going on on the ground. >> yes, i think the concern i'm just guessing here. i think the concern is that this could, by revealing this data, by publishing this data potentially on an annual basis or whatever, that you could stigmatise people from certain backgrounds, from certain countries and that you wouldn't want that . but i think wouldn't want that. but i think that's blown out of the water by the idea that it's important to have transparency. we have data by nationality on many metrics, do we not? this is just one. it's rather important to know that if you know one nationality is committing a disproportionate amount of a specific violent crime, for example, surely that is pretty important in terms of deaung is pretty important in terms of dealing with it? >> well , it's interesting, dealing with it? >> well, it's interesting, for example, the issue with rape

gangs, frankly, in the uk it was it wasn't even a muslim issue. it was specifically a pakistani muslim issue with with in some attitudes in, in that community and people dancing around that fact actually put a lot of people at risk. so sometimes i think we just need to head on, take these facts head on, look at the data without fear or favour, and avoid political correctness that so often , correctness that so often, really damages proper inquisition. >> well, we're going to have that debate . see the both sides that debate. see the both sides of what people have to say. gbnews.com/yoursay your say, do you think we should be able to see crimes done by nationality as some kind of league table, or do you find that a bit a bit tncky? do you find that a bit a bit tricky? let's we'll get to some of your thoughts a little bit later on. but let's get your headunes. headlines. >> tom, emily, thanks very much . >> tom, emily, thanks very much. good afternoon to you. it's just after 1:00 leading the news this afternoon , sir keir starmer has

afternoon, sir keir starmer has been meeting labour's expanded team of mayors this afternoon to establish what he's calling a gold standard for local economic growth. the labour leader is unveiling policies that he says will drive prosperity following recent wins in the west midlands, north east york and nonh midlands, north east york and north yorkshire for the labour party in the local elections. sir keir says labour is focused on improving people's quality of life . life. >> rishi sunak keeps saying everything's fine but everybody knows it isn't and that's why we're laser focused on living standards and what i'm developing with the mayors here is a plan for living standards to go up in every part of the country. just ten days ago, in those local elections , many those local elections, many voters put their trust and confidence in labour mayors. i thank them for that and i want to repay them by making sure that we can show that we've got the plan to make sure their living standards go up so that under our plan, we can genuinely say people are better off. >> the prime minister says he'll

pick national security over membership of the european convention on human rights if he's forced to choose setting out his pre—election pitch to voters, rishi sunak said protecting people in the dangerous but transformational times ahead is his top priority, something he says only the conservatives can do. >> despite having 14 years with nothing to do but think about the future , labour have almost the future, labour have almost nothing to say about it . no nothing to say about it. no plans for our border, no plans for our energy security, no plans for our economy either. and no principles either. keir starmer has gone from embracing jeremy corbyn to natalie elphicke , all in the cynical elphicke, all in the cynical pursuit of power at any price. so labour have no ideas what they did have. they've u—turned on. >> in other three news, men aged 37, 38 and 63 have appeared in court this afternoon accused of assisting hong kong's

intelligence service . it follows intelligence service. it follows an investigation led by officers from the metropolitan counter—terrorism command, where 11 people were detained . the 11 people were detained. the metropolitan police said the hong kong investigation, though, was not related to a separate case involving russia. those three men are next due to appear at the old bailey on the 24th of may. a major parliamentary report on maternity care has found that some pregnant women have been mocked or shouted at, and denied basic needs, such as pain relief. it also shows mums to be are often treated as an inconvenience and risk suffering lifelong injuries as hospitals cover up endemic failures. the conservative mp, who led the birth trauma report, has described the quality of maternity care across the uk as a postcode lottery. the cross—party report is calling for a national plan to improve services, led by a new maternity commissioner , who would report commissioner, who would report directly to the prime minister in other health news, dementia is now costing the uk £42

billion a year, with experts saying that bill will more than double in the next 20 years. the alzheimer's society says only 1.4% of funds are currently being spent on diagnosis and treatment, with families left to cover around 63% of the cost. the charity says relatives of those suffering with the condition are typically spending anywhere from £29,000 a year, up to £81,000 every year . universal to £81,000 every year. universal credit claimants who work less than 18 hours a week have been told to look for more work from today. the earnings threshold rises from the equivalent of 15 hours a week to now 18 hours at the national living wage. the new rules will affect at least 180,000 people, according to the department for work and pensions. it's part of the government's sweeping changes to the welfare system, which the prime minister says will help people move into well—paid jobs. and finally, if you are worried about screen time, well, there's

some good news the internet may actually be good for you. a worldwide report by the oxford internet institute, which analysed 2 million people across more than 160 countries, found a link between online access and being happy. researchers found that life satisfaction was in fact 8.5% higher for those who had good access to the internet, compared to those who didn't. but it doesn't mean that scrolling your smartphone is always a good idea. with experts cautioning their study didn't consider the impact of social media. for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts. just scan the q—r code on your screen or go to our website gb news. common alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it's 1:08. now. rishi sunak is attempting to win over voters as he says the next election will be a choice between the future and the past. i presume he means that he's the future . yeah.

that he's the future. yeah. >> it's difficult pitch when you've been in power for 14 years. but in a speech setting out his plans for the country, the prime minister warned of the dangerous, transformational years , stating more will happen years, stating more will happen in the next five than the last 30. >> well, in response , the labour >> well, in response, the labour leader has been out and about. of course, he's facing fresh pressure over the defection of natalie elphicke, but he's laying out his ambitions to improve regional growth. meeting with all of those new mayors. i think it's 11 out of 12 that they won 11 out of 12. >> it really was almost, almost a clean sweep. joining us now is our political editor , our political editor, christopher hope, christopher, what will play better with the pubuc what will play better with the public at large? rishi sunak talking about defence spending and a dangerous world. or keir starmer out and about with all his regional mayors talking about, levelling up. >> well, the proof will be in the pudding on that one. emily. it's very clear, though, that sunakis it's very clear, though, that sunak is coming out fighting after those very difficult local

election results. i mean, in the wake of that, he was saying that it looks like we're heading for a hung parliament in the next election with keir starmer as therefore, as the prime minister and labour as the biggest party, and labour as the biggest party, and then in a press conference today after the speech, he denied really saying that and instead said that he thinks that his party can win that majority . his party can win that majority. vie he's trying to stress this idea of security with with me. trust me, it's a very dangerous place. the next five years, the back end of the 2020s, don't risk it all on on keir starmer, he came out fighting . i think it he came out fighting. i think it may be the timing is interesting. i think the idea of a threat to his leadership pre—election is now almost disappeared amongst the backbench tory mps. so here's the chance here to set the to frame the choice faced by voters at the election. he was asked in the press conference when will the press conference when will the election be? you said the second half of the year. could it be as soon as as july, which is the second half of the year? he refused to say that said it will come when it comes. he sees

that as a labour trick to try and get him to talk about the process of politics, not the substance, the big issue of the day, of the day in westminster, westminster is still the defection of natalie elphicke, tory mp for dover, to the labour party , rishi sunak, despite her party, rishi sunak, despite her being a tory mp, used that as a way to attack her. starmer saying that he is somebody who would embrace anybody to get power. he was in keir starmer, someone who backed jeremy corbyn, of course, when he had his views on on scrapping nato and not whether and whether he wouldn't not, not even fire the nuclear weapon to defend the uk. labouris nuclear weapon to defend the uk. labour is saying this is the seventh reset since he became prime minister they're saying they're looking at the soaring tax burden on working families and the like, in saying it's a tired government and time to replace him. so we are seeing the beginning. i think now the locals are out of the way of the long general election campaign. he was asked one question would you allow boris johnson? would you allow boris johnson? would you want boris johnson to get the vote out for the tory party of election ? here's what we have

of election? here's what we have to say. >> i've been clear about this as well in the past. >> right. i want every conservative who shares the vision that i do to be part of that campaign to fight for the things that we believe in, ultimately. look, of course, the conservative family is a broad church, but we're united by a set of values and that set of values that i talked about earlier on are founded an innate optimism about our country and what it can achieve. an intrinsic sense of pride in our history and our identity , and a history and our identity, and a knowledge that actually progress comes from people , not from the comes from people, not from the state. and that's about creating the dynamic, innovative economy. i talked about seizing the opportunities of brexit. recap dufing opportunities of brexit. recap during what we had. we led the world in the industrial revolution, right? that's what we did in this country. that was the most extraordinary time of change and progress for humanity and for british people. we led that, and i see no reason why we can't lead again in the future . can't lead again in the future. >> they are wide ranging answer

to a question about whether bofis to a question about whether boris johnson would have welcomed back to try and help the tories get the vote out of the tories get the vote out of the election, but very clear there. the speech today was that policy exchange. that's one of the more progressive, policy think tanks which support the tory party behind the scenes . tory party behind the scenes. all of his top team were there. this is a real moment, i think, when the prime minister is trying to recapture the initiative, despite being 20 points behind the polls, he's trying to say to voters , gb news trying to say to voters, gb news viewers and the like, give us another chance. it's one of the few things that an incumbent prime minister can do. >> i suppose it's much easier for the incumbent prime minister to have the pictures of shaking hands with world leaders, of being at those international summits. after all, he's the man that wakes up in the morning and has to make the call about whether the british army goes to in operations in the middle east, for example, whether british jets shoot down iranian missiles and all the rest of it. isuppose missiles and all the rest of it. i suppose it's one of the ways in which he can project a sense of authority and statesmanship .

of authority and statesmanship. >> tom. that's totally right. i'm looking at the quote here from the prime minister. he said, either you have the strength to lead or you don't. and what is clear to me is the prime minister is saying, do you trust keir starmer to take these big choices? we asked him for gb news in estonia before christmas. would you press the nuclear bomb to protect this country? of course he wouldn't say yes or no. that's the nature of a deterrent. he made very clear he would do whatever it takes. clear he would do whatever it takes . that's clear he would do whatever it takes. that's keir clear he would do whatever it takes . that's keir starmer to takes. that's keir starmer to protect this country. i think there's a question mark that the labour's got to answer. the tories have set out how they will get to 2.5% of gdp spending on defence by 2030. labour so far have not set out how they will do that. and clearly this question of security is a question of security is a question which tory the tories see as a dividing line with the labour party. >> yes, indeed. thank you very much, christopher. hope, our political editor there in westminster. he was, of course, at rishi sunaks big speech, where he set out his vision for britain. i must say it wasn't particularly barnstorming . no,

particularly barnstorming. no, not a huge amount of, oomph in that speech, which i think is something that's needed at the moment. >> i think we just saw some pictures of some of the mayors sitting around a table. can we get those pictures back up? if that's all right? because i think went away with a flash, looking at what the imagery around here is, i think i saw a bus with a union jack on it in the background. you can really see this sort of election pitch from the labour party here. they are. that's sir keir starmer with the new mayor of the west midlands. but they're all sitting around a table there and there is some buses in the background, from the depot. but they're all, they're all, sort of presenting this, this sort of unhed of presenting this, this sort of united front about the regions , united front about the regions, andifs united front about the regions, and it's an interesting sort of andy burnham there. >> who else can we see, tracy brabin we saw a moment ago, she's west yorkshire, of course . she's west yorkshire, of course. oh, and here they all are on a bus. this was actually during the election campaign , this shot the election campaign, this shot there's tracy brabin. she brought them all together. they do like sort of bringing integrated transport solutions. it's all very interesting.

>> oh very interesting indeed. there he is keir starmer without his glasses , there lisa nandy his glasses, there lisa nandy i park and ride. well there you go. >> there we go, but let's move on to the royals now, because king charles has had a pretty important moment today with his eldest son. yes. he's bestowed the role of colonel in chief of the role of colonel in chief of the army air corps to prince william. this in a huge support of, showing of support for his eldest son. >> yes. the prince of wales has also succeeded king charles as head of the regiment. also succeeded king charles as head of the regiment . as william head of the regiment. as william continues to step up his public dufiesin continues to step up his public duties in the wake of his father's cancer diagnosis. >> well, joining us now is the former bbc royal correspondent michael cole and michael, former bbc royal correspondent michael cole and michael , this michael cole and michael, this is an important day, an important moment, but a lot of people are sort of, not missing some subtle hints about the timing of all of this. >> indeed. tom. good afternoon, emily, as well, yes, indeed. i think prince harry will be feeling a certain disappointment, if not a personal slight, because this

regimen , the army air corps, was regimen, the army air corps, was the regiment in which he served very gallantly in afghanistan . very gallantly in afghanistan. he trained as a counter. very gallantly in afghanistan. he trained as a counter . apache he trained as a counter. apache helicopter. and i see we see one of them in the background there. the commander's the guy who sits in the front, the pilot behind him , and he's in charge. and, of him, and he's in charge. and, of course, harry did serve in afghanistan. he infamously claimed in his memoir, spare, that he shot, 25 taliban. he thinks he did well, incidentally, painting a target on his own back for the rest of his life, unfortunately. but he will feel , with some reason that will feel, with some reason that this is what he's lost. his associations, his ranks, his patronages within the armed forces have been taken from him. and this is the life he's left behind. he's chosen to go into self—imposed exile in california, and he's lost all that. california, and he's lost all that . the army air corps,

that. the army air corps, interestingly, right over the head of where i am now, this is where prince harry trained for nearly a year at wattisham in suffolk, near needham market. and every day the helicopters in pairs were over this house here. so we used to give him a wave and wished him well in afghanistan. all of that, unfortunately , is now behind unfortunately, is now behind him. and there you see in that picture the massive gatling guns or whatever they are that were used to great effect, in the afghanistan , operation, of afghanistan, operation, of course . as you said, absolutely. course. as you said, absolutely. correctly he, prince william is just succeeding his father when he was prince of wales. he was also the colonel in chief of the regiment, the, the army air corps is the part of the armed services that provides close support to the ground forces with their light blue berets. not to be confused with the, united nations and their blue

helmets . so i think pause for helmets. so i think pause for thought for harry as he goes back to california after his , back to california after his, tour of nigeria. of what he's left behind because he said that he found himself and he found comradeship and he found, he found his life and i think he found his life and i think he found his life and i think he found his own existence very much within this regiment, of which he is not. now associated. >> there is a there is a school of thought, though, isn't there, that , prince harry of thought, though, isn't there, that, prince harry is having a fantastic time. he he's been in nigeria having a wonderful tour, lots and lots of fantastic pr for the couple. he's been celebrating the anniversary of the invictus games. is there celebrating the anniversary of the invictus games . is there not the invictus games. is there not an argument that perhaps he is living his best life ? living his best life? >> well, all of that, of course, is right . but of >> well, all of that, of course, is right. but of course, i think it's generally admitted that the star of the show was meghan. he was almost like , john f kennedy, was almost like, john f kennedy, who said of his wife when they

went to france, he said, i'm the man who accompanied jacqueline kennedy to paris. and when i saw the scenes from nigeria, i couldn't help thinking of the 1947 eva peron tour of europe known as the rainbow tour, when she wowed everybody and the flashbulbs were going , the pope, flashbulbs were going, the pope, even pope pius the 12th received her at the vatican. king george vi in britain declined to have evita coming to visit us. in 1947, princess elizabeth was just about to get married, and princess margaret rose was only 16 at the time, so that progress , through nigeria has been a success for the sussexes. without any doubt , of course it without any doubt, of course it wasn't a royal tour. it wasn't an official visit. it wasn't a state visit. it was a private visit by two, royal personages . visit by two, royal personages. and that, of course, emily, is

the magic of monarchy , because the magic of monarchy, because nigeria has been independent since 1960, it's been a republic since 1960, it's been a republic since 1963. and yet the connection with the crown , and connection with the crown, and through the crown and the commonwealth, with the king and the royal family still sprinkles a little bit of stardust on the most populous country, in africa. usually it's in the it's in the news because of the soaring crime rate and the terrible rate of murders that there is in lagos, which vies with them with johannesburg for the unwelcome distinction of being the murder capital of africa. but all of that was forgotten as we saw at the pair. and there they were in all their loveliness in nigeria. so yes, they're enjoying it and maybe they're enjoying it and maybe they're enjoying it and maybe they're enjoying the boost of having their royal status celebrated in the way it was. >> yes, absolutely . and what an >> yes, absolutely. and what an interesting time as well.

nigeria, the most populous country in africa, one of, i think, the fifth or sixth most populous country in the world. more people living in nigeria than in brazil, just about as many as in america. i mean, really enormous country, a very important one to michael cole. thank you so much for talking through those two issues there. but interconnected issues as as so often these royal issues are indeedindeed. indeed indeed. >> but, still to come, we're going to be asking whether a migrant crime league table of some description should be published, because, the civil servants appear to be attempting to block these plans . do the to block these plans. do the british public have a right to know what nationalities are scoring highest when it comes to crime? you're watching. good afternoon britain. we're on

gb news. >> good afternoon. britain. it's 1:25. now, there are some proposals to amend the criminal justice bill, which would require the crime rates of each nation's migrants in england and wales to be published annually . wales to be published annually. >> but civil servants are attempting to block these plans for league tables of the migrant nationalities with the highest rates of crime. so the question is, should we be gathering and publishing these statistics? >> well, joining us now to discuss this is the former head of the national counter terrorism security office , chris terrorism security office, chris phillips. chris, i think a lot of people will be thinking that the government collects a lot of data . the government knows data. the government knows precisely how many potholes there are in the country. the government knows who pays tax and who doesn't. but we don't collect a lot of the data on the ethnicity of people who commit crimes . is ethnicity of people who commit crimes. is this seems like a disparity for a government that likes to collect and manage a lot of data . lot of data. >> yes. >> yes. >> hello, tom, i think the data

is probably there. they just don't like to tell you about it. and i can tell you for free that the prisons, our prisons are absolutely teeming, full of people who shouldn't even be in the country. so how they, how they choose to release information is much up to them. but i think clarity for everyone is just a good thing, really. >> so let's know these figures. >> so let's know these figures. >> let's, let's also know how many of them are actually illegal immigrants rather than actual , illegal immigrants rather than actual, illegal immigrants. >> and i guess the question another question is what would the benefits of having such data published for everyone to be able to see? because i'm assuming those who don't want this data out there are worried about stigmatisation of certain groups of people. i mean, can you see that? do the benefits outweigh the potential negatives? >> yeah, i think it will. it will broaden our knowledge a little bit. i think about who is actually coming over here to commit crime. >> and don't be, you know, don't

misunderstand that many people do come to this country and travel around the world specifically to commit crime. and i think it's important that we understand that. and aren't too naive. criminal gangs, are are literally leaking across continents now and working together to, to extort money from, from us individuals and, and the country. i think the bigger issue is not so much who are they? because i think most , are they? because i think most, most of our police forces kind of know where they're coming from. it's actually what do we do about them? and, you know, the incredible thing is people that have actually served sentences for rape, murder and other things that shouldn't even have been in the country at the time they did it, aren't deported back to the country they came from because of human rights legislation . rights legislation. >> yes. i'm reading here some words by niall o'brien, who's behind the report that's encouraging, all of this, he says that the home office won't answer questions on the immigration status of prisoners, if they're asked, were they here

legally? they say the home office does not publish data on this. so they have the data, but they don't publish the data, it seems like a very, very odd thing . and in parallel, we've thing. and in parallel, we've also seen other elements of the government, h.m. also seen other elements of the government, hm. revenue and customs used to publish annual data on how much tax people of different nationalities paid, but they stopped publishing it just a couple of years ago. it seems like we're going backwards on a lot of this, data analytics. >> yeah. they don't want us to know. they don't want us to know the true, difficulties with crime and how police forces across our cities in our country are struggling to deal with the crime that's happening from people that shouldn't be here in the first place. and that's such a big issue that, i think, many people just don't want us to know. >> yes. i mean, the former ministers who were involved in all this, they're saying that this data would be useful because it would allow the home office to tighten screenings of visas from countries with higher crime rates , it could also be crime rates, it could also be taken into account when looking

at asylum applications and where to put focus on deportations and the likes, returns , agreements. the likes, returns, agreements. and also, as you've spoken about the mounting concern that, we're importing crime from certain countries, particularly violent crime, those deemed seem pretty reasonable. do you accept the argument from the civil servants that this is about, oh, this bill is already really complex. we can't have a christmas tree type bill where loads of amendments are slapped on top of it at the last minute, do you accept that or do you think this is probably more, politics? >> well, the civil servants should be doing what they're told, didn't they? i mean, that's the that's the whole point of them, it is it is difficult when you're writing a bill. i can imagine that there are, you know, there are so many people. and listen, we're coming up to an election now. so, you know, the people in government should have considered this, years ago when they were when they were laying out the bill in they were laying out the bill in the first place. but but listen, you know, the we're being you

know, we're not being told really what's happening in the, in the world and in our country and i think it's right that we would want to know who is committing the crime . we know committing the crime. we know that criminal gangs, from certain countries are coming over here not to work in their in our , in our cities and stuff in our, in our cities and stuff other than, illegally , and of other than, illegally, and of course, in amongst this is people trafficking as well . so people trafficking as well. so there are all sorts of issues that we need to deal with. but just getting a hold on who's here and who needs to leave and making sure they do leave would be a good start. >> also, chris, i mean, people have already pushed back on the, the civil servant excuse saying this doesn't need to be a legislation matter. it could just be an operational matter that can be changed, in other ways. but thank you so much, chris. chris phillips, there , chris. chris phillips, there, former head of the national counter terrorism security office . office. >> yeah, no sensible stuff. it does seem that on more and more issues, we're getting resistance from the civil service, not even in the way that it used to be portrayed in. yes minister. oh,

yes. minister will definitely do this. we'll put it at this point in the pile, and we'll just get to it and hope it all gets forgotten about. now it seems much more brazen now that we're simply not going to do. don't fancy it, don't fancy it. >> don't like the sound of that one. we are going to get a different view on this though a little later on in the show. not everyone is, you know, particularly enthused by the idea of publishing this data , idea of publishing this data, but coming up, an unlucky dip. how a record number of wild swimming spots have been designated as bathing sites in england . but how clean are they? england. but how clean are they? we've heard a lot about excrement and everything else being dumped in our waters. are these bathing sites fit for us to swim in, or do we just measure more than we used to? >> both. well, that's all to come after your headlines with sam . sam. >> good afternoon from the gb newsroom. just after 130, a recap of the top stories this houn recap of the top stories this hour. sir keir starmer has been meeting labour's expanded team of mayors to establish what he's calling , calling a gold standard

calling, calling a gold standard for local economic growth. the labour leader has been unveiling policies that he says will drive prosperity following recent local election wins in the west midlands , north east york and midlands, north east york and nonh midlands, north east york and north yorkshire. >> rishi sunak keeps saying everything's fine, but everybody knows it isn't and that's why we're laser focused on living standards. and what i'm developing with the mayors here is , is a plan for living is, is a plan for living standards to go up in every part of the country. just ten days ago, in those local elections , ago, in those local elections, many voters put their trust and confidence in labour mayors i thank them for that and i want to repay them by making sure that we can show that we've got the plan to make sure their living standards go up so that under our plan, we can genuinely say people are better off now. >> the prime minister, meanwhile, is warning that we'll only be secure under a conservative government in a speech in london, rishi sunak said the country is at a crossroads with a clear choice between the future, with the conservatives in the past with

laboun conservatives in the past with labour, despite having 14 years with nothing to do but think about the future. >> labour have almost nothing to say about it. no plans for our border, no plans for our energy security, no plans for our economy either . and no economy either. and no principles either. keir starmer has gone from embracing jeremy corbyn to natalie elphicke , all corbyn to natalie elphicke, all in the cynical pursuit of power at any price. so labour have no ideas what they did have. they've u—turned on. they've u —turned on. >> they've u—turned on. >> in other news, three men have appeared in court this afternoon accused of assisting the hong kong intelligence service . it kong intelligence service. it follows an investigation led by officers from the counter—terrorism command, where 11 people were detained. the men , aged 37, 38 and 63, will appear at the old bailey on the 24th of may and a report is calling for a national plan to improve maternity care in uk hospitals after it found thousands of women had

experienced trauma giving birth. the conservative mp, who led the birth trauma report, described the quality of maternity services across the country as a postcode lottery . that's the postcode lottery. that's the latest from the newsroom for now. another update at 2:00. until then, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen, or go to gb news. com slash alerts . gb news. com slash alerts. >> cheers! >> cheers! >> britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news financial report at. >> and here's a quick look at the markets this afternoon. the pound will buy you $1.255 and ,1.1627 the price of gold. this afternoon is £1,869.30 per ounce, and the ftse 100 is at 8424 points. >> cheers. britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news financial report

i >> right. okay. it's 138 in the afternoon. and could you be having a unlucky dip this summer? a record number of wild swimming spots have been designated as bathing sites in england . but just how clean or england. but just how clean or dirty could they be? >> well, the environment agency will immediately start monitoring the water quality of 27 new sites, which the government has approved. joining us to discuss this, to mull this overis us to discuss this, to mull this over is the chief executive of river action, james wallace. and james, you must be pleased that there's yet more monitoring , there's yet more monitoring, although i suppose the caveats here is this is only monitoring , here is this is only monitoring, not cleaning up. >> well good afternoon. thank you for having me on. yes. so and congratulations, robbie moore and the government to announcing 27 new sites, 11 of which i believe are for rivers and 3 or 4 for lakes. >> however, it doesn't tell the

full picture. and whilst of course we should celebrate more users in the water and their protection, unfortunately monitoring does not happen throughout the year. it would be from may to september during the main swimming season and it doesn't include any form of change in what water companies are doing. so unfortunately we although it's great to see there's going to be more monitoring what are we going to see to have the rivers cleaned up and how big a problem is this, james? >> i mean, how many members of the of the public find themselves going for a dip and then potentially coming out with a disease or an infection or an issue from that water? >> well, yes. as river action showed with the boat race, i mean, what, even in the river. but on it, in a boat we saw the oxford team, three of the members of the male team being sick , three out of eight, and sick, three out of eight, and they haven't got much chance of winning a race if they've been sick in the morning, have they? and we demonstrated that the e.coli levels, e.coli is a very dangerous bacteria pathogen that's found predominantly from source of sewage pollution in river thames, and that can only

have come from thames water, and that comes from a lack of investment. and what we saw was ten times the amount that's safe to swim in. and when we look at bathing water sites, there are three until yesterday across england . one in oxford currently england. one in oxford currently has a big sign up saying not safe to swim. so unfortunately all three current bathing water sites in england have poor water quality . and these new ones, quality. and these new ones, these 11 plus four. so inland rivers and lakes of 15 more sites. the question then would be how soon are they going to be unsafe? or perhaps they are already. but this is a good thing though. this is a step in the right direction that the government has designated these sites . yes for more monitoring. sites. yes for more monitoring. but monitoring might lead to action. it might lead to a great clean up . clean up. >> well we hope so. and as i said i am pleased and my organisation's pleased as i'm sure many campaigners will be. my sure many campaigners will be. my heart also goes out to those communities that weren't successful in their applications and some of the reasons were quite extraordinary. for example, on the river wye, i understand the bathing water sites were not awarded because the rivers protected for ecology

reasons. sax and triple c's, which are protections given to the river to try and protect them from sewage and agricultural pollution. but ironically, people are now being told they can't have bathing water status because we might. we shouldn't have humans swimming where there's wildlife. >> i mean, some of the humans , >> i mean, some of the humans, james, are some of the humans are a bit dirty themselves, you know, are some of the humans, weeing in the in the water or , weeing in the in the water or, you know, god forbid, defaecating. >> i mean, sometimes the bathers actually see the wrong'uns here. >> well, maybe. >> well, maybe. >> and of course , there's always >> and of course, there's always bad eggs, aren't there? and i'm sure there are unfortunately, many people like we see with wildfires in the summer. some silly people have barbecues in forests. you know, these things happen, but we're talking about massive amounts, you know, billions of litres of sewage being discharged from water companies works. >> it really takes the biscuit, doesn't it ? because we're doesn't it? because we're looking at the environment agency here, which is prioritising birds over humans in these cases that you're talking about prioritising the wildlife in the water over the right of humans to go and have a paddle in their local brook,

stream or pond or lake. i mean, it seems, can't we live together? we've got our priorities the wrong way round here. are we are we doing too much, newt? counting in this instance? >> well, i think i think we should have both. you know, there's no reason why we shouldn't have humans in water as well as fish. the problem is that if we're constrained to bathing sites, then you're going to get dozens and dozens of people in some places where it's too much. and i understand why . too much. and i understand why. for example, if you're an angler or other other users, you might be concerned about that. but what we're not we're not talking about that. we're talking about in france, they have 573 bathing sites that are authorised by the government and monitored in britain. we now have what's that? 1417 so we are still way, way, way behind . there's plenty way, way behind. there's plenty of rivers but very little access, only 3% of our rivers have public access. and again, i fully respect the rights of landowners who don't necessarily want lots of people tramping through their rivers, and that's fairly fair to understand. but where access is permitted, we

should be allowed to swim safely. and that should be the point here. we have a need to protect wildlife and humans . the protect wildlife and humans. the baddies here, dare i say, are the government for not enforcing the government for not enforcing the law and the polluters for causing the pollution. so with this bathing water sites, we would like to see very much a big emphasis now and thinking ahead of the election, let's make sure that whoever you vote for when you go to the ballot box, that you think of ticking the box, that puts rivers and wildlife and humans before the profits of often internationally owned water companies . owned water companies. >> it's interesting though, isn't it? i think it's very, very french to have sort of 500 places that are government designated where you're allowed to swim. i think in an ideal world we'd be able to sort of pick the places that we enjoy that have public access that we can swim in without the government needing to tell us where we can go and where we can't go. >> how high is demand, james, for swimming in brooks and streams and things. it's not something that i've done a lot of myself. how how high is high as demand? obviously the weather is weather dependent isn't it. >> yeah. well, we saw in lockdown that and incidentally,

it's not this isn't about whether the government is saying whether the government is saying whether you should be able to swim or not. it's about whether sites have bathing water status and therefore are monitored. that's what this is about. but you have a demand has increased very dramatically since lockdown where people couldn't go abroad and they started holidaying more at home. as we hear the term staycation now is very popular and why shouldn't people be able to get in the water? and in fact, we're not just talking about swimming here. i mean, yes, bathing water sites are designated for swimming, but along rivers we should be able to fish. we should be able to walk our dogs safely, allow our children to paddle. we should be able to row. we should be able to just sit and have a barbecue. whatever it is, we should be able to do it safely, knowing that our health is not at risk. and let's not forget that unfortunately, because of the risk of e coli and other bacteria in the water, it isn't only going to make people very sick, which we're hearing across the country, but it can kill you, you know, if it gets into an open wound. let's say you scratch your foot on some glass on the bottom of the river that can become infected, and you could get sepsis and die. i mean, this is going to happen, and it probably has happened but not been very serious. >> it's very serious, very, very serious. >> thank you very much. james

wallace, great to speak to you. chief executive of river action. lots of you getting in touch already about this. liz agrees with you. what's the point of monitoring if they're not going to clean the water up? it's a national scandal. oh, yeah? who's going to monitor the monitors? she asks. she we need a monitor. we need a chief. chief monitor who looks after the junior monitors. >> goodness me . we're becoming >> goodness me. we're becoming quite a regulated society. >> we are quite a regulated society. and brexit was all about deregulating for some people. was it wasn't? it seems like we've made lots of new regulations . regulations. >> yes. although i'm not sure that the worst regulation in the world is monitoring water, which we have done more of actually, since brexit, but but there we go. still to come. a new study has found that obese people are twice as likely as non—obese nice people to take time off work. well is this cause and effect, or is this an effect of a cause which way round is it? we'll be joined by a psychologist to find out what's going on. you're watching. good

gb news. good afternoon. britain. it's just coming up to 10 to 2. now, a curious new study has found that obese people are twice as likely to take time off work when compared to non—obese people severely obese adults were two and a half times more likely than healthy adults to have had at least one week off with poor health in the past year. with poor health in the past year . well, joining us now to year. well, joining us now to discuss this is psychologist doctor pam spurr, thank you so much for joining doctor pam spurr, thank you so much forjoining us. i suppose the question that immediately will jump to the forefront of many people's minds when we're looking at this sick note culture is are obese people more lazy or are lazy people more obese ? obese? >> well, i don't think that's a good way to look at it. tom, i think what we have to look at is the fact that our lifestyles have changed dramatically in the last two decades, we've gone from being much more active to we have sedentary lifestyles

where people can order a fast food dinner at the drop of a hat, only have to get up from their couch to take it in, you know, inside and eat it. and i think i know it sounds crazy , think i know it sounds crazy, but a lot of people do not link things like eating fast food, sugary foods, lots of treats with why they are getting bigger. and the problem is obesity is linked to so many chronic medical conditions, diabetes, heart problems , joint diabetes, heart problems, joint problems, cholesterol, sleep apnoea that obviously that means obese people are more likely to take time off work because they may well have one or more of those conditions. >> i mean, pam, it sounds like you're talking about there's quite a lot of denial going on if you don't link eating huge amounts of food takeaways , amounts of food takeaways, sweets, etc. with gaining weight and all the issues that go along with that, that's that sounds like a bit of a poor mental health more than anything. >> i think a lot of it is denial

and people don't realise the addictive effect of comfort foods. i do feel , fast food foods. i do feel, fast food manufacturers, they put in certain sweets and certain, fatty things into their food, which is highly addictive. we get a brain hit, and even if you start to realise, my goodness, i'm not getting into my trousers. oh, well, i'll get the next size up. people hate to face reality a lot of people find it very hard to take a stark look at things and tell themselves, i've got to do better. i hate the nanny state as much as the next person, but i do think we now need things like preparing parents to be for what they should feed their children, because we have an enormous problem with obese children too. right now, we need to have all gp surgeries with big messages about what is affecting your weight . we need affecting your weight. we need teaching in schools. we need the government to put out better quality and short and

abbreviated messages. and we also need people . eventually, at also need people. eventually, at some point, they have to pay some point, they have to pay some sort of personal cost. if they're taking loads of time off work in some way, they have to look at how they can do better . look at how they can do better. >> is there a cultural problem here, though, whereby lots of people, there's a big movement to say any size is healthy , any to say any size is healthy, any size is beautiful. there's a big sort of , body positivity sort of, body positivity movement, which the face of all good research and good fact. >> i totally agree with you, tom. i think it's one thing for people to say we need to be body confident and accept yourself as you are, but there are limits to that. and some people i know who are severely obese will say, oh, but i can. i can walk , i can, but i can. i can walk, i can, i can do what other people can do. unfortunately, that does not last long. if you look at the studies of long term obesity , studies of long term obesity, people become slower, more sedentary, more sitting on the

couch, the more weight they put on.andi couch, the more weight they put on. and i do feel that's been the wrong messaging. and instead we should say it's not good to be thin. it's not good to be obese. be thin. it's not good to be obese . we have to aim for obese. we have to aim for somewhere in the middle. yeah. not perfection . not perfection. >> and, and i guess there's a worrying question here that, you know, if you're a hiring manager, you might look at these statistics, you might look at this study and think, well, you know, if i hire someone who's got a weight problem, they might be taking more days off sick. and i'm not going to risk that. pam. we're going to have to leave it there. psychologist doctor pam spurr really great to get your view on on all of this, yes . yes. >> i think it is interesting. i've been reading a lot about this new miraculous fat jab, you know. oh, yes. zupide or ozempic or, you know , it's a really or, you know, it's a really interesting thing because finally , there is actually finally, there is actually something that works that does massively reduce people's weight. and every celebrity in hollywood is on it, and all the rest of it, but there are all these articles that pop up in newspapers like the guardian that say, oh, this is awful. this is encouraging. big pharma

and discouraging and encouraging sort of an anti fat culture. and it's like , well, i think it's it's like, well, i think it's because there are side effects aren't there. >> well not really. people worry about it. and also it's a quick fix. it's a quick fix. about it. and also it's a quick fix. it's a quick fix . that's fix. it's a quick fix. that's good. coming up, should we be gathering and publishing information on what nationalities are committing crimes in the uk? we'll speak to a activist very shortly . a activist very shortly. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar , sponsors of weather on . solar, sponsors of weather on. gb news. >> hello again. time for the latest forecast with the met office for gb news. warm and bright once again in the east today, but cloudier and cooler elsewhere with outbreaks of rain moving steadily in from the west to the east. because of this area of low pressure , which has area of low pressure, which has displaced the high that brought us so much fine weather over the last week or so, that fine weather persists just about into the evening for eastern england, northeast scotland and cloudier

skies, outbreaks of rain that have been persisting in the west through the day. they will move their way eastwards as the night progresses, the rain becomes a bit more fragmented , so it's on bit more fragmented, so it's on and off rain across western scotland, northern and central england. some clear spells towards the west and chilly feel here. first thing single figures, but for many others it's 12 to 15 celsius as we begin the day on tuesday and frequent showers appearing into the southwest and south wales, northern ireland as well. some of these could be quite heavy and slow moving. they will be accompanied by thunder in the far southwest, but some brightness in between. so feeling a bit more pleasant perhaps compared with monday's weather in the east, though, a real change of weather compared with the last few days. cloudy outbreaks of rain and a lot of low cloud. we've still got that low cloud. we've still got that low cloud. we've still got that low cloud on wednesday morning across eastern parts of england, eastern scotland, brighter skies towards the west, but again, a day of sunny spells and showers and really sunny spells and showers. the theme on thursday

and friday as well. >> that warm feeling inside from boxt boilers. sponsors of weather on

gb news. >> good afternoon. britain. it's 2:00 on monday, the 13th of may. >> britain faces an increasingly dangerous world and would be safer under tory rule. that's a message from the prime minister as he warns the country changing governments at this time would put us all at risk. >> meanwhile, sir keir starmer has been out and about. he's meeting with labour's newly elected regional mayors. he's talking up how his party is best placed to level up the uk regions. does all of this feel a bit like an election yet? >> just a bit. and in a royal reshuffle, the king has handed over the role of colonel in chief of the army air corps to the prince of wales. that's prince harry's old regiment. we're live on the scene with our

royal correspondent. now there is a curious headline this morning that caught our attention, eu accuses eurovision bosses of handing gift to enemies of europe with flag ban. >> yes, this is because european union flags the famous 12 star on a dark blue background. they were banned from the audience, taking them in to this year's eurovision song contest because every flag was banned apart from those of the contestant countries . this was a sort of countries. this was a sort of convoluted way to stop palestinian flags flooding the place. but, it's made ursula von der leyen , the eu commission der leyen, the eu commission president, really rather angry. >> she's fuming. she's absolutely fuming. now, the commission vice president, who presumably is her second, margarita schinas has said, said

this is mind blowing. what they've decided to do here with, banning the flag. she said, i cannot find the logical explanation for why the ebu is doing this. and what does this say serve? it's regrettable, it, etc, etc. who does this help? who does this help? >> only the eurosceptics , only >> only the eurosceptics, only the eurosceptics. >> gosh, yes, it only helps the eurosceptics. well, it may well be that the european parliament finds itself with rather a few more eurosceptics , judging by more eurosceptics, judging by all the polling data out there in the european union, lots of shift towards that way of thinking. >> i'm just very , very glad, >> i'm just very, very glad, emily, that the european commission is focusing on such serious subjects because there is nothing more vitally important for the eu commission president to be talking about, to be issuing statements on, than how many flags were allowed into the audience at eurovision, she says. nothing else going on in the world, she says. >> i will talk to them. i won't let this pass. i will seek explanations and clarifications. well, there you go. the

eurovision drama keeps giving, doesn't it? keeps giving, shall we get your headlines? >> good afternoon. from the newsroom. 202 the headlines this hour sir keir starmer has been meeting labour's expanded new team of mayors to establish what he's calling a gold standard for local economic growth. the labour leader is unveiling policies that he says will drive prosperity following recent local election wins in the west midlands, the north east york and north yorkshire . sir keir and north yorkshire. sir keir starmer says labour is focused on improving people's quality of life. >> rishi sunak keeps saying everything's fine but everybody knows it isn't and that's why we're laser focused on living standards and what i'm developing with the mayors. here is a plan for living standards to go up in every part of the country, just ten days ago, in those local elections, many voters put their trust and

confidence in labour mayors. i thank them for that and i want to repay them by making sure that we can show that we've got the plan to make sure they're living standards go up so that under our plan, we can genuinely say people are better off. >> meanwhile, rishi sunak has warned that giving sir keir starmer the keys to number 10 would, he says, leave the country less safe. setting out his pre—election pitch to voters earlier , the prime minister said earlier, the prime minister said that protecting people in the dangerous but transformational times ahead is something only the conservatives can do . he the conservatives can do. he also claimed the country is at a crossroads with a clear choice between the future and the past. >> despite having 14 years with nothing to do but think about the future , labour have almost the future, labour have almost nothing to say about it . no nothing to say about it. no plans for our border, no plans for our energy security, no plans for our economy either. and no principles either. keir starmer has gone from embracing jeremy corbyn to natalie

elphicke , all in the cynical elphicke, all in the cynical pursuit of power at any price. so labour have no ideas what they did have. they view turned on and some royal news. >> the king has officially handed over the role of colonel in chiefs of the army air corps to the prince of wales. earlier, in a rare engagement involving both the current monarch and his heir, his majesty formally handed over the title that he's held for the past 32 years. the king said it was a great joy to meet servicemen during today's visit to middle wallop in hampshire . prince william will hampshire. prince william will now represent the army's air wing, which includes the unit once served in by his brother harry. in other news, three men aged 37, 38 and 63 have appeared in court accused of assisting the hong kong intelligence service . it follows an service. it follows an investigation led by officers from the counter terrorism command, where 11 people were detained. the metropolitan police said the hong kong investigation, though, was not

related to a separate case involving russia. those three men are next due to appear at the old bailey later this month. a major parliamentary report on maternity care across the country has found that some pregnant women have been mocked or shouted at, and denied basic needs, such as pain relief. it also shows mums to be are often treated as an inconvenience and risk suffering lifelong injuries at hospital. as hospitals cover up endemic failures. the conservative mp, who led that birth trauma report has described the quality of maternity care as a postcode lottery. the cross—party report is calling now for a national plan to improve services led by a new maternity commissioner, who would report directly to the prime minister universal credit claimants who work less than 18 hours a week have been told to look for more work from today. the earnings threshold rises from the equivalent of 15 hours a week to now 18 hours at the

national living wage. the new rules will affect at least 180,000 people, according to the department for work and pensions, is part of the government's sweeping changes to the welfare system, which the prime minister says will help people move into well—paid jobs. and finally, if you're thinking of taking a digital detox to boost your mood, well, you might want to think again. scientists say the internet may actually be good for you. a worldwide report by the oxford internet institute, which analysed 2 million people across 168 countries, found a link between being online and being happy. researchers found that life satisfaction was 8.5% higher for those who had good access to the internet, compared to those who didn't. but it doesn't mean that scrolling on your smartphone is the secret to happiness, with experts cautioning the study doesn't consider the impact of social media. that's the latest from the newsroom for now. another update in the next half houn another update in the next half hour. until then, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning

the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. common alerts . to gb news. common alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it's 2:07 now. news in the last hour . 2:07 now. news in the last hour. you'll want to listen to this. the high court in belfast has ruled that provisions of the uk illegal migration act are now incompatible. in northern ireland, they're incompatible with the windsor framework and the northern ireland protocol. well, what on earth does this mean? it means that deporting people to rwanda will now not be able to take place in northern ireland. joining us to explain is our political correspondent , is our political correspondent, olivia utley olivia. this is a blow to the government . blow to the government. >> i mean, this is an absolute huge blow to the government with the rwanda bill disapplied in northern ireland, we can obviously expect to see a massive influx of migrants to

northern ireland. and of course, those migrants will pretty easily be able to cross the border. there is no there is no the no official border between the no official border between the sea, between northern ireland and great britain that has been the case for, over a hundred years now . that is part hundred years now. that is part of northern ireland being part of northern ireland being part of the united kingdom. and so we can expect to see a huge influx of migrants to northern ireland. already we know that migrants are coming to the republic of ireland as a result of the rwanda legislation, and rishi sunak has been almost crowing about that, saying that it's proof that the rwanda legislation is already beginning to work . but legislation is already beginning to work. but he'll be laughing on the other side of his face now because it looks as though there will be a huge influx of migrants to the united kingdom in the form of northern ireland. now, why has this happened? well, essentially , a judge has well, essentially, a judge has ruled that the, the, the, the powers contained in the new immigration, illegal immigration bill, which rishi sunak got through the commons a few weeks

ago , would would diminish the ago, would would diminish the rights of migrants coming over to the uk to northern ireland. why does that matter? well, because under the windsor framework, which of course, rishi sunak, managed to get agreed, that was sort of his crowning legacy as prime minister. any rights that were stipulated in the good friday agreement can't be lessen ed under the new brexit framework. but basically , rishi sunak has but basically, rishi sunak has painted himself into a corner because his windsor framework is incompatible with his , incompatible with his, immigration legislation. >> gosh, it's all very complicated . but rishi sunak has complicated. but rishi sunak has said many times now, hasn't he, that he is willing to stand up to the courts. he is willing to ignore the courts. even this is a test for him . a test for him. >> i think he will see this , as >> i think he will see this, as a test. he said time and again that he is willing to ignore the courts. but this is exactly the sort of hold up which he does not need. if everything went

according to plan, then we were supposed to see flights taking off to rwanda in the next. i think it was 5 or 6 weeks now, but of course that was hinging on legal, legal issues, not, getting their claws in. now it looks as though there will be at least one legal hold up. this could push back further the timeline of migrants actually leaving the ground to go to rwanda . and that is a really big rwanda. and that is a really big problem for rishi sunak. he is essentially , calling an election essentially, calling an election much later this year because he is hoping that the rwanda program will be up and running, very soon, in which case he we should have started to see that the dividends of that, if you like, by october or november, the more hold ups there are, the tighter that timeline gets. and the trickier that election looks, even if it is as late as it can possibly be in november, december or even january . december or even january. >> given where northern ireland is geographically in the united

kingdom, i find it hard to think that there will be many small boat arrivals directly in northern ireland. there'll be people overstaying visas, there'll be people arriving by aeroplane in terms of stopping the boats. if the government is able to detain people upon arrival on the south coast of england , they'll still be able england, they'll still be able to send people to rwanda without a chance of them getting through over to northern ireland to remain . remain. >> well, that's what the government will be hoping the small boats, gangs do tend to find ways they are, sort of a terrible people, but in a way quite admirable in their entrepreneurship. and i think that the very fact that there are small boat crossings, there are small boat crossings, there are people getting over to the repubuc are people getting over to the republic of ireland, suggests that this could be an issue, as you say , tom, the geography does you say, tom, the geography does mean that there is a bit of protection sort of built in, and it does look still likely that that the rwanda plan will be able to go ahead this plan. but this is a real thorn in the prime minister's side . and also

prime minister's side. and also it ultimately undermines the windsor framework itself. we the whole point, the whole point of, everything that rishi sunak agreed post—brexit , the whole agreed post—brexit, the whole point of that windsor framework was that there would be no difference in rights and no difference in rights and no difference in rights and no difference in legislation between northern ireland and mainline mainland britain . this mainline mainland britain. this will mean that there is a difference, and i expect we will see very soon. unionist politicians in northern ireland start to get quite annoyed about it, which again is another headache that the prime minister can't really afford at the moment. >> very interesting indeed. please do, let us know if there are any updates. i wonder if rishi sunak will have something to say quite quickly on all of this . thank to say quite quickly on all of this. thank you very much. olivia utley. our political correspondent there in westminster . correspondent there in westminster. huge correspondent there in westminster . huge ramifications westminster. huge ramifications potentially. potentially. but will rishi sunak say, you know, i don't care what the court says. >> well , says. >> well, we'll hear from that's what he said he's willing to do, hasn't he. >> later this afternoon, there's this daily, lobby briefing where i'm sure that will be a matter of discussion. we'll get the very latest as soon as we get

it. in other news, king charles has bestowed the role of colonel in chief of the army air corps to prince william in a huge showing of support for his eldest son. yes the prince of wales has also succeeded king charles as head of the regiment. >> as william continues to step up his public duties in the wake of his father's cancer diagnosis. >> well, joining us now from middle wollop, a marvellous place name is our royal correspondent cameron walker. cameron, this was a significant moment today. cameron, this was a significant moment today . yeah, it moment today. yeah, it absolutely is, tom. a very important joint engagement , a important joint engagement, a rare one, actually, for the king and the prince of wales . it was and the prince of wales. it was and the prince of wales. it was a very windy, not quite wet, but very windy , army base in middle very windy, army base in middle wallop. the army aviation centre that this engagement took place. and it is historical because the king, as prince of wales, served as the colonel in chief of the army air corps for 31 years, and today was the official handover today was the official handover to the current prince of wales, prince william. >> buckingham palace announced that this was going to be the

new appointment back in august, but today obviously is the day that that took place. they both arrived separately . the king arrived separately. the king arrived separately. the king arrived on the royal helicopter. the royal flights that burgundy helicopter into the air base. he met veterans of the army air corps inside the museum that's attached to the army base here. prince william arrived separately and was given a private briefing on the secret operational missions and tasks that the serving soldiers here are currently involved with. at the moment . and then the two of the moment. and then the two of them, which is where i was met up out in front of this apache helicopter, this serving helicopter, this serving helicopter, which is used as an attack gunner during various wars. afghanistan notably one of them. and then the king physically handed over the cap and badge of the colonel in chief of the army air corps to the prince of wales. it was a significant moment in front of a number of members of the media, andindeed number of members of the media, and indeed a number of serving soldiers of the army air corps too, and got to mingle and chat and see the apache helicopter around there. prince william

then went off to meet serving soldiers of various ranks, and this afternoon he actually gets to take a trip in the apache helicopter. he's getting a ride in one, as well, and i spoke to captain johnny riley, who ? and captain johnny riley, who? and the prince of wales here today, and i asked him, what is prince william's role going to actually be as the colonel in chief, if any ceremonial as you can expect. >> but but more of that that support the top of the head there. >> so for every army air corps soldier to know that they have the prince of wales as their colonel in chief, that's a real a real privilege for us all. >> i think he probably, probably felt quite proud, actually. it's i know it's been something close to his heart , that that to his heart, that that affiliation with the army air corps and being a military aviator . so to be corps and being a military aviator. so to be able to hand that over personally to his son, it seemed like it was a very poignant event. >> now, the elephant in the room here is prince harry because he actually serves in the army air corps. during his second tour of

afghanistan in 2014 and flew in an apache helicopter, he was a gunner during that second tour. he talked about in his book spare , killing 25 taliban spare, killing 25 taliban fighters while he was riding and serving in that helicopter. he also trained in middle wallop here before he served in afghanistan as well. and there's been some speculation that if he hadnt been some speculation that if he hadn't stood back as a working royal, he would have taken on the colonel in chief role of the army air corps. i suspect that's probably unlikely , because the probably unlikely, because the king is. prince of wales serves for 31 years as the heir to the throne. so it's only perhaps right and fitting that it goes to the current prince of wales and current heir to the throne. but make of that what you will. the timing of the announcement of this engagement was quite suspicious. it happened on the day prince harry arrived in the uk ahead of his invictus, ceremony of invictus service last week. but all in all, a very important day for the king and the prince of wales. >> thank you very much indeed. cameron walker, our royal

correspondent there in middle wallop, middle wallop, middle wallop. >> marvellous place. now back to some rather different news. >> there are proposals to amend the criminal justice bill, which would require the crime rates of each nation's migrants in england and wales to be published annually. >> but civil servants trying to block these plans with, accusations that this is far too late, that it's going to gum up the legislative process . but the legislative process. but some suggestions that actually this is an ideological blocking of the civil service. but the question is, should we be gathering and publishing these statistics? >> well, joining us now to discuss this is human rights campaigner and activist, peter tatchell. peter, interested to get your view on this. do you think we do have the right to know who's committing what crimes by nationality? >> well, first let me say this smacks of another desperate conservative measure to distract from its failure to stop the small boats, its failure to fix the nhs, and its failure to give

the nhs, and its failure to give the british people the benefits of brexit that the government promised , it is a distraction. promised, it is a distraction. it's going to cost a lot of money that would be rather spent on the nhs and social care, and it's not going to achieve anything, but it's not coming from rishi sunak peter's. peter's going to bring any more criminals to justice. this isn't going to protect the public. it's going to create a league table that will give fuel to xenophobes and racists who want to stir social division. if, let's say, for example , 15% of let's say, for example, 15% of migrant criminals are from country x, that does not mean that people living in this country from country x are themselves as a whole , a threat. themselves as a whole, a threat. >> no, but it might mean that we are a minority. it might mean that we want to tighten up the visa process from country x , visa process from country x, that we have an extra level when we say, would you like to come here from country x? we just make sure that there's an interview process there that there's perhaps a more stringent structure. this will help us target resources when it comes to our immigration system. well

i can assure you the visa process is all very already very tight and very strict. >> you have to satisfy quite stringent criteria. >> a million people came to the country last year that doesn't sound incredibly tight. sorry. over a million people came to the country last year. that doesn't sound incredibly tight. >> that's because they satisfied the visa requirements and the visa requirements are very strict when it comes to people with criminal records or people with criminal records or people with dodgy backgrounds, you have to fulfil quite high criterion. and again, i just think we want to protect the british public. of course we do . we don't want of course we do. we don't want criminals to run loose, but this isn't going to solve the problem , this isn't going to protect the public. and when we talk, let's talk about who's causing the british public real harm. the corporate bosses who run britain, they are the ones who are causing more damage than any of these migrant criminals. are causing more damage than any of these migrant criminals . they of these migrant criminals. they are getting themselves huge profits and huge bonuses, paying their workers low pay and

ripping off the consumers with low with very high prices. they're using tax avoidance schemes. so they can get out of paying schemes. so they can get out of paying tax to fund our vital pubuc paying tax to fund our vital public services. >> but peter, you're mixing up a lot of things here. and i do take your point that there are huge amounts of issues in this country that the government perhaps are not dealing with as best as they as they could , as best as they as they could, as we would like anyway. but we were talking to a former head of counter terrorism earlier, and he says it is blatantly obvious that there are criminal gangs , that there are criminal gangs, foreign criminal gangs coming to this country with the sole purpose of committing crimes. would it therefore not be useful for the home office and for everyone else involved to be able to see which nationalities are perpetrating the most crimes in order to keep all of us safe for including people from migrant backgrounds ? migrant backgrounds? >> well, again, it's about some people from migrant backgrounds and these criminals statistics

will not differentiate between people convicted of offences like motoring and littering , and like motoring and littering, and those who commit robbery , rape those who commit robbery, rape and other serious crimes. so i just think it's a it's a deliberate ploy to try and stir up anxieties . and i don't see up anxieties. and i don't see how it is going to actually help protect the public. i mean, by all means, let's have a tougher regime , to protect the public. regime, to protect the public. i agree, but i don't think having agree, but i don't think having a league table of migrant criminal nationalities is going to help. what we have to do is vet each person who seeks to come to this country to make sure that they fulfil the visa requirements , which includes not requirements, which includes not having a criminal record and background. >> i mean, that would be nice because as it stands , i mean, because as it stands, i mean, how many times have we reported on someone who was a failed asylum seeker or who got through the visa process one way or another and then went on to commit violent crimes, having

already committed them elsewhere. our system isn't always as stringent as perhaps it should be. >> well, maybe i agree, i agree, but let's not pretend or let's not, you know, give fuel to the anxiety that just because x number of people from country y have committed criminal offences , that therefore all that whole population, that whole community is somehow a threat. >> this is what is going to happen when these league tables are published . it's going to are published. it's going to result in people from those communities living here in britain, law abiding, innocent citizens being falling under suspicion and being subjected to targeted police investigations when 99% of them are entirely good citizens, law abiding and contributing to our society. that's my anxiety. it's going to provoke division. >> i wonder, though, if not revealing, the data has the same effect. i do wonder because i

wonder if not publishing the data has that same effect, because people wonder why are the government hiding this? you know, if there's not a problem , know, if there's not a problem, then why would the government choose to hide the data? do you see what i'm saying ? see what i'm saying? >> i do hear what you're saying. but again, you know , the way to but again, you know, the way to protect the public is to ensure a stringent visa process , a stringent visa process, exclude those who could be a threat, and then police resources to investigate criminal gangs. >> we will have to leave it there. but thank you very much for joining us. we've got to get forjoining us. we've got to get to this break, but much, much more to come. see you in a

>> well. welcome back. good afternoon. britain. it's 227 now. still to come, we're going to be asking whether religion

should be kept completely out of politics. because the liberal democrats have been accused of deselecting a candidate based purely on his christian faith. and this would be a breach of equality law. >> although would it, though, i mean , like they're arguing party mean, like they're arguing party is not allowed to party is not allowed to select who they want based on what values the party has anyway. members have reported the party to the equalities watchdog over accusations that the party has hostile, has tolerated a hostile environment for people of faith, failed to investigate serious allegations of discrimination and harassment and have emboldened those who believe that christians should be driven from public life. >> it's a very interesting one. joining us now to discuss this is head of public policy at christian concern, tim deep . christian concern, tim deep. tim, thank you very much indeed for joining us on this , thank for joining us on this, thank you. do you think that christians are being pushed out of public life? i know that tim farron had a pretty difficult time, kate forbes of the snp. a lot of the attack lines against her were based on her, her

christian views, and then there's this allegation of this particular liberal democrat. do you think it's fair to say that christians are being pushed out? >> well, it does look that way, doesn't it? and i think you're right to cite those various examples and excuse me, in this latest example, david campanale was selected as the candidate in his constituency. >> and then, people seem to sort of suddenly realise, oh, he's actually a christian. not that he hid that, of course. >> and he was subjected to a two hour interrogation. about his faith and what he believed and why he believes things. and he was told, we do not accept your right to a conscience , by right to a conscience, by people. and he was mocked. i suppose you think you're being persecuted like jesus was. and this kind of thing would be, definitely harassment, intimidation, bullying and discrimination in any other workplace. and so it should be in the case of a political party as well. and one one's got to ask, what is the agenda? why are they discriminating? why are they discriminating? why are they so bothered to get him out and, and subject him to a two

year process, after which they forced him out because he wasn't going to resign because he felt he'd been properly elected as a candidate, as he was. >> but tim, if he's got certain views, whether it be on abortion or same sex relationships or whatever else that might go along with his profound faith , i along with his profound faith, i mean, isn't it the total right of any political party to say , of any political party to say, we agree with you on this, or we disagree with you on this and perhaps the liberal democrats isn't a good party for christians. that's okay. i mean, we have different political parties that represent different views. is that not a pretty profound point here? >> he was saying these are conscience issues. they're generally accepted as conscience issues , in parliament, they're issues, in parliament, they're not whipped votes on abortion and things like that, and he was saying, i ought to be able to be able to vote according to my conscience on some of these things. and he'd been properly selected and elected, as i said . selected and elected, as i said. and he's been, you know, particularly targeted for his christian beliefs by the liberal democrats don't want to have an mp sent to parliament that most liberal democrat members disagree with.

>> but hang on, do they make do they make do they say that? do they make do they say that? do they say that directly to people, or is it done through this sort of covert way of interrogation over certain views? because if they said we are not a party for christians, he was voted he won a vote to become selected as the constituency party candidate in that constituency. >> he won that vote. he wanted it absolutely outright. he would have fantastic campaign. people said, yes, we want you as a candidate. he's a very experienced person. he's been, you know, many years as a bbc correspondent , won awards. there correspondent, won awards. there was a union representative there, holds many of the same values as the liberal democrats, the liberal democrats , you know, the liberal democrats, you know, particularly supported their campaign against the brexit as it's, as it turns out, holds many of the same political opinions , but on certain moral opinions, but on certain moral issues. he says, well, i've got a conscience and i want to follow my conscience on those things. and he was particularly targeted for his christian faith after being selected and bullied and harassed in this kind of way, a two hour interrogation and so on. and i doubt, although i don't know, i doubt they would do the same if the person was

hindu or muslim or or whatever other faith is a, you know, christians, are they a bit fair game when it comes to this? well, it certainly seems like that to me . and you had the same that to me. and you had the same kind of thing applying to kate forbes. even the threat of her standing to be leader of the snp and the latest, you know, once, yusuf resigned, was like, you know, a red rag to a bull to some people saying we can't possibly have someone with such retrograde views as a christian. maybe that should have been 100 years ago. and, you know, clearly, you know, they didn't apply clearly, you know, they didn't apply the same thing to joseph humza yousaf, who is a muslim and who's unashamed about it and held prayers in bute house and so on. and, you know, he's he's you know, he's protected somehow in his religious beliefs. and yet, kate forbes wasn't and it seems like the same kind of thing here is being applied to david campanale . you know, once david campanale. you know, once people discovered he actually has christian beliefs and stuff , has christian beliefs and stuff, there are other christians in there are other christians in the party. you know, tim farron, you've mentioned , various others you've mentioned, various others across the party. you know, charles kennedy is a churchgoing christian as well. right? so, you know, why are they picking

on him? it seems like the local party, rather the national party and national leaders from across the party have written to the equalities and human rights commission saying, this looks like discrimination to us on the bafis like discrimination to us on the basis of a protected characteristic, which is a religious belief. characteristic, which is a religious belief . and this religious belief. and this political party is discriminating against this christian man because of his religious belief. and the equality and human rights commission say they're going to look into it. and i think he's also considering bringing a legal case against the liberal democrats for discrimination on the basis of his christian faith , and it'd be very well be able to bring that case. >> and i think you do have the strongest argument there when you compare how christians are treated when it comes to moral issues versus people of other faiths. and i think that there is usually a wide disparity there. but i wonder if, i mean, what surely moral issues can be political issues too. and i agree, i'm political issues are all moral issues at the end of the day, you know, but he's saying, i agree with the lib dems on their main policies, on their manifesto commitments and so on. so on. >> so on. >> but there are certain moral issues that he has a conscience on, and he wants to be able to follow his conscience on those

issues. >> thank you very much for joining us. we're going to have to leave it there and get to our news headlines. >> very good afternoon to you. it's just after a half past two, and we start with news from the prime minister, who has used a speech this afternoon in london to warn that we'll only be safe. he says, under a conservative government setting out his pre—election pitch to voters, rishi sunak said his rwanda plan is proof that only conservative ministers can protect britain's borders. labour said his speech represented a seventh reset, though in 18 months. meanwhile in the us, a new poll gives donald trump a lead in five key states the cost of living and the war in gaza are said to have dnven the war in gaza are said to have driven down support for president biden in key states, including in michigan , nevada including in michigan, nevada and pennsylvania. the survey by the new york times, siena college and the philadelphia inquirer found the president now leads in just one battleground

state that's wisconsin. here in the uk , meanwhile, three men the uk, meanwhile, three men have appeared in court accused of assisting the hong kong intelligence service. it follows an investigation led by officers from the counter terrorism command, where 11 people were detained. the men, aged 37, 38 and 63, will appear at the old bailey on the 24th of march and a report is calling for a national plan to improve maternity care in uk hospitals after it found thousands of women had experienced trauma giving birth. more than 1300 mothers have been giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry. the conservative mp, who led the birth trauma report, has described the quality of maternity care across the country as a postcode lottery . country as a postcode lottery. that's the latest from the newsroom. another update at 3:00. until then, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen, or go to gb news. com slash alerts

i >> -- >> good afternoon. britain. it's 2:38. now. could you be having an unlucky dip this summer? well, a record number of wild swimming spots have been designated as bathing sites in england. but just how clean or dirty could they be? well the environment agency will immediately start monitoring the water quality at these 27 sites. >> these are all the sites that the government has approved. >> joining us now is our south east of england reporter, ray addison. he's moved. and ray, we spoke to you earlier. i asked if you'd, had a dip, but clearly you're you're not dressed in bathing. outfit today. ray, what's going on? >> no, it wouldn't be safe for me to swim as well, because as this sign clearly says, warning deep holes in river. you're

advised not to bathe. so a bit of a conundrum between the government and fordingbridge town council. there's plenty of ducks here at this location in the river avon, but they are certainly not in a row because the coordination between the town council and the government does not appear to have been in place before this announcement was made, although i've called up the local town council and they're telling me that there is going to be a statement issued this this status is under review, and they're going to be making an announcement very , making an announcement very, very shortly. so you might find that this gets, deemed suddenly to be safe, which would be confusing because obviously all these deep holes must be causing, causing alarm to anyone who wants to bathe in there safely . but yes, this who wants to bathe in there safely. but yes, this is one of 27 locations that has been named as a bathing water site now by the government. that means between the 15th of may and the 30th of september, the

environment agency will be legally obliged to test the quality of the water. and if they find that there are pollutants such as dread forbid, e.coli there bacteria , then they e.coli there bacteria, then they will work with water companies and the local landowners farmers to try and make sure that it can be improved. i called the environment agency as well and i said , is this a rubber stamp? said, is this a rubber stamp? are you saying this is now safe to swim in? no, definitely not all. we're saying is it's been designated as a bathing water site and we are going to test it. so it's interesting because i think, you know, viewers and listeners might feel as i do that the by designating it as a bathing water site, it kind of feels like you're giving it a stamp of approval . and yet it stamp of approval. and yet it definitely has not been approved. and certainly fordingbridge town council hasn't approved it, yet as well. and so, be very careful out there. if you're going to look at this list of 27 places, and go for a quick dip later , be

go for a quick dip later, be very careful where you go. >> it's quite confusing messaging , >> it's quite confusing messaging, isn't it, ray? i mean, you spelled it out there clearly for us, but, if you just saw the headline or, you know, heard a word on this , you'd heard a word on this, you'd think, oh, great, i'm going to get my bathing suit and go down there next time. the sun shines. but that that, board there, that warning board that could soon disappear . disappear. >> yeah. and i don't really understand . this is this is my understand. this is this is my confusion. this has got a couple of, bolts at the back. here. get yourself a spanner. you could have had this off in about five minutes. i could even possibly have done it . and yet there's have done it. and yet there's two of these signs. it could have been down. so why is this sign still here? you know, why is it still here? if this is a safe place to bathe or has been designated as bathing sites. so we're waiting for that announcement from fordingbridge town council, the government, though, are saying if you do come and swim here, we will monitor the pollution levels in this water. >> well, ray addison, thank you very much for bringing us that and that sign. i'm still a bit

of a loss as to how holes at the bottom of the bed of that water would be bad for swimming, as far as i'm aware, water has a level of buoyancy. you can't fall in a hole you can underwater in the way that you can on land. >> you can never be too safe, can you? you can imagine someone from the council coming round with their clipboard and, you might fall down. oh, it's too dangerous. it's too dangerous. >> coming up, we're going to be talking about the european commission. they've hit out over eurovision's ban on eu flags in the audience of the contest. it's a move that's made the commission's vice president, well, she's called it mind blowing

i >> -- >> all lyman >> all right. we've got lots of views coming in, so let's get to them. roger says starmer is a nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere . oh, this sounds like nowhere. oh, this sounds like a lyric, doesn't it? nowhere land. making all his nowhere plans. >> goodness me, i'm some very

original writing there. i thought it was good. no. it's good. no, i think it gets to a fundamental point, which is if he can be in a party of full heartedly backing jeremy corbyn and natalie elphicke, although he's moved from one to the other. sort of. where does he stand? and does he actually have a plan for how he wants the country to look ? i think that's country to look? i think that's a legitimate question that that actually rishi sunak raised today. >> well, david says sunak has a plan. starmer has a plan. are these plans covered by the official secrets act? never hear what they actually are. >> well, everyone says they've got a plan. it must. the word plan must focus group very well. do you remember david cameron's a man with a plan. economic plan from 2015. that was a long term economic plan . it was one of economic plan. it was one of those phrases like hard working families that was just repeated and repeated and repeated, clearly tested very, very well. >> i mean, that's a bare minimum , really, that you'd expect from, a prime minister or indeed the leader of the opposition. a plan a plan would be nice. and,

yes, a plan. a detailed plan would be nice, too. so we can look through it properly. >> well, we were also talking earlier about crime league tables. that's how they've been described, this idea that we would collect the nationality of criminals in the country. and marianne says, yes , we should marianne says, yes, we should have tables of criminal activity by ethnicity. this would aid our stance towards immigration. the civil service seemed to have been given far too much autonomy in the past 14 years. it's not their place to decide what we do and don't do. the government has lost control of the civil service and need to take back control. >> yes, it does appear as though the civil service prefer to say no. sometimes than than yes, and not even in a verbose and witty way, as sir humphrey might do . way, as sir humphrey might do. well, go on then. i thought you were gonna give an example . oh, were gonna give an example. oh, i might, well, there we go. we've stumped him . we've stumped we've stumped him. we've stumped him. he'll come back with that one. >> i'll google one in the next advert break. how about that? but we're going to talk now about the european union because the european broadcasting union, not affiliated with the eu , in

not affiliated with the eu, in fact, it banned the eu flags dunng fact, it banned the eu flags during the eurovision final . during the eurovision final. well, that act was mind blowing and a gift to the enemies of europe. that's according to the commission vice president margaritas sinn shehnaaz, i might sound a little bit hyperbolic to you at home, but that's what she had to say. >> this decision followed weeks of controversy surrounding the competition, with the ebu deciding to ban any political symbols or flags other than those of participating countries and of course, the european union got caught up in that. they said no to that flag as well. >> well, let's discuss this now with the head of policy at the mcc, brussels, a european think tank. jacob reynolds . jacob, tank. jacob reynolds. jacob, it's pretty extraordinary that we've got statements from both the vice president of the commission, but also the official spokesman for ursula von der leyen, the commission president. they seem they seem really incensed about this . really incensed about this. >> well, it certainly has kind of really rattled them . and i of really rattled them. and i mean, the situation obviously descended kind of into farcical territory, but following very much the intense politicisation ,

much the intense politicisation, an and very political nature of this year's eurovision, especially surrounding, israel. but what's quite clear is that, i mean, in almost inadvertently, it seems the european broadcasting union kind of got it right, which is that they've identified that the, eu flag and the flag of the council of europe, that flag you're showing there has become increasing only a political symbol, and not just as they like to try and pretend, kind of the flag that just happens to be associated with countries that are in the eu or parts of the council of europe. i mean, today there's a big press conference going on where they've emblazoned a series of planes with part of the eu flag and the slogan say yes to europe. so what's clear is that the eu elite really are transforming this into a kind of political symbol that says, are you with us? do you want more europe, more european immigration and more european integration, do you want all of these things you want the green deal and net zero? and if so, then kind of. that's the flag. and you have to sign up to all

of these things. whereas people kind of, i think should, see that. i mean, the flag is supposed to just represent your part of the european union, but now it's become very much a politicised and political symbol. >> it's so interesting because this is taxpayers money, european taxpayers money, going towards this slogan, say yes to europe. i mean, the eurovision song contest is meant to be non—political . of course, that's non—political. of course, that's a sort of a farcical aim because it's always deeply political, whether it's, the ukrainian entry from two thousand and seven, which was titled lasha tumbai , which spoken quickly tumbai, which spoken quickly sounded like russia, goodbye or the armenian entry from a few years ago called don't deny, which was, some people were were pointing out could be a reference to the armenian genocide and genocide denial. but also this year you had jowst klein, the dutch entry, which didn't actually got disqualified in the end, didn't didn't perform on the final. his song was called euro papa, and it was all about how wonderful free movement is, how brilliant the eu institutions are. the music video has him standing in front of four european union flags

eurovision could be your mastermind topic, tom. but but but jacob, the point here is, there seems to be a lack of understanding about what is politics and wasn't what isn't politics. >> yes, well, you're right to identify that eurovision always has been political and has become more and more political, in in recent years . and i mean, in in recent years. and i mean, the prime example of this is that they might say banned the palestinian flag or the or the eu flag, but very much the pride flag has kind of centre stage throughout the whole of eurovision. so on the face of it, that's why this is kind of farcical, because everybody knows that it is political and they can't try and maintain this distinction . but it very much is distinction. but it very much is the case that the eu flag as, as you say, taxpayers money, but it's part and parcel of a whole, if you like, propaganda campaign, especially in the run up to the european parliamentary elections, that says this is the symbol of kind of, of, of everything, that's great about europe. this is the symbol of openness and tolerance and immigration and open borders and being environmental friendly. and that's what they're trying

to portray. the european flag as very much like they certainly. >> but the problem is, is it doesn't it doesn't mean that to everyone. and they might see that in the upcoming elections. thank you so much. jacob reynolds, head of policy at mcps brussels. >> well, let's move to our final topic today. of course, we've sort of seen a general election campaign in all but name, with rishi sunak speaking about defence and security and keir starmer talking about, regional growth. joining us now is the labour mp for brighton kemptown, lloyd russell—moyle. lloyd. has the election already started ? the election already started? >> well i think the election started about three months ago didn't it? >> you know, and it should have happened , two weeks ago or, you happened, two weeks ago or, you know, because we all know that this government was elected on a mandate that ran out on the 2nd of may, according to the law. >> they changed the law to extend it to january. and we are now in this period of everyone knowing the election's about to happen and wishing we could just

get on with it. >> and, lloyd, do you think it's a good thing that, keir starmer has brought on board natalie elphicke, who's been described as one of the most right wing tory mps ? tory mps? >> well, i work a lot in natalie on housing policy, on the idea that we need not only more housing in this country, but we need to make sure that we regulate the private sector properly and even have rent caps. >> natalie is more left wing than even the labour policy on rent caps and rent pricing. so on some areas she is to the left and in some areas in almost all the other areas she is probably comfortable though. would you feel she's not restanding? >> would you feel comfortable? >> would you feel comfortable? >> she's not restanding again, and i think that's important. >> yeah, but would you feel comfortable sort of, you know, sitting next to her representing the labour party , someone who's the labour party, someone who's been, well, some many have said members of the conservative party have said she's pretty extreme when it comes to issues like .

extreme when it comes to issues like. immigration >> well, as i said, i've sat next to her, day in, day out on renters issues when we worked together collaboratively on those things. >> but i don't agree with labour than other areas, and it's quite right that she won't be the labour candidate next time. and i think it's right that the local people have chosen who their candidate will be. you always see at the end of a parliament, people shifting their allegiances. and i think we need to say to the country, conservatives are coming over to us in their droves, doesn't mean that we will adopt conservative policies, but it does mean that we welcome all conservatives who have had a change of heart. >> and yet, lloyd, you want to talk a lot about housing policy. natalie elphicke actually spent most of her defection letter talking about housing policy. we haven't heard a peep out of that from keir starmer. he only wants to talk about the borders and small boats and migration when it comes to natalie, elphicke and her defection, what does that say about your party leader ? >> well, 7- >> well, as 7_ >> well, as you ? >> well, as you will all know, there are different grids for different weeks where we focus on different things. immigration is one of the key missions and one of the other one of the key missions that keir has been

talking about a lot is building this country back up again, making sure that we build houses, making sure we transform the planning system and make sure we get private renting working. it's in the core missions of keir starmer. working. it's in the core missions of keir starmer . and missions of keir starmer. and there will be what the migration grid, where we will focus on only that. >> lloyd. we know what the week, what keir starmer wants to be talking about as his big issue, because he's talking to all his regional mayors about regional growth. and yet whenever he's asked about natalie elphicke, he talks about immigration, when he wants to talk about immigration, because he wants to present himself as perhaps more faragist i >> -- >> well, i think that we want to present ourselves as a party that will sort immigration out and we will do it both compassionately and with, with a with a clarity of fairness and at the moment we have the conservatives doing it without compassion and it's not working. so it's not even fair. and i think it's right to be able to say, look, we can bridge the divide on some of these big cultural issues rather than turning them into culture wars. labour can come forward and say , labour can come forward and say, there is a way forward here. and that's what keir is offering. look, it wouldn't be quite how some admirable spin we've come

to the end of the programme . to the end of the programme. >> but thank you so much for joining us. coming up next, it's martin daubney and thank you very much for your company.

i >> -- >>a -- >> avery >> a very good afternoon to you. >> a very good afternoon to you. >> and a very happy monday. >> and a very happy monday. >> it's 3 pm. >>— >> it's 3 pm. >> welcome to the martin daubney show on gb news. >> we're broadcasting live from the heart of westminster all across the uk. >> on today's show, rishi sunak says the uk faces an axis of evil from authoritarian states such as china, russia, north korea and iran. >> the prime minister claims we are moving into the most dangerous years our country has ever known . but is this true? or ever known. but is this true? or is it the politics of fear? >> next up, the rwanda bill has been given yet another massive blow, as a judge in northern ireland has disapplied it there, meaning asylum seekers cannot be deported from northern ireland. >> as this prove that we never

got sovereignty with brexit