gb news. >> good afternoon. britain. it's 12:00 on thursday. the 23rd of may. >> i'm tom harwood. >> i'm tom harwood. >> oh, i'm not that was. >> oh, i'm not that was. >> that was, unexpected. i'm tom harwood and i'm emily carver. >> there you go. the perils of autocue. >> it's on. »- >> it's on. >> in their first full day of campaigning, rishi sunak and keir starmer hit the road today as they battle it out to win the keys to number 10. we're across the width and breadth of the country as the leaders set out their stall last, nigel farage confirms he will not stand as a

reform uk candidate. >> instead, he will prioritise the us election, not exactly a vote of faith in the party he helped found as it game over for reform uk's chances . reform uk's chances. >> and amidst it all, today it's revealed net migration hit a whopping 685,000 last year. that's just 10% down on the record year before . the tories record year before. the tories say it's even lower this year. but will that message sink. in.7 >> but will that message sink. in? >> well, yes. i'm not tom harwood. no i'm emily, but if you've noticed, tom's got a bit of a bit of a sore throat, bit of a bit of a sore throat, bit of a bit of a sore throat, bit of a sore throat today. >> quite a lot of talking yesterday, but. but we're powering through. it's a general election . you take these things election. you take these things on the chin. what was it? >> five hours of talking, plus standing out in downing street in the rain. >> i think the rain didn't help. no i suppose not. >> but he's got his, hot, hot water and lemon hot tea and

lemon. >> a bit like theresa may must have felt in 2070 at the tory conference when she went around to all of those different fringe events the night before her big speech. and she spoke to this group and she spoke to that group. and then when it came to her big speech that everyone watched, she lost her voice completely comparing yourself to a former prime minister term, i don't think i'm comparing myself to one that's held in particularly high esteem , so particularly high esteem, so i think i can get away with it. >> but anyway, we want your thoughts on the letters on the wall behind us. >> don't fall down. well, you never know. be okay, you never know. >> but we want your thoughts today on that breaking news that nigel farage has decided that he will not stand as a reform party candidate. what do you make of that? i'm not sure how it looks. how does it go down with you? will it make it more likely? less likely for you to vote reform? what does this say about richard tice party? >> well, send in your views, post them to gbnews.com forward slash your say. we'll get to those throughout the show . but those throughout the show. but now it's time for the headlines with sam francis .

with sam francis. >> very good afternoon to you. it's just coming up to 12:03. a look at the headlines this lunchtime . the prime minister is lunchtime. the prime minister is urging voters to re—elect him if they want to see asylum flights take off to rwanda , conceding take off to rwanda, conceding they won't get off the ground before the general election . before the general election. rishi sunak also saying he's putting the economy and global security at the heart of his campaign. it comes as political party leaders begin six weeks of trying to win votes , after it trying to win votes, after it was announced that polls will open on the 4th of july. the timing of the announcement came as a surprise to some, with labour polling 20 points ahead, kicking off the conservatives campaign this morning, rishi sunak claimed that labour would do absolutely nothing to stop the boats. >> everyone else is starting to agree with my approach, which is bold. the one person that doesn't is keir starmer. that's a choice that this election , he a choice that this election, he thinks that we should just offer an amnesty to illegal migrants to make us a soft touch of europe. it would make us a magnet for thousands of migrants coming from everywhere. so

that's the choice at this election. do you think my plan is the right one? do you think i'm the one that's taking bold action to secure our borders and to stop the boats? or do you think he's going to do that? and it's pretty clear that on this issue, not only does he not share the country's values, that it's a problem. he's going to do absolutely nothing about it . absolutely nothing about it. >> well, labour leader sir keir starmer has also begun his campaign in south—east england. today he's telling voters that what the conservatives have done to the country is, he says, unforgivable and that voters don't need to put up with it . don't need to put up with it. >> labour and a vote for labour is a is a chance to end that chaos, to turn a page, to change for the better of the country, to change our nhs , to change our to change our nhs, to change our pubuc to change our nhs, to change our public services, to make sure our economy is stable , to make our economy is stable, to make sure our communities are cared for and to move forward and rebuild our country. that is the choice i accept. not a rebuild our country. that is the choice i accept . not a single choice i accept. not a single vote has been cast. i'm humble about this and i know every vote must be earned. but the power now under our democracy is with the voters to .

the voters to. >> meanwhile, deputy leader of the liberal democrats daisy cooper has ruled out a coalition with the conservative party. >> people want politicians to be talking about our nhs and social care and about the cost of living crisis. people are struggling to see a gp, they're struggling to see a gp, they're struggling to see a gp, they're struggling to see a dentist, they're battling long waiting lists . they're worried that if lists. they're worried that if you call an ambulance, it won't turn up. and on top of all of that, they're still struggling to pay the bills to put food on the table. liberal democrats have been utterly relentless about talking about these issues for the last few months and years, and we're going to keep on talking about the nhs and the cost of living over the next six weeks. >> and nigel farage has announced he will not be standing as a reform uk candidate in the july election. party leader richard tice has been speaking this morning and he's urging people to vote for change. >> everybody feels worse off after 14 years of tory failure . after 14 years of tory failure. that's the result of

incompetence and these experts , incompetence and these experts, along with weak, feeble politicians who have broken britain and sadly , that failure britain and sadly, that failure of the establishment and the experts manifests itself in the great scandals that we hear about. >> well, in other news, net migration in the uk stood at an estimated 685,000 people in the year to december 2023, the office for national statistics says. that's down 10% from the record of 764,000 the previous yeah record of 764,000 the previous year. official figures suggest just over 1.2 million people arrived in the uk , while 532,000 arrived in the uk, while 532,000 are likely to have left . as we are likely to have left. as we heard in the last hour, primary school student leah harrison has been named as the person who was killed in a mudslide in north yorkshire. 30 mountain rescuers were involved in the search for

the year six pupil, who got into difficulty near carlton bank yesterday. mount pleasant primary school has described the incident as heartbreaking and says that leah was a much loved part of their community. we understand that counselling is being arranged within the school for both students and staff in scotland. a former scottish health secretary has been suspended from parliament and will lose his salary for 54 days. michael matheson ran up £11,000 in roaming charges on his parliamentary ipad while he was on holiday in morocco last year , later announcing that he year, later announcing that he would cover the costs himself. he revealed the bill had in fact been the result of his children using the device as a wi—fi hotspot to watch football. the punishment was handed down at holyrood earlier today and will now be subject to a vote in the scottish parliament and alan bates, the lead campaigner for justice in the post office scandal, says he has no sympathy for paula vennells, the former head of the post office , is

head of the post office, is giving evidence on the second day of her much anticipated questioning at the horizon inquiry. earlier, she was shown an email that suggests including an email that suggests including a jailed pregnant sub—postmistress case. in an independent review would be a red flag to a bull for paula . red flag to a bull for paula. vennells was in charge of the organisation from 2012 to 2019, while those wrongful prosecutions of subpostmasters continued . that's the latest continued. that's the latest from the newsroom. for now . 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. just scan the code on your screen or go to gb news. carmelites . gb news. carmelites. >> good afternoon britain. it's 12:08 now. general election battle lines are being firmly drawn as rishi sunak and keir starmer begin hitting that campaign trail, laying out their visions for the country. >> yes , the prime minister was >> yes, the prime minister was in derbyshire this morning and

sought to draw dividing lines on evergreen issues like the economy and immigration. >> he claimed that economic stability had returned, but appeared to admit that flights to rwanda would not take off before the election. >> meanwhile, the labour leader attacked the conservatives record on the economy and said his party was in the service of working people. >> so there you go. that's what they had to say. gb news political correspondents and reporters are at key buildings and battlegrounds across the country for us. olivia, i'll start with you. you're in the heart of westminster, outside number 10, downing street. how have things gone this morning, then ? then? >> well, it's been a pretty inauspicious start to the campaign for the conservatives, the immigration figures, the legal immigration figures came out today. we knew they were coming out today. another reason why some conservatives are questioning why rishi sunak called that election yesterday . called that election yesterday. and it shows that there were 685,000 migrants to the uk in the year of 2023. that is down

10% on 2022. but 2022 was a record high, and it's nearly three times the number it was back in 2019, when the conservatives said that they would reduce the overall number of figures. also, rishi sunak has now admitted we all knew it was true, but he hadn't yet come out and said it, that there will be no flights to rwanda before the 4th of july election, which is all making people wonder here in westminster, why exactly did he call that election yesterday? why did he not just hold out until the autumn, which so many conservative mps wanted ? and the conservative mps wanted? and the reason seems to be talking to people in westminster today, that although the economic picture is getting a little bit rosier, everything is moving very slowly indeed. it now looks relatively unlikely that the bank of england will cut interest rates. almost definitely not in june , and then definitely not in june, and then probably not in their meeting. the six weeks after that either. that means it's going to take an awfully long time for the effects of falling inflation,

and falling interest rates to hit the pockets of ordinary people. probably not before the autumn. one good reason why he needed to rip off the plaster. another reason is there was a growing narrative that rishi sunak was squatting in number 10. now that's something that the conservatives very effectively accused gordon brown of back in the late 2000. he took over that number 10 from tony blair and didn't call an election. he was accused of being an unelected prime minister, squatting in power. now, rishi sunak was very worried about the same thing being said about him. and eventually most of his advisers thought the best thing to do was simply to go for it. that said, there were quite a lot of people with big reservations. we're heanng with big reservations. we're hearing that isaac levido, the veteran campaign chief rafe, said that rishi sunak should hold off and wait until the autumn or winter. esther mcvey, formerly of this parish, also said that rishi sunak should hold off until the autumn and winter. plenty more conservative mps who are feeling really,

really angry about this, not least because in some cases they book their summer holidays. >> well, olivia, thank you so much for all of that. from a rather sunnier downing street than we were seeing yesterday , than we were seeing yesterday, many of us will be thinking, why on earth did rishi sunak not wait just 24 hours and announce it all in the sunshine? as we can see today? let's go to katherine forster now outside labour hq. what keir starmer and his top team up to today. >> yes. good afternoon tom and emily. well sir keir starmer down in kent today at a football club surrounded by people holding placards with one word change. that's quite a powerful message, isn't it? after 14 years of conservative government. but the fundamental message coming from labour today , as yesterday, in that very warm, dry speech that sir keir starmer made, three things really stop the chaos. number one, change number two. and then they say they will build a better britain. now in the last hour or so, a very polished

campaign video has been put out by labour, focusing on sir keir starmer's working class roots , starmer's working class roots, saying i grew up working class, i've been fighting all my life as pm. i'll fight for you, complete with very stirring music. now talking to people, around sir keir starmer, both yesterday and this morning. a number of them are are here and they were shocked and very surprised, along with a whole of westminster, that the announcement to call a general election has been made now, but nevertheless they say they are ready now. i was told yesterday that the speech that keir starmer made was only written about 2:30 yesterday afternoon, but nevertheless they say they are ready. in fact, somebody very senior close to keir starmer told me months ago that they were ready and would be ready because they've never known exactly when this moment will come. so they are not complacent . they know they have

complacent. they know they have work to do. they know that a lot of people are not convinced by sir keir starmer. and so, you know , they have got a huge know, they have got a huge mountain to climb to get a majority. so no complacency, but optimism . and yeah, they're optimism. and yeah, they're pretty excited today. well there you go. >> thank you very much catherine. let's head to stormont to speak to dougie beattie. who's the outsider dougie? northern ireland party's geanng dougie? northern ireland party's gearing up for the election . gearing up for the election. >> well, they are, and it's for someone like me. it's quite an exciting election because we have 18 seats here. the dup that backed theresa may's government, if you remember , hold the if you remember, hold the majority of those seats then sinn fein, but they're an abstentionist party, so they do not actually take their seats . not actually take their seats. then the sdlp hold two seats and the alliance party one. but because of what's happened over the protocol and of course we talk about rwanda flights, not being able to take off. there was that court ruling in northern ireland that said that because we are under eu law,

that that that wouldn't apply to northern ireland. rishi sunak assured unionists that he would sort that out in the courts. that's back in court next wednesday. and of course, if it's not brought through, then he either has to leave northern ireland behind or to the rwanda and or stop the flights to rwanda until it is actually sorted out. but elections are very expensive things and at this minute in time, sinn fein are fighting a european election campaign in the republic of ireland, as well as local elections. we have fought a couple of elections here in the last couple of years, so the coffers of these parties are very light. the unionist vote has been split before here and out of those 18 seats, six of them are with very small majorities . they could go either majorities. they could go either way. so the likes of, gavin robertson's seat in east belfast, the leader of the dup, his seat is looking very risky. if the tuv, backed by reform

stand in there, that will definitely hand that seat to the alliance party . other seats on alliance party. other seats on the border because of what is going on in the republic of ireland over immigration and the real swell of, problems against it, it would be interesting to see how sinn fein does in those border areas, and some of the unionist parties, even the likes of reform, actually take those seats in there, because some of those were only got by 20 or 30 votes so far . those were only got by 20 or 30 votes so far. for once in decades and decades, maybe generations. we may see elections come forward and people starting to vote on real issues that are not to do with green and orange, but more to do with how the country is run. but at the very back of it, it is bad timing for northern ireland because our school holidays start on the 30th of june and quite a few people leave northern ireland from that time to about the third week in july, because holidays are cheaper,

because holidays are cheaper, because the english holidays haven't started yet. >> it's a really fascinating dynamic. and of course, dougie , dynamic. and of course, dougie, if the conservatives are successful in turning this into a 2017 style election where there's a huge change in that 20 point lead and things get very tight, and there's a hung parliament, it could be those northern ireland parties that make all the difference. but dougie, you've set us up brilliantly for tony maguire because it's not only holidays in northern ireland when this election is on, it's also school holidays in scotland. tony >> yes that's correct. similar to northern ireland, our school holidays start at the end of june and again run through to around the middle of august. now that again means that you know the same kind of logic is appued the same kind of logic is applied up here that families try and get away towards the start of the holidays before the engush start of the holidays before the english schools go out , and that english schools go out, and that is going to present a problem not just to mps , as we heard not just to mps, as we heard yesterday, but to many families up and down the country. and

that's, i guess, is going to really put the pressure and the heat onto the postal vote service, with many people having to turn to that in order to vote in this election . and indeed, i in this election. and indeed, i mean, i'm quite biased, but i think scotland is one of the more interesting parts of this election . and that's because, election. and that's because, you know, for a number of reasons. one of those is of course, the fact that the snp and recent polling, most recently by yougov, is actually down in labour, seems to have stolen points from them and consecutively over the last several weeks, and then , of several weeks, and then, of course, the fact that up here in scotland, so many of our issues are actually devolved. so people in scotland , they'll be voting in scotland, they'll be voting on a list of reserved matters, things like taxation and foreign affairs and, and various kind of acts of benefits, etc. so you know, the map and the battlegrounds up here will look completely different. and not least, of course, because the

snp will. they're going to be gunning from that famous 56 seats. but the way that labour have gained on them in recent weeks and months, it's not entirely sure whether that's even a remote possibility. also just finally worth saying that of course you know it all through the last year, we've heard keir starmer say he wants scotland in the fold for this. he wants a lot more labour seats . of course, in the last year, labour have essentially doubled their scottish seats from 1 to 2. and rutherglen and hamilton west by—election. margaret ferrier's former seat. but they will be looking for significant gains this year. really fascinating to see if the snp collapse tony blair yeah, absolutely. >> well tony thank you so much for bringing us all of that. indeed.thank for bringing us all of that. indeed. thank you to everyone across the country for bringing us all of the updates as this election campaign gets underway. yes. >> katherine forster there olivia utley dougie beattie and tony mcgrath, great to talk to you all. joining us now is doctor david jeffrey, a lecturer in british politics at the

university of liverpool. david, thank you very much for coming on the show this afternoon. i want to ask you about this latest news of nigel farage deciding that he will not stand as a reform uk candidate , but as a reform uk candidate, but instead his interest is in the us election at this time, what do you make of that? what do you think the implications for the election are , well, first of election are, well, first of all, it's a it's a rare rishi sunak win here, right? it's the one silver lining in an otherwise storm ridden, skyscape. and i think what we see here is that actually, what this will probably do is mean that reforms polling won't have the 4 or 5 point boost. it would have if farage came back, but that still leaves reform polling between 10 and 14, which is devastating for the conservatives. and it's coupled with this idea that for every voter the conservatives have lost to reform, they've lost a voter to, labour, the lib dems and the greens and also a voter

to apathy. so the conservatives are still split three ways, and yet when ukip won 4 million votes in 2015, the conservatives were able to win a slim majority, they were, of course, able to squeeze a lot of that ukip vote with a with a story about how labour might get into coalition with the snp . i coalition with the snp. i suppose the conservatives this time around need to find that bogeyman to dangle in front of reform voters that they haven't perhaps found yet . perhaps found yet. >> well, they hope they've got it, don't they? in keir starmer we saw yesterday, rishi sunak say keir starmer made pledges when he wanted to become labour leader, that he's gone back on and now he'll be saying to reform voters look, if you vote reform you'll get labour and they're still the same corbynite party that you know , we will. we party that you know, we will. we all defeated in 2017 and 2019. i don't think it'll work this time. first of all, because people are so sick of the conservatives, they feel so let down by the party. but also coupled with the fact that

actually keir starmer does seem like a safer, much safer pair of hands than jeremy corbyn ever did. >> yes. and keir starmer will be forced to put more meat on the bones when it comes to his policy priorities and his policy pledges , are we likely to see pledges, are we likely to see that happen when it comes to keir, if you were advising him on his strategy for this election, would it be to continue to be vague on some of their pledges or to set it all out for us? >> i think probably being he's got the space to be vague, firstly because he's got a massive poll lead, so he doesn't necessarily need to set out in complete detail because the pubuc complete detail because the public are already saying that they want labour over the conservatives, i do think that the left of the labour party will become increasingly disgruntled. this might provide an opening for somebody like george galloway, or for various left wing independent movements, but i don't think they'll do very well. i think this is really a change election where people have broadly made up their mind. they've made up their mind. they've made up their mind. they've made up their mind. if they don't like

their mind. if they don't like the conservatives and they'll vote for whichever party will keep them out in their given constituency, which is good for the lib dems as well, because even though their polling hasn't increased much nationally, they're doing really well in the seats that they need to do well in rishi sunak has gambled here, clearly gambled, but i suppose he had a very slim set of opfions he had a very slim set of options to start with. >> what needs to happen really to change the narrative, i suppose. there are two schools of thought in sort of the study of thought in sort of the study of elections , that elections of elections, that elections just show what fundamentally people think, or that elections actually change minds. i suppose . again, 2017 was one of those elections that showed that elections that showed that elections can actually change minds. a lot can change over the course of a campaign. >> yes. so what happened in 2017 was that actually the election campaign was the first time most people paid attention , or most people paid attention, or most people paid attention, or most people who who don't follow politics closely paid attention to who the leaders were, and they liked what they saw in

jeremy corbyn. not enough to give him a majority, obviously, but not enough to give theresa may a majority either. at the rishi sunak is already a well—known figure, and i think people have generally made up not only their minds about him, but about the conservative party as a brand, and i think, you know, the idea being that parties can claw back some vote share in the campaign is true, but they can also lose vote share. and it's not as if the conservative party mps have any reason to be harmonious. now, as you were saying earlier, many of them feel really hard done by by this snap election. >> yes, absolutely . thank you >> yes, absolutely. thank you very much indeed forjoining us. doctor. david jeffrey, lecturer in british politics at the university of liverpool. >> well , university of liverpool. >> well, coming up, the labour party says the rwanda plan has all been a big con and sunak refuses to commit to getting flights off the ground before the date of the election . what's the date of the election. what's going on here? >> yes, what is going on? this is good afternoon, britain. we're on gb news, britain's election .

channel. >> good afternoon. britain. it's 27 minutes past midday. >> well , 27 minutes past midday. >> well, rishi sunak and sir keir starmer, he's got a sore throat, have drawn swords over tackling illegal migration ahead of the 4th of july. general election. >> yes. the prime minister admitted earlier today that the first flights to rwanda will not take off before the election. >> the labour leader slammed the government's plan and vowed to clean up the migration mess of 14 years of tory leadership . ukip. >> well with us now is gb news home and security editor , mark home and security editor, mark white. mark, what is labour actually saying today ? actually saying today? >> well, labour clearly believes that as far as the government is concerned, the whole rwanda policy was a big con that rishi sunak never believed that the flights would get off the ground or it would be a deterrent. i

have to say i'm surprised to hear the prime minister and his first round of interview since calling the election acknowledge effectively that there will be no flights leaving for rwanda before the election, because what kind of made sense was to get at least 1 or 2 flights off the ground to say, look, we've delivered. it's been tough to get there, but we're doing that now. if labour get in, they're going to reverse this whole policy. and by doing that, of course , they don't then have to course, they don't then have to prove because it wouldn't be time to prove that it's actually worked as a deterrent. but just that they've delivered their, long held ambition to get these flights off to rwanda. this is what the prime minister, though, in his interview with gb news, said this morning, plan is going to work. >> and i announced a little while ago all the preparations that we've put in place to get those flights off. so we've trained hundreds of caseworkers, we've identified the cohort of

the first people that will be sent. we've got an airfield on standby , we've booked flights, standby, we've booked flights, we've got the escorts ready. and as people have been watching on their tv screens and in the papers, we've already started detaining those who will then be removed in subsequent flights . removed in subsequent flights. and that's a choice at this election. ellie, if you elect me, if i'm prime minister on the 5th of july, those flights will go off to rwanda and we will begin to put in place the deterrent that we need to stop the boats. >> so speaking to sources, this morning, they're suggesting that perhaps people have misinterpreted what the prime minister was saying. i don't think we have . i minister was saying. i don't think we have. i think it minister was saying. i don't think we have . i think it was think we have. i think it was quite clear that he was talking about clearing the way for flights to take place after the election. if you elect a conservative government and certainly three political parties, lib dems and labour, of course, have been very quick to jump course, have been very quick to jump on this, this is what sir keir starmer said this morning . keir starmer said this morning. >> rishi sunak clearly does not believe in his rwanda plan . i believe in his rwanda plan. i think that's been clear from this morning because he's not

going to get any flights off. i think that tells its own story . think that tells its own story. i don't think he's ever believed that plan is going to work. i don't think he's ever believed that plan is going to work . and that plan is going to work. and so he's called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election. we have to deal with the terrible loss of control of the border under this government. we have to tackle the small boats that are coming across. nobody, but nobody should be making that journey . should be making that journey. >> so it's perfectly possible, of course, that this is all smoke and mirrors and that actually what will happen is a few days before the election, the government pulls a rabbit out of the hat and manages to get 1 or 2 flights off to rwanda. let's wait and see. >> well, that's always a possibility, isn't it, mark, there's a little bit of confusion i'd say we're hoping to speak to. well we will be speaking to the shadow home secretary, yvette cooper, a little bit later in the show, and there's a little bit of confusion over what exactly their policy is. we know that labour do not want to deport people to rwanda . i guess the people to rwanda. i guess the question is the government is saying that they're effectively

going to have an amnesty for those who arrived illegally. what is their plan when it comes to what to do with those who have arrived illegally already, and for whom there is no returns agreement, i.e. they don't come from a country deemed safe? >> i think that's a very good point. and it's a real potential area of attack for the conservative going forward, because you've got now a number of countries around europe actively looking at safe third countries as a way of returning people to not their home countries, but to a safe third country. if they can't be returned to their home countries. now we focus all the time on the small boats issue with regard to rwanda . but what with regard to rwanda. but what rwanda will do as well, if it's expanded out, is give this government an option to send people who have arrived in this country with no right to be here, not necessarily across the channelin

here, not necessarily across the channel in a small boat, but people that have overstayed their visas, foreign, national offenders who the government wants to get rid of, but they can't. for instance, they might come from afghanistan or iran or other unsafe countries where the government would be unable to remove them. will a safe third country gives a government the opfion country gives a government the option of removing people to that safe third country that is, you know, potentially an area where the conservatives could really go on the attack for laboun really go on the attack for labour. it'd be very interesting to see what, yvette cooper says about that. absolutely >> well, mark white, thank you very much for bringing us all of that. very much for bringing us all of that . now, we should say that that. now, we should say that there are bills that are currently going through parliament that have not yet made their full way through parliament. at 1:00 today, penny mordaunt will stand up in the house of commons to say which bills will survive and be rushed through in the next two days, and which bills will fall away. it looks likely that that generational ban on smoking will

be one of those bills that falls away . we'll bring you all the away. we'll bring you all the very latest after your headlines. >> very good afternoon to you. the top stories this lunchtime. and first, just a recap of that news there that mark white was covering for us that the labour leader, sir keir starmer , has leader, sir keir starmer, has accused the prime minister of never believing in his own rwanda plan. it's after he admitted the flights carrying migrants will not take off before the general election in july . however, speaking as he july. however, speaking as he started his election campaign in derbyshire this morning, rishi sunak says the scheme will continue if he's re—elected. both the conservatives and the labour party have launched their election campaigns today alongside reform uk and the liberal democrats . official liberal democrats. official estimates show net migration the difference between those legally arriving and leaving the uk dropped by 10% last year. it

stood at an estimated 685,000 in 2023. that's down from the record of 764,000 the year before. official figures suggest just over 1.2 million people arrived in the uk, while 532,000 are likely to have left . primary are likely to have left. primary school student leah harrison has been named as the person who was killed in a mudslide in north yorkshire. 30 mountain rescuers were involved in the search for the ten year old, who got into difficulty near carlton bank yesterday. mount pleasant primary school has described the incident as a heartbreaking tragedy and say that leah was a much loved part of the community. former scottish health secretary michael matheson has been suspended and will lose his salary for 54 days. the punishment comes after he racked up £11,000 in roaming charges on his parliamentary ipad while on holiday in morocco last year, later announcing he

would cover the costs himself . would cover the costs himself. he revealed the bill had been the result of his children using the result of his children using the device as a wi—fi hotspot to watch football . for the latest watch football. for the latest stories, you can sign up to gb news alerts. just scan the qr code on your screen or go to our website, gbnews.com/alerts .

>> all right. it's 1239. >> all right. it's1239. you're watching and listening to good afternoon, britain . now let's go afternoon, britain. now let's go straight to south wales and speak to our political editor , speak to our political editor, christopher hope. christopher, the news broke a little bit earlier that nigel farage will not stand as a reform party candidate. your thoughts ? candidate. your thoughts? >> yeah, i think this is a big boost here for rishi sunak. he's been attacked by many of his own

side. tory mps particularly concerned about calling a general election. when you're so far behind in the polls. but i think the fact that that this surprise decision by to call the election has managed to discombobulate that the reform uk party, nigel farage, is clearly not ready for this and that's why he's now not standing. so has rishi killed off the political hopes of nigel farage to become prime minister we all look towards an autumn election, a november , election, election, a november, election, when that's when the choice will be made, whether nigel farage should work and try and help donald trump win the election in america, or continue with work as a as a presenter on gb news or not. but instead, he's not going to be an mp for reform uk after the election. and that is really significant . i think, for really significant. i think, for him for reform, many people think that the reform uk is polling at around 12, 14. think that the reform uk is polling at around 12,14. has it polling at around 12, 14. has it been inflated by people taking a punt on thinking that farage

will come back now farage has walked away from that party. it may well be that the support goes from reform, to the tory party and that might may give mr sunak a bump in the polls he desperately needs from his decision to go early for an election in july 4th. >> yes, it's hard to overstate the importance of nigel farage, more well known than most members of the cabinet or the shadow cabinet. certainly i would have, i would have said. but chris, you're standing in the middle of what looks like a brewery or the, the sort of back entrance of a pub. what's going on? >> that's right. we're in a brewery in south wales told me you're going to see much more of these visits, of these party leaders. we're with the prime minister's party. he's to my left. i can just see where he's gonein left. i can just see where he's gone in there, i think to maybe sample some non—alcoholic beer. i'm not sure i'm not with him, but you're going to see much more of these, these backgrounds on these these on the election tours earlier. we're in, in, in, east derbyshire and ilkeston in,

in a big, depot there when he did a q&a with workers and when he said there very clearly that he said there very clearly that he would , make sure that the he would, make sure that the renderfarm takes off, off after the july 4th election if re—elected, made some comments about the nhs, about why he had he's bought an umbrella on his trip now. won't get soaked. so we're seeing much more of this . we're seeing much more of this. mr sunak coming out from his shell on this trip today. mr sunak coming out from his shell on this trip today . we're shell on this trip today. we're in now we're in wales. and later on overnight will be in other parts of the uk. this is a kind of uk wide tour by the prime minister. he's trying to take advantage of , of the surprise he advantage of, of the surprise he had by calling the early election and trying to leave his opponents to look flat footed, and what he's done so far has made reform uk look very flat footed, and that will be a win for him. >> some reports this morning suggested the prime minister would end up the day in scotland . i imagine he might have to fly there. i don't know if you'll be able to get there in time. all right . right. >> well, tim, i can't really say where i'm going. and with the prime minister's team and there's a security net around

what we're doing, but i will be popping up what we're doing, but i will be popping up regularly around the uk for viewers and listeners on gb news. i'll have to keep you guessing on that. fantastic stuff. >> thank you very much indeed, christopher. hope there. from the outside of a brewery today, we'll see where he is a little bit later on. >> i'd recognise those kegs anyway. >> i know you noticed that i didn't know what it was. i didn't know what it was. i didn't know what it was. i didn't know what it was. >> clueless, i keep saying i used to work in a pub. well a bar. used to work in a pub. well a ban pve used to work in a pub. well a bar. i've changed these barrels before. >> oh, well, there you go , yeah. >> oh, well, there you go, yeah. you don't want to know about my waitressing career. >> terrible. not terrible. >> terrible. not terrible. >> so two clumsy, two clumsy. but lots of you getting in touch about nigel farage. i must say, the majority of you don't seem to be very impressed , david says to be very impressed, david says so. sorry to hear nigel farage is not running. i'm not sure if reform now has a strong enough leader to compete or rival labour and the conservatives. pat says though nigel farage can do a lot more damage as a commentator rather than a candidate, john says i don't care what farage does , so there care what farage does, so there you go. and, fox 61 says farage wins the people up. then goes back to the background. he's

doneit back to the background. he's done it before. so there you go. a mixed reviews, mixed reviews. >> perhaps nigel has his biggest passion when people are suspecting what he might do. >> yes, he knows that. >> yes, he knows that. >> and that power sort of has the wind to some extent, has been taken out of his sails by rishi sunak calling an early election. i mean, if rishi sunak called one, as many people were expecting as i expected in november, nigel would have been this sort of ghost boat floating over tory prospect sort of dangled the tantalising prospect of will. he won't he now that sort of. >> although nigel did call a summer election , didn't he? summer election, didn't he? a little while ago he said that he thought it was going to be summer . yes. thank you very much summer. yes. thank you very much indeed, tom, for telling me that it was going to be november. i listened to you in your political expertise and foresight, and you know. yes, well, things change. >> things change in june as well. >> things change, things change. see if i can get my flights refunded. we've got to be here to, drive you through this election chaos. >> but keep your views coming in. i'm sure lots of you have all sorts of, of views on on nigel's decision. they're very

interesting. but coming up, as labour pledges to scrap the rwanda plan, should they win the election. well flights ever take off. we're going to be joined by shadow home secretary yvette coopen shadow home secretary yvette cooper. we've got quite a few

>> good afternoon. britain. it's 12:47. now. today we learned new migration figures. 685,000 more people came to this country last year than left it . the net year than left it. the net migration, that came into this country was one of the highest years on record. although down down 10% on the year before, 685,000 and those from the year before have been upgraded as well, haven't they? >> so those are higher than they were before , 700 and something were before, 700 and something thousand. i mean, it's quite incredible , isn't it? i mean, incredible, isn't it? i mean, the conservatives time and time

again have stood on the promise that they would reduce migration. david cameron, tens of thousands, they sort of dropped that a bit. but boris johnson was always clear that he wanted to reduce immigration and instead the visa numbers up, up, up there has been some progress. yes, since january. >> here's the crucial qualifier. as you rightly say, last year, 685,000 net migration. but that's measuring 2023. if we look at the month by month data, the more up to date data in 2024, we have seen a 76% collapse in the number of health and social care visas. yes, we've seen a similar collapse in the new visa university students. >> that's a new visa. that's a new visa. i think i you know, this certain visas, certain visas have been cut. yes. but others not, so it's all how you look at these figures really. >> international student numbers have also collapsed. what you used to see was a cyclica, or at least in the in the last two

years, a cyclical spike, over the summer . years, a cyclical spike, over the summer. terms of applications for these. we have not seen that spike this year, but there is no spike. >> but the big question for today really is if whoever wins the election do we expect those numbers to go down or up? we're hoping to speak to yvette cooper very shortly. shadow home secretary. she wants to be in charge of the home office, in charge of the home office, in charge of the home office, in charge of immigration on legal and illegal. what type of number of legal migration would the labour party be comfortable with or will the labour party simply be the luckiest incoming government on this issue that any has been? >> because we've seen that last year's net migration figures very, very high 685,000 this year's month by month data, many visas collapsing by 60, 70, 80% in terms of the people coming. so by the time we get to this point next year, even if a new government is elected and change absolutely nothing about the migration system , it will be migration system, it will be hundreds of thousands people

lower than it was last year. so could it be that the labour party can come in, do absolutely nothing and take all of the glory for a massive collapse in migration numbers? >> quite possibly. quite possibly. it's also feeds into, of course , the, news from the of course, the, news from the reform party and not only nigel farage not standing as a candidate at the election , but candidate at the election, but also looking at the campaign as it is so far. richard tice, the leader, definitely trying to make this about. immigration this is the immigration election freeze on immigration. if you vote for reform, yes, that's one form of net zero that they're actually in favour of net zero immigration. that is what they are asking for. that is what they are campaigning for at least. >> but of course, richard tice is also said today that he will not be fighting the seats that he fought last time, no longer. hartlepool, the reform party leader, will instead be standing in boston and skegness. leader, will instead be standing in boston and skegness . that's in boston and skegness. that's currently a conservative held seat and it does suggest that actually perhaps the biggest

prospects for reform are some of those seats that have been seen with very, very high conservative votes in 2019. but with demographics that they think are favourable to them. there perhaps demographics that are also favourable to the conservative party >> well, our political correspondent katherine forster is outside labour hq. catherine, we were just talking about the, well, sky high immigration figures really when it comes to legal migration last year, the labour party have said they want to get those numbers down. they haven't given us a figure, though . though. >> yes, indeed. i mean , it's >> yes, indeed. i mean, it's quite something. the timing of this, isn't it, for rishi sunak to call an election yesterday, knowing that the figures on legal migration were out today. now, sure , they are down 10% now, sure, they are down 10% from last year, but they are still 685,000 people coming to in last december in that year. now, bear in mind that boris

johnson, when he was elected in 2019, net migration, then was about 230,000. the conservatives came into power pledging to get that down. and here we are with that down. and here we are with that number nearly triple what it was back in 2019. now, of course , you know, rishi sunak course, you know, rishi sunak has been saying we're doing this, this and this to get these numbers down. but still, you know, these numbers are sky high beyond anything that has ever been seen before. now, labour have said they want to get the numbers down to it's not entirely clear how that is going to happen though, and i mean also the timing of this. i still find very, very curious because a lot of the measures that the government brought in would have only kicked in in january were only kicked in in january were only likely to see the effects of those measures much later in the year. so if they've gone for an election at the end of the yean an election at the end of the year, it is perfectly possible that there will be a very, very steep fall in net migration .

steep fall in net migration. some are suggesting right down back as low as 200,000. now that would have been a big help to the tories election prospects, but they have decided to go now. well katherine forster, thank you very much for bringing us that outside labour hq . that outside labour hq. >> now after the break, we're going to be talking to the woman who's potentially going to be in charge of the migration system of the united kingdom in just 40 days time. the labour party's shadow home secretary, yvette coopen shadow home secretary, yvette cooper, she'll be joining us here on gb news after the break. and if you have anything that you specifically want us to ask her, why not write in. you've got three minutes.com/yourself. we'll be having a look at some of those messages during the break. but as we say yvette cooper to join us at the top of the next hour after these short messages . messages. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on . gb

news. >> hello again. welcome to your latest gb news weather update brought to you by the met office. we're sticking with a bit of a north south split in our weather as we go through the rest of this week, with northern parts staying pretty wet because of the low pressure centre that has brought so much rain recently . lingering here. recently. lingering here. further south, though, it's a different story . some drier, different story. some drier, brighter weather to end the day and then we will have some clear skies across south southeastern parts as we go overnight. further north and elsewhere across the country . quite a across the country. quite a cloudy picture and there will be further outbreaks of rain. some of them could be a little bit on the heavy side, could be some more flooding issues for some of us where we see the clear skies in the south, it may turn a little bit chilly overnight, but elsewhere, because of the cloudy , wet and for some blustery weather, it is going to be a relatively mild start to the day tomorrow. taking a closer look, first thing tomorrow morning and across many parts of scotland, quite a bit of cloud around and there will still be some outbreaks of rain. perhaps

western parts of scotland having some clearer skies. so it may be a little bit chilly first thing here. otherwise lots of cloud and outbreaks of rain across northern ireland, northern england and much of england and wales, but further south, some brighter skies. first thing i mentioned that it could be a bit chilly first thing, but once the sun rises, those temperatures should start to climb quite quickly. as we go through the day tomorrow, it is going to be fairly similar to today really across northern parts. further outbreaks of rain, though they don't look quite as heavy as today. nonetheless, some heavier bursts are still possible. always driest towards the south, a greater chance of seeing some sunshine here, but 1 or 2 showers could pop up. temperatures for many look quite similar, perhaps starting to feel a bit warmer across northern parts compared to today. more showery rain across northern parts as we go through the evening tomorrow. none of it looks especially heavy, but some moderate bursts are possible . moderate bursts are possible. clearer skies towards the south could take us into a bit of a chilly start on saturday, but definitely looks like the driest day of the long weekend before

rain arrives through sunday and monday . bye bye. monday. bye bye. >> that warm feeling inside from boxt boilers, sponsors of weather on gb news as

>> well . >> well. >> well. >> good afternoon. britain. it's just coming up to 1:00. now. today we learned new migration numbers. official net migration numbers. official net migration numbers for last year in 2023, 685,000 more people came into the country than left it. >> well, let's get the thoughts of shadow home secretary yvette cooper. of shadow home secretary yvette cooper . yvette, your reaction to cooper. yvette, your reaction to the latest statistics on immigration? >> well, it's the first day of rishi sunak's general election campaign, and what it's shown is that he has totally failed on immigration and asylum.

>> the net migration figures have trebled since the last general election, when they promised to bring net migration down. and you've also had the prime minister also effectively admit that the rwanda scheme is admit that the rwanda scheme is a con, and we've seen figures showing that only 3% of those who arrived in small boats have been returned . been returned. >> and i think there's just been chaos really, in their both their immigration and asylum approach. and also around the economy as well. that's really damaging . and we've got to turn damaging. and we've got to turn the page. it's why we want change. we've got to turn the page and have a proper system with proper border security command in place. >> is that what people might say is that a page has been turned. these, of course, are numbers from 2023, very, very high numbers. but measuring from january, as the government released new statistics , monthly released new statistics, monthly statistics, more up to date statistics. just yesterday , the statistics. just yesterday, the number of health and social care visas is down 76. the number of health and care dependents is

down 58. the number of dependents coming on sponsored study visas. that's down around 80% as well. from january . it's 80% as well. from january. it's a very, very different picture to 2023. >> well, in fact, what the figures show is over the last year compared to the previous yean year compared to the previous year, there's actually been around a 50% increase in work migration. and what that reflects at the heart of it, i think, is a failure on both the economy and on immigration, because because there's been no action to tackle the serious skills shortages . skills shortages. >> so, for example, sorry, just to dive down on what you're saying there. do you mean 2024? >> no, no . yeah. but to show >> no, no. yeah. but to show that if you look over the last 12 months, if you look at those figures compared to the previous yean figures compared to the previous year, and that's important. so i'll just finish the point and then come back to the point that you were making about some of those recent changes. what you've seen, for example, is a big increase in on engineering visas at the same time as

engineering apprenticeships have halved. well, you know, there's a link between those things. and that's what i mean about the failures around both the economy and the immigration system. there are changes that have been brought in in recent months. there are some changes , for there are some changes, for example, that we called for to get rid of the 20% discount on overseas recruitment because we didn't think that was fair. and also there are some other measures the government's introduced that we have supported . but at its heart, supported. but at its heart, unless you tackle the skills shortages, unless you make sure we've got proper skills and training here in the uk , that's training here in the uk, that's why we're just going to have really chaos in the system. so we need a properly managed and controlled immigration and asylum system. so the system is fair so that we make sure that we obviously benefit from the international talent and investment that our country will always need. but so we also have rules properly being enforced, which again, they're not at the moment. >> you're being admirably blunt about the need for control , for

about the need for control, for rules. perhaps you'd be as blunt on what sort of numbers you'd like to see. labour has said 700,000 is too high. labour has said 600,000 is too high, is 500 too high is 400, 300, 200. can you give us a sense of where you would like those numbers to be? a measure by which we can measure your performance against? >> well, we think that net migration should come down to what's important. and both for the immigration system and for the immigration system and for the economy as well. we're not setting a target. and we've had a history of conservative governments in the past setting targets. and then actually making things worse. so we're going to be just sensible about this. we'll set out particular measures, for example, that we would introduce . would introduce. >> but we're going to get, you know, broad sense of any sort of number what you would like to see. we're not going to get even a sense of that. do you do you see when rishi sunak says you've got no plan when that starts to

ring true, if you can't give us a number. >> no. so the problem is that all that rishi sunak has got really is press releases. he doesn't actually have a plan to doesn't actually have a plan to do anything. >> so i'm reading yours right now with his part of the conservative party. >> well, he was part of the good. he was part of the conservative party that said that net migration should come down at the last election, and instead they have trebled it since then. so that is not a plan. so the things we are setting out is practical proposals, for example, to link the points based system to the skills and training system. so that you've got a proper system where you have, for example, jobs on the shortage occupation list. there have to be proper requirements around skills and training. so there are practical things. we've said we'll do practical things around a border security command, for example, to strengthen our border security, where we know we've got these dangerous boats. >> i just want to know we don't have a lot of time, and i just want to get you on a on illegal immigration as well as the league table, because we know from labour, we've heard time and time again that you don't

want this rwanda scheme, you don't want to deport people to rwanda. >> but now 15 eu countries are now considering similar schemes. they're looking at third safe countries to deport illegal migrants to for their claims and so on. why is labour thinking that their plan is better when so many european countries are looking towards similar schemes to the one that we're doing at the moment ? the moment? >> well, actually they're not. what they're looking at is a different kinds of approaches to working with third countries, and there should always be different sorts of programmes and working in partnership with other countries to address these really complex issues. but the problem with the rwanda scheme is this is half £1 billion of taxpayers money for a scheme that was only ever going to cover around 1% of asylum seekers. no plan for the 99. >> yvette cooper are you saying the labour party you say, you say in your press release going to work? >> you say in your press release

that you want to clear the tory asylum backlog. but i want to ask that once you've, processed all of these claims, which may be 100 odd thousand as it stands, where do those who don't have a legitimate claim go? because we don't have returns agreements with every country? is the labour party advocating some kind of amnesty for anyone who comes from afghanistan? we don't have returns agreement from anyone who comes from iran, anyone who comes from iraq, and many other countries that are deemed unsafe. will there be an amnesty for those who have arrived illegally from those countries ? countries? >> so we don't support amnesties? >> an amnesty is effectively what the conservatives are doing at the moment, because for the 99% of people who were never going to be sent to rwanda, all they do in practice is the government says that they can effectively stay in taxpayer funded asylum accommodation for as long as they want, for that could be an asylum hotels,

because they have no process to make the decisions and no process to deliver returns. we don't think that's the right thing to do . we don't think we thing to do. we don't think we should have that effectively indefinite amnesty approach that the conservatives have introduced. we need to have a properly controlled and managed asylum system. that does mean making sure that you can do properly returns because the returns have dropped. i think it's about about 30 or 40% since the last labour government, and that's because they're not actually doing the work. you don't always need returns agreements in place to actually make the returns happen. you just need the hard work in place and that has collapsed under the conservatives. so you've got to actually get a grip instead of the gimmicks where there's been a lot of focus on gimmicks over the last few years. what labour would do is actually just get a grip of some of those practicalities , make sure we've practicalities, make sure we've got a major new returns and enforcement unit with the staff in place to actually do the paperwork to get it sorted. >> the concern is that you systems in place that you won't have anywhere to return them to. if you're scrapping the rwanda

scheme on day one. but thank you so much for your time. yvette cooper the shadow home secretary, great to get your thoughts . thoughts. >> well, it it does it does make sense. you can of course, you don't have to have a returns agreement to send someone back to a country. but my goodness it takes a long time to negotiate in all cases with individual governments. and think about some of these governments you'd have to negotiate with. you'd have to negotiate with. you'd have to negotiate with. you'd have to negotiate with the taliban . yeah, with the taliban. taliban. yeah, with the taliban. >> varne. yeah, yeah. and with all these european countries looking at similar schemes. yes. not completely cookie cutter with rwanda, but they're very much keen on similar schemes. rishi sunak called a pioneer by, some country. so there you go. >> the austrian chancellor, austrian chancellor. >> anyway, we're now joined by our political correspondent olivia utley , who's on downing olivia utley, who's on downing street, and also katherine forster. outside labour hq, catherine, you heard our questions to the shadow home secretary there, putting the case that things will get tougher when it comes to border control under a labour government. but again, not

telling us what an acceptable level of immigration is. >> yes, exactly . saying we want >> yes, exactly. saying we want the numbers to come down. well, the numbers to come down. well, the government is saying they want the numbers to come down, but under the government, you know, net migration was three quarters of a million in the previous year. and now until december , we learn that it was december, we learn that it was 685,000. so down 10, but still about three times the level that about three times the level that a net migration was when boris johnson was elected . and of johnson was elected. and of course, the conservatives spent many, many years telling us they were going to get net migration down to the tens of thousands. now perhaps that's one of the reasons why yvette cooper absolutely refuses to name a number. but i do think many people around the country will look and think, well, everybody is saying they're going to get it down, but it is rocket rocketing. and similarly, both parties are saying they're going to crack down on illegal migration. but, you know, for all rishi sunaks promises, we now learn that he's admitting

that no flights will go to rwanda before the election if he remained prime minister he's saying that they would go. but, you know, unless the polls changed dramatically, that is not looking very likely. and labour have said definitively they think rwanda is a total waste of time. in fact, today they're saying, look, clearly rishi sunak never believed in this and this is why he's going early . so it can't be proved to early. so it can't be proved to fail. so i think, you know, a lot of talk from both parties. but i suspect that many voters will be listening to this and not really terribly convinced by either of them. there's a lot of words, isn't there? but, you know, illegal migration, people crossing the channel has gone up and up and up now. rishi sunak saying numbers were down last year relative to the year before, but this year the numbers are up and yvette cooper also flinging around a lot of figures. you can you can choose to statistics can't you, to help your message. but, my goodness,

your message. but, my goodness, you know, the levels of net migration are still sky high and people are still crossing the channel. >> yeah, catherine, really, really incisive actually. how labour want to talk about 2023. the conservatives want to talk about 2024. but olivia, one thing that the prime minister says repeatedly at every campaign stop, even in his stump speech, where you are in downing street yesterday , was that street yesterday, was that labour has no plan and i think that one incisive moment in that interview with yvette cooper there, when she refused to say what even vague level of numbers she'd like to see coming into the country, that feeds into the prime minister's narrative that there's no plan . there's no plan. >> i think exactly . the prime >> i think exactly. the prime minister is on the strongest ground when he's talking about labour's immigration plans. the prime minister made five pledges at the beginning of 2023, just after he became prime minister, and of those five pledges, the only one which has really achieved is halving inflation.

he did do that, and actually it's gone down by more than half now on everything else. he is on rocky ground, but on immigration, labour is on even rockier ground . yvette cooper rockier ground. yvette cooper talks about not needing to have returns agreements with individual countries. returns agreements with individual countries . you just individual countries. you just have to do the hard work. but as you said, tom, it takes a very, very long time. if you don't have a returns agreement with a specific country. and time is what we just don't have in the immigration system. what happens is migrants come over here. there is a huge, huge bottleneck while they're being processed and you end up with people staying here for well over a yeah staying here for well over a year. the average, i think, is still 435 days for a migrants claim to be processed. it is unclear how that would get any better under labour. yvette cooper has said that she would hire a thousand new caseworkers. she calls them something like an army against the tide of immigration. or, i'm paraphrasing , but words to that paraphrasing, but words to that effect. but essentially it's just more pen pushers in the home office, which i think quite a lot of voters will think is

the absolute last thing we need that said, as i say, the tories don't really have a compelling message on immigration either. the rwanda scheme is not up and running, and rishi sunak has now admitted that there will be no flights to rwanda before the 4th of july. so it's very difficult for the conservatives to sort of trump labour on this. they can just say you're not doing very well either. >> yes. and i do think that issue of it's all well and good processing asylum claims. but what do you do with those who don't have a legitimate claim? and i imagine the conservatives, catherine, will want to push the message that labour will just rubber stamp them and let them stay. but as olivia said , i stay. but as olivia said, i mean, rishi sunak basically admitting that flights probably will not, definitely will not take off before july the 4th isn't a compelling message either . ehhen >> no, exactly. and i mean , i'm >> no, exactly. and i mean, i'm still stunned, to be honest, that rishi sunak has called this general election and i was with him in vienna on a monday and

tuesday , and he gave us an tuesday, and he gave us an exclusive interview here on gb news. and he was talking then and he said flights will be taking off regularly from july through the summer to rwanda. and not only that, but basically and 15 countries in europe are saying that we are pioneers going and this is the sort of thing that we want to do now . he thing that we want to do now. he told me that on tuesday morning, but we now know, of course, that he must have known that he was about to call an election. so the reality is it is not going to happen now. it's all very well making promises , but the well making promises, but the fact is, people are going to go to the polls and rishi sunak can say all he likes. the flights will go, but people will have no evidence of that because there's plenty of people in the conservative party and elsewhere that simply don't believe it. rishi sunak will be asking voters to trust that he can get people on flights to rwanda , people on flights to rwanda, some two years after boris johnson first announced this scheme, hundreds of millions of

pounds spent. of course, if it happens, it could be a game changen happens, it could be a game changer. but i think that's a really, really big if. and of course, that would mean that rishi sunak had to win the next election, which doesn't look very likely at the moment. >> olivia, am i perhaps over interpreting something here because rishi sunak says july will be when these flights get off? now he's not committing that. that will be before the election, probably because he can't commit that some things are out of his control. they'll be courts that get involved and all the rest of it. but he's not saying that they won't go off before the election either. could there be the chance of 1 or 2 planes on the first, 2nd or 3rd of july, making perhaps surprising journalists and observers and voters in the days before the election ? i suppose before the election? i suppose we can't rule it out . we can't rule it out. >> i think that's a very good thought, tom. i think it is quite possible. yes. rishi sunak can't say that. definitely flights will be taking off. but

if there are a few flights taking off between the first and the 4th of july, then that is actually quite a compelling message for rishi sunak because laboun message for rishi sunak because labour, while not really having a very clear plan themselves, have said that they will stop the rwanda plan even if it's up and running. now you can imagine the message from rishi sunak on perhaps the 3rd of july. if we've just seen 6 or 7 planes take off between the first and the 3rd of july, look , the the 3rd of july, look, the rwanda scheme is up and running. migrants are now returning . and migrants are now returning. and also, let's remember that by july there will be a huge increase in the number of small boats coming over here in the warmer months. we always see a spike in those migrant numbers. the migrant crisis will feel pretty desperate by the beginning of july. if flights are taking off, then rishi sunak could make the point. perhaps the day before polling day , that the day before polling day, that labouris the day before polling day, that labour is about to bang the nail in the coffin of a policy, the first policy that has really worked to stop illegal migration. but i think even rishi sunaks closest aides and advisers will be only a little

bit hopeful that that might be able to be pulled off. yeah. >> yes, indeed. well, thank you very much. olivia utley and katherine forster too, for bringing us that insight, we want to find out what the key battlegrounds will be in this election. where are the different parties targeting seats. so joining us now from electoral calculus is marwan riyak. marwan. thank you very much indeed. and i'm sorry if i butchered your name there. fantastic to have you on the show. what are the key battlegrounds here? where are labour? looking to make gains. where are the tories looking to hold seats . hold seats. >> so it will be quite difficult to spin a single narrative on this, fundamentally, the conservatives are going to be playing very much a game of defence and labour are very much going to be on the attack. labour will almost certainly be targeting the red wall, trying to recoup those bricks that were lost to boris johnson's conservative party in 2019, and the liberal democrats will be

hoping to make traction in their traditional heartlands of the southwest, where brexit is no longer the issue it once was . longer the issue it once was. >> i suppose one of the big question marks will be will the local election results map on to the general election results? and this could be taken in two different ways. number one, the labour party won all but one metro mayoralty. it was a pretty impressive mayoral showing, but on the other hand there have been some analysts who showed that if you map precisely the way people voted in the locals onto a potential general election, although that might not be entirely likely , you come not be entirely likely, you come out with a hung parliament? >> yeah, i think that was, the projected national share. i mean, one thing i'd add, or mention in response to that is the turnout in the police and crime commissioner elections was very low . of course, in the very low. of course, in the general election, we expect to see a turnout of about 60 or 70. so people who generally aren't

politically engaged most of the time will probably focus in, in the next six weeks of the campaign. campaign time on the point of the mayoral elections, there was an interesting element specifically in andy streets race in the west midlands, which was, the independent candidate, ahmed yaqoob, who we estimate won four out of four seats. parliamentary seats in birmingham . birmingham. >> well, thank you very much indeed for your insight. marwan rupa huq from electoral calculus .thank rupa huq from electoral calculus . thank you very much. it is interesting to think about all the different , election the different, election battlegrounds that there'll be where the lib dems are looking to make gains. what's happening with the snp? how are they going to try and claw back some support in certain areas? everything to play for? >> yes . >> yes. >> yes. >> yeah. and precisely as we saw in the, in the west midlands, how much could spoil a third. candidates actually eat away at a labour vote. how much. how are we going to see george galloway

gallivanting around the country and his backed candidates and how much of the muslim vote is going to change things, albeit not in a lot of seats, where thatis not in a lot of seats, where that is going to be the difference between labour winning and not winning, but perhaps 5 or 6 seats. this could be a real yeah, that issue of gaza. >> how much will that play into the result in certain areas? and, nigel farage not standing as a reform candidate, how much damage , how much of a blow is damage, how much of a blow is that for the reform party? keep your views coming in. and also on that interview with yvette coopen on that interview with yvette cooper, some of you not convinced that that the plan is fully set out and workable quite yet. >> well, coming up, net migration to the uk fell 10% in 2023, but inflows of course above historical averages for that year . above historical averages for that year. but it all changed in 2024. we're going to have a breakdown for these numbers after the .

break. good afternoon. britain. it's 1:24. >> yes. rishi sunak and keir starmer . >> yes. rishi sunak and keir starmer. drawing swords over. tackling illegal migration ahead of that 4th of july general election. now, the prime minister admitted earlier today that the first flights to rwanda will not take off before the election. the labour leader slamming the government's plan, vowing to clean up the migration mess they call it, of 14 years of tory leadership. >> well, with us now is gb news home and security editor mark white and mark, you were listening to the interview there with the shadow home secretary . with the shadow home secretary. vie what was your biggest takeaway? >> well , my takeaway? >> well, my biggest takeaway from that really was that she had no answer to that fundamental question of what on earth you do with those that you might process as she wants to do more quickly by taking lots of additional staff and ensuring that whole asylum process is

much quicker and much more efficient . what do you do with efficient. what do you do with those who you might decide should not be granted asylum? have no leave to remain here. where do they go if mark can't go back? >> trying to say to us now that you didn't believe of her contention that there'll be 100,000 plus individual negotiations with other governments around the world in order to individually, without a broad agreement between the countries, send people back to various places on an individual basis. you didn't buy that. >> and you know , it's more of an >> and you know, it's more of an issue than just the 100,000 individual negotiations . you individual negotiations. you can't negotiate with iran or afghanis , varne or iraq or syria afghanis, varne or iraq or syria or multiple other countries that are just not safe to send people back to. so this is where, you know, a returns agreement or individual, very detailed negotiations are just, you know,

null and void because no court in the land would allow you to send anyone back to iran or afghanistan or wherever you want i >> -- >> the taliban are not are not onorable negotiating partners. >> next question. >> next question. >> next question. well, >> next question. well, let's get you on the legal immigration as well, mark, because as expected, although in the run up to an election, i do really do think they should be more clear about what acceptable numbers look like on immigration. she went she she, she spoke about yvette cooper. she spoke about how legal migration has trebled under the conservatives, how it's far too high. but tom could not get anything close to a figure from her. >> yeah. listen, i'm not surprised by that because they know that the absolute lots that the conservatives tied themselves into are over a number of years saying that they wanted to get net migration down to the tens of thousands and never being able to achieve

that. they just don't want to go down there because they, you know, they create a hostage to fortune there. so, they're not going to do that. but again, there are issues as well in terms of the direction of travel. she wanted to concentrate on the year up to december when, as tom quite rightly pointed out , actually, rightly pointed out, actually, there's a completely different picture now emerging from january this year where a lot of the changes that the government have implemented are coming into effect, such as a students no longer being able to take dependents over or indeed health care workers no longer being able to take dependents over changes to the likes of the skilled worker pay thresholds. it will also start to have an effect . i understand why she's effect. i understand why she's doing it, but clearly concentrates on the year before, is her particular plan. but the conservatives will obviously push forward with the fact that

they are seeing these these differences coming through in four months of the first year, andifs four months of the first year, and it's going to continue. they would hope, in that same vein. >> i mean, how did we get to the point where 500, 600, 700,000 legal net migration is a is normal? and how did we get to that point , years basically of that point, years basically of allowing , i suppose, a system allowing, i suppose, a system where it was , more efficient to where it was, more efficient to be able to allow people to come in and fill jobs, often at a lower , on a lower wage than than lower, on a lower wage than than people here in this country, and, you know, we've got to that particular situation with regard to many of the workforce that have come in. but remember as well, a lot of the net migration that we've seen in recent years was also, boosted by the fact

that we take we took in hundreds of thousands of people from ukraine and from hong kong and from afghanistan. and there's also the explosion in higher education and university education, where universities now are are, you know, for a massive part of their business model, relying on international students coming across to ensure that the university itself can thrive as a business? >> it's interesting. mark, i think we've struck some some gold here because when we're looking at what the conservatives say on legal migration, they say, look at 2024, not 2023. and the labour party say the reverse. but when it comes to illegal immigration, the conservatives say, look at 2023. yeah, it was down by a third. and the labour party say look at 2024 when it's up . look at 2024 when it's up. doesn't this just show how politicians will pick and choose their statistics depending on

their statistics depending on their argument? >> you are so cynical, tom, and 100% correct, and one of the advantages for rishi sunak in going on the 4th of july is you avoid that period over the very hot and calm, flat, calm months in the english channel when we see sometimes thousand, the channel migrants coming across in a single day. you go on the 4th of july. yes, of course , the 4th of july. yes, of course, the weather is improving all the time, and there will be more that come across in the six weeks until the election. but if you wait until november, there's lots of people are saying there's so many advantages of waiting so long. you can get flights off the ground to rwanda, for, for as one example. but what if you get flights off the ground to rwanda and it makes absolutely no difference at all to the deterrent factor that you're hoping will be the

net result of getting flights off the ground to rwanda. and they're still coming in ever increasing numbers this year than the crossed last year , then than the crossed last year, then thatis than the crossed last year, then that is an unmitigated disaster for the government . having spent for the government. having spent half £1 billion on the rwanda scheme. so there are definite advantages to going on the 4th of july, despite what many people would see as the disadvantages of not being allowed to see the improvements in the economy that so many people were hoping for. >> well , thank you very much >> well, thank you very much indeed. mark white, our homeland security editor . very security editor. very interesting to get to talk about some of the holes, perhaps in the in that interview with the shadow home secretary . but shadow home secretary. but coming up, we're speaking to the minister for science, innovation and technology, andrew griffith. lots to ask him his reaction to this, snap election and also his department, which is responsible for universities , university for universities, university visas, a huge, huge issue.

>> we'll get to that after your headunes >> we'll get to that after your headlines with sam . headlines with sam. >> tom. emily, thanks very much. good afternoon to you. it's just after a 1:30. a look at the headunes after a 1:30. a look at the headlines this hour. the labour leader, sir keir starmer, has accused the prime minister of never believing in his own rwanda plan. it's after rishi sunak admitted that flights carrying migrants will not take off before the july general election. however, speaking as he started his election campaign in derbyshire, the conservative leader says the scheme will continue if he's re—elected . continue if he's re—elected. both the conservatives and labour have launched their election campaigns today alongside reform uk and the liberal democrats . official liberal democrats. official estimates show net migration. that's the difference between those legally arriving and leaving the uk dropped by 10% last year. it stood at an estimated 685,000. in 2023. that's down from a record of

764,000 the year before . 764,000 the year before. official figures suggest just over 1.2 million people arrived in the uk in 2023, while 532,000 are likely to have left the family of a ten year old who died in a mudslide in north yorkshire say she was a happy, bubbly, go lucky little girl . bubbly, go lucky little girl. primary school student leah harrison was killed yesterday afternoon after getting into difficulty near carlton bank, mount pleasant primary school, where she was a student, say the incident is a heartbreaking tragedy and that leah was a much loved part of the school community, and former scottish health secretary michael matheson has been suspended and will lose his salary for 54 days. the punishment comes after he racked up £11,000 in roaming charges on his parliamentary ipad. that was while he was on houdayin ipad. that was while he was on holiday in morocco last year, later announcing he would cover the costs himself . he revealed the costs himself. he revealed that the bill had been the

result of his children using the device as a wi—fi hotspot to watch football . watch football. >> didn't know that information, you know. >> now, the former head of the post office is giving evidence on the second day of her much anticipated questioning earlier , anticipated questioning earlier, the horizon inquiry heard that the horizon inquiry heard that the company had received legal advice against a review of its it system because it was , quote, it system because it was, quote, opening the floodgates to damage claims. but paula vennells says she wasn't aware of that advice . she wasn't aware of that advice. she was in charge of the organisation from 2012 to 2019, while wrongful prosecutions of sub—post masters continued . for sub—post masters continued. for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts. you can scan the qr code on your screen or go to our website gbnews.com/alerts . our website gbnews.com/alerts. >> cheers! >> cheers! >> britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news financial report, and let's take a look at

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>> well, welcome back to good afternoon, britain. it is 139 in the afternoon. and a bit of a headache for rishi sunak this week, as he's forced to row back on plans to crack down on the amount of visas offered to university graduates . that's university graduates. that's following opposition from within his own cabinet, including his foreign secretary, lord cameron. well there's been mixed economic news as well. >> one of britain's key sectors has been hit by weaker than

expected growth, although inflation has fallen back to down normal 2.3, which the prime minister is hailing as proof that the economic plan is working. >> yes . well, joining us now is >> yes. well, joining us now is minister for science, innovation and technology , andrew griffith. and technology, andrew griffith. andrew, thank you very much indeed. we've been talking about these very high migration figures for last year. of course, student visas and dependents and the like account for quite a few of those, quite a few of those figures , some of a few of those figures, some of your colleagues have said that there are some of our universities that are selling immigration rather than education. do you believe that to be true ? to be true? >> well, certainly the level of immigration, both illegal and legal migration is too high. my constituents in arundel and south downs see the pressure on that. the pressure on public services. so we have to reduce it. and the government has a clear plan, bold plan. in the case of the rwanda scheme, but a

clear plan to reduce both illegal migration by stopping the boats and legal migration. and we're starting to see that. so the removal of the ability to bnng so the removal of the ability to bring dependents here, if you came to study, you know, you can no longer bring your whole family here, that has already seen a reduction of about a quarter in visas in the first quarter in visas in the first quarter of this year. so that that plan is there . it's that plan is there. it's working. it's starting. people are starting to see the benefits of that, of course, we're in an election now. and there's a very clear choice between continuing with that plan. it's got certainly a long way to go. and laboun certainly a long way to go. and labour, who don't have a plan. they've opposed every single thing that we've done. they don't have a plan themselves and they would just leave us open to that unlimited migration here. i mean , the accusation is that mean, the accusation is that some of our universities are to dependent on immigration, there's been quite a lot of university spokespeople and heads of universities coming out to say that if you do anything

to say that if you do anything to restrict graduate visas or student visas , that these student visas, that these universities will suffer as a result. is there an argument that we should allow some of our university is perhaps lower calibre universities, if you'll accept that , to fail to deal accept that, to fail to deal with it ? with it? >> look, i think the these these debates are never best conducted at the extremities. so, you know , it shouldn't be the case that you say, you know, every university , every single course, university, every single course, no matter how quality it is, if there's an evidence of abuse or if it's not really bringing in the best and brightest, but then at the other, other end, you know, we do want our universities , some of the top universities, some of the top universities, some of the top universities on the whole planet , you know, big destinations for people to come here and study and research to be able to be open to that. and i think the migration advisory committee report, you know, did talk about some abuse is that that should be cracked down on, you know, particularly short courses maybe, or where we've seen an institution expand very significantly on the back of

graduate visas . that's not what graduate visas. that's not what those visas are there for. they're there for people who to come here, study genuinely, you know , get competitive entry and know, get competitive entry and then to go on to a high, well—paid job after that. so where there where there is abuse , of course the government should, should and will bear down on that. >> that's interesting. that's you seem to be suggesting that there are some courses. there are some universities that perhaps don't justify being propped up , perhaps don't justify being propped up, being subsidised by the number of visas that are being issued for them . being issued for them. >> well, as i say, we shouldn't conduct the debate at the extremity in any big, you know, human process. you will find some examples of bad practice. you know, some of those have have come to light and have been surfaced in the past, and the government has looked at exactly that and seen whether those are abusing or misrepresenting the position. it's not just confined to graduate visas. we've seen

that on health and care visas as well. so let's be really clear . well. so let's be really clear. the level of immigration, legal and illegal, is too high. the government's taken a whole set of actions to put in place things that are going to reduce over time, that level of migration. those actions are working . we've seen that in the working. we've seen that in the figures that have been released today. the rwanda plan, the prime minister's talked about getting people on flights if and when the conservatives, you know, win this election. if people give us their support, they need to know that flights will take place in july, that that will be breaking the business model of people smugglers. that's a very clear plan against that because it is a choice. so it's okay to frame it as a choice . you know, you've it as a choice. you know, you've only got the conservative party or you've got the labour party keir starmer after the election. it literally doesn't have a plan. i mean, opposed hundreds of times. everything that we've done to try and bring this really important issue under control . it's not abstract. this control. it's not abstract. this is affecting people's access to pubuc is affecting people's access to public services. it's putting

burdens on british taxpayers . burdens on british taxpayers. and it's very clear, you know, what what the choice people need to make if this is an issue of concern to them, okay, that's migration . migration. >> let's zoom across to a wider issue of the general economy. now you used to work in the treasury. is it not the case that the prime minister choosing to go in july rather than waiting for a later month, perhaps november, as was widely expected for the date of this election? doesn't that show a bit of pessimism in the future trajectory of the british economy ? that people won't feel economy? that people won't feel the growth, won't feel the plummeting of inflation, won't feel better off enough, or won't credit the government for that ? credit the government for that? if it's if things are getting better, going early seems to suggest there's a more pessimistic outlook . pessimistic outlook. >> no, i don't accept that. i do accept that it's our job in this election to contextualise the decisions that are in front of the british people. you're

right. i was in the treasury when we were making those tough decisions. not always popular , decisions. not always popular, but but they were the right decisions that led to inflation coming down. one of those is to make sure that, you know , we make sure that, you know, we didn't put any unfunded spending into the plan , into the economy into the plan, into the economy that would have made inflation and interest rates higher for longer, so that that plan is working . we have seen that working. we have seen that reduction from 11.1 down to 2.3 earlier this week. so we're getting inflation back into the range. it needs to be everybody to be clear has made sacrifices to be clear has made sacrifices to do that. you know people with mortgages , people who've had to mortgages, people who've had to absorb the higher cost of living. but again the context is really important. no government for, you know, over 80 years has had to deal with a global pandemic and a live war on european soil. that's the context, the right way of measuring that. if is not just to sort of look narrowly through the lens of this government, you know, we've got the second highest growth in the g7. you know, within that pack of other

major economies, most of whom have dealt with many of the same issues. you know, we're doing relatively better than a lot of those other economies, and that is the choices that we've made to get there, although perhaps that's more of a more of a comment on how poorly most of continental europe is doing, rather than how splendidly the united kingdom is doing . yeah. united kingdom is doing. yeah. look, i mean, you know, the pace car as we know on the economy is the us. you know, the us benefits, amongst other things, from, you know, lower burden of tax. that's something that as a conservative, you know, we are philosophically committed to for us, cutting taxes is a first choice, not a last choice. we reluctantly had to increase taxes because of the £6,000 per head support that was put in place during covid. i don't think anyone thinks that's not the right thing. it was another bold. >> yes, i thought it was an interesting choice from the prime minister to begin his, his statement , prime minister to begin his, his statement, his announcement talking about the pandemic, which wasn't the best time for all of us. >> but thank you very much,

andrew griffith, a minister for science, innovation and technology, thank you very much for your time. really appreciate you. i appreciate you appreciate your time . we should say that your time. we should say that just breaking the deputy speaken just breaking the deputy speaker, dame eleanor laing, she is has made the decision to stand down as mp for epping forest at the next election. safe. tory seats. safe. tory seats . so they'll shoehorn seats. so they'll shoehorn someone in there. but what does that make it? how many conservative mps? >> 65. is that now? yes, they're standing down 66 maybe. well, we'll get that number precisely to you. here's a little tease after the break. but also we're going to be joined by our royal correspondent because there's some news from . some news from.

king charles. >> right. well, thank you very much for getting in touch with all of your views on everything

we've been talking about today, gareth seems to think that rishi sunak will win the election. he says i think sunak will win simply because labour and sir keir starmer in particular, do not stand up to scrutiny. and as for labour's slogan of change, he says it's too vague, like their policies and not all change is good. >> not even rishi sunak believes rishi sunak is going to win the election. >> i know so that gareth has got a lot of faith for a hung parliament. gareth has got the faith there in, in rishi at least someone does, margaret on, nigel farage deciding to, not stand as a reform candidate. she says, i never expected nigel to stand as an mp. i'm sure he mentioned before he had no plan to. yes, i'm disappointed he won't. however i'll still be voting for reform if there's a candidate in wales. she says. i'm sick of conservatives and labour aren't any better. so there you go. still standing with reform. >> is margaret someone calling themselves s apples? says smarmy starmer. just sit back, criticise, block everything and watch the government fail. well

watch the government fail. well watch out mate, once you're in government the shoe is on the other foot. can't wait to see you crumble once you fall from your condescending ivory tower. >> a lot of colour in that message. >> not not not holding back. no or gbnews.com/yoursay say contributors, but, but i do think it is a fair point that, look around the world, look in the united states, in canada, in germany, all incumbent governments are trailing in the polls . interest rates are high polls. interest rates are high in all of those countries. and the opposition is doing very, very well. i think it's a reasonable question to ask, actually, if anyone different was in power right now, would the economy be particularly different? >> well, the electorate aren't forgiving, it looks like, peter says, how can yvette cooper try and sell a pup with labour's immigration policy, at least 15 other eu countries are looking to copy the rwanda scheme, while none are considering labour's solution, which surely says everything, that's a good point ,

everything, that's a good point, yvette cooper doesn't like the rwanda scheme , but a little rwanda scheme, but a little a little low on the detail. richard says if labour get in, they'll probably reduce the voting age to 14, which i think it's a it's actually a, a fair point, i think in the manifesto that they haven't yet released, but in their policy documents, the labour party do commit to a voting age of 16. so this could be the last election when only adults are allowed to vote. and they accused the they could accuse the conservatives of voter id being a way to gerrymander an election. >> but anyway , hey, let us know >> but anyway, hey, let us know what you think about that. why not vote for 16? well, coming up, the king has approved an order in council to prorogue parliament ahead of the general election. we're joined by our royal correspondent in just two ticks. stay with . us. ticks. stay with. us. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar. sponsors of weather on gb

news . news. news. news. >> hello again. welcome to your latest gb news. weather update brought to you by the met office. we're sticking with a bit of a north south split in our weather as we go through the rest of this week , with northern rest of this week, with northern parts staying pretty wet because of the low pressure centre that has brought so much rain recently. lingering here. further south, though, it's a different story. some drier, brighter weather to end the day and then we will have some clear skies across south southeastern parts as we go overnight. but further north and elsewhere across the country, quite a cloudy picture and there will be further outbreaks of rain. some of them could be a little bit on the heavy side. could be some more flooding issues for some of us where we see the clear skies in the south, it may turn a little bit chilly overnight, but elsewhere, because of the cloudy, wet and for some blustery weather, it is going to be a relatively mild start to the day tomorrow. taking a closer look, first thing tomorrow morning and across many parts of scotland, quite a bit of cloud around and there will still be some outbreaks of rain.

perhaps western parts of scotland having some clearer skies. so it may be a little bit chilly first thing here. otherwise lots of cloud and outbreaks of rain across northern ireland, northern england and much of england and wales, but further south, some brighter skies. first thing i mentioned that it could be a bit chilly first thing, but once the sun rises, those temperatures should start to climb quite quickly. as we go through the day tomorrow it is going to be fairly similar to today really across northern parts. further outbreaks of rain, though they don't look quite as heavy as today. nonetheless, some heavier bursts are still possible, always driest towards the south. a greater chance of seeing some sunshine here, but 1 or 2 showers could pop up. temperatures for many look quite similar, perhaps starting to feel a bit warmer across northern parts compared to today. more showery rain across northern parts as we go through the evening tomorrow. none of it looks especially heavy, but some moderate bursts are possible . moderate bursts are possible. clearer skies towards the south could take us into a bit of a chilly start on saturday, but definitely looks like the driest day of the long weekend before

rain arrives through sunday and monday . bye bye. monday. bye bye. >> that warm feeling inside from boxt boiler as sponsors of weather on

gb news. away. >> a very good afternoon to you. it is now 2:00 on thursday, the 23rd of may. >> it is indeed. and it's on in the full day of campaigning. rishi sunak keir starmer hit the road as they battle it out to win the keys to number 10. we're across the width and the breadth of the country as the leaders set out their stall. >> plus nigel farage has confirmed he will not stand as a reform uk candidate, instead prioritising the united states of america not exactly a vote of faith in the party. he helped found. so is it game over for reform uk's chances ? reform uk's chances? >> and amidst it all, today it's

revealed net migration hit a whopping 685,000 last year, just 10% down on the record year before. the tories say it's even lower this year. but will that message sink. in? >> well, will that message sink in? it's almost like different politicians point to different numbers and different figures. they try and confuse the electorate because there are different stories going on. if you look at 2024, immigration is falling and falling quite considerably . but 2023 was considerably. but 2023 was another near record year. >> i think it's going to be hard to spin 685,000 net migration last year in a positive light. i mean really they can try they can try record year. >> but in 2024 there are huge falls in visas . falls in visas. >> but i mean, it's whether people who care about the issue of immigration trust, the labour

party, we spoke to the shadow home secretary, yvette cooper, a little earlier on. she said immigration is too high under the conservatives but she would not be drawn on where she'd like it to be at all. and the plans over illegal immigration. well keep your views coming in on those very, very interesting that yvette cooper would not say what level i didn't even ask for if she wanted a cap. >> just, just just what sort of level? 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000. you can't sort of say roughly where you'd like it to be. very, very roughly, not even that. >> but we think here @gbnews that you deserve to know that if a if a government in waiting potentially is telling you that immigration is too high under the conservatives, we believe you have a right to know what ballpark they're looking in, and we don't seem to get that answer. perhaps we will by the end of this election campaign. who knows ? madder things have happened. >> well, send in your comments. your views and suggestions.

gbnews.com/yoursay >> or say, little squeak, their little squeak. it's your headunes little squeak. it's your headlines with sam. >> very good afternoon to you. it's just after 2:00. a look at the top stories this afternoon. the prime minister says that voters should back him if they want the rwanda deportation scheme to succeed, but has conceded that flights won't get off the ground before the general election . in. rishi general election. in. rishi sunak also says he's putting the economy and global security at the heart of his campaign. it comes as political party leaders begin their six weeks of trying to win votes, after it was announced that polls will open on the 4th of july. the timing of the announcement came as a surprise to some, with labour polling 20 points ahead, kicking off the conservatives campaign this morning, rishi sunak claimed that labour would do absolutely nothing to stop the boats. everyone else is starting to agree with my approach, which

is bold. >> the one person that doesn't is keir starmer. that's a choice that this election , he thinks that this election, he thinks that this election, he thinks that we should just offer an amnesty to illegal migrants to make us a soft touch of europe. it would make us a magnet for thousands of migrants coming from everywhere. so that's the choice at this election. do you think my plan is the right one? do you think i'm the one that's taking bold action to secure our borders and to stop the boats? or do you think he's going to do that? and it's pretty clear that on this issue, not only does he not share the country's values, that it's a problem. he's going to do absolutely nothing about it . it. >> well, starting his election campaign in south east england today, labour leader sir keir starmer says that what the conservatives have done to the country is unforgivable and that voters don't need to put up with it . it. >> rishi sunak clearly does not believe in his rwanda plan . i believe in his rwanda plan. i think that's been clear from this morning, because he's not going to get any flights off. i think that tells its own story . think that tells its own story. i don't think he's ever believed that plan is going to work. i don't think he's ever believed that plan is going to work . and that plan is going to work. and so he's called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election. we have to

deal with the terrible loss of control of the border under this government. we have to tackle the small boats that are coming across. nobody, but nobody should be making that journey. >> meanwhile, the deputy leader of the liberal democrats, daisy coopen of the liberal democrats, daisy cooper, has ruled out a coalition with the conservatives >> people want politicians to be talking about our nhs and social care and about the cost of living crisis. people are struggling to see a gp, they're struggling to see a gp, they're struggling to see a gp, they're struggling to see a dentist, they're battling long waiting lists. they're worried that if you call an ambulance, it won't turn up . and on top of all of turn up. and on top of all of that, they're still struggling to pay the bills to put food on the table. liberal democrats have been utterly relentless about talking about these issues for the last few months and years, and we're going to keep on talking about the nhs and the cost of living over the next six weeks. >> and nigel farage has announced that he won't be standing as a reform uk candidate in the july election. party leader richard tice has been urging people to vote for change.

>> everybody feels worse off after 14 years of tory failure . after 14 years of tory failure. that's the result of incompetence and these experts, along with weak , feeble along with weak, feeble politicians who have broken britain down. and sadly, that failure of the establishment and the experts manifests itself in the experts manifests itself in the great scandals that we hear about turning away now, from election news to official estimates that have shown that net migration fell to 685,000 people in 2023, the office for national statistics says. >> that's down 10% from the record of 764,000 the year before. figures suggest just over 1.2 million people arrived in the uk last year, while 532,000 are likely to have left the family of a ten year old who

died in a mudslide in north yorkshire say she was a happy , yorkshire say she was a happy, bubbly and go lucky little girl. primary school student leah harrison was killed yesterday afternoon after getting into difficulty near carlton bank. it's understood she was on a school trip at the time of that incident. mount pleasant primary school, where she was a student, say that the news is a heartbreaking tragedy and that leah was a much loved part of the school community. the scottish first minister has accused a committee which has recommended the suspension of a former health secretary of. he says, being prejudiced. michael matheson has been banned from holyrood for 27 days and will lose his salary for 54 days. it's after he racked up a bill of almost £11,000 on his parliamentary ipad while on houday parliamentary ipad while on holiday with his family in morocco last year. the punishment was handed down earlier and will now be subject to a vote in the scottish parliament. but john swinney says he won't be supporting the

recommendation and says his friend has made mistakes . and friend has made mistakes. and finally, alan bates, the lead campaigner for justice in the post office scandal, has said he has no sympathy for paula vennells, the former head of the post office, is giving evidence on the second day of her much anticipated questioning . anticipated questioning. earlier, the horizon inquiry heard that the company had received legal advice against a review of its it systems because it would open the floodgates to damages claims. the paula vennells says she wasn't aware of that advice . she was in of that advice. she was in charge of the organisation from 2012 to 2019, while wrongful prosecutions of subpostmasters continued . that's the latest continued. 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. just scan the code on your screen or go to gb news. com slash alerts .

gb news. com slash alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it's 2:08. >> now as we've all seen when a general election is called, the prime minister must request the dissolution of parliament for an election from the monarch of the day. let's take a listen to such announcements in recent years. >> earlier today, i spoke with his majesty the king to request the dissolution of parliament. the king has granted this request and we will have a general election on the 4th of july. >> i've just been to see her majesty the queen earlier on, and she agreed to dissolve parliament for an election . parliament for an election. >> i've just had an audience with her majesty the queen following the dissolution of parliament, the general election will be held on may the 7th. >> well, the british political system has , of course, evolved system has, of course, evolved over centuries from what was once an absolute monarchy through oliver cromwell's, repubuc through oliver cromwell's, republic , his protectorate, his republic, his protectorate, his commonwealth of england to the constitutional and largely ceremonial monarchy we have today. >> so what is the king's role in

our democratic processes? well, who better to ask, then? our royal correspondent, cameron walker. cameron in the last minutes, the king has approved an order in council to prorogue parliament ahead of the general election. what does that mean , cameron? >> yeah, well, a very busy morning for the king and a hastily arranged privy council meeting in buckingham palace this morning, attended by the king. penny mordaunt as lord president of the privy council. victoria atkins, the secretary of state for health and social care affairs. alister jack, secretary of state for scotland , secretary of state for scotland, and lord true, the leader of the house of lords. but and lord true, the leader of the house of lords . but effectively house of lords. but effectively the cameron. >> i'm going to have to interrupt. interrupt you. sorry john swinney, the leader of the snp, is launching the snp's election campaign in the mainstream of scottish public opinion and they define my leadership of my party and our country . country. >> they are why i believe so passionately in independence, because when decisions are taken in scotland, for scotland, we can bring about a better

country. >> they are also why i'm asking you to vote snp in this election to unite, to bring about that better country that we all want to see. that starts by seeing the back of rishi sunak and his government, the challenger for every tory seat in scotland is the scottish national party. so by voting snp you can get rid of this tory government on the nhs. i don't know about you, but i'm a liar at the language that is coming. not just from the tories but from labour at westminster too . very alarmed indeed. too. very alarmed indeed. whether that is talking about the nhs, looking for excuses to ask for more money or picking fights with doctors , or fights with doctors, or questioning the very survival of the national health service. so i'm asking you to vote snp to send a very clear message. let's unite scotland to protect the national health service , our national health service, our economy and the cost of living.

i know many of you feel that the economic system is broken. you're right, it's failed far too many people. that goes to the very core of why i believe in scottish independence . at in scottish independence. at present, it is westminster that holds most economic power over scotland, and that power has been used disastrously. the tories have imposed austerity. the catastrophic liz truss budget and brexit, of course, which compared to eu membership, has wiped billions of pounds from the scottish economy, pushed up prices and hit hard our ability to fund vital public services such as the national health service. labour knows all of that. but keir starmer now supports brexit. whatever the cost to scotland, i do not think scotland should put up with that any more . so let's unite to get any more. so let's unite to get scotland back into the european

union and to stop the damage of brexit with limited economic powers in scotland, we have made a difference where we can. economic growth per head has been higher here than in the uk as a whole. productivity. the key driver of living standards, has also grown faster in scotland since the snp came to office at holyrood , we have office at holyrood, we have helped with the cost of living through measures such as free prescriptions , free bus travel prescriptions, free bus travel for under 22 seconds and all day off peak rail fares . that's what off peak rail fares. that's what we can do when decisions are made in scotland for scotland and looking across europe, when we look at independent countries that are similar to scotland, we find this compared to the uk. they have higher living standards, lower poverty and they are more equal. so why not scotland ? we have the people, scotland? we have the people, the talent and the resources . so the talent and the resources. so let's unite to win the powers of independence to strengthen our economy, tackle the cost of living and bring about a fairer

country. independence of course, is also fundamentally about democracy , about getting the democracy, about getting the governments you vote for. sadly we know the only guaranteed outcome of a labour government is the tory government that will follow it, and it usually lasts a lot, lot longer in an independent scotland. never again will people here be subjected to an unelected tory government . for those who are government. for those who are not persuaded of independence , i not persuaded of independence, i look forward over the next six weeks to listening to your concerns , to making the case, concerns, to making the case, hopefully persuading. but if not, then engaging in respectful dialogue for those who are already persuaded. i cannot stress enough how important it is to vote snp on july the 4th. we will win our countries independence and win the powers to bring about a better scotland through democratic pressure. so no. on july the 4th independence

day, make sure your voice is heard. and on that issue of making scotland's voice heard, the snp will always fight to further scotland's interests under any constitutional circumstances. quite simply, we put scotland first. i expect over the next six weeks we'll see the tories and labour really going at it. they'll be going hammer and tongs to discredit each other. i'll also be going hammer and tongs , but not hammer and tongs, but not against anyone. i'll be going hammer and tongs to put scotland first. that's what snp mps always do at westminster, putting scotland first. we can't do anything else that's in our dna . we see stephen flynn and dna. we see stephen flynn and his snp colleagues do that job every week with real passion and commitment . so let's unite to commitment. so let's unite to make scotland's voice heard . the make scotland's voice heard. the task is more important than ever before . in recent years, it's before. in recent years, it's become clear that the gains of

devolution can never be taken for granted . these are for granted. these are challenging times, not least because of the financial circumstances we face. but i believe the scottish parliament has made a real difference to people's lives . scotland has had people's lives. scotland has had the best performing a&e corps units in the uk for nine years. we've more than doubled nhs funding and we have the highest number of gps per head in the uk on housing since the snp came to office, scotland has seen over 40% more affordable homes delivered per head of population than in england and over 70% more than in wales. than in england and over 70% more than in wales . when we took more than in wales. when we took office, renewable technologies generated the equivalent of 20.2% of scotland's gross electricity consumption. since then, this has soared to 113. the number of schools in good or satisfactory condition has increased from just over 60% to more than 90, and we're seeing record levels of literacy and numeracy at primary school level

. recorded crime has fallen by around 40% to one of its lowest levels in half a century. and this year, using our limited social security powers, measures like the scottish child payment are helping keep an estimated 100,000 children in scotland out of relative poverty . but ever of relative poverty. but ever since brexit, the tories have chipped away at the powers of your scottish parliament. and we've demonstrated what we can do together when decisions about scotland are made in scotland , scotland are made in scotland, the tories have made it harder for our parliament to take decisions to protect the environment, and they are threatening our hard won gains in policies. i have no idea where labour stand on this and whether they will reverse the tory power grab. so let's unite to protect our scottish parliament. i've directed all of my remarks so far to the people of scotland, but i want to say a

word specifically to snp activists, members and supporters . if ever there was a supporters. if ever there was a time to get involved and make a difference, then this is it. every election is an opportunity to move scotland forward to a better future. in a uk election , better future. in a uk election, the snp faces particular challenges so we i need all of you to do whatever you can to advance our cause. i will never take anything for granted, but i have no doubt the snp can win this election and that's what i intend to do to lead the snp to victory in this election . now, victory in this election. now, i've only been back in frontline politics for a month. i couldn't have imagined even two months ago. standing here, launching the snp campaign for the 2024 general election . but i am here general election. but i am here because i knew i could unify my party. i'm two weeks in and i've done that already, but more than

that, i'm now your first minister because i've got a wider mission to unify. i'm in the unity business for a purpose, to unite around a better way of doing politics, to unite scotland, to protect our national health service, to unite scotland, to strengthen our economy , to unite scotland, our economy, to unite scotland, to eradicate child poverty . to to eradicate child poverty. to unite scotland, to ensure scotland's voice is heard . to scotland's voice is heard. to unite scotland for independence. reaching out. listening. persuading. i am relishing the opportunity to campaign across this modern, diverse, beautiful country. i can, of course, make any promises about the outcome. that's for the voters to decide. but i can promise you this the snp will be fighting an energetic , optimistic campaign energetic, optimistic campaign full of enthusiasm , a campaign full of enthusiasm, a campaign infused with hope for a better future . i'll be leading that future. i'll be leading that campaign from the front. i'll travel the length and breadth of

scotland, bringing that campaign of hope and unity. i can't wait to get started . let's get out to get started. let's get out there and put scotland first. thank you very much . thank you very much. >> well, there we have it. the first minister of scotland, a man who was, elected to that position unopposed to steady the ship. frankly to be a little bit boring, that's why he got his job, launching the snp election campaign, talking a bit about independence. but also trying to maintain the stranglehold that was a there's a high way to say stranglehold , the stranglehold stranglehold, the stranglehold his party has over a majority of seats in scotland. >> yes, a lot about brexit, not about the damage of brexit. wanting to rejoin the european union a lot. this all came a little for soon john swinney and the snp. they weren't expecting the snp. they weren't expecting the general election to come this early. >> i've never been able to

understand this argument from the snp that they think the uk, leaving a trade bloc with which it did less than half of its around half of its trade, was economically catastrophic . economically catastrophic. catastrophic. but scotland leaving the uk , where it does leaving the uk, where it does like 90% of its trade. oh, that would be fine. like how how do you put two and two together? >> well, one has england involved , and they're the involved, and they're the baddies. >> yes, i see, but there's john swinney setting out his case a little sooner than they were hoping. there was some talk , hoping. there was some talk, wasn't there, about the school holidays and how it wasn't perfect timing for scotland because they begin those summer holidays a little bit sooner. the schools are out earlier in june, but there you go. john swinney, snp campaign. will they be able to claw back some support because they're trailing labour at the moment? >> all of that was tony mcguire, our scotland reporter, who's speaking to us live from glasgow. tony, what did you make of what john swinney had to say? frankly, he's not a very well

known politician , i mean, i known politician, i mean, i think it really probably depends who you ask. you know, some of the more senior snp supporters and voters here in scotland, they'll know, of course, because he he led the party. he wasn't first minister, but he led the party just in between phase when alex salmond was not in charge. but certainly he said there , you but certainly he said there, you know, one month back in top flight politics, two weeks in the job. and interestingly , he the job. and interestingly, he thinks he's already unified the party. he said he's in the unity business, which was quite interesting , of course, because interesting, of course, because the last year really ever since the last year really ever since the departure of nicola sturgeon and arguably before that, all we've heard is about the deep seated divisions within the snp. so their new leader, john swinney, two weeks in the job, thinks he's already healed. those divisions and certainly they will be getting into the election stance now. another thing i thought was quite interesting, of course , as

interesting, of course, as expected, we heard the election gambit there , for independence, gambit there, for independence, and he used a lot of devolved matters. i'm sure you caught that in the studio as well, you know, to talk about the successes that scotland has had and the successes that when decisions are made in scotland and ergo, you know, by that logic, he thinks that all decisions should be made in scotland. certainly now, at least on the larger scale, parties , he the snp are the only parties, he the snp are the only party now that are really batting for independence. of course we've got the scottish greens and alba, but labour, who, you know, were kind of divided in 2014, as to which way they were voting. well, they are now strongly in the union camp and keeping the country together through these quite difficult economic times in the last five years. and of course, you know, he he is the great scottish term there. you know, maybe, maybe it is used wider afield , hammer and is used wider afield, hammer and tongs. he said that labour and the tories will be going hammer

and tongs at each other. but he wouldn't. he would be going hammer and tongs for the whole of scotland. and, you know, that has been his mantra through a lot of this that he doesn't just want to be the first minister for the pro—independence , for the pro—independence, supporting that 45% who voted back in 2014, he needs to step up for all of scotland. and that's going to mean, you know, not focusing in too much on independence, talking about the cost of living, talking about jobs and taxes because of course, when he mentioned all those things that make scotland so great, he forgot that scotland in some parts is the highest taxed part of the uk. and of course, those ferries which we might maybe see one day before we're old and grey, which at the price that they're racking up, many are expecting should be constructed with faberge eggs by this point. but we'll wait and see. interesting though, to see him set out his stall , as it were, up here

though, to see him set out his stall, as it were, up here in scotland, in edinburgh this afternoon. >> very much of your time. tony maguire, who is in the heart of glasgow for us. interesting to see how things play out north of the border now. >> we rudely interrupted our royal correspondent cameron walker to go to that snp launch, but cameron remains with us. and of course we turn to you, first of course we turn to you, first of all, because the king has approved what's known as an order in council to prorogue parliament. this ahead of the general election. >> yeah, absolutely. tom a hastily arranged meeting at buckingham palace this morning of the privy counsellors, where the king has ordered that parliament should be prorogued before the dissolution of parliament on the 30th of may. prorogation basically means the end of the parliamentary session before dissolution . now we live before dissolution. now we live in a constitutional monarchy here in the united kingdom. so effectively it's actually the government and the prime minister that makes the decisions. but the king still

has many prerogative powers, one of which is dissolving parliament. only he can do that, but he's going to do it on the advice of the privy council and ministers. now he already approves the prime minister's request yesterday to hold the general election on the 4th of july. buckingham palace very quickly came out and told us that they are postponing all the royal family's engagements that could distract or overshadow any of the general election campaigning. but the king still has an incredibly important constitutional role, because not only does he have to dissolve parliament on what we expect to be the 30th of may, but he also has to invite on the 5th of july, july, the day after the general election, the person who can commands the confidence of the house of commons to form a government in his name and therefore become the prime minister of the united kingdom . minister of the united kingdom. so it's a royal prerogative. he'll do it in a privy council meeting. we believe , on the 30th meeting. we believe, on the 30th of may, which is 20. yeah 30th may, which is 25 working days before the general election. it

all happens in a documents. then all happens in a documents. then all the different returning officers from the 650 constituencies around the country will be sent effectively. instructions on behalf of the king to hold a general election on that date. so it's a very busy period for the king constitutionally, but he's stepping back from public dufies he's stepping back from public duties that could distract from the election . the election. >> yes. and are any of these royal events? it's quite a busy period, isn't it? in the lead up to the summer months , any royal to the summer months, any royal events going to be cancelled because of all the everything that's going on politically? >> yeah, they certainly will. they already have been. prince william was expected to be out and about today. that's been put on hold. the king expected to be in crewe tomorrow . that's also in crewe tomorrow. that's also been put on hold as well. there's a big question mark over big state events like trooping the colour on the 15th of june. we're not sure if that's going to go ahead. the state visit of japan. the japanese emperor was meant to come to london at the end of june. again, big question mark over that. we do know that

the d—day memorial, services and engagements are going ahead. so it's being decided. we understand on a case by case bafis understand on a case by case basis as to whether or not it will overshadow the election . will overshadow the election. >> and all of this is in the context of, what is perhaps a poorly king. i mean, we do know that he had a, a reduced sort of itinerary over the summer , i'm itinerary over the summer, i'm finding it hard to work out if this is actually perhaps a benefit for the king. if he's out in public, less resting, more . could this be a good thing? >> well, quite possibly, tom, we have heard from the queen a number of times over the last couple of weeks that they're trying to rein him in. i think the king is very keen to carry out as many public engagements as possible, making up for lost time , but perhaps his doctors time, but perhaps his doctors and his family are advising him to rest a bit more. another big question mark over the week of the election itself. he is, if he is well enough meant to be in scotland for holyrood week in edinburgh. so will he have to

leave scotland early to come back down to london to appoint whoever the new prime minister is, or if it's the old one at buckingham palace? or will it be a situation that we had in september 2022 with the late queen that the prime minister travelled up to scotland? so we'll have to wait and see what happens there. nothing, of course, is going to be confirmed until very close to much closer to the time. >> it's very interesting to consider , what, what the impact. consider, what, what the impact. what's going on in westminster has on the royal family. but cameron, you've also launched a new podcast, haven't you? for all things royal, tell us a little bit about it. >> yeah, we have the royal record launched this morning. our first special guest is alastair stewart. he's talking about meeting the queen because he was invited to buckingham palace talking about the brick donkey charity, which both the queen and he are heavily involved with. he also gives a very touching tribute to the princess of wales, as well . you princess of wales, as well. you can getit princess of wales, as well. you can get it on spotify, on apple podcasts and on youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. it's co—hosted by me and varne anderson, who writes a lot of the articles for gb news

websites. he's royal editor of gb news. com if you want to get in touch with us at the email address is royal @gbnews. .uk we'd love to know what you think, so check it out now! >> what a perfect break from all the all the politics and all the general election on campaigning and all of this lovely . and all of this lovely. >> yes, that's. >> yes, that's. >> oh no, tom's lost his voice. no, he's struggling. but thank you so much. cameron walker , our you so much. cameron walker, our royal correspondent. i'll be tuning in to that, that's for sure. definitely so you can get that on spotify and apple and everywhere. everywhere you can get podcasts. now, we're going to be coming back very shortly . to be coming back very shortly. we've got lots more for you, including the latest reaction to everything political. also, quite a few pieces of legislation may never make it onto the statute books because this general election has been called. we'll tell you which ones after the headlines . ones after the headlines. >> 230 exactly. the top stories this afternoon from the newsroom. the labour leader, sir

keir starmer, has accused the prime minister of never believing in his own rwanda plan . it's after rishi sunak admitted that flights carrying migrants will not take off before the general election in july. however, speaking as he started his election campaign this morning in derbyshire, the conservative leader said the scheme will continue if he's re—elected. meanwhile, nigel farage has confirmed he won't be standing as a candidate but will help the reform uk campaign . help the reform uk campaign. official estimates show that net migration, that's the difference between those legally arriving and leaving the uk, dropped by 10% last year. it stood at an estimated 685,000 in 2023. that's down from a record of 764,000 the year before . the 764,000 the year before. the official figures suggest just over 1.2 million people arrived in the uk , while 532,000 are in the uk, while 532,000 are likely to have left the family of a ten year old who died in a mudslide in north yorkshire say

she was a happy, bubbly and go lucky little girl. primary school student leah harrison was killed yesterday afternoon after getting into difficulty near carlton bank. mount pleasant primary school say the incident is a heartbreaking tragedy and that leah was a much loved part of their school community. former scottish health secretary michael matheson says that a committee which has recommended his suspension was politicised and the sanction is, he says, excessive. the standards committee thinks the msp should be banned from holyrood for 27 days and lose his salary for 54 days. the punishment comes after he racked up £11,000 in roaming charges on his parliamentary ipad while he was on holiday in morocco last year , didn't know morocco last year, didn't know that information and the former head of the post office is giving evidence on the second day of her much anticipated questioning, paula vennells has denied trying to close down a

review into the software , which review into the software, which led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpost masters. she's told the horizon inquiry that executives felt the independent analysis was too expensive for the latest stories. you can sign up to gb news alerts. just scan the code on your screen or go to gb news .com/ alerts .

>> all right. well, it's 236. good afternoon. britain we're now joined by our political correspondent olivia utley, who's on downing street, olivia, what's the temperature in westminster for you, sir? >> well, the conservatives are feeling a little bit more cheerful than they were last night. and that's mainly because nigel farage has said he will

not be standing for a reform at the general election. now, farage has suggested that if the election had been later in the yean election had been later in the year, he might have considered standing , but because it came standing, but because it came when it did, he decided against it that almost begins to vindicate vindicate. rishi sunaks decision to go to the country a little bit early. rishi sunak is also talking a lot about rwanda today. now that might seem a bit counterintuitive because he has said that flights will not be off the ground by the election. on the 4th of july. and originally, of course, he said they'd be off the ground by the spring. but his message seems to be vote for me and the flights will be off the ground immediately . and it does look immediately. and it does look like they'll be ready to go on perhaps the fifth, 6th or 7th of july. vote for keir starmer and those flights will be stopped. now that might be a relatively compelling message for voters. labouris compelling message for voters. labour is at their weakest, i think, when they're talking about immigration. and although rishi sunak can't really say that he succeeded in his goal of stopping the boats, things are

vaguely moving in the right direction. rishi sunak is going to try and make this an election about the economy, something where he is doing relatively well. inflation has fallen to 2.3% down, of course, from 11% back in october 2022, when he became prime minister, and interest rates are set to fall relatively soon. so it's going to be on and on the economy and on immigration, where the conservatives might not be winning, but they might be doing a little bit better than labour. >> yes, because it's interesting heanng >> yes, because it's interesting hearing what labour has to say on migration , they seem to have on migration, they seem to have less detail than the tories . less detail than the tories. >> they do seem to have less detail. it was a very interesting interview i thought we did with yvette cooper earlier in the show. she doesn't. she wants to keep her powder dry, which has been the labour strategy for quite a long time now. she she said, and obviously she's technically correct about this, that you don't have to have an official returns agreement with a country in order to return migrants. well, that's true, but it all

takes a very, very long time if you don't. and of course , the you don't. and of course, the problem with the immigration system is that there's a really big bottleneck . there's migrants big bottleneck. there's migrants who are still here from up to a year ago who have, who haven't yet had their claims processed. now, yvette cooper main strategy seems to be to hire more caseworkers to deal with those claims. well, that's all very well and good, but more pen pushers haven't really helped in other areas before. and there is, of course, a danger that even if those claims are processed, what do you do with the migrants who have their claims rejected? so there isn't that much clarity from labour on immigration. but i think over the next few weeks we will see a bit more flesh on the bones of that pitch. >> well, thank you very much indeed. olivia utley , our indeed. olivia utley, our political correspondent, live outside downing street. thank you for your time, yes, i should say that there's quite a few little bits of legislation, quite significant pieces of legislation that may not make it through parliament because of

this snap general election, including the smoking bill, the one that wanted to put through a generational ban on smoking, one that wanted to put through a generational ban on smoking , the generational ban on smoking, the football regulator to, that might be, scrapped. and what's the other one? martyn's law. >> there's. yeah, rumours of this protect duty for venues. >> oh. >> oh. >> i'm sorry. your voice. i'll continue . rishi sunak and sir continue. rishi sunak and sir keir starmer have drawn swords over tackling illegal migration ahead of the 4th of july general election. now, the prime minister admitted earlier today that the first flights to rwanda will not take off before the election, with the labour leader slamming the government's plan, vowing to clean up the migration mess. well, with us now is gb news home and security security editor mark white. mark tell us your analysis of everything that's going on when it comes to immigration. >> yeah, i mean, you heard from olivia there. how rishi sunak is concentrating very much on the situation with regard to rwanda, where i would disagree with her, really is on the issue of the

flights not going off the ground before the, july the 4th. and, you know, that's still been potentially a strong and convincing argument for the electorate. i think it's a tough sell to try to convince the electorate after waiting so long for flights to go off the ground to rwanda, that still, we've still got now six weeks, and it's been quite a number of weeks since this bill was passed for them not to get a single flight off the ground. i think just allows, people like yvette cooper to come on air and say, look, it's exactly as we told you. it was a complete and utter con . it's never going to happen. con. it's never going to happen. that's what rishi sunak is playing at here in moving forward the election and not getting any flights off the ground. so it's possible we might get a rabbit out of the hat. you know, it's possible that they might still get a

flight or two off the ground just a few days before the election. this is what rishi sunak said, though, this morning on gb news breakfast, where he was suggesting that that might not be the case. >> plan is going to work and i announced a little while ago all the preparations that we've put in place to get those flights off. so we've trained hundreds off. so we've trained hundreds of caseworkers, we've identified the cohort of the first people that will be sent. we've got an airfield on standby, we've booked flights, we've got the escorts ready. and as people have been watching on their tv screens and in the papers, we've already started detaining those who will then be removed in subsequent flights. and that's a choice at this election. ellie, if you elect me , if i'm prime if you elect me, if i'm prime minister on the 5th of july, those flights will go to off rwanda and we will begin to put in place the deterrent that we need to stop the boats. >> so there is a definite advantage in bringing the election forward to july the 4th. in terms of the rwanda deal 4th. in terms of the rwanda deal. if you get flights off or

not, at least you don't. then have to prove to the electorate before any election that the deterrent has actually worked. it would be clearly very difficult for the government. indeed if we got to a case in, say, november and election being called, then when many flights had left for rwanda and you were still having thousands of people coming across the channel, that would be a very difficult position that the government would find itself in. so there are some advantages , liz, in are some advantages, liz, in going early, but in no flights taking off before the election. election at all. it allows the likes of yvette cooper, as i say to save what she just told you guys about an hour or so ago when she said, effectively, the rwanda plan is just a con. this is what she said. >> problem with the rwanda scheme is this is half £1 billion of taxpayers money for a scheme that was only ever going to cover around 1% of asylum seekers. no plan for the 99. the

reason that rishi sunak has called the general election now is because he knows it's not going to work. over the summer , going to work. over the summer, so the election is going to be a key battleground, there's absolutely no doubt, and you can see that day one after the election called and it's being dominated today by this whole issue . issue. >> yes. absolutely fascinating to hear and the hope is, i guess, that we get a little bit more detail from labour and that rishi sunak can somehow persuade people that these rwanda flights will take off. interesting that you say that there might be a rabbit out of the hat, and that there might be a 1 or 2 symbolic flights off to rwanda. could there be a possibility that rishi sunak is actually, he's actually got that in mind, keeping his powder dry? yeah it would be very interesting. >> no, tom was a bit cynical last hour . >> no, tom was a bit cynical last hour. emily. me >> no, tom was a bit cynical last hour . emily. me cynical. last hour. emily. me cynical. the baton is being passed to. you know what i'm hearing from sources is a suggestion, perhaps, that we misrepresented

what rishi sunak was saying this morning, that the caution perhaps expressed by him in terms of flights getting off the ground, might be more to do with the impending legal action that will no doubt follow the move in the coming weeks to get those flights off the ground. and if that happens, that may scupper the chance of getting a flight or two off the ground. so that's why i say it's possible that they might pull a rabbit out of they might pull a rabbit out of the hat and plough through with this. anyway very interesting. >> thank you. mark white, our home and security editor , for home and security editor, for talking us through all of that, coming up , talking us through all of that, coming up, will the tories win on the economy? they're supposed to win on the economy. but, things have been a little bit sketchy recently, but some positive news. we'll be asking that question

well. good afternoon. britain. it is 248 in the afternoon. now, they say economies decide elections. and rishi sunak has certainly chosen his time carefully with regard to that one, he has fulfilled two of his five pledges, halving inflation more so and growing the economy a little bit. inflation is down from 11.1% in october 20th 22 to 2.3% this week, and after slipping into a bit of a shallow recession at the end of last yean recession at the end of last year, the economy is slowly, very slowly returning to growth . very slowly returning to growth. but with interest rates still at 5.25, has sunak handed in the baton a tad too early? well, joining us now is gb news economics and business editor liam halligan with on the money . liam halligan with on the money. liam, the timing of this election, does it make sense looking at the economic situation ? situation? >> not really, i must say. the

inflation number you mentioned yesterday that came out yesterday, emily, 2.3% during the year to april, down from 3.2% during the year to march. it was obviously a good number for the government. it's a 2% inflation target. so it is definitely inflation turning returning to its sort of normal state of affairs after going well into double digits , as you well into double digits, as you as you said. but it wasn't as good as many people thought there was an expectation. inflation would go all the way down to 2, maybe even lower. and that would have laid the way open for the bank of england when the monetary policy committee meets on the 20th of june to start cutting interest rates and once interest rates start coming down from their current 16 year high of 5.25, it really will change the way markets are thinking about the uk economy. more rate cuts will be priced in, mortgage rates will come down very sharply in

anticipation of rates going down two or 3 or 4 times in quick succession . but until you get succession. but until you get that first rate cut, which now won't happen until august at the earliest, because it's not going to happen in june, when inflation is 2.3% above target. there's no mpc meeting in july, by the way. august is the first interest rate cut. in theory . interest rate cut. in theory. that's quite you know, not you've only really got time for one interest rate cut then before an election in the autumn, possibly early to when the tories were hoping for three. so rishi sunak seems to have thought, well, lots could go wrong over the summer. we could have an influx of small boat migrants. of course, in the better weather there could be worse economic news. inflation could even start ticking upward. that's certainly what money markets in the us think is going to happen over the summer. so if there is no going to be no sort of great economic, improvement with lots of rate cuts and

possibility of a lower tax rate with an autumn budget, then the tories are thinking we might as well just go now, because things probably aren't going to get better and they could get worse . better and they could get worse. >> it's a pessimistic view, liam. where's the optimism , liam. where's the optimism, well, here's i've got some numbers are coming out. just came out today, tom, which we'll go to now, which i think are relatively optimistic , even relatively optimistic, even though they're being reported in lots of places as if the economy has fallen off the cliff. what we had today weren't gdp numbers. they're not official numbers. they're not official numbers. they're not official numbers. they're numbers from what's called the purchasing managers index survey. pmi surveys come out around the world hugely authoritative . and world hugely authoritative. and what they do is they they reflect surveys of business owners opinions. so big business small business and so on. and the pmi small business and so on. and the pm! for the manufacturing sector , came out today and it sector, came out today and it was up from 49.1 to 51.3 in may. that suggests that when you talk

to business leaders in detailed surveys, they think there's growth in the manufacturing sector. if it's above 50, the pmi index that points to growth, thatis pmi index that points to growth, that is the best pmi manufacturing figure for 22 months. and of course, it's in those red wall seats manufacturing heartlands where the tories really do need to shore up their support. the reason these pmi numbers are being spun negatively, unfairly i think by some journalists, is that the service sector pmi fell from 55 to 52.9 in may, and that's a six month low for services now, services are of course, 70 to 80% of the uk economy. they cover everything from you know, legal stuff, hospitality. restaurants, hotels and everything. but the services number is still above 50. it's well above 50. it's almost at 53. even though it's come down a bit. so the economy is growing, manufacturing in particular is has returned to growth. that's

good news. overall, the economy is still quite lacklustre . but i is still quite lacklustre. but i would say there is now a path of economic improvement. but sunak seems to have judged that it's not enough of an improvement to risk waiting for an autumn election when things on other fronts could get worse. >> well, thank you very much indeed. liam halligan, our economics and business editor there with on the money. good stuff. and of course a labour might find you know, they make promises about public spending. that's what labour usually does . that's what labour usually does. but they may find there's not that much wiggle room for them to follow through with any big spending. but that's it from us today. spending. but that's it from us today . thank you for struggling through. >> i'm off to get some honey and some ginger and some hot water. >> and so you should. some of you at home have been a little worried, but yes, that's all from us. up next is martin daubney. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on gb news . news. news. news. >> hello again. welcome to your

latest gb news weather update brought to you by the met office. we're sticking with a bit of a north south split in our weather as we go through the rest of this week, with northern parts staying pretty wet because of the low pressure centre that has brought so much rain recently. lingering here. further south, though, it's a different story. some drier, brighter weather to end the day. and then we will have some clear skies across south southeastern parts as we go overnight further north and elsewhere across the country. quite a cloudy picture and there will be further outbreaks of rain. some of them could be a little bit on the heavy side, could be some more flooding issues for some of us where we see the clear skies in the south, it may turn a little bit chilly overnight, but elsewhere, because of the cloudy, wet and for some blustery weather, it is going to be a relatively mild start to the day tomorrow. taking a closer look first thing tomorrow morning and across many parts of scotland , quite a bit of cloud scotland, quite a bit of cloud around and there will still be some outbreaks of rain. perhaps western parts of scotland having some clearer skies, so it may be a little bit chilly first thing here. otherwise lots of cloud

and outbreaks of rain across northern ireland, northern england and much of england and wales. but further south, some brighter skies . first wales. but further south, some brighter skies. first thing i mentioned that it could be a bit chilly first thing, but once the sun rises, those temperatures should start to climb quite quickly . as we go through the quickly. as we go through the day tomorrow, it is going to be fairly similar to today really across northern parts. further outbreaks of rain, though they don't look quite as heavy as today. nonetheless, some heavier bursts are still possible, always driest towards the south. a greater chance of seeing some sunshine here, but 1 or 2 showers could pop up temperatures for many. look quite similar, perhaps starting to feel a bit warmer across northern parts compared to today. more showery rain across northern parts as we go through the evening tomorrow. none of it looks especially heavy, but some moderate bursts are possible. clearer skies towards the south could take us into a bit of a chilly start on saturday, but definitely looks like the driest day of the long weekend before rain arrives through sunday and monday. bye bye. >> that warm feeling inside from

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gb news. away. >> a very good afternoon to you. it's 3 pm. and welcome to the martin daubney show on gb news. broadcasting live from the heart of westminster all across the uk. the election latest as the dust settles after the night before the date has been set. july the 4th is when the nation decides we'll be live from all across the country. to find out what that might mean for britain. plus, could there be a dramatic last ditch attempt at a coup to remove rishi sunak as prime minister? next up has nigel farage betrayed britain? well, nigel farage is dramatically announced he will not stand for reform uk and instead will head to the usa to help donald trump to get elected

as nigel betrayed britain. or is