gb news. >> good morning and welcome to sunday with michael portillo. roald dahl once wrote. if i had my way, i'd remove january from the calendar altogether and have an extra july instead. or perhaps rishi sunak is also a fan of that month, as he has risked all on a general election on us independence day. over the next two hours we will have reflections on his decision and the claims campaigns that it has launched and on the announcement that the tories would introduce a form of national service. but there will also be time in the next two hours to bring some light and warmth to your sunday with arts, culture and world affairs, which is your next

surprise. many of his colleagues, by calling a general election in a move praised by michael gove for its boldness. but then mr gove announced that he would not be risking a portillo moment in surrey heath. the campaign is underway and this parliament has sat for the last time. an excellent political panel will discuss what we can expect over the next six weeks as the conflict continues in the middle east. the war between israel and hamas appears to have deepened the divide between the united states and its allies. on one side, and china and its partner russia on the other . china and its partner russia on the other. senior uk government figures have warned that the eastern powers are now infiltrating the west through social media and promoting pro—palestinian influencers to dissect the extent of their influence . we'll be joined by influence. we'll be joined by the executive director of the henry jackson society, doctor alan mendoza . london, madrid and alan mendoza. london, madrid and brussels are currently in talks over the creation of a common travel area between gibraltar and spain, which would give the roc effective membership of the european union's schengen zone of passport free movement. sir bob neill, the conservative mp

for bromley and chislehurst, the chair of the gibraltar all party parliamentary group, will share his thoughts on the post—brexit border dilemma and, of course, arts editor of the express, stefan kyriazis will be here to talk us through his latest theatrical adventures . we will theatrical adventures. we will discuss shakespeare's romeo being taken on by a modern day on screen superhero, and the celebration on the west end stage of the broadway composer, whose swan songs included hello, dolly! and la cage aux folles. but before all of that, your news headlines with cameron walker . walker. >> thanks, michael. it's 11:02. i'm cameron >> thanks, michael. it's11:02. i'm cameron walker here in the gb newsroom. compulsory national service for 18 year olds will come into force if the conservative party wins the general election. the prime minister says young people will be given a choice between 12 months in the armed forces , or months in the armed forces, or one weekend a month volunteering in their community. it's hoped the scheme would help unite society in what rishi sunak

called an increasingly uncertain world. home secretary james cleverly told gb news that no one will be forced into military service. >> the military bit of this will be limited to about 30,000 people. that bit will be voluntary, so the scheme overall will be compulsory , but the will be compulsory, but the military bit will only be for people who volunteer to do that element of it. >> meanwhile, more people trust sir keir starmer on masses of national security than the prime minister. that's to according a new poll by more in common for the telegraph, the survey also found a majority of people are not confident in britain's ability to defend itself against threats from russia or china, and almost half believe the next few years will be some of the most dangerous the country has ever faced. it comes after rishi sunak promised to increase britain's defence spending to 2.5% of gdp. now the shadow chancellor says stabilising britain's economy will happen

with a change of government. rachel reeves is promising a tough set of spending rules that she says will grow the economy, while keeping taxes, inflation and mortgages as low as possible , highlighting the turmoil seen in the weeks following liz truss's mini—budget in 2022, mr reeves says the tories haven't learned any lessons and would repeat the same mistakes . the repeat the same mistakes. the conservatives say their plan is working and a labour government would take the uk back to square one. yellow weather warnings for thunderstorms have been extended across northern england, the midlands, east anglia and northeast wales . the met office northeast wales. the met office warned slow moving heavy showers could cause flooding and disruption in some areas. 20 to 30mm of rain is expected to fall in just an hour or less in some places , with further warnings in places, with further warnings in places, with further warnings in place for parts of scotland tomorrow . the prince and tomorrow. the prince and princess of wales have said they are incredibly sad to hear of the death of an raf pilot after

yesterday's crash in lincolnshire. the spitfire was flying near raf coningsby when it crashed into a field just before 120 yesterday afternoon. in a statement, before 120 yesterday afternoon. in a statement , the prince and in a statement, the prince and princess said their thoughts are with the pilot's loved ones . the with the pilot's loved ones. the battle of britain memorial flight and the wider raf family. the ministry of defence described it as a tragic accident , while the royal air accident, while the royal air force asked that the privacy of the pilots family would be respected . to ukraine now, where respected. to ukraine now, where at least four people are dead and dozens of others injured after russian missiles hit a crowded diy store in kharkiv , crowded diy store in kharkiv, according to the regional governor, 16 people are still unaccounted for after the bombardment, which left a crater several metres deep . kharkiv has several metres deep. kharkiv has been the target of russian attacks for weeks, despite moscow denying that it's deliberately targeting civilians. thousands have been killed since russia launched its invasion . back in the uk, fans

invasion. back in the uk, fans were left disappointed last night when the pop star they'd paid to see at the co—op live arena in manchester was arrested . nicki minaj was detained in the netherlands after allegedly trying to take soft drugs from schiphol airport to another country. the 41 year old singer of starships and many other hits was later released after spending what she said was 5 to 6 hours in a police cell. a new date for the show is expected to be announced later today , and be announced later today, and richard sherman, whose music delighted generations of disney fans, has died at the age of 95. >> he , the birds tuppence a bag, >> he, the birds tuppence a bag, tuppence , tuppence. tuppence, tuppence. >> along with his brother robert, his music became inseparable from the mythology behind some of disney's best known classics. the duo won two oscars for their work on the classic musical mary poppins. other credits include the jungle book , chitty chitty bang bang book, chitty chitty bang bang and the forever catchy chin up

from charlotte's web . for the from charlotte's web. for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. com slash alerts. now it's back to michael . back to michael. >> thank you very much. cameron walker. on wednesday, rishi sunak announced plans for a july 4th general election. did his decision suggest that things were set to get worse between now and the autumn? or did he intend to catch the reform party off guard? certainly nigel farage's decision to focus more on the united states election will be a relief to many conservative candidates, and it does seem that farage would have been a candidate had the campaign been later in the year. so maybe that was a coup for rishi. revered pollsters professor sir john curtice and lord robert hayward have both noted that a party has never

before come from so far behind in the polls to win a general election . to consider these election. to consider these matters, i have with me, the former labour adviser stella kidu. i'm sorry i always get that messed up for me, santiaguito santiaguito, political commentator matthew stadlen and former advisor in chief of staff to nadhim zahawi james pryce. love to see you all here and thank you, stella, for being so tolerant , matt, let's being so tolerant, matt, let's start with farage, nigel farage has been with camilla this morning and it does appear, does it not, that he would have been a candidate had the election been later in the year, and this could be quite significant, could be quite significant, could it not. yeah. >> and i was chatting to nigel before coming on air. >> we know each other a little bit. i disagree with almost all of his politics, but we get on perfectly well. man to man. and it seems to me that he was preparing a very serious campaign, essentially to take down the tory party. not his words. mine and to sort of turbocharge reform , but then

turbocharge reform, but then rishi sunak turns up and shoots his goose by calling this unexpectedly early election that i certainly wasn't expecting. i thought sunak would not want to be a one year prime minister. i thought valenti would take over. he'd want to be pm for at least two years. he's gone early, and this has meant that for nigel farage, he feels he he can't have a realistic stab at winning a constituency. he doesn't feel he's got the local intel. he says that tories and labour have been knocking on doors for 100 years. he doesn't have that sort of information . of information. >> yeah, i understand that. i find it a slightly curious argument because with nigel farage winning a seat is neither here nor there. it's his impact on the campaign, it seems. >> well, he his argument is that he can have a greater impact if he can have a greater impact if he isn't preoccupied with knocking on doors. i mean, he he may be right, but that's certainly not what the headlines in the last few days have been suggesting . suggesting. >> james, i put it in the commentary a moment ago that a lot of tory candidates will be mightily relieved that farage is

not part of the deal, do you think this is quite important? >> yeah, absolutely. right. i think it goes against some of the received wisdom that this way around farage would be able to go and campaign here and then go and jet off to america and help out the donald, as he calls him. and if this is sort of scrambled some of farage's plans and therefore scrambled some of reform's plans, then maybe it will actually be worth the hit to scrambling some of the conservatives own plans as well. >> do you do you think it was a major factor in the july the fourth decision? >> i do, actually, i think that if you look at the number of votes that will be taken off, conservative candidates everywhere that reform stands, i'm not sure they'd be capable of winning anywhere . they've of winning anywhere. they've kind of underperformed in lots of the by elections that we've seen recently. and that they're taking decent numbers of votes, and i'm sympathetic to a lot of the stuff that they're that they talk about. but because they haven't got the kind of infrastructure that the farage has been talking about, it's harder for them and it's going to just hurt the conservatives, and they're not going to have again, it's a key point. they're not gonna have what they had in 2019, which is making some kind of pact around brexit, which is what led in some ways to the

conservative victory being quite so good as it was. and the idea of uniting the right apparently has a key point. >> well, sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt you. i thought you'd come to the end of yours. no, i think you're right. i think this is sunak was terrified to the extent that he actually thinks he can win an election if he really does. and i mean, not many of us who believe that, but you never know. he was terrified of a summer in which nigel farage suddenly sort of spearheads reform . and so you've spearheads reform. and so you've got that, and then you've got the, of rwanda , which i think the, of rwanda, which i think would not have worked. we'll never know. probably now . and never know. probably now. and you would have had a summer of small boat crossings. and that was one of his great pledges, wasn't it? sunak at the beginning of last year, he was going to stop the boats. this at the moment looks like it's going to be a record year. so the combination of rwanda failing, boats continuing to come and nigel farage spearheading reform , i think is why sunak went early. >> yeah. the first two points do not reflect particularly to sunak's credit . what i'm getting sunak's credit. what i'm getting at really is that although many conservatives have been critical of the july 4th decision, now that we have kind of proof that that we have kind of proof that

that it, mis footed, farage this could be very important. and many conservative candidates may actually be more willing to accept the july 4th decision because they're going to have an easier time now that farage is not in play. stella, what's your reaction? >> i think there is a very important point that you made there, james, about campaign infrastructure. data is going to be very, very important, especially when you're talking about third parties, because independent and third parties, they rely on voters who may not be super loyal to specific parties, so may not be the type of voter who always votes, but will be extra motivated to go out and vote on the day. so data is very important. i think that nigel farage is right. there isn't enough time for the reform party to have that kind of relationship with the local voters to know where these voters to know where these voters are. he also made , when voters are. he also made, when we had a chat with him, he made a very important point about postal votes. postal votes have really transformed the way people vote in the elections, because especially the demographic that we know is the most likely to vote. so those

above the age of 60, most of them will have signed up for a postal vote, which means that basically, this is not a six week campaign where nigel farage has time to really work a constituency and find where his voters are and make sure they come out and vote. he only has two weeks because that's the deadune two weeks because that's the deadline for the postal votes . deadline for the postal votes. >> yes. now, i think the point about postal votes is very well made and i'm surprised it not made and i'm surprised it not made more often because the campaign goes on up to election day. but many, many voters have voted long before that their decision is made. however, i persist in my point that i don't think for nigel winning a seat was the main point. since we got you, stella, you're. i think you're quite interesting to comment on some of the other candidates who may not win seats, let's put it that way, jeremy corbyn, what do you make of his standing in islington north? a seat that he's represented for decades with a massive majority? >> i think it's very interesting. i think it's very sad that it has ended the way it does.ii sad that it has ended the way it does. i i find it very sad when a former leader of a party is no

longer a member of the party, but it is what it is. we are where we are. i think he does have the following in his constituency, but other than that i find it a bit manipulative when a lot of commentators are trying to make it sound as if, oh, you know, this shows that the labour party is still stuck to corbyn or the far left or whatever . jeremy far left or whatever. jeremy corbyn has been expelled from the labour party. nobody in the labour party is going to spend an ounce of political capital to defend him right now, which is sad, but it shows to you, that i think that his grip over the party is basically zero. i think the, the, local election is going to be interesting. i think the debates are going to be interesting, not that they will be important for the rest of the country, but i think you see the vote being fractured across the country right now. in, in all sorts of seats with all sorts of parties and i think this will show where the divide, the new dividing lines are. it's no longer brexit, it's going to be other things. it's going to be

immigration. it's going to be, the cost of living crisis. other dividing lines. >> james, viewers may be surprised that we haven't yet spoken about national service because it's kind of a big news story. but actually, i think we have a kind of exclusive on farage here as to the fact that he would have made a different decision had the election been later. james national service. well, first of all, were you surprised? >> it did certainly come out of left field when i got wind of it before it was announced. i sort of thought that the person who was telling about it was putting my leg on it, and i suspect i'll be probably alone in this panel. i think this is a great idea. i'm very interestingly, there was sort of the kind of hardcore libertarians, the right who said this is indentured servitude. how dare you will that sort of stuff. and then i had a text from a friend of mine who was in the israeli government saying, this isn't going far enough. you know, you're going to need to do much more compulsory national service. the world's getting more dangerous. and so actually getting somewhere in between the two, because it's not just, making everybody sign up to the army. i think places are going to be capped at about 30,000. it's going to be hyper competitive like you're seeing in scandinavia, an increasing numbers of european countries.

the french are looking at this as well. but if you're not getting into that, it's also it's going to be a weekend a month for a year doing nice, good, wholesome activities and given the kind of fraying nature of our social fabric, anything that makes us think that we have more in common than we should be finding purpose in serving others rather than in endlessly saying, well, as a one legged, black jewish so and so, whatever any of that kind of identity and nonsense, all being together and being british and helping each other, i think that's a wonderful thing. >> but may i just say to james, while i've still got him, what a conservative might say against thatis conservative might say against that is the idea may be absolutely brilliant, but it's been produced like a rabbit out of a hat. i mean, has this been prepared with the armed service? has has it been prepared with the charities? do we know that it costs 2.5 billion, if that's the figure that they've put upon it, you know, are we confident it's not going to fall apart? where is this extra public expenditure going to come from? and why does the conservative party always seem to stand for an enlargement of the state? now and i think the worry is that obviously this has not been consulted with the conservative party. so you're going to have a lot of candidates out there,

some of whom were mps, some who were not defending your policy into which they've had no input whatsoever. >> yeah, it's certainly a high wire act, isn't it? but i suppose at the very least this this shows that rishi is willing to kind of take risks to try and turn the dial, which is something he hasn't really done in office to this point. and it does show at least there's some kind of debate that's to be had, and it will force perhaps labour to come out and have some big, interesting ideas of their own on the point about the army, of course, it was that the head of the army said in january that we're going to need to start training up more of a citizen force because the world is getting much more dangerous. and actually, we've seen from all the horrible things that have been happening in the world, what will be happening in taiwan soon, i'm afraid all these things that are all this kind of or how much is it going to cost, all the rest of it will pale into insignificance if we can actually get a group of young people together who are willing to fight for this country. and let's not forget, we asked people, would you be willing to fight for your country a few months ago and so, so many people said, no, why should i bother? and that's a terrifying thing. >> matt from the electoral tactical point of view, i thought the strength of the

conservative campaign was going to be exposing labour for six weeks to find out whether they had any answers to difficult questions, and i think so far, actually, starmer has not done very well with the difficult questions. but are the tories now going to go on distracting the electorate from finding out whether labour has any policies or any ideas by producing policies on a on a weekly basis that are actually quite divisive and, and also expensive in pubuc and, and also expensive in public spending terms. >> i think there's quite possibly a bit of concern on, on the left that this sort of headune the left that this sort of headline grabbing initiative gives the tories a sense that they are actually driving the narrative, that they are in the news, that a party that's been in power for 14 years is coming up with new stuff. that said, i think this feels like throwing paint at a wall and hoping it stick. there are now going to be millions of parents around the country who think that their children are going to be forced to join the military , because to join the military, because that would be an accurate. of course, it would be inaccurate, because actually it's 30,000. nonetheless, this idea of 30,000 volunteers or 30,000 volunteers for the military, exactly . so for the military, exactly. so you've then got this issue of a

mandatory policy that is actually voluntary, and that you are then everyone who doesn't join the military bit, they are going to be forced to volunteer, which rather goes against the idea of the voluntary ethos. just on the corbyn point, because i think that's quite important as well. i think that the optics are incredibly strong for starmer. it's no doubt it's ruthless. and he gave an interview to the telegraph recently saying that he finds it easy to be ruthless, but it is sending a message loud and clear to tory voters that even if you don't switch to labour, you don't switch to labour, you don't have to fear me. you don't have to fear me. keir starmer, because i am so different from what many people see as labour's recent toxic past. he's driven the party forward. and your other issue, your other point about labour's policies, what really are labour's policies thatis really are labour's policies that is going to, and rightly so, come under heavy scrutiny in the next six weeks? because if we are, it depends how many distractions there are. >> but let me ask sarah on that. stella, are you concerned from what you've seen so far? a few interviews with keir starmer. are you concerned that the

labour message is going to hold together? it looks to me as if they're a bit short of concrete answers. >> actually, i agree with what you said to camilla earlier today, which is that it is quite unwise from sunak to come up with all of these deadcat policies. you know, where you throw the dead cat on the on the table, and everyone looks at that and forgets about everything else because he should be. he should have left the air space for keir starmer to fill it with whatever it is that he's trying to say, and then attack him about the fact that he hasn't put enough meat on the bones on the policies. so i think that for once again shows you the strategic errors in sunaks judgement. >> very interesting . a dead cat >> very interesting. a dead cat and meat on the bones. lots to think about there. stella matthew staton and james bryce. thank you to all of you. after the break, i'll be speaking to doctor anna mendoza of the henry jackson society. as government officials have suggested that russia and china are using social media to influence those in the west to support palestine as the middle east conflict

rages

on. welcome back to the program. it's reported that senior british government figures believe that russia and china are manipulating public opinion about the israel—hamas conflict. whitehall sources have revealed that analysis proves that some of the leading pro—palestinian social media influencers in the united kingdom have drawn popularity and larger followings, courtesy of fake accounts. one theory is that russia aims to divert attention and outrage away from its invasion of ukraine, by focusing minds on the war in gaza. well is there proof of social media manipulation by foreign powers, and how concerned should we be? i'm joined now by the executive director of the henry jackson society, doctor alan mendoza.

thank you so much for coming in on a sunday morning. well, those are my questions. is it is it provable that foreign hostile powers are influencing and is it provable that they're influencing to stimulate support for the palestinian side in the gaza conflict? >> well , when we talk gaza conflict? >> well, when we talk about proof, it is not 100% cast iron. here is a line going to the kremlin out provable. but it is obvious, judging by the tactics we've seen time and time again. this is not the first rodeo, as it were. in this regard. we have seen russia operating bot factories, i.e. these fake accounts that you just mentioned that pop up, put out lies and then spread lies as well by just retweeting things. and you have hundreds of thousands , millions hundreds of thousands, millions of these accounts out there that are promoting matters. the chinese have a slightly different approach. they have their whole disinformation factory. on one social media outlet called tick tock , tick outlet called tick tock, tick tock, as you know, is run by a chinese company. tock, as you know, is run by a chinese company . and there is chinese company. and there is a lot of suspicion about how closely it works with the

chinese communist party. and it is notable, isn't it, michael, that you don't see a single bit of criticism of china anywhere on tiktok, but you see plenty of criticism of the west and things that will cause social discord in the west. so there are questions about how the algorithm works there. and obviously the suspicion is that it is favouring a certain side. an argument . it is favouring a certain side. an argument. so social disruption appears to be one motivation. tell me what role you think the palestinian question plays for russia and for china in manipulating public opinion in the uk, it's a very important question. >> and as you've again already suggested, part of it on the russian front, the russian idea is this distracts from the horrors of ukraine. if we can show, a lot of fake news in particular about what's going on in israel, gaza , that brings in israel, gaza, that brings everyone into, if you like, into line, we're no longer the moral bad guys. everyone's a bad guy and you know, you need to take us out of that sort of equation. so you see, the russian side looking very much at how can we distract. but also and in common with the chinese side, what they

do like doing is fostering social discord, destroying social discord, destroying social cohesion . and for them, social cohesion. and for them, any issue, any wedge issue that can cause large amounts of consternation, bring people out onto the streets , create onto the streets, create division between neighbours, as it were, and harm , if you like it were, and harm, if you like the equilibrium of a country thatis the equilibrium of a country that is a good thing as far as they're concerned, and that is why they are pushing this issue. they see it as doing, in russia's case, two issues in china's case, one issue, but both help their strategic position vis a vis the west. >> it's interesting that we're talking in a morning when we're getting these devastating pictures out of kharkiv, of this destruction of this, diy store with terrible death rate. and maybe it is true that we haven't been as focused on what russia has been doing in ukraine in recent times, so social dissent in general, where are the other areas that they will operate, do you think, or the other areas in which they are already operating? >> do you think you've been on social media or in general? >> no, i was thinking of social

media. but if you've got other things to say, tell me. well the social media side, like i said, it's about creating the most noise and distraction techniques basically. >> so if you, you know, the more outrageous a statement, the better. as far as they're concerned, because it drives outrage, politics, emotion . and outrage, politics, emotion. and let's not forget, michael, the key to this is that social media, often in today's world is based on emotional responses. you see a picture and damage of some kind. you see dead bodies . some kind. you see dead bodies. that's going to cause a powerful emotional response . and often emotional response. and often people get caught up, if you like, in that and don't think about what they're seeing and whether it's actually true or not. and i think in this sense, we need to make a distinction between disinformation, which is lies purposely put out by, say, foreign powers and then misinformation, which is ordinary people being horrified by something, not checking the facts out, and then sharing the disinformation. so in a sense, you're seeing a ripple effect that goes on, not on the social media side. on the other side, though , we're also, of course, though, we're also, of course, seeing espionage techniques of various kinds. we have seen on the chinese case, loads of

attempts to grab data from the uk. we've seen attacks on mps accounts, we've seen attacks on the electoral commission. we saw the electoral commission. we saw the recent sort of suggestions that china has been active in, in, in hacking the military. what is china trying to do with this data? it wants to know things about us. and that's also the problem of social media and beyond . on the hacking side, if beyond. on the hacking side, if foreign powers can get hold of important information about you, whether it is stuff you voluntarily give them or stuff they have managed to hack, that gives them an insight into what people here are thinking, what their lives are like, and they can use that to manipulate us. >> the student protests have a little bit dropped out of the headunes little bit dropped out of the headlines very recently, but they they were on both sides of they they were on both sides of the atlantic. they were they were pretty fearsome over in the united states. did you track a connection between russia and china and those demonstrations? >> well, yes. again, it's very interesting. those have been heavily promoted, it would seem, by the same sorts of, of, of, you know, russian and chinese action that we were talking about earlier. we've seen obviously , the spread of those, obviously, the spread of those, you know, kind of narratives

across social media. we have seen also, you know, the sense that, you know, they're doing a moral right in this sense, again, coming out across various different channels. but i think what's interesting about those aspects, particularly in the us, is that a lot of their if you like, funding, and it was an organised campaign, by the way, it wasn't something that sort of sprung up spontaneously. a lot of money was being pumped in this, this time by liberal leftist , you know, foundations, leftist, you know, foundations, large foundations, people like george soros, the rockefeller foundations were actually funding a lot of this stuff. and it tells you that there is, you know, sort of, if you like, a home grown constituency for this sort of activity as much as what other countries can take advantage of. and again, i'm not for a moment suggesting that those groups are in league with russia and china. they're not, but they are to use the marxist phrase, useful idiots for what russia and china would like to do to us. >> should we worry about the integrity of our election result when we get it? what are the virtues of our country, i suppose, is we still vote on paper , and i suppose it's much paper, and i suppose it's much more difficult actually, to

enforce since the, the, the generation of the result, if it's on paper rather than electronic. in many other countries it would be electronic. so if you try to influence an election in this country, is it not by manipulating the result but by manipulating the result but by manipulating the result but by manipulating the campaign? >> that is absolutely the case. i mean, there is no way you're going to be able to sort of sneak in loads of vote bundles to change a result. however, you can do lots, can't you, in that campaign to influence things. so on the one hand, you can push out messages, narratives that suit whatever you would like to see the result to be. and you can also, frankly, as we know, we've seen the creation of significant and important deepfakes , the, you know, sort deepfakes, the, you know, sort of false video clips, false audio clips that look and sound very much like the real thing. i mean, what happens in the week before the election, michael, if one of two things happened, you know, rishi sunak is, you know, allegedly caught off camera saying he plans x or y policy, going there. well, it's very difficult for anyone to react, isn't there, in such short time. and if it's two days before an

election that could happen or what happened if someone then, you know, does another claim, oh, you know, keir starmer pinched my bottom five years ago or something like that. once again, it it beggars belief that we could be in a situation where in the week of the election, with no time for the legitimate reality to emerge, lies can come out and be spread and these are getting very sophisticated, the deepfakes. and there's great concern in the security services about the potential for disruption in this way. >> yes. and if i understand you correctly, it's not that russia would want either keir starmer or rishi sunak to win one rather than the other is just that disruption and the promotion of disbelief in the system is what they're up to. >> absolutely correct. there's no evidence that, that our foreign, if you like, competitors would like either of the parties in. but there is a sense, i think, that they would like to create as much consternation, as much discord , consternation, as much discord, as much turmoil within society , as much turmoil within society, anything that could lead to the election result being, if you like, you know, sort of dampened by the idea that it was somehow won by stealth would achieve that most interesting .

that most interesting. >> thank you very much, anna mendoza. coming up, we'll be looking at why spain and britain could once again be at loggerheads over post—brexit borders. i'll be joined by sir bob neill, the chairman of the gibraltar all party parliamentary group, for his diagnosis on the matter

welcome back. for months, the european union and britain have discussed the management of gibraltar's border. following brexit. proposals have been made for the european union officials to carry out immigration controls at gibraltar's airport. and the passports of all travellers will be checked. the foreign secretary, david cameron, insists that it will not diminish the uk's sovereignty should british visitors to british territory be showing their passports to european union officials? will

gibraltar be rocked by these proposals ? joining me now is sir proposals? joining me now is sir bob neill, conservative member of parliament for bromley and chislehurst and chair of the gibraltar all party parliamentary group. bob, very good to see you. hello. >> good to see you, michael. good to see you again. >> actually, just bringing this up to date. i was reading the newspaper today, a statement from madrid. it says that the policia nacional, the national police, must carry out border controls . if frontex agents are controls. if frontex agents are there. they are the ones from there. they are the ones from the eu . their role should be to the eu. their role should be to support and complement the spanish national police. and then it says the spanish police must serve in uniform and would carry weapons while performing their duties , gosh, it rather their duties, gosh, it rather sounds as if we are giving up some sovereignty in gibraltar. >> well, i think long experience has shown that the spaniards quite often, put out quite hardline bargaining positions which aren't then followed through in practice. and as you know, michael , there's a bit of know, michael, there's a bit of political gamesmanship goes in,

goes on in spain, particularly with the fairly fragile current coalition government. and on the other hand, the quite nationalist attitude adopted by some of the partido popular and by vox. so i think there's a bit of positioning there. but the key thing is to keep the negotiations going, because the deal really is important for the future viability of gibraltar , future viability of gibraltar, both economically and socially . both economically and socially. you're not, of course, at any cost. that's the thing. not at any cost. >> you're absolutely right about political manoeuvring in spain , political manoeuvring in spain, and i think gibraltar has been cursed by the fact that whenever britain and spain have got close to agreement over gibraltar, some political party in spain has seen the advantage of beating the war drum again. and it's all gone back to square one. now, the people of gibraltar and we are we are very concerned with their views and we think they should have a right to decide their future. they voted 96% to remain in the european union . so what do the european union. so what do the people of gibraltar, or at least their leaders at the moment,

think? what kind of an outcome do they want from this? >> the most important thing is for gibraltar to have a free flowing land border with with spain, and the bulk of its economy now is based upon financial services and tourism. it's changed a lot since the days of the border closures under franco, when it was largely a dockyard and garrison town economy. and to sustain that, about 15,000 plus people come across that border every day. so it's vital that we have that flowing . now. the that flowing. now. the difference that gibraltar has, for example , with northern for example, with northern ireland, which is the only other british territory really , that british territory really, that has a land border within the eu country, is that gibraltar, unlike the uk and ireland, does not have a common travel area. as you know, there was a common travel area between britain and ireland which long predated either us being in the eu or the eu existing. so it doesn't have the benefit of that. and secondly, and unlike the irish repubuc secondly, and unlike the irish republic , spain is in schengen.

republic, spain is in schengen. that's the, in external frontier within which there are very few border controls . so we've got to border controls. so we've got to have a means of having a free flowing border with not just with spain, but with the schengen area, of which spain is part. so that's where there have to be controls. but obviously you can't have the situation of armed spanish police people on british territory. and i think the better route will be michael, something like the juxtaposed controls that you have at dover or at saint pancras on the eurostar terminal, where there's a if a small carve out where people are checked going in. but nobody's saying that compromises sovereignty. that's the thing we've got to try and aim for. >> the arrangements you talk about between us and france, of course, are not in the context of being within schengen. no. is it accepted either by the gibraltarians or by the british government or indeed by your committee, that gibraltar should either factually or as a matter of practice, be within schengen ?

of practice, be within schengen? >> ultimately, the decision for that, in my judgement, must be for the people of gibraltar, as you rightly say, they were left, i think, in the most exposed position of almost any part of the british family by the brexit decision, and that is reflected in the two juxtaposed referendum results as it, yeah, 99% to stay in the eu pretty much 99% to remain british in a previous referendum as well. so what i think we've got to do and what the appg on a cross—party basis tries to do, is to encourage any government to do its level best to reconcile those, positions, basically. and that's why getting the free flowing frontier is important. that does mean looking at what we do about the airport, as you know, michael, because that's the main point of entry, and there is probably a sensible solution here with a bit of give and take that doesn't impact on sovereignty, clearly there are certain red lines that we have to have, about the primacy of british law enforcement within a

british law enforcement within a british territory. and of course, as i'm absolutely certain, david cameron has already obtained guarantees of no interference with the ministry of defence operations with the airport , at the port, with the airport, at the port, etc. i think we're okay on that, but it sees other controls. that's perhaps the big issue. >> you sound as if you're very trusting of david cameron. i think bill cash was saying that he's very worried that now that the election has been called and you're all going to cease to be members of parliament very shortly , that this is a moment shortly, that this is a moment when the british government might move forward with these negotiations, at a time when there cannot be any parliamentary scrutiny. does that bother you ? that bother you? >> i don't think it's a problem. i'm sorry to say, bill, who i've worked with in the commons for many years, sometimes agree sometimes has got this one completely wrong. i think he and his committee, his colleagues, are looking at conspiracies where none exist , i've met where none exist, i've met cameron on a number of occasions to talk about this, as i have the other ministers he has engaged very closely with the

gibraltar government, the gibraltar government, the gibraltar government, gibraltar government, the gibraltar government , the chief gibraltar government, the chief minister. gibraltar officials are embedded in the negotiating team. nothing's being done behind gibraltar's back and the key test for me is no uk government having a duty of care to the people of gibraltar should try and obstruct a deal which the people of gibraltar, through their elected representatives, are happy with. now, ideally, of course, we'd not want this to be happening against the background of a uk general election, given the instability of the spanish government as well . but on the government as well. but on the other hand, as we know, treaties are dealt with under the royal prerogative. and if the right deal came along, then you shouldn't waste time to seize it. and what i think is important to remember is that both the main political parties, all the main uk political parties, are signed up to a deal for gibraltar. so if, if anybody in spain thought that trying to play in spain thought that trying to play off the conservatives against labour or an overall majority against a hung parliament would help their cause , they're wrong on that.

cause, they're wrong on that. whatever the outcome of the uk election , we're determined to election, we're determined to get a deal which doesn't compromise british sovereignty over gibraltar because that's what the gibraltar people want . what the gibraltar people want. >> thank you very much, sir bob neill , sir >> thank you very much, sir bob neill, sir bob neill, mp. for the time being, i might take this opportunity to wish you well in your future outside parliament. >> thank you very much, michael. it's very kind. good to see you again. all the best. >> thank you. bob. neil. still ahead. it's nearly time to offer the stage to stefan kyriazis to hear all about his escapades, his latest outings into the auditorium of london

welcome back. tom holland is playing romeo at the duke of york's theatre in london. the man who was playing billy elliot in the theatre in 2008 is back on stage after a few years of

being on screen as spider—man. stefan kyrees was there to see him treading the boards once more . what did you make of him? more. what did you make of him? and it. >> yes, well, this is an event theatre. he's back as a massive film star now. tickets sold out, i think in an hour or something. the hottest ticket in town , it's the hottest ticket in town, it's very much for the young people. it's very much a an experience. we've got a little kind of cuppy we've got a little kind of clippy thing. just to give you a bit of an idea. yeah. >> so this is clippy thing was the right description . this is the. >> this is the kind of bert it does. this is the tone. so that music is what you hear when you go in. it's all very dark. there's a complete blackout . the there's a complete blackout. the whole crowd screams because they're all tom holland fans. and then we get the prologue, which is fine. and this is jamie lloyd, who did sunset boulevard with nicole scherzinger. he did serrano with james mcavoy , which serrano with james mcavoy, which i loved, and it was so much

simpler. i think he's a little bit like the matrix films. the first one was rather wonderful and refreshing and different, and refreshing and different, and then they just got more and more bloated, convoluted , more bloated, convoluted, complicated, too intricate. and he's literally thrown all of his tncks he's literally thrown all of his tricks at this. so hand—held cameras, when romeo gets sent into exile, he's on the roof of the theatre . when we go to the the theatre. when we go to the capulet party, we don't really see it. we just see them up on the big screen and they're in the big screen and they're in the hotel's foyer, and it's kind of amusing, but it's it always breaks the wall for me. and i just i'm not a big fan. and there's this problem which keeps happening, including with sarah snook's, dorian grey, where people are right there on the stage, but often with their backs to us or obstructed being filmed so that we can look at them on a screen. and this is a problem for me, and very much so. 50. >> so. >> it's such a popular technique at the moment. >> it's, it's, it's jamie lloyd to a t, but we have a lot of mixed bands. so there's a point when four of them are lined up at the microphones, and a lot of thatis at the microphones, and a lot of that is declaimed to us, not to each other, which is a real

problem for me. they just look like a very kind of asbo boy band to me, and there's a lot of whispering , which seems to make whispering, which seems to make it exciting, but it's embarrassingly awful. and i think another critic said, it's just whisper, whisper , shout. just whisper, whisper, shout. tom holland is charismatic. he wears his emotions all over his face. it's glorious . and i have face. it's glorious. and i have to say, francesca and amador rivers got a lot of flak as when she was cast. she's luminous. she acts with her whole body and her voice. she's glorious when they're together, facing each other. it's beautiful. the balcony scene is glorious . by balcony scene is glorious. by contrast, the death scene is terrible , and i just spent a lot terrible, and i just spent a lot of it frustrated . you can see of it frustrated. you can see there's potential. didn't work for me . the people that go are for me. the people that go are going to love it. it's a real divider . so exciting. going to love it. it's a real divider. so exciting. but i think enough already. jamie lloyd needs to do something very different. please. >> well, viewers should probably not fret too much because if they don't have a ticket already, they don't stand much chance of getting one, do you want to tell us about jerry's

girls? and who is the jerry in the title, jerry is jerry herman, very, very famous broadway writer composer. and this was a show that was put together in the 80s. and it's basically it started as a small kind of cabaret ish revue show of just his greatest songs, loosely linked. then it went to broadway proper. now it's come back and it's at the menier chocolate factory, and it's paired much more down into cabaret . so just three cabaret. so just three actresses. cassidy janson is one of them, who i absolutely love, and there's just it's a rollout of songs like bosom buddies or , of songs like bosom buddies or, i am what i am from cars or fall , and it's very much we start with them in their changing room, just sat at their mirrors, andifs room, just sat at their mirrors, and it's all very, very simple. and then they scurry around, the red curtains closed and they're in front. so it's sort of like hoofing showgirls, working, going backstage. the songs backstage are much more tender , backstage are much more tender, a little bit more emotional, if you just want to see three glorious performers with glorious performers with glorious voices doing some

fantastic songs and some songs, i didn't know which were really rather lovely, it's a very small show, but they milk it for the comedy and for the pathos, and i thought it was rather lovely. so this is, that's one. it's the absolute opposite. that's for traditionalists, for people that love a cosy kind of musical in the old fashioned sense and then the old fashioned sense and then the final one we've got is passing strange, which is kind of a musical, but it's looping us back to romeo and juliet, which was very much ultimately, i thought performance art at the audience, as is passing strange, and we've got a clip here from the show . well, before we carry the show. well, before we carry back to your uptown flat . back to your uptown flat. >> we're going to do a little patience . you paid for that . i patience. you paid for that. i play patience. you paid for that. i play with this. pam tells you where it's at, so just follow along. just follow along . along. just follow along. >> it's fabulous. it's so much fun. so this was written in 2008, and it's very much a black, middle class teenager story when he's trying to discover himself and actually

doesn't really feel terribly black, but he's also a very navel gazing teenager. so giles terera, who we saw there, who was incredible in hamilton, is his older self. come. narrator. and again, very much to the audience . you've got three audience. you've got three multi—instrumentalists on stage, all of who are incredible on the electric guitar, drum kit out the back for backing singers who take out all the other roles, and then just the older and younger version of the main character . and he eventually he character. and he eventually he heads off to europe to find himself , and heads off to europe to find himself, and he goes to amsterdam, which is all about free love. and then he finds love and he's just not ready for it, which becomes the theme. and he moves on to berlin, which is it's very cliched and cartooni. they've all got kind of punk mohicans , and they're all doing mohicans, and they're all doing performance art, and it's very anti—establishment . so there's anti—establishment. so there's a lot of comedy. his first sex scene is very amusing, but it's beautifully done. the musicians are incredible, the singers are incredible , the performers are incredible, the performers are great, and it's a weird one that romeo and juliet, there's so

much depth to it , but romeo and juliet, there's so much depth to it, but i thought it skimmed the surface. this one's a little bit superficial, actually, but somehow had more depth. and i recommend that. that's at the young vic to july the 6th, and it's fun in very, very good. >> well, thank you very much, stefan kyriazis , you are stefan kyriazis, you are watching gb news, britain's news channel that concludes the first hour of the program. please don't go away. we'll be back after the break. we'll be tackling the twists and turns of the upcoming general election. the world's reaction to the iranian president's death, and will be assessing the party's stances on gender recognition. and we'll finish up with some baked goods because we have to have a taste of britain segment in our show. come back . soon. in our show. come back. soon. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar , the sponsors of weather solar, the sponsors of weather on . gb news. on. gb news. >> hello there. >> hello there. >> welcome to your latest gb news weather forecast from the met office. well, for the rest

of today it's going to be a pretty mixed picture. many of us seeing some further rain and showers, but there will be some sunshine in between all courtesy of this area of low pressure. and unfortunately it's not going to go very far during the rest of this bank holiday weekend. maintaining a rather unsettled theme. so for the rest of this afternoon , many of us seeing afternoon, many of us seeing some rain and showers, the showers heavy in places, risk of thunder and there are various warnings in force from the met office as we go throughout the course of today in any sunshine, though, it won't feel too bad out there, especially across the south. we'll see highs here reaching around 19 or 20 degrees, so into this evening across scotland we'll see a rather cloudy and damp picture, especially across more northern areas further south. maybe a few brighter spells to end the day , brighter spells to end the day, but here we see the risk of some thundery downpours. so there are warnings as we go through the course of the evening. northern ireland also seeing the risk of a few thundery downpours similar across parts of england and wales, but across the south the

showers should start to begin to fade away as we head towards the end of the evening. so going into the rest of the night, many parts of england and wales turning a bit drier and clearer with across parts of northern ireland and scotland remaining quite cloudy here, with some further outbreaks of rain in the clearer skies. we may well just see temperatures fall into single figures, but further north, generally staying above ten degrees, so we start bank bank holiday monday off on a fairly bright and sunny note across eastern and central parts of england. elsewhere plenty of cloud around and still some outbreaks of rain for scotland and northern ireland. showers developing further south too, but these should be a little bit lighter compared to today. but these should be a little bit lighter compared to today . the lighter compared to today. the main focus of any heavy and thundery rain will be across the far north—east of scotland. temperatures around average for the time of year. >> that warm feeling inside from boxt boilers sponsors of weather

on

gb news. >> good afternoon, and welcome to the second hour of sunday with michael portillo on gb news ihope with michael portillo on gb news i hope that you will spend the next hour of this early summer's day with me, as rishi sunak surprised most of us by calling a general election on thursday, the 4th of july. the former liberal democrat leader sir vince cable, and the former labour minister, bill rammell, will share their thoughts on the upcoming campaigns following the death of the controversial iranian president, ebrahim raisi last week. will be joined by the iranian human rights activist lily moo for her thoughts on the varied reaction to that death .

varied reaction to that death. what part will trans issues play in the election? the cast report into nhs clinics offering treatment to young people brought about numerous adjustments of political positions . reports suggest that positions. reports suggest that labour plans to make it easier to change gender by allowing a single family doctor to sign off on the decision . feminist and on the decision. feminist and author julie bindel will be here authorjulie bindel will be here to share her thoughts on that. and finally, we'll mark world baking day, which took place earlier this week, by enjoying baked delights with asha budwig, the director of lola's cupcakes . the director of lola's cupcakes. all of that ahead. but first, the latest news headlines with cameron walker . cameron walker. >> michael. thank you. good afternoon. it's 12:01. >> michael. thank you. good afternoon. it's12:01. i'm cameron walker here in the gb newsroom . i'm compulsory newsroom. i'm compulsory national service for 18 year olds will come into force if the conservative party wins the general election. the prime minister says young people will be given a choice between 12 months in the armed forces or one weekend a month volunteering

in their community. it's hoped the scheme would help unite society in what rishi sunak called an increasingly uncertain world. home secretary james cleverly told gb news that no one will be forced into military service. >> the military bit of this will be limited to about 30,000 people. that bit will be voluntary, so the scheme over all will be compulsory. but the military bit will only be for people who volunteer to do that element of it. >> well, the new scheme, which comes on the first weekend of election campaigning, has sparked a mixed reaction from voters. >> it's a good enough idea. >> it's a good enough idea. >> yes , it has a good enough idea. >> i wouldn't want to do that, really. >> i've got a 15 and a 17 year old, so i wouldn't want them to go myself. >> i think it's a good thing because there isn't a lot of stuff for 18 year olds to do. people should be allowed to do what they want to do, not be bullied into doing something that they don't want to . that they don't want to. >> some of them need a lesson in life. don't they? >> meanwhile, more people trust

sir keir starmer on matters of national security than the prime minister. that's according to a new poll by more in common for the telegraph. the survey also found a majority of people are not confident in britain's ability to defend itself against threats from russia or china, and almost half believe the next few years will be some of the most dangerous the country has ever faced. it comes after rishi sunak promised to increase britain's defence spending to 2.5% of gdp . now the shadow 2.5% of gdp. now the shadow chancellor says stabilising britain's economy will happen with a change of government. rachel reeves is promising a tough set of spending rules that she says will give will grow the economy while keeping taxes , economy while keeping taxes, inflation and mortgages as low as possible . highlighting liz as possible. highlighting liz truss's turbulent mini—budget in 2022, miss reeves says the tories haven't learnt any lessons and would repeat the same mistakes . the conservatives same mistakes. the conservatives say their plan is working, however, and a labour government

would take the uk back to square one. yellow warnings are in place, with thunderstorms being extended across northern england, the midlands, east anglia and northeast wales. england, the midlands, east anglia and northeast wales . the anglia and northeast wales. the met office warns slow moving heavy showers could cause flooding and disruption in some areas. 20 to 30mm of rain is expected to fall in just an hour or less in some places, with further warnings in place for parts of scotland tomorrow . the parts of scotland tomorrow. the prince and princess of wales have said they are incredibly sad to hear of the death of an raf pilot after yesterday's crash in lincolnshire. the spitfire was flying near raf coningsby when it crashed into a field just before 120 yesterday afternoon . in a statement, the afternoon. in a statement, the prince and princess said their thoughts are with the pilot's loved ones. the battle of britain memorial flight and the wider raf family. the ministry of defence described it as a tragic accident, while the royal air force asked that the privacy of the pilots family is

respected . to ukraine now where respected. to ukraine now where at least four people are dead and dozens of others injured after russian missiles hit a crowded diy store in kharkiv , crowded diy store in kharkiv, according to the regional governor, 16 people are still unaccounted for after the bombardment, which unaccounted for after the bombardment , which left a crater bombardment, which left a crater several metres deep. kharkiv has been the target of russian attacks for weeks, despite moscow denying that it's deliberately targeting civilians. thousands have been killed since russia launched its invasion . now fans were left invasion. now fans were left disappointed last night when the pop disappointed last night when the pop star they'd paid to see at the co—op live arena in manchester was arrested. nicki minaj was detained in the netherlands after allegedly trying to take soft drugs from schiphol airport to another country. the 41 year old singer of starships and many other hits was later released after spending what she said was 5 to 6 hours in a police cell. she told fans gathered outside her hotel that she'd announced a new date for the show later today .

date for the show later today. and richard sherman, whose music delighted generations of disney fans, has died at the age of 95. >> read the book . birds tuppence >> read the book. birds tuppence a bag , tuppence, tuppence . a bag, tuppence, tuppence. >> along with his brother robert, his music became inseparable from the mythology behind some of disney's best known classics . the duo won two known classics. the duo won two oscars for their work of the classic musical mary poppins. other credits include the jungle book, chitty chitty bang bang and the forever catchy chin up from charlotte's web. for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gbnews.com/alerts. now it's back to michael .

to michael. >> thank you very much. cameron walker rishi sunak has called a general election for july the 4th, and all parties are beginning their campaign as when the prime minister told his cabinet that he would hold a surprise election, immediately won the effusive support of his housing minister, michael gove . housing minister, michael gove. but others have been more critical and mr gove has decided to not be a candidate in the election to discuss what we can expect over the next six weeks. i'm joined now by the former leader of the liberal democrats, sir vince cable, who was a senior minister in the coalition, and by former labour minister bill rammell. welcome to you both. and, vince, may i start with you , during the start with you, during the campaign, broadcasters were obuged campaign, broadcasters were obliged to give prominence to all the parties that are contesting the election . but i contesting the election. but i have a feeling that otherwise we wouldn't be talking much about the liberal democrats. they don't seem to have much of a profile at the moment. can you put me right on that ? put me right on that? >> well, it's difficult to have a profile when you have a relatively small number of mps, which is that's why ed davey is

concentrating his campaign on building up our representation in parliament. and we have, i think, roughly 30 target seats. and given the unpopularity of the conservatives in the parts of the country which were, active in, that's an achievable target. i mean, there is a fundamental dissatisfaction with the government , fundamental dissatisfaction with the government, and there are many parts of the country where lib dems are the alternative. and i think there you see the lib dems have been very active on the ground, if not in the media. that will change if we once again become the third party in parliament, overtaking the scottish nationalists in the number of mps. i think you'll see that . see that. >> but you'd rather put your finger on what i think is the point, which is, yes, the liberal democrats may do quite well because there may be a feeling that some people want to get rid of their conservative member of parliament, and even if they're labour voters, they'll maybe do a bit of tactical voting and see whether they can get rid of the tory by letting in the liberal democrat. but none of that says anything about the virtues of the liberal

democrats. well, what would be the reasons for voting liberal democrat? >> well, i think the first is a negative one, which you've just put your finger on. the government are desperately unpopular. and in many parts of the country where the people who can act as the midwife to get rid of them and that's that may be negative, but that's very important. i think the second we have had, experience in government recently, i think, you know, stable , sensible you know, stable, sensible government which was thrown away in 2015, a lot of experience in local government, often very successfully, and i think you'll find an attractive array of policies in the manifesto . so policies in the manifesto. so when it appears, let's try you on that one, if the liberal democrats won the election, which seems quite unlikely, britain would change in the following way. please complete . following way. please complete. >> i think it will change in the sense that we will, we will initially support many of the things which the labour party are planning to do in government by concentrating on building up

pubuc by concentrating on building up public services, albeit within the constraints of public finance. we will want to repair our relations with europe. we're not talking about rejoining the european union in the near future, but we want to rebuild constructive relationships and concentrate on having a genuinely liberal approach, which has often been thrown away in recent years. measures to kerb the rights to protest things of this kind where a liberal voice is important, it, is it illiberal to think of bringing in national service, not necessarily. i think, you know, we should look at that. there are probably good elements to it. and what i'm surprised by is that having had conservative in government for 14 years, that this idea is suddenly popping up. i mean, why i mean, you've been a former defence secretary yourself. you know, there's a shortage of, national service personnel, but you don't solve that problem by bringing in sullen 18 year olds. that's not the way to deal with a kind of high tech military. so it seems

to be a bit of a desperate gesture. but we shouldn't be negative. let's look at it. let's see what can be retrieved from it. >> very , very interesting. >> very, very interesting. please stay with us, vince. as i turn to bill rammell , bill, i'm turn to bill rammell, bill, i'm quite surprised to hear vince reaction to the national service idea there. are you, equally willing to discuss this proposal? >> no, i'm massively sceptical. frankly, i think it's an act of desperation , you know, the desperation, you know, the military aren't going to be up for it, you know, integrating reluctant 18 year olds, into the military. it's a pitch to the tory core vote, the over 65 seconds who are attracted by reform, who might find this attractive, would it be a successful pitch, then? >> is that what you're saying? >> is that what you're saying? >> it might be that some people who were tempted to move to reform may come back to the tories, but i don't think it's going to be a game changer. and i think for young people, you know, if there's been one theme of the last 14 years, it's

actually intergenerational unfairness. you know, the elderly have been protected in terms of benefits, in terms of pensions, whilst young people have been hit with, you know, lack of housing, increased tuition fees and much more . now tuition fees and much more. now the tories at the fag end of 14 years are saying they're going to hit young people by compulsory conscription. although listening to james cleverly this morning , it cleverly this morning, it doesn't seem as though it's going to be compulsory. so, you know, it's unravelling as we speak. >> no, no, it's clearly not compulsory conscription. there are 30,000 places for people voluntarily to go into the armed forces. and the compulsion is that you should be you volunteer one weekend a month, which you're not going to be paid for a charity or whatever. yes, but you say it's hitting young people. i mean, might it not be developmental for them ? might it developmental for them? might it not be a way of improving them and finishing them ? i mean, and finishing them? i mean, working for a charity is not hitting someone . it's helping hitting someone. it's helping them to develop, isn't it? i tell you, what would be developmental is giving more people, young people, access to

apprenticeships . apprenticeships. >> the numbers have fallen from 131,070 7000 under this government, and more access to higher education. that's what we should be pushing in developmental terms, but i really don't think this will be popular. i really don't think it stacks up. and i think it is an act of desperation , pitching to act of desperation, pitching to the to the core vote when you know, to have any chance of victory, the tories need to be returning to the centre ground. >> one of my criticisms of it is that it risks diverting attention away from labour, and my view is that keir starmer and some of his early interviews has looked quite uncomfortable . looked quite uncomfortable. under questioning about the precise details of his policies . precise details of his policies. and if i were the tories, i would probably leave the focus there rather than inventing new policies every day that distract. but do you feel that keir starmer has looked safe on his feet , defending his policies his feet, defending his policies and the details of those policies? in the opening days of the campaign? >> i think i think he has. you might say. i would say that, wouldn't i? but it's you know, i

am genuinely objective and criticised when it's necessary, but it's only been 3 or 4 days. i think the scrutiny will come as we flesh out the manifesto and publish that, and then i'm confident that we do have that. the answers that people are needing. but i have to say, michael, i've been shocked by the start of this general election campaign. you know, rishi sunak surprised not only the labour party, the lib dems, the labour party, the lib dems, the commentariat , but most of the commentariat, but most of his own mps by going on july the fourth. and it has been the most shockingly incompetent start to an election campaign that i can remember, and, you know, we've now got a scattergun of announcements like this national service initiative . i'm not sure service initiative. i'm not sure that's serving the tory party's interests. >> i hope vince , you're still >> i hope vince, you're still there down the line, are you? >> yes, i am good. >> and tell me how how do you. you've told me that there are good reasons to vote liberal democrat and probably the best is, from your point of view, to get rid of the tories. but how do you see the liberal democrats

entering into this campaign being a bit more visible than they are today? do you think the liberal democrats will have some policy surprises ? how is it that policy surprises? how is it that they're going to be part of the debate ? debate? >> well, i think the priorities ed davey set out, which are centring on the nhs, which is a major national concern, and where we had experience in government trying to refocus attention on preventive health and mental health. i think you'll hear that again and how it can be done and on cost of living issues. and they're the big issue, which also an incoming labour government can face is how to raise revenue . face is how to raise revenue. you know, we've had the institute of fiscal studies saying simply to stabilise the pubuc saying simply to stabilise the public finance, we probably need the equivalent of something like £0.05 in the pound of income tax , which nobody's going to campaign on. so there is going to be a strong pressure to look at meaningful and sensible sources of revenue. and we've suggested, for example, that the bank levy, which the banks were exempted from in 20 1516, should

be looked at again, similarly, the way in which north sea oil has been taxed could be tightened and various other proposals for making some kind of headway with public spending, which is going to be under tremendous pressure in the years ahead. >> do you think the average voter, vince, is more likely to have heard of ed davey or vince cable , i think they're probably cable, i think they're probably heard more of ed davey. i mean, he's now appearing as he rightly should be in the national news. and, i think we'll be rewarded. and, i think we'll be rewarded. a very solid minister in the coalition did a great deal to put forward the agenda on renewable energy and, highly credible figure, a model answer , credible figure, a model answer, vince, bill, what do you think? do you think the liberal democrats are going to play much of a role in this campaign, press vince on the substance of lib dem policy. i mean, the lib dems have never had a detailed

programme for government because they know they're not going to win. but i think they are going to be the receptacle of protest votes. i think there's going to be significant tactical voting, at the general election . and i at the general election. and i could see the lib dems ending up with 50 or 60 seats at the end of this campaign because the tories are so unpopular. and, you know, i know friends of mine who are members of the labour party who are considering in seats where we're not contenders, but the lib dems are considering voting lib dem in order to get the tory mp out. so i almost think regardless of what the lib dems do during the campaign, they're probably going to do well. >> and how well will jeremy corbyn do in his seat of islington north, i think he will lose to the labour candidate, but frankly, i think it's good news that he's standing as an independent because it really shines a spotlight on the strength of keir starmer's leadership. you know, this is a man who is ruthless, who expelled corbyn from the parliamentary labour party. eradicated. eradicated. the stain of anti—semitism , and has

stain of anti—semitism, and has removed corbynites from standing for the general election and wrestled the labour party back to the centre ground. so i think corbyn will lose. but standing as an independent, i think, is good news for labour. >> an interesting point of view. thank you very much, vince cable , sir vince cable, forjoining , sir vince cable, for joining us down the line. and bill rammell here in the studio after the break following the death of the break following the death of the iranian president, ebrahim raisi, in a helicopter crash last week, i'll be speaking to the iranian human rights activist lili mu to delve into the reaction from around the world to this news and whether the event makes any difference to the people of iran. stay with

us. ius. ii us. i welcome back to the programme. the death of the iranian president, ebrahim raisi was greeted with grief by some and

relief by others in iran, after it was confirmed that he'd been amongst those killed in a helicopter crash on sunday, iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei , who has ultimate ali khamenei, who has ultimate authority in the islamic republic, expressed his condolences over what he called the bitter tragedy and declared five days of public national mourning . there have been mixed mourning. there have been mixed reactions to the death of president raisi, who is remembered by many in iran and beyond for presiding over brutal crackdowns on political opponents and protesters to discuss the reactions from across the world and from inside iran . i'm across the world and from inside iran. i'm joined by the iranian human rights activist lili mu are. seems we might have some problem with the line. i hope we're going to get her in just a moment. so i'm interested in asking lilymu why president raisi was known as the butcher of iran . he was a man held

of iran. he was a man held responsible for crackdowns on dissidents. for many human rights abuses. and for that reason, of course, many people in iran are not mourning his passing at all. but i'm interested to speak to leni mu about about whether his death makes any difference at all to the people of iran . i'm hearing the people of iran. i'm hearing some signs, some sounds from down the line at lilymu. are you there ? there? >> hello. >> hello. >> oh, great to see you . >> oh, great to see you. >> oh, great to see you. >> good afternoon. we apologise for the terribly wobbly image of mine. don't worry , don't worry. mine. don't worry, don't worry. >> it's what you say that matters to us. >> thank you. would you like very much? >> would you like to tell us lilymu. why was president raisi known by some as the butcher ? known by some as the butcher? the butcher of iran, the butcher of tehran . of tehran. >> he was the butcher of tehran by that definition, because he executed more than 30,000

iranians within a space of weeks from one another at very, very young age . and he was an young age. and he was an uneducated cleric who only went to school up until sixth grade. he was a shame to iranians. he evil. he was a shadow of death on the population of iran and he executed without any remorse. he is the butcher of iran. >> who were these people that he was executing? what had they done? what in his eyes was was their crime . their crime. >> majority of the people that they murdered were either, young students or just, young activists who didn't want the islamic republic to come into power in 1979, or they had lost their revolution to the islamic republic. so a lot of them were from the tudeh party, the communist, marxist party . a lot communist, marxist party. a lot of them are from the mujahedeen. at the time , and a lot of,

at the time, and a lot of, civilians who were completely unaware with any political background or any activism they just executed to set an example. the 30,000 figure that you've quoted just there. >> what is the what is the source of that? what is the backup? how do we know that that's a real figure. >> those figures are public knowledge. they're under international authority. have all of that okay. >> now does the death of president raisi make any difference whatsoever to the people of iran? >> absolutely. first of all, it's, i'm very it breaks my heart to say this, that iranians are rejoicing the death of another person , but they are another person, but they are rejoicing the, the end to a murderer. and that is to be recognised. they are not rejoicing death. they are rejoicing death. they are rejoicing an end to a murderous reign . he was a murderer. people reign. he was a murderer. people are happy. he's gone . people are

are happy. he's gone. people are looking forward to a future for iran where the islamic republic will be no more. and we're getting there much, much, much closer every day to that goal . closer every day to that goal. iranian people haven't stopped fighting against the ayatollahs . fighting against the ayatollahs. they haven't stopped fighting against this regime, and they're not going to stop fighting until their entire regime is dismantled. it'sjust their entire regime is dismantled. it's just that it happened. that's one of the enemies of drawn out sinner and expected , even if in your view, expected, even if in your view, justice has been done with his death, justice hasn't been done. i'm so sorry that justice has not been done for him . he did not been done for him. he did not been done for him. he did not get to go to a court. he has been , he has been called in the been, he has been called in the international courts, the international courts, the international tribunals here in london, the perpetrator of murders for the album of 19, the november of 2019 massacres that ispoke november of 2019 massacres that i spoke to you about in our previous interview, 3500 iranians were murdered at his hands recently . this is current

hands recently. this is current history, not the 1980s. and he did not get any forjustice did not get any for justice that. he did not go to any court. he did not get any accountability . he is just gone. accountability. he is just gone. >> i absolutely accept your correction and thank you for making that. but what i was going to say was that with his removal , does it change the removal, does it change the balance of power in iran? does it make reform or change any more likely ? more likely? >> reform is not something that the iranian people are looking for. change is unexplained or the islamic republic will be dismantled. the people are working very hard at that and the regime has already fallen. is hollowing from within. it's hollowing from within. that is why we have so many officials in one helicopter. >> do you suspect foul play in this case of the helicopter accident ? accident? >> yeah. who knows? it's islamic republic. nothing they do is legal. nothing they do is based on international law. everything they do is they do what? as they go on their own whim . who knows?

go on their own whim. who knows? >> so whilst you said a moment ago that you don't like to celebrate anybody's death, tell me what this death has done to the morale of the people in iran who want to change the regime . who want to change the regime. >> it has boosted the morale highly and was a huge boost in iran. but i have to speak to you about something, michael. what happenedin about something, michael. what happened in london on friday? what happened in the regime? supporters, mullahs , clerics supporters, mullahs, clerics from the islamic republic itself came into london, went into an islamic centre, and they mourned the death of the murderer, the butcher of iran. and when iranian dissidents held a peaceful protest outside of that memorial , peaceful protest outside of that memorial, dancing and rejoicing, which is their own . your right. which is their own. your right. they were beaten up by people , they were beaten up by people, members who were there. police was available . the police was was available. the police was there. this happened at% road in

london in wembley, and the police did not investigate this. they watched the whole massacre unfold and only they went to attend to some of the wounds. five ambulances were involved, multiple people, members of the pubuc multiple people, members of the public from the british public. iranian dissidents were injured. a woman was kicked in the face numerous times. what happened in the streets of london on friday is what happens to iranians when they stand up to the islamic regime inside of iran, and now we have that happening in london, and the police is not even investigating this. i want to say one thing. this is shameful . what kind of a future shameful. what kind of a future for the uk are we headed to . for the uk are we headed to. lily, you have ended there with a very, very powerful point. thank you very much for joining us. i'm sorry. the picture quality was poor, but i want to assure you that we heard you very loudly and clearly, we're going to take the break to the news now, after the break, i'm going to be talking to dawn neesom about her program, and we're also going to be talking

about the stances of the various political parties in the general election. on gender and trans issues. i'll be speaking to the feminist author and journalist juue feminist author and journalist julie biddle. but first, the news headlines with cameron walker . walker. >> thank you so much and my deepest apologies for this wobbly, wobbly michael. >> thank you. it's 1230. wobbly, wobbly michael. >> thank you. it's1230. i'm cameron walker here in the gb newsroom . compulsory national newsroom. compulsory national service for 18 year olds will come into force if the conservative party wins the general election. the prime minister says young people will be given a choice between 12 months in the armed forces , or months in the armed forces, or one weekend a month volunteering in their community. it's hoped the scheme would help unite society in what rishi sunak called an increasingly uncertain world. the new scheme, which comes on the first weekend of election campaigning, has sparked a mixed reaction from voters . voters. >> it's a good enough idea. >> it's a good enough idea. >> yes, it has a good enough idea. i wouldn't want to do that, really. >> i've got a 15 and a 17 year

old, so i wouldn't want them to go myself. >> i think it's a good thing because there isn't a lot of stuff for 18 year olds to do. people should be allowed to do what they want to do, not be bullied into doing something that they don't want to. >> some of them need a lesson in life, don't they ? life, don't they? >> in ukraine, at least four people are dead and dozens of others injured after russian missiles hit a crowded diy store in kharkiv, according to the regional government governor. 16 people are still unaccounted for after the bombardment, which left a crater several metres deep. meanwhile the duchess of edinburgh has written in the sunday times today about her recent trip to ukraine, highlighting survivor's stories, a war related sexual violence and the newly unveiled tallest roller coaster in britain has come to a stop just a day after it opened the hyperion at thorpe park in surrey is said to be the fastest in britain and features europe's tallest loop. but in a message posted to social media,

the park says that due to unforeseen circumstances, the new roller coaster will be closed until wednesday for the rest of the park remains open and anyone with pre—booked tickets is eligible for a free return visit . for the latest return visit. for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gbnews.com/alerts. michael will be back after this short .

break. >> welcome back. will. gender recognition be an issue in the general election? anneliese dodds , the shadow women and dodds, the shadow women and equalities secretary, has said that she wants to strip out the futile and dehumanising parts of

acquiring a gender recognition certificate. it seems that a simplification plan may be proposed, which would require sign off by a single doctor. kemi badenoch , the current women kemi badenoch, the current women and equalities minister, said that labour should allow professionals to do their job properly. joining me now is feminist author and journalist juue feminist author and journalist julie bindel for her take on this . hello, julie bindel for her take on this. hello, julie. thank you for joining us on gb news sunday forjoining us on gb news sunday lunchtime. and have you kept track of the various positions of the political parties on gender recognition? >> yes. and quite frankly, none of them come out of this looking good. so back in 2015, we had the then minister for women, a tory, maria miller , who tory, maria miller, who suggested that we should as her first job. in fact , enrol, look first job. in fact, enrol, look at the gender recognition act of 2004 and update it so that any man could self—declare that he was a woman. be given a gender recognition certificate without any intervention whatsoever, and

then be legally recognised as a woman. of course, that would also work the other way round. but feminists are concerned about men self—identifying as women for obvious reason. the greens are absolutely bonkers on this issue and referred to women as non men , and they have been as non men, and they have been absolutely extreme in scotland and in england. in wales, where they have decided that the rights of men that identify as women should trump those of actual women. labour, of course, where we have the likes of keir starmer anneliese dodds decide that there is no definition of a woman that anyone can possibly pin down. some men have cervixes and as keir starmer said when he updated his position, still ludicrous . yes. all right. i ludicrous. yes. all right. i admit only 99.9, or rather 99.9% of women don't have a penis. i mean , absolute craziness. and mean, absolute craziness. and every other party, the lib dems have bent over backwards to to,

accept that men can be women, which is ridiculous. so none of the parties have been good on this. the labour party has sidelined the likes of rosie duffield, one of the only mps that's ever spoken out about this, and she's been monstered and vilified for it. and the tory party we have penny mordaunt, who herself is, sounds just like any other trans rights activist, so i'm very concerned about it. but i'm also really hopeful that if it is an election issue, which it undoubtedly will, that it will be seen as the important issue, that it be seen as the important issue, thatitis be seen as the important issue, that it is not just about a tiny number of trans identified people that only affects that that number of people, but an issue that affects 51% of the electorate, of course, which is women, my perception was that with the publication of the casp report, there was a certain amount of scuttling to new political positions going on in across the parties, even the scottish national party was affected by the casp report,

particularly with its change of leader. so the things that you've just described, are they the up to date positions of the political parties, would you say? >> well, i wouldn't know . i >> well, i wouldn't know. i mean, we have obviously we've lost two, leaders in scotland, the snps that were again capitulating to the greens on their absolutely bonkers , their absolutely bonkers, policies on gender ideology. we know that , that the next leader know that, that the next leader won't be able to put forward this position because, you know, various kind of, disasters have ensued. we're also aware that the tory party are trying to put through a more sensible view and saying, well, of course we understand what a woman is, but i'm sorry, a two year old child knows the difference between male and female. what a man and a woman is. it's not exactly a radical position to say there are two sexes, and that's the end of that, and that it's not the same as gender ideology with keir starmer and with the labour party. who knows? wes streeting has rolled back. he used to

shrill for the trans women of women crew. he was part of stonewall. he took on that ideology. he said that he apologised to rosie duffield about the harm that she's suffered for just basically speaking the truth and being brave enough to speak out. so there has been some backtracking. there's been a little bit of virtue signalling and posturing, but so far i don't know that any of them will say, okay, enough is enough. if we are elected or when we are elected, we will make sure that trans rights and the rights of men that claim to be women will not trump those of actual women and girls, that we will get rid of the notion that any man, whether he's a sex offender or not, should be in a women's prison or a women's changing room, or a hospital ward, or a rape crisis centre, or a women's aid refuge. that's what we want to hear from politicians, right how. >> now. >> what about the anneliese dodds proposal? if that's what

it turns out to be? that, someone could achieve a gender reallocation certificate on the bafis reallocation certificate on the basis of a single doctor signing off. what is your view of that? >> my view is , it's as offensive >> my view is, it's as offensive as it's ridiculous and it's dangerous. this is self—identification, which is what nicola sturgeon was pushing, which is what the greens have pushed and what it means is that you would effectively be able to find any gp that signs up to this crazy ideology . you could go to ideology. you could go to a private gp, one of those that's also prescribing cross—sex hormones and puberty blockers at the moment, because there's no legislation to stop them from doing that. so all you would need would be a friendly gp who swallowed the trans kool—aid to sign off. the fact that you as a man, male bodied, having had no surgical or hormonal intervention, is now legally a

woman. and for the record , i woman. and for the record, i don't think that that should be the system . whether or not a man the system. whether or not a man has been through full gender reassignment surgery and hormonal treatment, i think across the board that a male born person remains male. and the reason why it matters to feminists like me is because of the risk of male violence and the risk of male violence and the risk of male violence and the risk to the safety and well—being of women and girls. that's why we fought for single—sex spaces, laws and provisions right back before the 19705 provisions right back before the 1970s and were in fear of losing them all. now >> and i suppose it's quite hard to envisage how if you have a gender recognition certificate, you could then be denied access to women's sport. for example , to women's sport. for example, or denied your request to go to a women's prison. if you happen to be a convict. >> of course, we have trans activists on twitter on x cons recently telling feminists and others that they are legally a woman. so shut up because i have

as much right, woman. so shut up because i have as much right , to claim to be as much right, to claim to be a woman as you do now. men already have rights. the reason why women fought for special laws and rights is because we were being harmed through our vulnerability in sharing spaces with men, or like back in the bad old days when we didn't even have public bathrooms to go into. so women tended not to go out or stay out very long. look, not every man is a sexual predator far from it. but enough are a risk to women that we fought for these rights and self—identification, where a man can have a gender recognition certificate because he decides he's female is a huge risk to women and girls , and it's women and girls, and it's blatant disrespect and an insult , thank you very much, julie bindel. it'll be most interesting to see whether this isindeed interesting to see whether this is indeed an issue in the general election . thank you. general election. thank you. after the break, it will be time for our taste of britain section. we'll be celebrating world baking day . i'll be joined

world baking day. i'll be joined by the director of lola's cupcakes, asher budwig

welcome back. earlier. this week, we celebrated world baking day. an occasion that unites baking experts and novices in a shared enthusiasm . people have shared enthusiasm. people have been baking for thousands of years. in fact, the world's oldest oven was uncovered a few years ago. and that was dated to over 6500 years old. asher budwig, the managing director of lola's cupcakes , joins me now to lola's cupcakes, joins me now to share some baked delights and to tell me all about the company. asher, how lovely to see you. thank you for having me program. thank you for having me program. thank you. and what a glorious display. i mean , colour is the display. i mean, colour is the great feature of that, isn't it? yeah, definitely. >> i mean, we have lots of flavours. i think that's something special about lola. something for everyone, you know, whether it's fruity or chocolatey or nutty or , you

chocolatey or nutty or, you know, things that are vegan or things like that. so. yeah, haynes used to have 57 varieties at one point. any idea how many varieties you. >> i think we've got like 3000 different cakes, not 3000 different cakes, not 3000 different flavours, but you can have a cake in about 3000 different ways, which is one of our weaknesses as a company. but yeah, we have about 50 different flavours going for us. so we're almost close to haynes, but not quite. not quite there yet. tell me about the cupcake. >> is it an american thing? >> is it an american thing? >> so i think originally cupcakes came from a lady that actually tried to bake a cake in actually tried to bake a cake in a cup because she didn't have a sort of baking tin. that's where sort of baking tin. that's where sort of baking tin. that's where sort of it founded. and people always think about america and red velvet, because the red velvet cupcake definitely came from america. so i think, yeah, cupcakes did move from america about 15 years ago to the uk. and that's when lola's around that time we started only 15. yeah, 15, 15, 20 years ago. so i think when it all became sort of, sort of more of a hype and a bit special here in london, in the uk, i was first aware of cupcakes in a simon and garfunkel lyric, which i suppose is dated to the 1960s or 70s, probably 70s, and so the invasion has been quite recent.

>> and tell me about your business. >> yeah. so, well, we, we have lots of stores across, certainly more across london. we have some around the uk. everything's freshly baked. so we kind of are sort of pride is about the best ingredients, making everything fresh and making everything by hand.so fresh and making everything by hand. so we have a small team of about 30 different decorators that are piping away, just making all our cupcakes that we send out to our shops, and we're making sort of celebrations. nice. giving people something as a nice gift if they want to take it to someone, or having some nice, you know, afternoon tea cakes at home. so, for example, i don't know whether you can reach it. >> the box that's furthest from me. yes. would you like to try and reach that? yeah. >> this, this little one here. yeah. so is that a variety that you would sell? well, this is just something that the bakery just something that the bakery just put together for me. but customers can sort of obviously go into our stores and basically pick any sort of flavour they like. >> and these are mini cupcakes. >> and these are mini cupcakes. >> these are mini cupcakes. so like my favourite would be the chocolate hazelnut. i'm a big i mean, i'm a massive chocolate fan. you've got like you want me to just eat it, right? i mean, i would eat it right now. that's fine. i'm very happy to do that. >> one of the terrible things that happens on this program is

that happens on this program is that i have to eat things in public. yeah, no, my guest hasn't. so let me watch you put chocolate all over your. >> yeah, i'm used to eating so this is this is fine for me. i'll just put it out there. >> tell me what i have here. you've got red velvet. >> that's one of the most famous cupcakes. so that's the red velvet base. it's got cocoa in the sponge. then you've got this cream cheese icing, and then we. we drip some red velvet crumb on top. so that's the same sponge back on top. so cheers to you. and i believe. yeah. >> any thoughts about how to eat this on television without making just i mean you can do it in one bite. >> i'd probably say on tv do 2 or 3 just in case. but hey, here you go. >> oh, you were wrong. i think. >> oh, you were wrong. i think. >> what one bites better. >> what one bites better. >> i think one bite might have been much better. that is so delicious. soft. i'm loving the cream cheese . cream cheese. >> yeah, this is good. i'm going to finish mine in one more. >> so has the mini cupcake become very popular? >> it's a great thing because if you're having a small bite like us on tv or if you're going to a party or a small celebration, it's bite size. so it's not a not a big cake . it's nice to not a big cake. it's nice to share as well. and you can have 2 or 3 flavours. so yeah, i think the chinese are a nice

way, a nice way to a nice way to enjoy them. >> we've been talking about national baking day, how easy is it for the amateur baker to bake a cupcake? >> i think it's quite easy. you know, you start with your sponge and then you can make a buttercream quite simply, you know, butter, sugar and a couple of ingredients. so i think it's quite simple . but if you want to quite simple. but if you want to do lots of different flavours, that's when it gets more tricky. and then you've got lots of people with like dietary requirements, like they don't eat this, they don't have dairy and things like that. so i think that's where people turn to us, because it's very difficult to make a great gluten free cake or a great vegan cake or something that's going to go, wow when you take it over. so i think baking and also you need lots of ingredients as well. so yeah, you haven't got one with a candle in it have you. >> it's my birthday. >> it's my birthday. >> well somewhere hiding here. >> well somewhere hiding here. >> no. and this is your home not my home. there might be a slightly larger cake. oh, no . slightly larger cake. oh, no. with something, because i did hear it's your birthday, so we completely blown the cute . you completely blown the cute. you have blown the queues. maybe someone will quickly rush in with a large birthday cake with your wonderful name on it. but. but it's not here. it's not here yet, so. >> well, are you having it? >> well, are you having it? >> are you going? that's carrot.

so as long as you haven't got any nut allergies to walnuts, then that's. that's a great one. it's quite traditional. >> i'm so lucky i don't i don't have an allergy. and i absolutely adore walnuts. >> so you've got walnuts in there. you've got fresh carrot in there. you've got a little bit of cinnamon. it's one of my favourites as well, carol. thank you, you've got chocolate and raspberry tiramisu. well i'll let you. that's the same icing as you had on the red velvet. that's that cream cheese icing which i'm very fond of. >> so where does your business go next? so we now send cakes nationwide. >> so it was really difficult. you can see these are really fragile right. so we've always beenin fragile right. so we've always been in london and been in london for quite a while. and a couple of years ago we started sending brownies through the post through letterbox before the whole covid pandemic. and about a year and a half ago, we figured out how to send a fresh cake like the one that's going to hopefully arrive for your birthday very soon. through the post. so we're now sending cakes, you know, scotland , cakes, you know, scotland, leeds, newcastle, manchester, everywhere. and that's because people are asking us, you know, how can we have your cakes outside of london? great that, you know, you have your bakery in london and that's great. but you know, how can we enjoy it? so that's where that's where we're going. >> and the patriotic question why, why did we need to import american cupcakes? what was wrong with the domestic product,

i guess? >> what's the domestic is it mr kipling? is it. i'm not sure. i'm not sure. are we allowed to start singing happy birthday to you? happy birthday to you. happy birthday , dear michael. happy birthday, dear michael. >> indeed. dominique. producer. >> indeed. dominique. producer. >> birthday to you. >> birthday to you. >> i'm sorry that i blew the whole surprise. >> i had no idea you were going to do this. >> i'm so sorry, i apologise. i think i probably need to ask dawn, what's on your show cake? >> i'll be. >> i'll be. >> i'll be in your cake. we've got we've got a very political show coming up. we've got our a rachel reeves live got ed davey live, got iain duncan smith live. >> and we're also talking about what to do when you get short measures. >> isn't it wonderful that we've got all these people during a general election who want to come on gb news live on a sunday? >> on a sunday? absolutely. >> on a sunday? absolutely. >> yeah. so and we will obviously have more cake too, because if you don't have cake on a sunday, it's not a proper sunday. >> right. so it's a very special birthday . birthday. >> so your point is it's not actually i mean it's just a it's just a regular. >> it's a special birthday because your birthday is just two days after my mum's. so your

german, german i, yes, i am indeed, indeed i am. gemini, sorry about them. look they didn't run to a knife. >> there's nothing i can do. i can't actually penetrate this cake. >> it's a fresh berry cake. so hopefully you'll enjoy it. you know, nice summer's day out there, actually. >> you're so kind. it's absolutely fantastic. asha, thank you very much for being on the show. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you for having me. >> great show came out. dominique. thanks for organising this. now coming up it will be dawn neesom as we know. i just dawn neesom as we know. ijust want to say thank you to everyone who's been on the show today. i'm always so grateful when people come on on sunday lunchtime, and particularly when they come on and help me celebrate my birthday. >> so i'll be back in two weeks time. >> i look forward to seeing you then. bye bye. thanks for joining us. >> what a wonderful display . cool. >> well, enjoy your birthday and happy birthday . happy birthday. >> looks like things are heating up . boxt boilers sponsors of up. boxt boilers sponsors of weather on gb news.

>> hello there. welcome to your latest gb news weather forecast from the met office. well, for the rest of today it's going to be a pretty mixed picture. many of us seeing some further rain and showers, but there will be some sunshine in between all courtesy of this area of low pressure. and unfortunately it's not going to go very far during the rest of this bank holiday weekend. maintaining a rather unsettled theme. so for the rest of this afternoon soon, many of us seeing some rain and showers, the showers heavy in places, risk of thunder and there are various warnings in force from the met office as we go throughout the course of today in any sunshine, though, it won't feel too bad out there, especially across the south. we'll see highs here reaching around 19 or 20 degrees, so into this evening across scotland we'll see a rather cloudy and damp picture, especially across more northern areas further south, maybe a few brighter spells to end the day, but here we see the risk of some thundery downpours . so there are warnings downpours. so there are warnings as we go through the course of the evening. northern ireland

also seeing the risk of a few thundery downpours similar across parts of england and wales, but across the south, the showers should start to begin to fade away as we head towards the end of the evening. so going into the rest of the night, many parts of england and wales turning a bit drier and clearer across parts of northern ireland and scotland remaining quite cloudy here with some further outbreaks of rain in the clearer skies . we may well just see skies. we may well just see temperatures fall into single figures, but further north, generally staying above ten degrees. so we start bank bank houday degrees. so we start bank bank holiday monday off on a fairly bright and sunny note across eastern and central parts of england. elsewhere, plenty of cloud around and still some outbreaks of rain for scotland and northern ireland. showers developing further south too, but these should be a little bit lighter compared to today. the main focus of any heavy and thundery rain will be across the far north—east of scotland. temperatures around average for the time of year.

>> that warm feeling inside

gb news. >> hello and welcome back to gb news sunday. this is dawn neesom. >> it's lunchtime, and i hope you're having a wonderful weekend out there. the next two hours, i'll be keeping you company on telly, online and on digital radio. cracking show lined up. you don't want to go anywhere for this, right? coming up in the first hour, we've got. prime minister has announced mandatory free. although they're not quite national service for 18 year olds. if the conservative party wins the general election, they will be able to apply for one of 30,000 full time military placements or volunteering one weekend a month, carrying out a community service. is this a stroke of genius? a cunning plan , or does genius? a cunning plan, or does it really slightly of desperation? then in shadow, health secretary wes streeting says he won't give striking doctors their demands for 35%

pay