do we make inevitable? and what do we make of his vice presidential pick, jd vance? let's talk defence. after all, nobody else did dunng after all, nobody else did during the general election campaign at all. labour about to launch a defence review . are launch a defence review. are they right? is nato our future or somehow, are we going to get closer to a european defence union? the king's speech comes tomorrow, but i wonder before we hear that, just how healthy is our democracy , given some of the our democracy, given some of the turnout figures in this general election? but before all of that, let's get the news with polly middlehurst. >> nigel, thanks very much indeed. and good evening to you. jay slater's mother says the confirmation of her son's death in tenerife is the worst news she could have received. in a statement, debbie duncan said she can't believe what's happened to her beautiful boy, adding our hearts are broken. the 19 year old, from lancashire , the 19 year old, from lancashire, disappeared off the island a month ago after attending a music festival. a spanish court

says his body was identified by his fingerprints during a post—mortem examination, and the injuries to his body are consistent with a fall which then led to his death . vaughan then led to his death. vaughan gething told the welsh parliament today that serving as first minister has been the honour of his life, as he announced he's stepping down after just four months in the job. earlier, four members of his cabinet quit, saying they didn't think he could deliver a stable government. he's been under increasing pressure since losing a no confidence vote last month over concerns about a donation to his leadership campaign, but he insists he's done nothing wrong. >> i have worked hard , followed >> i have worked hard, followed the rules and done really difficult and demanding jobs for my country . in difficult and demanding jobs for my country. in 11 years as a minister, i have never, ever made a decision for personal gain. i have never , ever misused gain. i have never, ever misused or abused my ministerial

position , my integrity matters. position, my integrity matters. ihave position, my integrity matters. i have not compromised it. >> and that wasn't the only resignation. today, england defender harry maguire says his boss gareth southgate, produced memories that will last forever in his time as england manager. southgate resigned as manager following the squad's defeat to spain in the euro 2024 final on sunday. goalkeeper jordan sunday. goalkeeperjordan pickford has also been active on social media to thank his former boss for always believing in him . boss for always believing in him. now the government has launched a major assessment of the uk's future military . as the prime future military. as the prime minister warned today, the world is more dangerous and more volatile. sir keir starmer is promising to bolster what he described as britain's hollowed out armed forces, but he's not offered a timeline for raising defence spending to 2.5% of uk gdp. that comes as the new defence review chief lord

robertson said the uk faces urgent threats now from the deadly quartette of china, iran , deadly quartette of china, iran, russia and north korea, who he said are acting more as one. the government's promising to deliver its findings by the middle of next year. now the deputy prime minister has hit back at donald trump's running mate's controversial barb that the uk under labour might be the first truly islamist country with nuclear weapons. donald trump's choice for us vice president j.d. vance made the joke whilst he was a national conservative conference in washington, dc , last week. the washington, dc, last week. the 39 year old said he was discussing with a friend what is the first truly islamist country to get a nuclear weapon, then joked maybe it's iran , maybe joked maybe it's iran, maybe pakistan, and then maybe actually it's the uk since labourjust actually it's the uk since labour just took over. well angela rayner, the deputy prime minister, told itv today that mr vance had said quite a lot of fruity things in the past, but said she doesn't recognise his

characterisation of the uk . characterisation of the uk. those are the latest gb news headunes those are the latest gb news headlines for now. i'm polly middlehurst, i'm back in an hour but now guess who's back for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone? >> sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com forward slash alerts . gbnews.com forward slash alerts. >> well good evening. yes i'm back. back again . i have to tell back. back again. i have to tell you, the last time i broadcast it, i had no idea that i was going to stand in the general election. and i really, truly mean that. i wasn't going to , mean that. i wasn't going to, but i don't know what it was. something persuaded me. i just ought to do something. so life, i guess, has changed for me a little bit. but there's no reason why i can't be here with you on tuesday, wednesday and thursday evenings. and i will do my best to do so over the last few weeks. one thing that did happen was the tric awards and

guess what? for the second year in a row, won i've news presenter of the year. and if you look at your screens, you can see me going up onto the stage collecting the prize to only receive the boos of most of the audience. these, of course, are the woke mainstream media broadcasting brigade on both television and radio. well, i don't mind being booed. i had 20 years of that in the european parliament, and i've no doubt i'll get some of it in westminster too. but really, they weren't booing me. they were booing you because they think you're stupid, but you're not. thank you very much indeed to win that for a second year in a row against the biggest names in news broadcasting really made me very, very proud indeed. thank you . now it's about 11:30, thank you. now it's about 11:30, i guess on saturday night when i got the call, they've shot trump. i was horrified, but somehow not particularly shocked. i think

some of the narrative that has been whipped up against him , not been whipped up against him, not just by those on the extreme left, but actually propagated through so—called comedians and quite a lot of american mainstream media made me think that somehow it was inevitable that somehow it was inevitable that he would at some point, face a serious attempt on his life. i find it really hard to believe that the secret service could have allowed a man onto the only roof in the vicinity, not 130 yards away from where president number 45 was speaking by an absolute miracle of fate. i mean, literally, as the guy was about to pull the trigger, he moved his head sharply to look at one of the screens to get some immigration statistics, and the bullet went through his ear. and thank god for that. thank god for that . will it thank god for that. will it change him? as a man? i very much doubt it. i very much doubt it. i think he'll be just even more determined to carry on the way that he is. but you see,

even before the election, he was looking at an ever stronger position. and i say that because the polling in the key swing states is very much going in his direction. so i wonder, is a trump win now? absolutely on the cards. give me your thoughts on that.is cards. give me your thoughts on that. is he going to win farage @gbnews. com or of course you can go on x hashtag farage on gb news. well joining me now down the line is spencer critchley democrat strategist and former communications adviser to president obama . spencer. here's president obama. spencer. here's a funny thing . before this a funny thing. before this appalling assassination attempt, the pressure was beginning to mount on joe biden. 20 elected members of the house of reps. for the democrats. significant hollywood figures and others were saying , look, joe, your were saying, look, joe, your time's up. you've got to go. it's sort of oddly seems that somehow biden's position is now more stable since the assassination attempt than it was before . am i right about

that? >> well, i think it's certainly taken some of the attention off of that issue, and of course, deservedly so. it was an utterly horrible event, as anybody who believes in democracy must recognise. by the way, i shouldn't go on before declining your kind offer of a promotion. i was not a communications adviser directly to president obama. they were very capable people doing that. i was an adviser on both of his campaigns, but yeah, you know , campaigns, but yeah, you know, the it was an extremely uncomfortable position for president biden and his campaign as of late last week, i think of course, our attention must be focused on this assassination attempt, uncovering what kind of failures as it appears now , led failures as it appears now, led to the possibility of that happening after 43 years without a successful attempt on a president or presidential candidate. although, god knows there have been multiple other attempts on other figures. some

successful and many, many that the public never hears about, but that that issue does remain, president biden , by, you know, president biden, by, you know, democratic consensus has one of the most successful records, of any president, actually, i should say not just democratic consensus. there are many republicans who see it the same way, whether they're happy about that or not. but given his performance in that debate, there is this open question of what kind of damage that's done to his campaign , would you say to his campaign, would you say the debate? >> but what about the nato summit? i mean, you know, zelenskyy is introduced as putin. kamala harris, the vice president, is introduced as trump . i mean, i mean, come on, trump. i mean, i mean, come on, the guy's past it. he's got senile dementia. doesn't your party just need to wake up and get rid of him? >> i don't think we know that. and of course, for every clip of biden doing something like that, we can produce clips of trump trailing off at the end of his sentence into gibberish, or giving us a series of

disconnected speculations about sharks and electric boats and electric aeroplanes that supposedly can only fly when the sun is shining, but i think that the key issue here is, first of all, it's a legitimate question is, is there a health condition that people should be concerned about? and i always, i always recommend to clients, as naive as it may sound, both because it's the right thing to do, but also it ends up being the strategically smart thing to do is start with the truth . if the is start with the truth. if the truth, which can only be known to the people closest to him, is that president biden does have some kind of serious condition, that's what they should be acting based on. because really, ultimately, there's no way to spin something like that. on the other hand, if this is just a difficulty with language and cognitively, he's perfectly fine, then they can proceed with that. the challenge and commit to it to try to win. but the challenge they face is that politics is almost entirely based on emotion and symbolism, and the way people feel about a

candidate often making an unconscious decision within a fraction of a second, as research shows. that's true. so no matter how qualified president biden might be, he's fighting against that tendency of human psychology. >> yeah , no, it's a very, very >> yeah, no, it's a very, very fair point. spencer spencer critchley, thank you very much indeed for joining critchley, thank you very much indeed forjoining me down the indeed for joining me down the line from california. joining me is a distinguished panel of kwasi kwarteng, former tory mp and former chancellor of the exchequer. sir nick harvey, former chief executive of the lib dems and minister for the armed forces , and matthew armed forces, and matthew torbett, a former labour adviser. let's kwasi start with you . sure, the last time this you. sure, the last time this happened, it was reagan. that's right. he was president. he got a bullet very close to the heart. he famously, when he got to the hospital, said to the surgeon, i hope you're a republican. yeah, that's right. his poll ratings went up by 10. that's right. he won 49 of 50 presidential states, albeit with a great economy. that's right. next time around, can trump be stopped? so look, i think before

the assassination attempt , we the assassination attempt, we had that debate, which we all saw. 56w. >> saw. >> yeah. and i have to say, biden performed disastrously even by his own admission. so at that point, it looked very likely that trump was he was certainly the favourite. yeah. i think if you compound that with this extraordinary event in terms of the assassination, he's got to be the odds on favourite. i mean, it's very, very likely that he will win . that he will win. >> yeah, i, i rather, i rather take that view sir nick harvey, you know he was in a life threatening situation and whether you love him or not, to stand up there and do that and we all think of the iwo jima picture that's exactly, you know, after that terrible battle against the japanese imperial japanese army and the american flag being raised and that was opposed picture. this was kind of i mean , i mean, that's enough of i mean, i mean, that's enough to win him the election, isn't it? >> he's certainly put him in pole position. there's no doubt about that , i don't in my heart about that, i don't in my heart think that biden can beat him, but i wouldn't discount the possibility that even now there

is a change of nominee for the democrats . and then who knows? democrats. and then who knows? it depends who it is. it depends what their appeal is, what their weaknesses are, he's the odds on favourite is kwasi says. but, it's early to bank it just yet. i'd of thought. >> no. right now. he also picked his vice presidential running mate over the weekend. speculation on this has been endless. it'sj.d. speculation on this has been endless. it's j.d. vance , author endless. it's j.d. vance, author of hillbilly elegy, a best selling book, and vance himself, coming from a very, very poor, very difficult background going , very difficult background going, getting qualified in law, serving in a distinguished way as a us marine. and he's a vet and i've known jd for over a decade. he is a very intelligent, very distinguished quy- intelligent, very distinguished guy. but gosh , he's a full on guy. but gosh, he's a full on conservative here. he was speaking last week in washington, dc. >> i was talking with a friend recently, and we were talking about, you know, one of the big dangers in the, in the world, of

course, is nuclear proliferation, though, of course, the biden administration doesn't care about it. and i was talking about, you know, what is the first truly islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon? and we were like, maybe it's iran. you know, maybe pakistan already kind of counts. and then we sort of finally decided maybe it's actually the uk since labourjust it's actually the uk since labour just took over. >> well, matthew talbot , i mean, >> well, matthew talbot, i mean, he was talking to a conservative conference and he was a bit tongue in cheek in what he said, but it raises quite a big fundamental question. now, i was very, very pleased that the prime minister managed to get a few minutes on the phone with trump. i thought that was very important that he did that. but you've got sort of david lammy as foreign secretary who said very disobliging things about the president. i presume this jd vance clip's not going to go down very well, is it? >> i wouldn't have thought it had gone down very well. similar to you, i think the more fascinating thing is how is this special relationship going to be managed under a trump

presidency? because we've had david lammy say things. i think even keir starmer has said, oh yes, in the past about, oh yes, donald trump's conduct or his political views and if i was advising, i'd say, let's put it down to a bit of for tat. you know, we all say things in certain rooms that we might not say in others. yeah, the main thing is the stability of the west when we've got things like, do you think this labour government is capable? >> i mean, you know, if trump wins this election and i think, you know, these highly likely. yeah, i think it's a dead cert. no, no, nothing's a dead cert. but you know, death and taxes i think was, you know, was probably doctor johnson was right. but but assuming trump does win and you've got quite a hawkish conservative vice president in the form of vance, is this labour party capable of forming good relationships with america? because it does matter, doesn't it, though have to be. >> it's as simple as that. can they?i >> it's as simple as that. can they? i think it depends. do they? i think it depends. do they want to put in the ambassadorial role, which there's been lots of talk about? i think would somebody like david miliband go down? well, on the other side i'm not sure he's somebody that's, you know, not

really said anything political in the sense of putting down trump in recent years or anything like that, i think emily thornberry not being there is also probably a positive, but i think it depends on the people who were around the politicians in the room that will make these conversations work, or being well on both sides. >> well, it matters and it matters, folks, because right at the heart of this, as of course, our membership of nato and without the americans, nato, frankly , is nothing. and i've frankly, is nothing. and i've always seen us as being a very important bridge between america and the rest of europe. now, today, john healey , defence today, john healey, defence secretary, has announced a big labour review . so where we go labour review. so where we go with this, whether nato's our priority or whether perhaps we're going to join a european defence union, all of these things matter hugely. and i felt that defence was barely discussed during the whole general election. but in a few moments time on gb news it will

be. well, it took us years to get to 2% of our gdp being spent on defence. and even when we did that, we were adding in a lot of various things to get to millom the conservatives before the election. clear we have to get to 2.5 labour. well yes, we've got to get to 2.5, but only one we can actually afford it. and today john healey, the defence secretary, has announced a defence review here. he was earlier on this morning. >> this is a defence review that will place nato at the heart of britain's defence policy for the future. we're a changed government . this is a the moment government. this is a the moment of change for our defence policy and our defence strategy. these external reviewers will work with the experts internally to produce what can be a fresh direction for british defence. you cannot give reviewers the freedom to challenge thinking, come up with recommendations and

say in advance we know what you're going to say, we endorse what you're going to say, but we will take very seriously the recommendations that they make now the defence review, who's going to be on it? >> well, it'll be lord robertson, who of course was the nato boss for some years, and former labour cabinet minister he'll head it up. interestingly, fiona hill, who worked as a policy adviser to donald trump, will be part of it as well. but whenever i hear the word review, i think, oh, goodness gracious me, they've kicked it into the long grass and there can be no doubt, certainly in terms of personnel. but when it comes to 14 years of conservative government, well, just look at it. the marines and the navy down by 16% in terms of manpower. the royal air force down by 27% in terms of manpower. the british army down by a staggering 30% in terms of manpower. i'm joined down the line by former british army commander colonel richard kemp. richard, when you hear a review

like me, do you think, oh gosh, this might take forever? >> i do. and the other thing i always think is it's going to lead to defence cuts. i can't think of any review that's occurred in my lifetime. certainly that hasn't led to the cuts of the defence force i or of the armed forces, rather, i was involved in a previous labour defence review after tony blair took office and the dominating aspect of that was not to look into what we really needed to defend ourselves . the needed to defend ourselves. the treasury dominated that review. there's no question about it. it was all about money. and i suspect this will be pretty much exactly the same. >> i also wonder, richard , >> i also wonder, richard, strategically, i mean, the fact that fiona hill's on this a former trump adviser, i think is a good thing because i believe that nato is the right thing to put our faith in. and yet, you know, again and again and again, we hear senior labour figures saying that in terms of defence, we must get closer to europe. and of course, you know, the

european defence union. i mean, the boss of the european commission, von der leyen, making it very clear that the european defence union will mean , european defence union will mean, you know, one central form of, of, of, of ordering equipment, one central form of control. no national sovereignty. do you have any indications of what labour are saying when they when they come out with these comments, we must get closer to europe on defence. >> yeah, i mean absolutely both the, the new minister of defence and the foreign minister, david lammy, both of them declared before the election that they wanted to enter into a defence pact with the eu. and that's exactly what i think they will try and do. it doesn't make any sense, actually. but what it does make sense for is in terms of getting closer and closer to europe in the broader sense, you know, with, with a view to not necessarily going back into the eu, but certainly being able to position britain much more

closely in alignment with the eu. and what it does, of course , eu. and what it does, of course, it it brings in eu rules. it bnngs it it brings in eu rules. it brings more and more eu rules into our defence decision making, which we won't be if we're going to be a part of this pact, we won't be able to contest them. we will simply have to take those rules. and of course, the greatest danger of joining an eu defence pact and potentially an eu armed forces is that it undermines nato. you're right. when you said earlier on that nato is one of the most important organisations. we are a part of and has it hasn't kept the peace in europe, but it's certainly tried to, and the eu undermined the an eu defence force would undermine that by competing with nato and taking resources from nato. >> this is my worry, colonel richard kemp, thank you for joining us this evening. sir. nick harvey, former armed forces minister, i mean, richard kemp may sound a bit cynical in saying that every review means cuts, but we simply can't afford

defence cuts right now, can we? >> no, we most certainly can't. and actually, as mark said, will said on the radio this morning, 2.5% may sound like a huge advance on 2, but it'll barely do more than plug the odd gap here and there. the idea that it's going to enable us to rise to the challenge of a new, more insecure world is really not true. i mean, it depends how much the economy grows, but 2.5% of a slow growing economy isn't really going to do anything much. i mean, it's right to have a strategic look at it, and actually it's right to take a bit of time. i was involved in the 2010 review, which we hurried through in a matter of a few months, fearing that george osborne would stiff us with an envelope, which we would then |—— : n— z _ to build a defence policy have to build a defence policy to fit, and we thought, have we got out first? we'd push the size of the envelope up in and of itself. actually, that worked a little bit and we did. so i think taking a bit of time is absolutely right. i don't accept the point that you're putting or that richard kemp is putting that richard kemp is putting that cooperation with our european neighbours is an either or with, reconfirming our

commitment to nato. the two absolutely have to go hand in hand. and if we are going to negotiate some sort of a defence arrangement with europe , we arrangement with europe, we can't just assume it'll it'll force to us do this. it will force to us do this. it will force us to do that. it will come about as a result of a negotiation. >> well, a couple of points here, nick. i mean, firstly, you know, two command structures, two command centres within brussels. and i take the view that no man can serve two masters. secondly, von der leyen has laid out already that, you know, procurement for example, will be determined centrally. we can't sign up to that, can we? >> i don't know that we're being asked to sign up to that. that's what the european defence union may be going to look like. but a british, bolt on to it doesn't necessarily have to involve all of that. we've had two command structures, for years we've had, eu command structures. we've had british command structures, we've had nato command structures. these things are perfectly practical and can be worked out . but if a future

worked out. but if a future trump presidency is going to be less interested in european defence than it has been, and let's face it, this tilt in america from the pacific, from the atlantic to the pacific , the atlantic to the pacific, started under obama, continued under trump, and has continued under trump, and has continued under biden. whatever that. >> although although trump has made it clear kwasi trump's made it clear that provided all the members pay 2, that's right, he would be 100% behind it. yeah, the issue with the 2.5% nick is quite right. >> i mean, the problem is, is that, you know, costs and military hardware and costs are rising quite fast. and if you're not growing the economy, 2.5% isn't going to look very different to two. >> so should we be aiming at three, >> well, we should be. but also, i mean, the big riddle to all this and you'll not be surprised at me, at me for saying this is growth. if we can't grow the economy, we're not going to be able to do anything on this. no. and all the debate, you know, and i wasn't a defence minister like nick, but i was in treasury, i was in base, i was

in government for a while. and it's all about the budget and how you it's treasury, the enemy of good defence. treasury is the is the sort of the octopus brain right at the centre of the well, it's some sort of brain at the centre, i said of government and so and so , you know, you would so and so, you know, you would have had battles with the treasury. and when i was secretary of state for bays, i had battles with the treasury when i was in the treasury. well, i only lasted 38 days, but i totally understood the culture, and i, of course, and i just think that the real riddle to solve is the growth riddle. if we grow the economy at 2, this becomes a lot more attractive. yes. no, we can't do that. and this is where the osborne thing was. you had to find savings. i mean, what are you going to do? are you going to. yeah, but part of the world but part of the world is in a much more dangerous place than it was when he said. >> i mean, the key question here, matthew, i mean, john healey strikes me as being one of the more competent frontbench members of the labour team. i even had a former conservative cabinet minister saying he'd be a damn sight better than grant

shapps was. well, i agree with that. our labour going to take defence really seriously because there's always been that pacifist wing within labour, you know, lammy himself was all for, you know, unilateral, nuclear disarmament, are they going to take it seriously? >> yeah. because keir starmer didn't vote for things like, nuclear disarmament. no, that's true but but lammy did i agree, i think the, the point to be made though, is we need to i think building a road map to how we get to this 2.5% is the right thing to do. kwasi may remember from some of the 14 years that if you overpromise and underdeliver underdeliver, that can be worse. i'd rather us say we will get there when we get there, rather than aim a target that you're just one minute. and i think the other thing is, it's good that you've pointed out which i was going to try and do about the army being caught. and we're at the army has less people in it than at the start of the napoleonic wars. that isn't the right way. and recruitment, and for some reason, we've outsourced army recruitment to capita. >> that's proved to be a

complete disaster, things aren't working. we'll end the debate there. we've got plenty more to talk about. some of your views that came back from the earlier debate about is a trump win inevitable? graham says. of course, trump will win and beat reagan's 49 state victory with a 50 state victory. no graham, that will not happen in some of those east coast and in california. forget it. but but i mean, i do think he'll win and win pretty well, paul says. i hope to god he wins. we've got a labour government. england didn't win the euros. i can't face another disappointing outcome. well, there we are tomorrow it is going to be the king's speech. we're told that up to 30 measures are going to be announced, but i don't know. i was there last week in this new parliament with 335 new mps, and everyone seems to be absolutely thrilled. but i just wonder, is our democracy in some trouble? is our voting system fit for purpose? and when you look at it and you see that the two big parties have now got

their lowest share of the vote for 100 years, does actually need to change all of that in just

so, a day of great ceremony in westminster. tomorrow, the king's speech anticipated there'll be 30 new measures put ahead. that the labour government intend to enact. whether they do all of them remains to be seen. but, you know, it'll be housing. it'll be votes for 16. it'll be all sorts of things like that. but as i said before the break, the sort of mood of backslapping and self—congratulation in westminster and yet , despite the westminster and yet, despite the fact we have significant numbers of postal votes making it easier for people to vote, a turnout of 59.9% back to recent historic lows, a labour party that got almost exactly a third of the vote and two thirds of the seats a reform party that gets 14% of

the vote and less than 1% of the seats, and a green party, again, grossly underrepresented. i wonder, is the low turnout a result that people knew what the result that people knew what the result was already? or is the low turnout a result of our voting system making people feel that, frankly, their vote doesn't make any difference ? and doesn't make any difference? and what about the rise of sectarian voting along religious lines? an awful lot to unpack here. matthew this is not 97. this is not tony blair in downing street with huge cheering crowds of the public, i'm not sure mr starmer or sir keir rather actually met a single voter during the campaign, literally didn't meet a single vote. and there are maybe security issues around that. but is it right that you can get a third of the vote, half a million votes fewer than jeremy corbyn got last time round, and 211 more seats? >> whether it's right, i don't

know. it's the system we've currently got, it was something i was worried about for me when i was worried about for me when i was worried about for me when i was on the doorstep , up i was worried about for me when i was on the doorstep, up and down the country, there was a huge amount of apathy for both main parties. i picked up on support for yourself and whether i agree or disagree with people, they saw reform as something that was real change as opposed to what labour were going to offer for me. you know, labour seemed to be offering more managed decline and just were not the conservatives. i think the party needs to be very careful, at seeing such a large majority as, votes and not seats. there are many areas where, you know, reform came second, and i think reform will be the main challenges, i would say on the system , though, i was say on the system, though, i was fortunate enough to visit israel and palestine last year, i met with several members of the knesset and same over at the west bank. and it was really interesting that we had this discussion about pr, because they have a similar system, and they have a similar system, and they said, we can't get we can't wait to get rid of it. we want first past the post. yes, i

think in theory i think it should work. >> doesn't that depend where you set the thresholds? because you can get into the israeli parliament on 1% of the vote. if you set a threshold of five, six, 7, it wouldn't be like that. i mean, sunak, you know, the liberal democrats for donkey's years talked about proportionality. when the opportunity came, nick clegg blew it completely. we had a referendum on a preferential system that you couldn't explain in a sentence, and the whole thing was a disaster. your number of seats 72 finally, in line with our vote is actually part, isn't it? actually it's actually pa. yeah, you know, the last labour conference voted for proportional or a form of. i mean, i've always favoured av plus, you know, where you have two ballot papers, one for a local mp, one for an opinion. that was what the jenkins commission came back with after blair recommended it. i just wonder, is the liberal democrat enthusiasm for electoral reform, do you think it's as strong as it was? yes, absolutely. >> you can totally rely on the lib dems to support measures for electoral reform. welcome to the

club. it's all i can say. no, i've been there. >> no, i didn't mean that. >> no, i didn't mean that. >> i know you have, but the club of piling up a decent vote and not not getting much return for it. what i think was not much, really. >> i mean, you know, we need the conservatives to join the crusade. actually, no, the conservatives will never change. |, conservatives will never change. i, you know, even though in the end it might be to their advantage. but kwasi, i want to raise a different issue with you. we have never seen certainly in england in my lifetime , sectarian voting. lifetime, sectarian voting. we're now seeing it, aren't we? >> so, look, i think on that there were parts of the uk traditionally like glasgow and liverpool where there was some, some iteration on catholic and protestant lines. what we're seeing now is i think much more militant. and also they it congregates around issues. so clearly gaza is a huge deal. and there were voters who voted for there were voters who voted for the independence, whose sole, motivation to vote for those

parties was on the gaza issue. yeah. >> and hang on a second, isn't just the issue. this is a religious vote. >> yeah, it's a religious, but it's a muslim vote. >> let's call it what it is. okay. >> but but it's centred around an issue. i mean, we did have sectarian. i was just making a technical point. we had sectarian voting, which was around religion broadly, whereas this is about specific political issues, geopolitical issues which relate to islam or religion. that's the point. i'm making. it's like there is a religious element, but it's filtered through very active and pretty aggressive political stances. >> i mean, wes streeting just crept back in his constituency, and by the way, you know, three quarters of the muslim population in britain, don't pose us any difficulty or problems at all. but there's a growing number of young men, particularly, that do. it's the 18 to 24 year olds that worry me with the growth of extremist views. this is going to be a nightmare for the labour party in 2029. >> i think there's a lot of

recovery that's got to happen, i think lots of muslims used to vote labour. they don't they don't see that anymore, i don't know if that was just that was before gaza, actually, i would say i think that's probably heightened tensions. i have been concerned to see, like you, when we have done events, you know, at mosques or other similar places, the elders get it. the elders have seen all this stuff, stuff before. yes. it's young , angry. >> yeah. i mean, cause his point kwasi point, you know , is that kwasi point, you know, is that gaza has stirred this up. >> gaza has really worked this up. >> but my worry is, you know, that polling that jl parker's polling showed 23% of 18 to 24 year olds. so these are people that are born here. yes that's right. that's the concept of jihad is acceptable. >> and actually we're talking about first past the post. but my god they were efficient. i mean that was an efficient vote. i mean, if you, you know, as a proportion of the of the vote, they got way fewer than you did in reform. but of course they got one more seat. so that's, that's the scary bit of it under first past the post because you can have a handful of seats,

maybe a dozen or so. >> electoral reform could be a good idea. and before we before we finish this segment, we're expecting tomorrow votes for 16 year olds and the removal of the hereditaries in the house of lords. don't we need something more radical, nick, when it comes to the house of lords? yes. >> we need a directly elected senate of about 250 members. and the best thing to do would be to introduce a bill doing exactly that, not try and turn the ancient and venerable house of lords into that. >> it's an abomination. the house of lords. it's slightly stuffed full of blair's mates and cameron's mates. >> crazy. but i think i think slightly crazy. >> but the problem is an abomination. >> the issue that they have is that now they've actually got into power, they realise it's a big source of patronage. so the idea that the prime minister >> so starmer's gone soft because he can now appoint who he wants baubles in front of people, including party donors. >> i thought at the time, why are you getting rid of your largest donor base? i did, i thought it was very strange sinner to be in caps on things and stuff like that. >> protects advisers in. yes. >> protects advisers in. yes. >> quite well. yeah there you are.

>> but they weren't. they weren't. it's very hard for prime ministers in that position to give away power like that. yeah. and i'm afraid in this for people who want to reform the house of lords, i tell you, i don't think that's going to happen. >> i'd love a referendum on the house of lords. i know the result already. now, in a moment, we will join the debate thatis moment, we will join the debate that is going to be had in pubs and clubs and houses, up and down the country. gareth southgate has gone as the england manager. what do we think about his years? was it right for him to go and maybe have some thoughts on who should succeed him? gareth southgate in just

well, it was another huge disappointment. i have to say, the spanish team were absolutely superb. they just were a young, great team. they were 8 to 1 against before the tournament began because they were mostly unknowns. they were deserved winners. but, you know, we've had eight years of gareth southgate and he's taken us to

two european cup finals. he's taken us to a world cup semi—final and i was thinking, frankly, you've got to go back to bobby robson in 1990 to think of an england manager that did anything. we had, you know, 25 years of absolute blooming, not quite 25, but getting on that way of absolute misery with england's football. and yet southgate style might be a bit dull for some at times. i found it ridiculous that we went on taking my knee long after others did, but you know what? he produced a football team without prima donnas. the yobi element was completely gone so suddenly. if i felt football national football was was quite wholesome and quite decent. he's gone. he's had 102 matches in charge. kwasi. i mean, the guy's done a great job, hasn't he? >> he did a good job. and i'm of the age where i remember italia 90. yeah. and that was the semi—final. and we really had a huge momentum. yeah yeah. and i you know, i was still at school

and we watched i mean there was one of the few things we were allowed to watch i think. but now i think southgate, has done his, his job. he's gay. yeah, i think so. i think i think as a to be a great leader, you have to be a great leader, you have to know when it's time to go. and i think he feels he's taken us so far and he's done his bit and now he's moving on. i take the fresh pastures to matthew. >> your view on southgate? the eight years, i would say i'd go further and say he made me feel proud to be british. >> i was english, well, yeah . >> i was english, well, yeah. >> i was english, well, yeah. >> i was english, well, yeah. >> i mean don't get the scots aren't in this one. >> no, no i think, i, i was never very patriotic. i air on the side of republicanism probably, but during the final two years ago, i stood up and sang god save the queen because i thought as a leader, he showed courage and would take the flak. >> very interesting. >> very interesting. >> he would take the flak from the players who would normally get it. he stood up and spoke what he thought he was sensible. he took his time with things and at a time where i felt there was

at a time where i felt there was a real vacuum of leadership dunng a real vacuum of leadership during the covid and whatever else he felt, that was me. >> so that for you, that sport fulfilling quite an important national good. >> yeah. i mean, i've always been a football fan. i had a small career in football before politics and he for me is he turns things around for me and made me proud to be nick nodding away there. >> yeah, i mean i think he's been excellent i agree other than bobby robson, we had a little hope early under sven—goran eriksson, but it all conked out. >> yeah, he's brought a calmness and dignity to it. the football's been good okay. it wasn't quite right in in this tournament. i'm sorry. he's gone. i'd have liked to see him do two more years and try for the world cup. but there's a great crop of players there. someone else can come in and try and make it all click and work. but i think he was beginning to help us carve an english identity. >> this is exactly matthew's point in a positive way, in a way that wasn't sort of yobbishness and far right stuff. >> he was just dignified. >> he was just dignified. >> but i thought his strength, if i may say so, was the fact that at the beginning of the

tournament, we had performed badly and he got a hell of a lot of abuse. he did. he got loads of abuse. he did. he got loads of abuse. he did. he got loads of abuse before he went and fronted the fans up. >> he did. that took some real courage. that's right. >> yeah, he was calm. he was polite. yeah. he was very much self—composed. yeah. and that's what i think you're talking about. i mean, he was a leader. >> i think he's a profoundly decent man. >> i think he's done a great job whether he gets a knighthood or not. i don't know, i suspect he probably will, quick thoughts , probably will, quick thoughts, successor. any ideas? >> no real view on that . >> no real view on that. >> no real view on that. >> it'd be graham potter's to lose. oh, no, i know i felt the same. here we go. >> disagreement . >> disagreement. >> disagreement. >> disagreement. >> disagreement is breaking out to the faa. i don't want it, i don't i don't want him. i contacted the faa, said it'd be more eddie howe, but eddie howe won't leave newcastle. >> i thought eddie howe was the model. >> i think i think politicians can put bets on. you can put bets on, but not with inside information. and i think i think that that's true. >> how much do you think that

hurt the conservatives? >> i think it was. i mean, there were three incidents. there was the rain announcement, which was a disaster. yeah there was d—day, which i think was profoundly , yes, weakening. and profoundly, yes, weakening. and then, of course, the election, there's three things. i think d—day was probably worse. >> oh yeah, but the election betting was bad and it was later in the campaign. that's what made it. >> the little joke i was making was i say to the audience, says, you've heard of the film the longest day? oh, they've they've redone it with rishi as the star. it's called the shortest day because he went over lunchtime. now on to serious finish up a serious politics. now wales has been labour run and of course mark drakeford went vaughan gething came in as the welsh first minister and he has been forced to quit today. and i wonder matthew torbett, i mean , we've heard before that mean, we've heard before that labouris mean, we've heard before that labour is the blueprint for a national labour government. it all looks a bit messy, doesn't it? >> well, i hope not in this instance, no, i think mark is just for the audience that don't follow this closely. >> why has the first minister of

wales been forced to resign? >> he may be as lied about donations he has taken during his leadership campaign . he took his leadership campaign. he took them from somebody that i think was a convicted fraudster in the past he was a large amount of money, £200,000, and then because there was a leak around his government, he sacked a cabinet minister for that who was absolutely blindly said, i did not leak. yes. so because of that, he was forced to resign after four ministers resigned today and basically forced his hand a bit. so similar to boris way back when. so i think he's there's still an investigation that will no doubt happen. i think jeremy miles will be the odds on favourite to take it. i think he will need his own mandate. rishi obviously went around 18 months before he went for an election. he should line it up for the may locals or the next may local elections and go for them. >> more welsh elections to come later this year. >> he may be forced into it by plaid i he should try and go for the summer. >> thoughts, nick? >> thoughts, nick? >> i'm not sure there will be elections. i think there's a

possibility that they will contrive to bring another labour leader forward and that they'll manage to cling on for the rest of the term. sorry is that the most likely thing? >> i think that is. >> i think that is. >> i think that is. >> i mean, if you look at, mps and i don't want to be cynical, but they, they generally elect and i can say this now because i'm out, but people, the people in the system won't want to have another election. they're much more inclined. >> so they'll find another labour leader or figurehead or whatever. the tories have 3 or 4 leaders. >> i mean, why can't the tories change leaders ? change leaders? >> i mean, it's tough to keep up, isn't it, really? >> talking of which, just a quick final thought from you. on this segment, we're being told the final two will speak at tory conference in early october. is that how you see it? >> look, i think we shouldn't rush these things. and the problem we had before was that we would always be rushing. and i think there needs to be a debate within the party about what the future of the party is. and i think having a final hustings at the conference, we had that, i think in 2005 with

cameron, i was there. i think that was a good a good process. okay. >> who are you backing? >> who are you backing? >> okay. >> okay. >> i know he's not going to say, but i will be. i'll be at the king's speech tomorrow. >> you won't get me tomorrow evening because i will be on an aeroplane. i'm going to go and see my friend donald trump and go to the convention. i think it's really important that i do that. he's i mean, you know, literally absolute miracle that he has survived. so i think it's the right thing for me to go. but i'll be i'll be broadcasting live from milwaukee on thursday. jacob, what have you got coming up this evening? i'm going to be talking about immigration. >> the figures we had yesterday showed how high it is, population growth. and then labour said as one of its first u—turns in office, that it's not going to introduce the controls on employers who break the law and so on, to stop them getting migrant workers. so they seem not to be taking immigration seriously. after all the damage it did to the conservatives. i mean, this is the burden fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the fire territory.

>> yeah, and it's amazing, isn't it? i thought for some years the population explosion is just impacting. on whether it's housing, whether it's health, whether it's infrastructure , whether it's infrastructure, whether it's infrastructure, whether it's infrastructure, whether it's even driving down the motorways , and integration. the motorways, and integration. >> we're not integrating because we debated that earlier . we debated that earlier. >> we're done. we're out of time. i'll be back with you on thursday. >> looks like things are heating up. boxt boilers sponsors of weather on gb news >> hello. good evening. welcome to your latest gb news, weather update wednesday is going to be a much sunnier day and a drier day for most of us. it's also going to be feeling considerably warmer for this evening though. we've still got low pressure in charge across eastern areas, so still some heavy rain to come through some parts of this evening. but behind it, a ridge of high pressure will bring clearer skies for western areas and then more widely through the night across to the east. once those showers clear away into

the north sea. so a dry night to come for most of us, we could see the odd shower moving in across northern areas of scotland, but clear skies mean the temperatures will fall away a little lower than they have done last night, so temperatures around 12 or 13 degrees at first thing. but it's going to be a very bright start to the day. i think we'll be making the most of the july sunshine, the best of the july sunshine, the best of the july sunshine, the best of the sunshine through the day will likely be across the south coast of england. parts of south wales as well. 15 or 16 degrees first thing, fairly light winds as well. a bit more cloud across northern areas of northern ireland, parts of western scotland as well. we could see the odd shower moving in across the odd shower moving in across the highlands and the northern islands as well, but for most of us it's going to be a dry and bright start to the day on wednesday, which will really make a difference, i'm sure, and it should stay dry through much of the day. there is a risk of the odd shower developing across parts of england and wales, possibly up towards scotland as well. we'll also see thicker cloud moving in as this weather front approaches. it's not going to make too much progress though, so it'll just bring

cloudier skies to parts of northern ireland and parts of north—west scotland , but north—west scotland, but elsewhere, with more in the way of sunshine, temperatures climbing in towards the mid 20s and for many of us into the low 20s. now, thursday looks like another mainly dry and fine day. temperatures will climb higher as well on thursday, but all the while across the north and west it will remain that much cloudier with a risk of some showery rain for parts of northern ireland and western scotland. so the further south and east you are, the more longer lived sunshine and heat you will see. temperatures will climb towards 30 degrees for fri day. >> friday. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on gb news

>> well . >> well. >> well. >> hello. good evening. it's me, jacob rees—mogg on state of the nation. tonight, the new labour government abandons plans for a legal crackdown on foreign

workers . despite this week's workers. despite this week's figures showing the biggest rise in the uk population for more than 75 years, as labour's manifesto promised to reduce net migration. is this our new prime minister's first flip flop? donald trump's newly announced prospective vice president jd vance, jokes the uk could become the first truly islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon under the new labour government. is the republican senator simply teasing, or is he highlighting the issue of increasing islamic sectarianism within our politics? is it time for a complete shift in the way we police the nation? it was revealed today that the metropolitan police has failed to solve 99% of 10,000 cases of theft in more than 160 locations across the capital. sir robert peel must be spinning in his grave, and nimby zealots opposing a new road near stonehenge will take their spat to court. but the problem is it's already been done by flanders and swan. state of the nafion flanders and swan. state of the nation starts now