while freebie fiasco continues. while the prime minister's chief of staff, sue gray, brings home a whopping salary of £170,000, it turns out that she also enjoyed hundreds of pounds worth of premier league hospitality tickets . an asylum backlog tickets. an asylum backlog migrants will continue to be housed in hotels for up to three years, as the government acknowledges the scale of the problem . leave lebanon now that problem. leave lebanon now that is the message to brits in the middle east, as the government charters emergency evacuation flights. foreign secretary david lammy has warned that the situation could get worse, have secured places on commercial flights that are flying tomorrow so that uk nationals can get out. >> i urge them to leave well as the israeli military began, a ground incursion into southern lebanon , hezbollah has responded lebanon, hezbollah has responded with missiles and artillery into northern israel and the

conservatives broke broke this law. >> do you remember this new tipping businesses are now banned from withholding tips or service charges from their staff. is it going to encourage you to tip more, or would you never do it anyway .7 never do it anyway? >> and of course, we'd love to hear what you think. send your views and your posts and your comments by visiting gb news. com your say. but first, here's the news with tatiana. >> andrew. thank you. the top story the israeli army says they've begun a targeted ground operation against the iranian backed terror group hezbollah, with artillery fires reported in the southern parts of beirut . the southern parts of beirut. hezbollah has reportedly responded with artillery fire into northern israel, and the lebanese prime minister has this morning described the situation

as one of the most dangerous moments in their history. it's the first time since 2006 that israel have had boots on the ground inside lebanon. now this all comes as the government, the uk government, has chartered a commercial flight to help british nationals leave lebanon. the plane is due to take off from beirut rafic hariri international airport tomorrow, with vulnerable british nationals and their spouses, partners and children under 18 to be prioritised. foreign secretary david lammy has urged british nationals to act immediately. >> we'll do all we can to assist people to get out and we have secured places on commercial flights that are flying tomorrow so that uk nationals can get out. i urge them to leave because the situation on the ground is fast moving and of course whilst we will do everything we can to protect british nationals and those plans are in place to do so, we cannot anticipate the

circumstances and the speed with which we could do that . if which we could do that. if things escalate in a major way over the coming hours and days. >> tom tugendhat says he was extremely concerned by tory leadership rival robert jenrick claim that special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists, saying it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the law of armed conflict. mr tugendhat also told gb news this morning that there's a very clear argument that defence spending should be increased towards 3% how. >> now. >> 25 years ago i joined the army and i swore allegiance to her majesty the queen and i swore to protect our country. and i have always kept my promise. and what i've done is i've served on operations in iraq and afghanistan. i've been in combat , iraq and afghanistan. i've been in combat, and i've seen what this country needs to protect ourselves. so today, what am i thinking about? i'm thinking about defence spending. i'm thinking about the fact that labouris thinking about the fact that labour is making us less safe by not investing in the technology that we need for the future. and so what you'll get from me as a leader is a leader who can

decide, a leader who will serve, and a leader who will always act in the national interest. >> meanwhile, former prime minister rishi sunak's slogan of stop the boats has been described as an error and unachievable by former home secretary and leadership contender james cleverly. that's as he and fellow leadership contender robert jenrick prepare to face questions from the membership at the conservative party conference today. on day three in birmingham, mr cleverly told gb news this morning that he's the right person to create optimism for the country about optimism. >> it's about a focus on the future. it's about paying less tax, it's about more jobs and better jobs. these are the betterjobs. these are the things that i'm passionate about. these are the things i've always been passionate about . always been passionate about. and if i become the leader of the party, i'm best placed to kick out labour and get this country headed back in the right direction. >> and as you've been hearing this morning, the metropolitan police have launched a manhunt for suspects after a suspected acid acid attack took place at a west london school. that's the

westminster academy yesterday afternoon. two schoolchildren remain in hospital and a 27 year old has been discharged. we will bnng old has been discharged. we will bring you more on this story as we get it. and those are the latest gb news headlines. for now i'm tatiana sanchez. more from me in half an hour for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code , alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com forward slash alerts . slash alerts. >> for good morning, welcome to britain's newsroom live across the uk on gb news. i am bev turner in london. andrew pierce is at day three of the conference. how are you holding up, andrew, what's happening there today ? there today? >> oh fine. all fine. the atmosphere is pretty positive, relatively. when you consider the scale of the defeat that

this party endured just a few months ago. i think they've partly taken heart from the fact that labour are doing so badly. but as lord ashcroft's polling suggests, that doesn't mean the tories are going to benefit from labour's difficulties. they've got the reform the spectre of nigel farage in the background. but, but, but and the we're going to get today the robert jenrick who's the front runner in my view and kemi badenoch they're going to do their hustings, they're going to be on stage with our own chris hope, our political editor, and putting their case. but i do think there's a sense here that kemi badenoch has been damaged by what i think was a gaffe over maternity pay. she did suggest, in my view, that maternity pay is too high, and that isn't the view of anybody else in of any of the other three delegates, any of the other three candidates. >> it's, it's funny, isn't it, andrew? we keep reading these policies, which are now coming to fruition, which were enacted by the conservatives. and this is the one today about employers having to pass on service charge

or tips to their workers. i think that will go down very, very well with the public. and it is one of those success stories that rishi sunak could have claimed as his own if we were still heading to an election. it's so easy to forget we could still be in a pre—election period had rishi sunak waited until the autumn winter to send people to the polls. does that come up in conversation much at all? when you're in a room of conservatives, the timing of it, which still remains baffling . which still remains baffling. >> all the time people say, what was he thinking of? who was he talking to? who was he taking his advice from? we know he presented it as a fait accompli to the cabinet and any cabinet minister who wanted to argue about it. he just closed off the conversation by saying, i've already been to see the king. it was job done. that's the constitution of this country, the unwritten constitution. yeah. you can't have a conversation with a tory without some rage emerging, whether they're an mp who lost their seat or a canvasser, a candidate or party members who were knocking on doors at the wrong

time of year, it was the wrong time of year, it was the wrong time of year, it was the wrong time of year. they should have waited till october or november and they i think they'd have still lost, but it wouldn't have been on the same scale. yeah, okay. >> right. i'll leave you to it there in birmingham. >> well, yeah. and a big moment here because we're joined by one of the few tory success stories thatis of the few tory success stories that is ben houchen. he is, of course, the conservative mayor for tees valley. you were one of the few six tory success stories. you won. you hang on this year all right. with a reduced majority. how can you win? and the rest of the tory party lose so badly? >> well, i think hopefully there are lessons that we can take from conference and my victory, which was about delivery. i think it's as simple as that. we promised. we didn't promise the earth, but what we promised we delivered on and we made a real difference to people's lives. and certainly over the last 2 or 3 years of the conservative government, we made promises that we didn't keep. there was obviously all of the issues around infighting, scandals, and then there was just a perceived lack of complete competence. and the labour party did incredibly well in tapping into that feeling that things just weren't working. the government weren't able to tackle the issues of the day and politics. for me, is not

rocket science. it is. you do what you say you're going to do. sadly, in modern politics the bar is quite low. but if you stick to your word, you deliver and people can see a tangible benefit in their lives. people will reward you for it. and that's why i think there was a disconnect from what we achieved locally compared to what we achieved nationally. >> did do you think the conservatives delivered on levelling up, which was a big pitch in 2019? big pitch on bofis pitch in 2019? big pitch on boris johnson and a big part of what you're what you were doing, what you're what you were doing, what you've been doing in tees valley. >> so i think it was we did we delivered on it locally in the tees valley. that's one of the reasons that we were able to be so successful, because again, people could see the actual benefits locally of the money that we'd had, the freeport that was set up, the fact that the treasury now based in darlington, there are real things and jobs that were created as a result of boris johnson's levelling up agenda. i think it's fair to say that the model that we created in the tees valley and with the government, we didn't do that across the particularly the north of england and other areas of the country that are left behind as well. and so again, that was one of those promises. there were huge hopes for

levelling up. i think you can make an argument, to be fair to the government at the time, things like covid, you know, three months after boris johnson was swept to victory, completely blew apart his political agenda of which levelling up was the number one thing. but people still have a right at the next election to look back and say, did you fulfil those promises? and again, even at the general election across the tees valley, we did relatively, extremely well. we still lost a lot of seats. but if you look at the share of the vote, it held up extremely well because people did see a benefit. but actually levelling up elsewhere in the country was not seen or felt in the same way it was in my area. >> and, we were talking i was talking to bev earlier about the timing of the election, inexplicable why the prime minister decided to go for an election on july the 4th. do you understand it? >> er, no. i mean, i was listening to your comments. i mean, i think everybody i spoke to, including myself, thought, let's see what happens, let's deliver some more things. inflation coming down. yeah. there were some economic news that you could the that you could see on the horizon. it was going to be better interest rates starting to be cut. you know there was a cut in energy bills as well at the just in the last couple of months as well. i know they're coming back up again, but you would think immigration figures are going to come down too because of changes to. >> well, we saw that, didn't we? >> well, we saw that, didn't we? >> particularly with legal migration. yeah, absolutely. >> because of families of

students and carers and labour and labour will take the credit for all of this. well. >> well i think that's a slightly different point. i think people are savvy enough to realise that those types of things were not the responsibility. and actually people in the public, not politicians, not people at conservative party conference. when i go out in teesside, people say to me, why did you call the election when you did october, november, even a december election, given what bofis december election, given what boris did in 2019, seemed like the obvious choice to us. and i think in reality, i mean, i haven't had a chance to catch up with him and ask him the question yet, but i don't know what was going through the prime minister or rishi's mind at the time. and maybe in due course, after the new leader was elected and rishi wants to set out his position, we'll find out what his thinking was. >> whoever wins this leadership election and i'm conscious, ben houchen, that you're not declaring yet for who you're who you want to win. how are they going to cut through? who's listening to the conservative party? they've had their most crushing defeat in their history down to 121 mps. i can remember how difficult it was for william hague after the blair landslide in 1997. no matter what they did with william hague, nobody cared. nobody listened. well is it going to be different? the

same? now we've also got reform this time as well. >> it's going to be extremely difficult . and one of the things difficult. and one of the things that i've been asking for at this conference, and when we get to see it and as you said, you've got kemi and robert jenrick on the main stage with chappers later on, they've all said roughly the same thing, the high level stuff around unity , high level stuff around unity, trust, competence, recognising what we did wrong. everybody kind of knows that , right? you kind of knows that, right? you know, people aren't stupid. we can see what went wrong. the question for the leadership contenders that none of them have been able to set out yet is how right? how do you create unity in a conservative party that doesn't know what it stands for at the minute? how do you get the trust and confidence of the country back? first of all, it doesn't matter who we elect on the 2nd of november. how do we get the country to listen to us? the country doesn't care that this conference going on. they don't want to hear from the conservative party at the minute, and nobody's particularly bothered who the leader is. so whoever the leader is, their first task is going to be getting the public just to listen again, not even get back onside, but just to give us a fair hearing where we can start to establish what we're actually about, what a new conservative party is about. that's the biggest challenge . and that is biggest challenge. and that is something that we shouldn't

underestimate. that's going to take, i think, years rather than weeks and months, which doesn't augur well for the next general election . well, i mean, the election. well, i mean, the first challenge is may, and i think one of the in the armour is that the labour party have done an incredible job of blowing up in the first 100 days. >> they certainly have. >> they certainly have. >> so the first challenge for the new leader is trying to build some foundations at local elections. they're the foot soldiers, the activists, the councillors give them a bit of hope, create some more councillors as a base to be able to build upon in the years ahead. that's going to be a challenge. there's not long left until that time period. but again, you were saying as well, you know, the energy is relatively positive at conference. i think we've got to interpret that in the right way. what i see from members is the energy is positive on the basis that they recognise the scale of the problem , and they're the problem, and they're enthusiastic about resetting the conservative party and having their say over the future direction of the conservative party. >> and what is the future direction of conservative? i've only got a minute. so it says in clear ben houchen terms, you're the you're one of the few election winners here. what is the what does the tory party have to do to re—establish trust with voters? >> well, one, it's going to be

extremely difficult to do in opposition because you're not actually in charge of anything, which is why i think local governments are really important. elect councillors, take control of councils, deliver real benefits for people's lives and start to get back to what we've always been good at. >> but what what vision are you offering voters? what should the tory party be offering voters in general? >> we've got to go back to basic economic competence. i think we've got to be much more commonsensical on cultural issues, which is where people like kemi do extremely well and robert jenrick, i think we've got to look at issues around immigration, which i know all of them are talking about, but again, it's how do you regain trust when the public blame us for the current immigration system and without being able to pull the levers to actually affect it because we're in opposition, that is the biggest challenge that our leader, whoever that is going to be, faces. >> you think immigration is too high? >> immigration is absolutely too high. it's far too high legal and legal and illegal. i mean, i do agree , when you look at do agree, when you look at someone like nigel farage who says historic immigration of all kinds was in the tens of thousands and we've seen it balloon in the last 15, 20 years, where more people have arrived in this country over the last 15, 20 years than we've had

over the last 100 years. that is not sustainable. that's not about individual communities. thatis about individual communities. that is about the ecosystem, the infrastructure and integration that cannot cope with that level of immigration in that space of time. >> all right. that's ben houchen, lord harlech, and i should have called you lord alli ben sven ben, he is the elected mayor of tees valley. and up next we're going to have the latest on the manhunt after two teenagers and one teacher were hospitalised after an acid attack at a london school. you're with britain's newsroom on

gb news. >> good morning. it's 949. this is britain's newsroom on gb news. so the met police have launched a manhunt after a suspected acid attack took place at the westminster academy school in central london yesterday. a home security mark white is here with the details. mark, it's so shocking that this is related to a school setting

and that the victims are children. what do we know? >> yeah, i mean, it's absolutely sickening. and an indication if ever we needed it about just how violent crime in particular is a real issue now, particularly affecting young people. and this was just before a 4:45 in the evening yesterday when police were waved down by staff at westminster academy in west london and they found a number of injured people, including the most seriously injured, a 14 year old schoolgirl who we understand has suffered potentially life changing injuries, still in hospital, being treated . a 16 year old boy being treated. a 16 year old boy still in hospital , less still in hospital, less seriously injured and a 27 year old woman who was also injured . old woman who was also injured. in addition. bev. two police officers who were first on the scene were reporting feeling sick and were admitted to hospital as a precaution as

well. at this hour, the suspect or suspects involved in this attack are still at large, so a significant operation to try and find those individuals or individuals involved. >> it's do we know anything about this particular school, mark? it's notting hill area isn't it. it looks like a big comprehensive. yeah. >> i mean, you know , unlike >> i mean, you know, unlike every school in an inner city in the country, they've got their issues. by and large, it's safe. of course , for school children of course, for school children to go to school. but increasingly they are at risk from potentially violent incidents because you now have a culture where it's just it seems almost the norm for some children to walk about with knives, even guns. god forbid, but also with acid . there was a but also with acid. there was a very significant increase in acid attacks last year , a acid attacks last year, a freedom of information request that was carried out by the acid

survivors organisation , acid survivors organisation, acid survivors organisation, acid survivors international, showed that the number of acid attacks in the uk rose from 700in 2022 to last year, going up to 1244, and those are only the ones being reported. they believe it's being underreported and police scotland didn't respond to this. freedom of information request as well. so it's likely to be significantly higher than that. it is a real concern that people think not only nothing of carrying knives, but also taking with them regularly bottles of corrosive substances . and that corrosive substances. and that can be alkali type substances or acid substances, as in this particular incident. and how do you guard against it their household products that we see you know, under the kitchen sink. terrifying. >> as a mum , particularly as a >> as a mum, particularly as a mother of daughters, i find this so terrifying. we've imported

this mark. let's not skirt around the issue . we've imported around the issue. we've imported this pernicious tradition from countries in which religion plays a part in wanting to shame women and girls, and some fundamentalist religions in which girls and women, young women in these countries can be attacked with acid because it's attacked with acid because it's a it's to shame them, particularly in instances of infidelity , the sort of issues infidelity, the sort of issues actually in terms of who's going out with who affects teenagers. and in a way, i've almost been wondering when this was going to happen, when i was seeing these sorts of crimes with amongst the adults communities thinking at some point this is going to end up being on the doorstep of teenagers. and that's precisely what's happened. >> yeah, you're absolutely right. in particular, the asian subcontinent, it is a big issue of acid attacks, honour revenge attacks, as you say, for infidelity or whatever perceived

injustice or crime some woman is alleged to have done by the male who you're right, alleged to have done by the male who you're right , threw acid who you're right, threw acid over them because they want to get their revenge, disfigure this poor individual for life. and that has happened increasingly amongst a certain subset in the uk as well. and of course, we rememberjust back to course, we remember just back to the beginning of this year in january and that horrific attack in clapham in south london, where the woman and her two children had alkali substance thrown over them by abdul ezedi , thrown over them by abdul ezedi, who laterjumped in the thames and killed himself, saved us the cost of a trial involved in that. but that's the kind of thing that you're talking about. and you're right. that filters to down street level, where kids just think they can do the same kind of thing , carry these substances. >> it's very depressing. mark. so there's a manhunt underway. >> there is no suspects in custody yet. >> all right. let us know your thoughts this morning. gbnews.com/yoursay. first, though, the weather with . alex.

though, the weather with. alex. >> heavy showers. first thing will be followed by a warm, cosy day. boxt boilers sponsors of weather on gb news. >> good morning. welcome to your latest weather update from the met office here on gb news. a dner met office here on gb news. a drier day for most today, but there will still be some outbreaks of rain over eastern areas in particular. there will also be a cold wind blowing. the wet weather continued through the night over parts of lincolnshire, yorkshire, down across east anglia and the south east. not as heavy as yesterday's downpours, but staying pretty grey and soggy here throughout , with a cold here throughout, with a cold wind curling in from the north sea. much of wales southwest england dry, bright and sunny, along with most of scotland and northern ireland as well, and in the brighter spells, particularly in the southwest, we could see temperatures in the high teens. feels colder than that, though, on these north sea coast. as i said , with the coast. as i said, with the further outbreaks of rain and that brisk, chilly wind

continuing to feed some showers to feed showers in across lincolnshire, maybe continuing to feed some showers in across lincolnshire, maybe some brighter spells this afternoon over parts of east some brighter spells this afternoon over parts of east anglia and the south east, but anglia and the south east, but generally pretty grey and cold. generally pretty grey and cold. further west we'll see some good further west we'll see some good spells of sunshine. a fine end spells of sunshine. a fine end to the day across northern to the day across northern ireland and much of scotland, as ireland and much of scotland, as well on the coast. again, a well on the coast. again, a fairly brisk wind, but the winds fairly brisk wind, but the winds easing down generally across easing down generally across scotland as we go through the scotland as we go through the night and that will allow night and that will allow temperatures to fall away into temperatures to fall away into single figures pretty rapidly single figures pretty rapidly this evening. we'll keep a lot this evening. we'll keep a lot of cloud through the evening and of cloud through the evening and overnight across eastern parts overnight across eastern parts of england. a bit more showery of england. a bit more showery rain pushing down across the rain pushing down across the midlands , perhaps even into midlands , perhaps even into midlands, perhaps even into parts of south wales for a time. midlands, perhaps even into parts of south wales for a time. that brisk wind will continue to that brisk wind will continue to blow. that will actually help to blow. that will actually help to keep the temperatures up a keep the temperatures up a little bit through the night in little bit through the night in double figures across much of double figures across much of central and eastern england, but central and eastern england, but with the clearer skies further with the clearer skies further west, and particularly, as i west, and particularly, as i mentioned, further north across mentioned, further north across scotland, will be down into scotland, will be down into single figures. could be a bit single figures. could be a bit of mist and fog here and there of mist and fog here and there first thing tomorrow that should first thing tomorrow that should clear away. it will still be clear away. it will still be pretty grey, i suspect in the pretty grey, i suspect in the morning over central and eastern morning over central and eastern england, but the rain continuing england, but the rain continuing to fizzle out. some showers to fizzle out. some showers

across norfolk, suffolk down across norfolk, suffolk down towards kent and perhaps up towards kent and perhaps up towards the london area. so some showers here tomorrow, but elsewhere most places dry and bright tomorrow. but some spots, particularly wales, south west england a fairly gusty wind . england a fairly gusty wind. >> expect a warm front moving from the kitchen right through to the rest of the house.

gb news. >> good morning. year old

most dangerous moments in their histwell,:'s most dangerous moments in their histwell, uk becomes the first g7 >> well, uk becomes the first g7 country to end its reliance on coal and power stations for producing electricity. i'll have the details as this power station is distinct from the grid . grid. >> and is it time to ban elderly

drivers? i say no, a 96 year old drivers? i say no, a 96 year old woman has become the oldest woman has become the oldest person in britain to be person in britain to be convicted of dangerous driving, convicted of dangerous driving, but she's avoiding being sent to but she's avoiding being sent to jail after killing a prisoner, a jail after killing a prisoner, a pensioner , in a crash in pensioner , in a crash in pensioner, in a crash in pensioner, in a crash in merseyside . merseyside . merseyside. >> and of course, we'd love to merseyside. >> and of course, we'd love to hear what you think. send your hear what you think. send your views and post your comments by views and post your comments by visiting gbnews.com/yoursay. but visiting gbnews.com/yoursay. but first, here's the news with first, here's the news with tatiana sanchez . tatiana sanchez . tatiana sanchez. >> andrew. thank you. the top tatiana sanchez. >> andrew. thank you. the top stories from the gb newsroom. stories from the gb newsroom. the israeli army says they've the israeli army says they've begun a targeted ground begun a targeted ground operation against the iranian backed terror group hezbollah, operation against the iranian backed terror group hezbollah, with artillery fires reported in with artillery fires reported in the southern parts of beirut. the southern parts of beirut. hezbollah has reportedly hezbollah has reportedly responded with fire into israel. responded with fire into israel. the lebanese prime minister has the lebanese prime minister has described this as one of the described this as one of the most dangerous moments in their most dangerous moments in their

history. it's history. it's the first time since 2006 that israel have had boots on the ground inside lebanon. now this all comes as the government has chartered a commercial flight to help british nationals leave lebanon. the plane is due to take off from beirut rafic hariri international airport tomorrow , international airport tomorrow, with vulnerable british nationals and their spouses, partners and children under the age of 18 to be prioritised . age of 18 to be prioritised. foreign secretary david lammy has urged british nationals to act immediately. >> we'll do all we can to assist people to get out and we have secured places on commercial flights that are flying tomorrow so that uk nationals can get out. i urge them to leave because the situation on the ground is fast moving and of course whilst we will do everything we can to protect british nationals and those plans are in place to do so, we cannot anticipate the circumstances and the speed with which we could do that. if things escalate in a major way

over the coming hours and days. >> well, former british army spokesperson major michael sherer told gb news this morning that israel have had no choice. >> israel are fighting for their very existence, since october seventh last year, and the day after , when hezbollah got after, when hezbollah got themselves involved in this, they've been raining rockets down on the israeli families, 60,000 of which are now displaced in their own country as a result, i think israel have got no, no choice but to deal with this in the lebanon. i mean, they've given a year now for the lebanese authorities to do something about it who are clearly impotent and can't can't do anything, and to influence hezbollah at all. >> tom tugendhat says he was extremely concerned by tory leadership rival

extremely concerned by tory leadership ri party conservative party conference today. on day three in birmingham, mr cleverly told gb news this morning that he's the right person to create optimism for the country about optimism. >> it's about a focus on the future. it's about paying less tax, it's about more jobs and better jobs. these are the betterjobs. these are the things that i'm passionate about. these are the things i've always been passionate about. and if i become the leader of the party, i'm best placed to kick out labour and get this country headed back in the right direction. >> now, in other news, the metropolitan police have launched a manhunt for a suspect after a suspected acid attack took place at a west london school, the westminster academy. yesterday afternoon , two yesterday afternoon, two schoolchildren remain in hospital and a 27 year old has been discharged. two police officers were also taken to hospital as a precaution after they reported feeling unwell. we'll bring you more on this story as we get it . we'll bring you more on this story as we get it. now changes to the price cap on consumer energy bills take effect this month following the announcement

by the regulator, ofgem. a 10% domestic gas and electricity price rise has taken effect as debate continues over the withdrawal of additional support. a household in england, wales and scotland, using a typical amount of gas and electricity, will pay £1,717 a year from now, a rise to the annual bill of £149. it comes as winter approaches without extra cost of living payments for those on low incomes, and as winter fuel payments are withdrawn for around 10 million pensioners. energy firms have said, though, that they're helping struggling and vulnerable customers , and new vulnerable customers, and new rules have come into force, banning businesses from withholding tips or service charges from their staff. firms, including restaurants, pubs, hairdressers and taxi operators are set to be impacted by the new law , requiring 100% of tips new law, requiring 100% of tips to be shared between employees from today. however hospitality industry bosses say the move could hit under pressure

businesses with an additional cost. the law means that tips must be passed to employees by the end of the following month, from when they were received. it has said that distribution of these tips must be fair, in line with the government code of practice published earlier this year. practice published earlier this year . those are the latest gb year. those are the latest gb news headlines. for now i'm tatiana sanchez. more from me in half an hour for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gb news. >> com forward slash alerts . >> com forward slash alerts. >> com forward slash alerts. >> welcome back to britain's newsroom. this is bev turner in london. andrew is in birmingham. good morning andrew. tell everybody what's happening there at the conference today . at the conference today. >> we're gearing up now for the big hustings. this is the last two. it's kemi badenoch and robert jenrick. who are the front runners? actually, they're

the ones most people expect to be in the last two, who will then be chosen by the party membership. so they'll be strutting their stuff on stage this afternoon, trying to knock out a, i would argue, a tricky day yesterday over the maternity pay- day yesterday over the maternity pay. so she'll have to she'll deal with that issue that will be an issue that will come up straight away and robert jenrick will be challenged. on his position on taking britain out of the european court of human rights. is he really going to do that? is he really going to take us out of the european convention? because a lot of people say if we do that, that will cause all sorts of problems with the northern ireland peace deal with the northern ireland peace deal, the, the, the, the blair negotiated all those years ago. so there'll be the big issues today, bev. >> okay. super. right. we'll be back with you in just a moment. but first here in london, the met police have launched a manhunt after a suspected acid attack took place at the westminster academy school in central london yesterday. two pupils and one teacher are thought to be among the victims, with the injuries of a 14 year old girl described as life changing. well, joining us now

is former police officer peter williams. good morning peter. we've seen these attacks become more and more common in the last few years in the uk, often imported from cultures in which religions wish to punish , or religions wish to punish, or those people who are following those people who are following those religions wish to punish, particularly women, for what might be seen as infidelity in these sort of honour crimes has no place on british streets. how surprising are you to hear this happening in a school setting ? happening in a school setting? >> well, obviously it's very it's very worrying, and yes, you're right to point out that, some years ago there was a rise in the these , these attacks, but in the these, these attacks, but it was concentrated in a specific in a specific area, mainly london, and in the past few years, actually the, the actual numbers happily have sort of decreased. i think there's a few couple of reasons for that. one is the fact that there was

legislation passed in 2019 that in certain circumstances it was to illegal possess. so, these sort of this sort of material, but it's very akin to me to what we hear with sort of knife crime. and it's very much i would say, a localised, issue. i would say, a localised, issue. i would anticipate in this particular case there will be an early arrest, given the circumstances , public area cctv, circumstances, public area cctv, all those sorts of things, and it indicates to me that really, if we can, re—establish our neighbourhood policing and links with the community, which would include schools which include shops and all those outlets that sell this type of material, we can gather our intelligence and we can start to make inroads in

this, in these areas, i.e. knife crime and in the in the case what we're talking about, which appears to be an acid attack. now, i fully accept your , your now, i fully accept your, your argument that this may well be, domestically motivated. and we'll have to wait and see what what materialises. but i do think there's a lot that the police with other partners, particularly the local authorities, can do in order to restrict or control the sale and the possession of these sorts of obnoxious, fluids such as acid attacks, thereby preventing them further in the future, so i think there's work to be done. we don't want we don't want to see these anything like this at all. but it does appear to me, from what i've, researched, that it is a particularly localised problem. >> peter, just help me

understand this. we know from the police they've got the met police statement here. that one victim is a 16 year old boy. injuries are not life threatening. victim 227 year old woman. condition is not life threatening. possibly a teacher, presumably that came to the aid. victim three a 14 year old girl whose injuries may be potentially life changing. and we know that the police haven't arrested anybody at the moment. why would they not have given us a description of the suspect at this stage? because there are people messaging us on the inbox saying, well, i live in that area. who am i looking for? who should i be keeping an eye out for? why would they not give description? >> well, i think that may well follow. i mean, we're probably in the early stages of an investigation. i mean, we're deaung investigation. i mean, we're dealing with we're dealing with a potentially a very serious offence here. you know, seriously want at least one of inflicting grievous bodily harm, which is contrary to section 18. of the offence against the person act, which which carries

life imprisonment. so it's not something that we can do lightly. and it's important that we gather the evidence. initially. and then if it's deemed necessary or in fact, it's going to progress the investigation led the public then then, go to, perhaps a press release, but it's also important we've got to create a balance here that we don't create a panic in the community where we sort of imply that there's somebody at large who's going around doing this sort of thing . so the police have got thing. so the police have got a very so they've got a balancing act, they've got a management decision to make in order to what information they release and how they actually do release thatis and how they actually do release that is this is a line of enquiry. is it going to progress the investigation further and is it going to lead to further evidence, which of course leads to a an arrest and also a

successful prosecution. so it's not just as easy as that, where it's a case of, look, we'll just go out to the public and say this happened, what do we know? we need to gather the facts. and i suspect that that's exactly what the metropolitan police are doing now . doing now. >> so in a way, if they don't issue a description, the chances are it's more likely that they know who it was. it does seem plausible in this situation. it's probably somebody known to the school, or at least the pupils. >> well, i would reading between the lines , i would say that the lines, i would say that that's the situation, but can i put this one to you as an example ? they will were not example? they will were not necessarily dealing with something as serious. but look what happened in july in southport when social media went into overdrive. and they will be conscious of that. and there are guidelines now which have been

issued by the college of policing in the aftermath of the nicola bulley case of how the police service should start to learn to manage social media. we're not there yet at all. so this is something that the current investigators will be dealing. and that's why i said there's a management decision which they will have to make. but the inferences are take exactly the point you're making, beth , the inferences that the beth, the inferences that the name and address and the offender or the offender's identity may well be known . yeah. >> okay. peter, thank you so much . that's really interesting. much. that's really interesting. former police officer peter williams there, the police have asked anybody to contact crime stoppers anonymously. if you do know anything about that awful, awful attack yesterday. right. we're going back to andrew pierce now, who is in birmingham at the conservative party conference. andrew. and i believe that gb news is hosting the first debate between the

tory leadership contenders today . yeah. >> well, no. october. the 17th is the big one. we're going to be hosting. gb news is going to be hosting. gb news is going to be hosting. gb news is going to be hosting the debate with the two final shortlisted candidates, which will be a big moment for the station and a big moment for the station and a big moment because that could define which way people vote. and with me now in the studio is the shadow leader of the commons, chris philp. you are a kemi badenoch fan. even after her gaffe yesterday on maternity pay because she did gaffe. >> no, i'm absolutely a kemi badenoch fan. i think she has that sort of undefined quality. the x factor star quality, political charisma, which i think we need in our new leader to help us take the fight to labour when we have a new leader in place. i think kemi badenoch has that. besides, of course , has that. besides, of course, authentic conservative views. i think she has the potential to follow in margaret thatcher's footsteps and those are the reasons why i am backing her. >> always dangerous to compare these women leaders to margaret thatcher. we had theresa may and liz truss. you wouldn't call either of them a maggie thatcher figure, would you? >> no, i wouldn't, but i think

kemi is different. as i said a second ago, she has that kind of star quality that i think we need to take the fight to laboun need to take the fight to labour, and they've done such a bad job in government in the last 80 or so days. it is more important than ever that we choose a leader who can beat them in five years time, because if we fail in that mission, it won't be a five year labour government. it'll be a ten year labour government and i think kemi is best placed to win. >> is she is she right? maternity pay is too high for women. >> well, i think she's been clear she's not going to be making any changes to maternity pay- making any changes to maternity pay. the point she was making was a broader point, which is reasonable about overregulation of businesses, big and small, over the years, over decades, really , regulations have built really, regulations have built up and built up. look at any individual regulation. you might think it makes sense, but the cumulative effect is that small businesses and large businesses are unable to be competitive. and we do need to be internationally competitive against places like singapore and south korea. and that is what kemi is going to look at in opposition. work out a careful plan to reduce regulation and unleash the potential of our economy. it affects infrastructure as well. i mean,

our new nuclear power station is going to be the most expensive per kilowatt hour of any nuclear power station anywhere in the world. our high speed rail costs more per mile than any other high speed rail in the world. that thames crossing the lower thames crossing under the thames. we've spent £300 million just on the planning documents . just on the planning documents. i think norway or denmark built the world's longest underground road tunnel for less than that, for less than we've spent as a country on the planning documents alone. so lots of reasons why we need to roll back regulation. >> and that's what kemi will do when i talk to some tory mps, they say kemi badenoch is charmless . is that a problem? charmless. is that a problem? well, you need to charm people if you want to win a leadership contest. >> yes you do, and i don't think she's charmless at all. i think she's charmless at all. i think she's actually quite a warm and engaging person, and i think she has, as i said, that sort of star quality. and, you know, she is running second amongst mps, only a couple of five votes behind first place. so very close. and of course she's polling andrew top amongst members . members. >> robert jenrick robert jenrick is catching up. there's a poll

today showing he's only four points behind kemi bennett with party members. he was 18. she was 18 points ahead. so she's beginning to lose this campaign. >> well in every single opinion poll of party members, including that one, kemi was ahead. there was another poll just a couple of days ago of party members where i think she was 13% ahead. so every single poll with party members, kemi has been in the lead and i think party members will be quite upset, possibly angry if we mps don't put the members favourite candidate , members favourite candidate, kemi, on the ballot paper in the final two. >> let me ask you. finally, robert jenrick has made a big pitch on immigration. he says he's going to take britain out of the european, european convention, the european court of human rights. he also setting a target of how many people should come into this country. he was talking today about tens of thousands. we heard that before with david cameron. the tories have failed woefully on immigration, but can he badenoch is not going to set a target. why not? >> well, so firstly, it is true to say we did fail in government speaking honestly on immigration and whoever is leader will need and whoever is leader will need

a detailed and credible plan to explain to the electorate how we're going to firstly stop illegal immigration completely and dramatically reduce legal migration. i think it's not enough on its own just to make single pledges. it's a more complicated question, and what kemi has said is that she will develop a detailed plan to cover all elements of migration to demonstrate to the public we've got a plan covering all of the bases of which the echr is one, and she has said she is prepared, if necessary, to come out of the echr. and i endorse that. i've been an immigration minister in the past and the echr does, in my view, unreasonably fetter our ability to do what is necessary to protect the country's borders. and kemi is prepared to come out, but it's not just the echr on its own that is part of the solution, but it's not the complete solution. there are other issues as well. the way that asylum rules operate, the way the court systems operate, judicial review, the list goes on and on. and i think what convinced me to support kemi was that she is understands it needs the whole system that needs

sorting out. besides, you can't besides just one element of it. we need to have a detailed plan to be credible with the electorate, otherwise they won't believe us. >> that's chris philp, who is backing kemi bane. of course, if she won would be the fourth woman to lead the conservative party. the labour party, of course, still hasn't managed to find a woman to lead the labour party. what's wrong with labour women, you would ask? now up next is brittany to crack down on older drivers and 96 year old who killed a pensioner in a crash, has been convicted of dangerous driving. but she avoids jail. you're with britain's newsroom

gb news. >> welcome back to britain's newsroom i am joined in the studio by political commentator nigel nelson of gb news, of course, and political commentator piers pottinger. now, gentlemen, we there's so many big stories in town this morning. it's difficult to know where to start. but i think we have to go to the middle east first. pierce. because israel

now having gone in on foot to lebanon, signals the start of another phase of this conflict, which is potentially incredibly dangerous for the rest of the world. yes. >> i mean , it's the most >> i mean, it's the most dangerous thing going on at the moment , and dangerous thing going on at the moment, and everyone must be concerned about it . having said concerned about it. having said that, in this, on this occasion, israel seemed to be doing a better job at trying at least to minimise civilian casualties, and they have been amazingly effective at getting the leaders of the terrorist organisation hezbollah. what is also noticeable is because i think, in part of the presidential election campaign in america, they're doing all this without they're doing all this without the explicit approval of the american president, which is very unusual , american president, which is very unusual, although the biden has sort of said he's approved of it , biden has sort of said he's approved of it, biden really is only sort of it, biden really is only sort of the us president at the moment, the danger of course, is

the escalation, they've now also attacked the yemenis and iran is rattling its sabre very loudly at the moment. that's what it's doing, rattling its sabre. but the danger for escalation is colossal . and it's not colossal. and it's not a straightforward situation. i've just simplified it, but it's one that everyone needs to be very careful and cautious about. but the world is in a dangerous place and from the horrible thoughts that the labour party and the labour government might reduce spending on defence in the forthcoming budget, which seems to be gathering momentum as a story that they will not increase defence spending as they said they would. is very worrying because the world is not a safe place at the moment. >> is benjamin netanyahu acting with a sort of impunity at the

moment it feels a bit. so he's he's taken himself on as the sort of police officer of the world. >> well, certainly of the middle east. i mean, i think that the what is interesting here is that president biden did call for a ceasefire. britain backed that that ceasefire. they wanted 21 days for everyone to cool down a bit , i mean, days for everyone to cool down a bit, i mean, the real danger here and i think i think that piers is right there, that we are facing a really sort of dangerous moment. but the tricky bit is what iran does next. one would rather hope they don't do anything, but what they might do is use their proxies to attack. for instance, us bases in the middle east that would drag america into the war. and if america into the war. and if america was in the war, we probably would be. so we all have an interest in trying to make sure that this is actually calmed down as much as possible. the israelis at the moment have got a limited operation going. let's hope it stays that way. but the trouble about invading someone's country is it's very difficult to get out once you're in.

>> yeah, right. >> yeah, right. >> okay. well we're watching that situation there. obviously we will bring you any breaking news as it develops here on gb news with that incredibly tense situation. gear change though it might seem like a frivolous story to be talking about strictly come dancing nigel, but this bbc investigation has been going on now between what happened between amanda abbington, the actress and giovanni pernice . pernice i giovanni pernice. pernice i think, and seven accusations against giovanni, six of which were found to have been upheld in this report. one of them, which wasn't that he was cleared of any sort of physical violence against amanda abbington, but the way that some of the press are covering this story is that so he's got off scot free. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> i mean, that's very odd. >> i mean, that's very odd. >> it is. and i think it's always, always the problem with the result of this investigation that, both amanda and him, they're both claiming victory . they're both claiming victory. they're both saying, oh, yeah, well, amanda says i was

vindicated. it shows i was treated really badly on on strictly. he's saying, but i didn't do anything, anything violent that's been proved here. i mean, basically it's a really unsatisfactory outcome and it's all very well for the bbc to say, well, we've put in extra measures to make sure that people aren't bullied , it would people aren't bullied, it would be nice to know exactly the detail of what those, those measures are. i mean, frankly, i wonder if the bbc nowadays, in the current climate , should be the current climate, should be doing strictly at all. it seems to me that there's so much other tv out there. the bbc spending so much money on light entertainment might not be the best use of licence payers money. >> is it? pierce a good use? is it has it had its day strictly. >> yes, i think so. and again it doesn't need to fight for ratings. it's a publicly funded broadcasting company , so the broadcasting company, so the ratings are irrelevant . and the ratings are irrelevant. and the show, i think, is tedious and quite frankly, i don't i'm not interested in it. but also this

whole investigation. don't forget it was an investigation conducted by the bbc, who have a very poor track record when it comes to investigating their own employees or contracted artists. and all that seems to have emerged is that these two clearly didn't get on, hated each other . clearly didn't get on, hated each other. he was a bit of a bully. he was supposedly the teacher in the duo, and you know, if people don't get on, they don't like each other. so what? sorry, i don't think it's a big deal . and the thought that a big deal. and the thought that licence payers money has been used for some prolonged investigation into something where simply it boils to down two people who didn't get on. >> i mean, the report is concluded that she deserved an apology. amanda suffered enormously. she got formally diagnosed with ptsd, feels the bbc breached its duty of care guidelines by not protecting her soonen guidelines by not protecting her sooner. it's hard to put a figure on how much she could

expect. if she can claim this is a. she might be able to get compensation for what she's been through at the hands, at the hands of the bbc, or in the care of the bbc, i think it's probably quite brave of her to have taken this case forward, though . she could have just though. she could have just dropped it and other people did. >> and there's a lot of them did. right. >> and there were other others who claim this was going on, but decided not to pursue it . she decided not to pursue it. she did, and good for her. i mean, so she should she should stand her corner there. i mean, the thing about, i mean , i've only thing about, i mean, i've only ever talked to a couple of contestants who appeared in strictly. i mean, what they described as as a very punishing rehearsal regime. you really do have to be fit to go and do it, andifs have to be fit to go and do it, and it's quite painful, but it doesn't mean you're allowed to doesn't mean you're allowed to do the bullying bit thrown in. it's a show. let's not take it too seriously. >> well, they'll have phillip schofield on it next. you know, i mean it's no i mean it's not a proper it's getting more and more silly as a programme with

the kind of contestants they have. the kind of contestants they have . most people haven't heard have. most people haven't heard of half the contestants and it's just i think it's a waste of licence payers money, quite frankly. >> okay. right. >> okay. right. >> piers. nigel, thank you so much. we will have more in the next hour. first though, with the very latest news headlines with tatiana sanchez. >> beth, thank you very much and good morning. the top stories this hour. the israeli army says it's begun a targeted ground operation against the iranian backed terror group hezbollah with artillery fires reported in the southern parts of beirut. hezbollah has reportedly responding, responded by firing into israel. the lebanese prime minister has described this as one of the most dangerous moments in their history. now, it is the first time since 2006 that israel have had boots on the ground inside lebanon. this all comes as the government has chartered a commercial flight to help british nationals leave lebanon. the plane is due to

take off from beirut. rafic hann take off from beirut. rafic hariri international airport tomorrow, with vulnerable british nationals and their spouses, partners and children under the age of 18 to be prioritised. foreign secretary david lammy has urged british nationals to act immediately. >> we'll do all we can to assist people to get out and we have secured places on commercial flights that are flying tomorrow so that uk nationals can get out. i urge them to leave because the situation on the ground is fast moving and of course, whilst we will do everything we can to protect british nationals and those plans are in place to do so, we cannot anticipate the circumstances and the speed with which we could do that. if things escalate in a major way over the coming hours and days. >> tom tugendhat says he was extremely concerned by tory leadership. rival robert jenrick claim that special forces are killing, rather than capturing

terrorists , saying it terrorists, saying it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the law of armed conflict. mr tugendhat also told gb news there's a very clear argument that defence spending should be increased towards 3% in 25 years ago i joined the army and i swore allegiance to her majesty the queen and i swore to protect our country and i have always kept my promise. >> and what i've done is i've served on operations in iraq and afghanistan. i've been in combat, and i've seen what this country needs to protect ourselves. so today, what am i thinking about? i'm thinking about defence spending. i'm thinking about the fact that labouris thinking about the fact that labour is making us less safe by not investing in the technology that we need for the future. and so what you'll get from me as a leader is a leader who can decide. a leader who will serve, and a leader who will always act in the national interest. >> meanwhile, former prime minister rishi sunak's slogan of stop the boats has been described as an error and unachievable by former home secretary and leadership contender james cleverly. that's as he and fellow leadership contender robert jenrick will prepare to face questions from

the membership at the conservative party conference today. mr cleverly told gb news this morning that he's the right person to create optimism for the country about optimism . the country about optimism. >> it's about a focus on the future. it's about paying less tax, it's about more jobs and better jobs . these are the betterjobs. these are the things that i'm passionate about. these are the things i've always been passionate about. and if i become the leader of the party, i'm best placed to kick out labour and get this country headed back in the right direction. >> and the metropolitan police have launched a manhunt after a suspected acid attack took place at a west london school yesterday afternoon. a 14 year old girl has been seriously injured after a substance believed to be acidic was thrown at her and two others outside the westminster academy. the girl remains in hospital with potentially life changing injuries. a 16 year old boy also remains in hospital with non—life changing injuries and women aged 27 have been sent

home from hospital after also being hurt in that attack. home from hospital after also being hurt in that attack . and being hurt in that attack. and those are the latest headlines for now i'm tatiana sanchez. i'll have more news in half an hour 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 . forward slash alerts. >> up next, i'll bring you the latest from the tory conference, as robert jenrick is now within four points of kemi badenoch in a tory leadership. to head poll of tory members. this is

gb news. >> oh yeah, my nephew was born there. yes. >> 1040. i'm andrew pierce, here with you at the tory party conference. i'm joined now by olivia utley, our political commentator. and i'm also going

to talk to the shadow minister for development and the conservative mp for west worcestershire, dame harriet boardman. first, olivia, a big coup for gb news because the big final tv debates between the last two october the 17th. >> yes, we're really, really excited about this. >> so for weeks now the conservative leadership contest has been being narrowed down. there are four final contenders here at conference doing a sort of beauty pageant as it's called. those four will eventually be whittled to down two by the conservative parliamentary party on the 10th of october, and then on the 17th of october, and then on the 17th of october, and then on the 17th of october, gb news is hosting a televised debate with those final two in front of conservative members. now so far, it's the only televised event that the final two members are doing, so it's going to be absolutely essential viewing on the 17th of october. after that event, conservative party members will then have about two weeks to decide between the final two so that that event on the 17th of october will inform members decision. and by the 2nd of november, we will hear at

last who the next conservative leader will be. >> there we are. big coup for gb news. let's talk to dame harriett baldwin. dame harriett baldwin actually there is talk that they may move the contest forward. you don't think it is going to happen? >> i know it's not going to happen. yeah. >> tell him tell me why. because the suggestion is we don't want rishi sunak to respond to the budget, which is going to be a bad, bad budget for a lot of people. >> in my view, the timetable has been set out. i'm part of the 1922 committee that decided that with the party board, it's not going to change. >> and so it will be november the 2nd, it will be november the 2nd, it will be rishi sunak responding to the budget, and it will be the current shadow chancellor who will lead off the debate on the budget. >> the next day. so i think that's in very safe hands and it's not going to change the timetable. >> now you haven't declared so far who you're going to support and that's your prerogative. do you ? the question i'm asking you? the question i'm asking everybody is whoever wins dame harriet is how do they get the

tory message out there? because the tories were punished on july the tories were punished on july the 4th, the worst defeat in our in your history. the 4th, the worst defeat in our in your history . and people in your history. and people aren't really listening to the tory party anymore. >> we were and we were punished in july and that's why i was in favour of a longer process for choosing the new leader of the opposition and the person that i hope will be the next prime minister because we need to make sure that this terrible labour government is a one term labour government. and i think having a longer process with four candidates coming to conference has been a great way to see who's got that stamina, but also those skills and competencies to do that job for what's likely to be four years. but we want that person to be the next prime minister. and so a drawn out process has enabled us to sort of see a range of those competencies. i think the right four candidates are here at to conference be asked questions by members, to be interviewed by your good selves on the 17th. and our job next is to, as and ourjob next is to, as members of parliament, is to whittle the four down to two

next week and send those two out to our members. >> the tories have lost trust on so many issues. we're the most taxed. we've been in this country since the second world war. immigration is, frankly out of control. legal migration and illegal migration. how does the tory party rebuild that trust with the voters? what does the new leader going to have to do? >> well, absolutely. it's going to be for a four year parliament to be for a four year parliament to do that. and so it's going to require that stamina and that vision. and i think the most important thing from my point of view is that all of us as members of parliament and there are few of us, fewer of us now have got to unite behind whoever comes through this process. because what you heard from voters on the doorstep in in june and in july is that although they appreciated that we want to bring taxes lower and we want to bring taxes lower and we had cut taxes on national insurance, that they wanted to us control borders, and we had got a plan in place to use rwanda in that regard as a deterrent. but they also wanted

us to unite in parliament. so one of the things i'm trying to change at the moment is that 15% threshold where members of parliament can send in letters, and i want to see that be announced before we announce the new leader, because i think if you have a higher bar, then it will be less tempting from for one single member of parliament to sort of try and undermine the leadership. and we've got to unite by who behind whoever comes through this process. >> under that current process , >> under that current process, 15% is all it's required to trigger a contest that would be 1819 mp5. 1819 mps. >> it's 1819 mp5. >> it's absurdly low, so we've got to change that before we announce the new leader on the 2nd of november. so that's something i'm working on behind the scenes. >> and are you are you one of those who supports it's right that party members are involved in this process too, because some of your colleagues were saying, oh, no, no, no, we've got, we've got because we've got trust from the members. we can't we've got to keep members out of the process. >> far from it. i think members are an important part of the process. and i think what our responsibility is as mps, and i've thought this in every contest we've had is to send two people to the membership, both

of whom were to happy unite behind. and so i hope that this process enables us to do exactly that. that will send two people that. that will send two people that we think will be excellent leaders of the opposition and then the next prime minister of then the next prime minister of the united kingdom put an end to this terrible, terrible labour government that in their first 100 days has shown what a disaster they're going to be for the country and just fine. >> do you think the tory party can unite because you've had this will be the fifth leader since the summer of 2019. that is an appalling record. >> i think we can and we will and we must. >> all right. that's dame harriett baldwin who's bringing important news to you that that leadership contest is not going to be brought forward. it will be november the 2nd, just a few days before the american election. and of course, we've got that very exciting news that that big tv debate with those final two candidates is going to be on gb news on october 7th. my hunchis be on gb news on october 7th. my hunch is one of them will be robert jenrick. i'm not sure about the others and but well, time will tell. now up next, britain's last coal fired power plant shut down overnight, ending our 42 year history of coal fired electricity. green

campaigners are calling it a major achievement. of course they are. this is britain's newsroom, live across the on gb

>> good morning. it's almost 1050. this is britain's newsroom on gb news. thank you for joining me. now we have been i've been looking at what you've been saying at home andrew obviously is at the tory party conference in birmingham. if you're just joining us, andy has got in touch at home and says, i'm sorry , gb news, i can't make i'm sorry, gb news, i can't make the tory party leadership debate. i'm washing my hair, i'm having my nails done, i'm growing some parsnips, i'm waxing my bikini line, i'm shaving my armpits, i'm baking a cake, i'm doing some diy, i'm smelling some roses and mowing the lawn and booking my trip to the lawn and booking my trip to the dark side of the moon. in other words, he'd rather do anything than watch the leadership debate between the potential leaders of the conservative party. if anyone's going to do it well, gb news is going to do it well, gb news is going to do it well, gb news is going to do it well. of course,

andy, just remember that. but i can understand the apathy towards who's going to win because it seems like they're being completely incompetent, don't they? and utterly impotent. alistair said before the general election , two short the general election, two short planks, starmer and rachel reeves repeatedly claimed there would be no other tax increases other than those they had already announced, and all their policies were fully costed and funded. and we now know that they lied repeatedly and knowingly. even storm isha freebies are not fully costed . freebies are not fully costed. his estimates fall far short of the real figures. it probably demonstrates economic illiteracy, or maybe just a lack of arithmetic skills , a lot of of arithmetic skills, a lot of you are not looking forward to this election in october, jeffress says . coal, not dole. jeffress says. coal, not dole. what will we do when the wind doesn't blow? the sun doesn't shine, and we need that extra 10% energy. they will tell you that coal was responsible for less than 1% of energy production last year. that is the average . what about the days the average. what about the days when the percentage was 10%? we could see power cuts incoming? thank you geoff. talking of which, it is the end of an era

because britain's last coal fired power plant shuts down at midnight last night. so first thing this morning, number 10 closed ratcliffe on soar power station in nottinghamshire in a bid to meet its green targets. let's cross to our reporter, jack carson. jack, it is the end of an era here, isn't it? it feels incredibly significant. the closing of this power station . what has this industry station. what has this industry meant? what has this plant meant to the people in that area? and what do they do now ? what do they do now? >> well, it's jobs, isn't it? at the end of the day , more than the end of the day, more than 150 people are going to be kept on at this plant over the next two years. during its decommissioning process. process. beyond that, the council are looking and working with developers and investment groups to try and turn this what would have been. of course , would have been. of course, ratcliffe on soar power station into a green energy hub. but

you're right to say that this very much feels like the end of an era. coal has been used in electricity generation in this country for more than 140 years. 50 years at the power station behind me with its infamous cooling towers that you can see that stretch out onto the honzon that stretch out onto the horizon when you're in this part of nottinghamshire. now, the uk, therefore becomes the first country in the g7 to end the use of coal in its electricity generation. if we look at the plans of other countries within the g7, france is set to phase out coal by 2027, canada by 2030. the us by 2035, and in germany, they're not even phasing out coal completely. they're phasing out the use of what's known as brown coal. it's the most polluting fossil fuel. by the most polluting fossil fuel. by 2038, the uk becomes the first country to stop its use of coalin first country to stop its use of coal in electricity generation. if we look at how we've got here since the early 90s, coal has started to been started to be reduced. that was very much by

gas, just over a decade ago, in 2012, 39% of the uk's power on average was was generated by coal, average was was generated by coal , 22 it average was was generated by coal, 22 it accounted for 6%. closed power station , she closed power station, she mentioned, is part of labour's plan . energy targets at the plan. energy targets at the moment . moment. >> set by the rain there with jack carson in nottinghamshire bringing you that story , let me bringing you that story, let me know your reflections on the last coal powered coal fired power station being closed. it does feel like a really significant day, and i had a little heart sink when he said it will be replaced by a green hub as our electricity bills go up, of course, by 10% as of yesterday , so we are still to yesterday, so we are still to come this morning. we're going to have the latest in the manhunt. this is after the suspected acid attack at a school in london where three people were injured, we've just

seen jack carson with an umbrella, so you probably don't have to be psychic to know what's coming next. it's the weather with . alex. weather with. alex. >> heavy showers first thing will be followed by a warm, cosy day. boxt boilers sponsors of weather on gb news >> good morning. welcome to your latest weather update from the met office here on gb news. a dner met office here on gb news. a drier day for most today, but there will still be some outbreaks of rain over eastern areas in particular, where there'll also be a cold wind blowing. the wet weather continued through the night over parts of lincolnshire, yorkshire, down across east anglia in the south—east. not as heavy as yesterday's downpours, but staying pretty grey and soggy here throughout, with a cold wind curling in from the nonh cold wind curling in from the north sea. much of wales southwest england dry, bright and sunny, along with most of scotland and northern ireland as well, and in the brighter spells, particularly in the southwest, we could see temperatures in the high teens.

feels colder than that, though, on these north sea coasts. as i said , with the further outbreaks said, with the further outbreaks of rain and that brisk, chilly wind continuing to feed some showers in across lincolnshire, maybe some brighter spells this afternoon over parts of east anglia and the south east, but generally pretty grey and cold further west we'll see some good spells of sunshine. a fine end to the day across northern ireland and much of scotland, as well. on the coast again a fairly brisk wind, but the winds easing down generally across scotland as we go through the night, and that will allow temperatures to fall away into single figures pretty rapidly this evening. we'll keep a lot of cloud through the evening and overnight across eastern parts of england. a bit more showery rain pushing down across the midlands, perhaps even into parts of south wales for a time. that brisk wind will continue to blow. that will actually help to keep the temperatures up a little bit through the night in double figures across much of central and eastern england, but with the clearer skies further west, and particularly, as i mentioned, further north across scotland, will be down into single figures. could be a bit of mist and fog here and there first thing tomorrow. that should clear away. it'll still

be pretty grey, i suspect in the morning over central and eastern england, but the rain continuing to fizzle out . some showers to fizzle out. some showers across norfolk , suffolk, down across norfolk, suffolk, down towards kent and perhaps up towards kent and perhaps up towards the london area . so some towards the london area. so some showers here tomorrow. but elsewhere most places dry and bright tomorrow, but some spots, particularly wales, south—west england a fairly gusty wind . england a fairly gusty wind. >> expect a warm

well. >> good morning. 11 am. on tuesday, the 1st of october live across the uk. this is britain's newsroom with me andrew pierce at the tory party conference in birmingham and bev turner in london. >> good morning. thank you for joining us. a manhunt is still underway after two pupils and one teacher were victims of an acid attack at a west london school in notting hill yesterday. mark white how are you? has more. >> i am, yeah, nice to see no one is in custody but the metropolitan police are soon to

release a description of the attacker or attackers . attacker or attackers. >> asylum backlog. migrants will continue to be housed in hotels for up to three years, as the government acknowledges the scale of the problem. labour's freebee fiasco carries on while the prime minister's chief of staff, sue gray, brings home a significant salary of £170,000. it turns out that she also enjoyed hundreds of pounds worth of premier league hospitality tickets and sunak trumps . tickets and sunak trumps. starmer, apparently in a fresh blow to the prime minister. a new poll shows that more people now prefer rishi sunaks government to the current labour one. do you fall into that category ? a new tipping laws category? a new tipping laws come into force today. businesses are now banned from withholding tips or service charges from their staff. i thought presumably they already did that, but maybe they don't. are you a waiter or waitress? do you tip? do you understand how we should tip in this country?

get in touch . get in touch. >> and of course, as ever, we would love to hear what you think. send your views and post your comments by visiting gbnews.com forward slash the seine. but first, here's the news with tatiana . news with tatiana. >> andrew. >> andrew. >> thank you. the top stories the israeli army says it's begun a targeted ground operation against the iranian backed terror group hezbollah, with artillery fires reported in the southern parts of beirut. hezbollah has reportedly responded with artillery fire into israel. the lebanese prime minister has described this as one of the most dangerous moments in their history. it's the first time since 2006 that israel have had boots on the ground inside lebanon. this all comes as the uk government has chartered a commercial flight to

help british nationals leave lebanon. the plane is due to take off from beirut. rafic hann take off from beirut. rafic hariri international airport tomorrow, with vulnerable british nationals and their spouses, partners and children under the age of 18 to be prioritised. foreign secretary david lammy says the situation could get much , much more could get much, much more dangerous and has urged british nationals to act immediately. >> we'll do all we can to assist people to get out and we have secured places on commercial flights that are flying tomorrow so that uk nationals can get out. i urge them to leave because the situation on the ground is fast moving and of course, whilst we will do everything we can to protect british nationals and those plans are in place to do so, we cannot anticipate the circumstances and the speed with which we could do that . if which we could do that. if things escalate in a major way over the coming hours and days. >> former british army

spokesperson major michael sherer told gb news that israel has had no choice. >> israel are fighting for their very existence. since october 7th last year , and the day 7th last year, and the day after, when hezbollah got themselves involved in this, they've been raining rockets down on the israeli family, 60,000 of which are now displaced in their own country as a result. i think israel have got no, no choice but to deal with this in the lebanon. i mean, they've given a year now for the lebanese authorities to do something about it who are clearly impotent and can't, can't do anything, and to influence hezbollah at all. >> tom tugendhat says he was extremely concerned by tory leadership . rival robert jenrick leadership. rival robert jenrick claim that special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists, saying it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the law of armed conflict. mr tugendhat also told gb news there's a very

clear argument that defence spending in the uk should be increased towards 3%. >> 25 years ago i joined the army and i swore allegiance to her majesty the queen and i swore to protect our country and ihave swore to protect our country and i have always kept my promise. and what i've done is i've served on operations in iraq and afghanistan. i've been in combat, and i've seen what this country needs to protect ourselves. so today, what am i thinking about? i'm thinking about defence spending. i'm thinking about the fact that labour is making us less safe by not investing in the technology that we need for the technology that we need for the future. and so what you'll get from me as a leader is a leader who can decide, a leader who will serve, and a leader who will always act in the national interest . interest. >> meanwhile, former prime minister rishi sunak's slogan of stop the boats has been described as an error and unachievable by former home secretary and leadership contender james cleverly. that's as he and fellow leadership contender robert jenrick will prepare to face questions from the membership at the conservative party conference today. mr cleverly told gb news this morning that he's the right person to create optimism for

the country about optimism. >> it's about a focus on the future. it's about paying less tax, it's about more jobs and better jobs. these are the betterjobs. these are the things that i'm passionate about. these are the things i've always been passionate about. and if i become the leader of the party, i'm best placed to kick out labour and get this country headed back in the right direction . direction. >> in other news, the metropolitan police have launched a manhunt after a suspected acid attack took place at a west london school yesterday afternoon. a 14 year old girl has been seriously injured after a substance believed to be acidic was thrown at her and two others outside the westminster academy. the girl remains in hospital with potentially life changing injuries. a 16 year old boy also remains in hospital with non—life changing injuries, and a woman aged 27, has been sent home from hospital after also being hurt in that attack. new rules have come into force , rules have come into force, banning businesses from withholding tips or service

charges from their staff. firms, including restaurants , pubs, including restaurants, pubs, hairdressers and taxi operators are set to be impacted by the new law , requiring 100% of tips new law, requiring 100% of tips to be shared between employees from today. however, hospitality industry bosses say the move could hit under—pressure businesses with an additional cost and lorry fell more than 60ft from a bridge on the m6 in cheshire. police say the vehicle fell from the thelwall viaduct, near warrington on the motorway, and landed on an embankment below. it happened at around 6:50 pm. yesterday. it's thought the driver of the lorry hasn't suffered life threatening injuries luckily, and they were rescued by fire crews who lowered themselves down to the lorry . and those are the latest lorry. and those are the latest gb news headlines for now i'm tatiana sanchez. more from me in half an hour 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 . slash alerts. >> good morning. welcome back to britain's newsroom live. across the uk with me bev turner in london and andrew pierce in birmingham for the tory party conference. we just want to recap that great for news gb news on the 17th of october. andrew, what will gb news be doing ? doing? >> well, it's really important. there's been weeks of negotiation about this. this is the big debate between the final two candidates who could well, we don't know who it will be, but maybe badenoch and tuc and whoever. but the debate will be televised live by gb news with an audience of tory party members. and i think it will be a defining moment in the contest, because just a couple of weeks later, there will be casting their vote. so that could be the moment. and it's a big, big moment for gb news because let me tell you, all the other broadcasters , the bbc, itv other broadcasters, the bbc, itv channel, they all wanted it and

gb news got it. so it's an important vote of confidence in the station from the tory party hierarchy. good. >> thank you andrew. we'll be back to you in just a little while. okay. the metropolitan police have launched a manhunt after a suspected acid attack took place at the westminster academy school in central london yesterday, two people, pupils and one teacher, are thought to be among the victims with the injuries of a 14 year old girl described as life changing. our homeland security editor mark white, is here in the studio with me now. mark, a lot of people getting in touch saying, why haven't the police issued a description of the suspect? >> yeah . understandable concern >> yeah. understandable concern that no description has been put out there. now, sometimes this happens because police have a positive line of enquiry . in positive line of enquiry. in other words, they know the suspect and who thereafter. so either they don't want to sort of alert that person to the fact that they know who they are or they don't need the public's help because it's only a matter of time before they get them.

but i'm not sure that's the case in this particular instance, because i've spoken to scotland yard and they say they are in the process of getting a description together to get out there, you might argue, well, why is that description not been out earlier, given that there is an urgent manhunt to try and find this perpetrator, or indeed it may have been more than one person involved in the incident, but a description is coming and we should be able to bring that to our audience within the next hour or so. when scotland yard bnng hour or so. when scotland yard bring that and put that out. >> it's that's interesting, mark, because i initially assumed this is going to be somebody that's going to be known to the victims. it feels like a school incident that has got out of control. maybe. so when they didn't issue a description , i asked a police description, i asked a police officer earlier on the show why that might be, and he said the same as you that it might be that it's somebody that they know, but obviously now with the

description coming that would suggest it isn't. or maybe there is a suspicion, but probably , is a suspicion, but probably, let's face it, wearing a hood, maybe wearing a mask, maybe wearing a big coat. maybe wearing a mask, maybe wearing a big coat . therefore, wearing a big coat. therefore, the police need confirmation of their suspect. >> yeah, i mean, all of the above. we're not privy to the sort of ongoing investigation in terms of the line of enquiry . terms of the line of enquiry. perhaps when we get this next news update from scotland yard, it will shed a bit more light on that. but what we can say is that. but what we can say is that it certainly appears that they don't definitely know who it is. they want to get that description out there to try to get one or more people brought into custody. we're looking at images there of, of, westminster academy. this is not far from where we are in west london. it was alfred road, that main road just outside the academy where this incident took place, 4:45

yesterday afternoon when members of staff at the academy flagged down a passing police patrol car and the officers then found three people injured. a 14 year old girl who was most seriously injured, still in hospital today with, we're told, potentially life changing injuries. a 16 year old boy still in hospital, less seriously injured, though, and a 27 year old woman who is being treated has been treated for her injuries and released. in addition to that , some of the in addition to that, some of the first police officers on scene were admitted to hospital after reporting that they were feeling unwell. that was as a precaution and the substance involved, we're told, because these corrosive substances can can vary alkali or acid. they believe it was an acid substance that was used. >> i'm just looking at the website for the school, mark it

is a it's a state school. it's one of the obviously one of those schools that changed into an academy. it's a non—selective 11 to 18 year old ib world school. so international baccalaureate, i guess that is a school in central london, we provide excellent academic and extracurricular opportunities to students in an inclusive, internationally minded environment. do we know if the school is open as normal today? >> a good question , it's not. >> a good question, it's not. the school has told pupils to stay at home. they said in a post to pupils, saying because of unforeseen circumstances. so pupils been asked to stay at home. some of those will be able to be taught over the internet, as of course, we learn how to do dunng as of course, we learn how to do during the lockdowns . so some during the lockdowns. so some staff are back in school today, but the pupils are not. now, i understand that there's an emphasis at this school on international business in the studies that they're taught, but it's a mixed secondary school,

and today, at least for today, anyway, those pupils are being kept away from the school. >> such a distressing situation for anybody that would have witnessed this as well. all of the children in that school, they'll be terrified now. >> it absolutely is. because, you know , we are grappling with you know, we are grappling with an issue of serious violent crime in this country and these scumbags that are going about just thinking it's perfectly acceptable to carry knives, even guns think nothing, of course, of also carrying acid. and the number of acid attacks in this country has increased by 75% over the past year. last year , over the past year. last year, 1244 incidents that we know about because of our freedom of information request. but actually likely much higher compared to 700 the previous yeah compared to 700 the previous year. it is a big issue. >> yeah. all right mark, thank you so much. we will let you know when we get that description of the suspect that the police are looking for in west london. let's go back to

andrew pierce, one that you're glad you did in birmingham. he's already chatting as usual. you're on the telly, andrew pierce. off you go . pierce. off you go. >> i am, i am, i'm joined in the studio by patrick spencer mp. he's a new he's a newbie. there's not many tory newbie mps because so many lost their seat. but patrick won in central suffolk and ipswich and he's here and he's backing tom tugendhat the soldier. quite an important time for a soldier. he's got a pretty distinguished military career to put himself forward as leader of the tory party. patrick, because we're in a living in very uncertain times. what's happening in the middle east, ukraine, russia , middle east, ukraine, russia, china, super, super scary times for all of us. >> waking up to news this morning of what's happening on the israeli—lebanese border. it's not my area of expertise, but you're absolutely right . we but you're absolutely right. we need a leader of the conservative party who's got real credentials on the world stage. we need someone who knows what he's talking about. we need someone who's really got a vision for both the country on

the international stage, amongst other things. i think tom's that quy- other things. i think tom's that guy. i think he's done a really good job, by the way of, talking about his military background and why that makes him a good candidate for the job, but it's one of many reasons why i'm backing him, >> there's a buzz about him here. i can feel it. and they're also very clever. every time he arrives to pick somebody, there are dozens of his supporters there clapping and cheering . there clapping and cheering. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. >> very cleverly. stage managed. >> very cleverly. stage managed. >> no, it's authentic. it's organic . spontaneous. that's the organic. spontaneous. that's the word i'm looking for. >> no, but he is quite a he's quite good. he's quite strong. >> on presentation i he knew he had to have a big conference. he didn't. he's not come into conference as the favourite . he conference as the favourite. he knew he had to be energetic exciting interesting. he needed to appeal to all of our members, all of our voters. those who voted reform also voted labour and voted for the liberal democrats. i think he's done a great job at conference of bringing the buzz, bringing the excitement, bringing the energy. and we're only halfway through.

so i'm sure there's more to come how. >> now. >> you're a new mp. you saw, you would have felt on the doorstep, you saw what happened in the election on july the 4th. the country are sick to the back teeth of the conservatives. 14 years in power. you didn't deliver on immigration. you were hopeless on taxation. yeah how can you turn this around? >> well, the most important thing i've been saying to people is it's utterly possible to go from a defeat. that was chronic and terrible to a position where we can be back in power. there were loads of people in central suffolk who didn't vote reform, they just didn't vote at all. and they were you know what? we've been absolutely honest and up front that we utterly failed on a whole load of things . we on a whole load of things. we behaved poorly in government. we weren't conservative, we didn't deliver lower taxes. we didn't deliver lower taxes. we didn't deliver lower taxes. we didn't deliver lower immigration. we didn't really deliver safer streets . did you do? well, streets. did you do? well, actually, i think there were some things we did well. we were talking off air about education. we did some really good things in the education sphere. you know, on pisa rankings, we've gone from being quite a low performer on the international

stage to one of the best education, state educated, pubuc education, state educated, public state education systems in the world. we're giving children from poor backgrounds access to a better quality education than you can find in the private sector. you know, and i think we should be really proud about that because that's, you know, that pays dividends for generations . and we did for generations. and we did universal credit, which makes it means we've got one of the most streamlined and effective dynamic welfare systems in the world. and for the many of us who wanted to see britain outside the european union, i think it was the conservative party who should be proud to say against the, you know, the wishes of the labour party and the establishment . we took the establishment. we took britain out of the european union. so we did do some things right. >> but you're right, we've done a great job with coming out and ispeak a great job with coming out and i speak as a brexiteer. >> do you think we've done a good job? >> i don't think it's been a brilliant job since we came out. it's not the brexit i thought we were going to get. >> we need to go. this is going to take a long time. you know, we need to get back to lowering taxes, lowering regulation, becoming a more competitive economy outside the european union, which you're looking at a

tiny a tiny time frame. we've got the post brexit story is only just very briefly. >> yeah. robert jenrick has made a big issue of the fact he will take britain out of the european convention on human rights, which means no more meddling european judges. absolutely. tom tugendhat says he's thinking about it. can he just. no is he is he. he's not thinking about it. >> he said he will try and reform it. get opt outs as the french do. you know he makes he's got a nice point about the fact he's married to a french lawyer, a french judge . they lawyer, a french judge. they have opt outs. we should have them as well. if that's not possible. yes, we're out and he's been up front and honest about that since the very beginning. >> all right. that's patrick spencen >> all right. that's patrick spencer, first time in the gb news studio. we have had him on the program before. he is one of the program before. he is one of the tory newbies. 24 tory new tory mps. he's one of them. up next is kemi badenoch. really margaret thatcher, the second, no, in my view. but she seems to think so. find out more in just a moment. you're britain's newsroom on gb

>> welcome back. it is 1122. this is britain's newsroom on gb news. with me bev turner. thank you for joining news. with me bev turner. thank you forjoining me. now i am delighted to say that i'm not alone in the studio anymore. i've got gb news, senior political commentator nigel nelson here and political commentator and man of many talents piers pottinger with us in the studio. we're talking of just off air then about about driving. there's this this case today. i know this isn't on our list, but i think it's worth touching upon of the lady who's 96 who had a car accident and has avoided jail. and it's kind of raised this issue of whether you should not drive over a certain age. do you still drive? i still yeah, even though you're very old, even though i'm ancient, i still drive. >> but there are certain things i don't like doing. i don't drive at night quite so often, because i find that my dazzling lights. yeah, it's the dazzling lights. yeah, it's the dazzling lights. there my wife prefers to drive whenever we're going anywhere anyway, on the basis that i'm not very good in the

first place, but yes, i mean , i first place, but yes, i mean, i think that it's right that you have your your driving licence renewed every year after the age of 70. and if you're finding it difficult, though , don't drive. difficult, though, don't drive. you're just a danger to everybody else on the road apart from yourself. >> how about you, piers? you. >> how about you, piers? you. >> i don't drive, at the request of my family, i stopped driving quite a long time ago. really? because i wasn't very good at it, but, yeah, i think when you get to a certain age, your faculties, however healthy and robust you are, they're still not as strong as they were, particularly when it comes to reaction, and therefore, i think it's right that they should be tested properly. >> although if you look at the numbers, it's still the youngsters ragging it around in their cars. that caused more accidents than, than the elderly. and now, especially in london, where you can never go more than 20 miles an hour anyway, everyone's driving like anyway, everyone's driving like a grandma now anyway, at 20 miles an hour, i got a speeding ticket for doing 26. in 24 in a 20 mile, an hour zone only last week. i know it's ridiculous,

isn't it? anyway, right. let's talk , shall we talk about what? talk, shall we talk about what? do we want to talk. what do you want to start with, nigel? >> well, i mean, as we're on driving the motorhomes, i think. oh, this is great. this this tax that the that may come in in scotland at the moment they've passed. they've passed a law where they're going to charge what they're going to call a transient visitor levy , it won't transient visitor levy, it won't come in until 2026. the rate has not been set yet how it will actually be done. but the idea is to try . and because they get is to try. and because they get so many tourists to try and pay for the infrastructure that the tourists will use and all the various local facilities , you various local facilities, you charge them a tax. but motorhomes have been exempt from this, and there's now a proposal that they shouldn't be. let's include motorhomes as well , it include motorhomes as well, it seems to me just like a good idea , idea, >> this is more this is going to be more tax on on pensioners again, because it tends to be retired people who go to who like the idea of the pensions.

>> i mean, a lot of people actually do enjoy travelling around the place in motorhomes. so, i mean, you're not talking about huge amounts of money. it barcelona does this for visitors andifs barcelona does this for visitors and it's about a pound a night per person. if you're staying in a hotel . so it's not huge. per person. if you're staying in a hotel. so it's not huge. but but that would actually build up into quite a big pot of money for the local authority. what do you think, piers? >> well, i think it's hilarious that the snp, because it's an snp councillor with the splendid scottish name of jeremy fernandez. yeah very scottish, who maybe came from barcelona, where he maybe got this idea from because the idea of the snp taxing their own motorhome would be really hilarious. but no, i think, actually scotland needs more tourism , not less, and more tourism, not less, and taxing visitors unnecessarily is actually counterproductive. one of the biggest problems with scotland's scottish tourism is it's felt to too be unwelcoming compared to ireland. they always

compared to ireland. they always compare ireland to scotland on the tourism front and everyone says you get warm welcome in ireland, a great crack and it's great fun. whereas if you go to scotland , oh, there's no supper scotland, oh, there's no supper after 6:00 in the evening. and if you're english, they hate you, and actually taxing , cruel you, and actually taxing, cruel to the scots, taxing, taxing people more. i'm scottish, so i can say it. i mean, it is crazy andifs can say it. i mean, it is crazy and it's a typical snp , thing and it's a typical snp, thing to, to raise when actually everything else that the snp is doing in scotland is a total disaster. >> but wales is thinking of doing the same thing that they're considering a similar law. i mean, if you live in a place, well, the welsh labour government is even worse if possible, than the snp. if you live in a place and suddenly every summer that you've got piles of tourists coming in bringing money to your area. >> if it was german camper vans irritating and they are using up local facilities you've paid for through your council tax and

they should contribute something. well, i do think if you followed a german campervan down a narrow cornish road for 2.5 hours, i believe taxing them would be the minimum we should be doing to particularly foreign camper vans. >> that's not a bad idea . maybe >> that's not a bad idea. maybe if you come over here with your foreign campervan, you will. we'll tax you, but not tax the foreigners, not the people who live here. yeah. >> surprised you don't want an exocet missile? if you have that trouble in cornwall, i wouldn't mind that as well, trouble in cornwall, i wouldn't mind that as well , actually, mind that as well, actually, >> right. what about, we just heard andrew pearce's opinion on this. whether kemi badenoch sees herself as margaret thatcher. mark two, andrew said i don't think so. what do you think, pearce? no. >> and these sort of comparisons are pointless , but she's the are pointless, but she's the only one of these rather poor choice in my view. she's the only one who's got some real bottle and is not afraid to speak in language and talk about subjects in depth in an

intelligent way. she's by far the most intelligent of the four, but unfortunately she's perhaps the least diplomatic. she doesn't bring people along with her, and that's her failing, and it could cost her the leadership. i fear it'll be robert jenrick who i think will have absolutely no impact on the party or the country. and at the moment , party or the country. and at the moment, nigel farage must be rubbing his hands with glee because as leader of reform, i mean, he is looking more and more like the natural head of the opposition instead of any of these four. i hope kemi wins, i really do. i'll be voting for her. if i had a vote, i would vote for her and i do think that she is by far the best, but i fear it will be generic. >> what do you think, nigel? well, i think i think you're right. she is smart, kemi. and she's. and i like you know,

she's. and i like you know, she's a mom of three kids and she's, you know, working woman. there's a lot there's a lot to like about her. i have to say, as a voter. >> but conservatives like feisty women . yes, indeed. women. yes, indeed. >> but there have been a lot of gaffes along the way. i mean, i think that, going on holiday rather than contesting the leadership doesn't show you're being serious about it, remarks like she's working class because at 16, she did a few shifts in mcdonald's . sounds a bit silly. mcdonald's. sounds a bit silly. she misspoke over over maternity pay- she misspoke over over maternity pay. i appreciate it's not what she meant , pay. i appreciate it's not what she meant, but it is what she said. and so it's things like that. i think that when you've got so many gaffes coming up, that's a problem. i mean, the tory party's had enough problem with leaders who make gaffes all the time, but i think the difference problem is whatever. >> if we get to down generic and badenoch, as i think is likely as the choice, whoever wins from those two will mean that the conservative party is split again and we will have the tory rebels will re—emerge as a new

kind of tory rebel, and it's the last thing the party needs. and unfortunately, the, the, all the candidates have been behind the scenes briefing madly against each other, which they were not supposed to do. but of course they've done it. and actually, kemmy's gaffes have been magnified by all the others deliberately to damage her. and i think they're damaging their own party. i think they're very , own party. i think they're very, very short sighted. there isn't a whiff of unity in this conference. >> they've got to decide what they want to be first of all. >> exactly. and i was just going to say, out of those four candidates, if you ask me their position on most major issues, i can probably tell you what kemi badenoch is going to be, because i think in terms of her ideology and what she believes, her belief system is clear. and i'm not sure about the other three. >> what they stand for trying to move to the right, even though we all know he's a romanian, you get the sense that and generic to some extent. >> also, trying to move to the right to appeal to reform. where

do you feel like kemi badenoch is natural home is there? and she's been very consistent about that. >> and i mean poor old cleverly, you know, affable guy , nice chap. >> no idea what he stands for. >> no idea what he stands for. >> but you know , no stabbing. yeah. >> piers. nigel. thank you so much. tatiana sanchez has your very latest news headlines . very latest news headlines. >> beth. thank you. the top stories. the israeli army says it's begun a targeted ground operation against the iranian backed terror group hezbollah, with artillery fires reported in the southern parts of beirut. hezbollah has reportedly responded with artillery fire into israel. the lebanese prime minister has described this as one of the most dangerous moments in their history. it's the first time since 2006 that israel have had boots on the ground inside lebanon. this all comes as the uk government has chartered a commercial flight to help british nationals leave. the plane is due to take off from beirut rafic hariri international airport tomorrow .

international airport tomorrow. foreign secretary david lammy says the situation could get much more dangerous and is urging british nationals to act immediately. he's also called for an immediate ceasefire. >> our position remains the same, having spoken to our american colleagues and other allies, we're calling for an immediate ceasefire. we need a diplomatic solution to the problems in lebanon. so that israelis can go back to their homes in northern israel, and lebanese can return to their homes in southern israel . so at homes in southern israel. so at this time, we want to see a political solution. the amos hochstein plan, which is on the table from the americans and an immediate ceasefire. >> tom tugendhat says he was extremely concerned by tory leadership rival robert jenrick claim that special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists, saying it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the law of

armed conflict . mr tugendhat armed conflict. mr tugendhat also told gb news there's a very clear argument that defence spending should be increased towards 3% in 25 years ago i joined the army and i swore allegiance to her majesty the queen and i swore to protect our country and i have always kept my promise. >> and what i've done is i've served on operations in iraq and afghanistan. i've been in combat and i've seen what this country needs to protect ourselves. so today, what am i thinking about? i'm thinking about defence spending. i'm thinking about the fact that labour is making us less safe by not investing in the technology that we need for the technology that we need for the future. and so what you'll get from me as a leader is a leader who can decide, a leader who will serve, and a leader who will always act in the national interest . interest. >> meanwhile, former prime minister rishi sunak's slogan stop the boats has been described as an error and unachievable by former home secretary and james cleverly. that's as he and robert jenrick will prepare to face questions from the membership at the conservative party conference today. mr cleverly told gb news this morning that he's the right

person to create optimism for the country about optimism. >> it's about a focus on the future. it's about paying less tax. it's about more jobs and better jobs. these are the betterjobs. these are the things that i'm passionate about. these are the things i've always been passionate about. and if i become the leader of the party, i'm best placed to kick out labour and get this country headed back in the right direction . oh and the direction. oh and the metropolitan police have launched a manhunt after a suspected acid attack took place at a westminster london school yesterday afternoon. >> a 14 year old girl has been seriously injured after a substance believed to be acidic was thrown at her and two others outside the westminster academy . outside the westminster academy. the girl remains in hospital with potentially life changing injuries. a 16 year old boy also remains in hospital with non—life changing injuries, and a woman , aged 27, has been sent a woman, aged 27, has been sent home from hospital after she was also hurt in that attack. and

those are the latest gb news headlines. for now, i'm tatiana sanchez. i'll be back with more news in half an hour for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone , sign up to news your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com >> forward slash alerts . >> forward slash alerts. >> forward slash alerts. >> forward slash alerts. >> for here in birmingham, although it's a little bit quiet, i'm going to try and get my hands on some and a drink. they didn't give me any of that whisky yesterday, did they?

gb news. so i'm walking about now on the conference floor. this is day three of the tory party conference. it's a bit busy than it was yesterday. people waiting

for some of the big debates, because we're going to hear we're going to go this way, we're going to go this way, we're going to hear from , who we're going to hear from, who we're going to hear from, who we're going to talk to, who are we're going to talk to, who are we going to speak to? we're going to talk to. look, people running out of my way. oh, look, now there's somebody from this is a very important epilepsy society. >> hello there. how are you doing with the epilepsy society here? >> yes. >> yes. >> so we're here today to raise awareness of seizure, first aid. we've got our messaging here. it's very easy to support somebody through a seizure. just remember calm cushion call. and we know that a lot of louise, who has epilepsy knows a lot of people are afraid of what to do. if somebody is having a seizure. and we know that two thirds of the population wouldn't know how to support somebody. so it's really important to raise this awareness amongst politicians , awareness amongst politicians, councillors, the general public. >> very good. and you've you've raised lots of marathons . raised lots of marathons. >> i am i did the london marathon and i raised 3500 pounds for the epilepsy society. that was the london marathon and great north run come by. >> good for you. how many, how

many marathons have you done? >> six. >> six. >> very impressive. have you have you done any marathons? >> i haven't done any. no, no, no, i'd love to, but full spinal stenosis. >> leave it to your daughter. but it's important that people like. louise is doing this for you. oh, absolutely. >> yes . because we do you. oh, absolutely. >> yes. because we do a you. oh, absolutely. >> yes . because we do a lot of >> yes. because we do a lot of research into epilepsy. so the funds that louise raises and other people , really support our other people, really support our research and our helpline as well. we've got a helpline. >> good luck. and very nice to talk to you. thank you . lovely talk to you. thank you. lovely to meet you ladies. lovely to meet you. so let's keep talking. let's go. who are we going to go to here. let's see who we can talk. you've got some nice shoes here. you can walk a mile in some shoes, but i don't think we want to talk to any shoes. let's go through here. we're going to go through here. we're going to go through here. we're going to go through the conference centre and. are you enjoying your conference, sir? yes yes. >> really good conscience. thank you very much. yes. have you decided which candidate you're going to support? >> that's. >> that's. >> i'm not going to say no. i don't know yet. i'm going to wait. no i'm a little bit biased

because i do know james cleverly . because i do know james cleverly. but i'll listen to the debate yesterday with tom and the lady and you say, do you really mean what you're saying? i'm looking for somebody personally that's centre right. that's got excuse my language. i shouldn't say this on. it's got a pair. what? we don't want any more if it can forgive me because i do listen to you. as i said to you before. listen to what you're saying. we need somebody that's positive, determined, and can turn this party around. not. let's do it next week. let's do it today. >> all right. positive message. nice to talk to you. we're going to go through here now because through here there's lots of commercial exhibitions lots of stands. yesterday we found some whisky. and you know what they didn't give me any whisky, which i thought was rather mean. let's see if we can come. so. so if we just turn to the left, look to the left. now that's that's jacob rees—mogg of this of this parish. he's talking to a fringe meeting. he's talking about campaigning. so we won't interrupt them. and over here, let's go to this tractor . let's go to this tractor. tractor here. now let's see if we can get on this tractor. do you think they're going to let

me on the tractor? i don't think they will. so look , this is this they will. so look, this is this is this is to appeal to the farmers vote. hello. are you is this for the farmers vote? what are you doing here? >> national farmers union. right. >> so there is a trade union and the tories like , we're not a the tories like, we're not a conventional trade union. >> we're actually an employers association. but yes, the tories do like the farmers and the national farmers union and the farmers still vote tory, you'll have to go and ask them directly that question. i think . but we that question. i think. but we had a fringe event last night where we had a pollster give a bit of an update on how the election had panned out in rural constituencies, and clearly there was a quite a significant drop off of the tory vote in a lot of rural areas. >> and this and this is a british this is this is all british this is this is all british products. >> absolutely. 100%. we've got everything we've been. we just had tom tugendhat on stand having a little bit of kent pear juice from his constituency , juice from his constituency, which he was very delighted to, to see. but absolutely all british food. we've got a

massey—ferguson tractor here. yeah, we've got a bit of an example of the sort of things farmers are doing growing crops, looking after. very good. >> can i go in your tractor? i'm allowed. right. we're going to go in this tractor. this would be a first for me. i've never beenin be a first for me. i've never been in a tractor before, so let's see. can i will i clamber in? i'm not going to break it, am i? i'll do anything right. >> you're very welcome to. we've got lots of mps clambering in. >> all right. of course we have. so here we go. a first round. drew pearce. in my journalistic career, i'm going to clamber into this, tractor . look at into this, tractor. look at that. look at that. now how about that. how about that . what about that. how about that. what do you reckon about that? do you like that? very good, very good. so i don't think i'm cut out for it. don't think it's for me, really. i haven't driven a car for 20 years, so let alone driving a tractor a little bit. yeah. very daunting, a little bit testy. very nice to meet you . bit testy. very nice to meet you. let's carry on. oh, we'll keep going. we'll keep going . we're going. we'll keep going. we're going. we'll keep going. we're going to keep talking. keep talking and walking as the tory conference. what's going on here? have we got one of the candidates. is here. it's tom

tugendhat. yes. so this is tom tugendhat. yes. so this is tom tugendhat. he's visiting the national grid. can we see tom tugendhat? so it's tom tugendhat , tugendhat? so it's tom tugendhat, freelance journalist in beirut in the late 90s. >> what you really need is a scalectrix . exactly. and we've scalectrix. exactly. and we've got all the best stories from that. >> there we go. which one is the bit? >> that's you. that's me. take it. >> did you have a scalectrix as a child, tom? i had a scalectrix when i was a freelance journalist in beirut in the 90s, and me and my mates would sit around in the evenings and, played scalectrix and obviously , played scalectrix and obviously, obviously get the best stories by inviting lebanese politicians around to play scalectrix. what around to play scalectrix. what a clever way to get a story. that's tom tugendhat, tom, one of our leadership contenders, playing scalectrix. you're never too old to play scalectrix that's my view . now let's. that's my view. now let's. should we go this way? keep going, keep going. have we lost? right. we've walked into another dead end. i'm pretty good at getting into dead ends , so let's getting into dead ends, so let's keep walking this way. so that

was so that was tom tugendhat playing scalectrix. i played scalectrix as a child , but i scalectrix as a child, but i wasn't very good at it. so that's from me. we're going to now go to a goodbye from birmingham

>> welcome back. i'm still recovering from the tv gold , recovering from the tv gold, which was andrew pierce asking an octogenarian in a wheelchair should ever run any marathons. but anyway, right . we are but anyway, right. we are sticking with me for the next ten minutes. i believe new rules have come into force today, banning businesses from withholding tips from their staff. the hospitality sector, restaurants, pubs, hairdressers and taxi operators are set to be impacted by the change. well, joining us now is bar and restaurant owner kate stewart. good morning kate . so this good morning kate. so this morning this is really good news for waiting on staff in restaurants and pubs. but we would presume that if we already give a service charge on the on

the bill that does go to the staff, is that not always the case? >> well, in every venue i have ever owned, i have always ensured that staff get 100% of their tips. ensured that staff get 100% of theirtips. i think ensured that staff get 100% of their tips. i think it's diabolical for any venue or any employer to even contemplate taking tips away from their staff. it's effectively stealing from them, you know these people depend on them. tips to make up the wages. it supports them. you know, it helps with staff retention, staff morale. i think, you know, it's much, much needed money that goes into their pocket and it's given to them. if a customer gives a tip, it's for that person or, you know, for the bar staff as a thank you for the great service they've delivered not to go into they've delivered not to go into the business owners pockets, it mustn't be happening all the time though, kate, because if it was happening, you wouldn't need this legislation. >> so there must be restaurateurs who are taking that service charge and just keeping it for themselves or to run the business. keeping it for themselves or to run the business. >> absolutely. i mean, i was >> absolutely. i mean, i was reading the newspaper this reading the newspaper this

morning and this big, big famous morning and this big, big famous companies who were doing that companies who were doing that and taking away the money from and taking away the money from the staff . and i think they the staff . and i think they the staff. and i think they should absolutely hang their the staff. and i think they should absolutely hang their headsin should absolutely hang their headsin should absolutely hang their heads in shame. they've got no need to steal off the staff heads in shame. they've got no need to steal off the staff members, and yeah, it's really members, and yeah, it's really bad. >> it would you would you say bad. >> it would you would you say that, owners of bars and that, owners of bars and restaurants, though, can pay restaurants, though, can pay their staff a smaller hourly their staff a smaller hourly wage, knowing that they're going wage, knowing that they're going to top it up , hopefully with to top it up , hopefully with tips? >> absolutely not. no, that's tips? >> absolutely not. no, that's not the way it should be because not the way it should be because ihave not the way it should be because i have noticed across venues ihave not the way it should be because i have noticed across venues that tipping is getting less and that tipping is getting less and less and less and less people less and less and less people are actually tipping. and you are actually tipping. and you can't say to somebody, oh, you can't say to somebody, oh, you know, you can work for less know, you can work for less amount of money because you may amount of money because you may get tips. what if they don't? get tips. what if they don't? they're coming into work to do a they're coming into work to do a shift for less money on shift for less money on unguaranteed tips. so i think unguaranteed tips. so i think that cannot happen. that cannot happen. >> yeah, it's a funny one in >> yeah, it's a funny one in this country though, isn't it? i this country though, isn't it? i think if you go to america, you think if to then take know, automatically the culture has been there for decades. so people will put on a ten, 15,

20, sometimes 25, 30% on top of the bill. but to

hard to be able to then take away the price from the card machine. how much is being tucked as processing fees? i just say to the staff, you get a tip , print the receipt out, tip, print the receipt out, we'll take the money out of the till and put it in your cup jar. i always say to people as well, if you're going to a venue or i do this personally, if i'm going to a restaurant and i'm paying my bill on my card, i'll always have £1,015 in me pocket and leave the actual cash on the table and say, and make sure i always check with the staff and say, do you get them tips? and you say, yeah, and i'm happy to leave it. >> yeah, me too. but what happens now then? you've got that awkward interaction. interaction where you might say, you get the bill, it's got a 10% tip on it, and then you have to say, can you go and take that off? because i want to give you cash. and it's just whenever i do that , my teenagers are just do that, my teenagers are just going, mum, you're so embarrassing. you're so embarrassing. you're so embarrassing. i said, yeah, but i don't want i can't guarantee that that tip is going to go to the waitresses who've done a really great job. now with this change in legislation, maybe we can guarantee that it is going

to go to the staff. so maybe it will take more cash out of the system again. >> who's going to manage them? who is going to mandate that them? tips still go to that person. and it's going to be very, very difficult to prove that. and when it comes to accountancy fees and when it goes to the accountants and stuff like that. so i'm not 100% certain that all tips will go to the servers, even with the new legislation. >> yep, yep . well, we have that. >> yep, yep. well, we have that. we share that northern scepticism kate good to see you. thanks so much kate stewart there. right. that is it from me. and andrew in birmingham for today. next over to emily and tom. see you tomorrow. >> yes . tom. see you tomorrow. >> yes. coming up on good afternoon britain. we are of course going to be flying you over to the conservative party conference, gearing up for a q&a with christopher hope and robert jenrick . he's the one to beat at jenrick. he's the one to beat at the moment, four points ahead of the moment, four points ahead of the next contender for that tory leadership. and the only way is up when it comes to energy bills, isn't it? as we say goodbye to britain's last coal plant. lots more to come. 12 till three. good afternoon .

till three. good afternoon. >> despite the morning rain, it'll be a nice, warm, cosy day ahead. boxed heat pumps sponsors of weather on gb news >> good morning. welcome to your latest weather update from the met office here on gb news. a dner met office here on gb news. a drier day for most today, but there will still be some outbreaks of rain over eastern areas in particular, where there'll also be a cold wind blowing. the wet weather continued through the night over parts of lincolnshire, yorkshire, down across east anglia and the south—east. not as heavy as yesterday's downpours , but staying pretty downpours, but staying pretty grey and soggy here throughout, with a cold wind curling in from the north sea. much of wales southwest england dry , bright southwest england dry, bright and sunny, along with most of scotland and northern ireland as well, and in the brighter spells, particularly in the southwest, we could see temperatures in the high teens. feels colder than that, though , feels colder than that, though, on these north sea coasts. as i said, with the further outbreaks of rain and that brisk, chilly wind continuing to feed some

showers in across lincolnshire, maybe some brighter spells, this afternoon over parts of east maybe some brighter spells, this afternoon over parts of east anglia and the south—east. but anglia and the south—east. but generally pretty grey and cold further west. we'll see some generally pretty grey and cold further west. we'll see some good spells of sunshine. a fine good spells of sunshine. a fine end to the day across northern end to the day across northern ireland and much of scotland as ireland and much of scotland as well. on the coast again a well. on the coast again a fairly brisk wind, but the winds fairly brisk wind, but the winds easing down generally across easing down generally across scotland as we go through the scotland as we go through the night, and that will allow night, and that will allow temperatures to fall away into temperatures to fall away into single figures. pretty rapidly single figures. pretty rapidly this evening. we'll keep a lot this evening. we'll keep a lot of cloud through the evening and of cloud through the evening and overnight across eastern parts overnight across eastern parts of england. a bit more showery of england. a bit more showery rain pushing down across the rain pushing down across the midlands, perhaps even into parts of south wales. for a midlands, perhaps even into parts of south wales. for a time. that brisk wind will time. that brisk wind will continue to blow. that will continue to blow. that will actually help to keep the actually help to keep the temperatures up a little bit temperatures up a little bit through the night, in double through the night, in double figures across much of central figures across much of central and eastern england. but with and eastern england. but with the clearer skies further west the clearer skies further west and particularly, as i and particularly, as i mentioned, further north across mentioned, further north across scotland, will be down into scotland, will be down into single figures. could be a bit single figures. could be a of mist and fog here and there. first thing tomorrow. that should clear away. it'll still be pretty grey, i suspect in the morning over central and eastern england, but the rain continuing to fizzle out. some showers

across norfolk, suffolk down

gb news. >> good afternoon britain. it's 12:00 on tuesday the 1st of october. i'm emily carver. >> and i'm tom harwood loud from a very noisy conservative party conference. >> very noisy indeed. now, in other news, israel invades. israeli troops have launched a ground invasion into southern lebanon. in what the israeli military is calling a limited, localised and targeted ground operation against hezbollah. this just days after the

assassination of the group's leader, hassan nasrallah, and manhunt underway, police are searching for an assailant after two schoolchildren and a member of staff were hospitalised following a suspected acid attack at a school in west london will be on the scene and shut for good. britain's only remaining coal power plant at ratcliffe on soar in nottinghamshire, has closed down after powering the united kingdom for 57 years, the end of an era. but how will this impact the area, and have we simply outsourced our carbon footprint ? outsourced our carbon footprint? to well , tom, outsourced our carbon footprint? to well, tom, another busy day ahead at the conservative party conference there in birmingham . conference there in birmingham. >> that's right. a very busy day here in birmingham . here in birmingham. >> i'm at the tom tugendhat stall where the conservative leadership contender is releasing new merchandise. let's see if we can have a little look

at this merchandise here. i'm