for ending illegal serious plan for ending illegal migration. that's the message from conservative leader kemi badenoch, who says we can no longer be naive. giving a speech a short while ago, she said the conservatives are to thank for a reduction in net immigration, expected to be confirmed tomorrow. the tory leader laid out her five point plan for tackling immigration, while admitting her party had got it wrong in the past. meanwhile, the prime minister has ruled out calling another general election after a petition calling for a rerun garnered over 2.8 million signatures. the petition on parliament's website calling for another election, has become the third most popular e—petition since 2010. easily surpassing the 100,000 signatures required for a debate to take place. while the vast majority of those signing it are from the uk, it also gained support from other countries. donald trump ally elon musk used his social media site to highlight a petition

calling for another election and branding the uk a tyrannical police state. downing street sources have told gb news that the government is not considering a blasphemy law. it comes after sir keir starmer faced questions from mps in the house of commons today, where he was urged to introduce blasphemy laws by labour mp tahir ali. mr ali called for action as he warned division and hatred can be fuelled in society by such mindless desecration. blasphemy laws were abolished in england and wales in 2008 and in scotland in 2021. in other news, seven people have now been arrested in london as part of a counter—terrorism investigation into suspected activity linked to the kurdistan workers party , to the kurdistan workers party, or pkk. a proscribed terrorist organisation. the suspects, aged between 23 and 62, were detained under the terrorism act, with officers conducting searches at eight addresses across the city,

including the kurdish community centre in haringey. police say there's no immediate threat to there's no immediate threat to the public, but the centre will remain closed for up to two weeks as the investigation continues. an increased police presence will remain in the area, with officers on hand to address any community concerns, and several people nominated to roles in donald trump's incoming cabinet and administration have been targeted by a bomb, threats and swatting. that's according to the fbi. police are investigating the incidents, which happened on tuesday night and early this morning. karoline leavitt, a spokeswoman for trump's transition team, said several people had been targeted and law enforcement acted quickly to ensure their safety. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to ben 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/alerts . gbnews.com/alerts. >> good evening. i hope you all wrapped up warm tonight because it's getting very cold outside, but thankfully we have a prime minister who cares deeply about those who can't afford to put the heating on to spray winter before last. >> in the height of the energy pnces >> in the height of the energy prices going up and spoke to an 84 year old woman who worked all her life, obviously now a pensioner, and she told me that she doesn't get out of bed till midday because she didn't want to turn the heating on. yeah, it was awful. and then when she did get out of bed, she had this sort of thermal jacket that she just wore all day long. so she didn't have to put the heating up very high. that's an awful position to put a pensioner in. >> oh, hang on a minute. sorry. that was before the election when he was begging for your vote. sorry i forgot. since then, of course, he's taken away then, of course, he's taken away the £300 winter fuel payment for

all but the poorest of pensioners and condemned millions of apps to freeze this winter. don't take my word for it either. when labour were accusing the tories of wanting to do the same thing when they were in government, they didn't. by were in government, they didn't. by the way, labour's own research suggests that up to 4000 pensioners would die as a result, and new research today from marie curie shows more than 40,000 terminally ill pensioners have lost their winter fuel allowance thanks to this government. energy costs can for double those with terminal illnesses. they need to constantly keep their homes warm to help relieve pain, to wash and dry clothes, to and charge and dry clothes, to and charge and run life saving medical devices and separate research from age. uk today reveals 55% of pensioners will turn down the heating or reduce the hours they use it this winter. around 1.2 million are also intending to reduce the number of hot meals they eat. can you believe that in 2024 they are literally choosing to heat or eat.7 so what does the prime minister do.7 he does the prime minister do? he shrugs. it off. >> the whole house is concerned about energy bills, which are

actually lower this year than they were last year. the long term way to deal with this is clean power by 2030, to make sure we drive those energy bills down on a permanent basis. and that's what we will do on the winter fuel allowance. he knows very well what the government's position is and i've rehearsed it indeed with him many times . it indeed with him many times. >> let me remind you how much this widely hated labour policy is earning. treasury coffers £1.4 billion. let me remind you what labour is splashing other taxpayer cash on while our elderly freeze to death. £22 billion on a carbon capture programme that's hated by eco zealots and climate sceptics alike. £14 billion in foreign aid. £14 billion in public sector pay rises to the likes of train drivers already earning up to £60,000 a year and at least at least £1 billion a year. housing asylum seekers. i never thought i'd see the day and i suspect many pensioners didn't ehhen suspect many pensioners didn't either. when those who have shed blood , sweat and tears for this blood, sweat and tears for this

country decade after decade were treated with such disdain and callousness by those meant to be protecting them. well, let's get the thoughts now of my panel of popular conservatives, mark littlewood , businessman and littlewood, businessman and activist adam brooks, and the broadcaster judith activist adam brooks, and the broadcasterjudith da silva. broadcaster judith da silva. good evening panel. thank you for your company. welcome along, adam brooks. your thoughts on this , please. he spoke in this, please. he spoke in parliament today, the prime minister. and just as i said, shrugged it off. doesn't really care about the two surveys done today by marie curie or age uk pensioners literally freezing to death this winter. >> i can't believe again, as you said there, that we have got a government that is putting the lives of our elderly at risk. these elderly have helped shape this country and put into this country over many decades. this country over many decades. this country wouldn't be where it is today without those generations. now again, 4000 could die. and that was their estimate. in 2017, a labour estimate . now 2017, a labour estimate. now pnces 2017, a labour estimate. now prices have doubled since then.

energy prices. so i'm predicting there could be a lot more now. this is a government that pre—election said that energy bills would come down and that they would look after pensioners. they've done the opposite. this is a prime minister that gets his specs paid for, his suits paid for, he gets the use of a £20 million penthouse for nothing . they are penthouse for nothing. they are hypocrites and they are liars . hypocrites and they are liars. >> judith, your thoughts on that? it's a great point from adam. sir keir starmer has paid a six figure salary. he gets freebies to the arsenal taylor swift concerts. the racers two and a half grand specs, a wardrobe bought for his wife. all the while british pensioners freezing in winter. >> i mean, if we're going to unpack what politicians benefit from when they're in office, we need only just look at the very short distance to boris johnson. so all of them are pretty much a questionable set when it comes to politicians in general. but i think that's diversion, diversionary tactics. the thing is, on the face of it, the way

the initiative is presented is that it's a multi—pronged approach that while you're while you're cutting fuel allowance here, you're going to drive down energy bills, you're going to raise pensions. it's actually means tested. you can't apply for pension credit. but what i say is that even though you're trying to attack it in a holistic sense, so that where you lose here, you gain over there is the money you're going to reap from this initiative worth the negative sentiment? that's pretty much universal. i don't know, that's where i question the thinking and the logic behind me. what do you think? >> do you back this policy? >> do you back this policy? >> i don't think it's good. i disagree with it. so you'd pull the plug on it if you were prime minister? i would, i would, but i understand the motivation behind at the end of the day, these this these are all inherited problems. there are over 20 billion. black hole is an inherited problem. they only knew the true borders of it once they got into power. >> why are they doing it then? what are they doing it deliberately to stitch up the pensioners who are mostly, guess. >> no, it's a sensibility that post the knock on effect

everyone from david cameron's tony blair to joe public and jane public and myself said that you will only understand the ramifications of brexit in years to come. this, that is the truth you got to do with brexit. so it is because what you're trying to deal with is the loss of the economic dents that has been made that the uk has to make up for, and everyone's feeling it. >> pain £18 billion in climate aid. >> that's 14 times what we are paying. 5.4 billion for asylum seekers and asylum aid in this country. those people do not deserve to get warm bedrooms fed three times a day. free healthcare over our pensioners. you can always. >> you can always question that there are certain things that money should is not well advised to be spent on, but at the other side, tell me now that the big golden pot at the end of the rainbow of brexit. has it been delivered eight years later? it is because it's a financial it's an economic dent that has been inherited since brexit that everyone is still trying to deal with. but people want want to avoid focusing on what they've inherited from that.

>> our economic growth has tracked that of the eu since brexit has been. that isn't true . brexit has been. that isn't true. thatis brexit has been. that isn't true. that is true, that is true. so this economic growth is not a brexit doesn't there is there is. ben, as you as you pointed out, there are choices to be made in government. you know, there is a certain fixed pot of money and you need to decide which cohorts or which projects you're going to give it to. and they have picked, i think, remarkably, two battles that make fairly modest savings. was it 1.4 billion on the winter fuel allowance, 500 million on the farmers tax, 500 million. i mean , that's 2 billion in total, mean, that's 2 billion in total, which in terms of total government spending is chump change. i would say this, though, that i think where we need to have a serious debate , need to have a serious debate, we are no longer in the situation that applied a couple of generations ago, whereby if you were old, you were almost certainly poor. there are a lot of poor pensioners, but there are a lot of rich pensioners as well. i think it's about 1 are a lot of rich pensioners as well. i think it's about1 in 4 well. i think it's about 1 in 4 pensioners are millionaires in terms of the value of their property. so i think we do need

to redesign the system so that you get the help. probably less total money spent to the people who desperately need it. my parents don't. there's no need to give them the winter fuel that somebody who lives in a house with a bit of equity because they bought it many decades ago and they grafted very hard to purchase it, aren't cash rich millionaires? no, they're not cash rich. >> that's true. you get people on this sofa in recent weeks saying, well, move out, then move house. that's not always easy for a 70, 80, 90 year old person who spent their entire life in that house. they have very deep, sentimental values attached to the house. no, i'm not suggesting they're going to go. >> i'm not suggesting that you can't. millionaires. you can release the equity in your property. right? scam equity release is the biggest financial we've got. we've got to make that work. because if you have got £1 million property, i'm not saying sell it so you can pay your gas bills, but i am saying that that is an asset that you can borrow against. and we need a proper market to allow that. and a good number of pensioners, as i say, i'm going to pick on my parents again, are pretty affluent and it doesn't seem to me a good use of money to be sending them the winter fuel allowance. i would have wrapped

the winter fuel allowance, i think, into the basic state pension. then you're taxed on it. so those who have got a healthy income might actually be paying healthy income might actually be paying a 40% tax on it. those who are reliant wholly on the state pension would not be paying state pension would not be paying any tax or an absolutely tiny amount. but what labour have completely screwed up is the execution of this policy. you were showing that clip of keir starmer just before the election, suddenly, out of a clear blue sky. it was a complete u—turn. this has not been thought through. it is not an efficient way of getting the money to the people who need it. and here's another thought to conjure with not just the number of deaths we might see, but every ambulance call out costs, what, £250 a night in hospitals? about £400. you might end up losing money because so many people need medical assistance . people need medical assistance. >> you saw that clip of keir starmer talking before the election. you know , getting election. you know, getting sentimental. he's a blatant liar. pensioners. so is he. what's happened? is he a liar? has he had to change position because he's a blatant liar? >> it's not a liar. >> it's not a liar. >> it's being assessed and assessing that the landscape has changed. >> he's a blatant liar. they've lied on so many things. if they told the electorate they would do this to the farmers. if they told the electorate that they

would do this to pensioners, they wouldn't have got in. that's a fact. we have now got a government that is so spiteful that even labour voters are shocked and ashamed to have voted for that party. >> are you going to brand a u—turn as lying? if you assess the terrain and it has shifted, it is pragmatic for a politician to change policy to react to that. and indeed, i agree that i think it's a drop in the ocean and based on universal derision, that is, that it has been met with. it is something that you could feasibly forego, but the whole idea is that, like we've already we've already heard in order to fix the problem, they have inherited , everyone's going have inherited, everyone's going to have to hurt a little bit. if with one breath you say fix the problem, the process to fix the problem, the process to fix the problem in an expedited fashion means everyone suffers to a certain degree. you can't say fix it, but don't affect me . fix it, but don't affect me. >> there were better ways to raise money. >> can i just ask you? you keep mentioning and alluding to brexit, but we had the best gdp figures out of the entire. i think it was the entire world, at least the g7 in the first six months of this year, the best in

decades. germany was in recession last year we weren't. we've been growing at an anaemic pace but still growing. germany. >> the gains that the eu block have made would never have been made based on the domination the uk had. pre—brexit that is just a fact. >> so why was germany in recession last year? >> we know that it's a multitude of issues. there are always going to be isolated deviations which always happens in finance. but i'm saying that nobody, no one can sell to me. if you can sit there and say what you were sold, like get brexit on what you were sold at the beginning of brexit because no, everyone was on there. no , no. but that's was on there. no, no. but that's what that is the essence of the whole thing . if you're sold whole thing. if you're sold something and you believed in it and voted for it , has it been and voted for it, has it been delivered with one breath? you condemn. if you condemn , if you condemn. if you condemn, if you condemn. if you condemn, if you condemn keir starmer for not delivering on things he promises, then you have that that base that purist approach to people delivering on what they offer, what they say they pledge you are going to get or not. >> that's a separate conversation, and that's not the problem. you are attributing a political decision to save £1.4 billion on a vote. >> no, no, no, i already said

that. i don't back that. i'm saying that the general ethos of this labour government seems to be everyone has to hurt to contribute to the solution. >> well, the real problem that a government of any stripe faces is nothing to do with brexit. it's that the british government has been overspending for nearly a quarter of a century. you have to go back to 2001 to the last balanced budget , 15 years before balanced budget, 15 years before the brexit referendum . the brexit referendum. government has spent too much and government has spent too much