mates and the costs of health and pensions. grow is a tax squeeze inevitable. and in that big speech yesterday, the prime minister pledged to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years. but the national federation of builders has warned that a shortage of construction workers threatens to derail that target unless they're allowed to recruit immigrants from abroad. so we'll be asking where have britain's builders gone? and for the first time, a national opinion poll has put reform uk ahead of the

labour party. the snapshot by polling company find out now. put nigel farage's party on 24% of the vote, one point ahead of labour and two points behind the tories. but another poll today has reform in third place on 21%. nevertheless, is the insurgent party about to break through britain's two party system? and a big, fat disappointment. millions of obese people will be denied free weight loss injections due to a lack of nhs capacity. should the taxpayer fund drugs to help the overweight slimmed down? or is it time for some personal responsibility? and joining me tonight i've got my panel, charlie downs, political commentator, and paul embery , commentator, and paul embery, trade unionist and broadcaster. but first, here are your latest news headlines . news headlines. >> very good evening. it's just gone. 6:00 i'm sarah hill with

your latest headlines from the gb newsroom. our top story this evening. and storm dara has sparked a rare red warning for wind with gusts of up to 90 miles an hour expected to batter parts of wales and the south—west of england, including cardiff , bristol south—west of england, including cardiff, bristol and devon. the warning, in place from 3 am. tomorrow, calls for people to take care as flying debris and falling trees could pose a danger to life. an amber warning is also in place for the west coast of the uk, from scotland to cornwall and northern ireland, with large waves and potential damage to homes and buildings. heavy rain and over 100 flood warnings are also in effect, adding to the weekend's challenges . now, sir adding to the weekend's challenges. now, sir keir starmer says civil servants will help to push through new changes under the labour government. the pm praised civil servants, saying they bring a strong sense of public service. this comes as there are calls from the union for senior civil servants saying sama needs to immediately rebuild trust with the civil service after using trumpian language to describe them. >> the milestones in my speech this week about what the

government is going to do to change the lives of people across the country that we want to be measured by. at the same time, i made it clear that they will be used to drive through the change in the way the government delivers. and i think lots of civil servants will say, good, great, give us the leadership. we want that change to. >> now in scotland, a farm has been placed under lockdown after a cow tested positive for atypical mad cow disease. the scottish government has imposed strict movement restrictions on the affected animals, although it says there is no risk to pubuc it says there is no risk to public health and the cow didn't enter the food chain. the case in dumfries and galloway was detected through routine surveillance, and investigations are now underway to determine its origin. authorities have assured the public that stringent control measures are in place to prevent any wider impact, and to europe, the european commission president, ursula von der leyen, has signed a controversial trade deal with south american countries, which could have significant impact on farmers in the uk. the deal has been met with firm opposition

from several eu member states and expected to face a backlash from the farming sectors across europe, with a significant impact in northern ireland and the rest of the uk. european farmers have consistently protested against the eu mercosur deal, arguing it could lead to cheap imports of south american food, particularly beef, which they claim does not meet the eu's environmental and food safety standards , and the food safety standards, and the princess of wales has arrived at westminster abbey ahead of the start of her annual christmas service this evening. princess kate was joined by her husband and children, with the young royals stopping at the kindness tree outside the abbey to hang messages in dedication to someone who has supported them dunng someone who has supported them during their lives. this year's together at christmas event celebrates love and empathy, with 1600 guests invited in. a message sent ahead of the service. kate said christmas is a moment of celebration and joy, as well as an opportunity to slow down and reflect on the things that connect us all. those are the latest gb news headunes those are the latest gb news headlines for now , i'm sphere headlines for now, i'm sphere

hill. i'll be back in an hour, but for now it's back to miriam 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. >> welcome to dewbs& co with me , >> welcome to dewbs& co with me, miriam cates, and joining me until 7:00. i've got my panel. charlie downs, political commentator and paul embery, trade unionist and broadcaster and as always, i want to know your views about the topics we're going to be discussing. so please go on. gbnews.com/win your say and we will be reading out some of your opinions later on in the show. well, our first story tonight, sir keir starmer has declined to rule out further tax rises before the next general election , despite general election, despite chancellor rachel reeves claiming less than two weeks ago that taxes will not increase again. take a listen. >> i don't want to in any way suggest that we're going to keep

coming back for more, because that isn't the plan. so no more tax rises. so. so we did the tough stuff in order to stabilise because what individuals and particularly businesses have said to me is, look, do the tough stuff, but then we need the degree of certainty. we need to know that things aren't going to materially change. so that's the approach we've taken. what i can't do is say to you , there can't do is say to you, there are no circumstances unforeseen in the future that wouldn't lead to any change at all. >> well, just last week, the chancellor explicitly ruled out further tax rises in an address to the cbi, where she told business leaders, i'm really clear. i'm not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes. taxes are, of course, at a record high at the moment, but cannot even. should further rises ever be ruled out? and would you be willing to pay more taxes if needed? charlie, the prime minister's wise, isn't he? he can't rule out a war, a major fiscal event. that might mean he has to raise taxes. >> no. he can't. and maybe it

was down to rachel reeves running her mouth, saying that they're definitely not going to raise them again, because i mean that in and of itself, it's not a great look, is it, to have a divided ruling class in that kind of way where one person's saying one one thing and the other is saying another? it's just not great. but my sort of stance on this, to be honest, is, look, taxes is a necessary evil. and i'm actually a big believer in the idea that the state can be used to do positive things for a country, right? i'm not a libertarian. i think the state is a good thing. but the question is who, right? because at the moment our state is occupied by idiots who clearly don't know how to spend our money. for example, at least £23 billion a year is being spent explicitly on foreigners. so this is things like foreign aid on which we spend about 15 billion housing asylum seekers, about 5.5 billion, and so—called climate aid, which is approaching 5 billion. so these are areas that are obviously wasteful, obviously not in the interests of the british people. and it should be there that our government looks for cuts first, rather than immediately going and taxing ordinary people . and taxing ordinary people. because, as everyone knows, that just makes people poorer. it doesn't improve the country.

>> paul he's right, isn't it? it's not the it's not an objection to paying tax in principle that people have. it's whether or not they believe that money is being well spent. >> yeah. and keir starmer took the only line that a prime minister i think can realistically take. you can't rule out tax rises for the next 4 to 5 years. it is possible there will be another pandemic. there may be a war, there may be another unforeseen event. the real question is where do those tax rises? if they are necessary, where do they fall? as someone on the left, i think that there are pretty grotesque wealth and income inequalities in this country at the moment. in this