cracked it. will this be the one? cracked it. will this be the one.7 you cracked it. will this be the one? you tell me if you're optimistic or not. and do you remember in may this year, it saw what some described as a watershed moment for the labour party. others called it a tectonic shift in british politics. what am i talking about? a public letter signed by 120 odd business bosses, stating that labour was the party for british business. how many of those business bosses do you think stand by that public endorsement today? and billionaire and political donor nick candy, he's switched his support and his wallet from the tories to reform uk. your thoughts on that and first cousin marriages? they have been debated in parliament today. a simple question for you. should they be legally banned in britain or not? and keeping me

company tonight, my panel, the academic and journalist tom berwick and the former conservative mep dame jacqueline foster. but before we get stuck in, let's cross live for the 6:00 news headlines. >> good evening. i'm sophia wenzler with your headlines from the gb newsroom. the uk and germany have reached a landmark deal to tackle migrant smuggling. germany has agreed to tighten laws making it easier to prosecute smugglers behind small boat crossings to the uk. the deal also focuses on intelligence sharing and removing smuggling content from social media to disrupt criminal networks. home secretary yvette coopen networks. home secretary yvette cooper, speaking at a meeting with european leaders this morning, said the agreement will strengthen border security and save lives. >> gangs have been getting away with it for far too long. that's why today's meeting is so important. in recent weeks, we have already seen the important

impact of a collaboration across our countries. the significant arrest of a major suspect involved in smuggling engines and boats, involving collaboration between the netherlands, belgium and the uk. the series of arrests that have taken place across germany, with the french led operations in the last week. >> now independent mp iqbal mohammed has spoken out against a proposed ban on first cousin marriages in the uk, calling the move unnecessary and unenforceable. speaking in the commons, mr mohammed acknowledged the health risks but stressed the need for a cultural shift, not legislation to address the issue. he did condemn forced marriages and virginity testing, highlighting the need to protect women's rights. however, the mp for dewsbury and batley argues that banning first cousin marriages would not solve the problem. in

other news, billionaire nick candy has pledged a seven figure donation to reform uk after announcing he will become the party's new treasurer in the new yeah party's new treasurer in the new year. the property tycoon, who resigned from the conservative party over what he called too many broken promises, will now help raise funds ahead of may's local elections. speaking to our political editor chris hope, candy confirmed his commitment, calling reform the future of british politics. >> my only job here is i'm not a politician. i don't want to be a politician. i don't want to be a politician. i don't want to be a politician. i help to raise funds for the tory party. i'm now helping reform doing it. i think we will break records of that. not because i'm so great at doing it. i believe people want that change. i wouldn't be doing this if i didn't think reform uk would be the party in government in 2029, and nigel farage will be the prime minister of this country. >> and former england rugby player tom voice is believed to have died after going into a river in his car in northumberland. northumbria police said it received a report

on sunday. the 43 year old had not returned home following an evening with his friends. it is believed he attempted to cross a ford in his car, which was then pulled along with the current of the river. ulm police have since recovered the car, but officers have not found mr voice and it is believed he was carried away while attempting to escape and died. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to michel 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. >> thank you very much for that. my >> thank you very much for that. my name is michelle dewberry and i'm keeping you company until 7:00 tonight. alongside my panel 7:00 tonight. alongside my panel, the academic and journalist tom buick and former

conservative mep baroness jacqueline foster. good evening to both of you. you're welcome. good evening. i'm going to start calling you instead. the best dressed female panellist. don't, don't. she always look smart? 0h. oh. >> she's impeccable. >> she's impeccable. >> always, always look smart. and whenever you're on this programme, i always get comments talking about how well—presented and glamorous you are. if we're still allowed to say that in this day and age. ladies and gents, are we? but take the compliment. >> i do, thank you very much. >> i do, thank you very much. >> very glamorous, isn't she? she makes her. every time i know that you're on, i think, oh, god, am i all right? am i up to standard or not? anyway, look, it's not just about us three. it's about you guys at home as well. what's on your mind tonight? there's so much we need tonight? there's so much we need to discuss. ladies and gents, i want to talk. labour. are they still the party of british business? speaking of business, nick candy, you've just been heanng nick candy, you've just been hearing about that in the headunes hearing about that in the headlines there. what do you make to this, then? him switching to reform uk first cousin marriage that's been debated in parliament. what do you think to that? should it be made illegal in this country? get in touch gb views @gbnews. com the email gbnews.com/yoursay

is how you get on touch on the website and you can tweet or text me. but look at top story tonight the uk and germany. then we've reached a landmark deal to tackle migrant smuggling. i've got to say we've we've been talking about doing deals haven't we, for quite some time. but these two countries have pledged to share intelligence and expertise against these gangs. look, let's just cut to the chase. we keep talking about keir starmer, talks about, you know, cracking the gangs and the smugglers and so on. is this the deal that's going to make it happen jacqueline? >> i think regrettably not. i'm open to any improvements that they can make in terms of cooperation. but the problem that you have, germany has said that you have, germany has said that it's going to actually just strengthen its laws to actually criminalise gangs. the difficulty with all of this is there are literally hundreds or thousands of gangs across europe. and if we look at the borders of germany, for example, it's they're not the illegal immigrants are not leaving from the borders of germany in terms

of crossing the channel. they come around and come through and there are no borders because they're part of schengen. so i think it'll be a challenge. i think it'll be a challenge. i think what's actually a concern is we've we've actually paid half £1 billion to france to try and stop the boats, certainly, you know, from that angle. but the problem is there, i mean, i think post the election, they actually stopped a couple of boats for a couple of days, which we know that they can do it, but they still refuse to do it. so those boats set off and everyone is in peril and i don't see it changing that much. there is good cooperation. we did it when we were in government and look how difficult it was then. >> so when this was announced today and i'm reading the press release from this, essentially it says so this is the government's press release. securing our borders is a foundation of the government's plan for change, and this is the latest step to restore order to the asylum system and deliver on working people's priorities. help me understand if securing

borders is a foundation of this plan for change. why isn't it one of the five targets then that's in this plan for change? >> well, it should be. but why is it important? well, i'll come on to that in just a moment. because you asked the question as well. will this stop the boats? and i think any fair minded person will look at this and say, a single initiative is welcome as it is today will not in itself stop the boats. that said, we're six months into this government, i think already, and i've said this before on this show. yvette cooper, as home secretary, is demonstrating that she's up for doing the hard yards. and we've seen that in terms of, you know, ten over 10,000 illegal migrants have been put on charter flights and been put on charter flights and been sent back to whence they came. that's a massive increase on what the previous government was doing. and on the point about whether it's five priorities, seven milestones, all the other sort of technocratic nonsense that we did see last week with that did see last week with t