they've lost. >> that's angela rayner there. not that long ago. basically, as you heard saying, that the injustice of waspi women would be compensated within five years. well, i can tell you now, it is a day of shame if you ask me. almost 4 million waspi women will be now denied that much promised and much needed, in some cases compensation. what do you think to that? what have the pensioners actually done to upset the labour party? get in touch and tell me. also tory

leader kemi badenoch, she has called a flat rate of tax attractive. is it or not? and reform uk have called labour's plans to potentially scrap some local council by elections a threat to democracy. apparently designed to stop their party's success? do you agree with that or not? and get a load of this. the eu is suing the uk over post—brexit freedom of movement failures, apparently. what on earth is going on? all of that and lots more keeping me company tonight. ben habib, the former deputy leader of reform uk, and paul richards, the former labour special adviser. but before we get stuck in, let's cross live for your 6:00 news headlines. >> good evening. i'm sophia wenzler with your headlines from the gb newsroom. your top story this hour. sarah sharif's father

and stepmother have been sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of their ten year old daughter following years of horrific abuse. irfan sharif was handed a minimum of 40 years in prison, while bineesh batus received 33 years. her uncle, faisal malik, was jailed for 16 years for failing to prevent her death. in a harrowing statement, justice kavanaugh said sara's suffering was almost impossible to contemplate, revealing that in the final weeks of her life she was tied up, hooded and had plastic bags put over her head. he revealed that sara was found with 71 separate fresh injuries, including fractures and burns, including fractures and burns, in a victim impact statement. sara's mother said she is now an angel looking down from heaven. in other news, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is heading to cairo for gaza ceasefire talks. that's according to reuters news agency. uncertainty is surrounding netanyahu's whereabouts, but it's understood

a deal is expected to be signed in the coming days. meanwhile, hamas has said that a ceasefire dealis hamas has said that a ceasefire deal is possible, but only if israel didn't set new conditions. now it's being reported that the new prime minister of mauritius says the chagos islands deal struck by sir keir starmer isn't good enough and he wants to reopen talks. it's understood he rejects current terms as they would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect. his government has made counter—proposals to london and received a response, though no details have yet been provided. another seven asylum hotels will close in the new year. that's according to the home secretary, yvette cooper told the commons home affairs committee today that she had issued closure orders for the seven hotels as the backlog of asylum cases has now started coming down. in november, ministers admitted 14 hotels had been opened and seven closed since labour came to power, bringing the total use to

220. and the government has rejected calls for compensation for women affected by changes to the state pension age. the work and pensions secretary says paying and pensions secretary says paying a flat rate for all women born in the 1950s would cost taxpayers more than £10 billion and wouldn't be fair. women against state pension inequality, also known as waspi, say they weren't properly informed about the changes, while liz kendall admitted there was a delay in notifying women. she insisted most were aware of the pension age rise. she has now confirmed there will be no compensation scheme, despite calls for one. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to michelle 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. i'm michelle dewberry and i'm keeping you company until 7:00 tonight alongside me, i've got my panel. ben habib, the former deputy leader of reform uk, and paul richards, the former labour special adviser. good evening to you gents. you're very welcome tonight, as are each and every single one of you at home. what's on your mind tonight? i bet you cannot imagine when it comes to lots of you. but you can get in touch all the usual ways. you can email me gb views @gbnews. com you can go to the website gbnews.com/yoursay or you can tweet or x me. i've got to just say before we get into the agenda tonight, there's so much we need to discuss. i just want to reference that sara sharif case, because we've followed this case with horror, quite frankly. and i do just hope that little girl rests in peace. and i hope those individuals that have today been sentenced. i wish that life meant life, that people never saw the light of day ever again.

quite frankly, an awful, awful situation where that little girl rest in peace. and the big story, of course, on the news agenda today will be one that affects many of my viewers at home. i speak, of course, of waspi. are you a waspi woman? do you know what a waspi woman is? are you sitting there thinking, i've never even heard of this in all my life? in which case, where have you been? but worry not, because i shall explain. all waspi relates to almost 4 million women who, you know, they're grafters. they went out to work, they paid their dues and they expected to have a state pension. they knew what they were doing. and then the goalposts were changed very, very quickly. and in some cases, many would argue without the proper and due process when it came to warning people and to give time for those people to accurately plan their retirements. can you imagine that you're working? you think that you're working? you think that you've got x amount of years to go and all the rest of it? you plan your life, you plan

your finances, and then boom, the goalpost are shifted. you'd be very distressed, i imagine, by that situation. but many people have picked up the plight of the so—called waspi women, promising time and time and time again to pick up this injustice and to fix it. it's been a big question mark as to what will happen next hanging over these women. well, today we've got the answer. the work and pensions secretary said the following in commons today. let's take a listen. >> given the vast majority of women knew the state pension age was increasing, the government does not believe paying a flat rate to all women at a cost of up to £105 rate to all women at a cost of up to £10.5 billion, would be a fair or proportionate use of taxpayers money, not least when the previous government failed to set aside a single penny for any compensation scheme. and when they left us a £22 billion black hole in the public finances, i can hear many of you at home. >> i've just heard one of my

panel breathe a sigh of frustration with that. now, let me tell you now, right? i could have literally filled my entire program for so long with clips of prominent people within the labour party promising that they would actually do something about this. liz kendall, you've just heard from her there. let me show you a picture of liz kendall not that long ago. she i'll describe it if you're listening on the radio. she stood there in front of a waspi woman board, basically showing her support and her desire to define and find a fair solution for these women. you've got angela rayner. i showed you a clip of him part of her. let's listen to her clip in full. what she said back in 2019. >> well, the government failed the women who were born in the 19505, the women who were born in the 1950s, they stole their pension, that contract, that agreement that contract, that agreement that they thought they had and then accelerated it so that those women didn't have the chance to prepare for that. we said, we'll write that injustice. and within the five

years of the labour government, we will compensate them for the money that they've lost. this is their money. >> honestly, i could genuinely go on. you've got keir starmer, him back in 2022. he's saying this is a real injustice. why? you know you need to have this big campaign. he accepts that goalposts were moved and so on and so forth. and i mean, if you're a pensioner or a lady that's been affected by this, i understand why you would have voted for the labour party. you would have thought, hopefully you'll finally get those wrongs right. and in fact, you'll