>> good evening. it's 7 pm. i'm christopher hope standing in for nigel farage. well, the man all of westminster is talking about will be joining me here in the studio here in westminster, gb news to tell us about his weekend visit to mar a lago and the court of president elect donald trump, where he met also with the world's richest man, elon musk. as you can see there on your screen with nick candy, the new treasurer of reform. forget the conservatives botched rwanda plan is labour's inability to process migrants, forcing them to leave the

country. i'll be joined in the studio by suella braverman, the former conservative home secretary. i'll ask her about the latest row with china, the brexit betrayal in quotes and reform uk, of course. and ahead of christmas, the scottish government have said that you can't buy waitrose tiramisu before 10 am. because of its high alcohol content. my panel and i will be putting that to the test. all of that to come. but first, the news with sophia wenzler. >> chris. thank you. it's just gone 7:00. these are your headunes gone 7:00. these are your headlines from the gb newsroom. sara 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 patole received 33 years. her uncle, faisal malik, was jailed for 16

years for failing to prevent her death. sara was hooded, burned and beaten during a campaign of torture that lasted two years before her body was found at the family home in surrey in 2023. in a victim impact statement, sara's mother said she is now an angel who looks down from heaven. 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 to 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. 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 rejected 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 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 was now starting to come down. in november, ministers admitted 14 hotels had been opened and seven closed since labour came to power, bringing the total in use to 2020. and a good christmas deed gone wrong as radio dj jordan north was rescued from the river thames after trying to

save a struggling dog from the water. the 34 year old got in the water near hammersmith bridge after spotting the labrador, but said he soon became panicky. fortunately, a crew from the rnli, who were out on an exercise at the time, were flagged down by members of the pubuc flagged down by members of the public and reached north and the rescue dog in three minutes. speaking while presenting his capital breakfast show, north said a big thank you and a massive shout out to rnli chiswick. those are the latest gb news headlines. >> more in 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/alerts. >> well he's back. nigel farage is just off the plane from mar—a—lago, where he's been

meeting and mixing with the team around donald trump, the future president of the united states. last week, property tycoon nick candy joined the reform uk team as the party's treasurer, following reports that elon musk, the world's richest man, is looking at donating $100 million to reform uk. joining me now in the studio are our panel tonight, ranil jayawardena, the former conservative cabinet minister, and lord glasman. of course, the labour peer. to you first, ranil jayawardena, to what extent are your colleagues in parliament worried about this guy, nigel farage, and what he might do at the next election? >> well, look, i mean, i think nigel has succeeded in getting elected to parliament, which has long wanted to do big tick. and, you know, on a personal level, you know, on a personal level, you know, on a personal level, you know, everyone recognises that the people of clacton voted for him. so that's a very simple exercise in democracy. but i don't think the conservative party is being distracted from

its core mission right now, which is to renew its itself after what is, let's be very honest, the worst election result it has ever seen. so there's a lot of work to be done before we even consider what the outside landscape is. and that's around going back to first principles as a conservative party. we are the conservative party, and we need to reconnect with what makes us so. so that means making sure that we're a small state, low tax, pro—family, family, pro—business party again and seem to be so. and that, i know, is the mission of kemi and her team. >> it's not just a worry, though, is it, lord glassman for the tories? i mean, i understand that morgan and mcsweeney are a key player around sir keir starmer. he's worried about whether he's facing the tories or reform as the main challenger from the right at the next election. >> well, we're not worried at all about the conservative party. if what you say is true, then you're just a thatcherite homage party. the conservative party did some extraordinary

welfare reforms, always opposed the free market. that was the corn laws. it was only when margaret thatcher came along and moved all our capital to china and destroyed our industrial base.in and destroyed our industrial base. in fact, the state grew. it wasn't a small state. so unless you can actually connect to genuine conservatism rather than a form of rehashed thatcherism, we're not worried about the conservatives. we are very worried about reform. right? why is that? because they have a definite appeal to working class voters who feel the labour voters, who feel they've been betrayed by the last 50 years of politics. that's from thatcher through major, through blair, through brown, through cameron, through osborne, and by repeated failure on on immigration, for example, other policies, taxation has gone up. immigration is a is a huge thing. if they thought that the state was functioning adequately, labour voters aren't hostile to the state and they want to see a functioning national health service. they especially want to see a functioning army and defence that can defend our country, which was completely decimated.

now we've got 75,000 troops. we're not even an army. >> this is another i think this is unfair. i think it's .very unfair. >> it's not unfair at all. >> it's not unfair at all. >> it's not unfair at all. >> it's the labour party that's not agreeing its plan to get to 2.5% until you start to face up to the dereliction of responsibility in office, you're not going to renew. >> but labour has warned that lord grasp is right. when kevin badenoch attacked the government on immigration last week, i mean, keir starmer simply turned to the right page and chucked back at that party a million net migrants a year, a million yeah >> this is the i mean, with all due respect, your party is in. it has received a terrible rejection. if you think that the answer to that rejection is more of the same. conservatism is a great national tradition, a national tradition that always provided an effective armed forces. it always took care of the poor. these are historical things. but to talk about a small state and low tax, you're talking just like a liberal. >> well, let's be clear. >> well, let's be clear. >> first of all, that's that's. >> first of all, that's that's. >> hang on, hang on, hang on,

hang on. you've got a big stage. let's be really clear. labour on defence has not committed to its plan on 2.5%. it talks about it. we had a plan. they don't. also in terms of immigration, i mean kemi has committed to a migration cap. now you can't hold her accountable for the past. you can hold her accountable to the future when i hope she is elected to be our prime minister and there is a clear plan there. labour, on the other hand, as i'm sure we will come on to later on, has no plan and is