headliners. but before tomorrow's news, let's go to tonight's headlines with sam francis. >> very good evening to you. the top story tonight. well us officials say there are early indications that a passenger plane that crashed, killing 38 people, was downed by a russian air defence system. sources say the azerbaijani airlines flight was hit by a missile, crippling the jet before it crashed in kazakhstan. mobile footage shows the jet in a steep descent. passengers praying as oxygen masks fell in the cabin and the wreckage engulfed in flames. the kremlin denies any deliberate action, instead blaming a bird strike. but azerbaijan is demanding that russian

authorities admit the responsibility. 451 migrants crossed the english channel illegally on christmas day, according to official figures from the home office. six more small boats carrying at least 250 migrants have also reached uk waters today. the latest arrivals have been brought to the border force processing centre in dover and with calm weather conditions expected to continue, border force says it is on heightened alert for potential surges in further crossings. reform uk's membership has overtaken the conservatives today, just months after nigel farage's return as party leader. their tracker shows more than 135,000 members, a 300% surge since farage's comeback in june. younger supporters, cheaper fees and frustrations with the tories are all driving that growth. and farage claims reform is now the future of british politics. meanwhile, the conservatives last reported around 120,000 members and have since faced

criticism for a lack of direction under leader kemi badenoch. well, the reform leader nigel farage, has been speaking to us here on gb news about those figures. >> incredible. over 15,000 people have joined us and given us their 25 quids over the last four days. this is an historic moment when the newest party in british politics overtakes the oldest existing political party in the world, something is happening. so of course i'm delighted. >> and boxing day shoppers are avoiding the high street today, with footfall down reportedly over 12% compared to figures last year. retail parks did fare slightly better, but overall activity across the uk is more than 10% lower than in 2023. analysts blame the shift to onune analysts blame the shift to online shopping, rising costs for physical stores and changing habhs for physical stores and changing habits driven by year round promotions. but barclays still estimates that we will have spent £4.6 billion today, although most of it, as in previous years, will be online.

those are the latest headlines for now. >> 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. >> hello and welcome to headliners. this is your first look at tomorrow's top stories with three comedians. before we dive in, let's take a look at what jonathan and nick will have to work with on friday's front pages. the telegraph leads with tory war with farage over fake members. the times has moved criminals to open prisons. ministers urged the express has just stop oil. hypocrites shipped t—shirts 4000 miles. the i badenoch refuses, accuses farage of fakery over claims that reform uk has overtaken tories. the mirror has horror at christmas. two women killed and teens seriously injured and the daily star has gale force uk

those real front pages. so let's have a closer look at those front pages. jonathan, starting with the ai paper. >> yes, starting with the ai. badenoch accuses farage of fakery over claims that reform uk has overtaken the tories. so a furious war of words has broken out between nigel farage and kemi badenoch. after reform uk claimed its membership had recently surpassed the membership of the tories. so this is on a digital counter, which is on reform's website, and it showed a tally and it recently overtook the 131,680 figure declared by the tories. and so yeah, so that was a bit of a milestone for reform, especially considering there's such a new party. but then it all got real or not real, according to kemi, as she says, it's a fake clock coded to tick up automatically, and they've been watching the back end for days. no innuendo necessary. so. and she also goes on to say that farage doesn't understand the digital age. and then he comes back with saying, i don't

understand the digital age. i've literally got 5.4 million followers and you only have 320,000. and then he threw his phone down in disgust. so he's kind of owned her and made her look a bit petty. >> so far it's looking like a farage mic drop moment. >> yeah, it does seem a little bit petty on her behalf. what do you think, nick? >> yeah, it's not the thing i'd go with if i was attacking reform, because as farage says, he's got far more followers. he's got the young people on tiktok. everyone knows farage crushes it online. >> compared to kemi, who seems kind of barely there. >> she's sort of she's going, she says. she's steadily and quietly working on principles and values, which is okay for long term. >> you've also got to do some politics and farage is beating her at that completely. and it's a strange thing to go in on, because if she's wrong, because people say, well, how can you actually see this back end? you know, she'd have to have the login details. it's kind of a strange claim. >> it felt like she'd typed it out after a bottle and a half of red on christmas day, when she'd had a fight with her in—laws, didn't it? it was just a bit like, well, can we step away

from the wine? yeah. i mean, and zia yusuf, the chairman of reform, said, well, you don't have the back end. and then people are debating, you know, if it's real or not. online tech people are debating. obviously , people are debating. obviously, reform say it definitely is. >> and it's almost immaterial because we know that reform have a momentum, we know they're doing well. >> it doesn't particularly matter that much to me if the click is perfectly accurate. >> the one thing she is strong on is saying that reform are in danger of sort of gimmicks rather than substance. it's not a bad line of attack for reform, because they are a bit kind of brash and arguably gimmicky, but i think they've won this one at the moment quite comprehensively. unless kemi can come out with like a full, you know, like as a cork board, like all the different names and all the people who've been involved in the conspiracy, unless she can do that well. >> but farage sounds very confident, doesn't he? he's happily said, well, fine, come and audit us and we'll we'll have an audit off and see how you're doing. yes. and then he goes back and says, well, are your members real? because people apparently people are saying they receive correspondence from the tories even though they're not members anymore. so he's hit back. >> everyone's dead pets have

been signing up to the tories and whatnot, just like they do in america. allegedly. >> that's satirical content. >> that's satirical content. >> no, they do it in america. >> no, they do it in america. >> yes, yes, but not here. >> yes, yes, but not here. >> no. oh, just before we move on, we meant to sort of address the hair. >> this is the work of a professional, jonathan. >> professional good. >> professional good. >> what do you mean, a dress? >> what do you mean, a dress? >> well, you know, she's made an effort, and i feel like we have to needle her. >> somebody who's paid to make an effort has made an effort. >> well, kristen has her own styling team now. >> did you know that? she's a diva. she's outgrown us. and she. we're not allowed to look her in the eye backstage. this is all. this is all. >> you've turned up in a real shirt instead of something a children's entertainer would. yeah, but it's got all it's got cat hair all over it. jonathan. okay, let's have a look at the telegraph, please. nick. okay. happy. so the telegraph have that same story again. >> tory wall with farage over fake numbers. inverted commas of coui'se. >> course. >> and they've also got public sector pay premium triples after rises under starmer. so who would have thought the public sector 6% more than the private sector 6% more than the private sector they're making, which is three times the start of the yean three times the start of the year, almost a new pay gap to worry about. now i know who the

gender pay gap anymore this comes from. who are they? what are they called? it's very, very small. they're called resolution foundation. and they found that they're saying that labour has launched a major expansion in the public sector, which is a fairly labour thing to do. it's not that surprising, is it, that it's very labour. i mean, i mean, that's all there is to that story. i want to talk more about stonehenge, unless you've got any burning comments on that. >> jonathan, i've got some burning comments for stonehenge. 1529 00:08:23,624 --> 00:08:23