by badenoch made a mistake by taking on farage.7 >> you know, i don't mind all sorts of comments being made about me, but to be accused by her of being a fraudster, i'm sorry. i am not going to let this rest. >> fighting talk indeed. and should more convicts be moved to open air prisons? that's the suggestion of one former justice secretary, who warns we've simply run out of space. and after a difficult year health wise for the royal family, we look back at king charles's cancer diagnosis as he looks forward to 2025 with renewed optimism. yayi so i'm here instead of martin. i would like to apologise for that, especially as i'm a little bit croaky. i have got the same lurgy as gary lineker, which is the one thing i do have in common with gary lineker. so there, you know what that story was about. but this isn't about

me or indeed gary lineker or indeed martin. it's about you and your views. so post your comments by visiting gbnews.com/yoursay and joining our conversation. what we're talking about, what you want to chat about. it's twigg—smith. come on, christmas has gone. new year's still coming. we're all a bit confused about what day it is, so let's have a chit chat, shall we? but before we do that, let's get those news headlines with mark white. >> hello there. the latest headunes >> hello there. the latest headlines from the gb news centre and gb news can confirm that more than a thousand migrants have now crossed the engush migrants have now crossed the english channel since christmas day, as hundreds more crossed today for the third day running. it comes as the home office has confirmed that 407 arrived on boxing day in ten small boats. that follows 451 who made the illegal crossing on christmas day. our kent producer has said that five small boats have

crossed from france so far on friday, with at least 200 migrants on board. the latest arrivals take the total number who have arrived in the uk this year to more than 36,000. it also marks another grim milestone, reaching 150,000. small boat migrants since the crisis began in 2018. the prime minister has paid tribute to his brother nick, who died on boxing day after suffering from cancer. sir keir said in a statement my brother nick was a wonderful man. he met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour. we will miss him very much. a downing street spokesperson has confirmed that the prime minister has now cancelled his planned holiday to be with his family. the metropolitan police has charged a man with four counts of

attempted murder. it comes after four pedestrians were hit by a car in the west end of london on christmas day. anthony ghilini has also been charged with causing serious injury by driving whilst disqualified, and for the possession of a bladed weapon in a public place. one victim is still in hospital in a critical condition. the uk's national rail network is facing severe disruption as major engineering works, including for hs2, are prioritised over the coming days. western services out of paddington in london are particularly badly affected. to add to the misery, avanti workers are preparing to stage a five month long series of strikes after pay negotiations broke down. travellers are being advised to check before they travel well. travel expert simon calder said the work was necessary for the railways to

start turning themselves around and stop taking £400 per second in taxpayer subsidy. >> they've got to attract new people in and if you're one of these occasional travellers and every time you look at it, it's christmas or easter or whatever, and there aren't any trains to your local station just looking up here, i can see the crew is off limits today, as is liverpool and chester. you're going to think, well, i'm not going to think, well, i'm not going to think, well, i'm not going to bother. i'm going to get in the car or indeed get one of the excellent long distance bus services. but they say the work has to be done. it will improve the system, make it more resilient and hopefully things will get rather better. >> well, sources have told the reuters news agency that russia's air defences were responsible for downing a passenger plane that crashed in kazakhstan, killing 38 people. the azerbaijan airlines plane crashed as it was diverting from an area of southern russia where moscow has repeatedly used air

defence systems against ukrainian drones. azerbaijan airlines have also confirmed the plane was downed by external interference. former pentagon senior adviser on international security and daily says russia must accept responsibility if russia tries to deny this or cover this up, it could lead to a rift in russian relations with azerbaijan. >> if russia doesn't apologise for what it's done and provide greater clarity in its airspace management, that could also lead to further degradation of relations between russia and other countries. >> a topless member of the ukrainian feminist group famine has been arrested after trying to snatch a statue of the baby jesus from the nativity scene in saint peter's square in the vatican. the woman climbed over

the barriers protecting the nativity scene, but was immediately blocked by the police and taken away. the ministry of defence has lost hundreds of phones, laptops and other electronic devices over the last two years, according to new government figures. a glock pistol and three older guns, including a world war i era machine gun, also went missing, while 744 electronic devices have been lost or stolen since the start of last year, including 260 phones. the mod also lost 314 laptops and 145 usb sticks over the same period. it's careless. it's not as if it's a matter of national security or anything. those are your headlines. more later. >> thank you very much, mark.

it's rather nice sharing studio with mark in this weird period of time between new year and christmas. and it's like one's gone.the christmas. and it's like one's gone. the other's not quite here. no one knows what they're doing. least of all mark and i this afternoon, to be honest with you. but, okay, now we move on because there is a big story around, isn't there? a fresh row has broken out between reform ukip leader nigel farage and conservative leader kemi badenoch. it follows reform claims that it now has more members than the conservative party, according to the digital tracker you can now see on your screen. so there you go. however, kemi badenoch has slammed the announcement as fake and accused reform uk of issuing misleading figures. as you would expect, giving nigel farage nature, he has hit back, accusing her of being bitter, upset and angry. whew. nigel farage spoke to cameron walker and myself on gb news breakfast this morning. here's what he had to say. congratulations, you have overtaken the tory party. or have you? >> well, i mean, the idea that

the leader of his majesty's loyal opposition is accusing me of fraud is absolutely disgusting. she may be used to being in a party that lies to the british public. we are not. we put that digital tracker up a few days ago, showing every single person that goes online, gives us their postcode and pays us £25. we, even since we went through that number yesterday morning, the numbers are rocketing. we're another 5 or 6000 higher than we were when we went past the conservative party. and i know that kemi badenoch is well known for her aggression and for lashing out, but to accuse me of not understanding the digital age when i've got 5.5 million followers on social media and she's got fewer than a third of a million, frankly, was a bit rich. i'm sorry, but, you know, the truth is there is a massive, as cameron hinted a moment ago, the truth is , there is a very the truth is, there is a very big shift that is going on in

british politics. >> so, nigel, what do you say to kemi's allegation that it's a fake because of the back of the website, the coding on the back of the website or something has been ticking up the members artificially. >> well, she calls herself an engineer. let me tell you, she's not even in the same league as our chairman, zia yusuf, who has made vast amounts of money on tech and through digital media. and we have had our work confirmed by several independent sources overnight. if the conservative party want us to call in one of the big four auditors to check the validity of our numbers against the ballot papers that were sent out in the leadership contest, thousands of which went to lapsed conservative members and those that had resigned earlier this year. i think if the truth came out, she'd be very, very embarrassed indeed. you know, i don't mind all sorts of comments being made about me, but to be accused by her of being a fraudster, i'm accused by her of being a