to all? sir keir starmer goes to ten all.7 sir keir starmer goes to ten regulators all? sir keir starmer goes to ten regulators in the uk, including the environment agency, asking them for ideas on how to improve the economy. also tonight, shirking from home, can you guess which government agency is set to strike over so—called victorian demands to spend three days in the office? elsewhere, sadiq khan gets the labour memo and launches a fresh offensive on british farmers by banning anti inheritance tax adverts on the london underground. tonight's panel are ready to go. i'm joined by the comedian aideen mcqueen, academic and political commentator doctor lisa mckenzie and communications adviser lynda duberly. and this is going to be awkward. donald trump has given awkward. donald trump has given a second state visit to the united kingdom. can you guess who he's going to be sat next to at dinner who've described him as, and , quote, a neo nazi as, and, quote, a neo nazi sympathising sociopath? >> you're going to struggle to find any politician who has not had things to say about donald

trump. >> very good evening to you. hope you're well. the kemi badenoch reform row is much deeper than just membership numbers. first, your news headunes numbers. first, your news headlines with sam francis. >> very good evening from the newsroom. the top story tonight. well, russia's president vladimir putin has apologised to azerbaijan for a christmas day plane crash that killed, sadly, 38 people. but he stopped short of admitting that russia was to blame. the aircraft, reportedly hit by shrapnel from russian air defence systems, crash landed in kazakhstan after being forced to divert from chechnya. ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy has also accused moscow of spreading disinformation, saying the damage did resemble a missile strike. us officials have also said russia is

responsible, while azerbaijan believes the crash was caused by external interference. investigations are now underway, with various teams examining the crash site. nigel farage says that elon musk is an absolute hero to young voters, and claims he'll help reform uk to win them oven he'll help reform uk to win them over. in an interview with the telegraph, the reform uk leader hinted that mr musk could make a reasonable sized donation, insisting it would be legal and above board. it comes as farage has demanded an apology from kemi badenoch after she accused reform of faking membership numbers. the tory leader says reforms online tally overtaking registered tory members, she says smells of fakery. farage, though, has denied those claims, calling them baseless. heavy fog has continued to cause delays and cancellations at some of the uk's busiest airports today. the majority of flights at gatwick and stansted were affected this afternoon and delays are predicted late into tonight. a number of other delays were also

reported at manchester and birmingham airports, with dozens of flights delayed at heathrow, while the knock on effects from friday's delays also meant planes and pilots were out of position today, leaving some passengers stranded. earlier, independent travel correspondent simon calder told us people need to check before they travel. >> we saw over 150 cancellations yesterday, 48 from gatwick to and from gatwick, 42 at london city airport, 40 at london heathrow, plus some at manchester, luton and other airports. and on top of that, i'm afraid saturday hasn't begun brilliantly. british airways has cancelled 18 flights so far to and from heathrow, another four at gatwick. and there's cancellations also at london city. so if you are flying today, good luck. >> simon calder there speaking to us earlier. well boost growth or get out of the way. that is the message from sir keir

starmer to uk regulators. the prime minister, the chancellor and business secretary have all asked watchdogs , including ofgem asked watchdogs, including ofgem and ofwat, to propose pro—growth reforms by mid january. it follows figures that show the uk economy flatlined between july and september. labour, though, says it is pulling every lever to deliver the highest sustained economic growth in the g7. but the conservatives blame the government's policies for stalling progress. gb news can reveal today that 1300 migrants have now crossed the english channel since christmas day, as hundreds more crossed today. it comes as the home office confirmed 305 people arrived yesterday in five small boats. shadow home secretary chris philp has blamed sir keir starmer for scrapping conservative measures like the rwanda plan, saying that labour's approach is an insult to the british people. the prime minister, though, has promised to smash the gangs. but that comes as more than 22,000 people have so far arrived since he took office, up 25% on last

yeah took office, up 25% on last year. those are the latest headunes year. those are the latest headlines for now. i'll be back with you 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. >> hello, very good evening. thank you for your company. we all know the story by now, don't we? reform say they've overtaken the tories for paying members, while kemi badenoch accused nigel farage of rigging the figures for which he wants an apology for. it appears an apology for. it appears an apology is indeed due after sky news, the spectator, the daily telegraph and financial times all independently verified reform data yesterday to suggest badenoch was indeed wide of the mark with her accusations. and just for the record, i'll say it now we have repeatedly invited mrs. badenoch on this channel, any show, any presenter to give her side of the story or indeed any shadow cabinet minister or

tory mp. so far we've been met with stonewall silence. but regardless, this christmas tale is no longer a row. i think, over membership numbers, which probably actually don't mean all that much anyway. it's much deeper than that. what's going on here is the need for proper political opposition to labour. while in my opinion, they run riot with their crippling socialist agenda. even today, it was revealed keir starmer has embarrassingly ordered regulators such as ofgem and ofwat to cough up their own ideas for reform that could boost economic growth. quite frankly, the government doesn't know what it's doing and i'll touch more on that at 10:00, which is why the country needs serious operators leading the fights from the opposition benches. kemeys. apparently, rash tweets about reform's membership numbers is the latest gaffe from a woman who prides herself on thinking deeply and not making mistakes. even before she was elected by members to lead the conservative party. she was forced to put out the flames of her own fire after calling maternity pay excessive. she later claimed her remarks had been misrepresented. then she

embarrassingly tried to take keir starmer to task at pmqs a few weeks ago over wait for it immigration. >> so let's talk about immigration. he has relaunched yet again many new targets, six milestones, five missions. but why was cutting immigration not a priority? >> yeah, yeah, i'm glad she now wants to talk about immigration. last week she said she said she didn't. and for good reason because the previous government presided over record high levels of immigration. the figures just a few weeks ago, nearly a million on net migration. that is unprecedented. a one nation experiment in open borders under the last government. and she was the last government. and she was the champion. she stood up and praised the then tory home secretary for listening to her on removing caps on migration visas. so she was applauding it. now she's furious about what she was campaigning for. we will drive it down. we will drive down lawful migration. we will

drive down illegal immigration. >> and now, until she proves otherwise, it appears she's been made to look rather silly with her boxing day tirade against reform and nigel farage. as i've said, this is from a woman who said, this is from a woman who said this just a few months ago. >> i know how certain things might sound if they're not said properly, so i never have gaffes or apologising for something that i said, oh, that's not what i meant. i never have to clarify because i think very carefully about what i say. make sure that we don't sound shrill, that we don't sound like the bad guys. >> kemi has also taken flak for a lack of direction and ideas on policy. what does the conservative party in her image stand for? how does she plan to topple keir starmer and get the country back on the path to sanity? i don't know, and nobody else does either. she defended that position to the bbc this week, insisting i do the thinking and what people are going to get with the new leadership under me is thoughtful conservatism, not knee jerk analysis. well, with

respect to kemi, it appears she has on a few occasions now engaged her mouth first and brain later. but let's get the thoughts of my panel tonight. comedian aideen mcqueen. academic and political commentator lisa mckenzie, and the communications adviser linda doebele. good evening to you all. welcome along. >> good evening. hi, christmas. >> good evening. hi, christmas. >> is it still okay? yeah. yeah, absolutely. >> i'll take that. >> i'll take that. >> i'll take that. >> i would say ladies first, but i'm outnumbered. so, linda, should we start with you? you're a comms specialist, a comms adviser. what's going on with kemi? >> well, i was here two nights ago, and what i said at the time was, i think she shouldn't have intervened at that point. that was bad timing and b she did not underpin her comments with evidence. those are two critical mistakes early in the day. and she made both errors really clearly. and i think there would have been no telegraph page one lead had she just stayed out of the bbc, the bbc. there we are. yeah. so i think that she needs. i don't, i don't think she's

going to apologise. i don't think that's in her nature. i think that's in her nature. i think she's, as we know, very hard nosed. i mean, i think often she is a very good debater. she's an olympic level debater. she's an olympic level debate debater on occasion, but she's now making very serious unforced errors. and that is a problem for her. so she needs to pause and maybe she needs to do some of that thinking that she alleges she does do. >> there's always a there's always a tweet, isn't there? >> always an image or a video. there's always a receipt for someone to go back to. >> always, i think i mean, it's sort of times like this. well, actually, it's been a long time like this. it's good to be an anarchist because, you know, you can sort of laugh at all of them now. and i am doing lots of laughing at keir starmer. you know, i'm sat there with the popcorn watching them make a mess. i think, as linda said, it is a comms error. that's what's happened. it's a comms error. i don't think she's a terrible politician, actually. i think

that, you know, she, she's she's she's got an idea perhaps what she's got an idea perhaps what she wants conservatism to look like under her. she's conceptual, but what she's what she's done is she's gone for nigel farage who is a comms genius. really. and so, you know that she's she's just picked the wrong target. she should have gone for starmer. >> so what should she do next? y i mean, linda, you said that she shouldn't apologise. >> no, no, no, i said she won't apologise. >> so what should what? >> so what should what? >> i mean, how does how does that look to the electorate? as far as we know, as i've said, we've invited kemi and any other tories on the channel to prove otherwise. as far as we know now, kemi has made a mistake with that tweet. why wouldn't she apologise and just put a line under it? >> well, it's she's caught because if she does apologise, she's, she's making us run further and it's great publicity for reform. i hadn't a clue about their membership. yeah. it's fantastic for them. yeah. and i mean, she really shouldn't have said it. it was a bit. it was an error. it was cockiness on her part. i mean, and the fact that she said she never makes mistakes is the biggest

mistake you can make. yeah. that's making me feel like if i was going out with her, i would leave her. that's why i left my ex. >> is anyone is anyone really watching, though? now, this is what i suppose this is what i'm asking. so the reason kemi. yeah. or watching any, you know, watching any of the sort of party political games because i've got a feeling that people are watching public services, worried about bus fares going up, you know, worried about their everyday living. and i think this, this sort of level of twitter political, that's that's kind of my point. >> we need decent opposition in this country. >> yes, exactly. >> yes, exactly. >> to hold the government to account. we saw what happened dunng account. we saw what happened during covid when you don't have a decent opposition. we need somebody on that opposition bench who's got integrity. charisma will hold keir starmer's feet to the fire. and at the moment, all kemi seems to be doing with respect to her is putting out her own facts. >> do you know anybody who could fit that role? yeah, i was wondering. >> yeah, yeah. >> yeah, yeah. >> well, i mean, i mean really on any i mean, i think that's that's the point. i think that's

the point you were making. but it's also a wider point about our politicians that we've got today is that people disengage from politicians now because they don't trust them. >> they just disengage. and it is a very big issue. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> do you think she's a good speaker? i think she has sincere values. >> she is a good speaker. yeah. >> she is a good speaker. yeah. >> in general she is. she's technically she's a good communicator. >> but the issue is i don't know what she stands for. i don't know what her vision is for the conservative party. i don't actually think she's a that good actually think she's a that good a speaker, i think. >> does she need one? does she need one yet? because starmer let's remember what starmer did. starmer sat back for five years and never said anything. and actually he's probably still not saying much. and just one by default. >> yeah, that's what we were saying earlier, that she should really stand back for four years, just like muhammad ali rope a dope and then at the end boom, boom, boom with a give pensioners a bit of money and then make everyone happy, get elected. if i was her, that's what i would do. >> linda, do you reckon she's

rattled by reform? >> yes, absolutely. if you weren't rattled by reform, you'd have to be totally mad. >> starmer is rattled by reform as well, actually. >> well, breaking news tonight. in the last hour or so, a massive poll published by the sunday times tomorrow, 11,000 people quizzed if there was a general election tonight. labour would lose 200 seats. reform would lose 200 seats. reform would finish on 72 seats and the tories would gain, i think, 100 seats. they'd be left with about 178. so that's breaking tonight. they're calling it a mega poll. i know it's too early. they've still got four years to go and have an election now, but that kind of shows you that the pubuc kind of shows you that the public also, it does show you as well that our electoral system is not really representative of what people are thinking. >> that's true because the way that we've got the two party system, you know, the third party is never going to win. >> i think the key now is that reform has to underpin itself with some really good structure. you know, it has to have really outline its purpose, its broader purpose really strongly, then

its vision, then its focus, then its vision, then its focus, then its strategy. and from amongst this membership, it needs to. and nigel farage knows this. you have to recruit serious people who are prepared to knuckle down. >> well, i guess they would say they have started recruiting serious people. they've got yousef, who's the reform chairman now. he made a lot of money in tech and sold his business. he's now organising things. can i ask you though, linda, do you think membership numbers matter? >> they do matter. they're not critical because the tory membership has been going down for years and years and years. it's probably cut by two thirds now right at this point. and membership doesn't mean to say just because you've got high membership doesn't mean to say you're going to win. and if you've got low membership, you're going to lose. but what it does indicate for nigel farage is that there's momentum. that's what it indicates. >> i was i actually went to the reform conference, believe it or not. >> and believe it or not, did you wear that top? that's reform cos no i didn't, but i was, i was at the reform conference, believe it or not. >> the anarchist was, i was ianed >> the anarchist was, i was invited and i did sort of little panel conversation there and

i've got to say there was a lot it was very happy mood. >> as an anarchist. lisa is reform the closest we have to anarchy in this country. they're saying they're not the uni party, they're not the tories, they're not labour. they're going to do things differently. are they the closest we've got to anarchy? >> not really. no. i mean, what's your vision of anarchy? what does it look like? people think anarchism is about chaos. it's actually not. it's about order. what do i think? do think? >> i'm not even sure you're an anarchist. >> i am an anarchist, i am, i am an anarchist. >> you still believe in government? >> no, i don't believe in centralised government. it's decentralising power. that's what it's about. i'm not sure nigel farage perhaps believes that. but it's about sort of accepting that power corrupts. and therefore, a place like westminster is full of westminster is fu