chechnya. ukraine's 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 reform 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 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 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. >> it's saturday night and you're with the saturday five. i'm darren grimes, and i can promise that you're in for another very lively hour. we usually run a segment in this show called ask the five, and your contributions recently have been brilliant, so we thought we would honour you tonight, and we'll be answering your questions for a whole hour. so i hope they're ofcom compliant. let's without further ado, ask

the five. right? your first question comes from a viewer called andrew. >> on a scale of 0 to 10, i'd like to ask the panel what they think of keir starmer's time in office so far , and what they office so far, and what they estimate it could be for next yeah >> well, before we like a pack of rabid lions tear into that one. benjamin, do you want to give the labour line? >> it's like being on radio four. any questions? this isn't it. well, i think that the economy is everything. quite frankly, it seems obvious. but the fact is that they've had all these tax rises, all these difficult decisions, getting rid of the winter bonuses for wealthy retirees. i think these are good things that keir starmer and rachel reeves have done. but there's going to be all hell break loose if it doesn't start to pay off. so one

of the things keir starmer says is that your take home pay needs to rise faster for loads of people. it's been stagnant since 2008. that needs to change. that's something people need to feel. and the other thing is maybe the other guys will mention this, but the boats. i think we are underestimating how angry people at home , regular angry people at home, regular folk are about the boats. the idea we can't control our borders is a problem, and i think keir starmer is being naive by not putting that in his pledges. i think it might come home to roost in the next 12 months. >> so you think actually they could be punished for that? >> i think they'd be punished. but look, i think that they have a better idea. i mean, look, the deportation flights, they've deported more people in a single days than have ever happened before. >> yeah, voluntarily. they left voluntarily. they weren't forced to leave. these are the people that are leaving with £3,000 in their pocket. >> they'll probably come back. hang on. the £3,000 was the two people that were deported under the rwanda scheme. managing to get people out of the country is what we need to do. barack obama did more than donald trump and so did joe biden. and i think

keir starmer will do more than bofis keir starmer will do more than boris johnson. >> okay, charlie. >> okay, charlie. >> well, i mean, on a scale of 1 to 10, i mean, it's hard to get into positive figures, isn't it? you know, because they're just going backwards. you know, this is a government that said that they weren't going to slap on taxes. they've slapped on the taxes. they've slapped on the taxes. they've slapped on the taxes. they said they were going to protect the pensioners. they scrapped the winter fuel allowance. they said they were going to be the most rural protecting the rural environment. they've now taxed farmers, the people that keep our food on our tables. you know, they let prisoners out early. they scrapped the grander scheme from day one, the only deterrent, as you rightly said, benjamin, it's what people care about, stopping people coming into this country, just to be clear. and they scrapped the cleah and they scrapped the deterrent from day one, the first thing they did, how on earth can anybody rate them at all? and i think if the bank of england, because you're right, it is all about the economy as well. and, you know, the bank of england downgrading growth from 0.3% to zero, it's anaemic. it's it is nothing. >> it's ozempic. >> it's ozempic. >> and this is what we're going into in 2025. i do worry for

this government. i worry on a personal level because i'm a nice person. i worry and sir keir starmer. i think rachel won't be in her job. rachel from won't be in herjob. rachel from accounts, i don't think she'll be there next year. >> well, she can go back to halifax. >> can i just point out that if you have a problem with people coming over in small boats, then you might want to explain the 120,000 you let in between 2018 and july of this year. >> well, it's a problem. >> well, it's a problem. >> there's no getting away from it. it's a problem, benjamin. and that's why there was the rwanda policy in place to deport these people. that's why we had these people. that's why we had the bibby stockholm, which, you know, all the lefties up in arms, you know, said that this should be scrapped because that wasn't a pleasant sort of all the money and. >> no idea, charlie. >> no idea, charlie. >> well, at least at least we had ideas, but it was scrapped from day one by this labour government, which is why, you know, the migrants are up in arms saying, oh yes, what an easy pull we can't come to britain is, i think thank you to andrew for his question, but i think i would give them minus if i could, if i was allowed to. >> in your question, your scale there, because actually i think his time in office has been utterly transformative, just not in the way in which labour said

it would be transformative. i think this is a deeply authoritarian government. i think that this is a government that doesn't care about liberty. i think it's a government that wants to take us back into the eu by the back door. i think they don't give a flying flamingo about democracy. they know they're going to be here till 2029, and they think the right is going to be split in by 2029 to 1517 00:08:22,456 --> 00:08:22