in the office? 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 >> well, i was here two ni