another tories cross the floor into the open arms of reform and kemi badenoch reaches her deadune kemi badenoch reaches her deadline to apologise for her membership accusations. in just a few moments i'll be bringing you nigel farage live as he addresses reform members at their east midlands conference, where he's promised to bare all. elsewhere, will elon musk's love in with tommy robinson present a problem for nigel farage and the reputation of reform? nigel has tonight commented on the situation. i'll bring you his comments next. and donald trump urges the pm to ditch wind turbines and open up the north sea. oil to gas. very good evening. hope you're well. happy new year. if i've not seen you. joining me this evening is political commentator chloe dobbs and broadcaster matthew stadlen, and radio and tv presenter arianna neo. a very

big hour coming up. we're going live to the east midlands for this reform conference. nigel is speaking in about nine minutes time. you won't want to miss it. first though, your news headunes first though, your news headlines with sam francis. >> ben, thank you and good evening to you. just coming up to 8:02. while nigel farage has rejected any links between his party and tommy robinson, that's after elon musk threw his support behind the jailed activist ahead of reform uk's conference in leicester now taking place, farage made it clear that robinson, who is serving time for contempt of court, isn't someone his party needs. that's despite mr musk calling him a hero for standing up to grooming gangs. well, our political editor, chris hope, asked farage earlier if elon musk had become a political risk to reform. take a listen. >> saying britain's been terribly badly led and that the grooming scandal, the mass rape scandal which has resurfaced and

transcripts of what was said in court have been online and i recommend you at home. don't read them. you won't sleep at night. and so, yes, he is attacking the leadership in britain. he's very supportive of me. he's very supportive of the party. >> well, elon musk's comments on grooming gangs here in the uk have been slammed today by the health secretary as misjudged and misinformed. the billionaire accused prime minister sir keir starmer of inaction and said that safeguarding minister jess phillips deserves prison over her comments on child exploitation in oldham. the conservatives have also criticised musk for sharing what they described as factually inaccurate claims, and warned against distracting from justice for survivors. however, wes streeting has hit back, urging musk to help tackle rape gangs. >> look, when it comes to tackling the serious issue of child sexual exploitation and abuse, i do think that online giants, social media companies

have got a big part to play in helping us to identify and prosecute perpetrators of child sexual exploitation and abuse. so whether it's elon musk or anyone else, if those leaders of those giants want to work with this government, we're willing to work with tech giants to make sure that we keep young people safe online and free from exploitation. >> hospitals across the country have restricted visitors today. that's as flu cases in english hospitals have quadrupled in a month. over 5000 patients were treated just last week alone. nhs chiefs are warning of intense pressures as the virus pushes hospitals to breaking point amid an expected cold snap this weekend. health officials are also urging vulnerable people to stay warm and make sure their medication is on hand, with just 37% of those deemed at risk vaccinated so far. emergency department waits are also worsening, with over 12,000 patients stuck in ambulances for an hour or more

last week. and in sport, luke littler is on the brink of history tonight, just one win away from becoming the youngest darts world champion ever. the 17 year old will face michael van gerwen, chasing his fourth title in tonight's blockbuster final of the world darts championship. littler has dominated the tournament so far with record breaking performances. the pairs head to head, though, is tied at six six, setting up for a thrilling showdown later between darts rising star and one of its all time greats. those are the latest headlines. i'll be back with you in an hour. now, though, it's over to ben 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, welcome along and good evening to you in just a moment,

the reform uk leader nigel farage will address a sold out arena of reform uk members. just arena of reform uk members. just a few hours ago, the former conservative mp marco longhi defected to reform and a mega poll released tonight predicts labour will haemorrhage voters to the party if they don't shape up their immigration strategy. but all eyes are on the party's leader, nigel farage, and his promise to confront kemi badenoch. after accusing reform of faking its membership ticker. a really big explosive hour coming up with the nigel speech at 8:10 in just five minutes time. for now, i'm joined by political commentator chloe dobbs, the broadcaster matthew stadlen and radio and tv presenter arianna neo. good evening to you all. happy new yeah evening to you all. happy new year. it's the first time i've seen you all, i think, since 2025 began. look, so much is going to be happening in the next 50 minutes or so. chloe, shall we start with nigel's action regarding kemi badenoch? of course. kemi infamously now on boxing day said that nigel was rigging the reform uk members. nigel has tonight said there's going to be consequences

and he will announce in five minutes what those consequences are. what do you reckon they'll be? >> i have a good feeling he's going to announce that he's going to announce that he's going to announce that he's going to try and take legal action against her for defamation. i think that she really should have put her hands up and said sorry, especially after the reform party showed the back end of their membership ticker to sky news, the financial times, the spectator, etc, all of whom said, look, this looks completely legit to us. but she has stayed silent and she just seems like a little kid throwing her toys out the pram. it's really not a good look for the conservative party, to be honest. >> i must. i must say i'm so surprised, matthew, that she stayed schtum on this since boxing day, not least because, as chloe said, the ft. the spectator, financial times, the daily telegraph they've all independently verified it, so it looks until kemi proves otherwise. it looks like she does owe nigel an apology. >> it's a sordid mess between the two big parties and i say two big parties now on the right and labour, who as we all know, have had a tricky and sticky start to their tricky years.

they will be delighted, presumably because as long as these two are taking chunks out of each other politically, labour gains. >> do you think if nigel does announce legal action tonight, that's a wise thing to do? >> i just don't think politicians should be suing each other. >> well, look, the tweets on screen here say, oh, it's gone now, so let's get it back up. the tweet said something like misleading your followers again, nigel, and saying that she was an engineer. and she looked at the back end. here it is manipulating your own supporters at christmas, nigel. it's not real. it's fake coded to tick up automatically. ariana, did you see this tweet? did you think it was a bit misguided from kemi to fire that out? >> i do think it's a bit misguided and i do think it's just it's becoming very childish. you know, let's talk about the topics at hand and, you know, get the suing. i agree with you. like this shouldn't be you don't think you should do it. i understand what chloe's saying and it probably will happen, but i don't think it's the right way to go. >> i can't imagine that farage thinks it will play to his political advantage to get into

legal action with the leader of another big party. >> i think it's just going to be so embarrassing for kemi. i think it's going to be shameful. it's going to be embarrassing. it's going to be embarrassing. it makes her look amateurish. i know there's lots of kemi fans out there and you'll probably be having a crack at me on the emails, but i'm sorry. chloe, do you not agree that it just looks very low grade what she did? >> yeah, i mean everyone knows that kemi is someone who is a fiery person. when she talks, she doesn't hold back, but she does need to have a degree of professionalism with it. i think that nigel was very smart when he responded to kemi's tweet to say, we are happy to have a big four firm come in and audit our membership numbers, because as long as membership numbers, becaus