night showdown, keir starmer jumped a three hour queue while on holiday this week. honestly, is this guy even british? jumping a queue is nearly as bad as putting the milk in before the teabag, but it's far from the teabag, but it's far from the only criticism levelled at labour this week. elon musk is going to war with labour over their terrible history with the muslim rape gang scandal, and senior american figures are calling for trump to impose sanctions on the uk until the issue is dealt with properly. we're used to seeing america use its might to impose regime change on failed states. could britain be next? well, fingers crossed. and afghanistan's leader, haibatullah akhundzada, don't say that too quickly or your furniture will start floating. is the man who put the ban in taliban? their latest decree has banned windows to stop men looking at women. i don't mean the microsoft operating system. i mean the actual holes in houses that let people look in. in afghanistan, they're going to brick up windows that overlook women's spaces. and if you're born after

1920 and aren't sure what a woman's space is, they mean kitchens and laundry areas, progressive. and in a wild twist of modern love advice, the guardian has published a column where a woman defends her boyfriend's hobby of trolling right wing social media accounts because apparently online abuse is okay if your target has the wrong opinions. this is your saturday night showdown. discussing alternate topics with me are my brilliant panel. joining me tonight are both sides of the political spectrum, and probably the autism spectrum and probably the autism spectrum and a few other spectrums as well, is journalist and broadcaster benjamin butterworth and the comedian and iconoclast nick dixon standing there like walk on girls at the darts. but

first, let's get your latest news headlines from sam francis. >> very good evening from the newsroom. the top story tonight. nigel farage has vowed to target the conservative leader's seat at the next general election, accusing kemi badenoch of being accusing kemi badenoch of being a rude and ranting conspiracy theorist at a reform uk east of england conference. earlier in chelmsford, he held up a phone showing the party's membership had passed 170,000 people. >> oh oh the ticker and the ticker says 170,000. kimmy, are you watching on the live stream? did we deliberately fiddle it so that it happened during my speech? did it? hell. it's happening, folks, because this

party is on the march. >> well, that follows claims from kemi badenoch that reforms onune from kemi badenoch that reforms online membership figures are fake. that's despite several news outlets now reporting the membership data is, in fact, accurate. farage told supporters he was offended by accusations of being a fraudster, saying that he's never been dishonest and will never be. he also ianed and will never be. he also invited supporters to an event later this month to prove the numbers are real, adding that her criticism had fuelled a surge in new members. well, the chairman of the reform party, zia yousef, claimed that over 46,000 people joined the party in late december alone and credited badenoch comments for making the party the talk of the western world. >> we all know that we should be very grateful to kemi. we should be very, very grateful to the leader of the tory party because in the preceding 24 hours of her ill advised outburst, reform uk signed up more members than in any 24 hour period in our entire

history. so can we please give a big reform round of applause to kemi badenoch? >> in other news tonight, the prince of wales says he and his wife, princess catherine, are shocked and saddened by the death of his former nanny's stepson. that was in a vehicle attack in new orleans. 31 year old edward pettyfer was one of 14 people killed when a pickup truck ploughed through crowds on new year's day, injuring at least 35 others. his majesty the king has also offered his condolences to the pettyfer family, who say edward was a wonderful son, and added that they are devastated by the loss. meanwhile, police in the united states say the suspect, shamsuddin jabbar, also fired shots before being killed by officers at the scene. and the fbi have now confirmed an islamic state flag was found in the vehicle, with president joe biden linking the attack to terrorist motives. the first boatload of illegal migrants

this year has crossed the channel today, with 50 people intercepted by border force early this morning and now brought to dover. it comes as figures show the number of people arriving in small boats in 2024 was up by a quarter on the previous 12 months. reform ukip leader nigel farage has called it a national security emergency and blamed mass immigration for what he described as a complete cultural disaster. well, the news and the uk is bracing for heavy snow and icy rain set to hit within just hours, with the met office warning there could be considerable disruption in some areas. two amber and two yellow alerts have been issued by the met office across most of the country, with up to 40cm of snow expected. forecasters say power cuts are also likely, and that vehicles could become stranded on roads as wintry conditions continue. and we're being warned that trains and flights could also be delayed or even cancelled. and in the us, a judge has ordered donald trump

to be sentenced next week in his new york hush money case. but he has suggested the us president elect won't be jailed. in a surprise move, the sentencing has been set for the 10th of january, just ten days before the inauguration. trump's spokesperson, though, has called the case lawless and a witch hunt, in a statement released after that date was announced. that's the news on gb news. i'll be back with you for another update 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. >> welcome to the saturday night showdown. now, maggie oliver, the former manchester detective who became a whistleblower in the rochdale grooming gang scandal, has criticised prime minister sir keir starmer for his role as director of public prosecutions during the period

when grooming gangs operated with impunity. maggie oliver asserts that starmer bears significant responsibility for the systemic failures in addressing these crimes, and has joined calls for a comprehensive, independent investigation to uncover the whole truth of what went on and hold all accountable parties to justice. this request for a government inquiry into the grooming gang scandal in oldham has been rejected by labour mp jess phillips. >> the issue is not whether there's going to be a national inquiry. it is who's going to lead it. what are we going to get out of it? will it be a real attempt to uncover the truth? and in 20 years, martin, all i have seen is this being a political hot potato being kicked around by successive governments who want to cover up the fact that we have a problem in this country. >> i am joined tonight by journalist and broadcaster benjamin butterworth and the

comedian and iconoclast nick dixon. now nick jess phillips is the labour minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls. but she doesn't seem to be prioritising safeguarding girls. she's prioritising safeguarding the establishment, as far as i can tell. >> that's certainly what some people think because she's refused this oldham inquiry and there's sort of the counter is, well, she's always done this work for women's rights and women's safety and so on. but there does seem to be a difference. if you look at that clip from when she seems to downplay the cologne mass molestation on question time. people have looked at that and said, well, why is it a different story when it comes to that? and that is the accusation. and i don't want to accuse jess of anything in particular because she'll probably sue or something. but in general, the problem that the left does seem to have is that it's very easy to sort of attack men and talk about domestic violence and all these issues people agree with. but when it comes to certain groups, of course, it's very, very different. because if you're talking about pakistani muslims, suddenly in the left wing oppression hierarchy, suddenly you're you're not from a western country. so you get a point there. you're of a different

race. you have a religion that they think is needs to be protected, even though it's a very powerful world religion globally and historically. so i don't get that. so suddenly, white working class girls are at the bottom because they're white. and in critical race theory, that puts you at the bottom, and the left has abandoned the working class. so they're still at the bottom. so suddenly when it comes to these stories, the left seems to have a very different tone. i 1508 00:09:22,792 --> 0