first time ever in the first time ever in a bombshell opinion poll, nigel farage and the reform party are joint first alongside the labour party. labour and reform are both on 25% of the national vote, well ahead of the conservatives on 20%. so what does this mean for the next general election? meanwhile, the labour party's definition of islamophobia appears to suggest that referring to grooming gangs is bigoted against muslims. we'll be talking to melanie phillips about that definition, and we'll be having a debate about that now. world leading voice on the horrors of this phenomenon, ayaan hirsi ali joins me in a moment to this will be a really great discussion. i'm going to be asking her about the cultural dimension of this rape gang crisis. why is it so endemic within pakistani muslim communities? plus, two local councillors have spoken out, revealing why local councils cannot be trusted to mark their own homework on the rape gangs

scandal, which is why they say we need a fresh national inquiry. one of them joins me in a moment, so stick with us tonight. state of the nation with me. matt goodwin starts right now. now, on top of all of that, i'll be joined tonight by my excellent panel. former labour mp turned reform party member simon danczuk and the former labour adviser suella stella chan. taoiseach . good try, chan. taoiseach. good try, nearly as ever. let me know your views gbnews.com/yoursay and hit me up on x at goodwin mj. now it's me up on x at goodwin mj. now wsfime me up on x at goodwin mj. now it's time for the news bulletin with sophia wenzler. >> matt. thank you. good evening. it'sjust >> matt. thank you. good evening. it's just gone. 8:00 these are your headlines. the mayor of los angeles has said

historic winds and extensive droughts created the perfect storm. but dropping winds means firefighters are now able to tackle the fire from the air. and authorities are hopeful the tide is turning. the hollywood hills blaze, described as the most destructive in la's history, has claimed five lives and forced 179,000 people to evacuate, including many a—list stars. meanwhile, prince harry and meghan markle have issued a statement on the fires, urging people to check in on disabled and elderly neighbours. the duke and elderly neighbours. the duke and duchess of sussex, who live in montecito, have called for friends and neighbours of those impacted by the wildfires to open your homes. staying in the us, president joe biden has delivered the eulogy for the late former us president jemmy carter at his state funeral, following his death last month at the age of 100. president biden, who has declared a national day of mourning, spoke in front of all four living former presidents, saying jemmy

carter made a powerful difference. carter, a nobel prize winner and the 39th us president, is being remembered for his leadership and humanitarian work. now back in the uk, a pakistani muslim former labour mp has backed calls for a grooming gangs inquiry. ex—birmingham labour mp khalid mahmood has told gb news that he backs a national public inquiry. he said we need to address the issues for the victims. they've had no respect or dignity given to them. it comes after andy burnham has split with sir keir starmer to call for an inquiry. speaking to a local radio station, the labour mayor of greater manchester said he believed there was a case for a limited national inquiry that draws on local reviews into historic child sexual exploitation. it's after labour mps rejected a conservative push for a new national inquiry by 364 votes to

111. sir keir starmer says he won't stop claiming liz truss crashed the economy despite legal threats from her team. truss's lawyers have issued a cease and desist letter, calling the claim false and blaming it for damaging her re—election prospects. the dispute centres on her 2022 mini—budget, which caused market turmoil, though her team points to a report showing economic growth afterward. >> rachel reeves has pushed this country to the brink of economic crisis through high taxes, high regulation and disastrous net zero policies. when i tried to fix these problems back in 2022, i was undermined by the economic establishment and i was forced to reverse the policies before they were even implemented. i was blamed for the ldi crisis, which the bank of england has

subsequently admitted was their fault. >> but downing street says the prime minister stands by his remarks, urging critics to ask the public about the impact on mortgages and inflation. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to matt 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 back to state of the nafion >> welcome back to state of the nation with me, matt goodwin. now, i said it would happen. and today it happened for the first time in british political history, nigel farage and the reform party have topped the national polls, sharing first place with the labour party on 25% of the vote, five points clear of kemi badenoch and the tories. the poll by find out now a very respected pollster, has

dropped a bomb in westminster. it not only shows that reform has already won over1 in 4 of those people who voted for rishi sunak and the conservatives back in july, but that reform is also more popular than the tories among every age group except pensioners. it is also, this poll suggests, the most popular party in british politics among men. but what's driving all of this? well, if you've read my newsletter, you will know what the top concerns for reform party voters are. number one, stopping the illegal migration crisis with the small boats on the channel. and number two, stopping legal migration, bringing the overall level of legal migration down. now, these concerns are certainly not unique to reform party voters. a lot of people in westminster and the establishment will have you believe that these views belong to a fringe minority, but that

is not the case. the establishment said that everybody in britain would become more in favour of mass immigration when they just got used to it. but actually, if you look at some of the other polls, they were very wrong indeed. if you look, for example, at at some of the latest polls by yougov, 70% of the british people now say immigration is too high and that is a record high. and at the same time, the percentage of british people who think that immigration has been mostly good for britain has crashed to a record low of just 18%. fewer than 1 in 5 people in britain. put in other words, think that immigration has been mostly good for the country. and let's be honest, they have good reason to feel this way. the extreme policy of mass immigration that has been imposed on the country by both left and right for much of the last 30 years, has damaged our country. we've now got masses of

low skill, low wage migration from outside of europe. 86% of all immigration into britain today is coming from outside of european nations. even the office for budget responsibility concedes that much of that migration is making us poorer, not richer. this is the space that the reform party is filling. the only question is whether the old parties can now close this space down. but with the small boat crossings already up 25% on last year, with net migration now up to nearly a million people every year, i don't think that looks very likely at all. as always, let me know your views at gbnews.com/yoursay. tweet me. meet me on x at goodwin mj. but now i want to talk about this with my expert panel. former labour mp turned reform party member simon danczuk and former labour party adviser. and i am going to get the name absolutely

right this time, stella chang, who. >> very nice. >> very nice. >> thank you. stella, let's start with you. labour looking at this poll tonight, joint first in the polls with nigel farage and reform knowing you've got those big elections in wales coming, you've got these elections in the red wall at some point that are going to happen. they've got to be nervous. >> no, it looks like the next general elections are going to be an even bigger landslide for laboun be an even bigger landslide for labour. what i am noting from thatis labour. what i am noting from that is that the lib dems and the greens are also increasing their vote share. so it's not just reform who is doing better, it is. it is primarily the conservatives who have lost out the most. now it is very easy to vote for a third party in local elections, and i do expect reform to do quite well. and nigel farage is an excellent communicator. he has done very well to feed a narrative to the global journalists who are looking for something exciting in the first six months of a labour government, which, let's admit it. keir starmer has been admit it. keir starmer has been a bit too steady, perhaps in the

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