>> good afternoon britain. it's 12:00 on friday the 10th of january. i'm tom harwood and i'm emily carver happy friday! now, a yougov poll has revealed that more than three quarters of britons support calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs. and again, parliament of course, voted against that this week. is the prime minister at odds with public opinion? >> i reckon so, and this comes as the leader of oldham council claims the town has become a target for the far right. this amid coverage of the abuse gang scandal. >> meanwhile, opposition parties are calling for rachel reeves to cancel her three day visit to china after the pound fell to its lowest level in over a year and borrowing costs reached highs not seen since the financial crisis. >> oh, dear. >> oh, dear. >> and elsewhere, devastation in los angeles as fires continue to rage. the fourth consecutive day. ten are now dead as

thousands of homes are destroyed. almost 200,000 people have been evacuated from the area. as president biden, he's promising to spare no expense to rebuild thousands of houses, schools and businesses burned to the ground, communities wiped out lives lost, families forever changed. >> they're the worst fires to ever hit los angeles. ever. >> now, this week, we've been around the country looking at the particulars in different towns, in different areas, looking at what has gone on with this grooming gang scandal, talking to people involved and trying to talk to people who weren't involved. how much did people in all of these different towns actually know? >> yeah, because one of the accusations is that there has been a culture of cover up.

there has been some corruption, too, that's prevented this from coming to light, that no one in a position of power has ever been punished throughout the grooming gang scandal, whenever it's been raised in the media and keir starmer says no, no, no, we don't need a national inquiry, doesn't need, we don't need one. we know enough about child exploitation and we know enough about these grooming gangs. that's fine. no need at all. it looks like 76% of people don't agree with that. >> it's quite rare that you get a super majority for these sort of yougov questions. for these polling questions, i mean, very often you get majorities one way, majorities the other, but more than three quarters of the country all agreeing on something that's pretty stark. >> yeah, it is pretty stark. and we're just hearing today from charlie peters that the leader of oldham council is repeating the same lines that keir starmer sort of started with, about how oldham, because of all the coverage of oldham, it's become a target for the far right.

remember keir starmer saying that certain politicians and people are jumping on the bandwagon of the far right in discussing this? you can't silence things by just, you know, chucking that word around. >> no, and i'm sorry, i'm going to say this directly to the leader of oldham council. if you're trying to shame journalists away from looking at what's going on in oldham, if you're trying to shame people, to not go to oldham and uncover and report, you are going to fail because all it is going to do, all your attempts to silence journalism and investigation will do is encourage more of it. and let's hope that more gets uncovered. >> well, absolutely gbnews.com/yoursay please do get in touch throughout the show. but first, the headlines with sam. >> very good afternoon to you. three minutes past midday. the top story this hour, officials are monitoring elon musk's social media posts for potential

security risks. according to reports, the home offices homeland security team began the scrutiny after musk's controversial comments about labour's jess phillips calling her a rape genocide apologist. phillips, who has long campaigned against violence towards women, says threats against her have now increased since those posts. meanwhile, elon musk has criticised the uk government for rejecting a fresh inquiry into grooming gangs, sparking heated political debate this week. the home office has not yet commented on claims of monitoring. meanwhile, sir keir starmer is under fire today after a poll revealed 76% of the public, including 65% of labour voters, do support a new national inquiry into grooming gangs. the backlash follows labour mps rejecting a conservative call for an inquiry earlier this week. but there are party divisions, with senior figures like andy burnham supporting a limited probe. the greater manchester mayor says an inquiry would hold authorities accountable, with survivors

claiming key issues remain unresolved despite an earlier investigation. but the government says it's focused on action, not delays. downing street also insists it is committed to leaving no stone unturned. the chancellor's trip to china is going ahead, despite opposition calls to cancel that trip after the pound hit a 14 month low and borrowing costs have soared. culture secretary lisa nandy has defended rachel reeves visit, saying it's vital to maintain strong ties with the world's second largest economy. government borrowing costs rising since august have climbed yet further today, sparking fears of tax hikes or spending cuts. meanwhile, analysts linked the pound's dip to broader economic concerns, with the treasury ruling out any emergency intervention. officials also insist they are balancing immediate economic stability with long term growth plans. tractors are taking over uk roads today as british farmers protest labour's family farmers protest labour's family

farm inheritance tax. today marks the final day of three consecutive demonstrations, timed to coincide with the oxford farming conference . oxford farming conference. yesterday, environment secretary steve reed apologised to farmers in his speech at that conference, but gave no indication the policy would be reversed. well, our reporter, will hollis, is at one of those protests in buxton today where he's been speaking to farmer les boehm, who says the future of family owned farms is under threat. >> the problem we've got, we've really dictated by supermarket pnces really dictated by supermarket prices and not a lot of us are making much money. so if we have a 40% tax on my death, basically my kids would have come up with probably 400,000. the only way we could do that is to sell off ground. and if you sell off your ground, you can't produce as much money off your farm to do that. so it's just a spiral going down and down. >> news now from the united states, where at least ten

people have died in wildfires tearing through los angeles with high winds, threatening to spread the flames even further, five fires are still burning and a man has been detained over the latest. but authorities say there is no conclusive proof they were started deliberately. officials warn the death toll could rise further, as it's been too dangerous to access some of the worst hit areas. adding to that chaos, an alert was mistakenly sent to every los angeles resident warning of an imminent blaze about to sweep through. britain has shivered through. britain has shivered through its coldest night this winter, with temperatures plunging to —14 degrees in the north of scotland, railway services are severely affected, with ice preventing trains from running at london's charing cross and delays reported across multiple other rail networks. forecasters say it could get even colder tonight, with temperatures potentially dropping to —16 degrees. well, the director of weather trending, john hammond, spoke to us earlier. he says freezing fog, freezing fog rather

hopefully not. frogs is expected tonight. >> we are journeying out just to allow a bit of extra time because you will have to scrape the windscreen. service is very icy as you mentioned, warnings in force and frankly, those temperatures are not going to creep much above freezing all day long. so typically we're looking at highs of what, 0 to 3 degrees. so nothing in terms of snowfall is really going to thaw much. certainly in the shade. if you've got snow cover, you'll come back home tonight with just about the same amount. >> and police in the highlands say two more lynx have been spotted in the same area where a pair of wild cats were captured on thursday. officers are warning the public not to approach the animals, with specially trained teams working to capture them. the royal zoological society in scotland, now caring for those captured lynx, has called their illegal release highly irresponsible. investigations are ongoing now to uncover the full story behind the incidents. that's the news on gb news. i'll be back with you in half an hour. now,

though, it's over to tom and emily 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. >> gbnews.com/alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it is 12:09. we're going to go straight to los angeles because live pictures here of the devastating fires that have been ravaging that large, large american city well, for days on end. now, 1512 00:09:37,936 --> 00:09:38