this fuel the one. will this fuel the government's spiralling popularity crisis, and will the historic israel—hamas ceasefire deal bring an end to those weekly palestine marches that have wreaked havoc on our streets? and also, tory leader kemi badenoch has made her first major speech of 2025, aiming to regain voters trust. but with reform ahead of them in the polls now, well, in some polls at least, is she just flogging a dead horse or i'll be speaking to newly defected reform uk councillor. plus, with more economic stagnation revealed in today's gdp figures, tonight i'll be speaking to a business leader who has called for a general election. state of the nafion general election. state of the nation starts now. i'll be joined by my panel.

former conservative minister steve baker and founder of novara media, aaron bastani. and as ever, let me know your views at gbnews.com/yoursay and send your opinions to me on x at alex h. armstrong. but now it's time for the news bulletins with sam francis. >> alex, thank you very much and good evening to you. just coming up to 8:02. we're following weeks of pressure. the home secretary has today announced a major shift in tackling grooming gangs. yvette cooper has ordered a nationwide review of evidence, with five government backed local inquiries and a rapid three month audit. but the review stopped short of a national inquiry, prompting criticism from the conservative party and some labour mps. even elon musk has weighed in, calling it a step in the right direction, but says results will speak for themselves. yvette cooper promised there will be a clear timetable for action, though, and vowed that shameful

progress so far must change all those national inquiries, reports and hundreds of recommendations. >> far too little action has been taken and shamefully little progress has been made. most important task should be to increase police investigations into these horrific crimes and get abusers behind bars. we will introduce stronger sentences for child grooming, making it an aggravating factor to organise abuse and exploitation. and i can announce new action today to help victims get more investigations and prosecutions underway. >> in other news tonight, an investigation is now underway after convicted murderer jake farage, known as rapper ten, recorded music referencing the murder of schoolboy jimmy mizen. the 35 year old, who was released from prison in june 2023, appears in balaclava clad videos boasting about violence. one track, recently played on

bbc radio, includes disturbing lyrics allegedly referencing jimmy's death. the conservatives robert jenrick has now called for an apology from the bbc, accusing them of promoting music from a man responsible for a shocking crime. the broadcaster, though, claims it was unaware of the rapper's identity when his tracks were played on air. well, jimmy's mother, margaret mizen, told us earlier that she thinks the rap lyrics are absolutely horrendous and she wants answers from the broadcaster. >> i think it's absolutely beyond disgraceful. i can't believe that the bbc would do this now. i know at the moment they're saying, well, they didn't know who he was, etc. but there must be ways of looking at these things. you know, perhaps people show their passports with a name or something, but they're making excuses. there's no excuses. they played his music and you're playing the music of someone who's committed murder. >> in other news tonight, sir keir starmer says the uk will play keir starmer says the uk will play its part in guaranteeing ukraine's security after a peace deal that says he made his first

visit to kyiv as prime minister. his trip comes as russian drones were targeting the city, a reminder of the daily threats that ukrainians face. the uk has also unveiled a £45 billion military aid package, including cutting edge air defence systems and training for ukrainian cadets. sir keir starmer called for peace through strength, warning that weakness could invite more war and embolden aggressors worldwide. and in an historic move, a 100 year uk ukraine partnership has been agreed, cementing ties in defence and technology. and before we head back to alex in westminster, david lynch, the oscar nominated director of films including blue velvet and co—creator of the cult drama series twin peaks, has sadly died today at the age of 78. the surrealist filmmaking giant was best known for his blend of unsettling visuals and unique storytelling style, and his family announced his death on social media, writing, there's

now a big hole in the world now that he's no longer with us. but as he would say, keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole. david lynch remembered, of course, as one of the greatest directors dead today at 78. well, those are the latest headlines. i'll be back with you in an hour. now, though, it's over to alex 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 nation. i'm alex armstrong, covering for matt goodwin. is this the wettest government u—turn yet today? home secretary yvette cooper announced new measures to tackle the grooming gang scandal, including five new local inquiries and £5 million in funding. but let's call it

what it is political posturing that you, the public, aren't easily fooled, are you? you've been demanding a national inquiry because you know as well as i do that local ones are simply ineffective and just don't go far enough. most importantly, they are incapable of connecting the dots across this epidemic that spans up to 50 towns across this country. so how can we trust councils and the police to investigate themselves when they're clearly part of a bigger problem? an independent review into greater manchester police, commissioned by andy burnham, is a good example of this. two people resigned from that inquiry last year because allegedly critical information was withheld from them. and what about accountability for those in power who may have covered this up? well, a gb news poll shows a stark 46% of you agree that there was a cover up, with only 14% of you disagreeing. and when

it comes to prosecution, well, that's even bigger. 80% of you want those public servants who allegedly or may have participated in a cover up to face justice, 80%. the data couldn't be clearer. we want action, not more empty promises or weak responses. and it begs the question , why is the the question, why is the government so scared to hold these officials accountable? the pubuc these officials accountable? the public are tired of the government sweeping this catastrophe under the carpet. it's time for real action, not more of the same ineffective policies that fail our most vulnerable in society. our children. now, as always, let me know your views via gbnews.com/yoursay or tweet me at alex h. armstrong i'm joined now by former met police detective superintendent shabnam chaudhri. shabnam. look,

obviously this has been a sensational story that's been revisited now from in the last couple of weeks, thanks to people like elon musk tweeting about it. gb news publishing that big story about the failure to hold a national inquiry. surely a national inquiry is going to connect those dots that those local inquiries just can't do. and we desperately need that, don't we? >> well, alex, they've already had a national inquiry. to be fair, the results of that were published in october 2022. out of that came 20 recommendations. not one single one of those were implemented at the time and certainly haven't been up until recently. the call that yvette cooper has made today, the home secretary, in terms of now what she wants to do, actually, i personally welcome that. she's asked for what you call five pilot areas to be reviewed to begin with. and i think that's a really good starting point, because if you go nationally and then you start asking all these

type of questions and you find that actually if you'd have stuck to those particular five areas, you could have start shaping it to start forming it. it will make some informed decisions. and then when they do decide to roll it out nationally, if they do not a pubuc nationally, if they do not a public inquiry as we say it will be locally based inquiries. it means that that allows all the different areas that have perhaps not had the opportunity to be able to shape those five particular areas and get the answers that they want. as you said yourself, at the heart of this are all those victims, and thatis this are all those victims, and that is the key issue here. yeah. >> and this for me, this is always about the victims. i know i've made loads of statements here on gb news saying that i feel like political parties are playing football with this. they're, you know, they're using the victims as some sort of political tool to get their latest news beat out. but for me, it really feels like a national inquiry hasn't been done. you know, the child sexual assault inquiry was only done. you know, the