gb news state of the nation on gb news with me matt goodwin. the show that speaks up for you. the forgotten majority coming up on the show tonight as president donald trump pauses foreign aid. is it time for the uk to do the same and instead spend that money on people here in britain? and breaking tonight. in the last few hours, a bombshell new opinion poll has, for the first time ever in british political history, put nigel farage and the reform party on top, ahead of labour and the tories. argentinian president javier milei has used his platform at the world economic forum in davos to attack the british government. we'll be talking about whether he is right to do so. plus, do charities need to stay out of politics? do we need to take on the charity industrial complex, that state of the nation tonight with me, matt goodwin. it's going to be a great show with great guests. let's go.

now. i'll also be joined tonight by my top panel senior reporter at guido fawkes, ellie wheatley, and political journalist and broadcaster zoe grunwald. as even broadcaster zoe grunwald. as ever, let me know your views. gbnews.com/yoursay and hit me up on x at goodwin mj. but now it's time for the news with sophia hill. >> thank you matt. your top story this evening. storm ian is sweeping across the uk, bringing record breaking winds and severe weather conditions. i in 5 flights in i in 5 flights from airports in the uk and ireland have already been cancelled today, and millions of people have been urged to stay home. over 4 million people across northern ireland and scotland received emergency alerts from the met office last night, with guidance on how to stay safe. more than 240,000 homes and businesses are without power in northern ireland, and a wind

speed of ii4mph brought by the storm has been recorded in ireland, the fastest since records began. 20,000 scottish power customers across the centre and the south of the country are without electricity and a red danger to life warning for wind has been extended in scotland, where more than 35,000 properties have lost power. local authorities have warned all commuters to avoid travel at all commuters to avoid travel at all costs, and the southport child killer will likely die behind bars after murdering three girls at a dance class. but his 52 year sentence has sparked calls for law changes. axel rudakubana received one of the highest minimum custody terms on record for the attack that killed alice da silva aguiar, bebe, king and elsie dot stancombe. however, southport's labour mp patrick hurley said the sentence was not severe enough and he asked the attorney general to review it as unduly lenient due to rudakubana age at the time of the attack, he cannot legally receive a whole life order. the head of the uk's largest police force has welcomed a review of contempt of court laws and suggested sharing more information earlier in

cases could be beneficial. now, scotland's first ever visitor levy for overnight stays has been approved by councillors in edinburgh. visitors staying in the city will have to pay a 5% fee per night, capped at seven nights, which is expected to raise up to £50 million a year for the local authority. the charge will be applied on bookings made after the 1st of may this year for accommodation stays from july 2026. now let me entertain you with this little bit of news. pop star robbie williams has equalled the beatles record for the most uk number one albums. >> i got you got, we got everybody, i got the gift, gonna stick it in the goal. it's time to move your body. >> william's latest release, batman, the soundtrack to his biopic film, has become his 15th record to top the official album charts to celebrate matching one of the most influential bands of all time, the singer posted on social media. wearing a t—shirt featuring the names of the beatles members alongside his own, and thanked his fans for

supporting the album and the movie. those are the latest gb news headlines for now. i'll be back 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 back to state of the nation. tonight with me, matt goodwin. now, president donald trump has just paused u.s. trump has just paused us. foreign aid for 90 days. should the uk do the same? while 64% 64% of brits, nearly two thirds of the country, think that we should reduce our foreign aid budget. according to new polling by yougov, prioritising very real public concerns about how our government appears to prioritise international commitments over the domestic needs of our own people. in 2023, the uk's foreign aid budget get this reached a

whopping £15.3 billion, with 4.3 billion of that sum allocated to domestic refugee programs, a significant increase of 583 million from the year 2022. however, concerns have emerged that the allocation of funds to certain recipient countries and a potential misuse of aid are being ignored. considerjust some of these numbers, which i find absolutely mind boggling. of the £15.3 billion, we are sending 115 million to afghanistan, a country run by the taliban, which means funds could be used to inadvertently support rebuilding efforts under taliban control. somalia. we've sent £98 million to somalia, a country which has a history of uk aid falling into the hands of al—qaeda affiliate al shabab, while somalians here in britain are also among the most likely to be given social housing, again paid for by the british taxpayer. pakistan was sent £69 million and is forecast to get

£133 million this year. a country who had some nationals implicated as key figures in the rape gang scandal. here in britain, 58 million went to bangladesh, a country who undermined uk efforts to strip citizenship, from shamima begum, a british born woman who entered syria to join islamic state at the age of 15 in 2015, who was eligible for bangladeshi citizenship. and lastly, kenya was sent another £48 million. a country where human rights campaigners continue to seek reparations for colonial era grievances. the taxpayers alliance campaign group revealed that in 2024, £536 million is being spent on ten active funding programmes focused on supporting farmers and farming communities overseas. while here in britain, the labour government just smashed family farms that have been operating in this country for generations to save £500 million. in other words, we're sending £15 billion

overseas while we're taking winter fuel payments off british pensioners on these islands to save £15 billion annually. i don't know about you. i think this is absolutely bonkers. i think it represents a betrayal of british people. i think it undermines our national community, our sense of solidarity. but as always, i want to know what you think at home. so hit me up @gbnews , home. so hit me up @gbnews, gbnews.com/yoursay or on x, you can find me at goodwin. mj now with me tonight to talk about this senior reporter at guido fawkes, ellie wheatley, and political journalist and broadcaster zoe grunwald. ellie, 64% of brits are saying, let's cut foreign aid, let's reduce it. donald trump's just paused it. donald trump's just paused it in the us. is this where the mood music is going? is it time for britain to actually slash the amount that we're sending overseas and spend it instead on british people here? >> yeah, i mean, it's extraordinary really. rachel reevesis extraordinary really. rachel reeves is very happy to hand out cash to everyone else while clobbering britons with record amounts of tax hikes. i mean, we've not only spending a lot of

money on foreign aid, although, to be fair, reeves did cut it in the budget to 13.3 billion, down from 15 billion. but also we're spending money on giving up the chagos islands. that's another £9 billion. it's everyone else is happy, you know, they're happy to hand over cash to everyone else other than our own. meanwhile, £22 billion is being taxed on the national insurance increase, etc, which of course is in turn leading to job cuts. actually they are. companies are cutting jobs at the fastest rate since 2009. i saw that and businesses are closing, which in turn relates into business confidence and consumer confidence in the uk economy. absolutely nosediving. and now of course, we see reeves left with a tiny, measly £1 billion, had fiscal headroom, which leaves her with either having to raise taxes again or

cut public spending. so why are we spending money abroad when we should be focusing on our own. >> 15 billion zahawi is a big number, and i think the thing that lots of people at home will probably be struggling with, they'll be reading about what's going on in the nhs, people getting treatment in corridors, nurses treating british, people in car parks, in hospital gyms, families having to say goodbye to loved 1500 00:09:2