>> it's 9:00 pm. i'm ben leo. tonight. >> of course, i understand that sticking to the rules could be inconvenient, but stick to the rules. we must. >> well, there we go. remember that stick from our now prime minister? because a new scandal is brewing tonight. was he sticking to the rules? >> you cannot be a law maker and a law breaker. and it's. it's time to pack his bags. >> he pledged to quit in 2022. if he was fined over beergate. so will he step down now? if it's found that he illegally met a voice coach at the height of the pandemic? also tonight. >> he promised. he promised that he would stop the boats this

yeah he would stop the boats this year. i think the way to stop the boats is to smash the criminal gangs. if people crossing in small boats across the channel, we have to stop that. >> have they smashed the gangs yet? on the weekends, labour incentivised channel migrant crossings. 47 arrived yesterday and 82 today and. >> be in birmingham. click the link and join the biggest rally held in british politics for decades. thank you. okay. >> joining me on my panel tonight is gb news contributor will kingston. political commentator chloe dobbs and the former labour mp stephen pound. and our very own chloe dobbs has just returned back from a month abroad, mimicking the life of a migrant destined for britain for a new tv documentary.

>> i really am an empathetic person, but if we don't put a stop to these ridiculously high levels of both legal and illegal migration, britain is going to be a hellhole. >> can't disagree with that. she'll share all the details before the night is out. first, though, your news headlines with aaron armstrong. >> good evening to you. our headlines. the prime minister says the uk will seek a strong trading relationship with the us as north america moves closer to as north america moves closer to a trade war. mr starmer spoke to reporters while hosting the german chancellor, olaf scholz, ahead of a trip to brussels to improve relations with the european union. well, sir keir has been urged to pursue a new customs union with the eu, but he also wants to maintain good relations with the us. >> what i want to see is strong trading relations. and in the discussions that i've had with

president trump, that's what we have centred on in those strong trading relationships. so it's very early days. i've been very clear since i became prime minister that i do want to reset the relationship between the uk and the eu. that does not involve a return to the european union. we had a referendum here on that and that matter is settled. >> meanwhile, donald trump says any potential pain caused by his trade war with canada, mexico and china will be worth the price. canada and mexico were hit with 25% import taxes on goods, and there's a 10% tax on china. well, china and mexico say they will implement corresponding countermeasures. and canada has already responded with a for tat 25% on us imports. however, the president has defended the move and denies tariffs will be damaging for the united states. >> tariffs don't cause inflation. they cause success because big success. so we're going to have great success. there could be some temporary short term disruption and people

will understand that. i had that one in negotiated some of the good deals for the farmers. and unfortunately those deals have been led astray by biden and his people because they didn't enforce the deal. but the tariffs are going to make us very rich and very strong, and we're going to treat other countries very fairly. >> tony martin, who was jailed for shooting dead a teenage burglar in 1999, has died at the age of 80. the farmer was convicted for killing 16 year old fred barras and injuring another man when he fired his shotgun three times towards intruders. he served three years intruders. he served three years in prison for murder before being released when his conviction was reduced to manslaughter on appeal. let's turn to the middle east, where the city of jenin, in the occupied west bank, has been rocked by a series of simultaneous explosions. israel says it destroyed more than 20

buildings during its targeting of what it described as terrorist infrastructure. local authorities, though, say janine's hospital was damaged in the explosions. israel has stepped up its operations in the occupied west bank in recent weeks, since the ceasefire in gaza came into effect , weeks, since the ceasefire in gaza came into effect, and chinese communities across the country have been celebrating lunar new year. thousands of people gathered in central london earlier to watch a traditional lion dance and take part in the carnival. the lunar new year is a significant cultural celebration. it signifies the end of winter and the arrival of the year of the snake. that's it from me for the moment. more news a little later. >> 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.

>> thank you, aaron, and good evening to you at home. i hope you've had a pleasant weekend. my you've had a pleasant weekend. my day has been pretty good. arsenal won five one. but anyway, on to more serious matters. i'm not normally one to complain about people breaking covid rules, but our prime minister spent many, many months bringing down boris johnson over partygate. and it's only fair now that sir keir starmer faces the same scrutiny. breaking today is the sensational claim that keir starmer spent christmas eve in 2020 at the height of the covid pandemic, getting vocal lessons from acting coach leonie mellinger at labour's headquarters in central london. as guido fawkes reports today, there are at least a few problems with this. on christmas eve in 2020, the uk was in a tiered system of regional covid lockdowns. at that time, labour hq was located in southside victoria street, central london. in tier four, the government imposed restrictions including, quote, everyone must work from home unless they are unable to

do so. guido went on even if you concede starmer's voice coach couldn't have worked from home, this would be inconsistent with an account from a previous training session recounted in a book that mellinger joined a voice training session by phone in april 2020, so they had previously worked remotely. the other issue is that starmer's voice slash comms slash acting coach was considered so essential that she qualified as a key worker during covid. now, look, i don't know about you, but i seem to remember key workers being those who were absolutely pivotal to the continuation of society, not least so people could keep working doctors, nurses, train drivers, teachers, the police. i know boris johnson infamously called sir keir starmer the human bollard, but surely the labour leader's ambition to find a bit of character could have waited until after an apparently deadly pandemic had passed. this is the actress in question, leonie mellinger, who was previously pictured at labour hq today. she's been proudly

retweeting the sunday times piece that credited her with allegedly improving starmer's pubuc allegedly improving starmer's public performances. this apparent rule breach from sir keir starmer came during a much more serious time of covid than his beergate drama in durham. do you remember that where he and labour colleagues, including angela rayner, gathered for lagers and curries? remember this? there he was, the leader of the opposition at the time, swigging from a bottle, raising concerns that he wasn't working at all. he was actually eventually given the all clear by durham police for that meeting. he got away with it. but all of this matters because keir starmer was the first person during covid to demand the government went harder and faster with draconian rules, and he proudly boasted how we should all stick together and stick to them, regardless of how insane they were. >> you cannot be a law maker and a law breaker, and it's time to pack his bags.

>> as always, a tweet isn't there or a receipt to go back to. the shadow paymaster general, richard holden, has written to the pm today to demand an investigation into this new voice coach scandal. he wrote, it's clear from these revelations that not only have you misled the public, but you had a casual disregard for the law. and we are, i'd like to say, now reliably informed. tonight, there could be further developments on this story dunng developments on this story during the week, so it's definitely one to look out for. let's get the thoughts now of my panel gb news contributor will kingston, political commentator chloe dobbs and the former labour mp stephen pound. good evening to you all. thank you for your company. evening, stephen. i guess we start with you. >> thanks for that. that's a hospital pass, isn't it? it is. >> what's going on here? for me, it seems like there's questions for the prime minister to answer here. what's 1523 00:09:48,776