over 34,000, asylum appeals hit over 34,000, blocking fast track deportations, with denmark granting just 860 asylum requests last year. can britain ever regain control while staying in the echr.7 thousands of farmers and their tractors descended on westminster to protest against the government's death duty hike. i'll be bringing you some illuminating footage of what i saw, partly from a forklift high above whitehall. nearly half of generation z believes britain is a racist country, and just i in 10 says they'd fight to fend it. after years of being taught only guilt and shame. is it any surprise that many young people now see their own nation as an oppressor, instead of a force for good? state of the nation starts now. i'll also be joined by my most intellectual panel, former conservative mp sirjohn redwood and the former labour mp lloyd

russell—moyle. as ever, i want to hear your views. it's a crucial part of the programme mailmogg@gbnews.com but now it's your favourite time of the day. the news bulletin with tatiana sanchez. >> jacob, thank you very much and good evening. the top stories chancellor rachel reeves has faced calls for meaningful tweaks to planned inheritance tax on farmland from labour backbenchers. farmers from across the country descended in westminster today in protest against the government's family farm tax. the rally, organised by save british farming, comes as a petition calling to keep current inheritance tax exemptions for working farms has reached almost 150,000 signatures. labour has previously insisted it will not make a u—turn on its inheritance tax plans, saying that farmers are the backbone of britain. elsewhere, images of illegal migrants and foreign offenders being deported from the uk have

just been released today for the first time, as the government confirms 19,000 foreign nationals have been removed from the country since labour came to power. the unprecedented move is part of a drive by the new government to try to show it's taking tough action on those with no right to live or work in britain. however, only a tiny fraction of the thousands of deportations include those who crossed the english channel illegally on small boats. home secretary yvette cooper says rules need to be respected. >> well, we need to prevent these dangerous boat crossings in the first place. that's why we are today in parliament debating new counter—terror style powers to go after the criminal gangs. and we also need to clear the ridiculous backlog that we inherited from the conservatives, so that also small boat arrivals who have no right to be in the uk can also be returned as part of the increase in returns and enforcement that this labour government has been setting out.

we have to make sure rules are respected and enforced. >> a second labour mp has been suspended from the party for comments made in a whatsapp group that saw a minister lose his job. group that saw a minister lose hisjob. burnley group that saw a minister lose his job. burnley mp oliver ryan has been suspended by labour over his membership of the whatsapp group, containing offensive comments. mr ryan has apologised for unacceptable and deeply disappointing comments. ashley dalton, labour mp for west lancashire, has been appointed as a minister in the department of health and social care after andrew gwynne was sacked over the weekend. he was also found to be a part of the whatsapp group. and us president donald trump is set to impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports into the us. steelmakers in asia have warned the tariffs will impact profitability and volumes of steel. it's unclear whether president trump will make any exemptions on tariffs. labour minister dame angela eagle said earlier today it's in the best interests of both the uk and the

us that the two countries carry on with their balanced trade, and those are the latest headunes and those are the latest headlines for now. more news from me 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. talk of a pact between kemi badenoch conservatives and nigel farage's reform has grown louder as senior voices warn of the dangers posed by splitting the dangers posed by splitting the centre right vote. lord mackinlay, a former conservative mp, called it a patriotic duty to protect the country from what he describes as the destructive forces of socialism. others highlight the tactical advantage of non—aggression agreements in key seats to prevent labour victories by default. yet mr farage, ever the political

disrupter, has made his distrust of the conservatives clear. burned by what he terms the betrayal of brexit in 2019. he views the tory leadership as dishonourable. he has hinted that any deal would come with hard conditions, scrapping net zero targets. hear, hear. appointing outsiders to run government departments easier said than done, and adopting a more hard line stance on sovereignty and immigration. this vision has much support within tory ranks. yet many conservative mps fear that elevating farage to a position of power would alienate moderate voters and fracture the party further. for others, however, clinging to old divisions is simply self—destructive. reform surge in popularity and the resilience of the tories base vote means that labour, despite its manifold failings and unpopularity, remains favourite to win the next election. can the tories could the tories stomach having nigel farage as the leader of a combined right wing force? after all, the conservatives kept both lloyd george and ramsay macdonald in government and they were from

the left rather than the right. would this be the best way to unite the right and stop the decade of the reverend starmer that we could otherwise face? well, i'm joined now by a very distinguished labour mp, graham stringer, and my panel, my most intellectual panel, sir john redwood and lloyd russell—moyle. graham, thank you for coming in. i mean, i suppose this starts with the fact that within the parliamentary labour party, you're about the last person carrying the flag for people who've gone to reform from laboun who've gone to reform from labour, who believe in the country, who didn't favour the european union, have doubts about net zero, and actually stand up for your base vote. >> i think that's a bit extreme in terms of the vote to leave the european union. you're pretty close to being right in terms of representing the traditional labour base. the number of labour mps who

basically represent the skilled and unskilled white working class has diminished, but it is still there, genuinely there, although a lot smaller than it used to be. >> but this has made room for nigel and indeed for the conservatives, because quite a lot of voters. in 2019, ex—labour voters voted conservative and then in 2024 seemed to vote to reform. so part of the issue for both the conservatives and reform is this old labour vote, which, as i say, i think you do represent, but has been less fashionable, let's put it that way. >> i agree with that. and the labour party has to try and get it back. i mean, one of the items in in the news you just read was that part of the deal that nigel farage would want to augn that nigel farage would want to align with the conservatives would be to ditch net zero? i would be to ditch net zero? i would say that if the labour party wants to get its base

back, then it has to make a great fuss about the cost of electricity. i mean, power, electricity. i mean, power, electricity should always have three priorities security of supply, the cost to the consumer industry, and then think about the environment. and labour has done that in reverse. at the moment we promised reduced fuel pnces moment we promised reduced fuel prices and they're now very high indeed. and our industry is leaving. so i think if we want to get our base back, then we have to start with that. we also have to start with that. we also have to start with that. we also have to deal. and i've just been in the commons chamber. we also have to deal with what upsets my constituents, which is both illegal migration and the absolute numbers of migration. the labour party has to be quite firm, not racist, but very clear in a plan to deal with what, again, my constituents are angry about and see as a problem. >> john, let me bring you in, because there's so much that graham says that we felt when we

were mps that our party wasn't doing either. this obsession with net zero, putting energy pnces with net zero, putting energy prices up. failure to deal with migration. it makes quite a lot of evidence for nigel farage's charge of the uniparty that the leaderships of both parties have distanced themselves from where voters are. yes. >> it's become. >> it's become. >> a very big problem, and i've just agreed with everything that graham has been saying. and i was making that case. you were making that case when you weren't a minister in the last parliament. and i do think that's what kemi badenoch has got to resolve very quickly. she says she stands for got to resolve very qu