thatcher. was she a force for good then? do you think or not? and another day, another poll putting reform on top. so the calls to unite the right are growing stronger and stronger. your thoughts on that? and if it was united, what would it look like? and do you remember the tough images from the deportation flights last night carrying the migrants? so many of you got in touch and said michelle, details, details, details. all right. i listen to you and i've got a few details now. a private flight chartered, it had about 47 people on board. it went to albania and it cost us taxpayers about £1 million. so is that a good deal or not? we've got all of that and more keeping me company tonight. my panel keeping me company tonight. my panel, we've got ben habib, the chairman of the great british pac and former deputy leader of reform uk, and scarlett mccgwire, the political commentator. but before we get stuck in, let's give you your

6:00 news headlines. >> michelle, thank you very much. the top stories the national police chiefs council spokesperson says police officers and staff should always be held to the highest standards, and we must ensure that only those who are suitable to wear the uniform, enter and remain in policing. well, those comments come as the high court ruled the met police cannot dismiss officers by removing their vetting clearance. sergeant lino di maria successfully mounted a legal challenge after having his vetting removed over sexual assault allegations, which he denies. he was found to have no case to answer in respect of the allegations, and argued that having his vetting removed without the accusations being proved is a breach of his right to a fair trial. met police commissioner sir mark rowley said the force will be seeking an appeal on the judgement. in other news, two bodies found in a river in aberdeen have been identified as those of sisters eliza and henrietta hudson, who

went missing in january. the sisters, both aged 32, were last seen on cctv on market street at victoria bridge over the river dee. police also say there do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances. chelsea footballer sam kerr, who called a metropolitan police officer stupid and white in january 2023, has been found not guilty of causing racially aggravated harassment. the australian international made the comments to pc stephen lovell during an incident in south—west london. she said she regretted the way she expressed herself, but added i feel the message was still relevant. miss kerr denied using whiteness as an insult and claimed i believed it was him using his power and privilege over me because he was accusing me of being something i'm not. elsewhere, labour officials were warned about offensive whatsapp group messages before the comments were made public. it's been claimed today. burnley mp oliver ryan is the second mp to

be suspended by labour. greater manchester police said a non—crime hate incident had been recorded after the comments emerged. and former health minister andrew gwynne was sacked. gerald cooney, the former labour leader of tameside council, said he raised concerns about gwynne's remarks several times in the past year. labour sources said no formal complaint had been received about the whatsapp group. baroness jacqui smith spoke to gb news. >> nasty party. what we are is the decisive party. when the prime minister got the evidence of these messages, which i agree with, you are completely unacceptable. what he did was to sack the minister and to suspend from the labour party both of the mps that were involved. now that stands in pretty stark contrast with previous prime ministers who faffed about the place and allowed senior ministers to stay in their roles when they had clearly breached the ministerial code. that's the difference that we're seeing. >> in other news, israel's prime

minister says the gaza ceasefire will end if the terror group hamas does not return israeli hostages by midday on saturday. benjamin netanyahu warned of intense fighting if hostages are not released. well, his comments echo those of us president donald trump, who earlier said the israel—hamas ceasefire should be cancelled if hostages held in gaza are not returned on time. hamas announced last night that they will delay hostage releases planned for saturday until further notice. luis rubiales has told a court he is absolutely sure. spanish footballer jenni absolutely sure. spanish footballerjenni hermoso gave consent before he kissed her at the women's world cup final in 2023. the former president of the royal spanish football federation is on trial, accused of sexual assault and attempting to coerce miss hermoso into publicly saying the kiss had been consensual. giving evidence, the 47 year old said the kiss was an act of affection, adding that in the moment it was something

completely spontaneous . and sir completely spontaneous. and sir alex ferguson led the tributes to denis law as the football community paid their final respects, saying he was one of the greatest players ever at man united. ferguson, the former manchester united manager, was in attendance alongside several other united greats including ruud van nistelrooy and paul scholes. hundreds of fans and members of the public also paid their respects, lining the streets as the hearse drove past, and old trafford projected a tribute to the late footballer. law remains the only scottish player to have ever won the ballon d'or, and no man has scored more goals for the national team. he died at the age of 84 last month. and those are the latest gb news headlines for now. more news from me in an houn >> 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 very much for that, tatiana. my name is michelle dewberry. this is dewbs& co and we're keeping you company until 7:00 tonight alongside me, my panel 7:00 tonight alongside me, my panel, ben habib, the chairman of the great british pack and is of the great british pack and is of course, also the former deputy leader of reform uk. and alongside him we've got scarlett mccgwire, the former labour advisor. welcome back. welcome back. thank you. and if you're sitting there thinking what is a great british pack, well guess what, you should have tuned in the other day because he explained it at length, didn't you? >>i you? >> i did, thank you. you're very, very welcome. >> all of you are very welcome tonight. what is on your mind? you can join the conversation all the usual ways. email me gb views @gbnews. com go to the website gbnews.com/yoursay or tweet or text me or follow me. take me with you. let me do a bit of stalking in your eardrums because of course we are on dab+ radio. what a treat! but look.

top story of the day. there's been many people debating and discussing a ruling that came in today, and the impact that it potentially has on police officers. some people are calling it a very dark day for policing. well, let's cross live then, shall we? to our home. and security editor mark white. mark, bring us up to speed with what exactly has happened. >> well, this is an issue around the metropolitan police and other police forces effectively trying to clean up house to ensure that those officers within the service are not or are all of them at least fit and proper to hold the rank of a police constable and have no skeletons in their closet, if you like. that requires them to be dismissed. this all, of course, follows the murder of sarah everard in 2021 by the

serving police officer, pc wayne couzens, and a slew of other allegations since that really have resulted in the metropolitan police in particular, receiving an absolute reputational kicking. a review by baroness casey described the metropolitan police as not only institutionally racist, but also misogynistic and homophobic, and so since then there's been a lot of soul searching internal processes and operation , which processes and operation, which has really aimed to look at all those currently serving within the police service to just check their their past and to vet them again to make sure, as i say, that they're fit and proper to hold that post. and this particular individual, a sergeant called lino di maria, was found to have a number of allegations that had been made against him of rape, sexual assault claims that he had also

sent inappropriate messages to colleagues at work. so the police decided to revoke his vetting and institute the process to dismiss him. he has appealed that he's gone to the high court. there was a judicial review granted the findings of that judicial review come back, and they've said effectively that this officer is right, that his human rights were being infringed under article six of the human rights act because he wasn't allowed due process, he wasn't allowed due process, he wasn't allowed due process, he wasn't allowed to present his side of the argument to rebut any of the allegations, and that the metropolitan police and other forces are acting outside of the law here in the way that they are operating with these dismissals. if people feel that feel that the vetting process. >> yeah. so, i mean, i'm just trying to look at the opposite side of this because, i mean, a lot of people are divided on

this, but it has been called a dark day for policing. so if you've got a situation where you've got a situation where you've got a serving officer, someone's then made some allegations about him, you know, he's done this, he's done that, he's done this, he's done that, he's done this, he's done that, he's done the other whatever. surely, though, you wouldn't potentially essentially fire that person until you've investigated and that person has been proved guilty. so now in this new world, would that person be put on, say, desk duty while those investigations were taking place? >> well, there's a range of opfions >> well, there's a range of options that the police have available to them, depending on what the allegations are. and at the end of the day, you know, the end of the day, you know, the allegations may be proved and they could be disciplined, a verbal warning, they could be suspended for a while and ultimately they could be sacked as well. but in terms of the process, what effectively has been happening is that, you know, if you apply to join the police, you have to go through a vetting procedure. they look into your criminal past, they look into your finances, your

family and your associates just to try to check that you are a fit and proper person to become a police officer. if they are, if they look upon some of the aspects of your character and your past behaviour as being someone who they consider to be of bad character, you don't get into the police service in the first place. the difficulty comes when you're accepted and you're in employment, then you're in employment, then you're subject to employment laws as well and protected, supposedly by employment laws. but they continue to vet officers on a regular basis dunng officers on a regular basis during their career. but if they find that there are aspects, then of their character through further vetting that shows that they are perhaps not fit and proper, you've got to go through the proper procedure to get rid of them, and if you're going outside of those procedures and trying to sack them because of what the vetting procedure has turned up, then you get what

we've got today with the judicial review saying that person's rights were infringed here. what it requires is a change in the law to toughen up the rules around what police can and can't do if they find that you are failing the vetting procedure. successive home secretaries have been asked repeatedly to toughen up the rules here by chief constables. they've all failed to do that. finally, we are hearing that the labour government is going to go down the path of toughening up those rules so that chief constables like the metropolitan police commissioner can sack people if they fail their vetting tests. >> interesting stuff. mark white, thank you very much for bringing us up to speed with that. what do you think to this at home then? are you sitting there thinking this all basically makes sense? is this a step in the right direction, a step in the right direction, a step in the wrong direction? let's hear from metropolitan police chief then, shall we?

mark rowley. >> day's ruling on the law has left policing in a hopeless position. we now have no mechanism to rid the metal officers who are not fit to hold, vetting those who cannot be trusted to work with women, or those who cannot be trusted to enter the homes of vulnerable people. it is absolutely absurd that we cannot lawfully sack them. >> well, i want your thoughts on this. do you know that name that wayne couzens, even just hearing that man's name, it's just enough, isn't it, to send a shiver down your spine? i'll never forget that that guy had the audacity, ladies and gents, to actually appeal his sentence. remember that you've got a question. what actually goes through the mind? how egotistical, how warped must you be? not least to have done that in the first place, but then to have got your tariff and sit there and pontificate to yourself and think, do you know what? it's a really good look for me now to try and get a

reduced sentence. i mean, goodness gracious me. get in touch me and tell your thoughts coming up

hello there. michelle dewberry dewbs& co gb07 ben habib scarlett mccgwire alongside me. let's open this to you, ben habib. we've just been hearing there then about these new changes when it comes to policing and the ease at which a police force would be able to get rid of a potential wrong'un. >> well, i think it is a dark day for the police. you know, if we are to trust the police with policing the nation, we have to trust them with policing their own organisation and actually the right to dismiss someone for whatever reason from an organisation has to be a much lower bar than a judicial process. you know, a police officer or indeed someone employed in private enterprise or any other of the public sector bodies has a duty to

fulfil and their ability to fulfil and their ability to fulfil that duty has to be judged by their superiors. and if the superiors judge them, incapable of fulfilling that duty, whatever that duty is, then there has to be a mechanism by which to terminate their employment. this is not you can't go to trial every time you want to dismiss someone from employment. it just doesn't make any sense. and mark white said the labour party is bringing in a bill to toughen it up employment law. but actually they're going to toughen it up they're going to toughen it up the wrong way. they're going to make it even more difficult to get rid of employees. and i think it is a complete mess. if the police can't sack an individual that they think is amongst their own, who they think isn't fit to do the job, and may actually present a danger to the public, and i just want to draw a parallel, if i may, quickly, before you move away from me, between what happened today with the police and the financial conduct authority a couple of years ago

with chris bernardi, who happens to be a brexiteer and was until then a successful fund manager, accusations were made against chris bernardi, none of which i believe were proven that he had inappropriately behaved with women and done all sorts of things. and the fca moved to end his ability to do business. they tore his business apart and they put him out of business without even a criminal trial taking place. and yet today you have the police who are charged with the police who are charged with the responsibility of protecting the responsibility of protecting the public, not being able to dismiss one of their own because, you know, because of the court standing in the way, human rights standing in the way. it is absolutely absurd, the human rights of the population yet again, being put second fiddle to the human rights of an individual. and we see that right across the board. of course, you know, with illegal migration, etc, the human rights law of this country

desperately needs to be changed. >> can i just correct, ben? is that what mark white made him? what mark white made clear is that actually the home secretary is going to is going to toughen up the employment thing so that it's easier for mark rowley and other chief constables to get rid of. >> but that's not what the employment rights bill that's going through parliament at the moment does. it makes it more difficult? >> ben. that is what yvette cooperis >> ben. that is what yvette cooper is going to do. mark made it absolutely clear that that's what she's going to do. >> what specifically would the. >> what specifically would the. >> specifically with the police? because actually it is really important, and particularly with the metropolitan police, is that over and over again, we have had cases of officers taking advantage of vulnerable women who they go and see and they might be on drugs, and they might be on drugs, and they might have been people who've had domestic abuse and, and actually sexually assaulting them or coercive behaviour. and

i think it's really i think mark rowley is absolutely right that he is trying to get rid of people. and this isn't about one person. there are 300 people that the police have got on this that the police have got on this that if you fail your vetting, then they say you failed your vetting and once you've failed your vetting, you can't be a police officer. and it's absolutely right. and can i say that there's something called dbs, which which is for people like like me. so i've i've got it, i've been vetted so that i can be o