right this morning. and your headunes right this morning. and your headlines this morning. a crisis in europe. germany rejects sir keir starmer's call for europe to step up and deploy troops to ukraine as part of any peace deal ukraine as part of any peace deal. here is the pm speaking overnight. >> at stake is not just the future of ukraine. it is an existential question for europe as a whole. >> well, the rejection of any peace deal from key european leaders is deeply embarrassing for the prime minister. all eyes now on riyadh and those talks between the us and russia. >> and defence spending split. the prime minister wants to raise spending to 2.5%, but won't say where, when and where. will the chancellor find the £6 billion to fund it.7 >> and meanwhile, prisons on the bnnk >> and meanwhile, prisons on the brink a damning new report says successive governments have worsened the overcrowding crisis, blaming the tough on crime approach.

>> and is today the day.7 thames water, our biggest water suppuen water, our biggest water supplier, goes bust. courts will decide whether to approve a £3 billion emergency loan. we'll have the latest. >> and billions of british taxpayer money spent on things like poetry workshops in colombian jails. and wait for it. shrimp farms in bangladesh. is it time to scrap foreign aid. >> and deportation denied. you won't believe this. a shovel wielding slovakian jailed for attacking a woman. he's been allowed to stay in britain after allowed to stay in britain after a judge rules he's been rehabilitated with his shovel. >> i'm convinced. meanwhile, toronto plane crash in canada. a delta plane crashed and flipped at an airport and all 80 passengers survived. dramatic pictures you can see there.

>> and a big speech yesterday by kemi badenoch. we're going to go through where she effectively said some cultures are not the same. >> as others. i actually think i don't know what you think out there, but she's got a point because as a woman, i find the way some cultures around the world treat women and young girls. in iran, for example, if you're a nine year old girl, you're a nine year old girl, you're allowed to get married to an older man. >> and it. >> and it. >> doesn't sound right. >> doesn't sound right. >> if you're in afghanistan, you're not going to be taught a thing. if you're a girl. >> no, no, you're actually bncked >> no, no, you're actually bricked up inside your house. you're not even allowed through windows. now. >> we've had grooming gangs in this country thought it was perfectly okay to target white girls. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> she made an important speech, and we'll be discussing that. >> yeah, and we want to know what you think on that one, because i'm quite angry about this. it's very easy to get involved in the show by visiting gbnews.com/yoursay. but first, let's get those news headlines with the lovely tatiana sanchez. >> dawn, thank you very much. the top story sir keir starmer

says any ukraine peace deal would require a us backstop to deter russia from attacking ukraine again. speaking after a meeting with european leaders in paris, the prime minister repeated that he'd consider deploying uk troops to ukraine in the event of a lasting peace agreement. german chancellor olaf scholz said discussing sending troops at present was completely premature, and he was a little irritated by the topic. well, that says us and russia's most senior officials are holding talks in saudi arabia after president trump announced peace talks with russia. shadow defence secretary james cartlidge has called for higher defence spending. >> we will stand by the government in supporting ukraine, i think, on the specific question of sending in troops. obviously, you know, that raises a lot of questions. we'd want to know exactly what, for example, the terms of engagement are and so on. but but yeah, we wouldn't rule that out. is we in the uk need to get on with increasing defence spending? it's no use talking about it. we have been waiting

months now for them to get on with that, and i would urge them to start increasing spending and placing the procurement orders we need so that we can start replenishing the munitions, not least those we've given to ukraine. >> in other news, official figures today have shown wages have risen while unemployment unexpectedly saw no change. the office for national statistics says uk average regular earnings growth rose to 5.9% in the three months to december and was 3.4% higher after taking consumer pfices higher after taking consumer prices index inflation into account. it marks the third month in a row of wage growth after falling for a year in november. both basic pay, excluding bonuses and average weekly earnings, rose at an annual rate of 5.6%. the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.4% and a new independent review into prisons has found sentences are getting longer thanks to political messaging around being tough on crime. it lays the blame on successive governments for the overcrowding in uk prisons,

describing ministers handling as unstrategic and unsustainable. the report found england and wales have one of the highest prison population rates in western europe. recalling offenders on licence back to jail was said to be a key reason, with numbers rising from under 100 in 1993 to nearly 13,000 in december last year. the chairman of the independent sentencing review has said today it's only a matter of time before prison numbers exceed capacity again, and those are the latest headlines for now. more news from me in half 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 the qr code, or go to gbnews.com/poll. >> james matthewson. >> james matthewson. >> good morning. welcome to britain's newsroom, live across the nation. gb news with andrew

pierce and me dawn neesom. and we've got a cracking show for you today. >> we certainly have. but before we get stuck into it, yet another extraordinary story about a migrant allowed to stay in this country. last week we had some bloke couldn't possibly go because his son might eat the wrong chicken. chicken nuggets in our begum. >> you know what? i think i'm convinced there are people in a room, right? coming up with the maddest reasons people apply to stay in this country. but not eveni stay in this country. but not even i could come up with chicken nuggets. and that was after i remember the story about the paedophile who had to stay in this country for the sake of his children. >> if only that you wouldn't. you wanted to keep him away from his children. >> certainly away from everybody else's children. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> but no, no, he had family rights. so this one. >> this is a slovakian jailed over a shovel attack on a woman dunng over a shovel attack on a woman during a violent brawl. he can stay here because he's been rehabilitated. >> yeah, i believe him. >> yeah, i believe him. >> yeah. he hit people with shovel sticks, bats and metal bars. that was nice. >> yeah. he's got a job as a gardener now. no, that's a joke, by the way. >> hasn't hit the fool with a

shovel in what the judge described as a large scale incident of serious public disorder. it's unbelievable. the home office thought he sought his deportation because he was a serious threat to the public. he'd had three previous convictions for threats. abuse. >> it's not like it's a first offence, guv, is it? i mean, the thing is, i mean this this is actually a case of brexit working. yeah i know. shock, horror. because the crimes were committed while we were still in the eu. so it's harder to expel him now. yeah. so is that brexit working or not working. not working, not working. yeah. >> it's because. it'sjust i >> it's because. it's just i just think it's going to make there's going to be a clamour to come out of the echr supreme court. >> it's not making sense. and we will get more won't we. >> yeah. and we're going to talk about kemi badenoch speech a little later. she's a tory leader, in case you've forgotten who she is, because we haven't heard a lot from her. but she made a major speech yesterday, and she did talk about the european court of human rights. >> she did? yeah. >> she did? yeah. >> she did? yeah. >> she had quite a lot to say. and we will. and actually it was very positive speech, as you and

i were concerned. >> i thought it was very positive. i think the most important point she made, and a lot of people are saying, you can't say that it's racist is not all cultures are equal. and as a woman, i don't know about how you feel about that out there, ladies, but as a woman, i think she's got a very valid point. when women in so many countries around the world are treated not even as second class citizens. yes, i have a problem with those cultures. >> if you're in a certain country, you'd be wearing a mask right now. there are advantages. >> if i was in some countries, it would be like to talk. >> even more advantages. even more advantages. now, look, we've got some breaking news. i thought this was going to happen. thames water has won court approval for an emergency debt package worth 1542