headlines. >> michelle, thank you. and good evening to you. the top story tonight at six, donald trump has launched a scathing attack on volodymyr zelenskyy, calling him a dictator who has done a terrible job, he says, and shattered the country. in a post on truth social, the us president suggested zelenskyy was prolonging the war to keep the so—called gravy train of support flowing. trump also claimed he alone could negotiate an end to the war, saying his predecessor, joe biden, never tried and europe has failed to bnng tried and europe has failed to bring peace. well, the conservative leader kemi badenoch, has hit back at those comments from donald trump defending president zelenskyy as ukraine's democratically elected leader, not a dictator. the conservative leader praised zelenskyy's leadership against putin's invasion and reiterated the uk will always stand with ukraine. she did, though, agree with trump that europe,

including the uk, must do more. urging sir keir starmer to increase the uk's defence spending. well, in other news, inflation has jumped 3%, the fastest rise in ten months, dnven fastest rise in ten months, driven by soaring food prices, airfares and private school fees, with energy, water and council tax bills also set to rise in april. households are bracing for more pressure on budgets. meanwhile, businesses say higher wages and national insurance hikes could push up pnces insurance hikes could push up prices even further. the government is warning the road to low inflation will be bumpy, while political parties trade blame over tax and spending policies. here's the shadow chancellor mel stride. >> unexpectedly large rise that is going to impact families right up and down the country. but look, this has happened because of choices this government has made. it's gone out and spent a lot of money, borrowed a lot of money that's been inflationary. it has also neglected productivity when it cut those public sector wage deals. there were no productivity requirements attached to that. and of course, the national insurance increases

for employers will in part at least be passed on and is being passed on by way of higher prices. so those are decisions that this government took and they were the wrong decisions. >> a 74 year old woman has become the first person in scotland to be arrested under the nation's new abortion buffer zones law. police were called to the queen elizabeth university hospital in glasgow after reports of an anti—abortion protest. the woman was arrested for breaching the exclusion zone, which prevents protesters from gathering within 200m of an abortion clinic. the safe access zones act, passed last year, aims to protect women from harassment when accessing healthcare services. a huge sinkhole has swallowed part of a road in surrey, forcing residents in godstone from their homes. a major incident was declared after the collapse on monday night, with a 100 metre cordon still in place. structural experts are assessing the site while engineers have restored water supplies. business owners, though, say the

road closure is hitting trade, while those evacuated still don't know when they can return home. and the uk's cold and grey spell is finally coming to an end, with much milder weather on the way by the end of this week. temperatures will be will be above average across the country. warmer than greece, in fact, which is in the grip of an unusual cold snap. some eastern areas of the uk could see highs of 16 degrees on friday. that is a big jump from the usual nine degrees for this time of the month, but with low pressure soon to take over, unsettled conditions will follow. i'm sorry to tell you. wind and rain are on the way. that's the news on gb news. i'll be back with you for a full round up at the top of the hour. now though, it's over to michelle. >> 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/advent. >> thank you very much for that. i like the sound of it getting warmer, but then talk of a storm again. goodness me. i do hope that many of you are managing to stay warm, because it has been so cold. and i know that lots of you get in touch and tell me that you often watch this programme with goodness knows how many duvets and layers on. it's absolutely appalling. so hopefully warmer days are soon to be upon us. and i really do hope that you're all staying safe and well. i am michelle dewberry. this is dewbs& co and i'm with you until 7:00 tonight alongside me, my panel, i've got annunziata rees—mogg, the head of comms at popular conservatism, and alongside her matthew torbitt, the former labour adviser. good evening to both of you. you're allowed back. he was a new face last week. matthew was absolutely inundated with positive comments about you. so he's back and you can see whether or not the positive comments continue for another week or not. look, you

know the drill, don't you.7 it's know the drill, don't you? it's not just about us then it is about you guys at home as well. what's on your mind tonight? it's been a very strange day. i mean, what did we all used to do before social media? the insults are flying left, right and centre today, ladies and gents, i'll have all the details in just a minute and you can join the conversation all the usual ways. email gbviews@gbnews.uk. go to the website gbnews.com/yoursay. or of course you can tweet or text me. so get yourself sit comfortably then and let's go. through what on earth has been going on? do you remember what a couple of days ago it feels like now? perhaps not even as long as that. you've got the former labour mp, now an independent mp. did i call her a labour mp at the top? i think i did anyway, she's an independent one. apologies about that. zarah sultana. she has been reported to the parliamentary standards committee. she's been labelled, quote a disgrace and a whole lot more. other things that are not suitable for teatime tv, ladies and gents, because she put out a graphic basically on twitter.

basically, if you're watching on the radio, it's a no entry sign, essentially with nigel farages headin essentially with nigel farages head in the middle of it, calling for people to gather in birmingham on a particular day to reject nigel farage. now, a lot of people are upset about this, as i've said, reported her and saying there was she was essentially creating hatred towards nigel farage. then the story moved on, because what's happened now, today is that lots of people have been challenging zara on this, saying that you shouldn't have done this post and so on. she's issued a statement on social media. it's quite a lengthy statement, but the essence of it is that she essentially compares things that reform uk have said to being comparable to the national front and the bnp, she says. she's a born and bred, proud brummie. her parents suffered the violent consequences of what she calls far right politics, and she speaks for many, she says, in the proud, multicultural city when she says she rejects the

politics of hatred, hatred and division, she goes on to say that she thinks reform uk is a party bankrolled by billionaires, led by an ex banker and public school boys and so on and so forth. she says we stand for solutions, not scapegoats. i mean calling, comparing the reform uk annunziata to the bnp and the national front. i mean, what do you think to that? >> i think it's ludicrous. they're quite clearly not that if anyone has put his head above the parapet to stand against that imagery for people on the social right in this country, not the far right it has been, nigel. he has been really against any of the same people coming across or any of the same policies. he has actually a very moderate politician who represents millions of people's

views in this country. and tarnishing that is a sort of far right bnp style party, i think is completely unreasonable. but i would be with the queen on this that if the reform party supporters, zia, yusuf and so on had kept quiet about the pretty inoffensive poster that she put up in the first place. never explain, never complain. she wouldn't have come back with this retort. it's got a lot more publicity. it's likely to have generated a lot more hate by making a big thing of it. the people on the right are pretty used to having abuse. if you stand for parliament, you are putting your head above the parapet and asking for people to interact and comment, agree with you, but also to disagree with you. and i think taking that no entry sign so personally, was that a great failure of statesmanship? >> would you agree with that, matthew? >> yeah, i thought it was going

to make myself a little bit unpopular, but annunciators possibly beat me to it. i saw the poster and i was quite surprised at the outrage it caused. as someone who regularly is a student would go and pick a tory party conference. when it came to manchester, it looked very similar to some of the posters that we put out then. the atmosphere was never one of hatred, which actually i used to get annoyed with. i thought, where's the real anger here? the tories are riding roughshod over us and you know, it was a lot of positivity from mostly middle class nurses really, to find it very frustrating. but i think to conflate reform with the bnp and the national front probably isn't quite there. i think if you want to say that all the parties shared some immigration scepticism more broadly, i think that may be fair. >> but so does labour at the moment. i mean, that is an absolutely mainstream policy and there is nothing else you can tie them together with. >> i think that might also speak to how the overton window and society has shifted since the

bnp were in their ascendancy in the early noughties, in the european parliament and elsewhere, and in council seats in the north west and in places like barking and tower hamlets. ihope like barking and tower hamlets. i hope it doesn't get out of hand. i think people are right to peacefully protest, go about their means. let nigel farage, he's not welcome in birmingham if that's what you feel. but i hope the fuelling of the fire from all sides doesn't cause this to become too unsavoury. >> and i completely agree. but i don't think that the reform party and nigel and his top people can demand free speech so widely. and then there's a really quite harmless. it's got a photograph or a no entry sign, and a date comes out and they're jumping up and down. there was no threat in that whatsoever, any more than the people he said shouldn't have gone to prison for pretty harmless tweets and facebook posts. after the terrible southport attacks.

>> let me bring you rupert lowe. he, of course, is a reform uk mp. let me show you how he's responded to essentially the second statement. so this is not a response to that first picture. and he i mean, he's not mincing his words. i've got to say, ladies and gents, this is in response to that statement. he says at reform, where everything that you are not. so he's responding directly to zara here. he says we are in parliament to represent our constituents and our country. you should try it occasionally. you should try it occasionally. you might enjoy it. he goes on to say, but please do remember this you are the mp for coventry, not gaza. acts like it. what do you think's that? >> i think he's right that mps should be there to represent not only those who voted for them, but those that did not. and it is. zarah sultana has made it clear that she is not going to toe the labour party line and that therefore her only real

mission can be to represent her constituents. i doubt she's asked them on this, but i still think the original tweet was very inoffensive and the second one was very wrong and probably has led to some people getting more and more irate, possibly dangerously so. we can only hope not. >> i mean, what do you think to rupert's response? matt. >> i think you're going to get more of the same for the next four years. you know, coventry south is likely a seat that reform will currently take on, on, on the polls that we're seeing quite regularly, zara will likely remain an independent. i don't think the party will have her back. she's not willing to play by the rules. that's her total. >> they've let the other suspended labour mps back, haven't they? they've got their whip back, but not zara. >> zara and apsana have been left and john mcdonnell and the. i think normally the way the whips would operate is you, you know, we're going to give you a bit of a telling off. you sit on the naughty step for six months and as long as you play by the rules we'll let you back in. but

we've got to show that we're disciplining people. zara and apsana are unfortunately, i thought, strategically made an error by touring the studios the week that the whip was suspended, therefore causing more confected outrage in the labour party, whereas everyone else sort of kept their heads down a little bit and did as they're told. so. but you know, this will carry on and on. and again, i think the mp for gaza thing is a bit odd, though. >> and i. >> and i. >> think it stinks to me as a little bit of what i'd call sort of nudge and wink racism. you're not saying it outright, but you're, you're sort of having a little dig that because she's a brown woman. that's all she does. she speaks about i that's not. >> i just don't think that reform can have it both ways, that it's not okay to compare them to the bnp and national front, but it is okay to say she's the mp for gaza, and i think they're very comparable statements. both of them are inaccurate. she does have very strong views. her electorate knew that when she was voted in. and the. >> hold on a minute because saying that reform uk are akin to, well, they're not she's not

saying they're akin to, you know, bnp and all the rest. she's essentially saying. >> they're comparable to. >> they're comparable to. >> yeah, she's essentially suggesting. >> and rupert lowe, who i think is a fantastic mp and is normally very moderate in his speech, is saying almost exactly the same dogwhistle against her, andifs the same dogwhistle against her, and it's just lowering everyone to a standard. we don't want our politicians to be hat, we want them to be above this petty tittle tattle. >> but this notion that it is somehow far right or racist to want control of your country's borders. i mean, i find that suggestion so absurd, so ludicrous, and people are throwing it around time and time and time again. they can never justify those accusations. they justify those accusations. they just say it. and the reason that they're just saying it is because they're trying to get political gain. they know that reform is on the rise. i mean, you just had another poll. i think it was out today, and there was one yesterday, which is again placing reform at the top. and there is a lot to be

politically gained by trying to smear reform and by definition, then their supporters. >> if they think that, then they've got the wrong end of the stick. and in fact, the more pubuchy stick. and in fact, the more publicity reform get, the more support they get. it is constantly looking like they are the people standing up for this country, but they should be making sure that they are above throwing insult for insult. eye for an eye. this is just lowering our political institutions reputation. >> well. >> well. >> i think as a strategy it doesn't work. i think we saw with donald trump you can call him racist, sexist, alleged rapist, whatever you want to call him. a lot of that stuff. people like him, you know, they factor that in. they don't care. i think those that are already supporting reform don't care what the likes of zarah sultana has to say. you know, they're going to support them ever more because of this, because they maybe see zarah sultana as politics as that. that has, has caused, you know, changes in culture or immigration into this country and therefore they'll double down even more. i think it's much better to try and

fight them on issues where they're not as strong. if you want to talk about workers rights in this country and people feeling less better off, why did none of the reform mps vote for the employment rights bill that labour put forward recently. >> because they would argue that they disagree with a lot of the component points within it, and what they would argue, and what happens is then the fact that they have voted against that bill because in its entirety they disagree with it, then that gets leveraged and weaponized to be taken to the streets of britain to say, look at reform. they don't care about workers, which i would argue is nonsense. >> welcome to politics. people are going to take things out of context in political parties and say, look, they don't support you. >> it's not good enough though, really. >> the more important you are and the bigger threat you are, the more it will