confirmed the party had mr yusuf confirmed the party had also received complaints from two female employees about serious bullying in mr lowe's parliamentary and constituency offices. in a statement this evening, mr lowe said he was disappointed but not surprised to learn of what he said were false allegations. he's also said that the allegations of bullying at his offices are not about him, and he is taking legal advice. well, the metropolitan police has confirmed tonight that it received complaints of verbal threats made by a 67 year old man, and officers are carrying out an assessment to determine what further action may be required. donald trump says he's working hard to get a ukraine peace deal as soon as possible. the president was speaking in the white house after another major wave of russian attacks on its neighbour overnight. mr

trump said that ukraine was taking tremendous punishment and a peace deal was urgently needed. >> i want to settle the war, get it finished because if i'm not here, nobody's going to settle it. and president macron has said that and every president, everybody said that. the prime ministers and presidents, we're pushing very hard. that's all i'm thinking about now, as far as the question about security later, that's the easy part. the hard part is getting it settled. we got to get them. members of a russian run spy ring are facing lengthy jail terms for one of the largest and most complex enemy operations to be uncovered on uk soil. the three bulgarian nationals were found guilty at the old bailey of spying on an industrial scale and putting lives and national security at risk. well, commander dominic murphy, the head of the

metropolitan police counter—terrorism command, details the threats they posed. >> everything we've discovered the threat was quite broad, in fact. so, yes, they were gathering information, what you might call lifestyle surveillance against individuals here in the uk. my concern has always been, though, what was that lifestyle surveillance going to lead to.7 and we have seen a long history of the russian state conducting operations here in the united kingdom, including lethal threat operations like the investigation in salisbury, so deeply worrying about the physical and information challenges created. >> the independent office for police conduct has reopened its investigation into previous assaults by nottingham killer valdo calocane, following representations from the victims families. the alleged assaults took place just a month before calocane killed ian coates, barnaby webber and grace o'malley—kumar. and you're right up to date with the latest on

headunes up to date with the latest on headlines from the gb news centre. now it's over to alex armstrong and state of the nation. >> for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code , or go to gb news the qr code, or go to gb news dot com. forward slash alerts. >> welcome back to state of the nation. well, reform uk seems to be in a political crisis tonight after the party announced that an investigation has been launched into their mp for great yarmouth. rupert lowe complaints have been made over alleged bullying and threats of two female employees, one in lowe's parliamentary office, the other in his constituency office. meanwhile, police have received complaints about threats of violence alleged to have been made against party chairman zia yusuf. well, we now welcome the founder of conservative home and reform uk spokesman tim

montgomerie. >> not a spokesman, not a spokesman. >> okay. all right. well, it's none of your words are on record tonight. interesting interesting look. so this this is a disaster, isn't it.7 this is an absolute disaster. it's playing out so publicly. i know many of the people watching at home will be supportive of reform. uk will be supportive of reform. uk will be going, what in the hell is going on.7 >> well, look, i'm not going to pretend it's good news. is it a disaster? is it a crisis? well, time will tell. i think there are two issues. one is the individual allegations that have been made against rupert lowe, and i don't think any of us here can know the truth of those. and i think it's important that this independent investigation runs its course. but i think whatever now is the outcome of that investigation, it's clear that there is a fundamental breakdown in relationship between rupert lowe and nigel farage. this is not going to be mended, and i don't know everything about it. but nigel farage is a successful as he is as a leader of sort of as he is as a leader of sort of a populist centre right force in europe because he he rules with

an iron fist and he's very good at politics. and i think there was a growing tension with rupert lowe, understandably, in some ways impatient with the policy review process and things like that. and i don't think this was ever going to end well. >> so. so you don't think there's an element of jealousy between the two of them? obviously, rupert lowe has become very, very popular so quickly. of course, his twitter is insanely good. i mean, the guy gets more likes and retweets than i think some celebrities do. >> i think a certain elon musk might have helped with that. >> oh, interesting. okay, so you think this spat is over policy in reform, is that correct? >> clearly, there are some very serious allegations that need to be investigated. and but i think there are underlying tensions as well. and look on the need for a comprehensive and more urgent policy review process. i agree with rupert lowe. i don't think we should be closing the door as a party to a possible alliance with the tories, if that's the only way of defeating keir starmer at the next election. so ihave starmer at the next election. so i have some sympathy with some

positions at rupert lowe takes, but nigel farage is one of the most successful politicians of the post—war period, not just in britain but anywhere in europe. and to go to a newspaper and criticise him in a way that was done yesterday in the daily mail. it's not good and it's not the first time that he's been freelancing, and you can't behave like that in a party. >> well, look, i want to touch on this exact moment that this has been. obviously, it's happened quite spontaneously. some would say, however, that critique of . critique of. nigel farage was only yesterday, i believe. and so, i mean, come on, it's. the party's been waiting for this moment, hasn't it? >> well, look, i'm a new, new person in reform. i've only been involved in three months, but i did come from the conservative party. i do regret it. do you regret it? no. no, no. regret it. no no no no i don't, but i'm used to rouse. i'm used to these embarrassing themselves and embarrassing themselves and embarrassing themselves and embarrassing the party. >> well, if anyone knows how to

fall out, it's the tories. >> so parties get over these things. but even though i've only been a member for three months, and i'm certainly not up with all the gossip inside the party, but very early on in my time in reform, i heard about these tensions between the two. so perhaps it's ended more quickly and in an uglier way than anyone would have liked. but i'm not surprised. i think it would have ended something like this anyway. >> sure. well, look, there's also a lot of criticisms around the way that the party is looking at its candidates, that it's politicians that it keeps within the party. they always going for these big celebrity names. we've just seen the whole candidate. he's a former olympian, quite a big name, you could say, at least within the pubuc could say, at least within the public sphere. talking about ant middleton for the mayor of london, is there a problem here in reform having to not find good, normal people that will just be part of the party machine and not have such a massive voice online that's going to inevitably have these fallouts. >> it's the fundamental problem that reform faces. i think if we had a presidential system, a mayoral system, a gubernatorial system like in america, i think nigel farage could easily be leading the government at the end of this parliament. but we don't. we have a parliamentary

democracy finding 350 people who bear the scrutiny of the bbc and channel 4, who are, you know, quality enough to be ministers, but at the same time willing to be lobby fodder 90% of the time. finding 350 people and then all the mayoral candidates. it's a very hard job. sir yusuf, i think has made a really good start at it, but it's probably the biggest obstacle reform faces. >> well, talking of zia yusuf, because ben habib, of course, who has been saying this very, very similar things, now that rupert lowe is saying, has obviously said that he should be sacked, he said on twitter. sack zia yusuf. do you believe that's the correct approach