>> good morning, leo tolstoy wrote in anna karenina. spring is the time of plans and projects. i hope, dear viewers, that you plan on being with us here on sunday with michael portillo as we project for you two full hours of arts, culture, politics and current affairs. reform uk has been more popular in some recent opinion polls than either the labour or conservative parties, but a party of only five members of parliament has split apart, with the party chairman zia yousaf reporting one of the mps rupert lowe to the police for

threatening behaviour. the allegations came immediately after lowe had criticised the leadership of nigel farage. has reformed uk peaked and may it implode. my panel will opine. president trump said in the oval office this week that russia's bombing assault of ukraine is, quote, what anyone else would do. ukrainian and us officials are set to meet for talks in saudi arabia tomorrow. defence and foreign affairs editor of the telegraph, con coughlin will join me to discuss the painter of the singing butler, jack vettriano died last week. i'll be reflecting on his legacy and work with the art critic estelle lovatt and asking, as some have suggested, was vettriano the donald trump of painting. and stefan kyriazis will be here with us once more. he's been hotfooting it around the west end all week looking at theatres. but first, your news

headunes theatres. but first, your news headlines with sam francis. >> michael, thank you very much. and good morning to you. just coming up to 11:02. the top story under—performing civil servants could be incentivised to leave their jobs under government plans to overhaul the service. cabinet office minister pat mcfadden says it's not match fit for what the country needs, and is promising a shake up where top officials pay is unked where top officials pay is linked to performance. the government insists it will create a more focused and productive civil service, but unions say it's just a soundbite with no real plan for change. mcfadden is expected to outline the reforms next week, alongside the reforms next week, alongside the prime minister's intervention on thursday. well, earlier, mcfadden joined us here on gb news, speaking to camilla tominey and he said the reforms will be radical, but insists it's not about stripping back the state. >> what's really important is to get the best value for money for people, make sure these are good jobs that people want to do and

make sure that when we use pubuc make sure that when we use public resources, it's where the pubuc public resources, it's where the public really want to see it. and that's why we fought the election, saying, let's hire more teachers, let's hire more police officers. let's make sure that when taxpayers are paying in, they get a good outcome. that's what we want to see. >> nigel farage has defended suspending mp rupert lowe warning constant infighting damages political parties. writing in the telegraph, the reform uk leader said that low's pubuc reform uk leader said that low's public criticism had dented party unity and called it inconceivable to ignore bullying allegations and threats against the party chairman claims, though lowe strongly denies now sitting as an independent, he insists there's zero credible evidence and labels farage's account an entirely false and poisonous narrative. an independent inquiry is underway as reforms. five mps dropped to just four amid those escalating divisions, lowe claims, though his suspension followed comments branding reform a protest party

led by the messiah. and breaking this morning, gb news can confirm that 2000 migrants have crossed the english channel in just over a week. that makes up almost half of all arrivals so far this year, among them a palestinian man with alleged extremist links. he's accused of posting anti—israel hate messages and posting in photos with automatic weapons. the campaign against anti—semitism says he has ties to a former hamas leader, but the home office won't confirm if he has yet been detained, while shadow home secretary chris philp told us this morning that he thinks labour has lost control of the uk's borders and vowed that the tories would crack down on foreign criminals. >> what the home office needs to do is identify where this despicable individual is and, frankly, remove him from the country back to palestine immediately. he clearly has no place in the united kingdom and potentially poses a threat to our fellow citizens. and this just illustrates why it is so

important to get control of our borders and to stop these boat crossings. unfortunately, since the general election, these boat crossings under labour have gone up crossings under labour have gone ”p by crossings under labour have gone up by about 28%. and these are the kind of people that labour are now letting into the country. >> a man has been arrested after spending more than 16 hours barefoot on top of big ben's clock tower, holding a palestine flag. he scaled the elizabeth tower on saturday morning, finally coming down just after midnight, with police using a cherry picker to bring him down. video from the scene shows negotiators warning him about an injury to his foot, but he insisted he would only descend on his own terms. the incident has now raised concerns about security, with an mp demanding answers on how the man entered parliament so easily. all roads in the area have now reopened and the police say they are working with fire crews to resolve the standoff or had resolved the standoff safely. and it wouldn't be a news bulletin without a bit of weather for you. so the uk is

it's good news, set for the warmest weekend of the year, with parts of the country hotter than spain and italy. temperatures could hit 20 c in central england on today, while parts of north and wales reach up to 19 degrees. that is warmer than marbella, ibiza and even sorrento, where highs of just 15 degrees are expected. but i'm sorry to say the mild spell won't be lasting. temperatures are set to drop from tuesday, with wintry showers sweeping in, and some rural areas in scotland could even see lows of minus four degrees. those are the latest headlines for now. i'll be back with you just after midday. now that it's over to michael. 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, sam francis. in the space of a few days, reform uk has moved from triumph to disaster. despite enjoying a lead in several polls over both labour and conservative, the party has split rupert lowe. a former chairman of southampton football club reforms member of parliament for great yarmouth until very recently has had the whip removed, following on from strong criticisms that he had made of the party leader nigel farage. the party's chairman, zaheer yousaf, has denounced him to the police for threatening behaviour, reportedly over an incident that occurred in december. lowe denies that allegation and others. has the party imploded.7 can.7 sir keir starmer and kemi badenoch now heave a sigh of relief? should those hoping for an effective policy to control immigration now despair? joining me is my panel now despair? joining me is my panel, parliamentary sketchwriter at the telegraph. madeline grant, the founder of yopa and the policy fellow at homewood, andrew barclay, and the former labour adviser , the former labour adviser, matthew laza madhu. first of

all, how bad do you think the split is? i mean, it seems to me to be verging on the catastrophic. >> i agree. i think that in rupert lowe they picked an extremely popular, well—liked, eloquent and i suppose the word is like impactful. member of parliament. he was of all the new intake, he was probably he was one of the ones who was making the most contributions. and i think having the biggest impact with his posts, and i don't think that sat well, very well with the, the upper echelons of reform. but it's a terrible look, not just because they have basically torpedoed one of their most capable people, in my view, but it also just suggests, you know, if a party of five is already descending into internecine warfare, then what? hope to one day become a party of government? >> and andrew, it seems to me a rather nasty way of dealing with with this, instead of saying, you know, you've committed a disciplinary fault here, you've criticised the leader in terms that are not acceptable. what they've actually done is they've accused him of using threatening behaviour. there are allegations

around women in his office. richard tice was on camilla a moment ago, saying that these events, which have come back to back, that is to say, the criticisms followed by the complaints to the police, these are entirely coincidental. coincidental. these have nothing to do with each other. what do you make of that? >> i think the timing is obviously very suspicious. and i think as to your question about an implosion, i don't think it's an implosion, i don't think it's an implosion, i don't think it's an implosion, but it's certainly an implosion, but it's certainly a very damaging episode, and i think it makes it very hard for think it makes