mark francois, i really appreciate you being with us. thank you so much.. thank you for being with us. >> it's an honour to be here. >> it's an honour to be here. >> thank you. great. coming up. are you ashamed to be english? one bloke we're going to show you certainly is. and get this. apparently he'd rather be french. i say put him on a dinghy back to calais. happy saint george's day, that man. but next we'll bring you the very first of tomorrow's front pages. hot off the press with tonight's panel of fiery pundits. this is patrick christys tonight with me, ben. leo only on gb news. stay with us. patrick christys. tonight with me. ben. leo. only on gb news time now for tomorrow's newspapers. let's kick start with the metro. let's this be the last channel tragedy. girl among five. dead as a dinghy packed with 112 migrants. flounders off the french coast. i just can't believe these cruel smuggling criminals can pack 100 people onto such flimsy dinghies . the independent. think again, prime minister. seven year old is crushed to death, this is why we add ou

here is mark francois, tory mp for rally in wickford and chairman of the european research group of torynti anti—eu group, and a member of the defence select committee. mark, welcome to the studio evening. why are you smiling? well, because the irish government are now hoist by their own petard. >> chopper. the stench of hypocrisy over this is worse than a ten year old pint of guinness that's gone off. i mean , i remember all the way through what i call the battle of brexit in the house of commons being told night after night, week after week, including by people quoting the irish government and then seeing it in clips from dublin. no hard border on the island of ireland under any circumstances. complete free movement across that border. and you know, as your correspondent rightly pointed out, there was a loophole which was known as the dubun loophole which was known as the dublin convention. and so now, to have the irish government say squealing that these rules are against their national interest when they are the people that argued for them for years, is you couldn't make it up. >> mi

joining me now is conservative mp mark francois, who was minister for armed forces between 2013—2015. the programme. is this keir starmer parking his tanks on your lawn? figs the programme. is this keir starmer parking his tanks on your lawn? $5 a parking his tanks on your lawn? as a former minister— parking his tanks on your lawn? as a former minister as _ parking his tanks on your lawn? as a former minister as you said and minister— former minister as you said and minister of— former minister as you said and minister of the _ former minister as you said and minister of the defence - former minister as you said and minister of the defence select l minister of the defence select committee. _ minister of the defence select committee. i_ minister of the defence select committee, i welcome - minister of the defence select committee, i welcome any. minister of the defence select - committee, i welcome any clinical party— committee, i welcome any clinical party announcing _ committee, i welcome any clinical party announcing they— committee, i welcome any clinical party announcing they want

and also mark francois is in the studio on rishi's defence bonanza.w minutes. >> well, that's going to be a very exciting programme. if we have another bank holiday, we ought to lose one. ideally, the socialist labour day should go and then we could have one for saint george anyway. that'll be very exciting, ben. it's coming up after the weather. i'll be back tomorrow at 8:00. i'm jacob rees—mogg this has been state of the nation. the weather in somerset is wonderful and i think saint george, saint david and saint patrick will all be there in glastonbury, in somerset tomorrow . somerset tomorrow. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar , sponsors of weather on . solar, sponsors of weather on. gb news. >> hello. good evening. welcome to your latest gb news weather update. it will stay dry but it will be quite a cold night tonight and throughout tomorrow. the best of the sunshine will be across north and western areas once again . that's because high once again. that's because high pressure is dominating over here. meanwhile to the east of the uk we've go

and also mark francois is in the studio on rishi's defence bonanza.minutes. >> well, that's going to be a very exciting programme. if we have another bank holiday, we ought to lose one. ideally, the socialist labour day should go and then we could have one for saint george anyway. that'll be very exciting, ben. it's coming up after the weather. i'll be back tomorrow at 8:00. i'm jacob rees—mogg this has been state of the nation. the weather in somerset is wonderful and i think saint george, saint david and saint patrick will all be there in glastonbury, in somerset tomorrow . somerset tomorrow. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar , sponsors of weather on . solar, sponsors of weather on. gb news. >> hello. good evening. welcome to your latest gb news weather update. it will stay dry but it will be quite a cold night tonight and throughout tomorrow. the best of the sunshine will be across north and western areas once again . that's because high once again. that's because high pressure is dominating over here. meanwhile to the east of the uk we've got

joining us now is a conservative mp for rayleigh and wickford, mark francois. k. to see good morning mark. good to see you. did you vote against you. why did you vote against this idea . this idea. >> i voted against it on principle because i don't believe in the nanny state, and i don't believe that it was right for the government to legislate on this question. i believe whether or not people want to smoke , and we're all want to smoke, and we're all well aware that there are health consequences of doing it should be a matter for individual decision by individual people. we like to tell the rest of the world we live in a in a free country . well, the direction of country. well, the direction of travel of this measure was going in the, in the other direction. >> but maybe it's just that cigarettes , nicotine is a very cigarettes, nicotine is a very outdated product. if it was to appear on the market today, we would never legalise such a drug. and maybe this is just moving with the times. i've got two children born after 2009, and i must say there's a little bit

emma about the iron dome, because we're talking once we were talking to mark francois. oh, mark. , you know, the defence select committee, which is cross party, of course. yeah have called for an iron dome system, but it's trying to get the trying to get it financed. yeah. and penny mordaunt's joined the calls for that. >> yeah, and this is being seen as her sort of on manoeuvres. this is sort of a bid for a tory leadership. yeah, and she leadership. yeah, and it's she is former defence secretary, is a former defence secretary, but this is not normally within her she's of the her brief. she's head of the house of commons, but she's calling basically this calling she it's basically this is since the iran missile attack, the drone and missile attack, the drone and missile attack, but launched by iran against israel . a lot of against israel. a lot of response to that. and she's now saying, you know, would would britain be able to defend itself in the same way she's saying that she's publicly urging rishi sunak spending on sunak to increase spending on defence, calling it a duty to o

. >> so, sean, i asked mark francois yesterday or the day before about the extra £500 million we are.not sending it to ukraine, are we, that we spent on weapons, which will be probably made here, bay systems etc. so money in the economy, jobs, however , when economy, jobs, however, when does that end? when does our support , our financial support support, our financial support to ukraine end? is it completely unconditional ? as jeremy hunt unconditional? as jeremy hunt said, is it a bottomless pit of taxpayer money? when should we pull the plug if ever? yeah yeah, i think the 500 million the interesting bit about that is that no nation on earth carries the war stocks to be able to sustain a war of this level. >> so you've got to industrialise your your defence industrialise your your defence industrial base. in the second world war, it would stop building cars, build spitfires. we haven't done that yet. russia has tripled the size of its defence industrial base. oil revenues are paying for weapons coming in from north korea and from iran. it now has a sustainable model to keep this wa

. >> we had mark francois on patrick's show. the other night.ing that actually credit to the prime minister and jeremy hunt for doing this because although they maybe made a mistake by not doing it in the budget, they've listened to their mps, they've listened to people and they've reacted off the bat. >> now they know that security is, you know, protecting your citizens is the most important . citizens is the most important. >> scott. >> scott. >> hold on. >> hold on. >> let's let's let's get this straight. >> so they've they've announced it because this is what this government does. it announces things and then you then you work out. so sort of before 2030 it might happen. work out. so sort of before 2030 it might happen . and what it might happen. and what they've said to pay for it is they're going to sack 70,000 civil servants, which will not good. which what's wrong with that? hold on. which will i'm not saying that which will not pay not saying that which will not pay for it. it will not come anywhere close . and what anywhere close. and

world war i, a secret agreement was drawn up by an english politician named sir mark sykes and a french diplomat named francois georges picot. the saxe- picot agreement effectively paved the way for the establishment of a jewish state in palestine. was written one month after the publication of the banfour declaration on december 11, 1977, the british army led by general edmondi captured jerusalem. one of the members of this group was david ben-gurin, who later became the first prime minister of israel. at this time about 50,000 jews lived in palestine , which means only 10% of the population of half a million muslims and christians in this city. world war i ended in 1918 and the victorious powers prepared to divide according to the saxe-picot agreement. were in the middle east. preparations were made for the 1919 paris peace conference. british prime minister lloyd george and foreign minister arthur balfour represented britain. a delegation from the zionist organization led by haim weizman also participated in this conference. the arab regions under the rule of the ottoman empire were divided between england

world war i, a secret agreement was drawn up by an english politician named sir mark sykes and a french diplomat named francoisot. the saxe-picot agreement effectively paved the way for the establishment of a jewish state in palestine. in 1917 , british prime minister lloyd george promised a land for the jews. a month after the balfour declaration was published on december 11, 1917, the british army led by general edmond captured al-maqdis. next to general alan bey , the jewish company under brig. from the population of half a million muslims and christians. at the first world war ended in 1918, and the victorious powers prepared to divide it according to the agreement. sykes became pico in the middle east. preparations were made for the peace conference in 1919 in paris. british prime minister lloyd george and foreign minister arthur balfour represented britain. a delegation from the zionist organization led by haim weizman also participated in this conference. the arab regions under the rule of the ottoman empire were divided between england and france, according to which palestine was part of britain. in th

people like mark francois critique of sunak coming out and supporting this. i think the opfics supporting this. so i think the optics are about, you know, they would like to present it. as you know, the conservatives are finally taking national security seriously. >> yeah. and it's all well and good. and i know this is the most stupid point to make because everyone plays politics with everything, especially in an election year. it just never seems right to me to be playing politics with our defence. >> yes, quite. and i think we also see a general trend every election where you have a five year parliament and in year four, year five, they start spending more money, having cut it earlier in the parliament and i do think the defence has suffered over the past sort of ten, 14 years or so, which is that, you know, of course, you know, i'm surprised, you know, david cameron's a foreign secretary. well, when he was prime minister, the number of in the military, i think, had dropped by about a third or so in terms of the armed forces headcount. so i do think that the

well, let's talk to the former armed forces minister, mark francois, who joins us now.ed significant restraint here? >> well , it details are still emerging. >> your correspondent has just said so at until we get more detail, it's difficult to know exactly what we're dealing with here. so, parliament doesn't usually sit on a friday except a number of days when we focus on private members bills . and the private members bills. and the house is sitting today. private members bills. and the house is sitting today . so as house is sitting today. so as i'm a member of the house of commons defence committee , i, commons defence committee, i, for one, think it's important that because under parliamentary rules, the government can make a statement in the house at any time when the house is sitting is that we interrupt business this morning important though it is. my friend anna firth has got a private member's bill to try and combat pet theft. i'm actually going into support her this morning, but i think the government should interrupt business this morning and make a statement