Transcripts For GBN Martin 20240703

Migrants are flooding in from the uk. And the Prime Minister has said the uk wont accept returns of migrants from ireland as tensions continue to rise. Well speak to our man on the ground. Rishi has thrown down the gauntlet over rwanda and next that Boris Johnson was turned away from his local polling station after forgetting to bring an acceptable form of photo id did the same thing happen to anyone you know . Or was it just boris . Thats all coming up in your next hour . Won the show. Always a delight to have your company out as the dust settles, as the results continue to pour in, well have full analysis throughout the show. Live as they land. Plus, looking ahead, how on earth did the conservative party lose all shot . The talismanic home of the British Armed forces will be asking a Major General for his reaction. Plus, were looking ahead to the muslim vote. Theres a splinter cell group in oldham. Is this a problem for the for the labour party . Theyre losing votes on the on their gaza stands. Ill speak to an Oldham Councillor who thinks there are other reasons we should be very concerned. And, should be very concerned. And, and at 4 00 the rise of reform , and at 4 00 the rise of reform, is there going to be a problem for the tories . Sir john curtice , the legendary pollster, has said there could be a wipe out. Ill have ben habib from the reform party in the studio to talk about what that could mean for the future of the country. Send your views in the usual ways. Its gbnews. Com forward slash your say. But before all of that, its time for your latest News Headlines. Latest News Headlines. Good afternoon. Its 3 02. Im sofia wenzler in the gb newsroom. The Prime Minister says the local Election Results have been disappointing after labour made significant gains. It comes after labour also won the by election in blackpool south. Labours chris webb took the seat, beating conservative david jones in second. Following a by election caused by the resignation of tory scott benton, rishi sunak accepted that the results were less than ideal. Ideal obviously its disappointing to lose good, hard working conservative councillors and im grateful to them for all their service in local government. Keeping council tax low and delivering services for local people. I am focused completely on the job at hand thats delivering for people across the country. If you just look at country. If you just look at what were doing in the last week or so alone, a £900 tax cut, hitting peoples pay slips, the first failed Asylum Seeker off to rwanda. Off to rwanda. The reform uk candidate mark butcher, came third, just 117 votes behind the conservatives. Reform Party Leader Richard Tice told gb news the party is making huge strides. Succeeded with our best ever by election result by some margin, significantly ahead of our National Polling average. Many people in the media have now got egg on their face, they said. We couldnt do it. You know, we were a virtual party. Well, weve just proven them completely and utterly wrong and labours local election gains across england and wales include winning in key areas such as rushmoor in hampshire for the first time. Labour also won thurrock and hartlepool, but the tories held harlow. Labours won two more harlow. Labours won two more mayoral elections, with david skaith securing york and North Yorkshire and Kim Mcguinness winning in the north east, defeating former labour turned independent jamie driscoll. Meanwhile, conservative ben horton has been re elected as tees valley mayor, but with a reduced majority over labour in darlington, he polled 4000 votes more than labours chris mcewan. More than labours chris mcewan. Lord houchen has already won more votes in hartlepool, redcar and middlesbrough, with just stockton still to be announced. I am absolutely humbled by everybody that voted for me. Teesside is a place where i was born. I grew up other than a very short sabbatical to newcastle for four years and then i came straight back. Its a place where i am going to be for the rest of my life, and to be re elected for a third term in my home, in my community, is absolutely the greatest honour that anybody could ever give me. So i want to thank anybody that voted for me. Next to Bristol Crown court, where three teenagers who carried out a knife attack have been named as Shane Cunningham, castle bushnell and leo knight, the 16 year old friend stabbed mikey roynon to death with a large hunting style knife at a 16th Birthday Party in bath. Shane cunningham has been convicted of the murder and has been detained for life. His two been detained for life. His two friends were convicted of manslaughter with sentences of nine years and nine and a half years in youth detention. In years in youth detention. In other news, a High Court Judge has ruled that the governments climate plan is unlawful. Several Environmental Charities took joint legal action against the government , saying the the government, saying the strategy ignored the risk of missing targets. Strategy ignored the risk of missing targets. In his judgement, mrjustice missing targets. In his judgement, mr Justice Sheldon ruled the governments plan was not justified by the evidence. Not justified by the evidence. Icelands Prime Minister has played down a migration row with the uk government on his First Official visit to Northern Ireland as taoiseach. It comes after rishi sunak offered ireland the chance to join the rwanda deportation scheme, rejecting irelands demands to take back Asylum Seekers who had crossed from the north. But speaking after a meeting with the first and deputy first ministers at stormont, simon harris was quick to calm tensions. Theres a need for a sense of calm here. Theres a need for a bit of a deep breath. We have a common travel area between the two islands. Thats a common travel area thats in place for a very long time. When both countries were in the European Union, and its still in place now when one country is within the European Union and another isnt. And im determined to work as taoiseach constructively and to make sure that the common travel area is protected, that the common travel area is never abused. Travel area is never abused. Defence secretary grant shapps and senior military leaders have been sanctioned by the iranian regime. Two Royal Navy Commanders who captained warships involved in shooting down houthi rebel drones and missiles in the red sea are included in the list. One of them, commander peter evans, is currently stationed in the red sea at the helm of hms diamond. Sea at the helm of hms diamond. And some breaking news justin , and some breaking news justin, the trade union which represents senior Civil Servants , will have senior Civil Servants, will have its high Court Challenge over the rwanda bill heard in first week of june. And for the latest week of june. And for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. Com slash alerts now its back to. To. Martin. Thank you sofia. Now its been a solid start for labour as results from the local Council Elections continue to pour in. The party has won control of a string of key leave voting councils in england and wales. Labour has won Rushmoor Council and a key breakthrough in the home of the british army for the very first time, suggesting it is on course for a seismic general election win. Well, joining us now to discuss the local Election Results from aldershot is gb News Reporter ray addison rae. Youve been on ray addison rae. Youve been on the ground all morning. I heard your reports. Apathy seems to be your reports. Apathy seems to be the backdrop. Youve been speaking to locals. Its. It seems inconceivable to many people listening that the home of the British Armed forces for the first time could have swung to the labour party. What on earth happened . Earth happened . Well, yeah, its very interesting. A lot of people very apathetic here. Certainly at the start of the day, as ive been chatting to them, its very difficult actually to find somebody who knew that the elections had been taking place, much less somebody who had actually voted. Although i have to say, as the day has gone on and ive been chatting to people, ive been able to find more and more people who have been involved. In fact, i was just chatting to a potential tory councillor hopeful who lost out to a labour candidate in that election last night and he was very disappointed. But saying that the message to rishi sunak now is that he needs to listen to what people are telling him on the ground and they need to make changes and get on with a positive message to the british public. But as you say, this is very much an army town, a garrison town. Its part of that blue wall. Its had a tory mp for years and years, decades and decades , and of decades and decades, and of course, a tory council in the form of rushmoor borough council, of which, of course, aldershot and farnborough , the aldershot and farnborough, the nearby town, do sit and so this is really being seen by labour as a historic moment for them. They say the fact that this town is so closely associated with the military shows that those concerns that people may have had about labour and its Leadership Back to the Jeremy Corbyn days are now well and truly over. Of course, there was 13 seats up for grabs this time around. Labour got nine of those and local tory councillors saying that if reform hadnt been running, and we can assume that those reform votes then might have gone to the tories, they actually would have won a couple of extra seats. Ive gone through the numbers, ive done the maths and that is technically correct. However, you dont know whether those people would have gone out and voted for the tories or if they specifically made a point to go out and support reform. But yes, apathy initially. Now im getting a bit more of a response from people. Theres quite a bit of excitement here from some people who, particularly about that tour that labour win, people who went out and voted for labour. This is what people had to say to me here in aldershot. Aldershot. I think, you know, the way things have been. Lately. Labour are there to you know, to, to make of it. But its the general election which is the important thing rather than the local elections, because the local elections, because the local election gives an idea. But its the general election, which, you know, its what is going to happen with the country for the next five years or so. Well, im absolutely delighted. After 40 years of living in the town , to years of living in the town, to have labour for the very first time actually take control of the council is absolutely fantastic from my perspective, that we now have another party and not taken for granted , which and not taken for granted, which ihave and not taken for granted, which i have felt has been the case for many years. For many years. Obviously, theyve been winning seats everywhere and that. So it wasnt a surprise, to be honest with you. So i did vote conservative, but i had a feeling it was going to go their way. Well, labour throwing quite a lot at this council, these Council Seats, one lady i spoke to said that a very nice man from labour came round and spent a lot of time listening to her, listening to her concerns. We know as well that they sent john healey mp, shadow defence secretary, here several days ago. Obviously to come and talk to some of the soldiers, Armed Forces Personnel about their considerations and concerns, as well , seems considerations and concerns, as well, seems to be a view that when it comes to the general election , labour will have a bit election, labour will have a bit more of a difficult time because therell be a stronger turnout. And people telling me that all those soldiers that traditionally we could see vote tory will come out and support rishi sunak again. But obviously time will tell. Okay. Thank you. Ray addison live from aldershot. Now joining me in the studios , gb news me in the studios, gb news Political Correspondent Katherine Forster. And im also joined by the founder of electoral calculus, the excellent Martin Baxter. Thank you both for joining excellent Martin Baxter. Thank you both forjoining us. Lets start with you , catherine. Start with you, catherine. Apathy appears to be the enemy. I looked at the turnout for these elections over the last five years. Its gradually nibbling downwards and an interesting point is that the labour vote is more or less staying constant. But the tory staying constant. But the tory vote is simply evaporating away. The tories just seem to be staying at home and letting labour in. Yes, lots of very cross conservative voters basically sitting on their hands, which is one of the factors in the results that were seeing. Of course, labour doing very , very course, labour doing very, very well. And it looks like of course, theres a load of results still to come in. But, you know, the conservatives fear that they might lose half the Council Seats they are contesting. So about 500 may well come true , but of course well come true, but of course will that happen in the general election . Now at the moment, given the current National Polling, it looks like it will. But, talking about, rushmoor particularly it is interesting, isnt it, because theyre holding labour, holding this aloft at this sort of totemic win a place aldershot. You know that they shouldnt be by normal laws of politics. This shouldnt be winning. But they have. But i mean certainly a factor there. You know army base at aldershot. And traditionally labour have been less trusted on defence. But weve had a situation that you know the military spending has been cut. Army numbers have gone down and down. Now. Rishi sunak was of course in in berlin last week in warsaw with this big increase in defence spending. But i was on that trip and i was at the press conference and i asked him about the crisis in military recruitment, and he actually was to talking the soldiers that were there. And he said, i am sorry. You havent always had, you know , we havent always done you know, we havent always done right by you. And i will try to do that and accommodation, etc. We know you know that a lot of the accommodation that soldiers have been expected to put up with just has not been fit for purpose. And so i suspect that thatis purpose. And so i suspect that that is a factor in, in this particular, this particular vote and of course, the armed forces all about boots on the ground. They certainly didnt march to the polls last night. Martin lets turn to you now, if anybody is just tuning in, they havent seen whats been going on today. What are the big brush stroke stories . So broughtons labour are up and the conservatives are down. And the other smaller parties are up as well. So its been a good day for labour. Theyve picked up, as you say, rushmoor and some other seats. Some of them in the south and south east of england, which is good for labour because those are areas they found difficult to reach, say under Jeremy Corbyn, and they also gained the very, rural , area of North Yorkshire in the new mayoralty there. So rishi sunak own backyard, its not gone all their way because, say, the lib dems and the greens have also made gains. And then the conservatives held the teesside mayoralty with ben houchen. So its not all one way, but on the whole the big picture is labour up and conservatives down, but not total carnage for the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister has acknowledged his party has suffered a series of disappointing results. The tories did, however, to manage to retain , as just said, manage to retain, as just said, the tees valley mayoralty, with lord ben houchen being re elected. Lets listen to what rishi sunak had to say a short time ago in teesside. Time ago in teesside. At this election, keir starmer came here twice. Rachel reeves came here three times. But even they couldnt dislodge ben and the fantastic conservative team. Right. And they also threw a lot of mud. It needs to be said in this election because they were angry. Angry that ben has delivered more for this region in seven years than labour Party Managed in 30 years. Right thank you. And actually, you know, you. And actually, you know, look where were standing. You know, when ben came into the office, this airport was going to be closed down. Absolutely right. And now more flights to more places than ever before. The steelworks desolate, now part of one of the most exciting regeneration projects anywhere in the world. And you and i, we worked together on some great things , made sure that the things, made sure that the treasury is in darlington, putting this region at the heart of government, the freeport, as you said, the largest in europe , you said, the largest in europe, attracting thousands of jobs and investment to the area. Now that investment to the area. Now that is levelling up in action. That is levelling up in action. That is what you get with ben taking bold decisions for this region thatis bold decisions for this region that is the conservatives delivering and ive got a message for the labour party too, because they know that they had to win here in order to win a general election. They know that. They assume that tees valley will just stroll back to them. But it didnt. It didnt. People knew that they couldnt be taken for granted. They knew that it was ben and the conservatives that delivered for them, and they stuck with him. Well, thats rishi sunak putting a brave face on one of his few victories of the night and the day before. So well have lots more on that story throughout the show, and ill be rejoined at each hour by Katherine Forster and Martin Baxter for more expert analysis throughout, and theres plenty of coverage on our website , gb of coverage on our website, gb news. Com and youve helped to make it the Fastest Growing National News website in the country. So thank you very much. Now we bring you all the latest Election Results and reactions as they roll in. Dont go anywhere. Im Martin Daubney on gb news. Britains news channel welcome back. Its 321. Im Martin Daubney, and this is gb news now. Its been a very strong start for labour as results from the local Council Elections continue to come in. And theyve won control of a string of key leave voting councils in england and wales. And labour took Rushmoor Council in a key breakthrough in the home of the british army for the first time. A council the tories had run for the past 24 years. Well, joining us now is former British Army Officer Major General tim cross. Tim, general tim cross. Tim, a delight to have you on the show. Delight to have you on the show. It seems inconceivable to many. Ive been speaking to veterans this morning. They cannot get their heads around the fact that rushmoor, aldershot, the home of the British Armed forces, a totemic area, has us for the first time fallen to the labour party. What does this tell us . Party. What does this tell us . That sir Keir Starmers message is right that labour can be trusted on defence . Or is it Something Else . Is it conservative voters utterly frustrated at the treatment of the armed forces by the conservative government well, i suspect its a mixture of all of those things. And others too, the local mp here is leo docherty, whos an ex army man, came in fairly recently, so, you know, theres a lot of traditional military stuff around here, but its worth saying that the military is not political in in one sense, its not, you know , sense, its not, you know, unified politically. People have their own views as they do in any other sphere of life, traditionally we you sort of hinted at it, really. Conservatives have had a reputation for being stronger on defence. But to be honest, you know, i go back a long time in defence. I go back to the 1960s and labour governments over the years, if i would say from my personal perspective, weve done very well under labour governments in the past, i can think back to all sorts of defence secretaries who did a very good job for us, and many of whom, i have to say, took part in world war ii and in various theatres of operation in world war ii, particularly in those early years up to the 19705 those early years up to the 1970s and so on. So i think, you know, the change were seeing is a reflection of a change across the country. Weve had a government for 13 years, i suspect, if im honest , years, i suspect, if im honest, like myself, i think sometimes you just need a change and, some of the things that have gone on in the last few years, i dont blame the conservative party for personally, and i suspect a lot of other people dont do either. But they just feel, you know, it isfime but they just feel, you know, it is time for a change. The army has has suffered, theres no doubt about that over theres no doubt about that over the last few years. Its a much smaller army, less capable army than it used to be. I think there is now a recognition that that needs to change, but that recognition is not just within the conservative party. It applies to the labour party. It applies to the labour party too. So yeah, i think its a combination of all of those factors. Im not that surprised if im honest , but, im not that surprised if im honest, but, you im not that surprised if im honest , but, you know, im not that surprised if im honest, but, you know, well have to wait to see how other things pan out in later on in the year. One thing that was particular to this seat, we just saw some images on the screen there from farnborough, Rushmoor Council oversaw a decision you may well be aware of 300 luxury flats that were earmarked for Asylum Seeker families. Now the locals got very, very strongly, enmeshed together. They formed a protest group for many, many weekends, peacefully protested against them. I know for a fact pals of mine, armed forces, veterans. Were amongst that veterans. Were amongst that group. And theres a feeling, Major General tim cross, that their voices were ignored by the council and by their local mp. And the home secretary promised to pause this, but wouldnt kick it totally out of the seat. And it totally out of the seat. And speaking to people who were at the camp last night, speaking to people who were at the camp last night , former the camp last night, former conservative voters, they simply feel that the conservative party isnt listening to them. And. So isnt listening to them. And. So why . Youre correct to say that its not necessarily a political politicisation of the armed forces in this area. With those values, the people feel theyre simply being ignored. Yeah, theres definitely truth in that, i mean, farnborough airfield is a is a key part of the constituency under rushmoor, theres also been the debate about increasing the number of business flights out of farnborough airfield, which has caused quite a lot of local controversy, and i think generally speaking, there is a view that for many people, what goes on in westminster is completely, completely devolved from their day to day lives , and from their day to day lives, and when it comes down to these local issues , they do feel local issues, they do feel sidelined and ignored. I happen to believe maybe going against what weve been discussing, but ihappen what weve been discussing, but i happen to believe Rushmoor Council is a pretty good council. Ive lived here for since 2006, two thousand and seven, and i think they do a, you know , a pretty good job like you know, a pretty good job like any other council. Theyre not perfect by any minor means, but i do think that youre right. There have been people whove said in that context, but also in, in the wider context, two of the airfield, that theyre not being listened to and that decisions are taken. And, you know, the idea or the promise that they will consult and listen to people is , consult and listen to people is, you know, is a message they pass but is not put into practice in reality. Reality. And tim, as well as, situations, decisions being taken in westminster that dont reflect the local, the local mindset. Do you think theres Something Else, do you think theres a sense of taking the conservative vote for granted . Conservative vote for granted . Weve seen in places like north shropshire, in areas that would never dream of swinging any other way than true blue aldershot. Rushmoor falls into that camp, does it not . 24 straight years, never been laboun straight years, never been labour. Is it a case of, do you think local politicians, local councils saying well, well they always vote conservative, so why do we need to bother. But the interesting thing about the data is that while the Labour Party Vote has more or less remained the same, theres been a gradual erosion of the conservative vote. They dont feel listened to, so theyre staying away. Apathy appears to be the enemy. Yeah, well, certainly when i when i went to vote yesterday, my local polling station , i went my local polling station, i went in about, i dont know, 10 00, 10 30. And it had been a very quiet morning. I dont know what the turnout has been actually both in, in this area, but but elsewhere , 27. Elsewhere, 27. Yeah. Well you see, you know, which is a sad reflection really of i think an awful lot of people. I actually i said in the polling station, i dont suppose youre going to have a very busy day today. You know, i think an awful lot of people just stay away. I mean, theres an inevitability reflected in our society that, you know, politics is a pain. And politicians are a pain. They dont listen to us, etc. I happen to take this old business extremely seriously. I spent 43, three years of my life defending democracy and the rule of law and so forth, and we collectively need to be very careful about not being complacent about democracy in the same way as politicians need to be very careful about not being complacent, about, you know, about our votes and our attitudes. I think within wider, you know, within the wider society, there is this division which has opened up over the last few years. And i do think theres an theres an issue where we need to think carefully about what democracy means for us today, what it means, you know , current situation, world know, current situation, world situation, etc, and politicians need to work hard at making sure people do get engaged. In one people do get engaged. In one sense, thats not new. I can remember that sort of conversation going on, you know, back in the 70s and so on. But there is i think, i think, i think there is a sense of complacency, both within the electorate, but also within the within the politicians themselves. Themselves. And as well as defending democracy for all those years, youre immobiliser of men and women. You get people up the ladder metaphor quickly. If it were down to you, how do we re engage people who are simply giving up their uncoupling from the democratic process . They dont think theyre being listened to. Theyre staying away. Theyre staying at home. And that is a travesty. Major general tim cross, how do we get those people in places like rushmoor, in places like aldershot, in particular, the conservative party . How do they say to such communities, which are a linchpin of the armed forces, you should vote for us. What do they need to do . Well , how what do they need to do . Well, how long we what do they need to do . Well , how long we got . Well, how long we got . Well, how long we got . Well, how long we got . We could be here for a long time. Can we. Look, i think this is a broader issue about leadership. I run a i left the army in two thousand and seven, and i run a portfolio which is a mixture of business and academia, charity, humanitarian work and so forth. I happen to be a lay minister in the church to my strap line, if you like , to my strap line, if you like, is morally courageous leadership. We need mps to be morally and courageous, and they need to inspire and lead people. And i just think were living in a world at the moment where a lot of people have lost trust in institutions. We could see that institutions. We could see that in a number of different places from the post office, frankly, to the bbc and to other Media Outlets and to the whole role of social media, etc, which is undermining, you know, authority and so on. So people have lost trust in that, and it will only be reborn if people genuinely believe that they are they are. Believe that they are they are. I mean, in the in the military, i mean, in the in the military, i was taught my badge at sandhurst is serve to lead. Its a great biblical principle, actually. Christ was was the actually. Christ was was the greatest servant leader of them all and not we dont sense that many of our politicians really believe that, and they need to work hard at inspiring us and getting us back to recognise that they are there to serve us. They are there to listen to us, and we collectively need to think through again this idea of, you know, what do we stand for . One of the issues for us today, i think, is what do we stand for in western civilisation . Actually, in a broader context, what do we stand for . Remembering that over half the world, people around the world are living under the, under the brutal dictatorships and non democratic regimes in thrall of dictatorships and so on. More than half the world are living under that. And if we dont begin to understand what we stand for and why democracy is so important, we will lose. Is so important, we will lose. We will lose the plot. And there is no god given right for western civilisation to survive as it is. I mean, if we were having this conversation in babylon, which i happen to have visited back in 2003, we would have believed the babylonian empire would last forever. Well, it didnt. Neither the roman empire or the greek empire , or empire or the greek empire, or the or indeed the british empire. So, you know, western civilisation doesnt have a god given right to survive. We have to make sure that it will survive by engaging in these conversations and by understanding the importance of democracy and the liberal, liberal capitalism and so on. Okay. As you said , we could okay. As you said, we could talk all night inspiring words. You certainly got the hairs on my neck standing up there. Superb of british army, former British Army Officer Major General tim cross, thank you so much for joining general tim cross, thank you so much forjoining us. Ive got loads more still to come on the show between now and 4 00. But first, its time for your latest News Headlines. Very good afternoon to you from the newsroom. Its just after a 3 30. The headlines rishi sunak says the local Election Results have been disappointing for the conservatives but he says it doesnt necessarily mean that labour will win the general election. It comes after labour also won the by election in blackpool south, caused by the resignation of tory scott benton. Chris webb took that seat, beating conservative david jones in second. Labour leader sir keir starmer has called the win seismic. Meanwhile, labours local election gains across england and wales also include winning key seats, including rushmoor in hampshire for the first time. Labour also won thurrock and hartlepool , but the thurrock and hartlepool, but the conservatives held harlow. If youre watching on television, youre watching on television, you can see here the latest council results from across those seats in england and more results will follow into tomorrow, including the West Midlands and londons mayor meanwhile, labours won two more mayoral elections, with david skaith securing york and North Yorkshire and Kim Mcguinness winning in north east defending the defeating. Rather, the former labour turned independent jamie driscoll. However, conservative ben houchen has been re elected as tees valley mayor. But with a reduced majority over labour in darlington, he pulled 4000 votes more than labours chris mcewan and three teenagers who carried out a knife attack have been named today as Shane Cunningham. Carter bushnell and leo knight. The 16 year old friend stabbed mickey roynon to death with a large hunting knife at a 16th Birthday Party in bath. Shane Birthday Party in bath. Shane cunningham has been convicted of that murder and has been detained for life. His two friends, meanwhile, were convicted of manslaughter with sentences of nine years and nine and a half years in youth detention. Those are the detention. Those are the headlines. Plenty more still to come throughout the afternoon. Until then, you can sign up to gb news alerts. Just scan the code on your screen or go to gb news. Common alerts. News. Common alerts. Cheers cheers britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news Financial Report , and heres a look at the report, and heres a look at the markets this afternoon. The pound will buy you 1. 2545 and ,1. 1656. The price of gold this afternoon is £1,825. 43 per ounce, and the ftse 100 is at 8210 points. Cheers, britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news Financial Report i welcome back. Its 338 on Martin Daubney. And this is gb news. Now the uk has offered the repubuc news. Now the uk has offered the republic of ireland the chance to join in on its controversial rwanda scheme. As the row between the two countries over Asylum Seekers returns continues to grow. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has said the uk wont accept returns of migrants from ireland as tensions continue to rise. Well, im joined now by gb news Northern Ireland reporter Dougie Beattie dougie. The face off continues and i believe you have a development because earlier on rishi sunak threw down the gauntlet to the taoiseach, said youre welcome to join the rwanda scheme. What happen next . Well, he arrived here at stormont this morning. The new taoiseach, simon harris , on his first visit to harris, on his first visit to belfast as taoiseach and we were herded down to the castle here at stormont and the press were only allowed three questions amongst all the press that were sitting there, very much a controlled , press conference controlled, press conference that was had and of course , the that was had and of course, the second question was would he take rishi sunak offer . And he made a joke of it. He said it was satirical and really that they were part of the eu and that they would have their own policy. And basically it would be aligned to the eu. So very much kicking that out. But of course, his in the republic of course, his in the republic of ireland, the Largest Party in the republic of ireland is actually sinn fein, although not in government. And theyre really stuck here because, Michelle Oneill is indeed the first minister. But that sits behind us of sinn fein. And she was very quick to bat it away and said, well, you know, immigration is not a devolved matter. Thats a matter for the uk government. And then we had the deputy first minister, emma little pengelly, who is part of the dup, and she said, well, actually the figures that we have have most of our immigration coming into Northern Ireland from the republic now , ireland from the republic now, as much as it almost seems a joke, it is not for the people of the republic of ireland. These very decent , hard working these very decent, hard working people have had their services totally swamped and they really feel under pressure there now. And its almost martin, as if the Political Institutions in the Political Institutions in the republic are not listening to their own people. Now we will find out how that goes during the european elections. But i can tell you from reporting on this in the last couple of years, this is there is a real anger and frustration coming from those in not only the working classes, but now the middle and upper classes saying enoughs enough. We have not got the services for this. We have not got the infrastructure for this. And really what we were talking about two years ago, we will actually end up seeing border controls going in to the irish sea. So as you have to have passports coming in and out of Northern Ireland, and that gets a ridiculous situation where you have british citizens that will have to show british passports going back into britain or the irish army and the Garda Siochana will have to come on up to the border and create a land border, which is something that the republic of ireland totally refused to have dunng ireland totally refused to have during the brexit negotiations. So as much as simon harris is doing the rounds today and he has came up here looking to talk to the parties here, they are all washing their hands clean of this and saying devolve ma, its not a devolved matter and we cannot change it. And on monday there is quite a big protest planned in the centre of dublin against immigration and no doubt Dougie Beattie once again, those people who simply want to stand up for their communities will be called far right extremists and dougie. We also saw incredible scenes this week of the tented city in dubun this week of the tented city in dublin being cleared away. Well discuss that in the next time we talk to you the next hour. And they were taken to one of the most Luxurious Hotels in the entire area , Dougie Beattie. Entire area, Dougie Beattie. This is a story that will run and run, and well talk to you in the next hour for more on that. Excellent stuff. Always a pleasure. Now im Martin Daubney pleasure. Now im Martin Daubney on britains news channel. Now were going to a break. Soon. Welcome back 345 is your time. Im Martin Daubney and youre on gb news now. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was turned away from his local polling station yesterday after forgetting to bring his id. Of course, new rules requiring photo id to vote were introduced by his own government in the elections act 2022, with the change being rolled out for the first time last year. Well, im now joined by tom brake, whos a director of unlock democracy , to director of unlock democracy, to discuss this. So, tom, we were told that this wouldnt impact peoples ability to vote. And lo and behold, the bloke who brought it in proved this wrong. Brought it in proved this wrong. Indeed. Indeed. And whilst clearly its slightly embarrassing for our former Prime Minister, who introduced the law to fall foul of it, initially , i think of it, initially, i think perhaps more seriously, we think there will probably be Something Like 20,000 people who will have turned up at a polling station and been turned away and not returned to vote, and i think thatis returned to vote, and i think that is a significant issue. That is a significant issue. And is that verified . Is that proven . Because weve been proven . Because weve been heanng proven . Because weve been hearing anecdotes and it seems to be a lot of elderly people forgetting their id , who youd forgetting their id, who youd think naturally would be more predisposed to vote conservative. Is there any data or evidence of the particular types of people who are being impacted . We heard a lot would be the disenfranchised, would be the poorest. Is that coming to passin the poorest. Is that coming to pass in reality, in Northern Ireland, where this was brought in, we didnt see really anything like that happening. Anything like that happening. Well, we first of all, its been introduced in Northern Ireland for a number of years, and they did it in two phases. So they introduced id and then they introduced photographic voter id. But what we do know as a fact is that in may last year, when this was rolled out for the first time, it was documented that there were 14,000 people who turned up at a polling station, were turned away and did not return to vote. Now, in those elections last year, there were there were fewer people voting. And thats why extrapolating last year to this yean extrapolating last year to this year, probably Something Like 20,000 people will be the number. Now, we wont know that until the returning officers have provided us information, but they will do that within a couple of months time and then well know the scale of the problem. Okay, great. Well, when that data comes in, tom brake, wed love to have you back on. Its a serious topic. Thanks for joining us on the show. Tom brake, director of unlock democracy. Always a pleasure. Now, im delighted to say im joined in the studio by my panel joined in the studio by my panel. And thats the former editor of labourlist , peter editor of labourlist, Peter Edwards and nhs, gp and author doctor renee hogenkamp. Thank you both for joining doctor renee hogenkamp. Thank you both forjoining us. Lets start on that topic, peter of voter id. Now note something that rankled the political left pushing back against this in particular for the line is it will impact labour voters the most. Yet Boris Johnson and tory mp tom hunt for got their id yesterday. Is there any proof that it actually does impact labour voters more . It impacts poorer voters more and historically theyve tended to be labour voters as that changed a bit in recent years. There is proof, for example, that, poorer people have less id its a fact that having a passport, one of the forms of id costs £85, we know many people dont have passport. Youre less likely to have £85 to spare if youre poor. Moreover picking up what tom brake said, the government had brought this in. The johnson government knew this would happen. This was done cynically because they expected that, in the name of cleaning up Political Parties , which is Political Parties, which is pretty clean anyway, relative to other countries, it would hit poorer turnout, therefore hit the labour turnout. Renee do you think theres any any veracity in this . I mean, if you need id to buy a beer or a packet of cigs, surely you should have id to vote. I think this is nonsense and i think we absolutely should know whos voting. Its the most important thing that we do in this country. And you know, to say that poorer people cant have a passport, poorer people drive more cars, so theyll have a driving licence. There are 27 things that you can actually use, even a bus pass to bring to vote. And you know, i think this is just an excuse. You can also apply it on the day for an emergency proxy vote. You can apply for a certificate to show this is a nonsense. We need people. We need to know whos voting. More importantly, martin, we need to know whos postal voting. Im one of those people. No voter id needed. And thats a whole separate conversation. The postal vote is conversation. The postal vote is always a contentious topic. But before we get too granular, shall we take a broader look at whats happened thus far in the elections . Peter you must be pretty happy. Well fairly happy, but the results are not yet in, of course. So i think its probably expected that the tory candidate won in the tees valley, he was , won in the tees valley, he was, ben houchen, a favourite, really, of Boris Johnson. Not closely associated with rishi sunak. Labour won in the north east when there was an independent left wing candidate. To be frank, it would be a bigger headline if labour had not won in the north east. But i think, the thing that will give rishi sunak a difficult weekend is a loss in Council Seats, both actual and projected, and renee any surprises from you . I mean, we were we were speaking to residents in aldershots. It seemed inconceivable that the home of british garrison, the british army, could ever go to the labour party. And yet in rushmoor , nine out of 13 seats rushmoor, nine out of 13 seats went labour for the first time in 24 years. Its been controlled that seems to be symptomatic of a rot that set in amongst conservative voters, 26. 7 turnout. Apathy appears to be the enemy, so this is going to be their biggest problem, isnt it . Getting tory voters who are not enamoured with with keir dont want to hold their nose and vote for keir, are just going to stay at home and were seeing that today. I dont think the overall message today is any different than people expected. They expected it to be, as has been described by many, a bloodbath. I think that in aldershot is a big wake up call and perhaps we need to be looking after our veterans a little bit more in order that they dont do this. We must also remember that 1. 5 Million People in tory blue wall seats like that are going to be dragged into income tax for the first time by jeremy hunts stealth taxes. So they need to sit back now and think, why are we losing our core vote now in terms of the general trends labour party has has nibbled quite nice at the green party is doing quite well, perhaps surprisingly. Well, perhaps surprisingly. Why do you think that is . Is that because, sir keir starmer appeared to do u turns on net zero pledges and the rest of them are bailing out . No. I think in certain cities where theres a middle class vote, theres perhaps not made its mind up about keir starmer. They tend to drift to the green and also, if youre voting green, that vote is more likely to be converted into a representative in a council election, because you can get your ward council electors green. Remember, i think weve only ever had one green mp ever in the house of commons, so they attract a lot of attention. But they dont get through to the house of commons. They have zero influence on the government of the day. But if you like vie, we all like green policies, but if you like green candidates, youre much more likely to see them representing you at local government level. And it will die off a bit at the general election. And renee in terms of a bellwether Council Elections or Council Elections. But theres Council Elections. But theres some mayoralties quite, quite major elections still underway. How bad do you think this is . Looking for the conservatives . All eyes are on the general election. This is this is the prawn cocktail. Looking ahead to prawn cocktail. Looking ahead to the steak course, how much of a bloodbath could that be for the conservatives . So i think that is going to be a big hit for them. They have held one of them at the moment that they were expected to hold. And rishi must have sighed. Rishi must have signed a, you know, a big breath of relief when ben houchen got in. But i think weve still got london to come. Most people are expecting that to go to sadiq, and one needs to ask why do the tories not get behind their mayors like susan hall and really, really push their candidate . I think all of this needs to be a massive wake up call for the tories. I think peter and i disagreed in agreement that theyre too broad a church, and theyre too broad a church, and they need to sit down and say, right, what are people not getting from us that they want . Well, border control, low tax. You know, the things that conservatives traditionally did. Yeah, absolutely. Theyve yeah, absolutely. Theyve forgotten how to do that because half of their party should be in the lib dems. Yeah. Now quickly peter, if we could is sir keir starmer. Now quickly peter, if we could is sir keir starmer. You could is sir keir starmer. You know rallying people in like like tony blair did or is he just at the moment the lease of a bad option . I think its rallying people in but its a journey. Remember, labour were down at about 20 in the polls and had one of their worst general Election Results ever when he took over. So its going in the right direction and briefly, the thing that will give them hope and the tories dismay is the fact this is not a mid term election. Were weeks or months away from a general election. Okay. Superb stuff. Peter edwards and renee , hogenkamp, edwards and renee, hogenkamp, thank you very much for joining us. I always get names wrong. Its just everybody gets that name wrong. The show i wont get wrong next time. Now stick with us in the next hour. Be joined by ben habib, whos the deputy leader of the reform party. Sir john curtice, the legendary pollster. Hes predicting an electoral wipe out for the conservatives. Remember the reform party only stood in 10 to 15 of seats last night. What could that look like in a general election . Well have a full analysis on that next. Im Martin Daubney on gb news. Britains news channel. But first, its time for your weather. So. Weather. So. A brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on. Gb news. Hello, time for your latest weather update from the met office here on gb news. A bit of a mish mash again today. Lots of places grey with some heavy rain around, but its a brighter day in the south and its another mostly fine day across northern scotland. In between though, low pressure and weather fronts are providing a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain. Some heavy downpours across parts of lincolnshire and yorkshire extending into the north midlands. The odd rumble of thunder maybe further north as well parts of northwest england, southwest scotland, but for much of northern scotland, Central Scotland dry and fine, warmer spot likely to be western scotland, where we could get 2223 degrees elsewhere. A lot cooler with the cloud and the rain over these central areas. Particularly chilly on some nonh particularly chilly on some north sea coasts. But it is a brighter day across southernmost parts of england. Better chance of staying fine and dry here and that dry, clearer weather will spread north as we go through the night. Well keep outbreaks of rain going over much of wales , the midlands and Northern England, parts of southern scotland and Northern Ireland to that northwestern corner staying dry and fine with the cloud that keeps the temperatures up in double digits. Quite a chilly start, then to the long weekend in the south, but hopeful for a bit of sunshine here. Actually. Generally fine day tomorrow over south wales, southern england and east anglia. Drying up process over Northern England and the midlands too. But a grey day for much of the north. Some rain, although nothing too heavy. Again the highlands of scotland doing okay for some sunny spells and temperatures here in the high teens, but cooler where it stays fairly dull. Bye for now. That warm feeling inside from boxt boilers sponsors of weather on gb news. A very good afternoon to you. Its 4 pm. And a very happy friday. Welcome to the Martin Daubney show on gb news. Were broadcasting live from the heart of westminster all across the uk. On todays show, well bring you all the latest on the local and the mayoral Election Results. As they come in. And the talking point this hour is reform uk came so close to beating the tories in the blackpool south by election. Legendary pollster sir john curtice says we could be looking at an electoral wipe out of the conservatives at the next general election. Is that possible . What does it mean for british politics . Ill be joined by ben habib in the studio , the by ben habib in the studio, the deputy leader of the reform party. And after that, ireland party. And after that, ireland has ordered 100 Police Officers to man the border after ministers claim migrants are flooding in from the uk. While the Prime Minister has said the uk wont accept returns of migrants. And now he has thrown down the gauntlet to the irish taoiseach, saying youre welcome to join the rwanda scheme. Its borderline chaos. Will head to Northern Ireland for a full update on that and its not april 1st, but after 100 years of talks, a tunnel could link europe to africa and it may be built by 2030, costing a whopping £6 billion. A tunnel from africa to europe. What from africa to europe. What could possibly go wrong . Thats all coming up in your next hour. So it was a brutal night for the conservative party. Will that transpire into a nightmare on downing street at the next election . Well be looking ahead election . Well be looking ahead in this hour. To what . Last nights results could mean for that campaign in particular, the legendary political pollster sir john curtice has predicted that if the reform party stand in all seats and they go for those target seats, it could translate last nights result in blackpool south, where they only came third by 117 votes, narrowly , third by 117 votes, narrowly, and the conservative party beat them. Could that transpire into a Political Movement that could shake the very foundations of british politics . What do you think . Could that happen . Should think . Could that happen . Should that happen, or does first past the post simply make that impossible . Somebody who has the faith is the deputy leader of the reform party, ben habib. Hell be right here in about ten minutes time. If you want to ask him a question, get it over to me now. Send your views in this way gbnews. Com. Forward slash your say. But first its time for your News Headlines and its sam francis. Sam francis. Martin, thank you very much and good afternoon from the newsrooms. Just after 4 00 and leading the news this hour , leading the news this hour, rishi sunak has said that the local Election Results have been disappointing for the conservatives, but that it doesnt necessarily mean that labour will win the general election. It comes after labour also won the by election in blackpool south, caused by the resignation of tory scott benton. Chris webb took that seat, beating conservative davy jones, david jones in second. Labour leader sir keir starmer has called the win seismic. For has called the win seismic. For labours local election gains across england and wales also include winning in key areas , include winning in key areas, including rushmoor in hampshire for the first time. Labour also won in thurrock in hartlepool, but the conservatives held harlow here for those watching on tv are the latest council results from across england and we do expect more results to follow into tomorrow, including the West Midlands and londons mayor meanwhile, labours claire ward has won the east midlands mayoral election, becoming the regions. First elected mayor. Regions. First elected mayor. The partys also secured york and North Yorkshire. With and North Yorkshire. With candidate david skaith and Kim Mcguinness won in the north east, defeating former labour turned independent jamie driscoll. However, the conservatives did manage to retain tees valley, with ben houchen being re elected. Rishi sunak said that result is evidence that people will stick with the tories come the general election. Keir starmer came here twice, Rachel Reeves came here three times, but even they couldnt dislodge ben and the fantastic conservative team. Right. And they also threw a lot of mud. It needs to be said in this election because they were angry, angry that ben has delivered more for this region in seven years than labour Party Managed in 30 years. And. Managed in 30 years. And. Just some breaking news coming to us out of Leeds Crown Court this afternoon, where weve heard that a 15 year old boy has been found guilty of murdering alfie lewis, who was also 15, stabbed to death in full view of pupils leaving a Primary School in the horsforth area of leeds. That was in last november. The schoolboy, who was 14 rather at the time, admitted stabbing alfie with a 13 centimetre long kitchen knife. Court has heard today that he had brought home, but he did deny murder. Today that he had brought home, but he did deny murder. And next but he did deny murder. And next to Bristol Crown court, where three teenagers who carried out a knife attack have been named today as Shane Cunningham, carter bushnell. And leo knight, carter bushnell. And leo knight, the 16 year old friend stabbed mickey roynon to death with a large hunting knife at a 16th Birthday Party in bath. Shane cunningham has been convicted of that murder. Hes been detained for life. His two friends, for life. His two friends, meanwhile, were convicted of manslaughter with sentences of nine years and nine and a half years in youth detention. In other news, irelands Prime Minister has played down a migration row with the uk government on his First Official visit to Northern Ireland as. Taoiseach. It comes after rishi sunak offered ireland the chance to join the rwanda deportation scheme, rejecting irelands demands to back Asylum Seekers. Take back Asylum Seekers who had crossed from the north. But speaking after a meeting with the first and deputy first ministers at stormont, simon harris was quick to calm tensions. Theres a need for a sense of calm here, theres a need for a bit of a deep breath and we have a common travel area between the two islands. Thats a common travel area. Thats in place for a very long time. When both countries. Were in the european countries. Were in the European Union, and its still in place now when one country is within the European Union and another isnt. And im determined to work as taoiseach constructively and to make sure that the common travel area is protected and that the common travel area is never abused. Well, trade union, the trade union which represents senior Civil Servants, will have. Its Civil Servants, will have. Its high Court Challenge over the rwanda bill heard between the fourth and the 7th of june. Its understood the government has told the high court that the earliest dates individuals are expected to be removed to rwanda is july, the first to the 15th. Defence secretary grant shapps and senior military leaders have been sanctioned by the iranian regime. Two Royal Navy Commanders who captained warships involved in shooting down Houthi Rebels and drone missiles in the red sea are included in that list. One of them, commander peter evans evans, is currently stationed in the red sea at the helm of hms diamond. The metropolitan Police Commissioner has called for a much fairer oversight process after two Firearms Officers waited more than five years before finally being cleared of wrongdoing for tackling and shooting a dangerous armed robber. In december 2018. The officers had been following a vehicle linked to a gang of Armed Robbers in the wimbledon area of south west london. Scotland yard said that the officers believed one of the men, brooklynn mcfarlane, was armed and posed an immediate threat and both fired one shot. Each one of those shots did struck mcfarlane and the other struck mcfarlane and the other struck a nearby building. He was arrested a short time later and treated for non life threatening injuries. In hospital. He was eventually sentenced to 13 years in prison for conspiracy to commit robbery and other offences. Thats the latest from the newsroom. More in half an the newsroom. More in half an houn the newsroom. More in half an hour. Until then, you can sign up to gb news alerts just scan the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. Com slash alerts. Thank you sam. Now. Mayoral Election Results are coming in across england while we still await the declaration in the east midlands. My patch. But according to reports, labours clare ward has become the first ever mayor for the region. Well get the latest from gb news. Will hollis very soon. But before that im joined in the studio by gb news Political Correspondent Katherine Forster and the founder of electoral calculus , Martin Baxter martin. Calculus, Martin Baxter martin. Lets start. With you. Since we lets start. With you. Since we last spoke, what are the scores on the doors where are we at so broadly . The conservatives are down about 270 Council Seats, though the day is not over yet. And theyve also labour have gained theyve also labour have gained the council of adore in west sussex. So again, a labour win in the south east of england. Thats good for them. Okay. And in terms of the mayoralties, we just we just heard there that labour are expected to take the east midlands. What else has happened thus far on the merrells in case anyone has just tuned in. So the big one so far is nonh so the big one so far is North Yorkshire and york, which is a new mayoralty. Labour won that one and that is a you know, traditionally conservative area and actually includes rishi sunaks own constituency. So very emblematic. And there was another mayoralty came in which the conservatives did hold. Yes. You have, mr bhushan. Oh, of course, yes. Back in tees, tees valley. Yes. So they held that that was their big one. So the trend i like to talk about to you now, martin, is were seeing were hearing stories of apathy. Were seeing stories of apathy. Were seeing the vote peeling away. If so many people arent voting conservative, where are they going . Well, yes, thats the interesting thing is theyre not all switching to labour. Many of them are staying at home and not voting because theyre disillusioned, perhaps with all the parties. But then a large chunk, as we see on the graphic, where each one of these Little People represents 1 of the voters back in 2019. You see, theres a big block of eight blue voters going off to the right towards the reform party and really boosting their numbers that, we might see that at the local elections. Were likely to see that at the general election, where it could make a very big impact in terms of the number of seats, even though reform will not win many seats or possibly may not win any seats at all. But whats interesting there is that we have almost equity by your modelling there from an electoral calculus. Martin baxter, equity of conservative voters peeling off to reform tory voters, peeling off to not vote for anybody. And then a smaller. Percentile going smaller. Percentile going laboun smaller. Percentile going labour, lib dem and green. But labour, lib dem and green. But the net result is thats like more than half of the conservative vote. Yes, the conservatives are you could call them wide spectrum repulsive at the moment. Theyre pushing people out in all directions, and the question for rishi sunak really is what does he do to get some of these people back . Does he move a little bit towards the right and try and get people back from reform or not voting, or does he move a little bit to the left and try and pick up the people who went to labour . And thats really the debate we might see over the next few days in the conservative party looking at your data there, martin, it would seem that the majority of the haemorrhage of the vote is either people staying at home because theyre fed up of it all, or they are peeung fed up of it all, or they are peeling off to reform. So would that underline the calls from people like priti patel, Suella Braverman Robert Jenrick that you need to be more conservative, perhaps go more to the right back to your core values. Is that what, based on all of your evidence, your expertise, is that what you think they should be doing . Think they should be doing . Im sure some people in the conservative party will be making exactly those points, and that some voters will be saying that some voters will be saying that the current conservative parties , conservative in name parties, conservative in name only, and they want, to be a bit more proper conservatives, as you might say, with a rishi sunakis you might say, with a rishi sunak is going to follow that strategy, i dont know. And whether he followed it, if he if it would help, i suppose it would if he can persuade reform inclined voters to come back to the conservatives, you can you certainly expect a lot of conservative propaganda in the coming months that a vote for reform is a vote for keir starmer. Theyll be pushing that starmer. Theyll be pushing that message very hard. Well, so then they did. Of course, during the 2019 election as well, splitting the vote. They called that were going to have ben habib from the reform party in soon to discuss that very notion. But there are still more results expected to roll in. There are mayoralties. Were expected to call on. Is there any good news amongst that for the conservative party well, the big good news, of course, was the fact that ben houchen has managed to hold on and hold on, really quite significantly. I mean, he did significantly. I mean, he did get a majority of 19,000, but a couple of things there. First of all, he likes to be seen as sort of levelling up in action. I think its more about ben houchen and the investment and the energy that hes managed to bnng the energy that hes managed to bring to the region. You as an individual , bring to the region. You as an individual, because he stressed that he was born there, hes grown up there. He plans to spend the rest. You know, hes really rooted in that community. He now he turned up without the blue rosette. He said he forgot it at rishi sunak, then pops up to try and show for the glory, but. So thats some good news for the conservatives. But so far, you know, all the other mayoralties are going labours way. York and North Yorkshire, thats rishi sunak constituency. Richmond is within that. North yorkshire traditionally fairly true blue, although york labour notably its quite embarrassing to think that rishi sunak will have a labour mayor it is a bit, isnt it . It is a bit. But, you know, this was always, lets face it, going to be a really bad day for the conservatives we knew this, they knew this. And i think obviously theres been a lot of speculation in westminster. Was this the point westminster. Was this the point at which tory rebels would move against the Prime Minister now, obviously weve still got a lot of results to come , we dont of results to come, we dont know whats going to happen in london, though. Sadiq khan is predicted to going to still be labour labour mayor. Have you heard any. Im heanng have you heard any. Im hearing from a lot of people this might be closer than people thought. Sadiq khan was down as a 20 point ahead. Shoo in, but im hearing it could be closer. Yeah, im hearing that too, because the polls did have him way, way, way ahead. And its sounding like it might be tighter. I sounding like it might be tighter. I mean, you never know. You never know. And those , you you never know. And those, you know, they havent even started counting. So we wont hear that till late tomorrow. I mean, of course, if susan hall took london, that would be gigantic. I wouldnt put money on that. But it would be gigantic. So lets lets see. What about the West Midlands, because that again, you know, thats a thats again, you know, thats a thats a conservative stronghold. But thats all changing. And interestingly, George Galloway has been backing a guy called ahmed yaqoob whos a whos a tiktoker with 184,000 followers, 184,000 followers. He thinks that he could severely take a lot of the muslim vote and that, perversely, could keep the tory mayor, andy street, in power. Mayor, andy street, in power. Yes, its said to be too close to call in the West Midlands with andy street again. Andy street has run a campaign where he sort of disassociated himself in a way from the conservatives run it as its own man. He was very vocal in his opposition to rishi sunak ditching that leg of hs2 up to manchester, it seems like they have been hit by, first of all, the fact that Birmingham Council , Labour Council went bankrupt and the you know, the ramifications of that and also the fact, obviously plenty of muslim voters in birmingham and it does sound like a lot of them are turning away from labour over labours stance about the war in the middle east. And, you know, weve seen that in the fact that they lost, lost overall control of Oldham Council, didnt they , where wed council, didnt they, where wed had Labour Councillors basically. Give up, you know, abandon the labour party and five independents elected there on a very pro palestine platform. So itll be very interesting to see if andy street hangs on and it looks like he just might. And were going to be discussing that in the next houn discussing that in the next hour. In fact, were going to be joined by a councillor from oldham whos got some very, very interesting things to say about what he believes we should be very mindful of the fact about muslim bloc takeovers of towns and what that can mean. Do you think , martin, that that is think, martin, that that is something thats of concern , something thats of concern, labour party haemorrhaging votes in very targeted , very localised in very targeted, very localised campaigns like this . Is that something that could shape the future electoral map towards the general election . General election . Well, certainly itll be something thats in the labour partys mind and theres really theyll be pulled in two directions that if they were to move to be a pro palestine in a pro palestine direction, that would help them in some of the muslim majority or strong muslim areas, seats in the country and the kind of student areas. And the Younger Voters who seem to be on these protests. On the other hand, taking the position theyre taking now appeals more to those conservative, traditionally conservative, traditionally conservative parts of the rural parts of the south of england where they are gaining where theyre gaining more seats. So i think theyve made the calculation that theres more to be gained with their current position on palestine than there is to be gained by changing it. Okay. And, catherine, do you think there will be a period of reflection in the conservative party hq talk already of a leadership challenge, but really, is that the kind of carnage that the membership that the electorate wants . Do you think they will there will be letters going in. Do you think we can see, a stand off there or really, is it just time to get this over with and go to the polls at the risk of making predictions, which is a dangerous thing to do in politics, and i suspect that the wind has gone out of the sails of the rebels a little bit. Right. If reform had come second in blackpool south, if ben houchen had lost in tees valley, if andy street loses, then i think they might have had a bit of momentum at the moment. Even people like Dame Andrea Jenkyns are pretty much saying i accept theres not going to be enough letters go in, were going to be stuck with rishi sunak and well just have to make the best of it. When Dame Andrea Jenkyns is saying that, that suggests to me. But of course, you know, weve still got a lot of revolt results. Losing, losing the ability to speak. Weve still got a lot of results to come. And of course, mps are going to be in their constituencies chewing over these all weekend plotting on these all weekend plotting on the whatsapps. So lets see what happens next week. And just to repeat what was that wonderful phrase you came up with about the conservative vote wide spectrum . Repulsive. But i just echo repulsive. But i just echo catherines point that i think theres no evidence that the conservatives have a leader who would be more popular with the pubuc would be more popular with the public than rishi sunak. I think thered be a mistake to ditch him at this stage. While spectrum reports, if you learn something every day, Martin Baxter and Katherine Forster absolute pleasure and well have more of you , of course, in the more of you, of course, in the next hour. Now well have lots more on that story at 5 00, and theres plenty of coverage on our website, gbnews. Com. And youve helped to make it the Fastest Growing National News website in the country. So thank you very much. So well be bringing you all the latest Election Results and reactions. And ill soon be joining the studio by the deputy leader of the reform party , ben leader of the reform party, ben habib. Hi Martin Daubney on gb news, britains news channel welcome back to approaching 423. Im Martin Daubney , and this is im Martin Daubney, and this is gb news. Now, reform uk leader richard tice has said its a very good day for the party. As reform uk candidates mark butcher came third. Just 117 votes behind the conservatives. Of course, in blackpool south. The reform party leader, tice told gb news that the party is making huge strides. Making huge strides. Succeeded with our best ever by election result by some margin, significantly ahead of our National Polling average. Many people in the media have now got egg on their face. They said we couldnt do it. You know, we were a virtual party. Well, weve just proven them completely and utterly wrong and, well, richard tice theyre in jubilant mood. In jubilant mood. Im joining the studio by the deputy leader of reform uk , ben deputy leader of reform uk, ben habib. Ben, welcome to the studio show. So you came a nice third, just 117 votes behind the conservatives. But be honest, you should have beaten the tories in that seat. Dont you think . They were on their knees up to their necks in sleaze . That seat is a second place. It was there for the taking. It didnt quite get there. Yeah, i was just i was mentally remarking at what richard was saying. Didnt he speak incredibly well . It makes you proud to be a member of reform uk. But, yeah. So we didnt quite get there. We wanted to get there. But remember, martin, there are two things with which were grappling that the conservative party and labour party dont have to grapple. The first is that everyone in the country knows who they are, and they basically know what they stand for, and they have their tribal voters. As not everyone in the voters. As not everyone in the country knows who reform uk are where were making inroads. Were steadily making progress. But we got that vote without being an established party. And remember, back in october, we were polling 5. In my by election. We got 13 in wellingborough. That was a few months ago. Now were 17. We did want to beat the tories into third place. Of course we did. But you know, 171, its a rounding error. The point is that the political wind is in our sails. People are, as i mentioned, getting to know us and, and once they get to know us, theyll know our theyll get to know our message. And they will realise that nothing of the legacy parties offers remotely something close to what we offer, which is a 180 degree change in direction in the governance of this country, which it desperately needs. A lot of people, of course, inevitably are saying that the reform party or sir Keir Starmers 12th man, youre doing starmers12th man, youre doing their job for him starmers12th man, youre doing theirjob for him by starmers12th man, youre doing their job for him by splitting their job for him by splitting the conservative vote, you simply allow starmer to roll into downing street. Into downing street. Youre almost providing the champagne. What do you say to that . I would say rishi sunak is the labour partys 12th that . I would say rishi sunak is the labour partys12th man. No , what were doing and you no, what were doing and you know, and again, weve seen this repeatedly in the by elections is people arent voting and actually a lot of the people who vote for reform uk are people who are fed up with the conservative party and labour party. And if we didnt exist, they wouldnt get off their sofas and come out. I think were actually improving voter turnout. Of course, were taking turnout. Of course, were taking voters from the conservative party, but were also taking voters from the labour party. Remember, there are many supporters, historic supporters of the labour party, who are proud of being british, who want small c conservatism , who want small c conservatism, who want aspiration. They want the economy growing. They dont want this wealth redistribution. They want immigration slashed , you want immigration slashed, you know, and we offer that. We offer that agenda. The labour offer that agenda. The labour party doesnt do it. And im sadly too sad to say, the conservative party doesnt do it. What youre describing there is a spirit of brexit at the spirit of the of the red wall. Ben, i was struck. We did a lot of packages on the situation in blackpool south, a town on its knees, a town at the end of the line, a town thats been forgotten and its been the dumping ground of so many social blights, from unemployment to Asylum Seekers. Moving into the area because the Housing Stock is being hoovered up by landlords sold to the government. In fact, im afraid benhabib we have to cut now. I think we have the declaration of the east midlands mayoralty is happening now. Can we cut to that live . That live . 50,666. Bradley, benjamin. 50,666. Bradley, benjamin. David, commonly known as ben, the conservative party. The conservative party. Candidate 129,332. Graves, alan. Reform uk 49,201. Ralph, matthew. James commonly known as matt independent. Known as matt independent. 23,359. Tamblyn. Saville helen louise. Liberal democrat 15,970. Louise. Liberal democrat 15,970. Ward, claire. Margaret labour and co operative party 181,000. The number of ballot papers rejected was as follows. Voting for more candidates than the voter was entitled to 466. Writing or mark by which voter could be identified 37 being unmarked or wholly void for uncertainty, 2355 making a total number of ballot papers. Number of ballot papers. Rejected 2858. The electorate was. 1,637,644. The number of was. 1,637,644. The number of ballot papers issued was 452,443, equating to a turnout of 27. 6, and i hereby do declare that Claire Margaret ward is duly elected thank you. Thank you. And there we have it. So, claire ward of the labour party is elected as the first ever mayor for the east midlands. And of course, she is the labour party candidate. Ben habib. Party candidate. Ben habib. Claire ward is the new mayor for the east midlands. Yeah. So no surprises there. Yeah. So no surprises there. But did you see the turnout . 27. 5. I mean turnouts are really down right across the board. And down right across the board. And as i was saying before they announce the result, you know, thats because i think most people are utterly disillusioned with the main parties. And we did all right. We got just under 50,000 votes, just pipped from third place, sadly. So i think we were in fourth place if i got the numbers right. And, but, you know, we werent were concentrating really on parliamentary elections , itd be parliamentary elections, itd be great to get a mayoralty. Obviously but its really parliament where we want to make our electoral impact and, and how do we do that . How do we how do we convert that apathy . We spoke to martin that apathy . We spoke to Martin Baxter from electoral calculus earlier. He baxter from electoral calculus earlier. He did some fascinating analysis of where the conservative vote is going. And conservative vote is going. And its approximately equity in those going to reform and those staying on their sofas. How do you get those those kind of disenfranchised unco polled, pessimistic conservatives . How do you get them out . Well, we are increasingly getting them out. You know, as i said last year we polled 5 in tamworth, 13 in wellingborough a few months ago now, 17 in blackpool south. And we are a smidgen behind the conservatives in the National Poll. And if we in the National Poll. And if we can overtake conservatives in a National Poll , i think youll National Poll, i think youll see a seismic impact on electoral behaviour. People will suddenly realise that actually the second largest, the second most Popular Party in the United Kingdom is reform uk, not the conservatives itll be well become the opposition for the labour party , not in Parliament Labour party, not in parliament but in the nation. And people will be attracted out to vote for us. Theyll be looking more closely at our policies. Theyll closely at our policies. Theyll realise we stand for the working and middle classes. They realise that were going to ditch net zero, which is so damaging for the working and middle classes. Theyll realise were going to promote private enterprise , promote private enterprise, generate growth. All these things that were traditional conservative values. You know, itll be reform uk delivering them. If all of those principles didnt get the ukip party to a single candidate into the house of the parliament or the brexit party, how can you do it . Because at the time that ukip was at its zenith, the conservative party was actually quite popular. Right now, the nafion quite popular. Right now, the nation is facing an existential threat at multiple levels. Economic social, political, constitutional, everything you look at in this country, we are threatened and weve been delivered to that point by the conservative party. So people have to wake up and realise that they cant go on voting for the same old because theyll get the same old because theyll get the same old because theyll get the same old and frankly, this is, you know, were on the precipice of disaster. I really mean, thats why im in politics, martin. If people dont start voting for change, we wont be able to improve the country. So people have just got to do it. Theyve got to get the courage to come out and not reward failure as they have done in the past, and give reform uk a go because we will genuinely deliver for this country. Indeed, ben habib , you indeed, ben habib, you certainly had your weetabix. Always a pleasure and never a chore. Now loads more coming up in the show. But first its your News Headlines and its san francisco. 433 a very good afternoon from the newsroom. A recap of the top story this hour. Rishi sunak has said the local Election Results have been disappointing for the conservatives, but that it doesnt necessarily mean that labour will win the next election. It comes after labour also won the by election in blackpool south, caused by the resignation of scott benton, chris webb took the seat, beating conservative david jones in second. Labour leader sir keir starmer has called that win seismic. Well, labours local election gains across england and wales also include winning in key areas, including rushmoor in key areas, including rushmoor in hampshire for the first time. Labour also won thurrock and hartlepool , but the hartlepool, but the conservatives did hold harlow. If youre watching on tv, you can see here the latest council results from across england. More results will follow into tomorrow , including the west tomorrow, including the West Midlands and londons mayoral results. And labour has won results. And labour has won another mayoral election, this time in east midlands, where residents were voting for the role for the first time. Claire ward beat ben bradley, adding to significant losses for the conservatives in the local elections so far. Labours gained 80 seats and taken control of five more councils in england. However, the conservatives have managed to retain tees valley, with ben houchen being re elected. In other news today, a 15 year old boy has been found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of murdering alfie lewis, also 15, who was stabbed to death in full view of pupils leaving a Primary School in horsforth last november. The schoolboy, who was 14 at the time, admitted stabbing alfie with thirteens, a 13 centimetre long kitchen knife that hed brought from home but denied murder. Next to Bristol Crown court, where three teenagers who carried out a knife attack have been named today as Shane Cunningham, castle bushnell and leo knight, the 16 year old friend stabbed mikey roynon to death with a large hunting knife at its 16th Birthday Party in bath. Shane cunningham has been convicted of that murder and has been detained for life, while his two friends were convicted of manslaughter with sentences of manslaughter with sentences of nine years and nine and a half years in youth detention and well stay in bristol before we hand back to martin, where were just hearing that a Critical Incident being declared at a number of hospitals in the city following a power cut , the city following a power cut, the local nhs trust has posted on social media in the last hour or so, urging the public not to attend bristols main City Centre Hospital until that incident has been resolved , we incident has been resolved, we understand. Avon and Somerset Police are at the scene where the roads in the surrounding area have been closed. People area have been closed. People are being urged to contact nhs 111 if they are in need of any medical help and we will of course keep across the latest developments from bristol, across the next hour and bring you any updates. Those are the you any updates. Those are the headlines. For more, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the code on your screen or go to gb news. Common alerts i welcome back. Its 440. Im Martin Daubney, and this is gb news. Now, the uk has offered the republic of ireland the chance to join in on the rwanda scheme. Amid a growing row between the two countries over Asylum Seeker returns. Indeed the Prime Minister, rishi sunak, made clear that the uk will not accept migrants from ireland back into the uk. This follows a rise in migrant tented cities in dublin, which are irish. Police have set about dismantling this week. Well, a lot to unpick there, this borderline insanity and im joined now by gb news Northern Ireland reporter Dougie Beattie dougie , welcome to the beattie dougie, welcome to the show. Always a pleasure. Its show. Always a pleasure. Its fair to say we have a massive stand off over the irish border. Whats the latest . Whats the latest . Well, we do indeed. And this morning, simon harris, the new taoiseach, the irish premier, appeared here at stormont with for talks with the parties here. And first of all, he met the sinn fein first minister, Michelle Oneill. And alongside her was the deputy first minister, the dups emma little pengelly. After they met, little pengelly. After they met, they came out to the steps of stormont castle. They only allowed three questions by the media in total and rather unfortunately for simon harris, one of those questions was about what he would do about the deal that was offered to him by rishi sunak. And this is what he had to say. Well, look, can i just say in relation to, to that issue of, of ireland and rwanda, thats more a satire than news, ireland has its own policy in relation to migration. We have every right to have our own policy. And indeed we will seek to advance migration policy through our membership of the European Union. Can i also just say this union. Can i also just say this after the week that that it has been that i do think theres a need for a sense of calm here. Theres a need for a bit of a deep breath, we have a common travel area, between the two islands. Thats a common travel area thats in place for a very long time, when both countries were in the European Union. And its still in place now, when one country is within the European Union and another isnt. And im determined to work as taoiseach constructively, to make sure that the common travel area is protected and that the common travel area is never abused. And in fact, theres a range of efforts , measures we need to efforts, measures we need to take at an irish level in terms of improving our migration systems. Systems. Well, you can see from that, martin that he he was extremely careful to try and defuse tensions that helen mccarthy, his justice minister, made that comment, that over 80 of the migrants going into the republic of ireland were, of course, from coming across from Northern Ireland. And astonishingly, the deputy first minister actually said the opposite, that there was so much coming from the south into the north. And then we had sinn feins first minister. Of course, sinn fein are the Largest Party in the repubuc are the Largest Party in the republic of irelands doyle, but not enough to form a government. And they have found this particular issue of immigrants very, very tricky for them. And very, very tricky for them. And Michelle Oneill immediately said, well, immigration is not a devolved matter, so its nothing to do with us. But it has been very hard for the people of the repubuc very hard for the people of the republic of ireland to listen to that, im sure, because ive spent a lot of time there and they are very, very frustrated at whats going on. And as youve said, there have been so many tented villages removed being sent to high class hotels, many of them that i couldnt afford to stay in, in and around dublin. And of course, as we reported last week, many of these immigrants have now appeared in very well off villages in one of the most picturesque areas of ireland, and the people of the republic of ireland are very frustrated and saying that their social or their political classes are not listening to them. Well see what happens in the polls in the european elections next month. And indeed, dougie, i think we have some footage that gb news secured of that. And as you said, they cleared away the tented village from , central tented village from, central dublin. And look at this here. They took them down the road to a luxury hotel , a hotel they took them down the road to a luxury hotel, a hotel Dougie Beattie, which many people in that area tell me they can only dream of staying in. And yet the taxpayer is footing the bill. Well, martin, even to stay in the republic of ireland now, its very expensive because theyre increasingly using up their hotels for these, migrant centres. And in fact, conor murphy here, the minister behind us sits in stormont, said how much Northern Irish tourism was going up. And you can only going up. And you can only imagine thats because people are finding it very , very hard are finding it very, very hard and very expensive to stay in and very expensive to stay in and around these areas in the repubuc and around these areas in the republic of ireland because there isnt very much accommodation left and theyve gone through the hotels and are now looking at acts , health now looking at acts, Health Service places, acts convents. And so forth, village halls. I mean, i mean, it is getting to the point where ireland is really, really struggling with this situation that they have. And for the hear simon harris say today that they are following eu regulation and legislation will frustrate an awful lot of people in the repubuc awful lot of people in the republic of ireland and Dougie Beattie , as you so succinctly beattie, as you so succinctly put it, lets see what happens at those European Union elections in june. I think the people might roar their disapproval Dougie Beattie always an absolute delight to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us live from Northern Ireland. Now coming up, there are plans for an underwater tunnel that connects. Wait for it. It connects africa to europe. It could be built by £2,036 billion. A tunnel to africa. What could possibly go wrong . Im Martin Daubney on gb news, britains welcome back. Its 449. Im Martin Daubney. And thanks for joining me on gb news. Now im joined in the studio by my panel , former editor of labourlist, Peter Edwards and the nhs gp and author and broadcaster doctor renee. Author and broadcaster doctor renee. Welcome to the show. Renee. Welcome to the show. I want to talk to you now about a story which i thought was an april fool story. It isnt story which i thought was an april fool story. It isnt an april fool story. It isnt an april fool story. It isnt an april fool story, although it came out on may the 1st. Plans to build a tunnel , a £6 billion to build a tunnel, a £6 billion tunnel between africa and spain, morocco to spain. Now, this isnt a pipe dream. A moroccan minister and the spanish transport minister have actually sat down and discussed this. A tunnel to africa. What could possibly go wrong . I mean, i like you, martin. I thought it was a joke too. Immediately i thought about it. Immediately i thought about it. I saw herds of people just congregating around the opening of the tunnel, just like they did in sangatte when the, the channel tunnel was open and starting thinking how many lorries they could jump on the back of in 2021, 9000 people managed to come through the channel tunnel to the uk illegally on the back of lorries. Weve got a massive problem with africa and Subsaharan Africa wanting to be elsewhere in the world. So what are we going to do . Were going to build them a tunnel. Its crazy. Crazy. Peter edwards we talk a lot about safer routes and of course the sea route is perilous. With that in mind, the nice tunnel roll out the red carpet. Are you in favour . No. I mean, to start with, i thought it was another Boris Johnson idea for a grand project, which we know he likes, but. But joking aside, i think we all agree. Whether your view of the migrant crisis is terrifying , young men, women of the migrant crisis is terrifying, young men, women and children are dying every month , children are dying every month, and where europe is going to find £6 billion for Something Like this, if youre going to spend that sort of money, lets rally around some measures to tackle the existing migrant crisis. It does feel a tackle the existing migrant crisis. It does feel a bit like a politicians fantasy. A politicians fantasy. Having said that, £6 billion for a tunnel from africa to europe, it was £66 billion for hs2. Well, just to start with, it was going to be 120. I mean, its weird, isnt it, that when youre in the uk any of these massive Infrastructure Projects cost a fortune, but apparently when youre in spain you can get bargain stuff. And apparently this is no mean feat. The rock that theyve got to drill through is really, really tricky. Its only the advance of technology that means it can now happen. So youre right, martin, how come they can do it for £6 billion . Now, the interesting thing about this is that the world cup in 2030 is going to be shared for between portugal, morocco and spain. In fact, im afraid we have to go to sir keir starmer, kwarteng to sir keir starmer, kwarteng to sir keir starmer now, live. Well, its starmer now, live. Well, its great to be here. Seeing the Prime Minister was here. Hes now scarpered and keir starmer is here in the Prime Ministers constituency with the first ever mayor for york and North Yorkshire, a labour mayor. Thank you, york and North Yorkshire, a labour mayor. Thank you, steve labour mayor. Thank you, steve and david. Youve run a superb campaign here in North Yorkshire, a campaign to be really proud of hopeful and optimistic, with a great team here from across the region, promises that were fully costed. Promises that were fully costed. Senous promises that were fully costed. Serious business experience, not a load of gimmicks. And i know that as you put those pledges into practice, you will deliver for people from harrogate to helmsley, from richmond to ripon, from scarborough to selby, and you will make a fantastic mayor for this region. And the voters have sent a clear message today, even in the Prime Ministers own backyard, that it isfime ministers own backyard, that it is time for change and under keirs leadership, there are no no go areas for labour anymore. Its time though, now for a general election so that voters can make their right across the country, labour are ready to serve , are ready to lead, ready serve, are ready to lead, ready to rebuild. Britain under keirs leadership. And its now my great pleasure to introduce my friend, our leader keir starmer. Thank you very much. Thank you thank you very much. Thank you so much. So much. York and North Yorkshire and we stand here. Its an amazing moment in history to have a labour victory here. Weve had really good results across the country all day long, but this is a very, very special moment. David to become the mayor here. And thank you to the team for the fantastic work that they have done, because through the villages and the towns of North Yorkshire , people have voted for yorkshire, people have voted for change. They voted for labour, a changed labour party, able to earn the trust and respect of voters in york and North Yorkshire, right in the Prime Ministers constituency. I think were in his constituency now celebrating this victory and that sends its own message and the right message because its been detection of the change that we brought about in the labour party, the ability that we have to make that argument to turn our backs on 14 years of decline and usher in national renewal. Its vindication and its a special message, because here in york and North Yorkshire, the vote is for change. The vote is to turn our back and turn a page. People are fed up with a failed government and theyve registered that here in the vote that they cast yesterday. Theyre fed up with the mess and the division and the mess and the division and the chaos, the sewage , the the chaos, the sewage, the hospitals that dont work, the infrastructure, the potholes. Infrastructure, the potholes. You could go on and on and on at absolute long list of failure. But its not just turning our backs on failure. Its ushering in a changed labour party with a plan for britain, a plan for our nhs to get it back on its feet, a plan for our infrastructure and our hospitals, a plan for our young people, a plan to take back control of our streets and deal with anti social behaviour. Weve had a positive case, a positive campaign here and im very, very proud to stand here as leader of the labour party to celebrate this historic victory. And it is a historic victory. These are places where we would not normally have had a labour party success. Weve been able to create that success and persuade people to vote for us. And i say to every Single Person who cast their vote for labour here yesterday, thank you for putting your trust in labour. We will not let you down. We have heard your message of change and we will deliver for you a better britain. Thank you so much and well done david. Thank you i two step. Two step. Why does it. Why does it. Why does it. Okay. That was sir keir starmer there. Jubilant introducing the mayor of yorks and north yorks david skaith. Peter edwards , particularly my Peter Edwards, particularly my thought twisting the knife there, saying its a delight to be in the Prime Ministers constituency. Vie a well chosen constituency. Vie a well chosen moment, you think, to particularly rub rishi sunak nose in it. Politics is so often about symbols , isnt it . And this was symbols, isnt it . And this was particularly symbolic. Rachel reeves. And keir starmer up in nonh reeves. And keir starmer up in North Yorkshire, rishi sunaks home patch , the Labour Party Home patch, the labour party looking sensible and competent. A bunch of people with red banners and a labour win. And i think probably you might have thought labour would win in york and North Yorkshire anyway. They certainly should be competing there , but its a symbolism of there, but its a symbolism of where they are. Keir starmer, looking at ease in front of the camera, got his weekend casuals on very different to rishi sunak. Okay, we can now cut back to sir keir starmer. Hes answering some questions and i do think that. Across the country, which is its time. Country, which is its time. Harry how are you doing. Very good, very very good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So keir starmer, theyre doing a bit of a robot dance getting frozen in time. Lets come back to the studio. Doctor renee, you wont be frozen at all about this. What does this say . Do you think does this say . Do you think about the state of the lake . We expected this to be a labour mayoralty, but its starting to feel now like theres a big change afoot, a big change afoot. And i think its not. Its no accident that he chose to announce this , right. Parking to announce this, right. Parking his tanks literally on rishi sunak lawn in his constituency. Lots of voting. When youve had, you know, a party thats beenin had, you know, a party thats been in for so long is about messaging, isnt it . And the message that people are getting at home for a long time now , at home for a long time now, theyve been getting the message that the tories are on the ropes. Keir has seen this as an opportunity to really bring that message home. So hes basically saying to people, look, even if you were thinking of voting for the tories , its a waste. Look the tories, its a waste. Look at us. Were in the ascendancy. Were the winning team. Come for us. And i think thats the message that they want people to have. And i think with that, theyre quite easily doing it. Theyre quite easily doing it. And peterjust saying in the and peter just saying in the in the break there, a poll last week, a survey showed that 32 of gb news viewers even who you think wouldnt be naturally, labour voters are planning to vote for labour. And, you know, looking back to the election in 2019, you campaigned in the i stood in that election on the nofion stood in that election on the notion when we were in the depths of corbynism that moderate red wall voters, just a batter the eyelid later would be turning, as weve seen yesterday, to the labour party in big numbers say we like about sir keir starmer. Hes changed labour party. Labour party. Yeah. It tells us a couple of things. First of all, gb news has a lot of viewers outside london particularly. So when he looked at proportionately, which may not be the case for the bbc, which, you know, is a little bit london centric. But yeah, keir starmer has changed the labour party and you heard him use that phrase today and theyre really on message, you know, labours changed party Keir Starmers changed party Keir Starmers changed labour party. Thats written into pretty much every labour press release. And its because of that. Its corbyn is because of that. Its corbyn is the elephant whos, in the room really that youll never hear his name mentioned . Hes not even a labour mp anymore. But theyre trying to make clear not just that labour has gone from 20 in the polls to 40 or 50, but theyve got a different identity. Its a different cast of characters and theyre safe. Doctor renee a figure that leapt out at me, is a very, very low turnout. Even in the low turnout. Even in the mayoralty, there 27, very, very low turnout, less than a third everywhere. A lot of people. Okay their local elections, their Council Elections, theyre not general elections, but people seem to be uncoupling. They feel disenfranchised with the entire political system. Do you think that apathy can be turned around, and if so, how so . I think if the tories are going to turn this apathy around because its the tory voters that are sitting at home, lets face it, they are going to have to come out with some major changes. Rishi is going to have to say, look, this is what we got wrong. This is what were going to do. Im going to change my cabinet. Im going to make us a tory party again, because if they dont get those bums off sofas, theyre not got a chance in hell of even even putting together a reasonable opposition. And we need a reasonable opposition for democracy. So hes going to have to do something. 27 is outrageous, less than a third of the country voting in our politicians. Okay. Doctor renee and peter okay. Doctor renee and Peter Edwards, superb as ever. Its the top of the hour. Its now 5 00 and its time for your News Headlines. Very good afternoon to you. Its just after 5 00. Im sam francis. The headlines this hour. Labour francis. The headlines this hour. Labour has won another mayoral election. This time in east midlands, where residents were voting for that role for the first time. Clare ward beat ben bradley , adding to significant bradley, adding to significant losses for the conservatives in the local elections so far. Labours gained more than 100 seats and taken control of six more councils in england. The more councils in england. The liberal democrats have also made some gains. Party leader sir ed davey has pledged to make the conservative government history. Conservative government history. People from around our great country have had enough of this out of touch conservative government. Government. Theyve had enough of being taken for granted and being let down. Its time for. Taken for granted and being let down. Its time for. Change. And down. Its time for. Change. And across this country from cheltenham to dorset, from west oxfordshire to here in winchester , so many people, winchester, so many people, including lifelong conservatives, are switching to the liberal democrats to make that change happen. Well, the conservatives did manage, though, to retain tees valley, with ben houchen being re elected there. Rishi sunak says that its evidence that people will stick. He says with the tories come the general election. Election. Keir starmer came here twice, Rachel Reeves came here three times, but even they couldnt dislodge ben and the fantastic conservative team. Right. And they also threw a lot of mud. It needs to be said in this election because they were angry, angry that ben has delivered more for this region in seven years than labour Party Managed in 30 years. Well, lets take a quick look at the latest council results from across england. If youre watching on tv, you can see here those results on the screen. By the end of tonight, most council results will be in. Well keep across those for you here on gb news throughout the afternoon. More results will follow into tomorrow , including the west tomorrow, including the West Midlands and the results for londons mayor in other news, a 15 year old boy has been found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of murdering alfie lewis, who was stabbed to death in full view of pupils leaving a Primary School in horsforth in leeds, last november. The schoolboy, who was 14 at the time, admitted stabbing alfie with a 13 centimetre long kitchen knife that hed brought from home but denied that murder. That hed brought from home but denied that murder. And to denied that murder. And to bristol, now in the crown court there, where three teenagers who carried out another knife attack have been named today as Shane Cunningham cartel. Bushnell and leo knight, the 16 year old friends stabbed mickey roynon to death with a large hunting knife at a 16th Birthday Party in bath. Shane cunningham has been convicted of the murder and has been detained for life , while been detained for life, while his two friends were convicted of manslaughter with we understand sentences of nine years and nine and a half years in youth detention. Meanwhile, in youth detention. Meanwhile, the trade union, which represents senior Civil Servants, will have its high Court Challenge over the rwanda bill heard between the fourth and the 7th of june. Its understood the government has told the high court that the earliest dates individuals are expected to be removed to rwanda is july 1st to the 15th. Defence secretary grant shapps and senior military leaders have been sanctioned by the iranian regime. Two Royal Navy Commanders who captained warships involved in shooting down houthi rebel drones and missiles in the red sea are included in that list. One of included in that list. One of them, the commander peter evans, is currently stationed in the red sea at the helm of hms diamond. The metropolitan police diamond. The metropolitan Police Commissioner has called for a much fairer oversight process after two Firearms Officers waited more than five years before finally being cleared of wrongdoing. That was for tackling and shooting a dangerous armed robber in december 2018, the officers had been following a vehicle linked to a gang of Armed Robbers in the wimbledon area of southwest london. Scotland yard said the officers had believed that one officers had believed that one of the men, brooklyn mcfarlane, was armed and posed an immediate threat. They both fired one shot. Each one of those shots did struck mcfarlane and the other struck a nearby building. He was then arrested a short time later and treated for non life threatening injuries in hospital. Mcfarlane was eventually sentenced to 13 years in prison for conspiracy to commit robbery and other offences. Well, thats the offences. Well, thats the latest from the newsroom for now. More to come in the next half hour. Until then, you can of course sign up to gb news alerts. Just scan the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. Com alerts. Now though, its back to. Martin. Back to. Martin. Right. Loads of politics to get our teeth stuck into on this friday afternoon. So lets get cracking now. The mayoral cracking now. The mayoral Election Results are coming in across england and indeed we just had the verdict of the people in the east midlands, my home patch. And its this labours clare ward has become the first ever mayor for the region and i believe well be able to speak to her shortly. But first, im now joined in the studio by gb news Political Correspondent Katherine Forster and the founder of electoral calculus, mark in baxter. Welcome back to the show. Now, Catherine Martin batus very, very excited because of big analysis of the Election Results has just come in, which will allow us to make some projections ahead to the general election. Whats the analysis . Yes. So this is the projection of National Share. If this was a general election , how this was a general election, how the votes would break down . Bear in mind, of course, we dont have all the votes in yet, but still labour on 34, the conservatives only nine points behind on 25, lib dems on 17 and others on 24. So a nine point lead. Thats about the same as the local elections last year. So its showing potentially that labour and the conservatives are pretty much where they were a year ago. But that 20 point lead that weve been hearing about in the polls, not according to this national projected National Share that weve heard of, the votes weve had so far, Martin Baxter, Political Data gets you very excited. Very excited. This. Tell us, first of all, what this analysis is and what its credibility is and multiple what does it mean if this were to be plugged in to a general election. So yes, this is an estimate of what the local Election Results would mean if there were a general election. There were a general election. And people who werent voting today voted in a similar way to the people who did, allowing for the people who did, allowing for the fact they live in. And you said, this is the big poll youve been waiting for all day. Its the big analysis. Everybody in westminster has been waiting for to see what these numbers are. Now, we should stress that local elections are not the same as the general election, but as catherine quite rightly said, the big news on this analysis is that it shows labour less than 10 ahead, whereas in most opinion polls at the moment, labouris opinion polls at the moment, labour is around 20 ahead. Okay, so plug that in to your youre literally doing this live now with your calculator. Im pressing f9, and because earlier this week we were predicting a three figure labour majority or big three figure labour majority weve got on these numbers here. Labour would have a majority of exactly 100 seats. So a very comfortable sort of near landslide, but not, not as big as tony blair in 97, say. And the conservatives would be on 163 seats with the lib dems on 66. So conservatives at least over 100 seats. And weve seen some estimates recently took the conservatives below 100 seats. So if this genuinely reflects national opinion, then rishi sunak is doing much better than people thought. And you know he will. All the pressure will be off him. Crumbs of comfort. Now when you start to get into the macro detail, are there any particular politicians or ministers even that would lose their seats currently from the conservative party . Well, in the cabinet, rishi, people like rishi sunak and Oliver Dowden and jeremy hunt would be safe. But further down, in more marginal seats. Penny mordaunt and can be beaten or could be could lose their seats to labour still on this. But if i say again if this 9 leads turned out to be reflected in the general election , would make the general election, would make things much better for the conservatives than they have been expecting. So in a bleak night of results, this might give them some fag end of comfort in number 10. Absolutely, yes, the strategists , the number 10 will strategists, the number 10 will be quite pleased with this. And youre working all this out in real time on your spreadsheet there. Absolutely great stuff. Absolutely great stuff. Thats why we got you here. Now we can now cross live to nottingham , where gb news nottingham, where gb News Reporter will hollis is joined by labours claire ward, who has become the first ever mayor for the region, Just Announced her victory. Will, ill hand you over. Oven yes, well, with around 180,000 votes here in the east midlands for the very first time, claire ward, the labour candidate, has been elected as the brand new mayor. Congratulations how are you feeling . Well, i feel very honoured, very privileged to be the very first east midlands mayor. Yeah , in your speech, you yeah, in your speech, you said that these midlands has been overlooked and underfunded. Why has it been overlooked and underfunded, and how are you going to change that . It has been overlooked and underfunded for decades. We have some of the lowest levels of investment in our infrastructure and lowest levels of spend from the public sector, and that is a real issue. And that is a real issue. Its meant that we have been left behind. And when people talk about the north and the south, when they think about the midlands, they think about the midlands, they often think about the West Midlands. Well, im here now to make sure that we put the east midlands very firmly on the map. How can you replicate that . What has happened in the West Midlands, where it has been very successful , particularly in successful, particularly in places like birmingham, the countrys second city . How can you make that happen in nottingham or derby , which nottingham or derby, which doesnt have the same infrastructure or the same population . Well we still have a very Large Population at 2. 2 Million People, but were five times the size of West Midlands, so its a big geographical area to cover. But i will be making sure that each of those areas feel the benefit of having the power. And the funding from westminster brought into this region, so that we can make the decisions that we can make the decisions that we can make the decisions that we need and make the choices that we decide are right for us. You said this is about bringing back powers from westminster. You know westminster. You know westminster. You know westminster very well from when you were watford mp 20 or so years ago. What do you know that needs to change about parliament in westminster and what happens at the houses of commons . That would mean that it is better for you here and for local people in the east midlands. Its clear that we know our region better than people in whitehall and westminster, and so we need to have that devolved Decision Making along with the funding, so that we can make those priorities not being competing against other projects in other cities and the southeast give us the funding that we need. Let us decide how we are going to be the powerhouse here in the east midlands. Midlands. And you are the labour candidate now, the labour mayor, where does this fit into the National Results that weve seen, particularly in places like blackpool, where theres just been an elected labour mp . Well this is a fantastic result, not just for me but for the labour party. This is a region with some of the highest number of key seats for the next general election , for the next general election, seats that labour needs to win. And we have been winning right across this region in pretty much every single area. My vote came higher than any of the candidates. This is where we can make the difference and this is the start of that journey. So i hope the Prime Minister calls a general election very, very sooii. 500. Soon. It sounds like youre talking about red wall seats that turned to the conservatives often for the very first time in former coal mining areas where its dubbed that maybe reform will do well, where the only current sitting reform mp, lee anderson, is currently the mp for ashfield, is that where labour needs to win and change the minds of voters that have turned away from the labour party towards the tories in the past . Absolutely. And if you look at those districts, labour won in all of those areas, including in all of those areas, including in ashfield, this is the start. People want change and theyve been telling me that for months on the doorsteps. Theyre on the doorsteps. Theyre excited by the prospect of not just having a labour mayor for the east midlands, but also the prospect of a future labour government. Clare ward, the new labour mp. Congratulations i think thank you very much. Its been a very long day, as im sure its been a very long day and night for you. The thing that i would say is from all of the candidates, everybody says this is about putting the east midlands on the map. Martin thank you. Superb stuff. Will holly stay with labours clare ward, the newly elected mayor of the east midlands . My patch and ive got to say a lot of what she was saying there was chiming the east midlands, very unfashionable parts of the country as brian clough said about nottingham forest, an unfashionable club from an unfashionable club from an unfashionable town, overlooked and underfunded. Thats true. Do and underfunded. Thats true. Do you think, though, that the labour party can make the difference . In a sense . Do we difference . In a sense . Do we need more of these mayors . This is the first mayor that weve had in the east midlands. Nottingham is Nottingham City Council is ran by the labour party, went bankrupt. They went bankrupt on robin hood energy. Do we really need more of these kind of extra layers of bureaucracy at all our mayors . The answer . Well , thats a very well, thats a very interesting question because were getting a lot more of them, arent we . And i mean, in some senses, they know their area very well. Who better to know somebody like andy burnham or ben houchen . You know, they really know their patch. And they have a lot of power and influence and they can use that for the good of the local area. But, you know, a lot of people are pretty disillusioned with politicians. So more politicians , i dont know. And i mean it is something obviously this is all happened. These new mayoralties have come on the conservative partys watch. But this is something that labour are very much up for. They have promised that you know, they will give back control to the people more power to local areas. So this is a pattern that if labour gets in, i think we can expect to see more and more devolution. But whether that is a good thing or not, well, thats matter for discussion. It is. And Martin Baxter once again , we saw pretty low turnout again, we saw pretty low turnout in these elections, like 26, 27. Is that a reflection of the fact you think people arent especially bothered about mayors , or is it just a reflection of the fact people are disillusioned and, or is it just a local election . And this is normal . Normal . Probably all of the above. I would say the turnout at local elections is always lower than it is at, general elections. But in terms of whether mayors are popular, there was one actual pubuc popular, there was one actual public vote on this, which was in bristol, where they had a mayor, and then they had a referendum on whether they wanted to keep the mayor or get rid of him. And they voted no mayor. Yes so theyre not universally popular. I mean, in certain areas like london and birmingham, you feel they connect with the public and they make sense. But in other areas, maybe not so much. But what it does do, catherine, it sends out the message that were winning here. And for a political party, especially in the red wall, the red wall won the last election and it almost certainly will win the next election. So the talismanic message of saying were winning in the midlands, thats got a huge value. Yes, absolutely it does. And you know, the local, the local Election Results, more and more were seeing labour, labour, laboun were seeing labour, labour, labour, labour by and large. But the conservatives will take away from today ben houchen winning in tees valley. You know thats what theyre going to hold up. Look at this. Look at this. But look at this. Look at this. But it does seem clearly labour are doing extremely extremely well. But i must say this projected National Share, if labour are indeed only nine points ahead and all the usual caveats apply. And all the usual caveats apply. People dont come out. They sit at home, local elections, voting on different issues, etc. That doesnt suggest to me the labour landslide perhaps that many people are assuming, and i think, you know, lots of people very cross with the current government, but is there a real excitement like we saw in 1997 when tony blair came in . It really doesnt feel like that exists. It might not matter because labour will probably get into power anyway, but worth saying . I mean , whoever is in saying . I mean, whoever is in power after the next election, theres not a lot of money around and im afraid these difficult times are not going to end any time soon. Are they just want to quickly end with you, Martin Baxter, just in case people are just tuning in. So that big analysis 34 laboun so that big analysis 34 labour, 25 control, 17. Liberal democrats 24. Others. How how big the landslide, how big the majority would that translate to . So on our figures, we think that would be a labour. Labour would win around 375 seats out of six 50in the house of commons, so that would be they need 326 to win. So that would be a labour majority of exactly 100 seats. So very comfortable indeed. But not as, not as big as, say, tony blair in 97 and not the carnage expected. Do you think that might be a crumb of comfort tonight for the conservatives . Absolutely. Im sure they. Im sure they. Martin baxter Katherine Forster. Excellent. I really, really enjoyed that. We all love really enjoyed that. We all love a bit of data. Not quite as much as you though. You absolutely love it. Anyway coming up, big wins for independent candidates in oldham. But could the war in in oldham. But could the war in gaza tear the labour party apart . Im about to speak to a councillor. Why . He has grave concerns. Im Martin Daubney on gb news. Britains news channel. That was brilliant welcome back. Your time is 521. Im Martin Daubney, and this is gb news. Now, earlier on today , gb news. Now, earlier on today, labour sensationally lost control of Oldham Council after big gains by independent candidates running on the issue of the war in gaza. Well polling guru john curtice said there is a trend of the labour vote failing in areas with high muslim populations. And sir keir starmer also admitted that his partys stance on the israel hamas war was a very strong factor for their defeat in places such as oldham. Well, joining me now to discuss this is Oldham Councillor brian hobin. Brian welcome to the show. Thank you for joining hobin. Brian welcome to the show. Thank you forjoining us. Show. Thank you for joining us. So can you briefly tell us what happened . Who are the happened . Who are the independents . What did they stand on and how did they win . Stand on and how did they win . Well, theres a variety of independents, martin right across right across the borough, some of them are, like myself, a community, independents. Some of them are more national or international politically wise. And i think thats where the gaza thing comes in. And i think theres an even split. The independent councillors now in the borough of the Community Based councillors and the very political based councillors, and i think thats where the problem moving forward would be now in oldham. Oldham. And so what we saw here are a group of muslim councillors come together as independents , and together as independents, and theyre standing on the issue of gaza, which sounds extraordinary to people sat around the country who think, well, we live in great britain. Yeah. The winning elections on the conflict in the middle east, not in the north west. Are you concerned about that , it does give west. Are you concerned about that, it does give a concern. It gave me concerns when, there was the by election in rochdale because i thought too much of international was being brought into the local communities. That said, there are some of the independent councillors now in oldham. Its not just about gaza , it is about what were doing here in oldham. It is about the fact that we do need a change in the base of power and as communities we can come together and make a bit of a difference , and make a bit of a difference, in oldham. And do you think , on and do you think, on a national level, were seeing, for example, George Galloway, as you said in rochdale, hes also backing a mayoral candidate in the West Midlands and he believes he can damage is the guy called ahmed yaqoob, whos a tiktoker with 184,000 followers. George galloway believes that he can take sufficient numbers of votes away from the labour party, which, ironically, would keep andy street in power. It seems to be a clear plan plan to set out to damage the Labour Party Vote. Do you think, brian, that this could manifest itself into a nationwide movement of coalescing, of pulling together the muslim vote to, in effect, begin a new Political Movement . Begin a new Political Movement . I i personally dont think it will do that. Martin. I think were going to have were going to have problems in bringing all leads in independents together because theyve all got different agendas and i think some of the agendas and i think some of the agendas will not be relevant to the local people. I dont think the local people. I dont think the gaza effect will be that relevant , certainly not relevant relevant, certainly not relevant to the people in my constituency. Even though weve got the feelings for it. But i think theres too many theres too many angles that the independents are going at and whether we can bring them all together to Work Together is a different matter. It should be different matter. It should be on the local side, it should be local community issues. And unfortunately, peoples egos may get in the way, because weve had that , people might be had that, people might be wanting to push a different agenda , we need to bring it back agenda, we need to bring it back locally at this, at this level. Definitely now, brian, weve spoken before and i know an area of huge concern to you is that you were calling. Youve tried to call repeatedly for an independent inquiry into grooming gangs in the oldham area. And am i correct in saying you think youve encountered quite a lot of resistance for that to go ahead . And do you think that resistance now may increase if more muslim councillors are in control . Councillors are in control . No, no, i dont think weve got a problem with that. And i think now. If for five years think now. If for five years ive been pushing for that inquiry, it was one of the first things i did as a councillor. And we have i think weve tried seven times to get it on the floor and its been pushed back by the labour administration. Now that they have no overall majority, im sure that the other independents , including other independents, including the muslims, the oldham group, that, the muslims that have become independent councillors, theyve stated the fact that part of their manifesto was to help us get that and inquiry over the line so we can we can remove that cloud. At least thats been over oldham for so long. And why do you think brian , and why do you think brian, there has been such resistance to what is surely an essential pubuc to what is surely an essential Public Inquiry . We saw it in other towns. We saw it in other towns. We saw it in rochdale. Surely theres why is there a resistance , i would there a resistance, i would hazard a guess, matsin, that there is resistance was because there is resistance was because there is resistance was because there is people in power now or who have been in power before that dont really want that truth to come out. And hopefully now that weve got the numbers to get that across the line, the truth will come out. People will be held to account, and then we can move forward. Can move forward. And this sounds like exactly the sort of thing that councils are there for. You know, youve got your fingers on the pulse. You know exactly whats happening in the community in every ward. You know, youre right in there. Youre not like an overseeing, westminster politician who spends most of their time in london and very few meetings with local war councils. Youre actually in there, youre getting stuck in. This is precisely what councils should be doing. Yes, definitely. Martin, my worry is that there is a couple of councillors that im not sure theyre there for the right reasons, really. You know, the reasons, really. You know, the they want the they want the title , they want the mantle. But title, they want the mantle. But we need strong councillors. We need strong councillors that are going to not just do the work in the community, but stand up at council and challenge and scrutinise. Unfortunately ive lost a colleague that was absolutely brilliant at that and we may have gained some that, are there , sitting on their are there, sitting on their hands and not being as vociferous as he should be, and not doing, not being, not doing the job that they should have challenging. But ill be there to make sure that the ones that are willing to stand up and be counted will do such, such things. Well, great stuff. Oldham councillor brian hoban, and lets stay in touch. And if you want me to try and give you some help to give this publicity, to try and get this moving, lets try and get this moving, lets try and get this moving, lets try and stick together and do the right thing. Thanks for joining us on this day, brian hoban, Oldham Council. Now loads of you have been getting in touch with your essays and on particular the issue of the border in ireland. Recall rishi sunak said to the irish taoiseach youre allowed to join the rwanda plan if you want. He said no. He said that to us. Earlier, Stephen Cooper said this lets all fill our cars to go visit ireland and load it up with migrants. Steve, i sense your cynicism. Tom grattan said this had to laugh at the ireland is full banners. They get a handful of illegals from the north and all of a sudden theyre full. Give me a break. And on the subject of voter id, we spoke to an expert earlier who said he claims that as many as 20,000 people may have been affected by voter id and it may be suppressing the vote. He said of those marginalised and poorest. So we havent seen the actual numbers yet. But Andy Cochrane doesnt want to wait for that. He says this , hes for that. He says this, hes talking absolute rubbish. I got my free Voter Authority certificate in february 2023, and i use it in last years local elections. I cant believe local elections. I cant believe anyone now is using no id as an excuse. Its very, very easy to get id if you just look into it and Jonathan Taylor says this. My local polling station had three people turn up without id, one elderly person and two youngsters, but all three of them returned with id and successfully placed their votes. Where theres a will, theres a way. Thanks for your comments way. Thanks for your comments and ill read loads more out on the rest of the show if i get them. Now. Ireland is seeing the rise of migrants tented cities. Were the locals making of it and will we see it replicated in the uk . Weve got some sensational footage from that. Well have that coming up. But first its your latest News Headlines and its sam francis. Martin, thank you and good evening to you. Its just coming up to 531 the headlines this evening. So keir starmer claims that labours gains in englands local elections are a direct message to the Prime Minister, as he renewed demands for rishi sunak to call a general election so far, labours gained more than 100 seats and taken control of six more councils in england, while the conservatives have lost almost 300 seats and the liberal democrats have also made some gains, with Party Leader Sir Ed Davey pledging to make the conservative government history. Meanwhile, rishi sunak history. Meanwhile, rishi sunak has admitted those local Election Results have been disappointing for the conservatives but he says it doesnt necessarily mean that labour will win the general election. His Party Managed to retain tees valley with ben houchen being re elected there. And rishi sunak says that result is evidence that people will stick with the conservatives come the election. Well, lets come the election. Well, lets take a look at the latest council results from across england. You can see here if youre watching on tv, the latest results there from across the uk. And by the end of the uk. And by the end of tonight most council results will be in. Well be covering that here on gb news and more results to follow into tomorrow, including in the West Midlands and the results for the london mayor. In other news, a schoolboy has been convicted today of murdering another 15 year old boy outside a Primary School in leeds last november. The teenager , who cant be the teenager, who cant be named, was 14 at the time of that attack. Hes admitted that attack. Hes admitted stabbing alfie lewis with a 13 centimetre long kitchen knife in full view of other pupils, but he has denied murder and a Critical Incident being declared at a number of hospitals in bristol this evening, following a power outage. The local nhs trust has posted on social media urging the public not to attend bristols main City Centre Hospital until that incident is resolved. We understand. Avon resolved. We understand. Avon and Somerset Police are at the scene where roads in the surrounding area have been closed. People at this stage are closed. People at this stage are being urged to contact nhs 111 being urged to contact nhs111 for any medical help. For the for any medical help. For the latest stories sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen, or go to gb news. Com slash alerts. Next, a look at the markets. Cheers britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news Financial Report , and heres how Financial Report, and heres how the markets look tonight. The pound will buy you 1. 2547 and ,1. 1653. The price of gold is £1,830. 90 per ounce, and the ftse 100 has closed the day at 8213 points. Cheers britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news Financial Report. Financial report. Thank you sam. Now in a few minutes time, the uk has offered the republic of ireland the chance to get involved in the rwanda scheme amid a growing row between the two countries over Asylum Seeker returns. Ill have some astonishing footage of where theyre clearing out the tented cities and putting them in luxury hotels. Im Martin Daubney on gb news, britains news channel welcome back. 537 is the time i Martin Daubney on gb news. Were on the final furlong of the week on this friday now. Moving quickly on. The uk has offered the republic of ireland the chance to get involved in the rwanda scheme. Amid a growing row between the two countries over Asylum Seeker returns. Indeed the Prime Minister, rishi sunak, made clear that the uk will not accept any migrants from ireland and this follows a rise in migrant tented cities in dublin, which irish police have set about dismantling this week. Well, joining me now to discuss this further is the president of the Irish Freedom party, herman cain. Herman, welcome back to the show. Always a delight. Now, herman, last night i covered for nigel farage on his show. We showed some astonishing video footage which you took this week after those tented cities were destroyed. Mantled in central destroyed. Mantled in central dublin. We thought the problem had gone away. But herman kelly, your video paints a very, very different picture. Talk us through what happened. Through what happened. Basically, it went the tented city. The ghetto was moved to a place called citywest , a large place called citywest, a large hotel, 1200 beds. They have a leisure centre, a golf course. They have a Swimming Pool and basically the Asylum Seekers are put there where in very salubrious surroundings. This is a very famous hotel and in every aspect of the relationship between irish people and refugees , Asylum Seekers, irish refugees, Asylum Seekers, irish people, we are treated by paddy last, by our own government. We are the idiots who get up, go to work, pay our taxes and we are providing great accommodation for these people from all over the world and in many cases , the world and in many cases, 4000 of them last year. We dont know their name , we dont know know their name, we dont know where they came from and we certainly dont know. Do they have a criminal record . So its always paddy last and its that is a decision of the Irish Government. And theres an election coming on june the 7th. European and local election. And ihope european and local election. And i hope nationalist parties like the Irish Freedom party will increase our vote substantially. And show these give the Irish Government a kick in the ballot box to show them. Do you know what . Youve got to start thinking of the irish people as well. You cant be feeding and funding the rest of the world at our expense. And kelly, herman, kelly, you also saying i saw footage of luxury suvs, bmw , really nice luxury suvs, bmw, really nice cars in the car park there because also there are lots of ukrainian refugees already there, right . Luxury bmw. I could only ever dream of having a car like that and huge suvs. And i actually saw an article today on grip media that ukrainian students are funded three and a half times more than irish student who is means tested three and a half times more. Theyre getting over ,10,000 from the state where irish people who are means tested get a fraction of that, and you know what . Not only does it have massive financial consequences, but the social consequences, but the social consequences of large scale unvetted immigration into ireland are immense. Im running as a candidate in midlands north west for the european parliament. I was opened on dock today, canvassing now yesterday and well today in dundalk at 1 00 someone broke into the house and attacked an 80 year old woman with a hatchet. Right. Yesterday in dundalk there was a there was a large huge melee in the middle of the street, a main street in dundalk, where guys were attacked, attacked again with a hatchet and knives, fighting Eastern European gangs , fighting Eastern European gangs, fighting with irish guys over who runs the drug trade and yesterday in dublin, an Eastern European guy was arrested and charged for the attempted kidnap of a two year old child. So large scale, unfettered immigration has massive social ramifications, none of which are good. Okay, we need to verify all that. I dont know if thats. Anyway, well verify that later on. Im. Yeah. Okay. Just just be absolutely watertight at this end. But lets move on to the political fallout. Now. We saw simon harris, the irish taoiseach , earlier when it was taoiseach, earlier when it was put to him by gb news that they were welcome to join the rwanda scheme. He had no interest and he seemed to double down. Weve heard repeatedly from many, many months various irish politicians , the police, the Mainstream Media calling irish people who object to this racist, far right, fascist herman. Have the irish people simply had enough of being treated so badly . Of being treated so badly . Well, yes, because 79 of the population now are opposed to mass immigration. Actually, given the 22 of the population in ireland are currently no national, its the whole all of the native irish population and 1 of the newcomers are opposed to more immigration. So everybody, if they say that ought to have concerns about unrestricted, unfettered immigration is far right. Well, the whole country , virtually the the whole country, virtually the whole country, 79 were on the bafis whole country, 79 were on the basis liv golf brazier hundred metres, 200m, 400m. No, its all ridiculous talking about race and far right anything it is concerned parents, norma , people concerned parents, norma, people who are look who are very concerned about what is happening to their country. They see their country being washed away in front of their eyes. They look at. The country in which they grew up. And yet they their country has been colonised without their consent. And nobody ever asked them , okay, nobody ever asked them, okay, herman, were going to have to leave it there. And we were having a bit of a poor connection issue there. But look, thank you for joining us on the show. Herman kelly, president of the Irish Freedom party. Always a pleasure. And of course, you know everybody, you know, wishes the best for those who are neediest in the world are not every Asylum Seeker is committing crime and all the rest of it. But herman kelly, quite rightly pointing out that a lot of this is happening without the consent of the irish people. They are saying ireland is full and increasing numbers, and they will get their chance to do something about it when they go to those electoral booths on june the seventh, those eu elections right the way across the european bloc will be one heck of a show. I think there could be something of a big uprising now still, to come, a bbc springwatch presenter says, calling wild african animals by their english names is jarring. Well tell you is jarring. Well tell you whats jarring. Telling us that we should be bothered about this. Seriously. More of that next. Im Martin Daubney on gb news, britains news channel welcome back. Its 547. Were on the final. Final furlong. And im joined now in the studio by my panel. The former editor of labourlist , Peter Edwards and labourlist, Peter Edwards and the nhs, gp and author doctor renee. Thank you very much for joining us. Lets quickly pick up if we could. Peter, we have some analysis by jay or partners. Martin baxter of electoral calculus said this is the big one hed been waiting for. Westminsters been looking fon westminsters been looking at its extrapolating forward , at its extrapolating forward, the results from yesterday and today , if it were to be today, if it were to be a general election and it gave us something royal surprising it was this labour would get 34 of the vote share the conservatives 25 libs, 17, others 24. Giving the labour party , only a nine the labour party, only a nine percentile advantage as opposed to 20 points. Weve been hearing about. Martin baxter quickly put it into his, software. He said that would be a 100 seat majority for labour. So a thumping victory, but not a blair style wipe out. Is that a small crumb of comfort for rishi sunakin small crumb of comfort for rishi sunak in whats been a rather bleak set of results, i think its a big fillip for the labour party. Firstly, and it briefly, it vindicates why keir starmer is so cautious and hes not planning world domination, which is right. His right to be not complacent. Im not sure its complacent. Im not sure its actually that much comfort for rishi sunak. And i think the thing is, rishi sunak nine points is much fewer than the opinion poll deficit, which is normally at 20 plus. But hes had these moments of what are called reset. You know, the budget didnt really work. The Party Conference speech didnt really work , a very sensible really work, a very sensible deal with ireland and Northern Ireland to try and iron out some of the post brexit wrangles. So rishi sunak keeps thinking hes going to have a reset moment that will bring the tories back to parity. And it hasnt really happened. Doctor renee, do you think that this does a give a criminal comfort . And if there needs to be that kind of reset moment, what is it . What are the tories have to do to get those people off the sofas and stop them defecting to reform . How do they get the tories back on the tory boat . Well, thats a really interesting question, isnt it . And i think in your sentence there about reform this, if this is true, this will focus rishi and his colleagues minds on the role that reform could play in all of that. Theyve either got to say, somehow weve got to do a pact with reform with obviously, richard tice has said that he wont do or theyve got to say, okay, weve done all of these things that peters just mentioned and it hasnt changed anything. And the reason it hasnt changed anything is theyre not conservative. Theyre just things plasters. What do we have to do to make ourselves like reform and take back those defecting voters . But it does at least give him some hope that thats in touching distance, because the difference between 20 and 9 is massive. But a lot of people are saying, im going to vote reform. I want to vote for change. We have ben habib in here earlier saying , if you want change, saying, if you want change, youve got to vote for it. But is our system just stacked against that kind of change . 4 million votes for ukip, the brexit party. And it went i brexit party. And it went i stood for the brexit party. I stood for the brexit party. I stood against lee anderson. You know, in ashfield, and we didnt get a single mp away. Is the system just gearing us down . Once again we alternate between red and blue. Yeah. And i think it is. And yeah. And i think it is. And i think thats exactly what we will do this time. The only hope would be, and maybe this is where reform tory conversation is need to be had. If there were a Hung Parliament and keir was forced to do a deal with the lib dems, we would get pr so people could change the future of politics with pr, but they need to get it first. And a keir starmer with a 100 seat majority is not going to put pr in place. And i heard a sharp intake of breath from you there. Peter edwards around proportional representation, a european style. Thats the kind of system actually. Theyve got the brexit party, that massive majority in the eu elections. But its very, very unlikely because parties that get in power want to vote for continuity of power. They dont want to share power. Continuity of power. They dont want to share power. Yeah. Theres been a much wider debate in the labour party in recent years over pr than there used to be, but youre absolutely right that if youre lucky enough to win a general election, the one thing you dont do is pass a law opening the door to other parties. And if you heard my breath being taken in sharply, its because of this point about reform. Theres a split on the right. Its clearly hurting the tories, which is sunak at the moment, a reform, a significant players. So im not complacent. But bear in mind, reform have, zero elected mps in parliament. The brexit party won zero seats at general election. Ukip i think only ever won one seat at a general election in douglas, carswell and clacton because mark reckless, a defector, lost. So whatever this strand of thinking in this party is called, its been for a lot of iterations. They consistently get zero, or one at most at a general election. But isnt that just reflective of our broken system, where you can get 3 million votes in a general election and not get a seat in parliament, and the amount of votes that the snp got was less than that. And look how many seats they got right. Its almost friday evening. Lets end on a bit of fun. Or is it got this story i thought was ridiculous, but lets get into it. The bbc presenter, called gillian burke. Shes on a programme called springwatch. She said its jarring that she has to use the engush jarring that she has to use the english names for animals. She prefers reintroducing these in familiar animal names and their swahili names. Un voto elephant, twiga giraffe, fizzy hyaena. So twiga giraffe, fizzy hyaena. So she works with the bbc, shes from swahili by origin, a very swahili name. Gillian burke. Swahili name. Gillian burke. Exactly. I mean, this is just more virtue signalling, isnt it . From springwatch, which has turned into the wokeist of woke. Iused turned into the wokeist of woke. I used to love springwatch. I cant watch it now because of Chris Packham and now hes got somebody standing by his side whos the same. What i want to know is, how are we going to teach our children the alphabet if we cant say e for elephant and g for giraffe, all these are the kind of things that dont m atten matter. But they do get people irritated, particularly, there seems to be a consistent pattern. Peter, of people who dont forget, we pay her wages to lecturers on things like this. Its like, just show us pictures of robins in a nest. I think thats a little bit harsh. First of all, im not irritated by this, and im all in favour of, choice. And theres nothing wrong with children learning two languages, you know . Its fantastic. If you know . Its fantastic. If kids can learn words from another language, its for good Brain Development more broadly. But i dont see a massive, sinister political undercurrent in this in the way that some of you do. And remember, although you do. And remember, although you talked about us paying the wages of a bbc presenter, bbc presenter, people arent obliged to buy a tv licence, so its often wrongly referred to as a tax. People choose to buy a tv licence to watch bbc and its presenters, you know, have a range of views. Michael portillo, whos been on the bbc an awful lot. He was a tory cabinet minister and, you know, getting kids to learn words from another language. Who could argue against that . But peter, this isnt what this is about. She wants to change it across the world. But secondly , to say that its not a secondly, to say that its not a tax, you cannot watch live tv or listen to the radio, even if you have a sky subscription or a netflix and dont watch the bbc, you have to have a tv licence. Its a tax. Okay, great. We have to leave it there. Doctor renee Peter Edwards. Superb. Ive got time for one quick email. Stephen cooper for one quick email. Stephen cooper i think boris forgot his id because his hair is enough to get him identified. Thank you very much. Emails today supplied by my son sonny, whos been doing work experience. Very, very proud of you. My son. Thank you very much for helping out. So thats enough for me. This week. Coming up next is dewbs co. That of course runs six till seven. Ill be back same time monday. I run three till six monday. I run three till six even on bank holidays. But first its even on bank holidays. But first wsfime even on bank holidays. But first its time for your weather. Have a fantastic friday evening. A fantastic friday evening. A brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on. Gb news. Evening. Welcome to your latest weather update from the met office here on gb news. A mixed may Day Bank Holiday weekend. Some places having warm sunshine, but there will be a fair few showers around as well. Had a real mixed picture today. Cracking day in western scotland. Cool and damp over the central areas. The rain here slowly edging northwards. Clearer skies in the south could allow it to turn quite chilly actually. May not be far off freezing in some rural parts of the south, where, as the cloud and the rain over Northern England, southern scotland, Northern Ireland will keep the temperatures up in double digits here. It does make for a pretty dismal start to the long weekend. A lot of cloud and rain and drizzle on and off through the day. North east england may well brighten up a much brighter day tomorrow for the midlands , east anglia and the midlands, east anglia and many southern counties of england and wales. Fine tomorrow with some sunny spells and again the west coast of scotland doing okay for sunshine. Not quite as warm as today, but 1718 likely here. Cool on some of these nonh here. Cool on some of these north sea coasts , particularly north sea coasts, particularly in the far north east, where it stays fairly murky. Thats going stays fairly murky. Thats going to be an issue, i think, on sunday as well. Mist and low cloud around the coast in the north east could be some heavy showers developing through the day over central and eastern scotland, but again, many areas fine on sunday, some spells of sunshine increasing chance of seeing cloud and showers coming up from the south. But with a bit of sunshine. Temperatures getting into the high teens once more, thatll feel pretty pleasant. So a brighter day on sunday. Certainly across Northern England. Well keep that mixture of some places staying fine and sunny on monday, but it will still be some showers around. That warm feeling inside from boxt boilers. Sponsors of weather on is there a lot to discuss . Im asking tonight. Did the tories then get the battering that many predicted, predicted . And lets face it , had predicted, predicted . And lets face it, had hoped for or not. Also, do you think labour did as well as expected . And what about reform . There were high hopes for those guys. Do you think for those guys. Do you think they matched up to that or not . Also, do you think now its time for a general election . If not now , then when . And by the way, now, then when . And by the way, did you see some of the absolutely, shockingly low turnouts . You tell me if you didnt vote, how on earth could we engage you to do so . Is there any way at all or not . I want to know what you think to