Gbnews. Com forward. Slash your essay and join the conversation there. Or message me on our socials were at gbnews was, first of all though, heres the news with tatiana. News with tatiana. Darren, thank you and good afternoon. The top stories humza yousaf is said to be asking leaders of other parties to find Common Ground with him as he ianes Common Ground with him as he invites them to talks at his official residence to see how they can work with his minority government. The Scottish First minister says he will not resign ahead of a crucial test of his leadership next week, and is now reportedly attempting to build bndges reportedly attempting to build bridges with other political political leaders at holyrood. He hopes to hold separate meetings with each group at bute house in edinburgh to discuss how they can contribute constructively. Letters were reportedly sent to the scottish conservatives, scottish labour, the scottish greens and the alba party last night. This all comes after the collapse of the snps power sharing deal with the greens on thursday. A major greens on thursday. A major rescue operation is still underway after a small boat carrying up to 50 migrants ran aground on a sandbank off the kent coast. Gb news home and security editor mark white has more. Well, this migrant boat ran aground on goodwin sands, which is a notorious sandbank a few miles off the kent coast near deal miles off the kent coast near deal. The coastguard helicopter and several lifeboats have been involved in this rescue, including some smaller rigid inflatable lifeboats have been ferrying the migrants from that sandbank to the larger lifeboats. This boat that ran aground is one of four migrant boats that made it into uk waters today, as the people smuggling gangs take advantage of a change in the to weather push these flimsy boats out into the English Channel in the hope of making it to the uk. A british tourist is in intensive care after being attacked by a shark on a canbbean attacked by a shark on a caribbean island. The 64 year caribbean island. The 64 year old is receiving Critical Care after serious injuries to his left arm, his left leg and stomach, according to a local official. He is said to be stable and doing well. The stable and doing well. The attack happened at turtle beach along Great Courland Bay in trinidad and tobago yesterday morning. Several beaches along the northwestern coast of the island have now been closed. The Foreign Office says its supporting the victims family. More than 20 sexual predators have been jailed for exploiting young girls in West Yorkshire , young girls in West Yorkshire, involving abuse described as abhorrent in the extreme. The 24 abhorrent in the extreme. The 24 men have been jailed for a total of 346 years following prosecution by operation torbay, which is West Yorkshire polices investigation into the rape, sexual abuse and trafficking of eight girls between 1999 and 2012. Four of the men convicted in the series of trials received sentences of more than 20 years. In other news, the king is to return to public duties with his medical team, saying theyre very encouraged by the progress made in his Cancer Treatment. A palace spokesperson says king charles is greatly encouraged to be resuming some public facing duties, and very grateful to his medical team. Buckingham palace medical team. Buckingham palace says his majesty and Queen Camilla will visit a Cancer Treatment centre on tuesday to meet medical specialists and patients. Prime minister rishi sunak also welcomed the good news, posting on x that it was brilliant news to end the week. Former royal correspondent charles rea told us the good news gives so many others, especially cancer sufferers, hope the fact that he is produced this news, this great news gives to hope so many other cancer sufferers as well as as it did when he first announced in february that he has got cancer. Cancen and we know that the very first thing hes going to do is on tuesday. Hes going to a Cancer Treatment centre where hes going to be meeting medics and, you know, people who are being treated for cancer. Again this will be this will be a great for people who are suffering from this dreadful disease. Disease. And a gold pocket watch that was recovered from the body of the richest man on the titanic will be auctioned today in wiltshire. It could fetch up to £150,000. Businessman John Jacob Astor, who was 47, went down with the ship in 1912 after seeing new wife madeleine go onto a lifeboat rather than try his own luck with another lifeboat. The impeccably dressed businessman, a prominent member of the wealthy astor family, was last seen smoking a cigarette and chatting with a fellow passenger. And chatting with a fellow passenger. For the latest stories, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen. Or you can go to gb news. Com alerts. Now its back to. Darren. Its back to. Darren. Thanks very much, tatiana. Lets get stuck into todays topics. Let him get on with the job. Those were the words of defence secretary grant shapps to tory mps concern hiring, ousting rishi sunak before the general election. Shapps says now is not the time or place to try to put in place yet another conservative party leader. It comes as downing street brushed off rumours on friday that the Prime Minister could fire the starting gun on an Election Campaign next week, in a bid to thwart a possible challenge from restive mps. Well, joining me now is gb news Political Correspondent olivia utley. Correspondent olivia utley. Olivia, good to see you as ever. Youre in westminster. I mean, how much are you hearing from conservative Party Politicians that if there is after the local elections, you know, far fewer conservative elected representatives, that actually thats going to mean rishi sunak is. Well, by by. Well, theres a lot of worry among the ranks of conservative mps that the local elections next week are going to be devastating for the conservatives. What theyre most worried about is the loss of ben houchen, the teesside mayor who won with 72 of the vote. I think it was last time. Think it was last time. Obviously it would be very, very badindeed obviously it would be very, very bad indeed for morale if he ended up losing that mayoralty. There are plenty of other councillors who think that they are at risk of losing their seats too. And of course, if it is catastrophic for the conservatives, then it does seem quite likely that quite a few mps will start to think, well, hang on a minute. Yes, changing leader , six months before an leader, six months before an election isnt a great look , but election isnt a great look, but do we want to sort of go down with this ship . They might just with this ship . They might just think maybe now is the moment for a final roll of the dice. If rishi sunak is still polling so, so badly and morale becomes that low, then i think , becomes that low, then i think, yes, we can expect a number of letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister. That said, i think its unlikely that it would reach the threshold required to actually trigger a vote of no confidence. The conservatives have quite a big majority in parliament still, although its quite easy to forget that. So the number of mps that it would take to trigger that no confidence vote would have to be quite high. The question is, if you know, ten, 15, 20, 30 conservative mps publicly said that they had no confidence in rishi sunak. Publicly said that they had no confidence in rishi sunak. Might confidence in rishi sunak. Might the Prime Minister decide that his position is untenable anyway . There are certainly a few cabinet ministers Penny Mordaunt probably grant shapps two among them, who would be ready to jump into his shoes, and a couple of them seem to be trying to garner some support among the backbenchers even now. Yes, i yeah, i was in Parliament Last week and, Penny Mordaunt, shall we say, was doing the rounds , thats an doing the rounds, thats an interesting one, isnt it. But olivia, i wonder then the Prime Minister, is he going to do a john major and turn around and say, put up or shut up . Because ireland have said that actually rwanda is working because theyre saying that actually migrants that have arrived here are now are ending up in ireland. So he can turn to conservative Party Politicians and say , look, Party Politicians and say, look, im delivering. Im delivering. Well, i think he might well do that. And actually, this week has been an unusually good week for rishi sunak. He did manage to get that rwanda legislation over the line. We are expecting flights to take off in the next. I think its 10 to 12 weeks. And what rishi sunak is hoping that at that point he will get some sort of boost in the polls. So sort of boost in the polls. So even if the local Election Results are as disastrous as is being predicted, i think what rishi sunaks message to mps will be is, well, rishi sunaks message to mps will be is, well , yes, its not will be is, well, yes, its not looking good now, but hang on a minute. The changes that ive made are only just coming to fruition. Hold out, give it a bit. Lets wait and see what happens with rwanda. Lets wait happens with rwanda. Lets wait and see what happens. As inflation continues to come down, Interest Rates hopefully start coming down. Rishi sunaks best bet is that in five months time, six months time, whenever an election is actually called, the country will actually be in a better state. Hes also managed to get quite a few backbench mps on side this week by promising that he is going to raise defence spending to 2. 5 of gdp. Thats something that bofis of gdp. Thats something that Boris Johnson promised in 2022, and rishi sunak failed to promise to do during the leadership election between him and liz truss. Well, that made a lot of enemies in the conservative party who think that with the global state as it is, we should be putting lots and lots of investment into defence now promising to invest that cash. Rishi sunak has managed to garner a bit more support among some of the more right wing backbenchers in the conservative party. Yeah, i mean, especially at this moment, right this moment in time, it seems somewhat negligent that the uk isnt fully operational right when there are threats across the piece. I mean, so many people email in to us, olivia, and say , email in to us, olivia, and say, what on earth is going on, right. Were not fit to defend a sand castle. Sand castle. Well, exactly. And i mean, thatis well, exactly. And i mean, that is a message thats been echoed up and down the country by generals, retired generals, really senior officials in the armed forces. Labour has cottoned on to this. Labour, too, is saying that it is going too, is saying that it is going to invest in defence spending, but it hasnt promised that 2. 5 figure. So the fact that rishi sunak has now done that , he is sunak has now done that, he is hoping its going to get some clear blue water between himself and keir starmer and defence increasingly , is something which increasingly, is something which the country is showing in polling that it really, really cares about. And that is no surprise. The world has has surprise. The world has has rarely looked so unstable as it does right now, at least in the last sort of 2030 years. So investment in defence is a really good way to get voters on side and to get conservative politicians on side two. I think we can expect to hear some more about that in the next few weeks and months from the Prime Minister. All right. All right. Olivia utley always a pleasure. Thank you very much for that. Expert analysis there. Right. Joining me in the studio is the journalist and political consultant emma burnell and former special adviser to michael gove. Charlie rowley , michael gove. Charlie rowley, charlie, ill start with you then. You heard what olivia had to say there. She makes it sound quite promising for rishi sunak. You wouldnt know it by looking at the opinion polls, but actually a good week, would you argue . Yes, i would, and i think , yes, i would, and i think, look, you know, these polls have been quite stubborn for a number of months now, but they will naturally narrow. They always happens in the run up to a general election. And when you have announcements that weve had over the last couple of weeks. So the increase in defence spending, something that will go down very, very well with tory mps and tory voters in particular, couple that with getting rwanda. Whatever you think about the rwanda policy, getting it through the difficult times that it had in the house of lords, its now into law. And rishi sunak saying at the start of 2023 that, you know, he was going to stop the boats, he was going to stop the boats, he was going to stop the boats, he was going to deliver on rwanda. If you then see those flights take off in the next 10 to 12 weeks, as olivia was saying. Then thats a success for rishi sunak. He said hes going to do it. He will deliver on it. That will happen. And voters will, i think, have a second look at rishi sunak and think, okay, difficult problems within the conservative party. Theres been a lot of internal politics within the conservative party, but this is a man who says what hes going to do and does it. Emma, do you think charlies got a case of the old rose tinted spectacles . Tinted spectacles . The rose tinted spectacles definitely. Look , charlie, youre doing a look, charlie, youre doing a great job. I know you have to come on and say these things however little you believe them. Look he rishi sunak didnt say in his five pledges i will get a flight to rwanda. He said i will stop the boats. The boats have not stopped. Look, whatever you think of the rwanda plan, i am wholly opposed to it. But i dont think its going to get to a point where the boats have stopped. And that is the pledge that was made. And that is what voters are judging. Rishi sunak by, if thats their key issue. So i dont think even though he has had a good week, im not going to deny that i try not to spin these things too much. But, i dont think one good week is enough to change the election result. On the other hand, i think the tories would be mad to go for another leadership contest , you know, theres this contest, you know, theres this terrible, terrible Infectious Disease in politics called something must be done. Yeah. Something must be done. Yeah. And the problem is, yes, things are going wrong, but that doesnt mean that you have a plan and a right answer. At the other end of that, its exacerbated by social media. Absolutely. Absolutely. Theyre all sat on twitter, scrolling through all day and thinking, oh, dear, what are we going to do about this . You know, all these journalists are saying that were going to hell in a handcart. Something must be done. And i think it must be very, very hard. Ive tried to put myself into the head of a tory mp who at the last election had a stonking landslide. And yeah, a stonking landslide. And yeah, as recently as 2021, when there was the vaccine bounce , you was the vaccine bounce, you know, real kind of popularity. Keir starmer had been in for about a year. He was not making waves. It just felt like they waves. It just felt like they were in undefeatable role. So to have gone from that to this in just three years must be incredibly complex and difficult emotionally and politically to go through. That doesnt mean go through. That doesnt mean that theres an answer that will get you out of the hole that theyre in. Do you think actually, on that point that olivia made on the 2. 5 defence spending commitment of gdp, do you think labour will end up matching that . I expect that they will get. I think the pressure on them will be too high not to. Yeah, but i think it will be much like the conservative pledge. It will be by x year rather than immediately. Yes. I mean, on that point, charlie, the conservative party, on the economy, on defence, on law and order, its lost the pubuc law and order, its lost the public according to the polls , public according to the polls, on all of those fronts, which should be key conservative territory. Where do you think . Actually, they can win that back . Do you think actually the pubuc back . Do you think actually the public have just tuned out. They public have just tuned out. They wont hear rishi sunak saying, well meet 2. 5 defence spending. Theyre just totally tuned out of the conversation altogether. Well, i think thats right. I think voters arent listening at the minute. And i think because theres been far too much politics thats happened over the last few years. And so i think but when you see those dividing lines being drawn, so when youre absolutely right, you see the economy getting better, starting to see a little bit of growth when youre seeing inflation come down as olivia was saying, tory mps will want to see Interest Rates come down. When you see that increase in defence spending that goes down very well with tory mps, when you then start to see those dividing lines with the labour party. So a commitment, a solid commitment from the conservatives to increase defence spending, not a commitment that weve had from the labour party. When you then the labour party. When you then hear the labour party wanting to nationalise the railways again, something the very popular policy conservatives would well, its very costly. And in the first five years, you know, with because theyre taking them back in to Public Ownership as the franchises expire. So theyre not going to be paying so theyre not going to be paying the franchise owners for them when youll have, you know, a party thats in ad hoc to the unions, where therell be more strikes and increase in fares because the Services Wont run. And, you know, the taxpayer will have to pick up the. Have you noticed fewer strikes over the