And sentenced to 14 years in prison at Manchester Crown court over the death of a baby, kate, roughly strapped the nine month old girl face down on a beanbag for more than an hour and a half at tiny toes nursery in stockport in may 2022. The 37 year old then failed to check on the distressed child and later found Genevieve Meehan was unresponsive. Former unresponsive. Former subpostmaster alan bates has said he has no sympathy for Paula Vennells after she broke down twice during her first day of evidence to the horizon it inquiry. The former post office boss at the centre of the scandal admitted making mistakes dunng scandal admitted making mistakes during her time in charge, but she insists she didnt know about the rise in system when she joined and that no one told her of any bugs. Shes also denied any conspiracy to cover up the scandal, and conservative mp Craig Mackinlay has made his first appearance in parliament, eight months after contracting sepsis. Oh he received a sepsis. Oh he received a standing ovation as he entered the commons. Standing ovation as he entered the commons. The member for south thanet, who had extreme surgery to remove both his hands and feet, was given a 5 chance of survival after being put in a coma for 16 days. And for the latest stories , sign up to gb latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. Corach rambler. Thats now news. Corach rambler. Thats now its back to. Its back to. Tom. Good evening. Its 7 04 and what an extraordinary day it has been. First, lets hear what rishi sunak has had to say about the labour leader, sir keir starmer. He has shown time and time again that he will take the easy way out and do anything to get power. Get power. If he was happy to abandon all the promises he made to become labour leader once he got the job. How can you know that he wont do exactly the same thing if he were to become Prime Minister if you dont have the conviction to stick to anything you say, if you dont have the courage to tell people what you want to do, and if you dont have a plan, how can you possibly be trusted to lead our country, especially at this most uncertain of times . Well that was our very wet Prime Minister speaking two hours ago live from downing street. He said that hed spoken to the king, and the king had agreed to dissolve parliament. That will happen a week tomorrow on the 30th of this month. From that moment, there will be no sitting mps and the Short Campaign of the general election will be on. It will then be five weeks of intense campaigning across the length and breadth of the country before people go to the country before people go to the polls on the 4th of july. Now that means that therell be a new parliament in place by the 5th of july, and potentially a new Prime Minister the man currently leading the polls, of course, is sir keir starmer. Heres how he reacted to the announcement tonight. Announcement tonight. The Prime Minister has finally announced the next general election, a moment the country needs and has been waiting for , and where, by the waiting for, and where, by the force of our democracy , vie force of our democracy, vie power returns to you a chance to change for the better. Your future, your community, your country. Sir keir starmer there standing in front of not one but two union jack flags. Well, lets cross to downing street now with Christopher Hope. Our Political Editor. Christopher, what a day it has been, very few people woke up this morning thinking we were going to enter a general Election Campaign. Its been reverberating through westminster. Whats the reaction . Been on the ground . Reaction . Been on the ground . Well, it depends who you ask. Laboun well, it depends who you ask. Labour, of course. Cant wait for an election. They are the opposition. They have to be ready for an election. Tory mps, the ones im speaking to , are the ones im speaking to, are pretty cross. Tom. Im hearing letters are going in tonight. Letters are going in tonight. The Prime Minister, they are concerned about why on earth the pm is going, having election when hes 21 points behind in the polls. We heard what he said the polls. We heard what he said from the lectern behind us. Its about certain vie delivery of the tory partys, his plans against uncertainty of labour. But a lot of tory mps do not understand it. They listen again to that statement, saying the pm has spoken to the king already and they wonder why thats happened. Because, of course, normally you go to the king and ask him to dissolve the parliament. You dont do it in the past, they tell me that there could be a challenge against him by the time before parliament is dissolved on july 30th, not prorogued as it will be later this week. I dont know if that will get to anything. There is a lot of concern, though, amongst tory mps faced with losing their livelihoods by a by a Prime Minister calling election six months before he has to when hes mild miles behind in the polls. Thats the concern from the tory side , chris. I think one of the most extraordinary things about today was potentially the optics just how wet the Prime Minister became. The rain was torrential. Why do you think he chose to do it on today of all days . It on today of all days . I dont know, and they they wont tell us. They clearly think that they think this. Labour lead 21 polls, according to ipsos mori is a soft lead. So so why not go for the election before you need to or. And while youve got the element of surprise and so you can try and ensure that labour isnt ready for it. And by the way, labour for it. And by the way, labour isnt the only party not ready for it. The reform uk party only has 500 candidates selected. A spokesman tells me tonight out of 630 a question you may want to ask one of your guests tonight, nigel farage, is will he stand to be a candidate for reform uk at the july 4th election . Of course , hes been election . Of course, hes been tipped to win clacton if he chose to stand as things stand. When i spoke to him a few moments ago, he said he wont say anything to us yet, but its worth asking him. I think theres so many imponderables here. Many tory mps were expecting to go away on holiday next week. Instead, theyre being cancelled as we speak and its a full on general Election Campaign. But tory mps are many campaign. But tory mps are many of the ones you speak to me dont understand why its happening now. And as things stand, he hasnt yet even addressed the 1922 committee of backbench tory mps normally get them on side when you call an election or do anything big with the party in their futures. That the party in their futures. That hasnt happened yet, tom. Well, Christopher Hope its an absolutely fascinating angle that no doubt will be explored over the next 7 or 8 days until that formal dissolving of parliament, things could move and the Prime Minister may be at risk. Well, Christopher Hope will be back with you later in the programme, but for now, thank you very much. Sitting beside me in the studio is the man who normally presents this programme, nigel farage and nigel. Ive got to say ive got to start with that question that Christopher Hope so ably set us up for. Are you going to stand . I think the timing of this general election has quite a lot to do with me, quite a lot to do with me, he was scared. Hed heard rumours. True or not, hed heard rumours. True or not, hed heard rumours. True or not, hed heard rumours that i was going to go back into the frontline political fray. And if he gave me a six month run against the worst, most insincere conservative Prime Minister in history, against the most boring house party guests, as leader of the labour party, you know, and even matthew laza wont disagree with that , will i . Well, not with that, will i . Well, not much, i think no, i think reform was a very big factor in this decision, the idea that reform wouldnt be able to build up a ground game build up ahead of steam reforms , problem is not steam reforms, problem is not what it stands for. Reforms. Problem is a lack of reforms. Problem is a lack of infrastructure on the ground. So i do think thats a major part of the problem. So what the Prime Minister has chosen suicide over obliteration. They suicide over obliteration. They theyre going to lose whether theyre going to lose whether they get 150 seats, 180 seats. I have no idea , they feared leave have no idea, they feared leave it six months. It could be 50 seats. It could be the end of the conservative party. Up to 200 years as we know it. Thats what hes chosen. So im unsurprised that chris hope tells us there are backbenchers putting letters in now. Quite what that all means. Ive no idea , given the general election idea, given the general election has been called and they are on course to lose the election, they deserve to lose the election. I personally hope they lose the election. I hope them in 2019, more than any other human being. The formation of the brexit party proved theresa may i the tories to down 9 in the polls. Yeah, yeah. And they could get back their they could get back there. I mean why would you for vote them if youre a red wall voter concerned about open borders , given what these open borders, given what these guys have done with record levels of legal and illegal immigration, why would you vote for them . But what youre saying today, nigel, is that this Six Week Campaign that the Prime Minister fired the starting gun on today is too short a Campaign Time for reform to make any serious damage in the tory vote. No reform will make a richard tice has got the party up and running. There are 500 candidates selected. He will get more. And the whole plan for reform was that it was a six year plan, a six year plan. Fight this election, get ready for when labour fail, which they will. I mean , you know, will. I mean, you know, starmers first cabinet will not have the competence that blairs first cabinet had by an absolute mile , so reform will fight the mile, so reform will fight the election. As for what i do , ill election. As for what i do, ill think about it overnight. So thats no commitment either way. No commitment either way from me at the moment. I will think about it overnight. Wow, but i do think its funny. I met a cabinet minister at a social event on monday of this week, and the venom directed towards me was quite extraordinary. The fear was quite extraordinary. Theyre about to become a losing party. They may, over the next couple of years , become an couple of years, become an extinct tribe. I have no love for them. I stood aside for 319 of their candidates. I helped them get an 80 seat majority which did deliver brexit. It delivered brexit, but nothing else. Nothing else. The nothing else. The constitutional change happened. The rest of it was literally betrayal, what everyone stood for. So i, i, you know, im no fan of labour. I suspect our taxes will go up even more. I suspect that immigration wont get dealt with. But you know what . For most people out there working, they wont even notice the difference. The difference. Its a its a strong statement for you to make. I wonder, in your view, was the Prime Ministers decision today about cutting his losses . Yes yes of course. As i say, suicide, not obliteration and the mismanagement of it. I mean, i tell you what, it wont just be private eye next week that shows him standing in the rain. Shows him standing in the rain. This will be an image for the next 30, 40, 50 years of total incompetence and i mean, give him an umbrella. I thought. I thought it was just a i mean, that would look quite british, wouldnt it . I mean, the whole thing was a shambles. His speech. So i watched it with a group. Are you sure it wasnt just a. Well pitched attempt at tory wets . Well , well, he wets . Well, well, he certainly wasnt that one, but i watched it. Ive had a dozen of us watched it, and what was really funny was all of this a very involved in politics and whats going to happen. And within minutes we werent listening. We were laughing at the sheer farcical spectacle. I mean, disorder , ionised, without any disorder, ionised, without any bafis disorder, ionised, without any basis of underlying philosophy, with no agreement. The with no agreement. The conservative party of today stands for nothing. It will lose the election. And whether i intervene or not, its irrelevant. I it loses very heavily because its interesting , because it deserves to because what rishi sunak today was saying was that keir starmer stands for nothing. Hes right. Hes right. Youve got youve got a choice. Nobody understood nothing. Honestly, these are the two most boring leaders. I mean, sunak reading out like a blubbing robot. You know, and youve got the rain coming down. Youve got that took some metal standing in the rain. If you want to think that thats a good image, then, tom, you know you need your head testing as well. Im sure im sure. Some media adviser said, you know what, go out there also look tough. We also had that yobbo steve bray at the end of the road playing music when they passed legislation to stop some of that stuff from happening, but didnt enforce it. It was amateur. The todays announcement is panicked. Last minute they did a week ago. This was not on the agenda. Week ago. This was not on the agenda. But there are two agenda. But there are two reasons why hes done it. One is he knows there are no planes going to rwanda. It aint going to happen. It cant happen all to happen. It cant happen all the while. We signed up to echr it cant happen. So hell promise in the next few weeks planes will go, no, no planes are going to rwanda all the way. Part of the echr. Thats one reason. Second reason is, i promise you this, there. Absolutely. They were terrified that id spend six months fighting them. Nigel, there are some conservative press officer watching this conversation now. Hes going to clip you saying no planes will go to rwanda. Yeah, good, good, good. Yeah, good, good, good. What if one plane goes tom, listen to me. There are no planes going to rwanda. And not unless we pay them three grand and give them five years free board. So this isnt going to happen. And sunak. No, its not going to happen. And this was what hed, hed based the premiership on and frankly inflation down to 2. 3. Just because your gas bills down i mean steel prices are going up. You know, this doesnt scratch the ordinary family in this country, theyre going to lose lose big but get enough seats to believe they can survive as a political party. Thats what today is all about. Well, lets cross back to downing street now, where Christopher Hope is joined by Camilla Tominey, another gb news presenter. And of course, i believe associate editor of the telegraph, christopher, take it away. Away. Hello, tom. And thank you, nigel there. Camilla tominey. Youre here in downing street. Youre here in downing street. Youre here in downing street. You here for a reception . And fancy seeing you here. What do you make of today . Are you surprised . Yeah, very. Because we were all thinking that it was going to be october or november, and in some respects, rishi sunak isnt known for being particularly bold and taking a risk. Right. This is about whether fortune favours the brave. I think , favours the brave. I think, having said that, having had a few hours to digest the news, i can see the impetus behind him. You know , theres been a good you know, theres been a good economic result today with inflation down to 2. 3. Labour all week have been at sixes and sevens over their policy on the middle east. You know, david lammy seemingly going against the grain of the rest of the western International Community when it comes to those icc arrest warrants. I think the net migration figures are going to look a bit more favourable. Not sure about illegal migration and stopping the boats if they go in july, they dont have another summer of Channel Crossings there may be a little bit of sort of naivety and inexperience that have crept into this decision making. You know, the people in downing street behind us, theyre not the most experienced. They arent campaigners, theyre not people whove been very generous because youre forgetting that you might have two Interest Rate cuts by the mpc before any november election. Theres a september possibility of a budget. Youve got falling net migration, net migration by september. Youve got, other, other, other things ticking up for the economy. Why not wait and use time as your friend allows the opposition to mobilise . You know, hes caught labour by surprise here and equally reform. I know tomsjust reform. I know toms just speaking to nigel farage, you know. Is he standing . Whats he doing . Is it going to be uk politics or us reform. Havent got their candidates list together in fact recently theyve had to get rid of a load labour havent got a manifesto. No longer can keir starmer respond to every question you or i ask. Oh well wait for the manifesto. Whats in it . I actually think that degree of jeopardy that is created with his speech a week on monday ago and saying, you know, stick with me because im safer than starmer isnt a bad pledge. If you listen to the grey hairs in the tory party, iain duncan smith, david davis, they say this is a wide gap in the polling , but this is a wide gap in the polling, but its this is a wide gap in the polling , but its shallow. Polling, but its shallow. Theres loads of people who we saw in the local elections, which by the way, had a historically low turnout. Look at the result of blackpool south by election. Labour won on fewer votes than it received in 2019. Loads of people chris, as you know, sitting on their hands, the dialogue in their mind is this though i cant stand the tories. Theyve let me down. Theyve squandered an 80 seat majority, they got rid of boris, blah blah blah. But deep down i know labour will be even worse. And if reform doesnt get its proverbial together and if it doesnt have nigel at the helm, then i think its a weaker offering to people. As an alternative. And they mig