Transcripts For GBN Patrick 20240702

Downing street today, rishi sunak made the surprise announcement and urged the nafion announcement and urged the nation to stick with him over sir keir starmer addressing tory Party Supporters and his cabinet at Londons Excel Centre a short while ago, he took aim at the labour leader on the 5th of july. Either keir starmer or i will be Prime Minister and he has shown time and time again that he will take the easy way out and do anything to get power. If he was happy to abandon all the promises that he made to become labour leader once he got the job, how can you know that he wouldnt do exactly the same thing if he were to become Prime Minister . We conservatives have got a clear plan with bold action to secure our future board. So lets take that message and that vision of a secure future to every corner of our United Kingdom. And lets show labour that the british people will never be taken for granted. Granted. Meanwhile, the labour leader, keir starmer, responded to the announcement, saying the election is the moment the country has been waiting for night. The Prime Minister has finally announced the next general election , a moment the general election, a moment the country needs and has been waiting for, and liberal democrats leader sir ed davey vowed to remove the tories from power across the country. People are crying out for change and this election is the chance to make that happen in so many parts of the country, its the liberal democrats who can beat the conservatives, who have taken people for granted. Taken people for granted. And in other news, uk inflation has fallen to the lowest level in nearly three years. In april, lowest level in nearly three years. In april , driven by lower years. In april, driven by lower gas and electricity prices. The latest figures show. Inflation dropped to 2. 3 last month. One person, one person has died in a mudslide on the edge of the nonh mudslide on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors as rain continues to batter the uk. It continues to batter the uk. It happened at carlton in cleveland at around 130 this afternoon in nonh at around 130 this afternoon in North Yorkshire. Police have asked the public to avoid the area and former subpostmaster alan bates has said he has no sympathy for Paula Vennells after she broke down twice dunng after she broke down twice during her first day of evidence to the horizon. It inquiry. During her first day of evidence to the horizon. It inquiry. The to the horizon. It inquiry. The former post office boss at the centre of the scandal admitted making mistakes during her time in charge, but she insists she didnt know about the horizon system when she joined and that no one had told her of any bugs. Shes also denied any conspiracy to cover up the scandal. And for to cover up the scandal. And for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news common alerts. Now its back to. Patrick. Back to. Patrick. Good evening folks. Its wednesday the 22nd of may and its happening. Its started with twitter rumours. Theres a lack of denial from number 10 and usually reliable government sources going underground sent westminster into a frenzy. Then David Cameron failed to attend a meeting with the albanians, a massive blow for the albanian government, who had rolled out a welcome mat, including a giant poster of him on a building in their capital. Then sunak was asked about it at pmqs. Mr speaker , speculation is mr speaker, speculation is rife so i think the public deserve a clear answer to a simple question does the Prime Minister intend to call a summer general election , or is he faked general election, or is he faked a mid beds . Mr speaker . As i have said mr speaker . As i have said repeatedly to him. There is. Repeatedly to him. There is. There is the speaker. There is the speaker. Spoiler alert there is going to be a general election in the second half of this year. Then for about 20 minutes, it all became about jeremy hunt quitting. They say that hell lose his seat anyway. He hasnt got any money for tax cuts. So hes off. And we were about to get a cabinet reshuffle. And then it swung back round to being all about a general election again. There was an emergency Cabinet Meeting at 4 15 pm. Last week. Rishi sunak said book your summer holidays, were going for autumn holiday , were going for autumn holiday, so you need to let me know. Family to come back and tell us when the election is. Delighted to have you with us then. Delighted to have you with us then. November, thank you very then. November, thank you very much for your holiday. Thank you for sir. Thank you. Thank you for sir. Thank you. Book your holidays , he said. Book your holidays, he said. But as the afternoon progressed, one date emerged. July the 4th, and it was all eyes on downing street. And then there we go. And then all eyes on the downing street door after that wasnt it . And out strides rishi sunak into the pouring rain to remind us all immediately about the time this government locked us down and smashed our economy to pieces. I introduced the furlough scheme. I did so not because scheme. I did so not because i saw a country simply in need of desperate help, albeit we were, but because i saw a country whose future hung in the balance. I have never and will never leave the people of this country to face the darkest of days alone and you know that because youve seen it as i did, then i will forever do everything in my power to provide you with the strongest possible protection. Can. No one in downing street thought to provide mr sunak with an umbrella as he got soaked to the bone. Then the music started and his message to the nation was drowned out. Prices will ease and Mortgage Rates will come down. This is proof that the plan and priorities i set out are working. I recognise that it has not always been easy. Things can only get wetter. A rishi finally , the prime rishi finally, the Prime Minister got to the important bit earlier today i spoke with his majesty the king to request the dissolution of parliament. The king has granted this request. Request. But there was a stark comparison between sukh sunak and slick starmer, who looked more prepared and Prime Ministerial than the Prime Minister night. The Prime Minister has finally announced the next general election, a moment the country needs and has been waiting for. So here we go. Prime minister so here we go. Prime minister rishi sunak has gone for it. The general election will be on july the 4th and we go now to downing street with our political edhon street with our Political Editor, Christopher Hope. Christopher, hows rishi played . A blinder or has he got this all wrong . Wrong . Well, time will tell , wont well, time will tell, wont it, patrick . And good evening from downing street, where jeremy hunt has just arrived back from this fundraiser. The pm has been in charge of over in east london. The election starts today. It has caught virtually everybody , apart from a few everybody, apart from a few people around the Prime Minister, completely unawares. I minister, completely unawares. I was talking with a member of the whips office earlier tonight. They told their flock there two dozen mps or so. There will be an election in november. I have been told for ages it will be in november because thats when it makes sense, because by then you may have had some cuts in interest rates, maybe two of those from the mpc, the Monetary Policy committee. By then, inflation is down to well under or around 2. Net migration falls. Patrick. Illegal migration may start to tick down. Even you might have tax cuts announced by the chancellor in a fiscal moment in september. All those levers the pm has chosen not to pull. Instead he has gone from an election that no one was expecting in the pouring rain. Expecting in the pouring rain. And the campaigning starts tomorrow. Tory mps are cross. At least one letter has gone in, or a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister. Tonight they tell me there is a chance they can depose the Prime Minister as leader of the party before next thursday, when parliament is dissolved. I think the jury is out on that. I think the chance of that happening is slim, very slim. But that gives you an indication of the fury of a lot of tory mps tonight. The ones speaking to me just dont understand why he has gone for an election now when he didnt have to. Why not wait six months and see if all those things that might happen have happened, and then further doubts emerge about sir keir starmer instead, the pm has gone for an election that no one expected. Yeah. Look, christopher, thank you very, very much for keeping us bang up to date all day. There. Just one more. Oh, thats all right. Lets get the thoughts from our panel this evening. Weve got the director of the popular conservatives, mark littlewood. Businessman and activist adam brooks, and author and journalist rebecca reid. Mark i will start with you on this. What a calamitous way to announce a general election in the driving rain with steve bray and his massive megaphone shouting at you. Yeah , he sort of came across yeah, he sort of came across as the little kid in the playground who said, come on then, ill take you all on. Youve got to kind of you know, its quite courageous in a way, whether its completely wise. Whether its completely wise. Im unsure of. Chris went through some of the reasons that he might have waited until november, or possibly even later, but im not sure much would have changed. The one thing that chris didnt point out is oftentimes when a government is in trouble and thinking about whether to go early or late, its some of it is whats going to happen to the economy. What do we thinks economy. What do we thinks going to happen to inflation . But some of its just crossing your fingers and hoping for a black swan event. You know that something will come out of thin air that changes the polls. Hes decided thats not very likely. So its game on. Its ive never known a government that is 15 or 20 behind in the opinion polls to trigger an early election. Its without precedent. Well, youve mentioned the opinion polls, and weve got a few of them that we can actually show you very shortly here now. So the latest opinion polls for rishi sunak are actually pretty dire. Actually he is if we have a look at this voting intention. A look at this voting intention. Labour 43, the conservatives 26, the lib dems on ten there, reform on nine and the greens on five and the snp on three. So thatis five and the snp on three. So that is the latest polling data from savanta and adam. Ill throw it over to you. Now, do you think that rishi sunak can do anything between now and the 4th of july to change what were seeing on our screens there . No, i think they will narrow slightly, i think the polls are always sort of wrong in some way, but no, theyre finished. Way, but no, theyre finished. And, you know, it was maybe two years ago when i was on, on this channel saying , if you get rid channel saying, if you get rid of boris, theres going to be severe trouble for the conservative party. I always say, better the devil you know, they got rid of the uks only superstar, politician. Someone that could walk down any street. His haters would go up and get a picture with him. You know, we havent got many of those in this country. Havent got many of those in this country. Boris was that man. Rishi is a disaster, right, hes hes, you know, theyre going to get annihilated and rebecca, there was an issue, a massive issue. I think with the professionalism of both of those announcements, given that rishi sunak was the one who was deciding when to call the election and to how do it, his team is crack team of advisers. Team is crack team of advisers. Yes, that was crack, decided that they were going to have him outside in the pouring rain with steve bray with a megaphone, next to him as well, playing a load of music. In fact, i can show what went on here with that ring blaring a load of music is kind of an international annoyance. This guy here, he is. Are you proud guy here, he is. Are you proud of yourselves . Fascist. This is not law. Fascist. This is not law. Fascist. This is not law. This is not law. This is not law. A law was broken law. A law was broken specifically to do this to this man. There is a long established constitution rule against particular law , long established particular law, long established this country has fallen to fascism. So youve got a guy in the shape of rishi sunak whos getting drizzled on. Youve got all that going on on downing street. They couldnt organise an umbrella, they couldnt stop the protesters shouting as well. Weve got a little side by side for you of this now and ill put this to you. Rebecca rishi sunak , theyre absolutely soaking wet on downing street. Keir starmer on downing street. Keir starmer inside, you know he cant see them in this video. Inside, you know he cant see them in this video. A couple of them in this video. A couple of union jacks next to him. Nice and dry. Difference in professionalism. So i have a semi Conspiracy Theory about this. And i think its that if you have ever watched a film where theres like a sports match, if you want people to side for one team, you start them as the loser and then you see them come back up. And i my theory is i dont think they can be stupid enough to send him out without an umbrella. So all i can imagine is that they want him to have had the worst possible start, so that then in the six weeks which were going to have, we have a very short attention span. The news cycle flips around a lot. In theory, maybe this is done so that he can actually only get better, literally. Like the music was saying, no, they are that stupid and ive said it. Ive said it numerous times. The people that are advising our mps, some of them are extremely stupid and theyve let the mps down. Yeah, but youre pretty sure it was cock up, not conspiracy because again, what does that say . Mark . Im sorry, but seriously, what does that say . He can pick and choose when the next election is. Hes already up against it. Weve just shown you the polls there and hes got the ability to make that decision. He caught everyone by surprise. David cameron was surprise. David cameron was dragged back. He didnt quite make it to baby reindeer. But you know, hes dragged back from there. Theres all this speculation going and hes on the steps of downing street and hes in there ruining a nice suit. Yeah, he can probably afford a new suit, im guessing, but no, youre right. I mean, what one might say in his defence is i suspect that the number of people who knew this for certain at lunchtime today numbered about 3 or 4, so usually for an announcement of this significance, youd have a Communications Team planning it out weeks in advance, working out weeks in advance, working out who was going to be standing to the left of him, to the right of him, and all of the rest of it . This was its not really a snap election, is it . The governments been in office for four and a half years, but it was a snap decision to do it, and it came a little bit unstuck through the optics. Maybe there was an element of him looking for pathos there, that he was a very sort of humble way to announce it. Maybe hes trying to engender sympathy, but the rhine was clearly could not have been organised by him. They could. They could have said, you know what, actually, lets not do it like that or lets not do it like that or lets give him an umbrella. Did he know that there was a coup to dethrone him in the next few days . Has he been panicked into this decision . You know, was there, was there a move to install another leader of the conservative party that is probably more likely for me . Or why would he do this . Why . Why would he do this . Why . Its well held that he might want to move to america and american schools start in august, and he might want his kids in situ to start school in august. That would be a very cynical, very cynical reason to dissolve parliament. If i knew i was going to leave, id be like, well, well, lets have a look. Lets have a little look at some of the things. The state of play some of the things. The state of play when it comes to the timing of rishi sunaks election. Okay so weve had inflation now is at its lowest for nearly three years. Is the visa dependent apps are down okay. So that has happened. Apps are down okay. So that has happened. Were expecting the happened. Were expecting the net migration figures to be lower tomorrow, mainly because they couldnt really get any higher. Otherwise wed all have a newcomer all around us, everywhere we see, everywhere we go. So theyre going to go down as well. Flies to rwanda. He thinks well take off in the first week of july. That could coincide with this election if he plays his cards right on that. The European Union or a variety of different Member States have now come out and said they are going to copy the rwanda plan. Meanwhile, this week, labour have basically said theyre going to make it easier to change gender, which means essentially more blokes in womens changing rooms. And also they, and im paraphrasing here, would quite like to make an enemy of israel by the looks of things. Good timing. Well, you could say good timing. Heres my conspiracy thoughts for what theyre worth. Thoughts for what theyre worth. Firstly, i suspect you might be right that rwanda plan might get a plane or two off the ground. Its possible, but i think he might have reached the conclusion its not going to have any discernible impact between now and november, so you might as well just get the opfics might as well just get the optics if there are going to be any now. But hes not anticipating that the small boats wont be coming over the channel over the summer, which would be bad optics for him. Second consideration may have been, reform. The uk have not been, reform. The uk have not yet got their act together. Theyve been promising for as long as anyone will listen that theyre going to field 650 candidates. I think theyve only got a few dozen in place. Well got a few dozen in place. Well hear from nigel farage, i think tomorrow, whether hes going to run or not. But its going to be quite difficult for reform to actually slot in place 600 candidates. Thats quite helpful to the conservatives. If youd give them reform till november, i think they could have been more up and running. More up and running. Well, just just on that. Were going to park it there for now. A reminder to you that we are expecting an announcement at 11 am. Tomorrow from reform uk. It is expected that at that announcement, nigel farage will decide whether or not he is going to actually run. So make sure that you watch this space because well bring it to you here first on gb news. But look, i wanted to play you a little bit of how sir keir starmer delivered his first speech after this general election was called night. The Prime Minister has finally announced the next general election. A moment the country needs and has been waiting for. And where by the force of our democracy, power returns to you a chance to change for the better. Your future, your community, your country. Now it will feel like country. Now it will feel like a long campaign. Im sure of that. But no matter what else is said and done, that opportunity for change is what this election is about. Change is what this election is about. Over the course of the about. Over the course of the last four years, weve changed the labour party. We returned it the labour party. We returned it once more to the service of working people. Well i am delighted to welcome former conservative mp David Campbell bannerman. David, you are widely regarded as mr grassroots when it comes to the conservative party. The grass roots i am heanng party. The grass roots i am hearing are not particularly happy about this election. No, i think its i think its very selfish announcement, no, i think its i think its very selfish announcement , to be very selfish announcement, to be honest, you know, it will condemn a lot more mps to having a really tough time, unfortunately, and i it seems very thoughtless. And thats why its caused such a prize, you know . I mean, things are going the right direction. You know, the right direction. You know, the economy is getting better. Interest rates seem to be on the verge of coming down, and that could all help these mps. But, no , hes decided to go now, and, no, hes decided to go now, and, weve got to live with that and, you know, get behind the conservatives. But its going to be much more difficult. Its going to be much more difficult. Let me just bring up onto the screen now and we can talk through this. What would a tory government look like . Okay. So it would be rishi sunak as Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden as his deputy, over at the treasury, weve got jeremy hunt, hes going to be the chancellor and weve got James Cleverly there who would have the top job at the home office. Lord cameron is going to be the foreign secretary and victoria atkins would head up the health department. So that is the tory top team. David, let me whizz us through what labour would look like now. So sir keir starmer would be in charge with Angela Rayner as his deputy. Rachel reeves would be chancellor, Yvette Cooper would end up at the home office. David lammy would be foreign secretary and of course wes streeting will be in charge at the health department. When you look at those two teams side by side, is it difficult or otherwise for the tories to make the case to vote for them . Vote for them . Well, i think the labour team is very weak, and you can see that from some of their announcements, and i david lammy, to be honest, some of the things he said do worry us about brexit, about, foreign affairs, support for palestine, that sort of thing , so i think, i think of thing, so i think, i think labouris of thing, so i think, i think labour is pretty fragile and he may be found out in this election. You might be looking election. You might be looking at a 92. I think the issue is, is this going to be like a 92 election where, conservative has really surprised the john major, actually surprised labour, neil kinnock, or is it like a disaster zone with blair winning the day . And i think that is going to be the contest. And of course, you know, theresa may managed to lose a 20 lead, when she called an unnecessary election, so , so its possible election, so, so its possible that things change, but i think it makes it very, very difficult. And its a real challenge to miriam cates. It challenge to miriam cates. It wasnt necessary. We could have given it a bit more. So you fundamentally do not think it was necessary for rishi sunak to call this election right now, then . And you think that that could actually have a detrimental thing . Can you expand on the reasons why you think that rishi sunak is selfish for calling this election now . Election now . Because, i mean, you know, no one can understand what hes doing and why hes called it at this particular point. You know, things are, as i say, are going in the right direction. They are getting better. I think that will increase the prospects for many conservative mps in tight battles, and we could actually hold on to many more tory mps had we left it until november or december. Had we left it until november or december. But, but look, the decision is made , and, and, you decision is made, and, and, you know, i think hes in a hurry. Really and, you know, weve got to live with this decision, but i dont think history is going to be very kind. But youre youre youre big in the grassroots. Just one last one with you. Are you going to struggle to go and knock on doors for rishi sunak . Well, ill do it for the conservatives and do for strong local candidates. But i do struggle. And of course, you know, others like ben horsham, the mayor that the one mayor we held to , on he, he wrote out held to, on he, he wrote out rishi sunak wrote out the conservatives. There are ways of doing it. Weve got about conservatives, but im afraid, she has some hole. You know, theres some problems there that are holding us back. All right, look, david, thank you very, very much. And well be chatting to you, no doubt quite a lot over the course of the next six weeks. As David Campbell bannerman. Now, all the best. And well, im very pleased now to say that i am joined after having heard quite a bit from the so called grassroots to the right anyway, of the conservative party. Im very pleased to now be joined by former labour minister bill rammell and the former tory Party Special adviser, lauren mckevitt , bill, ill start with mckevitt, bill, ill start with you on this. Keir starmer and the labour party looked more prepared for rishi sunaks announcement than rishi sunak today. I think. Today. I think. Yeah, i mean, i thought the Prime Ministers statement outside downing street was a shambles, covered in rain. You know, huge music playing and actually quite a long, rambling speech. And then it immediately cut to keir starmer indoors. Prime ministerial short, punchy time for change. And then even ed davey was short and on the money. So i think the contrast was quite significant. It was now actually i can articulate that a little bit because we have got , a social because we have got, a social media comparison for you. So this is, this is sunak just on his speech. Hes on downing street. Hes gone into dry off. Street. Hes gone into dry off. Okay. And, this is basically what happened. All right. So this is the conservative Party Twitter page. All right. The moment that their leader announced the general election on the 4th of july, stick with the plan thats working and a checklist there. So its a its a sticker. So thats thats what thatis a sticker. So thats thats what that is that picture with all of that is that picture with all of that stuff. Now what can only be described as that sticker with bullet points. This however, was what labour had ready to go instantly. Instantly. Political chaos, feeding decline feeding, chaos. Feeding decline feeding, chaos. Feeding decline. The answer is not five more years of the tories. More years of the tories. They have failed. They have failed. Give the tories five more years and things will only get worse. Britain deserves better worse. Britain deserves better than that. Only a changed labour than that. Only a changed labour party will get britains future back. And make no mistake, the labour party has changed. Lauren, you were a former spad. Theres no way you would have advised them to do this, would you . I think the advice that went to the Prime Minister today is, is something that will probably begin to leak out over the course of the next couple of days, and i suspect strongly that there are things that we, we havent factored in in the pubuc we havent factored in in the Public Domain yet. Its entirely possible that theyre looking at a summer of not being able to stop the boats coming across the channel, and a significantly increased number of people arriving illegally in the United Kingdom. Its the United Kingdom. Its possible that theyve got bad news on the rwanda scheme that they feel that this sort of nips in the bud because theyre going in the bud because theyre going in advance of it. The thing that i find the most interesting is that the, the, the inflation drop today was not good enough, and it was not good enough in certain areas. And i think that that means no rate cuts are coming down the line, which doesnt give them room fiscally for any kind of fiscal event in the autumn that could have put more money into Public Services or given a bit of a tax giveaway. And with that being the case, its possible that you look at the you look at the hand thats coming and say , no, thats coming and say, no, actually, we should go now. You know, i take David Campbell bannermans point. You know, things are going things are going really well. Why would they why would they do this . Its entirely possible to make the argument that, yes, things are going well, and that means its exactly the right time to do this. But i think the labour party exists solely in opposition. Theyve got a lot of time to put videos like that together. Yeah, the conservative party is governing, and i think its very bold, by the way, for keir starmer to have put Vaughan Gething anywhere near his Leadership Campaign when hes under investigation for, for some really Interesting Campaign donations during the labour leadership election in wales. So i think , you know, a changed i think, you know, a changed labour party doesnt look that changed when were talking about Vaughan Gething. Well, and i do put it to you as well, bill, that labour party is not that changed. We had Zarah Sultana standing up today. Weve had david lammy talking about how he would essentially hed im paraphrasing here, dont sue me, david. But he drank Benjamin Netanyahu to the hague kicking and screaming, wouldnt he . Presumably that means that we would stop selling arms to israel as well. A massive shift in Foreign Policy there by by the labour party, i think i think most people would think i think most people would think to try to appease the quote unquote muslim vote in britain. Is it really that change the labour party . Its fundamentally changed. You look at the selection of parliamentary candidates that has been undertaken under keir starmer. Its been utterly ruthless and no one with a far left corbynite perspective has been able to get through. And i know the tories are going to try and, you know, create this impression over the coming six weeks that, you know, keir is the face for a still very left wing labour party. I dont think thats the case at all, you know, hes not a scary figure that comes across clearly in the polls. And i think thats going to cut, cut through during the campaign. I also agree that the reason i think that sunak has gone now , rather than waiting gone now, rather than waiting for the autumn, is they actually think that the polls arent closing. Theres no sign of them closing. Theres no sign of them closing. And actually it could get worse because rwanda by the autumn is going to be shown not to be a deterrent. There are going to be no further tax cuts. And theres even been some feverish speculation around westminster today that the rebels had enough letters. Yeah, well, thats to mount a vote of no confidence. And that would have been toasted sooner. So hes gone earlier. Yeah. Lauren, let me just ask you about that actually, because thatis you about that actually, because that is a persistent rumour. Yeah and can you shed any light whatsoever on what the scene was like behind the curtain there in downing street with letters of no confidence . What that could have meant, what it still could mean . I dont think for now. I think, you know, theyve gone. Thats it. I think, you know, theyve gone. Thats it. I dont think that it changes anything. If suddenly they announce, oh, theres all these letters. I think now that these letters. I think now that the statement is made, i think they that sort of puts an end to that. Do you think that might have been a factor in todays decision . Its possible, but theres no way of knowing unless youre graham brady. And graham brady keeps these things so close to his chest. And i really hope that everyones going to buy his bookin that everyones going to buy his book in the autumn when it comes out, because i certainly am. And i cant wait to read all the things hes hopefully going to divulge that have really gone on in the last seven years. Well interesting. Now lets just deal with where we are right now in terms of what were going to be getting. Were going to have to getting. Were going to have to get something that resembles a manifesto from both of these parties at some point soon. So as of today, sir keir starmer six pledges, which were unveiled last week deliver economics, dont ask wes streeting to name all of these , by the way. All of these, by the way. Deliver economic stability, cut nhs waiting times, launch a new Border Security command set up Great British energy, crack down on antisocial behaviour. And on antisocial behaviour. And recruit 6500 teachers. Can i just do a little comparison straight away with rishi sunaks five pledges halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and weve also got in there as well, saying probably the most famous one, infamous one, maybe stop the boats. Lauren, ill start with you again on this. Has rishi sunak done any of that . I think hes certainly been attempting to growing the economy. You know, the economy has shown to be growing. We arent in the recession that we thought we were going to be in at the end of last year. The figures have been revised up again and probably will do so again and probably will do so again later in the year, halving inflation without doing anything. Basically, inflation was likely to halve this year, so that was a fairly easy one to meet without accidentally stuffing up. And yet what i said earlier is still the case. It sort of hasnt gone far enough to guarantee that theyre going to guarantee that theyre going to be rate cuts, but thats largely not the uks fault. The fed in the us in december said they were anticipating six rate cuts this year, and theyve revised that to one. So thats a global issue. Debt falling. Thats a problem in relation to the rest of the economic picture. The small boats issue is probably why hes chosen to gone early rather than late, because i suspect that thats going to be a problem this summer. Summer. Yeah. Okay. And just to just to revisit what keir starmer has had to say as well, bill, you know, some of these deliver economic stability , cut nhs economic stability, cut nhs waiting times, launch new Border Security commands. Thats a Great British energy crackdown on anti social behaviour. Recruit 6500 teachers. I mean its a little bit wishy washy isnt it . Its not. There are real echoes of the run up to 1997 here. Small small, credible first steps without the flag. You mean . You mean . You mean . Look, were in different times and it requires different leadership, but small, credible changes on top of that, within the manifesto, youre going to see the commitment to a massive House Building programme, both houses that are needed, but also to kick start the economy, and a Strong Programme of workers rights to increase security within the workplace. But but i think its about credibility and the huge contrast between sunak and a failure to deliver, you know , the boats are not know, the boats are not stopping, the numbers are actually increasing. Nhs waiting actually increasing. Nhs waiting lists still at an all time high. The failure to deliver against a credible programme of change. And thats frankly what the country is crying out for. Okay. Interesting stuff. Okay. Interesting stuff. Look, both of you. Can i just say an absolutely massive thank you for everything so far tonight from both of you. Lets just go now as well to i think weve got a little clip to actually play. Yes. Another little sign , i think of rishi little sign, i think of rishi sunak. This was this was him basically discussing his decision i think, wasnt it, to, to talk about the next election. To talk about the next election. This morning we received the welcome news that inflation has returned to normal. Now this is sign that our plan and our priorities are working. And i know youre only just starting to feel the benefits, but this hard won economic stability was only ever meant to be the beginning. And thats why ive beginning. And thats why ive called the election. Now, i believe that our plan and the bold actions that were prepared to take will deliver a secure future for you, your family , and future for you, your family, and our United Kingdom. Yes. Okay so there we go. So thatis yes. Okay so there we go. So that is rishi sunak dried off a little bit after re announced the election. He says this is why i called the election. But i welcome now Political Correspondent for the spectator , correspondent for the spectator, james hill. Now, james, you noficed james hill. Now, james, you noticed something quite interesting earlier on, which is actually how woefully unprepared for this election the conservative party is. Explain well, i was talking to some london tories earlier and there was a rather sort of irritated by about how sudden this was all thrust upon them, and they were actually saying that rather than getting the people who were speaking at this event tonight, which i was at the first stump speech of the campaign, theres 100 or so. Most of them actually were sort of tory candidates. And special advisers, rather than the kind of activists that, you know, of course, who four weeks ago, patrick, were out campaigning for susan hall, you know, the poor bloody infantry, as it were. Yeah. Its interesting, though, isnt it, because i was having a look at one of your tweets earlier as well, james, you know, and you were saying about how few candidates, they actually appear to have ready to go. Yes, of course, yes. This is the issue about how many actually candidates have been selected for certain areas. Obviously, we know mps like Chris Heaton Harris in northern ireland. And also you know, theresa may in maidenhead are going to be standing there and theres a few sort of tory plum safe seats there, but theres also a lot of other marginals and seats where frankly, you know, a really good candidate could make a massive difference. And there are dozens and dozens, a dozen of these seats where basically youre going to have tory hq cchq, youre going to have to impose by election rules, which means theyll get three candidates thrust on them. Often theres the case, theres one semi decent candidate and two no hopers. And so were going to end up with some of these next time who, frankly, havent been subjected to an awful lot of scrutiny from local members. Look, you are so plugged in. I often say, you know, youve got your finger on the pulse so much. You perform open heart surgery in the corridors of westminster. James, what was in your whatsapp today . Give us a flavour of the kind of things that people were messaging you today. James, i think some of them i cant read out on polite society, but, there was a lot of shock, a lot of surprise, shall we say, one of them compared it to the charge of the light brigade. Another then said that, unfortunately, the charge of the light brigade only had 40 fatality. So, i think look, theres a lot of doom and gloom from mps. Interestingly, you know, some of the people around, you know, kind of, you know, special adviser type level, etc. Are actually quite pumped up for this fight. They think that not enough scrutiny is being given to sir keir starmer. Theyre looking forward to taking their policy area to the to the shadow cabinet. But i think, you know, a real divide in the tory Party Tonight as they consider six weeks time election day. Yeah that is going to be something were going to be discussing about later on in this show. What level of scrutiny have we actually seen from sir keir starmer and some of that front bench . I brought up what the front benches are going to be like a little bit earlier on. Well do it again later as well. But that is really what people are voting for. What are their views on things. And just in the last week, theres been a flavour, i think a flavour of a couple of things to the labour party, more men and womens changing rooms. You could easily sell that as the old easier to change gender stuff. You can also certainly pick them apart when it comes to israel and Foreign Policy. What else will there be . I expect taxation could be another big one, but james heale there from the spectator. Thank you very much, my good man. Youre going to be a busy boy over the next six weeks, so i hope to see you again very soon. And i am going to introduce and welcome into the fray now, conservative mp Tobias Ellwood. Tobias, thank you very much. Were you caught by surprise today . No, not at all. No, not at all. I mean, i try and look at these things more strategically. When you look at the number of elections that are taking place across the world, two of the biggest ones are in britain and the united states. We cannot go to the polls at the same time. To do so would encourage , opposition, encourage, opposition, competitors, our adversaries , to competitors, our adversaries, to take advantage of us being distracted. And im sure conversations took place between number 10 and washington to ensure that we perhaps went early, we could have gone late in december, but that obviously wouldnt have been possible, because obviously trumps election, with biden was going to happen on that fixed date. Thats why i think weve ended up with july. What do you make of the way that he did it today in the pounng that he did it today in the pouring rain with the megaphone, playing music along the side of him . Its not a good look. Tobias no, its unfortunate , but the no, its unfortunate, but the battle commences. You know the rumours today were everywhere. But the king has now been informed. The announcements have been made outside number 10. Lets get on with it. Lets get on with it. You know, many of us have been knowing this is going to be happening in the next month. So you cant say its without a surprise. Oh my goodness. Theres going to be an election. We should all be prepared for this. And not taking away it will be the toughest election that ive fought. Its been a turbulent penod fought. Its been a turbulent period in british politics. In some cases would have tested any occupant at number 10, but that starting gun has been fired. And actually the backdrop that we now see ourselves in, with inflation falling to 2, you know, growth better than in the continent and so forth, Business Confidence returning. Weve got confidence returning. Weve got much to much play for, if anything, weve just got to sort ourselves out. Weve got to show a sense of purpose, a sense of vigour, a sense of unity that we actually want to do. This beanng actually want to do. This bearing in mind that all manifestos will now be scrutinised because you were just touching on there just before, labours really got away with it for some time because weve hogged the headlines for the wrong reasons. So were going to have those leadership debates as well. Its going to debates as well. Its going to be interesting, but its up to us to make the case and in most cases this is clintons got it right. Its the economy that still counts. The economy is so important. If we can show that were, you know, proper, responsible custodians of the economy with a fair chance. How much . Yeah. How much of this tobias relies on rwanda working . How much of this relies on those flights taking off in that, in that, in that first few days hes got four days really in july to get a plane off the ground. I think thats one aspect thats everybodys pushed this off to be totemic. You know, thats one element for which some people find it very , very some people find it very, very important indeed. I stress again, most people are more concerned about their wallets, about their bank accounts, about looking after their families, of getting through the cost of living crisis. And what weve living crisis. And what weve seen, as is manage that. Weve moved into far calmer fiscal waters politically, were into calmer political waters as well. And the other aspect of this, which you and i have discussed many times, i was getting more dangerous, not less whos best to lead us to be able to protect british interests, to advance our defence posture , to make our defence posture, to make sure that our economy thats so globally exposed is actually protected . These are the Big Questions that are how do you go after keir starmer . You know, are you guys going to go on the front foot a bit here in the last couple of weeks . Ill keep banging on about this. But literally in the last week youve had the gender stuff from keir starmer, which you could easily sell us on. If you could easily sell us on. If you vote for labour, it means more blokes in womens changing rooms that doesnt go down well. We know that from the snp. You could easily sell whats going on in israel at the moment. Labourin on in israel at the moment. Labour in the in the pocket of the pro palestine marches , are the pro palestine marches, are they is that how you go at keir starmer . What do you do. Well, that is one approach. I dont believe that just telling people whats wrong with the other side is going to win you. Thats populism, okay . Thats opportunism that doesnt show that youve got the responsibility where you take britain , all it does is say what britain, all it does is say what labour would do badly. Well we can figure that out anyway. What we need to do is actually show where were going, how were going to lead the country. And i stress again that given where we are economically now, we need to look at ourselves and show that we have the passion, the discipline, the unity, that sense of purpose, that vigour to stay in number 10, im afraid that sense of purpose has been suboptimal. Lets be honest about that. So if we want to narrow the polls, you know, if we want to get that towards a Hung Parliament or win or indeed, you know, lose well, let alone lose badly, all those variations are actually up to us. Us. And one thing that im, one thing that were going to be talking about very shortly, were going to hear from him as well. Is nigel farage. Hes deciding, apparently, and announcing tomorrow at 11 am. Whether or not hes going to run, how much of a concern is reform uk to you . Well, nigel farage should ask himself whether he wants a Labour Government or a conservative government its as simple as that. And if he wants the labour of a government, then step up, you know, push reform because all theyre going to do is deny people the deny the support the conservatives. And in many marginal seats that will see the pendulum tilt towards laboun see the pendulum tilt towards labour. And then you get a labour. And then you get a Labour Government. Is that Labour Government. Is that really what nigel farage wants . Well, well well have to wait and see. Well find out wont we. Well find out. Tobias, thank you very, very much. Thats Tobias Ellwood, our conservative mp. Let me just reintroduce to the fray the voting intention just to ground ourselves in all of this. So this is where we actually are. So you take all the noise today out of it. This is the latest voting intention. Labour on 43. The conservatives on 26. Lib dems there on ten. Reform on nine. The greens on five and the snp on three. I am still joined now by bill rammell and lauren mckevitt as well. Bill, ill start with you. You know, hes hes talking hes talking relatively tough there, isnt he, Tobias Ellwood saying, you know, labour are going to come under absolutely massive scrutiny now. And i think one of the areas theyre going to come under scrutiny is the economy. He said. Its the economy stupid. Well inflation is at its lowest level for nearly three years. The tories there could say theyve steadied the ship. We are staring down the barrel of tax cuts. But if you vote laboun of tax cuts. But if you vote labour, non doms and vat on private schools probably wont cut it, youll probably end up with im just reading this off here. More inheritance tax, more Capital Gains cutting tax relief on pensions contributions, battering second home owners and even introducing a wealth tax. Hed vote for that. But thats not whats going to happen. You know, the labour party has been absolutely clear. We know weve got the biggest tax burden since the second world war. We know thats hitting people hard and were not going to commit to, you know , huge spending increases backed up , huge spending increases backed p by , huge spending increases backed up by tax rises. The only way were going to get the level of pubuc were going to get the level of public spending that we need is through improved Economic Growth and therefore stability, ending the chaos. A huge House Building programme to kick start the economy is part of the way that we get that. But also tobias talks about division. You know, talks about division. You know, David Campbell bannerman, the voice of the grassroots coming on your programme the day the Prime Minister calls the general election and massively criticising him. The tory party criticising him. The tory party is riven from top to bottom. The pubuc is riven from top to bottom. The public recognises that and thats why. And its part of the thats why. And its part of the reason that were going to get lauren. Im going to ask you to sell the conservative party now, if you dont mind , to our to our to you dont mind, to our to our to our viewers, to our listeners, because , you know, its looking because, you know, its looking like a tricky job at the moment. I actually think that youre not entirely wrong. I think labour are going to come into power if they do come into power and revert to type and say that theyre going to start taxing, that theyre going to introduce a wealth tax, i think theyre going to have enormous pressure on trying to change how taxation is, is weighted within the United Kingdom between generations, which isnt necessarily a bad thing, but i think that labour are going to , think that labour are going to, revert to what they always do, which is to end up with a higher tax burden. And the one weve got at the moment is unsustainable. Anyway, this is the biggest im really sorry, im going to cut across to you because i have just received a message from our Political Editor, Christopher Hope. So Political Editor, Christopher Hope. So strap yourselves in here, extraordinary. But true. Some furious conservative mps are tonight working on a plot to call off the general election by replacing rishi sunak as leader before parliament is dissolved next thursday. One rebel tory mp tells me. Thats Christopher Hope that he believes several more letters of no confidence in sunak have been submitted to graham brady. Today. The mp , graham brady. Today. The mp, whos unnamed, says today has clearly been an absolute disaster but the election is not irrevocable. Up until the point of the dissolution of parliament, when the writs are moved to begin the contest, it can still be aborted. In other words, if enough tory mps who are clearly going to lose their seats in this already utterly shambolic campaign write to Sir Graham Brady tomorrow. The election could still be revoked. Lauren, your reaction. Lauren, your reaction. I dont know about the 22 rules on once an election has been called and versus versus when dissolution actually shows up because one is one is a parliamentary procedure and one is a conservative party procedure. And they may actually be in some conflict there. I do, however, think that once an election announcement comes, everybodys got to start rowing in the same direction. We cant use this as an opportunity to fight like ferrets in a sack, because no ones going to vote for us. And its really stupid things with respect, it looks like its happening really, really dumb to go down that road because all that ends up happening is you look like you cant run the country. Combat, chaos and division demonstrated before our eyes and the cut through phrase in Keir Starmers press conference this afternoon was country first, party second. And what weve seen from the tory party over the last 14 years is party first every time. Okay, right. Both of you, thank you. And sorry to spring that little bit of breaking news on it. But theres the joy of live television. On a general election announcement evening, isnt it, both of you. Thank you very much. Really, really top drawer stuff that bill rammell there and lauren mckevitt as well. Now there is a man whose name is, well, whos not been not been as prominent as it as it might have been, but nigel farage has reacted initially. This is how this is. This is how he initially reacted. Okay, so rishi sunak standing on the steps of downing street getting rained on while steve bray screamed him through a megaphone. Here is nigels hot take. There it is, july the 4th, Independence Day in america, and for this country, deliverance day from a bunch of charlatans who call themselves conservatives but govern as big state liberals. I mean, look at it. Look at the images. The state liberals. I mean, look at it. Look at the images. The lack it. Look at the images. The lack of professionalism is unbelievable. To stand there getting soaked in the rain, to read from the notes like a robot without passion, without belief, without passion, without belief, without vim, without vigour. But it sums up 14 years of conservatism why they are going to get wiped in this election. To get wiped in this election. But what he has done, hes chosen suicide over total obliteration. Because as the months go by, it will get worse and worse and worse. No planes will go to rwanda whatsoever. Got to tell you, i dont like the look of a Labour Government one little bit. But this lot, having betrayed brexit, having betrayed everything i gave them in 2019, all the help i gave them back five years ago deserve everything that is coming to them. Wow. So that was nigel initially, just moments after rishi sunak announcing a general election and then later on gb news. He said this fight, the 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 and get this reform. Reform. Have announced a press conference at 11 am. Tomorrow. So at 11 am. Tomorrow, its looking likely that we will find out , all of looking likely that we will find out, all of us, looking likely that we will find out , all of us, whether looking likely that we will find out, all of us, whether or not nigel farage is officially back. This is going to be probably the biggest news story of the day tomorrow. Help me look ahead. Im joined now by former conservative minister Ann Widdecombe. Ann, your reaction to whether or not nigel farage will come back . Will come back . Well, he will do us a by us i mean reform a power of good. If he does come back, he will almost certainly send, you know, our percentage , which in most our percentage, which in most polls, at any rate, is now well into the teens, he will undoubtedly add a few percent of that, he will invigorate the campaign. He will be a huge campaign. He will be a huge challenge to both conservative and labour. So i very much hope he does, but even if he doesnt, reform will now go full steam ahead. I mean, all that sunak has done today , apart from has done today, apart from apparently demonstrating that there was no such thing as an umbrella in downing street, are all hes actually done today, is to hand the opposition power six months before he had to. And if anybody understands that dont. Okay. I mean, some people will say, look , rishi sunak has will say, look, rishi sunak has got inflation down to his lowest levels in nearly three years. The economy is looking in better shape than it has done for a little while, hes also got the visa dependence, the number of people, bringing family visas, i suppose you could call it. Thats down. Were expecting the net migration figures out tomorrow. Theres no way. I mean, touch wood, touch everything. Theres no way everything. Theres no way theyre going to be higher than theyre going to be higher than they were last year or the year before or so. Maybe now is the right time. Has he even got the eu singing to his tune over rwanda . So is he going to get a better time than this , i think, better time than this, i think, no time is good for him, quite honestly, youre there saying, you know, that hes got inflation down and the economy is much better than it was, than it was when i mean, during covid, immediately after covid. Of course, its better now , than of course, its better now, than it was then. And as for rwanda , it was then. And as for rwanda, honestly, patrick, im tired of heanng honestly, patrick, im tired of hearing about rwanda. I believe it when the planes take off. Yeah, no, i think i think thats fair enough, to be honest. And actually, rishi sunak started his speech today. Am in the driving rain. Okay. And he then decided to start it by, talking about that time that the government locked us all down in relentlessly and shattered the economy with some of the decisions that were being made there by the likes of chris whitty, etc. What a way to launch an election campaign. What do you make of that . Well , as i what do you make of that . Well, as i say, you what do you make of that . Well , as i say, you know, well, as i say, you know, i didnt find that a performance impressive on several levels, but if i were going into an election campaign, i would be talking about all the positive, and what, what i intended to do , and what, what i intended to do, and what, what i intended to do, and i can only assume that hes rather short of those. Rather short of those. I mean, one of the big noises out tonight, and i am just going to reiterate this, because this this is just coming through to us here gbnews so forgive me as i read this again, but this is from our Political Editor , from our Political Editor, Christopher Hope. Okay. And it is absolutely extraordinary what he is saying and that there is a currently a coup going on to try to stop the general election from taking place. I mean, that is remarkable stuff. Conservative mps submitting letters to graham brady, having had submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 22 committee, he says extraordinary , if true. Says extraordinary, if true. Some furious conservative mps are working tonight on a plot, to call off the general election. He doesnt say if true, he says it is true. So it is this is true, Christopher Hope. Hes always bang on the money and hes saying that they are desperately trying to stop the election. Election. Well, i mean, first of all, you say its remarkable. It should be remarkable. But its so entirely typical of all the infighting thats gone on and all the undermining of rishi sunak position thats gone on oven sunak position thats gone on over, you know, the last couple of years, that is not remarkable at all. Its almost predictable, but it just shows you what an utterly chaotic circus they are, and the only choice , if it were and the only choice, if it were just keir starmer is choice between chaos and no policies at all. Yeah look, let me stick with this breaking line that were getting here gbnews from our political edhon here gbnews from our Political Editor, which is there is an ongoing plot to call off the election. I think i might know why. I think we all probably know why, but heres how many seats each party is projected to win. If the general election was held today , labour 443, held today, labour 443, conservatives 124. Lib dems 43. The snp 19. Greens two. Let me the snp19. Greens two. Let me reiterate that labour 443 seats, the conservatives to down 124, the conservatives to down 124, the lib dems on 40, the snp on 19, the greens on two. Is that why the tories want to call it off, ann . Well, almost certainly because, as ive said, hes just handing power to the opposition, you know, six months before he actually has it. And so i can imagine that tories who are about to lose their seats, lose their livelihoods, probably do think, well, you know , we should think, well, you know, we should have another six months. But i mean, the idea that you can stop a Prime Minister calling a general election is, is far fetched. So the majority for labour, there will be 236. Apparently. Thats my math isnt great, but thats what i believe it is. It will be a 236 seat majority for the labour party, which is apparently why now, if you are just joining us, there is an ongoing plot, apparently to submit enough letters to Sir Graham Brady to call this election off and with respect, this is the exact kind of chaos that when we compare this with the way that sir keir starmer deau the way that sir keir starmer dealt with todays announcement, he was standing in a room. He he was standing in a room. He had the two union flags behind him. He was dry there was nobody shouting through a megaphone with him as well. And he had a very simple message and it was a one word thing on a plinth that just said change and, and i wonder if theyve actually got that better than the tories on this. I have got it better than the tories, but that doesnt take much doing, does it . Hey, starmer doesnt offer change, every policy and i could go through them yet again. Every policy that hes announced, hes reversed. Sometimes in very short order indeed. He doesnt stand for change. Reform alone stands for real change. The question is , will people have question is, will people have the courage to go down that route . Okay and a lot of people will be saying now, and indeed, i do know a lot of conservative voters that do say with absolute respect, ann, that there is no point bothering to vote for reform. Weve had richard tice making his election announcement from what looked like a hotel room today. You are going to hand the keys to the labour party, arent you . So whats the point of voting reform, am i right . Let me just spell it out. Let me just spell it out. Vote tory, get starmer, vote starmer , get starmer, vote for starmer, get starmer, vote for real change. Vote for reform and you get reform. As i say, its a question of people now finding the courage to do it. But the idea that reform is going to cost the tories the election when they cannot beat starmer anyway, is just ridiculous. Anyway, is just ridiculous. And thank you very, very much. That is that is Ann Widdecombe there reacting to a heck of a lot of news. Im just going to reiterate to everybody at home this breaking announcement from our political edhon announcement from our Political Editor. Okay, extraordinary but true. Some furious conservative mps just not working on a plot to call off the general election by replacing rishi sunak as leader before parliament is dissolved next thursday. Christopher hope is bang on it. We will keep you right up to date here. Now when i return after the weather, im going to have a very special guest. We have a very special guest. We have a very special guest. We have got a labour frontbencher, its Jonathan Reynolds and i think its fair to say hes got a heck of a lot to answer for as this general election gets going. Today is the day people, lets do it. Lets do it. That warm feeling inside from boxt boilers sponsors of weather on. Gb news. On. Gb news. Hello. Good evening. Heres your latest gb news weather update brought to you by the met office. Its been a very wet day for many of us today , and the for many of us today, and the rain is going to continue for many parts as we go overnight. All this unsettled weather is in association with an area of low pressure that is gradually making its way northwestwards, but its progressing pretty slowly and the rain as a result is going to linger across many northern parts of the uk as we go through this evening and overnight, its going to be heavy and persistent for many parts, which is why were going to continue to see rainfall totals building up, leading to some issues. Temperatures arent some issues. Temperatures arent going to drop a huge amount because of the unsettled weather, even in the south, where its going to be largely dry, likely to stay in double digits as we go through tomorrow. Then a bit of a north south split across northern parts. It is going to be wet and well see rain through the morning. Two the rain doesnt look like it will be as heavy as through today, but because of the high rainfall totals weve seen recently, there could be some further issues making flooding a little bit worse in some places. Also, heavy rain across parts of eastern northern ireland, Northern England and north wales in particular. Like i said, some further ongoing issues, some more disruption to travel possible a drier story further south. Quite cloudy through the morning though i am expecting some bright or sunny spells to develop as we head into the afternoon , particularly into the afternoon, particularly across parts of east anglia and southeast england. Here theres a good chance of seeing some sunshine and in the sunshine here it should feel pleasantly warm. Temperatures likely to peak just about in the low 20s towards the southeast. Further north and west, where you have the rain, temperatures will be suppressed. Some places staying in single digits. And watch out for some blustery winds towards the northwest as we look towards friday, and there will still be some further outbreaks of rain, especially across northern parts. Though these look fairly light and there will be some dry spells in between. Further south, likely to stay mostly dry, and there may even be some bright or sunny spells developing. Saturday looks set to be the driest and sunniest day of the weekend, before a bit more rain on sunday for many. See you later looks like things are heating up. Boxt boilers sponsors of weather on. Gb news. Weather on. Gb news. Welcome back to a very special episode of Patrick Christys tonight here on gb news. Its a massive show for a massive day. The general election is on. Its on on july the 4th. There is a heck of a lot to pick the bones out of , lot to pick the bones out of, but were going to start with labour because were joined now by shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds. Jonathan, look, thank you very much for joining us tonight a big day. Its fair to say can i just start now because labour are going to be scrutinised in a way that perhaps, maybe they havent been previously. Can i start with you on immigration . When it comes to things like rwanda, eu countries are looking to copy us now, 15 of them. If labour decides to stop rwanda, does that not make us look ridiculous . And look like brexit . Britain doesnt care about controlling our borders. About controlling our borders. No it doesnt. And good evening. It has been quite an evening. It has been quite an interesting day, hasnt it . No. Look on illegal immigration, right. Its an incredibly serious issue. And the choice that the election, because it is a big choice election is whether you want gimmicks, whether you want a huge amount of money wasted on things that will make no impact on it. I mean, the government got 100,000 people nearly in hotels, costing £8 million a day. If they take 300 of those people to rwanda for half £1 billion, that doesnt fix the problem. Well take that resource. Well put it into the resource. Well put it into the proper Border Command that is necessary to have the real action against criminal gangs that are behind this and really enforcing it. If youre spending so much money on illegal immigration, on something which is not going to make any substantial difference, that is completely unjustifiable. So its one of the choices people will have in this election. And to be frank, youll see this across a whole range of areas. If people are happy with how things are at the minute, of course they will stick with rishi sunak and the conservative party. But if they want something different, something better, if they want change, its a vote for labour that will do that. And labour can say, we can say we can be the change the country needs because we look at how weve changed since 2019, look at how weve had the humility to respond to that record defeat and be competitive. Now theres a long way to go , but we can be proud way to go, but we can be proud of where weve got to, and we can be the change. Can i just say, i know youre very keen to say that. I do suspect, mr reynolds, that one thing youre less keen to say is that currently under the illegal migration act, which was passed in july last year, it effectively bars anyone who comes to the uk illegally from claiming asylum. Well labour has apparently clarified a few weeks ago that those people potentially between 90,000, possibly 115,000, will be entitled to claim asylum. Can you confirm that . You confirm that . Well, whats the alternative . Keeping them in hotels at the cost of £80 million, £8 million a day, indefinitely . Theyre going to have to reply. And if they havent got a right to be in the uk, theyve got to go. And if they have a right to be in the uk, if were going to accept those people, we can integrate them into British Society and they can benefit from putting Something Back into the uk rather than just be that mean the Halfway House we have at the minute. So its about a serious policy rather than a gimmick that will make no difference and cost the country a lot of money. That serious policy, though, mr reynolds, does mean that the asylum backlog is probably going to increase almost overnight by around 90,000 people, though, doesit around 90,000 people, though, does it not . Under a Labour Government . Government . Well, it means that we would have a huge amount of money that were not going to spend on rwanda because the costs of that have already gone to over half a billion pounds. And we can put it into the kinds of things that will make a difference. And crucially, patrick, we can say if youre spending under the conservative party £8 million a day, you can take some of that money and employ caseworkers, process those claims, get people integrated if they should be here, if theyve got a right to be here, and if they havent, theyve got to leave. The alternative. Just having people at a huge cost to the uk without ever resolving the issue is just not a serious approach. But that is the approach, as you say, the conservative party have taken at the minute. All right. I just want to whiz it over to Foreign Policy now, if thats all right, because david lammy essentially would support calls to have Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the icc decides that labour also i was hearing today, is quite keen on recognising the palestinian state, a free palestine that Salman Rushdie said would be a terrorist state is a vote for labour, a vote to make an enemy of israel . Make an enemy of israel . And no, its not. And its very clear to say that what david lammy has actually said is we support international institutions, whether thats the United Nations or the International Criminal court. Its not for ourselves to make ourselves part of those deliberations, but we support the rule of law internationally as a as a country. The uk has always supported those institutions because we recognise thats in our interest to do so. And when it comes to israel and the palestinians, what we want to see is a real Peace Process. We want to see a two state solution based on 1967 borders, land swaps between those two countries, an agreement on jerusalem, an agreement on jerusalem, an agreement on jerusalem, an agreement on the right of return. How could you do that as a government if benjamin is a Peace Process, how could you . How could you do that if, as a government, you, you know, if you win the next election , you you win the next election, you would be supportive of calls for Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested and potentially sent to the hague if he ever stepped foot in britain. Well, the agreement, the bafis well, the agreement, the basis of any peaceful resolution to conflict, is always got to be the rule of law. So i cant ask you the question the other way round. I cant see how you could propose a long term peace settlement in the middle east if it wasnt going to be underpinned by International Law, by partners agreeing security and respect for palestinians and israelis alongside each other. Lets not forget, this is this is a conflict which is not a zero sum game. What israel needs is a is a palestinian state alongside it that gives it security and a long term peace settlement. The palestinians need their own state and dignity too. So that has got to be the basis of a Peace Process and an International Law has surely got to be the basis by which those two sides agree to do that. Are you worried about losing the muslim vote . I take nothing for granted when it comes to any community now. I think in any part of the uk , from the top of scotland to uk, from the top of scotland to cornwall, labour is the only competitive party. The only party that can say if you want a change from the present government, were your vehicle to do that, but we will take seriously and always take seriously and always take seriously the needs and concerns of every community. Because, lets be frank, weve had all these opinion polls, not a single vote has been cast and will not be cast for a long penod will not be cast for a long period of time. So we will take absolutely nothing for granted. But we will campaign for the bafis but we will campaign for the basis of the change the uk needs. Okay. And look just to, to okay. And look just to, to bnng okay. And look just to, to bring us, bring us back extra domestic. Now labour apparently wants to make it easier to change gender, a vote for labour is a vote for more blokes in womens changing rooms. Is it . Womens changing rooms. Is it . No. I think we want to treat every community in the uk with dignity and respect. We are dignity and respect. We are committed to single sex spaces. We think thats an important part as it is already under the equality act. So we arent proposing any changes there. But as a conversation , as a as a as a conversation, as a as a part of a general election campaign, i would hope everyone, politicians and broadcasters would treat every community with the respect that surely they all deserve, okay. Look, just on the economy , inflation is now at its economy, inflation is now at its low. I suspect this might be one of the reasons why rishi sunak decided to call this election in the driving rain outside downing street, while steve bray screamed at him, by the way. But inflation is now at its lowest level for around three years anyway. It could be argued, couldnt it, that the tories have steadied the ship a bit here . That the end of record taxation is in sight . We can practically smell the money that. But to meet your spending commitments, as i understand it, i dont think that non doms and vat on private schools is going to cut it. Okay, there is a fear that you might smash, you know, with inheritance tax, with Capital Gains tax, with cutting tax relief on pensions contributions, battering second home owners, introducing a wealth tax. Are you going to make us poorer . Make us poorer . No, we have taxes at historically high levels under the conservative party and quite poor Public Services at the same time. Thats because the economy hasnt grown anything like anyone would have wanted it to grow for the last 14 years. On things like business investment, on productivity. Theyve dropped off a cliff in the last 14 years. That is why people at the end of this parliament will be worse off than they were at the beginning, and theres no way to avoid that. That is the conservative record on the economy. We have ruled out all of the things that youve just said. We have put forward where we want to see improvements, switch spends. So, yes, to employ 6500 additional teachers in state schools, we will charge vat and Business Rates on private education. Thats a very small part of the population. Its a pragmatic response to putting more money into state education. We will not have the big loopholes in the change. On the non dom taxation policy. The government have had. You cant put your foreign assets into trust under labour and therefore theres more revenue that will pay theres more revenue that will pay for the 40,000 extra nhs procedures every week that will be available under a Labour Government. We will do some some government. We will do some some changes to how private Equity Income is taxed to provide, again, an improvement in Public Services. More support for young people in terms of Mental Health in schools and breakfast homes. In schools and breakfast homes. But these are the these are the choices that will be available. These are switch spins of things we would do differently that would bring about an immediate improvement. I know some people, quite a lot of people actually will say, look, there are so many problems in the uk right now. How can anyone make a difference . How can any general election or politics make a difference . Well, i think you do that by showing those practical first steps you would take. Weve got six in the labour party. They include the things ive just mentioned and thats how we will start. Youve pre empted youve pre empted national renewal, which is so essential youve pre empted my final question to you and thank you very much for your time, but i im going to ask to ask, can you do one better than wes streeting . Come on, give us the give us the six pledges. Well, they are first of all, economic stability. So we never repeat the disaster of liz truss. The second first step is the 40,000 extra nhs procedures every week. The third procedure is the pledge on illegal immigration, which weve just discussed on this. The fourth is switching on gb energy. Really switching on gb energy. Really excited by this. A new state Energy Company working with the private sector on those energy things. The fifth is tackling anti social behaviour because well do the Police Efficiency programme more Police Officers and pc s ors and the 60s. The 6500 teachers, the sixth well get under a Labour Government. Thank you. All right thank you. All right jonathan, look, thank you very much, mr reynolds. Great to have you on the show. And no doubt you on the show. And no doubt well be talking to you a bit more over the next six weeks. Take care. All right. That is the shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds there. Fair play Jonathan Reynolds there. Fair play to him, i must say, for at least getting at least getting all of those six. Right. Okay so its on. Its happening. The election has been called and we will have a general election on the 4th of july. This election will take place at a time when the world is more dangerous than it has been since the end of the cold war. Keir starmer immediately hit back night. The Prime Minister has finally announced the next general election, a moment the country needs and has been waiting for. June. July the 4th is the date that britain decides. But is this the right time to call it . Lets have a little look, shall we . Rishi sunak is expecting flights to rwanda to take off the ground in the first week of july, and now european nafions week of july, and now european nations are copying us. Indeed, what weve just seen in the last few weeks is 15 eu countries actually all making the same point that thats what this this requires. Thats why our rwanda scheme is so important. Well, the tories have apparently deported 10,000 people back to their home country. Thats 2000 up on this time last year on the economy. Inflation has fallen to its lowest level in almost three years. Our economy is now growing faster than anyone predicted, outpacing germany, france and the united states. And this morning it was confirmed that inflation is back to normal. This means that the pressure on pnces this means that the pressure on prices will ease and Mortgage Rates will come down. This is proof that the plan and priorities i set out are working on legal immigration. Today, it was announced that there has been an 80 fall in students bringing their dependents over. Good. Theres been a 58 fall in care workers bringing their dependents over. Good tomorrow the net migration numbers will be revealed and its expected that those numbers will be much lower than the figure of 672,000 last year. Although many people will still think that is way too high. Sunak will have looked at what the labour party has done this week. And you heard me questioning Jonathan Reynolds on some of this stuff earlier on. Theyve decided essentially to make an enemy of israel. Some would say labours position is that the decision by the International Criminal court chief prosecutor to apply for arrest warrants is an indication that matter for the court and the prosecutor, and labour believes that the uk and all parties to the rome statute have a legal obligation to comply with orders and warrants issued by the court. Labour wants to make it easier for people to change gender. This means that rishi sunak can go to the polls and tell you, the voter, that a vote for labour is a for vote more blokes in womens changing rooms. But with all of these polling companies, look at that list. Theyre putting labour ahead of the tories and the latest poll showing that labour has a 17 point lead over the conservatives. Rishi sunak certainly has a mountain to climb. And so we have a little reminder there it is of how that climb started. Rishi sunak standing , getting soaked in the standing, getting soaked in the driving rain while someone down drowned out his speech with the song. Things can only get better. And this morning it was confirmed that inflation is back to normal. To normal. Well, lets have a little compare, shall we, to keir starmer , a lectern with the word starmer, a lectern with the word change on it inside and two union flags clearly audible. Union flags clearly audible. Most importantly of all, we do all this with a new spirit of service as country, first, party second. Well, the question is all this really, arent they . Hows rishi sunak pick the right moment to call an election or has he lost it before . Its even started . Lets get the thoughts from our panel. Weve got the director of popular conservatives, mark littlewood, businessman and activist adam brooks , an author and brooks, an author and journalist, rebecca reid. And i journalist, rebecca reid. And i am actually tempted to start, by the way, with with that breaking news that we had earlier from our Political Editor, Christopher Hope. And ill put this to you, mark. Apparently there is an ongoing plot by conservatives to stop this election. Yeah. I mean, this sounds ludicrous to me as i understand the rules. You could still the rules. You could still trigger a leadership election in the conservative party i mean, it would be a death wish of all death wishes. Now, rishi has called the election, but to achieve that, youd need 53. I think it is. Conservative mps would have to write a letter to graham brady. They still have the technical ability to do that. They would then be a vote of no confidence that sunak would almost certainly win overwhelmingly. So its not just triggering the 53 to call that no confidence motion. You then no confidence motion. You then need 175 to go along with this plan. They have nowhere near plan. They have nowhere near that level of support. So i think actually if this gets off the ground any more than it already has, it makes the conservative party and the plotters look even more preposterous. If people had wanted to get rid of rishi sunak, they needed to do this 6 or 12 months ago. And there has never been sufficient support to even trigger a contest, were warned. They were warned. You know how bad things are going to get under rishi, right . But im just saying they could have i mean, its required 53 tory mps at any time to trigger that contest, then about 170 to remove the leader of the party. You cant try doing this on the day the leaders called an election. When you look at when you listen to Jonathan Reynolds, so confident and competent and quiet and gentle and thoughtful, can i just look at that . And i look at this silly, child like nonsense. Yeah, right. I get that he was able to talk. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, by the way , the which is, by the way, the least tsitsipas. And he does seem like quite a nice chap. All right. Having not actually met him personally. One thing i will say, though, is he wasnt particularly strong at all when it came to the gender stuff, which is going to play a big part if the conservatives get their backside in gear and decide to do something on that, its not the platform and labour are going to have an Asylum Seeker amnesty essentially for about 90 odd thousand, save money in the long term, but is better to do that. And then the problem, the problem is of course, theyre all going to be brain surgeons, are they . Youve got a what . So sorry. People who are brown cant be brain surgeons. No muslim people from other countries cant be brain surgeons. I was in the middle of it to make people. I was in the middle of a list arade dam i hadnt finished my list. You always try to make people look like theyre racist or homophobic in the middle of a do it to me every week. Now youre doing it to patrick. Its a bad, bad trade. Every week i try and make you seem homophobic or racist. Lets deal with them every week. Lets deal with the m atter. Matter. Why would that be easy . Why would that be easy . Lets deal with the matter in hand. Which is which is what we were saying there, really. Which is that its all very well and good. Keir starmer having some of these six pledges. However, there are concerns and Jonathan Reynolds was not necessarily able to just swat away things that people will care about, which which is the Asylum Seeker backlog. I think even you couldnt help liking him in that interview. The problem is he hasnt got 13 years of failure behind him. Hes got a blank slate and whatever your Party Politics are, its got to be easier to have a clean, blank, fresh piece of paper, which is what theyve got now. And if i think im asking you this because i think youd represent a huge amount of our viewers and listeners, and i dont mind saying that is one of the main reasons, apart from the fact that we just like you generally that we get get you on this show all the time. How are you going to vote at the minute . I do not trust said it last week. I do not trust the tories and i do not trust labour for many reasons. Im going to vote green, arent you, at the moment i cant bring myself to vote, which is a terrible thing, because then i cant moan about what happens in the future. I think you will anyway , what i think you will anyway, what i do believe is that the Political Class of this country forgot that they are meant to represent us. They suddenly started believing over the last four years that they control us. Its gone to their heads. These. Theres so many arrogant, power hungry people now in our parliament. People like myself and many others that i speak to have lost all trust in uk politics. Now, you know, reform of set up. And i like a lot of things that they say, are they ready to get my vote at the moment . No theyre not. Were in a dire state in this country and no one trusts. Well, the majority of people i speak to do not trust uk politicians. Okay, well, look, rishi sunak has had mixed success with his five pledges, but at least he has kept one promise. So look, my working assumption is well have a general election in the second half of this year. And in the meantime, ive got lots that i want to get on with. I said in january, my working assumption is that the election will be in the second half of the year. Ive said what ive said about an election multiple times before. My working and working assumption is for an election in the second half of the year. Spoiler alert there is going to be a general election in the second half of this year. Well, it is in the second half of this year. Is the timing right, mark . Well, i mean, as i was saying, at the top of the show, patrick, i think it probably would have been better to wait till november, but probably also wouldnt have made much difference. It would have required Something Big to come along in. In the meantime, it is in the second half of next year by four days, right . I mean actually a bit less than that because february is a short month. Hes kept his promise by 72 hours. Otherwise it would have been in the early part of the im not im not too sure hes got the timing right, but look whats going to happen. You were brilliant at asking Jonathan Reynolds to recount the six pledges. Believe me, in a couple of weeks time they will be ear worming in your head. You will be bored of them over and over again. This is whats going to happen. The labor party is going to try and essentially bore people into submission, saying virtually nothing, and hope that disillusionment with the conservative is sufficient to get them over the line. Thats their strategy. The conservative tvs have got to lay a glove on the labour party, which they have not done a very good job in recent weeks and months, and to sort of have some fear about what a change of government might bring about. Thats what were going to see for the next 44 days. I think the gap will close from the polls today. I really do think it will. Lets just remember, the viewers will remember and they know this, that a lot of our economic worries and our troubles are because of covid. Now, during covid, our government become all authoritarian. They started shutting down businesses and telling us to stay at home. That has caused a lot of our problems. One government minister said to me , admitted to minister said to me, admitted to me last year we went too far and fair enough. But labour wanted harder , longer lockdowns. Labour harder, longer lockdowns. Labour would have punished us as people far worse during covid. So again, i wont be voting for ehhen again, i wont be voting for either. But how bad is it going to get under a Labour Government . All right , well, government . All right, well, ill tell you what, rebecca. What ill do is im going to read out keir starmer six pledges. Now well just get your take on them. Pick pick them through them, all of that stuff, so weve got sir keir starmer six pledges unveiled last week. Deliver economic stability , cut nhs economic stability, cut nhs waiting times, launch a new Border Security command, set up Great British energy and crackdown on anti social crackdown on anti social behaviour crackdown on anti social behaviour , and recruit 6500 behaviour, and recruit 6500 teachers. Was is there a concern that over the next six weeks hes going to have to flesh this stuff out and were going to have to see a lot more policy and a lot more things that the labour party gets picked apart in a way that theyve not done so far, because theyve not really been clear on things. I dont think so, because i think when jonathan was talking before he, he, he extrapolated very compellingly and stuff like the 6000, 6500 teachers, theyve costed it out and they believe that that will come from vat, from private schools. Now, its actually difficult to tell how many people will actually take their children out of private school. But for instance, to one, might i finish a sentence just for once . This evening . I, for instance, would have sent my child possibly to private school, possibly. But under the under these plans i wouldnt. Under a Labour Government, i wouldnt and i wouldnt need to. So i think there are more people whose children wont start it, so that will take a bit longer. But obviously lots of parents dont want to disrupt their childrens education. Everybodys First Priority is their childrens, enjoyment of their childrens, enjoyment of their education. Totally. So if you go through, they can explain how theyre going to cost these things out. And it does seem to make sense. Obviously, some of it is guesswork because theyre not in power yet, but it does seem compelling at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. Now look, im just having this fed through to me here. Now, just a reminder for you that about 20 minutes ago, we brought you that breaking news from our Political Editor, Christopher Hope, which is that apparently there is a plot by some conservative mps disgruntled conservative mps, to try to stop this general election by submitting enough letters of no confidence into the Prime Minister. I have another piece of information to bnng another piece of information to bring you now on. Its on something slightly different, but it is, of course, election related. This is whats just been reported right now, this minute in the times, rishi sunak will challenge sir keir starmer to as many tv debates as possible over the course of the election campaign. No decision has been made on the number and the format of these debates, but both parties have privately agreed in principle to participate. Ill carry on participate. Ill carry on through this. The tories are keener than labour for several debates, apparently largely because they are behind in the polls. So they have more to gain, and they believe that sunak will outperform starmer. Labour wants to limit the number of debates to 1 or 2, and will probably insist that they are head to head events, rather than including other party leaders. I think this is a fascinating little snippet of information thats coming out now. This is looking like the format of the tv debates over the course of the next six weeks. Labour apparently want just 1 or 2. They want them to be head to head. The they want them to be head to head. The tories seem to be saying well just do as many as possible all the time. Mark. Well, as many as possible. I suppose you could do three a day, right . You could do 100 or more, youre quite right, though. The reading here would be, generally speaking, in all elections in all countries , if elections in all countries, if youre a long way ahead, you dont want to take risks. Thats what ive said. Labour will do for the next 44 days. They will try to get through these seven weeks without saying anything. Basically from sunaks point of view, hes decided to spin the wheel on going early. He wants to spin the wheel as many times as possible. I think he might do quite well in those debates and, you know, because going back to rebeccas earlier point, because hes starting from a low base, so id expect there to be more than two. By the way, the interesting thing is how can they keep out all of the minor parties . I mean, i dont think any other party is consistently going to be in a platform with nigel farage. No, they sure dont. Thats the thing. And no other party, i think, is polling consistently more than about 11. So they might be able to get away with that as well. Theyll probably be a Minor Party Debate for broadcasters. But if i was running the conservative comms machine, id be trying to go for six debates and hoping i could get 3 or 4. I would say i think theres a mistake on two fronts. One is that on six you lose your viewership very, very quickly because it will be mostly the same stuff. You want Event Television and you want to really smash it once, maybe twice. But also keir starmer is a very, very sharp legal mind. This is what he did for a living. For years he was a prosecutor. So i think the idea that he wouldnt be good in a debate might be misplaced. And i think he is more limited at pmqs. I think you might find him very good, but the point that rebecca is not so much the nerds like me who will watch every minute of every debate. Yeah, its whether and you might be right. Perhaps starmer will not make a single error, but were he to drop the ball. Yeah, you get that one bad one over and over and over again, even if nobody for me, i think its obvious. The bad, the bad stuff about the tories is already baked in. People have made their minds up. Whats bad about the tories . Labour have been very quiet on certain things and if they get exposed on tv , on immigration, exposed on tv, on immigration, on the gender nonsense, it could blow up to a huge audience. Well, i think the Foreign Policy thing as well. Ill be honest with you. You know, i really do think that the Foreign Policy thing, especially when it comes to, when it comes to whats going on in israel at the moment, whether or not labouris the moment, whether or not labour is seen to be caving in to the quotes on quotes, muslim vote, the pro palestine law, it was really interesting, actually, that one of the key figures behind the muslim vote, and i say that i mean literally the organisation called the muslim vote. Co. Uk. Okay, as soon as keir starmer, came out and did his speech, they quote, tweeted it and above that it said the muslim vote starts now. Let me just put these to you. So these are rishi sunaks five pledges. Were talking about that line thats just come out right now, which is that apparently rishi sunak wants as many tv debates as possible. Here are his five pledges. Halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists. Stop the boats. Adam. Has he done any of those things that were seeing on our screen now . For you remind the viewers that halving inflation is nothing to do with what this government has done. Thats external markets, that supply chains. Thats not what the governments done. So we cant governments done. So we cant take credit for that. Growing the economy. No. Hes fouled debt falling im not sure on the numbers waiting lists have got got worse. Yeah. And small boats. Its rubbed in our faces every day. Illegal immigrants are coming over here and gaining our system. Will it get worse under labour . Probably, yes. Have have the tories done anything about it . No. Okay. All right. Now, now , okay. All right. Now, now, look, it really was a tale of two election speeches. All right, lets just remind ourselves of a couple of things. Here was a absolute drenched to the bone rishi sunak outside. Ten downing street earlier today. Now, i cannot and will not claim that we have got everything right. No government should. But i am proud of what we have achieved together, the bold actions we have taken. And im confident about what we can do in the future. Now im sorry, but if youre going to call the election on the steps of downing street and its absolutely throwing it down, get an umbrella, get a canopy. If you cant organise like your bang in trouble, or maybe do it inside, dare i say it a little bit like sir keir starmer, who was standing in front of a podium that spelled one word change, a rejection of the gesture. Politics you will see in this campaign, i have no doubt from the tories and the snp. Im well aware of the cynicism some people hold towards politicians at the moment. People hold towards politicians at the moment. Service of people hold towards politicians at the moment. Service of our country is the reason and the only reason why i am standing here now asking for your vote. Okay, so joining me now is the conservative mp for morley and outwood. It is Dame Andrea Jenkins. Dame andrea, thank you very much. The breaking news very much. The breaking news that we are getting here gbnews from our Political Editor is that there is a coup taking place, an attempt by conservative mps to stop this general election. Is that true , general election. Is that true, im not sure. To be honest, patrick, i havent had these conversations, not for a few weeks myself , i, not for a few weeks myself, i, i think its too late now. I mean, i put my letter in in november and as you know, i announced it on your your show , actually, on your your show, actually, patrick and i said, then come on, get your letters in. I think theyve left it too late. I mean, how as mark just said, how the heck can you change leader when the elections called . I mean, rishi, is being very clever , wasnt he, the very clever, wasnt he, the protocol normally is that you announce an election like boris did, and then you, go to the king, but he did it the other way around. So, before the letters, went in, so, so thats a really fascinating point. So rishi sunak went to the king before he announced the election. You think to make sure. Lets bring the tweet up that weve got here from from Christopher Hope. All right. Some furious conservative mps are tonight working on a plot to call off the general election by replacing rishi sunak as leader before parliament has been dissolved. He believes several dissolved. He believes several more letters of no confidence have been submitted. And so he have been submitted. And so he went to the king. You think, before announcing it deliberately to try to stop his own mps from ousting him . I mean, what a way to start an election campaign. I mean, i, i mean, i cant guarantee that, but i mean , guarantee that, but i mean, thats certainly one way to do it, isnt it . But i think now, patrick, weve got to take the fight to labour. Im seriously worried about a Labour Government. I think this is an government. I think this is an election, of a of a generation. Its a most important election of a generation. This and im going to fight tooth and nail to stop a starmer led Labour Government because look, weve seen hes a man who kneels. Hes a man who is so low key , he, he a man who is so low key, he, he doesnt know what a woman is. Doesnt know what a woman is. Hes trying to get corbyn into number 10. Like youve said. And number 10. Like youve said. And look how he bowed to the pro palestinian mob, and put pressure on the speaker. I mean, i was bobbing in pmqs today. Patrick. I didnt get in unfortunate. And i was going to ask a question on this. Weve seen whats happened today with ireland, with, spain and norway. Ireland, with, spain and norway. And i wanted to say to the Prime Minister, can we make sure that britain will never bow to terrorism , but i dont think we terrorism, but i dont think we can guarantee that with a starmer led Labour Government. What do you make of the way that rishi sunak decided to actually announce this election today, then . I mean, you know, are you are you does it fill you with confidence for what lies ahead . Why do you think he went to do it today . Some people are saying, well, you know, inflation is at its lowest level pretty much for three years. Weve got the, the visa dependent numbers. They are down. No doubt net migration will be lower than it was this time last year, although it couldnt get too much higher couldnt get too much higher could it. So you know there are some positives. Youre going to have to go out and campaign for this guy. Are you going to im going to campaign for common sense conservative and patrick, as i do in every election now, i personally wouldnt have gone now, ive, i, i even said to, the Prime Minister myself , i now, ive, i, i even said to, the Prime Minister myself, i met with him recently and i said, we need a major war cabinet reshuffle. Get some red meat. True conservatives in there, lets get, you know, a true conservative as deputy Prime Minister, and then lets have some true conservative policies and lets lower taxes further in the autumn statement, then have an election. But lets lets have a little look, shall we . If youre right, just stay with me on the line. Im going to im going to have a quick chat with you about this. And then im going to go to my panel on it, because im keen to get their views as well. So there is a massive issue with this crossover in the country at the moment with the hard left, the moment with the hard left, the pro palestine lot as well, and where labour are with that. Okay so this is this could potentially be labours reform moment. And here are some of the labour mps in seats with a large Muslim Population who are being targeted because of their abstentions on ceasefire votes. Now lets keep this on the screen. Weve got Shadow Health secretary wes streeting , weve secretary wes streeting, weve got shadow justice secretary shabana mahmood, shadow paymaster general jonathan ashworth, shadow business minister rushanara ali, this could be a problem, could it not . Dave andrea for the labour party, this is something that the tories are going to have to emphasise, isnt it . This isnt could be a problem. It is a problem for the labour party. As i said, look how we bowed to the mob and put pressure on the speaker. That was unprecedented, that is just shows you where his heart is. And as is being called in the media, is being called, on gb news slippery starmer. He is. And the whole , slogan of change. And the whole, slogan of change. But not all change is good. Change patrick and i believe a starmer led Labour Government will not be good change for our country. Weve seen this stuff going in scotland, going on in scotland. What went on in scotland. What went on in scotland with the gender stuff and i think well see it here. Patrick i think youll see seriously fear a labour led government. Government. Okay. And what what is the what is the thing you fear most . I fear , i mean, i think the i fear, i mean, i think the Prime Minister has come out strong on the Sex Education stuff, the whole trans stuff, and transitioning for children. I fear that, bowing down to the pro palestinian lobby and terrorism , i feel that and terrorism, i feel that and i also fear freedom of speech, weve seen over the years and the institutions weve got decades that have been , decades that have been, infringed on, and its going to get worse under labour. Dont forget that starmer was a human rights lawyer who has actually defended criminals from abroad to stop them being deported. Now, lets not forget his record on that. Patrick okay. Look, dame andrea, thank you very, very much as Dame Andrea Jenkins there, the conservative mp who is, at least putting forward a vision of what she thinks a Labour Government would look like versus what a tory government could look like. Now it is just gone 10 30. Its 10 32. And i have got the very first look at tomorrows newspaper front pages. Lets see how theyve dealt with this general election announcement, shall we . Here is the Daily Telegraph so if we have a look at this now sunak gambles on snap poll. Things can only get wetter they say. Plus a massive picture of rishi soon out there getting absolutely soaked to the bone. Lets go to the daily mail. Okay. We got the daily mail. Okay. We got the daily mail front page here. Now is the moment for britain to choose its future, they say, amid tory jitters over his shock, timing and an oh so british rain soaked speech , rishi seizes the speech, rishi seizes the initiative and says that voters must decide between two very different visions. I think ive got the guardian of i for you as well. There we go. Thats the guardian. Weve got sunaks big gamble and again , theres that gamble and again, theres that picture of him right outside downing street in the driving rain. Okay, well , look. Hey, rain. Okay, well, look. Hey, what a time. What a time for rishi sunak to call a general election. The tories seem to think he could improve their chances at the ballot box, but all the polling companies seem to have labour comfortably leading the tories by up to 27 points. Thats according to yougov and the very latest polls from savanta also makes for interesting reading. Okay, so here are here are the latest polls. Labour on 43. The tories on 26. The lib dems on ten. Reform on nine. The greens on five and the snp on three. Their predictions for that election show that labour, essentially a winning a landslide there. But, a majority of 236 is what labour would have. Okay. So it would be would have. Okay. So it would be 443 labour mps in total compared to the conservatives 124. And we might as well forget about the rest for now, dont we really . We welcome one of britains best known and most respected political pollsters is joe twyman, whos the co founder and director at delta poll. Joe, thank you very much. Predict the election for me, please. Well, its going to be on the 4th of july. I dont know if thats come up, but, what will actually happen . Well, as you and i have discussed on many occasions, patrick, polls are only ever a snapshot of Public Opinion at the moment. And at the moment, things look very bad for the conservatives and delta polls latest survey from monday. Labour have a 22 point lead. Labour have a 22 point lead. Good enough, as you said on the other polling as well for a landslide majority. But its the long term trends here that are really important. The conservatives have not been ahead in any published poll by deltapoll or otherwise, since the 6th of september, since the 6th of december 2021, and labour have had a double digit lead in every single poll since the 26th of september 2022. These are long standing trends, and when you look beyond voting intention, you see just the trouble that the conservatives are in on leadership. Keir starmer is nearly 30 points ahead of rishi sunak on whos doing the best job and on the economy. This all important issue for so many people, the conservatives are in dire circumstances and indeed have been now going right the way back to june 2023, before we get stuck into a little bit about what you mentioned there, when it comes to the specifics of the head to heads on the leaders and maybe some key topics as well, whos doing well on immigration, the economy, i just want to talk about the actual timing of this election. You alluded to it there. I believe weve got School Holidays at play here. I think in some areas anyway, of the country i think. Yeah, what weve got the euros, weve got the euros. So theres a lot going on here. How is that timing going to affect the turnout . People are on holidays. Good grief. Its all going on. Yeah i think well i mean various people will have , will various people will have, will have booked holidays and, and wont be here to vote, but they can of course arrange postal votes and proxies and so on and so forth. But will any of this have an impact on the overall result . I think its i think its very unlikely, but as for why call the election for the 4th of july . Well i guess thats the question that rishi sunak has to answer. And indeed , he has to answer. And indeed, he offered no explanation in his speech on the steps of downing street today, of course, the Prime Minister calls the general election when they think things will not get any better, and presumably the indication to rishi sunak is that both, from a pubuc rishi sunak is that both, from a Public Opinion point of view and also perhaps from an internal conservative party point of view, he may feel that this is the best he can manage. It might not be the best or the most convenient time for an election, but it may turn out from his perspective to be the least worst. Okay , now lets talk about okay, now lets talk about some of the quotes on quotes fringe parties here. And i have got a little bit of a clip from sir ed davey from the liberal democrats. Democrats. Across the country, people are crying out for change. And this election is the chance to make that happen. This government is out of touch. Its out of excuses and its out of time. Yes yes. And its time to get this conservative government out of office. Yes you say joe, sorry to do this again, but can i just say if people listen very closely to the start of this clip, it does sound a little bit like sir ed davey is about to get attacked by a load of apache indians. Who anyway, hows he going to do with the election . With the election . Well, the lib dems at the moment are on 10 in the in the polls, which is not great. And indeed pretty much where they were at the last election. But they think, and indeed, with some justification, believe that they can target the kind of constituencies that the conservatives have held but have struggled to hold on to in by elections where those constituencies have leant more towards the centre, or indeed even the left of the political spectrum, and particularly in those constituencies that lean towards remain in the in the brexit referendum. And so if you brexit referendum. And so if you think of those areas in the south west, for instance, where David Cameron was ruthlessly efficient in 2015 and sweeping across those areas and winning for the conservatives, the lib dems will be trying very hard in those areas, along with certain areas of to london, win back those kind of seats and build up the kind of presence that they havent had in the, in the house of commons for many years now. Now, do reform for me again. The other news this evening is that apparently nigel farage is that apparently nigel farage is sleeping on the idea that he might stand, and we are expecting some kind of announcement from reform, which we will bring to you live here on gb news at 11 am. Tomorrow. So set your timers, set your reminders on your phones, everybody watching and listening to this right now. How well will reform do . How well will reform do if nigel does stand . Well, it depends how you define how. Well, i think its very unlikely that reform will win any individual seats, even if nigel farage stands. I think its very difficult for them to win, any individual constituencies. There is no constituencies. There is no obvious area where theyre where they should do particularly well, or at least well enough to win. If you look at somewhere like blackpool south, which of course had its by election relatively recently, that is the kind of area that should be absolute prime areas for reform, given the given the demographics and the and the voting background of that area. And background of that area. And yet, though reform did well compared to the conservatives labour won by some distance. And i think that they may they may struggle in similar circumstances across the, across the country, assuming, of course, that they can get the kind of candidates that they needin kind of candidates that they need in enough seats. Joe, look , thank you very, joe, look, thank you very, very much. Youre another man who i think im going to be talking to a heck of a lot over the course of the next six weeks. So good for you. Take care. Joe twyman, theres a co founder and director of delta pole. Let me just reintroduce to the frame our wonderful panel here. Ive got director of popular conservatives mark little with businessman and activist adam brooks and author and journalist rebecca reid. The election has been announced on the fourth. Sorry for the 4th of july, but what will nigel farage do . This is what he told us here gbnews earlier. Fight the 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. About it overnight. Do you think hell do it, mark . I would have said over the last 2 or 3 weeks i expected him not to run. Hes very not to run. Hes very interested. Hes been very honest on gb news about this. He honest on gb news about this. He i think he even said hes more interested in whats happening interested in whats happening in america, where hes very close to donald trump. So i would have thought he was not going to run. I would still think, and just as weve heard from the pollster there, its hard to see a seat. He could win. He possibly could pull one off if he ran himself. And they put everything behind it. He might he might win a seat. I was leaning against him running. But here are two things that might be weighing with him. Our be weighing with him. Our election is now, surprisingly, in july. The default was our election was almost going to be the next week after the us election. So potentially that opens up a window for him. And the other thing, and im perhaps reading a bit too much into this. If hes not running, im a bit surprised that reform uk have sort of announced an announcement for 11 00 tomorrow morning. Yes, youre usually announce these sort of things if youve got sort of Something Big to say rather than say nothings happening. But on balance, i still suspect he will not run. Adam, what do you make of the idea that nigel farage could stand . Lets not underestimate how good, being on the jungle was for nigel. It opened up a new audience and showed a human side to nigel. I believe hes probably more popular now than hes ever been. I mean, you mentioned clacton. Possible. Possible seat there. Clacton if he could get a seat, then suddenly hes got some sort of influence within our parliament. I think it would be a good move for him to do it. And i think you think he will somewhere like clacton would would for vote him, i believe. And ive got relatives there. What do you reckon, Rebecca Sills nigel farage, potentially standing again. Ill just emphasise to you were expecting to hear from reform at 11 am. Tomorrow. Nigel said that he was going to sleep on it and well find out. I mean, i would have put him in the lords years ago because i think that would have calmed him down, given him some status, would it wouldnt have been a problem. Whoever didnt is an idiot. I think the issue of being an mp is that its very hard work. You actually have to show up every day. Its really quite time consuming. And if he wants to be in america schmoozing, hes a very charming, very well liked man who likes socialising and having some freedom. Its actually not a fun job. I think he might not enjoy it. Yeah i think its interesting. I thought that if it was november rishi, i thought actually that was one of the reasons why rishi sunak would do it in november. Because it would make nigel farage choose between campaigning in, you know, rainy market towns, you know, around the north of england or lets be honest with you, having a great time in america with the don. And i thought that would give him a very difficult opportunity. And now hes made his mind up for him, hasnt he . I dont know what nigel is going to do. Ive got no idea. Im not sure. At this moment in time, if nigel knows what hes going to do. But we will find out very, very shortly on gb news. Look, im just going to emphasise this. This is going to be a key driving factor. We talked about reform. Now lets talk about it from the other side. When it comes to the left wing labour, some of those labour mps let me remind you, with large Muslim Populations in their seats who are going to be absolutely battered by candidates, independent candidates or Workers Party of britain candidates who are mad at them over gaza Shadow Health secretary wes streeting, shadow justice secretary shabana mahmood, shadow paymaster general jonathan ashworth, shadow business minister rushanara ali. I think this could well be a big problem for laboun could well be a big problem for labour. Mark. Yeah, i think youre right on this. We obviously saw the first signs of it in the in the rochdale by election, right. I mean all sorts of things went wrong for labour and they dropped their own candidate. Im not suggesting theyre going to drop wes streeting from ilford or anything like that, but, its unlikely if the polls are right, that this will make a decisive difference to who forms the next government. But if you were to look a bit longer term, i think on their left flank, if they are in government, theyre going to have a huge problem. Theyve got a problem. Okay, rachel views on this. Okay, rachel views on this. Im increasingly of the opinion that im not sure you should be able to have Political Parties that are based around religion, whatever the religion is. I feel very weird about the idea that you have a candidate who is mandated by their faith, managing a group of people who live in their constituency, who dont subscribe to that faith. And it feels really uncomfortable to me. So i think theres a conversation to be had about whether thats appropriate,. From any faith. I think it might be cleaner if none of them can. Yeah, but i mean, they are, though. This is the thing. This is the thing. So lets lets me because some of the things that i particularly really, really care about, like womens rights are not necessarily in line with some very i think most attracts muslim votes is not specific. No, its not, its not its not them as the vote, which is a confusing terminology. Yes it is. yes it is. Yeah. Theres a crossover there. I think in terms of labour and this issue, i would say all theyre doing is respecting the icc. And i think thats important. And we need to respect the icc. We need to have it. Is there a big issue, adam, for you about whether or not labour now, some of the things that weve started to see in the last few weeks, especially whether or not labour are caving in to this pro palestine group, many people would call it, i have called it actually, and ive got every right to call it because of some of the things ive seen with my own eyes the pro palestine mob, their anger in people on all sides. I think by their stance, the labour party, you know, they want to try and please everyone, but they cant. And again, i think rishi sunak should really press him on this in the head to heads. And it would be very enlightening to the audience and to the voters. What keir starmer actually believes and what theyre going to do. Going forward. But i think he believes in a two state solution, which is generally regarded to be a fairly reasonable thing. And the 1968 boundary delineations, which again, is generally regarded to be quite reasonable now. Well, those are all the hope of the conservatives, i think, and this has been reiterated to me by a number of strategists and senior tory mps, is that support for the labour party is a mile wide, but potentially only an inch deep. And from whats a very high level for the labour party at the moment, at the start of the election campaign, you might find little bits of it being chipped away at some going off to left wing muslim groups, others deciding that they dont really trust the education policy because they want to send their kids to private school. Their kids to private school. And if its true that its a mile wide and only an inch deep, you might see little bits of it chipped away 1 here, half a percent there, 2 somewhere else. And i take your point, but i think its a really good sign about the labour party that theyre not that they are sticking where they can for their integrity. It would have been very easy for them to say, you know what . Were not with israel at all. That would have been easy for them, and it would have been popular with the people whod naturally vote for them. And im glad they havent done that because they purged. They purged anti semitism from the party for anti semitism from the party for a reason. Appropriately, we used to have problem with it. Now we honestly dont. For elections in a row, theyre desperate to win this. Hes saying its a changed labour party, though i wonder whether or not, over the course of this campaign, we are going to see the tories trying to hammer them on whether or not they are going to come out and really shout about the idea that jewish people now around the country do not feel safe to walk the streets in many cases. Yeah, ive heard the same, you know, from jewish taxi drivers and many people that they are scared to go into london over weekend and that they could now never vote for laboun they could now never vote for labour, lets remember keir starmer backed Jeremy Corbyn to be the Prime Minister of this country, knowing that there was a problem with anti semitism in the labour party. And then he fixed it. I didnt vote forjeremy i didnt vote for Jeremy Corbyn because of anti semitism, and i have no qualms voting for. Ill tell you what keir starmer will get right. And we heard from Jonathan Reynolds, of course, earlier in your show, patrick, the shadow cabinet ministers will be on script and pretty crisp. Keep your eye on slightly loony leftie labour backbenchers. Oh yeah. Absolutely thats wholly off script. Yeah i bet you that will make Headline News more than once. What makes politics . One thing thats not being brought up could we have a resolution or some news in the Angela Rayner, debacle as well, in the coming possibly. Could that being investigated . Could that affect a general election . Who knows . Possibly. Election . Who knows . Possibly. I would think that the tories want some sort of news to come out about that. But we cant talk about it can we. Because its being. Yeah. Is this right . Yeah so its yeah its fine. This is currently currently a bit of a sticky wicket, but, someone who we were mentioning there kind of slightly, slightly loony leftist, is this chap called . No im sure many of you will know about it. Right. Its called steve bray. Now, this guy stands with a megaphone and tries to ruin a load of broadcasts and get his message out there. But today. Okay, what we heard really was the bloke , steve really was the bloke, steve bray, with a load of speakers outside downing street ready to blast music at rishi sunak. The Prime Minister, as he made his announcement, and then finally , announcement, and then finally, eventually the police decided to get involved. Here it is. Are get involved. Here it is. Are you proud of yourselves, boys and girls . Fascist this is not law. Fascist this is not law. Fascist this is not law. This is not law. Fascist this is not law. This is not law. This is not this is not law. This is not law. A law was broken law. A law was broken specifically to do this to this man. There is a long established constitution rule against particular law , long established particular law, long established this country has fallen to fascism. Fascism. Do you not find it absolutely remarkable that the Prime Minister decided to stand outside in the driving rain today, and that no Police Provision was made for the fact that that chap was going to turn up . And obviously because he literally just basically lives on an island in the middle of the road outside , there was the road outside, there was going to try to ruin it, and it just made me think , ma, if the just made me think, ma, if the Prime Minister or his staff cannot sort out an umbrella and shutting up a bloke with a megaphone, then what chance have we got . You know, a very good point about steve breyer. I mean, you called him a loony left. He actually ran for the liberal democrats at the last election, not that im suggesting. That doesnt mean hes a loony lefty. Heres the problem, steve bray has been a problem for years, not just not just today. And it is not freedom of speech to be able to drown out everybody else in the sw1 postcode area. Who wants to speak . Its breach of the peace. Its would you ban him . Its would you ban him . Would you ban him . Arade dam. Would you ban him . Arade dam. Repeated, i would, i would somehow sanction him that he cant do this because lets remember, ive had a run in with with that man. Yeah. On Parliament Green during during a protest. And you know, i cant really say what i want to say on here, but he is a character. But how can we imagine if someone like Tommy Robinson blared music or one of his associates, or someone that was deemed far right, blared music during that . They would be dragged off and battened before we could say, you know, stop. Why do they let him have so much time and so much sort of a restraining order . The idea, rebecca, that this bloke could turn up and you could see it coming a mile off whether or not it should have been allowed to happen in drowning it out with the music of things can only get better. Or is it . There is a side of it that says this is something thats quintessentially unique about british politics. He is annoying. Absolutely. I have to walk past him frequently. He irritates me. However the thing that we always say about free speech is we have free speech because you can go and stand on Speakers Corner and stand on Speakers Corner and you can do whatever you like, and that is what hes doing. Its keeping him busy. Hes got somewhere to do, something to do, leave him be pubuc something to do, leave him be public nuisance. So okay, now ive got a couple more of tomorrows newspaper front pages for you. Lets do it. Here is the daily mirror. So the daily mirror have gone for drown and out what will potentially become quite an iconic image of a soaking wet rishi sunak on his way back into downing street after doing that election announcement in the rain. Heres the times for you now. So the times have gone for sunak bets the house. Wow. Okay. And that picture of him again there in downing street. Pm calls snap election for july the 4th. Britain must choose its future country. First party second vows labour. The compare and contrast there between what theyve said. Ive also. Yeah well there we go. So those are your front pages. All right. So those are all of your front pages. And the starmer the keir starmer thing, i think was absolutely fascinating as well, coming out doing his speech. And if we might be able to rope up a clip of that at some point as well. But yeah, him saying, look, im going to put party first. Its all about duty. Its all about whatever. Yeah. And do you think that the public are going to buy that because hes his slogan. There was just change, which actually normally plays quite well as a slogan. Well, it plays well as a slogan when youve had one party in office for 14 years. But here is a drinking game that i would advise no gb news viewer to get involved in. Do not play the drinking game of having a shot. Every time you see keir starmer next to a union jack, you will get drunk very quickly. If you play get drunk very quickly. If you play that drinking game, weve got it. Weve got a very quick clip here of some of the stuff that keir starmer was saying today. Importantly of all, we do all this with a new spirit of service , this country, first service, this country, first party, second. Okay, so everybody, thank you very much for having tuned for in the whole entirety of this. If you have watched, you will know is that we have had nearly two hours of first class political analysis and after two hours of first class political analysis, it is time for something completely different. Full disclosure, we had already paid for this guest before rishi sunak called the election, but we thought, why not keep him and have him sing us out . We thought, why not keep him and have him sing us out . I welcome have him sing us out . I welcome the elvis tribute act sal bashir. Sal, thank you very much. The reason why we originally booked you is because we were going to do a segment on the elvis family having to sell graceland to pay off a whopping great big debt. And so here we are. And so here we are. Were not sure. Were not sure. And so we thought wed keep you on. All right. Now, soon. Thats got the nation all shook up, hasnt he . But its time for a little less conversation. A little more relaxation, isnt it . A little less conversation , a a little less conversation, a little bit more action, please. Absolutely fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And come on, i want i want to i want to hear a little bit more from you, if thats all right. You are one of the countrys best elvis tribute acts. You are. You are the best way that we wanted to end this show today. One show after another lately. So ill just try my best, you know, love me tender , love me know, love me tender, love me sweet. Never let me go. You have made my life complete. Complete. And i love you so , so fantastic. Hey, look you are you are. You are absolutely remarkable. Youre a tremendous support as well. And i just want to emphasise, we, we decided that we wanted to get get salon because they apparently are selling, greatness. I mean, because they apparently are selling, greatness. I mean, i dont know, do you have any idea which way elvis would vote at the german election . So, well, it was a very patriotic, guy who loved jesus. He was a churchgoer. He thoroughly believed in the, you know, his fans. He believed in the people. So i think elvis was, very much with all colours and creeds of all shapes and sizes. He was a man of the people. And, he truly loved his public. And that included anybody from whatever faith they they were. And i think, elvis they were. And i think, elvis would have been very interested in the elections going on here because theres been a seismic change in the last 20 or 30 years, ive never known , so much years, ive never known, so much bickering and so much, caustic stuff going on in parliament. Im quite appalled with some of the, some of the words that have been employed over the last couple of years by all the major parties, and, and it just seems that were living in really crazy times at the moment. And i just hope that , the things that just hope that, the things that matter to the people like the nhs, we need to protect the nhs. Its vital that we have that. We need to probably reform the nhs because a lot of money is being spent that shouldnt be spent. Theres too much red tape, and we just need a little bit more rock and roll in parliament, think. Could i just say this is so unbelievably astute political analysis from the elvis tribute that weve got on here. Sally, you are a legend. Just before i get going, can we just have one more . It is time for a little less conversation. What do we need a bit more of . I think a little less conversation, a bit more action, please. Action, please. Yes. Are you legend . Good. Are you . Got it. Well. All right. Thank you very much, sal. All right. Thanks, patrick. All right. Thanks, patrick. Thank you guys. There we go. Right. Well look, you know, thats a few hundred quid that we literally cannot afford to lose here gbnews so we have to get our money for it. So there we are. Guys, can i just say a massive thank you . Its been a huge show today. Weve had it all from start to finish. Its a big day for britain. Its going to be a big six weeks for britain. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Headliners are on next for a much more insightful and detailed look at all of. That warm feeling inside from boxt boilers sponsors of weather on gb news. Hello. Good evening. Heres your latest gb news weather update brought to you by the met office. Its been a very wet day for many of us today, and the rain is going to continue for many parts as we go overnight. All this unsettled weather is in association with an area of low pressure that is gradually making its way northwestwards, but its progressing pretty slowly and the rain as a result is going to linger across many northern parts of the uk as we go through this evening and overnight. Its going to be heavy and persistent for many parts, which is why were going to continue to see rainfall totals building up, leading to some issues. Temperatures arent going to drop a huge amount because of the unsettled weather, even in the south, where its going to be largely dry, likely to stay in double digits as we go through tomorrow. Then a bit of a north south split across northern parts. It is going to be wet and well see rain through the morning. Two the rain doesnt look like it will be as heavy as through today, but because of the high rainfall totals weve seen recently, there could be some further issues making flooding a little bit worse in some places. Also, heavy rain across parts of eastern northern ireland, Northern England and nonh ireland, Northern England and north wales in particular, like i said, some further ongoing issues, some more disruption to travel possible a drier story further south, quite cloudy through the morning though i am expecting some bright or sunny spells to develop as we head into the afternoon, particularly across parts of east anglia and southeast england. Here, theres a good chance of seeing some sunshine and in the sunshine here it should feel pleasantly warm. Temperatures likely to peak just about in the low 20s towards the southeast, further north and west where you have the rain, temperatures will be suppressed, some places staying in single digits. And watch out for some blustery winds towards the northwest as we look towards friday, and there will still be some further outbreaks of rain, especially across northern parts. Though these look fairly light and there will be some dry spells in between. Further south likely to stay mostly dry, and there may even be some bright or sunny spells developing. Saturday looks set to be the driest and sunniest day of the weekend, before a bit more rain on sunday for many. See you later later looks like things are heating up boxt boilers as sponsors of weather on. Weather on. Gb news. Good evening. Im sophia wenzler in the gb news room. And as youve been hearing, the Prime Minister has addressed the first Tory Campaign rally after confirming a 4th of july general election in a statement outside downing street today, rishi sunak made the surprise announcement and urged the nafion announcement and urged the nation to stick with him over sir keir starmer. Addressing tory Party Supporters and his cabinet at Londons Excel Centre a short while ago , he took aim a short while ago, he took aim at the labour leader on the 5th of july. Either keir starmer or i will be Prime Minister and he has shown time and time again that he will take the easy way out and do anything to get power. If he was happy to abandon all the promises that he made to become labour leader once he got the job, how can you know that he wouldnt do exactly the same thing if he were to become Prime Minister . We conservative have got a clear plan with bold action to secure our future board. So lets take that message and that vision of a secure future to every corner of our United Kingdom. And lets show labour that the british people will never be taken for granted. Granted. Meanwhile, the labour leader, keir starmer, responded to the announcement, saying the election is the moment the country has been waiting for night. The Prime Minister has finally announced the next general election , a moment the general election, a moment the country needs and has been waiting for. Waiting for. And liberal democrats leader sir ed davey vowed to remove the tories from power across the country. People are crying out for