Sunak. Were asking all of those very Big Questions as. Sunak. Were asking all of those very Big Questions as. And as very Big Questions as. And as even very Big Questions as. And as ever, this show is absolutely nothing without you and your views. Let me know your thoughts on all of the stories well be discussing today by visiting gbnews. Com forward slash yours. Join that conversation there or message us on our socials. Were gbnews first of all though, heres the news with ray addison i thanks, darren. Good afternoon. 12 01 of our top stories. Sir keir starmer says the tories dont deserve to be in government for a moment longer. Thats after rishi sunak lost hundreds of councillors in the local elections, 102 of 107 councils have declared so far , councils have declared so far, with labour making major gains and the lib dems and the greens also doing well. Election expert sir john curtice says the final outcome could be the tories worst performance for 40 years, celebrating a mayoral victory in the east midlands, the labour leader said the tories time is up. I think the message here is very, very clear and i think across the east midlands theres been a sending of that message to the government, which is were fed up with your division, with your chaos, with your failure 14 years and im sorry, i dont care which Political Party you support if you leave your country in a worse state than when you found it 14 years later, you do not deserve to be in government for a moment longer. Longer. Well, Andrew Griffith is minister for science, innovation and technology. He told us the pubuc and technology. He told us the public doesnt want labours policies. Look, its a difficult set of results. I think that was what was expected going in. Theres going to be a very, very simple choice at the next election. Who walks through number 10 downing street . Is it rishi sunak with his plan . Thats starting to work now, or is it keir with with no plan or where they do have plans that dont really go with the grain of what the british people want . Sir keir starmer says he remains confident that sadiq khan can win a third term as london mayor. Thats as the battle with tory challenger susan hall appears to be closer than expected. The count is underway and we could have a result this afternoon. In total, seven mayoral contests contests will be announced today. A narrow one is also expected for conservative mayor andy street in the West Midlands. Well also hear from eight of ten contests for police and crime commissioner Boris Johnson has thanked polling staff who refused to let him vote without id. The former Prime Minister was turned away from a polling station on thursday after he forgot valid identification. Writing in the daily mail, mr johnson said the three villages were right to stick to the rules. The requirement to provide photo id was introduced by mrjohnson provide photo id was introduced by mr johnson when provide photo id was introduced by mrjohnson when he occupied by mr johnson when he occupied number 10. A burst water main has left around 31,000 properties without water in east sussex. Southern water says the disruption in Saint Leonards on sea and parts of hastings will continue into tomorrow. The issue was first reported on thursday, forcing the company to open water bottle stations, schools, a Leisure Centre and a theatre in the area have all been forced to close. Three been forced to close. Three people have been charged after protesters blocked a coach taking Asylum Seekers to the bibby stockholm barge. The met Police Arrested 45 people after officers were called on thursday morning to peckham, south east london. The demonstrators could be heard chanting no borders, no nafions be heard chanting no borders, no nations stop deportations , as nations stop deportations, as three have now been charged with obstruction of the highway. Obstruction of the highway. Motorists are being warned to expect heavy traffic this bank houday expect heavy traffic this bank holiday weekend, according to the rac, around 3 million vehicles will take to the roads today alone, an increase in day trips and short breaks could mean that local routes are congested. Also, train strikes congested. Also, train strikes between tuesday and the following saturday could lead to most roads being busier than usual. Most roads being busier than usual. Fuel prices have gone up usual. Fuel prices have gone up by an average of £0. 10 per litre so far this year. New figures are showing that the typical price for a litre of petrol reached £1. 50 in april, whilst diesel came close to £1. 58. The rise in prices have added around £5. 50 to the cost of filling a typical family car. The rac is calling on the competition and markets authority to crack down on retailers over what theyre calling unfair margins. The king is set to become the patron of the Royal British legion. Thats a role that the late queen held for more than 70 years. It follows a major review of more than 1000 royal patronages following the death of Queen Elizabeth ii. Charles will now be supporting a further 200 organisations. The decision comes as the Armed Forces Charity prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of the second world war, d day landings on june the 6th. For the latest stories, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. Common. Its now back to. Darren. Thanks ever. So ray, lets get stuck in to todays topics after a bruising day for the conservatives in these local elections, will be hoping to turn their fortunes around in several key mayoral races today. Meanwhile, the labour leader has been celebrating his partys big gains. Sir keir starmer has been in the east midlands today, where labour secured a mayoral victory. And he had this to say in the last few hours. In the last few hours. I think the message here is very, very clear and i think across the east midlands theres been a sending of that message to the government, which is were fed up with your division , were fed up with your division, with your chaos, with your failure. 14 years and im sorry, i dont care which Political Party you support if you leave your country in a worse state than when you found it 14 years later, you do not deserve to be in government for a moment longer. Longer. Well, joining me now to discuss this is gb news very own senior political commentator, nigel nelson. Nigel, thank you nigel nelson. Nigel, thank you for your time. As ever. This is quite seismic in and of itself, the east midlands, because ben bradley, who has ended up with more political positions than goodness, only knows what he was actually seeking that that job in order to actually strengthen the conservative outlet there and was bitterly disappointed, i think yesterday , not to win that think yesterday, not to win that vote. Yes, thats right, and i think that the that, keir starmer has managed to pick up a clutch of mayors in various parts of the country, which shows that labour are doing pretty well, its not a total catastrophe for the tories. I mean, i think that if theyd lost 600 Council Seats , it would lost 600 Council Seats, it would have been. And the key obviously was ben houchen, the tees valley mayor. The fact they kept that was helpful. So i think that at least rishi sunak will live to fight another day. Yeah. I mean, nigel, what did you make of the north east result . Because obviously i was following that quite closely given, you know, thats where i voted. But i was really struck by the strength of force and feeling behind the independent candidate, who actually did really rather well over 100,000 votes. Yes. I mean , i think that yes. I mean, i think that this is what happens in local elections if you get a strong independent candidate, they do tend to do well, which is why its always dangerous to try to try and extrapolate to a general election result from, from local figures. I mean, it was interesting. I think , with with interesting. I think, with with ben houchen in, in tees valley, he seemed to campaign virtually as an independent himself rather than as a, as a, as a tory mayor. Well, the conservatives do deny that. They say, well, hang on a minute. You know, ben houchen had rishi sunak up their campaign and alongside of him , campaign and alongside of him, he listed a whole slew of things that theyve done in Office Thanks to a conservative government. Ben houchen was adamant that that wasnt the case. Nigel, do you disagree . Yes , i do, im sure the yes, i do, im sure the tories want to spin it, spin it the best way they can because ben houchen was absolutely key to rishi sunaks future , but the to rishi sunaks future, but the way that the campaign went seemed to be it was more on his own personal vote than it was for the party, interestingly , for the party, interestingly, forgot to wear his rosette at the end, he says that was just a slip rather than anything deliberate. But yeah, i do think deliberate. But yeah, i do think that the that there was a certain feeling that the in many local areas, tory candidates were distancing themselves a bit from the national government, but i mean , youve got to but i mean, youve got to actually look at the final result, as i say, that the loss of, 460 odd, councillors for the tories , thats really bad, but tories, thats really bad, but not an absolute disaster. It puts them kind of on a par with 1995, when labour again were 20, were 21 points ahead in the polls, so i mean, nigel, given that were previewing london, i know youre not mystic meg, but im about to ask you to be. Where do you think were going . Here. Because were heanng going . Here. Because were hearing from several sources on both sides that it could go either way. Yeah, im genuinely surprised about that. The polls have been predicting an easy win for sadiq khan. Clearly, the whole thing is closer than we thought, and so we know that turnout is down. That may be of benefit to the tories in that the outlying tory areas might have actually turned out rather better than labour ones as as expected. So what it looks like at the moment, id have said sadiq khan will win. Well have to see in a few hours time whether thats true, but quite clearly its a lot closer than than we originally thought it ever would be. Yeah. All right, nigel, well leave that there. Thank you very much for your input. Well be getting some more of that very soon indeed. Well, joining me soon indeed. Well, joining me now in the studio is the broadcaster and journalist Claire Muldoon and political commentator matthew stadlen. Claire, ill start with you first. Where do you think were going . Here are you surprised by that . London is allegedly close is. No. Well, yes. Well, yes. No, im not surprised because if you look at the country, darren, the country is split 5050 and anything and even the brexit vote was very, very close, independence for scotland was very, very close. Its always that 5050. Im not surprised either about the low turnout. People are so apathetic. People are completely sick of politicians. People are sick of politicians. People are sick to the back teeth of not knowing and not being heard. Thats the issue. But if you thats the issue. But if you look to the manifestos of both susan hall and, sadiq khan , when susan hall and, sadiq khan, when you erase the top headline grabbers susan hall, ill scrap ulez, ive delivered thousands of pounds worth of Free School Meals to all state children in primary schools in london. If you look down, there are more or less saying the same thing. Less saying the same thing. Well increase police on the street. We will increase building of houses, we will protect renters , this, that and protect renters, this, that and the next thing. So theres not that much difference apart from the top two headline grabbers, so im not surprised. What i am so im not surprised. What i am surprised about, however, is the fact that theyre still political. If you understand, i would prefer a mayor to be have complete parity over all the panacea of all the political networking i think it would be better for them not to be lynched or attacked , but to lynched or attacked, but to a party, and therefore theyd have to feed into their narrative. I would prefer them to be independent candidates and to be able to liaise, almost like a house of lords crossbencher, to liaise between both sets of political, a planes and do the best for the people that have voted them in and are last are. And that is not the case when we go to the ballot box, we very rarely get whats best for us and what weve voted for. I mean, matthew , im assuming i mean, matthew, im assuming that you would say, well, hang on a minute, sadiq khans done really great things in london. Im really disappointed by how low the turnout was. How low the turnout was. Its not much lower than in 2021, but 40 when the mayor of london has control of our transport system and has influence at least. Over issues influence at least. Over issues such as policing, which really matter to people. And i find that very, very shocking, actually, i went to the polling booth. I took my 19 month old son with me, and it was just a such a wonderful experience putting your x in those boxes. Putting your x in those boxes. It feels to me. I mean, it should be a right, but it feels to me still like a privilege that so many people, just for example, the suffragettes who did so much to make sure that everyone has a say in how our society runs. But does that not suggest then theres a lack of support for sadiq khan . I suspect possibly hes turned off some some voters. Turned off some some voters. I think that many people in inner city london might have assumed, because the polls had been at least until quite recently, firmly in his favour. Theyd assumed maybe that he was going to win. So what was the point . Thats always a mistake. And i think nationally the labour party can learn from that. I suspect theyre on board with this idea that you cant take anything for granted. But if they werent, this will be a real lesson for them. If its as close as some people are predicting. I just want to take us back though. Pull us back a little bit. The lens back to the National Picture of what happened yesterday. The big story is the tories have been crushed, not totally destroyed, but theyve lost Something Like 450 odd councillors. Labour have won 170 to 200 councillors so far, whatever that is. The far, whatever that is. The headuneis far, whatever that is. The headline is labour. Whatever happensin headline is labour. Whatever happens in these Mayoral Elections , labour is on course elections, labour is on course for power. For power. Yes. Well, i think were probably agreed upon, i think i think, yes, i absolutely agree. And even the headlines that are coming out with where street winning , his mayoral candidacy winning, his mayoral candidacy and the, you know, the dreadful comments made from labour hq , comments made from labour hq, labour has predominantly had a stronghold in london, always because of the i think because of the wonderful characters that live in london, the beautiful differences that we have living in london. And i think in order to work together, theyve always voted labour. I am not a sadiq khan, supporter at all. Do you think things getting less beautiful . Absolutely it is. And its getting more violent and its getting more violent and its getting increasing difficult to getting increasing difficult to get around to live. And you get around to live. And you know, weve got ulez, weve got people who cant drive. Weve got people, people, key workers. And im talking about plumbers, electricians and people who care for people not being able to get to work without £12. 50, fines being imposed on them. And then all thats done with the introduction of the ltns as well, which is in sadiq khans back garden as well. That was him who started that and all he has done is displaced the traffic to arterial routes and its ridiculous. Its ridiculous. Could i come back on some of that . First of all, im a proud londoner born and bred here. I love our city and one of the great things i was talking to my kurdish taxi driver on the way to another tv studio yesterday. He said what . What makes london a great city is you could get something of everything here, of every culture, every religion, every culture, every religion, every race, every cuisine, all of that. And i think that is fantastic. And by and large, londoners rub along together really, really well. There are some caveats. There are some caveats, some only. Ive felt like anecdotally that theres been an increase in crime. Well, been an increase in crime. Well, petty petty crime. Well, i indeed had my phone nicked off me from behind by someone. Were not still bringing that up on on on an electric bike. I didnt bring it up. Claire. You did . Darren. No darren just said that i had had experienced crime, so. But weve got to be careful with anecdote. We certainly have. Certainly have. We have those. We have those. We have those. We certainly we certainly have issues with knife crime , have issues with knife crime, but we also had issues with serious issues with knife crime. When i kind of started out in politics 20 years ago, whoever is mayor has to do more if theyre able to cut that, because it is a real its a real blight. Its a real blight on our right. Hes right. It is a real blight. But you know, sadiq khan has said eight years to help sort this out. And hes not done it. Well get more from the two of you on that. I can see that, heating up already. So thank you very much, claire. And Matthew Stadler in there. Right. Its time for our the Great British giveaway now, and your chance to win the biggest cash prize of the year so far. Its a whopping £20,000. Imagine what you could do with all of that extra cash. Heres how you could win it all. Its the biggest cash prize weve given away to date. An incredible £20,000 that you could use however you like. And could use however you like. And because its totally tax free, every single penny will be in your bank account to do whatever your bank account to do whatever you like. With £20,000 in tax free cash, really could be yours this summer, but youve got to be in it to win it for another chance to win £20,000 in tax free cash. Tex