office "just wasn't working". the post office has been struggling with the fallout from the horizon it scandal and a failure to hit commercial targets. in france, two activists have thrown what's reported to be soup at the mona lisa in paris. it splattered the bullet—proof glass covering leonardo da vinci's masterpiece. the painting itself hasn't been damaged. a series of opinion polls have suggested that the main opposition labour party is set to win the next general election, which is likely to happen later this year. that would mean sir keir starmer becoming the first labour prime minister since gordon brown left office in 2010. with that in mind, we've been testing public opinion, hearing from a group of nearly 50 voters,

with a range of political views, all of whom live in constituencies which switched from labour to conservative in 2019. the groups were selected with the help of the political research firm more in common, and laura kuenssberg listened to what they had to say. have a seat, have a seat. young, old, tory, labour and those who don't have a clue yet they will choose. they have all been chosen from seats that went labour to conservative last time around. we've put together a sample to hear everyone�*s thoughts, a bit like britain in a room. how would you sum up britain in 202a? depressing. terrible state we're in. dishonest and messed up. falling apart. i think we're a country in crisis. i think it's the worst it's ever been. what's the first thing that comes to mind when you see this person? nice guy but weak. not strong enough. no personality. you need a personality to rule.

it's like he's reading from a script when he talks. yeah, he doesn't have charisma. i would say out of touch _ because i don't think he understands what the ordinary people are going through. - people in this country don't like successful people, they're very bitter that they're not like them and i think that's why everybody resents him. i don't think he's out of touch but the problems he has are so vast. i thought he did a marvellous job as a chancellor. - what's the first thing that comes to mind when you see this person? a bit boring, to be honest with you, and i don't think he's the strongest of leaders. i don't look at him and think he's the one that's going _ to come and save us. i don't know what he actually believes. i think everything he says is to try and win the majority over. i'd rather someone that was either here or there, not somewhere in between. he has been helped by default because of the backlash - against the conservatives, you can onlyjudge him - when he's in power. i do think he has integrity and he will try but i do think he has a big task ahead.

again and again, our voters have shared stories of how the health service just isn't up to scratch. it's obviously at the top of many people's lists. with me being a senior carer, i have to ring 111 and the wait times for the ambulances are ridiculous. i have a heart condition and had to contact the hospital because i've waited for 26 weeks and i've still not had an appointment. they told me the waitlist is up to 70 weeks. i i don't know if i want to work as| a nurse in this country right now. the cost of living crisis is having a big impact on us. being able to go out and socialise is so much more expensive, going to the the supermarket, your bills are so much more expensive. i'm a student and i can barely afford to eat, some weeks, it's rubbish. this is a first—world country, however there is so much. of a difference between the highest paid, the wealthy, _ and the ordinary people.

we've heard from nearly 50 voters today. there's a deep well of worry about the state of the country, and a sense that a change of government is probably on the way. but there wasn't much confidence here today, not much faith that a different leader in number 10 could change lives for the better. there is, though, ten months to go. on her programme this morning, laura kuenssberg spoke to the business secretary kemi badenoch about the departure of the post office chairman and other political topics. she began by asking about the conservative party's prospects ahead of the election this year. people clearly want to see a lot more hope and optimism about the country. we have a plan and that is what we are using in order to show people how we are going to make the uk better. we need to do much more of that. i thought it was quite

interesting the contrast between keir starmer and rishi sunak, which goes to show that there is everything to play for in this election. people act as if us losing power and not being in government is a fait accompli, clearly not true listening to that focus group. and the third one was just about how people are fed up with a lot of the toxicity i would say in politics at the moment, where it looks like people are interested in their own personal ambitions rather than for people in the country. that is definitely something which i will be able to address today. we will come to that in a second. people are concerned also about real big problems in their own lives. michael, a father of six, being told he has a 70 week wait for cardiac treatment, a student saying some weeks he could not afford to eat, it's more than people being fed up the toxicity, many people think the conservatives have failed them. what i would say and i have particular insight being the international trade secretary, is look at what is happening in other countries.

over the last few days there have been protests in germany, france, romania, poland, the netherlands, about these same issues. we are not alone in them. inflation is not a uk specific problem. that's not a comfort for people here though, is it? it isn't a comfort, the comfort is that despite all of those difficulties, we are doing better than those other countries. i know and i completely understand, i have been in that situation before, not having enough money to look after yourself. but we are doing everything we can in order to deal with those global issues. energy costs, notjust us, inflation, still the fallout of covid, all of the money we spend then had an inflationary effect. we have someone in the prime minister who knows what he's doing, who is very competent, who running the economy well and will continue to do so. if we stick with his plan we will be able to solve all of the problems that those people were talking about. if that's the case, why don't people believe that?

it's a great question. i can give you my theory, this is not a party line. there is now too much in terms of personality politics, there's too much reporting i would say, of westminster gossip, one of your panel has written an entire book, the plot, mostly conspiracy theories, people are hearing all sorts of things that are not true about what we are doing and the focus is no longer on the work for instance that i'm doing but on perhaps whether i am interested in being in prime minister. it is all a distraction. your colleagues don't believe this is all a distraction. just this week a former cabinet minister colleague of yours simon clarke said the leadership is uninspiring and rishi sunak has gone from an asset to an anchor. there are genuine concerns inside your own party that he is not up to the job. i think it's really critical to remind people that there are 350 conservative mps.

yes, one person wrote an article saying that he was unhappy. i called him, after that, and asked him what on earth he was doing, because this is exactly the sort of thing that we have to stop doing in public. we can have private discussions about what is going on, and i think it is healthy for us to have a debate, for there to not be a debate is unhealthy. but to play that out in front of the public is contributing to the belief that we are more focused on internal matters than external matters and that is not true. we are very much focused on the priorities of the country, that's why rishi had his five priorities. whether you like it or not, and you are clearly frustrated... extremely frustrated. your colleagues do discuss these things. it is small minority of them. but they do, that is the reality, and even this morning you are described in the papers as kemi is in pole position with the rebels, they think she can shake things up and beat starmer. you are obviously frustrated by all

of what you see as speculation, so do you deny that you have had discussions with the rebels? apart from calling simon to tell him to stop what he was doing, absolutely. i would say that all of these things you are reading are all anonymous briefings. i pick up the paper and hear that an anonymous friend of mine said this and that, who are these people? my friends would never do that, my friends care about me. the people stirring don't care about me, my family or my welfare, or whether or not this is something i actually want. this is all about them and their personal interests, but they are not that many. the vast majority of people are focused on making sure that the parliamentary party is working to deliver a conservative government. do you however still have aspirations to lead the party? you did stand to run as leader. injuly 22, i did stand and i lost. if you had asked me injanuary 22, i would have laughed it off and said it was a crazy idea.

you never really know these things until you are in the moment. i would remind people that after liz truss left i said i would not be running again, rishi is the person who should do thejob, and i did so because i worked with him in the treasury, i knew he had a handle on the economy. but i also saw during the previous leadership campaign how many nasty and unpleasant personal attacks he had been getting, i thought he was a good guy, he does the right thing and that was the team i wanted to be on, not on the team of the bullies and the people putting up nasty personal abuse, the team of the people who are focussed on delivering for the country. let's talk about your job, there was a dramatic event last night, as the business secretary, you removed the chair of the post office after all of the things that have gone wrong. why did you get henry staunton resorted to stand down, why did you get henry staunton to stand down, what were your concerns? when i became business secretary, and the post office came to my portfolio, i was really focused on three things.

number one, get the money out of the door, the last thing i wanted was for people to die without having the compensation. from the post office. yes, i talked about that in my conference speech, kevin hollirake, the brilliant post office minister. second i wanted to make sure that everything was fair, notjust getting money out of the door but that the money was the right amount and what we were doing was fair. the third one was looking at the governance around the post office and that is where i decided that we needed a new chair of the organisation was there, it just wasn't working. what was it about, was that the row about post office bonuses being paid while the scandal of horizon was still going on? there were various disagreements within the board. and when i looked at it i thought a change of personnel was required. i don't want to do hr on live tv, these are human beings that we are talking about, it is difficult to be asked to stand

down from their position. but i decided to give in all of the difficulties but i decided that given all of the difficulties the post office is having, notjust horizon but the entire business model, making it work, we needed someone chairing the board who was able to deal with these things effectively. this whole saga has been a complete mess, successive governments have failed to grip it or even understand what has been scale of the problem. people are angry, and one of our viewers has in touch and has suggested, if mr staunton resides, shouldn't kemi badenoch also resign to be accountable for everything that has gone wrong at the post office? i don't think so. firstly i don't think that people understand what the structure of the the post office is. i am the sole shareholder so the shareholder resigning doesn't make sense. i have constituents who have come to me after the itv drama affected by this.

it's very interesting how a drama can bring attention to what is happening. when i made a speech at conference referencing the horizon scandal, and what we were doing, it wasn't covered, again people were talking about, is this a speech for the leadership? people don't focus on the work we are doing, there is too much time spent on tittle tattle and gossip. we have been working very hard, we put a bill through before the drama was aired in december making sure people can get their money and get it quickly. would you put a specific deadline on getting it done? you say you have been working on it for ages, people must get their compensation. we asked the prime minister if he would set a firm deadline and he wouldn't, would you? the prime minister has said we are not setting a deadline, we are going to move as quickly as possible. there are always issues with setting deadlines, i say this as well with free trade agreements, you put a date on, people rush and get things wrong. we are as quickly as we can, i promise we cannot move any faster

than we already have been. there is an inquiry ongoing and some stuff has to happen with fujitsu so there are multiple moving parts. setting the deadline is not the priority, getting the fair money out and sorting out the governance of the post office is the critical thing. laura kuenssberg speaking to the business secretary kemi badenoch. doctors in england have reported an increase in demand for the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, after a national campaign to boost uptake was launched. it comes amid a surge in measles cases in many countries around the world. according to the world health organization, europe saw 30 times as many measles cases last year compared with 2022. it's thought that disruption from the covid pandemic and mis—information are to blame for the drop in vaccinations. nhs england figures suggest 3.4 million children under the age

of 16 are unprotected. 0ur reporter pam caulfield has been looking at the situation in bristol, in the south west of england. the idea of events like this one is to encourage more people to have the mmr jab. the nhs is particularly keen for parents to vaccinate their children, as a fifth of under—fives in bristol are currently unprotected. there's been a couple of outbreaks over the last few years and some children have been very sick and gone to intensive care. it is concerning seeing those numbers rise again, especially vulnerable communities and people who are immunocompromised, young babies and pregnant mothers. research shows the vaccine uptake is particularly low among certain groups. we have seen the statistics and in the somali community among others such as bame, there are a lot of people who have not had the vaccine.

people just want to be able to have a conversation with health care providers and professionals within their own background and within their own community because i feel like there was a mistrust in the studies. that's why salma became involved in making this awareness video that's going to be translated into several languages. it also features dr asha mohammed, who was on the panel answering questions today. there's definitely been some misinformation in the past with andrew wakefield and his study, that has been disproved. it has had long—lasting effects on the views of autism being caused by the mmrjab, which has been disproven. we are still seeing the effects and lots of people still believe they are true. coming to this event has reassured amira the vaccine is safe. she now plans to spread the word to other worried mums. i'll go back to them

and answer the questions that there is no link between autism and a vaccination. and i will try to clear up their misconceptions. currently, there aren't any cases of measles in bristol, but with outbreaks in birmingham and london, health care professionals say its only a matter of time before it arrives here. in western europe, britain has reported the most measles cases, according to the world health organization. why, and what could be done to tackle it? i spoke earlier to dr chris smith, the consultant virologist at cambridge university and the presenter of the bbcs naked scientists podcast. it's a symptom of the same underlying problem that's pervading in the world, particularly the western world. and europe is quite right when it says it's seen a very big increase in cases, as has the uk, about 30,000 to 40,000 cases now confirmed.

this is a huge increase on where we were last year and it's translating into a very high fraction, maybe 20,000 or 30,000 hospitalizations, because most of these cases are occurring in young individuals who are more likely to develop severe disease. and really, it boils down to the same risk factors everywhere, which is that if you don't have a high enough level of vaccine uptake, and you need about 95% of the population in any country, in any part of the world, to be immune to measles, you will get measles outbreaks. and the reason for this is measles is incredibly infectious. we're all familiar with the mmr value from covid days, when we were talking about the r going up or down, that's a measure of how many people each infected case will infect. so, if you have flu, you infect about two or three other people. if you have covid, you infect about two or three other people. if you have measles, you infect up to 20 other people.

it's so infectious and it spreads so well that unless we have really high levels of vaccine uptake and therefore protection in the general population, we can't break the chain of transmission and we will get outbreaks. and this is further compounded by the fact that, in many places, this is notjust a random spread of people who aren't vaccinated across a geography or a country, they tend to be groups who are not vaccinated or under—vaccinated concentrated into clusters in certain parts of certain cities, in certain countries. and this is why we've got a high risk of outbreaks, because once it gets into one small group of people in that community, it very rapidly can go through the whole community. and how long would it take to get these outbreaks under control? well, the best intervention is information, because what we know is probably the cause of this. and really, it's notjust down to people being concerned about mmr because the rates were higher in 2011 through to 2013 than they are now, and that was ten

years after the mmr scandal. so there's a range of factors that are probably contributing to low uptake of the vaccine. one of them is misinformation, one of them is anti—vaccination information, but the other is probably the combined effects of immigration and migration. people moving from jurisdictions and geographies in the world where there isn't a good vaccine programme or there's undervaccination and they're bringing with them therefore their disease risk and joining communities who are in the same situation in their new geography. and then we've also got the problem that, off the back of covid, which disrupted many health services and health systems where we prioritise preventing covid cases, and this disrupted uptake of other strategies elsewhere. when you bring all those things together, the best way to counter this is to try and catch up and to spread correct information and then offer people a solution, which is vaccination with mmr, which you can have at any age, and is very effective at preventing measles, mumps and rubella.

let's get more now on the world's largest cruise ship, the icon of the seas, which has set sail from miami in florida on its maiden voyage. it is 365 metres long, has 20 decks, and can accommodate almost 8,000 passengers. features include a 16—metre waterfall, six water slides and more than a0 restaurants, bars and venues. we nowjoined by travel journalist simon calder who is on a cruise ship right now. he isa he is a different one, it is in panama. this is one of the most popular stories on the bbc website. it's a huge investment, but how profitable will it be? it's a huge investment, but how profitable will it be ?_ profitable will it be? obviously, the company — profitable will it be? obviously, the company behind _ profitable will it be? obviously, the company behind it, - profitable will it be? obviously, the company behind it, royal . the company behind it, royal caribbean, think that investing $2

million in this brand—new mega ship is going to pay off. during the covid pandemic, cruise ships were worst hit than any other part of the travel industry because they are very multinational in the guests and the crew, and cruise ships were mostly tied up in various parts of the world just lying idle. since covid ended, there has been a huge appetite for cruising and that is reflected in the fact that royal caribbean hasn'tjust spent £2 billion on icon of the seas, it has ordered a couple more ships of the same size which are being built now in finland in order to meet that demand. �* ., ,, ., demand. and in the meantime, simon, there are reel— demand. and in the meantime, simon, there are real questions _ demand. and in the meantime, simon, there are real questions about - demand. and in the meantime, simon, there are real questions about the - there are real questions about the environmental impact of this particular ship and the fact that it could emit methane. how much of an

issueis could emit methane. how much of an issue is this for the industry, being carbon neutral for issue is this for the industry, being carbon neutralfor example? being carbon neutral for example? well, being carbon neutralfor example? well, most cruise ships including the one i am on use fuel oil which is fairly heavy hydrocarbon which has all kinds of issues with emissions, although they are doing everything they can to clean that up. the new cruise ship icon of the seasis up. the new cruise ship icon of the seas is one of many now being built that will be fuelled by liquid natural gas. that is a cleaner fuel, however the international council for clean transport says, actually, there is a danger that methane could escape from ships and that that is actually much more damaging in terms of global warming than ordinary carbon dioxide. so they're very concerned and say over their life cycle of ship, you could actually find 120% worse emissions as a result of switching to liquid

natural gas. royal caribbean who owned the new ship, say, we believe that they are better than the international maritime organisation requires, and they are moving towards a zero emission ship. i have seen very few vessels which are electric powered, they tend to be ferries shuttling around the baltic sea in northern europe. but it is a huge concern. and it's notjust the emissions, it is also the effect on the community. if you can imagine 8000 people suddenly arriving in a relatively small caribbean community, that is going to have a huge effect. 0n the maiden voyage which is nearly 3000 miles, 5000, long, the ship is only calling at st kitts, the island of st kitts, st thomas in the us virgin islands, and a private island in the bahamas. simply because many places cannot

fit ship of that size nor indeed cope with the influx of passengers. it's not really a cruise ship, it's more a vacation resort that happens to be at sea. if you have got seven swimming pools, no need to get off, that i think is going to be the appeal. that i think is going to be the a. eal. , ., that i think is going to be the aueal. , ., , that i think is going to be the a- eal. , ., , ., appeal. sorry to interrupt, i have to ask you _ appeal. sorry to interrupt, i have to ask you this _ appeal. sorry to interrupt, i have to ask you this quick— appeal. sorry to interrupt, i have to ask you this quick question, i appeal. sorry to interrupt, i have i to ask you this quick question, very briefly, what has captured people's imaginations about this story? some of my colleagues hate the idea of being on a ship like this and others seem to love it. film. being on a ship like this and others seem to love it.— seem to love it. oh, sure, yeah. transportation _ seem to love it. oh, sure, yeah. transportation has _ seem to love it. oh, sure, yeah. transportation has always - seem to love it. oh, sure, yeah. transportation has always been l seem to love it. oh, sure, yeah. - transportation has always been about going faster, getting larger vessels, planes or ships. going faster, getting larger vessels, planes orships. it captures the imagination. just an incredible concept, going from ocean liners it is how cruise ships originally began, something which is effectively a small... l. originally began, something which is effectively a small. . ._ effectively a small... l, the line has been _ effectively a small... l, the line has been struggling _ effectively a small... l, the line has been struggling through - effectively a small... l, the line | has been struggling through that

interview! that is simon calder who is in panama on another ship talking about the icon of the seas. now the weather. hello there. sunshine may have been rather limited today but it has been a warmer day than it was yesterday. the average temperatures range from six to nine but today has been significant world, 15 degrees likely in the moray firth and around north wales. all due to a strengthening southerly wind which has been picking up ahead of a band of rain, still gusty to the irish sea into the central belt of scotland. windier in the north—west of scotland but this evening the winds were beginning to ease and the winds will fall lighter elsewhere as the band of rain moves through scotland and northern ireland and comes to rest across northern england and wales. to the north it is going to be colder, north of the central belt there could be frost early on monday morning. south of the band of rain it is much milder. the rain could be heavy over the hills particularly in

the north west of england, much of scotland and northern ireland could be dry with some sunshine, significantly colder than it is today, temperature taking quite a tumble. across the midlands, east anglia and the south—east where it is still dry with mild air, temperatures 1a or 15 degrees. wet weather in some places, and after dark we could see some snow falling the southern uplands leaving icy conditions by tuesday. by tuesday morning, the area of low pressure will have taken the wet weather out of the way, leaving a cloud start for england and wales but we will have sunshine full scotland and northern ireland pushing its way south during the day and introduce calder air again. south during the day and introduce calderairagain. it south during the day and introduce calder air again. it might be 12 degrees for a while in the south—east but eight or nine nearer the mark on tuesday afternoon. lighter winds in southern parts of the uk is into wednesday but further north in a different story, wet and windy weather driving in on that weather front and windy across the

far north of scotland, gales widely into scotland, northern ireland and the north of england, over the hills in the highlands there could be a couple of inches of rain on wednesday. the wet and windy weather suits to northern ireland, england and wales looks dry, some sunshine and wales looks dry, some sunshine and temperatures are still ten or 11 degrees. is that weather front takes the reins south of the ducks, the rain dies out, and then we will see weather front rain dies out, and then we will see weatherfront bringing rain dies out, and then we will see weather front bringing that milder air.

live from london — this is bbc news. the head of the un begs countries to continue supporting its palestinian aid agency, after claims some staff were involved in the hamas attacks on israel. britain's business secretary explains why she removed the head of the post office — following the it scandal that left hundreds wrongly convicted of fraud. looking at the governance

around the post office, and that is where my deciding we needed a new chair of the organisation which was important. it just wasn't working. painting protest — two activists throw soup at the mona lisa in the louvre museum in paris. and the saint of melbourne — italy's jannik sinner wins the australian open — his first ever major. hello, i'm catherine byaruhanga. the united nations secretary general has implored governments not to defund the un agency for palestinian refugees. he also vowed to hold to account any un employee involved in acts of terror, after israeli allegations that several unrwa staff were involved in the deadly attacks

by hamas last october.