were appalling and that is why we took decisive action. it is virtually unprecedented to withdraw support for a candidate in the way that i withdraw support for this candidate yesterday. that is what a change labour party is all about. of course, any allegation will be fully investigated by the party. but the important thing is the decisive action that has been taken to make it absolutely clear that this is a change labour party. he it absolutely clear that this is a change labour party.- change labour party. he didn't answer the _ change labour party. he didn't answer the question, - change labour party. he didn't answer the question, there - change labour party. he didn't i answer the question, there were other_ answer the question, there were other labour councillors in that room _ other labour councillors in that room joining in with that conversation, it will bait to be investigated?— conversation, it will bait to be investiuated? ., ., . investigated? any allegation that needs to be _ investigated? any allegation that needs to be investigated, - investigated? any allegation that needs to be investigated, will. investigated? any allegation that needs to be investigated, will be| needs to be investigated, will be investigated.— needs to be investigated, will be investiuated. , ., ., investigated. martyn ford had said there is a perception _ investigated. martyn ford had said there is a perception that - there is a perception that anti—semitism is being weaponised and do _ anti—semitism is being weaponised and do you — anti—semitism is being weaponised and do you accept you have held previous — and do you accept you have held previous cases of anti—semitism in your party— previous cases of anti—semitism in your party differently to the way your party differently to the way you address this case and are you guilty— you address this case and are you guilty of— you address this case and are you guilty of double standard? i set out four ears guilty of double standard? i set out four years ago _ guilty of double standard? i set out four years ago to — guilty of double standard? i set out four years ago to tear _ guilty of double standard? i set out. four years ago to tear anti-semitism

four years ago to tear anti—semitism out of the labour party, it is the first thing i said i would do as labour leader and change the party. i have taken a series of decisions along those lines, ruthlessly changing our party. it has made no difference to me where somebody stands in the labour party, the change i've brought about is a labour party that is now back in the service of working people. he should labour suoporters — service of working people. he should labour supporters vote _ service of working people. he should labour supporters vote for _ service of working people. he should labour supporters vote for in - labour supporters vote for in rochdale?— labour supporters vote for in rochdale? ., , ., rochdale? the voters in rochdale will have to _ rochdale? the voters in rochdale will have to determine _ rochdale? the voters in rochdale will have to determine who - rochdale? the voters in rochdale will have to determine who they l rochdale? the voters in rochdale i will have to determine who they vote for, but i am not prepared to put forward a labour candidate and i think that candidate is fit to be a labour mp. before we bring you more analysis on the events in rochdale and more reaction to, here's a full list of the candidates standing in that by—election. if you'd like more information , you can head to our website. our political editor for the north west annabel tiffin

explains why this is an unprecedented situation for the labour party in the upcoming by—election. labour was always aware that gaza was going to be a huge issue in this by—election. i was there just a few days ago speaking to people on the streets and i spoke to a lot of labour muslims who said that they were angry that labour didn't have a strong enough stance on this. a couple of labour figures i have been speaking to, they didn't want to go on the record but they said privately one of the reasons they called this by—election so quickly, and it is going to be on february the 29th, was because they didn't want other candidates to gain momentum. they mean by that, probably george galloway. he is campaigning for the workers party of britain and he is campaigning against labour's stance on gaza. in fact another mp said to me he thought this by—election was rushed and they didn't do enough due diligence on the candidate.

that it was almost unseemly that they called the by—election before tony lloyd, the former mp who died, before his funeral had taken place. tony lloyd won with a majority in 2019 of about 19,500. so you could say that on paper this was a relatively safe seat and that it was labour's to lose. but now we have an unprecedented situation. you have a labour candidate whose name is still going to be on the ballot, but he is not backed by the party. we have two former labour mps who are standing for different parties. you have a green candidate who was also withdrawn but he will stay on the ballot. and then you have five other candidates, including the liberal democrats and the conservatives. mr ali hasn't been seen recently but labour have confirmed he is no longer going to be the leader of labour lancashire county council. to recap, azhar ali will still be

listed as the labour candidate on the ballot paper because under electoral law it is too late to replace him. earlier we spoke tojonathan tonge, professor of politics at university of liverpool and i asked him what happens next. well, it's an unprecedented situation, azhar ali, as you say, will be on the ballot paper. the labour label will appear on the ballot paper as well. but he is not the official labour candidate because the labour party does not back him. and it'd be very interesting to see how many people still vote for azhar ali. regardless, once those 11 candidates were actually nominated, there was nothing that could be done. the election goes ahead as per nominations and labor can withdraw support. any party can withdraw support. in fact, the green party has withdrawn support for its candidate, but the by—election goes ahead as it was originally framed. obviously a huge embarrassment for labour, bearing in mind that labour lost two general elections,

has won more an overall majority of the vote. it's won more in terms of votes than all the other parties combined, but there is now no official labor candidate. so how does this affect the run up to the general election? which is really the important question, isn't it? it's a question of whether people believe keir starmer when he says, look, this party is under new management. we've moved on from the anti—semitism, which allegations of which dogged his predecessor, jeremy corbyn. jeremy corbyn sets up the inquiry under shami chakrabarti, which found that anti—semitism was not rife in the labour party. but some people had, and i quote, ignorant attitudes. the equality and human rights commission inquiry into the labour party, though, in 2019 took a much more serious view and found that the labour party was guilty on some counts of harassing and not dealing properly with some of its jewish membership. now keir starmer wants to leave that all behind. it would have been wiser for keir starmer to have suspended azhar ali as the labour candidate immediately. those comments about israel letting

hamas attack on october 7th because they were they were in many ways those comments were worse than the comments that did lead to azhar ali suspension. there's no particular logic in terms of the timing of the suspension. he should have acted immediately. that wouldn't have saved labour from the by—election that was already done and dusted in terms of the candidates, but nonetheless it would have avoided the charges of indecision that have been labelled it. keir starmer now the question begs, the question that was thrown at keir starmer is why he allowed the situation to fester, knowing that that first set of comments were causing great damage and great offence amongst some people. given that underlying narrative, given that it's there, it's easy to look back and say, perhaps we should have acted sooner. why do you think he did not? well, i think that labour is quite worried about the the muslim vote more broadly. remember, one in five voters in rochdale are muslim. they were quite worried and they hope that the situation would die down very quickly. they also put faith in azhar ali's apology. and in terms of the selection, initially he appeared a good selection.

there was no particular evidence that he would be engaged in any form of antisemitism. he'd worked with other faiths regularly, so he looked a proven quantity. and so i think the party wanted to back him. but it quickly became apparent after those comments were issued that his position was untenable and the leadership waited fatally and allowed the situation to worsen because there was always a risk that more comments would be unearthed. i think keir starmer will be, as lord mann put it earlier, hopping mad at all this. the fact is that azhar ali made those comments to a lancashire labour party meeting, they should have been reported straightaway to the leadership. the delay as again increased labour's embarrassment. and so they're going to a by election now, which could have been a safe hold, you know, comfortable victories, recent general elections, but instead they've got to wait now until the general election before they have a chance of reclaiming rochdale. controversy surrounding the by—election in rochdale.

king charles has returned to london for what is widely expected to be further treatment following his cancer diagnosis. the king and queen camilla flew by helicopter to buckingham palace from their private sandringham home, and from buckingham they were driven the short distance to nearby clarence house. it was announced last week that the king has a "form of cancer" and at the weekend he issued a statement praising "all those organisations which support cancer patients". he has postponed all public—facing duties, but is continuing with behind—the—scenes work on his red boxes of state papers. pet owners are being urged to take more care, after a rise in the number of wild animals being attacked by cats and dogs. a wildlife hospital in sussex says small animals like hedgehogs and birds are being injured — and they're concerned many more wounded creatures are out there in need of help, as sean killick reports. so they like to hide in the back. so you just remove some of that bedding and then we can very gently pick them up. and we're going to pop him in his scales to be weighed for today.

brent lodge is a busy wildlife hospital. last year they treated 2,500 patients and now they've analysed the numbers and discovered that one in five of all wild animals treated here had been attacked by a cat or a dog, such as this hedgehog pictured after being treated for severe head wounds following a dog attack. and this wood pigeon which was attacked by three cats with wounds all over its body. we have hedgehogs that are caught by dogs and deer and foxes and even young badger cubs that are caught by dogs, and birds that are caught by cats and dogs, predominantly cats. there are many animals that don't make it to us. there's a lot more of a problem than what we're seeing here. but yeah, we do get a huge number through. they've just opened a new building with a veterinary treatment room and triage area costing £600,000, funded through legacy donations. when we have a veterinary team in, they have access to general anaesthetics, x—ray machines and it'sjust a general room to treat all of our animals. what would your message be to cat

and dog owners in particular? just be mindful. if you're in a nature reserve, you should already have your dog on a lead. but make sure they're on a lead because ground dwelling birds, things like that. if you've got a cat, bells on collars, maybe don't feed the birds in your garden because you're just giving them food on a plate, really, essentially. but there are definitely things we can be doing to reduce any risk of animals being caught. which would be good news for ourfriend the hedgehog here, who's due to be released back into the wild soon. that was sean killick reporting. now it's time for a look at the weather with elizabeth rizzini. hello there. good afternoon. a very different looking day of weather today for much of england and wales than we saw yesterday. gone are those blue skies. instead, the daffodils languishing underneath rather grey leaden skies. but still the sunshine continues across much of scotland today and indeed the far north of northern ireland too. and here is the weather front responsible for the change in our weather. it's a warm front, it's moving further northwards and eastwards

as we head through the rest of the afternoon across england and wales. and it's bringing with it some milderfeeling air, but lots of thickening cloud, coastal fog and some showery outbreaks of rain on and off for the rest of the day with brisk south—westerly winds. but still some sunshine for much of northern ireland and from the borders north with some wintry showers still perhaps across the higher ground of western scotland. and overnight tonight, well our weather front continues to push further northward, sending more cloud into northern ireland and perhaps into southern scotland, too. a sharp temperature contrast overnight tonight with temperatures for some in the sheltered glens of scotland down as low as minus six celsius, but double figures further south across much of england and wales. again, the showery outbreaks of rain likely to continue and a few more weather fronts around on wednesday again, all pushing northwards and eastwards. there'll be some heavy rain for a time across northern ireland and into southern scotland. as that rain moves further north and bumps into the colder feeling air over the higher ground of scotland it's likely that it could turn to snow. there'll also be more rain across the south of england and wales, but in between maybe a few brighter

spells and any brightness will help to lift the temperature to 1a or 15 celsius. again, brisk south—westerly winds for some. more weather fronts around on thursday. this warm front introducing some very mild feeling air and if we do get any brightness across the south east of england through the day on thursday, temperatures here could rise as high as 16 or 17 celsius. most of the rain on thursday will tend to be towards the north and the west. again, there will be some heavy downpours at times, temperatures well above the seasonal average and starting to rise, too, across the far north of scotland as that rain continues to push further northwards. on friday, that rain is mostly pushed out towards the east. there'll be plenty of cloud around some outbreaks of drizzle here and there. the best of any brightness really on friday will tend to be to the south and the west. again, temperatures mild for the time of year. bye— bye.

live from london. this is bbc news. as smoke rises above the rafah crossing, egyptian media reports that across the border in cairo, ceasefire talks are due to take place involving american, egyptian, israeli and qatari officials. so much of gaza has been damaged, so much does not have the infrastructure to support people coming back.

0n patrol when air strikes hit. we'll bring you a special report on the work and lives of the paramedics responding to gaza's emergency calls. in business, cosmetic retailer the body shop goes into administration in the uk putting thousands ofjobs at risk. and king charles returns to london for what is expected to be medical treatment following his cancer diagnosis. hello, welcome to bbc news now, three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction. egyptian media are reporting that senior officials from the united states, qatar, egypt and israel are in cairo to hold talks, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire in gaza. the discussions are featuring the head of the cia, william burns, his egyptian counterpart, abbas kamel,