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tv   Newscast  BBC News  May 29, 2024 11:30pm-12:01am BST

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atacar at a car park. their car was found at a car park. they're urging anyone who may have seen or spoken to them to get in touch urgently. the wife of a woman who was stabbed to death has paid tribute to her as one of the most energetic souls. 43—year—old amy gray died at the scene. her widow set her wife's smile will be hard to live without. almost 200 years after it was launched, the london newspaper, the evening standard, is axing its daily print edition. it will be published once a week instead. circulation figures have fallen
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in the past five years from 800,000 to 250,000. the paper has been handed out for free since 2009. the fall in readership is being blamed on more people working from home and the fact that wifi is now available on the underground. to the latest in a war in gaza. now the latest on the war in gaza. a national security adviser to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says that he expects fighting to continue for at least the rest of this year. the israeli military says it's taken control over a 14km strategic zone along the border between gaza and egypt, known as the philadelphi corridor. an official said troops were located in most of the corridor in southern gaza and controlled the area with surveillance and firepower, despite calls for the operation to be halted to prevent more civilian deaths. authorities in the netherlands are investigating the death of a person who was ingested by a running jet engine at amsterdam's skiphol airport. klm — the airline whose
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plane was involved — said it was a horrible incident. 0ur correspondent anna holligan is following the story. well, very few details have been released about the circumstances or the victim in what klm has described as a horrible incident. we do know the plane was a city hopper destined for the town of billund in central denmark. we don't know how many people were on board at the time, but these types of aircraft can carry around 100 passengers. the dutch military police said many people witnessed what happened. the crew and passengers all disembarked and they have been offered specialist support. this kind of incident is extremely rare. amsterdam's schiphol airport is actually one of europe's busiest transport hubs. the dutch safety board is investigating, and the labour inspectorate also sent someone to the scene to see whether it should be classed as a workplace accident.
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and a whole again there. —— anna holligan. there's been another volcanic eruption southwest of the icelandic capital reykjavik, the fifth in six months. a fissure more than a kilometre long opened on the reykjanes peninsula around noon local time. 0ur footage from the site shows a wall of molten rock shooting up to a height of 50 metres, and huge plumes of smoke covering most of the sky. the eruption is taking place in an uninhabited part of iceland, but the fishing village of grindavik to the south, and the blue lagoon spa — one of the country's most popular tourist resorts — have been evacuated. that's live images you're looking at there. now on bbc news, it's time now to digest the day's election campaigning in newscast — with adam fleming and the team. political correspondent alex forsyth is here. 0h, she's tapping away. sorry.
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is that social call or? social call. 0h, 0k. all right, sorry. sorry to interrupt, sorry. it was a social call, but now i'm in the game. and nick, what political editor am i calling it? election newsnight now? because that's what you called it last night. yeah. — nightly election newsnight. 0k. well, welcome back. we finally got details from itv of their first it's going to be on tuesday at 9pm, which gives us a short, brief window to discuss our favourite election debate moments. alex. my personal favourite memory of one of the election night debates was i was on the campaign trail, and this would have been 2015 and we were all staying in a random hotel in a seafront somewhere, and the whole election team got round to watch the first debate with like wine and cheese, which is so civilised cos we weren't covering it, because we were just watching it — so just watching it for enjoyment, literally for kicks. yeah. if fun, it was great. well, clearly the wisest line that has ever been said in any television election debate.
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what building? what is coming up? 0h, let's work that out. ten out of ten for originality. i agree with nick. the first one ever in uk. yeah. i'm torn between that one cos that was when i got stranded in northern ireland because of the icelandic volcanic ash cloud. was that one in 2010? 2010, yeah. and so, it took me like three days to get back home from northern ireland and then and then yeah, it was, it was a ridiculous ferry journey of which i'll tell you about another day. and then, also, the one in cambridge where none of the big names are going to turn up, and then at the last second, jeremy corbyn turned up, and that was actually pretty exciting. the debate itself wasn't that illuminating, but that sort of shot of adrenaline for the news that night was quite... and we all had to make emergency trips to cambridge, didn't we? yeah, well, iwas... i was actually there already. you were there? i'm an aficionado of these things. i turn up to them, even if the vips aren't.
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if you're not invited. anyway, thank you for accepting my invite to be on this episode of newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, it's adam in the studio. hello, it's alex in the studio. and it's nick. i agree with nick in the studio. right, stop that! you can't agree with yourself. i agree with you being here. chris mason, he's in the west country, but he will probably turn up maybe in that screen. and i don't know, it's time. so let's see what happens anyway. talk about who's going to be turning up for the election and personnel and stuff. there's been a bit of a rolling mystery today. i mean, it started yesterday when we were chatting on the last episode of newscast about diane abbott. so, she is now a labour mp again, except parliament dissolves in a few hours�* time, so she won't be a labour mp again, but she's got the labour whip back for a bit. but is she or is she not going to be a labour candidate at the next election?
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and is it because she's been banned from being one or not? well, big question mark with a dot on the bottom, because if we pick up where we were left off, which was last time we were talking about this, was on tuesday's newscast. and at that point, we said there were things developing around what was going on with diane abbott and very brief history. we know that she was suspended from the parliamentary labour party because of comments she made about racism for which she apologised. but there was this incredibly long—running incredibly long—running investigation over a year where this was unresolved. and then what happened was last night, it started to emerge reports that she got the whip back, as you said, which turned out to be true. but then the times newspaper was reporting that despite that, she was going to be barred from standing as a candidate, bbc political correspondent, that she had been barred from standing. after that, keir starmer was asked about this and he said no, she hadn't been barred from standing. so, what we've really had now is a day of confusion about where we exactly are. is diane abbott going to be a candidate in this election or not? and keir starmer was at an event in worcester and this is where and how he said that.
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no decision has been taken to bar diane abbott. - the process that we were going. through ended with the restoration of the whip the other day. so, she's a member of- the parliamentary labour party and no decision has. been taken barring her. 0k, nikc, what's your theory about what's gone on? well, what's so magnificent about this is diane abbott this morning saying that "i've been barred" and keir starmer saying diane abbott has not been barred is that they're both right. and the reason why they're both right is that keir starmer is right, that the national executive committee of the labour party, which at this stage vets and decides on candidates, has not considered diane abbott's case because she hasn't applied to be a candidate. were she to apply, every single ally of keir starmer i have spoken to have told me that she would not be allowed to be a candidate. and the whole point of what had been going on in the last few weeks is that there were negotiations around what one pretty key player described to me as a golden bridge.
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and the golden bridge was that the whip would be restored to diane abbott. at that point, she would make it clear that she wouldn't be contesting the election, and then there would be a whole load of effusive praise for diane abbott from keir starmer downwards. that golden bridge, as one of these people said to me, has been blown up. it's been blown up cos my colleague victoria derbyshire had this great scoop which proved that the process investigating her had ended in december, and then it was blown out to the times last night, saying that she would be barred — which is probably where you'd be if thisjourney completed its end — but is not technically where we're now. and there's a lot of anger about which supporters of keir starmer may well have
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briefed the times. right, 0k. so it was actually quite a fragile compromise that had been constructed. and then multiple people like like it was like a bridge made out of matchsticks. exactly, diane abbott is really angry because she is making it clear that she had not told anyone that she was intending to retire because of course nothing formal had happened. but there was one of her allies who was the go—between with the leadership trying to construct this golden bridge, but as you say, it was built on a pretty flimsy framework. 0k, alex, the reason nick is talking about the nec being involved here is because we're now in this period where the central parties — or certainly in the labour party's case — they can kind of impose or take more control in constituencies about who the candidates are going to be in these places that if than a few months ago. yes, so the nec, the national executive committee of the labour party, which makes all of the kind of final
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decisions around candidacy, and obviously that process is kind of been sped up all of a sudden because of the way that rishi sunak called the election. and so they are having to make all of these decisions within quite a tight time frame because i think i'm right in saying it'sjune in saying it'sjune the 7th, which is the deadline for candidates to be in place in seats ready to fight the general election campaign. so, that is sort of allowed. and in actualfact, while all of this has been rumbling on for a long time around, diane abbott and again, we discussed on tuesday's newscast the fact that increasingly labour frontbenchers are going out and being asked, is this been resolved if this hasn't? and what they have been very keen to say is actually we aren't directly involved in this process at this point because there is now this other labour party process which was set up following jeremy corbyn's leadership to try and put some distance between the front bench and some of these decisions that are taken around personnel. so, it's allowed some of those labour frontbenchers to give them that distance when they've been asked about it. but now i think, despite the fact that there clearly is a role
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for the nec, as nick to play, the way that this has been handled about the way that she has been seen to be treated so publicly, of the labour party and such an influentialfigure in the labour movement in so many ways. so, i think, whatever you say about exactly who was responsible, the end result doesn't take away from the fact that this looks pretty bad right now. and the problem with shadow cabinet members and the leadership saying, "not me, guv," is that it is true that that was the case until december and nec panel was looking at it and it has to be at arm's length because the labour party got into terrible trouble with the equality and human rights seen to intervene. it was getting too personal. in december, that process ended with a formal warning and the final hurdle that diane abbott had to do was to do an online anti—semitism awareness course, which she completed in february. in february, the matter
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went to the chief whip, sir alan campbell. what does the chief whip of any party do? they enforce the will and the authority of the leader of their party — in other words, the issue then did rest with the shadow cabinet, it did rest with the chief whip. so it's very difficult for the labor party to say, "not us, guv." so it's very difficult for the labour party to say, "not us, guv." where they are able to say that is as soon as the election was called, these nec procedures kick in for the selection of candidates. of candidates, so at that point candidates are nec. but in between diane abbott completing this course in the election being called this rested with the chief whip who's very close to the leader and is being weaponised by the conservative party. because i've noticed every press release or email the tories have sent out today, whether it's about an nhs waiting list, which was labor's big intended story today, or whether it's about claims about public spending and how much
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pledges will cost the tories. pledges will cost the tories, then go, oh, and then look at keir starmer and him not being honest about what happened to diane abbott. so it doesn't matter what the email starts with, it ends with that from the tories. and they're using stronger language than that. rick holden issued a statement last night saying that keir starmer lied. i mean, keir starmer is a lawyer, so he chooses his language very, very carefully. and it is indeed true that once the election happened, it went to the nec. now there are some people in the labour party saying, bring this row on. this is a row with the labour left. we're very happy to have that row. this is a changed labour party. jeremy corbyn is not going to be a candidate in this election change labour party. we've seen off the hard left as they would say it, that has produced electoral dividends. what some people are saying — and notjust people on the left — starmer loyalists are saying diane abbott is notjeremy corbyn. diane abbott, they say, is an icon of the labour movement, the first black woman mp elected in 1987, an mp for nearly 40 years, the first black woman mp elected in 1987, an mp for nearly 40 years, and those who want to have a war with the hard left, these people are saying is watch out, be careful, diane abbott is a totally different
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political figure to jeremy corbyn. and it's also because we were discussing... that is exactly that point. even if the labour leadership were willing to have this fight with what they see as the left of the labour party, in one context, the way that this has played out in 2a hours is now i think might even say chaos around the management of these processes. no matter where you are, that is not something that you want to be a perception of the way you're running things at this point ina campaign. and at this point in newscast, which is 6.112 on wednesday evening, there's another situation developing with labour, with this labour mp called lloyd russell—moyle. he's got seat in the south coast of england. he's also quite of that diane abbott—jeremy corbyn kind of political tradition, whatever you want to call that. nick, just explain what's happening. he's put out a statement tonight.
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that's right. so lloyd russell—moyle is one of the brighton mps. he's a member of the campaign group. the campaign group is the group that is on the left. they're the group that basically produced jeremy corbyn, john mcdonnell, all that. and he has put out a statement this evening, lloyd russell—moyle, saying that he has been suspended from the labour whip very, very close to the deadline for the selection of candidates. and he's saying that there is now an investigation. what labour are saying is that last week they were in receipt of a very serious complaint. they take these complaints very seriously and they need to investigate them. the problem for lloyd russell—moyle is that there will be an investigation. he says he will fully comply, he'll co—operate with this investigation, but it will not be done until after the election. therefore, he will not be able to stand. and he said this complaint is vexatious and politically motivated. and alex, just theorising about this, it means that labour's critics internally and externally will be able to make similar arguments about they have done with the diane abbott case, which is, oh, hang on, these procedures are quite handy if you wanted to perhaps exclude people from the labour left. yeah, it comes back to exactly that point we're talking about. keir starmer, i think, has seen it as in his interest to be seen
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to be taking on the left of the labour party on one guy's or another. but obviously, what the timing of this does is just reopen what we know are kind of existing, different ideological dividing lines within the labour movement and they are there and they have always existed and keir starmer has been able to say he's changed the party from what it was under jeremy corbyn's leadership. he's been keen to point to that, but that doesn't mean that this isn't going to cause some consternation and no doubt a bit of backlash from people that sit on the left of the labour movement. and what the labour left will be saying is that the sealed tomb is filling up. this was the phrase the sealed tomb was a phrase that peter mandelson used. and the sealed tomb is that is where we need to put the labour left, because if the labour left are seen to be at the forefront, we lose. they say basically from about 1992 until about 2015,
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it was very, very difficult to get selected if you were. candidate on the left. i thinkjohn mcdonnell obviously got elected in 1997. there weren't many after that. and they will be saying on the left the seald tomb is opening up. what i think the labour leadership would say is, "well, look, we got this complaint about lloyd russell—moyle last week "and we've acted on it and we would not be taking this lightly. " and lloyd russell—moyle might not be a household name, but he's quite well known at westminster, isn't he? i'm thinking about the time that he spoke very movingly in the chamber about living with hiv and didn't. with hiv, and didn't he grab the mace at one point? so, that big gold like sticky thing that's on the table in between the two front benches. what was that about? i think it was in protest. i think it was over brexit. i think it was...| can't quite remember. but yeah, no, he's a he's a very he's on the left. he's a very passionate guy. and but there have been instances i'm sort of trawling
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and that was seen as sort of overly aggressive. so, it is a mixed record. and you know the answer to this — did michael heseltine grab the mace in the �*80s famously? michael heseltine grabbed the mace and it was in the 19705. whoops. and i think it was over the nationalisation of shipbuilding and it was a bill that went through and the way that the votes went were open to question and labour mps started singing the red flag in what he regarded as a triumphant way. and then he grabbed the mace and that led to his great nickname of tarzan. nick, your memory is is phenomenal. well, yeah, but i probably wrong because it's the top of my head. but newscasters know their dates. they will message in to newscast at bbc.co.uk if you're wrong,
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and of course that was pre—televisualisation of parliament. so, you and i, alex, will never see that. no, no, no. just have to picture it. can't even imagine that. you know, it's always been a kind of constant there in the background of my life. i have spoken about the small confession to make that heard that story many times and just through my whole life, i think when i was younger because of his nickname of tarzan and grabbing them, i sort of pictured him like in a loincloth, doing assume that what he was. yeah, when i was like 12, i don't know. but i remember when you could only listen to parliament on the radio and i remembertuning in. i should have been doing my a—level revision. radio is what they had before. podcasts, radio and radio tuned in on wild wave on long wave to listen to the live debate of the western debate, which, you know, very nearly brought down margaret thatcher, the famous debate when she walked in to the commons and said, "i may not be prime minister by the end of the day." and then neil kinnock did a performance that was, you know, pretty subpar. and i talked to jacob rees—mogg about this and he said, "oh, i listened to that exact debate as well."
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you too? talking about old tech! are you two talking about old tech? i'm going to put my finger on my ear because i think we can speak to chris mason on the phone. hello. this is, i think a phone in show. where are you calling from? what do you want to ask the panel? first time. long time. this is chris in devon here. do they not have television in devon? i was going to say, you expect to see you on the screen. - to be honest, i would be crying out lfor the long wave signal that nickl was just talking about there to help i project me into the newscast hq i in perhaps slightly better quality than a ropey phone line. - but hey, at least the phone lines - work, which is more than can be said for the bits of contraption - i was attempting to construct i was attempting to construct just now. so we could hear each other! that's a good thing! i'm ready to roll _ that's a good thing! i'm ready to roll. ~ . . �* that's a good thing! i'm ready to roll. ~ ., ., �* , roll. what have we've been working on toda ? so we've been following _ the prime minister announced today. so we've been we did a bit| of a stint with keir starmer
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for labour on monday and then nigel farage yesterday and - liberal democrats in the scottish. national party in the coming days. and today, hurtling around the southwest of england i following rishi sunak, _ who's been really kind of leaning into the kind of energetic, _ nonstop, frenetic campaigning thing. and i know all the leaders are doing that and they've all got to get - to a—to—b on various public bits of public transport or private i private transport, but rishi sunak really kind of consciously- leaning into it. so, you know, getting the sleeperj from london to cornwall overnight into this morning and then talking about apprenticeships — _ that's the big thing in conservative circles today as far as _ policy announcements. is concerned in england — and then doing one of his 0&as. he likes to turn up at a workplace and gather a kind of gaggle - of employees and i a kind of semicircle around him and do the pitch, - which is uncannily similar from one workplace to the next. but then that kind of makes sense from their perspective in terms . of message discipline and consistency, and| of message discipline _ and consistency, and then taking questions from some of the employees and if they're so inclined, _ a couple of reporters as well, and then shuffling off - to the next place.
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so, that's what we've been doing, kind of tailing the tailing - the prime minister today as we head into a place called ford street. - 0k, have you seen...? i was going to say i've not seen any kind of lame pictures of rishi sunak doing the rounds on social media for the last kind of 20 hours or so. do you think maybe the conservative campaign is kind of got out of that sort of doom loop people were saying they were in where he would turn up to places with bad names or be photographed in front of embarrassing things? maybe, maybe. - i think...| don't know. i mean, maybe all campaigns get. a little bust of these at some point and we've still got. another five weeks. it's fair to say there haven't been those things that a few people i were pointing out at the tail end | of last week, the...what was it, j the titanic quarter in belfast - and that exit zone on the aeroplane. l the funny thing is with that exit i somewhere when you're on a plane that small — i wasn't on that trip — but when you're on a plane - that small and you pose for photos, the chances are one of those exit i signs is going to be visible. and part of me wonders, as much as, you know, l
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pr types and spin doctors - and special advisers try and avoid those those pictures - where you're near an exit sign or you'd line upjust . in line with the antlers on the wall or whatever. but because they were very keen, they've definitely been keen- ito project that sense of zipping | about everywhere and visualising that, notjust obviously turning up in lots of different places, - which all of these have done, but kind of visualising - and demonstrating that hurtlingj around perhaps the desire to do that came with the downside of that sign and maybe things _ like that are trivial. i mean, to an extent, they are trivial, - but they do get commented on, don't they? _ and therefore they're perhaps - sucking away a bit of sort of energy and time from talking about the other stuff. the other thing that's really- striking with the conservatives, just being with them today and in the last few days — i and we've noticed this now for three or four days — - is that they're trying to make a splash early on by saying. new stuff and by announcing new policy, _ particularly that whole| national service thing. and then we've had the stuff about apprenticeships, - the stuff about the state pension as well, - to try and make an argument - that they've got fresh and new stuff
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to say and their opponents don't. and labour's thing has been a bit more kind of cautious, _ judicious core messages not getting drawn into any kind i of hostages to fortune. chris, i'm going to let you go because someone else wants to cos someone else wants to use the phone box. chris last. and i'm down to my last 50 -' yeah. beep, beep, beep, beep. you remember that? i can hear you and the world will soon hear you to coin a phrase. all right, safe travels, chris. bye! nick, are you going to make an observation or. no, i'mjust interested to...you know what? it's interesting that the perception is that it's been a really bad start for the campaign, for the conservatives and the first polls taken in the last week. most of them show all looking good for labour or if anything, slightly increasing their lead. although there's one pollster,
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jl partners that say that the labour leader has gone back down by two points. so that is the perception. and yet in terms of... since chris reeled off that list of policies, the national service thing, the pension, triple lock plus apprenticeships today — in terms of substance, the tories are talking about new stuff. labour is sort of talking about stuff that's already announced, although what labour would say is the reason why we're talking about stuff is already announced is that's credible, serious stuff that stands up. in terms of other stuff that happened today, junior doctors in england are going to go on strike again, and that strike will end two days before polling day. what's your theory, alex, about what impact that might have, if any? well, you can just take the fact of it is that you're going to have during that period, know, again, people are going to have hospital appointments cancelled. you know, people are going to see the impact of the doctor strikes as they've seen them before. and therefore, it is perhaps no surprise that the conservatives' reaction to it was, "oh, this is so political from the junior doctors." the junior doctors say, "well, actually, "if you'd resolve the pay issue,
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then we wouldn't be in this "situation having to strike again." but yet, either way you look at it, the timing is going to be key because it's coming right in that final week of the general election campaign. and i think already what you've seen again today are the questions for the parties. if you are in the next government, how are you going to resolve this issue? because it's been going on for ages and ages and ages. and we know that there was a sort of inching towards mediation before the general election period where streeting the shadow health secretary. interestingly, today, what he was saying is, "i'm not going to commit to the 35% pay rise that the junior doctors "are asking for, but i'd work towards a pay deal "in the longer term." but i think it's just going to focus minds at that point in the election campaign on one of the key issues, which is the nhs, which is what labour had wanted to actually talk about today regardless, right at the point that people are just going to go to the polls. and victoria atkins, the health secretary, said the british medical association was using a highly cynical tactic. she said, "i'm in politics to help patients, not trade unions. "the conservative government has taken tough decisions to keep "public spending down,
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to bear down on inflation, "which is now back to normal." and also just very quickly, i thought with the labour announcement on nhs waiting lists, it was interesting cos they've now narrowed down their target. they're not going to target all waiting lists, all appointments. it's people who are having to wait more than 18 weeks, which is an old government target. that's what they're going to focus on. so actually you could still end up waiting quite a long time under health secretary streeting the nhs. theirfocus, and correct me if i'm wrong here on the detail, but their focus is to hit the target, which is 92% of patients being seen within 18 weeks by the end of the first labour government. so in five years they're acknowledging that it might take a bit of time to get there. but yeah, they've specified where they couldn't specify specified before. and i guess in fairness the party have said that they will continue to do that as the campaign progresses and the manifestos come as all the parties have said.
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alex, thank you very much. my pleasure. and nick, i have found myself agreeing with you. i was going to say i mostly disagree with nick. i agree with adam, i agree with alex, i agree with chris. i disagree. i agree with everyone. so i agree. i agree with newscorp.
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welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. the headlines... jurors in the donald trump hush money trial began their deliberations and they have been sent home for the day. mother theresa cannot beat these charges. these charges are rigged, the whole thing is rigged to. are rigged, the whole thing is ria ued to. ., ., are rigged, the whole thing is rinedto. ., ., ., �*, rigged to. some of hong kong's best known _ rigged to. some of hong kong's best known pro-democracy - best known pro—democracy campaigners find out their fate as they face charges. diane abbott insists her labour party while let her stand in the uk general election but won't be drawn on whether the show run as an independent. there's been another volcanic eruption near the icelandic capital. the fifth and six months.

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