that's really stressful. i'm going to have to maybe speak to a friend to borrow money for gas and electric. i have no idea. hmrc says if people have been left out of pocket — for example, if they've been fined for late payments — they may be able to obtain compensation by making a complaint online. and it's promised that people who are due to get child benefit tomorrow will be paid without a hitch. theo leggett, bbc news. colin gibb, from the duo black lace — whose song agadoo is one of the most enduring pop songs ever — has died at the age of 70. gibb along with partner alan barton reached number two in the charts in 1984. despite being kept off top spot by george michael's "careless whisper", the song became a staple at parties and weddings.

time now to digest the day's election campaigning — and there's a lot to digest today — here's newscast, with adam fleming and the team. chris, let me get this straight. i can't see anyone, but you can see both me and alex forsyth. that's right — although that's only because i was sent a little picture of the two of you, just to remind me what you looked like. with you in your studio and alex in hers, and me in mine. hang on, we last saw each other on thursday — you've forgotten already? no, not forgotten, ijust like to be, you know, reassured. you know what, though, alex? what was that game you play where you have to lie in the dark, and then... i don't know what game you're talking to, adam. i'm nervous about where you're going with it. what do you think i do when i'm lying in the dark with other people? less about your weekend. no, that game when you have to, like, shout something out, but not shout over each other, but you can't see anyone else? no. — what's that game? basically, that's what this podcast is going to be like —

three people who can't see each other having to talk in sequence. but the main subject, i think, chris, will be nigel farage�*s... i can't even say his name. nigel farage�*s return of his return. his upgrade of his return. yeah, he's a master of political theatre, nigel farage. so, you know, i interviewed him less than a week ago — i think that's right, it was last tuesday. it was last tuesday where he said, "no, no, no, i'm not standing. there's no point because it's too late, you've got to spend six months at least working a seat, blah, blah, blah," and kept talking about how his eye was being drawn across the atlantic towards towards the us race, presidential race in the autumn. and here we are, hey, presto, a week later he is running. oh, and he's become leader of reform uk — so that's a bit more news into the party today. and that means that he'll get more profile and a greater platform during the campaign, as opposed to being honorific president, which was his title prior to today. and so, he's grabbed the attention last week, he's grabbed the attention today,

and he'll play a far bigger role, i think, now in the next five—and—a—bit weeks than he otherwise would have done it. and he was already playing quite a role. and, hey, presto, we've got loads to talk about in this episode of newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, it's adam in the studio. and it's chris, in salford. and it is alex, in westminster. before we dive into the nigel farage news, what news were you working on today, alex? well, i was working on what the conservatives probably wanted to talk about today before said nigel farage news — which is a plan that the conservatives have come up with to rewrite the equality act — which was an act that dates back to 2010, and effectively it enshrined in law the rights of some protected characteristics. and one of them is sex — and what the conservatives have been saying is that their plan

is they want to change that to make it clear it refers to biological sex. and the reason they say that this is needed is because they say make it clear that single—sex spaces — so think things like, you know, domestic abuse refuges or rape crisis centres, or even public toilets — it will make it clear that they can be for only biological women and girls, and not for people who are born male — even if those people do go through the process, which means they legally change their sex even on their birth certificate. so the conservatives are basically saying there needs to be clarity in this area, because there have been court cases and legal challenges, and a lot of confusion about this. so they were going to rewrite the equality act. now the other parties, labour and the lib dems say, "actually you don't need to do that because there's already provision in the law that there can be single—sex spaces. you just need to issue a bit more guidance." they accuse the conservatives are just stoking up tensions about this issue, accuse them of creating culture wars, said it was a completely

unnecessary thing. and the other part of this actually is that the conservatives also said that, when it comes to this issue, legislation should be made in westminster. now you can imagine that left the snp pretty unhappy, because the snp said it should be up to the governments of different nations to have a say in this process, as well. and you remember there was a back and forth when in scotland, the scottish government tried to change the law on this to make it easier for people to change their legal sex — and in the, end it was blocked by westminster. so the snp bit of pushback as well. so anyway, look, that was a very long—winded way of saying that's what the conservatives wanted to talk about. but, as so often happens in election campaigns, that was taken over later in the day by that nigel farage news. also, that's something i've been looking into for quite a while on anti—social, on radio 4 — the current series of which has just come to an end, but there's lots of back catalogue to listen to on bbc. good plug, never missed a chance. and, yeah, this hasn'tjust come out of nowhere. there's been a debate for quite a long time about whether you needed to clarify the equality act,

and what was the best way of doing that. and just the fact that the discussion about sex and gender had moved on quite a lot from when the equality act was passed in 2010, when the decade before, gender recognition certificates were introduced. and so, it's notjust come out of nowhere. and also, the equalities and human rights commission had been looking into this earlier in the year, and had recommended that something be done around this — although people will then say to the conservatives, "well, if it was so important to you, why didn't you do it when you were in power, rather than promising to do it if you're returned to power?" now, chris, talking about things that people started off the day doing, you started off the day talking about the military and defence spending, and particularly labour's triple—lock. everyone�*s got a triple—lock of their own now. yes, here comes another little bit of political language. so, yeah, labourwere at the fusilier museum, in bury, in greater manchester, doing the whole "please trust us on defence" routine. now there's been a fair

build—up to all of this. we've seen keir starmer go out and see british nato's troops in estonia a couple of times. he went out to nato hq himself, in brussels, on an occasion, he went to barrow in furness, in cumbria, where british nuclear submarines are made. he has been going out of his way to try and say, "look, whatever happened under labour in the recent past, iejeremy corbyn" — and recall that he served injeremy corbyn�*s shadow cabinet — "labour has changed since now." labour have often historically faced a sort of battle when it comes to credibility, believability, and trust on defence. it's not traditionally a strong subject for the party. then you throw into the mixjeremy corbyn — who was a sceptic about nuclear weapons, sceptic about nato, the defence alliance — and labour were trounced at the last general election. and what keir starmer has been trying to do pretty much ever since he got the job is to reassure

people that a labour government under his leadership could be trusted with national security. and there's a kind of bigger strategy here — so what he's trying to do is acknowledge that, if you can't be trusted — this is their view at a senior level in the labour party — if you can't be trusted on defence and the economy, you might as well pack your bags and go home, because anything else you say, no one's going to pay you a bit of attention because they're not going to elect you because they don't trust you on national defence and the economy, national security, and the economy. so that's what is the underlying sort of foundational drive behind, as they hope, nailing trust on defence. a, because they say they believe it and b, because it underpins alongside the economy everything else. so what happened today was that keir starmer and john healey, the shadow defence secretary, gathered at this military museum, surrounded by everything thatjust sort of oozed military. and then, there was a semi—circle behind them of labour candidates who are ex—military, many of them wearing their medals from their service in the forces.

and what we heard from keir starmer actually wasn't anything new for people who follow every kind of cough of politics — but it's an election campaign, so he wanted to say it on that stage. and so, they're saying that they are committed to the uk's nuclear weapons system, they are committed to defence, they want to spend 2.5% of national income on defence — albeit they won't actually put a date on it. the conservatives promise to do that by 2030. so they're trying to do the kind of reassuring comfort—blanket thing — whereas the conservatives, as alex was talking about, have done a whole load of announcements that are kind of like a firework. they create news, they're saying something new and different, and distinctive, and that generates headlines. labour's strategy in this first couple of weeks has been to almost do the opposite — to reassure, to double down on what they've already been saying, to not create hostages to fortune, and to try and be reassuring. and reassuring is the kind of key thing they hope, they hope they can secure

in the minds of a decent chunk of voters from the stuff they're saying on defence. now, what i've just done there is broker a news compromise. because i know there are people that love hearing about nigel farage, and i know there are people that do not love hearing about nigel farage, and maybe think we talk about him too much — even though i think it's prettyjustifiable. so what i did was, we had a bit of nigel farage fireworks at the start of this episode, and now we can have like a sort of more like slow burning bonfire of nigel farage stuff. with in between some marshmallows of other news from the election campaign gently toasted on that fire. anyway, right... i don't know where this metaphor is going, out of control. you do know that he didn't call a november election, right? we're not actually in bonfire night. yeah, i'm still on the tramlines of the old time line. anyway, so, alex, we'll get chris's analysis in a second, and we'll also hear the actual moment where nigel farage committed all this news.

but we knew something was going on from mid—morning, didn't we? because the farage—ster... i don't think it's going to work. nigel farage tweeted himself, in classic nigel farage style, that he had something big. yeah, so it wasjust that kind of... and this is where nigel farage knows how to play the game, work the system, whatever you want to call it. he has been around for an awful long time in politics, and what he's always managed to do is find a way to generate the headlines, find a way to put himself at the centre of it. i mean, love him or hate him, whatever you want to say — and there are definitely people that do both — he is a kind of master of the game. and he played that game this morning with this kind of, was it like a four—word tweet, or something like big announcement? yeah, "major announcement — emergency." emergency thing. and, you know, of course, what that does is just set every journalist off on their phones trying to work out what it's going to be. and, because there had been this thing where he'd ruled out standing, but there was still, ithink, you know, there was a sense that maybe

he will because the deadline is not until friday — which is also my birthday, i'lljust drop that in now, in case you want to send me a present — i think thatjust set the kind of hares running in, the excitement buzzing, and then everyone was like, "what was going on?" and i mean, i, like everybody else, put in the calls and was told, "0h, we don't know." but i was also from somebody in reform ukjust said like "classic farage theatre". and that's exactly what it was, and that's what he does. right, let's hear the moment, then. so this was just after 4pm on monday afternoon, and this is nigel farage doing the double, announcing that he's going to stand as a candidate in clacton, in essex, and also that he would, from that second on, live take—over as leader of reform uk — basically booting out richard tice, who'd been doing thatjob for most of that party's existence. i've changed my mind. it's allowed, you know! it's not always a sign of weakness. it could potentially. be a sign of strength. so i am going to stand in this election. - i'll be launching my candidacy- at midday tomorrow, in the essex seaside town of clacton.

well, there we go. and, once we have a full list of candidates for that constituency — which, as alex said, will be on her birthday on friday. what a great present, alex, you'll be able to go to the bbc news website and see a full list. that's my plan. 0k, chris, give us your big—picture thoughts. he's the master of the arc ofjeopardy news management, the big reveal. so, as alex was saying, that tantalising, teasing tweet that had politicaljournalists agog with what he might be about to do. so, managing to extract every morsel of excitement, uncertainty out of the moment. you know, as he was walking into the venue, our colleague lucy manning was asking him, are you going to stand? and he's teasing, "who knows? maybe i've not decided yet" — knowing that that contributes in the packaging up of the news into that sense of the drama that

surrounds nigel farage. so, he knows exactly what he's doing. he's one of the best political communicators of his generation, and this is the latest case study in it. he was able to extract attention and news coverage a week ago when he said he wouldn't be standing, but he'd be popping up around the country campaigning for reform uk. here we are, less than a week later, extracting more news and attention out of saying the exact opposite. as i said a couple of minutes ago, by taking on the party leadership, that will afford him a greater platform because he is a party leader of a party that is polling as it is which, when it's crunched through the various kind of processes that determine from the broadcasters how much coverage different parties get, will mean that reform will get a certain amount — and he, as the leader, will be able to justifiably, if you like, front that. there was going to be a limit on how much would probably see of him as the honorary president. there is now a race in clacton that will fascinate a good number

of our fellow politicaljournalists, because it'lljust be interesting, can he do it? can he make it to westminster at the eighth time of asking? and then also — and perhaps more importantly than that, in terms of the outcome of of this general election, as opposed to what might happen, the other side of it — his capacity to potentially — and let's see — transform, or not, reform's prospects. and what he can certainly do — and this is happening already as we record newscast — is frighten the whatseis out of plenty of conservatives. because there he is, with his jocular kind of casual, yet devilish torment of the tories — a party of which he used to be a member — because they fear a disproportionate number of their recent voters are lured towards reform uk, and already were. and now, nigel farage at the helm, and the prospect that, because of his capacity to generate

attention, and to be, to some, a magnet in terms of looking towards him, towards the other end of the magnet, pushing them away, can be, yeah, dangerous for the conservatives. as if rishi sunak needed any more kind of grim news after some opinion polls in the last few days suggesting things look already really bleak for him. of course, it's just worth saying — i mean, what is interesting is that when nigel farage was saying why he wouldn't stand, part of the reason, he said, is because he couldn't get a campaign together in time, and that, you know, it caught him by surprise and all the rest of it. so there is another element to this, and that element is the fact that now, he's going to have to try and win a constituency seat — because he has failed seven times before, and he has failed, despite the fact he's thrown quite a lot at it. and when ukip, the party that he previously led, one of the forerunners of reform uk, was kind of riding pretty high, he still wasn't able to translate that into a parliamentary seat win. so i think there is also massive

risk here for nigel farage now, because if he doesn't win on the eighth attempt at this point, i mean, that doesn't look good for him. and there's also the question about how much he can dedicate to campaigning across the country when he's attempting to win a constituency seat. and there is also a third question about the fact we do rightly say — and chris has pointed this out — he's been an influential figure in british politics, that it goes without any doubt, and there are very nervous conservatives, and there is a possibility it does have a significant impact on the conservative vote. but you also have to remember nigel farage is a hugely divisive figure, and so, as much as this might galvanise support, it could also galvanise opposition to this party, because he does divide opinion. so i think there are risks here, as well. i've been slithering all afternoon — a good scottish word for not being able to make up your mind — about whether this is a strength move or a weakness move by nigel farage. i mean, he even himself brought up that distinction. and for all the reasons you've just given there, strength move, particularly the fact that it means that rishi sunak will now have to come up with even more reform voter—friendly policies,

like national service and the triple—lock plus for pensions, to sort of stop even more conservative potential voters becoming reform potential voters. so that's the strength thing. but then, you look at it from the end of the telescope, and whether it's whether it is a strong thing or not because, 0k, well, is this not a suggestion, then, that maybe rishi sunak strategy of squashing potential reform voters by love—bombing them with policies was actually working, and so reform are having to kind of up their game now to counter that? also, itjust shows you, i mean, maybe nigel farage�*s politicaljudgment isn't spot—on if he's had to just massively u—turn on his two big decisions about how to fight this election in less than a week. also, does this mark the end of the experiment of trying to make reform uk finally, finally a party that was more than one person — nigel farage — and more than just one policy — talking about immigration and brexit all the time? actually, that experiment only lasted a couple of months,

and now they've gone back to basically, you could argue, being a vehicle for nigel farage that mainly talks about immigration. you know what? no, no, you first. i wasjust going to say briefly a couple a couple ofjust points tonight. axactly as you say, adam, what is interesting is that ukip again spent a long time trying to break away from that nigel farage branding and the and the accusation that they were a single—man, single—issue, party. and reform uk, part of their strategy was never that they thought they were going to win loads of seats in this election. it was about trying to build for the next election, they would have argued, you know, what they wanted to do, it was a longer—term thing, the strategy that they had. and i wonder now if what this does to reform uk in the longer term, never mind this election, is again leave them having to do exactly as ukip did, exactly as brexit party did, which was break that brand of single man, big issue, as you say, adam _ and just another quick point — it was interesting in nigel farage's press conference today

that he was having to say, "oh, you're all going to say there's a big split in the party, and that we're all arguing with each other and we don't get on very well. and that's not true, we get on brilliantly." but richard tice — who has been sort of slowly trying to build reform uk — has had to step aside for nigel farage four—and—a—bit weeks out from an election. and you know, i'm guessing — i haven't spoken to richard tice, so i don't know — but it was interesting that nigel farage had to publicly say "we are getting on well, despite that". i think ultimately, you know, for nigel farage, the lure of the flame of attention was just too big, too tantalising, too mesmerising to walk past. and i don't say that with any suggestion of cynicism. if you're in politics, you want to be and seek to be influential, and seek to be at the moments when you can exact the greatest influence. and i think he felt that this was something he couldn't walk past, i think particularly on the issue of leadership — because he would know that, by assuming the leadership, he would have a far greater case for saying, "let me go

on the television in the leader's debates, where lots of party leaders are appearing, for instance, let's appear more frequently in doing the sort of media rounds." and, whilst nigel farage and richard tice share plenty politically, mr tice, i think, would be the first to acknowledge nigel farage's capacity as a communicator — and therefore, for the party's prospects in the round, particularly as part of this, what they say is a kind of two—election strategy — if it is to be a two—election strategy, and let's not get ahead of ourselves, because let's cover this one first... but it is nearly over. ..then they have to achieve something at this one that gives them the building blocks for a future one, because five years, my goodness, is one heck of a long time. even four years is one heck of a long time. so i think, yeah, just that prospect of getting stuck in and getting properly stuck in... but i am intrigued, and alex, you made this point. i think this is a fascinating one — i was saying a week ago

when people were saying, "0oh, isn't it significant that nigel farage is choosing not to stand in a seat?" well, actually, it does mean he can campaign more freely and vigorously geographically wherever he is drawn to — whereas actually, from reform's perspective, and indeed his perspective now, he has a contradiction in terms of where he allocates his time. does he spend the vast majority of time in clacton, with the obvious opportunity cost that he can't be in lots of other places? or does he spend lots of time in lots of other places, and potentially undermine his campaign in clacton? it is really, really hard for small parties to win in the first place past the post, you need that geographically—concentrated pocket of support. and you know, we know that isn't easy because my goodness, he's tried it a million times and liberal democrats will be the first to tell you a similar story. so, yeah, where does he spend his time? there's a real dilemma for him now, i think. although, just imagine this was any other political party, and keir starmer was at the podium,

and he said, "i am pleased to welcome my special guests to this news conference, it's former prime minister tony blair." then tony blair went to the microphone and said, "yeah, i'm taking over as leader. we're not going to have a contest, there's no rules. thanks, bye, thanks for your service." just the normal rules just do not apply to that party. i mean, that's what i meant by saying it was interesting that nigel farage had to make a point of saying that they were all getting on brilliantly behind the scenes, just because i mean — i'm not suggesting at all they're not, because i have no information to the contrary. but it isjust so extraordinary that, at this point in a campaign, the leader of a party would just be switched like that. you know, it'sjust an extraordinary thing, and i think, you know, it doesn't happen very often, four—and—a—half weeks out. anyway, the next thing we've got to look forward to — i mean, who knows what will happen between now and this point i'm about to talk about? because it's tuesday night, i'm going to go back to preview — the first head—to—head, rishi sunak versus keir starmer, hosted byjulie etchingham on itv. we're going to do an extra episode

of newscast on tuesday, morning talking about... 0h, are we? yeah — oh, have i not invited you? i like to break the news to you gradually, bit by bit. i think henry zeffman�*s doing it, chris. what?! in a sort of richard tice, nigel farage—style move. i. by "by the gang are fine, i'm told." but, chris, to give you your bite of the cherry in advance then, before henry gets his, i mean, obviously we will soak it all up — you'll be watching it, you'll be scribbling down all the zingers, you'll do an amazing piece on the 10pm news about all the best bits... well, you say that. ..but how hyped—up should we get, do you think, for this? collectively, i think the journalistic class tend to get incredibly hyped up by these things. i'm a bit more sceptical, whilst obviously contributing my fair smattering, no doubt — if hopefully not hype, then certainly sort of verbiage and pictures, and sound on television, radio, and online. it's clearly a moment.

it's clearly a moment in this campaign, because the two guys — one of which is going to be prime ministerfrom the, you know, fifth day ofjuly onwards — is going to come from those two. and it's the first sort of, if you like, stage—managed moment where you see the two of them trying to make that argument to millions of people in one go — both on television and then all of the repackaging on television and radio and social media and all the rest of it that will come in the days after that. and, to give you some sense of how much importance the leaders attached to it, there's a reason they've done kind of one thing each today, then pretty much disappeared. that's because they are preparing, they are practising. they're doing mock debates within their own teams. they're thinking about lines of attack and lines of defence. and both sides are doing that. so they get how important it is. now, how much does it change the outcome? big question — and we're also,

let's remember, in the grand scheme of an election campaign still a million miles from polling day. you know, when the bbc does its equivalent with the two prime ministerial candidates — which is a week and a day before polling day — you know, that's at the other end of this month. so the one happening tomorrow probably will feel like a distant memory. who knows, there might be a kind of stand out moment. you remember when ed miliband fell off the stage in leeds, in 2015? so there might be a moment that becomes a kind of campaign moment. but you know what, there might not be. and to smoosh up my british election debate history, i'm going to say, alex, you're the life and soul of the party — and i would love a lift home with you at the end of the night. and i agree with chris. 0h, he's slicking me, alex. he's good at this. he really is. and that brings us to the end of this episode of newscast. we've actually recorded some extra bonus material, which you will be able to hear on the podcast version, which you will be able to hear on bbc sounds.

and we'll be back with another episode very soon — bye. newscast from the bbc. hello there. things are set to turn cooler for the rest of this week as we pick up arctic air, which will spread southwards across the uk during the course of tuesday. so it's going to be pretty disappointingly cool for the time of year, with some really chilly nights to come — gardeners and growers take note — and we'll see a mixture of sunshine and showers. it's all thanks to this area of low pressure pushing southwards out of the arctic, bringing this cold air behind the cold fronts across the country as you move through tuesday and into wednesday, and thereafter for the rest of the week, this cooler air hangs around with sunshine and showers, mainly across the north of the uk. tuesday starts off mostly dry. variable cloud, a bit of brightness for england and wales. south across the country. this band of cloud and showery rain will spread some of it will be heavy and squally, maybe a few heavy showers ahead of it in east anglia. but skies brightening up across the north of the uk later on behind the rain band, sunshine and blustery showers, but turning chillier here.

last of the warmth hanging on ahead of that rain band, which will clear through during tuesday evening. and then we're all into the cooler air, clearerskies, plenty of showers rattling into northern and western areas, some of them heavy, again, with some rumbles of thunder. but a much cooler night to come to start wednesday. we're looking at low single digits pretty widely. so into wednesday, we have that area of low pressure sitting to the north of scotland, bringing the strongest winds to the northern half of the country. and it's here where we'll see most of these blustery showers moving through. again, some could be heavy with a little bit of hail, maybe wintriness us on the very high tops of the scottish mountains. better chance of staying dry with some sunshine towards the far south and east, but highs of only 17 degrees— low teens further north. factor in the wind, it'll feel cooler than those temperatures suggest. thursday, similar story. most of the showers will be across the northern half of the country, closer to the area of low pressure, better chance of staying dry across parts of wales, the midlands southwards.

it could be up to 17 or 18 degrees on thursday afternoon. but again, another chilly one in the north. and you can see why. that area of low pressure just hangs around thursday, even into friday and the weekend, with that blue hue denoting the cooler air hanging around, especially across the northern half of the country. further south in the sunshine, it won't be too bad. may hit the 20 celsius mark as we head into the weekend. some decent spells of strong june sunshine, but it'll feel chilly in the north with further showers. welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm steve lai. the headlines the criminal trial of president biden�*s son hunter on gun charges is under way in the state of delaware. israel's military says it has established the deaths of four more people abducted by hamas on the seventh of october. an idf spokesman said intelligence gathered in recent weeks had led

to the assessment. four of them were killed together in the area of khan younis during our operation there against hamas. the information we confirmed by the relevant bodies after assessing new intelligence that we gathered over the last few weeks. in the uk, nigel farage announces he'll stand as a candidate in the general election for his party reform uk, after publically insisting ten days ago that he had no intention of doing so. we're starting newsday in the us state of delaware, where a jury has been selected in the trial ofjoe biden�*s son hunter on gun charges. it's the first prosecution in us history for a child

of a sitting president.