he's promising an "immediate reset" of relations with the devolved governments of scotland, wales and northern ireland. the israeli army has issued new evacuation orders to palestinian residents and displaced families in several districts of gaza city. dozens of families are now headed to other locations west and south of gaza city. negotiations about the future of the tata steel plant at port talbot in south wales have begun between the new government and the indian owners of the business. the decision to close the blast furnaces puts nearly 3,000 jobs at risk. now on bbc news, newscast. newscast from the bbc.

it's laura in the studio. in glorious green. thanks. if you're listening and not watching, its glorious. i'm paddy in the studio. and henry in the studio. so, the last 48 hours, there's lots and lots and lots of talk already about the history and the significance. and we've kind of gone on and on and on and on and on about that. what was interesting to me today was actually slap, bang, thank you — or maybe not thank you very much — ma'am. big, big dilemma for this new government, forjonathan reynolds. the new business secretary has to decide what to do about the tata steel plant in port talbot in wales, where there are 3,000 jobs — around that number — at risk because the company that owns it, tata steel, wants to close the blast furnace before they build another, newer, greener one. and this is one of the early — but there will be many of them — tough decisions for this new labour government, which will get to the heart of what they're all about and what kind of economy they want, and the ways

in which they want to mobilise government or not mobilise government in order to secure it. i thought it was very interesting that johnny reynolds didn't just say that he had spoken to tata steel, but that keir starmer had made time to speak to them. whether that will actually have an effect, let's see. but it shows that they know that this is a big sort of industrial question for this new labour government. and that was also made clear by the presence of sharon graham, the general secretary of unite, on your panel, who is very eager for the government to find a way to guarantee the jobs of the workers at that plant. and this is howjonathan reynolds explained or answered the question, "what the hell are you going to do?" i've already spoken i to tata steel about it, as has the new prime minister. made time for that conversation. i'll be talking to them again today. i'll be asking representatives - of the workforce, sharon and unite, but also community and gmb to talk to me next week about that. - it's not about underwriting - loss—making businesses in perhaps a way we might have thought.

of industrial policy in the past. it is about being a partner. for investment in the future. there is more money available for the steel industry- under our plans for government, - but that's about making sure we meet this transition with the private | sector together and recognise, i think sharon used the phrase, - it is a good example of how we have to make sure that decarbonisation is not deindustrialisation, - and we've got to do that together. but there is a better deal available for port talbot and the steel - industry as a whole, i'm sure of that. - "there's a better deal available." can i pull the focus out? yeah. so, the conservative government was managing the transition from a big old belching old furnace to an electric version, which is... that's right. and they were going to help with a possible multi—million pound deal, but of course in abeyance, all these questions about what happens to jobs during that transition period. it's one of the things on the in—tray of labour, and we had the same secretary of state on our programme. we asked him about thames water

because there was also a potential emergency nationalisation of thames water in his in—tray and the nationalisation of the railways. so if you go and take the tata steel as one example — i've just listed two more — to the newscaster, we say, we're making a general point here about the list, which is a very rude word. it rhymes with hit and begins with "s" and it's called the... laughter let's call it the "hit list". that's right. which is the inbox of the new labour government. that's absolutely right. and these are massive, horrible problems to have to deal with. and also complicated, technical, legalistic. you've got, you know, precedent, principle, the practicality of people maybe losing theirjobs or people having really unpleasant things floating in their water supply. these are really, really hard problems. and it'sjust, from the pictures of yesterday, of that first cabinet meeting, when i have not seen a group of people look happier.

i mean, they all looked like they were thinking, "this is the best day of my life", to then suddenly the reversal of sitting in the chair and not saying, "well, "the tories have failed on this and the tories have failed "on that," and suddenly going, "wow, it's on me." really interesting. but this is why, throughout the campaign and indeed before, keir starmer has done that weird or sort of unusual thing, perhaps, for a leader of the opposition seeking and in his case, accomplishing, going into government of playing down expectations. he's constantly said "yes, hope, but realistic hope, frank hope." and i think this is what he was talking about, these difficult choices. you know, it's said that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. keir starmer campaigned in prose and is now governing in prose — of necessity, because there are a lot of very difficult questions in his inbox. can ijust say in a veryjuvenile way? we did talk about frank hope on sunday, and i googled to see if there was anybody called frank hope, and there is a tree surgeon in peterborough called frank hope. get him on!

ijust had to share that. i couldn't help myself. but you said you were being puerile. i wanted to make the same... but i wanted to interrupt henry to make the same point. did you look up frank hope, the tree surgeon in peterborough as well? no, ijust wanted frank hope. i will add that i have read tony blair's column today in the papers... yes. ..in which he said it like this, actually, he said in the campaigning stage, you're the great persuader, in the government phase, you're the great chief executive, that was the way he put it. and of course, he left office after nine million years, saying he wished he was bolder. and he's now being advised by tony blair, we know, so it's going to be... but unlike tony blair, who became prime minister having never held any office other than mp, various shadow posts and having been a self—employed barrister, as all barristers are, keir starmer has been essentially a chief executive. he ran the crown prosecution service and we will learn, i think, fairly fast, whether that actually fairly unusual background for a prime minister does make him more capable of instantly making that transition from persuader

into administrator. and i think it's interesting as well, i've seen a lot of critique of the journalistic class that we were too focused on politics and not focused enough on policy. and now comes the time, as you've expertly revealed on bbc one this morning, to say, "ok, now energy policy "meets reality in tata." right, so tata steel is such an interesting case study of this because, you know, rachel reeves has said again and again and again and again and again, "we're not going to do crazy things with your money. "we're not going to spend very much money. "we're not going to write checks." it was absolutely the opposite of a chequebook election. but when johnny reynolds, ifjonathan reynolds goes to her and says, "can i have a big check, please? "because if we let 3,000 jobs go in ourfirst 100 days, "that is going to be a capital—p political disaster." what are they going to do? and it will be absolutely fascinating to see. of course, most importantly for the people whose livelihoods depend on what they do, above all else, but are they going to find themselves in a position

where they make a strategic decision because they can say, "actually, we are going to give them money"? there's £2.5 billion earmarked in the labour manifesto for the steel industry, so they've got some money there. but i think what he was hinting at this morning on this particular thing was that they are going to grant some cash, but only if tata guarantees some of the jobs, but whether the company accepts that or not... there's another question here, which isn'tjust about money. this is kind of an example of an instance, and there are various examples of these, where labour have been able to say in opposition, "well, look, we will sit at the table "and we will get a better deal". "and it will be partnership." "we will do something that the government "hasn't been able to do." and so wes streeting, his first thing as health secretary was to call up the bma and say he wants talks to begin next week. there's other examples. so now it's on them. will they be able to secure something at that table that the government has not been able to secure? or in some cases, the government hasn't even walked to the table with? let's see. let's talk about the table because of course — not this one —

but one of the tables he's going to be sitting around is with the regional mayors. and he made a big pitch. i mean, we forget in a way — we're being a bit noodly. within hours, we've got this new government and we're talking in terms, we're sort of almost forgetting that that's almost... that's happened. but such is the pace of the coverage since then that we are now able to say he's off to scotland today. he's doing the four home nations, and he wants to come back to england after he's been to northern ireland and wales to meet the regional mayors of england. and you had one on the television? yeah, andy burnham, who, you know, obviously has been a labour cabinet minister himself a long time ago, who is obviously cockahoop that labour has won the election. i mean, no question about that. however, you know, reality immediately bites. so, he was saying very supportive things about keir starmer, as you would expect, this morning. but he was straight off the bat, "i want the money for the liverpool "to manchester railway, thank you very much." "i'll be really clear about that. "they've got to invest in that cash." straight off the bat saying,

"actually, i really want him to make "it very clear that the two—child benefit cap is under review "and remains under review. "and that's notjust something that has been parked forever "and dropped forever." and the thing i was most intrigued about that andy burnham said, he said, "we have to show there is a decisive "break with austerity." now, that's not a "oh, you can have like a billion "here for dentists and a billion there for waiting lists." a decisive break from austerity. oh, and by the way, "let's build council houses, "lots of council houses", which is not labour policy. so they're not going to be short of what we would pompously call "critical friends" or actually as sharon graham, the union leader, said, a pain in the proverbial. andy burnham and keir starmer have had a difficult relationship over the years. keir starmer, i remember one speech at a christmas drinks forjournalists, which was fairly quickly reported, where he just remorselessly took the mickey out of andy burnham. i think sue grey, his new chief of staff, has really improved that — well, not that new — but has really improved that relationship. but the dynamic between the prime minister and these metro mayors is very different

to what we've ever seen since all these metro mayors were created under cameron and osborne, because cameron and osborne unleashed this wave of devolution and knowingly, in the process, created a wave of local labour power brokers. keir starmer made a play in his press conference about the fact that he was going to invite all the metro mayors, not just the labour ones. well, all but one of them are labour. ben houchen, the conservative mayor of tees valley, is the only one who's not labour. so, yes, they have their own particular interests. and, yes, in many ways they will prove a thorn to keir starmer. but they are bound by party allegiance in a way that has never been true of conservative prime ministers dealing with these metro mayors. you also have a labour first minister of wales, vaughan gething, dealing with a labour prime minister. that's a dynamic we haven't seen for 14 years. and looking at the general election results in scotland, it seems quite plausible that within a couple of years you'll have a labour first minister of scotland dealing with a labour prime minister. and even if you don't in 2026, that dynamic, whereas for a long time westminster leaders have been a bit nervous about,

"how do you handle the snp?" because the snp have seemed like they're the dominant political force. they have been absolutely busted in this general election. so when keir starmer goes to go and meetjohn swinney, the first minister, i'm sure they'll have a very cordial chat. but the power imbalance is going to be massive. and there's certainly occasions before when i've seen, you know, a kind of prime minister going to see nicola sturgeon and you're actually thinking, "who's really in charge here?" just the dynamic. clearly a uk prime minister is somebody always with more political power than a first minister in one of the devolved administrations. but the political kind of dynamic, like, "who's the winner?" when we see the images of starmer and swinney later, everyone's going to know who the winner is and the person with momentum is, and it's not mr swinney. i mean, we even heard that the team around borisjohnson was afraid of nicola sturgeon. 0h, they were. oh, yeah, they were, partly because she used to brief very quickly. so, they'd have a meeting or a covid cobra or something like that, and nicola sturgeon would sort of immediately do their press conferences

where they'd let things be known before, you know, before the westminster end of the operation had sort of got out of bed. and it used to drive them round the twist. oh, my god, silence on newscast! because i wanted to move the dial. oh, good. and i wanted to talk about the conservative party in crisis. yes. and the article from kemi, not from kemi, from suella braverman in my sunday telegraph... yes. ..who has managed to nutcracker rishi sunak by blaming him before the election. she's now blaming him after the election and clearly launching or relaunching her leadership bid. so where do you two experts think this leaves the leadership? and before you answer, can i tell you the bit of gossip i loved in the papers today? what was that? in the sunday times, rishi sunak will stay till the end ofjuly and james cleverly will be a caretaker leader whilst the contest goes on, with a meeting on monday to discuss the rules and duration of the contest. that was new gossip, i thought.

well, laura and i were both standing in downing street when rishi sunak made his last speech as prime minister, and he said he would remain as conservative party leader until the process for selecting his successor is in place. i think at first blush that sounded to some people like he was saying he would stay until his successor was in place, but it was not that at all. that's not what he said at all, no. it was a holding position to allow the conservative party, basically people who are not rishi sunak, to work out how long they want that contest to be, and then i think he will make a call. so basically, if you think about what's going to happen in parliament before the summer, rishi sunak i think is clearly going to stay on until the summer. if he does, that means an awkward, embarrassing moment as leader of the opposition on tuesday when the new speaker is elected. it means responding to the king's speech, and it means one prime minister's questions as leader of the opposition, and then he can ride off to the backbenches. that's not that embarrassing, but... but if he stays longer, then it's

a lot of prime minister's questions. it's responding to a budget, which the leader of the opposition has to do. i can see why he wouldn't want to stomach that, but i do feel like the conservative party is inching towards a long contest. i think there's no doubt about that. robertjenrick, on laura's programme, said that he would like that. he did, and michael howard, also former leader and now in the house of lords, he said that too. that's what. .. he did. he said it should be a long contest. and it clearly seems to me that's where the sentiment is going. and this debate, though, about how long sunak stays on is very up and running. so someone who was in the cabinet untilfive minutes ago, until thursday night or until friday morning, whenever it happens, said to me yesterday, "look, if you can do two pmqs, "why can't he do nine?" actually the instability ofjust having a change and then another change, it would just get messy. but do you both think there's a version where he goes at the end ofjuly, which is... ? i think there is a version where he goes at the end ofjuly. there's a suggestion, maybe, that iain duncan smith might step in as some kind of caretaker.

i think that's probably more likely than... so, someone like james cleverly, i don't think that he has necessarily decided if he's going to run, but i can't see the appeal for somebody who sees himself possibly as one of the candidates of stepping in as some kind of caretaker. oh, it would have to be someone who isn't a candidate. yeah, so iain duncan—smith has been talked about possibly. someone said to me yesterday, it seems a good idea to me, but i'm not sure if anyone's actually asked him, so we'll see. but it's messy, though. it's very, very messy. i'm going to supply a name now... go on. ..based on no contacts in westminster, no knowledge. but i'm just listening... it hasn't stopped lots of people. no, but i've... i think you've got a lot more knowledge than you betray, mr o'connell. well, how aboutjeremy hunt? he's said no. no, i'm talking caretaker — jeremy hunt as caretaker. he's a clean player because he's said, "i don't want it." well, i do think he is, to everyone's shock, including his, suddenly a huge player in the debate over the future of the conservative party. no doubt.

even though he's not going to be a leadership candidate for the third time, i think suddenly the man who resisted the yellow tide in the home counties and surrey and that sort of belt around london has a lot to say to the conservative party about how he did it. so i think that will count for a lot. i should also say, i think a lot of these questions will begin to get settled next week, notjust because they'll all be back together in parliament but also because on tuesday, the new parliament will assemble for the formalities of electing a speaker and being sworn in. and ijust think there's no substitute for the conservative mps sitting together on the other side of the house of commons to where almost all of them, have ever sat, looking around and going, "oh, god, there's barely any of us, and "no—one cares what we have to say." on that, 15% of 100 is 15, and 15% of 121 is is under 20. aren't the rules to trigger...? 18. 18 tory mps.

could trigger a leadership under the current rules. oh, my god. well, look, at the moment, the people who are going to run aren't even saying publicly that they're going to run. so this morning, both robertjenrick and victoria atkins wanted to come on the programme. robertjenrick is definitely going to run, there is no doubt about that, unless something really, really weird happens. victoria atkins, we know, wants to run, even though she didn't want to say it, and they were both very sort of almost hilariously coy this morning — because our viewers, everybody watching and listening is thinking, "what's the reason for somebody to come out "on the sunday after?" and fair play to them both for coming forward and having the guts to come out and talk about getting an absolute battering at the polls. but they were both very, very coy and not wanting to admit that they were interested in the job. here they are. i honestly don't think that three days on from a general election in which we've just lost so many of our friends and colleagues, that it is right to have self—indulgent conversations like this. the reason i came on today was genuinely not to talk. about leadership, because this is not the moment for this. - we need to show the public- that we understand they have sent us

some very, very loud messages. i mean, they were both coy about why they were there, but i thought there was one big difference. robert jenrick has an argument for why the conservative party lost... yes. ..and what someone, whoever that might be, could do as leader. victoria atkins, i have to say, i mean, she was health secretary, it's a senior position, but she's not the most obvious leadership contender. she hasn't been visibly running for ages like robertjenrick has. if you're going to break from the back of the pack like david cameron did in 2005, you've got to have an argument. and if she has one, she went absolutely no distance towards articulating one. and i do think conservative mps, some of whom have had senior positions, are going to have to learn quite fast that when you're one member of a quite small party, in fact, literally smaller than it's ever been before, you don't get a natural right to have 15 minutes of broadcast real estate if you've got nothing to say. well, it was interesting as well. i wondered what it must feel like, if you're used to going on to any programme or doing any interview, and you're used to being the health secretary and someone's

going to talk to you for kind of 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, and then actually you're suddenly just in a world where you've got, you know, six minutes to make your pitch. and i'm also not quite clear the argument she was trying to make. she did the kind of thing, "voters have lost trust, "we have to think about our values and integrity." she didn't have a clear, obvious analysis of what had gone wrong. robertjenrick, on the other hand, has been offering that analysis since he quit in december and a cynic might raise an eyebrow and think "ah, well, perhaps when he quit and he started "making this argument about failures on immigration, "perhaps, just perhaps, he had in mind the idea "that he might quite fancy a tilt at the job, "which might be available before too long." and his campaign, i think, clearly has been up and running for some time. i don't know if this week will get actually official declarations. i'm not sure. well, one thing that will interest me is the line—up in the commons, watching everyone sit on the different side. there isn't enough space, is there, to put all the government mps on the government benches. so you're going to have to have labour mps sitting on the other side, i understand,

and then we will see who is sitting next to rishi sunak. obviously, i've already hinted with my scoop thatjeremy hunt will be sitting next to him. but inevitably, do you think we'll get a clue by seeing who sits on the front bench with him? will that be an important sign? i don't know. as things stand, i think they'll keep the teams sort of as they are. obviously there are going to be lots of gaps because people lost their seats. so they're going to have to come up with some new shadows. well, i was looking at john major's shadow cabinet of 1997. you know how to have a good time. and basicallyjohn major ended up as leader of the opposition, shadow foreign secretary, shadow defence secretary and so on. you know, it's visibly humiliating. but they did that leadership election very quickly. and rishi sunak, by the way, did appoint a new shadow chief whip, stuart andrew... yes, he did. ..in the weekend, i'm sure we all noticed. although there isn't yet a shadow defence secretary or a shadow education secretary because there are... actually, getting bums on seats in the house of commons is really important. you know, when bridget phillipson stands up and says, "i'm going to bring in vat, i'm going to remove the vat

"exemption from schools", who's going to be the person who stands up opposite her? you know, jeremy hunt, as things stand, is the shadow chancellor, but is he going to stay in that? so it will all look very different. and also, even once they do have a leader, whenever that is, it is going to be hard for them to form a functioning opposition — just numerically. labour really struggled at times in the last five years with far more mp5 than the conservative party now has. they basically had everyone on the front bench who was willing to serve, or who they were willing to have serve, on the front bench — that's it. and when they had a load of resignations over gaza several months ago, they ended up filling the vacancies in some cases with members of the house of lords. the conservatives are going to really struggle just to shadow every member of the government, to fill select committees, though they'll have far fewer select committee chairmanships. they're going to struggle for money because public money, short money for opposition parties is a function of how many seats you have.

i don't think they've yet grasped the mechanics of how difficult it's going to be for them to be in opposition. do you know the other thing they're going to struggle for, which might be the most painful thing of all? relevance. they're going to really struggle to feel relevant, and politicians are going to have a really hard time with that. well, you just look at the map and it's been very interesting. i think the papers have had a great sunday. there's been some really fabulous editions and playfulness, actually, with. .. there's keir starmer, produced in the style of the jonathan yeo portrait of king charles. i loved that. by the genius that is morten morland. right, that's the sunday times. so we pay tribute to the sundayjournalism which is outside this building. i hope that sounds genuine and not smug. and then... well, i mean, it's difficult, isn't it? i mean, for me just to open my mouth. but i think there's been a lot of amazing work. and one of the things when you look at the map is, of course there isn't a tory north of hadrian's wall. or in wales. and there isn't a tory

in 0xfordshire. well, that's really, really, really incredible. somebody had some fun in one of the papers this morning about the different walking routes you could go without going through a tory constituency. so people have been very creative in lots of their weekend journalism. talking of creative, we are limping off now. i think that's best. but we have found... one of us has managed a very good rendition of arthur, the election theme tune, on the piano. i love arthur. oh, yes. and we can look and listen to it. he plays arthur well, your piano playing was marvellous, and i think that can give us an excellent finale. more than enough from us. so, goodbye.

goodbye. newscast from the bbc. hello there. sunday brought a volatile mix of weather across the uk — sunny skies one minute, thunder clouds the next, ominous—looking skies across lincolnshire through sunday afternoon. most of those showers are actually easing away and we've got clearing skies and that's going to allow those temperatures to fall away. so a chilly start to monday morning, but lots of sunshine around. however, this cloud will arrive later on in the morning. it's going to bring some rain, some of it heavy, across south—west england. the cloud gradually drifting its way steadily north into south wales and the midlands. but further north of that, we keep the sunshine for much of the day. there will be a scattering of showers and some of these slow—moving, because the winds will remain light, and it's still a disappointingly cool story across the far north of scotland — only 12 or 13 degrees. highest values, perhaps close to the borders, of 19 degrees. a few isolated showers

into northern ireland and northern england, but mostly bright skies, sunny spells coming through. so there's our showery rain, just pushing into wales in the midlands and south—east england by the end of the afternoon, so that means there's a risk of further showers to come for wimbledon, i'm afraid, for monday, maybe some thunderstorms to come for tuesday as well. the thunderstorms tuck in behind this low pressure as it continues to move its way further north during the early hours of tuesday morning. so we will start off with cloud and some heavy bursts of rain during the early hours of tuesday. and by the morning rush hour, it'll be sitting across northern england, north wales. so cloudier skies, perhaps, close to the scottish borders. not quite as cold a start on tuesday morning. so we've got that rain to continue to drift its way northwards on tuesday, should stay largely dry for much of scotland through the day, and then behind it, a southerly wind dragging in slightly more humid air, which could trigger off a few thundery downpours as we go through the afternoon. top temperatures, around 21 degrees across england and wales, perhaps.

we're looking at around 16—18 further north. that low pressure will continue to slowly ease away, and then as we go later into the week, desperately trying to build in, is this high. there is still a level of uncertainty as to whether that will do so, but hopefully as we move towards friday and into the weekend, the weather story mightjust quieten down just a touch.

live from paris — i'm christian fraser. this is bbc news. early projections in the french election show a victory for the left—wing alliance, new popular front. jean—luc melenchon says he is ready to form a new government.

translation:, the translation: , the president translation:, the president has the power, the president has the duty to call the new popular front to govern. marine le pen's far—right party, national rally, has come third — when it was expected to top the poll. french prime minister gabriel attal says he will hand his resignation to president emmanuel macron on monday morning. i'm martine croxall, the other main stories this hour. new prime minister, keir starmer, tours the uk's nations, with his first stop, edinburgh. the israel army has issued new evacuation orders to palestinian residents and displaced families in parts of gaza city. thousands of people have lined the streets of yorkshire to pay their respects to rob burrow as his funeral was held.