this is bbc news. the headlines at 8:00: as high tides begin to hit the east coast of england, the environment agency puts out severe warnings in essex, norfolk and suffolk. i'll be reporting live from great yarmouth, where people are collecting sandbags to defend their homes, with high tide herejust over one hour away. the nhs is struggling to cope — there's been a major alert in almost half of all trusts in england in the first week of the year. labour's tristram hunt quits as an mp to become the director of london's victoria and albert museum. in the next hour: the former husband of princess margaret has died at the age of 86. lord snowdon married the queen's sister in 1960 — but he'll also be remembered for his photography. and in half an hour here on bbc news, the story of yulia stepanova, the russian athlete who exposed

the state—sponsored doping scandal, in life on the run. good evening and welcome to bbc news. we live here in great yarmouth, where people are collecting sandbags as we speak, preparing for high tide and a possible storm surge in just over one hour's time. but up and down the east coast of england, there are severe flood warnings in place. 17 severe flood warnings, that means a possible threat to life, and another 91 flood warnings that mean immediate action should be taken. here in great yarmouth, 5000 homes are being evacuated by police

and military personnel. although many people have said they want to stay in their homes to defend them if they have two. in essex, inj wick, 2500 homes being evacuated there as well. —— jaywick. from early this morning people in great yarmouth braved the cold and snow to prepare for worse, potentially life—threatening, conditions ahead. there are some centres on there you can go to. emergency services knocked on thousands of doors, urging people to leave their homes, stay with friends and family or head to one of the local rest centres. a little bit worried, but this happened a couple of years ago and we got evacuated and it was all 0k, thankfully, because they'd built the defences up. fingers crossed the environment agency have done a good job and build the defences well enough to protect us, but who knows? tonight will tell. we live over the road and we do get flooded quite a bit. as long as we've got the sandbags for now, we've moved everything upstairs

so it's a waiting game. in essex, police activated a full evacuation plan at jaywick, west mersea and mistley. and emergency services were poised to assist anyone in need. here, this morning's high water was lower than expected but the environment agency is warning people not to be complacent. the issue with a storm surge is it really is about the high wind coinciding with what would be high tides anyway. and if you get that, you get really high levels, but that can be very changeable through the day. so we're forecasting as closely as we can and watching it through, but it is really important that people stay alert because some of these high tides will happen very late through tonight. police in essex have been urging people to comply with their instructions, to come to centres like this one, in the relative safety of daylight. some needed less persuasion than others. there was no question — the moment i knew i had to go, i left. left my phone behind, everything else, more or less. as long as i was safe,

that was all that mattered. 200 troops are now helping with the evacuation operation in great yarmouth, where thousands of homes and businesses are facing a severe risk of flooding. that risk will peak here, along with high water, at about 9:30pm. people here are doing the very best they can to protect their properties, then, like thousands of others up and down the east coast, all they can do is wait. people are bracing themselves here. in the areas where it's already been high water, it doesn't seem as bad as possibly some people had feared and the environment agency had warned. 0ur correspondent linsey smith was in south ferriby near hull, and told us how that area was affected by the expected storm surge. people here are feeling like they've had a lucky escape because the high tide time has passed, it was 7pm, and the water didn't thankfully reach these temporary defences. if

you look a lot here, this is the main road through the village; the defences have been erected for as far as the eye can see in both directions, becausejust beyond those defences is the humber. in 2013, the last time there was a major tidal surge in this area, these homes flooded, and that is why there has been a huge presence from there has been a huge presence from the environment agency over the last few days and so many precautions taken. precautions which villagers here are very thankful for, but they weren't needed in the end. —— that they weren't. i'm joined now by alex dunlop, our correspondent here. you are here in 2013 when it was pretty bad. —— you were. is it possible to compare it? interestingly i've had a look at the river yeo, interestingly in 2013 we

had a combination of tide and search combining, which brought the river to just within combining, which brought the river tojust within a combining, which brought the river to just within a few inches of the river bank. mercifully, they got away with it than in the water receded. the difference this time round is we've got a third factor to play into this, and that is the win. it's coming from the west and then from the north west, the worst possible direction it could come from. so nothing could happen, everything could happen, but they've got a plan for the worst. part of that plan is the evacuation of thousands of homes. how has that been going? i was talking to the police inspector and he said, we've knocked on the doors of 5000 properties, 15,000 people, along with raf personnel. 60 to 70% of people in those properties are saying thank you very much, we won't go to the emergency centres, we will make our own luck. that doesn't mean two out of three people are going to stay in their homes, but he says the

danger of that is that there could be an airof danger of that is that there could be an air of complacency because we got away with it back in 2013. he says the trouble with that is that this could turn from an evacuation leading people to safety, and if it does go wrong, then there will be —— they will be transferred to a rescue situation which makes life a lot more difficult for the emergency services. how are the sea defences? the environment agency would hope so, they are in the middle of this big building programme of shoring up sea defences here, so they are pretty confident they've got pretty good sea defences. in north norfolk we just heard that the town of wells next the sea has escaped the worst, but it will be hitting lowestoft and i've been there a few times when they behead pretty badly, and they've closed two bridges as a precaution. for the moment, alex dunlop, thank you very much indeed.

we're talking about the sea defences and the warnings of their environment agency. let's talk to them now. we can speak now to lisa pinney from the environment agency. she joins me from a rest centre in the essex village of jaywick. can you give us an idea of the latest picture that you are getting along the east coast? what we are seeing is significantly higher tides coming along the north coast this evening. where we are seeing it coming through the north east of england and yorkshire, they are definitely higher than this morning's clients, and that is starting to have some impact. we are expecting it to again potentially have significant impacts, which is why we have issued these severe flood warnings, and why we are asking people to evacuate when they are asked. we were hearing that

quite a few people are not leaving their homes. what would be your message to those people?‘ their homes. what would be your message to those people? a message would be that tidal flooding is extremely dangerous, with the winds we are seeing it could be very, very high. and trying to be rescued from a flooding situation is a very dangerous thing indeed. please don't ta ke dangerous thing indeed. please don't take chances, leave your homes and come to a place of safety and let us get on with our work. and we have also seen quite a few people walking up also seen quite a few people walking up and down the seafront in areas where huge waves have been crashing in. again, what is your warning to those people? please be very careful. it really is extremely dangerous to be trying to take photographs or walking along when there are these large waves. they can come

in very quickly and sweep you out. but incredibly dangerous. we say to everybody, please do keep away from the coast. we are seeing enormous waves out there, it is a very difficult —— dangerous situation and we want everybody to be a safe as possible. are you confident that the sea defences that there are, the coastal defences that your agency has, are sufficient to protect the coast; is enough money and resources being spent on them? we spent hundreds of millions of pounds on defences along the east coast over the last few years, with additional money since 2013. those defences are in good shape, but tides are extremely damaging. we've also put in large numbers of additional temporary defences this week, all of those are doing an importantjob and we have already seen coming down the north of england how much they are helping. but they will not be able to deal with tides if they do become as high as we think they are going to do with this

additional wind. so it is important that people stay back from them. we will continue to do everything we can throughout the night to minimise the effects of this, —— the impact of this. but we need people to heed evacuation warnings and stay away from the coastal areas and stay safe. good advice. thank you very much indeed. that's the latest picture from here in great yarmouth. we will wait and see what the night brings, as i say, high tide here in about an hour. but if you want more information about the precise picture where you live, why not tune in to your local radio station or go online. that's the latest from me. christian, back to you. we will of course keep you up—to—date with the picture up and down the east coast of england. let stand for a moment to hospitals. —— let us turn for a moment. there's been further confirmation of the difficulties within the nhs, as it's emerged nearly half of all hospitals in england declared a major alert in the first week of the year.

that means they had no more beds available, all routine surgery was cancelled and doctors were called in from leave. four out of ten trusts were forced to raise the alarm, as hospitals and accident and emergency departments struggled to cope. nhs england says eight of the trusts overall issued the highest alert, meaning patients' safety could be at risk. 0ur health editor hugh pym reports. another day, another a&e patient. here, a fractured wrist is dealt with. patients waiting, and nhs staff doing the best they can under extreme pressure. the story at northwick park hospital in london is the same as across the service. things are a little quieter today, but they know bad weather could bring a surge in patients this weekend. this a&e consultant told me it was the busiest she'd known in her 16—year experience. there have been moments in the last two weeks, like the whole country has had, where it has been quite frightening for members of staff, for the nurses,

for the doctors, for the ambulance crews who are bringing patients in, and there have been moments where it's been very sticky but we have managed as best as we can and everybody has worked incredibly hard. today's figures from nhs england showed that last week, 43% of hospitals had declared a major alert. that means when help is required to handle patient numbers, or safety is at risk. 16% faced this serious pressure every day of last week. we have acknowledged that the nhs is under pressure. we always see increased pressures in the nhs over winter periods. that's why in preparing for winter the period this time £400 million was put in to ensure that winter preparedness. in northern ireland, nearly four in ten patients waited more than four hours in a&e over the christmas period. in wales, latet data showed nearly one in five patients were waiting longer than four hours. scotland was performing better than those levels, and than those levels and

,ngland's in the holiday week but at this glasgow hospital england's in the holiday week, but at this glasgow hospital pregnant women were turned away yesterday and sent to other maternity units because of a high level of general admissions. management said safety was maintained at all times. this is the sort of thing you will find in most hospitals each day — ambulance crews queueing in a corridor with patients, waiting to hand them over. they're in a safe situation, but there is no room in the accident & emergency unit at this stage for them to be treated or assessed. the hospitals praised the hard work of the hospital's praised the hard work of staff under relentless pressure, but they know a prolonged cold snap or a flu outbreak could make life even tougher on the front line. with me is dr faye kirkland, a gp who works for the bbc as an investigative reporter on health issues. we talk so much about hard work they put in in the nhs; what we don't talk about so much is the anxiety that many of these front—line staff

are facing. if you have people in a corridor who you know should be in a bed, that is hugely stressful. you have the consultant described it as frightening, and the royal college of nursing wales said they've never seen the pressure on the nursing staff like this. nurses and doctors have not only got to look after patients on the ward, but also attend to all the people that come through, and undoubtedly this leads to delays in patient care; we know it leads to delays in people getting antibiotics or timely pain relief, and increases the risks u nfortu nately of and increases the risks unfortunately of patients dying. but these figures this week into context. but these figures this week into co ntext. h ow but these figures this week into context. how does it stack up with last year? —— put these figures. and what would happen if there was a flu outbreak? the numbers from the lea ked outbreak? the numbers from the leaked documents show that out of all the hospitals in england, only one managed to hit the four hour target. that's 95% of people coming

into a need should be seen, discharged or admitted to a ward within four hours. that is the worst figures we've seen since 20 —— 200a. if you look at what the chief executive of nhs providers says, he says the nhs is coping, but it's been a very vulnerable position and only just been a very vulnerable position and onlyjust managing been a very vulnerable position and only just managing to been a very vulnerable position and onlyjust managing to do so because of what he describes as heroic work by doctors and nurses. but he really warns that if there is something like a flu outbreak, the ability of ambulance services, a&e, mental health services, is severely impaired. life has changed so dramatically since the nhs begin —— became free at the point of service. we expect things to have been done yesterday, we don't want to wait, so people perhaps use hospitals more than they did as well‘s before. don't we need a fundamental debate about how it is funded and how we use a? absolutely, we need i think a very public debate, but we know that

the numbers of people going to a&e inappropriately is around 30%, we don't think that has changed, but what has massively changed is the number of beds. safe bed occupancy rates at around about 85%, but some clu bs rates at around about 85%, but some clubs have every single bed filled. when you talk about beds, though, is it that there are fewer beds than they used to be on wards, or is it just a higher proportion of people whom the them? we've got a large population, but there a massive reduction in the number of beds. so if you compare hospitals today with those in the 1950s, those hospitals in the 1950s would have been much bigger? there have been less beds as a proportion of the population. right, so it is a cross—party solution. thank you very much for being with us. the headlines on bbc news: emergency services in essex, suffolk

and norfolk, are preparing for an expected storm surge in coastal areas. nhs figures show nearly half of hospitals in england declared a major alert in the first week of the year. labour's former education spokesman, tristram hunt, who's standing down as an mp, has said his differences with his party leader, jeremy corbyn, are "in the past". sport now, and a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. some breaking news just some breaking newsjust in the some breaking news just in the last couple of hours. diego costa has been left out of chelsea's squad for the match at leicester tomorrow after a dispute with the club's coaching staff. here's the premier league's top scorer with 1a goals, and is thought to have been the subject of a £30 million per year offer from subject of a £30 million per year offerfrom china.

it seems as though, after a period of relative calm in diego costa's combustible career, that the start of this week he started to have disagreements with a particular are smack member of the coaching staff at chelsea, and that has escalated toa at chelsea, and that has escalated to a point where his manager has decided to leave him basically out of the squad, didn't travel to leicester, he's not going to play at leicester. the key point is, what is behind the issues? and some people are suggesting that big offers, big, big offers but koster seems to be at the centre of, but i coming from china were 0scar has gone, carlos douglas has gone, —— carlos tethers. they might be at the bottom of diego costa's anger at the moment. —— tevez. they are going to have to

resolve this, january still has three weeks to run. yes, we've seen the situation —— situations at west ham with dmitri pyatt, the manager says he's not going to play a player but is not willing to play for the club. diego costa's a key component ina very club. diego costa's a key component in a very successful title drive. the belief is that roman abramovich, the chelsea owner, has no intention of releasing diego costa; the belief is that he will not be held to ransom by offers from china. roman abramovich has the money to be able to follow through his beliefs. the question is, can he get diego costa onto the field and performing in the way he's done in the first half of the season? sale sharks are being investigated for a potential breach

of the concussion management protocol in rugby, following an interview —— an injury in last saturday's defeat to harlequins in the premiership. the rfu have announced a panel will look at the incident. the rugby football league has agreed a deal that will see a new club set up a deal that will see a new club set up in bradford for the start of the season. the old bradford bulls was liquidated earlier this month after its latest spell in administration. the winning consortium was one of four bids to revive the club. the two men who were involved in the sparring session that left nick blackwell in a coma have been sanctioned by the boxing board of control. nick wilkins has lost his trainer's licence, and another has been suspended for six months. blackwell should not have been involved in november's session after having his licence taken away following a fight last march when he had to be placed in an induced coma. the unsanctioned session left him

needing a mob —— in operation of a swelling on the brain. —— graeme storm has a two shot lead in the south africa open. he had nine birdies on his way to a bogey free round of 63, that's nine under par for today. the world number two rory mcilroy, is three shots off the pace after complaining of a bad back today. his round of 68 ended with back—to—back bogeys. a couple of latest scores from two different sports. in football, leeds zero, derby zero. ten minutes to go to half—time. in the european champions cup in rugby union, lei nster champions cup in rugby union, leinster beating montpelier by 2a points to three. if they win that game against montpellier with just 14 game against montpellier with just 1a men, they will make it through to the quarterfinals. thank you very much indeed. the labour mp tristram hunt, who's been critical of the party leaderjeremy corbyn, says he's quitting parliament to take up a newjob as a museum director. mr hunt represents

stoke—on—trent central, an area where many people voted for brexit. he's the second labour mp to stand down in recent weeks, and the by—election he's triggered could be challenging for labour. john pienaar, our political correspondent, reports. stay with labour, convinced they will lose, or walk away and leave politics behind? tristram hunt chose to walk. his leader doesn't like it, but for this famous tv historian, when i caught up with him in stoke, thisjob offer was too good to turn down. being director of the victoria and albert museum, the greatest museum of art and design, was my dream job, and it was not something i could turn down. you've been pretty clear that labour is heading for trouble withjeremy corbyn as leader. you haven't changed your mind, have you? i have had differences withjeremy in the past, but now i am off to be a museum director, an impartial director of a great museum, and so it is not the time

to rehearse those differences now. i spoke tojeremy this morning and he was incredibly gracious, he was interested in the job, he was interested in the victoria... and also, i imagine, rather disappointed? well, he was a bit thrown. nobody wants this on friday 13th. he was pulling his punches today, but his verdict on labour's leader is on the record. we are facing an historic wipeout of the labour party. today, jeremy corbyn is glossing over troubles ahead. no, i don't want anyone to resign, i don't want to lose mps but he has taken this position as director of the v&a = good luck to him, and we'll have a by—election. yet here in stoke, where most voted for brexit and where ukip came second by 5,500 votes last election, ask anyone — this will be a hard test for labour and its leader. ukip, labour — it'll always be in the balance whether labour get in or not. is labour going to have a tough

time holding on here? more tough a time, i think. politics is so muddled now, traditional labour voters do not know how to vote now, because the brexit thing... you want labour to win here. you are a labour man, right? historically, yes, historically. but today there is no clear choice. ukip seems up for the fight. tristram hunt has left fundamentally because he feels he has a brighter future away from jeremy corbyn and the labour party. we're confident there's a large number of voters in the stoke central constituency that will feel exactly the same way. for labour, this is a difficult time for a by—election. it's in a tough place, and it's not the only one. some labour mps i've spoken to have told me they are either preparing to quit politics before the next election, or resigned to defeat when it comes. this fight will gauge, can labour hold its ground, or are traditional supporters turning their backs and walking away? ukip came second at the last election — what are their chances of taking this seat? let's talk to matthew goodwin — professor of politics at the university of kent. he's also the author of a book, revolt on the right, on the rise of ukip.

hejoins us by webcam. tristram hunt was saying nobody wa nts tristram hunt was saying nobody wants this on friday 13th, probably stubblejeremy wants this on friday 13th, probably stubble jeremy corbyn? this is another damaging blow to jeremy corbyn's leadership, i think it's now the second mp who has resigned mid—term to head for a job outside of politics, this is against the backdrop of dismal polling ratings for labour, they have nowjust hit the mid—20s in the opinion polls, they are on course for the worst election result since 1918, and now they have got two very tricky by—elections in two traditionally safe labour seats. he had a majority of just over safe labour seats. he had a majority ofjust over 5000, and quite a large majority voted for brexit, so definite —— so potentially an opportunity for ukip. you've written a book about them, how are they going to fare in this by—election? stoke central on paper gives ukip

everything it's ever wanted, it's a very white seed, very working class, nearly two in three voters in stoke central voted for brexit. there is a lot of the local disillusionment with the way that the last election was handled, and ukip's pretty active, it's got two sits on the local council and it knows the area pretty well. the reality however is that because this is a by—election and the vote is split across ukip, the conservatives and the lib dems, if you throw in low turnout, this could go any numberof throw in low turnout, this could go any number of ways. it is quite plausible that the conservatives could possibly take the seat, it is

quite plausible but labour could just about hold onto the seat, and it's equally plausible in my mind that ukip could surprise us all and perhaps challenge labour in another one of its heartlands. you didn't talk about the lib dems snatching it there, it's a very difficult by—election for them to richmond park which they of course one. well, richmond park and stoke central are almost polar opposites of the spectrum when it comes to the views of the local voters; stoke central, you saw 65% of the local electorate vote for brexit, richmond park was a majority going for remain. but in a way for the labour party, this is the crucial question, for the labour party and jeremy corbyn, if they lose all the copeland or stoke central, that is further evidence on my mind at least that the labour party is running into electoral irrelevance. these are two traditionally safe labour seats; if they can't hold these, they've had stoke central since 1950, then jeremy corbyn will come under extreme pressure i think to stand down. very quickly, these mixed m essa 9 es down. very quickly, these mixed messages that we're getting from jeremy corbyn on freedom of movement, that's really important on the doorstep in these northern constituencies absolutely. in stoke central lots of voters are very

concerned about immigration and free movement, and less concern perhaps with the more pro—open border position thatjeremy with the more pro—open border position that jeremy corbyn has been advocating in seats like islington north, which are a world away from the reality of voters in stoke central. matthew, thanks very much for being with us. lord snowdon, the former husband of princess margaret and celebrity photographer, has died. he was 86 years old. the news came in a statement from the family. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell looks back at his life. he was the society photographer who took pictures of the royal family, and who married one of its leading members. it was in 1960, at the start of a decade of considerable social change, that the then anthony armstrong—jones married the queen's younger sister, princess margaret. he was an untitled commoner, she was the princess who, a few years earlier, had had to renounce her love for a royal official because he was divorced. archive: with unbounded enthusiasm,

acclaim for princess margaret and her husband anthony when they appeared on the balcony. the couple brought glamour to the british royalfamily. they travelled widely — this was them on a visit to san francisco. a—list celebrities before the term had really been invented, presenting an image of britain more in keeping with the informality of the time. although he became the earl of snowdon, he continued to work as a photographer. he was also a talented designer — one of his proudest achievements was designing the aviary at london zoo. the queen wanted above all else her sister's happiness, and her sister seemed to have found happiness with this very different young man who was extremely artistic, very talented, and i think people really respected him for that. by the late 1960s, the couple had two children, but their marriage