this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm: the house of lords is debating the legislation that would give theresa may the authority to begin brexit negotiations. peers are being urged to respect the referendum result. and is that ”sf; will adviser. i as local authoritiesgrapple most households could be charged 5% more from april. police are digging in a garden at a property thought to be a former home of christopher halliwell — the murderer convicted of killing becky godden and sian o'callaghan. there are protests as mps debate president trump's proposed also in the next hour: a famine is declared in parts of south sudan. more than a 100,000 people are facing starvation as a result moré‘ggan'a 100,00 9a”? hewlett

of cancer has m m- good evening and welcome to bbc news. the house of lords has begun debating the bill which will pave the way for the start of brexit. the legislation passed the commons with no changes made by mps — but the government doesn't have a majority in the lords. 0pposition peers are seeking guarantees about the rights of citizens from other eu countries living in britain. my

my lords government is determined to trigger article 50 by the 31st of march. the bill before us is a procedural part of that withdrawal process. i welcome the constructive tone we have heard from the opposition that they will not seek to frustrate this process well of course undertaking the scrutiny role we are here to perform. leaving the european union offers our nation many opportunities. and i am committed to working with all noble lords to ensure that we achieve the right dealfor lords to ensure that we achieve the right deal for britain. this lords to ensure that we achieve the right dealfor britain. this bill confers upon the prime minister the power to begin the process of leaving the eu and i commend it to the house. we will not be threatened. it is not fulfilling our normal constitutional role. and neither will we be goaded to act irresponsibly. we have to have a serious and responsible debate and

in doing so, if we ask the house of commons to look again at an issue, it is not a constitutional outrage but a constitutional responsibility. if there was a real chance of success , if there was a real chance of success, of rising up successfully against leaving the european union, it would open up the most protracted, bitter and potentially endless conflict in british society and politics that we have seen since the decades on home not l the not theflssof , , , not the the‘€%%?é°f..,..,,... 7 7 7 not the the es‘ of .. of 7 7 7 7 to do headlong rush towards - at eff iii" m:- mar- m rowth fiures or not to next year's growth figures or inflation figures, but to the prosperity of our country for

decades to come. the amendments which have been tabled do not seek to amend the provisions of the bill. but to add to them substantively. and perhaps to delay the bill. in the young princess entered circumstances in which we find ourselves i have to say that whether house to entertain any of these it would have embarked on an ill—advised, improper and fundamentally unconstitutional manoeuvre. if it goes wrong, who believes that the public will hold up believes that the public will hold up their hands and say it was all out up their hands and say it was all our fault because we voted for it? they will say it was the fault of the politicians and they will be right to do so. just a flavour of the debate in the lords. 0ur political correspondent chris mason is continuing to follow the debate for us tonight. it's a marathon, where four or five

hours in and it will continue till the small hours. then the same tomorrow. that little montage was a good flavour. a gug tomorrow. that little montage was a good flavour. a queue from, ‘faces. it's not the past, familiarfec—es, if; rest. , ,, w... ,, .. . , that the past, familiarfec—es, if; rest. , w w... w .. . , that house ‘ lords the telly. - is thetelly. is ,~, the telly. is f?“ after' " ”"”' 7—7 cv ‘s that 7; cv ‘s that grown "1 i cv ‘s that grown with = m a as elected as erected 7777 ffi fifis‘reszs as erected 7777 ffi 4 others 7: leaders or whatever, but also others who have ended up there because of the appointment system, independent peers, offering their view as well. these are weighty, thoughtful, consider documents but with one massive caveat, that nobody in that place has been actually elected to

sit there. they might have been elected to the house of commons or council, but in the house of lords they are not. and that is why you are seeing plenty saying, 0k, we might tinker, we might end, but most falling over themselves to say they don't want to stand in the way of, firstly, the will of the people, and secondly the will of the house of commons. meanwhile, in the house of commons, some of the tory mps, the backbenchers, have been meeting the chancellor. tory backbenchers have been gathering in parliament tonight for what is known as a meeting of the 1922 committee. it's basically tory backbenchers getting together being able to grill a senior member of the party. tonight it was philip hammond. you seen all these headlines about real concern about business rates. plenty of small businesses have these concerns. this

was a chance for them to bend the ear of philip arnold. i'm told by sources that his ear was bent but the conversation was not entirely dominated by rates. we are told the chancellor was in listening mode but did not commit to anything either way. i think when you subject that you any analysis could either mean everything or indeed nothing. he hasn't specifically said he will definitely do something about business reside rates on the budget, but he hasn't ruled it out. what he did say is he is very aware of the increasing oddity that there is a tax on the business premises of a local fish and chip shop, for instance, but there isn't, or there is much less of a tax burden, on an internet —based retailer that doesn't have the same physical presence in terms of property. the briefing we were given suggested the government is well aware that over

time the tax system is going to have to catch up with where the economy is going as we become far more digital in our shopping habits, and tax system for the businesses we buy things from will have to reflect that. thank you. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:40 this evening in the papers — our guests joining me tonight are broadcaster damejoan bakewell and lucy fisher, senior political correspondent at the times. nearly every local authority in england is planning to raise council taxes in the coming year to provide care for people who are elderly or disabled. from april, council tax could increase by nearly five percent in the majority of authorities. but the local government association says that won't be enough and it warns there will have to be deep cuts to other council services. there are 151 councils in england. 147 of them plan to raise council tax specifically to pay for social care provision.

0ur social affairs correspondent alison holt reports from surrey. hello, margaret! how are you? i know you're desperate to go home. yes, indeed i am. 81—year—old margaret williams has been in hospital since she had a fall but is waiting for the care she'll need to help her cope at home. and it's social workers in surrey who are trying to arrange that for her. because i've been in here for how many weeks, so obviously i'm going to be weaker. yeah, so we think you need somebody to come in at least four times a day. in a busy hospital, she knows her bed is in demand, but for the council, finding funding and companies to provide home care can be difficult. when i met her, she'd been in hospital for more than a month. since before christmas, and then they sent me home, but i had to come back in two or three days, and i've

been here ever since. i'm just following up regarding margaret williams, which we are waiting forthejointfunding... social workers were able to get the care mrs williams needed a few days later, but according to today's local government survey, most councils are struggling with the sheer demand for this sort of support for people in care homes or their own homes. in surrey, they say the demand is unrelenting. we're struggling to balance next year's budget, and we're really struggling to balance and make it sustainable over the next two or three years. i think our services are at breaking point.

surrey‘s conservative—led council abandoned plans to ask voters for a 15% tax rise after what were described as government reassurances, but like most authorities in today's survey, council tax here is likely to rise by nearly 5%. and many councils warn other services, like bin collection and road mending, may still face cuts. there has been a united voice of local government to say that they need to have more funding in social care, and that the crisis in social care is immediate now. right, i've got to get up. yes, and you'll be fine. but the government says extra money is already being put into social care — particularly services like this, which help people regain some independence. it also says local authorities will soon be able to keep all the money raised by council tax and business rates, giving them more control over their spending. alison holt, bbc news, surrey. meanwhile nhs trusts in england have

reported a deficit of nearly £900 million in their latest figures, way above the expected £580 million. the service has been under severe pressure this winter — and trusts say the figures reflect a larger than expected rise in numbers attending accident and emergency — and in hospital admissions. i'm joined by our health editor hugh pym. talk us through the figures. we've all got rather used to the idea of trusts in england being in the red. deficits are getting higher. the government says it is it; into , that the now offer i?!’ '= i??? 7 outcome than people were a worse outcome than people were expecting. last november there was predicted an overall have to sit through this year of £580 million.

they have revised that now, just a couple of months later, to a projected overspend for the year of £850 million. so it has got quite a lot worse based on a number of factors. let's look at what they were. primarily to do with accident and emergency attendances, the number of people going in, between 0ctober number of people going in, between october and december. that was 200,000 higher than the same period the year before. it went up to well above 5 million. that was one reason. another was it was difficult for hospitals to discharge patients back to the committee because of social care issues, there were not enough free beds for people coming in through teen surgery. so they had to be postponed. and postponing those operations and so one, the hospitals lose money. so the social ca re hospitals lose money. so the social care issue we've been talking about earlier has actually hit the nhs finances in an unexpected way. to

put it in context, that projected deficit of 850 million over the year co m pa res deficit of 850 million over the year compares with 18 billion total revenue. thank you. two senior officials have resigned from ukip in merseyside, claiming that senior party figures have shown "crass insensitivity" about the hillsborough disaster. the party's leader paul nuttall has admitted that claims he'd lost close personal friends in the disaster were inaccurate. and party donor aaron banks later said that he was "sick to death" of hearing about hillsborough. from liverpool, our political correspondent carole walker sent this report. paul nuttall had hoped to unite his party and take on labour in its heartlands, but he's suffered a serious setback with two resignations on his own home territory. it's a judgment of error, he's put an error out

there on the web page, you know, he's got to correct that, and what he should do, i know he has apologised for it, but he should come to this city of liverpool to say, "listen, i'm sorry for that error." but it was this tweet from ukip donor arron banks that was the final straw. mr banks said he was sick to death of hearing about hillsborough. i'm not going to be serving the party. i can still serve the people of this city, which i do every day anyway. but i'm not going to serve ukip if it's got arron banks as a donor, sorry. that is my argument. saying "this unprofessional approach émé mi;

experience have dogged his bid for parliament in the stoke central by—election. and the timing of these resignations, just as voters are preparing to go to the polls, could hardly be worse. this was paul nuttall last week. neither he nor arron banks would comment today. the ukip leader says he was at hillsborough but he'd not lost close friends. there was a mistake on my website, which was put up by a press officer. i take full responsibility. it's now been taken down. i was there, i was at the game, i can prove i was at the game. i thought i'd seen all lows in politics. this just isn't scraping the barrel, this is digging beneath the barrel. but mr nuttall‘s critics are warning the headlines on bbc news: the house of lords are debating the

legislation that would give theresa may the authority to start brexit negotiations. general hr mcmaster will apply will be the new national security adviser. there will be a council tax rise across england to cope with social egress england te eepe withseeiel costs.