it w u; r "a nwrwrfi it we. “mr ‘m ii‘ul‘ei m: r—nucfl—r “mr ‘m he m: render it u—w— anru il-‘ufie lufielln—r meme : anru il-‘ufie lufielln—r lu—w— : "el as though the unsettled theme is set to continue, one area of low pressure m oves to continue, one area of low pressure moves away, another with a glancing blow to the south—east, and it will be relatively quiet before another system waits in the wings for tuesday. that translates monday into tuesday as being rather a cloudy day on monday, heavy rain into the south—west early on but more persistent rain on tuesday. hello. this is bbc news with lukwesa burak. we'll be taking a look at tomorrow mornings papers in a moment — first the headlines. barack obama's spokesman says president donald trump's accusation that his predecessor ordered his phones to be tapped is "simply false". sinn fein describe the stormont assembly elections as a watershed after coming within one seat of drawing level with the democratic unionist party. the unionist majority in the

assembly has been ended. and the notion of a permanent or perpetual unionist majority has been demolished. there are fears for the future of vauxhall plants in britain after a french car company which produces peugeot vehicles reportedly reaches a deal to buy general motors‘ european operations. and the other side of the american dream as donald trump sets out his vision for the next four years — we assess the challenges that lie ahead. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are the broadcaster charlie wolf and the chief political commentatorfor the independent, john rentoul. tomorrow's front pages starting with. ..

the observer claims that the uk's privacy watchdog is launching an inquiry into how voter's data is being used during political campaigns. on the sunday telegraph's front page, allegations from president trump that barack obama orchestrated an illegal watergate—style phone—tapping operation at trump tower a month before the us election. the mail on sunday alleges that tony blair attended a secret meeting at the white house to discuss working for donald trump. the sunday times claims the chancellor will use this week's budget to build up a £60 billion war chest to boost britain's economic resilience post—brexit. the independent leads with its own poll, suggesting the majority of the uk is against government plans to cut corporation tax, in favour of the money going towards the nhs. the sunday express claims that near £150 million from the health budget has been

spent on overseas aid last year. those are the front pages. we begin with our chat this evening, good evening, and why don't you kick us off, john. evening, and why don't you kick us off, john. donald trump. this is where we left off two weeks ago. he has been tweeting again, in newsrooms around britain the cry goes up, he has woken up! and this time he accuses barack obama of tapping his phones in trump tower. what did you make of this when he first heard the story or read the tweets 7 first heard the story or read the tweets? i did not understand it because i find american politics baffling at the moment. quite

quickly it emerged that this seems rather unlikely because barack obama's spokesperson said the former president did not order any such wiretapping. and obviously if donald trump's phones were tapped, it would have been ordered by the fbi, not the president. charlie, you understand the intricacies of us politics. tell us about this idea of the president not being in a position to order a wiretapping, is that valid? i am not sure if the president does or doesn't, normally, it comes from the fbi or cia so it is more serious in the sense the initial impression is oh, no, no one is wiretapping this guy, you has gone barmy. it is possible he could legally be wiretapped and given permission. on what grounds? if they

think someone in the office is tied into the russians and this swing of the elections by the russians or i have heard donald trump is into them for money for financing his hotels, all sorts of stories. there was also the line that some are saying that this is a setup, if not from president obama then from the deep state, these are people holdovers from the obama administration still working in the white house and they have been leaking stuff. so, some is crazy but... it sounds like a conspiracy theory. but there is an outside chance one should take this with some grain of truth. but charlie, if the fbi had tapped donald trump's phones, surely the director of the fbi would have said

something during the election campaigns because he came out and said what the fbi would doing any investigation of hillary clinton. i find it the fbi would do this and not tell people. but also they would have to tell... even being legal, you are talking about, tapping the phones of the candidate to be the next president running against your own party, that is pretty major. and we are hearing more and more about watergate. what about this idea because mr trump is against all of the leaks are taking place. do you think we may see a return of the white house plumbers going back to watergate? the plumbers, it was slightly different. they didn't have the permission of the court at the time. one thing about donald trump,

he is not as unhinged as people make out! there has to be something going on to get his goat and this is his house. this is trump towers. something must have happened, he heard it from someone in his administration or national security so administration or national security so it is true the place was bugged. we can almost state that one. what do you make of him broadcasting this via twitter instead of, closed—door meetings about this. he is a genius at pr. the nose have it get publicity for his messages and he uses publicity for his messages and he uses twitter like no politician before. shall we turn to the daily mail? the mail on sunday, tony blair's secret white house summit. what has tony blair been up to? supposedly, jarrod kushner, the president's son—in—law, his main man

for the middle east and talking about, they may solve the middle east like donald trump talked about! tony blair has had some experience in that area so he had a secret meeting with jarrod kushner in the white house and i think he realises donald trump is the only guy that can donald trump is the only guy that ca n afford donald trump is the only guy that can afford him! tony blair obviously being an optimist believes he can solve the middle east and that is what he was trying to do when he was the quartet representative. there was an extraordinary storyjust after donald trump is election when tony blair happened to be at the same restaurant as jarrod tony blair happened to be at the same restaurant asjarrod kushner and if anchor and just one pass the table. and they happen to be in the same airport and had thejets parked next to each other. it seemed a grid lives and from that arose some meetings and we will see whether this leads to any formal role for tony blair. if nigel farage can do

it why not? tony blair, his heart is in the right place, years experience and donald trump appreciates people with experience. does he still have the credibility after everything that has happened to? with whom? he does with the israeli side, it may be possible the palestinians have had enough of him but he does understand the issues. and also he would have good relations with the saudis, jordanians etc. and from what he said with his news conference with benjamin yet know who was a new plan and from what i gather they will leave the palestinians at —— benjamin netanyahu. palestinians at —— benjamin neta nyahu. the egyptians, jordanians are now almost allies of the israelis and let's work it out and then they would tell the

palestinians this is how the land lies and what they will do. turning to the sunday times. all though they have a picture of donald trump, to explain that picture, confirmation that he does use a sticky tape to secure his ties! there are other brands of time. you know, considering his daughter and his wife are models, in the modelling world, they use masking tape.|j wouldn't know! his wife did that for him. leaving the tape behind, the chancellor's £60 billion brexit fighting fund. the budget is coming up fighting fund. the budget is coming up next week on wednesday and there is an awful lot in the papers about prebudget speculation. philip hammond's prebudget massaging

expectations, it will not have a big giveaway, the phrase is... they quote him as saying, i cannot find it, something about not having some huge giveaway in the budget. so, i ta ke huge giveaway in the budget. so, i take from that that there may be a small giveaway. bigger than expected so everyone small giveaway. bigger than expected so everyone feels good. he wants to boost britain's resilience. some of the things mentioned here are these tea levels, what did you make of that, technical the macro technical education for 16 to i9—year—olds. this is part of the british government's attempt since 1945 to try to get equality for vocational and academic qualifications. it will not work. it is ever half £1 billion allocated to it but it will make no difference. i imagine people screaming saying 60 billion, where will you find that money from? the

government is still borrowing vast amounts of money. the point is he will be £12 billion a year better off than he thought and he says i will not splurge that money, i will bank it and pay off the deficit and be prudent and he has a dig at george osborne saying every time george osborne saying every time george osborne saying every time george osborne got extra money from the forecasts he spent it. he is trying to dampen expectations. this leads us into the independent. if he was going to spend it, the people would say save the nhs. this is one of these not fake news, manufactured news. charles! on what grounds? i hearjohn write them. the grammar is in great at times. opinions are like bellybuttons. the majority of

british people want theresa made to stop cuts in corporation tax and spend the money on the nhs. if it was as simple as paying off the money, it would have been done in john major's day. it is like the stories during the war, the iraqi war, the money would be better spent. i used that on my son, you wa nted spent. i used that on my son, you wanted a big collared a this year, butlins or wherever and we could do that, but we would not have any meals for the next six months. budgeting enough fashion does work. john, what do you make of it, very topical. the big question for the budget is apart from the chancellor's prebudget spin in the sunday times, what is he going to do about the nhs because the nhs is in crisis. it has not had as much money as it needs for some years, not since the labour government. and it

does need about 7.5 billion. the chancellor would have to announce something and something for social ca re something and something for social care because old people cannot be discharged. it is all about social care. there is no such thing as corporation tax, corporations, it is added on and they figure that into their bottom line is ultimately it is paid directly by the consumer. get rid of it and the costs will go up. we will carry on this conversation in an hour. that's it for the papers this hour. thank you charlie wolf and john rentoul — you'll both be back at 11:30pm for another look at the stories making the news tomorrow. coming up next, reporters.