this is bbc news. theresa may signals the conservatives might drop their commitment to the rate at which state pensions increase —— but the prime minister rules out cuts to the uk's foreign aid budget. melo what we need to do is look at how that money is spent and make sure that we're able to spend that money in the most way. in paris —— prosecutors says the gunman who shot dead a policeman on the champs elysees was a convicted criminal with a history of violence. the nhs trust —— under investigation over the deaths of babies —— was told it needed to improve ten years ago. jeremy corbyn‘s ally len mccluskey is re—elected as the leader of britain's biggest union, unite. melo and hanging on in there. and the duke and duchess of cambridge make a surprise visit to radio 1 as part of their campaign to raise awareness about mental health. michelle roberts on her latest novel

which bring together contemporary and victoria london and with the help of some ghostly presences in a tale of longing and desire. the prime minister and the chancellor have given theirfirst hints of what will and what may not be in the conservative manifesto ahead of the election onjune the 8th. theresa may says she'll keep the current within her own party to cut it. 2.596 2.5% agf, whichever is highest. labour says it will. the chancellor philip hammond has hinted that he

might enter —— and the party's promised not to raise taxes. trust me, i'm a politician. no leader stays popular forever but theresa may clearly feels that she is well liked enough for now to make promises that some might like but others wilmot. she looks confident, and the message is one we have heard before and will again. what drives me, the passion that i have in politics, is to make the united kingdom a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few. that meant sticking to britain's target spending on foreign aid, which some right—wingers want cut. we need to look at how it is spent and make sure we are able to spend the money in the most effective way. what about the other costly pledge, keeping up the value of pensions? today, you are telling the country you are a leader people can trust. can pensioners trust you to go on raising their state

pensions and year by year, just as your party and your government does now? what i would say to pensioners is, look what the conservatives in government have done. pensioners today are £1250 a year better off as a result of action that has been taken. we were clear about the need to make sure we support people in old age and that is what we have done. that was not a yes, but here in berkshire, and a lot of places, plenty of people like the idea of looking after pensioners. they have worked and paid national insurance and taxes, so i think they deserve it as much as anyone else. if you can't look after the elderly, what can you do. if it can be done, stop it for them, they don't need it. many of them put it straight in the bank. theresa may may be about to upset an awful lot of voters. even thinking about dropping the tory promise to pensioners takes a leader very confident about this election, especially now she is protecting overseas spending at the same time. a big lead in the polls comes

in handy if you are about to annoy pensioners. a big majority in the commons, even more so. that deserves a hug, jeremy corbyn campaigning his way, to small crowds and big ones. no talk of saving on benefits here. the corbyn way sounds like this. theresa may seems incapable of answering any question about the protection of the triple lock on the state pension. well, i give you that commitment now. labour will maintain the triple lock. standing by the triple lock, pensions up every year by inflation or average earnings, or 2.5%. sorry, i am not quite sure where i am going. nor does anyone know for sure. the campaign has barely started. the lib dems look perky, sure that this election will be better than last time. we are the only clear

opposition to the conservatives, opposing a hard brexit, exit from the single market, and being an effective opposition on every level. and on they go. pollsters and pundits might think they know how this ends but there are 48 days until polling day. the chancellor philip hammond has said he would prefer the government to have more ‘flexibility‘ on taxes. speaking to the bbc, he hinted that he would like the conservative‘s 2015 manifesto promise not to raise income tax, vat or national insurance to be amended. he was talking to our economics editor kamal ahmed in washington. it was the solemn pledge tweeted to the voter by david cameron before the election of 2015 — no increases in tax, vat or national insurance. will it be repeated before this election? today the chancellor, visiting washington for a meeting of leading industrialised nations, hinted maybe not. i came into politics not to see taxes rising but to see

the burden of taxation falling as our economy grows, and that remains my very clear political ambition. but you do not support specific tax pledges not to raise income tax, national insurance and vat, because it would tie your hands? all chancellors would prefer to have more flexibility in how they manage the economy and how they manage the overall tax burden down than to have their hands constrained. the problem with pledges — they tend to come unstuck. here is the chancellor on budget day, announcing an increase to national insurance payments for the self—employed. there then followed a screeching u—turn after critics pointed out mr hammond had broken that 2015 pledge. the chancellor is here in washington to talk about the global economy, but, frankly, his mind is on matters rather more domestic. in his interview with me, i think he went as far

as he feels able to, given that the manifesto is not yet finalised. he is no fan of constraining promises, particularly on tax. he used one word over and over again — "flexibility". mr hammond has opened up a flank, and labour attacked. i think he's recognising that he's got problems with the economy, he's got problems in the budgeting that he's done, and as a result of that there will be tax rises under a conservative government if they get re—elected. this is quite a tax bombshell. as always, the big test in any election — the economy — and today's poor retail sales figures suggested that the increase in inflation is starting to bite and consumers are feeling the strain. some might say you've called this election to get a mandate before the economy truly turns sour. we've called the election because it will strengthen the prime minister's hand in the negotiations to get the right brexit deal for britain. but in terms of the economic data,

it has been remarkably resilient over the last nine months. just this week, the imf revised up its forecast for britain's economy this year to 2%. the cancer will return from his us trip at the weekend, back to an election battle where the promises the parties make two voters will be key. as far as mr hammond is concerned, the fewer, it would seem, the better. kamal ahmed, bbc news, washington. well earlier i spoke to our political correspondent, ruby begin to jack blanchard and tim shipman at 8:30pm here on bbc news. len mccluskey — leader of britain's biggest trade union — unite — has been re—elected as its general secretary following a ballot of members. he thought of a child from his

moderate rival gerard coyne who was suspended from his post yesterday pending an investigation. 0nly12% of unite‘s million—plus members voted. ian watson, mr coyne isn't happy. he comments after the result that the junior machine had been favouring the incumbent, he talked about being bullied during the course of the campaign, but now he is considering going one step further. i'm told by his supporters that he is at least 50% likely to consider a legal challenge to the result. initially they were pushing for a recount, there was a partial recount and which didn't look like it would work, and len mccluskey was confirmed as the general secretary. but gerard coyne had been worried about something that happening during the campaign, people didn't get their ballot papers on time, was

the inaccurate information on the junein the inaccurate information on the june in website about when the ballot closed as mac he's taking advice this weekend that will form the basis of a legal challenge. if he does challenge it, that will tie up he does challenge it, that will tie up len mccluskey in internal union matters when he would much rather be out supporting jeremy corbyn and his leadership. he is very close to jeremy corbyn. those close to gerard coyne feel they've lost an opportunity to undermine the labour leader, and if there is a labour defeat in this election, they would rather see a series ofjunior leaders putting pressure onjeremy corbyn to go. still a lot at stake, the story is not over yet. there is a possibility of a legal challenge. how are the messages shaping up from each of them? we're in this strange period at the moment where we have had this campaign getting underway, but none of the details policies. most of the manifestos are not going

to be ready all discussed internally for about another ten days. the first week of may we might start to seize pacific policies. people have been looking for clues as to when the parties are going. for example, we saw to me made invading the question about the triple lock, whether it would stay in place. she told about what she had done in the past for pensioners but didn't commit herself to continuing that conservative policy. jeremy corbyn jump conservative policy. jeremy corbyn jump straight in and said he would continue that policy if he were elected. we beginning to get some of the more detailed policies emerging, and what i'm told going to be happening next week is there will be announced this ahead of the ma nifestos announced this ahead of the manifestos next week, but i think what goes he is widespread campaigning in different parts of britain and an overall narrative about the direction of the country, labour desperate to get the campaign away from brexit and on two issues which they find favourable, nhs, public services, and considers emphasising leadership. when we do

get specific policies they will be integrated into other of narrative about the two different approaches between the two main parties. i don't think there has been a bigger division between the two main parties since the 1980s.. a pro brexit campaign group is being investigated by the election watchdog over its finances in the run up to the referendum last year. the electoral commission says there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect the leave.eu group broke the law over donations it received during the campaign and is investigating whether their spending return was complete. the group was originally set up by businessman arron banks, who said they would be ‘vigorously defending' the allegations. and we'll be looking back at the first week of election campaigning with jack blanchard, political editor at the daily mirror and tim shipman, political editor of the sunday times at half past eight here on the bbc news channel.

karim cheurfi was previouslyjailed for firing karim cheurfi was previouslyjailed forfiring at officers, karim cheurfi was previouslyjailed for firing at officers, but authorities say he showed no signs of islamist tumours. the issue of security has been seized upon by the presidential candidates. in this election, not everyone fighting for influence is a politician. last night, a lone attacker with an automatic weapon brought chaos to the capital's well—guarded heart. his target — french police, patrolling a country on the cusp of an election after two years on high alert. this mobile phone footage shows the moment he killed a policeman and injured two others, before being shot dead

on france's most famous street. the policeman he killed was identified today as xavierjugele, dead for doing his duty, the interior minister said. the group calling itself islamic state has claimed responsibility. the gunman named as 39—year—old frenchman karim cheurfi. he had already served years in prison for attacking the police. 0fficers today searched his family house east of paris. three of those living there are now being questioned. neighbours told us they didn't see the family very often. one man said he read about the attack in this morning's paper and discovered that karim cheurfi had been living on his street. today, another house, another neighbourhood rebranded as part of the story of france's terrorist attacks. with thousands of people from ordinary areas listed as potential threats, the security services here are stretched to breaking point.

this election was always seen as a target for terrorism. 50,000 security forces have been brought in to secure the vote. the leading candidates have promised thousands more police posts if they're elected. and when it comes to being tough on terrorism, it's sometimes hard to tell their policies apart. translation: we want to take back control of our borders from the eu schengen treaty. translation: i'll raise the level of protection on our borders by re—negotiating the schengen treaty. translation: preachers of hatred must be expelled and islamist mosques closed. translation: no imam in any mosque will be able to preach against the values of the republic. the liberal newcomer, emmanuel macron, said that unity was the key. translation: at heart, it's our democracy that's being targeted, our unity. i say don't give in to fear, division or intimidation.

france is locked in a debate over how to stop attacks like this. even harder perhaps to stop them influencing its democratic transition of power. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. my my colleague richard fraser is in paris. he has been speaking to a counsellor from the left front party about divisions. and i began by asking about the suburbs in paris and how the state of emergency had affected life in the suburbs. the state of emergency was supposed to bea state of emergency was supposed to be a short period, but it has lasted too long, and the consequences of what we call the suburbs of paris has been that the police could do what ever they want to do. we

assisted too many scenes where police came early in the morning without any need ofjudge assessment, and they entered in houses, they arrested people in front of children sometimes, and we have many people traumatised, and we know that the results of all these, i don't only word in english, but the result is very weak. there was a lot of money and people, policemen, on that... it is a catch-22 situation, because it is a threat. the questionnaires, how do you get intelligence from the local community if they are not coming forward with it? and maybe it is a problem of police brutality, maybe thatis problem of police brutality, maybe that is the reason that people don't come forward and offer information.

i think people who have information go and give the information to police. if i had information about terrorists, in my city, i would give it. for example, no one went to syria or iraq, no one. we don't have a problem with terrorism that we have unlucky, after the attacks in paris they found an apartment there, so they were killed in there. ultimately it was on ours, and people made a vague duck... especially the muslim people, and still today. will have live coverage of the results of the first round of voting in the french presidential election, that is this sunday at 6:30pm in france the size here on

the bbc news channel. a reminder of our headlines. jeremy corbyn pledges labour will protect the triple lock guarantee on increases to the state pension, but theresa may refuses to say whether she will maintain it. paris prosecutor said the gunmen who shot dead a policemen unleashed on the leading had long been known to the leading had long been known to the authorities but had not been a terror watch list. the nhs trust under investigation of the deaths of babies was told it needed to improve ten yea rs babies was told it needed to improve ten years ago. spot now, full round—up from the bbc sports centre. the england manager gareth southgate has described his friend and team—mate ugo ehiogu as a colossus, saying the former defender parred death is something that is difficult to come to terms with. they played together at aston villa and middlesborough, and in a tribute to his old friend, southgate says he is

stunned and deeply saddened, by the former wales international striker dean saunders spent three years alongside a young ugo ehiogu at villa. i've described them as being like a doctor or a piece on, he's one of those characters, methodical in everything he did. he was dedicated. on the training pitch, he just didn't... you didn't want to play against him, he was a bit like playing... quick, strong, aggressive. he had a neck —— knack of hurting you in training. he was a great character. these are the scenes tonight the tribute to ugo ehiogu before the start of the championship match between norwich and brighton. players, fans, coaching staffjoining and brighton. players, fans, coaching staff joining any and brighton. players, fans, coaching staffjoining any minute's applause, similar tribute are planned at a number of grounds over the weekend. manchester united will

face the spanish side so that the girl in the semifinals of the durability, they will be away in a first leg on the 11th of may, on the other typos ajax against lyon. recommendations on at these wealthy urban publishers but of a major report into beauty spots. it was commissioned by the government and led by the 11 time paralympic gold medallist. it comes amid billing allegations amount coaches, about... the child sex abuse scandal in football. and winning medals is something that i think everyone in the uk, we would feel better as a nation when winning. it is a moment to celebrate. but over the last few yea rs, to celebrate. but over the last few years, due to get something that has led the way. i don't thing has been intentional malicious, it is just... hard targets out there and be what

is the british athletes do well. if we get duty of care right, we can do as well as not better. the former olympic rowing champion grainger, she is being more successfulfemale living, winning gold in 2012 and four silver medals. she will begin work with the organisation onjuly one. the 2015 chaplin stuart bingham is attempting to stave off defeat in the second leg of the world snooker champion ship. you can watch it on your red button on the bbc sport website, kyren wilson coupler cap that are currently in front. he has reduced the arrears on the other table. ellie downing has become the first british woman to win all—round gold at the european gymnastics championships. she was the leading qualifier at this often's final in the many hammers in second place,

which was a final discipline of the four, but this performs helped her beat the hungarian competitor into second place. it is also the 17—year—old's first title representing great britain. she will compete in the individualfinals over the weekend as well. it was one of the hardest competitions i've done. i was quite tired from yesterday, so to come back out and do my routines, ifelt yesterday, so to come back out and do my routines, i felt a yesterday, so to come back out and do my routines, ifelt a bit different last time, it the bars went well, the beam was pretty shaky. i tried went well, the beam was pretty shaky. itried not went well, the beam was pretty shaky. i tried not to watch anyone else and just focus on what i did. after my second tumble past, i was a bit unsure. i was still had been happy with second. when the scot came through, i was speechless. i don't have words. that is only sport for now, more in the next hour. the french presidential elections first

round takes place this sunday, and today the candidates have clashed over how best to protect france, following the shooting of a police officer last night. let speaking out to the paris bureau chief, shejoins us now to the paris bureau chief, shejoins us now via webcam. thank your for joining us here on bbc news. there have been claims that marine le pen and francois fillon and use the attack last night for political gain. however that players with voters, if that is how they perceive it? this is such a tight race that it? this is such a tight race that it is not surprising that when a terrorist attack takes place just days before voting, candidates are using what they can to press their case. marine le pen has been making arguments that she is being making all the way through this campaign, some of those messages haven't had some of those messages haven't had some of those messages haven't had some of the echo that they have now because people feel a lot more

alarmed about the security situation. it is not surprising. the french can see through politicians' who are out there to exploit the situation. for some like francois fillon who was prime minister 55 yea rs, fillon who was prime minister 55 years, there is a real chance for him to appearas years, there is a real chance for him to appear as a man with experience and who could potentially be able to put in place a tough security policy. i think it is just a measure of incredible tightness of this campaign. and also of the unpredictable nature of it. how likely are voters going to be deterred from turning out to vote? likely are voters going to be deterred from turning out to vote ?|j don't deterred from turning out to vote?” don't think because of the terrorist attack that that is going to affect turnout. i think we already knew there was good to be a bit of a high turnout, partly because a lot of voters are put off by the candidates. or they just feel fed voters are put off by the candidates. or theyjust feel fed up with the process or theyjust don't

believe in politics any more. i think that was already going to be a problem. i don't think it is because of the attack. when you look back over the last 18 months, france had been the target of so many terrorist attacks at over 230 people had been killed, it is a country that has got used to seeing soldiers on the streets, accepting that there is a lot of constraints on going into shops, you have your bag checked, those sorts of things have become routine here, at but people are still going to pavement cafes and sitting out and going to football matches. public events happen all the time and fries and i don't think this will make much difference to turnout. would you like to venture who you think the two candidates are who you think the two candidates are who will go through to the second round? be been wrong so many times with pearls, i think everyone is feeling very nervous about making predictions. there is a consistency, but it is very tight, inconsistency

that suggest that in manuel mccrone the independently set up as party leader in go, and marine le pen, but no one can be sure, francois fillon may be making last—minute games, then you gotjean—luc melenchon who is the far left candidate, he had a very creative and imaginative campaign that has captured the young vote, so i think is very tight and nothing can be ruled out. thank you very much. us military officials say a close associate of the leader of a group which calls itself islamic state has been killed in a commando raid. he was reportedly killed during a ground assault in syria. he was appointed to be involved in plotting the new year's eve attack ona plotting the new year's eve attack on a nightclub in istanbul and which at least 39 people died. let's beat our correspondence in washington. covers more about this strike. melo

it happened on the 6th of april, thatis it happened on the 6th of april, that is what the us officials are telling us. the interesting thing is that, when they hit these so—called high—value individuals, they do it by drone strike with a hellfire missile, but this is unusual to do it with commandos on the ground, not unheard but unusual. they, as you say, asserted that he was a close associate... he was involved in the nightclub bombing, but we haven't had that verified. this willingness to use commandos on the ground is interesting. it suggests that the us now feels it is increasingly possible to operate on the ground, evenin possible to operate on the ground, even in areas that are still held by islamic state. these commandos may well have come from iraq, this district is right there on the

border with iraq. last time they conducted such a raid was in the same sort of vicinity injanuary. the last time they killed someone pretty senior nis was back in 2015 in that same area. he was running ices operations there. significant move in tactics. thank you very much. this take a look at the weather forecast. a chilly weekend with some night—time ground frost, but it looks like a fairly decent weekend. cloudy skies at times as we have had today. the weekend you can see how extensive the cloud was, but we have got some sunshine returning to the north but it is here would have the chilly and already establishing itself, and behind that it travels south was the night. a lot of cloud, the north is where we will see the ground frost was don. temperatures

holding up further south, but will see a bit of mist and fog as we had was saturday morning. right, busy actually to start any north but hopefully that sunshine gets to work, northern scotland will see showers and wintry over the hills. northern ireland and parts of wales still on the hill quite a bit of cloud, but some sunshine coming elsewhere. light winds, it will feel pleasa nt elsewhere. light winds, it will feel pleasant enough. sunshine coming and going, but largely drive for most of us. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines... theresa may's hinted at the conservatives election manifesto. the foreign aid budget will stay the same, but there's no commitment to guaranteeing increases in the state pension. authorities in france have named the man who killed a police officer on the champs—elysees. karim cheurfi was a french national with criminal convictions. the nhs trust, under investigation over the deaths of babies,

was told it needed to improve ten years ago. len mccluskey‘s been re—elected as the leader of britain's biggest union — unite. only around 12% of the union's members voted in the poll. the health trust facing an investigation into the avoidable deaths of babies was told its maternity services needed to improve. the shrewsbury and telford trust was told its monitoring of heartbeats that is not a heartbeats of babies was inadequate. this baby was born in 200a. staff at

the royal shrewsbury hospital failed to deliver her despite foetal heart traces indicating the baby was in distress. she died, agedjust 17 months. her heart rate went down and down. they tried to move me to see ifi down. they tried to move me to see if i could find the trace. there was nothing there. had they done their job and naturally got me into theatre when she was dropping her heart rate was dropping, i might still have her. following the death in 2007, bbc‘s panorama said the regulator wrote to the trust urging them to improve services. they were urged to keep a record of foetal heart monitor traces. learning from clinical incidents had to improve. two days ago we asked the trust to

lay out the actions they have taken. this afternoon, they responded. they failed to provide evidence that any changes had been made. instead they say that every baby's is investigated to ensure lessons are learned. again, repeated an unreserved apology to the families who lost a child. i am not prepared to have —— we were prepared to have a child to change our lives com pletely a child to change our lives completely and that did not happen. staff at the trust failed to properly monitor the heart rate and list he was in distress. his heartbroken parents are astonished. the trust was told a decade ago to improve its maternity care. it makes me angry and sad. thinking of all the people who have lost their children because theyjust have not

done anything, they have not acted. you feel robbed. this memory bear is katie and mark's main lasting link to their baby. their son is one of several babies who need not have died. let's look back now at a week where the prime minister, theresa may called the first snap general election since 197a. the election campaign is firmly under way with all the main parties pitching their campaign stalls ahead of the vote onjune 8th. they have not really got their ma nifesto they have not really got their manifesto sorted out though, have they? with me to take a look back at the first week of the election campaign is jack blanchard, political editor at the daily mirror, and tim shipman, political editor at the sunday times were you wrong—footed by mrs may? i

was woken up. my day off was tuesday. i got a text saying, do you realise there is an announcement at number10? realise there is an announcement at number 10? they put a podium at which did not have the pmsignal on it. the pope has smoke signals and we have podiums. of course i was wrong—footed, as were the tory party. it does not even have enough candidates to run in the election. everyone is scrambling to get the machinery together. were you? theresa may does not normally do surprises, does she? you know what you're going to get with her. she said all along, no snap election. she goes walking in the hills for a few days and we're going to the polls. she thinks about the 20 point

lead that she has. apparently that have nothing to do with it. far be it for anyone to suggest it is political opportunism. everyone is scrambling to get a manifesto together. what have the highlights being? we were all taken on the hop. the labour party had no idea this was coming. what surprised me as quite how well labour has done. they now have a manifesto. they are not ready to fight an election and are miles behind in the polls. actually has not been a disastrous first few days for the labour party. jeremy corbyn got himself together and made a good first campaign speech. most people thought it was not that bad. there have been no blunders. actually, theresa may has had troubled few days. i cannot agree with that. the speech was not too bad. if you look at everything else that has happened, he has had mps standing down. john woodcock has

said while he wants to run for parliament under the labour banner, he cannot advocate anyone voting for jeremy corbyn. mps have said this election is not about defeating the government. others have said we need a progressive alliance, implying that labour by itself cannot actually win. in a sense he has not come on in a clown car and it has collapsed, it has done relatively well. if the tories were surprised, labour were completely flummoxed. theresa may has said she does not wa nt to ta ke theresa may has said she does not want to take part intel buys debates. une agreed to do them if you are in a weak position. —— in televised debates. in 2015 you needed to contrast cameron with ed miliband. the poll lead this enormous got what you do is do what she is doing. you refuse to debate. we keep the press at arms length. you do not take too many questions

and have too many interviews and ride the poll lead all the way through to the election. what a wonderful democracy! a very cynical view that theresa may is taking. i do not need to let the public see me debate my rivals. every other country in the world pretty much as tv debates. the truth is, she is not that good in those sorts of situations, from what we have seen of theresa may. where she is very goodisin of theresa may. where she is very good is in front of a podium making big speeches. take the autocue away and she does not always do that well. i am not saying thatjeremy corbyn will be great. how do we know u nless we corbyn will be great. how do we know unless we shove him in front of a camera? nothing in our constitution says we will have these debates. we said at the beginning we did not expect her to do this because shou wood said she would not. that is pa rt of wood said she would not. that is part of her personality. she does something gimmicky and calls an election. she gets away with it,

why? no one wantsjeremy election. she gets away with it, why? no one wants jeremy corbyn to become prime minister. she might even get away with declaring war against spain on gibraltar. although thatis against spain on gibraltar. although that is not likely. the narrative of election is very simple. no one wantsjeremy election is very simple. no one wants jeremy corbyn to be prime minister, including at least apparently one labour mp. let's look at bits of detail that have come out. there is an indication that theresa may will keep the commitment to the foreign aid budget of .7% of gdp but possibly, and tom, our editor tonight who is very exercised about this and feeding me questions, what about the triple lock on the state pension? how much of a surprise is that she

might abandon it? that is the only thing that explains this. we have had three extraordinary new positions. she will keep the .7 commitment. philip hammond said he would like some flexibility on taxes, which would not rule out raising them in the next election. when you think about the people who tories try to motivate get out to the polls, they are nationalist compatriots who do not like foreign aid, pensioners who like the pension lock and the aspirin, working middle classes who want a bigger and two taxes will not go up. —— aspirate. she is reaching out to labour voters possibly at the expense of the tory base. how does the labour party counter that? tonight they have warned of a tax bombshell from to theresa may. it is ironic to hear labour saying about the tories. they have promised to protect the triple lock on pensioners. theresa may is no longer prepared to do this. you do see the dynamic shift very quickly. theresa may is so

confident. she has a massive poll lead. she does not feel she needs to pander to the newspapers because she think she will win. she can say what she really thinks. she is pandering to your newspapers? she took a question from the daily mirror today. david cameron never did back in seven years. quite a number of high—profile mps standing down. and also some big names from the old lib dem benches. well, former lib dem mps, deciding babel fancy another go at it. also of interesting people will not be mps in the next parliament. george osborne, the former chancellor, has decided he only needs five jobs instead of six. he is on his way. nigel france is not going to make an eighth attempt to become mp. presumably he does not wa nt to to become mp. presumably he does not want to lose again. he is still an

mep, although he has successfully abolished that position.” mep, although he has successfully abolished that position. i do not think that is a long—term career move for him. there will be some names we saw defeated in 2015, vince cable, for example, is trying to make a comeback. simon hughes. will the lib dems benefit from the remain constituency they seemed to discover in the richmond by—election? they could re—establish their presence in parliament. i do sometimes wonder if the new lib dem bounce is a bit of a media bubble. their national poll rating is not more than 12, 13%. only about a third of the voters know who tim farron is. he has not been able to give a concrete impression of who he is. if there is not going to be a debate, that would be his chance to shine. he may enter the election a bit anonymously.

hasn't he already begun establishing himself and the liberal democrats as the heart of the centrist alliance, who would really work very hard to soften the kind of brexit we could get? that is where he has pitched himself. there are a hard—core of remain voters in the uk who do not accept the referendum result. they are accept the referendum result. they a re really accept the referendum result. they are really unhappy and want to change it. the lib dems are going all—out to try to secure their votes. tim is right. a lot of people do not know who he is. they might know who their local lib dem candidate a is. it used to be their mp. people like simon hughes and ed davey will all have facial recognition within constituencies. they only lost their seats a couple of years ago. how important is the snp going to be? utterly critical. i think, correct me if i'm wrong, just before the general election there are the local elections in scotland.

what is likely to happen if the snp will take glasgow city council. if it does that it means the last bastions of labour on the red clyde has collapsed. they will try to dig out any corruption they might be able to find. the snp might already have planted a flag in the local elections. you'll also get to see how popular ruth davidson is north of the border. we could see, in this election, labour are effectively annihilated in scotland but the tories coming in second and starting to pick up seats. that is the big ambition of theresa may. another reason why the snp is becoming more important is labour do not have that hold on scotland anymore. you're only going to get into power ever if you team up with the snp. they have a line they have been trotting out about the coalition of chaos between

the lib dems and the snp and labour. that is difficult for labour to bat away. looking at the numbers, there is every chance, they hurt labour in 2015 and the tories are trying to do it again this time around. very quickly in the last minute, let's think about ukip. we have more mps now. they seem to have gone down the tubes. what is the point? in the polls they are collapsing. look at the tory voters who went to ukip, they all go back to the tories. theresa may is do what ukip wanted. she is pulling a of europe and bringing back grammar schools. douglas carswell said, myjob is done. a lot of ukip voters will feel the same. vote conservative and you get out