this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at 2pm. labour's draft manifesto is leaked — it contains plans to renationalise the railways and scrap university tuition fees. this is an extremely modern, progressive, progressive set of proposals and it's looking to the long term future and most people are extremely excited at what they've seen. a note of caution about the economy — the bank of england governor says predicted growth is downgraded and household spending is slowing. this is going to be a more challenging time for british households over the course of this year. wages won't keep up with prices for the goods and services they consume. waiting times for key nhs services in england were the worst in four five years in the latest financial year, according to new analysis. and in the next hour, a record £400,000 fine for making over 100 million nuisance calls.

marketing firm, keurboom communications, made repeated calls, sometimes at unsocial hours, trying to get people to make compensation claims. where do you want me? bouncing on my knee. where do you think i want you? and david beckham makes his big screen debut in king arthur — but his cameo performance gets mixed reviews. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. we are going to go straight to

central london now wherejohn trickett has come to speak to reporters. their reserve chief political correspondent. fill us in on what has been going on behind you. john trickett, a senior member of the shadow cabinet, has been in that meeting to look at the draft ma nifesto. that meeting to look at the draft manifesto. we have had a leak of it, so everyone knows manifesto. we have had a leak of it, so everyone knows what is in it. they are having to go through it, sign of the things they agree on and leaving other things out. john trickett has come out and said it is an exciting document and it will speakfor the an exciting document and it will speak for the whole country. it will be the basis of the labour government proposal and it will appeal to people across the political spectrum and for the many, not the view. certainly, the draft versions we have seen, it's a radical document and certainly the vision thatjeremy corbyn has had

for really his whole political life and he's trying to get it into this election and this manifesto. there are many labour party people now who feel they can start talking about serious policies, ideas such as re—nationalising the railways, nationalising part of the energy sector, and of course there will be a big question about how it is all funded, how it's all paid for. there are some very expensive items in this list. we know there will be tax rises for the top 5% of earners. there will be more money put into social care and the nhs. the labour party has said many times before but it will borrow to fund infrastructure, so an awful lot of things there for people to talk about. the question, i suppose, things there for people to talk about. the question, isuppose, is how many labour mps, former labour mps who are candidates across the country, how many of them will sign up country, how many of them will sign up to this document. we know many of them over the past couple of years

have been at odds with the vision thatjeremy corbyn has. have been at odds with the vision that jeremy corbyn has. let's listen to jack are only now. i haven't seen it. i think you've probably seen more of it than i have. there are a whole load of policies there that will affect everybody. my own constituency, the rail services have been appalling. when it was run by a publicly owned company, it did a good job for commuters and the profits generated were ploughed back into the service. i'm only going on the reports. i haven't seen the manifesto. but ultimately i think people will want to focus on the soap opera, some of the personalities, but i think when people make a decision, the kinds of things people have been talking to us things people have been talking to us about today are the everyday things that affect people's lives. and that is what labour people are

hoping, that they can move on from discussion aboutjeremy hoping, that they can move on from discussion about jeremy corbyn, about his leadership, and talk about things that really matter to people. of course it's a fact that this kind of thing has not been on offer to the electorate for many decades. anyone under the age of 50 haven't had the chance to vote on this kind of programme and of course what we don't know is how it will go down with people around britain. it is clear speaking to some labour candidates that they are concerned, particularly about the casting side of this. labour people, those close tojeremy corbyn, say it will be fully costed. we haven't had that yet. their initial idea i think was to roll out a series of big announcements, such as the abolition of tuition fees, eye—catching policies they hoped to drip out before their big manifesto launch next week, but that has all been thrown away in the sense that that was leaked, so it's not going to plan. they are trying to make the best of it so at least we can start

talking about policies. vicki, thanks for that. two key policies are about education and tuition fees. if you are a graduate, you will earn around £250,000 more a year —— in your lifetime than someone who didn't go to university. that is why tuition fees started to be charged, but when they were introduced, there we re but when they were introduced, there were riots on the streets. labour are proposing to abolish them. what do students think? i think it is a goodidea do students think? i think it is a good idea for students but not for the treasury. up until now my education has been free, but why do

i have to pay now? nine rand a year. perhaps some students would say that but it will cost. if the government paid for all of the tuition fees of every student who goes to university, the bill would be huge. the government is already paying for student fees, it's just getting that money back, two thirds of that money back, probably, from graduates, in the long run, so the long running costs of abolishing fees is still really pretty significant. when it comes to paying for university, labour is heading in the opposite direction to the tories, but little detail yet as to when they would introduce the change. another pledge

in the manifesto is to renationalise the railways. richard lister has more. i did that thoroughly unscientific survey of the first ten people that i came across. seven of them said they were in favour of nationalisation. three said they were against it. what does that prove? well, absolutely nothing. it was a very small survey, but it does chime remarkably closely with what opinion polls have been saying nationally for the past few years, when a clear majority of people tell opinion pollsters they are in favour of nationalised railways. and that's quite remarkable when you consider the bad old days of the old nationalised british rail, which was really something of a byword for british decline by the time it was fully privatised 20 years ago. labour says this time it would be different. if you put the passenger first on your spending you can freeze fares, you can give free wi—fi to everybody on board and you can improve disabled access to trains. of course, few would argue that privatisation has been an unqualified success over the past few decades. certainly fares have increased more sharply than inflation and trains,

many trains, are hugely overcrowded. now the tories say that's still better than british rail and they point to the fact that privatisation has led, certainly since about 2000, to a much better safety record and also much more punctual services. the counter argument to that is that network rail is responsible for a lot of those improvements and labour point to the fact that network rail, in charge of tracks and stations, is a public body and it's taxpayers' money which has gone into improving the services which we now use. and we'll be looking at the arguments of rail nationalisation at 2.30 with ben southwood from the free market think tank the adam smith institute and cat hobbs, who is the founder of the we own it campaign group — which is against the privatisation of public services. the conservatives have said that if they win the election,

they will increase defence spending by half a percent more than inflation, every year. the defence secretary sir michael fallon also said the conservatives would continue to meet the pledge to spend at least 2% of national income on defence. it's a growing defence budget, it's properly financed. we meet the nato 2% target and we think it's right to commit to that for the rest of this parliament, so that our armed forces have the equipment that they need to keep this country safe. the green party have launched their election manifesto in london. in a speech, the party's co—leader caroline lucas said that britain's prosperity depends on the natural world. we're the only party that puts the environment at the heart of all of our policies. and we do it quite simply because a prosperous, thriving future will be green or not at all. and a reminder — you can keep up to date with all the developments throughout the campaign, and live events, on the bbc news website — bbc.co.uk/news.

and if you're on the move you can follow the election via the bbc news app. so there is no excuse. do not miss it. the bank of england is predicting only moderate growth for the uk economy this year — with a squeeze on households' incomes, as wages rise more slowly than prices. interest rates have been kept at 0.25%. looking further ahead, the forecast is brighter — although as our economics correspondent andrew verity reports, a lot depends on the brexit negotiations. here is one element of the cost of living that is shooting up. the wholesale price of butter has doubled in the last year, according to dairy farmers. producers and shops are passing on some, but not all of that to us, the consumers. at the last count, the retail price of oils and fats like butter was up by 15.5% compared to last year. as for the price of butter as for the whole

economy, the big question is, is this inflation temporary, or will it last? i think for the bank of england, they are really trying to work out how persistent the rise that we are seeing in inflation at the moment is going to be, and struggle that against the context which is a uk economy that is weakening, a housing market that is looking a little bit soggy, certainly in terms of activity, people looking for new houses and properties coming onto the market. a uk economy that is also facing brexit. the official consumer price index measure of inflation got down below zero in 2015. but now, it's back above the 2% target. the bank of england is now predicting it will carry on rising, peaking later this year at 2.8%. the wages that people are getting are not going to be sufficient to compensate for the rises in consumer prices, the prices in the shop. and so this is going to be a more challenging time for british households over the course of this year. one big reason for higher

price rises is the pound. because it dropped in value both before and after the referendum, we need more pounds to get hold of the dollars and euros we need to buy imported goods. and most of our goods are imported. the projected inflation entirely reflects the effects on import prices of the fall in sterling since late 2015. the depreciation caused by market expectations of a material adjustment to the uk's medium term prospect as it leaves the eu. the bank's confident prediction is that the effect of the weaker pound will peter out next year and that workers will not seek to beat inflation by demanding much higher wages. on that basis, interest rates may have to rise a little in the next three years, but only very slightly. three women have appeared in court in london, charged with preparing a terrorist act and conspiracy to murder. they include 21—year—old rizlaine boular,

who was shot by police during a raid at a property in willesden two weeks ago. seven other people, arrested as part of the investigation, have been released from police custody. live to westminster magistrates court in central london and our home affairs correspondent, dominic casciani. dominik, bring us up today with what has been happening? then, very unusual hearing this morning at westminster magistrates‘ court. three women, a mother and a daughter and a third woman, in the dock, accused of these very serious offences, the first of which is conspiracy to murder, the second, preparation of acts of terror, effectively a key of items used by the crown prosecution service and the crown prosecution service and the police in investigating allegations of terrorism. in essence, what this case relates to is an allegation against rizlaine

boular, her mother and a third woman, and it is said that rizlaine boular, along with the other two, conspired between the 11th of april and the 28th of april, so last month, to murder persons unknown. in effect, the allegation amounts to a suggestion that there was going to bea suggestion that there was going to be a terrorist attack involving knives in the westminster area of the capital. rizlaine boular is further accused of engaging in contact in preparation for acts of terrorism and her mother and a third woman are accused of helping her with that. when they came into the dock this morning, they were in full islamic dress with their faces fully veiled. thejudge asked both islamic dress with their faces fully veiled. the judge asked both women to partially remove their face covering so that their eyes could be seen covering so that their eyes could be seen and they agreed to do that,

then the mother brought the covering back down again over her eyes. there was no application for bail, so the judge remanded them in custody to next appear at the old bailey a week on friday. back to you. thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news. senior labour members meet to finalise the election manifesto after the draft version was leaked. the bank of england sounds a note of caution about the economy. growth forecasts are downgraded, because the governor says household spending is slowing. there‘s been a record fine for the company that made 100 million cold calls. their automated messages encouraged people to make insurance claims. and in sport, the fa chairman greg clark has dismissed claims that agents are being paid too much in football. speaking at a fever

conference in bahrain, he said clubs are entitled to pay agents whatever they see fit. fifa says previous —— they see fit. fifa says previous —— the head of fifa says previous criticism of fifa has beenjustified but they are making changes. and in golf, rory mcilroy talks about shedding the post—wedding weight. waiting times for a number of key nhs services in england were the worst in five years, according to analysis of figures for the year to the end of march. more people waited more than four hours to be seen in a&e, and cancer referral times also worsened. saffron cordery of nhs providers, the body that represents nhs trusts in england, is in westminster. we are very grateful to you. what do

these findings mean for trusts?|j think these findings mean for trusts?” think what these findings that have been published today are showing us is that trusts really are facing increasing challenges on the front line in terms of demand coming through the door, financial pressures that they are facing. but that they are doing an outstanding job in actually tackling the challenges in front of them. what we have seen is although a and the attendances are just going through the roof, trusts are performing better this year than they did last year, so what we are seeing is demand going up but trustsjust about managing to keep on top of that. but it's very, very difficult for them. these figures do vary across the country, don‘t they? perhaps therefore greater efficiency in some trusts could make a difference? i think it's very interesting to look at the differences. we will see different pressures in different parts of the country. in some areas, the demands

for social care will be greater, or example. that‘s one of the areas we have to look at. what we‘ve seen in these figures is the second—highest ever level of delayed transfer of care, where people need to see support when they come out of hospital, and a growing number of those are attributed to the level of social care provision. what we‘re seeing is there is provision but there are reasons behind that variation and we need to tackle that. how do you do that? how do you improve on these figures? there are a number of things we need to do. firstly, we need to see the additional money that has been allocated for social care to be used for nhs purposes as well as local government purposes. we need to see an end to the pay freeze for the workforce, because absolutely we need more people out there working on the front line and pay freezes and brexit aren‘t really helping that. and then thirdly we need to

see more funding for the nhs. we estimate that we need between four and £5 billion a year, certainly next year, to keep the nhs a plate. to clarify, is that an extra four or £5 billion? that money is not going to suddenly materialise, is it?” think that‘s why in the middle of an election period that we put the nhs first and foremost in everyone‘s mind. we‘ve got to think about how we spend money and its politicians jobs to work out where it is best allocated and one of the things we do know is that in the uk we spend substantially do know is that in the uk we spend su bsta ntially less do know is that in the uk we spend substantially less than other can parable countries like france and germany per head on the nhs. although the nhs is comparatively very efficient. saffron cordery of the nhs providers, we are grateful for your time. thank you. thank you. the party created by the french president—elect emmanuel macron just

a year ago has selected 577 candidates for parliamentary elections next month. half of them are fresh to politics. mr macron, a centrist, is hoping for a majority in the national assembly so that he can enact his reforms without arrangements with other parties. our correspondent hugh schofield is in paris. whew, being elected president is one thing but you need a decent number of mps in the national assembly? you do, andi of mps in the national assembly? you do, and i need to correct your use of the past tense that. they haven‘t yet announced those 577. they were due to give it a couple of hours ago but there seems to have been a huge at the press conference in which they were due to announce those 577 names. as he said, quite rightly, they have set themselves a number of conditions in the choice of these candidates who will run on the

presidential ticket, basically, candidates who will run on the presidentialticket, basically, next month. 0ne presidentialticket, basically, next month. one is that it has to be 50-50 month. one is that it has to be 50—50 men and women and two, it has to be 50—50 politicians who have made it their career and people from civil society, in other words people who have ordinaryjobs like you and me who are not professional politicians. this is the signal emmanuel macron wants to give to the image of his party and his whole presidency. i think it‘s proving very, very difficult to meet all these conditions, especially as in these conditions, especially as in the last few days since his victory on sunday, there‘s been a blood of new applications from people who wa nt to new applications from people who want to run on his ticket. —— a flood. there were already 15,000 people who had applied and since he won last sunday, loads more, about 1500 more, have come in and some are established politicians, with the socialist party, who are clearly thinking they have no chance of

running on a socialist ticket, we need to run on a macron ticket. the judgment of solomon is having to be applied in each one of these situations and it is going right at the top, emmanuel macron himself, looking at who is going to stand in each constituency. it‘s assigned to him located nature of governing and how it went to be easy to get this majority in parliament which really needs. it sounds a little bit chaotic and it‘s all got to be done in quitea chaotic and it‘s all got to be done in quite a rush, really. yes, image isa in quite a rush, really. yes, image is a big part of his movement. they‘ve had a brilliant public relations campaign so far but we are now approaching the time of decisions. when they really —— reveal this list of candidates, they will say, hang on, he‘s not of civil society, he has this or that background etc, so this is a time when decisions must be made and these decisions will no doubt be

queried. an even bigger decision will await him next week when he must denounce as prime minister. again, a huge decision because it will show the colour or the type of government is going to run. so far, it‘s been this multicoloured constructive ambiguity in which he‘s been able to bask which has led to his great success. when you start making decisions, you start opening yourself up to slightness from either side. great to speak to you and thanks for the correction. we will come back to you what those candidates have been announced. it can‘t be too long, can it? meanwhile, david beckham has made his speaking debut on the silver screen. he was greeted with cheers at the premiere of the film ‘king arthur: legend of the sword‘ in london — although the reception for his cameo performance as a soldier has been mixed, as our entertainment correspondent david sillito reports. david beckham. you could probably say he‘s got it all. the footballing talent, the looks, the global fame. and he just looks right on a red carpet. no wonder the movies have called.

there are rumours, the legend of the sword of a king other than yourself. find him. this, an all—action retelling of the king arthur story. it is, of course, far from his first time on screen. he had a cameo in the man from u.n.c.l.e, and was the moody, silent star of this short film. however, there‘s more. i think people are going to love it. 0bviously, with guy‘s movies, you know what you‘re going to get, but there‘s a few surprises. one of them being, we both see and hear mr beckham‘s acting. right, where do you want me? bouncing on my knee. where do you think i want you? hands on the hilt, stupid! the reaction — more than a few critics have been a bit critical. let‘s have another listen. right, where do you want me? bouncing on my knee.

where you think i want you? hands on the hilt, stupid! all these negative comments are terribly unfair, say his defenders. and the director. yeah, i love him. and i think he's great on screen. i find him very talented, yeah, i love him. david beckham, meanwhile, says he has no plans to take up acting full time. you want to say something, don‘t you? i was just you? i wasjust going you? i was just going to say, you are a finejudge of acting. i was just going to say, you are a fine judge of acting. what is your judgment? my judgment? myjudgment is that you can‘t buy that kind of publicity. yes, but you can‘t say he‘s very good, can you? now, a bbc cameraman‘s that has been run over by a car carrying jeremy

corbyn. giles waterson was injured by the left wheel of the car carrying mr corbyn to the meeting. there he is on the pavement. that meeting, of course, the subject of great interest because of the leaking of labour‘s draft manifesto. mr waterton received some treatment at the scene before unfortunately being taken away in an ambulance. a senior labour party source said the party is looking into the incident and we wish him a speedy recovery. ina and we wish him a speedy recovery. in a statement, the bbc said that mr waterton had been taken to hospital for assessment and treatment and that the bbc are focusing on their duty of care in making sure that he is ok. a blair albino orangutan is recovering well after being rescued in borneo. it was being held in captivity but she is now gaining

weight and is recovering. they are asking people to come up with a name for how you think the albino orangutan hash tag. sendin orangutan hash tag. send in your suggestions. now for the weather forecast. it is looking pretty good for the northern half of the country today, but further south, changes are taking place. we have got showers developing and we need temperatures to get about 17 or 18 celsius for thunderstorms to develop and we are seeing that already, across somerset and the bristol area. they will continue to develop further along the m4 corridor in the next hour or so. we have already got 22 degrees in london and we could to 23 in places. those thunderstorms will continue to

move northwards and will fizzle out overnight. we will then seek more rain moving in, particularly heavy rain moving in, particularly heavy rain in northern ireland, but large swathes of england will be dry. friday is a claudio looking day. sunshine will be limited. for much of england and wales, there will be outbreaks of rain and there is the potential for thunderous outbreaks in the central corridor. top temperatures of 20 celsius. that‘s your latest weather. improving the hello. this is bbc news. the headlines. labour‘s draft manifesto is leaked and includes promises to nationalise railways and parts of the energy industry and to abolish tuition fees. but the conservatives called the plans a shambles. the bank of england issues a note of caution about the economy as it downgrades its growth forecast.

it says household spending is slowing, with weak retail sales and a sharp fall in new car registrations in april. waiting times for key nhs services in england were the worst in four years in the latest financial year, according to new analysis, with 2.5 million people waiting longer than four hours to be seen in a&e. a cold—calling firm is fined a record £a00,000 for making almost 100 million nuisance calls. marketing firm keurboom communications called people, sometimes at unsocial hours, trying to get them to make compensation claims. lots of sport to tell you about. good afternoon. the fa chairman greg clarke has defended the rights of football club‘s to pay agents whatever they see fit. clarke has spoken in the light

of a fifa investigation into the £89 million transfer of paul pogba from juventus to manchester united last summer. they have written to united asking for clarification on the deal after allegations that pogba‘s agent mino raiola, was paid £41 million in the deal. 22 of which, it‘s claimed, came directly from united. if manchester united want to pay that much money and i‘d no, haven‘t looked into the individual transfer, how much the agent scott, that‘s what they will pay. they are accountable to their owners and fans. if they think it‘s good value for money, as a commercial transaction. if football wants to limit the amount of money but agents get, we will have to sit down as a game, led by the professional game and the premier league and the efl and the premier league and the efl and the premier league and the efl and the clubs and talk about that. clarke was speaking to the bbc at a fifa congress in bahrain where the body‘s president gianni infantino said he believes those who want to use football to get rich should get out

of the sport in contrast to clarke‘s view. infantino also spoke about the wave of criticism aimed at fifa over the past few years. in the wake of the various sandals engulfing the organisation, he admitted that much of it was deserved. fake news, alternative facts, these terms did not exist until some time ago. they have become on the vogue in recent periods. there's a lot of alternative facts about fifa circulating. fifa bashing has become a national sport. especially in some countries. and they understand also why and it was right and it was right, but fifa has changed now. this is a new fifa. we have new people here. and we act with facts. and we act with facts. manchester united are 90 minutes away from their first appearance

in the final of the europa league. they‘ll defend a 1—0 lead from the first leg of their semi—final against celta vigo of spain at old trafford tonight. united managerjose mourinho won the competition with porto back in 2003 and has made it his priority in recent weeks as winning the trophy, would mean a place in next season‘s champions league. it was not a gamble, just a consequence of our situation. so we are in this situation now. and we have to fight for it, so let‘s see if tomorrow we can do it and if we can go to the final. today is the first day of the players championship, often described as golf ‘s unofficial fifth major, championship, often described as golf ‘s unofficialfifth major, and rory mcilroy is looking for a turnaround in fortunes after he announced he will use a new club

manufacturer. that‘s not the only change for him. he recently got married and the five—week break may have had some effect on his physique. i'm trying to lose some weight before this week and try to shed a few pounds, but, yeah, everything has been great. ifeel like my game is in good shape. i needed to address a few issues in between august and here and they did that in the first ten days after augusta and then turned my attentions elsewhere, but i feel really good coming into this event. looks pretty swelled to me, to be honest. that‘s all sport for now. i‘ll have more in the next hour. thanks. i‘m saying nothing. the prime minister has been out campaigning in the south of england. she said the leak of labour‘s draft policy programme is pretty shambolic and their policies would be taking us and their policies would be taking us back to the past. let‘s cross to our correspondent alex forsyth who is in southampton with the may campaign.

what else has she been saying, alex? theresa may was here today in one of those stranger moments on an election campaign on a fairly ordinary street which doesn‘t see much excitement suddenly becomes the focus of a media circus, so an hour ago theresa may was here knocking on doors, talking to residents and she got a pretty good reception. this seat is currently held by labour but it‘s a marginal seats over is not that many votes in it and clearly the fact the prime minister came here today shows it is a seat they wa nt to here today shows it is a seat they want to target to try to take from labour. this area specifically, southampton, voted to leave the european union so it may be again at theresa may is hoping she to some of those who voted for brexit with the argument that she makes that she would have a strong hand in negotiations. we know today the message from the conservatives has broadly been on defence, the

midlands to defence spending, and theresa may didn‘t stop to give any interviews to the media and when she was on the doorstep talking to residents she was focused more on local issues, reiterating the theme through this campaign as she sees it, the choice between her as a leader and jeremy corbyn and, of course, not wasting the opportunity to comment on the leak of labour‘s d raft to comment on the leak of labour‘s draft manifesto saying it was a labour government would deliver, chaos. it‘s been a busy day for her because she was in london meeting african leaders to discuss aid to somalia. why did she decide to make that a priority during an election campaign? theresa may of course does remain the prime minister and although her prime priority will be that, there‘s other business to take place and if you heard her words this morning, watching was talking about was the need for stability in somalia and the impact it could have

on the wider world, so what we see there is, despite the fact that we are caught up in the election campaign, it‘s of great importance to the uk and the prime minister and other politicians, the business of the world does not stop entirely so she was there this morning in london and then came down to the southampton constituency. it was a flying visit. she was not here for very long. she came along and spoke to maybe seven or eight houses on the street. i spoke to a few residents to get the impression of the prime minister and the reaction from several was we didn‘t expect to see her walking down our street in the middle of the afternoon that, broadly, people were pleased to see a politician campaigning on the doorsteps and particularly the prime minister. 0ne couple said they‘d lived here for 60 years and never had a prime minister before. there's a first for everything. alex, thanks for that. as we‘ve been hearing, a draft of labour‘s general election manifesto has been leaked and it includes radical plans to renationalise the royal mail, to scrap university tuition fees in england, and to end

the public sector pay cap. another pledge in the leaked document is is to re—nationalise the railways. we are going to discuss that now. so would it actually work? ben southwood from the free market think tank, the adam smith institute, he‘s in westminster. and cat hobbs is the founder of the we own it campaign group, which is against the privatisation of public services. she‘s in our 0xford studio. let‘s start off with you. labour talk about renationalisation according to this draft which has not been confirmed, but do you think it‘s a good idea? not been confirmed, but do you think it's a good idea? an absolutely fantastic idea and it‘s great it‘s on the table. passengers on the public are sick of privatised railway and the fact is it doesn‘t have to be this way. we don‘t have to have ever spiralling fairs,

packed carriages, and we could bring each rail franchise into packed carriages, and we could bring each railfranchise into public ownership instead of renewing it with private companies again and again and that‘s a perfectly good proposal. what do you say to that? the argument is i suppose, yes, privatisation works in some industries but when it comes to the railways, it hasn‘t worked and been a bit ofa railways, it hasn‘t worked and been a bit of a disaster. that would be the argument and this is one of the less radical propositions in the manifesto. it was in the last one similarly. the reason why i don't think it's a good idea is that what we saw under nationalisation the first time we did it was a steady fall in passenger numbers to about half of what they were just before nationalisation and, since denationalisation, sending it to the private sector, in the last 21 years, passenger numbers have doubled. that's not just years, passenger numbers have doubled. that's notjust because a privatisation but there is

definitely something to do with being able to invest when it's a private company against when it on the public bar and sheet. they simply were not able, over 50 years, 40 years, to do the kinds of investment that was necessary to make it successful. for all its problems, we have one of the highest usage ever on record and also we have quite low subsidy relative to other european countries. huge numbers of people using the railways, and the argument is that down to privatisation and if you renationalise, those numbers might fall away again. not at all. i'm not sure why the other side honours kids harking back to the past because all we need to do was look backjust a few years at east coast line which was run in public ownership when the private company messed up, from 2009-14, the private company messed up, from 2009—14, the most efficient franchise in the network and it returned £1 billion to the treasury so we have a recent example of

public ownership working well. british rail was under invested in, so we can do much better but there‘s lots of factors which mean people use the railways. there really is not competition on the railways and we need to stop attending there‘s a market there isn‘t. we need to stop attending there‘s a market there isn't. let me put that point to ben southwood. it is about to bea point to ben southwood. it is about to be a competitive industry but is it real? she makes a very good point and isa it real? she makes a very good point and is a lot we could do to improve the railways. it wouldn't be the worst thing ever, her solutions, but the historical record is clear. i do think there are many productive things we could do to move forward, so for example, japan has the best railways in the world, completely privatised of course, but are owned by the same company, and have a long—term incentive to invest in the network, build new lines. in tokyo they have a privatised metro and companies will build new lines when they think people needed and that's they think people needed and that's the kind of system we could use. in

the kind of system we could use. in the uk, we don't keep up with demand. the japanese railways are magnificent, and they are privately owned. yes, i think we need an integrated system, definitely. it‘s crazy our system is so fragmented. it should be alljoined up but we also need the profits which are going to shareholders and if we had a publicly owned railway we would save £1.2 billion every single year and that money could be ploughed back into the railway and reinvested in better services and i think when you are looking around the world for different examples, you can come up with lots of things. we see lots of state—owned companies from other european countries are running our ra i lwa ys european countries are running our railways right now and that doesn‘t make sense. one point is foreign countries have a big stake in one of our prime assets, the railways, and we could save more than a billion a year i‘ll be nationalising. we could save more than a billion a year i'll be nationalising. when you state capital you get the term is

also railways don't have high returns relative to any other industry. if we just invested in the ftse 100, industry. if we just invested in the ftse100, we'd industry. if we just invested in the ftse100,we'd make an even bigger return for the government but we don't think the government should be taking stakes in things for the state of having a return. we can just tax their returns from private investors. that is how we fund things. we can't get magic free money. we have two get this and the railways are not special. why is it, renationalisation is that a bad idea, but so many passengers actually think it‘s a good idea. for example, if you look at something like southern rail, as a privatised company, their service has been a disaster, 20% of their trains arriving on time last year. i'm so glad you brought them up because they have been run by the department for transport and they just they have been run by the department for transport and theyjust kept the branding name and it's not a franchise any more like the other rail networks and i would say the

government's ms running of southern since 2015 balances out against east coast mainline fools you get some successes and failures. you think it‘s the department for transport‘s fault? they said the prices and pay the workers and don't take a profit. they pay an operating fee. london buses are run by tfl but art paid a fee. most people don't know this because the government deliberately uses their branding to deflect criticism of it but it's clearly run by the department for transport. last word to use. make that argument for nationalisation for anyone who missed it. southern rail is not in public ownership. it should be. these are our trains, our taxes we pay, alan fairs, and at the moment we have a crazy system which is fragmented where lots of our money goes to shareholders instead of being reinvested in an excellent railway network. we need good

railway network. we need good railway for the future and we need to look at the seriously. very good airing of the arguments on both sides. thank you very much indeed for joining sides. thank you very much indeed forjoining us. sides. thank you very much indeed for joining us. thank sides. thank you very much indeed forjoining us. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you so much for your time. the former labour prime minister, gordon brown, has made a rallying call for labour supporters not to abandon the party. speaking in the west midlands he told labour supporters the prime minister had called the election on a single issue because she said wanted to strengthen her hand with europe. 0ur political correspondent layla nathoo was watching the speech. shejoins us now. she joins us now. gordon brown did come to coventry university, the building behind me, the engineering department to deliver a speech in front of a model of a fighterjet. this was an intervention by gordon brown in the election campaign and he came here to talk about the dangers of the conservative approach to brexit and he kept his speech

reference very locally, talking about the importance of getting the best dealfor about the importance of getting the best deal for the about the importance of getting the best dealfor the car about the importance of getting the best deal for the car industry, something important in coventry and the manufacturing sector and he said theresa may was asking for a free pass from voters in this brexit negotiation because she‘s not revealed exactly what she stands for. here is the flavour of what he had to say. she wants us to write hera blank had to say. she wants us to write her a blank cheque, had to say. she wants us to write hera blank cheque, she had to say. she wants us to write her a blank cheque, she wants us to do exactly what you once. now, nobody in this city can afford to give the prime minister a blank cheque when the jobs of car workers, the future of manufacturing, the prospects of young people are a central issue in this election and they must be addressed. now gordon brown talked a lot about the individual labour candidates in this area. very interestingly, he did not

make any mention ofjeremy corbyn or a mention of a future labour government. he wants to focus on talk about individual labour mps acting as champions, he said, for the car industry, for social justice. he was saying the tone was very much talking about individual mps and appealing to labour members and labour party supporters that they needed labour mps in parliament standing upfor they needed labour mps in parliament standing up for them. he talked about as the record of the past labour government, things like achievements are protecting the nhs, keeping pensioners out of poverty, reducing child poverty but, interestingly, no mention of a future labour government orjeremy corbyn as a future prime minister. this audience was made up of invited labour party members as well as stu d e nts labour party members as well as students and staff from coventry university. before gordon brown made his speech, i had a conversation with a few labour party members. very good news. i believe the whole

shebang should be nationalised. back to nationalisation. just the general ethos of making it a better place to live. for more people. ithink ethos of making it a better place to live. for more people. i think that is principally at, and penning politicians down £2, shillings and penceis politicians down £2, shillings and pence is never going to be easy and never possible for them to give answers. i think he's a different kind of leader and what you see is what you get and he‘s acquired gentleman. i think people got used to posturing politics and find hard to posturing politics and find hard to a cce pt to posturing politics and find hard to accept someone quiet and who does not retaliate in a nasty way. plenty of support for jeremy not retaliate in a nasty way. plenty of support forjeremy corbyn amongst labour members who were gathered here. gordon brown incidentally of course you'd expect on a day like today, i've tried to ask about his views on the manifesto bleak and what we have seen so far from the

d raft what we have seen so far from the draft and he did not want to comment on that but this is a very crucial area for labour, this part of the country. area for labour, this part of the cou ntry. cove ntry area for labour, this part of the country. coventry had three labour mps, two defending slim majorities. in the local elections last week and the mayoral elections, the west midlands mayor actually was elected conservative so labour will be very concerned and they have to defend their seats in this part of the intervention, trying to validate local troops and deliver a national message on brexit. thank you. in a moment the business news at first the headlines on bbc news. senior labour and trade union figures me to finalise the party ‘s election manifesto after extensive details in a draft version were leaked. the bank of england sounds a note of caution about the economy as growth forecasts are downgraded because the governor says household

spending is slowing. there has been a record fine for the company which made 100 million cold calls encouraging people to make insurance claims. there‘s been a warning from the bank of england about inflation. it says the impact of the fall in the pound after the brexit vote is already starting to force prices up. it also said that growth in wages was weak. this came as it kept interest rates on hold once again. bt is cutting 4,000 jobs over the next couple of years. most of those are going to come from back office staff and managers. the boss isn‘t escaping unscathed. he‘s losing his bonus after an accounting scandal at its italian business. profits dropped almost a half to £440 million in the last quarter. it looks as if the housing market is still cooling off. the body representing chartered

surveryors — that‘s the rics — says its members are expecting a flat summer after sales and new instructions fell last month. it‘s blaming uncertainty over the general election. there‘s no fancy filter for snapchat‘s results. the company lost $2.2 billion in the first three months of the year. that‘s much more than it lost this time last year. growth in users also fell. growth in users also fell. the share price fell by almost a quarter in after hours trade. a big tech firm showing popularity does not mean profitability. yes, absolutely. what‘s interesting is that the markets opened 20 minutes ago and we saw after hours trading, snapchat got hammered but it is

trading higher this morning, snapchat got hammered but it is trading higherthis morning, $18, andi trading higherthis morning, $18, and i was speaking to a few traders on the floor of the exchange and they were saying to me we are now having recommendations by banks to purchase shares of snap. the thinking is it at a lower share price and there‘s some potential so there‘s recommendations to actually buy the stock. so pick up a bargain. what would do about boosting users? in the defence of snap when they filed for their ipo, they said it was going to be a bumpy ride and we‘re not going to see smooth sailing into record profitability. that said, investors were expecting something much different. they were expecting much better numbers than we saw on wednesday but they were also... there‘s an underlying expectation this could be the next facebook. is really difficult to be.

snap isa facebook. is really difficult to be. snap is a small newcomer to the game and facebook is an absolute giant in the world of social media, especially when you look at their earnings, just two weeks ago. a 50% growth in terms of advertising revenue. that is just huge. growth in terms of advertising revenue. that isjust huge. how will they be able to keep up with the competition from the likes of facebook? that is the question a lot of investors have and even on the earnings call, we heard someone ask the executives what new products do you have coming down the pipe line? and there really wasn‘t much. that isa and there really wasn‘t much. that is a little bit of cause for concern, but what snap says is, we might not have the kind of advertising and users that facebook does but who we have art engaged and

spend more time on our site than facebook users do and they hope to turn that into more profit. so it ain‘t over yet. thanks very much. in other news. it‘s a set back for uber. a senior member of european union‘s top court has said the transport firm requires a licence to operate. the company had argued it only provided technology to help drivers find passengers but if the ruling is enforced across europe, it might mean uber has to operate under the same conditions and safety rules as established taxi firms. plans by labour and the conservatives to increase the minimum wage could costjobs. that‘s according to the institute for fiscal studies. both parties plan to raise the wage if they are elected. but the thinktank says higher wages would hit employment. the biggest airline in the middle east — emirates — has reported its first fall in annual profits for five years. and it‘s quite a fall — 82%. it says concerns over terror attacks, changes to us immigration laws and the brexit vote

have all hit demand. flat trade around most of europe. here in london it‘s all about economics. markets have been digesting the news that the bank of england expects inflation to grow more quickly than expected. the forecast that interest rates might eventually be going up more quickly than previously thought. in the us we‘re expecting shares in the company behind snapchat to come under pressure again after news of the big loss it suffered in the first quarter. rebecca. see later. lets see what the weather is doing for the next two or three days over the weekend. it's it‘s looking pretty good across the northern half of the country this afternoon but further south, we have got increasing cloud, showers breaking out. low—pressure is

destabilising the atmosphere and sending some humid air to us from the near continent. we‘ve had clouds developing over the last few hours. you can see the sunshine developing with showers and thunderstorms. similarto with showers and thunderstorms. similar to the west country towards somerset, rumbles of thunder and lightning in bridgwater and are developing across the m4 corridor with torrential rain likely. this is the picture through the afternoon. thunderstorms pushing into south wales, the cardiff area seeing some thunderstorms in the next hour or so. not quite as thundering in the south—east. warm and humid despite the lack of sunshine. low 20s. warmerfor northern the lack of sunshine. low 20s. warmer for northern england the lack of sunshine. low 20s. warmerfor northern england and the lack of sunshine. low 20s. warmer for northern england and the north—west vertically but in northern ireland and the north of scotland, dry with sunshine continuing away from the north and east where it will be cloudy with a chilly breeze, especially for the east coast of scotland. those thunderstorms will move northwards

during this evening, tending to fizzle out in their intensity. some rain getting into northern ireland overnight. again, there could be some heavy bursts mixed and because it‘s going to be a humid night. a little bit cooler further north. then, into friday, cloudy picture for most places. more sunshine for northern and western scotland but further south it will be showery and there could be thundery downpours mixed in for england and wales, particularly through central areas, as temperatures will lift close to 20 degrees in places and it will still be quite humid. the weekend is looking quite mixed. quite a few showers around. sunny spells in between and then we will have a fresher feel as we head towards sunday because the south—westerly wind will push away that humidity. saturday, will be fairly humid in the south—east. the driest and brightest of the weather, fewer showers, and quite warm and most

showers, and quite warm and most showers further north and west but sunshine in between. the weather front spreading into the east on saturday night introducing fresh air. you will notice the fresher feel, but will be nice in the sunshine and some useful showers around because the gardens need the rain so we‘re looking forward to more rain. this is bbc news. i‘m ben brown. the headlines at 3pm. labour‘s draft manifesto is leaked — it contains plans to renationalise the railways and scrap university tuition fees. this is an extremely modern, progressive, progressive set of proposals and it‘s looking to the long term future and most people are extremely excited at what they‘ve seen. a note of caution about the economy — the bank of england governor says 2017 is likely to be the low point for wage growth.

this is going to be a more challenging time for british households over the course of this year. wages won‘t keep up with prices for the goods and services they consume. waiting times for key nhs services in england were the worst in five years in the latest financial year, according to new analysis.