this is bbc news, i'm ben brown. the headlines at 23:00. one of the biggest election debates of this campaign taken place in cambridge, with politicians clashing over brexit, immigration, security and austerity. amber rudd seems so confident that this is a country at ease with itself. have you been to a food bank? have you seen people sleeping around our stations? ijust have to take on some of jeremy corbyn's fantasy economics. i mean, he has this money tree wish list in his manifesto. meanwhile, the prime minister, campaigning in the west country today, defended her decision not to be in cambridge for tonight's debate. i think debates where the politicians are squabbling among themselves doesn't do anything for the process of electioneering. i think actually it is about getting out and about, meeting voters and hearing directly from voters.

and in other news... jailed for 15 years — the breast surgeon who carried out a series of unnecessary operations at hospitals in the west midlands. and coming up on newsnight — fresh from the election debate spin room, brexit secretary david davis and shadow foreign secretary emily thornberry. and fashion campaigning in fife, snp leader nicola sturgeon. —— fresh from campaigning. good evening and welcome to bbc news. with just eight days to go until the election, one of the biggest debates of this campaign has just taken place in cambridge. there were seven party representatives involved, including labour leader jeremy corbyn, who'd announced earlier in the day that he would, after all, be attending. the prime minister theresa may

did not take part. she said she'd rather be out meeting voters on the campaign trail. here's our deputy political editor, john pienaar. guess who came after all — and what an entrance. jeremy corbyn left it late, but how could he resist trying to show up theresa may, who stayed away? this was his chance — and look at him. he meant to take it if he could. she came to stop him. her leader's favoured, amber rudd. a single mission — take down jeremy corbyn. wherever theresa may was, she wanted this, the nearest thing this election has to a contact sport, to go her way. amber rudd was straight into the attack after mr corbyn criticised treatment of those on disability benefits. you're not credible!

jeremy, jeremy, i know there this no extra payment you don't want to add to. no tax you don't want to rise. but the fact is we have to concentrate our resources on the people who need it most, and we have to stop thinking, as you do, that there is a magic money tree. you have to be accountable. i'd like to bring in some of the other parties... it has already a personal confrontation. the labour leader counterattacking on poverty. i would just say this — since amber rudd seem so confident that this is a country at ease with itself, have you have you been to a food bank? have you seen people sleeping around our stations? applause have you seen the level... jeremy... have you seen the level... i'd like to answer your attack. because of your government's conscious... of course, i have been to food banks. for amber to say that this is a government that actually cares for those most vulnerable i think is downright insulting to the people of my constituency surgery.

in this seven—sided debate, brexit was inevitably a big issue tonight. passion and heat from all sides. we have to get the population under control. because if we carry on on the road we're on, we'll have a population of 80 million by the middle of this century. now, you just think what will happen. there'll have to be a huge school building programme. there'll have to be new hospitals, new motorways, a new rail network. new houses. we're already having to build a house every seven minutes simply to keep up the numbers of people coming to this country. i'm afraid that ukip keep using this issue. they want to whip up people's hatred, division and fear. and that's why they talk about it all the time. i think this debate shames and demeans us all. i don't think there's anyone in this room or anybody watching this debate, from cornwall to caithness, who does not understand the positive contribution that people have made to this land, who've come from the rest of europe and the rest of the world. and demonising those people

is totally unacceptable. amber rudd took her opportunity. if theresa may had come along, she'd have said what her stand—in said next. i was thinking how chaotic it would be if they all got together, formed a coalition and tried to run a government. a tory ukip coalition! jeremy corbyn was put under pressure. he'd come to apply pressure of his own on pensions. are you going to protect the triple lock? jeremy, have you not read my manifesto? i'm happy to give you a copy after. i'd love to have one. but i'd rather you answer now. are you going to protect the triple lock? it's not about the triple lock. terrorism was always going to be a hot topic, and it was. i am shocked thatjeremy corbyn, just in 2011, boasted that he had opposed every piece of anti—terror legislation in his 30 years in office. my opposition to anti—terror legislation isn't opposition to protecting us from terrorism. it's simply saying there must be judicial oversight over what is done in our name.

there is, there is! it got heated. ukip‘s leader demanded more action against extremists from muslims. too much for tim farron. we have to... paul... we have to... you know, paul, that the murderer last monday was reported on five separate occasions by the muslim community. they want safety as much as anybody else. then it was over. no knockout blows, but this fight is heating up with just one week to go. 0ur political editor, laura kuenssberg, has been gauging reaction to the party leaders' performance from the spin room in cambridge. i spoke to some of the audience here tonight after the end of the debate, including some tory voters.

a couple of them were clearly very frustrated that theresa may hadn't bothered to show. and in reverse very pleased that jeremy corbyn had made the effort to turn up and debate the other parties here tonight. i think it's pretty clear that in terms of today at least jeremy corbyn has had a tactical win. he's been seen to seize the initiative and come along and take part. i think it's too early to say how that's going to play out with the wider electorate, people who weren't following every twist and turn of tonight's debate. those people who had necessarily paid much attention to what the line—up was going to be, who the political players were all going to be at this big, major event. and in the spin room tonight where members of the press were watching and senior politicians were trying to claim victory for their person, it hasn't felt really like a wake of a celebration for any of them. i think the truth of it is really none of the seven politicians on stage tonight had a cringeworthy disaster. nor did any of them, including jeremy corbyn, have some kind of big breakthrough moment that really feels like it will have a huge impact on the course of this campaign. some breaking news coming into us

right now and we are hearing that a dangerous prisoner who escaped from a hospital in wiltshire yesterday has now been recaptured. this was the prison that he escaped from, he is 30 years old and gave his guard at salisbury district hospital we slept at around seven o'clock yesterday while he was waiting for treatment for an injury. he had been held at a prison near devizes, a category c macro prison. he was jailed last year for subjecting a mother and her teenage daughter to a terrifying eight hour ordeal. he kept them prisoner in their home, ta ke kept them prisoner in their home, take the daughter to a chair and

threaten to kill them. he had escaped wiltshire police, who was saying that they had a call from a member of the public suspecting that they had seen a wanted man. when he was arrested safely. there were no injuries sustained. he is now in custody and will be returned to prison in due course. a breast surgeon is beginning a 15—year sentence in prison tonight for carrying out needless and life—changing operations on nine women and one man. ian paterson, who's 59, exaggerated the risk of cancer to persuade his patients to consent to surgery. although the case related to ten patients, it's thought many more could have been affected. our health editor, hugh pym, reports. a rogue surgeon who thought he was untouchable. he had the total trust of vulnerable patients, but he maimed and mutilated them. now ian paterson is behind bars. he caused me to have 23 operations. some of his victims who suffered from the operations he carried out gathered before the sentencing this morning. then they marched together into nottingham crown court determined

to seejustice being done. many warned of a cancer risk had breast surgery which proved to be unnecessary. they sat in court watching ian paterson, head bowed in the dock. sentencing him, mrjustice jeremy bakersaid, in pursuit of your own self aggrandising and, and the material rewards it brought from your private practice, you lost sight of the fact you were carrying out significant surgical procedures upon your patients. you deliberately played upon their worst fears. either by inventing or deliberately exaggerating the risks that they would develop cancer. the court also heard that his former patients endured pain and discomfort, with some suffering long—term complications, anxiety and depression. i lost my home, i lost my marriage. i lost my health. i lost myjob. i lost absolutely everything. he took everything away from me. we may never know the real reason why he acted in such an evil way. throughout the trial he has made

no attempt to show any remorse for his actions. and maybe revealing his true character rather than the charming professional manner we all thought he was. some questioned paterson's 15—year prison sentence. he should be released on licence after seven and a half years. we have all been given a life sentence. he is just going to walk away a free man after seven and a half years. yet every morning we look in the mirror and the scars are there to remind us. so i think at the least he should serve the 15 years he has been given. for the victims, the battle doesn't end here. their lawyers are preparing a high court civil action to be heard later this year. seeking damages from the hospitals and paterson himself. solicitors said they're acting for around 600 former patients but more may come forward and the total number of victims could be 1000 or even more. so could there be another paterson? the medical regulators say there are much tougher safeguards

now with regular staff appraisals and surgeons working in teams who can challenge them. the safety net we have now in place is a very different one that existed at that time. does it provide an absolute guarantee against people committing criminal acts? i cannot give you that absolute guarantee. but what i can say is that if people do perpetrate such criminal acts, i would feel very confident that those would be picked up very quickly indeed. but private hospitals where paterson and other surgeons work, are still not strictly regulated according to medical leaders. and even as he began his prison sentence, there have been calls for a wider enquiry into how patients were so badly let down. media reports in america say president trump is preparing to pull out of the paris climate deal to combat climate change. donald trump has not confirmed those reports, but he's tweeted that he'll will make an announcement in the next few days. pulling out of the climate accord, which was signed in 2015, was one of president trump's

key campaign pledges. now on bbc news, it's time for newsnight. the tories relaunch their campaign, this time with amber rudd, rather than theresa may. the question in this election is whether we want a country for the many, or just the few. ijust have to take on some of jeremy corbyn's fantasy economics. i mean come on he has this money tree wish list in his manifesto. meanwhile, as one pollster suggests there will be a hung parliament, labour refuses to tell us whether they will rule out a coalition with the snp. i'm not dealing with hypotheticals, i'm sorry. why not? it is a reasonable question. we are fighting this to win. also tonight... will he? we're going to cancel a paris climate agreement. no decision yet, but it looks like he will honour that election pledge.

and... the first of our new series of political bedtime stories. vince cable puts us to sleep... in a good way. there was a prince called david, and he ruled well. hello. well, we had the nearest thing to a full—spectrum tv election debate this evening. seven politicians, some of them candidates for prime minister, lined up in cambridge, with the conspicuous absence of the actual prime minister, theresa may. she was replaced by amber rudd, the home secretary, who did an effective job at looking prime ministerial. the debate had some sparky moments, and some recurrent themes and phrases. everybody on stage had their highlights, nick watt is at the venue. nick, how did it go? well, obviouslyjeremy corbyn's late decision to turn up at this debate put the spotlight on theresa may, who was a notable absentee.

and there were plenty ofjokes about how the prime minister called this election the most important in her lifetime and she could not be bothered to turn up. to which the conservative party says, thank you very much to those six parties, you are illustrating one of our key themes about this election, which is that ifjeremy corbyn emerges as the leader of the largest party onjune 9th, the uk will be governed by a coalition of chaos. what would i say about the overall verdict? there was no clear winner and there was no clear loser. jeremy corbyn did as he did in the channel a debate on sunday, he spoke from the heart on matters dear to him, food banks for example. amber rudd did what she did last year in the referendum debate, had some pre—packaged sound bites, one on the monopoly board that didn't quite work. but she stood up well against the six other parties