this is bbc news. the headlines at 6: the leader of of kensington and chelsea borough council —— its. to say that the local authority is not present and that we're not working together with other councils is inaccurate. the mayor of london sadiq khan says the council's effo rts sadiq khan says the council's efforts have not been felt on the ground. i spent this morning at a church service speaking to many residents, many families of the bereaved, many survivors and their experience is a million miles away from the experience of the leader of the council. the chancellor, philip hammond, says

leaving the european union without a deal would be a "very, very bad outcome" for britain. portugal declares three days of mourning as the emergency services battle to contain a forest fire which has killed more than sixty people. france killed more than sixty people. fra nce votes killed more than sixty people. france votes in the final round of parliamentary elections. turnout is down. president macron‘s new party heading for a big majority. commentator: that has gone up in the air, he takes the catch, it is all over, pakistan win! studio: pakistan have won the champions trophy after comprehensively beating their great rivals india at the oval in london. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the leader of kensington and chelsea council has told the bbc his officials are working round the clock following the grenfell tower fire. there's been criticism of the local authority which has been accused that it isn't doing enough to help those affected. many residents have said they've received little or no assistance, although the authority has insisted it's committed to supporting anyone affected. church services have been held today to remember the victims of the blaze, as simon jones reports. voiceover: after the shock

and the grief, today, a moment of reflection, church services to mark the lives lost and the many missing presumed dead. but the anger remains palpable. the difficulty is people are now finding out who has died and that will be enormous grief as well as enormous anger. i think you will see a whole different kind of atmosphere because people... the deaths are now real. many churches opened their doors in the hours after the tragedy, offering shelter and collecting donations, but people are asking, "why did they need to step in? where was the government, the local council? why didn't they do more?" one conservative councillor from kensington and chelsea admits things have gone badly wrong. from what i can see, we have been caught off—guard. on the ground, people were quick to organise themselves.

it has been kind of a disgraceful slow, limp, if i can put it like that. the prime minister accepts that in the hours after the disaster, the support for families was not good enough. now extra government staff are being drafted in to work with the council. it follows a meeting between the local people and theresa may in which they were keen to have their voices heard. things are finally moving forward and the government and the council are being proactive. i think sadly it took a long time to get them up and running and if it wasn't for other centres, none of this would have been done. we are lucky we have so many bright, important, smart people in the area. the home office is making arrangements for the family of one of those who died, mohammad alhajali, to travel from syria to the uk for his funeral. he was killed when he was separated from his brother. his life, one of many remembered today. i think there will be a special sense of grieving, sadness, in the churches today,

as people remember what has happened and people are still homeless as well, but i think also there will be a note of hope. the painstaking investigation is continuing, but the warning from police is there will be no quick answers. studio: the leader of kensington and chelsea borough council has been defending the way his local authority has handled the grenfell tower tragedy. councillor nick paget—brown told me there was now "an effective, coordinated relief effort on the ground" but admitted that wasn't initially the case in the aftermath of the fire. we were quite aware that this was a huge enormity. by the time i got there just after 3:30am on wednesday it was clear that no one local authority in london would be able to cope with the enormous challenges facing a huge number of displaced residents. we have spoken to the department for communities and local government and that help as been offered,

there has been a gold structure team working on the needs people have and those needs change. as time goes by, people need different kinds of support. i have been out this morning at the westway sports centre, i am told the council is never in evidence, that was not my perception this morning. why is that the perception of residents? it has been a completely traumatic week and i do understand that. it does take time in any situation to get emergency lines, contact points up and running and there is a huge community sector doing wonderful work at the moment, but we need to bring that together and we need to think long—term about the people affected, particularly their housing needs. one of the things the prime minister was proposing was there should be people in high visibility so people could see who they are and we see

today that there were some people visibly from the local authorities close to the methodist church. had you held back from doing that perhaps because of the concern that your staff may become a target if they advertise their presence? no. council officers have been on the site, we had three emergency services set up on wednesday morning which were providing... why did people think that was not the case? possibly because officials are not identifiable. what i want is experts on the ground, people who can help traumatised residents, traumatised children, people who have lost relatives and whether they are wearing a high visibilityjacket, from a community group is not important. officials have been working around the clock and i have come on air to support the work

they have been doing. i am sure there are challenges, but to say the local authority is not present and not working together with others is inaccurate. you heard the interviewjust before we spoke to you, concerns about the role of the tenant management organisation, the tmo. people understand this is a kind of, kensington and chelsea handing over responsibility, but obviously still has residual responsibility for the welfare of its residents. do you think the tmo has behaved in the correct way and do you understand calls for people to step aside from it? i understand the enormous concerns and anger about the events

leading up to this fire. i share that anger, the council is wanting to know why that fire started, why it spread so quickly. my immediate concern is to ensure the right support services for some very vulnerable people are on the ground. i have been there to check they are, but this is a long—term requirement. the operation of the tmo, the way blocks are refurbished, and managed, those are proper questions but they are not questions for this afternoon, they are for the enquiry. this has been an awful tragedy for kensington and chelsea and its residents but it raises a number of issues about towers and the way housing has been designed over the last 50 or 60 years. nick paget—brown, leader of

kensington and borough council. in the last few moments, downing street has outlined a statement —— released a statement outlining how the emergency fund will be distributed. every household whose house has been destroyed will receive a guaranteed £5,500, £500 in cash, £5,000 in addition will be delivered by the department for work and pensions into bank accounts, or other arrangements will be made for those who do not have bank accounts, a single payment into a bank account oi’ a single payment into a bank account or some other method. —— number ten has just released a statement outlining how the five million pound emergency fund will be distributed. people need the £500 now, they can get the council from —— they can get the payment from the westway sports centre, which is where the council is working basically full—time. some

criticism, not least from the mayor of london, that lots of people cannot get to the west west into. those that cannot will be able to access the £500 cash payment from tomorrow at the post office on portobello road. additional funds will be made available to people for funeral will be made available to people for fu neral costs will be made available to people for funeral costs and top—up payments for those who have complex or additional needs. £5,500 minimum for eve ryo ne additional needs. £5,500 minimum for everyone whose home has been destroyed. the government also says it is providing support through what is called the bellwin scheme, a government scheme to help where it is not possible for local authorities to have sufficient insurance, they would not necessarily be covered by insurance cover. i guarantee of funding for temporary accommodation for those whose homes have been destroyed or damaged, and funding for legal representative so that residents have themselves represented at the

forthcoming public enquiry. £i.5 billion, in addition, to pay for mental health support through the mind charity lowlight programme. . mind charity. —— mind charity. earlier i spoke to the mayor of london, sadiq khan. i asked him if he accepted councillor nick paget—brown‘s assertion that there have been people from the local authority on the ground helping in the emergency effort in west london. i spent this morning at a church service speaking to many residents, many families of the bereaved, many survivors and their experience is a million miles away from the experience of the leader of the council. it is clear to me, and i have spoken to many residents, that there has been a vacuum. the council has failed to go to residents, failed to do the outreach work and has assumed that grieving families, that neighbouring residents will travel to the westway sports centre to receive the help. i have been to the sports centre, there is fantastic facilities being offered there,

victim support, family liaison officers, british red cross, charities, but it is not acceptable to assume that grieving families, people who are struggling to cope are able to find where that help is and that is why yesterday, at the task force meeting that the prime minister chaired, i said it was crucial that we have staff in the community wearing high visibility tops going out to find those who need the help. i am pleased my views were taken aboard yesterday. i accept it is three days too late, in the meantime, people have suffered. we now have to make sure every single resident, every family, every person who needs help is gone to to be offered that help

rather than assuming they will go to the council. the chancellor, philip hammond, speaking on the andrew marr show, said fire experts say it is not always necessary to retrofit sprinklers. what is your view on that? i look at the evidence: there was a fire in 2009, there was a coroner's inquest in 2013 and a prosecution against southwark council, and recommendations were made to firstly make sure there are sprinklers retrofitted in those tower blocks which are at risk. secondly, to make sure that the regulations are reviewed in relation to the cladding, and thirdly, to make sure tenants and residents have the right advice, to make sure that they know what to do if, god forbid, there is a fire. all we know so far from speaking to the survivors of grenfell tower is it appears those lessons were not learned and those recommendations were not followed. it is crucial there is a transparent enquiry, we need to make sure residents have legal representation, we need to make sure the terms of reference

are as wide as possible. we cannot afford to wait years. there must be an interim report published this summer and it is crucial in the meantime those who live in tower blocks across the country are told whether the block has been checked, whether it is safe, whether any changes will be made to make them safe as soon as possible. earlier our correspondent mark lobel asked fire emergency planning expert, stephen mackenzie, about how the national relief efforts had

compared to the local one. i think what we have seen is, the local community has taken up a lot of the capacity, to the point that local aid stations are now overwhelmed and have stopped taking in clothing and foodstuffs. there are other ways for the community to help. the deployment of the british red cross, with local agency teams, we have not seen massive coverage within the local authority provisions, that is quite surprised. because of the stash of revisions under the civil contingencies act, every local authority must have contingency plans, and emergency response plans. —— because of the statute of revisions under the civil contingencies act, every local authority must have contingency plans, and emergency response plans. what i think is, there is some lessons to be learned here, and for us to develop from this tragic incident and how we approach these natural disasters. very good responses from the tri— emergency services, there may be a gap between that and the softer rehousing of the families. the pastoral care of them, and the persons

coming down to the site. especially in this very hot weather. i think i'm going to take this back to the planning site, in london, and speak with local authorities and central government and try to make professional recommendations. this was an extraordinary disaster on an epic scale, what plan could a local borough have had? under the civil contingencies act, the local planners must consider all eventualities. we have seen, with a large canadian forest fire, a whole town had to be evacuated, we are now starting to see movement from the cabinet office to the development of the city resilience british standard, to allow us to deal with that. unfortunately, that will not be published until after the event. it should being deluded in any subsequent public enquiry, not only the fire incident, and the tragic lead up to the five that allergies, within the fire, but also the softer response. —— it should be included. and how we can improve on that. —— and the tragic lead up to fire fatalities.

you said something interesting earlier, the community services were overwhelmed, to what extent? we have seena overwhelmed, to what extent? we have seen a massive build—up in food stocks, in clothing, and community centres are saying, please do not bring any more down, we cannot take any more. i will probably suggest that if you want to do a donation, there is a number of charitable sites if you want to contribute. local aid stations appear to be overwhelmed and perhaps there should bea overwhelmed and perhaps there should be a contact from someone like the british red cross, that can mobilise all the local authority, or central government, to look at how we can have a fourth public service to manage these kind of disasters. your work is about looking ahead, one thing that may come out of this, that may be more positive than what we are experiencing now, is avoidance of this happening in future tower blocks, what are the key lessons to be learned? the key lessons are very well documented, we have had a number of similarfires.

there was actually a public enquiry to the house of commons in 2005, following the 1999 tower block fire in scotland, which said, although we think the buildings are safe, we should make them safer for there is a multiple or significant fire loss to ensure risks are reduced to. expert opinion on the grenfell tower fire. the chancellor has been speaking about the forthcoming brexit negotiations. he's insisted the government wants a seamless brexit so the uk can leave the eu and the customs union without what he called "cliff edges". the prime minister, theresa may, has always said that no deal is better than a bad deal with brussels. he also said he wanted to see a brexit which supports jobs and investment.

when i talk about a brexit that supports britishjobs, british investment, british business, i mean a brexit that avoids cliff edges, that ensures we segue seamlessly to a new arrangement in the future that will continue to allow british goods to flow notjust without tariffs, it is without delays and bureaucracy. it is the delay and bureaucracy interfering with supply chains, with the flow of fresh produce. we have to make sure our border continues to work seamlessly and that is the number one challenge for business. the shadow brexit secretary, labour's sir keir starmer, says membership of the customs union should be one of the options considered

by the government's negotiating team. sir keir criticised the prime minister for leading the uk into the worst possible situation ahead of brexit talks. i think the prime minister has got us into a complete mess. she has got no mandate here and she has no authority abroad and the negotiations start tomorrow. things have to change. her approach so far has alienated our allies in europe, it has weakened our position in the eu and got us to the worst possible starting position. well our political correspondent susana mendonca has been following today's political developments and earlier i asked her what this meant for the brexit secretrary david davis, as he heads off to meet eu negotiators. i think what it shows is that the government is not singing from the same hymn sheet. we have had theresa may has say time and again that no deal is better than a bad deal. now the chancellor, philip hammond, says that no deal would be a very bad outcome.

he is clearly of a different opinion, he says there needs to be a transitional structure, a slope rather than a cliff edge as we have heard a lot about. philip hammond is someone who had the election gone the other way, he might not still be the chancellor of the exchequer. but he is still in the cabinet, and effectively become somewhat emboldened, during that election campaign, we did not see much of philip hammond on the campaign trail. today we have discovered he was not happy about being sidelined and he felt that actually, if the election campaign had focused more on the economy and the positives around the economy, perhaps the conservatives would have had a better result. the labour party, keir starmer, have been talking about these brexit negotiations that will start tomorrow. he says that theresa may has got the country into a complete mess and those negotiations will be starting on the back foot. studio: portugal has declared three

days of mourning as the emergency services battle to contain a forest fire which has killed more than 60 people. the blaze has spread through the centre of the country, during an intense heatwave. around half of those who died were trapped in their cars. those who died were trapped in their ca rs. let's those who died were trapped in their cars. let's speak to robbie currie, who's travelling in portugal and is now in the town of figueiros dos vinhos, which is only about 20 minutes away from where the fires are raging. this is obviously been a very frightening experience. can you give us some frightening experience. can you give us some idea of what happened? i was soaking up the sun at the beach, sirens went off, to indicate a forest fire, and very quickly, that... people lost control. there was a whole expectation that this was a whole expectation that this was a whole expectation that this was a very normal, ordinary forest fire. the wind was amazing, the fire

took off, very fast. fortunately a friend of mine came to pick me up and we managed to turn left, rather than right, we subsequently discovered that right was right in front of the fire. we kept the fire as much as we could behind us. which presumably wasn't easy, because of the wind? it wasjust extraordinary, i have never felt the wind? it wasjust extraordinary, i have neverfelt anything like it. the heat, the wind, drawing the air, just extraordinary. we can see, obviously, in the distance, the flames, and... they are even here, all of last night, because i think there was one, probably one or two fires, pretty much the entire town

was surrounded. sort of an orange glow around the town last night, the electricity went out. quite scary. you are obviously a visitor, what impact has it had on the locals, they are used to forest fires, or at least they are not an unusual occurrence, how different was this one, are they telling you? this is outside of most memory. the worst kind of disaster since the early 19605. kind of disaster since the early 1960s. to be honest, i think that most people, when we first started off, they thought it was fine, this is run—of—the—mill, but very quickly, very quickly it escalated to beyond people's experience. last night, when we were looking at traffic, traffic was a nightmare, people having accidents, accidents where people have been rushing to their land, lots of people have lost their land, lots of people have lost their homes. quite devastating.

must‘ve been a huge challenge for the fire service, in particular? well versed and well—trained. so fast, so rapid... i think that from what i understand, many of them move very quickly. we were dealing with five or six. certainly, around the town, we have looked at various bits, getting anxious, how do we potentially, if we need to get out of the town, where do we go? i think they have been absolutely amazing but and out of the overwhelmed. as has everybody. and give very much for talking to us. no worries. —— thank you very much for talking to us. thank you very much for talking to us. you have obviously had a very

scary time, but i hope the rest of your time scary time, but i hope the rest of yourtime in scary time, but i hope the rest of your time in portugal is a lot more peaceful. yes, me too, thank you very much. france is voting in the second and final round of the country's parliamentary elections today. president emmanuel macron's new centrist party is expected to win a big majority. turnout is reported to be low compared with the last parliamentary election in 2012. let's get more now from our paris correspondent hugh schofield. yes, forget brenda from bristol, how about berenice from bordeaux(!) laughter. there is real fatigue here in france at elections. two rounds of presidential, second round of legislative, and every time, turnout falls, particularly when there is an election just after the presidential, people feel the big vote was the presidential and therefore there is a kind of inevitability surrounding the election of people supporting emmanuel macron, other people —— people who would usually be opposed to him, people from the working class who voted maybe far right or far left who have not bothered, plus a sense that, among many voters, we voted him in, let's give the tools to do the job.

all that works in his favour. the low turnout does mean his opponents will be able to say, hang on a sec, there was no great enthusiasm behind the vote, therefore it is slightly delegitimised, i suspect we will hear a lot about in the coming weeks and months. this is democracy, it is the way that this democracy works, i don't think it is an argument that holds up. he ran for the presidency, won it, ran for this, almost certain to win a big majority for his party. his mandate is ready to start, the auspices could not be better for the reforms he wanted to put in place. pakistan have thrashed india,

beating them at the champions cup, must have been a hot afternoon at the oval there. temperatures above 32 degrees, for some escape, head to the coast, beautiful day in east yorkshire, sea breezes developing across the coastline, one other exception to the hot theme, the far north—west of the hot theme, the far north—west of the country, more cloud, outbreaks of rain, weather front that has been sitting in the same place forjust about the whole we can. further south, heading out this sunday

evening, looking fine and the most part. yes, small chance of a heavy shower across east anglia. south midlands, it is only a small chance, vast majority staying dry. template is holding up into the mid—20s far into the evening, cooler across northern england. —— temperatures. south west scotland could see low cloud. bit of sunshine to end the day, northern scotland played by the weather front, bringing day, northern scotland played by the weatherfront, bringing pulses of wet weather through the night. the rainmaker and heavier, but for the vast majority, dry night, clear spells, certainly in the big town and city centres, temperatures getting no lower than 18, 19 degrees. a little bit muddy to start monday morning to say the least. tomorrow, more the same, also parts of northern ireland, seeing sunshine, weather front still bringing some patchy rain across northern scotland. it will be cooler in the north, in the south, 31, 32,

maybe 33. that could fall on the old lady state thunderstorm across central part of the country. monday night, the weather front will begin to move, fresh air, however, hot air is still holds onto south, it is the hotair is still holds onto south, it is the hot air that will be in place across south wales and southern england. lots of sunshine again, close to 30 degrees. to the north, cooler and fresh air. some afternoon showers. into wednesday, bit of a change, showery rain pushing across, some of it on the heavy side. dry weather, warmth towards the south, still, cooler and fresher, but towards the north—east. thursday could be a particularly hot day, 29, 30, maybe a little higher than that, further north it will be cooler and fresher and eventually fresher conditions which will reach all of us by the time that we get to next weekend.