the government in pakistan has called on the army to send troops to the capital islamabad after battles between police and islamist demonstrators. several deaths have been reported and nearly 200 people injured. protesters are demanding the sacking of the law minister, whom they accuse of blasphemy. at least 31 migrants have died after their boat capsized off the coast of libya while trying to cross the mediterranean on saturday. children were among the dead. calm weather conditions in recent days has seen a rise in the number of people attempting to cross from libya to europe. airlines have been issued a warning amid fears that a volcano on the indonesian island of bali might erupt. the warning comes after after mt agung emitted a thick black plume of smoke more than 1500m high. at least 100,000 people have now left their homes for temporary shelter. now on bbc news, it's time for the week in parliament. hello and welcome to

the week in parliament, when the chancellor unveiled the contents of his budget box. i will assess if philip hammond has done enough to win over the doubters in his party. for the first time jeremy corbyn uses pmqs to challenge theresa may over brexit. the brexit secretary said he would guarantee free movement for bankers post—brexit. are there any other groups to whom the prime minister believes freedom of movement should apply? we have been absolutely clear. we will be introducing new immigration rules and we will take account of the needs of the british economy doing so. and calls on the government to do more to cut air pollution. we are affecting people who are disadvantaged with diseases

and putting them to increased risk. and we're affecting people who are living in disadvantaged communities to a greater extent. but first, the chancellor philip hammond took the traditional photo call outside number 11 on wednesday morning as he prepared to deliver his autumn budget. as is tradition, the chancellor was flanked by his junior ministers as he stepped into downing street and held aloft the budget box containing that all important speech. after smiles and photos, it was into the official car for the shortjourney to the commons to unveil his plans. so, what did he have to say, and how did it go down? political commentatorjames millar was watching for us. i now call the chancellor of the exchequer, the right honourable philip hammond. mr deputy speaker, i report today on an economy that continues to grow, continues to create more jobs than ever before, and continues to confound those who

seek to talk it down. it sometimes felt that the topsy—turvy politics of 2017 were alljust a set—up for philip hammond tojoke about in his second budget of the year. there was a reference to the prime minister's disastrous conference speech... i did take the precaution of asking my right honourable friend to bring a packet of cough sweets just in case. applause and laughter ..in announcing more money for maths, he made fun of his own dour reputation. more maths for everyone. mr speaker, don't let anyone say i don't know how to show our nation a good time. ..and he took on the westminster rumour that michael gove has been auditioning for hisjob. mr deputy speaker, i shall first report to the house on the economic forecast of the independent 0br. this is the bit with a long economic—y words in it. laughter

unfortunately, the content of the budget was no joke. growth forecast significantly downgraded. the economy is still ailing and productivity, the latest key measures to kick—start the economy is still lagging. that did not mean that there was not money to hand out. among a number of funding announcements for the nhs, there was a £350 million boost to the service but not that £350 million. £350 million immediately to allow trusts to plan for this winter. £1.6 billion in 2018—19 and the balance in 19—20. taking the extra resource into the nhs next year to £3.75 billion in total. there were goodies for those bits of the country that voted tory in the mayoral elections in may and the general elections injune. so the west midlands, teesside and and particularly —— so the west midlands, teesside and particularly bits of scotland.

progress is being made on city deals in tay and stirling and for the borderlands. i am getting used to the experience of having my ear bent by 13 scottish conservative colleagues. the election result loomed large over the whole budget as hammond desperately tried to woo younger voters. jeremy corbyn promised to bin tuition fees back injune hammond offered under—305 money off their railfares. it all felt a bit gimmicky in its timidity. the big plan was to stop stamp duty for first—time buyers. this was quickly trashed by the 0br. without an ambitious house—building scheme it would only push up prices further. jeremy corbyn was unimpressed by all of it. economic growth has been revised down. productivity has been revised down. business investment revised down. peoples wages and living standards revised down. what sort of strong

economy is that?! hammond is unlikely to make many new enemies with this budget but then, he has plenty of these already in the tory party, among those who suspect he is not sufficiently brexity. he may still be subject to a new year flip from number 11 in the reshuffle. i commend this place. the good gags papered over the modest content in the budget. the question is, has philip hammond done enough for an encore or will he be booed off the political stage in 2018? james millar. in recent weeks and months jeremy corbyn has used his six questions at pmqs to challenge theresa may on everything from universal credit to the nhs. the one subject he's never raised is brexit — but all that changed on wednesday when he brought up one of the main sticking points in the current talks. mr speaker, the irish prime

minister, who has discussed brexit with the british government, says sometimes it does not seem like they have thought all this through. so can the prime minister reassure him by clearly outlining the government policy on the irish border? we are very clear that in relation to the movement of people, the common travel area will continue to operate as has done since 1923 and on trade and movement of goods and services across the border, we will not see a hard border being introduced. we have been very clear. last week the brexit secretary said he would guarantee free movement for bankers post—brexit. are there any other groups for whom the prime minister believes freedom of movement should apply? nurses, doctors, teachers, scientists, agricultural workers, care workers, who?

i'm very interested that the right honourable gentleman has found that his appearances at pmqs have been going so well he had to borrow a question from the liberal democrats, which he asked me last week. perhaps he should pay more attention to what happens in prime minister's questions. we have been absolutely clear that we will be introducing new immigration laws and as we introduce those immigration rules, we would take account of the british economy in doing so. we want to get on and deal with the question of the future trading relationship we have at the european union and i also optimistic about the opportunities that will be available to this country and about the deal we can get from the negotiations we are having. the right honourable gentleman cannot even decide whether he wants to be in the customs union or out of it, in or out, in or out.

he needs to get his act together. theresa may. well, just the day before, mps had held their third day of detailed debate on the eu withdrawal bill — the crucial bit of legislation that moves eu law into uk law in time for brexit. although it transfers over a mass of legislation, as it stands, it doesn't bring over the eu charter of fundamental rights. the charter guarantees rights under the headings of dignity, equality, justice, solidarity and freedom. in the commons, there were arguments both for keeping the charter and for dropping it. the charter is the most effective key to unlocking vital rights and the failure to transpose it and make it operable in uk law is to lock those rights away and deny uk citizens the key to accessing them. my point is our rights will be guaranteed once we have left by supreme court and common law or the application of statute. i cannot think of a right that he and i would value which will be destroyed if we have

not incorporated the charter. they will be guaranteed by these ancient methods. 0ne mp put forward an amendment, calling for ministers to put forward a report on the effect of not having the charter. we need to have a far more detailed report from ministers about the consequences of deleting this charter. they are potentially far ranging. my worry is the charter is too complicated. everyone is in favour of the rights we have in the convention that have been incorporated in english law, we want to protect human rights but we do not feel the charter adds sufficiently. the honourable lady has suggested the charter contains rights too complicated to be incorporated in english law. will the honourable member reassure those rights will be incorporated into scots law which is a separate

legal system and the other legal systems of members of the european union? former attorney general dominic grieve put forward a proposal that would lead to the fundamental charter of rights continuing to apply to those eu laws that are ‘retained' in uk law. he called it ‘a very big issue'. it worries me that we're going to come into a period when we leave in march 2019 where we will have a hiatus and there will be a gap where areas of law which matter to people are not protected in any way at all. there should be appropriate mechanisms for challenging the executive. he said he'd put his proposal to a vote unless the government could give him assurances on the issue. the minister said the government was prepared to look again at the protection of rights. there should be appropriate mechanisms for challenging the actions of the executive. i am happy to discuss with my right honourable friend what might be needed. i am also willing to discuss if there needs to be some formal

challenge on secondary legislation. this satisfied dominic grieve — for now, at least. i am most grateful to my right honourable friend and he has made at the dispatch box an important concession which i might appreciate and clearly reflects the disquiet which is access the house. in the light of that, i will not be pressing my amendment to a vote. dominic grieve. well, mps have five more days of detailed debate on the eu withdrawal bill still to go — they will return to it on december the 11th — when they've finished debating the budget. now let's take a look at some other news in brief. emmerson mnangagwa has been sworn—in as the new president of zimbabwe. he formally took up office in a ceremony in the national sports stadium in harare, in front of tens of thousands of people. people in the country took to the streets in the capital harare following the news that 93 year

old president mugabe — who'd run the country since 1980 — was finally standing down. so, peers asked what would the uk do to support the country? as zimbabwe's oldest friend, we will do all we can to support a legitimate government to rebuild the country working with international and regional partners and addressing, economic and human rights and constitutional issues, including free and fair elections. the uk's amphibious forces capable of landing troops from the sea are an elite fighting force vital for an island nation. that was the message from mps as they urged the chancellor, philip hammond, not to cut the defence budget. media reports suggested plans were being considered to reduce the number of royal marines by 1,000 or take two specialist landing ships, hms albion and bulwark, out of action. we cannot do national security on the cheap. we must ensure that our armed forces have the resources that they need

to deal with the threats that we face, and any reduction in our amphibious capabilities or in the number of our royal marines are the wrong cuts at the wrong time. the chancellor hinted in the budget he'd look at taxes to cut plastic waste. it follows the introduction of a 5p charge on single use carrier bags, which cut use by 85%. now there are calls to bring in a levy on plastic drinks bottles and disposable coffee cups. in the lords, peers reckoned that couldn't come too soon. could the ministers say something about the millions and millions of plastic bottles that can't be recycled and are simply being put into waste? can't we have a positive action to cut down the number of plastic bottles? they are a disgrace. hear, hear. my lords, the noble lord will probably be aware that in the budget speech, the chancellor has announced that we are going to be looking at how we can tackle that particular problem, perhaps through taxation in relation to single use plastics. but in relation to bottles, he's right, there is a challenge there. however, we shouldn't beat ourselves

up to much, my lords. —— too. in 2000, 13,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were recycled. by 2016, that was 343,000 tonnes. there is much to do but we are on track, my lords. the bbc tv licence came up for discussion in westminster hall after thousand of people signed an e—petition. the fee, just over £12 a month, has to be paid by all households that use bbc services, but over 755 are exempt. 0ne conservative spoke up in favour of the corporation's freeview channels. the free view channels include bbc one, bbc two, bbc three, bbc four, cbbc, cbeebies, the bbc news channel, and the bbc parliament channel, worth of course the entire licence fee on its own! peter heaton—jones. staying in westminster hall an mp used a debate on wednesday to warn that the uk could be facing an epidemic of opioid abuse. it follows thousands of deaths in the united states linked

to the synthetic opioid, fentanyl — a painkiller many times stronger then heroin. between 2009 and 2015, it is estimated that fentanyl and its derivatives have killed approximately 300,000 people in the us during that time. now, these numbers are of virtual biblical proportions. he feared we were on the brink of an epidemic and called for better education and increased sentences for drug dealers. and i feel that we should be giving some thought now, as we cope or potentially have to cope with fentanyl and similar lethal derivatives. perhaps by creating a new class, double a class of these really truly lethal drugs. a formerjustice minister said the so—called war on drugs had been an unmitigated disaster. we should be learning from decriminalisation and public health approach in other countries.

in portugal, for example, where the possession of small amounts of drugs has been decriminalised a step well short of licensing and regulation, usage rates are amongst the lowest in europe. let's treat it as a health issue, not a criminaljustice issue. let's accept across our country the principle of safer drug consumption rooms. there are already saving lives in eight european countries. in canada, in australia, it is endorsed by the bma, no one dies of an overdose in our drug consumption room. the minister cannot come before us today and say that he honestly believes his government are improving services and seriously addressing this issue when we are all seeing such significant cuts that are rolling back provision of addiction services? the minister said an ambitious drugs strategy had been unveiled earlier this year.

deaths linked to fentanyl and contaminated heroin have been seen in parts of the uk. he gave us a graphic illustration of the impact in the states which, i agree with him, is extremely worrying. these underlined the importance of vigilance and strong enforcement action by the police and the national crime agency, as well as accessible treatment and the availability of life—saving interventions. philip dunne. a leading clinical professor specialising in air pollution has condemned the chancellor for not targeting white van man in the budget. medical experts say air pollution can be a contributory factor in heart attacks, lung cancer, asthma, pneumonia, and stroke. there's also concern that pollution may affect the developing organs of babies in the womb and contribute towards conditions such as diabetes and dementia. four committees joined forces to take evidence on the issue. professor stephen holgate set out the scale of the problem. we are affecting people who are at the extremes of life, we are affecting people who are disadvantaged with diseases that put them at increased risk, and we are affecting people who live in disadvantaged communities

to a great extent. so there is an equality issue in all of this. and of course it is preventable because we now have such strong evidence that we can demonstrate that if you do start reducing pollution, you do improve the health of the nation. 0ne mp asked about wednesday's budget. the chancellor specifically heralded the fact that he is not going to target white van man or white van woman, as if that were good thing in the long—term going forward. lost opportunity, i'm afraid, there. mr white van, i'm afraid if you look in our graph here, it is the one area that is going on increasing as people start doing more of their shopping through the internet. this is a big issue. environmental lawyers, client earth,

took the government to court over pollution levels. if brexit happens, how are we going to enforce any of this? yeah. you've hit on a very important point and one that keeps me awake at night. at the moment, the understanding is that the current standards under the ambient air quality directive and the eu transposing regulations will transfer across through the withdrawal bill. but, and it is a big but, we are very concerned that the enforceability of these standards will decline post brexit. later, mps heard from the mayor of london, who called for a new clean air act. we talked about the rising nitrogen dioxide. half of that in london comes from transport, and we are taking bold action in london to try and ameliorate that. the other half comes from construction, comes from the river, comes from buildings. i have no powers in relation to...

if there were new legislation of the type described, what are you asking for it to be... so, what we hoped the new clean air act would do is to give mayors in regions the powers and resources to tackle the other half in relation to emission standards. in relation to regulation, in relation to who is in charge of it. and i don't see how without a new clean act, we can move forward and get the clean air that we desperately need. the mayor of london sadiq khan. time for a look at what's been happening in the wider world of politics. claire gould has our countdown. two new introductions into the lords this week. the lord chief justice, lord burnett. and a familiar face from the bishops' bench, the former bishop of london returns as lord charters. but with peers are retiring as well asjoining, the ermine—o—meter stays at 801.

proving there is life after you retire from the lords, baroness trumpington, famous for that hand gesture, was announced as one of the radio 4 today programme's guest editors over the christmas period. new scottish labour leader richard leonard had his first chance to grill nicola sturgeon at fmqs this week, making the case for greater spending on the fire service in scotland. former scottish leader kezia dugdale will be hoping to avoid the political wilderness by heading for the jungle instead as the latest contestant to appear on reality tv show i'm a celebrity get me out of here. catching the speaker's eye is an essential talent for any backbench mp so you wouldn't think they would need reminding but mr bercow felt there some were lacking enthusiasm by the end of the busy week in the commons. it seems a bobs once, and thinks that is sufficient of a desire to participate.

repeated bobbing has always been required. clare gould. a minority tory government faced with steering nation—changing legislation through parliament. sounds familiar? we're talking about 150 years ago when the tories were 70 seats short of the combined 0pposition. two previous administrations had fallen over the issue of voting reform. but the tories brought in the 1867 reform act, which gave the vote to many working—class men. simon vaughan reports. parliament itself needed to solve this issue because it kept on upsetting the normal process of government. rather like today, this issue had become so important that normal routine, domestic legislation, other issues that needed to be addressed, were now being held up. a challenge for the leader of the house, benjamin disraeli. the way they managed this whole situation, the briefing, behind—the—scenes, going to the clubs, talking

to the backbenchers in particular, he managed to create a situation in which he was able to isolate the key party leaders, gladstone, and bright, for example, and he was able to appeal to the back benchers, particularly radical liberal and tory backbenchers, to help get this bill through. you end up with a situation where he puts the bill in but the final act has 61 clauses, only four of those were in the original bill. so the whole thing comes completely modified by the commons. in other words, what disraeli does is to put power back to the mp5. the act went further than many tories had wanted, boosting the electorate by 82%. but disraeli held his party together. it was an extraordinary achievement, a brilliant piece of political manoeuvring by a master political operator. the vote also saw the first debate in parliament on extending the franchise to women. though the amendment was voted down. john stuart mill introduced

an amendment to clause four of the act to replace the word man with person so that the act would apply to women who met the property qualifications as well as to men. and that was the basis, to keep it as simple as possible, really. i think the fact that it was debated as a parliamentary question, even if only briefly, is a really landmark moment in the women's suffrage campaign. and 150 years ago this weekend, that campaign was boosted by one lily maxwell. she managed to vote in a parliamentary by—election. she was a shopkeeper in manchester, and she was on the register by accident. it was a clerical error. somebody had written down lily maxwell, and not realised this was a woman. so, if you are on the register, you are entitled to vote. so, she went to the polling booth, accompanied by lydia becker,

who was one of the leaders of the women's suffrage movement in manchester, and she cast her vote. the story got into the newspapers that there was this female voter. her vote stood, but attempts by other women to join the register failed, and women wouldn't gain the right to elect their mps until 1918. simon vaughan bringing us to the end of this edition of the programme, but do join keith macdougall on monday night at 11 for a full round—up of the day at westminster, including the continuing debate on the chancellor's budget. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. hello once again. saturday was pretty much a cold day right across the british isles and for that, you have to thank a supply of cold north—westerly wind coming between an area of low

pressure up towards the north—east, high pressure down towards the south—west. and on that run of north—westerlies, there were quite a few showers across northern and western parts. if you had some overnight, then ice could be a problem first thing on sunday, especially on untreated surfaces. here we are first thing on sunday morning. still that wind across the north—east of scotland, showers there. showers too coming through the north channel down across the irish sea into the north and west midlands, through the north—west of england. we will come back to those in a second. but further east or south, dry, fine, sunny, chilly to start off the new day, and perhaps a little more in the way of cloud already at this stage across parts of the south—west and the far west of wales. cloudy right from the word go across northern ireland. this is all coming ahead of a set of weather fronts which make themselves known in northern ireland late on in the afternoon. the wind ahead of those fronts just

beginning to come a bit more westerly so maybe notjust as cold as the north—westerly wind of saturday. but that the supply of showers i was talking about coming out of the irish sea could be a bother at burnley and at also huddersfield. not such an issue down at southampton — gloriously clear here. kilmarnock, just the first signs of that cloud spilling in from northern ireland to temper the sunshine then rob you of it altogether as you get on through the afternoon. certainly by evening, wet and windy fair piling its way down and across the british isles. notice the number of isobars there, 40mph gusts perhaps inland and on some of the western—facing hills, 30—a0 millimetres of rain, but at least this is mild air. so we have a spell of relatively mild conditions for the new week. but then it turns much colder and there will be a noticeable biting wind coming in from the north. so monday, a day of transition. it will take a while before we see the last of the overnight rain getting away from the south of england and wales. double—figure temperatures here. but slowly but surely, once all of the fronts have moved on through, that allows those isobars to bend back into a much more northerly direction and along

that, that is the highway for the cold air to percolate its way down from nearly the arctic across all parts of the british isles. i'm showing you here the middle part of the week, cold air absolutely dominant, and that extends probably towards next weekend. hello. this is breakfast, with ben thompson and tina daheley. new regulations are announced to tackle rogue drone operators. people who use drones will have to take safety tests and the police will be given more powers to stop their illegal use. good morning. it's sunday the 26th of november. also this morning: mounting pressure to settle the question of the irish border after brexit. a senior official from the republic of ireland says his government will play tough to the end. a warning to airlines after ash clouds spew from a volcano on the indonesian island of bali. there are fears of a

full—scale eruption.