in england after being exposed to an unknown substance. sergei skripal has been living in the uk since a prisoner swap between russian and the us in 2010. he's being treated in salisbury in the south of england. a united nation convoy in eastern ghouta has cut short its mission to bring humanitarian aid to the besieged syrian enclave after repeated shelling. earlier, the red cross said nine hours‘ worth of deliveries had eased some people's suffering, though one convoy wasn't enough. britain's most decorated olympian, the cyclist sir bradley wiggins, has been accused in a parliamentary report of using drugs, allowed under anti—doping rules, to enhance his performance, instead ofjust for medical need. the tour de france winner "strongly refutes" the allegations. now on bbc news, monday in parliament. hello and welcome to

monday in parliament. coming up on the programme: theresa may says she's confident she can reach a deal with the eu. the pragmatism, calm and patient discussion, i am confident...we can set an example to the world. but labour dismiss her vision as a shambles. this government's reckless strategy is putting ourjobs and manufacturing industries at risk. the defence secretary repeats his verbal attacks on russia. putin has made it quite clear that he has hostile intent towards this country. and warnings in the lords about family doctors retiring early and junior doctors quitting the nhs after their training. with the noble lord care to speculate why there is a flood of departing junior doctors right now? but first, emboldened

by her landmark speech on brexit last friday, theresa may told the commons she's confident that britain can reach an agreement with the european union. last week, she spelt out her vision for the new relationship in which she said the uk will leave the single market, thejurisdiction of the european court ofjustice will end, some regulations will remain in step with the eu, and she said she wants trade across borders, which is as frictionless as possible. this was the first time the prime minster had faced mps since that speech. i am confident we can resolve our remaining differences in the days ahead. now we must focus on our future relationship. a new relationship that respects the result of the referendum, provides an enduring solution, protects people's jobs and security, is consistent with the kind of country we want to beat —— be and strengthens our union of nations and people. it was clear mps from all sides wanted to make their views heard. we must resolve the tensions

between some of our objectives. we want the freedom to negotiate trade agreements around the world, we want control of our laws, we also want as frictionless as border are possible with the eu so we do not damage the integrated supply chain to our industries rely on... order! there's a very considerable level of heckling taking place in the house. 20 months have passed since the referendum. a year has passed since the triggering of article 50, 20 wasted months in which the arrogance of some of the cabinet who said it would be the easiest deal in history has turned into debilitating infighting. this government's reckless strategy is putting ourjobs and manufacturing industries at risk. the prime minister's only clear priority seem to be to tie the uk

permanently to eu rules, which are being used to enforce privatisation and block support for industry. the liberal democrats were keen to address concerns that a future trade deal with the us would open up the nhs to american health giants. can i first congratulate the prime minister on the fact that, after 20 months of tough negotiation, she appears now to have delivered at least a trade deal with her own cabinet? specifically in her future, independent trade negotiations with the economic nationalist and warmonger in the white house, what exactly at the prime minister's red lines? do they include the nhs? i'm absolutely clear that as we look to negotiate a trade with the usa, the nhs will remain as it is today, it will remain free at the points of use, the nhs is not for sale.

last month, as the prime minister gathered with her cabinet at chequers, there was one glaring absence. where was the secretary of state for scotland? scotland's voice was not heard at these crucial cabinet discussions. there has, mr speaker, been a flagrant disregard by this government of the nations that make up the united kingdom. the decisions that led to the approach that was in my speech were taken by the whole cabinet, not by a subgroup of the cabinet, and all members bar one that was in this house at the time were present when that decision was taken. on friday and today, the prime minister said that access to one another's markets would be less than it is now. this is the public burial of the claim made by her brexit secretary a year ago in this house that the government's aim was to secure the exact same benefits. the prime minister has admitted to the country

that there is economic cost to brexit. so will she now tell us — what is that economic cost, when will the public be told about it, and who will pay it? can i say to the right honourable gentleman, life is going to be different in the future because we will have a different relationship with the european union. but while he and the labour party consistently only focus on our relationship with the european union, what we're doing as a government, is ensuring we get that the good trade deal, the best possible trade deal with the european union, together with trade deals with countries around the world and develop our economy so it is a britain the future. and just in case you thought it was possible for politicians to discuss brexit without any food metaphors... when she gets into negotiations with the european counterparts about trade arrangements, could she remind them that cake exists to be eaten and cherries exist to be picked? iain duncan smith there.

after spending the best part of an hour watching theresa may answer questions on brexit, the chancellor, phillip hammond, faced his own inquisition. the european scrutiny committee wanted to know first of all if the uk would agree to any new eu taxes — for example on financial transactions — if they were introduced during a transition period after brexit. would you regard this as something, which we would have to reject because, after all, we have said categorically we are not in favour of financial transaction tax, but there's nothing on the face of it to prevent the eu from bringing in something like that? i think the question you are asking is, could rules or regulations be introduced during the transition period, which we maybe didn't like? the question is whether we would be required to implement them. we think we've got very good visibility of the pipeline

of potential legislation. in this case, the relatively slow pace at which the eu sausage machine grinds works in our favour. we are talking about a transition period, implementation period of around two years from the time we cease to take part as a participant in decision—making. and, as a matter of fact, during the course of 2019, quite a lot of the eu decision—making apparatus will be in a state of suspended animation. about six months ago, the hmrc had, both here and in the republic of ireland, said there was no issue about having a hard border, and yet it has suddenly become, over the last month or two,

a huge issue and all these people are nowjumping up and down, getting interested in northern ireland. do you not feel that, if the irish government really wanted this to work, they should be getting together with the british government and the officials on either side and looking at the technology and some of the things that have been said by the european parliament or constitutional committee, that it could work? mr hammond said the uk also needed a free—flowing border at dover—calais. as we seek solutions with the european union, including technology— based solutions to achieve that objective, lorries coming off the ferry at calais can roll straight through dover and vice versa, which has to be our objective. as we seek a solution that delivers that, we expect that we will find in that solution the basis for a working solution in the irish border as well. have you found who leaked those documents?

the cross—government economist analysist. the cabinet secretary, as i understand it, is, you know... carrying out an investigation, as always happens when unauthorised leaks of documents occur. i haven't heard that he has reached any conclusions yet. the chancellor also said he was setting aside £3 billion over the next two years to prepare for brexit. it's being spent on ensuring that we're prepared for a full range of outcomes. some of it is being spent on preparations for a no deal exit in march 2019. clearly, we will make his money available to departments on the basis that we will continually review the situation. they have to get on with this now because, obviously, there's limited time. the chancellor there.

you're watching monday in parliament, with me, lucy grey. the prime minister has announced changes to the planning rules in england after admitting that young people without family wealth were "right to be angry" at not being able to buy a home. she told a conference in london that the disparity was entrenching social inequality. it was left to her housing secretary, sajid javid, to sell the new policy to mps. i'm confident that the bold and ambitious measures that we are proposing will have a huge impact. notjust on the number of homes built, but ultimately, on people's prospects and our prospects as a country to ensure that local authorities or developers can no longer be in any doubt where they stand about what is expected of them and what they must do to help fix our broken housing market and deliver the homes that the people of this country need and deserve. today, once again, we have seen the government bring forward

proposals that tinker with the planning system and yet another attempt to look as though they are doing something about the housing and infrastructure prices the country is facing and which is largely of their making. and let's be clear about the scale of the problem that has arisen. many communities up and down the country do not have the homes they need. since 2010, the number of rough sleepers in england has nearly trebled from 1,700 to nearly 5,000 last year. given the scale of the housing crisis in london, does he really think it's acceptable that developers use viability assessment to drive down levels of affordable housing simply because to do otherwise would limit their profits to below 20%? mr speaker, i do not think it is acceptable that developers don't meet the commitments they have set at the start. we have seen particularly in london

too many examples where a percentage of the developer will set out for affordable housing, it was not met on the way the assessment process works. that is why i hope you will support the process we set out today the greater standardisation and much more transparency. in 1909, winston churchill spoke about the value of the land tax, saying while public money is used to enhance an area. today, developers are sitting on almost1 housing million plots as young people face a lifetime of house insecurity and high prices. is it not time of the government to look again at the benefits of a land value taxation? the honourable lady might be interested in the consultation that we've set out today on developer contributions because i'm sure she will agree that developer contributions are a type of tax on developers. because they are expected to provide for perhaps infrastructure or for affordable housing, in some cases, both, so if she's really interested in this issue,

i would urge her to look at that consultation. the snp felt england should look to scotland in the area of housing. supply of affordable housing is a third higher per head of population than in england. has the minister learned any lessons from the snp's building programme? scrapping the right to buy has allowed the scottish government to improve our council housing stock. more council houses have been delivered across 32 local authorities in scotland than have been delivered across 326 local authority areas in england. or the minister, rather than extending right to buy the further reduce housing supply, follow scotland's lead and abolish it? has the government learnt anything from the snp's approach to housing? the answer is no. she has also then asked about the right to buy. we have not learned anything from that because they followed exactly the wrong policy. we actually believe it is a good thing to allow people to buy

the house. sajid javid. now, could we be heading for a crisis of departing doctors? the number of gps retiring early in england is on the increase, according to recent figures. and the departure ofjunior doctors from the national health service at the end of their training has become a flood, in the words of one labour peer. the government denies the situation is serious. the issue was raised at question time in the house of lords. my lords, we appear to be in a vicious cycle of doctors either retiring early and then coming back and working part—time, and fewer eu doctors coming to work here. what can my noble friend the minister do to increase the number of doctors wishing to enter gp practice, as opposed to other specialties? and as regards eu doctors, what is the certification procedure going to be for them to be recognised as doctors to practise post—brexit in this country? it's interesting to note that the total number of retirees from general practice has been falling in recent years,

which i think is very welcome, even though there has been an increase in the last few years in the number taking early retirement. in terms of entering general practice, of course, that is how we need to get more gps. the number of training places has increased to a record 3250, and that has been, again, an 18% increase over the last three years. finally, on the issue of certification, mutual recognition of professional qualifications is, of course, a matter for negotiation as part of our future relationship with the eu. but i can tell that the government is committed, under whatever circumstances, to recruit 2000 international gps in the coming years. one of the reasons why general practice is less attractive than it used to be is because of the enormous bureaucratic load that is placed upon them nowadays. they have to sit on committees, on ccgs, and they are rushing around doing nonclinical work. is there anyway of reducing this nonclinical workload? i would point the noble lord, and other noble lords, these are actions that all gp

surgeries can take, whether it's using technology such as e—booking and e—prescribing to work to reduce the kind of workload that he's talking about. more gps are leaving the profession thanjoining it, and there are soaring numbers ofjunior doctors leaving the nhs after their two—year foundation training. so how does the government intended to fill the failing pipeline ofjunior doctors, and would the noble lord the minister care to speculate why there is a flood of departing junior doctors right now? could it be due to the rock— bottom level of morale of junior doctors after their shabby treatment by the secretary of state? well, the noble lady might be interested to note that if you look at the number of gps in specialty training in 2014, it was 2671, in 2017 it was 3157 — an increase of nearly 400. that is how we're filling the places. is the noble lord the minister aware of the increasing number of inner—city general practices where the entire gp workforce

consists of locum doctors because of recruitment problems? and does he agree that that is an expensive way of providing gps, and one which diminishes the doctor— patient relationship? yes, i do agree with the noble lord, we do need to crack down on agency and locum spend, which has been falling in recent years. of course, the way that we fix this issue and the demand for general practice in a sustainable way is to increase the number of gps coming into the service, and as i've said, that's exactly what we're doing. health minister lord o'shaugnessy. the world is sliding into a second cold war. that was the stark assessment of an opposition mp during defence questions in the commons. it follows the state—of—the—nation speech made by president putin last week, when he announced that russia had tested an array of new strategic nuclear weapons that couldn't be intercepted. he said his country was now in possession of missiles that no other country had. a labour mp was clearly troubled at the turn of recent global events. surely the secretary of state knows that what mr putin announced

a few days ago was, basically, a new cold war. and it's notjust cyber warfare, it's every kind of warfare, at a time when europe seems to be fragmenting, our commitment to nato is deeply hurt by donald trump moving into a new phase of withdrawal. what are we going to do about all this? so putin has made it quite clear that he has hostile intent towards this country. we've been seeing the build—up of his forces across the eastern front, and in terms of what they're doing over many years now. we have to wake up to that thread, and we have to respond to it. —— threat. we have to match what putin is doing with russian forces, we have to be aware of the challenges that they face, and that is very much why we're engaging in the modernising defence programme, to ensure that we can

match the russians going forward. the us nuclear posture review was met with an equal level of posturing by president putin in his state—of—the—nation speech last thursday. what is the british government's policy response to these worrying developments at the world slides needlessly into a second cold war? does he believe the british government has an opportunity to de—escalate the situation? let's be really clear. president putin has been developing a much more hostile and aggressive posture towards the united kingdom, towards the united states, towards our allies for an awful lot longer than the last 12 months. they want to assert their rights, they want to... you've seen increased russian activity in the north atlantic, a tenfold increase over the last few years. and do we sit submissively by, do we just accept that president putin can do whatever he wishes to do? or do we have to look at how we respond and make it clear that we are not willing

to stand up to bullying? can i implore my right honourable friend not to listen to the trump bashing opposite? there is absolutely no indication whatsoever that president trump is attenuating his commitment to nato. and can i further say to my right honourable friend that nato is the backbone, not the european union, of this nation's defence, and he should be, and i know that he is, going out there to washington, speaking to his counterparts, and can he talk about precisely what he has achieved? sorry about that! laughter. i thought my honourable friend was incredibly eloquent, and let's be absolutely clear. there is one reason that we've had peace right

across the continent of europe since the second world war, and that is down to the north atlantic treaty organisation, and the fact that it has acted as a deterrent against those who which to prosecute aggressive campaigns against the west, and i'm very proud of the work that has been done and will be done in the future with our allies. the defence secretary. ministers have been urged to introduce a licensing regime for air weapons. as the home office minister was questioned in the lords, peers heard that there had been thousands of attacks on pets involving airguns in the last five years. is she aware that a growing number of crimes involving air weapons relate to senseless attacks and domestic animals, and particularly cats, nearly half of whom die as a result of often horrific injuries? the cats protection charity recorded

164 attacks on cats and kittens with an airgun last year, while the rspca received nearly 900 calls to their cruelty hotline, reporting air weapon attacks on animals, making 4500 attacks in the last five years. is it not time to license these weapons to ensure that they're possessed only for legitimate purposes by responsible owners, and not by those who would cruelly inflict pain and suffering, and often death on defenceless domestic animals? well, as a cat lover and a cat owner, i sympathise with my noble friend's question, and the government does take animal welfare very seriously. my lords, anyone who shoots a domestic cat is liable to be charged and prosecuted under the animal welfare act 2006 with causing unnecessary suffering. we are increasing the maximum penalty for this offence from six months in prison and/or an unlimited fine to five years' imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. the number of offences involving air

weapons in the year to march 2017 was similar to the previous year, and there were 64% fewer air weapons offences than the decade previously. a review was launched following the case of 13—year—old ben wragge, who was shot and killed by a home—made air rifle. we do have some of the strongest gun laws in the world, but they're still not strong enough. in the hands of irresponsible people, these weapons can kill, as in the tragic case of benjamin wragge. my friend karen smith in the other place had an 18—month—old child in her constituency injured by an air weapon recently. we need a responsible licence system, and can the noble lady agree to look at the whole question of storage? the advice at the moment as they need to be stored in a locked cabinet, i don't think that good at all. lady williams said the government was keeping an open mind around the regulation of airguns in england and wales. the weapons are already subject to licensing in scotland and northern ireland. finally, two mps briefly used sign language during a debate in westminster hall. it had been triggered by an e—petition that's attracted around 30,000 signatures. the petition calls for british sign language, or bsl, to become part

of the national curriculum. the debate also featured a live communication of the speeches by a sign language expert. there's three things that i want to tell, the story about why i learned sign language. secondly, how bsl should be in the national curriculum, and why that is really important. and third, i want to ask the minister some questions. and we need more access to work, not less. we need to invest in access to work so that deaf people can reach their full potential. and we need to invest, and the way to do that is to show commitment. so i do hope, when the minister gets to his feet, that he will have some good news for the deaf community and bsl users. and i am asking the minister to please make bsl a gcse. thank you. we do value bsl.

there will be a huge number of steps to go through for the bsl qualification to be accredited as a gcse. and having been through the process, it is not a simple process of getting those qualifications accredited. nick gibb. and that's it from us for now, but do join us at the same time tomorrow for another round—up of the day at westminster. but for now, from me, lucy grey, goodbye. hello there. as temperatures continue to slowly rise, increasingly we are seeing snow being confined to the high ground in scotland and that means communities that have been hard hit by the heavy snow — the snow is continuing to ease and thaw, but of course

it is going to be a long road. looking at the weather picture today we have got some rain pushing to the northern half of the uk and it is notjust rain, also some white mixed in across scotland. we are expecting more snow. what it will be over the hills. in the south, a few clearer spells, some mist and fog and patches of frost possible as we start off the morning in the countryside. a slippery start to the day again. looking at tuesday morning, this area of snow that could cause problems for scotland because we are going to see heavy snow mostly in the hills, above 200 metres elevation looking at 5—10cms towards the east coast and low down it is more likely to be rain that falls but that cause problems because the rain is going to be heavy and will act as a thaw of the snow already on the ground. some localised flooding is a possibility and perhaps the snow getting to lower levels in some of the deep highland valleys. a few showers across south—west england and wales,

cold in the north but relatively mild in the south. highs of 12 degrees in london. looking at the weather picture through tuesday night and wednesday, that snow will ease its way across from northern scotland but the weather front will sneak across the english channel and curl back into south—east england and east anglia, threatening a spell of morning rain on wednesday. quite a wet start but that rain will clear away, followed by some brighter skies and sunshine. some showers around, particularly western areas, some wintry across the high ground of scotland but temperatures continue to recover, looking at highs of six in edinburgh. thursday promises to be a quite a on a weather front, still a few showers knocking around and a more persistent area of rain running to the english channel, not far away from south england so that could come inland. otherwise, quiet, some bright skies, bit of sunshine coming through and tmeperatu res between six and nine celsius. nothing severe for thursday. through to the end of the week and the weekend, quite cool

for the northern half of the uk but relatively mild into the weekend in the south. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: a former russian spy lies critically ill in a british hospital, apparently overcome by a mystery substance. delegates from south korea meet officials in the north, as kim jong—un says he wants to write a new history of national reunification. aid workers cut short their mission to the besieged syrian enclave of eastern ghouta, after repeated shelling. britain's most decorated olympian, sir bradley wiggins, says he is not a drugs cheat, after mps accuse the cyclist of crossing an ethical line. this whole thing has just been a

com plete this whole thing has just been a complete mess