russia has ignored a midnight deadline, set by the british government to explain how a nerve agent, thought to be russian made, was used to poison a former spy and his daughter. sergei and yulia skripal remain in a critical condition in hospital. moscow continues to deny any involvement in the attack. us secretary of state rex tillerson has made his first statement since being sacked by president trump, conspicuously failing to thank his boss, or praise his policies. the president told reporters that he and america's top diplomat had a "different mindset" on key issues, including the iran nuclear deal. the gulf state of qatar is set to introduce a sugar tax after health surveys showed that 70% of qataris were overweight or obese — almost double the global average. the government's taking action to try to get people to lose weight and it's also set to start screening adults for diabetes. now on bbc news — tuesday in parliament. hello and welcome to the programme.

coming up... delivering his spring statement, the chancellor characterises his mood. i, meanwhile, am at my most positively tigger—like today. but his labour shadow is not amused. his complacency today is astounding. and youtube gets a dressing down. it is shocking that you seem to know so little about who they are, what training they've had or if they are employed by your organisation. it used to be that cometh the spring, cometh the budget. the full holding up the briefcase outside number 11, how much a bottle of whisky was going up and a rabbit out of the fiscal hat. but that was in the old days, well, last year. it all changed when the chancellor

announced budgets were now to be autumnal affairs, with just a limited statement in the spring. so it was that philip hammond rose in the commons with what he said would be a short statement. in fact, it was 36 minutes. he began with an attack on labour. i reject the party opposite‘s doom and gloom about the state of the nation. every year since 2010, we've had to listen to the right honourable member for hayes and harlington predict a recession, none of which has actually happened. if there are any eeyores in the chamber, they're over there. i, meanwhile, i met my most positively tigger—like today as i come amid the country which bases

the future with unique strengths. since autumn, i have committed to £60 billion of new spending. shared between long—term investment and support for our public services. with almost £9 billion extra per hour nhs and our social care system. £4 billion going into the nhs in 2018—2019 alone. more to come, if management and unions reach agreement on pay modernisation deal for our nation's nurses and agenda for change staff. who have worked in very challenging circumstances to provide nhs care that we all value so highly. £2.2 billion more on

education and skills. taking public investment in our schools, hospitals and infrastructure in this parliament to its highest sustained level in a0 years. the shadow chancellor was positively not tigger—like. his complacency today is astounding. we face in every public service a crisis on a scale we've never seen before. hasn't he listened to the doctors, nurses, the teachers, the police, the carers, and even his own counsellors? they are telling him to act now. for eight years they've been ignored by this government than today, they've been ignored again. nhs trusts will end this financial year £1 billion in deficit. doctors and nurses are struggling,

being asked to do more and more while there is 100,000 nhs posts going on fill. —— unfilled. how many people have to die waiting in an ambulance before he acts? he's mentioned the payoff is of the nhs staff, and that was forced upon him by labour. the snp leader at westminster labelled the statement much ado about nothing. we are ten years on from the financial crisis, the austerity is still with us. there was a lack of hope given to the people of the united kingdom from this statement today. mr speaker, on the weekend we saw the honourable member and his other job as a linesman at the glasgow celtic versus rangers football match, waving his flag

enthusiastically calling for a red card. if anybody deserves a red card today, it's the chancellor. several labour mps lined up to criticise the chancellor, firstly on the nhs. given that he knows that the budget is going to be too late to... to provide any additional funding for next year's winter crisis. that he knows that the doubling up all the prime minister and do a public apology to the staff and pigeons of the nhs who will have to endure mr‘s crisis because of this failure. the chancellor has been very upbeat today, but why is he so upbeat when the growth figures show that we have gone from near the top of the g7 and the 620 growth lists to the bottom of both? a conservative mp quoted from the economic forecast prepared

by the office for budget responsibility. the future is uncertain. the likelihood of unexpected political development leads to significant downside risks to forecasts. can i ask the chancellor if any of those political downside risks are sitting directly in front of him? businesses, in conversation, identify two risks that they are concerned about. the risk of a bad break the deal which will have an impact on the economy, and the risk of the right honourable gentleman opposite ever getting his hands on any power in our economy. while philip hammond was delivering his statement, news came through that the us secretary of state had been fired by president trump. rex tillerson had only on monday backed british authorities in blaming the kremlin for the poisoning of a former russian spy in salisbury. this seemed to be a departure from the white house line which had declined to blame russia.

a note was passed to the prime minister as she was listening to the chancellor, as you can see on the right of the picture. perhaps the moment she got news of the sacking? after reading the note, she acknowledges it and then begins to digest its contents. now, labour has failed in a bid to block changes to universal credit, free school meals and childcare. it accused the government of trying to deny free school meals to a million children. ministers hit back saying that was "scaremongering and misinformation." but there was a concession to the dup, with the government announcing that plans to end the childcare voucher scheme would be put off for six months. the attack on the changes to the welfare system were led by the shadow education secretary. many people, including mps, wrongly believed that all children in poverty already get free school meals. that is not currently the case. under the transitional protection under universal credit, they would be entitled to that

benefit and it's through this secondary legislation that they're pulling the rope from under the flash point the rug from underneath those families. no child currently recieving meals would lose out their entitlement and that in fact 50,000 more children would benefit under our proposals when compared to the previous system. while i understand that is the nature of the opposition to oppose, scaremongering and misinformation from that side of the house have surely reached a new low. the repeated ad nauseam line from the government that it puts people at work. that isn't much good for people. it is just being a shift from out of her poverty into in work poverty, we know there has been a rise in and work poverty and that six —— 67% of children, 67% of children

who are currently living in poverty do so in a family where at least one person works. might i suggest that seeing as the government does like to nick liberal democrat policy, with the income tax threshold, i'm not precious, you can have another one, extend free school meals to all children in primary schools. and if not that, then at least extend it to all children under universal credit. the party opposite frequently looked to us to improve the situation and the lives of the most vulnerable. that's what this policy is doing. that's with these regulations are doing today. but unfortunately, the party opposite seem not to live seem not to let facts get in the way of a good story. it is too much political dogma. they're putting that before people.

we are talking about young mums who are probably reentering the labour market for the first time. we are disincentivizing them from working. the problem with the policy here is that it's breaking that principle of the universal credit. it is putting in the system disincentives to work more or take oi'i disincentives to work more or take on higher paid work. this motion is about playing politics... and a kirby first time have seen that. —— and ifor the and a kirby first time have seen that. —— and i for the first time. government have taken the time to understand how best to transfer a lump sum benefits like free school meals into a system like universal credit. and earnings threshold is perfectly a cce pta ble and earnings threshold is perfectly acceptable to all reasonable people. by acceptable to all reasonable people. by the way, taxpayers. at the end of the debate their was a concession on the childcare voucher scheme. given the concerns raised across this house, that there should be a delay on the closure of that scheme to allow for the concerts to be addressed.

madam deputy speaker, i have heard the concerns that have been raised about this and the timing and they can confirm that we will be able to keep the voucher scheme open for a further six months. following representations that she has made. later, all four of labour's motions were rejected by mps. you're watching tuesday in parliament with me, mandy baker. the conservative mp who represents telford has told ministers that girls are being traded for sex in "a routine way". it's been reported that hundreds of children could've fallen victim to abusers over a ao—year period in the shropshire town. these young girls are too often white working—class, with multiple vulnerabilities and that is what perpetrators

are targeting, that is why perpetrators are targeting them. it is also why so often they are miscast as bringing it on themselves. they are miscast as being indulging in risky behaviour, as being promiscuous. as somehow being to blame for what is happening to them. had those girls been from a different background, had they been able to articulate more clearly what it was that was happening to them, had they been able to identify that it was a crime. then i think perhaps we would not have the cases we are seeing in telford, rotherham, 0xford. lucy allan called for an independent inquiry. the minister said this was the worst of all crimes. the scale of it is now being encountered by the independent inquiry of child sex abuse and i think the government recognises that the inquiry will take a long time. and i think where there are incidents where we can intervene earlier to try and prevent sexual exploitation, i think we should. a senior official at youtube has

apologised to mps for the company's slowness in removing extremist and offensive videos, in particular those produced by neo—nazi groups such as national action. william mcca nts faced a barrage of questions from the home affairs committee. i want to say to begin, we apologise for those videos being on our platform. they should not have been there. you should not have had to come back to us repeatedly. these four videos, because they are from a proscribed terrorist organisation should not have remained up on our platform. do you have any reviewers based in the united kingdom? i believe we have a large team of reviewers based in ireland. which is not in the uk. right, but i'm not sure. we have of course full—time employees that work on this, but if you are asking me about contractors that we use, i'm not sure if they are based in the uk were not. so you put some of these decisions out to contract? certainly, and that's part of the trouble here,

that these videos were going to people and we're not able to identify them, that's why they will be routed to specialists and why the general reviewers will be given training in order to identify the criteria. personalities how many of the people who make these decisions are actually not youtube employees? generally i don't know a number. do you do the training for these contractors or was that contracted out as well? i do not know who conducts the training. i certainly know our trust and safety teams are intimately involved in designing the curriculum. this is new information for us and i have to say it is shocking, really shocking, that you don't even know where your review teams are based, who they are, whether they are done through contract to other companies or organizations or whether it is done by youtube. all of the statements that you gave us at the beginning of this evidence session about how much it mattered to you personally,

if these things are actually being implemented by staff on your behalf or by people on your behalf, it is frankly shocking that you seem to know so little about who they are, where they are, what training they have had or even whether they are employed by your organisation. you have no response to that? i've been brought on to deal with counterterrorism policy. i worked on it at a very high level. 0ur trust and safety teams are charged with making sure that reviewers get the training that they need. is it that from now on you'll be looking at it like a hawk and take personal responsibility for this? there is no space for that. does that then mean that if you are back here in six months' time and this material is still there that you will personally take responsibility and step down because you are not performing? i will take responsibility for ensuring that this content does not remain online. if it somehow gets passed our failsafes, iam not doing myjob to make sure we are doing the right thing to remove this content. when we had evidence from youtube in the past you were very clear

when there is copyrighted material such as songs, albums, the minute they appear you removed them within minutes and yet you have done nothing, you have not invested anything to match that kind of copyrighted material and yet this stuff is dangerous. it leads to people losing their lives. it is illegal. it is a cancer in society, terrorism, and yet you are not putting the effort into it and frankly i feel insulted that youtube sent you to answer these questions. this is not about your competence in your field, but actually as an organisation as big as youtube sending someone who does not know the basic answers to the questions and yet you have had nearly a week's noticed to be answering this. i share your description of terrorism as a cancer. that is why youtube is dedicated to removing that content from its platform and we are putting in place fixes every day,

spending millions of dollars to address this problem. our technology is getting faster and we are expanding the number of personnel who work on this issue and we continue to make improvements. are we perfect? no. will we be perfect? no, but we are getting better and better. this is not about perfection. it's about you being the wrong person before this committee and not having a clue what you are talking about. that is what i feel hasjust happened in this evidence session. the blunt conclusion of naz shah. britain's first female muslim cabinet minister has said she won't be intimidated by letters inciting violence against muslims. on monday, mps condemned the letters encouraging people to take part in a "punish a muslim" day. i received a message, my lords, from a friend, a long message at the end of which she said i urge you please do not go out on the 3rd of april. it is punish a muslim day. my lords, iwill, along

with many other muslims, be going out on the 3rd of april because we will not be intimidated in this way. the government condemns the content of the letters, as i said in my original statement, as abhorrent and misplaced in recent society. i know the prime minister who as home secretary took a number of initiatives in partnership with my noble friend will want to reflect on the exchanges yesterday in the other place, the exchange of today, to see whether we can build on some of the initiatives my noble friend has referred to and see whether there is further action we can take in order to counter hate crime in this country today. lord young. from next year some british institutions will no longer be able to return works of art looted by the nazis to their rightful owners. a conservative mp wants to change that. throughout the 1930s and 405, property of all kinds was systematically stolen from millions of people as part of hitler's horrific genocidal campaign against europe's jewish community. that included many precious works of art. legislation enacted in 2009 allowed

some institutions to ignore statutory restrictions which prevent them from giving away items in their collections, but that permission expires in november next year. nothing can make up for the trauma and suffering of those who experienced the holocaust at first hand, or lost loved ones in that horror, but at least we can give them back precious works of art which were stolen from them. that is what my proposal is designed to achieve. theresa villiers added that her proposed bill was supported by the government. fears about a trade war with the united states and the take over battle for engineering giant gkn were among the questions put to business department ministers. gkn employs 6,000 people in the uk mostly in aerospace and automotive technology. it became a takeover target after it issued profit warnings late last year. some mps have been calling for a recent bid to be blocked. gkn was forged in our country's

first industrial revolution, built the tanks used in the d—day landings and its innovative battery technology will power our future economy. the government's industrial strategy identifies batteries as a key technology and manufacturing as a priority sector. yet the secretary of state has nothing to say about the hostile takeover of this great firm. so will he answer this question. why is it that as with unilever, all too often the secretary of state's industrial strategy seems to leave great british success stories less great and less british? well, the honourable lady i would have thought informed herself as to the responsibility of ministers under the enterprise act.

the enterprise act 2002 passed under the previous labour government, which requires that ministers can only intervene in mergers that raise public interest concerns on the grounds of national security, financial stability and media plurality. but she should know that the government reforms of corporate governments have made sure that gkn had longer to prepare their defence, preventing the kind of smash and grab raid that cadbury's was subject to under the previous government. and permission has been made for legally binding undertakings to be given in takeover bids. labour was worried about the impact of the recent announcement by the us of import tariffs on steel and aluminium. the president has revealed an appetite for a trade war which began with the announcement of steel tariffs and now includes cuts to be put on eu cars which could hit our industry hard. will the secretary of state tell this house when he is doing to avoid a trade war with the us?

and should such tariffs come into play, what he will do to protect our steel and automotive sector. it does no one any good if we have tariffs in place that impede trade and i would have thought that her endorsement of the approach that the trade secretary has taken would be welcome. and a conservative had a question on the issue of us tariffs too. can my right honourable friend reassure the house of the effort he is making to secure exemption for uk produced steel and aluminium products from next week's imposition of tarrifs. mr speaker, i can assure the right honourable friend i was in brussels yesterday meeting with the other european union ministers and trade union leaders and the representative employees to make sure that we do exactly what he says. richard harrington. what should britain's response be to the salisbury nerve agent attack? that was a questions posed during a westminster hall debate on the diplomatic service and its resources.

the suggestions put forward by one of the experts to respond to russia's action was to withdraw from the world cup in russia. instead have the world cup in england. that would be an impressive way of putting pressure on russia to bring about change. it's a diplomatic way perhaps but maybe an undiplomatic way of doing it but important way of doing it. i don't think it's nearly serious enough for the kind of step i believe this government will need to take against russia. i think to say you will not send a lot of dignitaries to the world cup is nowhere near good enough and it's a pathetic response. we will need to do much better and much tougher than that. so that they understand across the full spectrum that this is the kind of behaviour of which we will not put up with. the shadow foreign office minister argued there had been a reduction in the department's budget. the smallest cut one can glean from looking at the numbers is about 60%, which is nonetheless extremely large. and it does seem to me

that it is difficult for the government to project this global britain role while at the same time reducing resources in the foreign office. the minister said the government was committed to making sure the diplomatic service received the resources that it needed. there was also a call for departments to work together in locations around the world. sir nicholas gave an example. now finally just to return to the spring statement. and the chancellor is always looking for new ways to increase revenue. the longest—serving mp, the father of the house, is ken clarke, a former conservative chancellor himself of course. he had an idea. can i suggest that he looks at some of the extraordinary tax anomalies he's inherited in the tax treatment of older, prosperous people in full—time work in this country. it cannot be right... laughter declare your interests!

i think i'm perfectly well placed. philip hammond said he would be looking at all options before the next budget. in the meantime, mr speaker, i can tell my right honourable friend that there is a mechanism for voluntary donations to her majesty's treasury and in case he is misled i will send a copy of our bank details. —— mislaid. 0ne conservative later made the point that perhaps imposing a new tax targeted at a core element of the party's support may not be a good idea after all. and that's it. so for now from me, mandy baker goodbye. hello there.

plenty to talk about in the weather story for the remainder of this week. we closed out yesterday in the south—west with a beautiful sunset. however, u nfortu nately, that's the place today where we will see some of the wettest and windiest weather courtesy of an area of low pressure moving in from the atlantic. it is bringing quite a lot of heavy rain and gale force winds to parts of portugal and spain. this low will sit out in the atlantic and influence the story for the next few days to come. good news, a southerly wind will bring milder air across the country so if you managed to escape the rain and get sunshine, it will feel quite pleasant. quite a west—east divide with our weather today. central and eastern areas seeing the best of the sunshine and further west will see increasing and strengthening winds and rain, some turning heavy as we move through the middle of the day. gale force gusts through the isles of scilly, up into cornwall and affecting south wales as well. eventually, we will see the rain pushing steadily northwards into lunchtime into northern ireland and western fringes of scotland. there is a level of uncertainty as to how far inland that frontal system will turn as we go

through wednesday but central and eastern areas should state dry, bright and sunny. we should see highs peaking at 14 which will feel quite pleasant with the sun. moving into thursday, we still keep the winds across the south—west noticeably and a weather front making slow progress north and east. behind it, sunny spells and scattered showers. some could be heavy and possibly thundery. we keep the mild air down to the south but things are starting to change into the north—east. as we move into friday, more of an easterly breeze driving in a few showers and these will turn wintry to higher ground chiefly on friday but milder air still sits over england and wales for one more day at least. as we move out of friday

and into saturday, under the influence of high pressure yet again, into scandinavia, and circulating around that high, we will continue to see that easterly wind returning. not quite as extreme as last time but nevertheless it will be noticeably colder as we head into the weekend and there is a risk of snow showers falling at lower levels across eastern parts of england through the day. it is worth bearing in mind as we head into the weekend, there is the potential to see the return of some snow which could cause some issues. keep watching the weather forecast. we will firm up on those details. take care. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers

in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: russia defies a deadline to explain the nerve agent attack in britain that left a former spy and his daughter fighting for their lives. as international pressure mounts, moscow warns any punitive measures will be met with a response. hours after the us secretary of state's shock sacking, a breathless rex tillerson bows out of public life. what is most important is to ensure an orderly and smooth transition during a time that the country continues to face significant policy and national security challenges. where 70% of people are obese or overweight, qatar says it's time to tax sugar. and the black directors behind blockbuster movies,