fire chiefs apologise after it's revealed it took two hours for firefighters to reach victims of last year's manchester arena terror attack. a review says frustrated fire crews were held back from the scene by senior officers who feared a gunman was on the loose. the greater manchester fire and rescue service did not arrive at the scene, and therefore played no meaningful role in the response to the attack for nearly two hours. 22 people died that night. more than 100 were injured. survivors were surprised more help didn't come sooner. even for like the first moments that we were in there until about a0 minutes of trying to deal with people, i was on my own, just trying to do my best. we'll be looking at what went wrong that night and what lessons have been learnt. also tonight: mounting pressure on moscow — more countries expel russian diplomats over the salisbury nerve agent attack. life after brexit — a new report says british employers are concerned they may not be

able to recruit european workers once the uk leaves. staying put — the changing face of the property market. why homeowners don't move nearly so often any more... and we look back at the beginnings of the raf, the world's oldest serving air force as it celebrates its centenary this weekend. and coming up on bbc news... england face a tougher test on the road to russia, with tonight's world cup warm up against italy at wembley. good evening, and welcome to the bbc‘s news at six. a fire chief has apologised for the long delays in helping survivors of the manchester arena suicide bomb last year. the bomb went off at 10:30 at night.

but a major report has revealed that firefighters weren't allowed onto the scene until well after midnight because senior officers feared a gunman was still on the loose. 22 people died that night and more than 100 were injured. the review — led by lord kerslake — found that the fire service was out of the loop and played no meaningful role for nearly two hours after the attack. there were poor communications between the police and fire crews, and a helpline phone system provided by vodafone completely failed. it also said the fire service felt they had let down the people of greater manchester that night. judith moritz reports. screaming it was just chaos, there was people everywhere on the floor. plenty of which weren't alive or barely alive. ijust, yeah, i don't know, i just went around, tried to do the best i could. for those who were there, the memories are still fresh.

those like rob grew, who heard the sound of the blast and ran inside the building. an ordinary member of the public, who gave first aid in the foyet where the bomb went off, whilst most of the emergency services were kept out. apart from the three paramedics that were doing a greatjob, that's as far as it went, until we realised that no more support was coming from the medical teams or the ambulances. do you think that more people could have been saved, if that help had been there? definitely in the first 15 minutes, definitely more could have been done. police and paramedics rushed to the arena, but fire crews took two hours to arrive, held back by their senior officers, who now accept they let the city down. it meant they couldn't help evacuate or treat the injured. this firefighter, who doesn't want to be identified, was on duty but wasn't sent.

paramedics were asking us where we were, people were dying, why weren't we there? and we were just helpless, because obviously when you're in uniform service, you do what you're told to do and we weren't told to do anything. the fire service has a new chief officer. she knows front line firefighters wanted to help. we've spoken to one of them who's furious. there's a huge amount of anger there, amongst the rank and file. firefighters did feel let down that night by some of the decisions by the senior leaders, and i can understand their frustration, because they really did want to respond. but they showed self—discipline and they followed orders and they followed the processes, even though every fibre in their body, they wanted to respond to that incident. we had very, very limited kit for a huge number of patients to treat. there's praise for those who went to help, like the first doctor to respond, michael daley, who helped set up an area for casualties at the train

station next door. theyjust started to be brought down in larger and larger numbers. they'd been brought down notjust on stretchers but barriers, billboards were being used as makeshift stretchers by the arena staff, to just get people out of the foyet and down to the concourse. the national emergency helpline for such situations failed completely. a restricted local number was only set up four hours later. it's operator, vodafone, has apologised. martyn hett was at the concert. when his family realised he was missing, it took hours to find out that he'd died. i tried to also, like so many others, find that number that was given initially on the television. probably 26 times i phoned until i got through, and martyn‘s friends frantically went from hospital to hospital, trying to find him. the report authors say the story of how the city responded

is overwhelmingly positive and that the whole country can learn from the mistakes that were made. as well as celebrating the things that went well, however, it is vital that we learn the lessons of what went less well. this matters for the people of greater manchester, and beyond, who were caught up in the terrible events of that night. but also for other places that might experience an attack in the future. the public donated millions of pounds to a charity appeal for those affected, but the report also asks the government to consider financial support for victims of terror. it's something that the government needs to look at, beyond party politics — can we come to an agreement about what should be provided in these circumstances? it shouldn't be left purely to the generosity of the people of greater manchester, as much as i appreciate that, for support to be provided. the review doesn't establish whether lives could have been saved if things had been done differently.

that will be considered when the inquests are held. judithjoins us. we now know what went wrong for the fire service that night. it must‘ve been difficult today to hear such criticism? it was said today this report was commissioned because the city wanted the whole truth, no matter painful. it does seem that manchester's darkest day it was also the fire service's darkest day. i understand that the leaders in charge that night will not face disciplinary action, because the focus is said to be on learning lessons. when i asked the new chief fire officer weather should such an attack would happen again if her service could cope, she was adamant it could. there was also plenty to be positive about in this

report. a lot of talk about the heroes who helped and in fact, the report says it barely touches the surface of the hundreds if not thousands of acts of individual bravery and selflessness that has seen bravery and selflessness that has seen here in manchester when the bomb exploded. thank you. nato has expelled seven russian diplomats from its headquarters in brussels, as part of the continuing international response to the nerve agent attack in salisbury. more than two dozen countries have now taken action, with australia among the latest. the former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter remain critically ill. his niece has spoken exclusively to the bbc. she says her family feels tortured because they're being told nothing about the attack. from moscow, steve rosenberg reports. russia is starting to feel boxed in, besieged. more than 20 countries have expelled russian diplomats. relations between russia and the west at a standstill now over the salisbury attack.

russia's foreign minister hit back "the expulsions", sergei lavrov said, "were the result of colossal blackmail by washington". but could a diplomatic war morph into something more dangerous? one of the most influential voices on russia's foreign policy admits he's worried. this confrontation has certain logic, and this logic is to step up. each next move should be stronger than the previous one. and with this, we can reach pretty dangerous situation, when militarisation of behaviour will be inevitable. the one expression you hear more and more to describe the growing tension between russia and the west is "new cold war", but in fact what we have now is potentially more dangerous than the cold war because back in the days of communism against capitalism both

sides stuck to the rules of the game. today, it seems, there are no rules. meanwhile, sergei and yulia skripal remain in a critical, but stable condition in a salisbury hospital. the relatives back home have said little about this drama. but in her first tv interview, sergei's niece, victoria, has told the bbc russian service that political tensions are the last thing her family wants. translation: i don't want there to be this massive conflict between our two countries, for all this to get worse and for it to happen because of my family. the family still hasn't let told sergei's mother, who is unwell, that her son has been poisoned. translation: she doesn't know and she won't find out until this situation reaches its logical conclusion. there is all this scandal in the media at the moment, and it's painful for us. the nerve agent attack

in salisbury is a family tragedy and a political crisis. it has put russia and the west at loggerheads, on the path to confrontation. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. british employers are concerned about their ability to recruit workers from the eu after brexit according to new research by government advisers. the migration advisory committee heard from more than 400 business and organisations. they found that many businesses see european migrants as more motivated, flexible and willing to work longer hours than their british counterparts. our home editor, mark easton, reports from the west midlands. as british and stylish as james bond himself. the aston martin is one of the west midlands' most iconic creations. 0nly around 5% of workers here come from the european union but the prospect of losing access to skilled engineers from outside the uk after brexit

leaves the boss shaken, if not stirred. aston martin is a global company and we need access to the best global talent. why can't we get british workers to do the jobs you have to employ foreigners for? i am sure we can. these are high skilled jobs and you need to invest in training and we are doing that now. we are recruiting every year more and more apprentices but it takes ten years to create an engineer. today's migration report identifies widespread concern among employers that a post—brexit policy designed to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands, will damage growth and threaten jobs. today, the west midlands' mayor was in westminster pressing the case for a policy to protect his region's economy. what i often hear is how there is already a skills shortage for example in engineering, in the advanced manufacturing sector, and it is good we are going to be responsible for our migration policy but we need to make sure the people in really important roles

are able to come in in the future. the government's migration advisers say they are concerned not with the short—term profits of uk business, but the long—term welfare of british people. that might mean more training and better pay for home—grown workers in sectors where businesses exploit a ready and willing pool of foreign labour. it's the balti argument. birmingham's famous take on indian cuisine employs large numbers of migrant chefs but why not train local people instead ? it is a question that this leave activist believes should be asked of eu workers. there are many opportunities that have arisen from brexit. if you have chefs trained in balti restaurants, they have a certain skill set but we need a system where that skill set becomes transferred over to young people. they are the future of our region and the future of generations.

the west midlands engine powers a quarter of all uk exports, but tuning the economy for a low migration, post—brexitjourney will be challenging, with or without a james bond ejector seat. the russian president, vladimir putin, has declared a national day of mourning after 64 people — most of them children — were killed in a fire at a shopping centre in siberia on sunday. today he visited the scene in the city of kemerovo and promised angry residents that those responsible would be punished harshly. from moscow paul adams sent this report. grief turning to fury on the streets of this siberian mining town. two—days after the fire, people want answers. chanting. "resign, resign", they say. local officials are surrounded and bombarded with questions. how many people really died?

were children really locked inside? why were the fire alarms not working? the crowd smells corruption. the sign over over the mayor's assistant reads, "how much are your closed eyes worth?" sergei lost his mother and his two children in the fire. translation: we could identify my children because they were suffocating somewhere. other children that were brought, they were without hands and legs. inside what's left of the winter cherry shopping complex, a scene of utter devastation. this place was packed on sunday, when the fire broke out it swept through the building with appalling speed. on one of the upper floors, what's left of the cinema. this is where many of the children died. the man leading the investigation says those responsible for safety simply ran away. the view from above is equally shocking. parts of the roof simply collapsed. russia's newly re—elected president was in kemerovo this morning.

he's offered condolences and promised a thorough investigation. what happened, he says was "inexcusable". translation: an investigation group of 100 people is working here. they will go through the whole chain, starting with those who issued licences and up to those who were responsible for safety. what began as a local tragedy now has the potential to turn into a national scandal. fires like this are not uncommon in russia and behind them there's often a story of corruption, fast money and lax oversight. this disaster raises a host of difficult questions. pauladams, bbc news, moscow. the time is 6.17pm. our top story this evening: a review says frustrated fire crews were held back from the manchester arena bombing scene last year by senior officers, who feared a gunman was on the loose. and still to come. as the raf celebrates its centenary, we look back at its early days during world war i.

coming up on sportsday on bbc news: fighting talk from the heavyweight champion as britain's anthonyjoshua insists saturday night's unification bout with joseph parker will go down in history. it used to be that british homeowners would move house three, four, even five times during their lifetime. but that has all changed, according to new research, as more and more people stay put. the findings show that across the uk people are now moving half as often as they used to. simon gompertz has the details. you could try to move house or you could do this. nearly doubled the size of the house and we've gone up, out, in all directions possible. eddie, in south manchester, is expanding rather than buying something bigger saving, he reckons, £200,000.

it costs so much money and there's nowhere to buy. in your lifetime, how many times do you think you'll move? i've moved twice. probably maybe one more, to a care home, and that's it. some are still moving around here, but removal firms are having it really affects us as a business because less people for us to go and move. we've combated that by going into other industries. we've started moving a lot more businesses, rather than domestic moves. we got the housing experts savills to calculate how much less packing up and moving is happening. if you go back before the credit crunch, so more than a decade ago, typically people moved around one, two, three, four times in their lifetimes after they'd bought their first property, but that's all changed. nowadays, it's more like just two times that they move. so even if they can afford to sell and buy, they're moving half as much.

i don't know how so many estate agents have survived. this local agent says economic uncertainty and brexit are making families ultra cautious. people are reluctant to put their house on the market until they can see what they want to buy. in particular we're finding that with the older generation, who perhaps have a house too big for them, they want to downsize, they want to buy a bungalow and they just aren't available for them any more. you're going to have a room each, aren't you? there's obviously another option, and that's to rent. but many property owners feel unable to move, having to add what space they can. simon gompertz, bbc news, manchester. in the past few minutes, the prime minister has announced the government is to set out a new type of settlement for funding the nhs in england. speaking to a committee of mps theresa may said she recognised the need for "a long term plan for the health service.

0ur deputy political editorjohn pienaar is at westminster . the government has to deliver a step change in nhs funding. 0ver . the government has to deliver a step change in nhs funding. over 100 mps, including former tory ministers, have called for a special parliamentary commission to look at long—term funding. the health secretary called for a big increase in change and floated the idea of a branded nhs tax. the prime minister, just a moment or two ago, gave her answer. speaking to a committee of senior mps she said she wanted to see a multi year settlement for the nhs to back up preventative care and good practice. she wanted to see co—operation across party lines to deliver that plan in the course of the next year. well, in the last moment or two we have heard the boss of nhs england calling these remarks "significant and of nhs england calling these remarks "significa nt and welcome". of nhs england calling these remarks "significant and welcome". the tories feel vulnerable on this issue. they have labour breathing down their necks. theresa may recognises that action is needed and

ready to work across party lines to get thejob down. ready to work across party lines to get the job down. john pienaar with the latest from westminster, thank you. the facebook founder, mark zuckerberg, has refused to appear before mps to answer questions about how personal data belonging to millions of facebook users was harvested. one of his deputies will attend instead. meanwhile, a whistleblower from cambridge analytica — the company at the centre of the controversy — has been giving evidence. our technology correspondent, rory cellanjones, reports. he's the founder of the social media giant facing its biggest crisis but facebook‘s mark zuckerberg doesn't want to talk about it to mp5. he's turned down an invitation to answer questions about data privacy and offered to send one of his senior executives instead. that didn't get a good response. i think it is absolutely astonishing that mark zuckerberg is not prepared to submit himself to questioning in front of a parliamentary hearing, given that these are questions of fundamental importance and concern to facebook users. this man was happy to speak to mp5, christopher wiley,

is the whistle—blower who alleged that cambridge analytica used facebook data in its work to elect donald trump. but much of his evidence centred on the eu referendum campaign and the way data companies may have been involved. these are the complex links described by christopher wiley. he says cambridge analytica was closely tied to a canadian firm, aggregate iq, which had access to the facebook data held by cambridge analytica. we know that this firm worked for both the official vote leave campaign and got a substantial sum from beleave, a group set up by a young fashion student. christopher wiley says the two groups coordinated their spending and that was illegal. mr wylie said even as a eurosceptic this felt wrong to him. you cannot call yourself a leaver, you cannot call yourself somebody

who believes in british law and win by breaking british law. is that your belief as well, that the law was broken? absolutely. cambridge analytica says mr wylie left the firm in 2014. aggregate iq denies it's linked to the company. vote leave says that it won the referendum campaign fairly and ethically. one report says mark zuckerberg will testify before the us congress. he may be more comfortable in washington than westminster. rory cellan—jones, bbc news. the royal air force, it's the oldest and longest serving air force in the world and this sunday it will be celebrating 100 years since its formation. it was created towards the end of world war i, the first conflict in which aviation played a major role. since then, the raf has been involved in countless operations and is currently serving in 31 countries. robert hall looks at the royal air force then and now. there was nothing but you and your guns. you were alone, you know, and you fought alone and died alone. we flew like goldfish

in a bowl, in all directions, swimming around the sky. sometimes standing on our tails, sometimes with our heads right down. the raf motto is "through adversity to the stars" — the early flyers needed just that determination. most of them joined the raf predecessor, the royal flying corps, inspired by the exploits of the first aviation pioneers and championed by this man, major hugh trenchard, known as the father of the royal air force. the royal flying corps was in action from the start of the first world war, inspiring others to seek this new adventure. facing the enemy was initially a gentlemanly affair, as pilots took aim with pistols or rivals, but soon the germans worked out how to add machine guns to the fight. —— rifles. here we have the interrupter gearfrom 1915. when it's engaged, as we'll see here, no bullets will be released

from the gun at the moment when the wooden propeller is in front of the gun. the war in the air became brutal and chaotic. the average life expectancy of a pilot was 18—hours. but as the war ground on, technology and experience helped the allied flyers gain the upper hand. the case was made for the world's first independent air force. at the start of the first world war, the royal flying corps and the royal naval air service were onlyjust over 2,000 strong. by the end of the war, the new royal air force had over 300,000 personnel. there could be no going back. today's raf has reduced in size to around 31,000 trained regular personnel. its commander—in—chief say it is still a credible air force, but the challenges ahead will need more resources. —— says. the world is changing, it's adaptling very quickly. people have noticed where we're strong. they've noticed, through recent conflicts, our strength in the air

and they're working to deny us that strength in the future. so in order to continue being a credible airforce, i need to expand my capabilities, i need to thicken them up and provide more resilience and i need to stay at the front end of technology. as with its first 100 years, innovation and technology will be vital as the raf heads into its second century. robert hall, bbc news. time for a look at the weather, here's chris fawkes. we started the day with cloud and rain. things have been cheering up quite nicely. a fine end to the day in cornwall with almost clear skies there for a time in st ives, cornwall. chilly in the waters. temperatures eight degrees if you dip yourtoe in temperatures eight degrees if you dip your toe in the sea at the moment. we have plenty of showers feeding in across the north—west and will continue on and off through the night. the north—east of the uk clear spells. temperatures will dip away. we could get pockets of frost in the countryside by the end of the night. at the same time, cloud will

thicken by the end of the night across the south—west with rain developing and moving in here. the heaviest rain to southern counties of england through wednesday morning. uncertainty of how far north this band of rain gets. sleet for a time over the hills. maybe the chilterns. northern ireland, scotla nd chilterns. northern ireland, scotland and the north of england sunshine and showers. the showers will be frequent to the north—west of the country and over the high ground a risk of wintriness. for get the double figure temperatures, tomorrow's high between seven and nine degrees celsius for most. that is wednesday's weather wrapped up. thursday, low pressure to the south—west will drive in heavy downpours pours, south—west england, wales and northern ireland no snow for these areas. north a band of rain affecting the north of scotland. the mountains to northern scotla nd scotland. the mountains to northern scotland there could be snow here. temperatures still generally a little bit cool for the time of year. easter, things will start off

ona year. easter, things will start off on a cool note. bands of rain around at times, sunny spells. sunday not too bad. things turning milder. windy and wet as we go on this through monday. the heaviest rain towards southern areas. that's the latest weather. breaking news for you on the cricket ball—tampering i’ow. you on the cricket ball—tampering row. cricket australia have said the captain, steve smith and the vice captain, steve smith and the vice captain and cameron bancroft have all been deselected and all being sent home with more sanctions to follow. plenty more on that story at 10.00pm and throughout the evening. that's all from the bbc news at six, so it's goodbye from me this is bbc news — our latest headlines. fire chiefs apologise after it's revealed it took two hours for firefighters to reach victims of last year's manchester arena terror attack. a review says frustrated fire crews were held back amid fears

a gunman was on the loose. firstly the fire service simply were out of the loop, they made a misjudgement at the beginning and therefore were two hours late in getting to the fire. theresa may tells mps that 25 of britain's allies have now expelled russian diplomats over the poisoning of the former double agent sergei skripal. in siberia, relatives of the victims of the shopping centre fire join thousands in protest over the deaths of more than sixty people — accusing officials there of corruption. a police inspector has beenjailed for at least 19 years for murdering his wife. darren mckie strangled leanne mckie after she discovered