dozens of the russian diplomats who were ordered out of the united states have left washington. on monday, they were given seven days to leave the country in what has become a tit for tat diplomatic row. earlier, russia told britain it must reduce its diplomatic presence by just over 50 people. thousands of palestinians have attended funerals in gaza for the people shot by israeli troops during clashes on the territory's border with israel on friday. the palestinians say they were unarmed protesters. the israelis say they faced a mass attempt to break down their border defences. reports from syria say a deal has been reached to evacuate critically injured people from douma — the last rebel—held town in eastern ghouta. the agreement follows negotiations involving the rebels, civic leaders and russia. virtually, the whole of eastern ghouta is now said to be under army control. now on bbc news, the week in westminster. hello and welcome to westminster

in review, our look back at all the big events in parliament since christmas. coming up, as the uk inches ever closer to leading the european union there is agreement between the two sides on the next phase of brexit. but there are still some vague sticking points not least the fishing rights. the tories are treating this industry as expendable. i understand how fishing communities feel at the moment, i share their disappointment. there are tough questions for the bosses of collapse construction firm carillion after it went under leaving job losses across the uk and a pensions black hole. you say how sad and disappointed you are, but what actions do you take to show how you feel? because it is just words.

after the poisoning of a spy and his daughter with a rare nerve agent the premise to expels 23 russian diplomats. —— agent the prime minister expels 23 russian diplomats. the government has concluded that it is highly likely that russia was responsible for the act against sergei and yulia skripal. but first, the uk is set to leave the eu in less than a year, theresa may's big achievement in the last few months has meant to secure a interim deal, meaning there will be a transitional period from our leaving till the end of 2020, during that time the uk will be able to negotiate its own trade deals, while eu citizens moving to the uk will enjoy the same rights as those who arrived before brexit. but — and it's a big but — there is still no agreement on how to avoid a hard border between northern ireland and the irish republic. and anger that the deal will see the uk effectively remain in the eu's controversial fishing policy until the end of 2020.

a concession which led to the former leader of the uk independence party, nigel farage, staging a rather unusual protest — throwing dead haddock into the thames. the mood in fishing communities is honest palpable anger, this is not what they were promised. if they can let us down like this over the deal for a transitional period, how do we know that they will not do it again when it comes to the final deal? i know whose parents were fishers, i could really understand about how they feel. there is no way i can sell this deal in the transitional period as a success to fishing committees. what a load of codswallop in to

bring ——!. they will never ever be trusted ever again by the scottish fishermen. can he save us the time and say what they can expect from his government? the tories are taking this industry as expendable, the secretary of state talked about revival but industry cannot revive based on the status code that the government has delivered on the cfp. does understand why my constituencys will see this as a total sell—out? what did we get in return? the big prize that we have secured is an implementation period that allows us as a country to prepare for all the benefits of brexit will bring. michael gove in hot water over the interim fishing deal. down the court or the laureates were also getting their teeth into brexit. the eu withdrawal bill which puts all you law into uk law to stop —— the eu withdrawal bill which puts all eu law into uk law to stop a legislative black hole opening up pass through the comments before christmas, and so it was up

to the upper house for peers to begin their detailed green of the plans. at end of january, they held a two—day debate on the principles of the bill. the duty of the house is very clear. and that duty, i submit, is to assert our rights to scrutinise, to amend and if need be, to reject unacceptable parts of this bill. the more we argue here, the weaker we make the government's negotiating position. should we not be implementing the people's vote, unelected as we are, pulling together and present in a united front. it all means improve the bill before us it all means improve the bill before us but let us not frustrate it. the government can expect no letter in our efforts to make this bill somehow against all odds work in the interest of the british people. as we leave europe. as we leave europe — an act of extraordinary political

self harm that our grandchildren and their children will not forgive us for. this sovereign parliament, once the terms of any british exit are known and the reality of it becomes clear, is entitled to choose if it wants to to seek the opinion of the british people as to whether this is what they want. we could have made a success of the united kingdom in the european union, and we can make a success with some costs and upheaval of being outside the european union, but we cannot possibly make a success of being in a national state of the mould or rant about what they're going to have —— of bewilderment about if we're going to have another referendum and which direction we are going in. william hague at the start of the scrutiny of the eu withdrawal bill. so far, peers have not voted on the detail of the bill but all that is set to change after easter when they move on to theirfinal stage of highly detailed scrutiny.

expect plenty of late nights, tight votes and potential government defeats. and if brexit weren't not tricky enough just before easter, remainers used a parliamentary debate to air allegations that the vote leave campaign had exceeded spending in the referendum. vote leave has strongly denied accusations that it used a different pro—brexit group to get around strict spending controls. but remainers' unhappiness of the referendum campaign and result looks set to rumble on. but for the time being, theresa may will be relieved that she has a deal on a transitional period with its provisions on citizens' rights and trade and as we heard earlier, that controversial section on fishing. 0n the last monday before the easter break, she updated mps on her latest summit meeting with eu leaders. whilst i recognise that not everyone will welcome continuation of current trading terms for another 21 months, such implantation period has been widely welcomed by british business because it is necessary if we are to minimise uncertainty

and deliver a smooth and successful brexit. jeremy corbyn! we are pleased at some progress being made on the transition period, especially given the agreement is identical to what labour was calling for last summer. the only real question is why it took the government so long to realise that a transition on the same terms is vital to protectjobs and our economy? given that her government and unfortunately, the official opposition, have had more positions on brexit than the karma sutra, isn't it time that this idea of nonsense stop and that our constituents will be protected from the disastrous economic impacts of brexit? can i say to the honourable lady that the picture she paints is not one that i recognise. theresa may on that interim brexit deal.

i'm delighted to say i'm joined by the bbc‘s political correspondent chris mason. cris, what can we glean from this interim deal that it might tell us about the final deal we'll get? it tells us that in the short term there is going to be a difference between the legal moment of brexit happening at the end of march next year and the point at which there is a fundamental change which will come at the end of 2020. so the government will fulfil its obligations to take us out of the eu at the end of march of next year but pretty much very little actually changes. the government's argument is that it allows business more time to adjust and also gives them more negotiating time in terms of securing the longer term deal. and their hope is that those who have agitated for brexit for a generation can live with effectively the status quo for a period of the best part of two years because it allows them to secure their prize in the end. but one of those things

that does not change as the common fisheries policy. the government must have seen that coming? i think they did. there is the curiosity around the fishing because it is symbolically hugely important to the context of brexit. while economically relatively unimportant. it is a small sliver of the overall uk economy, all be it concentrated in particular areas. in fishing communities their industry has decimated and many of them hugely critical of the fishing policy. they had hoped that there might be some transition but they would only have to stay within the confines of eu fishing regulations for perhaps nine months or one year after the pointer brexit. they now know it is going to be nearly two years and are deeply angry. they are certainly using this point to flex their local muscle, to try and ensure that any long term after the transition slash implementation period,

they get an arrangement around fishing rights that is from their perspective a notable improvement on what happens. we are talked about the transition deal means in the uk but what about in the eu? are they very united still? can we glean that from this deal? have —— they are certainly proud that up until now the 27 of eu have been united, i think there's the prospect that that might change as again to the nitty—gritty of how a trade deal might work and how his security cooperation arrangement might work but at the the eu is very proud, publicly and privately, that up until now, they've managed to keep themselves together. thank you, we will be hearing from you a little bit later in the programme. now let's take a look at some other news. nine months on from the grenfell tower fire, just 62 out of 204 households had been found permanent homes. 71 people died from the fire.

the housing secretary said some of those made homeless were still living in hotels. an memorial service was held on march 22, marking one year since the westminster terror attack that left five dead and dozens injured. an islamic extremist drove into pedestrians on westminster bridge before heading to the houses of parliament. a police officer, keith palmer who was on guard outside, was stabbed and killed before the attacker was shot dead. a few days later and mps said lessons must be learned following a report on the response to the suicide bombing at manchester arena. two months after the westminster attack. salman abedi detonated a home—made device at an ariana grande concert killing 22 people. the review revealed that it took nearly two hours for firefighters to be deployed, that there were communication problems between the emergency services and a complete failure for help for relatives. mps praised the emergency services

and the city's residents but urged the government to learn from what had happened. just before easter, the high court overturned a decision to free the serial sex offender john worboys, known as the black cab rapist. judges upheld a challenge from two physic terms. —— judges upheld a challenge from two of his victims. the head of the parole board nick hardwick resigned. these decisions were often involve difficultjudgements —— we cannot have a system whereby we rely upon victims, victims of a serial predatory sex offender to keep us safe. the primary role of government is to keep the people safe. will the minister take this opportunity to apologise to the victims for the many failures that have left them having to pursue justice because nobody will do it for them? i share the anger that he does that victims had to go through this process and i am sorry that that happened. there was fury following revelations

about an annual charity fundraising dinner where hostesses were allegedly actually harassed. the presidents club later announced it was to close following claims that women were grouped at the men only event. organisers chose to make this a man only event, they chose to treat the hostesses in this way to make them parade across the stage in front of men, to make them wear black skimpy outfits and specify the colour of their underwear. women have the right to feel safe where ever they work and allegations of this type of behaviour are completely unacceptable. there were celebrations across permits to mark 100 years of women getting the right to vote. although it didn't apply to all, it was a historic step forward. the house of lords held a special debate to mark the anniversary. 0ne peer recalled her conversations with a former suffragette. and i loved to hear more than once about how she would help to carry one of those big laundry bins into meetings during the cat—and—mouse acts.

and the police on the floor would say, "what is in that basket?" and they would carry it as if it contained what they said it contained, bunting. it actually contained mrs bankers. there was a prolonged standing ovation in the lords when the former cabinet minister called for greater global cooperation to help beat cancer. she was speaking following her diagnosis of a severe brain tumour in may last year. i hope that this debate will give hope to other cancer patients like me. so that we can live well together with cancer. notjust dying of it. all of us... for longer. thank you. applause. it went into liquidation leaving

suppliers on paid and £1 billion hole in the company's pension scheme. an array of senior executives gave their side of the story but the joint committees were unimpressed, sang afterwards that the directors were delusional characters. do you fear that you were asleep at the wheel that you were surprised? no, i don't believe i was asleep at the wheel. the key focus of my time in the role was to bring net debt down. words can't describe the depth of my despair. i am devastated that the impact that the collapse has had. 0n the pensioners, on customers, on the suppliers, on staff. all of you are sitting

here multi—millions of pounds with payment from the company over a period of years and you say how sad and disappointed you are. but what actions do you take to show that? because it's just words, isn't it? it's just words, i'm saddened, i'm disappointed, i wish i could've done things differently. pensions is taking cuts, large numbers people will not get paid for their contracts. other people have lost theirjobs. and you are still all right, all of you. aren't you? do any if you want to say anything before i thank you and close the meeting? so you walk away and we will be doing a report. thank you very, very much for coming today. executives at carillion loss for words. the uk's relationship with russia had a new low

after the poisoning of a former russian double agent and his daughter. sergei and yulia skripal were found slumped on a bench in the cathedral city of salisbury. it was later revealed they'd been poisoned using a military grade nerve agent, and the uk believe russia was to blame. coming to the commissary after the attack, theresa may set out the evidence. based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world leading experts at the defence science and technology laboratory, our knowledge that russia has reproduced this agent and still would be capable of doing so, russia's record of conducting state—sponsored assassinations and our assessment that russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations. the government has concluded that it is highly likely that russia was responsible for the act against sergei and yulia skripal. jeremy corbyn began by condemning the attack.

he called for continued dialogue, not for the casting of all content. but his later comments on party funding provoked heckling from conservatives and disagreement from his own side. we're all familiar with the way huge fortunes often acquired in the most dubious circumstances in russia sometimes connected with criminal elements have ended up sheltering in london and trying to buy political influence in british party politics. and there has been over £800,000 worth of donations to the conservative party... to the conservative party from russian oligarchs and their associates. there are certain circumstances, as she knows, where we take her to put up with differences of opinion. but when our country is potentially under attack, that isjust not appropriate. would the prime minister not agree that one of the most effective ways of punishing russia for these

appalling activities will be to seize the private property assets of members of the putin regime and their associates? theresa may came back to the commons 48 hours later, after the russian government failed to respond to a midnight deadline to explain how a nerve agent came to be used in the poison attack. and she said she'd be expelling 23 russian diplomats. and there was a final update just before the easter break. 18 countries have announced their intention to expel more than 100 russian intelligence officers from their countries. this includes 15 eu member states, as well as the united states, canada and the ukraine. and this is the largest collective expulsion of russian intelligence officers in history. there is clear evidence that the russian state has a case to answer and that they failed to do so and we can, therefore, draw no other

conclusion other than russia has a direct or indirect responsibility for this. russia, with that state—sponsored act of terrorism, crossed the line. and i think we should be gratified to see the response of our friends and allies across the world that recognise the seriousness and the importance of the events that took place two weekends ago. well, i'm delighted to say that our political correspondent chris mason is still with me to talk about all things russia. chris, does the government see this as a short—term spat or something longer term? i think they understand that they is this a longer term problem. with the re—election of putin a couple of weeks ago, the challenge is not likely to go away. how do they go about facing russia that appears is acting so brazenly on foreign soil? i think they'll chalk up something of a diplomatic victory from the expulsions of diplomats that we've seen from western allies of the uk in the last couple of days. but the central challenge remains,

and there's been a lot of discussion about this at westminster, both privately and publicly, which is what can be done, ultimately, what can be done that will touch the size to be noticed in the kremlin? you touched there on the fact that other countries have also expelled their russian diplomats. what does that tell us about the eu's reaction to this and also about the uk's relationship with the eu? there was a frustration that while the uk went out of its way not to congratulate president putin his re—election, the european commission published a letter on twitter that he sent to the kremlin saying, "congratulations, president putin" and he defended that angela merkel of germany had done the same thing. and yet, at the same time, via bilateral conversations going on one—on—one between the uk and members of the eu and others, the british government has managed to secure a range men swept other —— the arrangement other

countries that they would see the expulsion of russian diplomats as well as those in the uk have expelled from london. they can point to how that can work after brexit regardless of our membership of the eu. now, we can't talk about russia without talking about jeremy corbyn‘s response to this. following on from the general election, the labour party seemed to be marching together in one step and moving forward. his response to the russian crisis seems to have completely reopened all the divisions in his party. yeah, it felt like the kind of prising open of the paint can of labour disagreement within the parliamentary party. for months on end, we were reporting many mps were uncomfortable with him before the election. that was shortened up by the general election because he proves so many people wrong. and so he was allowed to get on with the job. his reaction, and repeated reaction to the government's positive

response to the salisbury attack irritated to a huge degree a lot of labourmps, because, bluntly, they felt that it conveyed a message of fleeting view of lesson of whose side you are on? and that opened up to include that he is not on the uk's side. mr corbyn‘s perspective is much more subtle than that. but it really angered labour mps, some of whom feel that while the domestic platform that jeremy corbyn setup be ambitious, it shows him side of being popular, perhaps his foreign affairs instincts are much less so. chris, thank you for coming onto the programme. finally, there has been much controversy over the role of social media in our in recent months. and secretary of state traditional culture and media support has certainly embraced the digital part of his brief but watching his very own smartphone app.

the matt hancock app features pictures and videos of him and allows users to sign up as friends and chat to each other. but there have been concerns about the apps privacy policy and whether it complies with the data protection act. the shadow culture minister wanted action. the general public need protecting, mr speaker, from their privacy being invaded by matt hancock. their personal information been shared of course the app does comply. but more importantly, i think we should use digital communications, mr speaker, to communicate with our constituents in all their modern forms. i am frankly delighted by their response that the app has had so far it is far bigger

than i could've imagined. and i look forward to communicating with my constituents over matt hancock for many years. the very ‘appy‘ matt hancock taking hisjob to heart. and that's it for now. mps and peers adjourned for the easter recess on march the 29th, exactly one year before the uk leaves the eu. but there's plenty more politics between now and then. join us on bbc parliament went mps and peers return from their easter break on april the 16th. we'll be with you every weeknight at 11pm with a full round up of the day in westminster. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. hello there. saturday was a pretty disappointing day across the board — it felt cool, it was cloudy, there were further outbreaks of rain across many central and eastern areas with some sleet and snow on the hills.

this weather watcher picture from east lothian pretty much sums up how many places were throughout the afternoon. but there was some sunshine across the north and west of scotland. that's because a ridge of high pressure was moving in, and for easter day, that ridge of high pressure will be very much in control. so we're starting off on a cold and frosty note with clear skies for many. it'll be largely dry, too, and there should be plenty of sunshine around through the morning. temperature—wise, we could be looking at —3 to —6 across scotland this morning. a cold start as well across wales, south—west of england. but still some cloud to begin the day across central and eastern areas. again, a few showers around, maybe wintry over the higher ground, but for most of us, it's looking fine and dry. glimmers of brightness around. a few wintry showers across the far north of scotland. later in the day, a spell of wet and windy weather will arrive across cornwall and devon, that's all courtesy of this area of low pressure which will continue to move northwards during the early hours of easter monday, bringing a mixture

of rain and sleet and snow. initially across southern areas, we will see the snow only to the highest ground, but as it continues to bump into that cold air, we could see some sleet and snow down to lower levels across mid—north wales, the north midlands, northern england, the pennines and into central southern scotland, maybe northern ireland too, as it continues to march its way northwards. further south, though, all reverting back to rain because it will be turning milder, temperatures 10—12 degrees. but that snow could cause some problems, particularly for central northern parts of the country, as it settles the lower ground as well. just keep tuned to bbc local radio and to all the weather forecasts. as we head on into tuesday, a different feel to the weather. we're bringing in very mild air from the south or south—west. plenty of heavy april showers. some sunny spells in between. some of them may contain some thunder, in fact. wet weather continuing across the north and the west of scotland. but notice the temperatures — 10 to maybe 1a or 15 degrees. low pressure still with us as we head on in towards the middle of part of the week, so it does remain unsettled.

a lot of rain at times too, but i think we're looking at pretty heavy showers on wednesday. some will merge together to produce longer spells of rain. there could even be the odd thundery one for central, southern and eastern areas as again, it will feel very mild again in south—westerly winds. given some sunshine, we could be looking at highs 01:14 or 15, and even quite mild across the northern parts as well. hello this is breakfast, with babita sharma and roger johnson. victory for anthonyjoshua as he adds another world heavyweight belt to his collection. the british boxer took the wbo title on points in front of 80,000 fans as he now targets his shot at history. good morning. it's sunday, the 1st of april. also this morning: the comedian eddie izzard joins

labour's ruling committee, after a senior party official at the centre of an anti—semitism row is forced to resign. heading home. russian and american diplomats pack their bags after being expelled as part of action taken following the salisbury attack.