way of dry i think more in the way of dry weather. then, as we move overnight through monday, that area of low pressure starts to work its way over towards the east. we will see at improving, a dry and bright day with some sunny improving, a dry and bright day with some sunny spells. won't last for long over in the west. turning wetter and windy as the next weather front wetter and windy as the next weather fro nt m oves wetter and windy as the next weather front moves on. temperatures greatly up, a maximum of 1a celsius. as we move through the week, we will see the temperatures creeping up. by sunday, we will look at highs of 20 celsius. this is bbc news, our latest headlines. more than 200 mps have signed a letter, coordinated by labour backbencher david lammy, sent to the prime minister, calling for government promises to windrush migrants to be written into law. south korea says kimjong—un has promised to close north korea's nuclear test site next month, and has invited the world to watch. in northern ireland,

police have taken two wanted men back into custody after they were found tied up on a bench in a county armagh village. an 18—year—old man has been arrested after four people were taken to hospital, two with potentially life—changing injuries, following a collision in newport. more from me at 3pm. now on bbc news, the week in parliament. hello and welcome to the week in parliament where there's continued pressure on the home secretary over her handling of immigration. she does take full responsibility for this serious issue then perhaps she should do the honourable thing and resign. i do take syria is my responsibility

but i do think i am the person i do take it seriously as my responsibility but i do think i am the person that can put it right. it's 60 years since the life peerages act. i've been talking to three prominent peers about the change in the rules that allowed women to sit in the lords for the first time. and hearing about the men who opposed the change. we like women, we admire them, sometimes we even grow fond of them, but we do not like them here. well, i mean, the idea that anybody could, you know, even think of saying that today is absolutely extraordinary. and the brexit secretary tells a committee he expects mps to back the government's stand on leaving the customs union. i expect the government's policy to be upheld. if it is not, you are going to have to respect it, are you not? the government always respects parliament but i expect the government's policy to be upheld. but first, it was another tricky week for the home secretary amber rudd. on monday, she came to the commons to try to draw a line under the scandal about the way members of the windrush generation

have been treated. thousands of people from commonwealth countries who arrived in the united kingdom before 1973 are to be given free uk citizenship if they want it with the waiving of citizenship fees and language tests. amber rudd also said she'd compensate those who'd been disadvantaged. she told the commons that the windrush migrants had been caught up in measures designed to crack down on illegal immigration. but the row refused to go away. at prime minister's questions, jeremy corbyn called on theresa may to abandon what he described as the government's "cruel" immigration policies. can the prime minister send a clear message today and tell us the hostile environment is over, and that her bogus immigration targets, that have driven this hostile culture, will be scrapped 7 the windrush generation have served this country and deserve better than this. the labour frontbench are saying that the windrush generation are illegal.

they are not illegal! they are here legally. that is why. .. that is why we are providing the support to enable them to get the documents for their status. what we are talking about, what the right honourable gentleman, the leader of the opposition, is talking about is whether or not we should deal with illegal immigration, and up and down this country, the british public will tell him we should deal with illegal immigration. a short time later, the home secretary appeared in front of the committee that scrutinises her department and was asked when she knew about the problem. i became aware over the past few months, i would say, that there was a problem of individuals that i was seeing. this was covered, as far as i could see, from newspapers and mps bringing it forward anecdotally over the past three orfour months, and i became aware that there was a potential issue. i bitterly, deeply regret that i didn't see it as more

than individual cases that had gone wrong that needed addressing. i didn't see it as a systemic issue until very recently. amber rudd. well, during that committee hearing she was asked if her department had targets for removing illegal immigrants, and said that there weren't. but overnight, documents emerged suggesting that wasn't the case and so labour put down an urgent question on thursday, where ms rudd faced repeated calls for her to quit. i have never agreed that there should be specific removal target and i would never support a policy that puts targets ahead of people. the immigration arm of the home office has been using local targets for internal performance management... these were not published targets against which performance was assessed. if they were used inappropriately, i am clear that this will have to change.

when lord carrington resigned over the falklands, he said it was a matter of honour. is it not time that the home secretary considered her honour and resign? this home secretary is presiding over a department out of control, marked by cruelty and chaos. will she stop shielding the prime minister, will she do the honourable thing and resign? surely she takes full responsibility for this serious issue then perhaps surely if she takes full responsibility for this serious issue then perhaps she should do the honourable thing and resign. i do take serious my responsibility, but i do think that i am the person who can put it right. but conservative mps backed the home secretary. illegal immigration is wrong because it creates unfairness to those legal migrants who do the right thing and play by the rules, like the windrush generation.

is it not vital that we keep that distinction and do not allow the party opposite to conflate the 24 political purposes? most people in the real world outside the major portals in london elite, the smp and the labour party believe that the government do not do enough to remove illegal immigrants from this country, not that they are doing too much. well, a short time later the home secretary appeared in front of the committee that scrutinises her department the target to reduce net migration to below 100,000 will stay in place. monday april 30th marks 60 years since the passing of the act which created life peerages in the house of lords and enabled women to join the upper house for the first time. for the first time in a decade, members of the house of lords met again in their own chamber, redecorated after its temporary use by the commons. the house of lords in the 1950s had only 30 or so turning

up at any given day, out of over 800 members and this is just not enough members attending in order to do the important business of the lords. most had inherited their places, very few were labour and many labour politicians did not want to join us hereditaries. some solution had to be found, reform, and there had been discussion going on for decades about different ways and by 1958, they finally agreed on a way forward, which was for a life peerages. i think it was transformational for the house of lords. i think it is saved it from falling into complete disrepute, and possibly saved it from being abolished. and despite opposition from some in the lords, four the first life peers created in 1958 were women. we asked some long—serving

life peers to reflect on their time in the house. they alljoined before the reforms of 1999 which removed most of the hereditary peers. we'll hear first from lady blackstone who arrived in 1987. i was not allowed to go into the library because the attendant thought i must be a secretary because i was relatively young and i was female and i said, i think i am allowed to go into labour because i have just become a new member said the expectations of people were that you would not be young as a woman. however, once you got working, it was as easy to work as a young woman as it was as an older man. the hereditaries really did influence the atmosphere there, because there was this tremendous sense of conservatism with a small c and historical legacy. one of the impressions

was there were far more men than there were women. it was much smaller in those days. it has increased a tremendous amount. the women here now are remarkable. they are very highly intelligent, and they are frightening for most people like me, but they are very good at what they do. it is a joy. i'm joined in the studio by ladyjay of paddington, a labour peer and former leader of the lords, by the conservative peer ladyjenkin of kennington and by the former mp lady kramer who is now a lib dem peer. we heard the from a lady talking about the house now and in the future, let us take a step back, what do you think would have happened to the lords if we had not had the life peerages act? i think it would have fallen into complete disrepute.

as they said in the interviews you had on the tape, there were a large number of hereditary peers, some of them took it seriously but most of them did not. all of the accusations, which are probably wrongly now directed at all of us, being unelected, so i and so forth, would have been far louder and far stronger if there had not been the changes that were made both in the life peerages act, but, in my view, much more importantly, in the 1999 act which got rid of the majority of hereditary peers. that was when you saw the real change. let's stick to the life peerages act now. there was a lot of opposition? there was. i hope you will forgive me from reading a quote from one of the hereditary peers which i think will shock viewers. "frankly, i find women in politics highly distasteful. "there are certain duties and responsibilities which nature "and custom agree men are more

"fitted to take on. "why should we encourage women to eat their way like acid "into positions of power and responsibility which men " have previously held ? " we like women, we admire them and sometimes we even grow fond of them, but we do not like them here. the idea that anybody could even think of saying that today is absolutely extraordinary. they went on saying that under the 1990s, as you heard! what is it like the place to work now? i have only been there after all of the changes and i love it. it is far less tribal than the house of commons. also, women play very significant roles in the house of lords. more likely to have women coming up with particular ideas, taking leadership on issues, taking leadership on pieces of legislation, in a way that i don't quite remember from the commons. the commons may have changed as well. i find it actually is a very good place for women in this day and age. that, ithink, would surprise a lot of people. if you stopped ten people

in the street and ask them about the house of lords, they would probably see it as full of white old men in funny outfits, who do not turn up for work until they have had a very convivial lunch. i think that lady cramer is absolutely right. it is a very much more professional body. one of the things building on what she was saying about the role of women in the lords is that before i became a leader, you mentioned i was leader from 1998, but before that, there had only been one woman leader of the house of lords in the previous 40 years, and she was only there for 18 months or so. since i was leader, there have been five women leaders of the house of lords, and both of the two original speakers of the house of lords are women. we are nearly out of time, so i want to finish by looking at the future. if we were to sit here in ten years' time, do you think we would see a very different house of lords to the one that we have now? smaller, more diverse, more women? i think there will be more women. every political party, and we are all appointed

by our political leaders, are well aware that there is still an imbalance, it is still only 26%. my grandmother came in in 1963, i am from a political family, and was a very early pioneer, in the days where it was quite a lonely place for women. it certainly does not feel that today. my guess is they will be considerably more women, and that there will be considerably more diversity. there is already a diversity of background that i think the public are not aware of. i think the appointment system will become untenable. it comes untenable after a while. we will see. that will be a decision for the public, not for me or anybody else around this table.

i also think that the thrust of the country i hope it in the direction of diversity, recognising the incredible diverse country that we live in. the different regional interests, we are not regionally balanced anyway that we should be. and i also feel that women have justified their the public women have justified their place and you will see more and more women until it reflects the population. and ladyjay, in ten seconds, will we have tackled the issue of the size of the house of lords? one i think that it's very outstanding is the question of the great large numbers in the house of lords. she cut it down and we should have cut it down in 1999. it has crept up. there are 26% of women in the house of lords already which is quite close to the commons, which isjust over 30. we should go on putting more women in but not necessarily to feel ashamed of the numbers there because it is pretty gender—neutral. thank you all very much for coming onto the programme. and you can

see a longer version of that interview — including the ladies' thoughts on the brexit bill — on the week in parliament website. and speaking of that topic, let's have a round up of the week's brexit news. the bill putting eu law into uk law after brexit is continuing its journey through the lords. but it's suffered a string of defeats at the hands of peers with four more inflicted in the week. two were on legal aspects of the bill, one was on whether the eu charter of fundamental rights should be kept post—brexit. and the fourth was on restricting the power of ministers to change laws without full parliamentary scrutiny by making regulations. a former clerk of the commons explained his concerns. regulations can do anything that an act of parliament. including of course wholesale amendments or repeal of statutes that have passed through the far more exacting process of primary legislation. whichever side of the brexit

argument they stand, people might reasonably believe that taking back control would be under the sovereignty of parliament. rather than ceding swathes of power to the executive. we are saying they can be used but only if necessary. the government has argued we need the flexibility that if it's appropriate to tidy things up, well who is taking the decision of if it's appropriate? tomorrow and maybe jacob rhys mogg. many be boris johnson. it may be jeremy corbyn. if this house has the responsibility, that we suggest that we do not give the executive more power than is necessary in order to achieve their objectives. i have considered this issue and looking at it in the round. the round being all the other limitations that are currently existing on ministers and most

importantly the amendment that my honorable friend the minister is making to this point. which i believe does address many of the concerns. all i would ask, your lordships, at this point is to consider this. is the government acting in a reasonable way to ensure they have the powers necessary to deliver a smooth and orderly brexit? now i understand the emotional appeal for ministers to ask now i understand the notional appeal for ministers to ask where it is necessary. i agree with the distinguished predecessor and the midwife as he pointed to this bill. it should not be the role of a minister to be a statutory firefighter, dowsing deficiencies in the statute book only where it is absolutely necessary. instead i would argue a more active role in dealing way we can ensure the best possible outcome. there were not persuaded. despite the dogged defence will ask to the noble lords to indicate to test the opinion of the house.

and peers backed the amendment by 349 to 221 another heavy defeat for ministers. and there will be more votes in the lords on the eu withdrawal bill over the next week. meanwhile on the committee corridor the brexit secretary was being questioned about the possibility of the uk staying in some kind of customs union. which allows free trade between member states. amber rudd — who wasn't having the best week — ran into controversy when, at a lunch with journalists, she failed to confirm that the uk would be leaving the eu customs union — which is the official government policy. in a tweet later she said she should have been clearer — and of course britain would leave the customs union. the brexit secretary was asked if the commons didn't agree to that? you have emphatically rejected remaining in the customs union, but when the trade bill returns to the house committee house will vote on whether it wishes

to adopt a different policy. ie to remain in the customs union. if they carried, you're going to have to change your policy, aren't you? i'm not going to enter into hypotheticals about what the house may or may not do. i expect the government policy to be upheld. but if it is not you're going to have to respect it, aren't you? i expect the policy to be upheld. and there was a taster of what that debate might be like on thursday whether they debated whether the uk should stay in a customs union. 400 lorries an hour rumble on and off the ferries. in ireland 6000 lorries and 8000 vans ways to and fro across the border without even breaking. from apples to aerospace, bridge and does more

britain does more than £230 billion of export trade with european countries every year. those businesses don't get stopped at the border, don't pay tariffs or actual form so they can just sail on through. that is the frictionless trade that so many of our manufacturing jobs depend on. as the eu and the customs union they will be able to sign the own trade deals with our partners around the world. this does not mean we will no longer needed deep in social partnership and without the nearest trading partner. the eu will remain a very significant market place for us. 0ur markets are deeply connected and will remain the case for the future. and that's what is the intention to have the broadest and deepest economic partnership and incorporating more funding than any free trade agreement anywhere in the world. at the end of that debate they should negotiate for the uk at the end of that debate mps agreed that the government should

negotiate for the uk to stay in a customs union with the eu but that decision is not binding on the government. but there was a brexit breakthrough of sorts. the westminster government managed to reach a deal with wales over the devolution. this row has been about what happens to the european powers in areas like farm subsidies and food labelling once britain leaves the eu. while governments have those powers as they affect wales should i medically go from brussels to cardiff but the uk government wants to see powers kept in london said uk wide policies could be developed. welsh ministers said that was a power grab. the deal is a compromise. most powers in devolved areas will pass to devolved government. some will stay in westminster although the uk government agreed to only be temporary and those powers will only be used

with wales consent. and there was a taster of what that debate might be like on thursday, when mps debated whether the uk should stay in a customs union. the uk government has succeeded in drawing back powers that should be held by our national assembly. this will have major consequences for the constitution and this is all thanks to the labour party in wales. but while wales may have signed up to the plan, the scottish government in holyrood has rejected it. the snp‘s pete wishart accused the welsh government of capitulation on the issue. the comes as no surprise mr speaker that the welsh labour has capitulated this on this issue. we will never stop defending the integrity of her parliament and we will never allow the tories to diminish parliament powers. i will not allow that to happen. at prime minister's questions theresa may said she hoped scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon,

would change her mind. we have made considerable changes to the bill to reflect the wishes. issues have been raised by our members. it is indeed disappointing that the scottish government have not yet felt able to new amendments and we sincerely hope they will reconsider their position. parliament square has a new statue — its first commemorating a woman. the work by gillian wearing depicts the suffragist millicent fawcett who led the non—militant campaign for votes for women. here are some moments from the unveiling ceremony. i think we are all immensely excited and thrilled, honoured and very grateful to all the people that made it possible. less than 3% of british statues feature a woman who actually existed. with this statue, millicent fawcett, the first statue of a woman and the first statue by a woman in this iconic location

we are making one hell of a start on changing that. three, two, one. cheering. this is a moment ofjoy and celebration and also thanks, because millicent fawcett and all her suffragist colleagues and suffragette colleagues are the reason that we as women have the vote today. it's a timely reminder as we have just heard the gender pay gap announcements, we know there's more work to do in terms of ensuring women are treated fairly in the workplace and society generally. it's great we could take stock this year and celebrate 100 years of the beginning of the suffrage. and also reflect on where we are and what more we need to do. # we are soldiers, we are soldiers on a battlefield. #

finally there were two bits of happy news in the week. the scottish conservative leader ruth davidson has announced that she is three months pregnant. ms davidson said she and her partner jen wilson were excited to be expecting their first child in october after undergoing ivf. she said she would be taking some time off for maternity leave like thousands of working women do every year. but she said she expects to return to the scottish parliament in the spring of next year. meanwhile in the commons there were congratulations for the duke and duchess of cambridge on the arrival the. eagle. paagd’ffir’pifigr’gfiifij— after the duchess was admitted to hospitalfor the birth. john bercow offered good wishes on behalf of the commons, and the lord speaker, lord fowler sent congratulations from the upper house. i'm sure that noble lords from all sides of the house willjoin me in congratulating their royal highnesses on this most happy of occasions. hear, hear!

that's it from me for now. dojoin kristiina cooper for a full round—up of events at westminster on monday evening. but for now from me, goodbye. good afternoon. it is a cold and wet and windy start to the week for south—east england and east anglia we could have a months worth of rain falling in 24 hours. the further north and west you are you have seen more brightness and this photo was taken by a weather watcher in inverness. this one is from east sussex. the wet and windy weather is courtesy of an area of low pressure

thatis courtesy of an area of low pressure that is working its way up from the south and it will be slow—moving as we move through tonight and tomorrow but with heavy rain and strong winds and coastal gales there is potential for disruption to travel and also localised flooding. stay tuned to your local forecast. for the rest of today the win strengthens in the south and east. we are starting to see rain in south—east england and east anglia and there could be snow on high ground for a time. away from the wet and windy weather could be dry with clear spells and clearer skies and the temperatures will fall away. a chilly night to come with temperatures dropping below zero in spots. a touch of frost. a bright start for much of northern ireland and scotland and parts of wales and south—west england. it will be a wet and windy in the south—east. gusty winds and gusts of 50 miles an hour is

possible and the rain is heavy and gradually working its way north and west through the day and pushing into eastern parts of the midlands and lincolnshire and into yorkshire as well. away from that it will be drier and brighter with sunny spells. it will be cold where there is wet and windy weather and it is struggling to reach 6 degrees in norwich. 0n struggling to reach 6 degrees in norwich. on tuesday the area of low pressure clears towards the east and we will see a brief ridge of high pressure to settle things down but not long before the next weather front brings wet and windy weather from the west. 0n front brings wet and windy weather from the west. on tuesday a bit of cloud and outbreaks of rain in the east but it brightens up quickly with good spells of sunshine and it turns cloudier and wetter and windy from the west and northern ireland and parts of scotland. feeling a lot warmer than it will do tomorrow morning. 0fficialforecast from warmer than it will do tomorrow morning. 0fficial forecast from me. this is bbc news.

the headlines at 3. labour's david lammy leads 200 mps who've signed a letter calling for government promises to windrush migrants to be written into law. south korea says kimjong—un has promised to close north korea's nuclear test site next month — and has invited the world to watch. in northern ireland, police have taken two wanted men back into custody after they were found tied up on a bench in a county armagh village. also in the next hour — under attack from rising sea temperatures and pollution, australia is promising to spend £290 million to help restore and protect the great barrier reef celtic win the scottish premiership with a thumping 5—0 win over old rivals rangers and click visits a cryptocurrency mine in iceland