they're off and they're kicking the ball. the guys in blue have got it at the moment and it's going over there. no, the guys in white have taken it over. this is of course the excitement you get in a game like this. 0h! somebody has picked it up. are they allowed to do that? i think they probably are. good evening. newsnight has learnt that a group of former cabinet ministers is hatching a plan to prove that the conservative parliamentary party would support a moderate brexit. justine greening, amber rudd and damian green want to show the prime minister that she would have sufficient support to face down brexit hardliners in her cabinet and party, including the vocal european research group led by jacob rees—mogg. the alliance of the former cabinet ministers who supported remain have decided to act, after concluding that it would be impossible to agree a brexit deal accepted by all wings

of the conservative parliamentary party. nick watt has the story, and is here now to explain. we saw the pressures on theresa may earlier this week when eurosceptics were upset when they cabinet agreed the so—called backstop solution for northern ireland, that the uk would remain in some but not all elements of the customs union after the transition period ends in 2020 if there is not an overall brexit deal. what i have learned could change the dynamics of theresa may's entire approach to the future negotiations to a relationship with the eu pulls up what these three former cabinet ministers are planning to effectively say to the prime minister is that you have the numbers in parliament to face down, as you'd said the likes ofjacob rees—mogg. they are saying, you and break away from your slowly slowly approach where you seek consensus across the entire parliamentary party. some members of this group have been holding talks with jacob rees—mogg and they have decided

there is simply no common ground because they believe he is mother to attracted to the idea of having no deal with the eu —— he is rather too attracted. what is your sense of what is going on behind the scenes? these form ministers have at least one supporter in very high places and i am told that a recent meeting of the brexit cabinet subcommittee, judi —— julian smith told to get real, look at the numbers in parliament. it is important to say that this group we are talking about are remainers but they do have some leavers, i have spoken to some leave supporters who support them both the european research group, i spoke to them and they are incredibly relaxed about this. they expect this sort of thing and that view is that there are seven brexit supporting conservative mps are not in their group who had said that if theresa may does a deal that they do not like, they will stop supporting the and so her parliamentary majority would go. i have been looking at the thinking of these form ministers. for the best part of 30 years,

the tories‘ two warring factions have been working in isolation to build their own blueprints for britain's place in europe. now, as theresa may stands on the edge of a momentous decision that will shape brexit, change may be in sight. newsnight has learned that some remainers and brexiteers are talking of compromise. that question of how we leave is incredibly important and why we need a pragmatic brexit that preserves that close economic partnership whilst leaving political institutions. the key players include former cabinet ministers justine greening, amber rudd and damian green.

these former remain supporters know their work will be undermined if it is seen as one—sided and so they are teaming up with leave supporters. the aim — to marginalise the outliers at either end of the remain and leave spectrum. they now see no chance of finding common ground with the likes of brexiteerjacob rees—mogg, and if borisjohnson walks out of the cabinet, so be it. the arch—remainer dominic grieve is also in the sites of some. as the two sides try to bridge the gap, one tory grandee told me their work should be seen as a dive for the middle ground with one very simple aim — to show the centre of gravity lies with leavers and remainers who are prepared to compromise and that is designed to give theresa may the space to cut a deal without the support ofjacob rees—mogg and possibly even some members of her cabinet. my constituents don't

like cabinet ministers openly rubbishing the plans of the prime minister in public. they want a sensible and considered compromise. and i think those that are arguing from an ideological perspective are in the wrong place compared to the vast majority of us in westminster. and these middle—ground tories believe they have the numbers in parliament to reject no deal with the eu. such a vote is probably unlikely but it is shaping boundaries. if you add up most opposition mps and over 100 tory mps they would have at least 400 mp5, well over the 322 needed to secure a majority. whilst on the other side, this group believes jacob rees—mogg commands between 30 to 75 tory mps, enough for the 48 votes to trigger a vote of no confidence in theresa may but not the 159 votes needed to unseat her.

i would guess that the vast majority of conservative mps want us to have a brexit that implements the referendum result properly, in other words that restores sovereign control, but that also provides for the closest relationship with our european neighbours. but some leave supporters open to compromise warn that no deal may be unavoidable. no deal is plainly better than a bad deal. that's a statement of the obvious. when theresa may says that, it's difficult to disagree. imagine that you were buying a car and you said to the car dealer, "i'm definitely going to walk out of this show room with your vehicle. now let's sit down and haggle about the price." i mean, that would be a ridiculous position. so plainly you have to have a bottom line. that said, we should not be aiming at that. we want to have successful, prosperous neighbours.

we want the departure terms to be as beneficial as possible to them as well as to us and we're going to have our history and our geography and our economy dictated. we're going to have a continuing relationship with the eu. theresa may has always thought that bridging the divide in her party would deliver the most durable brexit. but, as the final countdown begins, some allies are warning that for a deal to fall into place the prime minister will need to cut free from the noisy outliers in her party. everyone had quietly forgotten about the italian election nearly three months ago, until news came that changed everything. the next italian government may well be formed by a coalition of seemingly opposed radical anti—estalishment populist parties. the two groups — the five star movement and the league — look set to try to govern together. they are poles apart in much of what they stand for, but they share a loathing of how italy has been run before, and claim that they now represent the peoples voice. five star. could it work?

the italian election 2018. it was the gunfight that ended with no clear winner. those still standing are now trying to patch together an awkward method of the bible. —— of survival. imagine a coalition between momentum and you could call the old left and firm right, how would it work, how could they govern? the analogy is broadly what is about to happen in italy, the right led by matteo salvini is on the verge of going into coalition with the populist five star movement led by luigi di maio. five star has only ever contested tee elections but it secured 33% of the vote this time, more than any other party. the coalition of the right led by la liga and including four—time pro minister berlusconi got 37% but they fall short of the required 40% needed for a majority.

for weeks the five star leader swore there would be no alliance with what he called the parties that destroyed our country. but now, desperate to try and prove their hand at the bilic nationally, this option is starting to look like the least worst for them. —— at governing nationally. last week berlusconi himself gave his blessing to the alliance. a ban on him running for office for five years has been lifted and he sees himself not as a player but as a kingmaker. the incoming coalition is of course chalk and cheese but they share a euroscepticism and a sympathetic stance toward russia on sanctions and, as in every horseshoe, the distance between extreme left and right gets narrower and narrower. perhaps there is more to unite these strange bedfellows

than to keep them apart. valentina romei is a financial times journalist writing mostly about european economies, and enea desideri is a research analyst at the open europe thinktank. nice to have you both. i ended with the idea that when you have completed the horseshoe you are not so far apart. do you think this is a good working relationship and is it workable? we will see. as it has been shown, the parties are radically different. they have some points in common, they both voice a demand for change coming from the people, but they also have very big differences. there is a perception here and more widely that la liga is broadly fascist. is that fair or is it too strong? i think there is a risk to abuse the term fascist. la liga is definitely a very extreme party, especially some of the views

on immigration are very dark. there have been some strange, if you want, links between la liga and some of the actual fascist parties that claim to be the inheritors of the fascist legacy in italy that i would say that using that label for them is still too strong. where do you understand their position on things like the euro, if they want to get rid of it, the russian sanctions, wiping out the eu debt which is huge in italy now, do they share anything? it depends on which version of the coalition document you looked at.

there have been three different coalition contracts, that's what they call it. they have been very different about crucial issues. the final one that was released today can be summarised like more spending basically, spending on basic income, spending because there is changes to the pension reform, they become more lax and more funding for the police forces and so on and so forth. 0n the other hand you have fewer tax revenues, that is what is expected from the policies in the latest document. because there is a freezer for a tax hike that was planned for next year —— a frieze. and there was a proposal for a flat tax that is not planned. so the spending comes from this idea of a flat tax for the where do they think they are getting the money from? the document says it will get more money from the reduction of waste

of public money. in terms of their position on migration or deporting, do they share a similar platform there are? they want to get rid of hundreds of thousands, right? the goals to some extent are similar. they have both pledged to increase the number of repatriations. the means to achieve this though are substantially different. the league is much cruder and much harsher. the five star movement is much more attentive. is italy prepared for this? is the eu prepared? this is a proper populist government in western europe, which is sort of... in a major economy.

we have seen problems before. the european project has been called into doubt before with the greek election in 2015. but that is a totally different matter. italy accounts for 11% of eu gdp. solving the italians' debt problem is a totally different matter to sorting out the greek debt problem. is your sense that the eu itself will be terrified by this, or that these parties will enter up changing, reforming the eu? there are some worries, and rightly so, in europe, seeing this situation, this possible coalition government. alongside economic concerns, they resort so an argument being made about italy being one of the founders six. because they could leave the eu?

i think at the moment neither leaving the eu nor the euro is on the table. but i can completely rule out that should the economy turned really bad in the future, then probably the two parties will blame the eurozone for the problems, and they might start even calling for italy to leave the currency in five to ten years. there are two missing pieces to this. one is berlusconi. does he still have an influence in italian politics? the other is the missing character, they haven't chosen a prime minister? yes, they haven't chosen a prime minister. that i think shows how difficult this relationship really is. it has been weeks, months, since the election results. and still we are not there. we have this coalition of the contract that didn't exist

before in italian politics. so, it's a very difficult process. it may not end well. we might not even see a government, or a long—lasting government. i think what you mentioned about the fact, the risk of the proposals to exit the euro could come back of the economic situation gets worse, that is an important point. the economic discontent is very strong in understanding the political situation. thank you both. the russian president has sent wishes of good health to the ex—spy sergei skripal after his discharge from salisbury district hospital was announced earlier today. speaking at a press conference, vladimir putin then cast doubt that a military grade poison had been used in an attempt to kill skripal.

translation: if as our british colleagues exist —— insist, he had been poisoned with a military toxic agent, he would have died at the scene. a military toxic agent is so powerful that it kill the person instantaneously, in seconds, several minutes at most. thank god he has re cove red minutes at most. thank god he has recovered and has left hospital, and i hope he will be healthy. russia has consistently rejected british accusations of involvement in the poisoning of both sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia, sparking a diplomatic crisis that saw russia and the west expelling dozens of diplomats from their countries in retaliatory moves. mr skripal spent more than ten weeks in hospital. he has, we're told, spoken at length to police, and is able to walk again, but he is not fully recovered. sir tony brenton is the former uk ambassador to moscow — and was in his post at the time

of the alexander litvinyenko poisoning. before we talk about the putin statement this evening, we should reflect for a moment. it is extraordinary that both these people have been brought to life from death's door. yes, the operation from the russians‘ point of view must be bad news. to combine criminality with incompetence in the way they have leaves them with a counter—productive impression. a properly botched job, you think? absolutely. this is not the first time. i was ambassador of the time of the litvinenko affair. that was evidently planned. if he had drank a cup of tea you would have died very quickly and nobody would have known. he sipped a cup of tea so we established what poison it was and we knew it was the russians. again, an active incompetence. again, an act of incompetence. when you heard president putin say

this afternoon it proves military grade agents was not used. your thoughts on that? bluster. will it convince others? it is striking... we threw out some of their diplomats. at the time of litvinenko we did the same. we then set about trying to persuade other people to support us. they couldn't be persuaded. even though our evidence was very strong. who are you talking about? western allies and so forth. they couldn't be persuaded to take the action we did. there were individual countries who said no? yes. can you tell us who they were? no. nobody supported us other than verbally. this time around i don't know what we showed them but evidently the material that we have, which is not in the public domain, was sufficiently convincing that they all came on board. that is a very striking demonstration of the quality of the proof.

this time was there any country that held back and said, we can't? if you look at the list of countries that supported us, it's very big. how do we move relations forward from here? you're right. it is quite striking today that angela merkel has been talking to putin in sochi. talking about something that we are going to have to talk to him about, iran. somehow we have to find our way back from where we are now to be able to do serious business with the russians again. it will take a while because the atmosphere here is cold and angry. it was the same as with litvinenko. the fact that this is not now a murder investigation, does that mean there is less investigation going into it? no. i'm sure the police are still very keen to establish a clear case against whoever did it. it is not a murder, which is a relief. but the fact remains the russians have tried to kill a british citizen on british streets. have accidentally affected two other people in a way we simply can't accept.

we have to take action to which demonstrate to them the costs of doing this are too high and therefore discourage them from doing it again. thank you. a celebration of the country's twin passions — football and the monarchy — awaits the nation tomorrow. and it should be a weekend of the finest punditry. royal fans will not miss a step of the merkle wedding party. of the markle wedding party. football fans will have the pre—match, running and post match commentary of the fa cup final. but newsnight being newsnight we thought it only proper to attempt the mash up. what happens when royal commentators take on the beautiful game, and football pundits take on the royals. stephen smith has had a go. 0h, hello there. so, it's a great british weekend. a royal wedding and the fa cup final. but which is better? in an idea that's not been used on tv before — fight, fight, orat least, quiz.

and i'm going to bejoined by the four experts that all the others wanted. it's the bbc‘s former royal correspondent, jennie bond. i'm picking up vibes of all generations being interested in it. newsnight favourite and semi—committed chelsea fan, comedian arthur smith. i've come to quite like meghan markle and prince harry. i was a republican in my youth. the doyen of royal watchers, the elegant hugo vickers. the thing about windsor and windsorians is that they love roads closed and trafficjams, because they know something really exciting is happening. and the bbc‘s football correspondent, voice of 5 live commentaries, john murray.

fa cup finals are a rare events and great locations. and great occasions. but of course, royal weddings are even rarer. have you done a lot of speculating about what the dress will be like, john? arthur, i've never stopped! have you? time to get down to our inimitable deep dive analysis. newsnight has devised some tough questions. ok, so this first one is to our royal watchers. can you tell me who is playing in saturday's cup final? i think it looks like chelsea and manchester united. they call it man united, don't they? i believe they do. so, this one to football experts. for the relatively informal wedding of prince edward and sophie rhstones in 1999, what request made by the royal couple did the queen mother ignore? perhaps she wanted the queen mother to bring a can of beer. if i remember rightly, it was to do with what she was wearing. the queen mother was wearing a hat. "the queen arrived by car. the invitation said no hats.

but she chose to wear a small headdress. inside, the queen mother had already taken her place." when the duke and duchess of cambridge got married and they drove down the mall following their wedding, what car were they in? the car... was it an uber?! aston martin? prince charles' aston martin. yes. and he had the handbrake on the whole time. he did. he was very nervous about it, wasn't he? his dad's favourite car. good news, it's the music round. now, which pop group accompanied spurs on their official song of the 1980—81 season? who would it have been at that point? i am terribly bad on 80s music. who would have they have employed to do something? chas and dave. chas and dave! # come on you... # spurs are on their way to wembley. # tottenham is going to do it again. i've never heard of chas and dave. it's charles and david to you!

cast your minds back to the 1966 cup final. what happened to an everton supporter who ran onto the pitch? to do justice to the gravity of that question, let's have a clock. ok. now let's have your answer. he was rugby tackled to the ground by a policeman. well done. "not even a cup final can prevent the goodison park spirit invading wembley. that bobby ought to be playing at twickenham." now to our two chaps on the terraces. too easy in a way, but what can you tell me about the trim on queen victoria's wedding dress? i know that. it was trimmed with a flounce. was it a deep flounce or a shallow flounce? it was a deep flounce. and where was the lace made? it was made in homerton in devon, arthur. that is right. iremember, yeah.

well done, full marks. and now the round that the whole quiz has been building too. it is the commentary challenge. let's see what they're made of. "and here they come, the newly married couple. she takes one step, two steps. he has to be very, very careful here. and she's into the carriage and she's able to sit next to her new husband." "and they're off, and they're kicking the ball. the guys in blue have got it at the moment and it's going over there. now the guys in white have taken it over. this, of course, is the excitement you get in a game like this. 0h, somebody has picked it up. are they allowed to do that? i don't think they are. i think we're going to go. we've got a goal. somebody has won. it's very exciting. they have blown the whistle. i think the game is over. who has won? we don't know.

thank you so much. can i have mine? certainly. here's to a great british weekend. i suppose we can all agree on that, can't we? how can tomorrow possibly compete? the papers have got their line—up of the morning's picture. and you will see there has been very little variation. they have got the same picture of meghan markle and her mum. 0n the eve of the wedding, we must ask what these people want, says the guardian. the mirror says happy as harry. the telegraph says, this little light of mine, i'm going to let it shine. if you want different stories, look at the left—hand side of the guardian and the boost to the economy. that's all for tonight. i'm back on monday. you may be aware that netflix is trying to change the way brits watch foreign drama — making the dubbed version

the default setting for foreign language series. as a nation we tend to favour subtitles over dodgy dubbing. but it can be an art. bad lip reading is a youtube channel based on skilful dubbing. whether it's accurate or not, is another question. here's their take on the us presidential inauguration. goodnight. i like your nail polish, but not too much. can i pretend i like you but i hate you inside. repeat after me. i make greece palates in my sweat. i was disappointed they did not find the continent of atlantis yet. a new kid smells like falafel and wants to shave my moustache. the new kid smells like falafel and wants to shave my moustache. so did and belinda.

so did aunt belinda. shake hands. crushed it. you think? i don't feel good. hello, and welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's cinema releases is mark kermode in his squeaky chair. what do we have this week? very interesting, we have 0n chesil beach adapted from the ian mcewan novel. deadpool two, satirical sequel. and the prizewinnerfrom last year, jeune femme. beautifully

pronounced. thank you, my french accent is terrible. the practice paid off. so, 0n chesil beach, an adaptation of ian mcewan‘s beautiful book. he has done the screenplay himself. it is about newlyweds in the early 1960s, they go to a hotel on the beach for their honeymoon. 0utside, on the beach for their honeymoon. outside, the landscape is wild and raw, but inside the hotel things are julienned distant. it is clear that neither of these two people, played by saoirse ronan and... have been intimate before. as they move towards the wedding, we see the flashbacks to their past lives, their tensions with their families and their relationship, right back to their first meeting. here and their relationship, right back to theirfirst meeting. here is and their relationship, right back to their first meeting. here is a clip.