the headlines: the bbc has been told that president trump's personal lawyer michael cohen was secretly paid at least $a00,000 to secure a white house meeting last june for the ukrainian leader. mr cohen — who denies receiving any such payment — was not registered as a representative of ukraine. the daughter of a former russian spy has made herfirst public appearance since she and her father were poisoned with a nerve agent in the english city of salisbury in march. in a statement to the reuters news agency, yulia skripal said she was lucky to have survived. russia denies any involvement. the italian president sergio mattarella has asked a little known law professor, giuseppe conte, to form a government — ending a stalemate since inconclusive elections in march. mr conte, who is backed by the five star movement and the league, said italy's place was in the european union. now here on bbc news, it's time for wednesday in parliament. hello and welcome to the programme.

coming up: the bosses at hmrc warn that the brexiteers favoured customs option could cost tens of billions of pounds a year. somewhere between 17 and 20 billion. labour says stop and search has poisoned relations between the police and communities. it is neither the solution to crime problems, nor a substitute for intelligence from good relationships with communities. and the northern ireland minister urges the parties to get back round the table and restore devolved government. at the moment, the pilot light is on, but no one is twirling those knobs. we need to get the executive restored. but first, the post—brexit customs system favoured by leading brexiteers could cost businesses up to £20 billion a year, according to officials. the chief executive of hm revenue and customs told mps firms

would have to pay around £32.50 for each customs declaration, under the streamlined so—called max facts solution. the proposed system relies on technology and advance verification to minimise, rather than remove, customs checks. theresa may is said to favour a different approach to resolving the customs issue. john thompson said any new system could take up to five years to fully work. you have to assume that under wto rules, or under any trade agreement, there are customs declarations required. we know that there were in 2016 almost 200 million intra—eu consignments, so that is the base number. that's been audited by the nao and is in a report on the customs declaration service. the question is how much does it cost to complete a customs declaration? we've done some work ourselves,

there've been at least two independent reports, one by the university of nottingham business school, one by kpmg earlier in the year. the answer to that question is it's between £20 and £55, you can't average it out because of waiting but for ministers, we've settled on £32.50 per customs declaration. so you've got 200 million customs declarations at £32.50, that's £6.5 billion. £6.5 billion? and the same for goods coming from the eu, taking the total to £13 billion. you've then got the question about what might be the requirements from the european union on rules of origin. is this cheeses from cheddar? yeah. so it's quite difficult to estimate that, but it would be reasonable to think that it's several billion pounds more, so i think you need to think about the highly streamlined customs arrangement costing businesses

somewhere in the late teens of billions of pounds. i've started to lose count now at the number of billions. you know, so, somewhere between 17 and 20 billion. and the kind of brexit the uk's heading for was raised by the liberal democrat leader at prime minister's questions. the prime minister and the leader of the labour 0pposition both agree that we should leave the single market, leave the european union customs union, and that the public should not have a final on the brexit deal. so would she dispense with our tradition of party political point scoring? and in that spirit which i'm setting, would she publicly thank the leadership of the labour party for their help and support in making brexit happen? can i say to the right honourable gentleman, first of all, i'm not so sure about the position of the labour party because they are talking about a second referendum.

but secondly, can ijust say to him, there is nobody who knows more about party political point scoring in this house than the liberal democrats. how are the european union negotiations going? they're going with purpose and in good intent and goodwill on both sides, and we have negotiators over in brussels this week doing further work on those negotiations, and we're determined to deliver a good brexit for the united kingdom. the prime minister has two groups of ministers trying different scenarios for a frictionless border with ireland. we know the backstop alignment can only be ended if another solution is found. isn't it the truth she doesn't have a clue how it might work? no. the snp's leader at westminster used his questions to ask about the immigration rules. he said young people couldn't afford the fees charged by the home office and risked losing their right to remain in the uk. we're talking about up to 120,000

young people in this country. we're talking about young people who live here, who have to wait ten years and pay up to £10,000 to achieve permanent rights to remain. a of undocumented citizens, without the rights that many of us take for granted. a minor who has indefinite leave to remain will have access to the benefits and entitlements which put them on an equal footing to their british citizen peers, so a grant of british citizenship is not required in order to be able to have access to those rights and benefits. theresa may. the home secretary has told police forces in england and wales that he supports stop and search powers. speaking to the police federation, which represents rank and file officers, sajid javid said he had confidence in their professional judgement, saying that it was theirjob to protect everyone. his comments came as mps held a debate on the effect of stop

and search on black and minority ethnic communities. stop and search can be a useful tool for detecting crime, but only when used in a very targeted way. the claims often made about how useful stop and search are are not backed by scientific research and, in fact, often contradict the evidence base. it is neither the solution to crime problems, nor a substitute for intelligence from good relationships with communities. figures for last year estimate that black people were searched at over eight times the rate of white people, and people of mixed, asian and other ethnic backgrounds were searched at around double the rate of white people. the disproportion, hugely disproportionately, the victims of knife crime are black young men. would she therefore agree to survey the victims' families, those who are most closely affected by that and see if they agree with that?

because i strongly suggest they want tougher sentences for knife crime, they want tougher sentences for the criminals that are convicted, and they want more stop and search. a conservative felt there was some justification for the disproportionate searching of black people. he quoted the commissioner of the metropolitan police. cressida dick said last year that young black men and boys were statistically more likely to be the victims and perpetrators of knife crime, making up 21 of 24 teenagers murdered so far that year. so, that's the background. they are the facts, though i'm not sure anybody disputes, because they are the official facts, and i was told that the following were the percentage of searches that resulted in an arrest. for white people who were stopped and searched, 13% of those were arrested as a result of that stop and search. 20% of black people, 14% of asian people and 17% of mixed race people. so, in actual fact,

mr owen, the evidence shows that the community that are much more likely to be stopped and searched and yet found to have had done nothing wrong are white people. for the avoidance of doubt, are you saying that the disproportionate levels of stop and search exercised on black people, muslim people, people from south asia, is because we are more criminal? well, i'm giving the facts out. and the facts of the matter are, as ijust went into earlier, i'm sure the right honourable ladies was listening, is that for certain offences, black people are more likely to be found guilty of offences than white people. that's a fact. i have been stopped more times in this place since my election in 2015 than i ever had in 43 years outside. this still occurs on a daily basis, presumably because my face does not fit. i have the correct — and the last time i rejointed back

and said i have every right to be here, a complaint was made to the sergeant at arm's office against me. nothing has poisoned relationships between the police and the communities that they serve, nothing has poisoned those relationships more than non evidence—based stop and search. the member for shipley talked about how there's a lot of support amongst minorities for stop and search used fairly, but he missed that important word. everybody supports stop and search where it's used fairly. the concern arises when there is no evidence to justify the stop and the search. and the concern arises when it's felt there is disproportionality. we all accept stop and search is a tool, and we can use it, and we can use it well. the best tool is when the community picks up the telephone, speaks to our local police forces,

and we manage to arrest the people carrying the knives and dealing the drugs before they are on our streets. ben wallace. you're watching wednesday in parliament, with me, alicia mccarthy. now back to prime minister's questions, where theresa may and jeremy corbyn remembered the victims of the grenfell tower block fire. it was the first question time session since the start of the inquiry, where those affected have given moving testimony about the impact of the fire and the loss of their loved ones. a conservative mp raised the report last week by damejudith hackett on building regulations, which stopped short on a ban on combustible cladding. can the prime minister confirm that nevertheless it is her clear intention to ban inflammable cladding and ensure that another tragedy like grenfell never happens again? theresa may said the government would take the strongest action to stop such an unimaginable tragedy from happening again. we are minded to go further

by banning combustible materials in cladding on high—rise buildings. we are meeting our legal duty to consult on these proposals, and we will not delay any necessary action. jeremy corbyn used his questions to raise the funding of england's nhs and the role of the private sector in it. nhs budgets have increased byjust 1% per year under this government. but it's jackpot tim for the privateers. their share is up by 100% to over £9 billion per year. and we learnt that surrey nhs has just paid virgin health care 1.5 million pounds, not for any service they delivered, but because their bid was not chosen. is the prime minister concerned that this week, the national office said nhs

england's handling of private contractors had, and i quote, "put patients at risk of serious harm." the right honourable gentleman, on the national audit office report, what they said was "no actual harm has been identified. " it is also the case, it is also the case that in relation to the particular contracts they were talking about, the savings that have been made have all been reinvested in front line nhs patient care and has helped to fund the equivalent, the equivalent of an extra 30,000 operations. and on the broader point of how much money was spent in the private sector: last year, the proportion of spend in the nhs in england outsourced to private sector did not go up at all. there was somewhere where it went up .8%. ah, yes, wales. the labour leader said the nhs celebrated its 70th birthday this year. but the nhs reaches this milestone with the worst a&e wait on record. the worst delays for cancer referrals on record. falling numbers of gps,

falling numbers of nurses, and the longest funding squeeze in its history. while this government opens the door to even more profiteering. why doesn't the prime minister act now? act now to end the siphoning off of billions of pounds from patient care and give it to the nhs, the funding that it needs. what we see today is the national health service with more funding going into it, but crucially with more people being treated, more operations being undertaken. there are people alive today who have suffered from cancer who would not have been alive just eight years ago, because oui’ cancer outcomes have improved. that is the reality of our national health service. and what did we learn this week that the labour party and the shadow chancellor want to do?

they want to overthrow capitalism. what would this mean? it would be families paying higher taxes, more debt for our children in the future, fewer people in jobs, and less money for our schools and hospitals. a labour party that would bankrupt our economy would do unlasting damage to our national health service. later, mps held a debate and called for papers on whether or not the government was planning to scrap parts of the lansley reforms of the nhs made in 2012. but that motion was defeated. the ayes to the right, 230. the noes to the left, 295. the noes have it. the transport secretary chris grayling has apologised for the disruption caused to rail passengers as a result of timetable changes this week. the comment came during a feisty debate on mr grayling's handling of the east coast rail franchise. labour introduced a motion criticising the transport secretary for his plans to hand the route over to a public—private partnership.

labour believes the line should be taken into public control. labour has brought today's motion forward because of the lack of candour and the lack of debate around the future of the east coast franchise both inside this house and outside. not for the first time, the secretary of state for transport has fallen desperately short in matters of clarity and courtesy in his ministerial conduct. mr grayling announced last week that virgin—stagecoach's franchise on the east coast line would be ending early and that the route was being temporarily brought under public control. his long—term plan is to create a public—private partnership. each time we divert the railway, the secretary of state argues that private sector funds investment in the railway, that we would not have under public ownership. this is simply untrue and misunderstands where investment comes from. it is the taxpayer, and the fare payer, not private companies who fund investment in the railway.

a matter of bad timing, but he will be aware that in wales today, the labour government has awarded the franchise to the multinational french spanish company, forfive billion pound 15 year franchise deal despite the manifest of promise to honour a not—for—profit basis, so why are his labour colleagues in wales directly contradicting what he is proposing today? that is a matter for the welsh government entirely. mr mcdonald went on to say that the franchising system was failing. the transport secretary is attempting to prop up the franchising model for idealogical reasons, there have been more direct awards where a company is simply gifted for service and do not have to bid, than there have been successful franchising competitions since 2010. meaning that the system is resembling state sponsored monopolies rather than a market. what a lot of incoherence

from the party. who does he think runs the railway today except for rail professionals? it's nonsense. what we have also got, madam deputy speaker, today, is a classic example of the definition of the word hypocrisy. this morning, the welsh labour government announced its plans for what will be a public private partnership to develop a new metro service on the welsh valley lines. this afternoon, this labour party is trying to censor me, for announcing a public— private partnership to improve services on the east coast line. turning to the problems caused by the timetable changes, mr grayling said there should have been months of preparation. network rail were far too late in finalizing the planned time table changed,, and they have left the rest of the industry struggling to catch up. i am not happy with this at all.

i have told network rail this cannot happen again. but of course it is perhaps the uncomfortable truth for the party opposite that who keep talking about current problems as an excuse for nationalization, that the problems that have arisen in the last few days, to a significant extent, arisen as failings in the nationalized part of the rail industry. i know that many passengers have had disrupted journeys. it is not good enough. i am sorry this was the case. everyone in my department and elsewhere, not right now, i will in a moment, is working hard to get this problem sorted out. the snp had a suggestion for the transport secretary. he makes it clear, he always believes the private sector works better than the public, but surely then, at the very least, it should allow the public sector to be able to bid for franchises, because if he is that confident the private sector will win, then he does not have to worry about the public sector taking the franchises anyway. if he is so confident, let the public sector bid and let's see who is the most competitive.

alan brown. in the lords peers said the northern ireland parties should be locked away until they reached a deal to break the deadlock over power sharing. tere‘s been no assembly for 16 months since the break down of power sharing. in the interim major decisions have been taken by civil servants. but, at the start of last week, a high courtjudge ruled that a decision to approve an incinerator on the outskirts of belfast was unlawful. and that the senior civil servant, involved, peter may, had no power to approve the planning application. 0ne peer reckoned that decision could have a big impact. as a consequence, all significant decisions that have hitherto been ta ken by civil servants have now stopped. how can the minister and the government honour their commitments to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of public service to the people of northern ireland with the state of paralysis that has now ensued? the government is studying very carefully that particular judgement. its implications are significant. there may indeed be an appeal lodged against it. it is a reminder however that we do need that restorative executive,

because we cannot keep placing upon the shoulders of the the civil servant such a heavy in onerous burden. i understand there will be an appeal. that take six months and another appeal and that would take six months. i have to tell the minister, northern ireland does not have that capacity. we do not have the time. we now have almost an invisible secretary of state and people on the ground, there is only one question in northern ireland. apart from the fact that people in northern ireland believe that the only interest westminster has in northern ireland is brexit and the border, but given that, the one question that is being asked on the streets of northern ireland today, is who is actually running northern ireland ? brexit has been a focus of this house and elsewhere. the people of northern ireland deserve an executive focused on the issues that matter to them. education, health, schools, farming, all the obvious stuff. we need to get the executive

back up and running. the parties themselves need to do so. at the moment, the pilot light is on but no one is twirling those knobs. we need to get the executive restored. he is and cahoots with, is encouraging them not to come together to form, to let the assembly work. are there not people in this chamber who could assist, who negotiated the belfast agreement? some who served as chairman of the assembly, and it is important that we face up to the reality. there is a wealth of experience in this house, and i hope we can continue to draw upon that. my right honourable friend, the secretary of state for northern ireland, flies above and below the radar. does he agree that the longer the assembly and the executive

are down, the harder it is to get it back up? that is the lessons of the past, even after good friday. would he look at what was done in the past, when there were stalemates of this kind. that is to convene a summit involving the prime minister, not on a fly in, fly out basis, not seeing the parties for an hour here or an hour there. convene a summit, and keep the parties at that summit, like it was done in st andrew's, at hillborough and other places, until there is an agreement. i believe strongly that is the only solution in sight. we need to think fresh. as we progress, we need to visit a number of past experiences and try our best to navigate a much more challenging way forward. nothing is off the table. i respect him enormously.

he says it is a top priority, it is the single most important issue for the government. i have to say, he has to listen to my noble friend, lord hayne, the government has to get round the table, if necessary, lock the doors until they come out with an agreement. i'm sure there will be a lot of agreement to lock some people into certain rooms. there is no question of that. but the reality we must face is a simple one right now. that judgement is significant. what the government has sought to do in the past is to plot a trajectory from the ploicies and decisions taken by the previous executive and not to stray beyond them. that cannot go on for much longer. the point of movement is too great. there is now a necessity that we must find a way of restoring good governance to northern ireland. lord duncan. finally, the longest serving mp has defended the speaker over allegations that he called the leader of the commons, andrea leadsom, a stupid woman. on monday, mr bercow admitted he had muttered the word ‘stupid' under his breath following complaints about the way the government had timetabled parliamentary business. he's now been reported to the standards watchdog over the allegations. a conservative used a point of order to raise another accusation that john bercow had called

andrea leadsom a liar. following last wednesday's difficult day, mr speaker, can you clarify a point of chamber etiquette. is it acceptable in the chamber now to call a colleague a liar? i am grateful to the honourable gentleman for his point of order. what i would say to him very respectfully and courteously, by way of reply, is that i made a statement on those matters in the chamber, i think at the time, what i said was very clear to people, and i do not feel the need to add to that statement. my position has been very explicit. i thank the honourable tournament for inviting me to dilate on the matter, but i do not intend to dilate on the matter. we shall leave it there. i am deeply obliged to him. point of order, mr kenneth clarke. would you agree, mr speaker, if every time a member of this house has felt moved to say

under his breath something rather abusive about another member, action was taken, the chamber would be deserted ? quite a waste of time. would you not agree, it is best to leave this to the body that is now investigating it and perhaps hope that some common sense will be applied to this rather overheated subject? the longest serving mp and father of the house, ken clarke, stepping in to defend the speaker, john bercow. and that's it from me for now but do join me at the same time tomorrow for another round up of the day at westminster. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. hello. there is plenty more spring sunshine in the forecast

for the next few days. it will fill warm in the sunshine as well. but it is not that simple, though, because in southern areas, particularly, there is a risk of thundery showers. we will see some of those during the day on thursday, courtesy of this weather front that has been snaking its way in from the near continent. it does not look like much, but it introduces that extra kick of energy and moisture that the atmosphere needs to generate some of the showers and storms. they will be quite hit and miss, but they will drift during the day. for eastern scotland in north—east england, mist and fog to start off, but this will burn its way back to the coast, things brightening up as the day goes on. here is how it looks on a high—resolution weather model. a bit more detail across wales, parts of england, as well. showers and thunderstorms drifting westwards. it should dry up for much through the day. long spells of sunshine in northern england and scotland, but still mist and murk and low cloud

lapping onto the north sea coastlines as we go through the day. so as a consequence, temperatures in aberdeen and newcastle will be pegged back to about 1a or 15 degrees. elsewhere, real warmth to be had, particularly in the best of the sunshine, with highs of 22 or 23. tuesday night, we are expecting further showers, perhaps thunderstorms, drifting from the near continent, moving a little bit further north at this stage. not eating them, is in scotland, holding onto some of the mist and fog rolling a little bit further inland as the night wears on. we start friday morning on a muggy note. temperatures generally about 8—11; degrees. during the day on friday, further pulses of wet weather, thunderstorms drifting, perhaps getting into northern england at this stage. to the north of that, long spells of sunshine. further south, i suspect it will be quite cloudy for much of the time. quite muggy as well. 19 degrees in plymouth and cardiff. 20 in the sunshine in belfast.

but those temperatures look set to climb as we move on through the weekend. we will tap into this warm air that is sitting in place across the near continent. that will waft up in our direction. we will also bring up from the south further areas of heavy, perhaps thundery rain — particularly, we suspect, drifting towards the south—west of the uk, as high pressure has more influence to the north. some dry weather and sunshine further south. some real warmth as well, but the risk of some thunderstorms. hello. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the world. i"m ben bland. our top stories: claims that last year's meeting between president trump and the ukrainian leader was arranged after a big payment to mr trump's personal lawyer. we have an exclusive report. yulia skripal — one of two russian victims of a chemical attack in the uk — makes her first public appearance since the poisoning.

translation: we are so lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination. the clinical treatment was invasive, painful and depressing. we meet one of the many traumatised children who've lost parents in saudi airstrikes, in the worsening conflict in yemen. and as ireland prepares for a momentous vote