to make a point about cuts. 21,000 officers lost since 2010. theresa may since 2010 was home secretary then. it is on her watch. is itjust money? no, but clearly that is an important factor, or at least bodies on the street. police officers on the street, that is crucial to this. the police federation is a trade union but that does not mean it is wrong and i think unless it goes beyond the police federation, a numberof mps beyond the police federation, a number of mps have raised similar concerns and serving officers who are not necessarily there because they want more police officers in they want more police officers in the way that the federation do. there is no doubt that although in previous years the government has been able to skirt around the issue of police numbers and cuts to the police services, now it is right at the centre of the debate. there is a feeling about crime, that it is on the rise and you see them all paired crime in big cities and that is a

concern, you generally feel there is an issue here that theresa may cannot run away from is her record. it has made so many of the front pages. it makes for a dramatic headlines but there is a city and rural divide on this and a lot of these figures, the increases are in london. although the homicide figures are worrying, the chances of most people watching this programme anywhere near a homicide are very low. you're saying, do not have nightmares! even so, it is serious. let us move on to the telegraph. we will come to your story in a moment. jail is not working. this is the justice secretary, who i assume has given an interview. yes, to my colleague gave mccann. he is the justice secretary and at leeds on from this big jump in crime. he is

setting out his agenda. michael gove is about re—education and being supportive of inmates and chris grayling wanted their books taken away and for them to feel the punishment. if you read through the article, it talks about how a prison governor hansard article, it talks about how a prison governor hansa rd well done article, it talks about how a prison governor hansard well done notes. i have read about reports of sweets to young offenders. the idea of rewarding good behaviour works. you might remember michael howard... michael howard famously when he was home secretary and then in charge of prisons said that prison works and that was the conservative mantra for a long time and it was a brave conservative and a rare one like ken clarke who would challenge that proposition. it has now become a much more nuanced debate in the conservative party, thank heavens, because i think that long period

when the tories were afraid to move away and suggest that rehabilitation or trying to get prisoners back into society was part of the agenda was difficult for them. now they have had to recognise it. it is partly about money because the justice department has had very stringent cuts to the budget and they cannot afford to keep everyone injail even if they thought it was the solution to the problem. if that has brought them toa to the problem. if that has brought them to a position where they recognise that being injail... there is some nuance in this, jail is not working for a short sentences, not hardened criminals. that is right, shorter sentences. i cannot read our editorial comment, what we make of this, i am not sure. it is quite a liberal democrat area, the crime factor. if you put it alongside the crime figures, here is the justice secretary saying that some criminals should not be in

jail, obviously they would have community sentences, they may be tagged and everything, but on the same day that you have these crime figures, you have the justice secretary saying maybe we do not need to lock that many people up. the crime figures are a home office issue, different departments. but the same area. chinese deal on phones and internet puts us at risk and it sounds like you have been talking to spies. i talked to a body which reports back to gchq about this. this is about a chinese company which is about the internet ca bles company which is about the internet cables they have and there is some concern amongst the british government about whether the kit they put out can provide protection for british internet networks. it is

an indication of concern about this chinese company. are you concerned? lam chinese company. are you concerned? i am always concerned. anything that christopher writes, that makes me concerned —— concerned. clearly, there is an issue and it is the chinese. if you rememberwhen theresa may one became prime minister, she re—examined the whole issue of chinese involvement in a nuclear power industry, because there were nuclear power industry, because there we re concerns nuclear power industry, because there were concerns there. this is not a state— run there were concerns there. this is not a state—run company, but even so, there does appear to be some suggestion that we may be vulnerable because of our reliance on chinese technology. 0n vital industries and clearly communications is one of them. there were concerns in america and australia about the same company and australia about the same company and that is why it is always there. 0ur government is being careful.

interesting. let us move on to the i. this is the report that the police have identified suspects in the case in salisbury, scotland yard i have to remind everyone, not commenting on this. what is your ta ke commenting on this. what is your take on this? we are not entirely clear about this, it is the press association, the wire agency that got the story suggesting that they did have suspects, identified suspects. the security minister described this as coming from the ill informed and wild speculation folder, that people like chris and i who look at government and ministerial statements can normally tell if a denial is an absolute one and that is certainly not one. it seems likely that they are getting much closer to being able to identify who was responsible. thank

goodness. because it is terribly alarming for anyone living in salisbury the fact that someone could pick up a vial of this stuff and then someone dies. it is shocking. world cup over and... in a way, i interviewed ben wallace and his do not be fooled by the pr from the world cup, because this country still has an agenda and is still a threat and we are back to where we we re threat and we are back to where we were before the world cup started with this headline and people in suits dealing with the threat in salisbury. if and when their names become public, it will transform the story. either they have links to the russian government and vladimir putin or they do not. we shall see. the mirror and boris claims on for free in £20 million house. this is about the living arrangements for borisjohnson. about the living arrangements for boris johnson. i did some work on

this. borisjohnson boris johnson. i did some work on this. boris johnson is boris johnson. i did some work on this. borisjohnson is still living ina this. borisjohnson is still living in a flat in a place where the foreign secretary can live. the mirror is cross he is still living there having resigned over a week ago. there is a precedent here according to the government, william hague and a labour foreign minister stayed there for several weeks after they lost theirjob. he did resign rather than was sacked, butjeremy hunt is apparently happy with his family in his home and not keen to move into a flat or his family are not there. it is something and nothing. it does not look good and it raises questions as the rollers are about boris on what he is up to. he is not breaking any terrible rules, there are precedents for this. there are all sorts of these

flats dotted about and they are pretty much at the grace and favour of the prime minister and if she gets fed up with it, then the time will come when he has to move out anyway. several weeks is the will come when he has to move out anyway. severalweeks is the norm, a buffer, so you're not thrown out. even though he resigned, gave it up, they are saying, you can hang around there. even in resigning ministers are human beings. here's a target for many politicians. he is a target for many politicians. he is a target for many politicians. he is a target for many reasons. back in the day when gordon brown was going to leave number10, when gordon brown was going to leave number 10, squatting another ten, the idea of clinging onto power... they are arguing that he is getting a lot of rent for his own house while he is living there, so presumably with that rent he could go and rent somewhere else. listen to the pair of you. we shall leave it there for now.

that's it for the papers for now, but we'll back at 11—30 with a longer review. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you — 7 days a week at bbc dot co uk forward slash papers — and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. but for the moment, thank you to my guests christopher hope from the telegraph and the political commentator, lance price. hello again. there is a change in our weather. some rain in the forecast, although not for all of us. and not for too long either. many of us had a fine end to the day but for northern and western parts of the country, well, the cloud has been gathering and that is the first sign of what is to come. you can see on the satellite picture, this stride of cloud. this is an atlantic weather system. a while since we have had one of these crossing the british isles, but it is going to bring some outbreaks of rain. rain already setting in across the west of scotland,

parts of northern ireland, there are heavy bursts here, but the rain band will tend to fizzle as it sinks further south and east. for eastern scotland and certainly down into england and wales, it will be dry through the night with some clear spells. warm and muggy towards the south east, 17 or 18 degrees the minimum temperature, but here, we are looking at plenty of sunshine to take us through the first part of friday. the weather front moving out of northern ireland and scotland, down into the north of england, wales, the south west of england, all the while fizzling away, turning increasingly light and patchy as far as the rain goes. scotland and northern ireland will be left with a lot of cloud, some spots of damp weather, 19 degrees, temperatures well up into the 20s across the south—east and, if you're looking for rain in the south—east corner, the chance for that comes during friday evening in the form of some hit and miss thunderstorms. not everywhere will see one, but if you catch one you really will know about it. it could give a lot of rain in a short space of time. those showers and thunderstorms will tend to move away to the south as we go into friday night and into saturday and saturday we are back to largely dry weather again, some spells of sunshine,

patchy cloud floating around, just a small chance for a shower, those temperatures beginning to nudge up once again, 20—27d and as we look ahead to sunday, all those temperatures will climb higher still. for much of england and wales, we are looking at sunny spells, the east of scotland doing quite well for sunshine, but for the west of scotland and northern ireland, here a bit more cloud, our weather front trying to bring some patchy rain into this north—west corner. contrast that with the conditions further south and east were temperatures in london are likely to hit 30 degrees. then into next week, weather fronts will always be wriggling close to the north—west, a bit of rain here, but away from these north western areas, we will be tapping into some very warm and very humid air, so at times next week, temperatures could get as high as 33 degrees. this is bbc news. the headlines at 11:00pm: a sharp rise in crime recorded by police in england and wales, with knife attacks,

murder and manslaughter all on the increase. we can't do as much as we used to do, or can't do it as effectively. that causes real frustrations to our officiers, as well, who simply want to do the bestjob for the public. and that's a real concern. the new brexit secretary, dominic raab, is in brussels, promising to inject new energy into the uk's approach to the brexit process. four months after the skripals were poisoned in salisbury, there are reports that police know the identity of the russian suspects. also coming up: theresa may is expected to tell the eu