who hello, this is bbc who news with shaun ley. —— hello, this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: the former brexit secretary david davis has called for cabinet more ministers to "exert their executive authority" and rebel over a crucial eu summit. britain and the us are considering boycotting a major international conference in saudi arabia, after the disappearance of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi. saudi officials have said they will retaliate if placed under sanctions.

a british mountain biker has been shot dead in the french alps. the 34—year—old man — who had been living in the town of les gets — was killed on saturday by a stray bullet while riding in woodland close to the swiss border. the rail line between exeter and newton abbot has been closed because of damage caused by storm callum. but the number of rivers at risk of flooding has now halved as the worst of the weather recedes. the government has said plans to clamp—down on patients who falsely claim free prescriptions will help save nhs england £300 million a year. a new digitised system will allow pharmacies to instantly check who is entitled to free medication. now on bbc news it's time for the week in parliament. hello there, and welcome to the week in parliament. our look back at the last few days here at westminster. coming up... jeremy corbyn tackles theresa may over one of her party conference promises...

isn't the claim that austerity is over simply a great big conservative con? but the prime minister says fewer people are in poverty, employment‘s up, and labour's agenda would cost the country dear. uncontrolled borrowing, spiralling taxes, working people paying the price of labour — yet again, labourtaking us back to square one! also on this programme — there's been a lot of talk of another referendum on brexit. butjust how hard would it be to get that idea through parliament? the parliamentary hurdles are considerable, but you have to look at that in the context that the parliamentary hurdles to either a deal or a no—deal brexit are also considerable. and are we running out of places to hear live music? there are so few small music venues around the country, and there's a lot of them that are dying. but first... mps and peers return to westminster after a break for the liberal democrats, labour and the conservatives, to hold their annual autumn party conferences. it was an eventful

time for all three. what with sir vince cable's talk of erotic spasms over brexit, jeremy corbyn setting out his party's ambitions on everything from green energy to pensions and childcare, and of course — who could forget — theresa may's dancing and appeals for unity in her party? when mps gathered for prime minister's questions, jeremy corbyn picked up on one of the prime minister's conference pledges — the promise of an end to austerity. jeremy corbyn wanted to know when that would come for health workers, teachers, police and councils. eight years of painful austerity. poverty is up. homelessness and deaths on our street is up. living standards down. public services slashed. add a million elderly are not getting the care they need. wages have been eroded, and all the while, mr speaker, all the while...

billions were found for tax giveaways, for big corporations and the super—rich. hear, hear! the prime minister, mr speaker... the prime minister declared she is ending austerity. but unless the budget halts the cuts, increases funding to public services, gives our public servants a decent pay rise — then isn't the claim that austerity is over simply a great big conservative con? hear, hear! can i say to the right honourable gentleman, actually wages are going up, we've increased the national living wage as well? there are 1 million fewer people in absolute poverty under this government... hear, hear! ..under universal credit, 1 million disabled households will get around £110 a month more as a result of being on universal credit. and he talks about cuts. i'll tell him about some cuts that have been of benefit to working people in this country. what about the {18.5 billion of income tax cuts that have helped household incomes under this government? hear, hear!

what about the cuts that those in their household bills, that 11 million households will see, as a result of our energy price cut? and... and what about the £46 billion of cuts through freezing fuel duty that has made a real difference to people's lives? but we know what would really hurt working people. labour's plans would cost £1 trillion. one thousand billion pounds of people's money! uncontrolled borrowing, spiralling taxes, working people paying a price of labour — yet again, labourtaking us back to square one. hear, hear! jeremy corbyn didn't ask about brexit. but a pro—european former cabinet minister did. ken clarke, the longest—serving mp, told theresa may she could only

get an agreement with brussels through parliament with the support of pro—european conservative and labour mps. which would reveal that the hard—line eurosceptic views of the bennites on the labour front bench, and the right—wing nationalist in her party are a minority in this parliament. will she therefore proceed courageously on that basis in the formidable task that lies ahead ? theresa may said she was working on as good agreement for the uk. when we come back with a deal, i would hope that everybody across this whole house will put the national interest first. hear, hear! that everybody across this whole house will look, not only at a good deal for the future of the united kingdom, but will also remember that having given the decision as to whether we stay in the european union or not to the british people, the british people having voted to leave — it is our duty to ensure that we leave.

well, the brexit talks had of course been continuing while mps were away from westminster. and so at the start of the week, there was an update on what had been going on. the brexit secretary dominic raab told mps the uk had brought forward serious and credible proposals, and it was time for the eu to match that ambition and pragmatism. but labour reckoned it was like groundhog day, with the government pretending everything was going to be all right. one of the big sticking points remains northern ireland. during that statement, the snp told the minister that peace there was not negotiable. and the dup said its red lines were still clear. because he needs to understand that, as far as we are concerned, as the democratic unionist party, we will not tolerate anything that separates northern ireland from the rest of the united kingdom in terms of customs or single market, as we leave

the european union. we've been clear about that from day one. and, just to reinforce the point, the next day the dup abstained in a vote on the first piece of brexit policy legislation to be debated in the commons — the agriculture bill. in england, the government wants to move away from the current subsidy system, which is based on the total amount of land farmed or owned, but it's not going to happen overnight. there will be a seven—year transition period from 2021 in order to enable our farmers to take advantage of the new opportunities that this bill provides. there is no commitment to producing healthy, home—grown food in a post—brexit world. and there is no commitment to protecting the people of this country from food poverty, at a time when thousands rely on food banks. some mps thought the bill a little premature. no one even knows where the uk's borders will be. perhaps in the middle of the irish sea. and it that uncertainty which is causing the most concern to farmers and other food producers. with over 70% of uk land used

for agriculture purposes, now is the time to place a legally—binding responsability on ministers to ensure that the land is managed and farmed in a way that restores the natural world. a former leader said direct payment to farmers should continue. the unintended but utterly predictable consequence is that the government will flood the market with cheap foreign imports and remove the lifeline of direct payments, and hundreds of farmers, especially hill farmers, would then go under. so this is not a nice, gentle seven—year phase—out for hill farmers or those in less fatal areas. for many, it is a seven—year notice to quit the landscape altogether. and the dup, who's in the support for government, one of the dangers of britain having to operate on the world trade organisation, or wto, rules. it would decimate the lamb industry overnight. with 14%, 15% tariffs, and we export 90% of our lanb. and we export 90% of our lamb. and the dup later abstained

on the vote on that bill, issuing a shot across the government's bows — that its supporte in westminster could not be taken for granted. and the northern ireland issue was highlighted in the lords as peers debated the impact of brexit on the peace process. it's 20 years since the belfast or good friday agreement was signed, helping to end the violence there and paving the way for devolution and the northern ireland assembly to be set up. a former first minister said the agreement had led to a change in the relationship between ireland and the uk. that is now being threatened. and it's been threatened, not by us in northern ireland, but it's been threatened by brussels and dublin. but a dup peer said fears for peace were overstated. the vast majority of people right across northern ireland — from both communities and in the republic of ireland — have no intention of allowing the men of violence to resume their

destructive campaign. lord browne. of course for some, the whole idea of brexit is unpalatable. in recent weeks, the snp and labour had opened the door to the possibility of a second vote. there had been a big march calling for another referendum ahead of labour's autumn conference in liverpool. while around 1,000 dogs and their owners marched on parliament recently. 0rganisers of the so—called wooferendum claim that, among other things, brexit would lead to a shortage of skilled vets from the eu. and there's yet another march, this time for humans, scheduled for october 20th. but while calls for another referendum may be growing, making it happen isn't simple. the constitution unit at the university college london has produced a report on the process, identifying a number of trigger points that could spark a vote. i asked professor meg russell, one of the report's authors, if the most likely trigger was mps refusing to vote for whatever deal the government put before them. well, what becomes likely depends first and foremost on the outcome

of the negotiations. because there are two routes at the beginning — one way is there is a deal and the other way is there is not a deal. so if there is a deal then the deal has to be put to parliament, and that gives mps an opportunity to intervene, to either vote down the deal or to maybe make support for the deal conditional on a referendum. but then of course there is a route where if there isn't a deal, there's going to be pretty much a crisis situation, and that maybe calls for referendum at that point as well. but as we have seen this week, with the warning shots fired from the dup, theresa may is going to struggle to get a majority, or get the numbers on anything at all that she wants to put through parliament. so would that rule out any kind of referendum getting through? well, this remains unclear. it's unclear whether the deal will get through parliament. it's unclear whether a referendum will get through parliament. but one of the points that we make is that if she's trying to build a majority for the deal, it could be that one way of doing that is to offer a referendum

in order to get more people on side who might be prepared to accept it on the basis that if it is approved by the people, then they will allow it to go through. so a referendum could be a way out of now being able to build a majority for even a deal orfor a no—deal situation. a lot of the focus, understandably, has been on what has been going on in the house of commons. but there hasn't been a lot of talk about house of lords. could there be a trigger for a second referendum in the house of lords? potentially there is, but it's a rather uncomfortable one. so the process, the parliamenrtary process, if a deal is agreed is that first, the deal is put in a motion which will consider both the short—term deal and the future relationship, which is actually most of the arguments are about the future relationship in terms of customs union and so on. so mps get to vote on the deal. and they can either support it or reject it, or possibly amend it. at that point peers can't really intervene.

they get to debat it, but they cannot vote it down. if it goes to the house of commons the mother of them has to be a bill to implement the deal. because it is a bill, it has to go through the commons and go before the lords. so there a potential route whereby mps haven't imposed a referendum requirement, but peers would write that into the bill. what we say in our report if that will be quite troublesome for the timetable because we say that holding a referendum takes time. and that would be a much later trigger. we are very much pushing up against the proposed exit date, and we have to have quite a long extension to article 50 to enable a referendum to happen, if it was the lords that did it. but another referendum couldn't happen quickly, as you mentioned there, because it would mean another bill going through parliament. absolutely, yes. i mean, the government cannot just hold a referendum, there has to be a referendum bill to facilitate them to do that. and that would be not an uncontroversial bill. so it would have to pass through the stages in the commons, and then it would have to pass through its stages in the lords. there might be an argument on the nature of questions

to be put to people. there might be argument about the franchise, that kind of thing. and alongside that, the electoral commission tests the clarity of the question, so it actually talks to members of the public, talks to various experts to check whether the question perhaps could be clearer. and that process takes place alongside the passage of the bill. so it is quite hard to rush those processes, you can't condense them. you couldn't do in a state of emergency legislation in three days. it would certainly take a matter of weeks. to sum up, you're not saying in this report that another referendum is completely impossible, but it does say there would be some very big parliamentary hurdles? the parliamentary hurdles are considerable but you have

to look at that in the context that the parliamentary hurdles to either a deal or a no—deal brexit are also considerable. so i think everybody appreciates the prime minister is in a very difficult position, she has got very uncertain levels of support and the house of commons or anything, and so one of the possible outcomes is a referendum emerges from that process as a way out. and certainly in a no—deal situation, we know that mps do not want — i mean, some of them maybe do, but they are very much in the minority. those who think the no—deal is the right way out of the situation. and so if no deal is reached, then actually the prime minister might herself be reaching for a referendum, in order to offer the people and choice to get out of a situation that very few people want to be in. professor meg russell. let's go back to prime minister's questions. at the start of the day, theresa may had announced the appointment of england's first minister for preventing suicide. the snp welcomed the news, but raised reports that some women facing benefits tests had tried to take their own lives. a series of secret internal inquiries revealed that conservative ministers were repeatedly warned of the policy's shortcomings. will the prime minister commit today to ensuring that her new minister on suicide looks at the impact of her government's own security

policies, and at long last scrap the appalling work capability assessment? the prime minister told him assessing people's ability to work was important, and the government looked at the impact of the assessments. well, there was a build—up of pressure during the week about another benefit — universal credit. two former prime ministers criticised the way it is being introduced. labour's gordon brown warned the roll—out next year could lead to poll tax style chaos. in what he termed a summer of discontent. and a former conservative prime ministerjohn major also compared the changes to the poll tax that helped end margaret thatcher's time in downing street. work and pensions secretary esther mcvey admitted some people could be worse off because of the switch, but said there would be protection for those affected. at business questions, labour mps queued up to condemn the change. the damage that is going on now, let alone next year, cannot be

underestimated. the government is determined to continue with the roll—out of universal credit, because it is helping more people back into work. the government has also, however, been determined to improve the system as we roll it out which is why it has been piloted, and that we're making sure no one sees a reduction in benefits when they moved onto universal credit. my constituent has been in and out of work and has exhausted the number of universal credit advance payments he can receive. he's out of work now and received his last pay cheque two weeks ago. he has even exhausted all his food bank vouchers. the dwp has told him he has to wait seven weeks of any kind of payment. thanks to interventions from my office he has been awarded £350 towards paying his rent, which is not enough, so can i ask most sincerely for an urgent debate on the horrendous realities of universal credit roll—out

and the impact it's having on constituents on all sides of the house? andrea leadsom said there would be a chance to put his questions to ministers in the commons on monday afternoon. let's take a look at some other news in brief. the death of 15—year—old natasha ednan—laperouse following an allergic reaction prompted calls to improve food labelling, and quickly. the teenager died after eating a pret a manger baguette while on a flight to france. it contained sesame, which she was allergic to. pret say they will now include labelling for all food products, so they can do it if they want to, but must it always take a tragedy to affect meaningful change from this government? alexander kotey and el shafee elsheikh are accused

of carrying out atrocities while fighting for so—called islamic state. they are said to be the surviving members of the group nicknamed the beatles. ministers came under fresh criticism this week for not getting assurances that the death penalty wouldn't be used if the men were convicted in the united states. mr speaker, you know what i think really happened? the government got the collywobbles, jeff sessions huffed and puffed and blew the prime minister down, the prime minister decided to kowtow to trump and the government change the policy secretly without telling the house. my right honourable friends considered this strongly, found there were strong reasons, and took the necessary decisions that in this case we would share with the united states evidence on the condition that guantanamo was not part of the process, but in this case that we did not seek death penalty assurances. a bill banning letting agencies charging tenants fees cleared its first hurdle in the house of lords. in future landlords will be responsible for paying for agency services. the legislation also caps deposits in the private sector at a maximum of six weeks' rent.

shelter states that over the last five years alone tenants have paid more than £678 million in unfair fees, so when the landlords suggests that the legislation will cost them £82 million, i would look at it in that context. a former cabinet minister is calling for an overhaul of the criminal records system for youngsters who have had minor brushes with the law. theresa villiers said criminal records checks could throw out cautions, warnings or minor convictions. i surely agree that those who commit criminal offences in childhood face punishment. if they have the capacity must face the consequences of actions but except in cases of really serious criminal offences, ijust don't think it is fair for people to have their entire lives blighted by the poor

judgments and the mistakes they made in childhood. theresa villiers. now, whether it's glyndebourne or glastonbury, live music plays a big part in our cultural life but for how much longer? musicians warned a group of mps that smaller venues, traditionally home to live music, are dying. do you feel that the loss of venues and practice and rehearsal spaces is having an impact on younger and emerging artists in particular? critically, yes. not just younger artists but any artists in the process to build a sustainable touring "business. " i think that small music venues help to not only hone the craft of performing in front of a small crowd, you can proceed all to larger venues and arenas, etc,

but it also builds a community element and the ability to connect almost one—on—one with your fans and it is a crying shame that there are so few small music venues around the country and a lot of them are dying. if you strip out some of the grassroots is a beautiful image, but you take it out of the ecosystem, the music we all take a lot of pride in as a countryjust wouldn't be there, and we have had a lot of artists talk about this subject, when they get to the level, frank turners and ed sheerans, talk about having that platform. i am not sure how you're discovering your new artists, but the channels on which you do have changed drastically. streaming services have algorithms which creates playlists of artisis based on artists that think they know you better than you know yourself. sometimes they have a good guess, but we can't have our culture curated by robots. we have to be curated by people who really know what they're talking about. i believe that hip—hop and grime, as a genre, it is one of the most streamed music genres on spotify

at the moment, but it is still incredibly difficult to find small music venues who are willing to take a "risk" to put it on because they are worried about licensing terms. it is not explicitly said, but, indirectly, certain genres of music, if it is urban, you might have a little bit more trouble with your licensing terms, you might have your license up for review next year, and some venues, understandably so, are not willing to take that risk. a very good friend of mine who is a rapper and doesn't swear in any of his music and is about as positive as you could possibly be, had a venue cancel on him in derby this week, because they thought he was a band for the last month and suddenly realised he was a hip—hop artist, and said, "we cannot put this

on because we will lose our licence. " a little stardust being sprinkled on the culture committee. let's have a look at what has been happening in the wider world of politics... at five, hillary clinton unveiled a statue to former first lady eleanor roosevelt in oxford to mark 70 years of the universal declaration of human rights. at four... as the us midterms approached taylor swift backs democrats but donald trump can still rely on kanye... i love this guy! i love this guy right here. at three, did theresa may start a dance craze? here's euro commission president jean—claude juncker. at number two, then again, maybe not. scotland's first minister declines to follow suit. i can barely walk in these heels. dancing was never an option. and, at one, shoes polished, cravat straightened, and. . . oops!

the sergeant and his arms. finally, some news about the building in which mps and peers work. the palace of westminster is a world heritage site but it is also falling down. injanuary, mps voted to move out while a multi—billion pounds refurbishment took place. the leader of the commons told the committee a law to make that happen had been drafted and she accepted the work was long overdue. i do share the concerns of colleagues right across the house about some of these recent incidents with falling masonry and floods, and with the various problems and the work that is under way at the moment, and i want to reassure the committee that the house authorities are taking every step possible to protect everybody on the estate. but mps don't need to start packing just yet. the work isn't due to start until the mid 2020s. and that is it from me for now. don't forget tojoin

christina cooper on bbc parliament on monday night at 11pm for a full round—up of the day here at westminster, where ministers are expected to face more tough questions about universal credit. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. we saw scenes and over the weekend. thankfully, the weather has now improved and actually what a difference a day makes. this is across western parts of the uk, this skies clearing in northern ireland, west of scotland, and wales. stunning, hardly a cloud in the sky, whereas further east around central england in the south—east it is overcast, still raining on and off.

the leftovers of the raining, stormy weather we had for days. through tonight, the rain does not com pletely tonight, the rain does not completely clear way, still with us over parts of england, the south of england, the east in particular, drizzly and mystique and murky, whereas in the north it will be cooler temperatures, two three degrees. —— misty and murky. look at this, parts of the midlands, further east london, further rain and that will hang around possibly until the evening. towards the west, as i say, the weather looking lot better. this is bbc news. the headlines at 3pm: the former brexit secretary david

davis calls for a cabinet rebellion over theresa may's brexit plans — but the health secretary appeals for unity. everyone needs to get behind the prime minister and pull behind her because she's trying to deliver the best dealfor britain because she's trying to deliver the best deal for britain and that is how we move forward. britain and the us consider boycotting a major investment conference in saudi arabia — after the disappearance of the journalist, jamal khashoggi. saudi arabia vows to retaliate if it's put under sanctions. trains between exeter and netwon abbot are disrupted because of rail damage caused by storm callum, but the worst of the weather is passing.