this is bbc news i'm rachel schofield. the headlines at 7. the work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, says it's time to build a cross—party consensus on brexit, as the church of england calls for national reconciliation. an investigation is under way after a woman and her eight year old daughter died in a house fire in nottinghamshire. over sixty thousand protestors take to the streets in france, clashing with police, in a fifth weekend of anti—government demonstrations. staff are ‘working hard' to track down all the animals after a fire at chester zoo. and, manchesther city go back to the top of the premier league, reaction to that, and the rest of the day's sport in half an hour. good evening.

the work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, has appealed to mps across the political divide to "forge a consensus" over brexit, acknowledging that the prime minister's deal for leaving the european union, might not be approved by parliament. her comments in a newspaper, follow another difficult eu summit for theresa may, in which she failed to win concessions that might have made her withdrawal deal acceptable to mps. the church of england has urged the country to debate brexit with more grace and generosity, saying it's time for national reconciliation. here's our political correspondent, chris mason. parliament stares at gridlock. cobbling together a majority to endorse anything looks incredibly difficult, and downing street has studiously avoided any public discussion of a plan b, what happens if, when, the prime minister's plan is rejected. but writing in the daily mail, amber rudd says that brexit is in danger of getting stuck and while supporting

theresa may's deal, advocates assembling a coalition, potentially reaching out to opposition parties, to avoid what she calls the rocks of no deal. amber rudd proposes in her article a series of commons votes to test support for a range of different outcomes but around theresa may's cabinet table are open disagreements about what plan b should or should not look like. and others continue to make the case for plan a, or at least plan a with tweaks not yet secured. it's very tempting after a week like we have had which has not been a good week, to try and reach for other radical solutions, but i still think, if you look at all of this, when the dust is settled, the only way that we are going to get through the house of commons and to give the british people the brexit they voted for, is to have a version of the deal that the government has negotiated. one former minister who resigned last month to call for another referendum says the government

should get a move on and let mps have their say. i have absolutely no doubt that if the vote is deferred again when we come back on monday, that very serious conversations will be had by members of the cabinet and members of parliament asking, well, what is the strategy? it's simply not acceptable to run out the clock and face the country with the prospect of being timed out. the country has arrived at a moment of extraordinary jeopardy, with no one in sole control of events and no one who knows precisely what will happen next. let's talk to sir anthony seldon, a political commentator and author, who is also vice chancellor at the university of buckingham. let's start with that statement that it is possible to get a version of the prime minister's deal through

parliament. well, it may be the case but we just don't know. it is easy to be critical of the prime minister and the government and not have to come up with a solution. and we don't know, it is possible that it will work, but cabinet itself is divided, there are at least four different outcomes and any of which could happen. the country is divided. so what made the, we may go into that but others will not like that option and that is the problem. any option that anyone comes up with is immediately criticised and undermined by others. given that, it does seem that we are at gridlock, doesn't it? we are completely at gridlock. the likes of which we have not seen in this country on such a major issue of policy and there has to be some form of compromise at the

end of the day. it could be a second referendum, but that could alienate all of the brexiteers, there could bea no all of the brexiteers, there could be a no deal exit, that would severely aggravate the remainders, but i think it is most likely that it will be some form of compromise in the middle. either on theresa may's plant, unlikely given what you're up to sing about it and given what elements of the cabinet are saying about it, plus the conservative party. though there could be a norway style compromise, but i think that is where we are likely to land up or there could be a delay to leading the european union, but how long will that go on? the negative impact on the economy will be uncertainty. selecting the

country overall just thinks that somehow we need to come out with somehow we need to come out with some solution or other that the greatest number can get behind. when we talk about the greatest number, we talk about the greatest number, we talked to another cabinet minister and said it was a time for a cross minister and said it was a time for a cross party minister and said it was a time for a cross party consensus minister and said it was a time for a cross party consensus and calling for the prime minister to reach out and looked to like—minded people in the labour party. how realistic in option is that? well, it is difficult because if mps were truly thinking and the national interest, they would be thinking and voting differently. but labour have one overriding objection which is to have their general election. nothing wrong with that, that is what opposition party's do. and that naturally is more important to them than trying to find a middle way. yet, at the end of the day, we have

somehow to resolve this. we can't simplyjust aggregate, somehow to resolve this. we can't simply just aggregate, maybe dissolution is to let parliament vote on a whole series of the different, a variety of options at the moment, big portfolio choices, five, six, seven choices may be of different outcomes. test the use of the mps, it could be a bit of a free vote where people are not tied by, but we need to find, like the church of england was saying that, we need to find a respect again. a quality of the discourse angry belittling of each other, it can't carry on. this country has an absolute right to expect parliament and the government to find a way out of this which is the best possible option for the country. while respecting the

outcome of the 2016 referendum. it has to be done somehow. you have spoken there about the importance of the role of parliament and the we heard today that it could have serious implications and written that britain faces a political impasse that could morph into a full—blooded constitutional crisis. at beer that is correct, but we're not yet at that point, —— i hear. that no—confidence votes, looking for a new prime minister at such a moment where a possible new prime minister has a different kind of plan. it was very differentjust to mention very quickly to episodes of history, may 19110 when churchill replaced chamberlain. yet a very

clear alternative plan, again, a very different plan with which both prime ministers were associated. there is no possible new contender to theresa may, unless the necessary gets, very difficult gifts of being a prime minister was that kind of plan. so getting a new prime minister is not a solution and we have to find a way forward and quickly that requires a statesman like approach, the likes of which churchill obvious example, had, in the ability to think beyond the narrow political confines and think of the nation, notjust the advantage of particular political party. berry good to have your historical perspective on that. thank you very much indeed. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front

pages at 10:30 and 11:30pm this evening in the papers — our guests joining rachel schofield tonight are martin lipton and bonnie greer. 0ver sixty thousand so—called yellow vest protesters took to the streets across france in the fifth weekend of demonstrations against president macron‘s government. police in paris fired tear gas and made a number of arrests but there was no repeat of the violence of previous weekends. the number of people taking part dropped by around 50%. in a moment we'll speak to one of the trade unions involved in the protests but first lucy williamson reports from paris. the tactics were the same as always but the tension here has waned. the number of protesters in paris today less than half of that of last weekend. there were far fewer people gathering here in paris today but there are still a few confrontations between protesters and police, like here on the champs—elysees. the security forces will be hoping this is the last final stand of the hard—core.

this was a test of whether president macron‘s concessions this week have worked. ten billion euros to help those on the lowest incomes. not enough for some. translation: the president is offering us peanuts. we are not monkeys he can throw nuts at. we are human beings. the violence of previous demonstrations in paris along with the government's concessions and the impact of a terrorist attack in strasbourg this week have all helped to dissuade protesters. but protest sites around the country are settling in for christmas and it is notjust the troublemakers left behind. at this tollgate 45 minutes outside marseille, the demands are no longerjust economic, they are also about democracy and access to power. translation: we want a second french revolution. we are going to show all of europe that the people do have power. president macron said long—term solutions to this crisis lie

at the local level and that he wants to meet mayors, region by region, to hear their concerns. translation: president macron has ignored us from the moment he came to power. and now all of a sudden he wants us to come to his rescue. can i be honest with you? the idea of a national consultation is absolute rubbish. everything will carry onjust like before. the clashes here seem to be losing momentum, but the frustration that sparked them has not been resolved. there is a part of france that feels precarious and invisible. for the past few weeks it was visible to all. let's go live to paris now and speak to benjamin amar — he is one of the leaders of one of france's biggest trade unions — the cgt — a body which has been organising demonstrations alongside the so—called yellow vest protestors in an effort to win concessions from emmanuel macron‘s government across a range of social

and economic issues. very good of you to join us will stop perhaps you can start by telling us a bit about your union and what it is that you are raising asa and what it is that you are raising as a serious issue for the president. can you repeat that? i did not hear you. can you explain what your union is protesting and what your union is protesting and what change would like to see. we demand social justice and what change would like to see. we demand socialjustice and wealth distribution and one other person you just interviewed said that president macron offered peanuts and that was true. and we want a true inquiry of the wage, increase of

wage in retirement. and president macron should reestablish the wealth tax and all of this, a lot of demand that president macron did not explain in his former announcement. as you said, there has been some changes announced by president macron, yu—gi—oh that they have not gone far enough. how confident are you, given the protest have lost momentum. i'm sorry, did you repeat, please? given that there's been some concessions over the protest, that are apparently losing momentum, are you confident that see further change offered by the french

government? you know, we think president macron, the servant at a point that any president before him, we did not see that before. and that only the protests and the demonstrations can convince him to, we noticed that president macron is ina very we noticed that president macron is in a very bad situation after five weeks a demonstrations and protests. when he announced was, was not enough at all and we think that we have to struggle again and again with passing the blockade to the

blockade of the economy of the company, of the society. this is the only way to obtain what we demand. when it comes to the tactics that are being used by demonstrators, how do you feel about the violence and the looting that has been seen in some areas? you know, my union is a very old the union. we have existed since the prior century. and our demonstration, we have also anarchists who are organised violent during our demonstration. we have a security system, with my comrades, who are struggling against these anarchists. so we know that. this is

not a new situation. these anarchists, within france, this group was a separate problem. the yellow vests are not practising violence, but in france, nowadays. a lot of people in france are in a movement, organised in a movement against the policy of president macron and as a teacher, i concede this week, a lot of violence ordered by the government, violence from policemen and it is a disaster. it was awful. so we demand that all of this violence, the violence of the anarchists and also the violence of the government stop immediately.

this is not a new think, a new situation, we have to remember that the creation of the security, the problem of the government is the problem of the government is the problem of the minister. it is necessary that we can, we have to demonstrate any peaceful way that the security is the problem of the government. i understand. thank you for your time. the headlines on bbc news... the work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, says it's time to build a cross—party consensus on brexit, as the church of england calls for national reconciliation. an investigation is under way after a woman and her eight year old daughter died in a house fire in nottinghamshire. over sixty thousand protestors take to the streets in france, clashing with police, in a fifth weekend of anti—government demonstrations.

a mother and her eight—year—old daughter have died in a house fire at collingham in nottinghamshire. a mother and her eight—year—old daughter have died in a house fire at collingham in nottinghamshire. our reporterjake zuckerman sent this update. well the firefighters were called hear about seven o'clock the morning by neighbours who had spotted a fire in the conservatory of the house and they said that they try to break into the house, break down the door and rescue the people but unfortunately they were unable to, but when firefighters arrived, they did take five people from the house. all believed to be from the same family. a 34—year—old man and his five—year—old son were both still in hospital with serious injuries and as you said, a 33—year—old woman and her eight—year—old daughter have sadly died as a result of this house fire. another occupant of the house,

a 53—year—old woman was led to safety and was looked after and was seen at the moment, police and fire officers are still here and examining the scene of this fire in an attempt to discover how it started in the first place. the road is cordoned off and police say that they would like it to remain cordoned off until tomorrow while those investigations are continuing. chester zoo was evacuated today after a large fire. the blaze broke out in the monsoon forest habitat, the largest indoor zoological building in britain. our correspondent gerry jackson sent this from the scene of the blaze. all the indications are this was a fire that took hold quickly and spread very rapidly. chester zoo is one of northern england's most foremost tourism attractions and the uk's most visited zoo. fire crews were called shortly before midday as the flames fanned

by today's very strong winds raced across the roof of the monsoon forest enclosure. it's a relatively new addition to the zoo, 314 acre tropical climate zone, that homes among its species are endangered orangutans, crocodiles and rare species of plants. people were being evacuated from the site, zoo staff were shepherding threatened animals to safety. according to a prearranged safety plan. a nearby resident whose home overlooks the zoo site, she has been telling us about how frightening it was to witness those flames taking hold. seemed to be a lot of panic, fire engines, police and ambulance. concerning. were you worried for your own safety? we were so close to the zoo, we have pets in the house, neighbours, we'rejust worried about what could happen. has anything like this ever happened before?

no. there's been speculation about animals escaping from the zoo. nothing like this. nothing as big as this. one person was taken to hospital, suffering from the effects of breathing in the smoke. the zoo says all that mammals have been safely accounted for, the zoo attracts around 2 million visitors a year, when it can reopen and when the damage to this part of it can be repaired, is still unclear. a boat carrying suspected migrants has been picked up off the coast of dover by the border force. in the last three months, more than one hundred migrants are known to have attempted crossing the english channel, the world's busiest shipping lane. australia's prime minister has announced that his government now recognises west jerusalem as the capital of israel. scott morrison said australia also recognised the palestinian aspirations for a state capital in eastjersualem and that the australian embassy will not move from tel aviv until there's a final peace accord.

the status ofjerusalem is one of the most contested issues between israel and the palestinians. more changes are to come in the trump administration as the president has announced — via twitter — that his interior secretary, ryan zinke, will leave his post at the end of the year. ryan zinke has been facing a number of ethics investigations. danjohnson has the latest from washington. apparent there were signals in the last few weeks that perhaps the president's support for ryan zinke was running out and he has taken the opportunity now to announce that he will go at the end of the year. he was dogged by a number of investigations into potential conflicts of interest, some of the deals that he had overseen in his office and some of his travel expenses. he had been letting his wife use government cars and he chartered a plane at the cost of $12,000 of the taxpayers, just to make sure he got to a hockey game on time. he has denied any wrongdoing, but he is now announced that he will become the latest

figure to leave this white house, to leave the trump team. there've been so many high level departures over the past two years in the president is still looking for a permanent replacement to the chief of staff, it was announced last night that the budget director mick mulvaney will stand in, will act up in the interim, but that we do not know how long that will before but there is still a permanent replacement to be found there. so more roles that trump has to fill, there are some signs that he's having difficulty getting the people he wants to do some of these important jobs. journeys using the two crossings which span the river severn into south wales will soon be toll free. the barriers on the ma, prince of wales bridge, are being dismantled first, with work planned for the m48 bridge on monday. our wales correspondent sian lloyd has more. and just a warning — there are some flashing images in her report. crossing the river severn into south wales has until now always come at a price. some 25 millionjourneys a year are made. lorry driver craig evans

makes more than most. for 17 years, he's been delivering goods from wales across the border. this could be halfway over the bridge, and you're losing time, your driving time, you're late getting the goods delivered. it's just horrific. his firm makes 31,000 crossings every year. until recently, lorries were charged £20 a time. it's good for my company. they've got more money in to invest, which will create more jobs, but the side that i'm not looking forward to is the traffic which is going to come into wales, and from my point of view, it's going to cause more congestion. to commemorate the first crossing of the severn bridge, i have great pleasure in unveiling this plaque. in 1966, the completion of the first bridge across the severn caused huge excitement, but the volume of traffic multiplied, and 30 years later, the prince of wales opened a second

severn crossing. when this bridge returned to public ownership, the uk government announced that the tolls would go. around 100 staff are affected. among them is darren moore, who said he is sad to be losing hisjob but does have fond memories of his time in the toll booths. you'd get people turning up and going, is this the way to exeter? is this the way to scotland? because they've taken a wrong turning, and then you have to break the news that they're actually just about to enter wales. work is now under way to remove the barriers. the aim is to save drivers money and encourage more investment in the south wales economy, but it's predicted that scrapping the tolls will increase traffic on what is already a congested stretch of the motorway. now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett it has been a grim winter day today.

store deirdre has thrown the whole lot at us today, we have had some very dangerous areas, but freezing rain. this is what it looks like when it hits the trees. but more dangerous when it is on the road, we have still got some warnings out from the office amber warnings of iac, freezing conditions and also some more snow as well. most snow warnings cover scotland, we've seen it fall to the north of the central belt, following in the northeast of england and icy conditions extend down into here. looking at scotland, continuing into the north central belt and icy mix of rain, sleet and snow, southernmost parts of scotland, the whole lockwood turned towards the northeast of scotland, leaving behind something like 20 cm over the hills in central scotland and after that, we'll see some more showers coming into, but these will be over the hills that we suspect that the end of tonight, because it

is turning. turning into northern england, freezing rain turned to snow in the northeast of england, you'll see how that wet weather, windy conditions, and gusty conditions of the northwest of england must dwells along the coast with some rain pushing him. note south—westerly coming in, but relatively moderate air but that should clear up by the end of the night. but calming down, we're left with some weather over the hills in scotland, could be a bit icy as well, scotland another —— and northern ireland, was a some wet weather arriving at the wells, to the side of england, that can be quite heavy as well. of those temperatures will be up on today, will not feel as coulter is windy or as coulter is windy or is icy either, those temperatures could be

into the double figures. could be a little bit misty of the hills in scotla nd little bit misty of the hills in scotland otherwise and sunshine, the wind picking up to the day in introducing a few showers out towards the west, which is going to slowly head our way on monday night and into tuesday. those temperatures could get double figures, and belfast, but looking ahead it stays on the mild side through wednesday, tuesday and wednesday, it was a good be quite wet and windy with the threat of some flooding particularly for the western side of the uk and in lights on wednesday was an sunshine and showers. hello this is bbc news. the headlines... the work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, says it's time to build a cross—party consensus on brexit as the church of england calls for national reconciliation.