you're watching bbc news at nine with me, annita mcveigh. the headlines: travellers are facing major disruption at gatwick airport after two drones seen flying near the runway caused dozens of flights to be grounded and diverted overnight. i have a drone on my airfield. as we stand here now, gatwick will not be able to reopen until that drone is brought down. we are told at least one drone is still flying right now in the skies above gatwick airport. at least 20 police units are searching for the operator. more money is needed to change the layout of town centres according to a new report into the state of the high street, and we'll have more analysis at 09:30 when latest retail figures are published. the work and pensions secretary amber rudd says a second brexit referendum will become a plausible option if the deadlock in parliament over theresa may's deal cannot be broken.

coming up at 09:30: the government will publish their first stats on the number of deaths among homeless people in england and wales. and at 09:40 in sport: spurs are through to the semi—finals of the league cup but their 2—0 win at arsenal was overshadowed when dele alli was hit by a water bottle thrown from the crowd. good morning. welcome to the bbc news at nine. all flights in and out of gatwick, britain's second busiest airport, have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have been affected with many facing long delays. flights have been diverted as far away as paris and amsterdam. gatwick has apologised for any inconvenience but said safety was its foremost priority. andy moore reports. early this morning,

and gatwick airport was full of hundreds of people trying to rearrange flights orjust find a bed for the night. speak to the reception to get your taxi booked back to the airport. the airport apologised to its passengers, but said their safety was its foremost priority. all flights into and out of the airport had to be suspended after there were multiple sightings of two drones over the runway. more than two dozen inbound flights were diverted to other uk airports. at gatwick, many passengers sat waiting in planes on the runway, before finally being off—loaded. it's ridiculous. how many mil... it must be costing them tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds, in delays. it's absolutely ludicrous. we were travelling from glasgow to gatwick, and we were diverted to luton because, obviously, we weren't able to land. and after being held on the plane for around two hours, we eventually got off and got a bus,

which took us here to gatwick. the problem of drones near airports is a worldwide concern. in the uk, the authorities say the number of near misses has trebled in the last two years. there were 92 incidents last year alone. gatwick will be hoping to operate as normal today, but the christmas travel plans of thousands of people have been severely disrupted. andy moore, bbc news, gatwick airport. let's go live to gatwick and speak to andy now. as you told us in that headline a moment ago, there is still one drone above the airport. this disruption started at nine o'clock last night and it is now nine o'clock this morning. what is going on to try to end it? certainly there is a major police operation under way. about 20

police operation under way. about 20 police units are out and about around the airport, trying to find the drone or drones. more importantly the operator of those tiny little aircraft. when i arrived here last night, the police helicopter was up taking part in that operation. we are told by police that they cannot shoot down the drones because that would be a danger to safety. let's get this update from the authorities at the airport on the latest situation. at the moment we are still getting sightings of the drone in and around the airfield. i've got 20 units at the moment from surrey and sussex and from the airport searching for the drone operator to try and locate him. we are exploring other options at the moment options at the moment to try and bring the situation to a close. this appears to be a deliberate act? absolutely. this has been going on for hours now. each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears. when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears. i'm absolutely convinced it's

a deliberate act to disrupt gatwick airport. do you know why anybody would want to do that? no, not at all. and actually there's been no intelligence that this is going to happen. this is just a random act that has happened overnight. are you confident you will locate the operator of the drone? i am convinced we will. it's a painstaking thing. with the new drones, the bigger the drone, the further the reach of the operator, so it's a difficult and challenging thing to locate them, but i've got teams now and investigators looking at how we do that and locate them and i'm confident we will. the airport here say they will try to open as soon as possible. the european operator euro control say the airport will be closed until ten o'clock at the earliest. meanwhile thatis o'clock at the earliest. meanwhile that is causing travel chaos for tens of thousands of people. you can imagine the scenes inside the terminal, getting very hot in there, very crowded. we have had reports of people passing out in there. a

terrible situation here at the airport. it is never a good time for airport. it is never a good time for a major airport like this to be closed. for it to happen just before christmas is the worst possible time. firstly, i'd like to apologise to all of the passengers who have been disrupted by this irresponsible act. at nine o'clock last night, a drone was seen by two different members of staff, and since then that drone has appeared and reappeared all through the night. we reopened at 3am for 45 minutes, but then the drone reappeared again, and so the airport is closed now. there is a drone on the airfield as we speak and the police, 20 police units, are looking to bring that perpetrator to justice. five years imprisonment is the punishment for this act. so as we heard there, that police operation is ongoing around the airport. some 20 units have been operating throughout the night,

trying to locate the operator. watch that police officer talked about, a single drone, there were reports of two, but maybe it is just one. it has been operating for something like 12 hours now. we have had reports before of near misses between drones and aircraft coming into gatwick. sometimes it is a case of the operator of the drone just trying to get a good shot of an aircraft coming in, but this seems a much more deliberate act that is causing real problems for many, many people. thank you very much for that update. let's talk now to christopher lister, who was on a flight christopher lister, who was on a flight back from kiev to gatwick but was diverted to birmingham. we can speak to him now as he continues his journey. i think you are taking a taxi to try to get back to the gatwick area. is that right? that is

right. it has been a long journey for us. we left kyiv at eight o'clock local time last night. we we re o'clock local time last night. we were due to fly into gatwick at about 9:45pm, and there was a problem with landing. the pilot diverted us to birmingham. we were not actually aware until we landed that there were any problems with the drones. but we were unlucky enough to be in the airport for 12 hours, i think. enough to be in the airport for 12 hours, ithink. we enough to be in the airport for 12 hours, i think. we slept there with nearly a full flight, women and children on the floors everywhere. they originally said to us that we could take off at 3:30am, and go back to the airport at 4 o'clock as planned, and arriving to gatwick. but then there was the second drone exciting, so they off—loaded us into birmingham. —— drone sighting. we

are getting a taxi now. how long was it meant to be? it went from three hours to 12 hours, people do 12 hour flight hours to 12 hours, people do 12 hour flight and that is doable, but when you don't know what the duration will be it messes with your brain. people were running out of milk for their babies and they were having a much harder time than we were. it wasn't too bad for us. how did you and people around you feel? did you have some sense of other passengers' reaction when the news emerged that this was down to somebody operating a drone or drones over gatwick? to be honest, anything reported now, hearing that it is somebody intentionally doing it, before then we we re intentionally doing it, before then we were getting limited information that there was a drone siting. you know, it could have been a kid with a toy mistakenly doing it, but hearing that it has been persisting all morning and it is something much more sinister, just trying to cause

disruption, it is a little bit scary that it disruption, it is a little bit scary thatitis disruption, it is a little bit scary that it is possible to do that. these should be no—fly zones. we feel grateful that there is not a worse story this morning about an aeroplane coming down. just disruption. it is really not too bad in the circumstances. absolutely, you have put it into context for us, christopher. i hope it hasn't interrupted your christmas plans too much? a little bit. it is my sister's birthday today so i am trying to get back to some of that. we came from bangkok so we have been on the move since tuesday so we will be happy to get home. on the move since tuesday so we will be happy to get homelj on the move since tuesday so we will be happy to get home. i bet you well! wish your sister happy birthday from us and i hope you get some rest and the rest of your journey is uneventful. christopher lister, thank you for talking to us. philip tarry founded arpas,

the drone association, and is now director of halo drones, a drone training school. this seems to have been carried out with militia sinister intent. this seems to have been carried out with militia sinister intentlj wouldn't like to speculate about whether it is sinister but it is certainly apparently intentional. flying around an airport for 12 hours now can only really mean one thing. it is not due to lack of awareness of the regulations because of course people have been talking about no—fly zones for drones around airports, and legally they exist. the main manufacturer of drones, they have got a gps means of preventing people from taking off within the boundary of the airfield. so we can presume this is not a drone that is off the shelf. it is most likely somebody who is wilfully ignoring the rules and has got a drone that has either been hacked or

custom built in order to be able to fly in this environment. so it probably is sinister then? at the very least stupid ? probably is sinister then? at the very least stupid? absolutely stupid. the shame of it is that this will have an impact on the public perception of drones, which doesn't do our industry and our usage of drones any good. of course the regulations have been there now for a long time and they are well established. the caa are doing a lot to raise awareness about it and i am trying to use this opportunity to raise awareness about the regulations because they do exist, and the safe and professional use of drones is something we should all be aspiring to. and of course there are many people who use drones absolutely responsibly. absolutely. in this case, do drones have a unique identification number, serial number, so if they are captured they can be traced ? number, so if they are captured they can be traced? not currently that there are plans for that to come

into place in november 2019 and an implementing rule was issued by the caa earlier this yearfor implementing rule was issued by the caa earlier this year for that to happen as well as a registration scheme. rethinking your question, electronic identification is absolutely something they are talking about bringing in in the future. registration as of november 2019, we still don't know exactly what that will look like but it will be some kind of registration through an online website, and we suspect there will have to be some sort of identification on the drone that is physical so that if somebody was to find the drone, they could identify the owner and the pilot. that could minimise the risk of something like this happening again, could it? minimise the risk of something like this happening again, could mm would struggle because ultimately you have got to catch the drone to get that information. dgi have worked on a system where you can point something at a drone and

identify the owner, and the operator. but there are ways around these systems. the regulations are going to do a lot, with regards to registration and competency requirements that come in in november 2019, and they will do a lot to raise awareness of the regulations so that the average user will be aware. but that will not prevent situations like this. i know a number of people on social media this morning i talking about why is defence of drones around infrastructure like this not being that it talked about? and actually a prison in guernsey has started implementing this electronic drone defence. i have instructed people who have developed this technology. it does exist but it is not being implement it yet. i guess this might be the event that speeds up the implementation of that technology. be the event that speeds up the implementation of that technologylj just implementation of that technology.” just want to ask you about something you said which prompted this next question about how to capture the drone. the police have said they

can't just shoot it drone. the police have said they can'tjust shoot it out of the sky because of safety considerations. how else could the drone be brought down? a number of manufacturers have looked at means of recovering drones like this. there are electronic means of doing it. i don't understand the technology entirely, but you can point something at it and it puts a gps jamming in, and it forces the drone into thinking needs to return home and land. but without knowing what drone that is, it might not be using gps for flying. it could be fully manual. people tend to forget that radio controlled aircraft have existed for decades. drones arejust a aircraft have existed for decades. drones are just a modern evolution of that technology. these radio controlled aircraft might not be susceptible to that kind of electronic defence. there are other means were drones that have been proposed to fly over the top could

drop the net, and guns that fire nets into the air which capture around the rotors and bring the drone out of the sky. again that would end in a catastrophic event of the drone falling out of the sky, so one could argue that is not safe. it really depends on exactly where the drone is and what it is near. it seems to me in a report that i have heard that they are struggling to track the drone. and the ability to ca ptu re track the drone. and the ability to capture it will therefore be quite difficult. good to talk to you this morning, philip. the director of halo drones. and we hope to speak to the aviation minister about this story during bbc news at nine. this incident at gatwick is ongoing. a drone is reported to be over the airport and it is 12 hours since the disruption first began at about nine o'clock last night. it is 9:16am. the headlines on bbc news: that is

our main story. all flights in and out of gatwick airport have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have been affected. the government needs to contribute more money to change the layout of town centres according to a new report into the state of the high street. their work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, says a second brexit referendum is a plausible option if the deadlock in parliament cannot be broken. the behaviour of football fa ns broken. the behaviour of football fans in the spotlight again. police are looking to see who through water bottle at dele alli at the emirates stadium in their 2—1 league cup win. in the musical chairs at the top of the scottish premiership, celtic are the leaders again after sweeping aside motherwell. and ban me if you dare. olympic champion, adam peaty, says

he wants to compete in the break away international swimming league and will face the consequences. i will be back with more on the stories at 9:40am. thank you. mps begin their christmas holidays today but the rows over brexit continue. the work and pensions secretary amber rudd has suggested that while she doesn't personally support another vote, a second referendum could become a plausible way forward if parliament stays deadlocked. ms rudd said she hoped mps would back the prime minister's deal next month, but acknowledged it would be very difficult. let's cross to westminster now where we can speak to our assistant political editor, norman smith. amber rudd is looking at possible ways forward and saying a second referendum would be plausible. how many people backed that view at this point? i suspect it is a growing number. there is a sense of momentum

growing behind the idea because many people are calculating that mrs may's brexit deal when it is voted on in the middle of next month has very little chance of going through, and people therefore have got to start looking at the other options. that is what is striking about amber rudd's comment last night. you have only got to go back to monday and the prime minister was firmly seeking to slam the door shut on the idea of a second referendum. you may remember in the comments she was talking about how it was a breach of trust, how it would fuel further division and undermine confidence in democracy. —— in the commons. and that was after laying into tony blair the day before because he advocated a second referendum. now amber rudd is saying we may have to think about a second referendum. have a listen to what she said. i have said that i don't want a people's vote, or a referendum in general. but, if parliament absolutely failed to reach a consensus, i could see there would be a plausible argument for it. but i think it is incumbent on mps to find the centre ground in parliament,

and to try and find where the majority is there. because, quite frankly, i don't think the majority of people, let alone brenda, want to be asked how to vote. want to be asked again how to vote. it seems that amber rudd is not the only cabinet minister searching for plan b. we know that mrs may has pretty much said that hers is the only deal. ministers are beginning to try and sketch out an alternative strategy. we heard from the leader of the house, and we who not only criticised amber rudd's suggestion that a second referendum might be possible, but also went out of her way to sketch out a deal in which we would pay the eu more money to buy more time to get ready for a new deal. she was speaking on this

morning's today programme. so a managed no deal does not necessarily mean there is no withdrawal agreement at all. in my view... i mean, this is all speculation, but what i'm looking at is trying to find an alternative that in the event that we cannot agree to this deal, there could be a further deal which looks at a more minimalist approach but enables us to leave with some kind of deal and some kind of implementation period that avoids a cliff edge, that avoids uncertainty for businesses and travellers and so on. what i think we have learned from this is that although mrs may is publicly saying that she will carry on with her deal, her cabinet collea g u es on with her deal, her cabinet colleagues around her are pessimistic about the prospect of it getting through and there doesn't seem to be any high—level eu negotiations pencilled in before parliament returned to debate it on the 7th of january. so there will not be any real movement there, you sense. there has not been any attempt to reach out to the

opposition parties, so that means mrs may has only got one card left to play, which seems to be to try and frighten mps into backing her deal, in effect, by the threat of no deal. but she will have to frighten an awful lot of mps if a deal is to get through. norman smith, thank you. norman smith at westminster. the fire services watchdog is warning that people's safety is being compromised both at home and in the workplace due to a decline in the number of checks being carried out. fire safety inspections in england have fallen by more than 40% in the past decade according to the report. the home office has said urgent action needs to be taken. our home affairs correspondent, tom symonds, has more firefighters — fewjobs attract as much public support as they enjoy, and the number of emergencies they deal with has been falling steadily. but this, the worst residential fire in living memory, showed that disasters can still happen. it has put firefighting firmly in the spotlight. meanwhile, the system for inspecting fire services has been revamped. cheshire fire and rescue is one

of 1a services to be scrutinised as part of the new system. it got a good rating for its emergency service, and for the fire safety checks it carries out. but today's report says when it comes to protecting the public by inspecting buildings, eight out of 1a fire services required improvement. in fact, the number of safety audits carried out by fire services across england has fallen by 42% in eight years. if fire services don't know where their high—risk premises are, and if they haven't been in and done safety audits of those high—risk premises, then there is clearly a danger that there are risks that aren't being addressed, and therefore the public are at risk. the reason it's not happening, she says, is funding. fire services have prioritised the emergency response over the fire safety checks. but there are other issues — a general shortage of on—call firefighters able to interrupt

their daily lives to respond to fires, and what was described as an outdated working culture, where fewer than 6% of firefighters are women, and fewer than 5% from an ethnic minority group. more inspections, including big city fire brigades, are planned. tom symonds, bbc news. we can now speak to zoe billingham, lead inpector of her majesty's inspectorate of fire and rescue services. we appreciate you coming in today. why has there been such a dramatic drop—off in fire safety checks over the last seven years? we have seen since the start of austerity are 42% reduction in fire safety checks, which is of vital importance to the public. we need them to know that building that they are staying in, like hospitals and hotels, i say. and fire and rescue services told us that at the beginning of austerity

they looked to where they needed to make reductions, and the first place they looked to was in fire prevention. 0bviously stripping away services from emergency services is not a good idea, so they took away qualified staff from health and safety tea m qualified staff from health and safety team to do these audits. there has been a gradual decline and we are concerned by what we have found. you are talking about people going to check whether fire exits are blocked and whether doors open properly etc? yes, really basic safety measures that keep the public say. whether there is a means of escape, whether or not fire alarms sound when there is a fire and they can be heard. fundamental things that the public need to know are in place in buildings. it is important to stress that have the responsibility forfire to stress that have the responsibility for fire safety lies with the building owner but the fire service has a duty to make sure that owners actually comply with the fire legislation and that is why we are so concerned today. if the fire service is not doing the checks in

high risk premises, then clearly there is an unknown risk to the public. it is mainly rural services that have been inspected so far and a significant number of those were told to improve their checks. do you expect to find a similar pattern in urban services as well? to be honest, we are not sure and we don't know what we will find. all fire services have had to reduce costs since 2010 onwards, so it is likely we will find reductions in these areas in larger metropolitan fire services as well. we will have to wait and see on that one. the home 0ffice expects fire and rescue services to take action. it is the government going to provide more money for that action to be taken? 0ne money for that action to be taken? one of the really interesting things about our findings is that five of the 14 about our findings is that five of the 1a fire services that we looked at are very good in the area of protection. they have been subject to the same cuts in fire and rescue services, so it is a question of

prioritisation. so there is a focus on prevention and protection and emergency response in an appropriate way. i am not going to say that we need more money. but fire and rescue services do need to understand their business and make sure the resources they have are spread across the risk across the whole organisation. you will not answer that now but maybe in the future you would agree that would be the way forward? more resources would be needed beyond lessons that can be learned from services which seem to be managing better than others? we have only looked at a third of all fire and rescue services so far and we need to look at it across the board and get some parity. i want to ask you about the culture of the fire service. there is criticism of all 14 service. there is criticism of all 1a services inspected so far. a quarter of staff reported bullying in the last 12 months. some of them had no shower provision for female

firefighters which is frankly astonishing. we talked to lots of stuff as we do our inspections and we we re stuff as we do our inspections and we were astonished by some of the really outdated practices that we found in the fire and rescue services. things you would not expect to see in a modern work environment. what has been done to change that? lots of fire services are focusing and prioritising how well they treat people and how they look after their people after major incidents. in the wake of grenfell tower, we saw the profound impact that fires have on the communities and the workforces that attend. fire services are telling us they are prioritising in this area. the idea in this day and age that female firefighters when they come back from a fire incident don't have a separate facility in which to shower i think is absolutely extraordinary. thank you for taking the time to talk to us today, the lead inspector of her majesty's inspectorate of fire and rescue services. now it is time to look at the weather forecast

with simon king. good morning. it is worth keeping your umbrella handy because there are quite a few showers across the uk today. most other showers will be across northern parts of the uk by this afternoon. the odd shower in western parts but for the midlands, eastern and southern parts of england, it will get drier and brighter compared to this morning. some lengthy sunny spells and temperatures getting up to seven or 8 degrees in the north and ten or 11 in the south. showers continue for a time overnight. varying amounts of cloud in northern areas but a touch of frost as possible in the far north of scotland. elsewhere rain is spreading in and it will keep temperatures up at about six to eight celsius. that rain will continue to move north during friday, eventually fizzling out across northern ireland and northern parts of england. rai and brighter to the south of that with sunny spells in the north and turning

milder. goodbye. —— dry and brighter to the south of that. hello this is bbc news. the headlines: all flights in and out of gatwick airport have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have been affected. the government needs to contribute more money to change the layout of town centres, according to a new report into the state of the high street. the work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, says a second brexit referendum will become a "plausible" option, if the deadlock in parliament over theresa may's deal cannot be broken.

let's return to our main story today, that disruption over and around gatwick airport, caused by drone activity. it's been going on for approximately 12 hours, now. the disruption began around 9pm, last night. in the last few minutes, as you will have heard here on bbc news, we understand there is still a drone above the runway. i'm will be joined from westminster by the aviation mionister baroness sugg. firstly, let's look at this live shot of gatwick and normally this would be an incredibly busy scene. it is the uk's second busiest airport. in terms of flight activity, nothing going on this morning. 20 police units searching

for this drone orjeroens and the operator or operators, whoever is responsible. thank you for your time this morning baroness suggs, this is deeply disturbing, what are you going to do about it? i feel for the disturbing, what are you going to do about it? i feelfor the passengers who have been facing such disruption this morning and i know gatwick airport and the police are working ha rd to airport and the police are working hard to open the airport as soon as it is safe to do so. as ijust mentioned, there are 20 police units out looking for these drones, the person or persons responsible for operating them. the police have said they can't shoot down a drone, because of public safety, but can the raf be deployed? what can you do in the immediate term to try to deal with this? it's important to be clear this is a crime and this drone is being flown illegally. earlier this year, we changed the law to make it illegal to fly within a

kilometre of an airport and as you say, the police are trying to bring down the drone as quickly as possible. but it has been going on for 12 hours. if this continues, well in today, potentially, what more can you do? what other resources ca n more can you do? what other resources can you possibly deploy to try to tackle it? as i said, the police are out there, trying to bring down the drone. this is an illegal act. we are also looking to extend police powers and early in the new year, we will talk about our next steps on that and the other thing we're looking at is counter drone technology. technology in this area is moving incredibly quickly, but we need to ensure we are able to stop such activity in future. as we heard from other guests this morning, we do know that greater powers are due to come into force next year. and greater safeguarding around the sale and the of drones. with the greatest of respect, that's not much consolation for people who are being affected by this now who

are being affected by this now who are due to travel to gatwick airport and are being told contact your airline, yourflight might not be going. for people who have their christmas travel plans. are you able to say or not at this stage what more you might be able to do if the police cannot manage to find out who is responsible at this drone stays in the air? as i say, the priority is to make sure we get that airport open as safely as possible, so can people fly off on their christmas brea ks people fly off on their christmas breaks or people who are coming in to visit friends or family and that is absolutely the priority. we have taken action in this area, we change the law earlier this year and we will look at extending police powers. but what are you going to do today, baroness sugg ? powers. but what are you going to do today, baroness sugg? the police are out on the ground in numbers, working closely with gatwick airport to ensure they can reopen. working closely with gatwick airport to ensure they can reopenm working closely with gatwick airport to ensure they can reopen. if the police are unable, though, to identify the person or persons responsible for this drone activity, and it has been going on over a period of 12 hours, and it

continues, what other options are there available to you, to try to ta ke there available to you, to try to take this drone out of the air? we know there are various technologies around lasers, which can effectively disable drones and other machines which can fire nets over drones, to try and bring them down. so, what can you say to our viewers and travellers about what you will do today if the police are unable to stop this? firstly what i would say to travellers is i would like them to travellers is i would like them to check with airlines before they travel to the airport because we are facing such disruption. there is up—to—date information on gatwick airport website. the police are working to bring the drone down. i am confident they will do so. are there any other people being brought into this at the moment to try to consider a strategy beyond the police? we are working incredibly ha rd police? we are working incredibly hard with the police and with the airport to open the airport as quickly as we possibly can. who else

might you call if the police can't. .. there must might you call if the police can't... there must be other options, that's why i'm trying to get out if the police are trying to bring this to a conclusion within the next few hours, there must be other options might consider using. whether it's the raf or perhaps owing to the police, you do have to shoot this down. as i say, we working very closely with the police and that and we need to make sure the public is kept safe and that is the public is kept safe and that is the priority and we are working together to open the airport as quickly as we can. baroness sugg aviation minister thank you very much. time now for the morning briefing, where we bring you up to speed on the stories people are watching, reading and sharing. slightly later than usual. well the row over whetherjeremy corbyn called the prime minister a "stupid woman" during pmq's dominates many of the front pages this morning. the daily telegraph describes it as an "end—of—term panto" for mps. continuing with the panto theme, the guardian also reports mr corbyn's denial with the headline

"oh no, he didn't". and the times also covers the row over the labour leader's comments. speaking to the bbc radio 4's today programme, the shadow home secretary, diane abbott, defended mr corbyn. i've knownjeremy a long time. he's a very honest man, and if he has anything to say sorry for, he will always say sorry. do you think he is sexist? come on, let's get on something serious. diane chuckles. well, is he... you say that's not serious, but that's what he said about anti—semitism. he said, "what people think they thought me... what people think they heard me say, they didn't really hear me say", and here he is, doing it again. no, no, it isn't that, at all. it was end—of—term behaviour by the tories. hold on, some of your own mps, diane abbott, tweeted that they thoughtjeremy corbyn was out of order. well, again... stella creasy, one of your own mps, said it was the wrong behaviour. well, stella, too, could not have either heard or seen what the leader of the opposition said under his breath. shortly after prime minister's

questions yesterday, the leader of the house of commons, andrea leadsom, addressed the speaker, john bercow, over his refusal to apologise for using the same language about her. thank you, mr speaker, i would just like to ask, after you finding there, that individuals who are found to have made unwelcome remarks should apologise, remarks should apologise, why it is that when an opposition member found that you had called me a stupid woman, you did not apologise in this chamber? no, no, no, no. i'll deal with the point. quite right! jeering. hear, hear! i dealt with that matter months ago, in remarks that i made to the house of commons, to which the right honourable lady, at our various meetings since, has made no reference, and which requires from the chair today no elaboration whatsoever. this morning, andrea leadsom says

the prime minister wasn't goading the labour leader. i think what's really important is to distinguish between what is normal parliamentary pantomime, if you like, and what is treating people with dignity and respect that they deserve. i think anybody... do you think she was treating the leader of the opposition with dignity and respect? well, i would think anybody in the country would see the difference between a bit of parliamentary banter and someone calling someone a stupid woman. which, you don't know, of course, do you? as diane abbott says, you don't know what he said. as i said yesterday, everyone will judge for themselves. and what is yourjudgment? well, i think he said stupid woman, that's how it looks to me. gatwick is our top story today on the most red list and you can see it

there, flights suspended by drones. you can see various quotes by passengers, this disruption going on for more than 12 hours. our most watched section at number eight, rules for flying drones watched section at number eight, rules forflying drones in watched section at number eight, rules for flying drones in the watched section at number eight, rules forflying drones in the uk. 0bviously rules forflying drones in the uk. obviously a topic for discussion today. i want to show you this other story, a boy aged six kicks a rugby ball into basketball hoop and i will play the little film, digital video and we will hear more on that in the sport. 0scar herbert, the england by sport. 0scar herbert, the england rugby team needs to get in touch with his dad. that's it for today's morning briefing. sport now and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's mike bushell. we have been loving that clip of that six—year—old. good morning. the met police, are working with arsenal, to identify the fan who threw a water bottle at the spurs star, delle ali. his team are through to the semi finals of the league cup after the beating arsenal 2—0,

but the win was overshadowed, the this latest incident of bad behaviour by fans, as patrick gearey reports. a cup tie marred by a bottle thrown — the moment dele alli was struck by what appears to be a water bottle, apparently launched from a spectator, several rows back. arsenal say they are reviewing cctv to find the culprit, the behaviour of supporters again in the headlines. dele alli's response was to reference the scoreline, 2—0. he had got one himself and set this one up for son heung—min, this exactly the sort of calm finishing arsenal had lacked. and, when they got one right, as aaron ramsey did here, they found paulo gazzaniga inspired, as well is in luck. when spurs fancied a bit of insurance, they brought out their premium. harry kane has not played in this competition since 2015. it took him just a minute to spot dele alli. alone in a moment of tranquillity and quality image the froth of a derby. dele said what happened later made the goal sweeter.

unlike that, this took real bottle. bbc news. spurs will play chelsea in the semis after they beat bournemouth 1—0. a late, deflected goal from eden hazard goal was enough to put chelsea through. manchester city play league one side burton albion in the other semi — it's burton's first major semi final. it's been musical chairs at the top of the scottish premiership this season, we've got another new leader as celtic go back to the top. they beat motherwell 3—0 thanks to goals from anthony ralston, scott sinclair and this, from mikeyjohnson — his first for the club. they over—take old firm rivals rangers, who were held to a goal less draw by hibernian. 0le gunnar solksjaer, has arrived at manchester united's training ground for his first day at work. he was given the caretaker manager's job yesterday, after the club sacked jose mourinho. our sports correspondent david 0rnstein is at carington, and david — plenty for him to be getting on with? there is, indeed. very congested in

tray fair to say. 0le gunnar solskjaer was driven through these gatesjust solskjaer was driven through these gates just before 8am for his first day in charge in what is a deal that will run until the end of the season. manchester united, 19 points off the top of the league after that defeat at liverpool who are top. it would be extremely painful given the rivalry between the two clubs and 11 points off the top four. he will ta ke points off the top four. he will take charge at cardiff on saturday and cardiff was the club where 0le gunnar solskjaer had an ill—fated spell as manager in 2014. they then face huddersfield on boxing day. what looks like in theory quite a kind fixture list. will he need to get the fans back onside and reintegrate paul and alexis sanchez. ple nty reintegrate paul and alexis sanchez. plenty for him to be getting on with. the fans are helpful he will be able to do the job for united until the end of the season and do it well. thank you. on the road

outside carrington, the training ground. solksjaer‘s appointment is on most of the back pages this morning. the mirror reckons he'll be given 50 million quid to spend in the january transfer window. good headline, wasn't it? the telegraph focusses on the man who many think is the favourite to take over full time — mauricio pochettino — asking, if he'd even, want to leave after watching his spurs side win last night. and the times says, teams in rugby union's premiership, will get around £13 million, each following an investment worth more than £200 million. next to a growing row in the world of swimming. the olympic gold medallist adam peaty, has dared those who run the sport to ban him after he backed a new competition. peaty and other top swimmers in the world want to compete in the break away international swimming league. they can earn a lot more, but swimming's governing body fina, says it'll ban them if they do so. meanwhile, the multiple 0lympic champion missy franklin has retired from swimming at the age

ofjust 23. the american says she is "ready, not to be in pain every day" after struggling with a shoulder injury and depression. how about this from social media — an incredible moment of sporting prowess. this is 6—year—old 0scar herbert kicking a rugby ball through a basketball hoop. i love his reaction. so cool for a six—year—old, doesn't jump up i love his reaction. so cool for a six—year—old, doesn'tjump up and down with excitement, fists out like a footballer. his dad, gary, had promised to give him £10 if he could do it and much to his surprise it only took 0scar a couple of gos. it would take most of us all day. before we go, just time to remind you about sportsday. all the day's sports news on the bbc news channel at 6:30 tonight. that's all the sport for now. more from the bbc sport centre at 11:15. iam i am loving that video of oscar. some breaking news now — figures showing the number of homeless people who have died in england and wales have been published for the first time.

0ur social affairs correspondent michael buchanan is here. much higher than people had thought. the office for national statistics estimates that between 2013 and 2017 in england and wales a total of 2627 homeless people died. this is an estimate that they have calculated and it is the first time they have collated these figures. they know for certain the 2181 people died based on their own death registration analysis. but they have done some computer modelling and tried to capture what they say is a more accurate reflection of the total number. more than 2600 people, homeless people, have died. what is striking about what we can tell about the deaths is how different they are from the general population. 80% are male. most are

dying in their mid—40s, that tends to be around 30 years younger than the average age for the general population in england and wales. the reasons they are dying are very different from the reasons most are dying, lots to do with drug poisoning and suicides. quite a depressing picture of what we knew was an emerging issue because of some very was an emerging issue because of some very good work and organisation called the bureau of investigative journalism has done, they collated their own figures and a number of charities put pressure on the office for national statistics to collate these official estimates. people may have seen the story about the homeless man who died in the shadow of the palace of westminster this week. what is the government going to do with this information? we haven't got an official reaction. it is fairto haven't got an official reaction. it is fair to say. the number of rough sleepers in general has increased dramatically since 2010, about 170%. there are some 4700 people sleeping on the streets each night, that is

officially many charities and third sector organisations saying that is a gross underestimation. the government have recently announced they are going to spend about £100 million on what they call a rough sleeper strategy. 0n the one hand, making some temporary accommodation, hostel hostel places and beds available. the government recognises it is not a simply housing. lots of people who are rough sleeping have drug and alcohol addiction and mental health problems and giving them access to those services is as crucial as providing them with a roof over their head, which means they can get the medical attention that may prevent them from dying in the short term. michael, thank you. some news just some newsjust coming in some news just coming in from the media regulator 0fcom which finds that the russia today news channel broke rules by failing to preserve due impartiality. this was across seven news and current affairs

programme, that is just seven news and current affairs programme, that isjust in seven news and current affairs programme, that is just in from the media regulator 0fcom finding that the russia today programme fails to preserve due impartiality in seven news and current affairs programme but no more detail as yet. the headlines on bbc news... all flights in and out of gatwick airport have been suspended, after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have been affected. the government needs to contribute more money to change the layout of town centres, according to a new report into the state of the high street. the work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, says a second brexit referendum will become a "plausible" option if the deadlock in parliament over theresa may's deal cannot be broken. an update on the market numbers for you, here's how london's and frankfurt ended the day. and in the the united states, this is how the dow and the nasdaq are getting on. in the last half hour, the office for national statistics

has released retail sales figures for november. well, let's take a look at those with our business presenter, katie prescott. what are the figures? after a tremendously difficult year on the high street, retailers havejust tremendously difficult year on the high street, retailers have just got a christmas present from the office of national statistics which say retail sales were up 1.4% month on month, far above what anyone was expecting. they say this is down to black friday and the way we are shopping. that event in their shopping. that event in their shopping calendar at the end of november when we tell as this holding out for that and spending our money there. that has shown up in household goods, 5% month on month up. is it a christmas present or has itjust moves the point in the year when people are spending because we don't know what the figures will be for christmas? that is absolutely right. we are starting to see other bits of data coming out and these are back saying spending

is down 0.7% —— and visa saying. at full in the high street is at the lowest point since the financial crisis. it will be a sigh of relief for retailers —— make that full in the high street. even with black friday, analysts were saying this would be around the region of 0.3%. it is interesting hearing those figures in the context of the other story about the high street we have been reporting on and calls for the government to think more about the layout of our town centres. this is the report from sirjohn10% layout of our town centres. this is the report from sirjohn 10% from the report from sirjohn 10% from the timson family, the cobbler and key cut of —— sirjohn timson. he is a stalwart of the high street, he hasn't been going since 1865 but it ru ns hasn't been going since 1865 but it runs in his blood! they know how to stay put for a while! he is saying that we have twice as many shops as we actually need. he is calling for a big rethink about the high street, what he wants to now call the town centre and what it should be used for. he says that the town centre is not going to be the same as it was a

decade or 20 years ago, but it needs to still be a heart of the community. he has been looking at a successful high streets around the uk. he has found that the best get local people to look at the issues that are specific to that community and they try and change things that work for them. it's creating a centre that perhaps has space for... people to live, for people to eat out and just generally more of an entertaining space, perhaps, than the traditional linear shops. place that will draw people to other activities and then, by virtue to those shops, rather than them deciding to buy something online, basically? that is the hope and his point really is that its local people that need to make that decision. they need to think about parking charges perhaps stopping people coming to the area, is it transport? what is it a specific to that community that will bring people together in that town centre. thank you. let's return to our top story and

flights at gatwick still not operating. because of a drone flying near the airport. let's peak to our technology correspondent, chris foxx what are the rules about where you can what are the rules about where you ca n fly what are the rules about where you can fly a drone. although someone seems to be breaking the rules deliberately, do rules not mean anything? you are not supposed to fly them with a kilometre of an aerodrome, airport and most modern trends now, if you have an expensive one, will actually have geo— fencing built in. that means the drone will know where it's flying and if you get too close to an airport it won't let you go there, it will land. they can be overridden if you are using old version of software but that is the main one, you shouldn't really be flying anywhere near an airport and it doesn't take a genius to work that out. clearly, most people who use drones do so responsibly. but in this particular instance, the scale

of this, it has been going on for more than 12 hours, now, add 20 units of police are searching for whoever is responsible, has anything like this happened before on this sort of scale? perhaps not on this sort of scale? perhaps not on this sort of scale? perhaps not on this sort of scale. we have had incidents of drones getting very close to aircraft and they can do a lot of damage, if you think about how fast a plane is going, if that strike something in the air, it can do a lot of damage to the plane. we have heard of similar incidents where airports have been closed for a short period of time. manchester had an incident where it had to close down for about 20 minutes while they got rid of the problem. it has happened before. perhaps not at this scale. remember, most people do fly responsibly, model aircraft have existed for a long time and people have flown them without a problem but the fact that drones have become so cheap and more widespread does mean perhaps people who are not following the rules are flying them as well. what more can airports do and other interested parties, governments and so on, to try to prevent something like this happening in the first place? in the

uk, we are planning to have a drone register from november 2019. everyone who buys a drone will have to register and sign up for that. there are also technical measures you can deploy, radiojamming. if euro controlling a drone by a radio transmitter, you can jam euro controlling a drone by a radio transmitter, you canjam the signal so it can't work and it will be forced to land —— if you are controlling. you can't just forced to land —— if you are controlling. you can'tjust go around jamming signals any which way, you have to have a license, otherwise you will be maybe knocking people's televisions or radio signals out, that is not an ideal solution. there is the geo—fencing that we talked about where we talked about the drone landing if it gets too close to an airport and the more extreme options. the us navy is testing a drone laser that can log on to testing a drone laser that can log ontoa testing a drone laser that can log on to a drone in the sky and set the battery on fire, which would cause the drone to fall out of the sky —— lock onto. it has been tested and works but maybe not the kind of thing you want near an airport. thank you very much. we spoke to the

aviation minister baroness sugg but she wouldn't be drawn on any options beyond working with the police, searching for whoever is responsible. we will have much more developments at gatwick throughout the day on the bbc news channel. now it's time for a look at the weather with simon king. good morning. showery conditions over the next few days but slightly warmer across england and wales. through this morning, some have had some sunshine, clear skies and that was the scene this morning in east yorkshire. 0thers, some showers. that has produced this lovely rainbow in cornwall from our weather watcher. for the rest of today, we will continue with these showers are mainly affecting northern and western areas of the uk, quite frequent in northern ireland, scotla nd frequent in northern ireland, scotland and the north of england. some showers across wales and

south—west of england in this afternoon but it will turn drier and brighter and some sunshine towards the midlands and eastern areas this afternoon. temperatures getting up to 11. this evening and ten night, still some showers across the north, some clear spells in the far north of scotland, temperatures in fairly low single figures —— mike this evening and ten night. rain will come in which would keep temperatures up at about 6—8. that is the sign of the milder air starting to move in. this is friday, with that weather front bringing the outbreaks of rain which will move fairly quickly north but the air will start to come in from the south—west. as you can see, the yellows a nd south—west. as you can see, the yellows and oranges, milder conditions for england and wales. quite a distinctive boundary to the cold air still situated toward scotla nd cold air still situated toward scotland and northern ireland. friday, the rain will peter out across northern ireland, southern scotla nd across northern ireland, southern scotland and the far north of england, brighter skies developing further south across england and

wales and some showers late in the day and be north of scotland it will remain dry with some sunshine is temperature 6—8. in the south, temperatures getting up to 13 or 14. the weekend, this ridge of high pressure will be with us for saturday, keeping things fairly settled and by sunday, this next weather system will gradually move in, bringing some outbreaks of rain. saturday, largely dry and bright for many of us, by sunday, outbreaks of rain and into christmas eve, some rain and into christmas eve, some rain around southern areas but it will turn drier in northern parts, temperatures will start to drop down as we go into christmas eve and for the big day itself, if you're desperate or dreaming for a white christmas, look away now. this chart is something that doesn't scream snow. higher pressure firmly in charge of the weather, dry for many of us and early morning mist and fog, perhaps a bit of frost. not bad if you are travelling and planning to get out and about. goodbye.

hello. it's thursday. it's 10 o'clock. i'm victoria derbyshire. good morning. a deliberate attempt to cause chaos at gatwick and it's worked. flights are suspended as a drone is causing deliberate disruption at the airport. at least 20,000 people have had their travel plans disrupted, dozens of flights have been diverted and others have been stuck on the tarmac for as long as six hours. chaotic, to be honest. there's people passing out in the terminal where it's hot. yeah, it'sjust a bit of a shame really. you'd think that an airport of this size would have some sort of contingency plan to cope with a drone. police are hunting for the drone operator. we'll hear from stranded passengers.