this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at midday: no ships and now no contract — the government cancels a controversial agreement for extra ferries in case of a no—deal brexit. new allegations of sexual and racial harassment by former employees of the retail tycoon sir philip green are published — he denies any crime or misconduct. counting the cost of knife crime — the number of young victims admitted to hospitals in england has risen by more than 50 per cent in five years. also coming up — we'll look ahead to another day of six nations matches. scotland will be hoping to build on their victory against italy as they host ireland at murrayfield. and coming up in half an hour — the click team explore one of the world's fastest growing social media apps, tik tok. the department for transport has cancelled a controversial

contract awarded to a firm with no ships to provide ferry services in the event of a no deal brexit. the deal has been torn up because one of seaborne ferries main backers has pulled out. labour has described the situation as a ‘national embarrassment‘ and demanded the resignation of the transport secretary, chris grayling. the government says it is already in advanced talks with a number of companies to secure additional freight capacity in the event of a no deal. earlier, i spoke to the shadow transport secretary, labour's andy mcdonald, who said he was disappointed but not surprised at the news. the due diligence process that we were

told about was clearly in tatters, totally and utterly deficient. i do ask, what on earth has chris grayling got to do before he is sacked? this is, yet again, another episode in a long catalogue the due diligence process that we were of catastrophes on his watch, and this is quite ridiculous. it is just that a weakened prime minister hasn't the ability to sack one of the very few friends she has in government. but this is a national embarrassment. it's not as if we are saying it now. we were saying for months that this would not work. we said when this first raised its head some months ago that this would not work. and that has been proved to be right. he didn't even think to communicate with ramsgate itself and find out if it was doable, and he has been banned from calais, and i think he should be banned from the department for transport because he is keeping humiliation upon humiliation for our country and it is time for him to go. you would presumably be pressing this case in the house of commons next week, but in the meantime, the issue is one of ensuring that there is some kind of deal on brexit.

this potential crisis we are talking about, it is in labour's hands to sort this because if you gave theresa may your votes, she could get this through the house of commons and there would be no issue of extra controls being imposed at dover. and that is whyjeremy corbyn wrote to theresa may and set out very clearly a very rational, coherent plan to secure a deal with the eu, and you have heard the noises from brussels that they see a great deal of merit in what is being said. conservative mps, nick bowles and others, have said that this is the basis for a sensible discussion. so, if she removes her red lines and starts to try to garner a consensus in the house of commons, it is there for her, and she should be doing that right now instead of digging her heels in and telling the world that nothing has changed. is there a danger that your rhetoric about chris grayling and this seaborne freight contract might put off other companies from wanting to be involved 7 i don't think there's anything i could say that could damage chris grayling's reputation any more. this is a national

embarrassment for us and people will not have confidence in us as a nation. he should be looking at alternatives, if necessary. there is capacity elsewhere, harwich amongst others, so why on earth is to take roll on/roll off ferries and i'm afraid that due diligence lies in tatters. with me now is our political correspondent matt cole. joining me now is ramsgate's mp, craig mackinlay. this is an important insight into the practical difficulties that arise. you'll make this is about what happens to goods flowing in and

out of the country, ostensibly through dover, if there is no brexit deal. the theory is that dover could be overloaded, so the government are looking for extra capacity. 90% of that would be with two firms, going largely through plymouth and portsmouth. that is apparently unchanged by this. 10% of this extra was to be given to seaborne when it was to be given to seaborne when it was announced, it raised a lot of eyebrows because they were new and they had no ferries. what we now understand, now that it has been cancelled, is that seaborne were in fa ct cancelled, is that seaborne were in fact being backed and a 60% shareholder would have been a huge irish shipping company. the government says that when it did its due diligence, it couldn't tell that that company would be the muscle behind this. i have been speaking sources close to the government who have told me that over a year, the

irish company had been seeking to set upa irish company had been seeking to set up a route between ramsgate and ostend, and it was on the back of that that they would have piggybacked this extra provision. however, now that deal has collapsed for commercial reasons, we are told, in the last few weeks, the bit for brexit can no longer happen. the government said, not our fault, we we re government said, not our fault, we were talking to a big operator who we re were talking to a big operator who were credible but it has collapsed for commercial reasons, taking with it the deal. where the government will still potentially find criticism, and chris grayling in particular, who was often under fire, is that they had signed a deal with a company who hadn't finalised their own deal on which this would be based, this leading people to say this is such a serious thing that it should have been copper bottomed before you signed a deal. lets talk

to craig mckinley, the conservative mpfor to craig mckinley, the conservative mp for south thanet. are you disappointed by this development?” am, because it seemed to be a good opportunity for thanet to be doing its bit for brexit contingencies. what has come out today, which is interesting, is that seaborne freight was backed up by a big shipping company from ireland, with 45 ships, and i don't know the reasons why they have pulled out of the deal. i would have thought that if they were looking at the ramsgate— ostend route, iwould have thought {13.8 million as a back—up from the government would have made this route particularly desirable, but who knows? i'm sure the reasons will come out in the next few days. you hate to think, and i certainly hope, that it is pressure from the irish government at this late stage.

presumably, it is a commercial company, not state owned. given that it is an irish company, i wonder if chris grayling was well advised to make his comment that he made no apologies for supporting a new british business. you have shareholdings across lots of businesses in britain that are foreign owned. 60% in businesses in britain that are foreign owned. 6096 in this case. british businesses own a lot of foreign brands but are fundamentally british, so there is nothing odd about that. i would like to say that i think that thanet district council has shown significant leadership by stepping up to the plate and saying, we are ready and willing to do our bit for brexit resilience, and they have behaved admirably in what has happened so far. this could be an opportunity to show that ramsgate is

a viable port. but we have to turn the page sometime on ramsgate port because there are financial difficulties. the dredging and all that that might be involved. charlie elphicke, who represents dover, said on the radio this morning that the government was chasing a chimera. it isa government was chasing a chimera. it is a longer route and just not commercially viable. it was never going to be the salvation and would not have been able to cope with more than 5% of the traffic, and using smaller ships than currently go out of dover. i will protect chris grayling on this one. if he had done nothing, he would have been admonished. the department for transport have to do something in case there are problems after a no—deal brexit. and he gets admonished for that as well. it is a rock and a hard place. a small insurance policy to make things work

as effectively as they can, and i don't believe there will be difficulties. i trust what the deputy mayor of calais has said recently, giving assurances for some time that he foresees no difficulties in the dover— calais route, they will keep things going, customs arrangements will be in place. i thought that common sense will prevail and that will happen. he says he does not want chris grayling back at the calais port because he is unimpressed by how the british government has dealt with calais. it may be unfair on mr grayling, but he is developing a terrible reputation for things turning to dust in his hands. for a politician, that is a bit of a liability, isn't it? these are difficult times and we are in uncharted waters, dare i put a bit of maritime spin on it, and we are relying on that single point of traffic from dover to calais, and i think sensibly the government has

been trying to plan for every eventuality. the ramsgate port has been mothballed for many years and there has been very little traffic, but it could step up to the plate and doa but it could step up to the plate and do a service for the country. so full marks to them. sadly, for whatever reasons, commercial or otherwise, seaborne freight have decided not to go ahead with this, but i am hearing that there are more significant operators out there you are alerted to the potential for ramsgate and who may come forward and start speaking to us, which would be a good thing. craig mckinley, mp for south thanet, including the town of ramsgate, thank you for speaking to us. we have been told the decision was a commercial one, not involving the irish government. a former executive at sir philip green's arcadia group, was paid more than one million pounds after accusing him of groping her, according to new claims in the daily telegraph.

the newspaper says, several other former employees received six figure payments after alleging inappropriate behaviour. sir philip categorically denies he is guilty of any unlawful sexual or racist behaviour. caroline rigby reports. sir philip green, the boss of topshop, is one of britain's best—known businessmen. yesterday, a judge allowed him to drop his injunction against the daily telegraph after a legal battle lasting six months. today, more claims about his conduct appear in the newspaper. the telegraph says one senior female executive at sir philip green's arcadia group was paid more than £1 million after he called her "a naughty girl", slapped her on the bottom, and groped her. another executive, who's black, received around £1 million after sir philip allegedly made derogatory remarks about his dreadlocks and told him he was "still throwing spears in thejungle", the paper claims. the paper says two other women received 6—figure pay—outs after complaining of inappropriate behaviour. the telegraph still hasn't named the five complainants, who are still bound by nondisclosure agreements or ndas.

it claims some of the events were witnessed by other staff and reported to hr. sir philip has accused the newspaper pursuing a vendetta against him and his employees, as well as harassing staff. he denies any of his behaviour amounted to any kind of crime or misconduct. caroline rigby, bbc news. earlier i spoke to an expert in non—disclosure agreements — mark stephens, from the howard kennedy law firm — who explained what ndas are and how he thinks they should be regulated. their original purpose was that you could keep trade secrets, so your customer lists, if you were an employer, you could gag someone from talking about that. if you worked at coca—cola, you couldn't tell the formula to pepsi, for example. in those examples, commercial secrets, one understands the importance of them. of course, what has happened is that ingenious and highly paid lawyers, and as one,

i can speak with authority, have expanded that, and now what they are used to do is to cover up inappropriate behaviours, often where there is a power imbalance, and that is where the vice is, really, because the people signing up to these are people who have been abused and just want to get out, and they want to leave. they'll sign anything to get out, and that is where the problem lies. i was listening to the former solicitor general saying he is not convinced by that because actually all those people have a voice too and it is down to the lawyers to negotiate with the other lawyers and there is no evidence that the lawyers negotiating on behalf of people who are victims of bad behaviour from their employer are losing out. i am very fond of edward garnier, but he has missed the point. i suspect it is because he hasn't sat in a room with people. it is not about the quality of the lawyers. you can have expert

lawyers on both sides, but if your client is saying, look, just sign anything, i want to get out, this is an abusive situation and i cannot work there, i need money to tide me over to a newjob, do the best you can, and that is the instructions you are getting, whereas on the other side, if you are acting for the abuser, acting for the employer, they are saying, shut this person up. there is a reputational risk here, gag them. we don't want them speaking to the press at any cost. as a consequence, that is what we are seeing and we are seeing people effectively being gagged. what about sir philip green's argument that this puts unfair pressure on people who already signed ndas in his case because the telegraph have made the story public? they will come under pressure to talk, even though one of the things about a nda is that they wa nt

to forget it and get on with their lives and they won't want future employers to know about it in case they think they are trouble. there were cases involving harvey weinstein, where they were producing ndas on a photocopier, there were so many of them. some of the women have made it abundantly clear that they do not wish to speak, and have not, but some of the people hadn't realised that there was the large number of nondisclosure agreements, and as a consequence, they do now want to speak up. this really leads me to one of the issues for reform. there is no transparency reporting. it is important that if there is just one case, that perhaps that can be dealt with, but if there is, if you like, a hotspot or cluster of ndas affecting one individual. that should be reported? that should be reported. hr should know, and the remuneration committee on any company should know that.

we are seeing that kind of reporting in america. if the americans can get it right in terms of employment law, we certainly should. seven people have been sentenced to life in prison for two jihadist attacks in tunisia in 2015. 21 foreign tourists were killed at the bardo museum in tunis. 38 people died — 30 of them british — when a gunman attacked a beach resort near sousse. the us envoy stephen biegun says he's held three days of productive talks in north korea to prepare for the second meeting between president trump and kimjong—un. speaking after arriving in south korea, mr biegun said the us and north korea still had some work to do before the summit which, it's been announced, will be in the vietnamese city of hanoi later this month. just over a thousand stabbing victims, aged between 10 and 19, spent at a least one night in hospital in the 12 months to last march.

there's been a 54 per cent rise in the number of young people treated for knife wounds in england over the past five years, according to nhs figures. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw reports. the youngest victim to die in a knife attack this year, jaden moodie, was stabbed to death after being knocked off a moped. an 18—year—old man has been charged with murder. jaden wasjust 14. doctors say they're treating increasing numbers of people for knife wounds and the victims are getting younger. what has changed is that we are seeing a lot more adolescents and young people who have severe injuries. that used to be an occasional occurrence and it is now the norm. i expect to admit somebody of school age in the care of our service this week as a matter of course. the figures for hospital admissions for injuries from knives or sharp objects show there were almost 5000 people treated for stab wounds last year. over 1000 of them were aged 10—19. that's a rise of 54% compared with five years earlier. another trend doctors have observed is more girls are involved

in knife crime. some victims face threats that footage of their stabbing will be posted online. there's a shift in what we're seeing. i'm seeing young women who have come in having had their mobile phones taken off them in an attack and having the attack filmed. it is part of a humiliation and this is what will happen to you — if you say anything, we will put it on the internet. doctors say the rise in knife crime is putting extra pressure on emergency services. the home office has set up a serious violence strategy to tackle the problem and has launched a review of the links between violent crime and the trade in illegal drugs. danny shaw, bbc news. earlier i spoke to patrick green, he's ceo of the ben kinsella trust, who work to reduce knife crime. he says he's particularly concerned about the early age of some of these victims. it's the number of young people,

10—19, that are shown in these figures coming through from trauma units. they are nearly doubling, so we are seeing a real crisis at that very early age, and that's the worrying trend. we need to do far more to stop young people carrying knives. our ethos at the trust is that no child is born carrying a knife. it is a learned behaviour, and we need to do far more to help young people unlearn bad behaviours and hold onto good ones and stop carrying knives. what is happening in terms of the popularity of carrying knives? is it learned behaviour from siblings? what is driving it? there are a number of issues driving knife crime, not just one issue. protection is the most common answer

we get from young people. behind that is fear. young people are fearful. if you feel there are more knives out there, you feel the only thing you can do is protect yourself. if you and i are friends, and you are carrying a knife, i will probably carry a knife, and it grows and grows. what do you make of the government's talk in the early stages of this about knife crime prevention orders? we would need to see more about what that means. for habitual knife carriers, giving extra police powers is a good thing. we would have some questions of use on younger people, 12 years of age, no criminal record. with that group, early intervention and prevention has been shown to be very successful, helping young people make those decisions and turn their lives around. there are other measures that are really successful and can be put in place.

uk rapper cadet has died at the age of 28. the family of the artist, real name blaine cameronjohnson, said he died while travelling in a taxi on his way to a performance. his management told radio1 newsbeat the 28—year—old was a passenger in a vehicle which crashed in staffordshire. joining us now is steve holden, music reporter for bbc newsbeat. this is terribly sad news. what were the circumstances? what do we know? it happened in the early hours of the morning, around 1:30am. he was on his way to a gig at keele university students union. staffordshi re university students union. staffordshire police have confirmed that two vehicles were involved, the one that cadet was in and another van. cadet tragically died and five others are hurt. staffordshire

police want witnesses who saw what happened. people are waking up to this news and hearing about it this morning. a lot of people in this country won't necessarily know who cadet was, outside the rap scene. give us a picture, because i have heard that people say he had great potential. yellowing absolutely. there was shock at our radio stations this morning because he has been on the network several times and people knew him personally. he is someone who in this scene is very well known. he has spent the last couple of years on the sidelines, supporting other rappers. his cousin is crept, who has posted a heartbreaking message today saying heartbreaking message today saying he is devastated. drake knew who this guy was. he was making waves in the music industry.

drake posted his own rip message on instagram today. a lot of people we re instagram today. a lot of people were saying this would be his year. lots of people had spoken to him recently and he had the and wanted to do well this year. now, it is loss potential. we'll never know how well he might have done. but there isa well he might have done. but there is a legacy of music, at least. people can look him up and hear what he had done and make a judgment for themselves on the talent that has been lost. you can find everything on youtube. the number of voices in the music scene in britain that have posted today shows that this guy was laughed and had potential. he did a campaignfor laughed and had potential. he did a campaign for the laughed and had potential. he did a campaignforthe nhs laughed and had potential. he did a campaign for the nhs give blood campaign, and they have been tweeting about him today, so a lot of love for cadet. steve, thanks for coming in to talk to us about blaine

cameronjohnson, coming in to talk to us about blaine cameron johnson, better known coming in to talk to us about blaine cameronjohnson, better known as cadet, who died in a car accident at the age of 28. a man has been shot by police as they carried out arrests in south east london early this morning. in all, seven men were detained for allegedly holding a woman captive. the man, thought to be in his twenties, was shot after an officer opened fire near blackheath. he's been taken to hospital but his injuries are not believed to be life—threatening. a man has died after being hit by a bus on a busway. the pedestrian was struck by the vehicle on a section of the specially adapted route in luton at around four o'clock this morning. the busway remains closed while police investigate the incident. ina in a moment, a look at the weather, but first... 21—year old singer michael rice has been chosen to fly the flag for the uk, at this year's eurovision song contest in israel. he'll be singing this song — ‘bigger than us‘ — at this year's competition in tel aviv, having triumphed over six contestants in a public vote last night.

it's been 22 years since the uk last won the compeitition. its about time, isn't it? now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. the weather will come down a bit over the next 2041 was. there will be gale force winds throughout the afternoon but plenty of sunshine. showers in the south—west in the english channel, and in the far north of scotland. quite a mild day despite the gusty winds. the wind eases down overnight and we see gathering cloud and rain from the south—west going up across wales, the midlands, towards the wash. north of that, breaks in the cloud, so north of that, breaks in the cloud, so colder here, and may be a touch of frost and icy patches. a wet start for a good part of england and wales. may be some sleet and snow on the tops of the welsh hills. showery with sunshine coming through. the

rain is pushing down across east anglia and the south—east. strong winds and rain for northern ireland. the wind will be light, but it will feel cooler and fresher. the government has cancelled a controversial agreement to provide extra ferries in case of a no deal brexit. new allegations of sexual and racial harassment by former employees of the retail tycoon, sir philip green are published in the telegraph — he denies any crime or misconduct. the number of young victims of knife crime admitted to hospitals in england has risen by more than fifty percent in the past five years. us officials say they've held three days of productive those are the headlines. sports now,

and fora those are the headlines. sports now, and for a full round—up, we go to the bbc sport centre. we are just a couple of minutes away from the first premier league match of the day. it's at craven cottage where struggling fulham are up against manchester united. ole gunnar solskjaer has made six changes to the united team that beat leicester. marcus rashford, the match winner last week, is dropped to the bench to make way for romelu lukaku. united are still unbeaten under solskjaer. with manchester city playing chelsea tomorrow, liverpool have a chance to go top once again, a draw would be enough to do that at home to bournemouth. black armbands will be worn at all games this weekend in memory of the cardiff city striker emiliano sala's whose body was recovered from the plane that crashed in the english channel there will also be a minute's silence at st where cardiff play southampton. it's the second round of fixtures in

the six nations championship. two matches today. ireland are the raining champions but they had that opening—day defeat to england in dublin. they cannot afford to lose today they are to realistically maintain their title. scotla nd realistically maintain their title. scotland are looking for back to back wins after beating italy last week. wales face italy in rome. that is at 4:30pm. they came from 16—0 down to beat the french. they have made ten changes. jonathan davies will captain his country for the first time. for players starting a 6—nations match for the first time for wales. we are in the middle of a six day shutdown of racing because of an equine flu outbreak. five more meetings cancelled today.

six cases have been identified at the stables of trainer donald mccain in cheshire. over 170 yards are in lockdown. racing won't resume until wednesday at the earliest. it potentially can be incredibly serious and the economic and equine health consequences of an uncontrolled spread of an infectious disease can be incredibly severe. we are doing everything we can to first of all control and limit any further spread, put in place surveillance measures and then plan around what we