2018 was its worst performance in nine years. manufacturing and construction are the hardest hit — with the economy growing byjust 1.4% last year. 2018 was a challenging year for us. we've had rising raw material costs, our customers have suffered raw material increases, and we suffered from a high employee turn over this year. we'll be looking at why the economy has been hit so hard. also tonight. a 24—year—old man arrested in connection with the disappearance of the hull university student libby squire has appeared in court charged with unrelated offences. help for the very young — hundreds of thousands of babies are living in poverty in the uk according to new research. human activity could drive the earth's entire insect population to extinction within a century — says a major new report. lady gaga leads the way —

history is made at the grammy‘s as the awards are dominated for the first time by women. and coming up on bbc news: paul scholes — a member of the class of 92 — takes his first step in management, taking over at boyhood club oldham. good evening, and welcome to the bbc news at six. brexit uncertainty is being blamed for a sharp decline in the growth of the uk economy. growth hasn't been slower for nine years, according to official figures out today.

the office for national statistics says growth last year was 1.4% — that's the lowest since 2009. the 0ns pointed to a sharp fall in the manufacture of cars and steel products, and a decline in construction. 0ur economics correspondent dharshini david reports. protecting metal gate posts from the weather is all in a day's work at this plant. but insulating the business against outside forces has been tough, in fact, their sector has been one of the hardest hit. 2018 was a challenging year for us. we had rising zinc prices and steel prices for customer, reduced order books and a high employee turn over. business spent less onned byings and equipment. investment has been waiver since the referendum but over the last year it has dropped by almost 4%, squeezing growth across the economy. lower investment

affects how efficient companies can be, and so, how their profits and oui’ be, and so, how their profits and ourjobs and wages might fare in the future. the chancellor admits a lack of clarity over brexit is hurting. but there is no doubt that the uncertainty around brexit is taking a toll on the economy, that is why we wa nt a toll on the economy, that is why we want to get the deal done, so that we can put this issue behind us and move on, growing our economy, creating morejob, creating hiring wages. the continuing stalemate over brexit has contributed to the wea kest year for growth brexit has contributed to the weakest year for growth since the financial crisis, the figures out today cover everything, from investment, to income and spending, they are the best guide to our financial wellbeing, and it is not just about brexit. even if those clouds clear, there are other factors that could impact our prosperity. the uk's biggest car makerjaguar prosperity. the uk's biggest car maker jaguar land rover prosperity. the uk's biggest car makerjaguar land rover blamed not just brexit but weaker demand from china, and falling diesel sales when it recently announced job cuts. we

have seen weaker growth in china, a slow down in germany, italy is in recession and it is down to a number of factors, in particular trade war, there has been a slow down in trade and there are concerns. those are concerns that the bank of england warned of just last those are concerns that the bank of england warned ofjust last week. the bank of england has pointed out that the world is moving into a period of slower economic growth, what they are forecasting for the uk next year will still put us ahead of germany, japan, italy, and the bank of england confirmed also that there is up side to come for the uk economy, if we get a good deal. but their central for cast is for business investment to fall by more this year, even with a deal. talking ofa this year, even with a deal. talking of a dividend is unrealistic isn't it? i don't think so, if we get the right deal, consumers will feel more confident and as consumers recovered their confidence businesses will feel more confident.

surveys suggest the start of year hasn't been any brighter for business. consumers are faring better but key to all our prosperity will be the outcome of the a man arrested in connection with the disappearance of a university student in hull has been charged with five separate offences. humberside police have said that pawel relowicz remains a person of interest in their inquiry into the suspected abduction of 21—year—old libby squire — she has been missing for ten days. alison freeman is at hull magistrates' court. pawel relowicz appeared briefly here at hug magistrates to face five charge, the 24—year—old is the man police have questioned over the disappearance of missing student libby squire. 121—year—old libby went —— 21—year—old libby went missing. she took a taxi home but

failed to enter her student acomb david cameron she was seen in the strait near her home that evening but hasn't been seen since. the charges faced today are completely unrelated to her disappearance, and those charges are one of voyeurism, outraging public decency and three of burglary, speaking through an interpreter the defendant denied all of those charges, against him, he was remanded in custody, and will next appear at hull crown court on march 11th. more than 300,000 babies under the age of one are living below the poverty line — according to analysis carried out for the bbc by the joseph rowntree foundation. relative poverty is defined by the organisation as living substantially below the average income. for a single parent family with one child, that amounts to £198 per week after housing costs. for a family of two parents with two children it's £360 per week. the government says there are now 1 million fewer people living in absolute poverty since 2010. danny savage has been to castleford to meet one working mother. morning charlie.

ready? the start of another day for vicky miller and her son charlie, in their rented home in castleford. going to get ready for nursery, aren't we. another day worrying about money. get some milk, you want to come up? things were so desperate a few months ago, she was referred to a baby bank. you get the toiletries and nappies. it supplies everything for a newborn that a growing number of people can't afford. and it's just received another message asking for help. they might ring us up and say, i don't get paid while friday, but we've run out of nappies, or milk, or theyjust need topping up on clothes. you know, when winter came we had a lot of referrals from mums who wanted just winter coats and things like that. although vicky works two days

a week, it's not enough for some of the basics. when she was on maternity leave, things were even tighter. even recovering from a c—section, nothing unusual for me to walk six miles a day. so like, into town, around town to look at the prices on the market, look at the price on the supermarket, and have to go back to one because i could save 25 pence on a bag of potatoes on the market. vicky now has to make her food budget of £20 a week go as far as possible. call it £5 for cash. 0h, grand. thank you very much. thank you ever so much. have you ever had a week when you've literally run out of cash when there's two or three days to go? yes. it was like not long after i took my house over, i went two weeks with just living on baked bean. he wasn't feeding, he was breast fed at the time, so of course that wasn't good, i wasn't getting enough nutrients in, so i had to go to food banks. what sort of things do you have

to send home to people? nappies, wipes. and at charlie's nursery, the daily struggle of working families is a familiar story to ownerjodie. so they come in on a morning absolutely starving. so we're providing breakfast when realistically they should be fed at home, before they come. fair enough, them that's coming in at half seven, that's the breakfast club, they're coming in for that, but there's children that come in here, at 9.00, and they're starving. at the baby bank, more donations are being dropped off. researchers say 300,000 children in the uk under the age of one are living in relative poverty. this is clearly needed. danny savage, bbc news, west yorkshire. and you can see more on inside out tonight on bbc one in yorkshire and lincolnshire, that s at 7:30pm, and everywhere else on the bbc iplayer. the government has admitted that a rise in the use of food banks is linked to the switch to universal credit, which replaces

six individual benefits. the work and pensions secretary amber rudd said it was "absolutely clear" there had been issues with the roll—out that had left some welfare claimants unable to access money. for more let's talk to our home editor mark easton. to her disappearance, that is quite an admission, a direct link ministers have been reluctant to confirm that the roll out of their flagship to confirm that the roll out of theirflagship well to confirm that the roll out of their flagship well favour reform has led to a significant rise in people needing emergency food aid but the evidence has been growing. the trusell trust, and evidence from the national audit commission suggest that changes in delays, particularly to universal credit and other benefits are linked to more people seeking emergency supplies, 110w people seeking emergency supplies, now amber rudd has confirmed the link, she said there were challenges, and the main issue that led to an increase in food bank use could have been the fact that people had difficulty accessing their money

early enough. amber rudd, she has struck a sympathetic tone since arriving at the dwp, accepting the short coming of the subpoena, changing some of the implementation and expressing determination to win public support for universal credit. jeremy corbyn has tweeted why has the roll out not been stopped. the reform is a good up with the government says and implementation will happen by the end of 2023 the labour party has revealed it received 673 complaints about anti—semitism amongst members since april last year, and that 12 people were expelled from the party as a result. 96 members were also immediately suspended, 146 received a written warning, and 220 cases were found to have insufficient evidence. senior cabinet ministers have sought to reassure brexit supporters that there'll be no back—tracking

by the prime minister after the government offered to hold fresh talks with labour on the uk's departure from the eu. 0ne cabinet minister described labour's proposals for a permanent customs union with the eu — after the uk has left — as a "dangerous delusion". 0ur political editor laura kuenssberg reports. he does not look that enthusiastic about a compromise. has the pm met your demands? but are jeremy corbyn and the government moving any closer together? with huge numbers of tory mps disgruntled at the prime minister's deal, any sign from labour that they are willing to talk counts. which direction is the prime minister heading in? is she firstly simply trying to get her own team back on board to put her deal yet again with some suppose it changes and that is supposed changes and that is what it looks like she is doing. or is she genuinely looking to see whether there is a majority

for labour plus my proposal. for labour's proposal. last weekjeremy corbyn wrote to theresa may, outlining what could get his party over the line. and last night she wrote back to him, dangling some labour—friendly promises. 0f protections for workers and the environments, cash for labour constituencies, she is one million miles from getting the opposition officially on board, even though some labour mps are tempted to move. after months of the whispers, this deal—making is out in the open now. i think there would be a number of labourmps, we estimate there is somewhere between a0 and 60 who are actively looking for ways to support this at the moment. similar talks with other countries

are behind schedule he and the prime minister are adamant we must have the power to sign our own trade deals but labour wants to be in a customs union, closer ties for business, but more rules. it is very clear from the european union, that non—eu members do not have a say in eu trade policy, so to pretend that you could do so, is a dangerous delusion. and brexiteer anger lurks. being part of a customs union would be unacceptable to plenty on the tory side. so if the prime minister's really serious about budging to win some labour votes, she'd do so potentially dry driving more of her own ranks away. corbyn‘s proposal would keep us locked in the customs union, locked in much of the single market, forever and therefore brexit, the promise that was made to the british people of coming out of the eu institutions would be broken. pleasing all of the people all of

the time was never going to happen. the prime minister's challenge is to satisfy enough mps in parliament, to save her deal. this our top story this evening: this the uk economy grew at its slowest rate for nine years in 2018 — in part down to uncertainty over brexit. coming up on sportsday on bbc news: digging in —joe denly shows what england have been desperately missing with the bat as he finds himself in the runs in the final test of the series against west indies. human activity could drive the earth's entire insect population to extinction within a century. insects have played a pivotal role in the development of the earth's ecosystems for hundreds of millions of years but a major new scientific

study has warned that 40% of insect species could be gone within just a few decades. insects are vital pollinators so any decline threatens food production. pesticides, agriculture and climate change are being blamed. here's our environment correspondent, victoria gill. they are the planet's smallest and most essential workers, producing ourfood, cleaning up our waste. but changes we are making to the environment threaten the very existence of the earth's insect population. that is according to scientists who analyzed dozen of insects surveys, carried out all over the world, over the last 13 years. it revealed that many species are now sliding towards extinction at a dramatic rate. 0verall a1% of the world's insect species are in decline. that include some very familiar creatures. 49% of beetles are declining,

37% of mayflies and 53% of butterflies and moths. it is one of the groups that are troubled ? absolutely, moths and bees and beetles are all massively in trouble right now. those losses could jeopardize our way of life. so much of our atmospheric carbon which is linked to climate change, that is stored in the soil and that is cycled through the soil by insects and our food is grown in the soil that is made by insects and then our food is then pollinated by insects. every single step along that has an insect associated with it that is doing an importantjob and without that, we would lose the ability to produce food, wouldn't we? but as much as we rely on insects it is primarily our activities and ourfood production practices that have been driving these declines. there are three key things that this study highlights as threats to our planet's insect diversity, climate change, invasive species and critically how we use our land.

increasing intensification of agriculture. around the world, suitable habitat is being consumed by farming and urbanization. and the study says widespread use of synthetic pesticides is a major driver of insect loss. bug lovers can help by making gardens more pollinator friendly but researchers say food production will have to change to stop our most important pollinators becoming collateral damage in the battle against pests. let's take a look at some of today's other news. a trial has begun over the rape and murder of six—year—old alesha macphail, who was killed on the isle of bute. her body was discovered in woodland last july. a 16—year—old boy — who can't be named because of his age — denies the charges at glasgow high court. the defence secretary gavin williamson has announced plans to modernise the armed forces. he said britain needs a bolder and stronger military to help

redefine it's role in the world after brexit — or risk being seen as a paper tiger. up up to 86,000 women aged between 35 and 39 with the family history of breast cancer should receive annual mammograms according to new research. a trial by the charity breast cancer known find screening a younger age group detected small tumours early as opposed to the common screening tumours early as opposed to the common screening age of a0. a decision will be made tonight about whether british horse racing can resume again this week after an outbreak for the highly infectious equine flu. there's been no racing forfive days after six horses were found to be infected. now four more cases have been identified at a second yard in newmarket. richard conway is at cheltenham race course, where the next big meet is due to take place next month. that's right, the cheltenham festival gets under in a month's

time, a huge event, it transcends racing in many respects. but the shadow of equine flu looms large over the sport this evening. thousands of tests conducted in recent days in attempt to identify and contain the virus. the british horseracing authority is set to make an announcement tonight on whether or not racing can recommence on wednesday. another day of no starters orders and with four new positive test of equine flu discovered at the newmarket yard of trainer simon chrisfiel, a total of 174 staples remain in lockdown. the british horseracing authority are continuing to analyze test results to see how prevalent the virus is amongst racing's thoroughbreds. as a result there has been no racing since last wednesday, a decision praised by some, but considered an overreaction by others. i think it is a bit of a knee jerk reaction to make it a rod for their own back as well

because what is going to happen in a month's time? say we have no positive scans, and then all of a sudden we get two flu jabs, are they going to stop racing again for another week or another ten days? the champion trainer meanwhile would like to get his horses running competitively but remains for now at least supportive of the stoppage. i think by not racing over the weekend, it was a good enough to decisio as far as cheltenham is concerned. if we do not race for another ten days, it is not going to threaten it but there will be a lot of forces who would have liked to have a run in the meantime. it may be quiet now but in four weeks' time, the cheltenham festival will be under way and the chairs will be deafening as the horses pass this winning post. it is the pinnacle ofjump racing and organizers are confident it will go ahead, despite this outbreak of equine flu. but this port, it is about more than just the glory. construction of the huge hospitality stands and bars at cheltenham continues at pace, a potent symbol of the millions of pounds racing brings to local

and rural economies. we will have several thousand people employed here for the four days of the festival, with catering and security, on car parks. it is a huge event, which does bring employment to a lot of people. for now all bets are off as a sport and the wider industry of racing waits to see if the threat of equine flu has been contained enough to let them gallop again. women dominated the grammy‘s in los angeles for the first time last night — making history as they won five of the top album awards. a year ago women were almost ignored in the major categories — this time there were some big winners — among them lady gaga, dolly parton and british singer dua lipa. there was also an appearance from former first lady michelle 0bama. 0ur correspondent dan johnson is in los angeles for us. last year these awards were labelled

grammys sort mail because only one woman won a major prize. there has been criticism is that these awards have been to mail, two white and mainstream, that hip—hop and rap have been overlooked that black artist and women were not properly recognised. that is why some artists stayed away from the ceremony. it's been a challenge for the organisers but they've had a strong determination to show things are changing. can i bring some of my sisters out here tonight? cheering. so male is so last year. alicia keys opened the show with a line—up of leading ladies from music, film, and the white house. from the motown records i wore out on the south side... cheering. michelle 0bama got a standing ovation, having barely spoken. cheering. music shows us that all of it matters. every story, within every voice.

every note within every song. is that right, ladies? yes! cardi b became the first solo woman to win best rap album. british singer dua lipa — who started out singing covers on youtube — was named best new artist. she took aim at the recording academy president who suggested last year that women needed to step up. how honoured i am to be nominated alongside so many incredible female artists this year, because i guess this year we've really stepped up? this is america is childish gambino's brutally dark commentary on violence and injustice in the united states. the song made grammys history winning both the top performance and writing awards. childish gambino! but he let his co—writer pick up the prizes — he was one of the notable missing men who chose not to attend this years awards.

lady gaga was there to pick up two prizes for shallow, the song from the film a star is born. thank you. thank you so much. # working nine to five #. and the grammys showed it does span genres and bridge generations. there was a special award for dolly parton after putting in all those hours. this was a celebration of many different, strong female voices. musics biggest evening felt very much like ladies night. danjohnson, bbc news, los angeles. time for a look at the weather. here's mel coles. good evening, as we head through the next few days i think many of us will start to feel as though february has got a bit of a spring in its step, many areas saw sparkling sunshine through the day. calmer conditions because there is an area of high pressure starting to

edge its way and from the south—west. northerly winds through the day, a cool direction to be coming from but as we head through the week we draw up more mild air from the south, a different feel to the weather. more cloud working its way into northern ireland and western scotland, outbreaks of patchy rain which might turn more persistent, ploughed into northern england but away from those areas under clear skies we could see a patchy frost particularly some rural spots towards east anglia and the far south—east, also certain fog around tomorrow morning. here is the high pressure drifting out towards the south and east through tuesday, allowing this more mild air to draw up allowing this more mild air to draw up from the south. there will be more cloud the further west you are, more cloud the further west you are, more of a breeze as well through north—western scotland and those weather fronts bringing outbreaks of rain gradually bumping into that area of high pressure and fizzling out. they might make inroads into northern england. a good deal of fine, dry weather, the base

brightness down to the far south—east and noticeably different for aberdeenshire where we see those temperatures into double figures. heading into wednesday we continue to draw up this milder air from the far south—west but as the day goes on in ourarea far south—west but as the day goes on in our area of high pressure d rifts on in our area of high pressure drifts a little bit further east, we start to draw up drier airfrom the south through wednesday afternoon which will help break up some of that cloud, the southern half of the uk more of us getting a slice of crisp sunshine. with the temperatures in double digits it will start to feel more springlike. breezy towards the far north—west of scotla nd breezy towards the far north—west of scotland where we may see patches of rain from time to time. similar story as we head into thursday, more of us getting to see more in the way of us getting to see more in the way of sunshine and with temperatures in double figures through thursday i think more of us will start to feel as though february is turning a bit more springlike. a reminder of our top story: brexit uncertainty hits the uk

economy, 2018 and one of the worst performing in nine years. that's all from the bbc news at six, so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. hello good evening you are watching bbc news. the headlines this hour. the uk economy expanded at its lowest annual rate since 2012 after a sharp contraction in december. this is will be made late tonight about whether british horse racing resume again this week after an outbreak of equine flu. and a member we will bejoining and a member we will be joining john watson in the team for sports day

but first a look at what else is coming up this evening on bbc news. we will finna late tonight or the horse racing resume on wednesday and after i will be talking to the leading trainers about the impact this outbreak has had. beyond 100 days will be talking to the bbc correspondents in el paso, texas where president trump will be telling supporters that the city is safer because walls have protected it from crime across the border in mexico. and after the conservative chairman called for gcse is to be scrapped with the way up the pros and cons of the school exam system. we will take our daily look at the front pages of the papers and the brexit editor. lots to come here bbc news but now it's time for sports day.