the idea of going, being hoisted up to a helicopter in those winds, i did not like that idea at all. as the storm begins to calm this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the liner has been able to restart three of its four engines and has the headlines at two... begun its journey ministers have been backing to the nearest port. theresa may, amid reports of a coup. david lidington — who's in effect the deputy prime minister — has rejected claims he's being lined and there is the viking sky as it makes its way along the western up to replace theresa may. i have no wish to take over from the pm, she is doing a fantasticjob. working close to the prime minister cures you working close to the prime minister cu res you of working close to the prime minister cures you of any ludicrous ambition to wa nt cures you of any ludicrous ambition to want to do that task. this is the scene at chequers this afternoon, where the prime minister is meeting colleagues — including high—profile brexiteers — as she tries to find a way to get her brexit deal through the commons this week.

rescuers have been airlifting hundreds of passengers and crew from a cruise ship, off the coast of norway. mozambican authorities say half a million people are affected by cyclone idai — the raf is flying out aid supplies today. it was the daring wartime prison break—out that inspired a hit hollywood film — and today marks the 75th anniversary of the great escape. and in half an hour, we'll be looking back at yet another monumental week in the brexit process. that's in the week in parliament, on bbc news. good afternoon. members of the government have been

publicly expressing their loyalty to the prime minister, and denying claims that she could be removed from office by members of her cabinet. david lidington, who is in effect theresa may's deputy, has said he is 100% behind her, and he's denied suggestions that he could take her place. the prime minister is meeting senior colleagues this afternoon to discuss the brexit crisis. it follows an admission that she may not have enough support to put her brexit deal before mps for a third time. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. what is theresa may thinking this morning? perhaps just days left to save her brexit plan, furious speculation about her future. are you prepared to resign to save your deal? no signs she intends to go just yet but some have suggested that could be the solution. mrs may goes and someone else takes over in the short term to help end the logjam in parliament.

some are tipping this man, david liddington, as a caretaker. a short—term prime minister to get britain through its current brexit crisis. but he says he has no intention of doing it. i have no wish to take over from the prime minister who is doing a fantasticjob. there is one thing working closely with the prime minister, it cures you completely of any lingering shred of ambition. in this volatile time the next few days are far from clear. ministers are urging for calm. to be talking about changing the players on the board is self—indulgent at this time. we have to decide how we want to proceed. this former tory leader said any minister suggesting theresa may goes now should be sacked. but what about in a few weeks' time? this breaks into a second phase, assuming the withdrawal agreement got through, if it did get through the second phase needs to be tackled separately and differently. by somebody else?

that is a possibility but it's not something i am saying i recommend right here and right now. there are still huge decisions to be made here, it's not clear whether the prime minister's deal will be put to mps again and they are set to vote on alternative plans on wednesday. the brexit secretary says any decision will not be binding and warns if parliament backs a strategy the government will not implement it could mean a general election. ultimately at its logical conclusion the risk of a general election increases because you have a situation where parliament is instructing the executive to do something that is counter than what it was elected to do. the prime minister is currently at her country retreat, she has invited some cabinet colleagues and senior brexit supporters for talks. her deal and perhaps her future hanging in the balance. we mention to david liddington and the other name doing the rounds is

michael gove, one of the campaigners for brexit. yes, he is somebody who might be more palatable to some though i suspect not all brexiteers, also somebody who will be at that meeting at chequers this afternoon and in the last few minutes, he has also declared support for the prime minister. does the payments to have your support? absolutely, this is a time for a cool head, what we need is to focus on the task at hand to make sure we get the maximum support for the prime minister and make sure we get the maximum support forthe prime ministerand her make sure we get the maximum support for the prime minister and her deal, we need to make sure colleagues in cabinet and across the country recognise that in the course of this week, we have important decisions to make andl week, we have important decisions to make and i hope as many people as possible will recognise the best way of honouring the referendum mandate to make sure we leave in an orderly fashion is to support the pro—minister.

fashion is to support the pro-minister. people are saying she should step aside? no, it is not going to change the captain of the ship, we need to chart the right course and the pro—minister has. she has made sure we have a deal which honours the referendum mandate and allows us to leave in a way that means we can strengthen our allows us to leave in a way that means we can strengthen oui’ economy and take advantage of life outside the european union. will be vote go ahead this week? i hope we have the opportunity to unite and support the pro—minister over the next few days andl pro—minister over the next few days and i will be trying to ensure we have as many colleagues supporting the prime minister, it is critical we get her deal over the line and leave the eu in an orderly manner. can she get it through realistically? 0h, can she get it through realistically? oh, yeah. both people being suggested as potential ca reta ker being suggested as potential caretaker leaders have said they are behind her but i don't think we can assume anything at the moment. a lot

of conservative mps and others privately are questioning how long theresa may has lived in the top job and there are some in cabinet who are unhappy. one third of her mps did not back in the confident vote —— confidence vote, that gave her breathing space but what could change this week that might accelerate her departure? you are right that that procedure cannot be used, they can't have a secret ballot and attempt to get rid of her, however, if support completely crumbles and it becomes clear that her deal and premiership has no prospect of being revived, that would probably do it for the prime minister, frankly. the next seven days, as much as we can guess, were not sure whether the prime minister's deal will be put to mps

ever again, you heard michael gove saying he hope so but other ministers are saying they think the deal has little prospect of being put forward and if that remains the case it is unlikely number ten will decide to take that risk of putting it to mps again. mps are likely tomorrow to try to take control of the process and have these so—called indicative votes, which allows a number of options to be put to mps, potentially free of the party whip, which would allow everyone to indicate a preference for an alternative way forward. again, we are in this remarkable period where it is not clear if any of those would command a majority so we will have to see. the prime minister is at chequers this afternoon, a strong cast list, prime minister, david goffin, david livingstone —— david goffin, david livingstone —— david goffin and david livingstone —— gove

and david liddington, brexiteers, suggesting this meeting will be important. we don't know what they will discuss but you can guess that the b—word will be most prominent. thank you. let's speak now to the conservative mp steve double. he joins me via webcam from newquay. sorry to disrupt your sunday afternoon. we are grateful to you for speaking to us. we do you think the prime minister's prospects are forgetting a deal through the house of commons on third attempt?” forgetting a deal through the house of commons on third attempt? i think we are in a difficult clearly the deal has been resoundingly defeated on two occasions and people like

myself who voted against it first time but for it second time purely to try to prevent what has since unfolded, from happening, are still in the balance as to whether we would support it at a third vote or not. we are still unclear whether this would have the support of parliament. in terms of your own position, are you confident in theresa may cosmic leadership is mike my views on the prime minister are fairly well known. since the no—confidence vote in december, i felt... we are now in the situation where the prime minister regrettably cannot maintain collective responsibility with the cabinet where she has promised over 100 times we would be leaving the eu on march 29 and it looks like their promise will not be kept. just ten days ago she brought a motion to parliament we are almost two thirds of her own mps voted against it. so,

she is clearly in a very difficult position. whether now is the time to change leader, i think is open to question. we are at such a crucial point in proceedings and i'm not sure that changing the leader would help. in essence, there is no plan b as far as we can see from downing street at this stage. therefore, the possibility is that assuming the brexit deal does not get through, the uk will leave the eu mid april, without a deal. does that bother your constituents? the majority would be delighted for us to leave the eu and get this over and done with and if that transpired in the second week of april, i think many people who voted to leave would absolutely be happy with that but i think it is doubtful whether

parliament that regrettably is dominated by people who want to remain, would allow that to happen. as you have highlighted, there is a chance this will be taken out of the government cosmic hands in the next few days but if that where the outcome i think many others will get behind the pro—minister. i think the one opportunity she has is to say that if her deal is voted down, we will leave with no deal and i think if she did that, in large part of the country would get right behind her. you are not worried about predictions of what might follow that? we are clear that there would be significant challenges but we are ina be significant challenges but we are in a better place than many would admit, there has been a lot of preparation from the government and individual businesses to be ready for that eventuality. i speak to many businesses who admit that they do not want a no—deal exit from the eu but they are ready if it happens on the one thing it would bring is

absolute certainty, rather than the likelihood of many more years of continuing this debate and prolonging the uncertainty, at least it would clarify exactly where we are atand it would clarify exactly where we are at and provide the certainty that all businesses are looking for. when and how we leave the eu is still in the air but what course we follow, we still have to negotiate a future relationship and i wonder whether you would be concerned that in the event of a no—deal brexit, that might sour that next stage of the talks because a lot of people, whatever you think of their approach, in brussels, will think we have spent two years of our lives trying to negotiate with the uk, why on earth should we put all that effort into a trade deal? clearly, it's unacceptable that here we are, less tha n it's unacceptable that here we are, less than a week from the date we we re less than a week from the date we were scheduled to leave the eu and were scheduled to leave the eu and we not clear about when and even if we not clear about when and even if we are going to leave and that is a

failure of politics and leadership. i take the points you make but i think we also have to to lay some of the blame at the doors of the eu, they have proved unwilling to negotiate properly and i think there have been feelings on both sides, in the negotiations. i don't believe responsibility solely sits with the uk, it is also partly the eu cosmic responsibility. theresa may cannot be the person who conducts that next pa rt be the person who conducts that next part of the negotiations in your view? that is my view, i think one of the positive things the prime minister can do is to lay out... that would provide the opportunity for more colleagues to back the deal, knowing she would not have any intention of leading the next round of negotiations on someone else would take that over. if she laid

that out in the next few days, it would be a very positive thing for her to do. thank you. voters in thailand are waiting to discover who's won the first election since the military took power in a coup five years ago. turnout has been high, 80%, with seven million more young thais eligible to cast ballots for the first time. a new constitution drafted by the military is expected to keep the army in charge, whatever the outcome. i'm joined now by our correspondents jonathan head, who's outside the main opposition party headquarters, and nick beake, who's at the palang pracha rath party headquarters — who are aligned to the military. jonathan, what is the predicted outcome to this? a coalition of some kind but with who calling the shots?

it was always going to the military calling the shots, the real question was whether parties like the main opposition party, whose headquarters iam in opposition party, whose headquarters i am in front of now, which always gets the largest share of seats, whether they would do well enough to find some ground for challenging the military. the military has an appointed senate that backs them and everything hung on how well these quys everything hung on how well these guys did and how well the military because my own party did. the military party has done surprisingly well, well enough given they now have the largest share of popular vote, to say they have a popular mandate. but this is a party backed by the former prime minister vaccine shinawatra —— prime minister shinawatra. from what we can see, we are near the end of the accounting

and it is more certain than it live this morning that we will get a pretty straightforward extension of the current military government into the current military government into the next five years. what has been the next five years. what has been the reaction there, nick? a strange reaction because this is a party that did not exist a year ago so it does not have the infrastructure you would expect, there aren't the cheering supporters are willing candidates hugging spouses and beaming smiles, it's predominantly journalists gathered here to watch the results coming on the big screen and of course this was a political party set up to give the military some sort of electoral legitimacy, they managed to do it, it would seem, through luring candidates from constituencies, big names tojoin their ranks. so there is no huge celebrations and fireworks but

across the country, the party set up to be aligned with the military has done extremely well and as jonathan was saying, it can now claim a bigger share of popular vote and a real mandate, having seized power in five years ago. our reporter at the palang pracha rath headquarters, thank you for being with us. we will watch for in those results, you can see the stage at which the announcements are expected to be made beginning relatively shortly, the polls have only been closed for a couple of hours so we are expecting some results to start coming through in the not too distant future but as jonathan was saying, it looks as if the party most closely aligned to the military has done better than predicted. we will bring you that as soon as we get it. the headlines on bbc news...

senior conservatives tell theresa may her brexit deal is more likely to pass, if she stands down as prime minister. rescuers have been airlifting hundreds of passengers and crew from a cruise ship, off the coast of norway. mozambican authorities say half a million people are affected by cyclone idai — the raf is flying out aid supplies today. hundreds of people have been winched to safety from a stranded cruise ship, after it lost all power in a storm off the coast of norway. 200 british people were among those on board — many of them elderly. 20 people are being treated in hospital. the viking sky is now being towed to safety — along with hundreds of passengers who remain on the ship. and this is the scene live on the norwegian coast — caroline davies reports. this is the seen live on the

norwegian coast. many of the passengers have already been airlifted to safety during the storm. a significant number of those on board the ship, it is a 745 foot ship, itdid on board the ship, it is a 745 foot ship, it did have on—board something like 1000 guests and crew, 479 passengers airlifted to shaw, 436 along with 458 crew members remain on board. getting on for 1300 people on board. getting on for 1300 people on board. getting on for 1300 people on board that ship and it is now limping back towards shore. let's get some of the details of that rescue, which was pretty dramatic, from our reporter, caroline davies.

falling parts of the ceiling, sliding tables and chairs and plants. passengers struggled to catch the balance as the storm surges around the ship. after the viking sky suffered engine failure yesterday afternoon the liner began to roll. 00:21:18,369 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 water all over the ground.