this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at four. africa but it's happening here in the uk. police in england and wales our reporter met women are being given greater stop in middlesbrough, birmingham and and search powers to tackle london, all speaking for the first time, rising knife crime. who shared their experience it is a very important tool. of this practice. it is a vital tool in fighting serious violence. i want police officers it's a community—sensitive, to feel more comfortable, hidden crime. to use it so they can the numbers are far greater protect all communities. then we anticipate. what next to break the brexit deadlock. a secretive practice tomorrow mps vote again happening to girls as young on alternative options — as nine here in britain. and if a plan for a softer brexit gets a majority — one cabinet minister says theresa may must consider it. you are not supposed to have breasts at this age. i don't think it is sustainable to men will start coming say, well, we will ignore to you to have sex with you. parliament's position and therefore leave without a deal. i don't think so they are willing to iron them. that is a sustainable position for i said, "iron them?" the government to take. difficult to detect but devastating to the lives of the young girls affected. there's been a sharp rise in the number of adults calling it's mothers, grandmothers that are the perpetrators. a national helpline for the children if she can iron them and i'm flat, of alcoholic parents, i will be ugly and nobody according to figures willadmire me. seen by the bbc. i can no longer sit back and say i'm fearful of being labelled racist. pe, you can't hide yourself

because someone decided to mutilate my body. we can educate young girls that this is not normal. it's abuse. breast ironing, sometimes known as pounding, flattening or sweeping, is a hidden form of abuse. the practice originates in cameroon and other countries in west africa. it involves ironing a girl's chest with hot objects to delay their breasts from growing, so she doesn't attract male attention. and whilst many authorities are now familiar with the cultural practice of female genital mutilation, or fgm, where families cut their daughters‘ genitals, most have never heard of breast ironing. organisations say they have anecdotal evidence of it happening to dozens of girls every year here in the uk. we've come to middlesbrough

to meet kanaya, that's not her real name. her family are cameroonian and she was breast ironed at ten years old. your mum would say, "oh no, you're growing up, your breasts are beginning to shoot. there will be shame if i don't iron them. the men will start coming to you to have sex with you." i still feel the pain. time does not erase that kind of pain. we are not even allowed to cry out. it's like you've brought shame to your family, you're not strong enough. what we need to understand in terms of breast ironing is it's a community sensitive, hidden crime. women are not going to speak openly, they're not going to seek help. it's not out there on our government's agenda. i know this is happening because people have divulged it to me and they've said it's the first time openly that they've ever spoken about what's happened to them and they felt ashamed. they felt ashamed that it's

part of their body that they should feel proud of. with breast ironing, it's covert, it's hidden. this is done behind closed doors, in secrecy. it is mothers, grandmothers that are the perpetrators. what i hear from women is this part of a girl becoming a woman. this is a practice carried out by women on women. the pressure on some mothers to carry on the cultural tradition in the uk can be immense. i have four daughters and i remember when i had my daughter, i remember my late mother proposing to me that she is growing, she is beginning to have breasts, it's time we... is - i. it got to a point where we're in our house, we lock the door so no—one knows we're there.

if they would've been able to get them, what would they have done to them? they've would've ironed their breasts and performed fgm on them, yeah. i said no. over my dead body would that happen. what do you think that would have been like if they were actually able to do that to you and to your body? i don't think i would ever forget, i would be scarred for life. my best friend, she went through it. she was a really nice person, she was very happy. then she was sad all the time. she always wanted to be by herself, i didn't know what was going on. it was later that i discovered her mother was doing that to her. there is no officialfigures to estimate how often this is happening here in the uk, as we are not collecting any detail. but the un estimates worldwide there are around 4 million teenage girls at risk of having

their breasts ironed. and we've discovered the practice isn'tjust about making women less attractive to men. it goes to the heart of a woman's sexuality and how to control it. simone, whose identity we are protecting, was breast ironed at 13 after her mum found out she was gay. i didn't know how to tell my mum. i was 13, 14 at that time. you dare not mention the word you are a lesbian or attracted to a girl. it's a taboo. it's a disgrace, it's an outlaw. so when she found out, what was her reaction? it was terrible, she was mad. "this is disgraceful, this is shame. " when she discovered that she had now to do what we call breast ironing, according to her maybe i was attracted because those breasts, if she iron them and i'm flat, i'll be ugly and nobody will admire me. it really hurt. you have this thing they can tie on your breasts. at times, you find difficulty in breathing.

they really tie. it went on for months. at that time, i thought, "maybe i'll never have breasts again." simone was 19 when she had a baby to the man she was forced to marry. the long—term damage of her breast ironing became apparent. when it comes to breast—feeding, after the best ironing, it wasn't very easy, the milk would not flow normally. you have some pains. it is so strenuous. it's even hardened. the home office says breast ironing is child abuse and it should be prosecuted under general assault

laws and if teachers have concerns, they have a duty to report a girl and a risk of significant harm. but how can a teacher report when breast ironing isn't part of sex education or even a mandatory part of their training? i did safeguarding training a year ago and the lady there had a sixth former who had put her hand up when they were talking about the subject and said she had it done, but she didn't know it was abuse, she didn't know it was something wrong. at that time, i must have been about 14, 15. i always hide myself. in pe, you can't hide yourself, the amount of times i used to try and get out of pe. that was when i noticed their breasts are different to mine. if my pe teacher had known back then, they would have noticed something. if i'd had help then, i would have been able to deal

with it growing up. but now that i'm a full grown adult and finding out now this is the reason why i'm going through this, because someone decided to mutilate my body. the first thing has to be about education of teachers, people working with young women to make sure they realise this is a thing and it's happening here in the uk and that they should be talking about it and prepared to listen to understand what's going on and to then advise the young person on what action they need to take. we know it's very harmful to children, it will impact on their development. the pe staff might notice something. we would want those staff to feel empowered, to know what to look for, and also to know the route to make sure the safeguarding procedures are put in place. there is a real sensitivity amongst staff about how we perceive, how we look at children and i think

there is a fear in staff of them being prosecuted if they notice something irregular going on. so we know about looking out for the signs or indicators... and even with the new legislation coming in, we still culturally have parents who will flatly refuse their children to take part in any kind of activity, as far as they were concerned. unfortunately, it is the children sometimes that are most at risk. i've been fighting here in the uk and internationally for fgm for over 3a years. i don't want to see our african women and girls wait 3a years. we can educate young girls that this is not normal, it is abuse. and if you've been affected by any of the issues in that report and would like some advice, do visit the bbc action line website.

also this week on our programme, we revealed that the government is to investigate why children from private flats at a housing complex in south london enjoy a bigger playground than those kids who live in neighbouring social housing. this is the aerial view of the development, with the bigger playground for the homeowners' kids and to be much smaller space for the rest of the children. we heard from one mum whose children are banned from the private playground. i have a disabled child and another small one, i said, ok, it's big enough to play with a special bike and he could enjoy with other children. i've been told no, you cannot use it. why? because it's private. it's in a private area so we haven't got the... access. so initially you were told absolutely no problem, but actually when you moved in that's when things changed.

once we signed the contract, we can't go in it. and, anna, what is that like for you? how do you react to that? it's sad, because it's not fairthat in the summer you see people playing around, or in spring, and kids from the whole building are like, why are we different? why can't we go downstairs and play with our friends who are down there? and you can see the other kids on the other bit, can't you ? yeah. louise, you live in the private bit of the complex. how do you feel about this? i think it's terrible. the four other mothers and i from the private development have been campaigning for the last three years to allow access for the other children. it's not a them and us issue. it's a group of us mothers who are friends, whose children are friends and we want to the best for our children and the best thing for our children and what makes them happy is to play on their doorstep

with their friends. and grow together. it is tragic that a wall has been put in to stop this. what would happen if you went into the private part? who would kick up a fuss? the caretaker. is that the issue? if we are out playing, we invite them down and we have amazing play sessions. but we have to be there and it's like us inviting them like they are our guests. that's wrong, they're children. i want our children to go out our flat and all play together with the kids from the other flats without having to ask permission. my children don't want to play in that area because their friends aren't there. there is far fewer children in the private development. there is at least 20 in the other development. they all want to be together. my children prefer to stay at after school clubs so they can all stay together rather than coming home and not be able to play together. what would happen if all the kids

from the social housing went into the private kids housing play area? we get a letter of complaint of noise. the small area and the big area are next to each other. it would be the same noise with kids in both areas as kids in one area. the children play in the two areas so they go to the park at the other side of the road. but if all the kids from social housing went in the playground for the private housing kids, what would be the outcome? complaints. from who? don't name people, but who from? people in the private housing? it's complicated, because if we go and we have to jump the wall or ring someone to go inside, then we would get letters saying you're not allowed. it seems crazy. it's unbelievable when we are designing segregation into what is supposed to be a mixed development. the whole point of a mixed development, and we

would support this at shelter, social housing should not be stigmatised or something that's dramatically different and worse, certainly from the outside, when you look at it, compared to private housing. this is almost putting discrimination into a development in a structural way with no thought to the social housing tenants and the affect on them including the children. is that because of demand from private housing, people who want to buy their own home and don't want to be next to a council house? it might be. i think that might be what the developers think. but we need to think about what kind of spaces and communities we want to create with new developments. the theory behind mixed developments is that we don't want to create developments that stigmatise particular sections of our community. how do you react to james brokenshire telling us that it is outrageous and they are

going to investigate? i think it's really positive and we've been campaigning for a long time at shelter against, for example, private tenancies that exclude anyone on benefits and we know the government isn't happy with that either and i think it's really positive the government is understanding that where we are stigmatising a particular group of society, all we can do is exacerbate the divisions within society. hours after that interview, an agreement was reached that allows the children from social housing to use the private playground. and if you've got an issue or story you think we should be covering, e—mail us. finally, friday march the 29th was the day we were supposed to have left the eu, something the prime minister has been promising since

she took office. it didn't happen. dozens of brexit supporters arrived at parliament to protest on friday, having walked almost 300 miles from sunderland over two weeks. our reporterjoined them for their leg through northamptonshire. our instructions were to park on a country road in the east midlands and wait. then, sure enough, the brexiteers came into sight. they are at around 200 mile mark and here in northamptonshire they can smell the finish line. as they refuel, relax and make themselves comfortable, it's a chance to find out why they're doing it. i'm from sunderland. that's convenient. just had to get dropped off, 15 minutes from my house. my mum has alzheimer's.

i had to call in a lot of favours to be able to do this. what brought you to put on your walking boots and walk the best part of the country? just anger, frustration. i am a stay—at—home mother, two of my children are off to university now, i've still got one at home. is your anger directed at something in particular? shouts from cars you got a bit of abuse there, how often does that happen? not a lot actually, a little bit. in ripon, a lady wound down her window and shouted obscenities. they had placards saying we were racists and all the usual. can you see a time when it will be more united? no. deal, i think there will be remainers campaigning to rejoin. nigel farage was one of those to call for people to march, evenjoining them for the first leg. were you hoping he would be here for all of it? he can't, he is an mep, he is as busy as ever at the moment. purely west yorkshire lad. i'm a wesley as they call me.

i own my own business. what brought you here? democracy. this leave and remain question has been answered. 17.4 million decided to leave with the vote. it looks like they're going to ignore that. what did you make of the march on saturday when you saw hundreds of thousands? this isjust typical. we had figures of about 1 million people. we can probably agree on that, that is versus a couple of hundred. this is drumming up support. our day is the 29th. clayton is a brexit supporter who wants to leave the eu without a deal. the government, the eu and most businesses don't agree saying it would risk higher charges and border checks. if it was mps representing us, there would be quite a

few mps... but they're not listening to us. what's on the menu tonight? wetherspoons, of course. it might not sound obvious but the chairman of wetherspoons tim martin is a big fan of a no deal brexit. they've been stopping most evenings. after 5.5 hours they are done for the day, that's 200 miles towards london. the mood is upbeat, they're not worried about comparisons with the people's vote march, outwardly at least, from last weekend. they are confident of drumming up more support. the overall feeling is they feel disconnected with westminster, they are not represented in terms of how brexit is being handled. back in the pub, thoughts turn to home. a lot of my family are getting behind me.

we have heated debates from time to time. but in general, i'm not going to divorce them just yet! if the government somehow get a deal voted through and it's in name only, as you say, would you be satisfied with that? initially, no. but it's a step closer to leaving the european union completely. the next morning, the marchers get their bus to their next starting point, which is 20 miles south. are we ready to leave? we bump into mr wetherspoon himself who tells the crowd the uk is no longer a democracy and not worried about the turnout either. what are you expecting on friday? as the week goes on, we are seeing more and more brexiteers shifting. it is hard to know what's going on in the political world and there are the people who have been shifting. in the real world, nobody has

been shifting at all. are you coming round to the idea of a compromise just to get brexit in some form? i think there have been compromises all the way. as long as we brexit is the main thing. i'm hoping we go out with no deal on friday. i've got a magnum of champagne i'm going to pop open on saturday. i willjust keep on campaigning. three years later and still no brexit, what on earth happened? here is a look back at theresa may's last three years, in three minutes. her majesty the queen has asked me to form a new government and i accepted. do we have a plan for brexit? yes, we do. actually we want a red, white and blue brexit, the uk is leaving the eu but we are not turning our back.

brexit means brexit. means brexit. we are going to make a success of it. i'm not going to be calling a snap election. the government should call a general election. not another one! showing the strong and stable leadership our country needs. the strong... that strong and stable leadership. we think it's pretty clear there's going to be a hung parliament. is this strong and stable, prime minister? they should stop playing politics with brexit. our white paper remains the only serious and credible proposition. i've treated the eu with nothing but respect. in the two years

since the referendum, we have had a spirited national debate. we will therefore defer the vote scheduled for tomorrow. and not proceed to divide the house at this time. they will be able to have confidence in my leadership. the parliamentary party does have confidence... cheering i think the british people are ready for us to move on. order! the ayes to the right, 202, the noes to the left, 432. it is clear that the house does not support this deal, but this vote tells us nothing about what it does support. the ayes to the right 242, the noes 391. i profoundly regret the decision this house has taken tonight. and of this i am absolutely sure, you, the public, have had enough.

you are tired of the infighting, you are tired of the political gains and the arcane procedural rows. tired of mps talking about nothing else but brexit. a short extension would give parliament the time to make a final choice. go and live there if you like! the british people want this to be settled. they want a good deal that sets us on course for a brighter future. that deal is within our grasp and i am determined to deliver it.

we are back live 10am, monday morning, bbc two, the bbc news channel and online. we may have stepped forward into spring with the clock change but it will for many of us feel more like winter next week. it was a much chillier start as you can see in gloucestershire anyway today. the cloud is melting away in the south. the sun is out in the north. with lighter winds, it has felt much more pleasa nt lighter winds, it has felt much more pleasant in the north but the cloud

has been a little stubborn to clear in the south. we will see some late sunshine for most of us and it will feel quite pleasant in the north, despite temperatures being a little down on what they have been recently. in the south, not only are the temperatures down, we have an easterly wind to deal with. a little bit of late sunshine and then overnight we pay for that sunshine because temperatures fall to frost levels. even towns and cities will get close to freezing. after the early frost for northern ireland, temperatures will tend to left and thatis temperatures will tend to left and that is the change as we go through the coming week. the high pressure that has been with us for so long as ruling wishing its grip. does relinquishing its grip. showers into northern ireland and western scotla nd northern ireland and western scotland and they will push their way into north—west england later. for most, a sparkling start. chilly

with that frost. we should keep the sunshine. it won't feel quite so chilly in the south. but we do have a significant band of rain coming in later. behind it, the really cold air comes later. behind it, the really cold aircomes in. later. behind it, the really cold air comes in. you can trace its origins right the way back to the arctic and that will push right across the uk by the end of tuesday. it will be a showery picture by the time we get to tuesday. that call to come south. these indicate the chance of some wintering us in those showers over the hills in particular. gusty wins and temperatures struggling to get to double figures. well below where they should be for this time of year. again, overnight frost will be a risk through the coming week. with low pressure staying put, it is going to be a pretty cold week, compared with what we have had stop night—time frosts. and plenty of april showers.