hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the defence secretary expresses his horror at an alleged sexual assault ofa horror at an alleged sexual assault of a 17—year—old female recruit by this is bbc news. six soldiers and orders an investigation. the chancellor i'm chris rodgers. insists the government the headlines at 8. the defence secretary expresses horror at an alleged sexual assault of a 17—year—old female recruit by six male soldiers and orders an investigation. the chancellor insists the government has no red lines in talks over brexit. but labour says it's waiting to see some movement from the prime minister. the key priority is to avoid crashing out with the eu with no deal, because of the disruption that would mean to industry and to supply chains, and we are determined to make sure there's no crashing out without a deal. what do we want? human rights! when we want them? now! human rights protests at london's dorchester hotel owned by brunei, where a new law makes gay

sex punishable by stoning to death. tiger roll seals back to back grand nationals, the first horse to do so for nearly half a century. kevin o'brien, jesus! —— kevin de bruyne. manchester city's dream of the quadruple lives on. they beat brighton to reach the fa cup final. and i look at teenagers‘ hopes and dreams, and half an and i look at teenagers‘ hopes and dreams, and halfan hour and i look at teenagers‘ hopes and dreams, and half an hour here on bbc news. good evening. the defence secretary has ordered an investigation

in the military, after it emerged that six soldiers were arrested following an allegation of sexual assault. it‘s claimed a teenage female recruit was assaulted by male colleagues. the head of the army, general sir mark carleton—smith, said the allegations were being taken very seriously. simonjones reports. a damaging week for the army. in the words of its leader, general sir mark carleton—smith. responding to allegations of a sexual assault by troops. the sun newspaper says a female soldier woke to find a group of men standing over her. they had reportedly been drinking. she screamed. six men from an army sports club have been arrested. the chair of the general staff in a message to his troops said, where serious allegations are proven against members of the army, including allegations of a violent or sexual nature, it demonstrates indiscipline that is wildly at odds with the values and standards that represent the british army. the defence secretary gavan williamson wrote on twitter, horrified to hear of these allegations. there is no place for these kind of actions in the military and if true, those involved must be dealt with. i have commissioned a review

into inappropriate behaviour in the military with a view to stamping it out. that review will also look at this footage. in an unrelated incident, soldiers in afghanistan filmed apparently using an image of the labour leaderjeremy corbyn for target practice. condemned by the mod as totally u na cce pta ble. the head of the army says each and every soldier needs to do better to take pride in what the military represents. simon jones, bbc news. earlier, i spoke to emma norton. she is a solicitor and head of legal casework at the human rights charity, liberty. a wider problem is that of sexual harassment in the armed forces. there was a survey last year, actually, that laid the problem very bare. 12% of women who responded to the

sexual—harassment survey said that they had suffered sexual harassment. 7% said they had suffered attempted sexual assault, and 3% said that they‘ve been raped. these are women who are serving in the armed forces. so it is a very wide problem and it‘s a shame there was not a similarly robust response from the secretary of state come in the chain of command last year. and so do we, i‘m going to say we, the public and press, do we always find out when allegations are made like this one, within the army? i‘m not sure that we do. i mean one of the main problems is, what appears to happen on this occasion, is that the military police have been called in again. what we are calling for, and have been calling forfor a long, long time, and a lot of women who have suffered sexual violence in the armed forces have been calling for, it must be the civilian police that investigate this offence, not the military police, they don‘t have enough experience, not enough expertise, and they are not sufficiently independent. so if the chain of command, and the secretary of state are serious about tackling this,

they don‘t need to conduct another review, they have all the information that they need, what they need to do is get the expert, independent civilian police to investigate these offences. when it comes to a female officer like this one making these allegations, are you aware of what kind of procedure is in place, to offer them support, as a victim of sexual harassment and sexual assault? well, it won‘t be as good as if it would be if they went to the outside civilian police. what often happens, i think from the allegations that the information today, that she‘s a trainee, she‘s only 17 years old, they are always directed to the military police. they ought to be directed to the civilian police. and when they access the civilian police, they have access to a whole lot more independent outside expert support and advice. and the problem is with the military police investigating these offences, we can‘t trust that they will be investigated thoroughly or adequately, or independently.

this is a developing story. we will have more on this in the papers at 10:30pm. our guests joining me tonight are the broadcaster, lynn faulds wood, and economic advisor ruth lea. the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, says he‘s waiting to see the governement‘s brexit "red lines" move, after talks this week with the conservatives, aimed at trying to end the political brexit deadlock. it comes as the eu considers a request from the uk to delay brexit until the end ofjune. our political correspondent, jonathan blake, explained to me — how we got to this point. in the last 2a hours there doesn‘t seem that there‘s been any progress at all. those talks broke up on friday evening with a different point of view put forward by each side. labour saying they were disappointed that the government hadn‘t made any real compromise, all suggested

that the political declaration, the part of theresa may‘s brexit deal which sets out our future relationship of the eu could be changed. at all. but downing street said they had made serious proposals, and that they were willing to make changes to the political declaration, so where are we? well this morning the chancellor philip hammond struck an upbeat tone, and said in contrast to what labour had accused the government of, they didn‘t have any red lines and they were up for talking, and they were listening to ideas. here‘s what he had to say in bucharest. we expect to exchange more text with the labour party today and the talks are ongoing. this is an ongoing process and i'm optimistic that we will make some form of agreement later. philip hammond something positive about the prospect of an agreement with labour but that is not, it seems, how the other side say. we heard from jeremy corbyn, the labour leader, early on when he was campaigning for local elections in plymouth that they were yet to see the movement that they wanted from the government side. we need to

see the red lines move, and we have had to smack meetings this week, one with the prime minister and a further one that keir starmer held with david livingstone and the team and that was more of a technical discussion about the future agreement as well as the withdrawal agreement, which has many problems and flaws in it as we have pointed out in parliament. the key priority is to avoid crashing out with the eu with no deal because of the disruption that would mean to industry and the supply chain, so we are determined to make sure there is i'io are determined to make sure there is no crashing out without a deal, so next week something will have to happen in parliament and labour will be playing our part. labour's position is, your move, prime minister. the government saying tonight that this process has not broken down. a downing street source suggests talks are ongoing. whether we will see any meetings in the next day or so on an exchange of letters

oi’ day or so on an exchange of letters or text between both sides seems unclear. the government said that they are serious about peace talks and finding a way to break the brexit deadlock but i have to say that at the moment, a deal looks doubtful. the developer, persimmon has announced an independent review into the quality of its housing, after increasing concerns about the standard of its new—builds. but the property advice group, the homeowners‘ alliance, has told the bbc that issues with new homes aren‘t limited to just one developer. here‘s our consumer affairs correspondent, colletta smith. this was supposed to bejustin‘s dream home. door bell rings. he‘d saved up for a new build... good morning. we‘ve got zero insulation. ..thinking he wouldn‘t need to do any work to it. we‘ve moved out twice. every ceiling in the entire property has been removed. justin bought his house from one of the biggest developers, taylor wimpey, under the help to buy scheme. it‘s well below standard, and trying to negotiate

with the builders has been an endless trauma from day one. insulation issues, damp issues, cold—bridging issues. a couple of doors up, lynn lives in an identical home with her partner and three daughters. this is not isolated to this particular property or this estate. it's got to be national. the developer taylor wimpey say they sincerely apologise to justin and lynn and have taken action to put things right. more generally, they say... at this solicitors, timothy takes new calls nearly every day from people battling against a host of different developers right across the country. he thinks the problems with new builds are down to lack of skills in the workforce. people are making mistakes, potentially because they don't realise the significance of what they're doing

due to a lack of training, a lack of experience and a lack of supervision overall. developers are under pressure to build lots of homes, and quickly. on top of that, every building company i‘ve spoken to in recent years has told me that it‘s a nightmare trying to get hold of enough staff with the right level of skill. what new—build homeowners are now living with is the consequences of that. taylor wimpey say, last year, they increased the number of workers they hire directly by nearly 30%. the government say they‘re trying to tackle the issue by creating a new homes ombudsman and spending more on new construction training hubs. but there are now calls for a new law to let owners hang on to some of their final payment for a couple of years. coletta smith, bbc news, in norwich. earlier, i spoke to paul higgins, the chief and

the homeowners alliance. she said it is not down to one developer, it is a problem across the industry. we think there is a real lack of consumer protection when you are buying a new home, you can‘t return it, there is very little time you can keep your money back. so we would like to see old developers thinking about putting in place this retention. i‘ve never bought a new home, so i don‘t know this — there must be some kind of warranty, isn‘t there? when you buy a new home? there is a warranty, but for the first two years it is the developer that‘s got to put it right. but to be honest, the reality can be that as soon as you hand over all your money, and the keys, it‘s very hard to get them back on site. there is a warranty that‘s for between 2—10 years, but that‘s for major structural issues, and sometimes it‘s very hard to engage with them. so you know, people are not being protected enough. in defence of the developers, could it not be a case that we‘re seeing an increase in complaints, because we‘re seeing an increase in development. there is a government drive to get more new homes built across the country. so there‘s likely to be an increase in complaints. but the industries own data

is showing that actually in the last year, double the amount of people were not recommending their own builder, that‘s their own data. so we see that nine out of ten people really support new home snagging retention, and that‘s not the case, i think the difficulty is becoming worse and worse. is at the people they are employed to build these homes, or is of the designs then? i think it‘s the system. i think there isn‘t enough, not enough consumer protection in place. so you get, you see the lovely show home, what you get, what you think you‘re going to get is not what the reality is. there isn‘t anything in place to get people to come back to get, to fix the snags or major defects, so people feel they get... so they go to the press and go public. why are we seeing these defects though, sorry, you didn‘t quite answer my question there, is it onto the workmen and women that they are employing to build these houses? is it down to the design, the materials they are using, the cutting corners, what is it? it‘s all of the above. we know that they are cutting

corners with things like weak mortar, which has been discussed previously, there‘s also that we don‘t think there‘s much control over. so you can return the car, you‘ve got manuals when you get a car, and you don‘t get that when you‘re buying a new home. there‘s a real lack of consumer protection, but it‘s all of the above. so we think that there needs to be a whole overhaul of the buying new build homes, whether it comes to better complaints, handling with the new homes ombudsman, allowing people to keep a percentage of the purchase price, so the whole area needs to be looked at. paula, just briefly, i need to ask you about snagging retention, something you‘re asking for, can you expand what that is? yeah, so what it is, it happens very much in the commercial sector, or if you are for instance, getting an extension on your home. so you keep that percentage of the purchase price, we suggest to an half percent for perhaps six months or longer, so it means it gives the developers incentives to come back and fix things, and if they don‘t,

at least you got pocket money set aside that you can do it yourself. the headlines on bbc news. the defence secretary expresses horror at an alleged sexual assault of a 17—year—old female recruit by six male soldiers and orders an investigation. the chancellor insists the government has no red lines in talks over brexit. the developer persimmon has announced an independent review into its housing quality, after increasing concerns about the standard of its new builds. let‘s catch up with the sport, great weekend for manchester city and others. and anyone who has put their money on the winner at the grand national. more on manchester city in a minute. we have to start with the grand national because tiger roll

has become the first horse since red rum 45 years ago to win the race two yea rs rum 45 years ago to win the race two years ina rum 45 years ago to win the race two years in a row, the worst possible result for the bookies, but for punters are piling in to make tiger roll a well backed favourite. and since then they have waited for a new icon to do the same as red rum did. in 2019, the path was late for tiger roll, last year ‘s winner and the biggest favourite for the national since red rum himself in the 70s. this is the race with 30 fences. just like last year tiger roll was the smallest horse in the field. he has won the hearts of this sport with the size of his resolve. here comes tiger roll. the number three in the room, and a clustered race was opening up, the kind of gaps davy russell knows how to steer

through, the jockey turns a0 injune and just like last year he had a clear run to the line. by the home straight it was becoming inevitable and in the end of this pint —sized champion finished clear by almost three lengths. for the trainer gordon elliott this was visibly overwhelming. it may be also put the bookmakers. it is estimated this win could cost them £150 million. this was the back champion that aintree waited half a century four. the grand national that will be remembered for the roar of the tiger. can't say there would have been much sympathy for the bookmakers today. city made the perfect start when gabrieljesus gave them the lead afterjust four minutes. city made the perfect start. gabriel jesus giving them the lead after just four minutes. they were fortu nate just four minutes. they were fortunate not to go down to ten men.

there was a look at this possible headbutt from kyle walker on var. shane duffy had a header cleared off the line for brighton. city will face either watford or wolves at wembley next month. sean dyche‘s burnley overcame an early own goal from ashley barnes to fight back — barnes himself atoning for his earlier mistake with a second—half goal. elsewhere, there were wins away from home for both crystal palace and leicester at newcastle and huddersfield respectively. celtic will have ts.» —~ 7 v w 7 v f— — scottish premiership after being held to a 0—0 door by livingston. meanwhile, the edinburgh derby was marred by smoke flares which delayed kickoff and the restart following two goals. hibs came from behind to beat hearts 2—1 and leapfrog their rivals into fifth place.

two alleged incidents of racist abuse are being investigated following matches then championship today. —— in the championship. brentford have confirmed a season ticket—holder was arrested after derby manager frank lampard said midfielder duane holmes was abused in the dugout during their 3—3 draw. wigan say they are "angered" by an abusive message sent to defender nathan byrne on twitter after their 2—2 draw with bristol city. the club has reported it to police. leicester tigers fears of relegation have worsened after a heavy 52—20 defeat at the hands of exeter chiefs. the chiefs put on a scintillating attacking display, scoring seven tries at welford road. the premiership leaders also had seven different try scorers. the tigers head to bottom side newcastle on friday with just a five—point cushion and only four games to play. saracens kept up the pressure on leaders exeter with a bonus point comeback win against bottom side newcastle falcons. bath boosted their hopes of a spot in the premiership play—offs with a 26—19 derby

win against bristol. wasps beat worcester 28—16. that‘s all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that‘s bbc.co.uk/sport i will see you a bit later on. thank you, james. you always leave us wanting more! hundreds of people have been protesting in central london against brunei‘s strict new laws on homosexuality. protestors gathered outside the dorchester hotel, which is owned by the brunei investment agency. brunei has increased the punishment for sex between gay men to stoning to death, while lesbian sex will be punished by a0 lashes or ten years in jail. jon ironmonger reports. many protests start at the dorchester, but this time it‘s the target. this time, there‘s a barrier. around 200 demonstrators surrounded the 5—star hotel this afternoon, calling for a global boycott of the business. one of a number of uk interests owned by

the sultan of brunei. the laws that he‘s introduced are comparable to the extreme sharia laws that were imposed by isis, when it ruled in its so—called caliphate in the syria and iran. we are hoping to hit the sultan financially in the pockets. he has not listened to reason or compassion, so therefore when money talks, we want to make sure that money talks to him. earlier this week, the sultan of brunei introduced further ultra conservative islamic laws that will make gay sex and adultery punishable by stoning to death. it led to a public outcry, with eltonjohn tweeting that he will refuse to stay at the dorchester in the future. this protest began outside of barriers here at the dorchester hotel, but the crowd have since pushed through those barriers, and they have gathered outside the doors, which have been locked by the management.

what we want? human rights! when do we want it? now! they tried to distance themselves from the issue saying it shouldn‘t be played out in their hotels. the boycott has already won backing from some senior politicians. actions have to have consequences, and i think that not only should there be a demonstration and boycotts on the premises, we should also be considering taking the action of expelling brunei from the commonwealth, if they are not prepared to abide by the basic rules, the basic values of the commonwealth. meanwhile, more british institutions are wrestling with their connections to the country. today oxford university joined aberdeen and king‘s college london by saying it would reconsider a decision to award the sultan honourary degree in 1993. the tiny nation of brunei has big ties with britain, and unpicking them off will not be easy. jon ironmonger, bbc news.

she says it was for her daughter and knows that it is illegal to bring it into the country. emma appleby paid a pharmacy in the hague £a000 for a three month supply of the medicine for her daughter, tegan, who has a rare form of epilepsy that leads to hundreds of seizures every day. mrs appleby purchased a three month supply of medicinal cannabis at a pharmacy in the hague yesterday for her daughter, tegan, it cost £a000, money raised through crowdfunding. as she prepared to board her plane back to the uk she knew that the home office had threatened to confiscate it. nervous, but ready, see what happens, if they take it i will fight to get it back. mrs appleby said she was forced to make this trip because doctors in the uk was legally able to prescribe medicinal cannabis are generally refusing to do so because of a lack

of evidence. general position is that we practice evidence—based medicine so we are interested as to whether these cannabis mate based medicines may be helpful, so are advice would be until we get that evidence, we wouldn‘t prescribe them. on arrival at southend mrs appleby and her father were them. on arrival at southend mrs appleby and herfather were met by borderforce appleby and herfather were met by border force officers who interviewed them and confiscated the drugs. absolutely gutted. theyjust took everything. they asked me border control how long i was away for because someone had notified them and then they asked if i had anything to declare, and there was loads of them waiting so i knew that ifi loads of them waiting so i knew that if i said no i was going to get myself indeed, so ijust said yes. the government says new guidance for doctors will be available in the autumn, and it is encouraging further clinical research.

gkn aerospace has announced it will close its kings norton factory in 2021 , which means around 170 people will lose theirjobs. gkn was bought by the melrose group in a hostile takeover last year. a statement from gkn says, it has "regrettably" concluded its site in kings norton did not have a sustainable future — but the unite union said, the closure decision "flew in the face" of assurances given at the time of the takeover. our business correspondent, rob young, has been following the story. the history is that, a year ago, melrose industry, which specialises in buying poor performing companies and turning them around bought gkn, an old british engineering company, for £8 billion against huge opposition. to try to make this deal go ahead, melrose entered into a series of undertakings with the government to reassure mps and unions and one of those promises made was it would not sell the aerospace part of gkn for five years.

let‘s take a look at some of the other main stories on bbc news this hour. thousands of opposition supporters have gathered in the capital, caracas, to protest against continued electricity blackouts, and water shortages. the march was called by the opposition leader, juan guaido, who‘s been urging his supporters to maintain pressure on his rival, president nicolas maduro. mr maduro has called for a rival pro—government show of support in caracas. fighting has intensified around the libyan capital, tripoli. on thursday the internationally recognised government based on offensive loyal _by government based on offensive loyal —— by forces loyal to a military commander. now un troops are on high alert. production will be cut from 52 down to a2 planes a month while the company, boeing, works on changes to

its max variant. preliminary findings suggest that is anti—stall system may have been at fault in two recent air accidents. millions of workers will see a bigger chunk of their wages automatically diverted into a pension — starting with their next pay packet. from today, the minumum contribution rate goes up from 3 percent of earnings — to 5 percent. employers and the government will also pay more. simon gompertz has the details. this is a tale of two hairdressers. one, chloe, full—time and ready to have 5% clipped off her wage for her work pension after today‘s increase. yoo know, it goes straight'oot‘l of my wages before i even see it, cos you won‘t be working. and you‘ll need to top up for your old age and enjoy doing things as you get older. and this is taneika, who‘s been blown out of the pension scheme after having a baby and coming back part—time. pensions are tricky

for new parents to afford. i think once you've had a baby you are put how it is. you don't really have much say. it's like you've had a baby, you don't want to do this, you want a lower wage, and that's it. and then there‘s a danger you get a lower pension. yes. it‘s notjust the cost. employers aren‘t obliged to sign up people like taneika, who earn less than £10,000 a year. to be fair, it‘s a challenge to the boss as well. the business has to contribute a top up, which has gone up to 3% of pay. for the majority of small businesses it is an onerous burden that‘s just going to get worse and worse and worse. and i think something like 70% of people work for a small business in this country, so it‘ll have an impact on the employment of whether people will actually take people on. right now the challenge for savers like chloe is how to afford today‘s higher pension payments. the government says it‘s letting us earn more before income tax kicks in and raising minimum wages

and that should help. simon gompertz, bbc news. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with sarah keith lucas. good evening. saturday saw an east—west split to our weather. we had a lot of cloud across north and eastern parts of the uk. in the west and south—west, there was a little bit of sunshine. this was the picture in abersoch. you can see a bit of blue sky around there earlier on. as we head through the remainder of this evening and overnight, there is a lot of cloud on the map in general. still a few clear spells for northern ireland and wales. one or two showers overnight pushing across parts of the south—west of england. elsewhere, we have got a lot of cloud. for parts of eastern england and scotland, some drizzly outbreaks of rain. under that blanket of cloud, it‘s going to be a frost—free start to sunday morning. through the day, a bit of a murky morning for many of us. there will be some sunny spells developing for northern ireland, wales, south—west england too. further east across england, you are likely to see a few sharp showers rattling in. a small chance of the odd rumble of thunder. that could affect the boat races in london during sunday afternoon. top temperatures, only around 8 in aberdeen, 17 in london.

that‘s it for now. bye— bye.