our top stories: commemorations in northern france have marked 75 years sent d—day. hundreds of veterans attended along with leaders. at least 100 people shot dead in pro—democracy protests. amnesty international has described the crackdown as a bloodbath. the opposition labor party has fought offa opposition labor party has fought off a strong challenge from brexit party to retain the seat of peterborough in a by—election. it was called after the previous mp was forced out. labour won by 700 votes, the brexit party in second place.

you are up—to—date. time out for thursday in parliament. hello there and welcome to thursday in parliament, where mps warn tory leadership contenders against ending this session of parliament to force through a no—deal brexit. it must surely be on a venezuelan scale of outrage if we were to prorogue parliament simply so as to force through a no—deal brexit. nearly two years on from the grenfell tower fire mps question if the government's doing enough to stop another tragedy. grenfell was a tragedy. it was scandalous, it was avoidable. it was symptomatic of a wider problem with the uk government's attitude to social housing and to the people and communities who live there. also on this programme —

calls for international action on climate change. and, is itjust too hard for women to get a seat in the house of lords? to add to the unfairness, eldest daughters are even specifically forbidden to change sex for the purposes of succession. but first, theresa may joined other world leaders to give her thanks to those who fought and died on d—day. hundreds of veterans gathered in normandy for a series of events marking the 75th anniversary of the start of the campaign to free europe from nazi rule. theresa may along with the french president emmanuel macron attended an inauguration ceremony for a memorial to honour the british troops who died. by the end of d—day, more than 4,400 allied troops had been killed and thousands more had been wounded or were missing. calling d—day "one of the greatest battles for freedom this "world has ever known", theresa may praised the "raw "courage" needed "to leap from landing craft and into the surf "despite the fury of battle". well, this was one of the last big events of theresa may's premiership. she's due to stand down as conservative leader onjune

the 7th and will stay on as pm until her replacement is chosen in july. back in the commons, labour wanted to make sure mps weren't going to be sent on their summer break early before the new prime minister had the chance to appear in front of them and possibly face a vote of confidence. i want to ask the leader of the house if he can confirm the dates for the summer and the conference recess? the reason why ask is not because i don't want to be here. we do want to be here. i've heard rumours that the house might rise on the 19th ofjuly. but i think there is a new timetable for the election of the conservative leader. and we need to make sure that the house is not in recess when the new leader and, effectively the new prime minister,

takes up his or her new post. so, does he agree with me that it's vital that this house will have an immediate opportunity to test whether the new leader of the conservative party commands the confidence of the house? the new leader of the house wasn't confirming when parliament would break for the summer. these are matters that are being considered in the normal manner at the moment and we will come forward, or i will come forward to this despatch box, to announce those dates in due course she raised an interesting question about a vote of no—confidence and whether such a vote would be permissible, which i think it's really something that originates from her side of the house, the desire to put forward such a motion. so i would suggest that she perhaps speak to the leader of her own party, aware as i am that there is a lack of communication between the back benches and the front benches. i didn't realise there was a lack of communication between the front benches and the leader of her own side. but she would do well to speak to him in that respect. parliament matters, and it seems to be entirely proper that

a new prime minister should face this house before any recess. and if so, and the government falls on a vote of confidence on our newly elected conservative prime minister, i would expect the conservative prime minister to take to the country and return with a substantial majority. so, we shouldn't be afraid of parliament, sir. we should encourage it. so would the leader confirmed that the new prime minister will be in place to face parliament before the recess? well, mr speaker, the answer to that question is an interplay between when the contest within the conservative party for the new metre is due to conclude and of course when the recess itself is announced for due and as i don't think we certainly don't know the answer to the latter and i'm not sure that we even know the answer to the former. i think the answer unfortunately is, "no, not necessarily." 0ther mps picked up on comments by one of the leadership candidates,

dominic raab, who suggested he would be prepared to shut down parliament to ensure the uk leaves the eu on the 31st of october. the first thing this new leader of the house has to say this morning is that this subversion of democracy will never be considered or entertained and that he has no intention of suspending democracy in this country to facilitate that no—deal brexit. every parliamentary session which usually lasts around a year ends when it's "prorogued" by the queen. the process essentially closes parliament and ends the progress of legislation until a new session begins. if a new prime minister was concerned about mps blocking brexit, they could advise the queen to prorogue parliament, in effect sending mps and peers away so they couldn't hold up the process. but the move would be unprecedented in modern times. mel stride said prorogation was ultimately in the gift of the queen. what i would say is that i do

think her majesty should be kept out of the politics of our parliament and i'm sure that will be a matter that will be at the forefront of those who toy with those decisions in the future. i think his answers on prorogation and whether a new prime minister will address the house swiftly after being elected have been wholly inadequate so far. it must surely be on a venezuelan scale of outrage if we were to prorogue parliament simply so as to force through a no—deal brexit against the will of parliament. even winston churchill during the midst of war when the british expeditionary force was in danger of complete collapse in france and we were trying to get people out of dunkirk, when he was made prime minister in may 1940, addressed the house of commons just three days later. even the marquis of salisbury in 1885 new had to come to parliament the next day. so, surely to god, the new leader of the house should be able to say to us today, "yes, a new prime minister "will address the house of commons

within a week of being appointed." he will know that these matters and others are all going to be decisions that the future prime minister will take in due course and it is not for me to spectate as to what those decisions might be... we all know because i've set up myself several times and i think the honourable gentleman believes this, is that parliament will not be evacuated from the centre stage of the decision—making process on this important matter. that's simply not going to happen. it'sjust so blindingly obvious that it almost doesn't need to be stated. but, apparently, it does therefore i have done. the speaker, john bercow, making his views perfectly clear. now, unions say ford's engine plant in bridgend will close in september 2020, with the loss of 1,700 jobs. the company is understood to be blaming "under utilisation" and cost disadvantage compared with other sites. the plant employs workers from across south wales and many

more in companies supplying goods and services. ahead of the official announcement mps raised the closure with the international trade minister with a labour member linking it to brexit and future trade deals with the us. my father david thomas morgan—davis was head of economic development of the welsh office and got ford to move to bridgend in the ‘70s and yet this week, we find that they are announcing their closure at a time that donald trump is saying, "we're going to have a great trade deal". doesn't he agree that those people working in ford who voted in good faith to leave the eu didn't vote to leave theirjobs? and is there a final say on the final deal so they now can think again and stay in the eu instead of losing theirjobs and being decimated by the americans? the automotive industry is in massive global flux, and trying to make every decision to brexit is to lead people astray. just as the honourable gentleman and so many of his colleagues do as they come up with these false arguments for a second referendum. the people want the thing

they decided to be done. elsewhere in the session other labour mps were still concerned about the prospect of commercial access to the nhs being part of any future trade deal with the united states. will he give a guarantee that any post—brexit deal done with the us will maintain the principles of the nhs free on the point of use? i understand his passionate defence of the nhs. i trained in the nhs as a doctor, i worked in the nhs as a doctor. under this government, the nhs will not be for sale. i would hope that's something we can agree across the house. for the benefit of my constituency in colby and east northamptonshire, will he just take the opportunity to knock on the head this nonsense that the nhs is up for sale at any future free—trade agreement? i'm almost tempted, mr speaker, to say i refer my honourable friend to the answer i gave some moments ago. and let me be very clear

for the benefits exclusively of his constituents that the nhs is not and will not be for sale. dr rupa huq. thank you, mr speaker. i've heard the secretary of state's passion as a medic. can he just clarify that he can commit now to exclude the nhs from any future trade deals if the uk leaves the eu, and that no foreign power no matter how big, will get their hands no matter how small, on our nhs no matter who wins their leadership race? i do refer the honourable lady to the answer i gave some moments ago! laughter. the new international development secretary and conservative leadership contender rory stewart was at the despatch box for his first session of question time since being appointed to thejob. he was asked what his department was doing to tackle climate change byjo swinson, who's standing for the leadership of the liberal democrats. there should be no distinction at all between the work we do on international development and the work that we do

on climate and the emergency. we face a climate cataclysm. if we get this wrong, 100 million more people will be in poverty. i would therefore like as the secretary of state for international development to double the amount that our department spends within our budget on climate and the environment, and i would like to double the effort that the department puts into that issue. i welcome the minister to his new cabinet role and the despatch box. and i warmly welcome his clear and genuine commitment to tackling the climate emergency. does he accept that there is a contradiction between the excellent work that his department does helping to mitigate and adapt to the climate emergency in developing countries and the way in which through uk export finance we continue to subsidise fossil fuels to the tunes of billions of pounds? and will he use his leadership in government in whatever form to make sure that he pushes to stop those fossil fuel subsidies?

this is of course a very, very serious challenge. and this is fundamentally an issue for the department for international trade. but the right honourable member is absolutely right that it is extremely important when we think about an environment and climate strategy for the government that we are fullyjoined up. a conservative and leading brexiteer turned to another aspect of international co operation. can he set out for the house why the customs union is the wrong policy choice when it comes to lifting people out of poverity in the developing world with free—trade? i strongly disagree. i think it's incredible import that we have zero—tariff, zero—quota access to european markets in order to defend the future of the british economy. we're talking about climate that's central to this department. if europe needs 300 million electric cars over the next few decades, i would like those cars to be

manufactured in united kingdom. we have huge potential in battery technology. we can make the planet a better place and we can create greatjobs for british businesses and the way to do that is to have the access to those markets. rory stewart. you're watching thursday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. and don't forget — you can get our round—up of the week in parliament on bbc two at 8am on a monday morning. now, mps have condemned the government for not doing more to support the survivors of the grenfell tower fire and prevent a similar tragedy happening in the future. it's nearly two years since the blaze at the 24—storey block in west london which left 72 people dead. more than 150 homes were destroyed. flammable cladding installed during renovation work is thought to have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. the debate in the commons was led by the local mp, who described some of the pressures facing survivors. what i see, madam deputy speaker,

is people who have been utterly failed by the system subsequently being punished for it. is it right to off—roll a child from school because they can't cope with the pressure of trauma and school work and send them to a pupil referral unit or alternative provision? this provision, located in a council—owned building, is then closed because it's in such a poor state of repair, it's judged to be dangerous. according to parents who confide in me, these children have been left to roam the streets. who is responsible for safeguarding these fragile children? is it another case of accountability pass—the—parcel? many mps focused on flammable building cladding. people should not fear the fact that it will happen again. they should not live under the shadow of safety concerns in their own blocks. and yet, two years on, that is exactly where we are. we know today that there are 60,000 people living in blocks which have potentially dangerous cladding on them.

in ipswich, in my constituency, we have a situation where a developer completely refurbished a tower block with flammable cladding without ever getting the building regulation signed off, because they did not have to do so through the local council. we shouldn't have to keep coming back, begging ministers to address this appalling failure. the ministers should be using their own initiative. if the risk of further fatalities and death is not scary enough for them, then what is? i mean, how can ministers live with themselves if this fatality is repeated in the future? 0ne conservative thought lessons had been learned. july last year, a tower block in my area caught fire. a flat caught fire. fortunately, i think there were many, many firemen, and i pay tribute to sutton fire service, who i visited recently, and the neighbouring fire services because of the fear, because of the worry following grenfell.

they really were on top of it, and they controlled the fire very, very quickly. and so lessons already have been learned, but there's plenty, plenty more. grenfell was a tragedy. it was scandalous. it was avoidable. it was symptomatic of a wider problem with this uk government's attitudes to social rented housing and to the people in communities who live there. but this is not irredeemable. this is a government that has been too slow to grasp the depth and the breadth of the problems they need to fix, and then too slow to act. mr speaker, a few weeks ago after that terrible fire in june 2017, a leading housing chief executive said to me, "grenfell changes everything. " it should have done, but it hasn't. nothing can undo the pain and devastation caused by the fire at grenfell tower. we remain determined to do right by the victims and the survivors of the tragedy and to provide a legacy of real change for them —

to deliver fundamental reform, to end the stigma attached to social housing and to honour the memories of those who lost their lives. i'd like to thank everybody who's participated in the debate and share their determination, across the house, to ensure that nothing like grenfell can ever happen again. the housing minister. england's chief medical officer has said a tax on unhealthy food could be one way to help people to improve their diet. professor dame sally davies has been asked to urgently review what more can be done to meet the government's target of halving childhood obesity by 2030. other ideas could include plain packaging for some products like crisps. appearing before the science and technology committee, she said she was concerned that ministers would fail to hit their target without further action — and would publish her proposals before leaving the job in september. i think it behoves government

to look at that and think about the fiscal measures going forwards to help people be healthy. i didn't start here nine years ago, but i have come to the conclusion we have an unhealthy structured environment. it's really difficult to be healthy. i like food, and so a nice canape goes past and i say, "oh, that looks nice!" and i've eaten it and then i... "oh, no! this was the day i wasn't going to overeat!" and so that's a real example of automaticity. i'm not saying stop canapes — i like them, good ones — but we have to restructure our environment so that it's healthy, and i started to think about health. we're used to the biological determinants. those are what we're born with. but then medical interventions. we talk a lot about social determinants, and i now start talking about the third circle of the venn diagram, commercial determinants. that can be good or bad, and we have to work with those to structure our environments so that it's easy for people

to be healthy, because it isn'tjust education. i know i shouldn't eat more than one canape. there's also a suggestion about plain packaging on sweet things... laughter well... treat it like tobacco! if... that would be an approach. do we really need all the crisp packets? i'm not saying i'm going to recommend this, but we will end up having to think about this, or we will look back at the young generation and regret we didn't take action. but, i mean, you know, do crisp packets all have to look different or could they be standardised? could cereals be standardised? we can learn... but is one crisp packet worse... 0ne packet of crisps worse than another? some have more salt than others, but you can label them. i'm not saying that's what we should do. no. what i said was, i'd been commissioned to produce a report, and i realised that,

in order to deliver what we need to, we owe our children, we will have to be bold. i used to get "wait till friday". that's when you get sweets. now they're having... children are eating sweets at their break time, at lunchtime, after they get home, and then the packet sizes are getting bigger. so, you would have a bar of chocolate. now they're having these bigger bars, because they're much cheaper. so do you think it is about the attitude of, actually, that goodie? rather than messing about with the recipe, just have less of it? we all need to eat less. i can remember as a child, sunday roast, there was one or two small pieces of meat. now you see the large portions people have. and actually, it's notjust about obesity, is it? it's about sustainability and climate change. these things all come together, and we are going to have to find a way that makes our environment sustainable, healthy and easy for people. and, yes, we do seem to have lost the concept of "treats". and i think it's very interesting, the advertising.

a lot of it's aimed at children or women in particular. "you deserve this". when did i deserve sweets? last year, the government imposed a sugar tax on soft drinks, but one mp suggested that — welcome as it was — it didn't go anywhere near far enough. you only need to go to a supermarket and see the rubbish that people are putting on the belts to know that the drinks is a tiny, tiny little part of the problem. we have an unhealthy environment. but dame sally said that chief medical officers had some influence, but little power. it is profit, and commercial determinants, that shape our lives so very much, and i think that we have to recognise that and then start to work with it. but it is sad that it always takes us so long to respond to the good stance there is. over in the house of lords, there have been calls to change

the rules to allow more women to become members. 92 seats in the upper house are reserved for hereditary peers. but, as almost all titles are passed through the male line, only one of the current 92 is a woman. an independent peer thought it was time for change. succession to the crown has been changed to allow women to succeed equally. we even have women bishops. to add to the unfairness, eldest daughters are even specifically forbidden to change sex for the purposes of succession, under the 2004 gender recognition act. i understand the noble lady's wish to remove the barrier to women entering your lordship's house via the hereditary byelection principle by allowing the title to pass to the eldest child. i believe there are better ways to reduce the current imbalance. the noble lady's solution involves, first, getting primary legislation through this house on the right of succession, and the noble lord

will tell the noble ladyjust how difficult it is to get legislation through this house that tampers with the hereditary principle. secondly, it would then depend on a marked increase in the mortality of hereditary peers, something... laughter something which i know the noble lady does not want. and then thirdly, it would depend on the women then winning the byelections. i honestly think it is better to make progress and get more women into your lordship's house by continuing to drive up the percentage of life peerages than by going around the course that i've just enunciated. a labour peer suggested that instead of looking at the hereditary route, in future, two women should be appointed for every one man. on behalf of every other woman in this house, we want to be here on the basis of our own skills, our own experience, our own political and nonpolitical background. we do not want to be here because of our fathers, our grandfathers, our great—grandfathers and wonderful

people we've had before us. since 2012, the house of lords appointments commission — known as holac — has appointed seven women and five men to the upper house. the lib dem lady scott is a member of the commission. only 27.8% of the applicants to holac are female, so there's a real problem with women coming forward. would he agree that we all have a role to play in encouraging suitably qualified women to put their names forward, notjust to holac but to all public bodies? and could he remind the house of how the government is doing against its target of 50% female appointments to public bodies? well, lord young agreed there was a role for all peers in driving up the number of applications from women. as to the target for other public bodies, he promised to look it up and let her know. finally, let's go back to international development questions, where a labour frontbencher took up rory stewart's campaign to be leader

of the conservative party. hello, i'm now in woking. the mp has been going round the country, talking to voters and putting short videos of himself, advertising his whereabouts on the social media site twitter. dan carden said he was enjoying the novel approach to campaigning. he certainly stands out in a field of populists, potty mouths and parliamentary proroguers. and i know that if i don't get satisfactory answers today, i can find him on the high street or a botanical garden or at #rorywalks. the endorsement from the shadow secretary of state is probably the nail in the coffin of my campaign... laughter i know that i meant to be campaigning on being the person who can convince people who don't normally vote conservative to vote conservative, but this may be going a little far! rory stewart. and that's it from me for now, but dojoin me on friday for our round up of the week in parliament. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

hello. whilst rain has been plentiful across some parts of the uk, recently, others have seen very little. that's all about to change through friday, this deep area of low pressure pushing its way northwards out of iberia and france will bring some notable rainfall, across a large swathe of the uk, in particular, southern and eastern counties of england, areas which haven't had very much rain recently. and the rain stays with us as we go into saturday, pulling its way northwards. and all the while we'll see some quite windy conditions. a tricky rush hour through friday morning across southern counties of england and south wales as this rain works its way northwards. a fine start across scotland, northern ireland and northern england, some rain arriving into northern england, the east of northern ireland and southern scotland through the afternoon. and behind the rain, some thunderstorms developing. winds, as i mentioned, very much a feature of this forecast, becoming particularly gusty across southern counties

of england and for the channel coast. temperatures in the mid to high teens, it's going to feel cooler than these values suggest, given the strength of the wind and the rain. let's take a closer look at southern counties of england and wales and the channel islands through friday afternoon, because we've got thunderstorms to deal with and also some gusty winds, gusts quite widely, 45—50 miles an hour. so another tricky rush hour through friday evening. and this area of low pressure continues to work its way northwards through friday night and into saturday. notice the squeeze in the isobars, some strong winds through friday night and into saturday. and more heavy rain continuing to work its way northwards, so by the time we get through the early hours of saturday morning, it will be closer to the central belt and still working its way a little bit further westwards into northern ireland. still see some thunderstorms as well across parts of england and wales, but all of this is going to keep temperatures up into double figures, 10 or 11 celsius the overnight low. for saturday, it's a blustery day, more spells of heavy rain,

by this stage starting to get into the north midlands, north wales, northwards. and behind this we'll see some spells of sunshine across central, southern england and wales, but also further blustery showers. it's another windy day, these are average speeds, but the gusts will be even higher. and temperatures on saturday for most in the mid—teens, and again, given the strength of the wind and the rain, it's still going to be feeling on the cool side. so we go into sunday, our area of low pressure does start to pull away northwards, notice how the isobars start to open up so the winds will start to fall lighter as we go into sunday. there will still be some showers around, particularly the further north and west you are, but looking drier further south and east. bye— bye.

a very warm welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. my name's mike embley. our top stories: war veterans and world leaders honour the sacrifice of those who died in the d—day landings 75 years ago. they were soldiers of democracy. they were soldiers of democracy. they were soldiers of democracy. they were the men of d—day and to them we owe our freedom. it was the largest land, air and naval operation in history. less than a year later hitler was defeated and europe freed. sudan is suspended from the african union, after the killing of dozens of pro—democracy demonstrators by security forces. mexico gets tough on migrants — targeting suspected human traffickers in a bid