in the lords, a former head of the diplomatic service wanted a guarantee. this is bbc news, the headlines: president trump has abandoned his attempt to add a question on citizenship to the us census the supreme court had already could the noble lady, the minister, ruled against him. but he now says he'll now use give us an assurance that this government and i know there will be an executive order to find out how no difficulty in her doing many immigrants there so with this government, and as far as she is able, the next prime minister are in the country. and the next government, will remain committed to the political independence and impartiality of the diplomatic the lion air crash in indonesia: lawyers for the families of those service and the civil service. who died in the boeing 737 max say they have been cheated out of compensation. it's after the bbc discovers many and a former head of the home civil service asked families who lost loved ones about the timing of a replacement. were persuaded to sign agreements that prevent them from taking legal action against boeing. new orleans is bracing for tropical storm barry which is forecast to hit on friday. there is a convention that residents in some low—lying areas when there is a prospect of a change in government, have been asked to evacuate. governments do not make major the mayor says that the storm decisions and there is a good reason could bring 48 hours for that which is that the incoming of continuous rain. government should have full confidence in the person that is appointed, isn't it necessary that this convention should apply in this case? lord butler. the government line remains that

sir kim darrock‘s replacement you are up—to—date with the headlines, it is time for thursday will be appointed in due course. other news now, and a royal navy in parliament. ship, hms montrose, drove off iranian boats which were trying to impede a british oil tanker near the gulf, according to the ministry of defence. the british frigate is escorting the tanker british heritage. the government described the iranians‘ actions as "contrary to international law". iran had threatened to retaliate for the seizure of one of its own tankers but denied hello and welcome to any attempted seizure. thursday in parliament. in the lords, one peer had the diplomat departs, mps take stock. the resignation of sir kim darroch marks a dark moment for our democracy and for the standing of the united kingdom. a particular reason to pay tribute another report highlights mps‘ misbehaviour. to the british frigate. let me be clear, that there should noble lords will have seen be absolutely no place for bullying the frigate and action in the persian gulf at the moment and harassment in this place is the name of montrose and i have and we all bear a responsibility to uphold the proper standards. been fortunate enough to have contact with all the captains since it was launched. and 20 years after devolution it has done duty, chasing pirates how rock'n‘roll delayed political stardom. and i remember that day 20 years in the gulf of arabia, ago, i was going to be a candidate for the scottish parliament, it is only the finishing of an album protection in the china seas and now

that got in the way. all that to come and more. but first the continuing row over the resignation of the uk's in the gulf and i wonder, ambassador to the united states, sir kim darroch, after the leak of his comments about the trump administration. sir kim resigned on wednesday i understand that the present arrangements for quite a long spell after president trump called him in that situation and i wonder "a very stupid guy" and said the us if we currently have enough of these very effective vessels to carry out would no longer deal with him. the duties that ensure our security. summoned to the commons hms montrose's recent actions demonstrate, i think, to answer an urgent question, we have the right assets a foreign office minister paid in the right places and the priority tribute to sir kim's work. over a distinguished 42 year career, sir kim now i should stress is to reduce served his country with the utmost dedication and distinction. tensions in the region. he brought dispassionate insight and directness to his role. it is an outrage that a peer told another minister a selection of his very, that the prospect of a military confrontation with iran had potentially catastrophic consequences. on friday the 215t ofjune, very professional reports back we understand the united states was about ten minutes away from launching multiple military to london should have been leaked. strikes against iranian targets. the resignation of sir kim darroch marks a dark moment for our democracy and for the standing of the united kingdom. he is a hugely respected on the 24th ofjune, professional diplomat the foreign secretary warned

with an exemplary record of serving of an accidental war with iran both labour and conservative and the united states. governments and in writing his dispatches, he did nothing wrong. overnight we have seen he was doing hisjob. it is his job to tell the provocation of the attempted seizure of a british tanker it as he sees it. going through the straights. will my noble friend as us that pat mcfadden criticised the response every effort is being made despite all the confrontations and distractions to seek a peaceful, of both president trump diplomatic and political and the conservative leadership candidate boris johnson, who declined to support sir kim when asked during a tv leadership debate. solution to this crisis? my noble friend is absolutely correct in his analysis, the response of the right honourable this is a situation of uncertainty member for uxbridge was an appalling and fragility and profoundly abandonment of someone undesirable would be any action in the firing line. which precipitated unintended real leaders protect their people. consequences or heightened they do not throw them to the wolves instability and that let me reassure my honourable friend, because they can sniff we are in regular contact a prize for themselves. his actions bring a chilling with international partners and the united states and are priority remains fighting diplomatic solutions to de—escalate warning of what is to come the tensions in the region. if he becomes prime minister. sir alan duncan didn't directly this situation has escalated refer to borisjohnson but did at the noble lady has hinted welcome the response since the us pulled out of the iran nuclear deal and doesn't this

from labour mps. illustrate that we need their decency with all those unvarnished reports from our across the whole country ambassador in washington? here who have supported officials so what extra preparations when they are under attack are being made to protect major is something for which i, british interests in the region personally, am very grateful. and british citizens if this and when i spoke to sir kim situation escalates further? yesterday, so is he. and he asked me to pass on to the entire house his gratitude. we are actively engaged in the region both diplomatically and we do have uk interest in the region and as illustrated, we have capacity which is able to while the failure of the former foreign secretary to leap come to the aid of a british tanker. to the defence of sir kim shows i think that is to be applauded a lack of leadership and i think we should praise that is lamentable, is not the crew of the hms montrose the priority now to restore the shattered confidence of our diplomatic corps? and is not the best way to do that who were able to assist to identify the miserable perpetrator of this act and then to see them charged with a criminal offense? that situation. and i think we should assist in a very effective and satisfactory manner. we are anxious to ensure my honourable friend is absolutely as my honourable friend said, to do everything to de—escalate right about the leaking. tensions and that has served and the role of the united kingdom i really hope that we find who did government and we are unrelenting in our efforts to achieve that

this and that their name objective and we did that notjust with our own diplomatic endeavours and the consequences but also in conjunction of what they did really become with our global partners. very, very clear indeed. there are many guilty parties lady goldie. in this affair who should be you're watching thursday in parliament with me, david cornock. hanging their heads in shame. still to come, an mp channels her inner stormzy to deliver her verdict on that tory leadership election. firstly, whoever was responsible an inquiry into sexual intimidation for leaking the memos, then donald trump and his ridiculous tempertantrums, then the outgoing prime minister, and harassment at westminster has who has indulged donald trump so much and received nothing found that mps‘ staff face but disrespect in return. but for me, the biggest villain of all is the man about to become our next prime an "unacceptable risk" of abuse. the independent investigation heard minister. that some people who work for mps i do feel obliged to defend my have to cope with "very serious sexual assault" and having heavy objects thrown at them in bouts right honourable friend, of "uncontrollable rage". the prime minister. gemma white qc said there was a "significant problem" about the way some mps treated those i think in these very difficult times, the relationship who worked for them. mps are to change their complaints between the prime minister system to allow the investigation and the president has obviously seen of historical cases us disagreeing on some things, of bullying and harassment.

such as the iran nuclear deal, we on this side want to thank and so it is inevitable that the relationship has needed gemma white qc for the time a lot of work but i do not and effort she has put think my right honourable into her report and we will look seriously at the detail friend has been spineless. of the recommendations and work on a cross party basis to make parliament a modern workplace. and i would encourage indeed, i think she has been very skilful and has done her utmost all members to undertake the training valuing everyone. with a high degree of success in making sure that that it is a very good training session. relationship has been functioning in the best possible way. time and again the former foreign secretary has shown let me be clear that there should be he is unfit for office. absolutely no place for bullying and harassment in this place does he agree with me that he should and we all bear a responsibility never be allowed to hold to uphold the proper standards the role of prime minister? of dignity and respect in parliament and as you know, we have made significant progress over the last year that will help bring about meaningful culture change, but there remains more to be done and indeed, i thank the honourable gentlemen as i have announced today, for bowling me such easy balls. we are bringing forward a motion that will implement the important does the minister understand recommendation in dame laura cox's the very deep concern that the man report that historic cases should be who is about to be our in scope as part of the independent prime minister repeatedly complaints and grievance scheme. refused to back sir kim our parliament must be a safe, and the civil service, bullying and harassment—free place not only for what that means and i am determined to play my part for this case and for our diplomatic

service more generally, but what that means about us potentially having in delivering that. a prime minister who will be pushed about by the bully that is donald trump on all sorts of issues. mel stride. can the minister confirm, borisjohnson wasn't present and i understand it is a fast—moving in the chamber for women situation, can the minister confirm and equalities questions, any details on the inquiry, but the frontrunner in the race to become prime minister has it begun, will it begin soon again featured heavily in everyone‘s thoughts. and any further details on it. 00:07:28,972 --> 2147483051:40:29,200 does he also have confidence if this 2147483051:40:29,200 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 was a hacker, not a leak, the exchanges began with a labour attack on theresa may's record on race equality and a suggestion her successor may do no better. the prime minister cites the race disparity audit and the gender pay gap regulations as some of her proudest achievements. seemingly not realising that they are symbolic of her failures. the report highlighted the systematic institutional racism of our government's policies and we now have a real possibility

of a casual racist and misogynist entering into number 10. i'm afraid it's true. that incensed some on the government's side but the speaker said nothing disorderly had taken place. dawn butler tried again, inspired by a popular rapper. i hope that the minister will give assurances that women inequalities agenda will not go backwards under the new prime minister. and to adapt stromzy lyrics, "we have to be honest, "rule number two, don't make the promise, if you can't make "the deal, just be honest, equalities will never die, "it is like chuck norris, rather chuck this "government and chuck boris." in reply, the minister defended theresa may's legacy and returned fire, taking her inspiration from wednesday's panorama programme on anti—semitism and the labour party. but i would just gently point out to the opposition front bench and all members of the labour party that they really should, i think, have come to the house today with a bit of humility

following what we saw — shocking and quite frankly chilling — and i would just state that there are members of the labour party, a once great political party, that are standing up for the jewish community and long may they continue to do that. but the front bench really has to understand the graveness of what we saw. it is one thing to be incompetent and failing to grip a situation, it is quite another to be complicit in it. labour has insisted the claims made in the programme that senior figures tried to interfere in disciplinary processes were inaccurate. now anyone who's tried to get an nhs dental appointment in england knows it can be well, like a toothache! the government's been asked what it's doing to help people get seen. it claims access to an nhs dentist remains high but it appears that can depend on where you live. in portsmouth, there are 20,000

patients without a dentist due to the closure of three practises. in cornwall, 22,000 people are on the waiting list and having to wait an average of 529 days before they get a nhs dentist. so the noble lady is quite right, there are some serious problems to be addressed here about access to nhs dentists, so i would like to know exactly how those areas which are in desperate need will be tackled. secondly, i would like the noble lady to tell the house how many babies, children, and young people are involved in those numbers who, are at this moment in time, have no dentistry care whatsoever. as ijust mentioned in my previous answer, children's oral health is better than it has ever been. this is not to say there is any complacency or acceptance of where we are. we recognise that while access has significantly improved, there are still areas where nhs england needs to do more to meet

local needs and nhs england is responsible for helping patients who cannot find a local dentist. those in that situation should contact nhs england's customer contact centre for assistance. patient's dentist fees in england have been increasing at an unprecedented rate. these charges are discouraging patients from seeking treatment because the charges are making patients think twice before treatment. delayed treatment means they end up seeking free help for dental pain from their gps and the local a&e. piling huge pressures on other parts of the nhs. so, will the government take urgent action and start proper investment in nhs dentistry to end these extortionate dental increases? the noble lady raises an important point. patient charges are an important contribution to the overall costs of the nhs. and they were driven by some really difficult financial

circumstances in the nhs, but she's right. it is critical that no one is deterred from seeking care by the cost. and so as part of this year's up list, the government and the department has committed to looking further at evidence to whether the patients are being adversely impacted so that this can be taken into account in next year's and any future year's decisions. lady blackwood. "mixed messages" from mps over brexit have been blamed by the international trade secretary for the failure to get a trade deal with canada once the uk leaves the european union. the eu's deal with canada is known as the comprehensive economic and trade agreement or ceta. it has allowed for nearly all goods to be traded tariff, or duty—free since 2017. the government had hoped canada would " rollover" ceta in the event of a no—deal brexit to maintain "continuity". could the secretary of state please explain why some nations such

as canada are refusing to rollover their existing eu trade agreements whilst many other nations like switzerland have happily doing so? mr speaker, continuity of existing trade terms is in everybody's interest. i have to say that when this house of commons gives mixed signals about the possibility of a no deal, quite understandably, some of our trading partners wonder if it's actually worth investing and getting those continuity agreements. and what i would say to those trading partners is that no deal is not entirely within the control of the united kingdom. we may end up in a no deal agreement. it is in everybody's interest to have those safety nets in place. could he also tell us if he still thinks he was right to announce in the event of a no deal he would unilaterally drop over 80% of our tariffs to zero for a period? i ask because canada's said they will not now conclude a rollover agreement conceding preferences to the uk

because the secretary of state is offering market access for free. in june, he boasted to the select committee the rollover was 99% there. now it is 100% not there. was he right or is canada? as ever, it is nice to know that the honourable gentleman is consistently wrong. when he talks about our investment figures, investment into the united kingdom was the third highest of any country in the world. it was the highest in europe and at a time when global foreign direct investment fell, it continued to rise in the uk. and when it comes to the question of tariffs, one of the reasons that the government introduced the temporary tariff scheme is to stop a price shock in the uk, and one of the reasons is that those on lower incomes spend more on goods and services. and introducing the liberalisation will help protect those on lower incomes who are consumers. i would've thought even today's labour party might've supported that. ceta is just one of a0 trade deals involving 70 countries the uk is part of,

as an eu member. so farjust ii continuity deals have been done for after brexit. there has been a number put in place but they don't really apply to some of our biggest trading partners. does the secretary of state really think that by the end of october we will have a significant number of agreements in place with those countries with which we do the most trade? 10.7% of the trade that we do is done under eu trade agreements with third—party countries. in fact, the largest of those, switzerland, and some of the other largest ones, the eea, and south korea, have already been concluded or signed. and i expect further agreements to be reached. liam fox. 20 years ago this month westminster devolved power to the scottish parliament, national assembly for wales and northern ireland assembly. to mark the anniversary, mps debated like it was 1999, when one of them was just

a humble pop star. devolution has come of age and there will be no going back to the days before our parliament opened the doors to the world. and i remember that day 20 years ago. i was going to be a candidate for the scottish parliament, it was only the finishing of a runrig album that got in the way and delayed my parliamentary career by two years. i sometimes wonder what would've happened had i managed to secure a place in the scottish parliament. i'm hearing there is still time yet. as somebody approaching the autumn of their career, maybe we willjust think about that one. 20 years ago, i was part of the anti—welsh assembly no campaign and that was one of my first entrees into politics. and of course, the result was we lost, and as a result of losing, i felt as a democrat, it was very important that we respected the will of the people of wales. devolution has created so many opportunities and space for greater policy experimentation. it has created potential for different governments to learn from each other. the devolvement legislatures tend to be more representative

and balance, and that of course was the design and intention and the opportunity to actually put that into effect. some mps recalled the new policies introduced through devolution. we had land reform, feudal laws reform, smoking ban, free personal care for the elderly, proportional representation for local government, which was hugely important, world leading legislation and homelessness, more schools, teachers, teachers assistants, nurses, doctors, the abolition of tuition fees in scotland, all of these things that have been better for scottish life and really cemented the scottish parliament as the centre of scottish politics and the centre of scottish civic life. anybody that argues that westminster is the centre of scottish politics and the centre of scottish civic life has merely not moved on the last 20 years. and finally a novel way to make your voice heard in parliament. the intelligence agency, gchq, is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

the mp for cheltenham, where gchq is based, led the congratulations. it is therefore perhaps fitting that i should conclude with a message to gchq in the form of morse code. this will last the next 13 seconds, mr speaker. beeping. happy birthday to gchq. and that message in morse code bring us to the end of thursday in parliament. thank you for watching. i do hope you canjoin me on friday evening at 11 o'clock bbc parliament tv‘s geekiest channel, no less for a look at the week in parliament. bye for now. hello. friday won't be quite as warm or quite as humid, there'll be a mix of sunny spells

and just a few showers around, mainly across eastern england and eastern scotland, too. but many of us will avoid the showers. so we've got an area of low pressure which is pushing off towards the east. higher pressure waiting out in the west and that will dominate more as we head on through the weekend. so friday morning, then, a reasonably dry start to the day, dry in most places. more cloud for northern ireland and the north—west of scotland will bring a few spots of drizzly ran, a bit mistiness — particularly around the coasts, too. the bulk of england, wales, and southern scotland should be dry with some sunshine. in the sunnier spells, top temperatures will reach around 25 degrees down towards the south—east. just a small chance of, perhaps, catching a passing shower at wimbledon. it looks like sunday will be the drier day. friday night into the early hours of saturday, most leases die with some clear spells. not

quite as warm and humid overnight, friday into saturday as compared to some notes. temperatures down to around 11— 15 degrees. heading on into saturday, high pressure studs to build in from the west, on into sunday and that really takes charge. it will mean most of the cells will tend to this way through the weekend. still one or two on saturday. it's for eastern scotland and through the spine of england that we expect thing though so as to crop up doing the afternoon. either side of it should stay dry with some sunshine and more of a northerly breeze coming in, it won't be quite as long as it has been so temperatures about 17— 23 degrees. at that school in the north—eastern coast because the restarts to come in from the north sea. that could bring more cloud for eastern parts of england in particular. the warmest of the weather will be further west, 85 in cardiff, a bit cooler for the likes of newcastle. that dry, —— 25 in cardiff, dry

settled wind ends with more u nsettled settled wind ends with more unsettled weather next week. bye for 110w. welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: president trump abandons his bid to add a question on citizenship to the us census —

but insists he'll press on with an executive order. the lion air crash in indonesia — lawyers say the families of those who died in the boeing 737 max have been cheated out of compensation. the daily struggle for water. one of india's biggest cities continues to feel the effects of the worst drought in decades. and amal clooney tells the bbc that a global hostility towards journalists risks undermining democracy.