a former high courtjudge has said police officers investigating an alleged vip paedophile ring may themselves have broken the law. their inquiry was based on invented claims by carl beech, who was jailed last week. ex—judge richard henriques says officers should not have claimed he was a consistent witness. we'll be asking how damaging this intervention is to the metropolitan police. also this lunchtime: boris johnson visits wales to rally support for his farming plans post—brexit — but union leaders warn of civil unrest if there's no deal. they're going to be really worried about it, they may sort of decide to protest or whatever, that's their right but i think they're going to be more concerned if their livelihood is going to be there and if they

are going to be able to continue in business. progress has stalled — poorer pupils in england's schools are stuck 18 months behind their peers, says a new report people with alcohol problems in england are half as likely to get the right help compared to other areas of britain. and it'll be an empty stadium for bury‘s first match of the season, the game's been suspended due to financial concerns. and coming up on bbc news, britain's nicola adams has become wbo world flyweight champion for the first time after her opponent she was due to fight pulled out injured. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. a former high courtjudge, who led a review into the police

investigation of an alleged vip paedophile ring, says officers involved might themselves have broken the law. sir richard henriques said there were doubts about the main witness, carl beech, and his credibility, but that police failed to reveal this when applying for search warrants. among those whose homes were searched, were the former cabinet minister leon brittan, the former head of the armed forces lord bramall, and the ex—mp harvey proctor. beech was jailed last week for inventing the claims. angus crawford reports. carl beech, described in court last week as a manipulative, devious liar, whose false allegations launched operation midland. former high courtjudge launched operation midland. former high court judge sir launched operation midland. former high courtjudge sir richard henriques wrote a damning report about the investigation. and today he said the met may even have broken the law when applying for search warrants. officers told a district judge beech's story remained consistent, but to be —— but he had

previously given different accounts to another force. there previously given different accounts to anotherforce. there is no allegation any officer deliberately misled the court but that is little comfort for harvey proctor. it has been very difficult if, for me, my partner, my friends and obviously for others caught up in this mania. i was effectively ruined by what happened. i lost myjob. i lost my home. i have a civil action against the metropolitan police, which they are resisting. in 2014, beech's fantasies about a high—profile paedophile ring were taken at face value by police. i had puppies pinned to my chest whilst they did whatever they wanted to do. but his claims about xmp harvey proctor, lord brittan, former prime

minister sir edward heath and lord bramall, one side of the british army, were all lies. and after 18 months, and more than £2 million, the enquiry collapsed. the police watchdog cleared officers of any misconduct and the met said it acted in good faith. beech is now behind bars but his lies still haunt his victims and damage the credibility of those who investigated them. angus crawford, bbc news. our home affairs correspondent june kelly is here — how damaging is this for the met? well, operation midland, this investigation, has been seen as one of the most disastrous episodes in the recent history of scotland yard, but this trenchant criticism from a former high court judge but this trenchant criticism from a former high courtjudge takes the problem two scotland yard are facing toa problem two scotland yard are facing to a new level. sir richard

henriques was brought in by then met commissioner sir bernard hogan—howe to look at this investigation and see what went wrong. we have had a flavour of his report into it, that he found 43 phones. he would have spoken to the key people, seeing the key documents, although he does say in his article in the daily mail today that in fact he struggled to get some documents, he had difficulty. but he took the view that the officers, some of the key officers involved, should have been looked at for possible criminal behaviour. now that is an amazing criticism from somebody in his position. and of course what he is saying is they should have been investigated potentially over perverting the course ofjustice, lying in simple terms. that was what carl beech went down for last week. the police watchdog said it looked ata number of the police watchdog said it looked at a number of officers involved in the operation and decided they shouldn't face any misconduct hearings. but sir richard says, never mind misconduct, they should have been looking at potential criminal behaviour. he is very vocal

in what he thinks should happen now. the other thing that we are still awaiting is his full report. scotla nd awaiting is his full report. scotland yard said they would publish it at some stage. we thought we might get it last week when the beech trial ended. we are told it will be published sometime in the future. then sir richard will flesh out all his criticisms, of which we have only had a taste today. june, thank you. boris johnson is preparing to meet farmers in wales, in an attempt to build support for his plan for the industry after brexit. the prime minister is expected to say that agriculture can thrive with new trade deals. the farmers union of wales has warned of civil unrest in rural areas in the event of a no—deal brexit. cemlyn davies reports. brexit will change the uk farming landscape one way or another. and as the new prime minister continues to talk about the possibility of leaving the eu without a deal, welsh sheep farmers are bracing

themselves. one industry body hear it said the impact of leaving the eu without a deal would be off the richter scale, and a farming union warned of the possibility of civil u nrest warned of the possibility of civil unrest if that happens. allyn roberts farms sheep near oswestry on the border between england and wales. i think it is since mrjohnson has been saying what he has been saying at the weekend, that no deal is inevitable, that there has been more talk of unrest. but it doesn't mean to say it will happen. as an association we want to get around the table, get a deal in place. in the table, get a deal in place. in the event of a no—deal brexit, sheep exports to the eu will be subject to a tariff of at least 40%. and that would cripple the industry, according to farming unions. sheep farmers would be especially badly hit. we export 40% of lamb. 95% of that goes to the eu. you can imagine the impact losing access to that market would have. the new

prime minister says he still hopes to reach a deal with the eu but is prepared to leave without one on the 3ist prepared to leave without one on the 31st of october. and on a farm visit to wales this afternoon, boris johnson will seek to reassure the farming community about the opportunities the uk government thinks brexit will bring. when you look at the global growth in the next ten years, 90% of that will come from outside of the european union. we clearly would access a larger slice of that. also it doesn't mean we want to close our door or turn our backs on the market in europe. following his farm visit, borisjohnson will head to rural mid wales ahead of a crucial by—election on thursday. that will be an important early electoral test for the new prime minister. he will then head here to the welsh assembly for his first meeting with the first minister of wales, mark drakeford.

mr drake read, like a scottish counterpart, nicola sturgeon, has one of the consequences of a no—deal brexit and supports another referendum. in a moment we'll speak to our assistant political editor, norman smith, in westminster. but first, our wales correspondent, tomos morgan, is in cardiff. intense worry from welsh farmers. what do they want to hear from the prime minister? well, they want some clarity because arguably farmers in wales and across the uk face the biggest shake—up of all the sectors that will be impacted after brexit. one of the issues they have, the concerns they have,is issues they have, the concerns they have, is what will happen to the common agricultural policy, the eu policy that davies out of the subsidies to farmers. that is in place until 2020. after that it is not clear what will happen. welsh farmers alone receive around £300 million in subsidies from the eu each year. now agricultural and

former —— farming subsidies are devolved to the welsh government. farmers hope a scheme can be put in place, so long as farmers say they are using the money to benefit the environment as well. borisjohnson will be coming to waylay any fears farmers have today, by saying even better trade deals can be put in place post brexit. you will also be leading the leader of the welsh government who sits in the building behind me, labour's mark drakeford. he has already echoed the views and the concerns of the farming unions in wales, saying a no deal would be catastrophic for welsh farming, catastrophic for welsh farming, catastrophic for welsh farming, catastrophic for the what's economy, adding that the pm does not have a public mandate for a no deal. thank you. norman smith is in westminster. very mixed messages from the top of government about whether we are heading for a no—deal brexit or not? well, it's absolutely true. the government has been blowing hot and cold over whether there is going to

bea cold over whether there is going to be a deal or not. in the past 24 hours since he embarked on his grand tour of the union, borisjohnson seems to have dialled down the rhetoric a bit about no deal. this morning, for example, he had a telephone conversation with the irish taoiseach, leo varadker, the first since he became prime minister. he struck an emollient tone, guaranteeing there will not be a hard border in northern ireland, stressing too that his preference was for some sort of agreement and he hoped to enter the negotiations ina spirit he hoped to enter the negotiations in a spirit of friendship. and this afternoon, when he talks to welsh farmers, he is going to stress how he's going to throw himself into the negotiations. when he was in scotland yesterday, saying he would walk 1000 miles to get into some sort of deal, and there was every chance of securing an agreement. you just wonder during his grand tour of the union, he has been made aware of the union, he has been made aware of the real apprehension in scotland and in parts of wales and in

northern ireland, about the implications of no deal. nicola sturgeon warning about the impact on the scottish economy. welsh sheep farmers concerned about tariffs. people in northern ireland alarmed about the prospect of a hard border. and one of the reasons theresa may, in the end, decided she couldn't leave without an agreement was the fear that that might undermine the union. and i just fear that that might undermine the union. and ijust wonder if that argument is now beginning to eat away at borisjohnson, perhaps making him more cautious about no deal. norman, many thanks. norman smith in westminster. tony blair's former director of communications, alistair campbell, has said he no longer wants to be part of the labour party underjeremy corbyn. in an open letter, he said mr corbyn could be weeks away from an election, in which he was unlikely to win a majority — allowing borisjohnson to claim a mandate for the hardest form of brexit. mr campbell was expelled from labour after admitting he voted liberal democrat in the european elections.

attempts to close the gap in performance between poorer students and their classmates in secondary schools in england have stalled for the first time in eight years. the think—tank, the education policy institute, found that children who are eligible for free school meals are on average a year and half behind other pupils by the time they take gcses. frankie mccamley reports. tackling the gap in achievements between poorer pupils who are eligible for free school meals, and their peers, has always been a priority. in the last eight years, analysis showed progress in closing the gap was slowing down to a point where it's now at a standstill. researchers found between 2017 and 2018, the gap has actually widened slightly by 0.2 months to 18.1 months, meaning poorer pupils are now one and a half years behind their peers by gcse level. the report also warns that black caribbean pupils have experienced particularly poor progress.

in parts of northern england, like here in rotherham and also in blackpool, researchers found some disadvantaged pupils were falling two years behind their classmates by the age of 16. in secondary schools, they're more likely to be in deficit than primary schools, with around 30% of pupils in deficit. that's the age range where we're seeing the real problems with the gap stopping and potentially starting to widen in future. at the current rate, the study predicts it will take 500 years to close the gap. some are blaming the stalling in progress on financial pressures. if we could have more funding, we could spend more money supporting some of the outside activities, and provide not what we do in the classroom, but outside the classroom, summer courses where the children aren't paying. at the moment they have to pay because we can't afford to. but the government says the gap for both primary and secondary

schools has narrowed overall since 2011, with nearly £2.5 billion spent supporting disadvantaged pupils this year alone. frankie mccamley, bbc news. people with alcohol problems in england are less than half as likely to get the right help than elsewhere in britain, according to a new study. king's college london has found that scotland and wales have both invested in their alcohol services. but in england, over the past seven years, there's been a significant cut. michael buchanan is here. tell us more about the study and what it found? essentially what the researchers are saying is that there is a national epidemic of alcohol—related problems in the uk. there are 1.2 million hospital—based admissions because of alcohol problems each year. that is alcohol problems each year. that is a figure that has been rising by 17% in england over the past decade. one in ten of all hospital admissions are because people are dependent on

alcohol. as you said, while scotland and wales have invested in services in recent years, researchers say services in england have been cut by more than £100 million. the consequence of that is a big gap between the availability of support for people in the england and the rest of britain. that has increased markedly. that has meant, for insta nce markedly. that has meant, for instance in england, that community specialist support has been cut by more than a fifth, inpatient detox services cut in half. the researchers say these cuts don't make any sense. these services that are being cut have a strong evidence base of effectiveness and cost effectiveness. so for every £1 you spend on treatment, you save over £3 in nhs and social care costs. so really cutting these services is a false economy. so what have the services who have been criticised been saying? it's basically to do with public health budgets in england, they are the

responsibility of local councils in the body that represents councils say services have been cut and we are doing what we can, budgets have been cut by a billion since 2010, public health by 700 billion since 2015, we are being asked to deal with increasing and new patients often with complex care and they wa nt often with complex care and they want the government to pour money into the services in the upcoming spending review. nhs england which looks after the hospital's is going to invest in 50 alcohol care teams in hospital teams that will look after patients while they are within the nhs, the researchers say this is a good idea, they argue they could arguably be pushed to every hospital but they say there's no point in investing in what they describe as a rolls—royce service within hospitals if you are in the community basically facing a robin reliant with a flat tire, if there is nowhere for these people to go to to give them specialist support that they need once they leave hospital. michael, thank you.

the time is... 18 minutes past one. our top story this lunchtime. a former high courtjudge has said police officers investigating an alleged vip paedophile ring may themselves have broken the law and coming up ...the us rapper asap rocky, on trial in stockholm accused of assault. coming up on bbc news, andy murray says he could return to playing singles at the cincinnati masters next month, he will play alongside his jamie murray in the doubles at the city open in washington later. ethiopia has planted more than 350 million trees in just 12 hours in what officials there say is a new world record. it's the government's answer to deforestation and climate change in a country prone to drought — and is being led by the country's prime minister, who was seen planting many trees himself.

here in the uk, the government is encouraging a similar move to help tackle climate change — and wants one and a half billion new trees in the ground by 2050. our environment correspondent david gregory—kumar reports. in warwickshire, not far from stratford—upon—avon, a walk in a new wood. down by the side of the road we've got a cherry, lime, there is a bit of colour. and by the river, quite a lot of willow. when dave harding's teenage son asked him what he was doing to improve the environment, he decided to plant avon wood. hundreds of new trees planted on newly purchased land by the river avon and part funded by a government grant. it was important, it gave me the confidence to take this on. i'm a city boy, 32 acres for someone who's never planted more than a postage stamp was daunting but knowing i could get the grant to get me started, and to get a bit of professional help, certainly gave me the confidence to do it. but now, a bbc investigation has revealed big variations in who

gets tree planting money and it seems our towns and cities are missing out. rural areas were receiving the vast majority of them which will come as no surprise and urban areas were receiving very few, if any. just five council areas including stratford—upon—avon are responsible for planting more than a quarter of all the new trees england. joining stratford—upon—avon, northumberland, eden, carlisle and county durham, typical of the rural areas that benefited from the government's cash for trees scheme. meanwhile liverpool, bristol, croydon and leicester are amongst the urban areas which didn't get any cash or trees from the scheme at all. the problem seems to be the way the fund was set up didn't appeal to urban landowners. and campaigners argue urban trees are just as important as their countryside counterparts. one of the great things about tree cover in an urban area is that it provides a massive amount of shade and that shade actually gives people a benefit and a release from the heat.

but perhaps things might be changing because since we started this investigation, the government seems to have changed its position. so since we made our discovery, the government has announced another scheme specifically for urban tree—pla nting. they're going to release £10 million to plant out 130,000 trees specifically in big cities. and if it wants to hit the target of one and a half billion new trees by 2050, the government will need to plant trees anywhere it can. the us rapper asap rocky is on trial in stockholm, accused of assaulting a 19—year—old in the swedish capital last month. two friends who were with him at the time are also facing charges. his case was taken up by donald trump, who called for the singer to be given his freedom while he was in custody. our correspondent maddy savage is in stockholm

you were in court, what was said today? well, this has been one of the most high—profile —— high—profile court cases in sweden four years, starting off with ian conn ‘s rocky formally denying he assaulted somebody here in the swedish capital in a month ago, he says the rapper acted in self—defence because he and his friends were being followed by a group of men. now, so far 500 pages of evidence have been submitted to the court and we started hearing some of them including text messages between a —— asap rocky and his friends, hospital documents and quite graphic photos of injuries inflicted on the victims. and a bottle, glass bottle allegedly used in this case which experts say could prove to be a crucial piece of evidence. but as you say, a lot of the attention still focused on what happened before this trial even got under way, asap rocky has been in

custody here in sweden for four weeks and that's because there is no such thing as bail here in sweden, that's typically how criminals are treated before cases go to trial, come potential trick criminals and that's why donald trump and some celebrities have been angry about this case. there have been fans turning up to support him as well as his mother. this trial is expected to last at least three days, if the wrapper is convicted he could be facing two years in a swedish prison. thank you. an 86—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the remains of a woman were found in a septic tank in worcestershire. the remains were discovered in the village of kempsey earlier this month. detectives say they believe they are those of brenda venables, who disappeared in 1982. the company which owns british gas has announced that its chief executive, ian conn, is to step down. centrica reported a pre—tax loss of £446 million in the six months tojune.

our business correspondent simon gompertz is here — why have their results been so bad? the size of this loss is mainly due toa the size of this loss is mainly due to a huge ride of that centrica has made to cover the costs of getting out of oil and gas production which are doors and to get rid of its sta ke are doors and to get rid of its stake in britain ‘s nuclear power stations but it's bad beyond that and that draws attention to the extent to which british gas has been depending on standard variable tariffs, high charges for gas and electricity to boost its profits because the government has brought in an energy price cap and that, british gas says, centrica says, has cost the company £300 million in profit. now the energy price cap stands at £1254 for the average family, that actually went up in april but it didn't really help british gas, what it meant was a lot of people looked around to get a cheaper deal, they lost 178,000

customers. ian conn, the chief executive is leaving next year, he's beenin executive is leaving next year, he's been in charge, the share price of centrica has dropped by 75% and it's attacked again today. there are some positives, it's got more customers for its boiler installation and servicing business and it's doing more in the home, it's signed a contract with ford, it is announced, to install electric charging points for electric vehicles in the home so that people can charge up cheaply at night—time. that people can charge up cheaply at night-time. simon, briefly, if you can, the energy price cap, is that expected to affect other companies in the same way? yes, exactly, it affects all companies which charge the standard variable tariffs and its reset every six months so it did go its reset every six months so it did 9° up its reset every six months so it did go up that time, next time it's set for the autumn, it could go down. simon, many thanks. a leading financial services company, capital one, has revealed that the personal details of over 100 million people in north america have been hacked.

the hacker stole information including credit scores, balances, and social security numbers. a suspect has been charged with computer fraud in a court in seattle. india is threatening to boycott the commonwealth games in birmingham in 2022 because shooting has been dropped from the programme. it's a sport that india excels in — at last year's commonwealth games in australia, it took 16 shooting medals — including 7 golds. india's concerned that its ranking and medal haul will be affected if birmingham gets its way, as dan pallett reports. in india, they love the sport of shooting and they are good at it. they hosted this world cup event in february but now the starting gun has been fired in a row which could see india boycott the 2022 commonwealth games in birmingham unless shooting is included. we are hopeful it won't get to that, we've run an open and transparent process, we haven't recommended shooting be added and obviously india do incredibly well in shooting and

they're disappointed at that decision but we are hopeful it won't result in them not coming to the games in 2022. shooting was on the shortlist of potential sports but instead, the birmingham 2022 organisers chose women's t20 cricket, beach volleyball and para table tennis. this weekend marked three years until the start of the 2022 games. birmingham hosted a celebration in the city centre. they also released a new logo and promotional video showcasing the venues. with cycling already taking place in london, they didn't want another sport hosted outside the west midlands. to put all four disciplines of shooting on it would had to have taken place out with the west midlands, down in surrey and there is local money that's supporting this event so there's clearly limited benefit to the west midlands from not having the event in the region. india's campaign now has the backing of their olympic association and birmingham 2022 has its first big problem.

dan pallett reporting there from birmingham. bury football club has had its first game of the season suspended after failing to show evidence of financial viability. it had been due to play milton keynes dons on saturday. katie gornall is outside the club, how unusual is this? u nfortu nately unfortunately further down the football pyramid financial problems are nothing new, but things are so dire here at bury that the english football league has taken this unprecedented step from postponing their opening game here against mk dons on saturday. bills have been unpaid here for months, bury are already going to be starting the season with a 12 point deduction for breaking the link ‘s financial rules and they wouldn't have been the only ones. just down the road at bolton they were also going to be starting

a —12 points but unlike bury they we re a —12 points but unlike bury they were able to persuade the afl they we re were able to persuade the afl they were financially viable and didn't have the games postponed. what next for bury? we are yet to hear from anyone at the club, they haven't made any statement so far but they have to provide proof of funds to the afl and have until friday to show they can be financially viable otherwise the second game of the season against accrington stanley could also be postponed but clearly this situation can't continue. the afl can continue postponing games, at some point they will have to show they are a going concern otherwise they are a going concern otherwise they risk being expelled from the legal together. i've been speaking to fa ns legal together. i've been speaking to fans here today, there are some who came down to pick up their season tickets earlier and they said they picked them up more in hope than expectation, they are really worried for the future of the club, in fact one fan said to me he feels this club is on the precipice at the moment. they are waiting for some news from the chairman of the club to see what might happen, whether they can fulfil any fixtures this

season, whether they will get to use those season tickets but when you considerjust a few months ago these fa ns were considerjust a few months ago these fans were celebrating promotion to league 1, it has beenjust a remarkable turnaround in both atmosphere and fortunes. 0k, katie, many thanks. time for a look at the weather. it's suddenly become so u nsettled. weather. it's suddenly become so unsettled. it has. given that there's so much rain in the forecast i thought i would start with sunshine. there is some around this afternoon, perth and kinross time ago. for others, we have these heavy and frequent showers starting to turn thundery in places and bringing quite a lot of rain in a short amount of time. here is the earlier radar picture, all these showers swirling around and these are becoming widespread working their way eastwards, working into northern england. another song working its way northwards through scotland towards the central belt. we see these showers they will bring a lot

of showers in a short