this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at 12:00. after her resignation from the cabinet and the conservative whip — amber rudd attacks borisjohnson‘s handling of brexit. there is not enough work going into actually getting a deal which i don't think the prime minister signed up to try and do and secondly, the expulsion of 21 of my collea g u es secondly, the expulsion of 21 of my colleagues who are good, moderate conservatives. moderate conservatives. she'll be replaced as work and pensions secretary by the environment minister therese coffey. business secretary, andrea leadsom, says the conservatives will break with precedent and field a candidate against the commons speaker, john bercow, at the next election. peace talks between the taliban

and the us are called off. president trump blames a deadly attack in the afghan capital, kabul. ships and aircraft evacuate thousands of people from islands in the bahamas worst hit by hurricane dorian — aid agencies say the situation is ‘desperate‘. british airways pilots prepare to go on strike for the first time in the airline's history. and coming up at 12.30, click travels to new mexico, to ask the team at virgin galactic, about plans to put tourists into space. good morning. amber rudd has been giving more details about why she's resigned from the government. she told the bbc‘s andrew marr she hasn't seen enough evidence that downing street is doing enough

to get a brexit deal. and she's angry about the expulsion of what she called ‘good and moderate‘ conservative mps. the chancellor sajid javid said he was saddened by her resignation and he did not agree that the government wasn't putting serious effort into getting a new deal. here's what amber rudd had to say on the andrew marr show this morning. i believe that he is trying to get a deal with the eu. i am just saying what i have seen in government, is that there is this huge machine preparing for no deal, which is fine. you might expect in the balance between getting a deal and no deal 50 50 in terms of work. but it is not that. it is like 80 or 90% of government time going into preparing for a no deal and the absence of actually trying to work to get a deal. it is what has driven 21 of my colleagues to rebel and i need tojoin them. so you think honestly he is trying to get a deal. what deal? i think he prefers to get a deal... what deal is the question. well, that is the question. and you have no idea? i have no idea because what we know is that angela merkel

and the eu have said, give us your proposal. and we have not given them a proposal. where is all the work that needs to be done to try and come up with alternative arrangements, to show where the landing is, all that work that needs to go behind it? and instead we are just hearing, we are going to get a deal. there is very little evidence of it. are you going to leave politics? no, iam not leaving politics. i'm actually not leaving the conservative party. what i am doing is surrendering the whip alongside my colleagues, the 21 others, in order to stand with them. i don't think... i know i couldn't carry on in the conservative party at such a high level and see 21 of my colleagues who are good, moderate people who also want a deal, excluded from it. and ijust needed to move and stand by them. i hope that we will all be returned before the general election so we can all stand as conservatives. i am a conservative. i believe the conservative party is a force for good in our great country and i would like to see us in government. we have been before. we have done great things. in your letter to the prime minister you said, i no longer believe

that living with a deal is the government's main objective. that is quite close to accusing the government of lying to the british people. i am not accusing them of lying. i am observing what i have seen. i am saying that 80 to 90% of the work that i can see going on on the eu relationship is about preparation for no deal. it is about disproportion. when this was first entered into after borisjohnson became prime minister, most people would have expected, i think everybody would have expected, there to be a lot of work and trying to get a deal. a whole team of people trying to build those relationships, alternative relationships. i haven't seen that. did the cabinet know the legal advice on prorogation? we weren't circulated it. i can only speculate. i asked for it and i was not given it. it was only on prorogation and how it folded into

the northern ireland bill and i was told that i would get it but after persistently asking for it, i still hadn't got it when i resigned. earlier i spoke to our political correspondent, helen catt, about the significance of amber rudd's resignation. having her on side, on his team as it were, did really boost the view of boris johnson's leadership and his brexit strategy and the fact that you heard her go for both, both his handling of the party and that figure of saying that 80 to 90% of government effort is going towards a no—deal brexit, she believes, not towards actually getting a deal. well that could well harm him, certainly among those who share amber rudd's views. the big worry for him is if it does unsettle more unhappy tories. and we know there are some. and inspire them to follow suit. it will be interesting to see the reaction beyond westminster. again, i think that 80 to 90% figure

will cut through in some places. also i think there will be a group of people, of leave backers, who look at this and think, this means borisjohnson is serious. amber rudd has never wanted to leave really and therefore it is just removing another remain impediment. it'll be interesting to see how that falls outside westminster. interesting to see happens next. the no—deal legislation passed by mps, that gets royal assent tomorrow. suggestions that the government may not abide by it even though it is the law of the land. what does happen next? tomorrow this bill which actually sparked all of this controversy last week that was a reason that the 21 mps who rebelled and voted for it were sacked from the conservative party, that gets signed off by the queen tomorrow. it gets royal assent. that compels borisjohnson, if he doesn't have a brexit deal on the 19th of october, to ask for an extension from the eu. there's been some debate about whether or not he will do that.

we also know that tomorrow he will try to go for an early election on october the 15. he is likely to fail because the opposition say they will not give that to him. john mcdonnell explained why labour won't be backing it to andrew marr earlier. we don't believe that we can pin him down and i don't trust him and i don't think anyone does. i think we have got a prime minister now who says he won't even abide by the law, by the law. i have never heard that before. we are in a situation now where no one can trust while he is in place what can happen. so we have got to use every mechanism we possibly can to rule out a no deal and that is what we are trying to legislate on as best we can, but also once we have got to that situation we can then, i think, have a general election. you heard john mcdonnell say that the prime minister had said he would not obey the law. sajid javid denied that. he was equally insistent that

boris johnson wouldn't resign and that he wouldn't be asking for that extension and you wouldn't really explain how the government intended to square that circle. the law talks about october the 19th in case there is no deal agreed in that council meeting. should we get to that position we will look at our options. of course we will obey the law. the prime minister would ask for an extension. we will not change our policy. our policy is clear. how does this work? it is completely baffling. if the law says one thing and you are saying the government is going to obey the law but we are not going to do that one thing, it is hard to see how you will get out of that. the government will not change its policy and we will be consistent, obey the law and stick to our policy. there is a lot of days between now and october the 19th and we will be working full on until october the 31st to either leave

with a deal or leave with no deal. so both sides, it looks like they are not really moving, not giving an inch. parliament back we'll have to see what happens this week. helen catt there, our political correspondent. ed davey is the deputy leader of the liberal democrats — hejoins me now. your reaction to amber rudd's dramatic resignation last night? i'm not really surprised. i worked with amber rudd during the coalition and i knew her as someone who believed that britain's best interests are served by by being in the eu. i think she struggles. she has tried to have influence inside. now she has realised that borisjohnson is only wanting a no deal and he is treating moderate, decent tories who are her closest allies in the most shocking way. i think she has reacted to the appalling way the

prime minister is behaving. what happens next? a lot of people are saying that borisjohnson has been backed into a corner. what you suspect his next move will be?” genuinely don't know. these are unprecedented times. liberal democrats will argue for what we regard as the best way out of this, a people's vote. a general election we re a people's vote. a general election were really sort it out because there are many other issues and a first past the post election... if you really want to sort out this paralysis of this country is in, the liberal democrats believe that a people's vote is the only way to sort this out. people out there will be saying that there is only an impasse because you made an impact. we had a people's vote in the vote of the people come out of the european union. in the last election the liberal democrats only won 12 mps. that is increasing by the day. the reason why that brexit from 2016

hasn't been delivered is because of the conservative party is divided over what brexit means and they have failed, the conservatives have failed, the conservatives have failed to deliver that. because they have failed and because there is uncertainty and division on the leave side about what brexit means, i think that is a very good reason for saying, let's take it back to the people with remain as an option. and i think borisjohnson and the brexiteers are afraid of that because i think they realise how britain has seen how disastrous brexit has been, how costly, how chaotic, how damaging it is and i think a people's vote, the people would vote to remain. but boris johnson once a general election. he wa nts to johnson once a general election. he wants to go to the people now and you don't and their rebel alliance down. he says you are afraid and our chickens. let me be clear, we are not afraid. we had the best local election results ever in may, the

best european election vote ever. 0ur poll rating has trebled. a general election would be in our interest. what is the national interest? the national interest is to settle this paralysis which means social care, all these issues are not being dealt with and if we are going to get back to normal politics, protect our democracy, protect our united kingdom so it is not broken up, liberal democrats are saying that the best rated do that is to settle the one question which is to settle the one question which is stopping this. the only way you can really sort this out is through the people's vote which the liberal democrats have led the campaign on. that means another dilated brexit and the prime minister will say, what is a point of another delay? it is simply pointless. another three months? you'rejust is simply pointless. another three months? you're just kicking the can further down the road. to avoid a damaging no—deal brexit. boris johnson and a small number of people

might want that no—deal brexit in the conservative party but, to be fed to conservative colleagues, quite a lot realise that no deal would be disaster for our economy, jobs, the health service, food supplies. and there is a strong majority in the house of commons actually against a no—deal brexit and the reason why there is been unprecedented cross party working is because i am delighted to say a number of mps, liberal democrats and other parties, have come together in the national interest to stop a no deal. that does require further extension. that law which you have helped to bring through, that gets royal assent tomorrow. there are suggestions that the government mightjust disobey suggestions that the government might just disobey that lot somehow. what you think is going to happen next? if they did that, if they didn't abide by that law, what would be the consequences? let's be clear, for a british government not to abide by the rule of law would be

one of the most damaging thing that has ever happened to our constitution and democracy. and i simply cannot believe that the conservative party, the civil service, parliament, cabinet collea g u es service, parliament, cabinet colleagues would allow the prime minister to take such a damaging step. we had this morning from the foreign secretary dominic raab that they would push the law to the limit. iam they would push the law to the limit. i am afraid he is a lawyer. what he is trying to say, he is trying to bend the law and escape the law. that is outrageous from the foreign secretary. i hope dominic raabis foreign secretary. i hope dominic raab is my constituents are listening to him saying that the british committee is going to try and bend the law. what a message from the prime minister and the foreign secretary! this government is bringing our government into disrepute and people think that they can trust boris johnson, disrepute and people think that they can trust borisjohnson, that is not a wise position to take, if they think they can trust him with our democracy and rule of law, they

should now think again. he is a disgraceful prime minister and they are behaving disgracefully. i'm looking forward to a general election when we can kick them out. some people say that the people who are disgraceful people like you. what the liberal democrats are saying, because a conservative party have failed to agree on what brexit meant, let's put it back to the people because parliament has failed the people, and i would say conservatives and some labour mps around jeremy corbyn have failed the british people and the only way i think we can solve this is by putting it back to the people. there are other permutations being suggested. 0ne are other permutations being suggested. one is a borisjohnson might simply resign as prime minister, may be good jeremy corbyn to coming and invite him to form some sort of caretaker government. all sorts of theories have been discussed. it is a very fluid time

in british politics. you are absolutely right. no one has known anything like it, have we? boris johnson is playing a lot of games. his aide dominic cummings is breaking the rules, conventions, even daring to break the law. this is quite shocking. and i think the us, however they voted, leave or remain, will be a land that we have a government that is behaving in this way. you sale lab at the latest opinion poll gives boris johnson this way. you sale lab at the latest opinion poll gives borisjohnson a 14 opinion poll gives borisjohnson a 1a point lead. opinion poll gives borisjohnson a 14 point lead. actually there were three opinion polls last night. 0ne only give him a three—point lead. three opinion polls last night. 0ne only give him a three-point lead. he is still in the lead! people don't seem to agree with what you are saying. he hasn't got a majority leader, it's a minority lead. the only clear position was the liberal democrat poll rating going up. the point is that tories are doing pretty well in the opinion polls, whatever you say. they are not doing pretty well. they have a marginal lead in most polls. the only thing

we are getting from the pulses at the liberal democrat rating going up. we are seeing mps from other parties defecting. last week we had three mps across the floor and join the liberal democrats. the liberal democrat benches increasing, our poll rating is increasing, we are not afraid of a general election when it comes. when will it come? you don't want it now, clearly, but do you think it might be november, december, sometime this year? yes, i feared that despite liberal democrats arguing that the best way is the people vote, the other parties won't agree with us. so we will probably have this second best solution of a general election and i think it is likely that it will happen this year. do you know when? i genuinely don't know when. any politician who comes on your show and predicts when it is going to be... but not this month? i very much doubt it but there are so many

games being played, the rules are being torn up by this outrageous government, i can't even be sure about that. not in october? certainly deep liberal democrats don't think it should happen now. we need to make sure that our country is protected from no deal. very good to talk to you. the deputy leader of the liberal democrats. thank you for your time. thank you for your time. meanwhile, the business secretary, andrea leadsom, has said the conservatives will break convention by fielding a candidate against the commons speaker, john bercow, at the next general election. traditionally, the major parties do not contest the speaker's seat — but mr bercow‘s handling of recent brexit debates has angered ministers. simonjones reports. 0rder! 0rder. in the seat for the crucial vote... the ayes to the right, 327. noes to the left, 299. when mps backed the bill aimed at blocking a no—deal brexit at the end of october.

butjohn bercow is now underfire from the business secretary. andrea leadsom says that by allowing mps to use a procedure to trigger emergency debates as a means of taking over the timetable, he has permitted a flagrant abuse of parliamentary process. in the mail on sunday, the business secretary writes... the speaker is an mp who stands in general elections but is usually unopposed by the major political parties. mrs leadsom is warning that the conservatives will defy convention and field a candidate in his constituency of buckingham in the next vote. there is no love lost between mrs leadsom and mr bercow. last year, he was alleged to have labelled her "stupid", although he said he muttered

the word to describe how he felt about the way the government had scheduled commons business. he is yet to comment on the latest criticisms. simon jones, bbc news. ships and aircraft are helping to move thousands of people from the islands in the bahamas worst hit by hurricane dorian. 0ne cruise ship with more than a thousand evacuees has arrived in florida. aid agencies say the situation on great abaco island is desperate, with residents unable to find food or clean water. at the moment, the death toll in the bahama is 43 — but is expected to increase with hundreds still missing. matthew cochrane is from the red cross — hejoins us now from geneva what is your the latest information about the situation there? we are beginning to get a clearer picture of the precise impact of this stomp. as you mention, the worst damage is on the great island and some of the small island. the damage on grand

bahama particularly in the east is quite severe. 0ne community in particular has been completely wiped off the pace of the map. so the damage is very severe. we had beginning to get a clear understanding of the precise needs 01’ understanding of the precise needs or stop they line up with what we anticipated. there are huge needs around shelter, places to stay in the short term and rebuild their homes in the long term, water, sanitation, food and helping people reconnect with families in the bahamas or overseas. that is another pressing date that is beginning to emerge. the number of people unaccounted for is several hundred. are you fearful the death toll is going to write? the bahamas ministry of health is reporting quite regularly on the number of people killed by the storm. they are regularly messaging that the figure they have their moment in the 40s is inevitably going to climb. even a

week on it is becoming clearer that this is a major emergency for this nation. a major emergency, and to what extent are the aid agencies like ourselves able to get people in there quickly enough to help? people, in terms of getting expertise, it is moving quite quickly. the british government have a team, the british red cross are people on the ground helping uk and eu citizens. we have also got the bahamas red cross and we have had people from the regional office in panama get in before full stop getting the goods in is obviously much more complex but so far we have had three flights land. we have a ship expected to come in today with more relief supplies which is absolutely critical. it is complicated because you're talking about a number of islands where there are needs. our ability to get out of those islands to provide goods, it is only coming up to speed

110w. goods, it is only coming up to speed now. it is an operation that has logistical hurdles that we are having to overcome. we are overcoming them but it is a matter of pushing and pushing. thank you very much for bringing us the latest. thank you. sport. james has the latest news on the tennis and cricket. it's a critical final day of the fourth test at old trafford with australia tightening their grip on the ashes urn. england resumed on 18 for two this morning — they resumed on 18 for two this morning — they're now 66 for 3 with jason ry just being caught out. england lost their openers joe root and rory burns for ducks late on yesterday. they narrowly avoided the follow—on

but england will have to do well today with the bat — the aussie's have a 382 run lead and are just 7 wickets away from retaining the urn. there was a big shock at the us open when history was made in the women's final — but not in the way many expected. serena williams failed in her bid for a record—equalling 24th grand slam title, losing in the final to bianca andreescu 6—3, 7—5. andreescu is the first canadian to win a grand slam. it's the fourth major final in a row that williams has lost. it's really hard right now to take that moment in and to say, "you did ok," because i don't believe i did, you know? i believe i could have played better. i believe i could have done more. i believe i could have just been a better... been more serena today. honestly i don't think serena showed up and i have to kind of figure out

how to get her to show up in grand slam finals. great britain has a champion at the us open. jamie murray and bethanie mattek—sands retained their mixed doubles title, beating the top seeds chan hao—ching and michael venus in straight sets. murray is the first man in the open era to win three successive mixed doubles titles at flushing meadows. sir mo farah has become the first athlete to win the great north run for a sixth consecutive time. he beat off competition from tamarit tola of ethiopia to win the race in a time of 59 minutes and seven seconds. that's his fastest ever time at the great north run and his fastest half marathon time. i have really enjoyed it finishing off the great north run but the last couple of years has been in the middle of marathon preparations. i have five weeks in chicago. it was

good to test myself. i will have a chat with gary and go through a tough couple of more things of what i had to do for chicago. things are looking good. i am happy with the win today. kenyan runner brigid kosgei won the women's race, smashing the world record in a time of1 hour, 4 minutes and 28 seconds. that's 23 seconds faster than the previous record. it was a double win for the brits in the wheelchair race as multiple paralympic champion david weir won the men's title. weir beat canadian brent lakatos to the finishing line to claim his eighth wheelchair title in south shields. jadejones—hall won the women's wheelchair race. that's all the sport for now. i will keep you updated with the cricket. i'll have more in the next hour.

president trump says he's called off peace negotiations with the taliban — after an attack that killed twelve people, including a us soldier, in the afghan capital, kabul on thursday. the announcement — via twitter— comes just days after the american envoy to afghanistan reached a draft peace deal with the group. mr trump said a previously secret meeting with taliban leaders and the afghan president, ashraf ghani, due to take place at the president's camp david retreat on sunday has been cancelled. 0ur chief international correspondent lyce doucet has been following the story. stunning on so many ways. there is a middle of the night in the united states and officials... they would be scrambling as people here in afghanistan are scrabbling to make sense of this. the price of all price, inviting the taliban to the presidential retreat camp david before they have even signed a deal with the united states which is said to bea with the united states which is said to be a deal in principle, before they have proven their commitment to peace full stop it is absolutely

astonishing. so the big question now is, the secret summit has been cancelled according to the president from's tweets. what happens to this painstaking process of negotiation? nearly a year of talks between the us envoy and his team and taliban negotiators in the gulf state of qatar. they were making progress but the feeling everywhere here from the presidential palace to impoverished afghan villages is, why was there so much talk of peace? is there even more war? that is killing our hopes of peace. british airways pilots begin a two day strike at midnight in their dispute about pay and conditions. passengers are being advised not to go to airports and ba. says most customers have made alternative arrangements. here's our business correspondent, katie prescott. for the first time in the company's history, british airways pilots are refusing to fly. the pilots' union say after working

with ba through lean times, they now want a greater share of the company profits. it made £2 billion last year. they have rejected an offer of an 11.5% payrise over the next few years, but british airways says it is a generous offer and that their pilots already get world—class salaries. of course, in the middle of all of this are the customers. they were warned about these strikes weeks ago, and the company says most have been rebooked, but for many that journey has not been smooth. i got a text message out of the blue stating that my flight was cancelled, and it didn't give any explanation whatsoever. itjust gave a telephone number to call, which i did do. i couldn't get through on the phone, spent basically all evening, didn't sleep very well because i thought my holiday was in ruins. any passengers affected by the strike are entitled to a refund or a rebooking with ba or another airline. the company is advising them not to turn up at the airport tomorrow.

if the two sides don't come to an agreement, a further day of strikes are planned for the seventh of september. we have a fine settled sunday ahead with plenty of spells of sunshine from most parts of the country. there will be one or two isolated showers but most places have a dry day. mark out moving in across northern ireland and later on today through the western half of scotland with a few spots of drizzly rain moving in. eastern scotland and england and wales, largely dry and sunny. isolated showers in the far east of east anglia and north wales. 14 to 18 degrees. should feel pleasa nt 14 to 18 degrees. should feel pleasant with light winds. mostly dry into this evening but overnight rain moves in from the west. a soggy start to monday for northern ireland, scotland... it