hello, it's tuesday, it's ten o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire. good morning. how did 1a girls in the same instagram network end up taking their own lives? this programme has travelled to norway to investigate the shocking scale of self harm and suicide material being shared on the platform. this mother's17—year—old daughter andrina live posted the moments leading up to her suicide. she really took my heart with her when she died. i feel like it's broken forever, but i... i'm not sure, it's only two and a half years ago. this 22—year—old, inge, witnessed andrina's suicidal posts and has stayed in the instagram community to try and stop other young women in there

from killing themselves. the place —— had stayed in the private instagram community. i felt like i was watching a suicide. that i was in the room with her, watching it happen, and i couldn't do anything. even people who don't mean to affect others in a negative way do it because they post pictures of serious self—harm and people think, "0h, my cuts aren't deep enough and i have to do it like her next time." instagram has banned graphic self—harm posts, but images are still shared. we'll be asking a top psychiatrist what can be done. also, news this mroning that thousands of mental health hospital patients with learning disabilities and autism will have their care reviewed after a damning report. we hope to get reaction from the father of bethany, the autistic woman in this footage in seclusion in a psychiatric unit — it shows him reaching through a hatch to comfort her. also today, jo swinson will be launching the liberal democrats‘ election campaign at 10:30,

and jeremy corbyn will be explaining how he thinks it's possible for labour to "sort" brexit within six months after an election. we'll bring you the speeches live. hello, welcome to the programme. we're live until 11 this morning. text 61124 if you're getting in touch, you can tweet us, using the hashtag #victorialive or send us an email — victoria@bbc.co.uk. first annita has the news. thousands of hospital patients with learning disabilities and autism will have their care reviewed over the next year. the health secretary, matt hancock, said the case reviews for more than 2000 patients will see each person provided with a hospital discharge date, or a plan to move them closer towards one. last week, a parliamentary committee condemned what it called the horrific and inappropriate detention of young people with

autism or learning disabilities. the government has failed to build a single house under the starter homes scheme in england unveiled by david cameron in 2014. ministers had promised 200,000 homes to be sold at a discount to first—time buyers under the age of a0. the government has insisted it's committed to supporting people with home ownership. downing street is coming under further pressure to publish a report into russian interference in uk politics, before the election next month. the document was completed by pa rliament‘s intelligence and security committee in march and has since been redacted for publication, but number ten says it needs more time to prepare its response. the former head of mi5, lord evans, told the bbc ministers should explain the reason for the delay. a diy home urine or swab test could potentially help more women check whether they are at risk of cervical cancer, researchers say. the new method could be used

as an alternative to the smear test and would not require a visit to the doctor. although larger trials are needed, the work has been called "promising" and a potential "game—changer" by charities. a report on bronzefield women's prison in surrey, where a newborn baby died in september, says there's a severe shortage of nurses at the jail. the independent monitoring board, which conducts regular visits to the prison, compiled its assessment before the baby's death, which is the subject of a separate inquiry. researchers say regular running, no matter how far, or how fast, substantially reduces the risk of an early death. a team from australia, thailand and finland examined data on nearly a quarter of a million people and found that any amount of running was linked to a 27% reduction in mortality. a tourist has reportedly survived for two days, adrift at sea in a dinghy near greece, by snacking on boiled sweets. kushila stein, from new zealand, was rescued from the aegean sea north of crete on sunday.

during her 37 hour ordeal, ms stein reportedly rationed a handful of boiled lollies and wrapped herself in plastic bags for warmth. good sea survival skills. that's it for the summary, back to you, victoria. we're going to bring you a shocking investigation this morning about instagram and self harm. it all stems from the phone of a 17—year—old norwegian teenager called andrina who killed herself. the evidence left behind on her phone has revealed the scale of self—harm and suicide material being shared across networks of private instagram accounts. andrina live posted the moments leading up to her suicide on instagram. new analysis by a team of norwegian journalists has revealed that she was linked to another 1000 accounts all posting similar dangerous content — around half of them in english.

at least another 14 girls in the same private instagram network have also taken their own lives. catrin nye has this special report and there are elements of it which are upsetting — it lasts around 13 minutes. i used to say that she... she was my heart and that... so she... ..really took my heart with her when she died. ifeel like it's broken forever, but i am not sure, it's only two and a half years ago.

pictures of heidi's daughter andrine cover her home. her teddies still sit on her bed. andrine killed herselfjust before her 18th birthday. then, earlier this year, heidi was contacted by some norwegian journalists. i got a text message that they were working with a project about youths and suicides and social media's impact on this, and in their research andrine‘s name often comes up. i did a report a year ago in a small community in norway where three young girls, 15 and 16—year—olds, had killed themselves within a short period of time. and it turned out that one of these girls had been on instagram and had a secret account sharing self— harm

and suicidal thoughts. annemarte started researching this instagram community — this network of hundreds of locked accounts posting often disturbing content. her team discovered at least 1a other suicides linked to the community. then we started calling, phoning, talking to all the families to confirm the suicides, and that's when i got hold of andrine's mother, and she said after talking to me for, i think, a couple of times, she said, "well, i've actually got her mobile. it's in the hallway in a cardboard box. it came from the police a couple of weeks after andrine killed herself." and she said, "i know i've always known that there is something on the phone that i don't want to see, but i have to see it. now i have to see it." so she opened the phone. this was the secret locked instagram

account that andrine posted on every day for the last three months of her life. in some videos, she's dancing. i love to see it. but that's alongside pictures of serious self—harm, videos of her crying. it's so heartbreaking. andrine was in supervised accommodation when she took her life. she'd moved out of home after years of self—harming and suicide attempts. she'd been hospitalized multiple times. it took me two days to go through it. the hardest thing was that she had documented her last days, her last hours until she took her life. so it was almost like she was... streaming her death.

it was hard to witness. she called me back and told me that andrine had killed herself online, that it was several posts from her actual suicide. in one of her last instagram posts andrine wrote, "just do it. no one is going to miss you anyway." the comment below it reads, "don't do it," in capital letters. so this is our investigation... andrine's mum heidi handed her daughter's phone over and annemarte‘s investigation team used digitalforensic techniques to find out as much as they could about andrine's connections and how many other self harmers she was linked to online. it'sjust getting darker and darker. she's hurting herself. she's figuring out new ways to hurt herself.

she's talking about how she's hiding stuff, to hurt herself, how she wants to die. they also had access inside the community through a dummy instagram account. they went through andrine's followers and in turn their followers, and found 1000 locked accounts connected to hers, posting similar dark content — talking about mental health issues, about suicide, about self—harm. around 500 were in norway and the rest all over the world, including the uk. the average age is 19. they're often in and out of hospitals. there's lots of support, lots of attention and they all sort of have in common that they don't believe that they can get help anywhere else. and what were the problems you saw? i very quickly discovered that when you post suicidal stuff or self—harm, you get more attention. 22—year—old ingebjorg admits that she used to have one of these accounts. do you think it can make people worse? yeah, i know it can.

because i think the community is making people worse because they give you ideas on how you can kill yourself, how you can hide your illness from people around, and even people who don't mean to affect others in a negative way do it because they post pictures of serious self—harm and people think, "0h, my cuts aren't deep enough. then i have to do it like her next time." ingebjorg was on instagram, and saw as andrine put up her last post before ending her life. i felt like i was watching a suicide, that i was in the room with her watching it happen, and i couldn't do anything. all the other girls in instagram was like her audience. do you worry that andrine's posts, her behaviour, showing her own suicide influenced other people?

i know it did. but... i don't like to think about it, but i know. of the 1000 accounts connected to andrine's that were discovered by the nrk journalists, there are at least 22 in the uk. so these are some of the uk accounts, and they say things like trigger warning all over them. they have emojis that represent suicide attempts, that represent hospital admissions. by cross—referencing other social media accounts we've been able to speak to one of the young women. she has one of those locked accounts and used it to document her struggles with severe mental health problems, her suicide attempts,

self—harm and hospital admissions. so people would actually comment on the kind of cuts you are posting? she feels, although the instagram community could be very supportive, she also experienced people saying things like your cut isn't big enough. she says there was a sense of competition as to who was the sickest. heidi thinks her daughter andrine was pushed to greater extremes by instagram. as time has passed, when i have seen what's posted and how active she was on that instagram community, i realised that... instagram basically took my daughter's life. that's what i feel. if she didn't had instagram, she would have to seek more help in real life.

instagram technically doesn't allow images that promote self—harm or suicide. this year, it's completely banned all graphic self—harm posts, but their computers can't catch everything. some images are missed. some people now post more abstract pictures to represent their suicide attempts. so these are from just the last week and a half. these are all posts from suicidal girls, either very strong suicidal thoughts or actual suicide attempts. it's 48 of them. from your time inside the network, how does the way instagram works, its algorithms, push this kind of content towards people? we've seen injust the past few weeks, we've been able to see how norwegian girls who have tried to kill themselves and posting it

on instagram in the same day are being recommended to other girls on the network. that's how i feel instagram is keeping this network alive and keeping it going and growing. we have honestly gone out and said to experts in this field, you know, should we have any of this kind of content related to mental health, suicide or self injury on on instagram? and they've come back with a resounding yes because we should, we do have a part to play in not stigmatizing the sharing of this kind of expression of when you're having a tough time. no one is saying that instagram is responsible for the mental health problems that some of these girls are going through. but when you speak to their parents, they really do feel in some cases that their daughter would not be dead if it were not for instagram making their problems worse. how do you respond to that? i'm a mum myself, so i can only imagine the pain and the anguish that the families are going through of each and every one of the young

women affected by this. we want people to able to come to instagram to express themselves, but we are deeply committed to making sure that it's also that our responsibility is to keeping people who come to instagram safe and not seeing what could be potentially harmful material. the way we do that is through technology, a mixture of what we call machine learning, which we do at scale and human reviewers. there's a reason that ingebjorg has stayed part of this instagram network. she feels she has to. she's watched andrine and other friends post their suicides and has now taken it upon herself to try and stop other people doing the same. she keeps an eye on the community from her phone, routinely calls the police when people are in danger. the norwegian journalists have nicknamed her "the lifeguard". and that must make you anxious about being online and, or not being online or missing something? yeah, i'm scared that if i don't

notice when people are posting these things and then no one will do anything about it. i guess a lot of people are scared to call the police. how difficult was it for you personally spending all this time in such a dark network? i don't know. i feel like i'm just shutting off. i think it's, it affects me in ways that i don't really see at the moment, you know? but i'm not as good of a friend or a girlfriend that i used to be because i haven't got time for anybody else's problems. i've got all these girls and their problems. what would you say to a mum who's worried about her daughter? i didn't talk to andrine about this instagram because i was afraid that she would be angry and do more self harm because she was

angry at me and that... i regret that i didn't. didn't do that. so to another mum, i would say, don't do the same mistake. talk to your daughter. talk about it. catrin nye with that report. and we'd like to thank the team at norwegian broadcaster nrk for working with us on this investigation and giving us access to this huge piece of research. and we can talk now tojon goldin, who's vice chairman of the child and adolescent faculty at the royal college of psychiatrists. good morning to you. first of all, your reaction to our film?|j

good morning to you. first of all, your reaction to our film? i think it is deeply concerning and upsetting to see this kind of thing going on online. instagram and facebook are about social media, connecting, it should be creative communities, this is deeply worrying that this is going on. what is your perspective on what is going on in predominantly young girls‘ brains as they see this kind of content?” think young people who feel like they might want to self—harm are feeling quite low and isolated and lonely, they want to join a community of other young people who understand them, that is part of the motivation forjoining these communities. unfortunately it can encourage people to self—harm in a way that is unhelpful. if they are viewing this content regularly, people speak about a toxic digital culture, people can feel competitive about self—harm in a way that is very unhelpful, it can almost be a badge of honour, the closer you come to committing suicide the more you

are accepted by your peers, which is extremely worrying. there are people cynical about that. one viewer says, come on, how does someone convince you to harm or kill yourself? let‘s talk about the real issue, poor parenting and a lack of family structure. i use saying if you co nsta ntly structure. i use saying if you constantly see this content it can influence even a detrimental way? definitely, but we are talking about people who are vulnerable in the place, many people would not be influenced by this but sadly many of the people attracted to each other very vulnerable, and this online content very vulnerable, and this online co nte nt ca n very vulnerable, and this online content can be a trigger to carrying out the act of self—harm all, in this case, suicide. for parents watching right now, what are they to do? as we have shown in the report, these are private instagram accounts, private networks, how would a parent no? many parents will be asking this, i am a parent to

teenage daughters myself. it is very important to keep the lines of communication open as far as possible, if you hear about this you wa nt to possible, if you hear about this you want to talk to your young person, not freak out, stay calm, have an open conversation and try to communicate to your child that you are willing to do that, that you will not be draconian and say i will ta ke will not be draconian and say i will take your phone away if you are looking at this, that will not open the lines of communication. schools need to pay attention, and they increasingly are. npas —— in psat lessons there are increasingly discussions about this kind of stuff. when i have tried to talk to my daughters, often they say we talk about it at school, we are aware, young people are becoming increasingly savvy. the heights —— if pa rents increasingly savvy. the heights —— if parents are watching this, how to even raise the subject with the children? parents could for example say i saw something on the victoria

derbyshire programme and i was very concerned, have you ever seen anything like this, are you aware of it? if you ever see anything worryingly online, please feel free to talk to me —— if you ever see anything worrying online. we know lots of stuff is worrying teenagers and sometimes they feel that they cannot talk about it because the response will be the phone is being taken away. but even if a parent says that it does not necessarily mean the child will open up? no, but we wa nt mean the child will open up? no, but we want to create a climate at home without open communication as possible. it is also at school, and it is about companies like instagram and facebook not pushing content at young people, if you look up suicide 01’ young people, if you look up suicide or talk about it online you might get other content like we had just seen get other content like we had just seenin get other content like we had just seen in the previous club, instagram and facebook need to help young people to access sites that support them. there are various resources

out there, there is an app called talk life, resources which are helpful for young people available online. is you know, instagram say that from february this year they bundled graphic images of self—harm and restricted videos and images showing suicidal themes. in the past month they have extended this to include memes, drawings and cartoons promoting or showing suicide and self—harm methods. they say we fundamentally believe that there is a place on instagram to express yourself even if you are having a really have time. is that enough?” don‘t think so, i think the priority for companies like instagram and facebook is getting more users and advertising revenue when they need to move the mental health of young people higher up the priority list, they could be using artificial intelligence more, they could be using more human moderators to moderate the content and take it down, they could be spending more of

their vast resources on policing this kind of thing. i do not suggest they remove all talk of self—harm, it cabbage in any helpful way, but i think they could be having a closer look at the unhelpful material out of their —— it can be done a helpful way. and they should be supporting professionals to address it directly. they need to make sure people are protected from seeing things that could be extreme extremely harmful or disturbing, do you think they have not got that right? i don't, they had not paid enough attention, i think that would be fairto enough attention, i think that would be fair to say, they need to pay more attention. even says i wanted to put something on facebook for suicide and day, when i typed it in, graphic images came up which were frankly irresponsible and should not be on facebook —— forcing is day.

another said i know from personal experience how real this is, we need to raise awareness with young girls of the dangers of such content. when will you stop blaming everything on social media, self—harm happened for hundreds of years before instagram and will happen for hundreds of yea rs and will happen for hundreds of years after, is that fair? social media is not the whole story, many issues affect mental health such as poverty, family conflict, issues at school, academic pressures, social media is out there and is certainly something we can address. stewart says a harrowing report and what an inadequate response from instagram. another view and says watching your programme now, still 11 people to post on its site about suicide and self—harm is the pits and should be stopped. thank you for coming on the programme, jon goldin, vice chairman of the child and

adolescent faculty at the royal couege adolescent faculty at the royal college of psychiatrists. if you are feeling emotionally distressed after that report and would like details of organisations which offer advice and support, go online to bbc.co.uk/actionline. or you can call for free at any time to hear recorded information — 0800 066 066. still to come, this is where lib dem leaderjo swinson is due to launch her party‘s election campaign this morning. we‘ll bring you that live — it‘s due to start in the next five to ten minutes. we‘ll also bring you jeremy corbyn‘s speech if we can — he‘s at harlow in essex and is due to speak about brexit atabout10:50am. next, just want to show you this footage from the isle of wight — this video has been watched thousands of times on our website today. it shows a man and his child walking along the sea front when they are suddenly knocked over and almost dragged out to sea by a huge wave. you can see the force of the wave knocks him over and the child falls

off his shoulder before the wave almost rips them backwards. absolutely astonishing. they are ok. the royal national lifeboat institute has issued a warning about walking near the sea in such conditions. they say, "during strong winds, parts of our coastline can be treacherous, with a higher risk of large waves sweeping people off their feet and resulting in them being dragged into the sea." asi as i said, thejudge and child are 0k. -- the as i said, thejudge and child are 0k. —— the and dad child. back in 2014, the government — led by david cameron — pledged to build 200,000 new homes for first—time buyers. how many of these homes have been built since? zero. that‘s according to a national audit 0ffice report out today. so what happened ? 0ur personal finance correspondent simon gompertz is here. what happened ? what happened? i guess we all know how difficult it is to buy that first home, it has got more difficult, it was just as hard first home, it has got more difficult, it wasjust as hard in 2014 slush 15 before the general

election of 2015, and in the conservative party manifesto of the time they said at the heart of their homes policy was its promise to build 200,000 starter homes, it is a particular sort of home, they would be sold at 20% discount to first—time buyers under the age of 40. homes have been built in the intervening time, if you speak to the government they will say last year they built over 200,000, lots of those are what they call affordable homes, so cheaper, but not these discounted homes for first—time buyers. the national audit office, which checks these things, has said none of these starter homes have been built. the reason is the legislation is not yet in place and it looks like it has been quite difficult for the government to get this policy together, it is complicated deciding who qualifies, how to work the discount and persuading developers

to build these homes and then getting the rules in place, it has taken a long time. i guess one lesson is that this particularly important time, election whites, be very careful about party manifestos. david cameron promises to hundred thousand homes, yes later we don‘t have them. simon, thank you. the liberal democrats are about to launch their general election campaign any moment now. party leaderjo swinson is going to say that every vote for the lib dems is a vote to stop brexit. ms swinson is presenting herself as a credible candidate for pm. let‘s go live to westminster where the launch is about to happen — vicki young is there. good morning. good morning! what will she promise today?”

good morning. good morning! what will she promise today? i think the focus is all about brexit, they are pitching themselves as the biggest remaining party, their policy is to say that if they were elected as a majority government they would immediately revoke article 50, stop brexit happening altogether, realistically most people don‘t think they will go from 28 seats that they have to be in the majority government. so they say what they would do with every liberal democrat mp elected to parliament is push for another referendum in which they would campaign to remain. but the liberal democrats over the years there‘s always been that issue of whether they are a wasted vote or not, they say absolutely that is not the case but it is very difficult because of the way your support is distributed around the country for them to have that major breakthrough in the number of seats. that is what they are aiming for, what they think isa they are aiming for, what they think is a very clear brexit message. and the argument would be that if you look back on the last parliament,

all those knife edge votes, especially in a hung parliament, it really m ea ns especially in a hung parliament, it really means those mps that are sitting there can‘t make a difference in votes and i think that is what we will be hearing today from jo swinson. as well as her talking about what is the cost of brexit. —— can make a difference. £50 billion better off if the uk stayed in the eu, that‘s going to be theirclaim, stayed in the eu, that‘s going to be their claim, they will say that could be used to fund public services and so, really putting it out there that is the message, it is better to stay in the eu. the institute for fiscal studies has looked at these figures, they say it‘s difficult to economically forecast but it‘s not beyond the realms of possibility that is the case because the economy is projected to be smaller over the coming years, if brexit happens. and asi coming years, if brexit happens. and as i said in the introduction, jo swinson putting herself forward, presenting herself as what she

describes as a credible candidate for prime minister. where is she up to it with trying to make sure she gets involved in the tv leaders debates? we heard from her yesterday, obviously very angry that the suggestion that is on the table at the moment from itv as i head—to—head between borisjohnson and jeremy corbyn. and that she is not included. she says she thinks it‘s partly down to sexism, she says look back at 2010 nick clegg then liberal democrat leader was involved ina liberal democrat leader was involved in a debate with the other parties. so they are taking legal advice, we know that senior members of the party had been to speak to itv executives about all of this. the other argument is that it means during those debates they say there is no clear voice making the case for remaining in the eu because the liberal democrats of course, say the labour party policy is unclear because they are refusing to say at the moment how they would campaign if there were to be another

referendum, and of course boris johnson and the conservatives, him having negotiated the deal, saying he is determined to leave the eu. they say that voice should be represented in these debates so we‘ll have to see if she can make any inroads with that argument but i think a counter argument is people will look and say, you‘re not even the third biggest party at westminster, that is the snp. and despite the volatility of the opinion polls, none showed that the liberal democrats are likely to form the next government, they could of course be part of an arrangement with other parties although they have ruled out working with the labour party so i think it‘s a difficult argument for the liberal democrats. and i think what they are going to try to do is focus it on saying you cannot have a debate where you have two microlitres, both in favour of leaving the eu when thatis in favour of leaving the eu when that is clearly such an important issue during this general election. jo swinson will be hoping to take

votes from the labour party in certain parts of the country and from the conservatives in other parts, won‘t she? from the conservatives in other parts, won't she? yes, this is really interesting about what kind of influence that could have because the suggestion is from 2010, after a 2010 when lots of liberal democrats turned away from the party, more of them went towards the labour party, ican hear them went towards the labour party, i can hear the applause, this is for luciana berger who will do the introduction tojo swinson.

we come together this morning right in the heart of the city of london and westminster constituency where we are campaigning to turn this area yellow. cheering and the fact that we are doing that is a sign of the huge growth of support that we have seen huge growth of support that we have seen within our party, we have thousands more activists. we have thousands more activists. we have thousands more activists. we have thousands more supporters and members. offering our country hope. we are here at an exciting time, and it's also the most serious of times at the moment, we have the opportunity to change our nation 's course but we have an opportunity to change the chaos that we find ourselves in the midst of which could stop brexit. because too many things are not working as they should be, we seek the conservatives and the labour party stuck in the

past, failing time and again to deliver a better future. how often have people in this room been out on the doorstep and heard people not being able to decide which would be the worst option? borisjohnson, fostering a hostile environment in our country or jeremy corbyn, fostering a hostile environment in our country orjeremy corbyn, who has failed to root out anti—semitism in his party. we have two brexiteers who are sowing fear in our communities and to leaders and to parties stuck in the past, failing time and again but thankfully there is another choice. a positive choice, choice that will see us remain in the european union. a liberal democrat government. brexit and build a brighter future. and liberal democrat government. brexit and build a brighterfuture. and i'm so and build a brighterfuture. and i'm so excited to be able to take our

ambitious plan for the future of our country out on the doorstep, out to the country where every person, every community and the planet can thrive, protected future generations, if you work and play by the rules you can secure a happy and fulfilling life, every single person in the community is valued, empowered and cared for. where the relationship between business and our communities in which they operate is reinvented so that they are part of the solution to our biggest challenges, not the problem. it is now my great pleasure to introduce to you a woman who represents our country 's future. and a new way of doing politics. she isa and a new way of doing politics. she is a woman who has proven time and time again that she is willing to stand up and be counted and to be an absolute champion for remainers in our country. ladies and gentlemen, i

give you, the liberal democrat candidate for prime minister, jo swinson! cheering candidate for prime minister, jo swinson! friends, welcome to this liberal democrat campaign launch. and i am excited for the week ahead, i am excited for the week ahead, i am excited to stand here as your candidate for prime minister. because a liberal democrat government. brexit and build a brighterfuture. cheering some people will ask what‘s happened

to the liberal democrats, why are they being so ambitious all of a sudden? we are being ambitious because we can be. and because we have to be. politics is in a state of flux. the fault line is no longer about left versus right. it‘s about values. whether we are open or closed. liberal, authoritarian. the only uncertainty is what will emerge. whether as the two big old tired parties hope that things will go back to business as usual. or whether this is a moment for seismic change. whether a new and different politics can emerge. millions of

voters have that choice in their hands at this election! don‘t let anyone tell you what has to happen. change is possible and you get to choose! the mps like louisiana, sam, who chose to join the liberal democrats, to leave those tired old parties that are stuck in the past andjoin us and parties that are stuck in the past and join us and be part of something new and exciting for our politics and our country, like the millions of voters who chose to elect liberal democrat meps earlier this year, for the first time in a century, seeing the first time in a century, seeing the liberal democrats beat both the conservatives and the labour party ina conservatives and the labour party in a national election. tens of thousands of new liberal democrat members and activists who have

joined our party, swelling art numbers and who are getting stuck m, numbers and who are getting stuck in, some of them already standing to be mps at this election. and why are we experiencing this success? it‘s because of our values, it‘s because thatis because of our values, it‘s because that is what many people feel is under threat. since that referendum result in 2016, it wasn‘tjust about eu institutions or what you thought of the european parliament or the european commission or the european council, it‘s about who we are as a country. it‘s about the choices that we make. whether or not we think it‘s a good thing to work with other countries, with our closest neighbours, to meet our shared challenges. both as the uk family of nations and also in our european union. it‘s about whether you think it makes sense to tackle the climate emergency is 28 countries together,

agreeing and acting in unison, to have more power and more influence to make the changes we need, to save our planet for future generations. it's our planet for future generations. it‘s about whether you think we are better working together to rebalance the relationship between business and society. when you have a power of 500 million consumers together. it's of 500 million consumers together. it‘s about recognising that all four nations of our country are better when we are standing strong together! applause when we are standing strong together! applause scotland, england, wales, northern ireland, our wonderful united kingdom, and i will never stop fighting for it because we are stronger together and it is precious and we must not let people wreck it.

here, here! it's about recognising that immigration is good for our country, it helps our public services, we all benefit from people coming here and contributing to our society. it‘s about realising that society. it‘s about realising that society is stronger from the advances that have been made by feminism, by lgbt rights, by voting against racism. it‘s about recognising that our humanity does not stop at our borders. we have to do that, liberal democrats. this is not a normal election, it‘s not a typical choice about whether you wa nt typical choice about whether you want the red team or the blue team to be in government for a few more yea rs. to be in government for a few more years. in other times, to be in government for a few more years. in othertimes, in to be in government for a few more years. in other times, in these circumstances, liberal democrats

might have looked to double our seats, maybe a bit more. our country needs us to be more ambitious right now and we are rising to that challenge. because this choice is about the future of our country for generations to come. it is not about the red team of the blue team because on this issue, they merge into one, both the labour party and the conservatives want to negotiate and deliver brexit. i‘ve never thought i would stand here and say that i am a candidate to be prime minister. but when i look at boris johnson and jeremy corbyn i am absolutely certain i could do a betterjob than either of them! cheering absolutely certain i could do a betterjob than either of them! cheering

andi and i am determined that we do this. determined to do everything that we can because i will not let the future of my children, of all of our children be wrecked because someone said there are unwritten rules on politics, that the liberal democrats cannotaim politics, that the liberal democrats cannot aim for government, anyone who says that is wrong, this is an election, it‘s about choice and people can choose a liberal democrat government! and we know borisjohnson only cares about boris johnson. he and we know borisjohnson only cares about borisjohnson. he is not fit to be prime minister. he has always

put his own interests ahead of the national interest. even way back to when he decided which side he was going to back in the referendum campaign. most people picked a side because of what they believed and genuinely argued for that position. not borisjohnson, genuinely argued for that position. not boris johnson, no, genuinely argued for that position. not borisjohnson, no, no, he rode two different colu m ns not borisjohnson, no, no, he rode two different columns and looked which gave him the best opportunity to be prime minister, but more do you need to know about him being unfit to be prime minister? he lied to the queen, he lied to parliament and he lied to the country and we note that this election, he will head around the country, trying to flog his bad brexit deal but we all know the damage that that will do to our economy. with his big lies, his brash promises and his attitude to women, it‘s clear borisjohnson is

modelling himself on, donald trump! of course, donald trump thinks that boris is a wonderful guy, a great gentleman. i‘m not sure donald trump is the best arbiter of who is a gentle man but britain deserves better. then britainpos macdonald tram. and jeremy corbyn. where do we start? jeremy corbyn will not give you a straight answer on the biggest issue facing this country. it is clear about for labour is about four brexit. every single timejeremy corbyn refuses to say whether he would vote to remain or leave, it‘s clear that remainers cannot trust jeremy corbyn with their votes. borisjohnson jeremy corbyn with their votes. boris johnson says jeremy corbyn with their votes. borisjohnson says he wants to get

brexit done, just this morning jeremy corbyn was in parliament giving a speech about how he would get brexit sorted. spot the difference. red or blue, it‘s all brexit, it‘s all bad for our country. and wanting to stay in europe is about choosing the kind of country that we want to be. whether we are open or closed, whether we are generous or selfish, whether we stand united with our friends or stand united with our friends or stand alone in the world. whether we say no to the populace and the white house and the kremlin or whether we fight for our children ‘s future or gamble with their chance in life. we can have hope, it can‘t be different, we can stop brexit and we liberal democrats. brexit!

applause brexit! applause and when we stop brexit we will be able to use a bremain bonus to invest in public service, we are the only party standing up to say we. brexit and build a brighterfuture. and everyone knows brexit has taken longer and cost more than anyone said that it would. but any type of brexit will damage our economy will cost jobs brexit will damage our economy will costjobs and brexit will damage our economy will cost jobs and starve brexit will damage our economy will costjobs and starve our public services of the resources that they need. so we know that the remaining bonus will be £50 billion that we can spend on our public services, investing in our schools and in the welfare system to help the poorest in our society, so every vote for the liberal democrats is a vote to stop brexit and invest that £50 billion in our public services.

because for too many people, things aren‘t working like they should be, our country needs change. because too often, working hard and playing by the rules is not enough. not enough to guarantee a happy and secure future for themselves and theirfamily. secure future for themselves and their family. one secure future for themselves and theirfamily. one in five people in theirfamily. one in five people in the uk are living in poverty. of which 4.6 million are children. when i think of the constituents that i‘ve seen in my surgery, having to wait five weeks to get the universal credit payments, relying on charity and goodwill of neighbours to make ends meet. in the interim. when you think about the chances in life that people have come at the life expectancy of a baby boy born down the road in kensington and chelsea, nine years longer than a baby boy born in blackpool. we can do better. our country can be better, my vision

is to have a country where if someone is to have a country where if someone works hard and plays by the rules, they are rewarded with a decent home, enough money to get by and live with dignity. where every child and young person is nurtured and supported to become whoever they wa nt to and supported to become whoever they want to be, no matter who their pa rents want to be, no matter who their parents are, how much money they have of the colour of their skin. where the most vulnerable can always get the help they need to come up with nojudgment get the help they need to come up with no judgment or sanction. get the help they need to come up with nojudgment or sanction. where every single person can be themselves, be who they are and thrive in our society. we all achieve more when we do it together, achieve more when we do it together, a brighterfuture achieve more when we do it together, a brighter future is achieve more when we do it together, a brighterfuture is possible. so many people have felt a dismay in recent yea rs many people have felt a dismay in recent years when they look at our politics but i know we can be better than this stock there is a brighter future possible. so at this election, vote liberal democrat to

stop brexit and build a brighter future. applause cheering applause cheering. the leader of the liberal democrats jo swinson launching their election campaign and we stick with this so you can hear some questions posed to herfrom members you can hear some questions posed to her from members of the you can hear some questions posed to herfrom members of the media. you can hear some questions posed to her from members of the media.” think we have some members of the media. laura. thank you, you said this morning you want to bring the country together. how would you do that if your plan is to disregard the vote of millions of people in the vote of millions of people in the referendum of 2016? whether

that's campaigning to stop brexit in another referendum if you achieved your dream of another referendum if you achieved yourdream ofa another referendum if you achieved your dream of a majority revoking it altogether without even having another public vote ? altogether without even having another public vote? as liberal democrats we are standing up for what we believe in and being very honest and straightforward about that. i recognise there are differences of opinion on this issue andi differences of opinion on this issue and i think people recognise and appreciate that we are consistent and we are firm in what we are standing for. i think it‘s also true that there is very little reason to have confidence, there is a majority in this country for any specific brexit path. theresa may ‘s brexit wasn‘t acceptable to boris johnson. borisjohnson ‘s wasn‘t acceptable to boris johnson. boris johnson ‘s brexit wasn‘t acceptable to boris johnson. borisjohnson ‘s brexit isn‘t a cce pta ble borisjohnson ‘s brexit isn‘t acceptable to nigel farage, there isn‘t a brexit that commands the majority. we want to stop brexit and if we get a majority liberal democrat government that is exactly

what we will do. and we have led the campaignfora what we will do. and we have led the campaign for a people ‘s vote which would put a specific brexit deal to the public and say, these are the details, this is what has been negotiated, do you want to go ahead with that specific brexit deal? and i believe in those circumstances people would vote to remain because i don‘t think there is a majority for any specific brexit deal. robert. hello. can you tell me when in history a party has come from your position in the opinion polls to win a general election and form government? isn't the truth that your enthusiasm for triggering a general election was about winning a few extra seats but at the potential cost of delivering the brexit you say that you hate. not at all. we have been motivated by how we can

best stop brexit and we have campaigned for a people ‘s vote, we have put down amendments in in parliament 17 times and if others had wholeheartedly got behind that we might have been having a peoples vote on a brexit deal instead of a general election. but it was important that we did not raise the extension that was granted by the european union because there were no guarantees that there would be a further extension and so, it became the case that a general election is now the best route to stopping brexit. you mention history, i mean, a few years ago the canadian liberal party came from third place in the opinion polls to win a majority. stranger things have happened in our own country, i vividly remember at the 2015 general election when the snp went from six up to 56 seats in scotland, i think and i believe politics is different now because

that fault line has shifted. and it is in the hands of the people of this country to decide how that changes but that change is absolutely possible and that is why we are standing here today and we are setting out our ambitious plans for a liberal democrat government. laura from sky. hello. a lot of talk about television debates at the moment, you agree to our debate, what is your message to boris johnson and jeremy corbyn? my message is i hope to see you there or if not, what are you afraid of? asi or if not, what are you afraid of? as i said to boris in parliament last week, are you worried about taking ona last week, are you worried about taking on a girly swot? thank you to skype for recognising the nature of the debate and the choice facing our country at this election. i think it is ridiculous to suggest that the country is well served by a debate between two men who want to leave

the european union, squabbling over how they will do it. applause how they will do it. applause that voice will remain, that i stand here is liberal democrat leader, i cannot wait to take on borisjohnson and jeremy corbyn in that debate. mike from the herald? hello. injuly, nick clegg said that brexit would mean the clock is ticking on the end of the united kingdom. do you agree with nick? laughter often, but not always. look, ithink it is fairto

often, but not always. look, ithink it is fair to say that we are in a dangerous time for our united kingdom. and i particularly recognise that the deal that boris johnson has brought back, where he stood and said he would never accept, never as conservative prime minister, except a border in the rsc and that is exactly what he has come back with. —— the irish sea. he has been prepared to sell at the people of northern ireland because everything is about him and him being prime minister and that‘s what imean being prime minister and that‘s what i mean when he says —— when i say he does not care about anything else. as you know, i am a strong supporter of our united kingdom, scotland playing our full role of our united kingdom, scotland playing ourfull role in of our united kingdom, scotland playing our full role in the united kingdom and i genuinely believe we are stronger as those four nations, working in partnership together and the reason i believe we are better with scotland in the uk is the same reason why we believe the uk is better in the european union. it is that you achieve more. we are going

to stick with this election launch. if you wonder where itjeremy corbyn is, he hasn‘t started his brexit speech yet, that‘s one of his mps. warming upfor speech yet, that‘s one of his mps. warming up for him, bbc newsroom live is next. it is now only the liberal democrats standing upfor it is now only the liberal democrats standing up for the united kingdom and keeping the united kingdom together. you have the snp trying to break up the uk. we have a labour party aiding and abetting them in that and the conservatives‘ brexit deal undermining the relationship with northern ireland and the rest of the united kingdom. these are dangerous times but we are determined to stand up for the united kingdom. gary, channel4? no? fine. andy from five news? thanks

very