hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 2. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign ido i do not want an early election. no one much wants to have an election in december but we got to the stage because we had no choice because our parliament is paralysed. on the campaign trail, jeremy corbyn tells supporters the country will see real change if labour wins the election. the man accused of murdering british backpacker grace millane goes on trial in new zealand — he claims her death was accidental.

the police ban on protests by the climate group extinction rebellion across london last month, is ruled unlawful in the high court. nicola adams has announced her retirement. and the weather. we have been looking at the latest climate statistics. and also the forecast over the next few days with particularly heavy rain for england and north wales. thanks, chris. also coming up — anger as firefighters responding to an out—of—control bonfire are attacked by a gang of young people throwing fireworks.

idid not i did not define what young actually meant there. we will talk about that later on. hello, everyone — this is afternoon live. it's not what anyone would want minutes before they launch their election campaign. as borisjohnson prepared to address voters from downing street — the news that a cabinet minister was resigning. welsh secretary alun cairns quit following claims he knew about a former aide‘s role in the collapse of a rape trial. certainly not the best start for a campaign which was launched after mrjohnson met the queen to mark the dissolution of parliament. we now face five weeks of campaigning — the prime minister saying he has no choice but to hold an election, because parliament is paralysed. for labour, jeremy corbyn told supporters this morning that the country will see real change if his party wins on december 12th. this report from our political correspondent chris mason. this is what the official start of a general election

campaign looks like. the prime minister went to see the queen at buckingham palace this morning and then he made the most of the backdrop of what he still hopes to call home after polling day to make his pitch. i have just been to see her majesty the queen earlier on and she agreed to dissolve parliament for an election. i want you to know that i don't want an early election, no one much wants to have an election in december, but we have got to the stage where we have no choice because our parliament is paralysed, it has been stuck in a rut for three and a half years, and i am afraid our mps arejust refusing time and again to deliver brexit and honour the mandate of the people. if we can get this deal over the line, with a sensible majority government, we certainly can, then we can

release that pent—up flood of investment, hundreds of billions are waiting to pour into the uk and we can inject a surge of confidence into our system. but moments before, this, the prime minister's welsh secretary alun cairns resigning from the cabinet. he had denied he knew about a former aide‘s role in the sabotage of a rape trial, but bbc wales discovered he had been e—mailed about it. he had been a cabinet minister for three years and said he was confident he would be cleared of any wrongdoing. the conservatives have had a bumpy start to this campaign, notjust this cabinet resignation, but being forced to defend a doctored video put out on social media and two of their politicians forced to apologise after remarks widely seen as crass about the grenfell tower fire. they are now trying to focus on their big picture message,

as are labour, as the two main candidates to be prime minister slugged it out. jeremy corbyn has been in telford in shropshire, a must win seat for labourand said... i will be proud to be a labour prime minister. but i have to warn you, it will be very different. it will be a very different way of doing things. because i was not born to rule. he promised to scrap university tuition fees, end rough sleeping, in work poverty and the need forfood banks and added... judge us on whether we have built hundreds of thousands of genuinely affordable homes so that decent and secure housing is within the reach of everyone. judge us on whether patients are still waiting more than four hours in a&e departments and tens of thousands are waiting months for cancer treatment. judge us on whether we have got brexit sorted within six months by offering the people the final say. who do you prefer?

mr corbyn, mrjohnson or one of the other party leaders? it will be your call in five weeks‘ time. let's speak to our chief political correspondent vicki young, who's in downing street. that's where borisjohnson launched his campaign. that was a good start? these parties have election grids. you can be pretty sure that day one, cabinet minister resignation was not on the conservative party grid for this election. yesterday, a difficult day, this story was bubbling away, a lot of people thought alun cairns would be forced into resigning over this. there was also jacob rees—mogg going on the radio and suggesting that victims of grenfell tower if they had had common sense would have simply left the building against the advice of the fire service, and that has not gone down well, as you can imagine. parties have ideas of what they want to talk about, what they

wa nt to they want to talk about, what they want to do, it shows you cannot a lwa ys want to do, it shows you cannot always keep it on track. the only saving grace for the conservatives at this point is that they are at the beginning of the campaign, polling day does seem a very long way off. we have heard in the last few minutes from that labour leader jeremy corbyn, responding to the resignation of alun cairns. first of all, there is a victim here. that victim needs to be apologised to and supported. secondly, if he is resigning because of his behaviour, involvement in this as the secretary of state, should he not also resign his conservative —— resign as conservative party candidate in this election? he has said he is going to stand as a candidate. you think that should not be allowed? obviously he legally can't stand as a candidate, but if he is stepping down as a minister because of his involvement, i would have thought the least the conservative party can do is not put him up as a candidate in the next

election. on the resignation of alun cairns it is fair to say that most people would not be able to put a name to the face? yes, in wales at a slightly different, he has been welsh secretary for a long time, appointed under david cameron, served under theresa may, and has served under borisjohnson theresa may, and has served under boris johnson until now. theresa may, and has served under borisjohnson until now. for the next few weeks for the conservatives, lots of candidates are looking towards wales as a place where the conservatives think they could do well. they are pessimistic about their chances in scotland thinking they will lose some seats there. when you say to them, where will you pick up seats, given that liberal democrats are putting you under pressure in areas of the south, they do say that they think wales is a bit of an opportunity for them. whether this has an impact on their chances there could end up being quite significant. a sense that labour have at least kicked off the campaign with some momentum, but as you say, five weeks is an awfully long time. it certainly feels it at this stage.

you cannot be weary already. we are just started. we have got to keep going until december. what is interesting today is borisjohnson coming out here and, as far as we know, he is not planning on taking questions, no press conference, he can at least try to set the agenda, thatis can at least try to set the agenda, that is what he did, coming out here making that speech. striking how much he was on the attack, talking about labour, saying it is all about about labour, saying it is all about a choice, camera fans, the conservatives, we are offering you a very different kind of economy, for example. and hitting out atjeremy corbyn saying that left—wing labour party will bring huge tax rises, uncontrolled immigration, that's jeremy corbyn sided with president putin of russia. whatever you think about this election it is the case there are some stark choices. you cannot say certainly that all politicians are offering the same thing. we are equally invigorated over this

campaign, do not get me wrong. i will talk to you later on. thank you. liberal democrat leader jo swinson has been campaigning in north london, pledging extra resources for mental health care if her party is in government. ms swinson said her party would invest £11 billion into mental health care as she launched her election ‘battle bus‘ campaign and visited a charity. the snp leader nicola sturgeon says demand for a scottish independence referendum will become "irresistible" if the snp wins the majority of scottish seats at the general election. speaking to the bbc this morning — scotland's first minister said she intended to hold another vote on independence next year and said the idea politicians at westminster can prevent a referendum is starting to "crumble". the brexit party leader nigel farage has been campaigning in workington in cumbria this morning. he told a rally that borisjohnson‘s new deal with the eu was 95% the same as theresa may's deal — which was rejected by mps three times.

he also said that labour would betray leave voters. in the next few minutes we will have questions, that is within the next 20 minutes. let's return to the resignation of welsh secretary alun cairns. laura mcallister is professor of public policy at cardiff university. your reaction to this announcement? it isa your reaction to this announcement? it is a mixture of surprise it has happened now and some confusion over what happens next because i think we got to the point, this has been a story running for quite some time in wales, and through the welsh media, but it does hit the network media over the last 48 hours. it seemed that alun cairns would try to tough it out but i suspect what has happened overnight as pressure has been put on him to resign in order to stop derailing the launch of the conservative election campaign. i think what we are trying to get our

heads around here is whether he will be allowed to stand as a candidate in the vale of glamorgan in the forthcoming election. and all it was not dealt with in the same and all it was not dealt with in the sa m e letter and all it was not dealt with in the same letter that dealt with resignation as a cabinet minister, but that coming minutes before boris johnson was launching the party campaign in downing street. how damaging is it? they could not have been a worse start to the conservative campaign. not just this, the comments ofjacob rees—mogg, and other comments made regarding wales by another candidate ina target regarding wales by another candidate in a target seat. it has been and inauspicious start to the campaign in wales. what is important is that wales is a battle ground this time for the conservatives. there are a swathe of seats in the north—west of wales and the south and west were the conservatives are looking to make a breakthrough and gain those seats from labour, and the need to win those seats if they are going to come anywhere close to winning a

majority after this election. could there be other political casualties asa there be other political casualties as a result of this particular scandal? if so, who will be running the campaign in wales? that is a good question. it is when we have been talking about since we heard of the resignation because in all honesty we were expecting alun cairns our secretary of state for wales to be front and centre of that welsh tory campaign here. there is a welsh tory campaign here. there is a welsh leader in the assembly, paul davies, but he is a very recent —— he is very recently in that position and does not have the profile to front the campaign and in any case asa front the campaign and in any case as a representative of the devolved candidate —— the devolved assembly. it is hard to imagine if alun cairns stays on as a candidate he could also run alongside a new leader of the conservative campaign here in wales. it makes me suspect we might be seeing this as a holding position. as you said, wales is

going to be a front line in the coming weeks, how big an issue as the overarching issue of brexit in wales ? the overarching issue of brexit in wales? it is a very big issue like the remainder of the united kingdom. wales voted marginally in favour of leave. the reason this election is so leave. the reason this election is so unpredictable is because we see a much greater voter volatility and bc this new identity of remain and leave and none of us know how that will play out. but we do know that if borisjohnson will play out. but we do know that if boris johnson is will play out. but we do know that if borisjohnson is to gain a majority, which of course is why the election has been called, he has to gain some seats in wales. with all respect he could not have got off to a much worse start today. thank you very much. the climate activist group extinction rebellion has won a legal challenge against the metropolitan police, following the force's decision to ban the group protesting across the capital.

lawyers for extinction rebellion say the met now faces claims for false imprisonment from potentially hundreds of protestors. richard lister has more. what do we want? climate justice! the extinction rebellion autumn uprising shut down large sections of london last month and led to more than 1800 arrests. the protesters used tactics to stretch police resources to the limit and the police eventually responded by clearing the demonstrators' camps and using the public order act to declare the whole protest illegal. but the protesters took the police to court saying they had no right to shut them down. today two high court judges agreed saying, and the police had acted unlawfully. we are delighted with today's result. it vindicates our belief that the police's blanket ban

was an unprecedented and now unlawful infringement on our right to protest. it is a victory for those who want to draw the government's attention to what scientists have been telling us for decades. metropolitan police figures show around 400 protesters were arrested after the ban was imposed. some may now be able to sue the police. among them, an mep. it's actually a really important case because it's about defending the right to assembly and public protest and those are fundamental cornerstones of a functioning democracy. so it's very important that we won today and i'm very happy. the police say their actions were reasonable and proportionate. but they accept the judgment. we are disappointed by the ruling but clearly we absolutely respect the court's decision and what we need to do now i think is in slow time carefully consider what it means for us and review our tactics in light of it. our planet is in crisis... and extinction rebellion has not gone away. the actorjim carter is one of the celebrities

in this new video campaign. but the ruling today means the next street protests will be harder for police to stop. richard lister, bbc news. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. borisjohnson had an audience with the queen at buckingham palace, marking the start of the election period. a police ban on protests by extinction rebellion across london last month was unlawful, according to the high court. the two—time olympic champion nicola adams resigns from boxing overfears she could lose her sight. and saracens could be found to have won their last two titles unfairly.

and tottenham and manchester city play tonight in the champions league. before that arsenal have an afternoon kick—off in the europa league but bill be without —— but will be without xhaka. the green party insisted that some things were bigger than brexit and the selection must be about the climate. they launch this ambitious plan. today i am proud to announce that the green party will invest £100 billion per year into climate action over the next decade. let us have a look at that. in total that is around £1 trillion in ten years, a large number. to put it in context, the annual cost would be

similarto context, the annual cost would be similar to the entire education budget which this year was 103 billion. where would the money come from? they are proposing that 9% would come from tax changes including a rise in corporation tax. and that the rest, the vast majority needed, it would come from borrowing. this year an estimated £55 billion will be borrowed but that green party would increase borrowing to more than £140 billion per year, the highest level since 2012 as a proportion of national income, according to researchers at the institute for fiscal studies. the party are calling it a green new deal. it's means re—carbon rising every single sector of the economy. energy, industry, agriculture, transport, and housing. it is rapidly rolling out renewable energy in britain so that we are net zero carbon by 2030. eliminating carbon by2030

carbon by 2030. eliminating carbon by 2030 is 20 years sooner than the current target, which many experts would regard as extremely ambitious. a new feature, your, questions answered. you will hear a lot of this on the bbc news channel and website. we are keen for you to get in touch... today our chief political correspondent is on hand to answer questions.

is the number of mps stepping down at this election higher than usual? this in the context of having another election only two years ago. that is a point here. it is below average. itjust that is a point here. it is below average. it just feels that is a point here. it is below average. itjust feels like a lot of them. by last night it was 66, today conservative ed vaizey said he was standing down. i think we are at 67, lower than average, but given we have had three elections in five yea rs, have had three elections in five years, turnover is increasing quite a bit. particularly on the conservative side it has felt like a number of conservatives with similar views on brexit have been standing down, that is why it has felt different this time. the second question, do mps still get paid during the election? sorry, am i boring you? are you on the phone? i cannot remember all this.

bear with me. do mps still get paid during the election period they have to do any work? well, they do still get paid. they have salary just over well, they do still get paid. they have salaryjust over £79,000, they get paid right up until polling day. there is no obligation on them to do any work, which is the same all of the time. they will say they work incredibly hard. during an election campaign if they are in a marginal seat they will be knocking on peoples doors and doing an awful lot of work. they would say that they will be working but there is no obligation for them to do so. there are different amounts of money that they are paid. if you are in charge ofa they are paid. if you are in charge of a select committee then you get paid more, for example. another question... the date when you will know for sure is 14th of november but lots of

candidates have already been selected. it is an ongoing process. a lot of them will have already printed campaign literature, you might have had some come through your door, you might have even seen the candidate knocking at your door and answering your questions at the absolute cut—off point is 14th of november. when it comes to how they are selected, it is a party political process. it tends to be centralised in the sense that candidates have to be vetted and put ona candidates have to be vetted and put on a centralised list and then that local parties decide who it is that they would like. that process is still going on, particularly in seats, ed vaizey onlyjust announced he has standing down. question four... you have to be 18 which correlates with the age when you can't vote. you have to be a british, irish or eligible commonwealth citizen. there

are some people who cannot stand for elections, for example peers, those in the house of lords cannot stand to be an mp. civil servants, military personnel, judges, cannot stand. the last one in 2017 cost taxpayers £140 million. then you have that party spending which is separate. 75 parties and 15 campaign groups reported spending £41.6 million between them. it is quite an expensive business when you think about how to set up polling stations. every party is able to send a mail shot which is paid for as well. quite a lot of expenses there. most of its taxpayer funded.

this is a pertinent one because there are a number of mps who are suspended at the moment from their party. that is the crucial thing there. we have some mps, as of yesterday, when parliament was still sitting, who were sitting as independents, because they had had the party whip withdrawn. that meant they were no longer members of the parliamentary party that they are m, parliamentary party that they are in, that normally means they cannot stand as a candidate for that party. there is nothing to stop them standing as an independent candidate. it is much harder to get elected as an independent candidate without party backing that you really need, that's party machine behind you, but it does happen. even this morning, labour ruling on couple of their independent suspended mps are allowed to stand. on two of those situations they have said that they cannot.

iam i am pretty sure they will not because as borisjohnson keeps telling as he has managed to get an agreed deal with the eu. those negotiations all took place. that deal, as we now famously known, was done, but then never progressed through the house of commons. it is just sitting there waiting to see who comes back as prime minister. have you got any questions? i was worried she would come up with some actually. i will do it the official way. use the hashtag bbc your questions. we will be back to you later. thank you. let as get a look at the weather. we have been doing some number crunching on global temperatures.

this map shows that global temperatures that we had in october. you will notice there is a lot of orange on the charts. one thing people get confused about, climate change, global warming, it people get confused about, climate change, globalwarming, it is people get confused about, climate change, global warming, it is a global phenomenon. you look at this chart, all the orange places is where we have above average temperatures, in october, we had a cooler october than average. but if you take the planet as a whole, for october, temperatures were zero point six above average, according to this data, the eu satellite monitoring system. 0.69. it is the arctic that is the problem. this is a consistent signal always with climate change because there are feedback loops you. normally... i will explain this. normally the active regions are covered in ice.

ice is white and shiny. the suns energy and light hits that, it gets bounced out into space. on a warming planet as that ice shrivels and shrinks away you get darker emotions underneath and that absorbs more of the energy of the sun, as the ice clears away the planets can absorb more of that sun's energy and that is why the arctic is warming up more quickly than any other part of the planets. that is fascinating. what else have you been looking at? another way of looking at this kind of climate change data, i will ask you a question, you love these things. look at the consecutive number of months above the 20th century average temperature, how many consecutive months do you think temperatures have been above the 20th century average? i haven't got a clue. 20? no. september 2019, that is where the data goes, american forecasters,

it was 470 consecutive months. month after month after month. you said about one year and a half. it is 34 years since we have had below average temperature globally, comparing with the average of the 20th century. not good. you have got some warnings about the weather this week. yes, it looks that we will see problems in terms of rain. as far as that weather goes we had a decent start to the day. some sunshine. since then the cloud has been gathering, spreading across the south. it is not dry everywhere. we are starting to see rain arrive across northern ireland, western parts of england and, showers in scotland. from there overnight the rain will

continue to push its way eastwards, the heaviest moving across for northern ireland, wales, into the midlands and south—east england, showers will continue to affect scotla nd showers will continue to affect scotland from time to time. given more cloud in the sky it will not be quite as cold a night as last night. tomorrow's weather looks like it could cause some issues in terms of rain. the area that will see the heaviest and most persistent rain is in this swathe of northern england and also north wales, that is where we could see issues, further north, a view showers. heavy showers for the south of england from time to time. a cool day for the time of year. but this area of rain is likely to cause issues because it will not stop raining until friday morning, we have got 24 hours of rain across parts of northern england and north

wales and a lot of rain is forecast in that spell. 20—40 millimetres widely, 60—80 above high ground. this increases the risk of localised flooding and impacts across these areas. eventually the area of low pressure will start to slip away into france. friday, a slow process, we will still have cloud and patches of rain affecting parts of eastern england even into the afternoon. otherwise, sunshine further north and west words. it's will be another cool day for the time of year. the weekend weather prospects? saturday, more cloud, more rain on the way. it could be cold enough for a little bit of snow on the highest hills in northern england and scotland. sunday the better of the two days. staying chilly. pictures for many staying in single figures this weekend.

this is bbc news — our latest headlines. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. i don't want an early election and no one much wants to have an election in december but we've got to the stage where we have no choice because our parliament is paralysed. on the campaign trail, jeremy corbyn tells supporters the country will see real change if labour wins the election. the man accused of murdering british

backpacker grace millane goes on trial in new zealand — he claims her death was an accident during consensual sex. the police ban on protests by the climate group extinction rebellion across london last month, is ruled unlawful in the high court. sport now on afternoon live with kate sha na han. her with kate shanahan. first appearance on afternoon live. another retirement from boxing but this is a very significant one? yes, the double olympic champion nicola adams has announced her retirement from boxing at the age of 37. this has come as a bit of surprise, as we saw her boxing only 6 weeks ago, where she retained her wbo world flyweight title. but she's decided to retire due to the risk of going blind in one of her eyes. she's said, "hanging up my gloves was always going to be hard, but i have neverfelt luckier. and, i'm so immensely proud of how far the sport has come." now, adams isn't the only british boxer

to have retired this week. the former world lightweight champion anthony crolla fought for the final time on saturday. he told my colleague sally nugent that it's not easy for fighters to know when the time is right. it so hard to let go and so many fighters carry on too long, we see it time and time again and then boxing then, it has an effect on your health in later life. you've got to get out at the right time and i believe that that's what i've done. i'm probably not the fighter i was a few years ago and, you know, you hang on too long trying to pick up you hang on too long trying to pick up paydays and it comes across, certainly when you see like nicola adams, she's made such that sensible decision. her eyesight is in danger. to achieve everything she has, she can walk away proud and boxing has taken very little from her. she ends up

taken very little from her. she ends up with life ending injuries, that wouldn't be worth it. is that a conversation you have had with your own family? yes, conversations with my family, own family? yes, conversations with le own family? yes, conversations with my family, people close to me who would advise me. that's why i believe now is the right time. boxing will always be a huge part of my life and i'll always have that hunger of being a fighter but i'll try and fill it in different ways now, through coaching and stuff like that. antony crolla there. so, nicola adams, will go down in history winning commonwealth, european and world titles as an amater. and then her rio 2016 gold medal, saw her become the first british boxer for 92 years to retain an olympic title. quite some story. and a great personality, too. let's talk about rugby. reaction to that whopping punishment for saracens? saracens have pulled out of attending the european champions cup launch in cardiff today, that's following yesterday's salary cap revelations.

so, sarries are facing a 35 point penalty and a fine of over £5 million. it's comes after an inquiry into "business link—ups" between chairman nigel wray and some players. but now, the exeter director of rugby, rob baxter says that saracens will have won their last two titles "unfairly" if their appeal against breaching salary cap rules fails. exeter lost the last two premiership finals to saracens. here's what baxter had to say about the accusations becoming public... probably pleased that it's kind of out in the public. i think most people who have been involved with building squads and doing contracts and trying to keep players, trying to recruit players, especially over a number of years, you see the changes in the market and the way things work, probably have known for quite some while that squad has not been put together and kept together and improved and added on in a way

that has been possible purely within what the salary cap regulations layout. liverpool managerjurgen klopp says he doesn't yet know how they will play two games in two days next month. he side face aston villa in the carabao cup quarterfinal on the 17th of december before playing the club world cup semifinal in qatar the next day. it's within a 37 day period where they play 12 games across four competitions. we cannot carry on like this. so, come on, that's why i ask for a solution. these solutions so far, they sound to me like another problem and that's not... yeah, not a solution. that's all the sport for now. i will have more for you in the next hour. thank you very much, kate. nice to see you. now, misleading politics stories go viral all the time.

but how do they start? and how does such fake news end up being accepted by many as reality? marianna spring from bbc trending has been looking into how one fake story — involving liberal democrat leaderjo swinson and her husband duncan hames — became one of the most—shared politics stories in the first few days of this election campaign. thank you for coming in. how did you find out about this story going viral? essentially we came across it in lots of facebook groups. a lot of people were mentioning it and commenting on it. we also had an e—mail sent in to us when we were working on another story. if you look atjo swinson's twitter account there are mentions and references to this story, essentially they think jo swinson supports remain because the eu gives money to her husband's company that he himself apparently pockets, which is obviously untrue. the interesting thing about this story, it begins from real facts which are framed in a certain way and become a misleading story as a consequence. what we decided to do was trace the story back,

particularly because it had such a big reach. it's been a by 248 different pages, close to 50,000 interactions, people sharing it, commenting on it and liking it. a reach of potentially 1.5 million people, a lot of people. it is. how does it again, what is the process? essentially what happened is, we had a look and found its first mention on twitter at the end of september. someone had tweeted some screenshots and just saying the facts that are there, that yes, transparency international, the company duncan hames works well, receives 4 million euros from the eu but that is the burning branch, not the uk branch that duncan hames works for. duncan hames‘ branch in the uk receive some money but it is less than that. so it's not wrong but it is utterly misleading? exactly. the implication is he pockets the money that they give but it's really common for ngos and charities to get money from the

eu and he does not own the company. he is not going to be taking this money personally, it goes into the company accounts. the initial tweet lays bare the fact he works at this company and they receive money from the eu and implies... the person who tweeted it is an account called henry viii, who told us he was a welshman, an italian man living in wales. he said all these facts are true but at the end of his tweet, he does say, oh, well, this is why they love the eu. it is that linking of these two independent facts that don't relate to each other that is a problem. it spirals and there was a viral post on facebook that had 14,000 shares and leave the eu picked it up, they have a lot people that like their page, they made a meme about it. 18,000 shares and all sorts of comments. then these alternative news platforms. they will often put their own spin on a story, which is what happened. one of the sites we spoke to, they did claim this was a family company,

which is obviously not true. that is how it snowballs and there are still loads of people talking about it online even today. here we are, going into an election campaign. what does this teach us about the disinformation and what we should be looking out for? what it teaches us is when it comes to fake news, we'll think about the bogey monster, things are completely untrue and that have come out of nowhere. essentially, misinformation is much more about facts being taken out of context more about facts being taken out of co ntext a nd more about facts being taken out of context and framed in a certain way to point to inaccurate conclusions. what we have to do is be really careful about what we believe and where it has come from and making sure that there are not kind of small inaccuracies in the long run can create this chinese whispers online and a storyjust snowballs and becomes completely different from what it began as. it only takes people to retweet what they don't check out themselves and that is the snowball effect? exactly and these facebook groups are massive, they have thousands of members and in

some cases tens of thousands of members. so a lot of people see this content and are sharing and not necessarily interrogating where it came from and who said it and if it makes sense. really good to see you, thank you. we will talk to you later, thank you. well, this isn't the only case of fake news around today. the conservatives have posted a misleading edited video suggesting labour's shadow brexit secretary couldn't answer a question posed on good morning britain by piers morgan. here it is. well, that was the edited video — and now here's an unedited clip of part of the interview. why would the eu give you a good deal if they know that you're going to actively campaign against it, which is clearly what most of you are going to be doing? well, piers, i've been talking to the eu, to political leaders across the eu 27 countries, for three years. i know very well what the parameters are of any deal they would do

with a labour government. that was keir starmer. well, speaking on bbc breakfast this morning, conservative james cleverly defended the video. that was a humorous video, which was edited down, as all social media videos are, from a longerform interview that was done on the tv. what that video is highlighting is the chaotic nature of the labour party's position on brexit. it was done tongue—in—cheek. it was obviously light—hearted, i mean, the music soundtrack demonstrated the fact it was light—hearted. it was fake, it was faked. we also posted the long form interview that took place, so people can see the whole interview as well as our shorter, as i say, it was a distilled, synthesised, humorous video that we put alongside. well, to look at this further is charlotte henry — author of not buying it — the facts behind fake news.

nice to see you. nice to see you. it was fake? it was edited in a way that totally misrepresented what happened, yes. by definition, fake news? yes, i think so, fake news is deliberately done to get political 01’ deliberately done to get political orfinancial gain. the deliberately done to get political or financial gain. the conservatives we re or financial gain. the conservatives were seeking to gain politically from this. i try and make a point of perhaps never agreeing with piers morgan but i think it's fair to say that his point was... keir starmer did answer the question fluently and competently, whether you agree with his answer or not. the video that the conservatives point out made it look like he didn't have an answer and that doesn't reflect reality. there are lots of this type of video online already. the shock perhaps would be if... a party itself or a broadcaster indulged in this. is that where the line should be drawn? i think that where the line should be drawn? ithinka

that where the line should be drawn? i think a party is indulging in it because the conservatives put this out on their official social media channels. we have seenjames cleverley, the chairman of the conservative party, going out and doing the media rounds today trying to defend and say it was humorous, it was all done as a bit of fun. i don't think that's the way to respond to this. i also think it was a bit disingenuous of him to say that because the conservatives put the full clip out at some point in their social media, that made it ok. that's not really how social media works. 20,000 people, the fake one was seen works. 20,000 people, the fake one was seen by many more. there you go. are all the parties doing this sort of thing? well, i think all campaigners and people in politics have always pushed the line for quite some time, haven't they? but i think this is quite a blatant... use a blatant, how do you spot it? what has been good i think as people are now calling this stuff out. he spoke to your colleague before his spent some time really digging into a fake

news story and that is really important, that mainstream journalists are spending time calling this stuff out. i think the point was made about there being a grain in truth as some of these noises really, really important. i think the way you have to do is but it is actually, we all have to do a little bit of our own research and actually it was incumbent on broadcasters like the bbc, actually, to ta ke broadcasters like the bbc, actually, to take the time to say, actually, no, this isn't true. there is a little bit of a distrust issue and i appreciate that, but the only way to combat fake news, ifeel, is a bit media literacy from all of us and perhaps a little bit more pushback from some of the more mainstream journalists as well. charlotte, really interesting, thank you for coming in. three labour mps — including the mp for derby north chris williamson — who was suspended in a row about anti—semitism — have been banned from standing for the party by its national

executive committee. jarrow mp stephen hepburn was being investigated over a sexual harassment claim — which he denies — while roger godsiff was facing a reselection battle in birmingham hall green. the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, has been campaigning in the midlands today. tell us more about this. that's right. i asked jeremy corbyn was there as a meeting of labour's executive going on if he personally felt two controversial candidates, keith vaz and williamson, who has been suspended for six months, if he thought they should be official party candidates. he took no view and said he didn't dictate as party leader, it was down to labour's national executive is that they came up national executive is that they came up with their verdict and decided chris williamson, who if you remember was quoted as saying the party had given too much ground on anti—semitism. he'd been suspended, pa rt anti—semitism. he'd been suspended, part of a disciplinary process and the party, labour's national

executive decided it had been settled, so he could not be a candidate in derby north and they are going to select someone else in his place. in addition, stephen hepburn you mentioned, the jarrow mp has been turfed out as well. a bit more of a surprise a birmingham mp had been pushed out, i'm told it that was at the request of labour's chief whip nick brown. he'd been in a controversy locally about standing up a controversy locally about standing upfor a controversy locally about standing up for demonstrators who were against the teaching of same sex relationships and was facing a deselection battle. he has also gone and the new candidate will be selected there. as for keith vaz, the situation still isn't clear. i'm told he's currently in hospital labour source tells me they are trying to offer him a dignified way to stand down. he could stand down in his own time. but the facts remain he was basically said by... a committee and has come comment he was uncooperative into allegations that he purchased class a drugs for

someone that he purchased class a drugs for someone else. he's been suspended for six months from parliament but not yet suspended as a labour candidate. so that may yet run and run. also, here is a bonus story for you as well. there is a row brewing over what is happening in their seats vacated byjohn mann, where the person who was selected, by the local members, has been turfed out, she says by a kangaroo court, by labour's national executive over allegations of how she handled a meeting in her own constituency. so although meeting in her own constituency. so althoutheremy meeting in her own constituency. so although jeremy corbyn meeting in her own constituency. so althoutheremy corbyn has denounced the way the conservatives have handled things, jacob rees—mogg and alun cairns, there are a few things he has to do to put his own house in order. thank you very much, iain watson in telford. in a moment, susannah streeter is going to bring us the latest business news. first, a look at the headlines on afternoon live. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial.

the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. boris johnson has an audience with the queen at buckingham palace, marking the start of the election period. a police ban on protests by extinction rebellion across london last month was unlawful, according to the high court. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. virgin media is ditching telecoms group bt and switching its three million mobile phone customers to the network run by vodafone. the cable group's current contract with bt‘s ee network expires in 2021, although virgin says it will launch 5g services with vodafone before then. the contract is reportedly worth about £200 million to bt, whose shares fell 4.5%. marks and spencer profits dropped in the first half of its financial year following a sharp fall in demand for its clothes and home goods. the high street retailer said that while its food business was "outperforming the market", there had been issues in clothing and home. more on this in a moment.

a boeing whistleblower has claimed that passengers on its 787 dreamliner could be left without oxygen if the cabin were to suffer a sudden decompression. boeing denies his accusations and says all its aircraft are built to the highest levels of safety and quality. the accusations have been made by a former boeing employee, who is currently in legal dispute with boeing. we spotted their whistle—blower spelling, don't text me or tweet me, we spotted it, it won't happen again. m&s, is it as bad as it sounds? not really if you look at food as well. its food division is doing pretty well. growth of 0.9%. it has expanded its product ranges and also cut the price of hundreds of product and that approach seems to be working. but, it does seem as though it isn't quite a lot of

disarray when it comes to clothing and home and it is really not getting the basics right. for example, the chief executive steve rose said this decline, 5.5% in like for like clothing sales, was due to supply chain problems mainly. simply the fact they are not getting their most popular sizes in store in the required and that really meant that sales were very sluggish online. hardly grew at all. that is not good when faced with the might of zara and asos. and prime arc. what about their plan, how do they plan to reverse this? remember, they are in a two—year turn around plan already. but as far as the winter clothing range is concerned, there has been a positive response and he says it is a good value product. but actually, investors seem to be giving this plan perhaps a bit of a vote of confidence most of the share price is up. perhaps the investors thought

results could have been worse. marks & spencer says it will introduce the next month a buy now and pay later scheme to add in instalments, so you actually buy something but purchase it actually in the months to come, which would be keyed to attract younger people, it thinks, in the key christmas period. ok, also covering a development behind so called autonomous or self driving cars? yes, report came out from us regulators, concerning an accident about a uber self driving car which hit and killed a woman in 2018. it says there were software problems on the car. this revelation comes after 13% of those said the autopilot put them ina 13% of those said the autopilot put them in a dangerous situation but many people will say self driving ca i’s many people will say self driving cars will in general make driving a lot safer. so let's have a chat to find out more about what's going on.

joining us now from the new york stock exchange, is our north america business reporter, vivinne nunis. tell us more about the report. let's talk about the finding by their national transport safety board here. talking about that crash that involved a woman in arizona fuzzed up involved a woman in arizona fuzzed up she was 49 years old and she was crossing a road in low light away from a pedestrian crossing and walking her bike across the road. what the safety board revealed is the uber recognise there was a bike in the road but too late and therefore that crash couldn't be avoided. they have also said that in the 18 months leading up to that fatal crash, there were 37 separate crashes involving ubers testing their autonomous driving software on those roads. that some people say this technology overall will make us safer but this bloomberg report seems to suggest that there are concerns among some tesla drivers? there certainly are concerns. on the

one hand, those respondents, there we re one hand, those respondents, there were 5000 drivers surveyed of tesla model three cars, 13% of those reported the autopilot software, which can be used on highways and in car parks, put them in a dangerous situation. one driver talked about having to slam down the accelerator to avoid a rear end crash and override the autopilot system. but also in that survey, interestingly, also in that survey, interestingly, a third of those respondents said the autopilot software took them out of dangerous situations and nine of those drivers, nine out of the 5000 actually credit the autopilot software with saving their life in one situation. some people say this isa one situation. some people say this is a major experiment that is being undertaken by tesla, the very fact is gathering all this data and updating their software as it goes and the more it can do so, the safer the will become? well, look, there isa the will become? well, look, there is a mixed debate abound there is. on one hand, people criticise the tesla bask elon musk and says he

shouldn't be using his customers as guinea pigs. others have criticised states that allowed uber to test their autonomous driving software on public roads. the state of arizona ended that testing after the fatal crash. on the other side of the debate, advocates say 40,000 people died in car crashes in the us lazio as many as1.4 died in car crashes in the us lazio as many as 1.4 million worldwide and although we are seeing problems remaining with autonomous driving software, improvements are being made and that is why most of those survey respondents who drive tesla model three cars were pretty happy with their cars. thank you very much for that update on self driving cars. a look at the market. the ftse 100 still down. the trade spat between the us and china, despite rumours they could be over not quite. the trafford centre in

manchester, rental income is still likely to decline to step down 90%, nearly a fifth. bt group, its share price down as i mentioned earlier. that was about switching over customers away from bt over to vodafone. ok, i shall see you later on, thank you very much. now it's time for a look at the weather. thank you. as far as the weather goes, it has been a pretty chilly start to the day with early morning sunshine but since then the weather has kind of gone downhill. these blues guys we had earlier in the day are being replaced by thickening cloud, although we still have some slivers are brightness here and there. generally, a clouding over processed through the rest of this afternoon. it is also quite wet for some as well. rain moving into northern ireland, wales, western areas of england. also a bit of rain fell on eastern and northern scotland but there are some dry spots around the eastern england and parts of western scotla nd eastern england and parts of western scotland not looking too bad through the next few hours. overnight

tonight, outbreaks of rain will swing northwards across england and wales. we will still have a few showers, that's and lengthy spells of rain working across scotland as others have given it will be a cloudy night, it won't be quite as cold as it was last night. temperatures between five and seven celsius. that takes us into thursday and it is a cloudy start to the day for a number of places and some very heavy rain on the way, persistent rainfor heavy rain on the way, persistent rain for some, heavy rain on the way, persistent rainforsome, particular heavy rain on the way, persistent rain for some, particular north wales, northern england as well. brighter skies for much of scotland and northern ireland, there will be some sunshine here. to the south of the weather front, some sunshine and heavy showers across southern parts of the country. temperatures, still cool for the time of the year, highs of 7-10 cool for the time of the year, highs of 7—10 but it is this area of rain that will cause some problems because once it moves in early thursday morning, it will stay raining and stay wet into the first pa rt raining and stay wet into the first part of friday morning. 24 hours of rain, the rainfall totals building up rain, the rainfall totals building up an hourafter rain, the rainfall totals building up an hour after hour and that increases the risk of some localised flooding. over the hills, we could

see 60—80 millimetres of rain in northern england and north wales. after our recent wet spell of weather, that increases the risk of seeing some impacts from local flooding. heading into friday, the troublesome area of low pressure will slip away into france but it will take a long while before the cloud and the patchy rain starts to ease off across east anglia and south—east england. further west, plenty across east anglia and south—east england. furtherwest, plenty of sunshine on friday after a chilly and frosty start to the day. those temperatures again are expected to really struggle, highs of between 6-11 really struggle, highs of between 6—11 degrees. as far as we can goes, rain on the way for the start of the weekend for some saturday looking wet for a number of places, could even be some snow over the highest of the hills of northern england and scotla nd of the hills of northern england and scotland boss of sunday the better of the two days of their weekend, for quite a few of us it should stay dry and bright with some sunshine but still on the chilly side for the time of year. that is your weather.

hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 3. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns — over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. ido i do not want an early election and no one much wants to have an election in december but we have got to the stage where we had no choice because our parliament is paralysed. on the campaign trail, jeremy corbyn tells supporters the country will see real change if labour wins the election. the man accused of murdering british backpacker grace millane goes on trial in new zealand — he claims her death was an accident during consensual sex. the police ban on protests by the climate group extinction rebellion across london last month, is ruled unlawful in the high court.

coming up on afternoon live all the sport. the double olympic champion nicola adams says she is immensely proud, after announcing her retirement from boxing at the age of 37. and chris has the weather. here in the uk we are looking ahead to a change to more unsettled weather, rain on the way, persistent rain. we will also be looking at the latest climate statistics. i will have a bit more later. also coming up — we'll have an interview with the former culture secretary ed vaizey, who has announced he is not going to stand again for parliament. hello, everyone — this is afternoon live.

it's not what anyone would want minutes before they launch their election campaign. as borisjohnson prepared to address voters from downing street — the news that a cabinet minister was resigning. welsh secretary alun cairns quit following claims he knew about a former aide's role in the collapse of a rape trial. certainly not the best start for a campaign which was launched after mrjohnson met the queen to mark the dissolution of parliament. we now face five weeks of campaigning — the prime minister saying he has no choice but to hold an election, because parliament is paralysed. for labour, jeremy corbyn told supporters this morning that the country will see real change if his party wins on december 12th. this report from our political correspondent chris mason. this is what the official start of a general election campaign looks like. the prime minister went to see the queen at buckingham palace this morning and then he made the most of the backdrop of what he still hopes to call home after polling day to make his pitch.

i have just been to see her majesty the queen earlier on and she agreed to dissolve parliament for an election. i want you to know that i don't want an early election, no one much wants to have an election in december, but we have got to the stage where we have no choice because our parliament is paralysed, it has been stuck in a rut for three and a half years, and i am afraid our mps arejust refusing time and again to deliver brexit and honour the mandate of the people. if we can get this deal over the line, with a sensible majority government we certainly can, then we can release that pent—up flood of investment. hundreds of billions are waiting to pour into the uk and we can inject a surge of confidence into our system. but moments before, this, the prime minister's welsh secretary alun cairns resigning from the cabinet.

he had denied he knew about a former aide's role in the sabotage of a rape trial, but bbc wales discovered he had been e—mailed about it. he had been a cabinet minister for three years and said he was confident he would be cleared of any wrongdoing. the conservatives have had a bumpy start to this campaign, notjust this cabinet resignation, but being forced to defend a doctored video put out on social media and two of their politicians forced to apologise after remarks widely seen as crass about the grenfell tower fire. they are now trying to focus on their big picture message, as are labour, as the two main candidates to be prime minister slug it out. jeremy corbyn has been in telford in shropshire, a must win seat for labourand said... i will be proud to be a labour prime minister. but i have to warn you, it will be very different.

it will be a very different way of doing things. because i was not born to rule. he promised to scrap university tuition fees, end rough sleeping, in—work poverty and the need forfood banks and added... judge us on whether we have built hundreds of thousands of genuinely affordable homes so that decent and secure housing is within the reach of everyone. judge us on whether patients are still waiting more than four hours in a&e departments and tens of thousands are waiting months for cancer treatment. judge us on whether we have got brexit sorted within six months by offering the people the final say. who do you prefer? mr corbyn, mrjohnson or one of the other party leaders? it will be your call in five weeks' time. the snp leader nicola sturgeon says demand for a scottish independence referendum will become

"irresistible" if the snp wins the majority of scottish seats at the general election. speaking to the bbc this morning — scotland's first minister said she intended to hold another vote on independence next year and said the idea politicians at westminster can prevent a referendum is starting to "crumble". liberal democrat leader jo swinson has been campaigning in north london, pledging extra resources for mental health care if her party is in government. ms swinson said her party would invest £11 billion into mental health care as she launched her election ‘battle bus‘ campaign and visited a charity. the green party launched its election campaign this morning. it's pledging a major increase in spending on climate measures, in order to end the use of carbon in the uk by 2030. our reality check correspondent sophie hutchinson has been looking into the promises. the green party insisted that some things were bigger than brexit and the election must be about the climate. they launched this ambitious plan.

today i am proud to announce that the green party will invest £100 billion per year into climate action over the next decade. let us have a look at that. in total that is around £1 trillion in ten years, a large number. to put it in context, the annual cost would be similar to the entire education budget which this year was 103 billion. where would the money come from? they are proposing that 9% would come from tax changes including a rise in corporation tax. and that the rest, the vast majority needed, it would come from borrowing. this year an estimated £55 billion will be borrowed but the green party would increase borrowing to more than £140 billion per year, the highest level since 2012 as a proportion of national income, according to researchers at the institute for fiscal studies. the party are calling it a green new deal.

it's means de—carbonising every single sector of the economy. energy, industry, agriculture, transport, and housing. it is rapidly rolling out renewable energy in britain so that we are net zero carbon by 2030. eliminating carbon by 2030 is 20 years sooner than the current target, which many experts would regard as extremely ambitious. oue chief political correspondent vicki young is in downing street for us. all of these parties have election grids, the topics they want to cover, there is no doubt that resignation of a cabinet minister would not have been on day one. added to that the conservatives were hoping to be able to go on the

attack over at labour party economic policy. treasury single servants had been asked to draw up an analysis of what they would mean. then the cabinet secretary said, you cannot do that, it is too close to polling day, and that single service has to remain impartial. today absolutely has not gone according to plan. the only positive for the conservative party is that we are a long way from polling day and some of this may well be forgotten by then. boris johnson coming out here trying to carry on, he had a statement here in the street a couple of hours ago where he really did go on the attack over labour, talking aboutjeremy corbyn, talking about a left—wing government, there being much higher taxes, he said it would mean uncontrolled immigration, he accused jeremy corbyn of taking that side of president putin of russia. a lot of that of course will be disputed by the labour party but there is no doubt in this election that on a

whole array of issues there are distinct choices for voters to make, it cannot be said that all of politicians are offering the same in this election. what do we expect? we were talking earlier about each party having a grid for each day? will we see different subjects being discussed by everybody at the same time? that is always the thing, each party has a different subject. then it becomes difficult for them all off course to break through with that. liberal democrats today talking about mental health. that is something that of course all the parties think is incredibly important. the point these days is because of social media, the information you get online, if that is an issue you really care about, you can look up what each party is offering in the area you are interested in. as for that party is main messages it is clear that the liberal democrats and the conservatives want this to be an election fought on brexit, for different reasons. labour, talked about brexit yesterday but want to move on to talk about other things,

the economy, the health service, and to talk about what they see as ten yea rs of to talk about what they see as ten years of austerity where public services have been cats, and they are proposing to reverse that. and also talking about brexit, boris johnson say because he has got a deal, if he gets a majority government, in five weeks' time we could have left the eu by the end of january, talking about getting brexit done but he also wants to talk about other things, i think he realises that 2017, just going around the country saying brexit means brexit, is not enough. thank you very much. we can speak now to the writer and broadcaster guto harri, who was borisjohnson's communications director in his first term as mayor of london. that must take taken you back, standing on the steps of downing street? if you were standing with boris johnson this morning, the news of a cabinets resignation just before you

are about to launch a campaign, how damaging is that? it is not ideal. batsman stan the prime minister a favour by going extremely quickly, not admitting that he is in the wrong. —— alun cairns has done the prime minister a favour. should he not resign as a candidate also? he is going to fight his constituency, he has built up a majority there. he is well liked there. i can see him dry and hang on and hope his name will be cleared and he will be able to fight again. one thing i do understand is that he was told before he was asked to endorse the young man that if all accurate —— if all reports are accurate he behaved appallingly, that he had already been through the vetting procedure. there is another side to this story.

hang on. he denied having any forewarning of this. it is clear thanks to that work of bbc wales that he did, there was an e—mail. that is a lie. it seems there was an issue. i do not know what the end of the matter is. as far as the campaign is concerned that prime minister is able to press ahead now. alun cairns will have to wait his turn to try and clear his name. wales is going to be a front line in this election. how damaging is this overall for the tories? it is a massive distraction in the first place. notjust in wales where the party has lost its figurehead and someone party has lost its figurehead and someone who campaigns very vigorously and quite effectively. but of course, the uk. and one of the big issues that is an issue for the big issues that is an issue for the two main parties is that very

aggressive natural tone of politics. tony matters as much as content. the framing of this election is very clear—cut. if you want brexit, vote for boris. if you do not, vote lib dems. if you care about other things, there might be things that make you vote labour. but tone matters as well, it has got aggressive, a lot of people might like that, a lot of people find that distasteful, there is talk about good women being hounded out of parties. it helps one person, that women leading the lib dem party, in that sense. bonuses got to be careful. let us talk about the tone on that basis. a senior government figure is making crass comments about grenfell tower. conservative

central office is putting out what is clearly a fake news video, you have got a cabinets resignation, a doctor's report on cabinet interference. what does that say about tone? it is one to watch. no matter the timeframe of the election you are trying to boil down something complex and multilayered and different things that appeal to different people into one simple message. it is always a long shot to pull that off. some people in campaigns often oversimplify these things. it can be effective with some people but it is a warning at the start of the campaign that it can go in many different directions. things that nobody had dreamt of, even yesterday, can dominate. the best thing is keep the framing in mind, havea best thing is keep the framing in mind, have a game plan, also play what is in front of you, make sure that when you leave the field you have not just that when you leave the field you have notjust won the game, but the audience, the people in the stands, actually wanted you to win, that

they are with you. there are such a thing still as a moral victory as well as a tactical one. good to see you. thank you. both borisjohnson and jeremy corbyn have given speeches today — and reality check‘s chris morris is here to go through some of the claims they made. first, here's boris johnson. iam very i am very proud of what we have done in the last 108 days or whatever it is, 108 days or so, the biggest programme of nhs investment for a generation, lifting up funding of schools across the country, 50 new hospitals, lifting up funding of schools across the country, putting 20,000 more police on the street. borisjohnson. what did you make of that? new hospitals. the prime minister has now said repeatedly that the government is building 40 new hospitals which sort of implies there are 40 building sites around there are 40 building sites around the country where hospitals are sprouting from virgin territory, thatis sprouting from virgin territory, that is not the case. what is happening is that the government

have committed £2.7 billion to significantly upgrade six hospitals with new buildings and so forth. that is happening. the other 34 have been given seed money. new hospitals, six definitely, 34 possibly to come down the line, with £100 million of money to plan for those upgrades in the future. he promised to build 40 new hospitals but they are certainly not all being built at the moment. another thing he said in that clip, again we have heard this before, 20,000 police on the streets. is that happening? yes. they have said they are going to recruit 20,000 new police anti—treatment has begun. but that needs to be put into context ofjust over 20,000 police being reduced on the streets since the conservatives came into power in 2010 at the head of the coalition government. boris johnson used the words 20,000 new police officers on the streets. as

we understand, we are still checking with the home office, it is not confirmed that all 20,000 new recruits will be front line officers. and it takes time to recruit them. yes, new police officers are coming down that line that in the context of reversing that in the context of reversing that reductions we have seen in nine yea rs of that reductions we have seen in nine years of austerity. what else did you pick up? another thing he mentioned, again, we are going to come back to other things. three ports. during this campaign, politicians will repeat the same thing. if we do not think they have got it right, we will keep saying they have not got it right. he thinks one of the benefits of leaving the eu as we can set up three ports, tax—free zones where you can import stuff and re—export without taxes and tariffs. you can do that inside the eu as well. there are three ports in germany, france. there used to be three ports in the united kingdom until the last one was shut down in 2012. it's maybe

good policy to help left behind areas but it is not directly anything to do with brexit. it could happen even if brexit does not. jeremy corgan has also been speaking. let us hear what he has been saying. judge as on whether in work poverty still exists in five years time. judge as on whether people are still sleeping rough after five years of a labour government. judge as on whether proud women and men are still having to depend on food banks in five years time. and the reality check if you are matters? they are big claims. they may be laudable aims. rough sleeping for example, everybody who walks around the streets of the city knows it is a problem. rough sleeping in england

has more or less trebled since 2010. there are an estimated 5000 people sleeping rough on the streets, that may be an underestimate. the previous labour government also promised to limit rough sleeping. they did bring down the numbers quite sharply but did not eliminate it altogether. it is a bold claim. we asked labour how they are going to fulfil this. one of the things they pointed towards is building more sociable! building more affordable social housing but detail, we have to wait until the ma nifesto. detail, we have to wait until the manifesto. another claim, about food banks, the same thing goes. food banks, the same thing goes. food banks, it is tricky to determine how big an issue this is. a lot of the food banks are coordinated at local level by churches, charities. the biggest provider in the uk, the trussell trust, it gave out nearly 1.6 million food parcels last year compared to about 900,005 years earlier. it is something which is

clearly on the rise. but labour is promising to eliminate this altogether, which is again perhaps a laudable aim and something which is easy to see in an election, much more difficult to actually achieve, to eliminate, essentially eliminate poverty in this country altogether. one of the reasons you job the next five weeks is going to be so crucial is claims and counter claims. we had the nhs at the beginning of this process , the nhs at the beginning of this process, saying do not use as an election campaign, already the nhs is clearly going to be a major battlefront. this claim yesterday from labour that after a post brexit trade deal with the united states the nhs may have to spend 500 million pounds per week more on medicines. look back in detail yesterday we showed that is a crude estimate based on a supposition that all drugs in the uk

would suddenly be priced at exactly the same way as all drugs in the united states. that is very unlikely to happen. it is a theoretical number at best. the government also says it is not going to put the nhs on the table in trade talks. this is a number that on the table in trade talks. this is a numberthat mr on the table in trade talks. this is a number that mr corbyn used again in his speech today, i suspect we will heed it on a daily basis. if we do, i will come here again and talk about this. it is important to get this one right. a bit like 350 million on the side of a bus. what tends to happen with numbers, all parties do this, when numbers keep getting pumped out again and again, people tend to remember the number and not the explanation, and that is to be that modern election campaigns often work. i already said how crucial you job was. good to see you. see you later. thank you. the man accused of murdering

the british backpacker grace millane in new zealand last year has gone on trial in auckland. the court has heard that the suspect, who can't be named for legal reasons, went on a date with another woman, while grace millane's body was in a suitcase in his room. he denies murder and claims her death was an accident during consensual sex. our correspondent phil mercer reports. grace millane came to new zealand for the adventure of a lifetime. but on the eve of her 22nd birthday, she disappeared. on wednesday, grace's parents arrived at the high court in auckland to find out what happened to her. in the dock, accused of murder, a 27—year—old man who, for legal reasons, we can't identify. the jury heard that the couple met through an online dating app and went drinking. grace millane went back with the defendant to his appointment. she died there. prosecutors say she was strangled in this city centre building.

a week later, her contorted body was found stuffed in a suitcase in a shallow grave. only two people know what happened in that room. one of them can't tell us. and the other one hasn't told the truth about what happened. prosecutors allege the next day the defendant went on a date with another woman while the body of grace millane was still in his apartment. lawyers say this has shown his utter disregard for the life of the young english woman. the defence, however, has a different story. it believes miss millane's death was accidental. defence lawyers argue it was a sex game that went wrong. miss millane died as a result of what they consensually engaged in during their time together. so while his actions may have caused her death, he is also not to blame, although he may blame himself.

and he is certainly not criminally responsible. grace millane's death last year shocked new zealand. the judge has warned the jury to ignore the publicity surrounding the case. today the court heard a poignant statement from grace's father david. he said she was a gregarious young woman who chose her friends carefully. the trial is expected to run for at least a month. phil mercer, bbc news, auckland. the climate activist group extinction rebellion has won a legal challenge against the metropolitan police, following the force's decision to ban the group protesting across the capital. lawyers for extinction rebellion say the met now faces claims for false imprisonment from potentially hundreds of protestors. richard lister has more. what do we want? climate justice! the extinction rebellion autumn uprising shut down large sections of london last month and led to more

than 1800 arrests. the protesters used tactics to stretch police resources to the limit and the police eventually responded by clearing the demonstrators' camps and using the public order act to declare the whole protest illegal. but the protesters took the police to court saying they had no right to shut them down. today two high court judges agreed saying... and the police had acted unlawfully. we are delighted with today's result. it vindicates our belief that the police's blanket ban was an unprecedented and now unlawful infringement on our right to protest. it is a victory for those who want to draw the government's attention to what scientists have been telling us for decades. metropolitan police figures show

around 400 protesters were arrested after the ban was imposed. some may now be able to sue the police. among them, an mep. it's actually a really important case because it's about defending the right to assembly and public protest and those are fundamental cornerstones of a functioning democracy. so it's very important that we won today and i'm very happy. the police say their actions were reasonable and proportionate. but they accept the judgment. we are disappointed by the ruling but clearly we absolutely respect the court's decision and what we need to do now i think is in slow time carefully consider what it means for us and review our tactics in light of it. our planet is in crisis... and extinction rebellion has not gone away. the actorjim carter is one of the celebrities in this new video campaign. but the ruling today means the next street protests will be harder for police to stop. richard lister, bbc news. time for a look at the weather.

a global perspective. these are the latest temperature figures for october. there is the planet. recognise it? october 2019 was the hottest globally on record. temperatures were 0.69 degrees above the average. there are parts of the globe that were cooler, the uk, scandinavia, across parts of the united states. unusually cold there. but when you add those cold bits together and the hot pits what you get out these record temperatures, the hottest we have had on record. the top three hottest years we have ever seen, the top three hottest years we have ever seen, 2019 is the hottest,

2015, 2017, they are all recent. it is incredible. the worry is the arctic regions where it is redder than anywhere. it is one of the things we see with climate change, losing the ice from the top of the planet, that ice reflect solar radiation, as that goes and shrinks, the planet is able to absorb more of that solar radiation so we lose more ice, the ear heats up, we lose more ice, that is the feedback loop. there is another statistic, another way of looking at some of these things, look at the planet as a whole, and the number of consecutive months we have had above average temperatures, this compares... reminds me of that. national organisation atmospheric

administration. they have been measuring climate globally for a long time. 417 consecutive months now have been above average. i want to put that in context above average. i want to put that in co ntext sto p above average. i want to put that in context stop i was asking some questions before of you. that is 34 yea rs questions before of you. that is 34 years worth which i believe was when you started broadcasting. that was the last time, that last year that we had a temperature in the globe that was below average. are you seeing global warming is my fault? pretty much. that is what the statistics prove. tell us about the forecast, that's payback for me asking you to explain what noaa was. a bright but chilly start to the day that the cloud is thickening and spreading in all the while. here is the cloud you can see moving in off

the cloud you can see moving in off the atlantic. some rain for northern ireland, western parts of england and wales and rain for northern and eastern parts of scotland. some areas west scotland and east anglia, some areas of south—east england, there is a bit of dry weather but it won't last. overnight, areas of rain will be pushing northwards and eastwards a cross will be pushing northwards and eastwards across the country. i think it's a where we can best sum it up with rain for most of us. given the cloudy skies, it won't be quite as chilly as last night. temperatures in the towns and cities for— seven degrees celsius. but i think some problems on the way weather—wise, particularly tomorrow across northern england and north wales. once this area of rain has moved in early thursday morning, it will be with us for the next 24 hours in places, with rainfall totals really accumulating. to the south of the main band of rain, sunshine, heavy thundery showers around southern counties. some sunshine in northern ireland. wherever you are, temperatures below normalfor wherever you are, temperatures below normal for the wherever you are, temperatures below normalfor the time of wherever you are, temperatures below normal for the time of year. highs of between 7—10. the rate will

continue to mount up. across north wales, northern england, derbyshire and maybe shops are, we could see some flooding impacts because over the high ground, there could be 60-80 the high ground, there could be 60—80 millimetres of rain. that is a lot of rain over the space of 24 hours and after what has been quite a wet autumn for these areas, we could see the prospect of some flooding problems that may be some transport disruption. the area of low pressure does eventually slip away into france as we had through friday but it will take a while before the rain finally begins to pull away. even as it does so, east anglia and south—east england will properly have some damp weather continuing, even into friday afternoon. elsewhere, cold and locally frosty, maybe be a few fog patches, staying chilly. temperatures in the sunshine between 7-10. the temperatures in the sunshine between 7—10. the weekend is a weekend of two halves. saturday, cloudy with outbreaks of rain. could be cold enough for a bit of snow over the highest ground in england and scotland. sunday looks like being the better of the two days at the

weekend but with the wind still coming down from a north—easterly direction, it will stay a little on the chilly side. that is your latest weather. this is bbc news — our latest headlines: welsh secretary alun cairns resigns over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. i don't want an early election

and no one much wants to have an election in december, but we've got to the stage where we have no choice because our parliament is paralysed. on the campaign trail, jeremy corbyn tells supporters the country will see real change if labour wins the election. the man accused of murdering british backpacker grace millane goes on trial in new zealand — he claims her death was an accident during consensual sex. the police ban on protests by the climate group extinction rebellion across london last month is ruled unlawful in the high court. and coming up, we'll have an interview with the former culture secretary ed vaizey, who has announced he is not going to stand for parliament again. sport now on afternoon live with katie sha na han. we are talking of retirement from boxing but a very significant one and a sad one for those of us who thought frankly she was just brilliant.

yes, fantastic. the double olympic champion, nicola adams says she's "immensely proud" after announcing her retirement from boxing at the age of 37. so, she's decided to retire due to the risk of going blind in one of her eyes. which, has come as a bit of surprise, as we saw her boxing only six weeks ago where she retained her wbo world flyweight title. nicola adams has made such an impact on boxing, and will go down in history winning commonwealth, european and world titles as an amater. and then winning the gold medal in rio 2016, which saw her become the first british boxer for 92 years to retain an olympic title. now, adams isn't the only british boxer to have retired this week. the former world lightweight champion anthony crolla fought for the final time on saturday. he told my colleague, sally nugent, that it's not easy for fighters to know when the time is right. it's so hard to let go and so many fighters carry on too long. we see it time and time again

and then boxing then has an effect on your health in later life. you've got to get out at the right time and i believe that that's what i've done. i'm probably not the fighter i was a few years ago and, you know, you hang around too long, trying to pick up paydays — it comes at a cost and, certainly, when you see, like, nicola adams, she's made such a sensible decision, when her eyesight‘s in danger. to have achieved everything she has, she can walk away proud and boxing's taken very little from her. but she stays on and ends up with sort of life—lasting injuries, that wouldn't be worth it. is that a conversation you have had with your own family? yes, yeah, i had conversations with my family, people close to me who would advise me. that's why i believe now is the right time. boxing will always be a huge part of my life and i'll always have that hunger of being a fighter but i'll try and fill it in different ways now, through coaching and stuff like that.

antony crolla there. so, nicola adams said, "hanging up my gloves was always going to be hard, but i have neverfelt luckier. and, i'm so immensely proud of how far the sport has come." a sparkling career by nicola adams. we will hear more from her i'm sure foster lets talk rugby, still a lot of reaction to that strong on saracens? saracens have pulled out of attending the european champions cup launch in cardiff today, that's following yesterday's salary cap revelations. so, sarries are facing a 35 point penalty and a fine of over £5 million. it's comes after an inquiry into "business link—ups" between chairman nigel wray and some players. but now, the exeter director of rugby, rob baxter says that saracens will have won their last two titles "unfairly" if their appeal against breaching salary cap rules fails. exeter lost the last two

premiership finals to saracens. here's what baxter had to say about the accusations. probably pleased that it's kind of out in public. i think most people who've been involved with building squads and doing contracts and trying to keep players, trying to recruit players, especially over a number of years, when you kind of see the changes in the market and the way things work, probably have known for quite some while that squad has not been put together and kept together and improved and added on in a way that has been possible purely within what the salary cap regulations lay out. arsenal will qualify for the last 32 of the europa league if they win at vitoria this afternoon and standard liege fail to beat eintracht frankfurt tomorrow. the match kicks off in around 15 minutes to avoid a fixture clash. arsenal will be without mesut ozil, pierre—emerick aubameyang and granit xhaka, who's been left out after being stripped

of the captaincy. he made a mistake, but as a dressing room we will have to be together, you know? these things happen and that's it, we back him and he's playing his part now. we respect the players, we respect the decision of the coach and the club. for us, it's just to give him our love and care and for us, he's one of us, so we just help him get through it, as well. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. katie, thank you very much. back now to the election and on the day that parliament is suspended the news that former tory minister ed vaizey — who had the government whip removed for rebelling over brexit — has announced he won't be standing as a candidate this time around. mr vaizey was culture minister under david cameron and despite having the tory whip restored last week, says he wants to leave politics

to focus on his passion for the arts and creative industries. what does that mean? we find out now. hejoins us. a very what does that mean? we find out now. he joins us. a very tough decision, was it? a very tough decision, was it? a very tough decision, a real wrench. ispent decision, was it? a very tough decision, a real wrench. i spent the last week thinking about it and changing my mind. i even gave a valedictory speech in the house of commons yesterday where i still said i wasn't sure if i was standing or not. i've been an mp for 14 years and represent a fantastic constituency. i'm extremely lucky. and you enjoy the constituency work? yes. i look at all my friends who struggled to keep their seats, i had a healthy majority, so i'm walking away from something that i worked very ha rd to away from something that i worked very hard to get, actually. but i just think that after 14 years, having been a minister, these elections keep on happening and every time they happen i think, should i do another one? i thought this time, it's properly timed to go. you had the whip restored. what sort of meeting was that with boris

johnson? because you two are friends? when boris met as he had the whole lot income of the ten mps getting the whip back. we went in to see him and he was very decent about it. he had the chief whip sitting next, dominic cummings was skulking ina next, dominic cummings was skulking in a corner. what does that mean, what was he doing? working on his laptop, reading his notes. i have known dominic a long time as well. it was an amusing scene. the prime minister, i think what emerged from that meeting with the prime minister was he genuinely felt, and it will just have to go down as a disagreement, he genuinely felt what we did really did undermine his attem pts we did really did undermine his atte m pts to we did really did undermine his attempts to get a deal. it is a deal you didn't think he was serious about. were you wrong? well, i don't... i about. were you wrong? well, i don't. .. i can about. were you wrong? well, i don't... i can see his point of view. in the summer... that's a change, initially, you didn't? the more i've heard from people around him about how hard he worked for a

deal, the more i accept that he genuinely was working hard for a deal. the thing that threw me was the suspension of parliament that you will remember, the five—week suspension that came out of nowhere. that really forced people to decide, do we try and put in a guarantee to stop no deal now or wait to see what happens? at which point, we might have run out of time. that is old ground. but i do accept, i think, i misjudged the pm in that sense and he came back with a deal and i supported it. so my leaving now is nothing to do with hard brexit or the tory party becoming more right wing. i don't particular one brexit to happen but i accept the referendum... you are a remainer. accept the referendum and if i was an mp, i'd want to implement that result but in a way that i think people wanted it, which is with a deal that is reasonable... that sounds like an apology to boris johnson? i'm slightly apologetic and to some extent he gave me the whip back so we met in the middle.

thinking about what he's had to deal with in the last 48 hours, you have had jacob rees—mogg getting himself into very deep with some clearly difficult remarks over grenfell tower. we've had the row over conservative central office putting out what was frankly fake news, a fa ke to out what was frankly fake news, a fake to video the stuff you have a cabinet resignation moments before borisjohnson comes cabinet resignation moments before boris johnson comes out cabinet resignation moments before borisjohnson comes out on the steps of downing street and you also have theissue of downing street and you also have the issue of russian interference in the issue of russian interference in the blocking of a report into that. that is not where any party leader would want to be at the start of a campaign? laughter i was going to say it's not a textbook start to your campaign! it's... textbook start to your campaign! it's. .. you have textbook start to your campaign! it's... you have this playbook. textbook start to your campaign! it's. .. you have this playbook. you can laugh about it now! can become a spectator to what will be a very hard—fought spectator to what will be a very hard —fought election spectator to what will be a very hard—fought election campaign. i think it is suboptimal. but i would say it is a five—week campaign. i'm now back to sounding like a politician, is a five—week campaign.

again, quite genuinely, i do think... i'm sure a lot of your viewers will tear their hair out when i say this. i think there is something about boris. i think he has a sort of campaigning mentality foster people really do like him. a lot of people don't like it but a lot of people don't like it but a lot of people don't like it but a lot of people do like him in a way they don't engage with other politicians but i think if the tory party is smart, they will get boris out campaigning as much as possible. but this has not been the greatest art but it has all kind of happened in the hinterland period between parliament finishing in the campaign starting. when the campaign gets under way, you are never, ever going to have an election campaign where these things don't happen. it will happen to the other parties as well. but borisjohnson happen to the other parties as well. but boris johnson is happen to the other parties as well. but borisjohnson is a very, very powerful weapon for the conservatives. you have had a week without much sleep as you battle without much sleep as you battle with your own conscience. did it ever cross your mind to maybe stand as an independent? well, yeah, when ididn't as an independent? well, yeah, when i didn't have the whip i thought, would i stand as an independent?

partly out of irritation. i think if you find yourself without the whip at the end of all this saga, the you stand as an independentjust to make the point. but i'm also realistic. i had a healthy majority in wantage but i'm not quite arrogant enough to believe that every single vote was cast for ed vaizey as opposed to the votes being cast for the conservative candidate. i think when people go to the polls, they are choosing a prime minister, so i'm not sure i would have won as an independent. and i have been a tory for pretty much all my adult life, all my adult life, and my association, the local conservatives who support me have been fantastic for stop so the idea, however irritated i might have been if i'd left parliament without the whip, that i would stand against them... think philip hammond made a fair point when he stood down, even though he stood down under different circumstances. it's a very big deal to go against the people you work with for so many years. are you burnt out? i have recharged, simon,

now, of course! it's tough... any politician that complains about their workload is an extremely thin ice or complains about the atmosphere or whatever. i actually had an incredibly good run in parliament and i haven't suffered the kind of trolling and abuse that a lot of my colleagues, particular women mps, have suffered. so in that sense, i'm not burnt out. but there is something very elevating about, toa is something very elevating about, to a certain extent itjustifies why boris is having this election first of its elevating when you can't get anything done and you only have one thing, where you have long periods of fellow board and because nothing is happening and then intense periods of hand—to—hand combat when you're trying to get a brexit deal through, it does wear you down. i read that you were giving it up andi i read that you were giving it up and i thought immediately, he has anotherjob and i thought immediately, he has another job up his and i thought immediately, he has anotherjob up his sleeve, have you? i have a number of outside interests, fully declared as an mp. those are the kinds of things i like to pursue. theatre? on the board of

the national youth theatre and the board of music charity but i also have some commercial work that i do as well. a company called digital theatre which puts plays online. i wa nt to theatre which puts plays online. i want to work in the arts and technology industry. i love the start—up industry, the uk i think is the european leader, in terms of start—up investment. i find the european leader, in terms of start—up investment. ifind that very stimulating. to a certain extent, you could argue it is a reaction to politics because it feels much more real, that you can get something done rather thanjust talk about stuff. most people when they say, i'm giving this up, look forward to a late morning in bed tomorrow, a bit of relaxing time for study were not doing that, what are you doing tomorrow? i'm going out canvassing for all zac goldsmith who has a very tiny majority in richmond. so we will see you. i canvassed for him in the last election so i did feel i made a difference because he won by 45 votes! laughter you are going to miss it a bit,

aren't you? definitely, yes. good for you to come and talk about it. thank you, ed vaizey. your watching afternoon live from bbc news. dozens of police officers have been attacked with fireworks and bricks during a bonfire night disturbance in leeds. emergency services in other parts of the country were also targetted, on one of the busiest nights of the year. alasdair gill has this report. police! right, come on, i want everyone out. everyone off this road now, come on. i think this is the worst year we've had since the riots in 2001. last year was bad. itjust seems to have gone up a notch this year. last night, bonfire night in the harehills area of leeds exploded into disorder. fireworks and bricks were thrown by groups of young people in pitch battles with police. i quickly realised, as did all of the street team, that it was just too dangerous to be around, we had to get out of here. i was actually attacked with bricks and clubs were pulled and i've seen axes pulled within feet of me last night, just here. just here, i was stood right here. so i ran for my life

and that corner, as fireworks were hitting me, i got hit on the back of the leg. police say they were called to banstead park after a bonfire was lit there. over the next few hours, things escalated — missiles were thrown, bins were set on fire and passing cars were attacked. burning bins and fire and smashing people's cars, you know? and police came, they took on the police. i'm working in this shop, my boss was next to me and they take on us as well, you know? we closed the shutters. the suspects are largely teenagers and one of them is only 11—years—old. today, as the clean—up gets under way, local residents are angry, frightened and upset. i came from my friend's house back over the road and i had a firework thrown at me. luckily, it missed me. then about 20 riot police officers ran onto my street. shouting. police responded last night in full riot gear.

four officers were injured, not seriously but two of them had to be taken to hospital. i saw a disgusting scene, where several people were, like, harassing the officers. i mean, i understand that not many people like them, but they didn't deserve that at all, especially yesterday, when they were there for people's safety. west yorkshire police say they've made a number of arrests and inquiries are ongoing to try and identify everyone involved in last night's disturbance. alasdair gill, bbc news. in a moment susannah is going to bring us the latest business news. first, a look at the headlines on afternoon live. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. mrjohnson has an audience with the queen at buckingham palace — marking the start of the election period.

a police ban on protests by extinction rebellion across london last month was unlawful — according to the high court. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. virgin media is ditching telecoms group bt and switching its three million mobile phone customers to the network run by vodafone. the cable group's current contract with bt‘s ee network expires in 2021, although virgin says it will launch 5g services with vodafone before then. the contract is reportedly worth about £200 million to bt, whose shares fell 4.5%. marks and spencer profits dropped in the first half of its financial year following a sharp fall in demand for its clothes and home goods. the high street retailer said that while its food business was "outperforming the market", there had been issues in clothing and home. more on this in a moment. a boeing whistleblower has claimed that passengers on its 787 dreamliner could be left without oxygen if the cabin were to suffer a sudden decompression. boeing denies his accusations

and says all its aircraft are built to the highest levels of safety and quality. the accusations have been made by a former boeing employee, who is currently in legal dispute with boeing. that old phrase what goes up must come down never truer at the moment than on the high street? yes, a fall in profits for marks & spencer in clothing. and clarks said its loss deepened because of the uncertain economic climate. their fourth—largest footwear company in the world but revealed a 7.7% fall in european sales. marks & spencer's chief executive has blamed the 5.5% like for like sales decline on supply issues, namely it couldn't get many popular sizes in the numbers it needed into store and online in time. that is really crucial to do that, particularly in the face of all this competition from the likes of asos and zara online and also primark and its

bricks and mortar stores. hot on the heels are mothercare and their problems? as a matter absolutely, all of mothercare's 79 uk stores are too close. a devastating blow for the members of staff there. we also had some results out from the owner of 20 shopping centres including manchester's trafford centre. they we re manchester's trafford centre. they were not very good either. a sharp dip in the share price because they said rental income is likely to be down next year as well the steps really uncertain times. but i did mention bright spots are primark and asos. primark‘s sales up 2.2% in the uk, mainlyfrom asos. primark‘s sales up 2.2% in the uk, mainly from new store openings. not doom and gloom for all on the high street. that is good news. what else are we looking at at the moment? the very fact that end retail is pretty stressful. we've heard everything about marks & spencer, clarks, or the

heard everything about marks & spencer, clarks, orthe sales falling. job insecurity is a cause of stress as well. really difficult times for many people working in retail at the moment. head in hands time. i really think it is notjust job insecurity but also heavy workloads as well. all of these things are the real focus of stress awareness week, which is this week. it is because 11 million working days are lost every single year. so trying to highlight all of problems. joining us now is carole spiers, chief executive of international stress management association — and founder of international stress awareness week. do you think that political uncertainty at the moment could be adding to the stress burden?” certainly think any uncertainty adds to the stress burden, whether it is political, organisational of fear of yourjobs. we are living at the moment in terms of uncertainty with increased workloads and having to manage our home and work lives. so,

yes, a very stressful time for everybody. and the burden is actually on employers to make sure that workplaces are not stressful. what are they not doing enough of? i think they are doing more than they used to do but certainly the organisation, an employer has to make sure they are demonstrating, offering a healthy workplace culture. if they are offering a healthy workplace culture, managers will be able to start listening to their employees and looking out for signs and symptoms of stress before they become and absentee as a statistic. job insecurity is a real concern, particularly for retail at the moment was that we are hearing headline after headline, so many people losing theirjobs are actually feeling that their jobs are under threat because perhaps their firms are not performing as well foster is communication key from management? communication is absolutely key right across the board. there is maybe little you can do aboutjob board. there is maybe little you can do about job security about how the manager actually manages their people, there can be nothing more important. giving reassurance,

having understanding and actually making time to listen to people is going to help enormously. 0k, going to help enormously. ok, thank you very much. chief executive of the stress awareness week. she is the actual founder of the week that has been launched this week. the markets? the ftse100, just tipped into positive territory. it has been down for most of the week. most of the day, i should say, today. variable yesterday. there are concerns about the fact there hasn't yet been this agreement reached between china and the us. that goes on and on. the shopping centre owner said rental income is expected to be down again, so they might have to sell off some assets or try and raise capital through selling shares, to try and put a dent in its debt. investors were not happy in share prices down by more than 18%. bt group, its share price has fallen more than 5% after vodafone meat veg and said it would be switching its 3

million mobile customers to vodafone, so a bit of a blow. ok, see you later, thank you very much. you're watching afternoon live from bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. hello, there. well, it was a chilly start to the day for many of us but there were some pleasant early morning sunshine to be found. this was the scene in shaftesbury in dorset as we started the day. a little bit of mist down over the plains but looking at the weather picture a little bit further northwards and more recently, well, the cloud has been spreading in across the skies in redcar. and it's notjust redcar, actually, for most of us, it is turning progressively cloudier and we've got some rain arriving across western areas, with some showers pushing northwards across scotland as well. so, the weather is slowly going down hill for many of us. now, overnight tonight, our main band of rain, northern ireland, western parts of england and wales, will push eastwards across the midlands, across eastern areas of england too. showers there or thereabouts in scotland continuing. given more cloud in the sky and those bursts of rain, it won't be quite as chilly a night as last night.

temperatures between 4—7 degrees celsius. now, by thursday, it's setting up to be a wet day for some of us. particularly in north wales and northern counties of england. further south, the rain clears, sunshine and showers follow, particularly to the south—west and showers should ease away from scotland and northern ireland to give some sunshine. the best of the sunshine across these north—western areas. it will be another chilly day for the time of year. temperatures between 7—10 degrees celsius, but it's the rain that looks set to cause some problems, particularly across north wales and a swathe of northern england as well, because the rain arrives early on thursday morning, it doesn't really stop raining until we get to friday morning. so, 24 hours worth of rain on the way for some of us. that's a lot of rain. 20—40 millimetres, 60—80 over the hills. that brings the risk of some localised flooding and some disruption to transport, particularly after what has been quite a wet spell of autumn weather over recent weeks. now, here's the troublemaker, the area of low pressure

slips into france. through friday, it is a day of slowly brightening up, although the cloud and patchy rain will probably never really ease completely out of the way from east anglia and south east england. elsewhere, it does get brighter. yes, there will be some sunshine but a cool northerly wind and those temperatures are still struggling, 7—10 degrees celsius for another cool one coming up. we've got some rain on the way for the first part of the weekend. could see a little bit of snow over the very highest hills of northern england and scotland. a drier and brighter day on sunday. that's your weather.

hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 4. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns — over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. ido i do not want an early election and no one much wants to have an election in december but we have got to the stage where we have got no choice because our parliament is paralysed. on the campaign trail, jeremy corbyn tells supporters the country will see real change if labour wins the election. tthe man accused of murdering british backpacker grace millane goes on trial in new zealand — he claims her death was an accident during consensual sex. the police ban on protests by the climate group extinction rebellion across london last month, is ruled unlawful in the high court.

coming up on afternoon live all the sport — katie. the double olympic champion nicola adams has decided to hang up her gloves at the age of 37 after what has been a sparkling career, winning the commonwealth, european and world titles. thanks, katie, and we'll bejoining you for a full update just after half—past. chris fawkes has all the weather. the bright skies earlier are replaced with cloudier conditions. that rain will cause problems with localised flooding. i will have details on that later. thanks, chris. also coming up, anger as firefighters responding to an out—of—control bonfire are attacked by a gang

throwing fireworks. hello, everyone — this is afternoon live. it's not what anyone would want minutes before they launch their election campaign. as borisjohnson prepared to address voters from downing street — the news that a cabinet minister was resigning. welsh secretary alun cairns quit following claims he knew about a former aide's role in the collapse of a rape trial. certainly not the best start for a campaign which was launched after mrjohnson met the queen to mark the dissolution of parliament. we now face five weeks of campaigning — the prime minister saying he has no choice but to hold an election, because parliament is paralysed. for labour, jeremy corbyn told supporters this morning that the country will see real change if his party wins on december 12th. this report from our political correspondent chris mason. this is what the official start of a general election campaign looks like. the prime minister went to see

the queen at buckingham palace this morning and then he made the most of the backdrop of what he still hopes to call home after polling day to make his pitch. i have just been to see her majesty the queen earlier on and she agreed to dissolve parliament for an election. i want you to know that i don't want an early election, no one much wants to have an election in december, but we have got to the stage where we have no choice because our parliament is paralysed, it has been stuck in a rut for three and a half years, and i am afraid our mps arejust refusing time and again to deliver brexit and honour the mandate of the people. if we can get this deal over the line, with a sensible majority government we certainly can, then we can release that pent—up flood of investment. hundreds of billions are waiting

to pour into the uk and we can inject a surge of confidence into our system. but moments before, this, the prime minister's welsh secretary alun cairns resigning from the cabinet. he had denied he knew about a former aide's role in the sabotage of a rape trial, but bbc wales discovered he had been e—mailed about it. he had been a cabinet minister for three years and said he was confident he would be cleared of any wrongdoing. the conservatives have had a bumpy start to this campaign, notjust this cabinet resignation, but being forced to defend a doctored video put out on social media and two of their politicians forced to apologise after remarks widely seen as crass about the grenfell tower fire. they are now trying to focus on their big picture message, as are labour, as the two main candidates to be prime minister slug it out. jeremy corbyn has been in telford

in shropshire, a must win seat for labourand said... i will be proud to be a labour prime minister. but i have to warn you, it will be very different. it will be a very different way of doing things. because i was not born to rule. he promised to scrap university tuition fees, end rough sleeping, in—work poverty and the need forfood banks and added... judge us on whether we have built hundreds of thousands of genuinely this affordable homes so that decent and secure housing is within the reach of everyone. judge us on whether patients are still waiting more than four hours in a&e departments and tens of thousands are waiting months for cancer treatment. judge us on whether we have got brexit sorted within six months by offering the people the final say. who do you prefer? mr corbyn, mrjohnson or one of the other party leaders?

it will be your call in five weeks' time. the leader of the scottish national party, nicola sturgeon, has been campaigning in alloa on the general election trail. ms sturgeon visited a bakery, where a big yellow cake was presented to her — with the snp logo on it. when asked whether she thought jeremy corbyn had any chance of getting into number ten without her help she said that the prospect of a hung parliament is a significant one. there she was having her cake and eating it. our chief political correspondent vicki young is at westminster for us. not the best 24 hours for the conservatives, jacob agrees mogg has upset a lot of people with his comments on grenfell tower. and

today, the news on the welsh secretary, not what the conservative party would want on that grid that all parties have. the plus side is we are still a long way from polling day, for the conservatives, boris johnson coming out, making that speech, trying to get on the front foot ahead of a big event in the west midlands this evening where he will officially launch the conservative party campaign. talking about first of all the general election, saying he did not want it but was forced into it because parliament refused to deal with brexit. his opponents would say, he got a deal and it went through its first stage to get it into law and then borisjohnson first stage to get it into law and then boris johnson decided first stage to get it into law and then borisjohnson decided not to pursue it any further. he also talked very much about the labour party, it was very striking how he went on the attack againstjeremy corbyn against labour's tax policy, against theirforeign corbyn against labour's tax policy, against their foreign policy, corbyn against labour's tax policy, against theirforeign policy, their immigration policy, laying out for people the choices as he would see

it. whatever side you are on in this election the parties are not offering the same thing. there are some different issues on offer whether about brexit on the type of economy we would have. we have got five weeks of campaigning. frankly anything could happen? yes, that of the exciting thing about elections. you never know what anyone bet you never know what could happen. no one would have thought today would have panned out as it has. we thought 2017 would be the brexit election. if you have got labour the party talk about other things, other things will get onto the agenda. nhs, public services, renationalisation, all of those things will be covered in a general election and no party can dictate what it is all about. it means that when it comes to that of day people go into the polling station, or sit there with the balance in front of them ina there with the balance in front of them in a postal vote, what is the overriding issue that they care

about, and will that dictate how they vote in that election? today, the liberal democrat election bus has hit the road. the lib dem leader, jo swinson, was asked what progress she's made in building a "remain alliance" — let's have a listen to what she said. there are constructive discussions taking place between parties that wa nt to taking place between parties that want to remain in the european union, and! want to remain in the european union, and i will not pre—empt any announcement on that, but i am very optimistic that before too long you will be hearing some positive news about how a repetition of the success that we saw in the brecon and radnorshire by—election could be achieved when we had the green party and plaid stand aside and make sure we could re—elect eight remain in p2 parliament. when can you see how many seats you can deliver to this mechanism? this week? i hope it will

be soon. i hope it will not to wait. how many do you think it will be? you cannot tell us where it will be but you are already saying you are not going to deal with labour. that ta kes a not going to deal with labour. that takes a few seats away. how many will it be? the vast majority of places across the country that liberal democrats are the biggest and strongest party of remain that is in contention to be able to win the seat. it is not universally the case. there will be some places, thatis case. there will be some places, that is why we are in those discussions. you mentioned the labour party. unfortunately the labour party. unfortunately the labour party. unfortunately the labour party is not a remain party. you have asked jeremy corbyn the question and he will not give a straight answer about whether he is remain or leave. that is why discussions we are having with other parties that want to remain art discussions about doing exactly that. unite to remain arrangements, the clue is in the name. it is about remaining, about stopping brexit, and labourare remaining, about stopping brexit, and labour are not in that place.

will you have enough remainers? there is one part of the electorate that voted for remain but are not happy having another referendum on overturning the first one and are not happy doing all that without a referendum, how will you win that group of people over? we are finding that people are absolutely coming to that people are absolutely coming to that liberal democrats. we had 6 million people sign a petition to revoke article 56 months ago. we have had hundreds of thousands of people marching on the streets of london because they want to stop brexit. this is an issue which has galvanised so many people because they understand that brexit will be bad for public services, bad for jobs, put workers' rights and environmental protections under threat, and also bad for our united kingdom. that is why at this election people have got the chance to choose a different path, to vote liberal democrat, to stop brexit, for a brighterfuture. the green party launched its election campaign this morning. it's pledging a major increase

in spending on climate measures, in order to end the use of carbon in the uk by 2030. our reality check correspondent sophie hutchinson has been looking into the promises. the green party insisted that some things were bigger than brexit and the election must be about the climate. they launched this ambitious plan. today i am proud to announce that the green party will invest £100 billion per year into climate action over the next decade. let us have a look at that. in total that is around £1 trillion in ten years, a large number. to put it in context, the annual cost would be similar to the entire education budget which this year was 103 billion. where would the money come from? they are proposing that 9% would come from tax changes including a rise in corporation tax. and that the rest, the vast majority needed, it would come from borrowing. this year an estimated £55 billion

will be borrowed but the green party would increase borrowing to more than £140 billion per year, the highest level since 2012 as a proportion of national income, according to researchers at the institute for fiscal studies. the party are calling it a green new deal. it means de—carbonising every single sector of the economy. energy, industry, agriculture, transport, and housing. it is rapidly rolling out renewable energy in britain so that we are net zero carbon by 2030. eliminating carbon by 2030 is 20 years sooner than the current uk target, which many experts would regard as extremely ambitious. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns — over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson

launched his election campaign. boris johnson had an audience with the queen at buckingham palace — marking the start of the election period. a police ban on protests by extinction rebellion across london last month — was unlawful — according to the high court. in sport, the two—time olympic champion nicola adams retires from boxing over fears that she could lose her sight. rob baxter says saracens could be found to have won their last two titles unfairly. city travel to atalanta, and arsenal are in europa league action. i would back with more on those stories at half past. the climate activist group extinction rebellion has won a legal challenge

against the metropolitan police, following the force's decision to ban the group protesting across the capital. lawyers for extinction rebellion say the met now faces claims for false imprisonment from potentially hundreds of protestors. richard lister has more. what do we want? climate justice! the extinction rebellion autumn uprising shut down large sections of london last month and led to more than 1800 arrests. the protesters used tactics to stretch police resources to the limit and the police eventually responded by clearing the demonstrators' camps and using the public order act to declare the whole protest illegal. but the protesters took the police to court saying they had no right to shut them down. today two high court judges agreed saying, and the police had acted unlawfully. we are delighted with today's result. it vindicates our belief

that the police's blanket ban was an unprecedented and now unlawful infringement on our right to protest. it is a victory for those who want to draw the government's attention to what scientists have been telling us for decades. metropolitan police figures show around 400 protesters were arrested after the ban was imposed. some may now be able to sue the police. among them, an mep. it's actually a really important case because it's about defending the right to assembly and public protest and those are fundamental cornerstones of a functioning democracy. so it's very important that we won today and i'm very happy. the police say their actions were reasonable and proportionate. but they accept the judgment. we are disappointed by the ruling but clearly we absolutely respect the court's decision and what we need to do now i think is in slow time carefully consider what it means for us and review our tactics in light of it. our planet is in crisis...

and extinction rebellion has not gone away. the actorjim carter is one of the celebrities in this new video campaign. but the ruling today means the next street protests will be harder for police to stop. richard lister, bbc news. the bbc has learnt that evidence provided by groups known as paedophile hunters was used in more than 250 prosecutions last year — even though their techniques are considered controversial. members of the groups pose as children online to lure and confront suspected child sex offenders — but, despite using their evidence, police have described them as vigilantes, whose activities could put child abuse investigations at risk. luxmy gopal reports. we are phoning the police. get off my phone! don't touch us! this is a sting by so—called paedophile hunters. 51—year—old christopher powell thought he was meeting a 14—year—old boy he had been messaging. it was actually the group predator exposure, posing as a child online, before confronting him. stand back! you are being detained!

at leeds crown court he pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a boy to engage in sexual activity and was jailed for 32 months. figures obtained by the bbc show last year police forces across the country used evidence from such groups more than 250 times to prosecute suspects. but the relationship between police and paedophile hunters is an uneasy one. some groups have been criticised for live streaming their stings on facebook, publicly naming and shaming their suspects before charges can be brought. why have you been speaking to what you believe to be a 13 year old child? stings including this confrontation in wakefield landed the group predator exposure in court accused of assault and false imprisonment. last week they were cleared of all charges. with the number of online child sex offences rising, they feel they are needed now more than ever. the police are never going to be

able to tackle this. it's going to need people like us, unfortunately, bad eople who do take an interest in your kids. and police aren't doing enough. i wish we didn't have to do it, but we do. but police say their stance on these groups remains unchanged. these are often very high octane, emotional situations. so there is risk involved for the groups themselves. there is significant risk involved for the individuals that they are confronting. and also it might actually disrupt a wider undercover policing investigation that we've got. so the evidence needs to be brought to us and let us deal with it. only a minority of overall police investigations of child abuse involve help from paedophile hunters. but as long as police continue to use their evidence, these groups will argue they're not vigila ntes, but vital support in the against child predators. marks and spencer says its profits dropped by nearly a fifth in the first half of its financial year. the retailer was hit by a sharp fall in demand for its clothes and home goods. overall sales were down by 2.1% —

but it reported that its food business had grown. mothercare has confirmed a phased closure of its 79 uk stores — putting 2500 jobs at risk. the baby goods retailer called in administrators this week after saying it was "not capable" of being sufficiently profitable and it had failed to find a buyer. the man accused of murdering the british backpacker grace millane in new zealand last year has gone on trial in auckland. the court has heard that the suspect, who can't be named for legal reasons, went on a date with another woman, while grace millane's body was in a suitcase in his room. he denies murder and claims her death was an accident during consensual sex. our correspondent phil mercer reports. grace millane came to new zealand for the adventure of a lifetime. but on the eve of her 22nd birthday, she disappeared. on wednesday, grace's parents arrived at the high court in auckland to find out what happened to her.

in the dock, accused of murder, a 27—year—old man who, for legal reasons, we can't identify. the jury heard that the couple met through an online dating app and went drinking. grace millane went back with the defendant to his apartment. she died there. prosecutors say she was strangled in this city centre building. a week later, her contorted body was found stuffed in a suitcase in a shallow grave. only two people know what happened in that room. one of them can't tell us. and the other one hasn't told the truth about what happened. prosecutors allege the next day the defendant went on a date with another woman while the body of grace millane was still in his apartment. lawyers say this has shown his utter disregard for the life of the young english woman. the defence, however, has a different story. it believes miss millane's

death was accidental. defence lawyers argue it was a sex game that went wrong. miss millane died as a result of what they consensually engaged in during their time together. so while his actions may have caused her death, he is also not to blame, although he may blame himself. and he is certainly not criminally responsible. grace millane's death last year shocked new zealand. the judge has warned the jury to ignore the publicity surrounding the case. today the court heard a poignant statement from grace's father david. he said she was a gregarious young woman who chose her friends carefully. the trial is expected to run for at least a month. phil mercer, bbc news, auckland.

dozens of police officers have been attacked with fireworks and bricks during a bonfire night disturbance in leeds. emergency services in other parts of the country were also targetted, on one of the busiest nights of the year. alasdair gill has this report. police! right, come on, i want everyone out. everyone off this road now, come on. i think this is the worst year we've had since the riots in 2001. last year was bad. itjust seems to have gone up a notch this year. last night, bonfire night in the harehills area of leeds exploded into disorder. fireworks and bricks were thrown by groups of young people in pitch battles with police. i quickly realised, as did all of the street team, that it was just too dangerous to be around, we had to get out of here. i was actually attacked with bricks and clubs were pulled and i've seen axes pulled within feet of me last night, just here. just here, i was stood right here. so i ran for my life round that corner, as

fireworks were hitting me, i got hit on the back of the leg. police say they were called to banstead park after a bonfire was lit there. over the next few hours, things escalated — missiles were thrown, bins were set on fire and passing cars were attacked. burning bins and fire and smashing people's cars, you know? and police came, they took on the police. i'm working in this shop, my boss was next to me and they take on us as well, you know? we closed the shutters. the suspects are largely teenagers and one of them is only 11—years—old. today, as the clean—up gets under way, local residents are angry, frightened and upset. i came from my friend's house back over the road and i had a firework thrown at me. luckily, it missed me. then about 25 riot police officers ran onto my street. shouting. police responded last night in full riot gear. four officers were injured, not seriously, but two of

them had to be taken to hospital. i saw a disgusting scene, where several people were, like, harassing the officers. i mean, i understand that not many people like them, but they didn't deserve that at all, especially yesterday, when they were there for people's safety. west yorkshire police say they've made a number of arrests and inquiries are ongoing to try and identify everyone involved in last night's disturbance. alasdair gill, bbc news. now something to get your adreneline pumping. the british bloodhound supersonic car is undergoing high speed trials in the kalahari desert in southern africa. here is the car yesterday — in the hakskeen pan, where engineers have taken the car out for a sixth time. they are running tests to understand how much drag the car produces — so they know how much rocket thrust they will need to power the car when they attempt

to break the sound barrier, and the land speed record. the figure to beat is an incredible 1228 kilometres per hour — set in 1997 by thrust ssc and its driver, ex—fighter pilot andy green. yesterday at the hakskeen pan, the same driver and his new supersonic car reached their highest speed yet of 790 kilometres per hour. our science correspondent jonathan amos is there to watch. this is the extraordinary bloodhound car. it has been ten or 11 years coming, finally they are doing high speed trials, they are doing well, getting 450 mph, maybe 500, 600 might be possible. the reason that can do that is because under the skin it has a jet engine from rolls royce, that can make it go faster and faster which is what they are doing every time that they run. they

have had some technical problems, of course they would. if you come down here you can see where they have had some bodywork damage. all the dust on airthat is some bodywork damage. all the dust on air that is rushing past the rear suspension is peeling back the titanium alloy stop they are about to come up with a fix for that. that is what they have done. that enables the car to go back out on the track. that land speed record currently is 763 mph, that is faster than the speed of sound. the note this car as it is now configured cannot break that land speed record. it needs more thrust. if you look at the back of the car, this is the jet engine, thatis of the car, this is the jet engine, that is where the exhaust comes out. look down here, you will see a big hole, that is where they are going to put a rocket engine as well. that will give it that extra thrust to punchit will give it that extra thrust to punch it through the sound barrier, go past the 763 mph, maybe 800 mph. it would be extraordinary. that is

something. breaking news on that. i can show you a tweet from that bloodhound team. all going to plan. you can see how pleased they are with that. now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. after a bright but chilly start to the day our weather is on the turn, it will turn cloudy with rain. rain overnights will go northwards and eastwards a cross overnights will go northwards and eastwards across the country. most of us will see rain. it will not be quite as cold as last night. tomorrow it is rain that could cause some problems particularly for north wales and northern england, with

rain lasting all day. south of this, some brighter weather, some showers. another chilly day for the time of year. that rain continues to pour down from thursday morning, thursday afternoon, thursday night, into friday morning, we could see localised flooding building up across parts of northern england and north wales. there is the risk of some disruption. this is bbc news — our latest headlines: welsh secretary alun cairns resigns over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. i don't want an early election and no one much wants to have an election in december, but we've got to the stage where we have no choice because our parliament is paralysed. on the campaign trail,

jeremy corbyn tells supporters the country will see real change if labour wins the election. the man accused of murdering british backpacker grace millane goes on trial in new zealand — he claims her death was an accident during consensual sex. the police ban on protests by the climate group extinction rebellion across london last month is ruled unlawful in the high court. sport now on afternoon live with katie sha na han. another retirement from boxing and a very significant one? it certainly is. the double olympic champion, nicola adams says she's "immensely proud" after announcing her retirement from boxing at the age of 37. so, she's decided to retire due to the risk of going blind in one of her eyes. which, has come as a bit of surprise, as we saw her boxing only six weeks ago, where she retained her wbo world flyweight title. nicola adams said in a statement that she's been "advised that any further impact to her eye would most

likely lead to irreparable damage and permanent loss of vision." and, adams isn't the only british boxer to have retired this week. the former world lightweight champion, anthony crolla, fought for the last time on saturday. he spoke to sally nugent earlier, admitting that it's not easy for fighters to know when the time is right to step away from the sport. it's so hard to let go and so many fighters carry on too long. we see it time and time again and then boxing then has an effect on your health in later life. you've got to get out at the right time and i believe that that's what i've done. i'm probably not the fighter i was a few years ago and, you know, you hang around too long, trying to pick up paydays — it comes at a cost and, certainly, when you see like nicola adams, she's made such a sensible decision, when her eyesight‘s in danger. to have achieved everything she has, she can walk away proud and boxing's

taken very little from her. but she stays on and ends up with sort of life—lasting injuries, that wouldn't be worth it. is that a conversation you have had with your own family? yes, yeah, i had conversations with my family, people close to me who would advise me. that's why i believe now is the right time. boxing will always be a huge part of my life and i'll always have that hunger of being a fighter but i'll try and fill it in different ways now, through coaching and stuff like that. antony crolla speaking there. so, as we look back on what has been a sparkling career by nicola adams, we also realise how much of an impact she's had on boxing. and she'll ultimately go down in the history books after winning commonwealth, european and world titles. and i am sure we will see plenty of her in the future, as well. let's just talk about rugby, the fallout from that whopping punishment for saracens.

saracens were meant to go to the european champions cup launch in cardiff today, but they've pull out of that, following yesterday's salary cap revelations. so, sarries are facing a 35 point penalty and a fine of over £5 million. it's comes after an inquiry into "business link—ups" between chairman nigel wray and some players. but now, the exeter director of rugby, rob baxter says that saracens will have won their last two titles "unfairly" if their appeal against breaching salary cap rules fails. exeter lost the last two premiership finals to saracens. here's what baxter had to say about the accusations. probably pleased that it's kind of out in public. i think most people who've been involved with building squads and doing contracts and trying to keep players, trying to recruit players, especially over a number of years, when you kind of see the changes in the market and the way things work, probably have known for quite some while that squad has not been put

together and kept together and improved and added on in a way that has been possible purely within what the salary cap regulations lay out. arsenal will qualify for the last 32 of the europa league if they win at vitoria this afternoon and standard liege fail to beat eintracht frankfurt tomorrow. the match kicked off at 3:50pm. it's currently and 0—0. arsenal are without mesut ozil, pierre—emerick aubameyang and granit xhaka, who's been left out after being stripped of the captaincy. later, tottenham and manchester city are both away in the champions league. manchester city can reach the last 16 with a win in atalanta. that's all from me. bye for now. now on afternoon live —

let's go nationwide and see what's happening around the country in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. peter levy is in hull talking about a report published in lincoln today on modern slavery. more on that in a moment. clare casson is in plymouth with a story of a gardener come singer who's reportedly improving the lives of people living with dementia. clare we'll be back with you in a second. peter, modern day slavery, a report published where you are? yes, you may or may not remember the story earlier in the year of the traveller family guilty of enslaving 19 men. the victims fed on scraps, lived in squalor and forced to work for little or no money. laying driveways for the family business. they were keptin for the family business. they were kept in caravans without running water or toilet facilities. they we re water or toilet facilities. they were all described as vulnerable adults aged between 18 and 63, who are adults aged between 18 and 63, who a re often adults aged between 18 and 63, who are often homeless. one was held, can you believe this, the 26 years?

under the modern slavery act, introduced in 2015, it is illegal to hold someone as a slave or in servitude and forced them to carry out compulsory labour. but the case of the lincolnshire gang who kept these homeless men in slave —like conditions have brought this issue now to the public eye for all of us to actually think about. more about that in a moment. the scale of modern—day slavery is much larger than was previously thought. earlier in the year, we thought that there we re in the year, we thought that there were 19 victims but a report out today says they could be many as 60 victims. hard to believe, isn't it? it certainly is. what does the report suggest we do when it comes to modern slavery? the social workers say not enough has been done to help these men because people, the rest of us, had failed to speak out. lincolnshire safeguarding adult review tea m out. lincolnshire safeguarding adult review team published their report

today with these findings into modern—day slavery. also looked at lessons that can be learned and have been learned and how ready we are to spot future cases. this is the interesting thing. when, for example, we go to get our car wash door et al. nails painted or paved the drive and it seems very cheap, what we are now being asked to think about is whether the person doing thejob is a modern day about is whether the person doing the job is a modern day slave. about is whether the person doing thejob is a modern day slave. so, interesting question. it's a very ha rd interesting question. it's a very hard question to ask somebody, and if you did find something out, would you be prepared to whistle—blower that employer or that company? that's what we are being asked to think about now. if someone is being paid or we think they are being paid to low, to ask questions. i think this is a story that we will probably hear more of in the months ahead. incredible to think that one person was working for this family for 26 years, amazing. and more

later tonight on bbc one in bbc look north. a singing garden are transforming the lives of those with dementia? pat chris hancock, for many years he's worked as a gardener at homes across devon and cornwall but he has always been a keen singer. one day he simply popped inside and sang to have some of the residents and got such an amazing response that he was asked to come back again. it is something that has really grown from there. he now does this regularly and even visits care homes where he is not the gardener. we went along to see him and visited one home at saltash in cornwall and you will see, it makes a massive difference to the residents. some of these people are struggling to even recognise close family and friends, but really come alive with the singing and managed to still remember the words of their favourite songs. # i love you because you

understand... what do i like about the singing? my voice! laughter it's nice to be able to because we are alljoining in together. music and singing, a great part of my life. i thoroughly enjoyed it. and singing, a great part of my life. ithoroughly enjoyed it. can't do it today, unfortunately, but i shall never forget those days. it's a very strong connection, you know, with people, and that's why i love what i do. so lucky to do it and so privileged to do it and i hope the residents enjoy it as much as i do andl residents enjoy it as much as i do and i think they do. a great story! do we know why singing appears to help people with dementia? it's interesting, the science behind musical memory is still a bit of a mystery but there is growing

evidence singing can make a really big difference in easing symptoms of dementia. so things like depression, anxiety and agitation, which can really affect peoples quality of life. and many people also spoke about this feeling that it is somehow unlocks memories. we met one lady who visits her husband at the ca re lady who visits her husband at the care home and she said he really comes alive in a way that she's just not seen for many years. singing. makes him feel happy. he always used to sing when we used to dance, and he's come out of his shell a little bit. because he was very... lost. and this is something that affects such a lot of people, we are talking about 80,000 people across the south—west, more than 800,000 across the uk. the alzheimer's society says thatis

the uk. the alzheimer's society says that is predicted to rise to over1 million people by 2025. this is very much an emerging area of treatment and could potentially help an awful lot of people. it is all going to be discussed at the international dementia conference that is taking place here in plymouth next week. thank you very much on your nationwide debut alongside peter leavy, the stuff of dreams! thank you both. and if you would like to see more on any of those stories, you can more on any of those stories, you ca n a ccess more on any of those stories, you can access them on the bbc iplayer. a reminder, we go nationwide every weekday afternoon at 4:30pm here on afternoon live. let's return now to our main story, the resignation of welsh secretary alun cairn. we can now bring you the first comments from a member of the cabinet — the international trade secretary liz truss. she told the bbc the issue around the resignation is a very serious one.

i think it's right that alun cairns has decided to resign, so that he can collaborate fully with the case that's being put forward. i think that's being put forward. i think that's very important. he will be missed around the cabinet table, will he? he's done a fantastic job as welsh secretary, putting for the interests of wales and achieving removable tolls on the severn bridge. but it's important, this is a very important case and its right he contributes on making sure justice is done. you had this regulation. the comments jacob rees—mogg made over grenfell tower, and the russian interference, the social media video as well. a pretty disastrous start to this campaign for the conservatives? we have just this afternoon seen the prime minister give an excellent speech on the steps of downing street, talking about the future of our country and what the people want to hear, what my constituents in norfolk want to hear is does what the future look like? ithink hear is does what the future look like? i think we have a massive opportunity to unleash potential in

the country, to get the infrastructure projects done that people so desperately need, to give business that certainty to get on with putting funding into those public services and the way to do thatis public services and the way to do that is to support the conservative party. we have got a rally in birmingham. that is a massive opportunity for us to showcase what we are going to do. that was liz truss. staying with politics — on day one of the official campaign — and both boris johnson and jeremy corbyn have given speeches— and earlier i spoke to reality check‘s chris morris to go through some of the claims they made. first we took a look at this claim from borisjohnson. iam very i am very proud of what we have done in the last 108 days or whatever it is, 108 days or so. the biggest programme of nhs investment for a generation. lifting up funding of schools across the country. 40 new hospitals. lifting up funding of schools across the country. putting 20,000 more police on the street. borisjohnson. so, 20,000 more police on the street. boris johnson. so, what 20,000 more police on the street. borisjohnson. so, what did you make of that? new hospitals. the prime

minister has repeatedly said the government is building 40 new hospitals which sort of implies there are 40 building sites around there are 40 building sites around the country where hospitals are sprouting from virgin territory. that's not the case. the government has committed £2.7 billion —— two 7p to upgrade six hospitals with new buildings and so forth, that is happening. the other 34 have been given seed money. so new hospitals, six definitely, 34 possibly to come down the line, with £100 million of money to plan for those upgrades in the future. so a promise to build 40 new hospitals that they are certainly not all being built at the moment. another thing he said in that clip was again we have had this before, 20,000 police on the streets. is that happening? yes, they have said they will recruit 20,000 new police and their recruitment has begun. but that needs to be put in the context of

just over 20,000 police being cut on the streets since the conservatives came into power in 2010 and the coalition government. he said 20,000 new police officers on the streets. as we understand it, and we are still checking with the home office, it's not confirmed all the 20,000 new recruits will actually be front line officers. and the timing it ta kes to line officers. and the timing it takes to recruit them? i stood my ground it takes time to recruit them. so yes, new release officers are coming down the line that in the context of reversing the cuts we have seen in the nine years of austerity. what else did you picked out? pasta we will come back to similar things... out? pasta we will come back to similar things. .. oh, out? pasta we will come back to similar things... oh, about out? pasta we will come back to similar things. .. oh, about free ports! during this campaign i think we will have politicians from all parties repeating the same things. if we don't think we have got them quite right, we will keep saying so. he says one of the benefits of leaving the eu is that we can set up free ports, essentially tax—free zones where you can import stuff,

build them and re—export them without paying tariffs or taxes will stop the thing is, you can do that inside the eu as well. there are three ports in germany, france, they used to be free ports in the united kingdom until the last one was shut down in 2012. it may be good policy, as mrjohnson puts it, to help left behind areas but it is not really directly anything to do with brexit. it could happen even if brexit didn't. jeremy corbyn has been speaking as well, let's hear what he's been saying. here's how you'll be able to judge he's been saying. here's how you'll be able tojudge the he's been saying. here's how you'll be able to judge the success of the next labour government. judge us on whether in work poverty still exists in five years time. judge us on whether people are still sleeping rough after five years of a labour government. judge us on whether proud women and men are still having to depend on food banks in five years time.

and the reality check view of that is? some pretty big claims being made. all laudable but abolishing rough sleeping for example. i think eve ryo ne sleeping for example. i think everyone who walks around the streets of our cities knows it is a big problem and rough sleeping in england has more or less trebled since 2010. there are an estimated 5000 people sleeping rough on the streets. that may be an underestimate. the previous labour government also promised to eliminate rough sleeping and it did bring down the numbers quite sharply but it didn't eliminate it altogether. so it is a bold claim. we asked labour how they are going to fulfil this. one of the things they pointed us towards was building more affordable social housing. but i think for details of where money may be put, we will have to wait for their manifesto. the same goes for another claim he made, about food banks. food banks, it is tricky to determine exactly how big an issue this is, because a lot of food banks

are coordinated at local level by churches and local charities. but the biggest provider in the uk, the trussel trust, it gave out nearly 1.6 million food parcels last year, compared to about 900,005 years earlier. so it is clearly something thatis earlier. so it is clearly something that is on the rise. but labour is promising to eliminate this altogether, which is perhaps a laudable aim and something that is easy to say in an election for not much, much more difficult to achieve, to eliminate, essentially eliminate poverty in this country altogether, slightly utopian you could argue, if you want to be brutal about it. one of the reasons yourjob will be on point and in the next five weeks is the claims and counter claims. the nhs said do not use our in the election campaign. but clearly it will be a major battle front. so making no apologies to what we talked about yesterday, this came from labour that after a post brexit

trade deal with the united states, the nhs may have to spend £500 million a week more on medicines. we looked at that in detail yesterday. we showed that it is basically a crude estimate, based on a supposition that all drugs in the uk would suddenly be priced exactly the same way as all drugs in the united states. that is very unlikely to happen, so it is a theoretical number at best. the government also says it is not going to put the nhs on the table in trade talks. that was chris morris with the reality check. now time for our headlines on afternoon live. welsh secretary alun cairns resigns over allegations he knew a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial. the announcement coming minutes before boris johnson launched his election campaign. borisjohnson has an audience with the queen at buckingham palace — marking the start of the election period. a police ban on protests by extinction rebellion across london last month was unlawful, according

to the high court. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. virgin media is ditching telecoms group bt and switching its three million mobile phone customers to the network run by vodafone. the cable group's current contract with bt‘s ee network expires in 2021, although virgin says it will launch 5g services with vodafone before then. the contract is reportedly worth about £200 million to bt, whose shares fell 4.5%. marks and spencer profits dropped in the first half of its financial year following a sharp fall in demand for its clothes and home goods. the high street retailer said that while its food business was "outperforming the market", there had been issues in clothing and home. more on this in a moment. shares in uber are trading at their lowest—ever level today. today is the first day that employees and insiders have been able to flog shares after a lock—in after the company's may ipo. uber has also been in the news today after the us national transportation safety board

found one of the company's self—driving cars that killed a pedestrian had software problems. so, retail is the focus of the financial markets? lots of results coming in, disappointing like for like clothing sales. excuse me! might need to get you some tissues. closed sales at marks & spencer down 5.5% like—for—like sales. mainly due to supply issues, which is a little embarrassing because it is kind of basics, getting the right sizes, the most popular sizes into the stores from the warehouses at the right times. that is particularly an issue but the share price has rebounded a little. that is perhaps because either investors were expecting worse reports or they thought as far as its food sector was concerned, it is welcomed news because that is growing. clarks had some numbers out also. showing losses are widening because of european sales in

particular, down 7.7%. also some disappointing results from the owner of various shopping centres... just broke my pen! sorry, i will pick that up. this is a live! things can go wrong! sorry. disappointing for shopping centres. let's find out more with richard hunter. wright get someone more with richard hunter. wright get someone to more with richard hunter. wright get someone to rescue you, more with richard hunter. wright get someone to rescue you, richard, bring some sanity to this. joining us now is richard hunter, head of markets at interactive investor. where has it gone wrong in terms of its clothing? marks & spencer? it is not a recent thing, there have been problems with marks & spencer forced up problems with marks & spencer forced up the food side of the business has been the jewel in the crown for stop that continues to be the case. it is still growing and, of course, its imminent tie—up with avocado should give it further prospects, promising

prospects. however, within what used to be called the general merchandising division, clothing and home and clothing in particular, there is very much a feeling it has lost a lot of its relevance to the modern day consumer. and the younger shopper in particular. what m and s is trying to do at the moment is deliver a transformation at pace. the chief executive is saying they are moving at a quicker rate than they have done for some time. to be fairto m and they have done for some time. to be fair to m and s, there were a couple of good things coming out at the numbers today, such as the store reductions in cost savings as well. but, despite the fact that the shares initially reacted positively to the news, that has to be put in the context of the fact that over the context of the fact that over the last 12 months, the shares have lost 36%, which actually resulted in their being relegated from the premier index, the ftse100 in september. absolutely, only a small rebound today fostered let's talk about clerks. you said marks & spencer hasn't really moved with the

times, what is troubling clerks? spencer hasn't really moved with the times, what is troubling clerks7m we played it once over the last three years, we've had a million times. economic uncertainty, a big of uncertainty. we have the basic problems that retailers face on the high streets in terms of business rates. revenues are down for clarks. may some concerns around its pricing level and the loss it has reported for this particular period has more than doubled to around £83 million. so clearly, there is quite a lot of work for them to do as well, in terms of catching up with some of the competition because again, we have seen so the competition because again, we have seen so many the competition because again, we have seen so many times that it tends to be the online retailers which by definition have a lowered cost base, which are continuing to flourish. absolutely. really good results from primark yesterday. as far as bricks and mortars doors, bucking the trend. but i want to move to bt. it has been a real blow

for them today because it has lost virgin mobile customers? yes, it is a blow. we had some fairly uninspiring numbers from bt a few days ago. the main plus to come out of those results as they will be maintaining what is a fairly chunky dividend. but there is no question that this is disappointing news today. obviously, the new business is going to go over to vodafone. their shares are up slightly on the day. but it does represent another thing that bt has to deal with, in terms of replacing this business, let alone any ofcom investigations that are going on or problems with its open reach division. richard hunter, thank you very much for that comprehensive look at what's been going on today in the financial markets are no pen dropping. the ftse100 has turned positive. it was lower earlier. renewed speculation there could be a trade deal between there could be a trade deal between the us and china, which has pushed it back up. mining stocks

recovering. frankfurt as you can see, that has lifted following on from the united states, as well. a lot more optimism around the cac. and the euro against the pound. sterling not really moving yet, despite the gains we've seen in recent weeks. but that is really because there is not much movement because there is not much movement because of the general election, the continued uncertainty, so a bit of a pause. 0k, pause. ok, thank you, nice to see. thanks for putting up with everything! you're watching afternoon live. the news at five with huw edwards is next, now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. the brighter skies have been replaced by cloudy conditions in the cloud has been thickening across the whole of the uk. it has been

bringing rain as particular well, to western areas. some wet weather at the moment in northern ireland through western parts of england and wales. some rain moving eastwards and northwards across scotland, but that still leaves some slivers of dry weather. western scotland, east anglia, parts of south east england staying fine through the afternoon. overnight tonight, though, it's a different story. the rain areas will generally push northwards and eastwards with time. so it's a night when many of us will see some rain at some point in the night. given the cloudy conditions overnight, it's not going to be quite as chilly as it was last night. temperatures between 4—7 degrees celsius. that takes us into thursday's forecast on thursday is the day where we could see rain causing problems across north wales and northern england, with a risk of localised flooding here. so, south of our rain band, it's a mixture of sunshine and heavy, thundery showers for southern coastal counties of england. some brighter and drier weather for western scotland and also for parts of northern ireland. but it's another chilly day for the time of year, temperatures between 7—10 degrees.

now, this rain band, once it's started thursday morning, it's going to stay with us right the way into friday morning. so about 24 hours worth of rain across parts of north wales, northern england, with yorkshire, derbyshire, maybe shropshire looking quite vulnerable to the risk of some localised flooding issues, as those rain accumulations really build up. we could see as much as 60—80 millimetres over the high ground. and after a recent wet spell of weather this will autumn, thatjust increases the risk of some flooding impacts. now, the area of low pressure, the troublemaker, will begin to push away into france, as we look at the forecast for friday. but it's going to take a while before the cloud and the patchy rain slowly pulls away from east anglia and south—east england. so it will probably stay quite damp here through much of the day on friday. elsewhere, a chilly start, some frost around, maybe a few fog patches but plenty of sunshine and staying on the cold side, temperatures 6—11 degrees celsius. now, the weekend weather prospects, more rain on the way, i'm afraid, on saturday. a chance of some snow over the highest hills of north england and scotland, but as we head into sunday,

it stays quite cool but it should be dry and brighter.

today at five, parliament is dissolved. the formal campaign begins ahead of the general election on december 12th. earlier today, boris johnson visited the queen at buckingham palace, to mark the end of parliamentary session, and the start of the election period. i don't want an early election and no—one much wants to have an election in december, but we've got the stage where we have no choice, because our parliament is paralysed. but an early blow for the conservatives, as the welsh secretary alun cairns, resigned over his links to a man who sabotaged a rape trial. and the labour leader has questioned whether mr cairns has a ‘moral right‘ to still stand as a candidate in the election.