to g to saturday morning, we will start to saturday morning, we will see spinning from the west but snow over the highest ground in the north, sunday show signs of bring us a little drier. that's all for me, next up, the bbc news at six p:m.. today boris johnson next up, the bbc news at six p:m.. today borisjohnson officially watches the russian campaign but also to do with the cabinet resignation. or, and this is the alternative next year, spend the whole of 2020 in a horror show of yet more dither and delay. but less than hour before that, the welsh secretary had to resign over what he knew about the collapse of rape trial. and jeremy corbyn waded into the row, questioning the minister's moral right to stand in the election. today was meant to be budget day — we'll look at the country's finances and the spending pledges we've heard so far.

also tonight: extinction rebellion wins at the high court — judges rule that the police were wrong to ban its protests in london. a slump in profits at m&s — there's been a sharp fall in demand for its clothes and home goods. and coming up on bbc news: double olympic champion nicola adams retires from boxing at the age of 37 over fears she could lose her sight in one eye. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. it wasn't the ideal start to an election campaign — less than an hour before boris johnson got the election under way, news came through that

the welsh secretary was resigning. alun cairns quit when it became clear he'd endorsed an aide even after knowing about the man's role in the collapse of a rape trial. speaking outside number 10, the prime minister said a conservative win would mean getting brexit done. a contrast, he said, to the horror show of dither and delay underjeremy corbyn. here's our political editor, laura kuenssberg. he may have waited his life for this, but is he ready for what waits? a cacophany wherever he goes. a leader who irritates but can inspire. good afternoon. a risk taker, asking for you to put faith in him. our mps are just refusing time and again to deliver brexit and honour the mandate of the people. i can tell you, i've got to the stage where i would be wanting to chew my own tie in frustration because in a sense, we're so nearly there.

forget parliament, boris johnson has problems inside. scratching his head nervously yesterday, alun cairns, the welsh secretary, who quit today over claims he knew a former member of his staff sabotaged a rape trial. the traditional exchange of letters at a non—traditional time. the first day of a prime minister's campaign. if i come back here with a working majority, in parliament, then i will get parliament working again for you. on day one of the new parliament, in december, we will start getting our deal through. borisjohnson‘s offer, though, is to bring a close to these torrid times. at least an end to part one. but can he be the one to extend a credible invitation to every voter? come with us, a government that's putting billions into education. come with us, a government that believes in high wages and is raising the living wage. come with us, get brexit done,

and take this country forward, or — this is the alternative — next year, spend the whole of 2020 in a horror show of yet more dither and delay. let's get brexit done and unleash the potential of the whole united kingdom. thank you very much. the prime minister said time and again he doesn't want this general election, but he's made the calculation to risk it all. if he wins, a victory would see him back here and us leaving the european union injanuary. but lose, he'd become the third shortest serving prime minister in history. and jeremy corbyn would be on his way to moving into number 10. for four years, his ranks of supporters have dreamt of him walking through downing street's door and like his rival he wants to move on from the

mess. westminster hasn't covered itself in glory recently. you were right to feel frustrated with the system because it isn't working for you. but on what to do instead, the solutions are different. if the british people elect a labour government in december i will be proud to be a labour prime minister but i have to warn you it will be very different because i was not born to rule. none of us in this room were born to rule. the politics i stand for is about sharing power and wealth with people who don't have a lot of money, friends in high places so they can take control of their own lives. mr corbyn and mr johnson have 36 days to persuade you they are the one who deserves the car to glide to the palace and then to power. this ritual unchanging,

the times anything but. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. let's speak to our wales political editor, felicity evans, who first broke the story about the welsh secretary. she's in the vale of glamorgan, alun cairns' constituency. how will this resignation of alun cairns affect the campaign in wales? george, you have to do say that campaign is in some disarray this evening because as welsh secretary alun cairns was supposed to lead it and there is no obvious candidate to replace him. mr cairns says he has done nothing wrong and the inquiry into his behaviour will clear him but a resignation at this point will damage his electoral prospects and potentially those of his party. the conservatives had hoped to gain seats in leave voting areas in the north—east of wales and we do not know how this row over the selection ofa know how this row over the selection of a candidate for the welsh

assembly elections who it emerged had been accused by a judge of sabotaging a rape trial will affect voters' decisions but we know the victim has spoken of her distress that not a single senior welsh conservative has apologised for selecting that candidate who has now been suspended and there is another thing the party has to grapple with, and that is the questions over who knew what and when, which do not go away with mr cairns' resignation. well, over the next few weeks we're all going to be bombarded with pledges and promises from all the parties. today, as we saw, mrjohnson said the conservatives will finish brexit and then invest in public services. but what does it mean for you? our deputy political editor, john pienaar, has been listening to some of the questions people have been asking. can borisjohnson deliver brexit? of all the main parties, he's the only leader who would take britain straight out of the european union if the tories win outright. no more referendums, no more wrangling over

the withdrawal agreement. that's the terms of divorce, just out. he had a deal and he couldn't get it through parliament. if most mps were tories, he could. but there is the question, what kind of brexit? borisjohnson has said there will be no more extensions. he's also said he wants to break out of the european union like the incredible hulk — remember? and if no comprehensive trade deal is agreed, that's our long—term future relationship, after another tough round of negotiations, we could still face the disruption of a no deal exit next december. as a mum to a young daughter, my question to the conservative party, what are you doing to our schools and to public services in general? the tories are promising to spend more. who isn't? but borisjohnson has moved on to labour territory by promising he will end austerity and pour cash into hospitals, schools and the police. it's worth noting that

the extra £7.1 billion for schools in england, that's about reversing cuts and keeping pace with growing school rolls. the extra money for the police, it'll recruit another 20,000 officers in england and wales. but it will rebuild forces that were cut under the last tory—led coalition government. and as for the nhs? an extra £34 billion eventually, that's a lot of cash. but again, the health service needs it, just to meet growing demand and the rising cost of health care. ijust wanted to know, what does the prime minister mean by, "come with us?" he means trust me, not the other guy. and that is for you to judge. no party leader can be called hugely popular or trusted now. borisjohnson broke his promise to take britain out of the eu, do or die, by october the 31st. political opponents say you cannot trust his word, even some tories have their doubts about his command of detail, for example.

yes, he was a popular london mayor, but that was before brexit split the country. his party decided he was the one most likely to win. right now, his personal poll ratings are well ahead ofjeremy corbyn‘s, but polls can change and that is one reason why this could be as personal and even as nasty a campaign as any we've seen. laura kuenssberg is in the west midlands. we got a good idea of how boris johnson wants to play things but that resignation wasn't in the script. now and we have looked back through political history and cannot find another example of a serving cabinet minister resigning on day one of a crucial election campaign and it's not the backdrop boris johnson would have hoped for when he launched his campaign in front of thousands of supporters here in a couple of hours and there is no question to have such a toxic issue

bea question to have such a toxic issue be a problem for the conservatives at the start of the campaign is something they would have chosen to avoid but remember campaigns take place over what can feel like a long time, this is like an injury when they have just got out of the blocks but this will be a marathon, not a dash and for a long time it was said campaigns didn't really shift much at the beginning, most people had made up their minds but look at recent history of how campaigns have moved very dramatically. a lot of conservatives i've spoken to are haunted by the memory of 2017 when they started out way in front dreaming ofa they started out way in front dreaming of a huge majority, that is not the case this time because things can change fast. we will see whether the prime minister has any more to say on that on the stage and a few hours.

let's take a look at some of today's other election news. snp leader and first minister of scotland nicola sturgeon has said demand for a second scottish independence referendum will become irresistible if her party wins the majority of scotland's 59 seats. she said it was her intention to have a referendum next year and says the idea of westminster politicians rejecting a second vote is starting to crumble. the liberal democrat leader, jo swinson, took to the campaign trail on an electric battle bus with the slogan "stop brexit, build a brighter future." she visited a mental health charity in north london, saying her party would pledge £11 billion to mental health services, funded by a 1p rise in income tax. the green party in england and wales has said december 12th should be "the climate election" — arguing the future "wouldn't get another chance. " launching its campaign, the party called for additional borrowing in order to fund 100 billion of spending every year for the next decade, to deal with the climate crisis.

we know these are dark times, it's easy to fear the future. the threat of brexit hangs over our heads, the climate emergency rages, from the amazon to the arctic and ourfragile democracy is under attack. but despite all this, greens don't fear the future. we are the future. the green party co—leader there. and there'll be a special panorama tonight with david dimbleby, as he travels across the uk ahead of the election, meeting voters and politicians, to get an insight into how our country has been changed by brexit. that's at 8pm here on bbc one. today was meant to be the day the chancellor delivered the first post—brexit budget — instead, a general election is underway. with labour and the conservatives both promising to boost spending on public services, a leading economic research group, the institute for fiscal studies, has released its analysis of how

the public finances are doing. our economics editor, faisal islam, has more. call it the budget that never was — due today but cancelled by the chancellor alongside the key updates to forecasts for borrowing. others have done those calculations and they point to a rather different argument over tax, spend and borrowing during the election campaign. first up, here's the existing, official forecast for borrowing over the next five years. they come from march and you'll see low deficit, way lower than the 100 billion plus we had a decade ago — basically falling pretty much to zero. and here are what the forecasts could have been, according to the ifs, if the budget had happened today. much higher in every year. in fact, the deficit staying at around 45 to £50 billion all the way out. let's focus on the current fiscal year — £55 billion,

but half of the increase over the past few months comes from an accounting change to the way that student loans are perceived to be likely to be written off. then, there is the extra spending at spending review on police and schools and there's also an adjustment for a forecast of lower growth. the question for all the main parties is whether a deficit like this into the future is even considered a problem any more. let's take a look at the existing plans for day—to—day spending over the next couple of years. up, up and away in health, education, home office and prisons. you'll be hearing a lot about this from the prime minister. but, let's reveal the rest of that chart in context over a decade of spending cuts. health was spared and is up since 2010, but education spending

is still down on 2010, even after the planned rises. and while we'll hear a lot about 20,000 new policemen, this chart shows why 20,000 police officers lost their jobs in the years before. some departments, such as justice, responsible for prisons still down in funding by over a fifth. but you're also going to hear a lot about a different form of government spending, on infrastructure, on the future on building up the assets of the nation. investment spending by the tens of billion, or perhaps by the hundreds of billion. and while that normally would have been prevented by existing rules to limit the national debt, today's missing budget was set to change them anyway. the main political parties now all agreeing that the uk should take advantage of cheap international borrowing costs to invest more. a new election campaign means new rules on budgets too. faisal islam, bbc news. our top story this evening:

boris johnson officially launches the election campaign — but has to deal with the resignation of a cabinte minister. and coming up... two—time olympic champion nicola adams retires from boxing over fears she could lose her sight. coming up on sportsday on bbc news... we'll look ahead to another busy night of european football. manchester city face atalanta, whilst tottenham are in serbia taking on red star belgrade. marks & spencer is in the middle of a turnaround plan — but there's been a drop in profits following poor sales in clothing and home goods. pre—tax profits fell 17% in the first half of the financial year, to £176.5 million. sales in clothing and homeware fell by 5.5% — although the food division returned to growth. here's our business

correspondent, emma simpson. hi everyone, it's holly willoughby here. she's the celebrity who's teamed up with m&s. everything she wears sells out. trouble is, m&s didn't buy enough of it. takejeans. m&s had a disaster with its denim ranges — they quickly sold out. across clothing, it didn't have enough of the right products, in the right size. yet again, so many of m&s's problems are self—inflicted. jill, i think you've got the toughestjob in the company. well, i love a challenge. meetjill stanton, new head of women's wearfor m&s. many people will find it extraordinary you're still trying to fix the basics. this is a big and complex business, but the important thing is that we have a very clear strategy in place now. we're buying less product, we're being it in more depth. the per una range has had a revamp too, but two years into this latest turn around,

progress is painfully slow. you're not going to turn a ship around overnight. it's going to be a process of iteration and making sure that you constantly are paying forward those [earnings and getting to a better place. can m&s fashion be turned around? it can. it absolutely can. but not everyone's so sure. the fashion readers in retail today are fast—moving, innovative and have got only a focus on fashion. marks and spencer are a bit more a generalist and that means they'll probably sell some basics quite well, but to do that they will have improve their quality and they have to make sure they start connecting with that customer once more. they are buying more m&s food though. price cuts have helped pull shoppers in. the real test comes next year when marks start its online home delivery service with ocado. would you like a carrier bag? m&s says it's making up for lost time, but today's figures show this turn around is far from in the bag. emma simpson, bbc news.

extinction rebellion, the climate crisis protest group, has won a legal challenge against the metropolitan police, following the force's decision to ban the group's protests across london. lawyers for extinction rebellion say the met now faces claims for false imprisonment from potentially hundreds of protestors. daniel sandford reports. for seven days extinction rebellion protestors brought parts of london to a stand—still. stretching police resource to the limit. on the eighth day, organisers adopted a tactic from the hong kong pro—democracy movement, in which protestors are told to be like water — to flood a site and then when police arrive, quickly move on to another location, causing as much disruption as possible. at that point, the superintendent in charge banned all extinction rebellion protests in london. a decision the high court today ruled unlawful. we are delighted

with today's result. it vindicates our belief that the police's blanket ban was an unprecedented, unlawful infringement on our right to protest. it also opens the way for those who were detained for breaching the ban to sue the police for unlawful arrest. we're disappointed by the ruling, but clearly we absolutely respect the court's decision. 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. so the police now have a challenge — how do they deal with the "be water" tactic of protestors, when lots of mini protests keep popping pall over the place? thejudges were clear that a city—wide ban won't wash — it's unlawful. so police will have to revert to dealing with each mini protest one by one, with all the implications for resources that that involves. police said today they spent more than £24 million policing

extinction rebellion's autumn up rising, and said it had caused unacceptable and prolonged disruption. daniel sandford, bbc news, at new scotland yard. nicola adams, the two—time olympic boxing champion, has decided to retire from the sport after doctors said she would risk her eyesight if she continued. she said her career had been "a dream come true" but acknowledged it had taken a toll on her body. katie gornall reports. olympic champion! nicola adams dreamed of this moment before women's boxing was even an olympic sport. at london 2012 she blazed a trail, becoming the first woman to win olympic boxing gold. but the sport she loves has taken a toll, forcing her retirement over fears for her sight. i could take the chance and risk that anything, i keep on boxing and nothing else happens to my eyes, or, you know, it could be, you know, an unlucky punch and then i could lose my sight, so i was,

like, yeah, you know what, i've achieved a lot in boxing, it's time to hang up the gloves. behind the smile lay a fierce will to win. at the rio olympics she successfully defended her title, before turning professional in 2017 and becoming wbo flyweight champion. a glittering resume for someone who's had to forge their own path to the top. phenomenal achievement in women's boxing. it would be difficult for somebody to achieve the same as nicky, certainly from the uk, but hopefully she'll have inspired girls to have a go at it and try and do that. nicola adams lit up the ring. now she steps away from the canvas, leaving a legacy few can match. katie gornall, bbc news. back to our main story this evening, with the general election campaign officially under way, how exactly do voters feel about the prospect of heading to the polling station in the run—up to christmas? our home editor mark easton has been to birmingham, a city surrounded by lots of marginal seats, to meet some undecided voters.

the nights are lengthening as the uk tilts away from the sun. at this unscheduled winter election voters will be more in the dark than ever before, literally, so how does the electorate feel as the campaigning begins? with the help of consultants britain thinks, we've gathered together different strands of public opinion in a former textile factory in birmingham, a balanced group still undecided as to who in this advent election should get to open the door to number 10. there wasn't supposed to be an election now but here we are. i want to know how you feel about the state of uk politics as we start election 2019? as concerned as i've ever been in my life if i'm honest. i feel as though it's out of control. it's embarrassing, isn't it? i think other countries are looking at us and we're just a laughing stock. i actually don't feel it's an embarrassment to the country. i'm quite proud, not necessarily

of how things are working out in the moment but that people are stepping back from their own parties and disagreeing with one another. i think the election is needed to sort of make the country decide which route they want to go down. so this will decide it, do you think? no. is this election about the brexit divide, leave and remain, or is it about left and right or something else? it feels like the brexit election to me, a rerun of choosing which side you're on. it needs to be about the bigger issues like the nhs, crime, education but it is going to be about brexit, let's face it. it used to be very much, you knew exactly where you were with the conservative party and the labour party and now i think there's so much extreme within each party. there's parties i would never vote for but actually i do like some of their policies and in the party i would vote for, i don't quite like some of theirs and that's never

happened to me before. with a nod to elections past, we've built ourselves an —ometer and this can test anything we like, we can make it an integrity—ometer. do you think our political leaders, our political parties have got integrity? is this bad? that's bad, yeah. it's quite high, isn't it? a sincerity—ometer. bring it up to average. i think some are sincere. i think it goes with integrity for me so it would be down there. now it's an ability—ometer. i'll go all the way. really, full marks on ability? these are talented people? they'll get it done. i'm going to bring it down, i think a bunch of clowns. bunch of clowns. that's my score there. come election day, birmingham's polling stations will open an hour before sunrise and close six hours after sunset. the question for britain

is whether undecided voters like these will bring light out of the darkness. mark easton, bbc news, birmingham. time for a look at the weather now, here's chris fawkes. it isa it is a chilly but bright start to the day for some of us. beautiful scene in dorset, but since then rain has been spreading in and we have rain overnight. we have three separate bands of rain crossing the british isles soever night we would just call it rain at times. but it will be at its heaviest across wales, southern counties of england and the midlands, and given the cloud and rain around, although it is chilly not quite as cold as it was last night. temperatures between four and seven celsius. tomorrow we have wet weather on the way and it could cause problems across northern england and north wales where this band of rain is on it will be slow moving all day. sunshine with the few heavy showers and thunderstorms

toward southern coastal counties of england. for the north west, bright weather for noeckler scotland and western areas of northern ireland, not looking too bad but it will be another chilly day for the time of year. temperatures between seven and 10 degrees. this area of rain that arrives early on thursday will be around thursday afternoon, thursday night and into friday morning. you can imagine the amount of rain building up, as much as 80 millimetres of rain is forecast over the high grounds and that has brought a risk of localised flooding, north wales, derbyshire and maybe shropshire. as the weather slips into france, it will be a slow process of brightening up across east anglia in south—east england. elsewhere a cold, frosty started the day but they should be a bit of sunshine to the end of the day. another cool one, six to 11 celsius. cloud and rain on the way for saturday and sunday looks like being the better day but it will be on the cool side for now.

that's all from the bbc news at six.

hello, this is bbc news. our headlines this evening. the prime minister has met the queen at buckingham palace as campaigning begins for the election on december the 12th. 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 department is paralysed. but, an early blow for the conservatives. the welsh secretary alun cairns has