labour promises free broadband for every home in the uk over the next decade — if they win the election. to do it, jeremy corbyn says they will partly nationalist bt and tax the tech giants to pay for the £20 billion proposals. fast and free broadband for all will fire up our economy, deliver a massive boost to productivity and bring half a million people back into the workforce. but the prime minister dismissed labour's proposals as a crazed communist scheme. what we won't be doing is some crackpot scheme that would involve many, many tens of billions of taxpayers‘ money nationalising a british business. we'll be asking how the free broadband for all can be achieved and how it will be paid for.

also tonight: around 100 people are rescued from floods in the midlands — with more flood warnings and rain on the way. the mother of a ten—year—old girl who died after contracting an infection in a cancer ward in glasgow claims there was a cover up over her death. sleeping on the streets, in parks, on people's sofas — a charity warns that more than 20,000 young people are at risk of homelessness this christmas. and ‘eastenders stars take on strictly for tonight's children in need. and coming—up on bbc news... more medals for great britain on the final day of the world para athletics championship in dubai as they finished third in the medal table.

good evening. labour has unveiled plans to give every home across the uk free broadband in the next decade by partly nationalising bt. the shadow chancellor, john mcdonnell, said his party's proposals were visionary and the £20 billion cost of doing it would be paid for by introducing a tax on tech giants. the prime minister called it a crackpot scheme. bt‘s share price fell after the announcement and the company's boss, philip jansen, said labour had underestimated the price of its pledge. here's our political editor, laura kuenssberg. labour has a big giveaway it hopes to connect with you. fast—fibre broadband for everyone everywhere, if they win, within ten years‘ time. another big intervention in the market, another expensive job for the state. labour's money man is adding the internet to rail,

water, energy and the mail he would like to take into public hands. the way we'll do it is if we're putting that scale of public money and taxpayers‘ money in, we want to ensure we own it as well and that means bringing parts of bt into public ownership. another big nationalisation with a big price tag. yes it is. yes, and what we‘ll do in the normal way is firstly, we‘ll issue bonds for shares and what we‘re doing is introducing a new tax, for the ones that gain their incomes from the internet, the apples and googles and amazons of this world and in that way we will pay for the day—to—day costs. whether you look at free broadband, free university fees, renationalisations, why should wealthy people in this country be entitled to free things? because we believe we need a more equal society and the best way of getting that benefit to everyone is to make sure you don‘t have hurdles like means testing. this is hard—nosed economics.

if we do not get on and do this, we will fall... we already are falling behind our global competitors and we will fall behind even further. future generations will not forgive us. your critics might say you‘re just addicted to spending other people‘s money. i‘m not at all. other countries are having these visions and we‘re not. we‘re being held back. if we don‘t do this, we will be held back even further. both of the main party leaders were on the stump in lancashire today, both stage managing the campaign, both battle buses now on the road. but the approach borisjohnson is pursuing on the economy is very different. can you all hear me? £5 billion to subsidise expanding broadband. a huge programme of investment in our roads, in telecoms, gigabit broadband unlike the crazed, crazed communist scheme that was outlined earlier on today, we will give people gigabit broadband by 2025. with the quality of broadband

achingly different in different corners of the country, it matters in this campaign. scotland is ahead of the uk in terms of our current performance in many respects, the improvements we have seen in broadband availability recently but also in the scale of our ambitions. i‘ve been to about 30 constituencies so far. 30 down, many more to go. perhaps more dramatic plans too. yes, the third one, come on. but this time round, with these leaders and these parties, in this election you can‘t say they‘re all the same. bye, everybody, see you again. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. there‘s been a hostile reaction to labour‘s plans from broadband providers and from the wider business community with questions being raised about how much it would actually cost. our business editor, simonjack, reports. the uk has some of the slowest average broadband speeds in europe. it even trails madagascar,

making life difficult for the people and businesses closer to home in rockland‘s norfolk. we have trouble running the business, sometimes the card machine, which is linked to the internet is a problem. i was in spain for 20 years and i lived in the most rural part of spain you can imagine. my internet speed was 100. i came here to rocklands and my internet speed was one. if you have families, everyone comes home from school, all the homework's done online now, it makes it really tricky. children are not able to do their homework, people are not able to work from home. the average household broadband bill is £30 a month. labour would make it totally free, but not to the taxpayer, who labour estimate would pay £20 billion. the independent national infrastructure commission estimates it would cost £34 billion. so why is it so expensive? at the moment, most of us get our broadband through a fibre—optic cable that links to these old green cabinets where the existing

slower copper network takes over to do that last mile into our homes and businesses. replacing all of that with individualfibre into every property is something that only 8% of the country enjoys at the moment. doing the other 92 is one heck of a job. 0penreach, bt‘s broadband division, has 32,000 employees and sells its services to other operators like virgin media and talktalk. if bt broadband will be free, other companies won‘t be able to compete while taxing us companies to help pay for it risks putting them off britain. clearly, everybody would like to have things for free, even if you classify broadband as a utility, you pay for all your other utilities because you have to have a return so i think the cost of that provision will be huge and trying to levy that on taxes on other companies will not be popular, will not encourage investment in this country, it will just create investment uncertainty. labour say they hope to come to an arrangement

with bt‘s competitors and if they can‘t, they might nationalise them too. do you know anything about this bt share offer? millions of people own shares in bt since the 19805 or through their pension funds. labour say parliament will decide how much they get for them meaning they may get less than market value. all parties agree that fa5ter broadband i5 parties agree that fa5ter broadband is essential. that‘5 parties agree that fa5ter broadband is essential. that‘s where the agreement ends. simon jack, bbc news. 0ur political editor laura kuen55berg is here. the differences between the two main parties have been very firmly drawn in this election. they really are. 0n the face of it it might sound confusing, last week both of the parties were saying we would spend more public money. labour would spend a lot more public money and the conservatives would turn on the spending taps a bit. when it comes to something like these nationalisations, this would be the fifth big renationalisation alongside rail and the mail alongside rail and the mail alongside other things labour would like to do. we are notjust talking

about a bit of difference between public spending here and there, we are not even just talking about brexit, voters have a choice here for a big expansion in the size of the state or staying with the conservatives. it is a big historic choice and a very genuine difference between the two main parties this time. thank you. let‘s take a look at some of today‘s other election news. the liberal democrats say they‘d invest heavily in tackling climate change if they‘re elected to power. they want to spend £100 billion over five years in areas such as clean energy and transport, and home insulation. and they reiterated their decision not to go into any kind of coalition in the event of a hung parliament. the green party has pledged to introduce a universal basic income by 2025 to replace the current universal credit system. it would see every adult receiving a minimum of £89 per week and they say it would be funded through taxation. more than 100 people have had to be rescued by emergency services

as parts of the midlands were hit by more flooding and drivers were caught out by rapidly rising water. there are more than 100 flood warnings currently in place in parts of england and wales. 0ur midlands correspondent, sian lloyd, reports from evesham in worcestershire where the river avon burst its banks. yeah, so would you like us to bring you out of the property because of the water? you would like to be evacuated? rescue boats have been launched throughout the day in evesham as water levels on the avon continue to rise. it‘s been a quite protracted incidence for us, there‘s been a number of incidents going on across the county. and this is just one of many that our crews are dealing with currently. the river has reached its highest level since 2007, with only one road through evesham left open. this is one of the main routes through evesham, but half a mile is currently submerged beneath the flood water. it‘s meant that many people haven‘t been able to get

through to their appointments at the community hospital today and it‘s had to restrict its services. the hereford and worcester fire and rescue service have helped more than 100 people in the past 2a hours, including trevor, who had become trapped inside his own home. i couldn't get out on my own. you know, i tried that earlier on, and it's too deep for me to wade through, even with the waders on. no such problem for this evesham resident, but with water levels still rising in some places, a number of communities are on standby. all this water's working its way through. it's taking a long time on the big rivers. it's likely that it's not going to peak at tewkesbury and upton until saturday, possibly sunday. with the rescuers preparing themselves for what could become a busy couple of days. well, there‘s been continued disruption for people right across

the midlands today, particularly for those travelling by road or rail with more than a0 schools closed in worcestershire alone stop the water levels have begun to recede in this town, this evening, but there has just been a bronze command meeting held for emergency services to discuss how they‘re going to deal with things the weekend. sian, thank you. the mother of a 10—year—old girl who died while being treated at glasgow‘s children‘s hospital is claiming there was a cover up over her death. kimberley darroch says she believes she was lied to after millie contracted an infection at the hospital that the family think was linked to a contaminated water supply. the scottish government‘s health secretary, jeanne freeman, said she understands why the family feel let down and is committed to finding out what happened. lorna gordon reports. 10—year—old millie main had been receiving treatment for leukaemia. she was a character. everybody loved being around millie, she was a lovely, caring girl.

her mum said she had been recovering when she caught the bacterial infection linked to her death. she says the family were kept in the dark about the possible source of the infection. i think they knew prior to millie's death that the water was contaminated. i feel like they knew that this was the infection that killed my daughter. but no—one has come forward to tell us. millie had been a patient here at this flagship hospital in glasgow. it has been beset by problems since it opened in 2015. two patients died after contracting an infection linked to pigeon droppings. last year, there were 23 cases of infections potentially linked to contaminated water. documents from a whistle—blower suggest the problems may stretch back further to the time when millie died. millie‘s mother is demanding answers from the health board responsible for her daughter‘s care. stop lying, stop trying

to cover things up. be honest, be open, tell the truth. a public inquiry exploring the issues surrounding safety at this hospital is due to begin soon. greater glasgow health board said there is no way to identify the source of millie‘s infection, but added that they want to answer any questions her family may have. lorna gordon, bbc news. the time is 618pm. our top story this evening: labour promises free broadband for every home in the uk over the next decade — if they win the election. and coming up, i‘m live at the children in the studio ahead of this year‘s annual appeal show which sta rts year‘s annual appeal show which starts in just over an year‘s annual appeal show which starts injust over an hour‘s year‘s annual appeal show which starts in just over an hour‘s time. coming up on sportsday on bbc news: rafa nadal beats stefanos tsitsipas in three sets to stay in the world tour finals in london.

they‘re called the hidden homeless — people who don‘t show up on official figures because they manage to find temporary solutions. the charity centrepoint is warning that more than more than 22,000 young people in england alone will be at risk of homelessness this christmas. our home affairs correspondent, june kelly, reports. all the dog walkers use it. this gap? yeah. it‘s very slippery, isn‘t it? the wasteland where jack lived. so this was my tent, my little home for eight months. some days the only living creatures he saw were rats. this is where i cooked my food. this was the grill. this is a supermarket trolley. jack pitman is 23 and says he‘s not close to his family. and when it rained what was happening? lots of flooding. if you didn‘t have dry clothes to put on when you were here you‘d have to sit in your wet clothes all night. this was my seat where i sat and cooked. i woke up a couple of times blue—lipped, really hypothermic. my health got really bad. i couldn‘t breathe in the mornings. what about your mental health?

that was on a downward spiral, i was just getting lower and lower. i‘d had enough. i just didn‘t want to be alive any more. i started sleeping in town when i was about 16. maya‘s parents were both drug addicts. she was in foster care and then, from the age of 16, on the streets. i slept out here for two years. were you sleeping in doorways? in doorways with cardboard boxes, with blankets people provided me. i ended up pregnant. when you were pregnant you were sleeping on the streets. yeah, when i was five months pregnant. they tried their best to try and find me somewhere. at first they tried to offer me floor space and that's with people that's got habits and not very nice people to be around while you're pregnant. now she has a home with her baby daughter. the worsening weather is set to be followed by an increase in the number of young homeless seeking help. at this hostel in newport

the professionals try to build trust with those who have taken the first step of actually reaching out. you're going to be ok, there's a lot of people there to support you. many 16— to 2a—year—olds don‘t seek help. the hidden homeless is a huge issue. young people may be putting themselves into dangerous, difficult situations where they're potentially being exploited by people who might be saying they have their best interests at heart but don't really at all. harry mcewan‘s organisation recently found jack pitman a flatshare. if they spent less time worrying about brexit and all that, it would be more time and resources that could be spent on preventing stuff like this happening to me or anyone else. nobody should go through this, nobody ever. it‘s hard, it‘s really hard to live like this.

the former us ambassador to ukraine has told an impeachment hearing in washington that she felt intimidated by that president. she said donald trump‘s personal lawyer had worked to discredit her and that the government had been manipulated by corrupt interacts. he is accused of pressuring ukraine to dig up damaging information about his rival, joe biden. court papers have been filed today outlining the high court action being taken by the duchess of sussex against associated newspapers. 0ur legal correspondent clive coleman is here. associated newspapers, the publishers of the mail and the mail on sunday and there are allegations by the duchess of sussex that the mail lied to its readers about the full context of a letter she wrote to her father, that full context of a letter she wrote to herfather, that they left full context of a letter she wrote to her father, that they left out key passages of that letter because it would undermine the negative portrayal they were seeking to give

of her, that the paper made up a series of claims about her baby shower and her relationship with her mother and invented a series of false claims about the refurbishment work of her home with prince harry, including that the couple bought up £a000 copper bath, a £5,000 soundproofing system and she says neither of these exist, and that this was done at taxpayers expense, and this is a strong allegation about the campaign of fake news against the duchess. exactly four weeks to go until we will know the result of the general election. bbc news is looking at the political priorities in different parts of the uk. today, our scotland editor sarah smith has been finding out what matters to people in aberdeen. here in the north east of scotland, battle lines are being drawn as marginal conservative seats become snp targets. in 2017 the tories won six seats from the snp,

turning most of this area blue, but overall the snp still holds 35 seats in scotland — that‘s over half of the 59 available. for scotland there are two issues dominating. independence is one — the snp want to hold another scottish referendum next year. all other parties are opposed to such a move. brexit is the second. scotland voted 62% to remain in the eu, which inevitably means the brexit debate sounds different here. one issue of particular concern in this part of the country is immigration. the scottish economy relies more heavily on migrant labour than the rest of the uk — particularly here in the north east. fire is the greatest hazard any of these oil workers could face. they come to aberdeen from around the world to learn how to douse the flames. this is a very multinational industry that could be significantly affected by changes to immigration regulation. you have not enough

skilled people in the uk. that‘s why we are looking for guys from different countries. here on the edge of the north sea, highly skilled workers are in short supply. scotland, with its ageing population, needs migrant labour more than the rest of the uk. so the scottish government wants to control immigration policy — a highly contentious idea. i'm originally from algeria. i came here to provide my skills. i think having the ability to hire the best—skilled professionals out there to support the needs for industry has to be an economic decision. it is an industry decision. it shouldn't really be driven by political agenda. just feeding this industry is a huge task in itself, requiring caterers from all over the world. european, you know, french, italian, spanish. greek, polish, french, italian,

we've got an indian guy. many of these workers are classed as low—skilled employees, so their firm‘s worried about future immigration restrictions. 10% of our workforce is from outwith of the uk, so it‘s important that we still have that access. the exotic plants in the winter gardens have come from all over the globe to settle here in aberdeen. luckily enough, i'm local, so i've been coming back and forth to this park all my life. with one in four people in aberdeen born outside the uk, the staff here have noticed the changes. do you ever hear people saying there are too many immigrants here? yes. and that these are jobs that should be going to british people? yes, i do. the problem is, the british people won‘t always do the jobs, so we need these other people to come from other countries because they‘re the backbone. we simply cannae sustain scotland without input in immigration. if we didn't have that, we wouldn't be the country that we are. the immigration debate

sounds different in scotland because the country has a greater need to welcome incomers. without them, it simply won‘t be possible to grow this economy. here on the harbour side in aberdeen is little correspondent glen campbell. why is it that the results here in scotland could have such an impact on the whole uk? 59 out of the 650 westminster seats are in scotla nd the 650 westminster seats are in scotland so it matters and think back a few years, theresa may might not have been able to stay as prime minister had she not won 13 seats in scotla nd minister had she not won 13 seats in scotland and borisjohnson can ill afford to lose any of those as he tries to win a majority, and think of labour, once dominant here before the snp surge, they have often said the snp surge, they have often said the route back to power runs through

scotla nd the route back to power runs through scotland but they have struggled to win back lost ground and some of the party have started to think about an alternative route, a minority labour government kept in office by the votes of snp mp5. nicola sturgeon‘s party might be prepared to help with that, she said she would not have a problem backing labour on another eu referendum but she also wants another referendum on scottish independence next year, something the labour party is not prepared to give although jeremy the labour party is not prepared to give althoutheremy corbyn has not ruled it out longer term, and that could have huge consequences for the whole uk. i will be reporting on the general election in scotland up until polling day but for 110w now back to you. £58 million — that‘s how much the bbc‘s children in need raised last year to help hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged children across the uk. there are hopes even more could be raised this year.

lizo mzimba is at the studio. yes, it will all kick off here in just over one or‘s time. last year the total raised by children in need since it first began passed the £1 billion mark and this year they will hope that with a bit of passion for the public and some pudsey power, we will add tens of millions of pounds to that total. # it‘s a hot one...# things have already been hitting all the right notes. earlier this week, in radio 2‘s rylan clark—neal singing karaoke with a few celebrity friends for 2a hours raised more than £1 million. # so don‘t you stop...# while a special children in need album of cover versions featuring stars like 0livia colman and david tennant has achieved sales in the tens of thousands. that‘s going to be fantastic. there‘s not usually much waltzing in walford, but among the highlights of tonight‘s appeal show will be

four eastenders stars taking to the strictly dance floor. 0h, shane richie, i'm your man! and there‘ll also be a special edition of saturday night music quiz show the hit list, featuring some celebrity contestants. # reach for the stars...# but, of course, it‘s not just famous faces. all over the uk, people of all ages have been doing their bit to raise money for one of the country‘s favourite charities. lizo mzimba, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here‘s nick miller. more rain on the way, how bad will it be? some rain at times but not the big totals we have seen so far this week, there won‘t be a huge amount of sunshine so we will celebrate what we saw today but we know how

soaking autumn has been across parts of yorkshire and the midlands and sheffield now just shy of yorkshire and the midlands and sheffield nowjust shy of of yorkshire and the midlands and sheffield now just shy of the wettest autu m n sheffield now just shy of the wettest autumn on record and it looks like nottingham has now surpassed that, the previous record was back in 2000 so not surprising we are seeing was back in 2000 so not surprising we are seeing many was back in 2000 so not surprising we are seeing many problems with flooding. a bit more rain at times but not a wash this weekend, tonight a lot of cloud across england and wales, at the moment it‘s across south—east england, temperatures hold up, a few showers for southern and eastern scotland can further north and west clear spells and frost, a chance of a few fog patches tomorrow. a messy picture for the weekend, some weather fronts around an area of low pressure so a lot of lot of cloud of doubt tomorrow looks like east anglia and south—east england will see some sunny spells, northern ireland and western scotla nd northern ireland and western scotland before it clouds over later

but elsewhere there was cloud and rain and if you have your showers to the far west of wales and cornwall in the afternoon. a light breeze and a degree or so up in the afternoon. a light breeze and a degree 01’ so up on in the afternoon. a light breeze and a degree or so up on the last few days but still chilly on and it looks like an area of cloud and some outbreaks of rain, brightening up into the afternoon into northern ireland and western scotland. next week will turn milder by the end of the week after a chilly and mainly dry start but wet and windy weather comes back later. that‘s all from the bbc news at six so it‘s goodbye from me , and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines...

labour has promised free full—fibre broadband for every home in the uk by 2030. borisjohnson dismissed the plans as a ‘crackpot scheme.‘ further heavy rain has brought more misery to parts of the uk — the fire service says it‘s rescued nearly 100 people in the last 2a hours. as donald trump‘s impeachment inquiry continues, the former us ambassador to ukraine says she was sacked from the post after a "concerted effort against her", led by the president. the first non stop flight from london to sydney the mother of a ten—year—old girl who died after contracting an infection in a cancer ward in glasgow has claimed there was a cover—up of her death. and a charity is warning that more than 20,000 young people are at risk of homelessness this christmas. in a moment it will be time for sportsday —