this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 2pm... the health secretary, matt hancock, rejects calls from england's gps to remove home visits from their contracts, calling it a "complete non—starter". it isn't going to watch, it isn't going to happen. they say they want to negotiate to and home visits but of course gps need to do home visits. jeremy corbyn defends his decision to remain neutral in any future brexit referendum if labour wins power. i think being an honest broker and listening to everyone as actually a sign of strength on the sign of maturity. calm in hong kong today, but the authorities threaten to suspend voting in tomorrow's local elections if there is more violence on city's streets. railway rebuild. the model display destroyed by vandals — now back on show thanks

to help from sir rod stewart and thousands of other supporters. and in half an hour's time, peter taylor follows a group of women as they defy the new ira and seekjustice for the murdered journalist lyra mckee. good afternoon. gps have voted to reduce visits to patients‘ homes, saying they "no longer have the capacity" to offer them. at a conference on friday, doctors in england supported a proposal to take the requirement to provide home visits out of their nhs contract. the health secretary, matt hancock, said the idea was a "complete non—starter". jenny kumah reports. family doctors say their workload is on the rise and this, coupled with falling gdp numbers, mean something has to give.

one of the daily pressures that gp practices are under is the obligation to do home visits. what would be much better is if we had a dedicated home visiting team with people with the time to be able to do this throughout the day, rather than gps having to squeeze it in. under the proposals home visits would not be scrapped completely but delivered by a separate service. similar to the way out—of—hours care has been contracted out. sometimes a gp has to go and see someone and they might be too frail to travel. and that has always been part of the vocation of being a gp and it will continue. so these proposals won't go any further, but what we will do is train, fund and recruit more gps. meanwhile, labour is promising more cash to help out. they are saying, as a point of desperation, they can no longer continue those home visits.

this is a siren call to all of us, that the funding of the nhs has to be increased so that gps can undertake those home visits. doctors say they recognise that vulnerable, complex and end—of—life patients will need home visits. theyjust want to see a change of policy to ensure patients get a suitable service. jenny kumah, bbc news. we will be hearing a little later in this hour from we will be hearing a little later in this hourfrom richard rotary who chairs the england gp committee. jeremy corbyn has defended his decision to remain neutral in any future brexit referendum if labour wins power. he told last night's bbc question time leaders‘ special he wouldn't campaign to remain in the eu or leave it under terms labour hopes to renegotiate. mr corbyn said it would allow him to "credibly" carry out whichever result the public voted for. the prime minister questioned how mr corbyn could be "indifferent" on the issue. our political correspondent tom barton reports. he knows which side he's on in this

fight between workers and the multinational corporation, but on the fight between leave and remain, jeremy corbyn says he's not picking sides. if he becomes prime minister and holds another referendum he will, he says, remain strictly neutral. being an honest broker and listening to everyone is actually a sign of strength and a sign of maturity. our country has to come together, we cannot go on forever being divided by how people voted in 2016. his decision to remain neutralfirst revealed in last night's question time leaders‘ special. i will adopt, if i am prime minister, a neutral stand so i can credibly carry out the results to bring our community and country together. a bruising encounter for all involved, including the lib dems‘jo swinson. you think revoking article 50

which involved millions of people is stupid and didn't know what we were voting for? that doesn't mean that you or anybody like you are stupid, it means we disagree. nicola sturgeon suggested the snp would pile the pressure on labour to offer another independence referendum. in terms of what i would seek to win from a minority labour government, obviously i would ask for and expect jeremy corbyn to respect the right of the scottish people to choose their own future. it is not for westminster to decide, it is for the people of scotland. while the prime minister faced questions on trust. how important is it for someone in your position of power to always tell the truth? it is absolutely vital and i think the issue of trust in politics is central to this election. and, fundamental to the corrosion of trust in politics. the tory leader‘s performance today defended by one of his ministers.

on one of the critical questions of our time at brexit, we have a clear plan agreed with the eu ready to go. and in sharp contrast to what we saw in the debate last night, jeremy corbyn saying he has decided to be indecisive on brexit. the lib dems‘ jo swinson also unimpressed by the labour leader‘s new stance. they want a leader, not a bystander. itjust beggars belief that somebody who is standing for the role of leading our country can say on the biggest issue we have faced for generations, they are not going to take a position. it is a total abdication of leadership. jeremy corbyn will have hope to have put this question behind him. his opponents want it to remain front and centre. tom barton, bbc news. labour has pledged to put an extra tax on foreign companies and trusts buying property in the uk. if it wins the general election — the party will impose an additional charge of 20% on the purchase. labour estimates it would raise £35 billion a year.

in other election news... the conservatives have promised to double the funding for dementia research over the next decade. the extra £83 million a year has been described by the party as the ‘largest boost to dementia research ever‘. more than 850,000 people suffer from dementia in the uk. with me is fiona carragher, chief policy and research officer at the alzheimer‘s society. thank you very much for coming in to talk to us on bbc news. first on this question, your reaction to this proposal from the conservatives. dementia is a devastating condition. it affects 830,000 people in the uk and that number is set to rise. we know that many people living with it see the devastation, the families and carers, with we know it costs the economy nearly £35 billion per year and we have been clear that i% of that should be put into dementia research. while we welcome any party thatis research. while we welcome any party that is going to put increasing investment into dementia research more has to be done. so doubling is not of itself enough, i think you

think it basically needs to triple. it needs to triple. science and research is making a significant difference to other conditions that we think about cancer being one example. for every one researcher in dementia there are four that are working on cancer. we know in the uk government spends about three times the amount on cancer than it does on dementia. so whilst we welcome this, a lot more needs to be done because science can make these big steps forward. i was interested by something that the prime minister said in putting up this, he has put out a statement of this policy, he was quoted as saying, we think we are at the margins now of ways to cure it. the next great frontier and the uk should be reading in that fight, are we the fight? think we are working towards the top level across the world. we know the us has put significant investment and this. we have the uk dementia research institute here in this country nearly two years old now and it is something we should be really proud of, government investment, or cells

as the alzheimer society and other charity investment in this, but againi charity investment in this, but again i think there is a lot more that needs to be done to stop the brain is the most complex organ. dementia is the most complex sets of diseases. we know science is making big breakthroughs and you only have to think about genomics but now we need to make that turn into dementia and bring those best scientists to work on this because. what has happened to dementia care in terms of research side at least over the last four years because of your safe we are in a period of austerity, there were quite significant cuts in public spending, did not affect the my that is going from the taxpayer alzheimer research? dementia care research is really important as well because what we have talked about already is about breakthroughs in drug therapies, but actually we know that 850,000 people now, the many more who are going to develop this disease of the next three years, we need to understand what the best possible care and intervention is. the premise was talking about this money going towards finding a cure to dementia, you‘re saying that actually that is important that that

is fine but meanwhile because so many people living with it we have to do things like address the quality of support is offered to those who have the condition now. up slightly. we are hopeful and so optimistic for a breakthrough in terms of a cure for dementia but we recognise that much more needs to be done to understand what best care looks like now. be it post—diagnostic support, be it how do you live well and enable living with dementia to have the best possible care now. only about 14% of dementia research is focused on that ca re dementia research is focused on that care and support. 1496? so the other 86% is going to a cure, but actual plea arguably this is the more pressing thing? i think we are looking for a balance and we are going on all parties to make dementia research and dementia care an important part and a priority for the next government.” an important part and a priority for the next government. i was going to say the lib dems said they were going to invest in respite care which was something he welcomed because obviously a lot of this is done by unpaid carers and family members and so on and labour was

talking about free personal care. but as you said, when the policy came at that when the limit of the costs uncovered came at that when the limit of the costs uncovered even came at that when the limit of the costs uncovered even if the... came at that when the limit of the costs uncovered even if the. .. we have been very clear that all somerset society election manifesto, we are calling for three things, we need to have radical reform of social care to enable people to access the quality of care they need 110w. access the quality of care they need now. and we are calling on significant investment in research to find that cure for tomorrow, but also have the best possible care for today. finally so that people living with dementia are able to live in their society in a way that supports them and enables them to live well as possible. fiona carragher, thank you very much for coming in to talk to us. we will return later to health, but first tomic... millions of people in hong kong are preparing to vote in local elections on sunday. it‘s being seen as a gauge of public sentiment, after almost six months of pro—democracy protests

and violent clashes between demonstrators and police. if there‘s more violence, the authorities have threatened to suspend voting. 0ur correspondent stephen mcdonnell gave us this update. it is pretty quiet in hong kong this weekend apart from that truck, as people prepared to go to the ballot box rather than the barricades. candidates and their supporters are still out in the streets asking for people‘s support in crucial district council elections tomorrow which are being seen as a barometer of sentiment in the city which is now in its six month crisis. those candidates backing the protesters, those calling for broad democratic reforms are hoping to do well because people are upset with the way in which carrie lam‘s at my station has handled this crisis. however those in the pro—establishment camp are saying if you are fed up with the chaos and cuts in protest, you should choose oui’ cuts in protest, you should choose our tickets. the government says it any polling places are sufficiently disrupted, voting will be suspended there, so for that reason people are

trying their best do not give the authorities any excuse to call off the elections and it is more peaceful than it has been four months here. more now on the decision by gps to reduce visits to patients‘ homes, saying they "no longer have the capacity" to offer them. i‘m joined now from leeds by dr richard vautrey, he‘s chair of the bma‘s england gp committee. thank you very much for speaking to us thank you very much for speaking to us from your surgery this afternoon. can wejust us from your surgery this afternoon. can we just clarify first of all of the vote was about last night as mike this is about taking it out of the contract, not ending home visits for good in all circumstances. yes, thatis for good in all circumstances. yes, that is correct. as everybody knows gps are under huge pressure in their surgeries trying to respond to the needs that are growing numbers of patients who have more compact province. and trying to squeeze in and visit in amongst every other thing that a gp and practice team have to do is becoming increasingly difficult and so what gps were telling us yesterday at the

conference was that it would be much better if there was a dedicated home visiting service that was funded to be able to respond to the needs of patients in their homes so that practices could continue to focus on the needs of patients in those surgeries whilst a team of people visited others who were housebound and needed care in their homes at the same time. but even if it wasn't in the contract, in circumstances individual gps was to be willing to go out and do that, is that correct? yes, of course. that was reflected in the discussion that we had yesterday at the conference. many doctors, may gps really value the opportunity to visit patients in their home and it is a real privilege to be able to be alongside patience at times of great tolerability, at least when providing palliative care to patients who are dying in their homes, and gps really value the opportunity to care for their patients from cradle to grave and wa nt to patients from cradle to grave and want to continue to do that but what we don‘t want to do is provide a poorer service to our patients by

trying to squeeze in a home visit in and amongst a busy surgery in an afternoon when actually it may be battle for a dedicated home visiting team, that might be a nurse, or a paramedic or a trained doctor for home visits doing that on behalf of the surgery and the community, we are already seeing that in some areas of the country and it can work well. the nhs national medical director for well. the nhs national medical directorfor primary well. the nhs national medical director for primary care has said that there is an extra 4.5 billion that there is an extra 4.5 billion that there is an extra 4.5 billion that the government has committed to community services and gps which will help fund 20,000 more staff, she says, to support gp practices and offer high quality care for patients, as you say much but without doing home visits, sony says this isn‘t needed, it is already happening, it doesn‘t matter if it is on contract or not, the services are changing and they are adapting and therefore this would be in a sense a change, but it wouldn‘t actually amount to much on. it isn't happening quickly enough and consistently enough in every part of

the country. we have seen some pilots and some small—scale groups of groups of practices working together with the support of their local health bodies so that there have been dedicated teams providing home visiting services and that has made a big difference to the workload pressures that busy gps and others in their practice find themselves in, so these systems can work, but we need the consistent funding right across the country to enable that to happen but we also need to take away the assumption that it need to take away the assumption thatitis need to take away the assumption that it is the obligatory nature within our contract that it is gps who will do this when in some cases it may be better that others are able to do it with dedicated time. doctor richard vautrey, thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news... the health secretary, matt hancock, rejects calls from england‘s gps to remove home visits from their contracts, calling it a "complete non—starter". jeremy corbyn defends his decision to remain neutral in any future brexit referendum if labour wins power. calm in hong kong today, but the authorities threaten to suspend voting in tomorrow‘s

local elections if there is more violence on city‘s streets. barclays has become the latest big company to withdraw support from prince andrew‘s business mentoring scheme. the duke has faced a growing backlash since his interview with the bbc‘s newsnight, broadcast a week ago. 0ur correspondent, simonjones gave us the latest. well, prince andrew is on the front page of many of today‘s newspapers, once again, following his decision to step back from public life. one of the papers calls him the duke of nothing. it is a week since that interview with newsnight in which he spoke about his friendship with the disgraced financierjeffrey epstein, a convicted sex offender. yesterday, prince andrew was seen out riding with the queen, but the number of people and organisations wanting to disassociate themselves with the prince is now continuing to grow.

we have had the royal philharmonic 0rchestra saying he is no longer their patron. we have also had barclays pulling support for a scheme called pitch at palace which was being run by prince andrew. that was designed to give a helping hand to businesses starting out in the world of enterprise. if the duke is trying to keep out of the public eye in future, he may still have some more problems ahead, though, because the bbc says it is going to broadcast a special edition of panorama at the start of next month which is going to examine that relationship. it is also going to hear, for the first time on british television in the first tv interview, from virginia roberts. now, she is the woman who said that she was forced to have sex with prince andrew. that is an allegation that he has always totally denied. in last week‘s interview, he said he couldn‘t even recall meeting her. but the fact broadcast is impending is likely to cause further consternation here at the palace. the former us national security

adviserjohn bolton has accused the white house of denying him access to his personal twitter account since he resigned in september. in his first tweet in two months, he thanked twitter for returning control to his account. mr bolton‘s comments come after a dramatic week at the impeachment hearings. on friday, president trump said he would welcome a full trial in the senate if the house of representatives votes to impeach him. chris buckler reports from washington. john bolton was once demand by donald trump‘s side as he made big foreign policy decisions. but he left the white house after clashes with the protestant and the former national security adviser claims he was locked out of his social media account. —— with the apprentice —— with the president. in a series of posts mr bolton teased the possibility that he had plenty to reveal. in one tweet he said the white house had refused to return

access to his personal twitter account and asked if that was out of fear what he might say, to those who speculated... white house officials denied they were responsible but after claims the impeachment inquiry they will be watching his words closely. former adviser fiona hill who worked closely with mr bolton said he was concerned about the president‘s push the ukraine to launch investigations into his political rivals. the role played by mrtrump is my political rivals. the role played by mr trump is my personal lover rudy giuliani. in the course of the discussion said rudy giuliani was a hand grenade that was going to blow eve ryo ne hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up. mr trump has watched for the last fortnight as a dozen departments and officials raised concerns he was pursuing his own personal political interests rather than america‘s. the president used a phone call with his favourite tv show box and friends, to set out his defence as well as attack democrats.

mr president, you expected an impeachment vote and you expected impeached and you say you embrace the idea... i don't expect to. you don‘t expect they will vote for this? it is very hard to impeach you when they have absolutely nothing. mrtrump when they have absolutely nothing. mr trump continues to be asleep and i the central allegation that military aid to ukraine was withheld to try and force its government into launching investigations into his potential presidential challenger joe biden, alison hunter who had business dealings in the country. democrats believe they have enough evidence to draft articles of impeachment. the vote to set up a trial in republican—controlled senate could happen before the end of the year. a group of orphaned british children, caught up in the war in syria, are said to be in good spirits, after they were brought back to the uk. they‘re the first to be repatriated from an area in the north east of the country, which was formally controlled by the group that called

itself islamic state. 0rla minogue is from the charity save the children — earlier she spoke to my colleague geeta guru—murthy there are as many as 60 british children remaining in these camps in north—east syria, all of whom need to come home urgently given the state of affairs in the camp. the conditions there are desperate. we are talking about 60 very young children. what has been the blockage to that happening so far? there have been delays on the side of the british government in terms of making the decision to repatriate. having said that, we welcomed very much the shift in policy on the government‘s part over the last month to say that they would take steps to repatriate orphaned and unaccompanied children as a matter of urgency and that they would look at other children on a case—by—case basis. we have had reports that a group of children have now been repatriated, demonstrating that it is possible and feasible. now is the time to bring home all the rest of the children. how difficult are the conditions there? the conditions in the camp are desperate.

there is severe overcrowding, there is 70,000 people in one of these camps alone, so it is very chaotic, people are living in flimsy tents on top of one another with very little access to clean water to health services. a lot of the children are sick, they have severe injuries from the bombing and shelling that they have experienced, not to mention the psychological distress that these children have lived through and are going through now, given that they are spending their formative years growing up in syria. as we‘ve been reporting — the conservatives launch to double investment in research to dementia full stop we heard from the only of summer society during their reaction to that and also a general desire to see more investment in research into the consequences of living without with that condition. that brings in over concerns there have been about the effectiveness of the social care system in ireland. 0ur correspondence we be hodgson has been looking headlines. social care is means tested but there are different rules across the uk. when

it comes to paying for a care home. the most generous policies are in scotla nd the most generous policies are in scotland in terms of getting help at home, in wales and northern ireland, those expenses are capped, and england has the least generous system of all. have a look at this. this graph shows the number of people in england receiving long—term support from councils from 2010 through to 2019. you can see a sharp decline here. it was 600,000. it comes down to around 400,000 people. after that the way the data is collected changed so we can‘t really compare. this is what age uk had to say about it. there are around 1.5 million older people who have unmet need for social care and in lots of cases these people have really very significant means. they need help getting out of bed, getting dressed, washed, having something to eat. all of those fundamentals that many of us take for granted deliver decent life. but

mike problem all about the money? have a look at this graph. this is spending by local authorities in england on aduu by local authorities in england on adult social care going back from 2006 all i up to 2019. you can see there is a slight decline but on the whole spending levels have remained pretty static. what isn‘t static though are the costs. listen to what the think tank the health foundation has to say about it. this large part of providing care is to do with those of staff and they have me going up —— edges —— wages of staff. the national living wage has increased pressures on care providers stop at the nhs estimates in 2016, 17 the average cost of care for a pensioner was five and £65 a week. if we move just when you‘re on, it becomes 600 ——

£604, quite a hike. if you look at the numbers of elderly people, from 2000 to 2018, the numbers on the patient rose by 16.3% for those aged 65 and over. in terms of the very elderly population throughout the same time period, 2009—2018, the increase was 17.4%. with the population getting very elderly, the needs are more complex and of course more intensive care is needed and so that becomes more expensive. now a story to gladen the heart of model makers everywhere. decades of hard work was destroyed in a matter of minutes, after a group of teenagers broke into a school hall in market deeping in lincolnshire and smashed up the model railways. the display was valued at 30 thousand pounds. members of the market deeping model railway club refused to admit defeat. now, thanks to their dedication, and the generosity of other model railway enthusiats — including rod stewart —

it,"s all abord once again. nicola gilroy reports. a mindless attack that left more than the trains and layouts broken. my emotions took the better of me, i must admit. they can‘t replace the time you spent building these things. but six months on, the modellers from market deeping are back in business, displaying here at the largest model railway show in europe. this is the premiere for model railway exhibition in the country, and to be invited is really something important. and it‘s even more special because the layout on display was one of those damaged in the attack. these buildings were totally wrecked, and rebuilt out of the scenery damaged. some of the track down here has been relaid, and the wiring was pulled out from underneath. it has taken 1000 hours of hard work and dedication to repair this layout.

it‘s nearly 20—odd years since i was last here with a layout, and to come back again to this with it is a wonderful thrill. i'm very proud of what the guys have done. it's tremendous. the club continues to be overwhelmed with support, with £100,000 raised in crowdfunding, 10,000 from rod stewart, and next week they‘ll be able to say thank you in person when they appear with the man himself on the one show. nicola gilroy, east midlands today, birmingham. some good news there and congratulations to all of them. i am sure they would want thanks passed on to other supporters as well. time for a look at the weather prospects with darren bett. i think most people in the midlands in particular will be hoping you have got not to bad news for them because the is still absolutely sodden. well, it's not too bad news for the midlands because we have a lot of cloud

around today and right away through this weekend, but the midlands missing the worst of the rhine, it has been wetter towards the south—west of england and wales. and over the coming few hours into this evening at the first part the night the heaviest rain will be further north, north—east england and eastern scotland. this is what has happened so far today. not a great deal of rain through the middle. a bit more rain coming back towards the south—east of england that will head its way northwards. drying off a little bit for the south—west of england and wales to stop temperature is about nine or ten. it stays wet for eastern scotland. nasty sting and for a while. it dries from the south—east. for many parts of england and wales and northern ireland and transpire overnight but there will be some mist and fog patches as the winds are dropping. temperatures six or seven. frost free again. we start with some rain in eastern scotland up with some rain in eastern scotland up towards the northern isles, that tends to be dropped steadily. maybe one 01’ tends to be dropped steadily. maybe one or two tends to be dropped steadily. maybe one 01’ two showers tends to be dropped steadily. maybe one or two showers tomorrow and the irish sea coast but on the whole you can see it as a dry day and the winds will be out. the north—east of scotla nd winds will be out. the north—east of scotland temperatures like today stop there won‘t be a great deal sometime, probably the best answer

that in the south—east corner of an end. in the