hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy, live in westminster, where the prime minister is preparing his legislative agenda for the coming parliament. new mps are travelling down to london, many from traditional labour seats that swung to the tories last week. it to the tories last week. is quite surreal and i think last it is quite surreal and i think the last time we remember these sort of things it's the first day at big school isn't it? and here we go. we'll take a look at the challenges ahead for borisjohnson and who he might face in opposition. coming up on afternoon live — all the sport with chetan. yes we have a tough test for manchester city who will face real madrid in the last 16 of the champions league. madrid in the last 16 of the champions league. thanks chetan, and darren bett has all the weather. it isa it is a cold start to the week, with a bit more frost, but as the week

goes on, its all change as it gets milder, wetter and windier. thanks darren. also coming up: around £50 million worth ofjewellery is stolen from the home of formula one heiress tamara ecclestone. hello everyone, this is afternoon live i'm simon mccoy. boris johnson is preparing to address his new mps — who have been arriving in westminster before they go to the house of commons tomorrow. some of the 109 new mps are from labour strongholds which had never voted conservative before. later this week the government will set out its plans in the queen's speech. it's then expected to try to pass crucial brexit legislation on friday. meanwhile, the fallout from labour's

defeat continues with party officials saying they are expected to meet early in the new year to agree the timetable for replacing jeremy corbyn as leader. our political correspondent helen catt reports. on their way to westminster — tory mps still over the moon at having turned the red seats blue. bye! thank you! it's the start of a newjourney for them and possibly for the conservative party too. the arrival of so many mps representing new seats could change the government's focus. it's already swelled its ranks, bringing its majority to 80. it's a bit surreal, it's like it's actually happening, here we are, we can get these things done. so, yeah, mega excited. it's a lot of pressure, it's a bit daunting, but i think we're alljust really excited to get in there and get started. it's the first day at big school, isn't it? and here we go.

the new mps will get help, but not much time to settle in. tomorrow, they will be formally sworn in, then on thursday there will be a queen's speech setting out the government's plans for the next year and by friday they will be debating major policies, as it's expected the eu withdrawal agreement bill will be reintroduced. you've a prime minister who has a very big mandate from the british public, we have a majority in parliament, which enables him to get things done. that message i'm sure will not have been lost on our european friends and partners, they can see that there is a stable government now in the uk at long last, with a very big mandate, with the public behind the prime minister and i would expect european leaders now to want to work productively with the prime minister and the negotiating team that he will assemble. the government wants to be seen to be acting swiftly and decisively on brexit, but it's also keen to show that it listened to what voters told it last thursday, particularly those who lent the conservatives their vote. that means acting on areas like the nhs so thursday's queen's speech will include a commitment to upping its

annual budget by tens of billions of pounds over the parliament and enshrining that in law. hi, morning. for some more familiar conservative faces, it's already back to work. including some who were notably absent during the campaign. the election wasn't about me, it was a choice between the prime minister and jeremy corbyn and the country made their choice and a wonderful choice they have made. in downing street, the chancellor was certainly sounding confident. the people's government. this afternoon will add some more faces to it as empty places in the cabinet are filled. our political correspondent, jonathan blake joins me now. let's talk about labour in a minute. first we have a conservative government, but it is a very different feel from just a couple of weeks ago. yes, it may look the same with boris johnson being weeks ago. yes, it may look the same with borisjohnson being back and most of cabinet the same as they we re most of cabinet the same as they were before the election. but things

are different now, because obviously he has that huge majority and a mandate from the people w the decisive election result last week allowing him to have a much freer hand in terms of what he is able to do in parliament. that is a double—edged sword, while he can do much more, he is not able to blame anyone but himself. 0h, jonathan he has not even started and we are already talking about blame. this is the point, we don't know what he wa nts to the point, we don't know what he wants to do. he will be held to account, that is the point. he will have to, as you suggest, come forward with ideas, perhaps even an ideology for this new government. which will tell us more about exactly what boris johnson wants to do in power, because he was severely restricted in terms of what he was able to do in government before the election, but now, with a much freer hand and a much wider support base. he will need to have a different feel, given many of his new mps, it

is accepted the votes were borrowed from labour and they have got to deliver if they want to be voted in next time? yes boris johnson said that himself on the steps of downing street, acknowledging that people may well have voted conservative relu cta ntly a nd may well have voted conservative reluctantly and may well be planning to ta ke reluctantly and may well be planning to take their votes back to labour at the next general election. he said he intends to earn their trust and to prove that that was not a wasted vote. so he will have to have an eye and we have seen this in the decisions that have been taken and the briefings that have been coming out of downing street, investing in and providing for those communities in the north of england, the midlands and in wales, which have 110w midlands and in wales, which have now elected a conservative mp and in many cases for the first time in decades and will want to see something for that. now, the rifts we knew about seem to be deepening by the hour. it is not pretty, labour are by the hour. it is not pretty, labourare in an by the hour. it is not pretty, labour are in an acrimonious state, the fighting continues after that

heavy defeat last thursday. you have had jeremy corbyn writing in the guardian over the weekend, saying that he accepts his part of the responsibility for that defeat. but there is still a realfrustration that those at the top of the party, apart from john mcdonnell haven't taken enough of a responsibility for what happened. no one is officially throwing their name into the ring to lead the party, but i think we will see that in the next few days with candidates officially say they want to throw their hat in the ring. the latest row is between emily thornberry and caroline flint, who lost her seat in yorkshire and a back and forth between them about comments which caroline flient claims emily thornberry said, accusing people in her constituency of being stupid and emily thornberry

says she will take legal action about that. we may have a mini—reshuffle and we will have the queen's speech and the first brecht legislation. is there a prime minister's questions this week? no, it will be straight forward swearing in of mps tomorrow and that will probably run into wednesday, because there is a lot of new ones to get through and the speaker of the house of commons will officially take up his post, the new speaker and the first real business will be the queen's speech. that will be a stripped back affair and the queen will come and read out what the is the government's programme for the parliament ahead. front and centre in that will be the withdrawal agreement bill, that is the legislation that puts boris johnson's brexit deal into law and crucial to get that through parliament if he is to deliver on that promise. with that majority it is now a foregone conclusion. thank

you. so what can we expect from boris johnson's government in the coming days, weeks and months? daniel cochlin is the head of external affairs at the northern powerhouse partnership — an organisation chaired by the former chancellor george osborne, which represents business and civic leaders across the north of england. hejoins me now. i'm wondering what hopes you have for this new government? well, i think it is a very optimistic time for the northern power house. we have seen some progress in the last five years, since it was first established by george osborne. but i don't think we have seen enough progress. we have seen businesses come together and metro mayors appointed. but we have not seen that real commitment from government. this is a real opportunity for the north to get what it deserves and level up the country and narrow that north/south divide that has been blighting our young people and businesses for generations. that

north/south divide, a lot of people think of brexit, but it is more than that? yes, i think the north being characterised about brexit being the keyissue, characterised about brexit being the key issue, but it is more than that. look at transport, i'm one of the u nfortu nate look at transport, i'm one of the unfortunate ones who have to travel around our ageing network on the trains. we need major investment in transport and we need to link liverpool, manchester, hull and newcastle and we need local infrastructure improvements and there are major education gaps between north and south and in devolution we want more powers for locally elected leaders to take the decisions that matter for people. and there must be a decision on hs2. yes that is critical to the future success of the northern power house. there is often a bit of a kind of

debate about well let's have hs2 or northern power house rail, why does tnt north deserve —— why doesn't the north deserve both? the northern power house was an economic principle. it is not about another buzz word for the north, but the economic return from linking up the cities that are close to each other. hsz cities that are close to each other. hs2 and northern power house rail does that and it is critical that it gets the green light and soon. i'm wondering how you feel, here we are a new week, a new government a huge majority for boris johnson, it a new week, a new government a huge majority for borisjohnson, it is on him isn't it? if he wants to do something, he can? absolutely. we on behalf of the businesses we work with and other organisations in the north will very much try and set out a blue print for how he can achieve that and equally we will hold him and his government to account if that isn't achieved. my personal

view is that in terms of all those new conservative mps from the north, they will give a fresh impetus to this government and it is on them to deliver for the voters who put them into power on friday morning. thank you. catherine barnard is professor in european union law and employment law at the university of cambridge and senior tutor and fellow of trinity college as well as a senior fellow at uk in a changing europe. shejoins me now. my my word. that is half the interview gone! let's talk about what boris johnson can a achieve now with a majority like that, how you think that this will play out? so most important he has got to get the wab through parliament, the withdrawal implementation bill. this bill converts the article 50 deal, theresa may's and borisjohnson's deal into law. this is the bit she couldn't get done. she couldn't get

done. he changed half of it, the northern ireland bit, the rest is what theresa may negotiated. but we need to get it into domestic law. once it is in law, the european parliament needs to vote on, they won't vote on it until we have said we are happy with it. then we are set to go on the 31st january. but thatis set to go on the 31st january. but that is not the end of the matter. all the talk about getting brexit done is misplaced. because what happens then is we go into what is called transition. transition is the bit that most people find very dull, but it is crucial. in that 11—month period from the end of january to the end of december is when the work gets done on the future and what the future trade arrangement might look like. the big problem is most negotiations of trade agreements ta ke negotiations of trade agreements take four or five years. we have 11 months. so the question is what are we going to agree to in those 11 months. what can we achieve in that

time? we could do something quick and dirty. that is a trade deal on goods, probably zero tariffs and perhaps a bit of mutual recognition of standards. when you say zero tariffs, is that free trade? no, if you do a trade deal on good, it cove rs you do a trade deal on good, it covers tariffs, duties, what you have to pay when your goods come into the country, but the big yes is about what is called non—tariff barriers and they are regulations and if we align closely with the eu there will be much smoother passage on the border, if we decide to dealign and come away from those eu rules, there will be more checks on the board rder to check british goods. one interesting fallout from the election that is borisjohnson has a power that even he perhaps didn't think he would have and he

won't be beholden to any group and that could herald a softer brexit and that could make the negotiations easier? some people argue the opposite, because what he wants is a deal with the us and the closer we stay with eu rules, the harder it is to do stay with eu rules, the harder it is todoa stay with eu rules, the harder it is to do a deal with the us. there are three big beasts on the stage, the us, the eu and china and they dictate the terms of trade. so is our direction of travel close to the eu, so we stay closely aligned with the rules on goods, or are we going to move further away from the eu and comploes tore the us —— closer to the us. they are mutually exclusive. yes we need to check the quality of your products before flay come —— they come into the eu. that is the

quick and dirty version of deal a a more comprehensive deal would cover services and security and things like exchanging prisoner, moving people accused of crimes around europe and external security, what do we want in terms of participating with the eu in respect of foreign affairs matters, relations with russia and so forth. . the final question, can it be done in under a year? if it is quick and dirty, yes, but if it is a more comprehensive deal it requires the sign off of the eu and the 27 member states and their national and regional parliaments. that includes the good

folk of willonia in belgium who nearly blocked the deal with the canada. so the minimum time is from november. so we have from the start of february to september. in fact it is from the start of february to middle ofjune and then the question is give than probably won't be enough time, will he request an extension on, wait for it, the transition period? i'm sure we will talk about this again. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines... more than a hundred new conservative mps arrive in westminster as borisjohson begins working towards delivering on his election promises. northern ireland's political parties resume talks aimed at restoring power sharing at stormont. a minute's silence in new zealand, a week after the volcano that left at least 16 people dead and around 20 in a critical condition.

in sport, the british sides discover their fate in sport, the british sides discover theirfate in in sport, the british sides discover their fate in the in sport, the british sides discover theirfate in the next in sport, the british sides discover their fate in the next round of european competition, as manchester city face the 13—time winners real madrid in the knockout stages of champions league. in the euro—pa league, arsenal draw olympiakos and one of warren gatland staff, rob howley is banned from rugby for 18 months for betting on matches. more at half past two. fresh talks are underway in belfast to try to restore devolved government in northern ireland, where the main unionist and republican parties are under pressure to work together again. chris page is at stormont. after what years of inactivity, what

are the chances that they will restore things now? well, it is almost three years since the devolved government collapsed here. since then northern ireland has been in this kind of limbo. there has been no ministers to make decisions and there has been real pressure on the public services, the nhs in particular, waiting lists have been spiralling and are the longest in the uk, health workers are taking industrial action over pay and you have had hundreds of out—patient appointments cancelled. that is bringing pressure to bear on the main political parties and you have general election results last week, which sent a certain signal i think to the dup and sinn fein, certainly could be read in that sense. both parties lost a few percentage points in their vote share. the dup lost two of their ten mps. sinn fein

retained their number of mps. they won seven seats. however, they still lost a significant number of votes. so all the parties acknowledge that on the door steps in the the campaign, they were taking heat from voters and they had to get back into government. there is a sense that the mood has changed and there has been a shift both from the public and political perspectives and these talks have a better chance of succeeding. but given that outstanding issue still remain very difficult issues, such as the legal status of the irish language which has been a sticking point and there isa has been a sticking point and there is a lot of difficult talking to be done and the northern ireland secretary has been meeting the party leaders this morning and the irish foreign minister willjoin the talks this arve —— afternoon. so the legal deadline is 13th january. mr smith

says there will be a stormont election if there isn't an agreement by that point and given that the dup and the sinn fein saw a drop in support, you would think they would rather strike a deal rather than go back to the electorate. for the dup theissue back to the electorate. for the dup the issue in the last parliament was their confidence of supply deal with their confidence of supply deal with the conservative party, that has been a criticism in northern ireland and the focus they should be turning to now isabel fast. that is —— is belfast, that is what sinn fein are saying? yes, the other parties are saying? yes, the other parties are saying the years the dup were keeping the minority conservative government in pow e they claim their pow cuss was more on westminster than here. the dup dispute that and say they were the party of devolution. you have that analysis that now the dup aren't holding the balance of power in westminster, this place will be all they have and

there will be more emphasis to get back in. there is another dynamic that could affect sinn fein, atz as well as being the second biggest party, they're the second biggest party, they're the second biggest party in the republic and there will be an irish general election in the next few months. it doesn't play well for them in the republic that they are not in government in stormont. so from sinn fein's point of view, going into an election in the irish republic, they may well think it will look better if we are in government here than if we are not. thank you. i'm joined now by kate proctor, a political correspondent for the guardian and katherine forster from the sunday times. borisjohnson boris johnson can now borisjohnson can now do pretty much what he wants can't he? he can, he

has a whopping majority and we won't see these late—night sittings and the difficulty to get an agenda through. but brexit is still this huge hurdle and the idea that it is oven ready and ping it in the microwave. things start moving. yes, but the idea that everything will be in place by the end ofjanuary, that is probably likely now, but it will bea is probably likely now, but it will be a race and we still have the trade talks to go. and the idea that everything will be done in a short space of time is unlikely. so boris can do so much. but at the same time he has brexit to get done and he has got to turn his attentions to the north of england and public spending and if he doesn't do that in the first year, a lot of people who lent him his votes will be unhappy. from the outside it looks a no—brainer if

you have a majority and you want to pour money into the north of england, he can? yes and there is talk they will spend £80 billion on infrastructure in the north. i mean i'm a northernerand infrastructure in the north. i mean i'm a northerner and i feel the north has had a rough teem and there is 16 —— rough deal. and notjust the north, but the rest of the country apart from london. that will be welcome to a lot of people. it is quite different, the conservative party this week to what it was not very long ago and they will be focussing on different priorities of keeping this red wall that they have converted into a blue wall on side. there is now a government that can govern and a leader that can lead and we have not seen that for a while. no it has been a long time. when you think that only a few months ago, the very survival of the conservative party was looking in doubt, borisjohnson conservative party was looking in doubt, boris johnson was saying, conservative party was looking in doubt, borisjohnson was saying, if

we have to extend, we are going to be extinct and it did look that way and part of this is nigel farage and the brexit party, the conservative party morphed, went very strongly to we are the party of get brexit done. 0k it is only partially done. but that took away the brexit party's vote and labour and the l liberal democrats were still split and labour still have their problems. kate for the last few months, anybody in this area has been frustrated by the lack of... the sense that there is no progress being made. there is a feeling of total release here today in that there is a sense, well, what's on there is a sense, well, what's on the agenda, shall we go and sort the nhs? we have not heard that for yea rs. nhs? we have not heard that for years. no i started working in westminster in 2015 and i don't think i have ever experienced the

feeling probably that some people, some new mps are feeling today. you're right it is a sense of release and right i want to sort things out and where shall i go? there is a buzz in parliament that i haven't seen for a long time. that is because... how does that manifest itself? happiness. people smiling? some people are smiling and chatting and all the conservatives mps are back and some are relieved they are back and some are relieved they are backin back and some are relieved they are back in and they will be part of this boris majority, which is something they probably didn't imagine would have happened on this scale. so there is some optimism and i have met a conservative mp who lost his seat and he is gutted. lot of people lost theirjobs last week. do you think that apart from brexit it is the nhs and the northern power house that are going to be the two big things?|j northern power house that are going to be the two big things? i think it is and! to be the two big things? i think it is and i think it will have to be.

clearly, borisjohnson has this majority partly in trying to brush under the carpet that the conservatives have been in power since 2010 and there have been deep cuts made but the message has been, we are a new government, we are going to spend, we are going to fix these things with the police, the nhs and that message is working. but now they have to deliver on that. let's talk about labour. ok. don't say it like that! nay are tearing themselves —— they are tearing themselves —— they are tearing themselves apart. you have emily thornberry threatening legal action against caroline flint. it is something they should try and sort out as soon as possible, the leader or take their time? i think they need to take their time and i know it is winding people up thatjeremy corbyn has not already gone and physically exited the building. he is going to be around until march.

but i think it is so factional and it is obvious the difference sides, the left think one thing, the voters in the centre think another. i think jeremy corbyn does need to be there, just so people know where they're at. they have the march time. there was a time nobody knew where they we re was a time nobody knew where they were at with jeremy corbyn. no, but they knowjere were at with jeremy corbyn. no, but they know jere is were at with jeremy corbyn. no, but they knowjere is there until march. the idea if he goes now, everything would descend into even more chaos. soi would descend into even more chaos. so i think it is the right choice they have made. for a replacement should they look at senior people or the new intake? i think they will go for somebody younger. keir starmer i would think is an unlikely choice, he is heavily wedded to remain.

emily thornberry is also unlikely. corbyn, macdonnell, the favoured child is rebecca long bailey. the membership has moved to the left since jeremy corbyn came in. who the left wa nt since jeremy corbyn came in. who the left want in charge may not be who the parliamentary party want. and they're strongly remain and that has been a difficulty for labour. you have got to find a bridging candidate and somebody who has to accept they may not be the leader for the next election but they might be the interim leader and that is not a particularly exciting job prospect for anybody who is ambition. a majority of 80, did you see that coming? no, 30 would have been my guess. really? no, ithink it was astonishing, i don't think anybody in the conservative party

seriously thought about that either. there were serious worries about a hung parliament and this is beyond their wildest dreams. forecasting is a bug's game. —— mug's game. thank you very much. it is a mug's game forecasting. here's darren bett with the weather. i'm not going to focus too far ahead, and! i'm not going to focus too far ahead, and i will tell you what is happening at the moment, also quite a lot easier. because we've got much of the country dry. we got these showers for northern ireland, increasingly wintry in scotland and we've got some rain here in the channel islands to the extreme south—east corner of england. one or two showers coming in, and by early evening around 5 degrees was not what happened overnight as the cloud thickens in the south—east and east anglia, rain developing more widely. showers should move away from northern ireland, continue that

wintry mix in scotland. a touch of frost here, may be some icy patches too, first for northern ireland, northern england and wales, and for southernmost parts of scotland, the far north of england, especially northern ireland, there may be some fog around, and that could linger well into tomorrow. away from that, sunshine, fewer showers than today in scotland. we still have some rain and drizzle for most of the day for east anglia and the south—east. it sheds slowly peter out, and turn cloudy all day but stopped temperatures seven or 8 degrees. elsewhere a chilly day, if any of that fog persists in northern ireland for example, temperatures five or 6 degrees.

hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy, live in westminster, where the prime minister is preparing his legislative agenda for the coming parliament. it is quite surreal, the last time you remember the sorts of things, it is first day in big school, and here we go. labour front bench mp emily thornberry has launched legal action against former colleague caroline flint, over claims she called voters "stupid". northern ireland's political parties resume talks aimed at restoring power sharing at stormont. around £50 million worth ofjewellery is stolen from the home of formula one heiress tamara

ecclestone. a minute's silence in new zealand a week after the volcano eruption that left at least 16 people dead and around 20 in a critical condition. sport now on afternoon live with chetan — and we've had the draw for the champions league and the europa league today and it's thrown up some mouth—watering ties... it mouth—watering ties... absolutely has. we have tr it absolutely has. we have the draw in neon in switzerland. —— nyon. manchester city desperate to win the champions league trophy, the only one pep guardiola hasn't won at manchester city. they have another tough test, having been drawn to play real madrid, a repeat of the 2017 final, which city lost, and they are at home for the first game. as for the holders, liverpool, they

have the other madrid side, atletico. tricky opponents too but they will play the first leg in the same stadium where they won the final, before bringing atletico back to anfield. chelsea have bayern munich, and classes in ‘s beaten finalists, tottenham with two—time winnerjose mourinho in charge, they will face the german side rb leipzig. arsenal currently without a permanent manager after the sacking of nayar emery. they have met with man city coach mikel arteta about the vacancy. they have been drawn against the greek club, olympiacos, who dropped into the europa league after finishing who dropped into the europa league afterfinishing third in who dropped into the europa league after finishing third in their champions league group. a tricky game for arsenal against the site currently on top of the greek super league, and who gave spurs a difficult time of course in the

champions league group. this is the draw affecting british sides. manchester united, winners of the competition back in 2017, will face belgian side bruges. wolves take on a spaniel. celtic play cope and hagan while their spl rivals rangers will take on the portuguese team, braga. those ties in both competitions will be played from mid february onwards. full details of both those drawers you can currently find on the bbc website. viewers might remit with the former wales coach rob howley, brought back from the world cup because of illegal betting full stop six days before wales's win against georgia, the 49—year—old seen here in the red with former head coach robin —— warren gatland, who has been part of the backroom team since 2008. set to leave that role after the world cup,

a welsh rugby union panel placed —— has found he placed 360 bets in by has found he placed 360 bets in rugby union, featuring 1100 matches in total. he admitted placing bets in games specifically involving wales or wales players, a couple of those bets on players, including on who would be the first try scorer in wales matches, one game being the grand slam win over ireland and cardiff in march this year. rob howley said neither player had any knowledge of the bets, the player told the investigation the same thing. over the five year period investigated, the wru panel was satisfied howley made no financial gains and lost £4000 in total. the panel went on to say it seems a triggerfor the panel went on to say it seems a trigger for the betting was a family tragedy, involving the death of rob howley‘s sister. he is confident with the help of a psychologist he won't bet again in the future. he has been banned from rugby for 18 months, part of that is backdated, he can be back in rugby injune. he has until christmas to appeal this

ban. that is all the sport.|j has until christmas to appeal this ban. that is all the sport. i will talk to you later. thank you. welcome back to westminster, where borisjohnson is preparing to address his new mps — who have been arriving in westminster before they go to the house of commons tomorrow. well, quite a few of those 109 new mps are from labour strongholds which had never voted conservative before including many in the north of england. let's discuss this with the westminster correspondent for the yorkshire post, that's geri scott, and she's here with me now. borisjohnson has boris johnson has orally borisjohnson has orally said he accepts the votes from former labour voters are effectively on loan, so a lot of new mps see if they want to see another term, what do they have to deliver? i think to start off, a lot of them didn't expect to be here. coming down on the train a bit shocked they have ended up here, and you are right, they are going to have to deliver things to keep those northern voters happy who have gone to great lengths to vote tory. for

many, that is a decision of the heart. absolutely, and this is something that a labour vote in places like yorkshire is often built into the very soul of people, it is in theirfamilies, into the very soul of people, it is in their families, it into the very soul of people, it is in theirfamilies, it is hereditary, it is in their industry, but the problem really has been for labour i think in that it is not socialism, it is not the socialist message that they have been pushing, so for the tories to keep that vote in yorkshire and places like that, they are going to have to do things like deliver on infrastructure. we have heard over the weekend about billions of pounds going into that, things like real, you have seen the chaos caused in places like leeds by timetable changes. not as bad as last time. but still not good, 30 odd cancellations, people having to work from home because they can't get to work. and it is things like that that will really make a difference to people ‘s lives, they keep those votes. when you say the message of socialism, there are those in labour who say that was com pletely those in labour who say that was completely our message this time round, so where is the disconnect

there, with those traditional voters ? there, with those traditional voters? i think the disconnect is, and i'm wary of painting the north as one plays as well, because you have those metropolitan centres, manchester, leeds, places like that, but in these towns where people have traditionally voted labour, they are also very socially conservative, which i don't think has necessarily come across in the labour party ma nifesto. come across in the labour party manifesto. and if you look at promises like a four—day working week, for example, on the doorstep i have heard that has gone down very badly, because people said i was working a seven—day working week, what am i supposed to do with that? soi what am i supposed to do with that? so i don't think the policies tallied up with what people wanted to see full stop in the south, people perhaps don't understand the frustration in the north of the transport links, simply crossing the country can be a nightmare journey. is it feasible that this is a government, if it wants to turn its mind to it, it has the power politically to do so, that that could change in the next five years? i'm not sure it could change in the next five years, i think it could

get started in the next five years was that if you look at something like northern powerhouse rail, some people call it hs3, that could get started in the next five years, and if the tories want to get a foothold in places like yorkshire, that is what they need to be doing, getting big project started, but also recognising these are 20, 30 year things, a big infrastructure change like that doesn't happen in five yea rs like that doesn't happen in five years but it would be a good start to get it kicked off. these new mps, many of whom you have spent some time with, they are in shock, are they? yes, some of them are full stop we had some very tight marginals and a lot of there may be didn't quite expect they would get it over the line but they did. great to see you, geraldine scott. thank you. helen mckenna is from the kings fund — a think tank specialising in health care policy — she's in our she's in our central london studio. it is worth making the point that borisjohnson it is worth making the point that boris johnson clearly thinks that the nhs is going to be his number one priority after brexit. yes, absolutely. i think patients up and

down the country will hopefully be reassured to hear that, because in reality the nhs is in need of some tlc. the latest official performance data shows that waiting times for patients who are trying to access services are currently at their worst level, particularly for example the a&e for our waiting time target is at its worst level since these records began. —— four hour waiting. for patients who hear the prime minister saying the nhs is going to be its top priority, i think they will agree very much needs to be. the issue of social care, which really raised its head in this campaign, without be seen as pa rt in this campaign, without be seen as part of the nhs issue or is it still going to a separate thing? well, we very much hope that social care will be seen as part of that issue, and will be seen as the prime minister's top priority as well. the social ca re top priority as well. the social care system is currently at crisis point. it is fundamentally unfair,

and it is in need of serious reform, but actually, in reality, in the manifesto, the conservative manifesto, the conservative manifesto, we didn't see much detail, it was pretty light on what is going to be done about social care, so is going to be done about social care, so we are is going to be done about social care, so we are hoping we will see some serious and detailed proposals put forward in the coming days and weeks so that some much needed reform can be made. with a majority of 80, and talk of a cross—party agreement, is that a way forward here? that boris johnson agreement, is that a way forward here? that borisjohnson has the strength and outer banks and heads together from other parties? so, i think that will help the prime ministerand think that will help the prime minister and the government to make progress. i think what is really neededis progress. i think what is really needed is to resolve what appears to be quite an unfair divide, when the public look at it, between a publicly funded nhs and a largely privately funded social care system, andl privately funded social care system, and i think we are starting to see some consensus and i think we are starting to see some consensus gather around the need for further public investment in social care. and i hope consensus can be reached on that point. helen

mckenna, thank you forjoining us, from the king's fund. joining me now is wendy chamberlain, who was elected as a liberal democrat mp for north east fife — previously held by the snp — it was in fact the only seat the snp lost across scotland. she is one of four liberal democrat mps in scotland. thank you for coming in. mixed blessing today because one of the casualties was your own leader. yes, absolutely, and our own leader with absolutely, and our own leader with a scottish seat as well. so how are you feeling today? there is no doubt it has been quite bittersweet. as i went into my account, we understood thatjo may went into my account, we understood that jo may be went into my account, we understood thatjo may be in some danger, so yes it is, it is disappointing we can have an increase in vote share, vote in scotland and across the uk, and we lose an mp as a result of that, whereas a 1% increase for the conservatives gives them a majority of 80 that they now have. conservatives gives them a majority of 80 that they now havelj conservatives gives them a majority of 80 that they now have. i want to come onto the snp in a moment, but in terms of the liberal democrats, obviously you now have a leadership battle of your own. is there anybody

thatis battle of your own. is there anybody that is shining through as a possible replacement forjo? that is shining through as a possible replacement for jo?|j possible replacement for jo?” wouldn't want to prejudge anybody‘s position at the moment. you know, i ama position at the moment. you know, i am a brand—new mp, ijoin the party in 2015 so i can categorically say i'm not putting myself forward for consideration at this time. so your first day here, what is the mood light behind me? i don't know if! have had any opportunity to take any kind of rain check on the mood, it has me —— it has not been going through the induction activities, speaking to people like yourselves, and a photo op at three o'clock. speaking to people like yourselves, and a photo op at three o'clockm it terrifying, probably too strong a word, but is it a daunting thing, coming to london, coming to this place, with all the history, and certainly with what's going on at the moment? what would you hope to achieve in the next five years? first of all i would say it is not necessarily daunting. i was a police officerfor 12 years, so i suppose i've had some experience of more

challenging situations, but yes, absolutely, there is no doubt a sense of responsibility for your electorate. my constituency north east fife, the fact we are at a critical time, so you want to stand up critical time, so you want to stand up and represent your constituents to the best of your ability to stop nicola sturgeon says it is time for another referendum, boris johnson says no. who would you side with? neither. on that issue. i stood on the manifesto of pro—uk, pro—eu, which actually made as unique as the liberal democrats in scotland and i would still intend to stand by that position. given the level of the snp victory, though, doesn't nicola sturgeon have a point, when she says she has a mandate? the popular vote for the snp was 45%. the vote for independence in 2014 was 45%. you ask sworn in tomorrow. wednesday -- you are sworn in tomorrow. wednesday

post at and on friday you are looking at the withdrawal bill for brexit, a baptism is a fire, isn't it? withoutjo brexit, a baptism is a fire, isn't it? without jo swinson, brexit, a baptism is a fire, isn't it? withoutjo swinson, without a leader, in effect, who will you talk to, what will be the approach to that vote? i am one of four liberal democrat new mps, so we have seven existing mps, democrat new mps, so we have seven existing mp5, i will certainly be seeking guidance from them, but on the same token i stood on a ma nifesto to the same token i stood on a manifesto to stop brexit. we voted against the withdrawal agreement. you are going to stick with that. north—east five, our biggest employers university of st andrews, the tourism of industry and agriculture, they will be devastated by brexit. i firmly believe that brexit is not in the best interest of the country, and the liberal democrats will continue to represent that opinion. even lord heseltine was saying the argument for romaine has gone. you don't feel that?” would say that the role of an mp who

is not of the governing party is to be an effective opposition, and you could argue in the last 3.5 years thatis could argue in the last 3.5 years that is one of the things we have not had, so liberal democrats will continue to act accordingly and hold the government to account. good luck on wednesday with the swearing in, and welcome. enjoy the next five yea rs. and welcome. enjoy the next five years. ok, thank you, simon. thank you very much. thieves have reportedly stolen 50—million pounds worth ofjewellery from the home of tamara ecclestone in london. she was on holiday at the time. the daughter of the former formula 1 boss, bernie ecclestone, was said to be "shaken and angry" after the robbery on friday night. jon donnison is in kensington.... if that £50 million figure is confirmed it is quite an astonishing heist. police were called to reports ofa heist. police were called to reports of a burglaryjust heist. police were called to reports of a burglary just after 11 heist. police were called to reports of a burglaryjust after 11 o'clock on friday night. not giving any more details, they say an amount of high—valuejewellery details, they say an amount of high—value jewellery was taken, and

that has been reported to be worth £50 million. it is also reported that the burglars got in through the back of the property. i have to say there is very high security on this street, it is known as billionaire's road, it has one of the most exclusive addresses in the country, huge houses, tamara ecclestone's house had more than 50 bedrooms, and it is believed the thieves, reportedly three of them, got in through the back of the property then went round the back of the house and managed to find a safe way this jewellery was apparently stashed. is it right she tweeted she was going on holiday? she put it out on instagram, a photo of her daughter boarding a private jet last week. they were going away for the christmas holidays, so it would be known that the house was certainly empty of the family, although there we re empty of the family, although there were apparently security guards in the building, who eventually interrupted these intruders, but it

is pretty astonishing really, when you look at the security on the street, behind you have the israeli embassy, several other embassies, you have armed police at the bottom of the road, it is a private road, you can't just of the road, it is a private road, you can'tjust drive up and down it, and she will have had personal security in that house, given that there was so much of value in there. now the police say at the moment they are treating this i think as an isolated incident, but they are beginning to look to see whether there have been any similar burglaries in this neighbourhood. i put that question to a metropolitan police spokesperson earlier and they said they were looking into it. at the moment, though, they say no arrests, and the family, well, they say they are asking their own security staff to work closely with the police. jon donnison, thank you for that update. in the moment we will hear about the world of business. first the headlines. more than a hundred

new conservative mps arrive in westminster as borisjohson begins working towards delivering on his election promises northern ireland's political parties resume talks aimed at restoring power sharing at stormont. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. waterfirms in england and wales are facing the toughest profit crackdown in 30 years. the regulator wants them to cut the average bill by £50 by 2025. ofwat is also forcing firms to invest millions of pounds to improve their performance. this is all part of a plan by the regulator to transform the water industry. sports direct has reported a rise in half year profits. its boss, mike ashley, said he had seen green shoots of recovery at house of fraser — but still plans to close some stores in 2020. sports direct bought the department store chain last year out of administration. since then, seven house of frasers stores have closed down. and in the last few minutes —

hundreds of sub—postmasters and postmistresses have won a key judgment against the post office and its horizon it system in the high court. thejudge, mrjustice fraser, said horizon was not remotely robust. the sub—postmasters blame the system for creating big shortfalls in their accounts, discrepancies which led to some being made bankrupt and others prosecuted and sent to prison. the post office admitted defeat in the case last week and agreed to pay £58 million to settle claims. today's highly complicated judgment ends years of campaigning by those affected. hallmark is writing its very own "i'm sorry" card today. the greeting card company apologised for its decision to withdraw television adverts featuring same—sex couples. the company's cable network pulled the ads for wedding registry and planning site, zola, after it came under pressure from the conservative group, 1 million mums. the decision drew criticism on social media and calls for a boycott.

samira hussain is at the new york stock exchange. i'm sure she has never written and i am sorry card. why were these abbots pulled in the first post? first we have to really talk about the fact this comes at a really bad time for whole mark. it has become quite a tradition people to get comfortable in front of the couch and watch a lot of these christmas movies. this is no doubt a big time of yearfor the channel —— bad time for hallmark. it came under a lot of criticism from a conservative group against same—sex marriage and couples, and apparently this group met with the head of the hallmark channel and then made the decision to pull these abbots. a lot of criticism has been levied against the channel for making this move. criticism has been levied against the channel for making this movem the channel for making this movem the reaction on social media was pretty heavy. some realfamous names getting involved. we are talking about the who's who of the same sex

world, ellen degeneres, a presidential democratic nominee, pete booed a judge. we have heard from every avenue, in terms of entertainment, the political circles lashing out against this. hallmark have said they are going to team up with some groups to try and better understand what happened and to be better in terms of its reaction to these kinds of criticisms. what happens now? what happens now is the hallmark channel is in big damage control, as i pointed out earlier, this is a peak viewing time for the channel itself. so it has to really sort of come out ahead of this, and it's doing that by saying it is

teaming up with advocacy groups to sort of better understand the situation and it has already put out a press release to say look, they are a press release to say look, they a re really a press release to say look, they are really sorry about any hurt feelings but it is certainly damage control for the channel right now. thank you very much indeed. looking closer to home, and as i mentioned earlier sports direct updated us with their performance for the first six months of the year and were generally quite positive. our business correspondent emma simpson has been talking to the group's chief financial officer, chris wootton. just a few months back, the predictions for house of fraser by his boss, mike ashley, were in his words "terminal" — so why do they now believe there are green shoots of recovery? i'm going to use my analogy on this one, so if we talk about a football team, so we have integrated, house of fraser or the group machine into the sports. before we took it on, it was everything not nailed down, it was everything not nailed down, it was totally un—sustainable, we have brought it in—house. we have sorted

out the goalkeeper, sorted out the defence, and the next thing we will do is build on the midfield in the attack. back to you, simon in westminster. if police scotland are reporting that there's been "a bit of a brussel sprouts accident" in rosyth. traffic officers with south west fife police say it happened at the roundabout at admiralty road in the town, when a lorry overturned spreading its load of vegetables across the street. officers are asking motorists to avoid the area if possible. on twitter, they're warning of delays to both traffic and christmas dinners. thatis that is the latest from brussels (!) that means a lot of wind in the area, doesn't it, darren?” that means a lot of wind in the area, doesn't it, darren? iwasjust going to say, was it when accident happened? i'm glad you didn't because i had only made thejoke,

that wouldn't have made any sense. you don't have to put a cross in the bottom of a spout any more. it saves you hours. good. anyway... pull me up you hours. good. anyway... pull me up full frame, so will get rid of him, that'll do, then we can move on very quickly, don't leave me hanging there. we've got some big changes in there. we've got some big changes in the weather, it is set to get windy, nothing to do with sprouts, but we start the week on a chilly note, some frost and may be some fog patches too. gradually those temperatures set to rise but only because it is going to get wet and windy and windy once again. the moment, many places our driver stop this area of low pressure bringing showers of the north—west, this weather front flirting with the south—east corner of england. pushing up a lot of cloud, quite thin, high cloud, but the sunshine is hazy at best it means across the bulk of england and wales will stop as you head further north, away from the showers, we get some sunshine, here in northern ireland for example but it could look different tomorrow, quite a bit of fog around in the morning. we have some showers

around, most of them increasingly wintry, across northern scotland, and this rain not far away from the south—east of england as well. typical temperatures as we head towards the early part of the evening around about 5 degrees or so. through this evening and overnight, the cloud thickening in the south—east of england and east anglia, that is where we'll see most of the rain. it should turn drier in northern ireland. keep those wintry showers, scotland, a touch of frost, scotla nd showers, scotland, a touch of frost, scotland northern ireland, northern england and into wales. but also some patches of fog in the far north of england, southern scotland and especially northern ireland that could linger well into tomorrow. outside of the fog there will be some sunshine, fewer showers in scotland. still some rain and drizzle for england towards the south—east of englund and east anglia. it will stay cloudy, temperatures seven or 8 degrees, elsewhere outside the fog, typically five celsius or so. as we head towards the night time, in this ridge of high pressure, so it is

dry, it is cold but there is a milderairto dry, it is cold but there is a milder air to come dry, it is cold but there is a milderairto come in dry, it is cold but there is a milder air to come in from the atla ntic milder air to come in from the atlantic from mid week onwards together with that weather front. ahead of it, a frosty start on wednesday, some more fog maybe even for northern england and the midlands, that will lift more readily because the wind will start to pick up, especially out to the west where we have this cloud and rain. that will lift the temperatures, but towards eastern scotla nd temperatures, but towards eastern scotland and eastern england, we are still in the cold air for one more day, eventually it will turn milder here during the evening and overnight. is that weather front pushes the cloud and rain northwards and eastwards, picking up the wins, gail is running through the irish sea on wednesday evening and we have still got low pressure spinning away out in the atlantic, and it will push areas of thicker cloud, spells of rain thursday and friday, windy at times but at least it is mild by day and by night.

hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 3: new mps are travelling to london, many from traditional labour seats that swung to the tories last week. it is quite surreal and i think the last time we remember these sort of things, it's the first day at big school isn't it? and here we go. we'll take a look at the challenges ahead for borisjohnson and who he might face in opposition. coming up on afternoon live all the sport with chitan. we have got the full champions league draw for the last 16, including a tough test for manchester city, who will face real madrid. darren has the weather for us. it will get wet and windy towards the end of the week and milder. but at the moment quiet with a bit of frost and fog over night.

and simon, you should try sprouts with walnuts — lovely. and simon, you should try sprouts with walnuts - lovely. thank you very much. that will mean nothing to anybody who has tuned in, in the last 15 minutes! also coming up: around £50 million worth ofjewellery is stolen from the home of formula one heiress tamara ecclestone. hello everyone, this is afternoon live i'm simon mccoy. boris johnson is preparing to address his new mps — who have been arriving in westminster before they go to the house of commons tomorrow. some of the 109 new tory mps are from labour strongholds which had never voted conservative before. later this week the government will set out its plans in the queens speech. it's then expected to try to pass crucial brexit legislation on friday. meanwhile the fallout from labour's defeat continues with party officials saying they are expected to meet early in the new year

to agree the timetable for replacing jeremy corbyn as leader. our political correspondent helen catt reports. on their way to westminster — tory mps still over the moon at having turned the red seats blue. bye! thank you! it's the start of a newjourney for them and possibly for the conservative party too. the arrival of so many mps representing new seats could change the government's focus. it's already swelled its ranks, bringing its majority to 80. it's like it's actually happening, let's get things done. so yeah, mega excited. it's a lot of pressure, it's a bit daunting, but i think we're alljust really excited to get in there and just get started. it's quite surreal and you know, i think the last time you remember these sort of things, it's first day at big school, isn't it? and here we go. the new mps will get help, but not much time to settle in. tomorrow, they will be formally sworn in, then on thursday there

will be a queen's speech, setting out the government's plans for the next year and by friday they will be debating major policies, as its expected the eu withdrawal agreement bill will be reintroduced. you've a prime minister who has a very big mandate from the british public, we have a majority in parliament, which enables him to get things done. that message i'm sure will not have been lost on our european friends and partners, they can see that there is a stable government now in the uk at long last, with a very big mandate, with the public behind the prime minister and i would expect european leaders now to want to work productively with the prime minister and the negotiating team that he will assemble. the government wants to be seen to be acting swiftly and decisively on brexit, but it's also keen to show that it listened to what voters told it last thursday, particularly those who lent the conservatives their vote. that means acting on areas like the nhs so thursday's queen's speech will include a commitment to upping its annual budget by tens of billions of pounds over the parliament

and enshrining that in law. hi, morning. for some more familiar conservative faces, it's already back to work. including some who were notably absent during the campaign. the election wasn't about me, it was a choice between the prime minister and jeremy corbyn and the country made their choice and a wonderful choice they have made. in downing street, the chancellor was certainly sounding confident. the people's government. this afternoon will add some more faces to it as empty places in the cabinet are filled. our political correspondent, jonathan blake joins me now. you have got your phone there, because we could be getting some names soon? possibly within the next hour, we expect news about a mini—reshuffle. it is not really that, it is a gap—filling exercise that, it is a gap—filling exercise that the government needs to attend to very soon. so you have got the

welsh secretary alun cairns, who quit, the environment minister zac goldsmith as well. and the culture secretary nicky morgan, who stood down before the election. those appointments we expect this afternoon. i imagine it won't be a shuffling of the chairs exercise, probably appointments from people outside from the junior levels of government coming up. but we expect in the new year, once the christmas break has happened, a much more wide—ranging reshuffle when we will get more of an idea of the government. the culture secretary, theissue government. the culture secretary, the issue of the bbc licence has been raised. boris johnson said he may look at abolishing the licence fee. he is committed to a review over whether nonpayment of the licence should be decriminalised. that will be top of the new culture

secretary's in tray. now what happens here, we have got a rough idea, but with a majority of 80, borisjohnson idea, but with a majority of 80, boris johnson can do idea, but with a majority of 80, borisjohnson can do what he wants, can't he? within reason. you know what i mean. yes, we have a pretty goodidea what i mean. yes, we have a pretty good idea of how this week will pan out. it will be busy, new mps getting familiarised at westminster today. finding out where their offices might be and getting assigned to their lap tops. and then they will be sworn in tomorrow. that may well run into wednesday, because there are so many new ones. on thursday the queen's speech a stripped back affair. but the queen will come to the palace of westminster and read ute the government's —— read out the government's —— read out the government's programme. she is not coming by bike. i imagine she will come by car and not by carriage. and

front of centre to that will be the withdraw bill the government wants to put through the house of commons for its first and second readings on friday, which would see mps voting on it before the christmas wreak —— break. now the labour, rifts seem to be getting deeper. yes it is not in a good place and after the crushing defeat last week, the labour party is now into a period of whatjeremy corbyn would like to see as reflection, but is kind of soul—searching and in fighting. you have had the shadow transport secretary, andy mcdonald, trying to blame the bbc, saying it played an active role and his colleague said anything other than blaming the party is an abdication of responsibility and some have said jeremy corbyn should have taken more responsibility. no names in the hat officially yet to replace jeremy corbyn. but those likely there are

considering whether to stand. and now you have got this war of words between the shadow foreign secretary emily thornberry. well, she is threatening legal action. and caroline flint who, lost her seat, representing her constituency in yorkshire, she accused emily thornberry of saying her constituents were stupid and emily thornberry denies this and she has said she will take legal action. caroline flint was told by somebody else that i had spoken to somebody else. that person, unknown. and when, unknown. and where, unknown. and she still won't, you know, tell us. that people were supposed to be "stupid. " i would never even think that, let alone say it, it's a complete lie! so, i've said to caroline, "come on, caroline, this isn't true, "you know, withdraw it, and i'll give you until the end of the day." and she refuses to, so i have to go through all the hassle of instructing solicitors, and that's all we're doing — we are having to take legal action.

so this will be quite a leadership contest. yes this is not a good look to have this playing out in public. many will hope the leadership contest many will hope the leadership co ntest ca n many will hope the leadership contest can start soon. it looks like being the second week in january and then hopefully the focus can focus on policies and direction. a quick look at phone anything yet? no. one of borisjohnson's main priorities as prime minister will be negotiating our future relationship with the eu after brexit — including a trade deal. earlier, i was joined by our reality check correspondent chris morris, who told me what the borisjohnson will be trying to achieve on a trade deal well, trade deals with all sort of people, including the united states, but i think first and foremost the new trade deal with the eu, our largest trading partner, and he said he is going to do that by 31st december 2020, the end of next year. that is a very, very tight time table for any trade deal.

the reason it is that tight is he's guaranteed there will be no extension to the transition period after brexit, when all the rules and regulations stay and same and for that 11—month period, the uk will remain part of the the single market and the customs union. what kind of deal could be done? i think we are going to hear a lot about zero tariffs, zero quotas deal, which sounds great, is good, but it's not what many companies trading with europe at the moment enjoy in terms of completely frictionless deals, there are still checks those companies would have to deal with under a zero tariffs, zero quotas deal. the other thing is when you talk about tariffs and quotas, you're talking about goods, not services and services are a large part of british economy. so there is a lot to be done in a very short time. and it is notjust about getting a deal, you've got to ratify it as well? ratification is important and does take time. it is not something that gets done in a couple of days. there are two levels though. ratification can be done in a few

months if you have a fairly simple agreement. now of course the prime minister says he wants something ambitious, but if it becomes too ambitious, it becomes what is called a mixed agreement and when you have a mixed agreement, which means that deal with notjust the competence of the eu on things like customs, but also impinges on national sovereignty, issues that national governments deal with, then you need a deal ratified by parliaments all across the eu. 27 other countries. national and sometimes regional parliaments. i don't think that's possible in the time frame next year, so we are looking at more simple agreement, which is a possibility, still difficult and then there will have to be further negotiation the future. so, we're going to talk now about a very different looking conservative party for this new parliament with mps from parts of the country that have never returned a tory before, it's also got a younger look, with quite a few under the age of 30. well lord daniel finkelstein writes a weekly political

column for the times. before joining the paper in 2001, he was adviser to both the prime ministerjohn major and the conservative leader william hague. good to see you. i'm wondering on that basis, knowing tory leaders in the past, how do you think boris johnson will be feeling right now with a majority that very few people could have predicted. william hague and john major did lose, i knew how david cameron felt when jeremy corbyn was selected as leader of the labour party and he had a majority and then he had to resign as prime minister, so events are always at your feet and boris johnson minister, so events are always at your feet and borisjohnson does know that. i think he feels very pleased to have been vindicated by the election result. prime ministers a lwa ys the election result. prime ministers always feel a sense of vindication. but he knows he has won a lot of seats with which the conservative party has not held for a long time.

you have seen him since friday. so he was surprised? yes, but the thing that was most interesting, he was struck by his responsibility, genuinely. he felt that the conservative party had taken an a responsibility to a lot of new seats. he talked about the nhs and he was interested in the problem of homelessness and focussed on if fact these seats had changed the nature of the conservative party in a way i'm gratefulfor. i have been a conservative that believes the party has things to say on social policy and the focus has often been solely on tax cuts and this victory has made that argument of. it does have a challenge in it, because also it could lead the conservative party towards a sort of harsher or more populist tone and that is a danger of the victory. blen -- when you

talk about a more populist tone, things like the nhs and infrastructure. that is the opportunity. those have broad appeal. i can't think there is anybody who doesn't think it is a goodidea anybody who doesn't think it is a good idea to invest in the nhs and for the conservative party to champion public services and put more of an emphasis on it. that has broad appeal. but there is a danger that you decide you're going to become, well, to use a term trump—like, i think that is unnecessary and it is not boris johnson's instinct. do you think there is a risk of that? it is obviously what the opponents of conservative party are looking out for. and the thing that the party needs to be careful about. but that is to look on what they used to call the hole in the cheese. they won a big victory across the north of england. i'm the chairman of the onward think tank, who came up with the phrase red wall and workington

man and we are interested in how you service those groups and make sure they feel that voting for the conservative party for the first time, making a big step, they have got to feel the party understands what they're after. you have a blue wall that is in effect rented, even borisjohnson said the votes have been lent to him. i think it is more profound. i think over several elections those people have begun to wonder there is a need for them to vote labour, just because they live in the north of england and they often in the north of england and they ofte n 5 ha re in the north of england and they often share the same demographic and values... it goes deeper, it is family and tradition and generations and industries and then it is the jobs. and so exactly those places with that history did feel the conservative party was not for them and they felt strongly my grandfather will turn over in his grave. but think often shared the

same demographic and values as other places that did vote conservative. that changed that, switched. now it's happened, it could be profound or it could be temporary. the party has that in its control. if it can understand this will force the conservative party to the centre, almost ironically, given the georges we re almost ironically, given the georges were in the brexit campaign and it will —— orgins with were in the campaign. ithink will —— orgins with were in the campaign. i think borisjohnson does see that actually. are we going to see that actually. are we going to see a different borisjohnson and see a different borisjohnson and see him change this week?” see a different borisjohnson and see him change this week? i think when borisjohnson, see him change this week? i think when boris johnson, boris johnson supported ken clarke for the leadership of the conservative party and then he supported david cameron almost before anyone else. that is the basic politics of borisjohnson and on top of which you have brexit. i think you will see him reaching out more to that sort of politics and those sort of people than he has donein and those sort of people than he has done in the period of trying to land

brexit. take the main chance is another way of putting it.” brexit. take the main chance is another way of putting it. i think borisjohnson is another way of putting it. i think boris johnson is in another way of putting it. i think borisjohnson is in both a good and bad sense politically ruthless, he has done some things that i didn't like. i don't like the commitment after a year to leave the transition period. i don't like the 21 mps being... expelled from the party to have the whip taken from them. i'm still against it. if you look at it coldly, you have to say, i wonder whether he would have won the election without it. he understood that. both he got dominic cummings m, that. both he got dominic cummings in, borisjohnson that. both he got dominic cummings in, boris johnson is that. both he got dominic cummings in, borisjohnson is a hard politician and so is dominic cummings and they work well together for that reason. that characteristic can be bad and it can be a good thing, if it is put in the service of pursuing the politics that can get you re—elected. because they are the politics those places need and

want. it is how politics works. thank you. fresh talks are under way in belfast to try to restore devolved government in northern ireland, where the main unionist and republican parties are under pressure to work together again. the northern ireland secretary julian smith told reporters that the biggest concern for voters during the election was the need to restore power sharing. : ithink : i think there was some interesting results in northern ireland. the sense that i get today is that every party has had time to reflect and some serious issues to reflect upon and the biggest message they got on the doorstep potentially wasn't about brexit or their own party's individual policies, but the fact that this executive and assembly has remained dormant for a thousand days andi remained dormant for a thousand days and i think my sense from everybody is there was a sort of realisation thatis is there was a sort of realisation that is not a sustainable position. the good friday agreement was something that everybody worked very

ha rd something that everybody worked very hard on and this symbol, this empty symbol at the top of this hill cannot go on any longer. we have to govern and we have to get our northern ireland parties governing in the best interest of northern ireland citizens. the dup leader said the failure to restore power—sharing in northern ireland shamed the region's politicians. but arlene foster said initial talks with the northern ireland secretary had been positive. well we had a very good engagement with the secretary of state. obviously, we have a range of issues that we want to see resolved, not least to be back in government to deal with the health issue and the fa ct deal with the health issue and the fact there is an injection of money needed to deal with the immediate issues and to recommit to the transformation programme that was set out by the last executive. so dealing with health and education reforms and having enough funding for that sector and driving forward the economy in northern ireland, all of thosishures were discussed ——

thoseissues of thosishures were discussed —— those issues were discussed. our ireland correspondent chris page said there appears to be a greater chance that talks will succeed this time, because of the frustration expressed by voters last week. it is almost three years since the governments at store month collapsed. sip then northern ireland has been —— since then northern ireland has been in limbo. there has been no ministers to make decisions and therefore there has been pressure on the public services and the nhs in particular, hospital waiting lists have been spiralling and now they're the longest in the uk, health workers are taking industrial action over pay and you have had hundreds of out—patient appointments cancelled. all of that is bringing a certain pressure to bear on the is bringing a certain pressure to bearon the main is bringing a certain pressure to bear on the main political parties. added into that you have had general election results last week which sent a certain signal i think to the dup and sinn fein, certainly could be read in that sense. both parties lost a few per sen taining points in

their vote share. the dup lost two of their 10 mp5. sinn fein retained their number of mps, they won seven seats, as they did last time, however they still lost a significant number of votes. so all the parties acknowledge on the doorsteps they were taking heat from voters and people complaining enough was enough and they had to get back into government at stormont. so there is sense the mood has changed and there has been a tipping point and there has been a tipping point and a shift from the public and political perspective. and these talks have a better chance of succeeding. but still the status of irish language is a stick points. there is still a lot of talking to be done. a lot of focus in this election has been in the north of england where conservatives successfully

targeted labour heartland seats that voted leave in the eu referendum. let's talk more about this now with our north east political editor, richard moss. you travelled to london with some of the new mps, what is the mood, are they are surprised as they could be? some have went from candidate selected six weeks ago to now being in parliament. one jacob young, 26—year—old, who won in redcar, he won a 26—year—old, who won in redcar, he wona9 26—year—old, who won in redcar, he won a 9 thousand majority, he has had to hand in his notice to hisjob but he has been told he has to do a shift on christmas day! but he is already now an mp. i think their mood is because they have won significant numbers, there were seven extra conservative mps in the north—east and are now 10 in total. they can use their use their weight of numbers to lever pressure, just as labour mps have done in the past,

and they can achieve something. now they're here, what have they got to do, borisjohnson saying, we know these votes are on loan, what have they got to do to keep them? boris johnson is talking about investing in northern infrastructure and they will want their slice of the cake to come to those constituencies, the sedgefields and bishop aucklands and the darlingtons to claim victories that they can say we have delivered, you gave us our votes that they can say we have delivered, you gave us our votes and that they can say we have delivered, you gave us our votes and we can prove tories can deliver and they have an example. the tees valley mayor in 2017 went conservative and seemed to have paved the way for this, he has been trying to deliver in that community and he bought the local airport and things like that. that has detoxified the brand and they need to build on that. but there is the challenge of brexit. they got elected on the basis of get brexit done. but the north—east,

because of its export trade and people like nissan, has the most to lose if brexit goes wrong and that will affect how much you can invest in infrastructure. thank you. in a moment we're going to be talking to labour peer and former minister andrew adonis about the future of the labour party and its crushing defeat, as it looks towards choosing a new leader. first let's just hear what the re—elected labour mp stephen kinnock had to say about this, this morning. we have to recognise that leave voters are a massively important pa rt voters are a massively important part of labour's past, present and future and we have to engage with them with respect. those who campaigned for a second referendum should apologise to them. i think it is important that our next leader should be somebody who didn't back a second referendum, because i think that would send an important signal that would send an important signal that we understand where those leave voters are coming from and how alienated they felt by those in the labour party who tried to preach at them, that they didn't understand what they voted for in 2016.

let's talk now with labour peer and former minister andrew adonis. how are you feel something well with all catastrophes come opportunities and the big opportunities for the labour party is to position itself in the centre ground with a leader who is credible, who can hold the government to account and do so in a way that makes people think that the next election there will be a real choice. i'm always public spirited in these things, borisjohnson comes to office with a big mandate. he comes to office, you talked about northern infrastructure and he needs a big infrastructure plan. this is an opportunity for him to do something which could be transformational for the country and i think if labour is there with its own plan, i think it should, let's have a competition of the plans for reviving the north. there has been far too little attention to this and there is a big opportunities and because politics is about competition between people to lead the country, this is labour's opportunity to show that when the

next competition comes, it is fit to do so. it is not at the moment though is it? you have do mps fighting it out with one threatening legal action against another. how bad do things have to get before they get better? things are very bad. i have spent 18 months trying to stop brexit democratically and i was answer that we should get to a referendum on britain's continuing membership. that is clearly not going to happen now and we are going to leave. the tragedy... the remain argument is gone? it is not gone for all time, but boris johnson argument is gone? it is not gone for all time, but borisjohnson has a mandate. if he gets brexit through as would seem likely, will there be as would seem likely, will there be a rejoin party set up in the next year or two? i don't know about the next year or two, because i don't believe britain will flourish

long—term outside the eu and i think the case for rejoining will come back into politics. the point about the labour party, is we have had our hands tied behind our back by the fa ct hands tied behind our back by the fact there that it was clear that jeremy corbyn wasn't capable of winning a general election. that is why i was keen... you didn't say that before the election? what we we re that before the election? what we were keen to do was to bring the opposition parties together, working together and what i would hope is we would force a referendum before an election. so our problem through this recent period is that nobody who is sensible and can read polls and knew what was happening thought we had a leader who was electable. why did so many lie to the, coming on programmes like this saying, jeremy corbyn's the man to lead us? i never said that myself. what i said, which was true, is the country would have been better off with

labour, in fact it would have been a coalition with the liberal democrats than boris johnson, coalition with the liberal democrats than borisjohnson, because it would have given us a chance to stop brexit. i have never been praising jeremy corbyn. you know my background. i think elections are won and lost on the centre ground and for the labour it needs to be the centre—left where we unite. the liberal tradition with the labour tradition that is what wins election. tony blair is the only person, a non—tory, born in the last century, who has won an election, his great skill was uniting, labour, liberal and tory britain behind a programme of social reform. that is what we need from the labour party. who is the woman or the man who can lead you to do that? it is a bit soon to say. can ijust say i've a lwa ys soon to say. can ijust say i've always been impressed by sir keir starmer. he is fit to be prime minister. so it is not too early

m plts minister. so it is not too early mplts i found in the same conversations with people said why they didn't thinkjeremy corbyn was fit to be prime minister, they said if keir was your leader, we would think differently. you should always work back from what the country wa nts. work back from what the country wants. if the people out there, the voterses only last thursday, were telling ing us we should take note. we have been hearing from the king's fund and the idea there should be a cross party agreement. agree. do you think now is the time with that could happen? i think social care, we should have some kind of, i don't like royal commissions, they take too long, but we should bring people together and the issue of infrastructure and northern infrastructure, we should do the same. there isn't a northern infrastructure plan. there is cross party agreement that we should do it. we shouldn't argue about where

you put railways and roads, we should get the local authorities across parties and the mps and the government behind it and if we could, we could create a national consensus. thank you. postmasters who claim their lives we re postmasters who claim their lives were ruined by a flawed system have won a significant high court hearing today. the judge ruled won a significant high court hearing today. thejudge ruled the horizon it system was not robust, opening the way for the postmaster to overturn their convictions. last week, the post office said it would pay almost £58 million to some of those affected by the it problems. you are watching afternoon live from bbc news, time for a look at the weather with darren bett. it is all change as the week goes on, set to get milder, wet and windy out there. but at the moment it is all about the cold weather, they could be some

frost and fog tonight. many places drier, but the showers turning more wintry in northern scotland, a lot of high cloud spilling across england and wales. the sunshine has been rather hazy and these are the temperatures we are seeing towards the end of the afternoon, early evening. the thicker cloud towards the south—east corner of england and we will see it turning right here in south—east england and across east anglia. showers towards the south—west tending to fade away. it becomes drier eventually in northern ireland but still those wintry showers continue in scotland, where there could be some icy conditions, and a touch of frost for scotland, northern ireland, northern england and wales, and some patches of fog, particularly in northern ireland by the end of the night, and those could linger into the afternoon as well. outside of the fog, some sunshine, fewer showers tomorrow, i think in scotland, still some rain and drizzle for the south—east of england and east anglia, that should slowly peter out but it will stay quite cloudy, temperatures will be seven or 8 degrees, quite chilly elsewhere, typically four or five celsius.

this is bbc news, our latest headlines. the prime minister is preparing his legislative agenda for the coming parliament. new mps are travelling to london, many from traditional labour suite —— suits that swung to the tories last week. it is quite peculiar, it is first day at big school. here we go. labour frontbench mp emily thornberry has launched legal action against former colleague caroline flint over claims she called voters "stupid". northern ireland's political parties resume talks aimed at restoring power sharing at stormont. around £50 million worth ofjewellery is stolen from the home of socialite tamara ecclestone — daughter of the former formula one boss bernie ecclestone. a minute's silence in new zealand a week after the volcano eruption that left at least 16 people dead and around 20 in a critical condition.

sport now on afternoon live with chetan — and we've had the draw for the champions league and the europa league today and it's thrown up some mouth—watering ties. a lot happening earlier in nyon in switzerland when both those drawers took place, all four english sides through to the knockout stages of the english —— of the champions league, manchester city desperate to win this one more than any other, the only one pep guardiola hasn't won, at city, now they have been drawn against 13 time winners real madrid. city will be at home for the return leg. as for the holders, liverpool, they have the other madrid side, atletico. tricky opponents as well but they will play the first leg in the same stadium where they won last season's final before bringing adler to go back to anfield. chelsea take on bayern munich, a repeat of the 2012 champions league final, which chelsea won, and lasses in's beaten

finalist, tottenham, withjose mourinho in charge, will face german side rp leipsic. —— rb leipsic. in the europa league, man utd will face belgian side bruges. wolves take on snl, celtic play copenhagen. last yea r‘s snl, celtic play copenhagen. last year's beaten finalists arsenal have been drawn against greek club olympiacos, who dropped into the europa league after finishing olympiacos, who dropped into the europa league afterfinishing behind totte n ha m europa league afterfinishing behind tottenham in their champions league group. arsenal of course beaten by chelsea in the europa league finals. they are now continuing their search for a new manager, having got rid of the unai emery. now mikael arteta, theirformer player and the unai emery. now mikael arteta, their former player and the manchester city coach appears to be nextin manchester city coach appears to be next in their sites. officials from arsenal were pictured leaving

arteta's house in the early hours of this morning. one of the favourites to ta ke this morning. one of the favourites to take over from freddie this morning. one of the favourites to take overfrom freddie ljungberg, who is in caretaker charge. not yet known if arteta has been formally offered thejob. webb viewers might remember the former wales coach rob howley was sent home rob howley was sent home from the rugby world cup for breaching betting regulations. we've heard more about that today. we have. sent homejust six we have. sent home just six days before wales's opening win against georgia. the 49—year—old, seen here in the red, with former head coach warren gatland, had been part of gatland's team since the start of 2008, a panel found he placed 363 bets in rugby union, featuring over 1100 matches in total. he admitted to placing bets on 24 connected events, specifically involving wales or wales players, a couple of those including on who would be the first try scorer in wales matches. one game being the grand slam win over

ireland in cardiff this year. howley said neither player had any knowledge of the bets. players told the investigation the same thing. over the five year period it was investigated, the wru panel were satisfied howley made no financial gains and lost £4000 in total. the panel went on to say it seems to be a triggerfor the betting panel went on to say it seems to be a trigger for the betting was a family tragedy involving the death of rob howley‘s sister. howley said he has not placed any bets since september of this year and is confident the help of a psychologist. tim betting again. he has been banned from rugby for 18 months with nine of those suspended, it is backdated, so he can return to by it is backdated, so he can return to rugby in june. that it is backdated, so he can return to rugby injune. that is all your support for now. back to you, simon. thank you very much. i will be back to you in the next hour. welcome back to westminster, where borisjohnson is preparing to address his new mps — who have been arriving at their parliamentary offices before they go to the house

of commons tomorrow. and wednesday because there are so many of them. it's a very changed cohort — many of them from brexit—supporting formerly labour strongholds. joining me now are asa bennett, the telegraph's brexit commissioning editor and kevin schofield, editor of politics home. first of all, a majority of 80, nobody saw that coming.” first of all, a majority of 80, nobody saw that coming. i would like to say i had, but i'm afraid i did not, i was too scarred by 2017, i lowered my expectations, any majority would be good enough so borisjohnson could majority would be good enough so boris johnson could get majority would be good enough so borisjohnson could get somebody through but now he is basically king for the next five years. he's got a clear mandate to drive the brexit deal through, and then some. clear mandate to drive the brexit dealthrough, and then some. does that mean he will change? are we going to see a new borisjohnson this week? he is a bit of a political chameleon. there was a different type of tory when he was a london mayor, then fought a different type of campaign to become london —— to become tory leader. i think you will have to change. when you look at where a lot of these tory mps have come from, traditional

labour areas, they were not voting for a thatcherite deregulation and privatisation agenda, they are traditional labour voters so they wa nt traditional labour voters so they want public spending, they want the nhs to be protected so i think what we will see in many ways is a rather centre—left we will see in many ways is a rather ce ntre—left almost conservative administration. it will be a little bit different, but we want to identify —— he will want to emphasise the one nation credentials, he kept saying that since he has spoken since last thursday night. interesting you use the word brexit, will you be out of a job soon because the assumption is brexit will just a job soon because the assumption is brexit willjust get done. oh no, brexit willjust get done. oh no, brexit is a job for life, it becomes pa rt brexit is a job for life, it becomes part of standard foreign policy, how do we negotiate with the eu, how do we have these conversations, what relationship do we want? the key thing is we have a choice now, not just serve up the eu programme you have to take it because you are a member, belts and braces, you are able to decide how to cut your cloth, so this is a question actually that labour and the liberal democrats will have to answer as they elect their new leaders for next spring, because by that time,

brexit in other words britain, will have withdrawn from the eu, it will have withdrawn from the eu, it will have happened, so no longer can they hide behind pretences of...” have happened, so no longer can they hide behind pretences of... ijust had andrew a donor sitting here saying it won't be this year, it might be next year but there will be a rejoin party some time.” might be next year but there will be a rejoin party some time. i saw a tweet from him saying there was a chance we could rejoin in the twe nty205, chance we could rejoin in the twenty20s, many years hence, and may be more probable in the 20 30s. given he is the most remaining of the lot, the archbishop of remainers, if you wish, he wishes somebody like him will rise up and be painting their faces somebody like him will rise up and be painting theirfaces blue, star—spangled ready for brussel to ta ke star—spangled ready for brussel to take them back but it is a very niche interest, what mr dennis espouses, that is why he did not get elected an mep for example, so it is not going to set the world alight right now because the thumping —— lord adonis. everyone will have to embrace that orjoin lord adonis in backing rejoin. who would be a labour leader now? in fact, who would be a labour leader now? the

thing is being the leader of the opposition of the best of times is probably the worst job in opposition of the best of times is probably the worstjob in politics. you have all the responsibility but very little power. but politics and politicians being as they are, we have a few people we have only seen manoeuvrings, jess phillips has come out and dipped her toe manoeuvrings, jess phillips has come out and dipped hertoe in manoeuvrings, jess phillips has come out and dipped her toe in the water, lisa nandy has said she is thinking about it, i would be amazed if she didn't go ahead, rebecca long bailey will definitely go for it, emily thornberry, keir starmer, so there are if you want it but regardless of who wins, they will face a nightmare job i think over the next few years. why do you thinkjeremy corbyn is prolonging the agony?m why do you thinkjeremy corbyn is prolonging the agony? if you were a cynic you would suggest it is because they want to make sure that the machinery is in place, and that the machinery is in place, and that the contest is geared towards rebecca long bailey getting the job. she has already been endorsed by john mcdonnell, richard birgen as well has come out to say he would support her. he is definitely now

the continuity corbynite candidate, put it that way full stop so the machinery whichjeremy put it that way full stop so the machinery which jeremy corbyn has brought to the party now pretty much control, they will be moving heaven and earth to make sure everything is geared towards rebecca long bailey are succeeding them as party leader. a lot of people will be looking at this channel, they are talking politics, and we just voted, isn't it all over? there is a sense that the agenda moves on, that maybe they will talk about other stuff now. very much so, and actually the one thing that will give your viewers hope is that in the last few years we remember the endless fraught drama of what will the dup say, dominic grieve, the labour rebels, will they do enough of this, we do all this parliamentary arithmetic, adding these numbers up, saying it isa adding these numbers up, saying it is a type majority, they lost this amendment, this amendment. are you going to miss it? it was exciting back then but it is an acquired taste. now we can move to will they get brexit three? of course, that is the mandate of the key policy, you

can almost preplan how the weeks will go ahead untiljanuary. now we literally almost are skipping ahead the next few months because labour and the liberal democrats have been effectively decapitated and have to think internally and knabl goes how will the tory party feel about the free trade agreements? it is a much more measured tone now we can expect, they can genuinely think about the nhs and other things. very quickly, is that all borisjohnson needs to do right now, open a cheque, nhs, infrastructure, and he can do it for a while? —— open a cheque book. he can turn on the spending caps, that is what he said he would do during the election campaign. 80 seat majority, and it will be strange actually getting used to majority government again, as asa says, folks not being on a knife edge every night of the week. there will be quite dull almost. what are we all going to do? terrifyingly stable. they're strong and stable. oh no, ended there. nice

to see you. thieves have reportedly stolen £50 million worth ofjewellery from the home of tamara ecclestone in london. she was on holiday at the time. the daughter of the former formula 1 boss, bernie ecclestone, was said to be "shaken and angry" after the robbery on friday night. jon donnison is in west london where the robbery took place. if that £50 million figure is confirmed it is quite an astonishing host. police say they were called to reports of a burglaryjust host. police say they were called to reports of a burglary just after 11 o'clock on friday night. they are not giving many other details. they say, though, that an amount of high—valuejewellery say, though, that an amount of high—value jewellery was taken, and that has been reported to be worth £50 million. now it is also reported that the burglars got in through the back of the property. i have to say there is very high security on the street, this street is known as billionaires were, one of the most exclusive addresses in the country —— billionaire's rower. it is

reported three thieves got in round the back of the property and managed to find a safe —— safe where this jewellery was apparently stashed. to find a safe —— safe where this jewellery was apparently stashedm it right she tweeted she was going on holiday? she put it out on instagram, a photo of her daughter boarding a private jet last week. they were going away for the christmas holiday so it would be known that the house was certainly empty of the family, although there we re empty of the family, although there were apparently security guards in the building, who eventually interrupted these intruders, but it is pretty astonishing really. when you look at the security on the street, behind you have the israeli embassy, several embassies, armed police at the bottom of the road, it isa police at the bottom of the road, it is a private road, you can'tjust walk up and down it, —— drive up and down it, she would have had personal security in that house, given there are so much of value in there. the police say at the moment they are treating this i think as an isolated

incident, but they are beginning to see whether they have been any similar burglaries in this neighbourhood. they said they were looking into it, the police. at the moment i say no arrests and the family say they are asking their own security staff to work closely with the police. will have the business news in a moment propose the headlines on afternoon live. more than a hundred new conservative mps arrive in westminster as borisjohson begins working towards delivering on his election promises. northern ireland's political parties resume talks aimed at restoring power sharing at stormont. a minute's silence in new zealand a week after the volcano that left at least 16 people dead and around 20 in a critical condition. here's your business

headlines on afternoon live. waterfirms in england and wales are facing the toughest profit crackdown in 30 years. the regulator wants them to cut the average bill by £50 by 2025. ofwat is also forcing firms to invest millions of pounds to improve their performance. this is all part of a plan by the regulator to transform the water industry. hundreds of sub—postmasters have won a keyjudgment against the post office and its horizon it system in the high court. thejudge said horizon was not remotely robust. the sub—postmasters blame the system for creating big shortfalls in their accounts. many were made bankrupt and others prosecuted and sent to prison. the post office admitted defeat last week and agreed to pay £58m to settle claims. today 5 highly complicated of campaigning by those affected. sports direct has reported a rise in half year profits. its boss, mike ashley, said he had seen green shoots of recovery at house of fraser — but still plans to close some stores in 2020. sports direct bought the department store chain last year out of administration. since then seven house of frasers stores have closed down.

let's look at sports direct in more detail. our business correspondent emma simpson has been talking to the group's chief financial officer, chris wootton. just a few months back, the predictions for house of fraser by his boss, mike ashley, were in his words "terminal" — so why do they now believe there are green shoots of recovery? i'm going to use my analogy on this one, so if we talk about a football team, so we have integrated, albeit integrated house of fraser into the sports or phrase a's integrated house of fraser into the sports or phrase as group machine, and before we took it on, it was everything not nailed down had been outsourced, the it, logistics, warehouse, everything it was totally unsustainable, we have brought it in—house, we have sorted out the goalkeeper, sorted out the defence in the next thing we will do is build on the midfield and the attack. interesting analogy there. grace bowden is head of content for retail week.

shejoins us now. thank you she joins us now. thank you for being on afternoon live. they talked there about green shoots. is that really the reality at sports direct and at house of fraser in particular? i am not going to pretend i massively understood the analogy there, because i am not a big football watcher but it seems like it is a bit of the business they definitely see potential in. whether they see potential in there being a massive revival in house of fraser is a massive household name specifically as may be another question they don't want to be drawn on today. they see potential in phrases as a potential offshoot, which they use for their —— they use fraser's. it sounds like it is a division of the business they have plans for a cross premium lifestyle overall, which includes flannels, sales are up 79%. what this bit is between house of fraser and flannels is not clear and they haven't ruled out store closures but i don't think it isa

out store closures but i don't think it is a case of it being a business that was described as terminal six months ago. it sounds like they see potential in some ways. mr ashley also got quite political, but he has got political over business rates, is that right? one thing he said today around business rates, that was his real bugbear today, was that essentially stores that are not profitable when sports direct isn't paying rent on them, which is the case for several house of fraser stores, a number he wouldn't be drawn on specifically, he basically said that wasn't sustainable and they would be exiting those stores in months, not years, if they didn't see serious reform for the government, and he did call on boris, who he said if you can move quickly on things you have done since she won the election why not move quickly on rates, which has been an industry bugbear for a move quickly on rates, which has been an industry bugbearfor a long time, so nothing real new, but a call for action from mike ashley forced a one thing mike ashley has a reputation for is buying things on the high street that looked like they are good value, cheap, maybe even going down in terms of sales.

did he give any hints about whether he will be looking out for more acquisitions? he wouldn't be drawn specifically on that and he certainly didn't rule out more acquisitions. he said a premium lifestyle, that division of the business he has not seen growth of that rate since the 805, with the explo5ion that rate since the 805, with the explosion of sportswear that he is now seeing in premium lifestyles, so anything you can buy that will bol5ter anything you can buy that will bolster the growth in that segment of the business, he's up for it, whether that means he gets it for a song or otherwise. but he wasn't drawn specifically on having specific acquisitions in mind, bar a joke about buying harrods, which i assume was a joke, but you never know with mike ashley! you never know. thank you very much indeed. a quick look at the markets. the ftse 100 going pretty well. coming up to 396 100 going pretty well. coming up to 3% now. one of the water company is doing a lot better, seven macro trend. the ruling by ofwat, they we re trend. the ruling by ofwat, they were expecting worse. sports direct,

very happy with those profit numbers. silly world, there shares are up, even though they are going to thank you very much. conservative's gareth bacon was elected as mp for orpington for the first time — beating out labour's simonjeal. hejoins me now. welcome. thank you for that mp, have you got used to that after your name yet? not at all. i have seen it written down, heard it said, i'm not used to that at all. give me a sense of what it is like to walk into a building, you have been on the gla, the greater london assembly for a long time, but to walk into the building asa long time, but to walk into the building as a mp, what is that like? hard to put into words. it is quite daunting really, you can feel the history all around the place, i have beenin history all around the place, i have been in there many times, but as a guest, and the first time i can walk in and walk through doors with members only on them, it is a real honour. i'm not used to it yet.

somebody said to me the other day that fairly soon this will be just our place of work. i think it's going to take some time before it feels like that. now you have had 72 hours or so for it to sink in, are you in any doubt as to why there was such a thumping majority for the conservatives this time? yes, i think the grip get brexit done message really struck a chord up and down the country. out of frustration? partly. we had a referendum in 2016, people were told they would be listened to and their verdict would be carried out and it was clear in the last few months parliament were stuffing that from happening, and i think boris's message really struck home with a lot of people, people just want to get on with it and move on and start talking about other things. brexit is not the be all and end all for everybody, they want to start talking about the nhs, policing and crime, particularly here in london, and getting brexit done means we can do that. a majority of 80 would

suggest whatever boris johnson wants to do, he can get it done. is there a sense in particularly the new group of conservative mps, it is not a foregone conclusion? we all stood up a foregone conclusion? we all stood up to what we stood on. we are very loyal to the party leader that got us into power. you said as you would expect, i have not seen loyalty from mps to their leaders for many years here so this is a new concept for a lot of us. you feel that will play out? it is a very new parliament full stop we have 109 new conservative mps, so one third of the conservative parliamentary party is brand—new, and all of them have stood on the manifesto that boris johnson has put forward. i think he has an awful lot of credit in the bank. and what are the issues, other than brexit, you think boris johnson, your party, you are mp for orpington, an issue here is crime,

and asa orpington, an issue here is crime, and as a gla member, you still are, you know about, but what are the issues you think borisjohnson will tackle rather than brexit? we need to get the nhs working a bit better people, money on its own is not the answer, making sure it is spent properly is the answer. retaining nursing staff as well as increasing their numbers is very important, education of course, everyone with children cares about education and the 14 billion going on over the next few years will go a long way towards that but also national infrastructure is very important. we need to make sure we get that right. as we move into the post—brexit world, it is vitally important we get ourselves up as much as possible so we can make our economy function well for everybody. you talk about the post—brexit world but it will dominate our lives for many years yet because we are only entering the first stage with the trade negotiations. in terms of the new members, you will be the first, well, you would be the last new person here serving while we are in the eu, in effect. what would be

your favourite timetable? do you think it will be that the trade negotiations will be done in the year, we will be out by january 31? it is very clear it has to be done by the end of this year. we will leave the eu at the end of january, the free trade agreement is due to be agreed by the end of next calendar year. they normally take four to five years. you are convinced it can be done? we are starting at a point of convergence to the european union, we are not an unknown quantity to the european union and it is in their interest as well as hours to get it sorted out. they are the priority, because there isa they are the priority, because there is a suspicion that it is the united states who are the priority and it will change our relationship... that is an opinion put around by our opponents. the european union is just over the water. so of course they are our closest trading partner, they are a priority, probably the priority, but we do most of our trade outside of the european union and we would be very

foolish indeed if wejust european union and we would be very foolish indeed if we just put all of our eggs just foolish indeed if we just put all of our eggsjust into foolish indeed if we just put all of our eggs just into the european union's basket. the great thing about the deal boris has negotiated is that we can at the same time start to negotiate free trade agreements with other countries as well. i wish you good luck in your newjob. is it a bit like first day at school? very much so, none of us have offices, we have lockers. we have offices, we have lockers. we have new stuff in rucksacks that we are carrying around just like new children in school, and no one knows where they are going so it is very much being like in school.” where they are going so it is very much being like in school. i hope you find your way around for your swear in. thank you. a minute's silence has been held in new zealand to mark one week since the deadly eruption of white island volcano. the prime ministerjacinda ardern led the silence, standing alongside her ministers in wellington's parliament building. the tribute was held at 11 minutes past two, the exact moment the eruption happened. 16 deaths have been confirmed, while two bodies are still missing — believed to be in the water

off the island. time for a look at the weather now, and the forecast from darren bett. the weather pattern, the weather picture is set to change significantly over the week ahead. it isa significantly over the week ahead. it is a cold start to the week. there will be some more frost around at night, but as we head through the week, temperatures will rise day and night but that is mainly because it will wetter and windier once again. now at the moment, many parts of the country are still dry. we have a lot of showers around that lower area pressure, the weather front flirting with the south—east corner of england, already throwing up a lot of cloud across england and wales, hence earlier on the sunshine was limited and hazy. the rain not far from the south—east of england, still some wintry showers coming to the high ground of scotland and these are the temperatures towards these are the temperatures towards the early evening. for many of us, a chilly four or 5 degrees. through the evening and overnight, more of the evening and overnight, more of the thick cloud coming into the

south—east of england and east anglia, that will bring some rain. showers will push away from northern ireland, continuing to scotland and again wintry over the highest ground. there will be a touch of frost or the way from wales, northern england, northwards, there may be some patches of fog across northern england, southern scotland and particularly northern ireland. there is not much to live that in actual fact there is not much to live that in actualfact and there is not much to live that in actual fact and some parts of northern ireland in particular may stay grey and murky all day. some sunshine across many parts of the country, the showers fewer in scotla nd country, the showers fewer in scotland and the rain across east anglia and the south—east tend to peter out through the day but stays quite cloudy for stop here temperatures could get to seven or 8 degrees, elsewhere five or six i think we'll be nearer the mark and colder weather, mist and fog, persists. a ridge of high pressure between the high pressure between high—pressure systems as we move into wednesday, some milder air coming in but a thrust widely on wednesday morning, maybe a bit more mist and fog through parts of england and the midlands, it should clear more readily because the breeze will tend to strengthen and we will see the first signs of that milderaircoming in, we will see the first signs of that milder air coming in, together with some cloud and rain for northern

ireland, the western fringes of the uk. the way from here, still the cold air remains across much of eastern england and into eastern scotland. we get the milder air here eventually is that weather front pushes the cloud and rain northwards and eastwards and strengthens the win. gales for a time during wednesday evening through the irish sea, more areas of low pressure spinning in from the atlantic and keeping it unsettled through thursday and friday. showers or longer spells of rain to stop windy at times but at least it will be mild, day and night.

hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy in westminster, where the prime minister is preparing his legislative agenda for the coming parliament. new mp5 have been arriving in london, many from traditional labour seats that swung to the tories last week. it is quite surreal and i think the last time we remember these sort of things, it's the first day at big school isn't it? and here we go. we'll take a look at the challenges ahead for borisjohnson and who he might face in opposition. coming up on afternoon live all the sport with chitan. manchester all the sport with chitan. city have found out who they manchester city have found out who they will face in the last 16 of the champions league. it is the 13—time winners, real madrid. the full draw coming up. looking at the weather for us is darren. it is a cold start

to the week, there could be some frost and fog overnight. eventually it will turn milder, wetter and windier. there is more to it than that and you canjoin me later for all the details. i've got no choice, see you later! also coming up: postmasters who claim their lives were ruined by a flawed computer system have won a significant high court victory. hello everyone, this is afternoon live, i'm simon mccoy. boris johnson is preparing to address his new mps — who have been arriving in westminster before they go to the house of commons tomorrow. some of the 109 new tory mps are from labour strongholds which had never voted conservative before. later this week the government will set out its plans in the queens speech.

it's then expected to try to pass crucial brexit legislation on friday. meanwhile the fallout from labour's defeat continues with party officials saying they are expected to meet early in the new year to agree the timetable for replacing jeremy corbyn as leader. our political correspondent helen catt reports. on their way to westminster — tory mps still over the moon at having turned the red seats blue. bye! thank you! it's the start of a newjourney for them and possibly for the conservative party too. the arrival of so many mps representing new seats could change the government's focus. it's already swelled its ranks, bringing its majority to 80. it's like it's actually happening, let's get things done. so yeah, mega excited. it's a lot of pressure, it's a bit daunting, but i think we're alljust really excited to get in there and just get started. it's quite surreal and you know, i think the last time you remember these

sort of things, it's first day at big school, isn't it? and here we go. the new mps will get help, but not much time to settle in. tomorrow, they will be formally sworn in, then on thursday there will be a queen's speech, setting out the government's plans for the next year and by friday they will be debating major policies, as its expected the eu withdrawal agreement bill will be reintroduced. you've a prime minister who has a very big mandate from the british public, we have a majority in parliament, which enables him to get things done. that message i'm sure will not have been lost on our european friends and partners, they can see that there is a stable government now in the uk at long last, with a very big mandate, with the public behind the prime minister and i would expect european leaders now to want to work productively with the prime minister and the negotiating team that he will assemble. the government wants to be seen to be acting swiftly and decisively on brexit, but it's also keen to show that it listened to what voters told it last thursday, particularly those who lent the conservatives their vote.

that means acting on areas like the nhs so thursday's queen's speech will include a commitment to upping its annual budget by tens of billions of pounds over the parliament and enshrining that in law. hi, morning. for some more familiar conservative faces, it's already back to work. including some who were notably absent during the campaign. the election wasn't about me, it was a choice between the prime minister and jeremy corbyn and the country made their choice and a wonderful choice they have made. in downing street, the chancellor was certainly sounding confident. welcome to the people's government. this afternoon will add some more faces to it as empty places in the cabinet are filled. our political correspondent, jonathan blake joins me now. we we re we were saying an hour ago we were awaiting a possible mini—reshuffle. that was a mistake. there is no news. but we expect to hear about

some new appointments, filling the gaps left by the departure of nicky morgan and alun cairns and also the environment minister, zac goldsmith, who lost his seat. details to come as to who will fill those jobs. a relatively small scale shuffling of the chairs and probably a fuller reshuffle in the new year when we will get more of an idea of the make up will get more of an idea of the make up of the government. anyone who thought the election would herald a break in politics, they're in for a shock. yes, they want to be seen to be hitting the ground running. when mps have been sworn in, they will hold a queen's speech and the queen will come to parliament and read out the legislative programme for the five—year parliamentary term. at the centre will be the withdrawal agreement bill, the legislation that

enacts boris johnson's deal agreement bill, the legislation that enacts borisjohnson's deal into law and confirms we will leave the eu on 3 #1s and confirms we will leave the eu on 3 #15 january and there will be —— 315t 3 #15 january and there will be —— 31st january and there will be extra funding for the nhs and many other pieces of legislation besides and then on friday we expect the withdrawal agreement itself to be put before mps, when they will vote on itand put before mps, when they will vote on it and debate it for the fist time. now the labour party, because what rifts there were have appeared to be widening, you have two former labourmps, one to be widening, you have two former labour mps, one threaten the other with legal action. one said it is better than rebecca va rdy with legal action. one said it is better than rebecca vardy against coueen better than rebecca vardy against colleen rooney. it is playing out in public after that crushing defeat. you have got acrimony from all sides over what or who is to blame and to what extentjeremy corbyn and those around him have accepted enough of

that responsibility, i spoke to one of the likely leadership contenders who said it felt very lonely coming down from their constituency on the train to london and there is a debate going on about whether the factions in the labour party and the working class heartlands of the north so, many of which fell to the conservatives and the new younger support base that jeremy conservatives and the new younger support base thatjeremy corbyn had can be united in the future and you have the row between emily thornberry and caroline flint about what one did or didn't say and emily thornberry may well take legal action against her former colleague. caroline flint was told by somebody else that i had spoken to somebody else. that person, unknown. and when, unknown. and where, unknown. and she still won't, you know, tell us. that people were supposed to be "stupid. " i would never even think that, let alone say it, it's a complete lie! so, i've said to caroline, "come on,

caroline, this isn't true, "you know, withdraw it, and i'll give you until the end of the day." and she refuses to, so i have to go through all the hassle of instructing solicitors, and that's all we're doing — we are having to take legal action. toys the and prams spring to mind, but there is a problem here, because jeremy corbyn is going to stay as leader until when? well until the new one is put in place. because don't forget there is no deputy leader, tom watson having quit that post at the start of the election campaign. so there is no obvious person to take over as interim leader. and so as far as things stand, the contest looks likely to start around the 7th january, and then will play out for around 12 weeks. so we are looking at the end of march and possibly the start of april at the moment in terms of when there will be a new leader in charge

and it seems as things stand that jeremy corbyn will stay in post throughout. you could have some very strange sounding and looking prime minister's questions sessions in the house of commons, wherejeremy corbyn is you know a lame duck leader and facing questions from the prime minister and putting questions rather to the prime minister, still in that post. this is my first day back since the election, there is not one flag. no one has shouted at me. strange isn't it. i haven't heard the word "top brexit" has the remain argument died? whether it has died or whether it will have to stay quiet for a significant period i think is the question, as boris johnson himself acknowledged when he spoke outside downing street after his election win, there are many people who still want the uk to be a pa rt people who still want the uk to be a part of the eu and the fact is now if you're someone in parliament, if

you're an mp who believes that, you look across the chamber at that whopping majority boris johnson look across the chamber at that whopping majority borisjohnson has and you have to think any hope of having a further referendum or reversing the result of the vote to leave is all but lost certainly for the lifetime of this parliament and this government. thank you. if there is any news on the reshuffle you will be back. i'll call you. well, come back! one of borisjohnson's main priorities as prime minister will be negotiating our future relationship with the eu after brexit — including a trade deal. earlier i was joined by our reality check correspondent chris morris, who told me what the borisjohnson will be trying to achieve on a trade deal well, trade deals with all sort of people, including the united states, but i think first and foremost the new trade deal with the eu, our largest trading partner, and he said he is going to do that by 31st december 2020, the end of next year. that is a very, very tight time table for any trade deal. the reason it is that tight is he's guaranteed there will be no extension

to the transition period after brexit, when all the rules and regulations stay and same and for that 11—month period, the uk will remain part of the the single market and the customs union. what kind of deal could be done? i think we are going to hear a lot about zero tariffs, zero quotas deal, which sounds great, is good, but it's not what many companies trading with europe at the moment enjoy in terms of completely frictionless deals, there are still checks those companies would have to deal with under a zero tariffs, zero quotas deal. the other thing is when you talk about tariffs and quotas, you're talking about goods, not services and services are a large part of british economy. so there is a lot to be done in a very short time. and it is notjust about getting a deal, you've got to ratify it as well? ratification is important and does take time. it is not something that gets done in a couple of days. there are two levels though. ratification can be done in a few months if you have a fairly

simple agreement. now of course the prime minister says he wants something ambitious, but if it becomes too ambitious, it becomes what is called a mixed agreement and when you have a mixed agreement, which means that deal with notjust the competence of the eu on things like customs, but also impinges on national sovereignty, issues that national governments deal with, then you need a deal ratified by parliaments all across the eu. 27 other countries. national and sometimes regional parliaments. i don't think that's possible in the time frame next year, so we are looking at more simple agreement, which is a possibility, still difficult and then there will have to be further negotiation in the future. i'm joined by former leader of the liberal democrats tim farron, who has just be re—elected as the mp for westmorland and lonsdale. congratulations on that. how did you feel when you saw congratulations on that. how did you feel when you sano swinson lose her seat? utterly gutted. i know her very well. she is an incredibly

decent person and anyone who saw her, her speech, her decent person and anyone who saw her, herspeech, her concession speech couldn't be anything other than moved by the quality of it and the dignity of it. but that was a huge blow for the party and for her and for all of us who believed that the united kingdom is better together, rather than with scotland separated. the stop brexit message is still party policy? certainly from the 19505 the liberals have thought the united kingdom is better off in europe. you accept we are now going to be leaving? yes unless something bizarre happens and boris johnson has misled people before, perhaps we are going to leave in the eu. i expect us to leave. i also think that will be an important emotional water shed, whether we like it or not. i think at that point people will perhaps put aside the emotion for a moment and start looking at the logic of what happens next and when people talk of the

consequences of external tariffs, if we don't have a deal within 11 months, people will look at that at face value and what does it plean mean forfarmers. face value and what does it plean mean for farmers. if you have a liberal democrat christmas party for mps this year, you almost get them ina taxi. mps this year, you almost get them in a taxi. two taxis, come on! it has not gone well. no. was it the stop brexit message?” has not gone well. no. was it the stop brexit message? i think on reflection there was all sorts of things we didn't do well. we had a wonderful moment in the summer over the local and european elections. i think the clarity of our position was there for all to see. i suspect that we overegged the pudding in that we overegged the pudding in that message. i felt it was right to say the people should have the final say the people should have the final say ina say the people should have the final say in a referendum. i think maybe we made the error of looking at the european elections and thinking that would translate into a general election. one key difference is we

don't have proportional representation and we need to be able to dig in in several seats to have a platform at westminster. but you know you live and learn. you are where you are, you have as a party a huge mountain now and you don't have a leader. would you take thatjob back? the simple answer is no. that is firm. a definite no. but i'm very keen to play a role in seeking to rebuild and inspire the party and to make sure that we have a place in british politics which is fundamental and unique as the party that takes the climate emergency seriously and that wants to have a logic and reasonable approach to our relationship with europe and to a response to how we work with other parties. i think our, and response to how we work with other parties. ithink our, and ed davies i acting leader and he will do a wonderfuljob. but it is important for britain that labour choose the

right person. if they pick a moderate leader there is a chance that the the 2024 general election could end very differently to one just now. the tories won, because the opposition was appalling and anyone can win when your opposition is appalling. we are perhaps overstating the success ofjohnson and cummings. anybody can beat a rubbish opposition and he beat a rubbish opposition and he beat a rubbish opposition. our job rubbish opposition and he beat a rubbish opposition. ourjob is to perhaps work with other opposition parties to make sure the opposition next time isn't rubbish. is there someone who you would like to see as leader of liberal democrats. i'm sure there is and one of the things about being a former leader i can say i'm going to be neutral, because i want to be a support who whoever becomes leader. is this the moment for the liberal democrats to take stock and re—evaluate what the next target will be. you mentioned

climate change, is that the issue. we always have been, long before the environment. stop brexit whuz your issue. we node the reflect and not make knee jerk decisions. issue. we node the reflect and not make kneejerk decisions. but however seriously i think leaving the eu is, it is nowhere near as dangerous as the climate change emergency. that is annishure issue that we will take action on. we have a government who can lead, is that something that you can welcome, that the years of, well, us from frustration understates it by a mile that, we have all felt in is in place, over one particular issue, is this the moment where other things can be done, whoever is leading. well the queen's speech will not just be four or five sound bites and no doubt the prime minister will seek to get a programme before the house and get it passed and i'm sure

there are advantages people will be able to see from this government having a majority. but ijust want to maybe slight be devil's parliament and argue the case for the last parliament being better than people think. what did it achieve? -- what did it achieve. it didn't roll over and let the executive do stupid things and every parliament i have been a member of a has done that. the government comes up has done that. the government comes up with a daft idea and the government majority nods it through. hang on, the country said we would rather they got on with it. of course, i'm not denying that. but this assumption the last parliament was a shambles, maybe the last parliament what was holding back the government from doing something that was foolish and a good legislature holds the executive to account and it did. but you have been knocking

on doorfor the last it did. but you have been knocking on door for the last couple of months, you have heard people say let's just get on with this and they will looking at this building and saying this is where the frustration is shown. i accept that and i understand one reason borisjohnson won't is because people felt like that. i am saying another argument is worth saying the last parliament could have rolled over for is worth saying the last parliament could have rolled overfor that is worth saying the last parliament could have rolled over for that deal thatis could have rolled over for that deal that is damaging for the union and the farmers and it was right for parliament to act like a parliament and not a lap dog. thank you. fresh talks are underway in belfast to try to restore devolved government in northern ireland, where the main unionist and republican parties are under pressure to work together again. the northern ireland secretary julian smith told reporters that the biggest concern for voters during the election was the need to restore power sharing. i think there was some interesting

results in northern ireland. the sense that i get today is that every party has had time to reflect and some serious issues to reflect upon and the biggest message they got on the doorstep potentially wasn't about brexit or their own party's individual policies, but the fact that this executive and assembly has remained dormant for a thousand days and i think my sense from everybody is there was a sort of realisation that is not a sustainable position. the good friday agreement was something that everybody worked very hard on and this symbol, this empty symbol at the top of this hill cannot go on any longer. we have to govern and we have to get our northern ireland parties governing in the best interest of northern ireland citizens. the dup leader said the failure to restore powersharing in northern ireland shamed the region's politicians. but arlene foster said initial talks with the northern ireland secretary had been positive. well we had a very good engagement

with the secretary of state. obviously, we have a range of issues that we want to see resolved, not least to be back in government to deal with the health issue and the fact there is an injection of money needed to deal with the immediate issues and to recommit to the transformation programme that was set out by the last executive. so dealing with health and education reforms and having enough funding for that sector and driving forward the economy in northern ireland, all of those issues were discussed. our ireland correspondent chris page said there appears to be a greater chance that talks will succeed this time, because of the frustration expressed by voters last week. well, it's almost three years since the devolved government here at stormont collapsed. it was made up of the unionist party and sinn fein, since then northern ireland has been in this kind of administrative limbo, there's been no ministers to make decisions, therefore there's been real pressure on the public services, the nhs in particular,

hospital waiting lists have been spiralling, they're now the longest in the uk, health workers are taking industrial action over pay too. so in the last few weeks you have had hundreds of out—patient appointments cancelled. so all that is bringing a certain pressure to bear on the main political parties. added into that you had general election results last week which sent a certain signal, i think, to the dup and sinn fein, certainly could be read in that sense, both parties lost a few percentage points in their vote share. the dup lost two of their 10 mp5. sinn fein retained their number of mps. they won seven seats as they did last time. however they still lost a significant number of votes. so all the parties are acknowledging that on the doorsteps during the campaign they were taking heat from voters, people complaining that enough was enough, they had to get back into government at stormont. so there is a sense that perhaps the mood has changed, there's an tipping point,

there has been a kind of shift both from the public and political perspectives. these talks do have a slightly better chance of succeeding than the previous rounds of negotiations, but given that outstanding issue still remain very difficult issues, for example the legal status of irish language, which has been a sticking point between the parties, there's certainly a lot of difficult talking to be done. that was chris page in stormont. on friday, borisjohnson that was chris page in stormont. on friday, boris johnson is that was chris page in stormont. on friday, borisjohnson is expected to get the withdrawal agreement bill brought to the house of commons. so hitting the road running. charles grant is the director for the centre for european reform — a pro—eu think tank. hejoins me now. i'm just wondering why there is this pressure with the majority he has got and the transition talks scheduled to start in the new year,

why that can't be extended? well, borisjohnson has said he won't extend the transition and he has to ta ke extend the transition and he has to take that decision by the end of this coming june, because he wants to get brexit sorted out as quickly as possible. the view in brussels is he may well seek an extension, because if he doesn't he may be in trunl. he says —— in trouble. he says he want a quick, zero tariffs, zero quota deal, that is probably just about possible if he accepts the eu's terms, and accept all the provisions they ask to align with eu rules on social policy. but boris johnson said he doesn't want to and there is a risk it will take much longer and it could have britain leaving without a deal. essentially, borisjohnson will be pushed in two directions. he has his own right—wing putting pressure on him not tie line. with a majority of 80,

will he worry too much. that is the question. they will say don't align and don't extend the transition but the business community will say you have to do both. can he betray the erg like he betrayed the dup. you haven't mentioned the united states, which is where many people think he wa nts to which is where many people think he wants to sort out a big trade deal. but of course in negotiating with them, he that creates a problem with them, he that creates a problem with the negotiations with the eu? most other partners, including the us trade negotiators said we don't want to do trade negotiators said we don't want todoa trade negotiators said we don't want to do a deal with the uk until we know what is happening with the eu. if britain aligns with eu rules on animal health and farming, so exporters can get their produce into europe and then we're less

interesting for the us. that is the chlorinated chicken issue? y, yes and then the us may not want a trade agreement. deals usually take four to five years, that is what we should be looking at? yes, because iti should be looking at? yes, because it i not just should be looking at? yes, because it i notjust trade, it is research, university funding, security, aviation, fishing, a raft of agreements that have to be negotiated. if you go for a simple trade dealfirst, you could do it quickly, but only if we follow eu rules on social, environmental and consumer right and tax. which boris johnson said he doesn't do. i have heard one cabinet member say we will, because the economic costs would be too great. even a ca nada—style deal is would be too great. even a canada—style deal is a hard deal. the canada deal gave nothing for service industries and still created

a lot of friction for trade, because we will beout outside the single market. and things like the car industry and chemicals would take a serious hit from such an agreement. thank you. postmasters who claim their lives were ruined by a flawed computer system have won a significant high court victory. problems with the horizon system led to some of them being convicted and jailed forfraud and false accounting. thejudge ruled the horizon system wasn't robust — opening the way for the postmasters to overturn their convictions. last week, the post office said it would pay almost £58 million to some of those affected by the it problems. with me now is our business correspondent ramzan karmali. this is a huge deal? yes and it is a very complicated judgment made by justicejudge fraser. all very complicated judgment made by justice judge fraser. all 400 very complicated judgment made by justicejudge fraser. all 400 pages. it is down to the it system,

horizon, that made a lot of discrepancies in the accounts. there we re discrepancies in the accounts. there were lots of short falls shown in hundreds of account. in the end the £58 million that we talk about is to cover 557 claimants. many went bankrupt, lost their homes, went to prison. some have been seeking justice for over 20 years on this case. so it is a complicated and quite a sad tale for many people. now the criminal cases review commission is looking into who the convictions were actually a mischarj of justice. convictions were actually a mischarj ofjustice. —— convictions were actually a mischarj of justice. —— miscarriage convictions were actually a mischarj ofjustice. —— miscarriage of justice. thank you. i want to talk about this further. with me now is lord arbuthnot, the former defence minister — who took up the case against the post office for the post workers. you must be pleased with the decision. yes, but it is the second decision. yes, but it is the second decision on which they have won all counts. we have heard some of the

hardship it has caused, including people going to prison? yes, people have pleaded guilty to cases on the basis of imperfect or misleading evidence. some have been convicted on the basis of that evidence. people have been made bankrupt. people have been made bankrupt. people who have lost their houses and have been living in cars and people have had divorces, their families have broken up. there has been talk maybe of suicides. it has been talk maybe of suicides. it has been absolutely devastating for these sub postmasters. where does these sub postmasters. where does the buck stop with this? in the end it has to stop with the government, because the government owns the shares of the post office. but it also has to stop with the board and the senior management of the post office which has been trying to defend the indefensible for far too long and trying, it seems trying to grind the faces of these sub postma

sters. the fact they entered into a settle m e nt sters. the fact they entered into a settlement and offered an apology and £36 million in compensation is the start. how should it finish. should they all go? i called last week for the entire board and the signior senior management of post office to go. but we have to work out how it ever happened that we, the taxpayers were funding the post office to the tune of tens of millions of pounds of legal fees to defend the indefensible and attack these sub postmasters who it has been found have been vindicated. this is the high court and there is the option of a further appeal. is that something that you think is likely? i very much doubt if the post office will appeal against this particular verdict, it is the first of four different trials, maybe

more, sorry the second of four different trial maybe more they have lost on every single point until now. so they would lose again. what i think needs to happen now is a public inquiry. there will be more that comes out of this. because some of the people who have gone to jail or been convicted or pleaded guilty, they need to have their cases overturned by the criminal cases review commission, so there is plenty more to be done and this also the referral of the papers to the director of public prosecution on the basis of evidence that was give than was untrue. if i had gone to prison for this, i would be angry andi prison for this, i would be angry and i would want somebody to blame. what do you blame? i” and i would want somebody to blame. what do you blame? i i blame the chief executives of the post office. they took the decisions. the government in a sense stood back from it, because they wanted the

post office to be run on commercial lines and they left the commercial decisions to them. but some of these decisions to them. but some of these decisions have been utterly unacceptable and so i blame particularly the former chief executive of the post office. the current chief executive, who has only been in position since september has been doing his best to sort it out from what i can see. but it has become almost unsortable outable. thank you. let's look at the weather with darren bett. set to get milder, wet and windy earth, later this week, but still quite cold, many places dry but if few showers were northern ireland, wintry over the hills in northern england. towards the south—east corner we have the thick cloud bringing some rain, and that will push its way into south—east england and east anglia overnight.

showers move away from northern ireland, continue that wintry mix in scotland, some icy patches too, may bea scotland, some icy patches too, may be a touch of frost here, northern ireland, northern england and wales and may be some patches of mist and fog, which could be rather slow to list —— microtel live tomorrow especially in northern ireland. outside of that mist and some shower to come, and much of that rain and drizzle across east anglia and the south—east will tend to peter out but it stays quite cloudy and rather grey. seven or 8 degrees here, elsewhere typically five or six celsius. that change in weather type comes late in the week as we push away that cold, frosty air, bringing in some milder air, strong winds and some rain from the atlantic. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. new mp5 are travelling to london, many from traditional labour seats that swung to the tories last week. its surreal, and i think the last time you remember the sort of thing

is, its first day at big school, isn't it? and here we go. labour frontbench mp emily thornberry has launched legal action against former colleague caroline flint over claims she called voters "stupid". northern ireland's political parties resume talks aimed at restoring power sharing at stormont. postmasters who claim their lives were ruined by a flawed computer system have won a significant high court victory. sport now on afternoon live. we have had the draws for the champions league, the europa league and there are some good ties there. there are. both drawers were held in nyon, switzerland earlier, all four english sides through to the knockout stages of the champions league of course, and manchester city desperate to win this trophy more than any other now, the only one pep guardiola hasn't won at city, and they have been knocked out by totte n ha m city, and they have been knocked out by tottenham and liverpool in the

last couple of seasons, they have now been drawn to play the 13 time winners, real madrid, and city will be at home for the return leg. this is the full draw for the last 16. the holders liverpool have the other madrid side, atletico, tricky opponent too but they will play the first leg in the same stadium where they won last season's final, before bringing atletico back to anfield. chelsea will take on bayern munich, a repeat of the 2012 champions league final, which chelsea won. last season's beaten finalist, totte n ha m , last season's beaten finalist, tottenham, with two—time winnerjose mourinho now in charge, they will face the german side rb leipzig. five british teams through to the last 32 of the europa league. manchester united won it a couple of yea rs manchester united won it a couple of years ago, they will face no german side bruges. wolves take on a spaniel, celtic taken care be naked while rangers face braga. last yea r‘s while rangers face braga. last year's beaten finalist arsenal have been drawn against greek club olympiacos. those ties in both opticians will be played from the

middle of february, the full details of both drawers on the bbc sport website. arsenal have held talks with theirformer website. arsenal have held talks with their former player and manchester city assistant coach mikel arteta as they look to name a new permanent manager, following the sacking of unai emery. officials from arsenal were pictured leaving out as house in the early hours of this morning. he is one of the favourites to take over from freddie ljungberg, who is in caretaker charge. it is not yet known, though, if arteta has been formally offered thejob, and if arteta has been formally offered the job, and pep if arteta has been formally offered thejob, and pep guardiola has said all along he won't stop arteta if he decides to leave. viewers will might remember the former wales coach rob howley when he was sent home from the rugby world cup for breaching betting regulations and we have heard more about that today. he was sent home from japan just six days before wales's opening win against georgia. the 49—year—old who you will see here now with head coach warren gatland. he had been part of his backroom team since the start of

2008. he is there in the red. a welsh rugby union panel found he placed 363 bets on rugby union, facing 1100 matches in total. he admitted placing bets on 24 connected events, which were games specifically involving wales or welsh players. a couple of those bets were on players, including on who would be the first try scorer in wales matches. one game being the grand slam win over ireland and cardiff in march this year. howley said neither player had any knowledge of the bets, and those players involved told the investigation the same thing. over the five year period that was investigated, the wru panel says it is satisfied howley made no financial gains and lost £4000 in total. the panel went on to say it seemed a triggerfor the total. the panel went on to say it seemed a trigger for the betting was afamily seemed a trigger for the betting was a family tragedy involving the death of rob howley‘s sister. howley says he has not placed any bets since september of this year and is confident the help of a psychologist will stop him from betting again. he has been banned from rugby for 18

months, with nine suspended. it is backdated so he will be able to return to rugby injune. and one more line to bring you. world football's governing body fifa has launched legal action against its former president sepp blatter and the former vice president michel platini for the return of £1.5 million paid to platini in 2011, which led to long bans from football for both men. it was confirmed in court. there was no basis for blatter to pay platini at of fifa money was earlier this month the governing committee unanimously ruled the funds should be repaid. blatter and platini both deny any wrongdoing. that is all your support. jane dougall will have more for you in the next hour. back to you, simon. 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.

rogerjohnson is in salford this afternoon, talking about what residents in the north west want from borisjohnson and in birmingham it's ‘all change' as mary rhodes tells us about the new timetabling on the railways in the midlands — back there in just a moment. but first to roger. a number of labour seats were won by the conservatives in this election. in the campaign, the prime minister made some promises to people living in the north west — what will they be expecting from his government? well, they will expect him to keep his word, simon, quite simply. all sorts of promises were made that apply to the north—west but across the country, numbers of police on the country, numbers of police on the streets, the investment in the nhs which are as important here as they are anywhere. specifically pertaining to the north—west, things like transport infrastructure that they want to see improved in this pa rt they want to see improved in this part of the world. there have been issues on the train is just today, again, and introduction of a new timetable, which has brought about

yet more misery if her already hard pressed and extremely frustrated to train passengers in the north—west. jake berry, the northern powerhouse minister, confirmed to me that he will be keeping that role, that post will be keeping that role, that post will stay and that northern powerhouse rail, which is an upgrade of all the east—west connectivity on the trains in the north of england, will go ahead. he confirmed that would all be done. but they have got places like in the north—west, like like leads, that have never had —— leeds, that have never had a conservative mp in leeds. that was a lots of conservative mps —— in leigh. i spoke to jake berry and he said they expect the voters in this pa rt said they expect the voters in this part of the world will hold their feet to the fire and expect them to deliver on what has been promised. they're the people who have lent us their boat want to see we are their

serva nts their boat want to see we are their servants of the best way we can do thatis servants of the best way we can do that is delivering for the people across the north of england, including the commitments we have made in all other areas. why should the people up here believe that having lent you their boat, the party that has inflicted so much austerity will now put a benevolent arm around it? they have seen our ambitious programme, the fact that throughout northern powerhouse we have a plan for delivering across the north of england, and they have backed that plan. roger, it is not just the conservatives who have been busyin just the conservatives who have been busy in the north, with the start of a labour leadership contest imminent and you have quite a few of the contenders in your region. we have. three of the front runners in this pa rt three of the front runners in this part of the world is women, which is great, angela rayner who of course was shadow education secretary under the previous labour opposition has been touted as a possible replacement forjeremy corbyn. you can see the shots of them when they we re can see the shots of them when they were on a visit to a school not that long ago, she is the mp for ashton under lyme. rebecca long bailey, who was very under lyme. rebecca long bailey, who was very high profile during the

general election campaign for labour there in the red jacket, she is the mpfor there in the red jacket, she is the mp for salford and eccles, she too isa mp for salford and eccles, she too is a front runner, as is, interesting to read today, i heard someone say on the radio that kevin maguire in the daily mirror was saying lisa nandy, the wigan mp, could be the woman to take over from jeremy corbyn, a hurley —— fairly high—profile and respected commentator on the labour party. lisa nandy, very moderate, in terms of the way she has conducted herself asa of the way she has conducted herself as a labour of the way she has conducted herself asa labourmp. of the way she has conducted herself as a labour mp. she is still mulling over but thinking very seriously about throwing her hat in the ring. it is incredibly exciting, actually, the names that are being considered seriously as the next leader of the labour party are predominantly women, and a lot of northern women besides. there would be a real opportunity to have a debate of the

ideas and vision that will take this country for what was not lisa nandy, a potential successor to jeremy corbyn. going back to the conservatives, one phrase jake berry used, he said this will be a northern focused government, which is something many people in this pa rt is something many people in this part of the world would say they have not heard from a conservative for a long time. indeed. roger, thank you very much. our next stop is birmingham. our next stop is birmingham, and waiting for us there is mary rhodes? and there 5 a new train timetable in the region which is promising a better service ? how bad has it been? it has been pretty awful. you will remember that phrase, let the train ta ke remember that phrase, let the train take the strain? it has been more of the train causing the strain for many of our commuters in the west midlands and lots of other parts of the west midlands. —— lots of other parts of the country was top west midlands trains run around 1300 services a day, carrying nearly 80 million passengers per year. the

latest changes come after a timetable brought in last may simply didn't work. to give you an idea just how bad it was, it sent compensation levels to an all—time high, with more than 30,000 claims injust one month. well, this is how one commuter from worcester, joe, described the old timetable. —— jo. since the timetable changed, the commitment they made meant they took them from this service, so we went from five to four. we also had older rolling stock brought in, which meant it frequently broke down, so on occasions we had as few as two coaches, quite a regular occurrence, you couldn't even get on. so, mary, was it any better this morning? let's not get too excited too soon, it is only day one of the new weekday timetable but after months of misery, rail travellers appear to be benefiting from the change. west midlands trains had promised to make the new timetable more robust. i

ke pt the new timetable more robust. i kept asking them, what does that mean? essentially rejigging it, which includes rebooting some services, putting on extra carriages, and they have also brought in four new electric chains from yorkshire, so i hope they don't wa nt from yorkshire, so i hope they don't want them back —— electric trains will stop let's hearjo's first assessment of the new timetable. this is extraordinary. this is a combination clearly of five coaches, so we are combination clearly of five coaches, so we are back to the numbers we had before, which is luxury, frankly. clearly this is not representative of the numberof clearly this is not representative of the number of people who usually get on so this is luxury. so jo it's pretty happy but as you pointed out, it is the christmas period, some people may be taking an early break from commuting if they can at this stage, because passenger numbers we re stage, because passenger numbers were certainly down on that route today. so a little festive note of caution. just how effective the new

timetable is might not become obvious until after christmas so with that thought i will wish you a happy new year. thanks for that. mary, more on midlands today. roger in salford, you mary a favour, sent her some of your baubles. we got some good ones, haven't we? yours is impressive. have you got bauble envy? that is good, that, mary, is disappointing. you will appreciate this, simon, the discussions, use that politely, should we have a green tree, a white tree, a silver tree, still rumbling on, i need to go and lick some of roger's baubles. i lost the will add silver. thank you both very much. —— nick some of roger's baubles.

that is nearly it on afternoon live, hugh will be there but ramzan is here first of all with all the latest business news in just a moment. first the headlines. more than a hundred new conservative mps arrive in westminster as borisjohson begins working towards delivering on his election promises. northern ireland's political parties resume talks aimed at restoring power sharing at stormont. postmasters who claim their lives were ruined by a flawed computer system have won a significant high court victory. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. waterfirms in england and wales are facing the toughest profit crackdown in 30 years. the regulator wants them to cut the average bill by £50 by 2025. ofwat is also forcing firms to invest millions of pounds to improve their performance. this is all part of a plan by the regulator to transform the water industry. hundreds of sub—postmasters have won a keyjudgment against the post office and its horizon it system

in the high court. thejudge said horizon was not remotely robust. the sub—postmasters blame the system for creating big shortfalls in their accounts. many were made bankrupt and others prosecuted and sent to prison. the post office admitted defeat last week and agreed to pay £58 million to settle claims. today 5 highly complicated judgment ends years of campaigning by those affected. sports direct has reported a rise in half year profits. its boss, mike ashley, said he had seen green shoots of recovery at house of fraser — but still plans to close some stores in 2020. sports direct bought the department store chain last year out of administration. since then seven house of frasers stores have closed down. let's look at sports direct in more detail. our business correspondent emma simpson has been talking to the group's chief financial officer, chris wootton. just a few months back, the predictions for house of fraser by his boss, mike ashley, were in his words "terminal" — so why do they now believe there are green shoots of recovery?

i'm going to use my analogy on this one, so if we talk about a football team, we have integrated, albeit integrated house of fraser into the sports, or fraser's group machine. before we took it is everything not nailed down had been outsourced, the it, logistics, warehouse, everything, it was totally unsustainable. we have brought it in—house, we have sorted out the goalkeeper, sorted out the defence and the next thing we will do is build on the midfield and the attack. still doing business and not sports. let's have a look at the closing markets. ftse despite some poor economic data still performing well. sports direct doing very well after those half yearly profits. rbs like a lot of other banks doing very well today as well. to talk about all of these let's speak to joe today as well. to talk about all of these let's speak tojoe baze williams, today as well. to talk about all of these let's speak tojoe baze williams, head today as well. to talk about all of these let's speak tojoe baze williams, head of today as well. to talk about all of these let's speak tojoe baze williams, head of equities today as well. to talk about all of these let's speak tojoe baze williams, head of equities at premier mike. the economic data we have had today. the purchase as managers index did not make for

pretty reading. why are the market so buoyant, why is everyone so positive at the moment? the last 12 months have been characterised by a slowdown, the uk u nfortu nately has characterised by a slowdown, the uk unfortunately has had the overhang of brexit and the uncertainty is to deal with that and i think that is reflected in the pmi today. it was poor at 47.4. you talk about brexit. now we have some clarity over the government and a large tory majority, does that mean we should see a rise in the pmis and gdp, etc? i think we will see a renewed investment in the uk, we have already seen that beginning to come into the stock market today and on friday, we have seen the stock market rising and some of the retailers like sports direct rising very sharply. sports direct, mike ashley is a colourful character of the high street. he has been quite

forthright in his views on business rates for example today, and also about house of fraser too. what do you make of it? the markets clearly liked what they heard from him today. it is interesting. the people have been quite sceptical about sports direct. as recently as the middle of the year its share price was just over £2. even middle of the year its share price wasjust over £2. even before middle of the year its share price was just over £2. even before these figures that had recovered to some £3 50. what is interesting about the figures of that today it appears the house of fraser business in particular is performing rather better than has led to a surge in the share price, up 31% today to £4 75. but still quite difficult to pinpoint exactly how well house of fraser are doing, because their actual profits and losses are sort of hidden away within a different section of the accounts, so it's quite tricky to make thatjudgment. why are the market so positive about house of fraser? i think because it is coming from such a low level. it is coming from such a low level. it is not so much that the country —— the company is on a higher valuation, it came from a very low valuation, it came from a very low valuation and people have been surprised how resilient it has been

and more importantly with a pick—up in the world markets and particularly investment into the uk, these are the kind of stocks people are looking to buy. one stock i had up are looking to buy. one stock i had up earlier, royal bank of scotland. they are reflecting what is going on in uk financials at the moment, we have seen lloyds up as well. why the bank so positive as well? is it all down to the election, surely it can't just be one down to the election, surely it can'tjust be one factor making the banks feel a lot more positive about life? no, it is specifically related to the fact that sterling has been quite strong recently and most of the largest companies in the ftse 100 actually have been slightly held back by the rise in sterling, because most of their profits come from overseas. there are only a few stocks in the ftse100 which are very domestically orientated, royal anchor scotland is one, up 3.7%. lloyds is up 5% and barclays bank is also up 5.5%, so people are buying domestic stocks, notjust in the ftse100 but down the market cap in the 250 stocks, the mid 250 stocks as well. and good news for us as

well if royal bank of scotland's shares are doing well that we still earn a shares are doing well that we still earnafairstake shares are doing well that we still earn a fair stake in it. a substantial part of the ownership is in the government because my cancer if they were to choose to sell it, they could liberate cash which could be put into other services and products. thank you very much. now it is time for some weather with darren bett. the weather pattern, the weather picture is set to change significantly over the week ahead. it is a cold start to the week. there will be some more frost around at night, but as we head through the week, temperatures will rise day and night but that is mainly because it will turn wetter and windier once again. now at the moment, many parts of the country are still dry. we have a lot of showers around that lower area pressure , the weather front flirting with the south—east corner

of england, already throwing up a lot of cloud across england and wales, hence earlier on the sunshine was limited and hazy. the rain not far from the south—east of england, still some wintry showers coming to the high ground of scotland and these are the temperatures towards the early evening. for many of us, a chilly four or 5 degrees. through the evening and overnight, more of the thick cloud coming into the south—east of england and east anglia, that will bring some rain. showers will push away from northern ireland, continuing into scotland and again wintry over the highest ground. there will be a touch of frost all the way from wales, northern england, northwards, there may be some patches of fog across northern england, southern scotland and particularly northern ireland. there is not much to live that in actual fact and some parts of northern ireland in particular may stay grey and murky all day. some sunshine across many parts of the country, the showers fewer in scotland and the rain across east anglia and the south—east tends to peter out through the day but stays quite cloudy — here temperatures could get to seven or 8 degrees, elsewhere five or six i think we'll be nearer the mark and colder weather, mist and fog, persists. a ridge of high pressure between the high pressure between high—pressure systems as we move into wednesday,

some milder air coming in but a frost widely on wednesday morning, maybe a bit more mist and fog through parts of england and the midlands, it should clear more readily because the breeze will tend to strengthen and we will see the first signs of that milderaircoming in, together with some cloud and rain for northern ireland, the western fringes of the uk. away from here, still the cold air remains across much of eastern england and into eastern scotland. we get the milder air here eventually, as that weather front pushes the cloud and rain northwards and eastwards and strengthens the wind. gales for a time during wednesday evening through the irish sea, more areas of low pressure spinning in from the atlantic and keeping it unsettled through thursday and friday. showers or longer spells of rain. windy at times but at least it will be mild, day and night.

today at five — we're live at westminster — where borisjohnson is welcoming his new conservative mps — as parliament prepares to reconvene. during the day — many new conservative mps travelled to london — some from traditional labour areas — that turned blue last week. it's quite surreal, and i think the last time we remembers this sort of thing it's first day at big school, isn't it? and here we go. it's a bit daunting, but i think we are just all really excited to get in there and get started. a big day for the snp as well — as their newest mps gather at westminster following their party's strong performance. we'll have all the latest from westminster — at the start of a busy week which will include the queen's speech. the other main stories on bbc news at 5. divisions deepen in labour, with senior labour frontbencher