in the south it's notjust dry, it will get quite mild, up to 16 in london. showers at times for the north. that's your weather.

this is bbc news, the headlines: president trump has declared a national emergency, giving the us government access to billions of dollars to tackle the pandemic. the move loosens regulations on the provision of healthcare and could speed up testing. wall street surged by almost 10% following the announcement. the world health organization says europe is now the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world, apart from china. a number of countries in the eu say they'll close their borders to most or all foreigners because of the crisis. emergency legislation is being drawn up to ban mass gatherings in the uk, possibly from next week, in response to the worsening coronavirus outbreak. scores of major sporting and cultural events have been cancelled. there's more on our website, bbc.com/news. now it's time for a look back at the week in parliament.

hello and welcome to the week in parliament, where the government steps up moves to tackle the coronavirus. and the chancellor unveils a £12 billion fund to deal with the fallout. whether it's millions of pounds or billions of pounds, whatever it needs, whatever it costs, we stand behind our nhs. it's going to be much tougher because of the last ten years of deeply damaging and counterproductive cuts to all of our essential public services. we hear from the first woman to chair the budget statement, and find out how eleanor laing kept rowdy mps in order. they were pretty well behaved and, yes, i did give a bit of a stern warning to begin with. and a couple of times, ijust looked at certain people who were making a bit of a noise.

also on this programme, the government faces its first rebellion in the commons over its planned use of chinese tech firm huawei. subpostmasters who say they were wrongly accused of fraud demand a judge—led inquiry into what went wrong. and we drop in on the celebrations to recognise the 100 most influential women at westminster. and i do want to celebrate the difficult women, the battleaxes and the rebels. but first, boris johnson says the coronavirus oubreak is the worst public health crisis for a generation — and he's warned that more families will lose loved ones. at a news conference he announced the government was moving to the next stage of its action plan. people with flu—like symptoms — a fever and persistent cough 7 people with flu—like symptoms — a fever and persistent cough are being asked to isolate at home for seven days. school trips abroad are banned. but he said schools would not close, and major sporting events

would not be cancelled — for now. unsurpisingly, the coronavirus outbreak dominated the westminster week. and it was top of the chancellor's agenda when rishi sunak unveiled his first budget — announcing £12 billion in emergency measures to respond to coronavirus. our economy is robust, our public finances are sound, our public services are well prepared. for a period, it is going to be tough. but i am confident that our economic performance will recover. he said there'd be a temporary disruption to the economy, with up to one fifth of the working age population off work at any one time. whatever extra resources our nhs needs to cope with coronavirus, it will get. so whether it is research for a vaccine, recruiting thousands of returning staff or supporting our brilliant doctors and nurses, whether it is millions of pounds or billions of pounds, whatever it needs, whatever it

costs, we stand behind our nhs. he said statutory sick pay would be available for people who self isolated and he'd make it easier for those who were self employed or in the gig economy to access benefits. the government would foot the statutory sick pay bill for the smallest firms. and there'd be a tax break for small businesses too. responding, jeremy corbyn said the chancellor showed "brass neck" boasting that measures to deal with coronavirus were only possible because of his party's management of the economy. we have to be straight with people, there's going to be much tougher because of the last ten years of deeply damaging and counterproductive cuts to all of our essential public services. we are going into this crisis with our public services on their knees and as today's figures confirm, with a fundamentally weak economy, which is now flatlining with zero growth, even before the impact of coronavirus. jeremy corbyn. but of course there was more to the budget

than tackling coronavirus. turning to other measures rishi sunak said he'd fulfill a manifesto promise to raise the level at which people began paying national insurance. wages up, national insurance cut, the tampon tax abolished, spirit duty frozen, beer duty frozen, wine and cider duty frozen, we promised a cut tax in the cost—of—living and we got it done. he announced £22 billion a year for research and development — a new plastic packaging tax, money to tackle flooding and remove combustible cladding. there'd be 50 million pounds to fix potholes and more money for broadband, railways and roads. and he finished with this. building roads, building railways, building colleges, building houses, building our union. a budget that delivers on our promises, a people's budget from the people's government

and i commend it to this house. cheering. jeremy corbyn said the budget didn't "come close" to delivering on the government's election promises to working—class communities. the government's boast of the biggest investment since the 1950s is frankly a sleight—of— hand. it is in fact only the biggest since they've began their slash and burn assault on our services, economic infrastructure and living standards in 2010. and having ruthlessly forced down the living standards and life chances of millions of our people for a decade, the talk of leveling up is a crueljoke. he said the government had shown complacency about the climate emergency. and he concluded. the conservative party, whatever they say, will never stand up for working—class communities. they will always, always, put the interests of their wealthy friends first.

the reality of today's announcement, it will become clear, and the hard sell and the spin will fade away in this budget will then be seen to be a lost opportunity. a failure of ambition and a bitter disappointment to all of those people who had been promised so much. the snp leader at westminster said that after the cornonavirus outbreak, more help would be needed for the tourism industry. the snp is advocating a package of measures, including a temporary drop in the vat rate to 5% to help businesses reduce their costs. many of the businesses in my part of the world in the highlands of scotland follow a period over the winter that is notjust an issue

——have come through a fallow period over the winter that is notjust an issue that they're going to see a reduction in business, in some cases, they are going to be desperately short of cash coming through the door. a former prime minister wondered if the chancellor had been too generous. while spending a lot of money may be popular and it may seem the natural thing to do, there is of course that necessity of having a realistic assessment of the longer term impact of those decisions, the longer term consequences and the necessity to ensure that we have that restraint and caution that enables us to make the public finances continue to be strong into the future. the man who quit as chancellor last month praised his successor. he had only four weeks to write this budget and he has risen to the challenge. although i do recognise much of it, it is different in one significant respect, there has been a dramatic change, as he set out in the global economy. this means that we have to, of course, face these challenges as a nation. therefore, he has been absolutely right to focus his attention on the threat posed by the coronavirus.

the budget‘s environmental impact divided opinion. there's been plenty of green rhetoric for sure, but the truth of these decisions continue to drive the climate emergency. we have a freeze on the fossil fuel duty, freezing the fuel duty, over 20 billion in new roads compared tojusti billion on green transport and no commitment to removing the climate destroying duties to maximise the economic recovery of fossil fuels. would he not actually agree that when it comes to showing how muddled he is on green issues, this chancellor is absolutely getting it done? we can't on one hand say that we want to protect jobs, we want to keep people's standard of living up, we want to keep people's costs of living down, want to give people freedom to go on their holidays and at the same time say, but let's absorb ourselves in this carbon obsession which affects all of those things. but the lib dems were disappointed.

the government tried to pretend that this is a budget that's going to take action on climate change. let's look at it. a fuel duty freeze again, £27 billion on 4000 miles of road, that doesn't sound like a green transport policy to me, mr deputy speaker, and then they announce, as if it's going to make a difference, £1 billion on green transport measures. this is completely absurd. sir ed davey. rishi sunak hasn't been in thejob long. but what's it like to step in and deliver a budget on the day itself? kate forbes did just that after the scottish finance minister derek mackay quit over online messages he'd sent to a 16—year—old boy. well, the new scottish finance minister was in westminster this week, and daniel brittain asked her when she knew she was going to be delivering the snp‘s budget. i got ultimate confirmation at 7am

on the budget day and i tell you, my thoughts were that the stakes are high i better get this right. so i spent the next seven hours probably in a bit of a budget bunker, making sure my head was wrapped around every line of the budget and i was ready to go out and presented. and when you did, how were you feeling then? knees knocking? you looked very confident. my hands were quite clammy, i did not go for a glass of water for fear that it might fall. but with a budget, it is a key political event in the parliamentary calendar and i was not anticipating other parties going any easier on me because i had just been thrown in at the deep end. and with the press and the gallery, they're looking for the slightest hint of nerves or fear. so i knew i had to perform and i knew i had to appear confident

irrespective of how i really felt. how much did you actually know about the budget beforehand? were you aware of every aspect? i was not aware of as much as i was in previous years, but in the legislation business rates, going to the parliament at 6pm the night before. i was all set to put my feet up a little bit on wednesday night but little did i know, the following day i would have even bigger task to do. so this year was slightly different than the previous years and it really was an exercise in going from scratch to figuring out everything about the budget. you got some very good write ups in the papers, but the financial times had a mini profile, "formidable" was among the words used. it must be nice to read. well it is, i have come from nowhere because i literally had a matter of hours to step up to the big job

and inevitably, there will be some praise, some condemnation and i have to take the good with the bad, but myjob is to try and manage scotland's finance competently and deliver balanced budgets and that is ultimately my focus. inevitably, there will be a vacancy of the top one day — fancy it? not at the moment, certainly. let me get my feet under the table with this newjob, the more i see of the top job, the less attractive a proposition it is. lots of abuse, offensive comments, it is not a particularly attractive place to be in this age of social media and vitriol. kate forbes. speaking of debuts, the westminster budget was chaired for the first time by a woman — deputy speaker dame eleanor laing. now, if you're wondering why it was her and not the speaker, sir lindsay hoyle, that's because the senior deputy speaker is known as the chairman of ways and means — after a long—abolished parliamentary committee which used to deal with financial matters. well, mark d'arcy asked her if she was annoyed by the fact that on the day, many mps referred to her as "mr speaker".

there i was, sitting as the first woman to chair the budget, in the speaker's chair. and several people, some quite high—profile people, just called me "mr speaker". i suppose they didn't notice. but you didn't correct them? well, i didn't think it was right to correct them because i didn't want to draw attention to me. i was not the subject of the day. it was much more important that people were able to concentrate on the very serious matters that the chancellor was addressing and the arguments that the leader of the opposition then had every right to put to the house. and i thought it might be rather egotistical — and wrongly egotistical — if i halted proceedings to draw attention to the fact that i'm not a man. well, indeed, you had to give mps quite a stern talking—to at the start of proceedings just to make sure it all went smoothly. were there any great sort of disciplinary eruptions that you had to intervene on?

i know at one point, you were hurrying along the leader of the scottish national party, ian blackford. actually, people were really well behaved yesterday. i was prepared to deal with some disruption, and i was prepared to stop people intervening or trying to heckle anyone who was speaking, but they were pretty well behaved. and, yes, i did give a bit of a stern warning to begin with. and a couple of times, ijust looked at certain people who were making a bit of a noise. but, again, i didn't want to interrupt proceedings. ifind that sometimes, a stern glance or something rather more severe than that — but without words and without interruption of the flow of the debate — is the best way to discipline people and to keep order. if the occupant of the chair constantly jumps up and shouts "order!" and has discourse with some member of parliament who is behaving very well,

well, itjust draws attention to that member of parliament. and if they're not behaving well, they don't deserve to have attention drawn to them. and it draws attention to the chair. well, that's not the job of the chair. the job of the chair is to make things run smoothly. and it runs more smoothly if you can possibly exert discipline without making a lot of fuss about it. and did you celebrate afterwards? the chancellor's allowed to have a drink of their choice on the despatch box when they deliver the budget statement. does the deputy speaker have a traditional ceremony afterwards? i think this deputy speaker has possibly started a little tradition of having a few friends around for a glass after the budget, yes. now, let's take a look at some of the other news from westminster. the government saw its majority cut to just 2a in the commons as senior conservatives rebelled over plans

to allow the chinese telecoms company huawei a role in the uk's 56 mobile network. the rebels, led by the former conservative leader sir iain duncan smith, tried to make changes to a bill in the commons so that huawei would be banned from the project from the start of 2023. tory critics say the firm is an arm of the chinese state and a risk to uk security — claims it rejects. i worry when we start compromising security. i worry... and this is the point i want to make. we have no friends out there any more on this issue, whether it's the canadians, the americans, the australians, the new zealanders. they all disagree with us. the minister promised the government would bring in a telecoms safety bill before the summer, plan to develop more diversity of providers and allow greater scrutiny. and over time, our intention is to reduce our reliance on high—risk vendors

as this process of market diversification takes place. we want to get to a position where we do not have to use high—risk vendors in our telecoms networks at all. order! but those pledges didn't sway sir iain duncan smith, who pushed his amendment to a vote. the government won — but not by much. 38 tory mps went against the government, including former cabinet ministers david davis, liam fox and sir iain duncan smith. at prime minister's questions, jeremy corbyn focused on the government's policies relating to women. child tax credits for new claimants are now capped at two children, but mothers who have a third child as a result of rape can be exempted. the labour leader pointed out that meant providing evidence. why does he think it's right that 200 mothers have to prove to the government their child was conceived as a result of being raped so they can keep their child tax credits?

on his point about the recipients of benefit, it is obviously... he calls attention to an injustice, and we will do everything that we can to rectify it. people convicted of theft and false accounting over a post office it failure have demanded a judge—led inquiry into the scandal. they blame faults with the post office's horizon accounting system for the discrepancies. more than 500 workers recently won an out—of—court settlement from the post office. one described what happened when she was questioned about a £36,000 loss supposedly due to missing stamps. i gave them all my bank account details, i gave them everything, because i had nothing to hide. i hadn't actually done anything wrong, ijust didn't know why it had happened. they then allowed me to sell the post office so that i could pay them the £26,000. and as soon as i paid the post office, they took all the money, so we couldn't even move

into another house. we had to move in with my son. i had to go through trial because i pleaded not guilty. and then all through the court, it was never, "what could've happened to the money?" it wasjust, "what have you done with the money?" and then i was found guilty of stealing the money — from my signature on the paperwork, on the till receipt — and then i was sentenced to six months in holloway prison. mps have given initial approval to a bill aimed at keeping down the cost of school uniforms. research by the children's society suggests that more than half of primary school parents and two—thirds of secondary school parents have to buy two or more items from a specific shop, pushing up costs. specialist uniform sellers argue

they provide good value for clothes worn on about 195 days a year. the march towards "if a child wears it, brand it with an embroidered logo" must end, to drive down costs and make uniforms genuinely inclusive. i attended an open day with my son. we were going around local comprehensive schools and i sat down to hear the headmaster's speech. in front of me, another mum sat down. and she picked up the information about the school. i saw her picking up the uniform list, looking down it, turning to her son and saying, "we can't go here," and they left. the minister backed the bill. the cost of the school uniform must not be a barrier to parents choosing a particular school for their child orfor a child attending a particular school. school uniforms must not be unreasonably priced and schools must not disregard the importance of achieving value for money for parents. to mark international women's day,

the house magazine drew up a list of 100 leading women at westminster and threw a party to celebrate them. we sent gary connor along. a burst of mozart to help toast 100 influential women in westminster. this is the inaugural women in westminster celebration, to coincide with international women's day. it's great to be surrounded by so many inspirational women and i hope that those who are not on it this year will really up their game and get completely competitive in the way that men would. the women in politics that stick with me most are the people who were prepared to be different and say things that were different, whether that was barbara castle — a great labour politician who fought against the status quo — or indeed mrs thatcher, and i do want to celebrate the difficult women, the battle axes and the rebels.

among others in the 100, the current mother of the house. the country at work is made up of women and men at work, and parliament is no different, so it's important to normalise that and make sure that it's no longer a gentleman's club run by an old boy's network but women are expecting an equal say. and a certain former prime minister. first of all, in terms of front line politics, it's partly about showing other women who are in front line politics. and therefore people can look at us and say, "yeah, that's something i can do." sadly, of course, at the 2019 election, a number of women stepped down — and some women have had really bad experiences from harassment and bullying online — and that's an issue i think we need to be very well aware of. we have different views and different opinions in politics, but we should respect each other‘s use and have just a proper debate about them. so, what advice would mrs may give an aspiring female politician? well, first of all,

i would say, do it because it's the bestjob in the world. i think it's the best job in the world. secondly, persevere. it can be difficult. it isn'tjust an automatic thing that you get into parliament. you have to really work at it. and thirdly, be yourself. theresa may. now, how about a burst of baroque and a look at how power shifted from royalty to parliament in that era? tate britain is hosting the first—ever exhibition of baroque culture in britain, from the restoration of charles ii to the reign of queen anne. selina seth reports. pomp and changing circumstance. british baroque shows the shift in powerfrom monarchs to politicians in the later stuart era, from the magnificence of monarchy restored — albeit with limited powers — and the royal favourites to the rise of the party politician and new artistic patrons.

here's the commons speakerjohn smith, who hired the court artist godfrey kneller for this portrait. it's a magnificent portrait for the pomp and display, probably commissioned by smith himself in order to commemorate his role in the negotiation of the union of england and scotland. he's holding in his hand a scroll marked "the union act", so it's obvious what the whole portrait is about. you have the gold of the mace to one side, and all the light is concentrated on the gold embroidery on his cloak, his face and also the act of union. and then, there's this. it's an enormous portrait which actually shows the collected leadership of the whig party in the reign of queen anne. it's the only known group portrait of the whigs done, so it's really quite significant. it's also painted on the most enormous scale, one of the most ambitious group portraits painted in the entire period. it's actually an advertisement of whig foreign policy against tory calls for peace.

it may date from the 1700s, but some aspects of political life haven't changed. it must have been painted before the summer of that year, when the individuals represented started being ejected from the ministry. and, of course, in october that year — october 1710 — was the great electoral victory of the tories. tabitha barber. and that exhibition is on at london's tate britain until 19 april. and that's it from me for now, but dojoin us on bbc parliament on monday night at 11pm for our daily roundup of life here at westminster. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

hello there. yesterday we had glorious scenes and plenty of sunshine to start the day but this morning, quite a contrast. many of us morning, quite a contrast. many of us is going to be cut as though with rain. that rain lose weight. there will be some sunshine just falling free time but the next weather system free time but the next weather syste m m oves free time but the next weather system moves on quickly with arena turning heavy for the afternoon in northern ireland and eventually getting into western scotland, england and wales. a mild day, the result to a0 degrees quite a windy day as well. an overnight, this weather front moves into wales and south—western england, bringing some fairly heavy rain. the hills could see around 30, maybe a0 millimetres. and it stays mild for england and wales with temperatures nine or 10 degrees. scotland and ivan ireland, those medical areas. the sunday, however front slows down as it moves into east anglia, south—east england, really dragging its feet as it does so stop behind that, it turns brighter with a mixture of sunshine and showers. a fresh appeal to the weather. some of the showers in northern scotland heavy with some hailand in northern scotland heavy with some hail and ponder. that is your latest

weather.

welcome to bbc news, i'm simon pusey. our top stories: president trump declares a national emergency, unlocking billions of dollars to fight coronavirus in the us. to unleash the full power of the federal government with this ever today i am officially declaring a national emergency. two very big words. as italy struggles to cope, the world health organization says europe is now the epicentre of the pandemic. more cases are now being reported every day than were reported every day than were reported in china at the height of its epidemic. more european countries seal their borders — and the uk is thought to be drawing up plans to ban mass gatherings. and the pandemic wipes out most of the world's major sporting