for most of us, around ten the night for most of us, around ten the lowest. in the midlands. here is tomorrow, warm southerly wind spreading across the uk, plenty of sunshine, turning hot across the south—east. 30 degrees. but for most of us it's not going to be that one, it will be mostly around the low— mid—20s which is comfortable enough in pleasant enough in aberdeen and also glasgow around 20. i think tuesdayis also glasgow around 20. i think tuesday is going to be every bit as warm across many parts of the uk and from wednesday, it is back to normal. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. former british prime ministers tony blair and sirjohn major call borisjohnson‘s brexit plans ‘shameful‘, as the government continues to defend plans to override parts of the withdrawal agreement. more than 30 people have died as wildfires burn in california, oregon, and washington

and there are further health concerns for the people living there as the smoke is causing widespread pollution. there's fresh concern in the uk over the growing spread of coronavirus after more than 3000 cases were recorded on consecutive days. now time for the week in parliament. hello again and welcome to the week in parliament. tighter covid rules for england but the health secretary aims for the skies. the so—called operation moonshot to deploy mass testing will allow people to lead more normal lives and reduce the need for social distancing. a startling admission about borisjohnson‘s brexit plan. i would say to my honourable friend that, yes, this does break

international law in a very specific and limited way. and a legendary composer warns that the curtain could fall on live theatre for good. there comes a point now where we really can't go on much more. i mean, we are bumping up against our bank covenants and all these things. all that to come and more. but first, the prime minister says it is not another national lockdown but from monday, social gatherings of more than six people will be illegal in england. the strengthening of the rules — with exemptions for schools and workplaces, weddings and funerals — follows a dramatic rise in the number of cases of coronavirus. borisjohnson used a downing street news conference to confirm the changes. in england from monday, we are introducing the rule of six. the scottish government has introduced a similar rule. but as the prime minister talked of ‘0peration moonshot‘ — his hope of mass testing within months — mps warned their constituents

can't get tested now. the health secretary was forced to make a second commons statement in three days. mr speaker, these are not measures we take lightly. i understand that for many, they will mean changing long—awaited plans or missing out on precious moments with loved ones. but this sacrifice is vital to control the virus for the long term and save lives. and i vow that we will not keep these rules in place for any longer than we have to. new technology offered new hope. we are developing new types of tests which are simple, quick and scalable. they use swabs or saliva. they can be turned around in 90 minutes or even 20 minutes. the so—called operation moonshot — to deploy mass testing — will allow people to lead more normal lives and reduce the need for social distancing. i have long been pushing him for a strategic mass testing

regime from the start. the w — er, the world health organization told us to test, test, test. but we are all fed up of undelivered promises and world—beating. mass testing is too important to become another failed project. it is all well and good him talking about moonshots and the prime minister telling us we will be tested every morning. even better would be simply delivering the extra testing that is needed now, not just headline figures. already, some experts have described this mass testing strategy as being fundamentally flawed. so does the secretary of state think the prime minister is gambling on something that the experts feel cannot be delivered? both the snp and the labour party opposite are making a huge mistake in opposing mass testing. it is an incredibly important tool in our arsenal. this is a urgent matter and needs a answer before the autumn bites, the autumn—winter bites. will he commit by the end of the month to make sure that anybody that has symptoms of covid can get a test at reasonable place,

convenient to their home? that is of course my goal. my goal is for that to happen immediately. strict lockdown restrictions have been tightened further in bolton, said to have the highest rate in england. the lockdown in bolton will devastate the hospitality industry and affect the physical and emotional health of my constituents. can i therefore ask the secretary of state to ensure that my constituents can be tested in bolton as soon as they require it? and as matt hancock reached for the moon on mass testing, a conservative mp brought him back down to earth. now on tuesday evening, hundreds of cars from across the country — and i mean hundreds from across the country — descended on telford, on its testing sites, as directed by the booking system. tests quickly ran out, roads were blocked, people who had travelled from as far away as cornwall and london were turned

away, and my constituents were no longer able to access tests in the area and they, in turn, were sent elsewhere. i didn't know about this example in telford, although i had heard of people telling me that there's been a lot of people directed to telford in this instance. the broad problem is something that we're absolutely looking at and i will go and take away the particular example and find out exactly what glitch caused it. at prime minister's questions, the labour leader sir keir starmer had his own examples of the difficulty of getting tested. yesterday, i spoke to a mum who lives in london. she has got a four—year—old daughter who had a very high temperature yesterday morning. she phoned iii and was told to get a test. she tried to book and was told the nearest was romford — that was at nine o'clock in the morning. she was told that there were no tests there. she was then told hayward's heath, halfway to brighton. on exploration, no tests there.

by lunchtime, the mum was told the nearest place was telford or inverness. the prime minister said the uk had done more tests than any other country in europe, thanks to the efforts of nhs test and trace. this is an organisation that is working heroically to contain the spread of this disease and it requires the public to trust this organisation and to participate. yesterday, the right honourable gentleman said it was on the verge of collapse. i think those were ill—chosen words. i think he now regrets those words. i think he should reflect and he should take them back. mr speaker, hundreds of families are trying to get a test in the last week and they can't get one. i do acknowledge the number of tests overall but this is basic stuff. people who have got covid symptoms are very anxious about themselves, their children, their families and what to do. they cannot go to work, they cannot send their children to school. it matters. if they cannot get a test,

the prime minister needs to take responsibility. not just talk about the future, or something else, but address this problem now. borisjohnson said the government would do more. and the world we want to move to as fast as possible is a world where everybody can take an enabling tests at the beginning of the day, an antigen test to identify whether or not we have the virus or not — like a pregnancy test — within 15 minutes or so, so that we know whether we are able to live our lives as normally as possible. that is the vision that the health secretary and others have been sketching out over the last few days. that is where we intend to get to. we all want test, trace and isolate to succeed. i've offered my support before. but the prime minister is ignoring a problem. if people are told to go hundreds of miles away, something is wrong. , it has gotten worse in the last week or two. everybody here knows it because they have constituents telling them. there's been a massive increase in the number of people who need or want tests, and particularly people who don't have symptoms. and we need — and i hope he agrees —

we need to prioritise people such as nhs front line staff, our care workers, who urgently need those tests. he accused the labour leader of undermining confidence in the system. what's undermining confidence is families being told go hundreds of miles and they can't get a test. that is undermining confidence. ijust want it fixed. we don't need to have an argument. tell us what the solution is. we will all muck in and try to make it make it better and tell our constituents. but the prime minister said growing demand was a result of the success of test and trace. it is hard work. it's hard work. it's a big job and they're doing a fantasticjob. and i really think what they would like to hear is some praise and encouragement and support from the right honourable gentlemen. mr speaker, why can't we just hear from the prime minister an honest answer? if he stood at the despatch box and said "i know something has gone wrong in the last couple of weeks. we've been getting hundreds of examples of people being sent all over the place,

or being told there is no test. i have looked into it and worked out what the problem is, here's my plan", then people might be reassured. but as ever, he pretends the problem isn't there. borisjohnson said his government was working flat out and taking the tough decisions. the covid restrictions are also being tightened in scotland. as in england, the number of people allowed to meet up has been cut to six. the scottish government has also launched its own contact tracing app for mobile phones. the first minister told msps the pandemic was accelerating. it is worth stressing that this position is not entirely unexpected. in recent weeks, we have reopened significant parts of our economy. though many will be operating below full capacity, approximately 96% of businesses in scotland are now trading again. children have gone back to school and we've eased many social, leisure and travel restrictions. people are meeting up more, going out more and travelling more, and all of that is positive. but as we released ourselves from lockdown, we also released the virus, we gave it more

opportunities to spread and so, it was always likely that we would see a rise in cases. the sobering news here in scotland and across the rest of the uk over the last few days has been a reality check for anyone who thought that the pandemic was on its way out. it is clear that while we can still hope for further progress to be made over the rest of this year, there will be no swift return to normality. when we started to come out of lockdown, we made clear our view that there must be the agility to pause, to go back as well as to go forward in this process, and also that there must be transparency in the science to back this up. the science tells us that across much of scotland, the virus is on the rise again and that there is no room for complacency. so we support the first minister's cautionary approach today. some unusually consensual exchanges at holyrood there. now, we may have left the european union but brexit is very much still with us

as the clock ticks towards the end of the transition period on december 31. the resumption of trade talks in london was marked by a ratcheting up of the rhetoric, with borisjohnson warning that the uk could walk away without a deal if there isn't an agreement by the middle of october. the prime minister's plan for trade within the uk after brexit involves rewriting parts of the oven—ready divorce deal on northern ireland and state aid — a deal he agreed last year. a minister admitted this internal market bill breaks international law and the government's top lawyer sirjonathan jones resigned. borisjohnson's predecessor was among the critics. the united kingdom government signed the withdrawal agreement with the northern ireland protocol. this parliament voted that withdrawal agreement into uk legislation. the government is now changing the operation of that agreement. given that, how can the government reassure future international partners that the uk can be trusted to abide by the legal obligations

of the agreements it signs? i thank my right honourable friend for the question. we have worked with the eu in a spirit of good faith and i know we continue to do that, both sides working in a spirit of good faith, to ensure we do implement the arrangements which uphold the fundamental principles that lie behind the protocol. and of course, our first priority continues to be to secure agreement on the protocol for the joint committee and the wider free trade agreement. but the withdrawal agreement protocol is not like any other treaty. it was written on the assumption that subsequent agreements could be reached between us and the eu on the detail — that is the entire purpose of the specialised joint committee — and we continue to believe that that is possible but, as a responsible government, we cannot allow — we cannot allow businesses to not have certainty for january. the secretary of state has said that he is committing — and the government are committed — to the rule of law. does he recognise that the adherence to the rule of law is not negotiable?

against that background, will he assure us that nothing that is proposed in this legislation does, or potentially might, breach international legal obligations or international legal arrangements that we have entered into? i would say to my honourable friend that, yes, this does break international law in a very specific and limited way. we are taking the powers to disapply the eu law concept of direct effect, required by article 4, in a certain, very tightly defined circumstances, and there are clear precedents forthe uk, and indeed other countries, needing to consider their international obligations as circumstances change, and i would say to honourable members here, many of whom who would have been in this house when we passed the finance act in 2013... an argument disputed by george osborne, who was chancellor at the time. labour said borisjohnson had agreed the northern ireland element of the divorce deal. the prime minister personally renegotiated it, campaigned on it, legislated for it, ratified it in an international treaty. with these latest moves,

some fear the prime minister is once again using northern ireland as a political football to suit his wider political means. northern ireland's mps queued up to add their criticism. meanwhile, the welsh and scottish governments said the bill was a power grab, allowing the uk government to make decisions that should be theirs to make. at prime minister's questions, the snp leader seized on brandon lewis‘ comments. this legislation breaks international law, but it also breaks domestic law. the prime minister and his friends, a parcel of rogues, are creating a rogue state — one where the rule of law does not apply. why does the prime minister think that he and his friends are above the law? well, on the contrary, this uk internal market bill is about protecting jobs, protecting growth, ensuring

the fluidity and safety of our uk internal market and prosperity throughout the united kingdom, and it should be welcomed, i believe, in scotland, in northern ireland, in wales and throughout the whole country. a liberal democrat mp pursued the argument in a slightly different way. the prime minister may be aware that there are some scottish nationalists who want scotland to follow the example of catalonia and to have a wild card independence referendum. now, i oppose that because it would be illegal. if the prime minister thinks it is acceptable for his government to ignore international law, on what basis would he oppose it? myjob is to uphold the integrity of the uk, but also to protect the northern irish peace process and the good friday agreement. and to do that, we need a legal safety net to protect our country against extreme or irrational interpretations of the protocol

which could lead to a border down the irish sea in a way that i believe — and i think members around the house believe — would be prejudicial to the interests of the good friday agreement and prejudicial to the interests of peace in our country, and that has to be our priority. but the european commission has threatened the government with legal action. deal or no deal, there will be changes when the transition period ends and the uk no longer has to follow eu trade rules. a customs expert told mps he fears lorries could be turned around at calais and sent back to the uk. witnesses to a commons committee warned many businesses weren't ready and there weren't enough customs agents to process the paperwork. the biggest absolute fear is that a truck is sent to calais and they send it back.

i mean, that is a genuine fear, is that if the paperwork is validated whilst the vehicle is crossing the channel and that validation fails because the transit documents are not correctly authenticated or there aren't any documents or the entry is not lodged in france, it's coming back. and i just think that the fear is that the daily mail headline of "we sent our goods to europe and they sent them back" is looming. it's a matter of time, really. the tools are there to kind of get it right. the car park in kent is because we have not got it right. it's of our making, if you'd like, is that if something arrives in kent and it is not prepared, it's because we have not prepared it. it's nothing to do with the eu. it's — this is our problem to solve and it has always been our problem to solve. some of the fundamental things that need to change and some of the things that need to be invested in are simply not happening fast enough. and if we go back to the primary

point, which is about customs intermediaries and having the number of customs intermediaries, customs agents, available to deal with the increased number of declarations — some 200 million additional declarations on top of the 50 million that are done for the rest of the world at the moment — we are a long way off being able to recruit those customs agents. richard burnett. time now for a brief look at what else has been going in the world of politics. labour has tried to force the government to implement the initial recommendations of the inquiry into the grenfell tower fire three years ago, in which 72 people died. labour's amendment to the fire safety bill failed but a minister repeated the government's pledge to implement the findings of the inquiry. it is the government's intention, and we have already stated the principal intention to follow through on the phase one recommendations, and we are not resigning from that one jot.

the chief executive of hmrc, her majesty's revenue and customs, has said up to £3.5 billion pounds could be wrongly paid out in the government's furlough scheme. jim harra told mps on the public accounts committee that the error and fraud rate could be between 5% and 10% of spending on the scheme. in terms of actual cash numbers, what does 5% to 7% now look at in terms of the money that you've paid out? i believe the last figures that we put out said that we had paid £37 billion on the scheme? i think that's correct? so it would be 5% to 10% of that figure would be the assumption on which we are basing our — sorry, 35.4 billion was the last amount that we said that we had paid out on this scheme. a bill denying parole to killers who refuse to disclose the location of their victims‘ remains has cleared its final parliamentary hurdle.

the prisoners disclosure of information about victims bill is known as ‘helen's law‘ after helen mccourt, whose killer ian simms was freed from jail without disclosing where her body was. the bill means parole boards will have to take into account an offender's non—disclosure of information about a victim's remains, or the identity of child victims in indecent images. as the lords passed the bill, there was a tribute to helen mccourt‘s mother, marie. she has worked tirelessly and with great dignity — notjust on her own behalf, but on behalf of the small number of families who find themselves in this most awful, awful position. three quarters of black people don't believe their human rights are protected as well as those of white people — that's according to a survey commissioned by the human rights committee. the study also suggested that 65% didn't think the nhs treated them

equally and 85% felt the police weren't fair. the report's authors appeared before the committee to expand on their findings. a really interesting interview was a young woman from kent who ended up getting stop and searched. and after this whole debacle, she actually spoke to a few friends who were not black themselves, and they spoke about the situation and it seemed as though it was not a normality for any of her friends and — to the point where they were quite shocked and in fear of her own safety. and she expressed that, you know, while there's a high number of black — while there is not a high number of black females who get stopped and searched, she sort of acknowledged that it's a very familiar process within the black community. now, there's never any shortage of political theatre at westminster, but the curtain has come down almost everywhere else because of the coronavirus pandemic. the composer and theatre impresario andrew lloyd webber says the performing arts are now

at the "point of no return". he wants the government to announce a date when theatres can fully re—open. injuly, lord lloyd webber organised a concert at the london palladium to see if it would be possible to re—open theatres safely and at full capacity. but he told mps on the culture committee that theatres couldn't operate with social distancing. it would be impossible. the margins, say, for a big musical are very, very, very tight. i mean, if you were to take — say you were talking a really big musical, like, say, the disney frozen that is coming — hopefully coming in to drury lane next year, say they were operating at £500,000 a week. the biggest slice of that, of course, goes in vat, and i would reckon disney would be very lucky to make their investment back on that show for perhaps two, three years. at least. and that's really at full capacity. the margins are incredibly,

incredibly tight. it's just been absolutely devastating and catastrophic for the theatre industry and for the live sector. over 300,000 people are employed by theatre alone. you can more than double that when you actually look at what's going on for the live sector — and that doesn't even count all the ancillary services that support what we do. that's over a million people employed by the sector. that is huge, and that, of course, makes us uniquely vulnerable as a country in dealing with the pandemic, because the arts, performing arts, live theatre, are not only one of our biggest assets and one of the strongest experts and things that bring in tourism — over 34 million people come to this country every year, largely driven by the opportunity to see theatre — and if we don't actually do something to address that and we don't find a means of actually being able to open theatres and venues again, then a million people will still be without work. it's been a very long time and many of them have had no support. it's a really bad, catastrophic time, and we need to find a way out of it.

there comes a point now where we really can't go on much more. i mean, we are bumping up against our banks covenants and all of these things. because, as i say, theatre is an incredibly, incredibly labour—intensive business. in many ways, putting on a show now is almost a labour of love. lord lloyd webber. all elections to public office have been cancelled for the duration of the pandemic in a blow to psephologists and political anora ks alike. the house of lords has been making sure that one controversial election for new hereditary peers doesn't slip through the net. 92 seats in the lords are reserved for hereditaries under changes introduced in 1999, and only hereditary peers can vote for a replacement when one of their number dies or retires. the next vote was due to take place this month but peers have postponed it until next year. it sparked a wider discussion about how peers can stop the chamber from increasing in size after borisjohnson created 36 new peers injuly.

at the moment, no elections to any public office are being held. elections were postponed in may, no by—elections to local councils are being held, and i think if we — if the only place which was holding elections at this point was a hereditary peers by—election in the house of lords, it would make us look even more foolish — if that's possible — than we look today. live peerages actually go back to the reign of henry iii, in 12—something—or—other, and there have been regular live peerages. they used to end the live peerages by chopping off the heads of the lords when they fell from favour. this is no longer recommended procedure. well, that's one way to address the question of the size of the upper chamber! and that was the week in parliament. thank you for watching. alicia mccarthy will have the latest from the commons and the lords on monday night at 11 o'clock on bbc

parliament. but from me, david cornock, bye for now. a beautiful afternoon for most of us. a beautiful afternoon for most of us. quite warm as well. but it will turn even warmer on monday and tuesday. even hot across the south—east of the country and temperatures are expected to hit 30 degrees. that is something we haven't had for four years in september and the south—east. but, a different story across scotland today. today, it has been pouring with rain, heavy rain falling on the same place at the same time over and over again. on top of that, strong, gusty winds, completely different picture cost parts of the world.

compared to elsewhere across the country where we have that sunshine and it is also very warm around lower to mid 20s. so, what will happen this evening? the rain should eventually move away from the western isles where it would have deposited around 100 millimetres by then, but only locally. the wind as well and basically, at the end of the night, it is relatively quiet for most of us around 10 degrees in the midlands, 1a in belfast. certainly, there will be some sunshine to greet us. also, between the low out in the atlantic and the high in europe, there is a warm current of winds coming out of spain, france, that will engulf most of england. turn quite warm across the lowlands of scotland, belfast and wales but the high temperatures will be reserved for the south and central areas of the country. so, 30 degrees in london, mid to high 20s in the midlands, mid 20s in

yorkshire, but further north, you can see the yellow colours. a bit fresher. on tuesday, every bit as warm across the extreme south—east of the country, may be a bit warmer, a bit more cloud, a very decent today wherever you are. the low 20s in the north, just around 30 or so in the north, just around 30 or so in the south—east of the uk. so, those two hot days, monday, tuesday, this is what wednesday's weather map looks like and a cooler current of airthis time looks like and a cooler current of air this time from the north, obviously implying it will turn quite a bit fresher. in fact, a big drop in the temperature over a few daysin drop in the temperature over a few days in london, 30 on monday down to 19 on monday. edinburgh, 20 on monday down to 1a on thursday. and on the aberdeenshire coast it could be as cool as around 12 degrees. so, if you like the warmth, enjoy the next couple of days.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines. former british prime ministers tony blair and sirjohn major call borisjohnson's brexit plans "shameful," as the government continues to defend plans to override parts of the withdrawal agreement. this is a collective will on the part of the government not just to prepare for the worst, but also to protect the internal workings of our united kingdom. that is responsible government. there's fresh concern in the uk over the growing spread of coronavirus after more than 3,000 cases were recorded on consecutive days. more than 30 people have died as wildfires burn in california, oregon, and washington and there are further health concerns for the people living there as the smoke is causing widespread pollution. a new trail of nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, a new trial of nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, the british—iranian woman jailed

for spying in iran—