the roll—out of the johnson the roll—out of thejohnson & johnson covid jab in europe has been put on hold, american regulators calling for a halt in use as a rare blood clots are investigated. six women developed clots out of 7 million people who had the vaccine, one of them has died. president biden has urged president biden has urged president putin to ease tensions on the ukrainian border suggesting they hold their first summit. border suggesting they hold theirfirst summit. tensions their first summit. tensions are theirfirst summit. tensions are rising over russia �*s military build up next to ukraine. the russian leadership seen troop deployment is a response to what it calls nato threatening moves. the policewoman who fatally shot a 20—year—old black man in minneapolis on sunday has resigned. so has the local police chief. daunte wright died during a struggle with officers after a traffic stop and it sparked nights of protests calling for an end to police violence.

it has just it hasjust gone it has just gone to 30 am. now on bbc news... tuesday in parliament. hello, and welcome to tuesday in parliament. more questions over david cameron's lobbying of ministers. does the minister now agree that dave was, and indeed, remains dodgy? no. an mp sanctioned by china for speaking out about human rights abuses discovers why. apparently for "maliciously spreading lies _ and misinformation". that is, of course, _ in the language of the chinese communist party, a euphemism for speaking the truth. - also in this programme: cross—party tributes to a former cabinet minister. she called us all "darling" not because she'd forgotten our names, butjust because she wanted to put everybody at their ease. but first, boris johnson

is under growing pressure over the former prime minister david cameron's attempts to lobby ministers on behalf of the finance firm greensill capital, which has since gone bust. downing street has announced an inquiry into the affair, but in the commons, the government came under sustained attack over allegations of cronyism. an independent review by the senior lawyer nigel boardman will look at representations made by mr cameron and his employer, lex greensill, for a role in the government's covid—19 loan scheme for greensill capital. it's emerged that mr cameron discussed the issue over a drink with the health secretary — ammunition for labour at health questions. can the secretary of state explain why, following a private drink he had with lex greensill and david cameron, that greensill was handed an nhs payroll financing contract which sought to convert income from nhs staff pay packets into bonds to sell internationally, to effectively make money on the back of nhs staff

in a pandemic? why was that contract given without tender? why was that meeting he had not declared? and what pressure did he put on officials to hand this contract to greensill? secretary of state. thank you very much, mr speaker. ministers were not involved in the decision by nhs shared business services to facilitate the provision of salary advances and pilot schemes. and absolutely, i attended a social meeting organised by the former prime minister. and given that departmental business came up, i reported to officials in the normal way. there is a wider pattern of behaviour, isn't there? we've seen ppe contracts go to tory donors, we've seen a pub landlord whatsapping him, and then the landlord gets a testing contract. we've seen a us insurance firm taking over gp contracts,

and one of their bosses gets a job in downing street. it is cronyism and it stinks. so if he thinks he has done nothing wrong and has nothing to hide, will he publish all the minutes, all the e—mails, all the correspondence, all the directions that he gave to civil servants, and all his text messages with david cameron so we can see exactly what went on with the awarding of this contract? well, the government yesterday announced that there will be a review into this. and that i will, of course, participate in full in the review. what i would say is that it is very important that governments engage with external stakeholders, with businesses, in fact, just as the previous question asked. david cameron started working for greenshill capital two years after he left downing street. his lobbying included texts to the chancellor, rishi sunak, and other treasury ministers. mps on the business committee tried to find out more. presumably, mr cameron didn't lobby you, ministers,

or officials in the department. i never received a single phone call or whatsapp from mr cameron. other messaging platforms are available. and the same for your ministers and officials, as well? as far as i understand, they haven't. but of course, we have an inquiry, as you know, and i'm sure the inquiry will get to the bottom of what exactly david cameron — what messages he sent or which ones he received, i'm sure we'll get to the bottom of that through the inquiry. david cameron has said he hasn't broken any codes of conduct or lobbying rules — although he accepted that he should have contacted ministers through "formal" channels. labour tried to turn the heat on rishi sunak with an urgent question in the commons. hundreds of millions of pounds of public money were put at risk by giving greensill access to this scheme. with greensill�*s collapse, thousands ofjobs in rotherham, hartlepool, right across the country have been put at risk. those workers and taxpayers across the country

deserve answers. the chancellor said he would level with the public — why is he running scared of levelling with them on the greensill scandal? thank you. a business minister defended rishi sunak. the chancellor is right to push officials, as we all have, to make sure that capital — that we can explore all ways of capital getting to businesses large and small, as all members of this house were asking government and demanding government do at that particular point. mr speaker, there remains. serious questions on the roles of greensill while mr cameron was prime minister, _ and who exactly is being i afforded similar influence in the uk government today. it is absolutely galling that, l while some have hoovered up so much government support when millions who don't - happen to have the primel minister's phone number — who don't have ministerial phone numbers get - absolutely nothing at all. a conservative suggested that

others were responsible for the collapse of greensill, which helped finance the owners of liberty steel, gfg alliance. there is a scandal behind this. greensill failed because it overextended itself to gfg alliance. that was signed off by gfg's auditors, effectively signed off on a business model that included borrowing hundreds of millions of pounds based upon the security of a very insecure, possibly nonexistent audit book. but labour still have a former prime minister in their sights. five years ago this week, a former member was asked to leave the chamber for using un—parliamentary language towards david cameron regarding his personal finances. does the minister now agree that dave was, and indeed, remains dodgy? no. paul scully. labour won't give up there. on wednesday, they hope mps will vote to hold their own wider investigation into the affair — especially

after the news that a senior civil servant was given permission to work as an advisor to the greensill board while he was still working for the government. now, mps havejoined to condemn the recent violence in northern ireland, which has suffered rioting on a scale not seen for many years. almost 90 police officers have been injured. the disturbances, which have involved people as young as 12, have seen youths throwing bricks, fireworks, and petrol bombs at lines of police officers and vehicles. in a statement, the northern ireland secretary condemned those behind the attacks. the violence witnessed last week is totally unacceptable. attacks on police officers are utterly reprehensible. those engaged in this destruction and disorder do not represent the people of northern ireland. the reasons, he said, were complex, but had been fuelled over a lack of prosecutions of those who attended a funeral for a former ira member, and tensions over checks on goods entering northern

ireland from great britain agreed as part of the uk—eu brexit deal. but the answer to all these issues and any others lie in dialogue, engagement, and the democratic process — not through violence or disorder. it is incumbent on all of us engaged in political discourse to support northern ireland in leaving its divisive past behind, and continuing instead to look ahead to all the opportunities of the future. for labour, the violence was unjustified and unjustifiable. the prime minister made promises to the people of northern ireland that there would be no border with great britain, knowing full well his brexit deal would introduce barriers across the irish sea. he made those promises because he knew economic separation would be unacceptable to the unionist community, and the growing political instability we are seeing has its roots in the loss of trust that this caused. the snp said leadership and honesty were needed to resolve the situation.

and there has sadly, to date, l been a dearth of some of those qualities on show in the way the protocol has been - negotiated and implemented — and the price that's been paidl for that is sadly all too clear. i this was a protocol— which was entered into freely by the uk government, and it's here to stay. i surely we can agree _ that the only route to amending it is through trust - and goodwill on all sides. brandon lewis accepted the question of border checks needed to be addressed. that's why we're very clear that, whilst we want to ensure that goods that are moving into the eu through the republic of ireland are properly dealt with, goods moving from northern ireland to great britain unfettered as they are, and goods moving from great britain and northern ireland can do so freely and flexibly in a pragmatic approach. there was a breach of trust in relation to the northern ireland protocol, and creating barriers to trade between great britain and northern ireland that we were told would not happen and have happened. and they undermine the sense of identity and the place of northern ireland

within the united kingdom. what will the secretary of state do? we took unilateral action just a few weeks ago to ease some of the issues that would've made matters even more difficult, as i suggested at the time, and i think it's now very clear they were the right actions to take. and through that, i think people can see that we are determined to deal with some of the problems in the issues there in the protocol. you're watching tuesday in parliament with me, david cornock. now, with the pubs re—opening in england, it's possible you have other demands on your time. but if you do inadvertently miss our daily round up of political life, don't forget you can catch up via the bbc iplayer. now, ministers have promised to protect military veterans and serving members of the forces from what they call "vexatious prosecutions". but plans for a new law have proved controversial. the overseas operations bill would make it harder to prosecute troops or veterans more than five years

after an alleged incident during military operations abroad. the government suffered a heavy defeat when a cross—party group of peers voted to change the bill so there was no time limit in cases of torture or war crimes. the amendment was proposed by a former labour defence secretary and ex—nato secretary general. this may be after a lifetime in politics that i was affected by some uncharacteristic naivety in thinking that the government faced by almost universal and expert opposition on this aspect of this bill would have changed its mind by now. reasonable and knowledgeable people can only be dismayed by these ministers in this situation. and it's why it is more than a normal responsibility on this house to ask the commons to look again, reflect and change

the government's mind before lasting and serious damage is done to the interests of our armed forces and indeed to the reputation of this country. this bill, by saying that there is a presumption against prosecution for the most serious of all crimes, mainly genocide, crimes against humanity and torture, it undermines some of the most basic international legal standards for which this nation was renowned. but it doesn't actually end there. because as a result of this quasi—statute of limitations, our troops might, for the first time, have to appear in front of the international criminal court. what does it do for our standing? for our influence? how can we hold those who breach international law to understand the consequences of what they are doing if we are, on the face of it, doing exactly the same ourselves?

in my view, the bill does not diminish the seriousness - with which we view or treat torture or genocide, - but it is clear that- many people disagree, and that they will not be - persuaded by any words of mine or of the government. this is important. what people think about such matters is crucial, _ regardless of whether or not we regard their— interpretation as correct. reputations — national as well as personal — i depend on perception as well as on fact. - and the uk's reputation. in the international arena is not something to be taken lightly or to be hazarded - without great cause. one possible consequence of a diminished reputationj for an unswerving opposition . to torture or genocide could be the increased interest- of the international criminal court in accusations _ against uk military personnel, an outcome that i would regard as disastrous. i

the united kingdom does not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture for any purpose. we remain committed to maintaining our leading role in the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. our armed forces will continue to operate under international law, including, of course, the geneva conventions. and we will continue to expect that others will do the same. but i should like to explain to your lordships further why the government's view is that amendment three should be resisted. first and foremost, we are concerned that it would undermine the reassurance that we are seeking to give to our service personnel and veterans by excluding a considerable list of offences from the application of the measures in part one of the bill. my lords, this bill neither stops such offences from being investigated nor prosecuted, and indeed, in relation to prosecution, the gravity of the crime will be a cogent factor. and when it came to the vote,

the government was defeated by 333 votes to 228 — a majority of 105. now, mps have given their initial approval to a bill to put the tax changes announced in the budget into law. last month, the chancellor, rishi sunak, unveiled a freeze in the tax—free personal allowance and in the higher rate of income tax, but he said he'd take more from large company profits from april 2023. he also announced a six—month extension of the furlough scheme and to the temporary £20 a week increase in the benefit, universal credit. a treasury minister said there were three key aims. first, to protectjobs and livelihoods and provide additional support to get the british people and british businesses through the pandemic. second, to be clear about the need to fix the public finances once we are on the way to recovery and to start that work. third, as we emerge from the pandemic to lay

the groundwork for a robust and resilient future economy. but labour said the bill would hit the worst off. half the country will pay more next year thanks to the provisions in this bill to freeze income tax personal allowances. at the same time, this bill does nothing to stop the sharp council tax rise that the government is forcing councils to implement right now, and it supports the chancellor's plan to cut £20 a week social security this autumn from some of those who need that help most. james murray. and the finance bill now goes for more detailed scrutiny. at the end of last month, china imposed sanctions on nine british citizens, including five mps and two peers for spreading what it called "lies and disinformation" about the country. the move was in retaliation for measures taken by the uk government a few days earlier over human rights abuses against the uighur muslim minority group in xinjiang. the prime minister said those sanctioned

were "shining a light". well, one of them, the conservative mp tim loughton, wanted to hear the government's official response, so he asked an urgent question in the commons. he began by expaining why they'd been sanctioned. we've presumably been singled out for our vociferous activities as parliamentarians in calling out the genocide against the uighur people by the chinese government, the industrial scale human rights abuses in tibet and the suppression of free speech and liberty in hong kong. that is what parliamentarians do.. hear, hear! ..without fear or favour in a democracy, mr deputy speaker. so to be sanctioned by a totalitarian regime, it's not only deeply ironic and laughable, but it is an abuse of parliamentary privilege of this house by a foreign regime. we've been absolutely clear with china that its sanctioning of uk individuals and entities is unwarranted and unacceptable, and he's right to shine a light on these measures. we will not allow this action, neither will our diplomats, by china to distract attention

from the gross human rights violations in xinjiang. another mp who'd been sanctioned spoke out against the government's refusal to include in the trade bill a measure to prevent britain trading with countries committing genocide. with many colleagues, i led on the genocide l amendment, and it's shameful that the government's - compromise — even though i it was good that they tackled genocide — excluded the uighur. i don't expect a change in law, but i do expect the minister. to say, is that the uighur- people can now come forward in any process in this place, which is put down to see . if genocide taking place. the minister defended the government's response. select committees will be able to come up with a report that the government has to consider, and that could very well lead to, depending on the response and the response of the select committees, to a debate on the floor, a meaningful debate on the floor of the house. mr deputy speaker, the foreign secretary

injanuary said we shouldn't be doing trade deals with countries committing human rights abuses well below the level of genocide, and yet, the government whipped its mps against the genocide amendment to the trade bill. can the minister explain this rank hypocrisy and why the foreign secretary says one thing in public and something else altogether in private? the uk is still not. defining the situation in xinjiang as genocide. would the minister not agree that we need to be tougher. on this, and it's high time - that the uk government follow the lead of others and define what is happening in xinjiang as genocide and make clear that the uk will not do - business with genocidal regimes anywhere? — the minister said it was for the courts to decide whether genocide was being committed. over in the lords, two other parliamentarians who were on china's sanctions list had questions. while sanctions attempting to curtail free speech are imposed on uk parliamentarians, is the government willing to make a commitment today

to take similar action and see how concerted measures can be taken to ensure that parliamentary free speech is not impeded? lady kennedy focused her attention on the situation in hong kong. will this finally lead to the announcement of sanctions on hong kong's officials? because they are clearly responsible for the dismantling of the city's autonomy and in covering up for human rights abuses. of course, whilst i can't - speculate, but what we have done recently, as i'm sure - the noble lady acknowledges, is take specific steps - against those who have been operating in xinjiang. the minister said he was looking at what further steps he could take. back in the commons, a conservative was unequivocal. that the members who have been sanctioned by the chinese, be they honourable or right honourable members, are heroes of this parliament for speaking up for free speech, and is this notjust nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to distract the public from the horrific

crimes that the chinese government is committing, not only against the uighurs, but also other minority communities in china? of course, it is. i would agree 100% that we must not let this action by china - distract from those horrific violations taking _ place in xinjiang. the foreign office minister, nigel adams. mps have been told that the uk remains on track to offer a covid—i9 vaccine to all adults by the end ofjuly. but amid concern about vaccine hesitancy in some communities, especially during ramadan, the vaccine deployment minister made this appeal during health questions. we are working closely with faith and community leaders to help spread information about vaccines through trusted, familiar voices and in a range of different languages and settings. this also means leveraging the influence of celebrity figures, such as sir lenny henry, some very powerful and

incredibly moving calls to action, letter and video to black and afro—caribbean communities — really important. we are also working to support the vaccine programme over important religious observances, for example, ramadan, which begins today. we are working with the muslim community, mr speaker, reiterating the verdict of islamic scholars and key muslim figures within the nhs that the vaccine does not break the fast and is permissible, so come and get your vaccine. labour highlighted the increase in the number of treatments being delayed or cancelled during the pandemic. we have seen a 23% increase in treatments being delayed or cancelled in the last year because of infrastructure failures, and the maintenance backlog went up by another 50% last year as well. we are not going to see those record waiting lists drop if operations are cancelled because basic repairs are not done. so can the secretary of state tell us by what date will we see no more delays to treatment because of crumbling buildings? we have got a very significant backlogl

because of the pandemic, - and we are working incredibly hard to tackle it. matt hancock. the speaker of the house of lords has led tributes of lady williams who passed away on monday. shirley williams was originally a labour mp, but she went on to become one of the "gang of four" who founded the social democratic party, the sdp. before that under the 1970s labour government she was one one of the first women cabinet ministers. lord fowler made the announcement at the start of the day. my lords, i regret to inform the house of the death of the distinguished former member, the noble baroness williams on 12 april. on behalf of the house, i extend very sincere condolences to the noble baroness' family, and i hope that there will be an opportunity for tributes to be paid in the very nearfuture. hear, hear. over in the commons, there were tributes to another

former cabinet minister, the conservative dame cheryl gillan, who died recently at the age of 68. dame cheryl was welsh secretary during the early years of david cameron's coalition government and before then was a minister underjohn major. i was so, so sad to hear of the death of cheryl gillan at the age of only 68. i think sometimes politics can feel like a hostile environment, and that is why cheryl was so important as someone who was just completely warm, nonjudgmental, vivacious and outgoing. she called us all "darling", not because she'd forgotten our names, butjust because she wanted to put everybody at ease. when she came into the house in 1992 as one of 336 conservative mps, she was one of only 20 women. so she was very much a pioneer of women's presence on the tory benches.

she became to me, particularly later in years, one of my most trusted friends... he chokes up. she was an exemplary employer of her staff who were devoted to her. she was terrific fun. and as has been said, she was a champion of women in politics. sir bernard jenkin with his memories of dame cheryl gillan. that was tuesday in parliament. thank you for watching. i do hope you canjoin me at the same time tomorrow for wednesday in parliament, including the highlights from prime minister's questions. until then, from me, david cornock, bye for now. hello.

april so far has been colder and drier than average, and the weather for now is in no mood to change that pattern. so, plenty of dry weather continuing for the next few days, but of course the thing which has got most of us talking is just how chilly it feels. there's more of that to come as well and more of those frosty nights. it is high pressure. whenever you see this, you think, "well, it's dry." however, as we saw on tuesday, there were showers around. and there will still be a few in the day ahead, though most will stay dry after what is another widespread frost to start the day, another hard frost in parts of scotland — down to —6, for example, in the northeast. one or two mist and fog patches. they will clear and we're left with quite bit of sunshine. just some areas of patchy cloud around and, you canjust see it here, one or two showers developing, more especially towards the western side of the uk. now, the winds for the most part are light, but look at the arrows here pushing in towards that north sea coast of scotland and down the eastern side of england, coming in from the sea, which is quite chilly at this time of year, and that's why these

temperatures arejust showing 7, 8 or 9 celsius. so with the onset of that northeasterly breeze, eastern areas will actually be colder, whereas we're i3 in cardiff and plymouth and i3 probably towards western parts of northern ireland. any showers that have popped up will fade away as we get on into the evening. we have another largely clear and cold night to come into thursday morning, and again one or two mist and fog patches around. and there will be another widespread frost, although we're not expecting it to be quite as hard as it's been over recent nights. how's thursday shaping up? most dry with sunny spells, but on that northeasterly breeze, we will bring in a few showers to parts of eastern england, into the southeast, perhaps the east midlands as well. if anything, that breeze will be a touch fresher, too. for the most part, though, elsewhere, the winds are light. there is warmth in the sunshine if you get some of that. you certainly feel it as temperatures, away from the chilly east, will be close to the average for the time of year.

big picture going friday into the weekend, there are weather fronts trying to move in from the atlantic towards northern ireland and scotland, initially perhaps just bringing a bit more cloud. but deeper on into the weekend, more especially on sunday, there is a chance that, here, we could see a bit of rain, whereas elsewhere it stays dry.

this is a this is bbc news. i'm mike embley with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. us and european authorities pause the rollout of thejohnson &johnson jab, as it becomes the second covid vaccine linked to rare blood clots. tensions rise around russia's military build—up near ukraine and president biden suggests a summit with president putin. president biden sets the withdrawal of us forces from afghanistan for september 11th, 20 year since 9/11. japan faces criticism over plans to release treated contaminated water from the stricken fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.