to say to ourselves, why didn't we see more? but what have you come up with then? why didn't you see more? i tell you for why. because it's the first time. and, you know, there are all sorts of reports out today which has caused me to lose my beauty sleep about looking at numbers. but the one thing that seems to have come out more and more is a kind of analysis of you. and it kind of makes sense, doesn't it? because if i trust you, then i trust you to make the changes that are necessary. but the bbc london poll determined that 63% of londoners did not trust you to make those changes. how do you respond to that? i'm six months into my commissionship. i've said some very strong things. people are wanting want to see the action, aren't they? so i'm not, i'm not at all surprised by that. what they're seeing is an organisation that's going through some very difficult times. it's made some mistakes with some ghastly, ghastly consequences, and a lot of them won't realise

there's a new commissioner even in place because people don't follow the news that closely. so it's going to take time for people to see the difference. and of course what i've been very clear about from day one is as we lift the stone, as we confront the things that have been confronted in the past, then, frankly, that's going to have an effect on confidence because you're sort of, we're baring all we're saying, "look, there is a problem. "we're facing into it. "we're taking it on." the poll also showed that half of women questioned totally distrusted met police officers. eddie nestor asked sir mark about david carrick, the serial rapist and former met police officer, who was jailed for 30 years in february after committing violent and degrading sexual offences against a dozen women over two decades. would david carrick have been sacked today under your tenure? would you have been, would you have hoped, surely you hope... yes. ..that somebody like him... so the failings on the carrick case are, there are multiple criminal allegations made against him.

sorry, just to make sure everybody knows, this is a serial rapist who has come to light, who carried out his deeds over multiple years, who had been up for multiple investigations and yet still was operating. and it was only because of an incredibly brave officer who listened to the testimony of the family in the wake of sarah everard why this man is now injail. exactly right. and so you had a series of allegations over many years, all of which were investigated, many not by the met, because they took place elsewhere. they're investigated, files went to cps. cps said there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. and no one everjoined the dots within the met to say, well, these cases might not on their own get to that threshold, but there's a pattern of behaviour here which is deeply, deeply, deeply troubling. for example, reporting of rape has quadrupled in the last decade. that's an extraordinary growth. frankly, we haven't in policing

managed to grow the number of officers dealing with it to the same extent. and you can have the same sort of, similar stats around domestic violence and harassment and other such offences. and so what that has meant is the officers who are dealing with it are massively stretched. i mean, sometimes individuals behave badly, but a lot of this is about stretched, and women then not feeling properly supported, quite understandably so. let's talk to our home affairs editor mark easton. mark rowley head of met police for six months. you have been in your role for many years and you will know as much as anyone about this issue is decades long. how much do you think mark rowley�*s approach marks a shift in what has come from his predecessor's?- what has come from his redecessor's? ., ., ., , , predecessor's? you are absolutely riaht, predecessor's? you are absolutely ri ht, 50 predecessor's? you are absolutely right. 50 years _ predecessor's? you are absolutely right. 50 years ago _ predecessor's? you are absolutely right, 50 years ago slightly - predecessor's? you are absolutely right, 50 years ago slightly before| right, 50 years ago slightly before i took thisjob, right, 50 years ago slightly before i took this job, but 50 years ago, the commission of the metropolitan

police talked about rooting out corruption from the force and he was bemoaning the fact that he didn't have more powers to get rid of rogue officers. so, yes, this is a story that has been going around and around for all of that time and more. interesting, though, you only have to go back six years, and they have to go back six years, and they have been measuring levels of public trust, how londoners think about scotland yard, for quite a few years. in 2016, end of 2016, almost 90% of londoners said that they trusted the met. that is an extraordinarily high figure. at the end of last year it had fallen to 66%. the latest one we have is about 70%. but you can imagine, given every thing we have heard from the casey review and the cases, that figure is likely to pull. this is absolutely right, this is a systemic problem for the metropolitan police and mark rowley�*s challenge is actually to convince people that

this time they really well sorted out. in this time they really well sorted out. . , ., out. in that interview he 'ust gave to the sac, — out. in that interview he 'ust gave he the see. he i out. in that interview he 'ust gave to the bbc, he said _ out. in that interview he 'ust gave to the bbc, he said that h out. in that interview he just gave to the bbc, he said that he - out. in that interview he just gave to the bbc, he said that he is - to the bbc, he said that he is asking the home secretary for greater powers to be able to root out corrupt police officers. is that something that is likely to happen? at the home secretary is conducting a review into exactly that process. that review will be pronounced at the end of this month. he is making a strong case that, yes, there should be a change, as things stand as may surprise people, but as things stand, police officers are employed not under normal employment law, but under very specific police regulations. this means that, ultimately, the people who decide whether an officer should be dismissed or whether they should remain in the force, whether it is a dispute, is not the commissioner, but an independent legal tribunal. mark rowley says that is wrong, that he should have the final say. in

fact, he told the bbc london, can you imagine sitting with a chief executive of a bigger organisation saying that they were not an allowed saxon people. i think the home secretary will be looking hard at this issue. —— allowed to sack people. and the police federation. so we will have to see.— so we will have to see. briefly, finall , so we will have to see. briefly, finally. the _ so we will have to see. briefly, finally, the met _ so we will have to see. briefly, finally, the met police - so we will have to see. briefly, finally, the met police has - so we will have to see. briefly, finally, the met police has said| finally, the met police has said that there is going to be police officers moved away from serious crime and counterterrorism, in order to deal with this issue. but that is at a time when mark rowley, himself, said in that interview that they are stretched, and their resources are limited. how do you think that is going to go down? {lit limited. how do you think that is going to go down?— limited. how do you think that is going to go down? of course, being a commission — going to go down? of course, being a commission of— going to go down? of course, being a commission of the _ going to go down? of course, being a commission of the metropolitan - commission of the metropolitan police is all about deciding where you are going to put your resources and there are always competing demands. i think mark rowley has come to the conclusion that, in a

way, the existential challenge for the metropolitan police, right now, is to restore public trust, but to do that you have got to come in a way, take a massive risk, that he wants to find gross misconduct, he wants to find gross misconduct, he wants to find gross misconduct, he wants to suspend officers, he would like to sack more of the work done hundreds of police officers who he says should not be in the force. of course, that means that in the short term and perhaps the medium term, those trust figures are going to go down, you are going to have potentially problems where you move resources to try to uncover that kind of wrongdoing, huge pressures against will be coming on the mat. there is a huge risk with this strategy. yes, in a way, you have to convince people that you are serious and mark rowley and the mayor of london and the home secretary are prepared to give mark rowley the time he says he needs to go through that process, but, to be honest,

we're going to see a lot of uncomfortable numbers over the next two, three, four, five years, that is how long. they say trust, it arrives on foot and leaves on horseback. it is going to take a long time to restore that trust. and i think the real question for the metropolitan police and of course for mark rowley is whether he can convince people fast enough that, yes, this is an organisation that is going to root out the bad cops and really has changed.— going to root out the bad cops and really has changed. thank you very much. a conservative mp has been suspended by the parliamentary party, after he was filmed by undercover reporters apparently offering to lobby ministers. scott benton has referred himself to parliament's standards commissioner over the sting by the times newspaper — and has lost the tory whip. the labour leader, sir keir starmer, says the suspension of mr benton is further evidence that "tory sleaze" is back. i think it's really important

that we have rules and regulations and transparency so that wherever anybody accepts hospitality, we know what's happened. but with scott benton, what you've seen is a flagrant disregard of those rules, of those principles, and it's not a one—off. only a few weeks ago we saw three other tory mps looking after lucrative jobs, thousands of pounds at a time for their apparent advice. and i think all of this shows that the prime minister's lost a grip. and, you know, if ever we needed further evidence, this is it, that tory sleaze is back. the transport minister, richard holden, says the government acted quickly. well, i think it was absolutely right that the chief whip took immediate action last night when these allegations came to light and removed the whip from mr benton. and i'm also glad that he he's referred himself to the parliamentary commissioner for standards. i think the government's already moved very swiftly in this area over the last few years,

banning mps from lobbying for external companies in this way. and i think that's exactly the right thing to have done and i'm really glad that it's being dealt with swiftly at the moment. times are tough for many people and money is tight — but one young boy is spending all his pocket money in the hope of putting a smile on a stranger's face. nine—year—old ewan has been handing out random bouquets of flowers in his hometown of guiseley in west yorkshire. jacob tomlinson went to meet him. excuse me. do you want some flowers for free? i'm trying to make people smile, and i spent them with my own pocket money. is that really so? that's really kind of weird, especially because i had just been to a funeral. ——kind of you. meet ewan, the guiseley good samaritan, who's been handing out free flowers to passersby in his local community

as a random act of kindness. there's like, there's a lot of people who feel kind of sad. i've never made so many people smile like that before. nine—year—old ewan first came up with the idea when he went into his local supermarket on mother's day and noticed lots of flowers for sale. so he decided with his own pocket money to buy some of those flowers, but not to give to his family, to give to complete strangers, all because he wants to make people smile. i was a bit surprised. i said to him, you know, what do you want to do with the flowers? would you like to give them to grandma, to your sister? and he said, no, i'd like to give them to people who are passing by who look like they might need to smile. and i was just really taken aback. i was so proud. would you like any flowers for free? are you sure? yeah. i'm giving them out to people for my own pocket money. oh, that's amazing. oh, thank you very much. that's very kind of you. we've got home. somebody had posted on social media

that she was the lady who she received the flowers and she put that she was so overwhelmed about how kind he was and what a generous thing to do. and then our local florist, they commented and said, come in tomorrow and you can have some bunches of flowers on us. that week there was 28 people who went away with with flowers. i felt happy afterwards because i've made someone's day. and so i really wanted to do it all to make people smile more. with a simple gesture, clearly making such a big difference, ewan wants to spread an important message. just spread kindness and just be kind to people. in ewan's case, the saying rings true. no acts of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. jacob tomlinson, bbc news. we all need to be a bit more like him. we will be back at the top of the hour, goodbye for now.

live from london, this is bbc news. in the heart of power in china's capital — president macron tells xi jinping — i'm counting on you to bring russia back to reason. further confrontation between israeli police and palestinians at the al aqsa mosque. buckingham palace is cooperating with an independent study into links between the british monarchy and the slave trade. president macron has told xi jinping that he's counting on the chinese leader to reason with russia and help bring an end to the war in ukraine. president emmanuel macron of france

urged the chinese leader, xijinping, to make president putin see reason.