his lawyers have previously said the allegations are false. and counting continues in ireland's general election — nearly two thirds of the seats in parliament have now been filled. but it could be weeks until a government is formed. helena humphrey will be live in washington with the latest at 11pm — but now, it's time for newscast. hello, sunday's newscast with some exciting new talent. not me. well, you are exciting talent, but we've got new talent in the room. yes, joe pike is with us. hello, hello, hello. hi, vic. hi, paddy. you've got two titles in the bbc. which one are we going to use?

political and investigations correspondent. today, i think we're more politics than investigations. but, you know where where will the programme lead? who knows? and what would you normally be doing on a sunday morning? obviously watching both bbc one and listening to radio four at the same time obviously. is the correct answer! maybe one headphone in and the tv on, i think. yes, it's a very busy sunday. there's the big news of the government's milestones different from the missions. and also greg wallace has spoken for the first time about the allegations against him. he's put out an instagram story this morning, early morning, and we're going to hear what he had to say. let's get underway with sunday's newscast. newscast. newscast from the bbc. paddy's here in the studio. with victoria in the studio. and joe pike also in the studio. so, is the government having a reset, joe? i think yes and no. they're not having a reset, in the sense that what is being announced this week isn't hurriedly being pulled out

of their back pocket to distract from the resignation of louise haigh. problems in downing street staffing with sue grey's departure, policy debates over things like farmers inheritance tax. but i suppose it is a reset in the sense that keir starmer and his team are saying, look at this, this is what we're focusing on. this is the future aims we're trying to achieve in the next five years. and i suppose to some people that will look like a reset. the prime minister has written in the sun on sunday ahead of a speech on thursday, cabinet stalwart pat mcfadden was touring the tv and radio studios and he explained it to us like this. we've got the government's missions. five missions, yes. but the milestones, six. milestones. the milestones are going to be used to judge us on our policy missions. so one of the best ways to sum it up for me when he was, because... that wasn't a great way to sum it up.

no, it didn't sum it up very well, except that it is quite complicated. it's that is that if you take waiting lists. yes. pat mcfadden told me we will publish a date by which we plan to bring down the waiting list. that will be a milestone. and you canjudge us by what we say we'll do and when we'll do it by. so before the election, keir starmer unveiled these five missions, which were broad. critics would say slightly vague things like make the uk a clean energy superpower, make an nhs fit for the future. over the summer, the team around him have been trying to work out clear targets, which they're calling milestones — milestones because they're not the end point, they're just a midpoint in the ten year plan of government. that they can have everybody in government focusing on to achieve by the time of the next election. the challenge, though, i suppose, is that there will be people for whom these targets aren't what they really care most about. of course, reducing nhs waiting lists, we think will be one of the six milestones unveiled

on thursday, he said. pat mcfadden said it would be. but other people might think well, actually sorting out social care for me and my family and my loved ones might be more important. and also, as you've sort of implied, i think already, paddy, some people would argue these aren't the most accessible, easy to understand bits of political communication. this isn't get brexit done or stop the boats or make america great again. this is slightly confusing, especially since the five missions have turned into six milestones, but people within government also say these are not really easy, achievable things. well, we've made them really ambitious and we may fail. but you just mentioned three words — stop the boats, which the conservatives did not do. they they said they would and then didn't. so one of the things with political slogans and milestones and milestones, well, they can become millstones, never mind milestones. because if you do say you're going to do something, then you don't, tens of thousands to be remembered.

david cameron saying he was going to bring down immigration to tens of thousands. rishi sunak's five pledges. five, not all of which he achieved. but also if we take a step back, what's interesting is that keir starmer's government do seem to be putting everything on delivery, as in they are making quite sort of big targets, ambitious targets, which, if they don't achieve them, maybe a bit like rishi sunak, the voters will be able to say, "look, why don't we..." we're voting you out. yeah, potentially. one of the things pat mcfadden talks about this morning was this idea that 4—5—year—olds are not all of them are actually ready to start in reception class at primary school. so they don't necessarily know how to use the loo, or they can't speak in the way they should be able to speak by the time they're 4—5, and they're going to push that target up from 60% of 4—5—year—olds

being ready to start school to 75%. so that is easily measurable, isn't it? it certainly is. and the number before the pandemic was 70%. so it's dipped tojust over 60. and they want to get it back up to 75%. and what was interesting about what pat was saying on your show victoria was he, pat mcfadden, was arguing this isn't just about, that single child having opportunity. it's also about the class and the teacher being distracted, focusing on that one kid instead of focusing on all these other children. and also, there's a wider economic and growth argument that if that one child does better and the whole class does better, maybe there'll be more economic opportunity for people in schools. labour feels that it's �*97 onwards government, tony blair and gordon brown government, had a record to be proud of on surestart and on young children. they felt that education had improved under their under that watch, so inevitably, because of the trouble that they've been in since they took over the budget, that was hardly launched in a smooth way. sue gray went, louise haigh went.

but they should be talking about doorstep issues, like what is it like in the classroom? and there's an effort here, i wondered, to try and go back to what labour's meant to do as a as a centre left party, which is to try and talk about what you do with education, how you improve the lot of inequality in schools. and that, i got off him, he was trying to go back to the point of the labour party. certainly that does seem to be what keir starmer is focussed on. one of the problems, though, some might argue, is if you look at what happened in the us, some would sayjoe biden did ok with the economy and brought down inflation, but still... people didn't feel it. so they didn't give him credit for it. well, you were in the states, vic. economic factors was clearly a big part of a lot of swing voters voting for donald trump again. so it may not work even if things improve in the next five years. but if the labour government brings down hospital waiting lists in a measurable way within 12 months, that's a big win for the new government. so as well as talking

about the milestones with pat mcfadden, we both talked about the resignation of the transport secretary, louise haigh, and asked, you know, why did she have to resign when keir starmer knew that she had this previous conviction? she'd pleaded guilty to a fraud offence before she became an mp a decade ago, and pat mcfadden said he didn't know who knew what when, which could well be true, but he's one of the most powerful people in government. so he might have asked, and we reminded him that a couple of years ago, keir starmer said to boris johnson that lawbreakers can't be lawmakers. he was referring to partygate and what had gone on in downing street through covid. but i put that to pat mcfadden and this is what he had to say. but it's not the case i that anyone who's ever broken the law ever can't serve in parliament. - i'm sure if you looked i around parliament you'd find more than one. i don't know— everybody's background.

if it's fine, why did she have to go? as i say, i don't know the details of... - why do you think? ..every conversation that took place at the end of last week. | but clearly between them, they came to the view that louise had to resign. and what i think is a contrast between the way that this i situation has been dealt - with and some other situations in the past, is that it's been dealt with very quickly. - we've got a new secretary of state, heidi alexander. j is keir starmer a hypocrite because he gave a lawbreaker a job in his cabinet, having said that two years ago? no, he's not. are there still questions, joe, do you think over this? there are, there are detailed questions about, as pat mcfadden have touched on, what keir starmer knew and when, because, as we understand it, louise haigh did warn keir starmer when first appointed to the shadow cabinet about this conviction, but she didn't put it in the form when she entered the cabinet for the propriety and ethics team. however, number ten will be

hoping the fact that she's gone means that even the little bits of information are seeping out in various news organisations over the last couple of days, that's not really going to have any huge impact. and the view, i think both inside parts of government and among louise haigh's allies, is that her days were always numbered. she certainly felt, i'm told, a bit of a misfit in the cabinet, that keir starmer didn't want to expend much political capital on her. and equally, there are people within sort of heart of government who felt that she'd maybe misstepped over her comments around p&o, which caused problemsjust before that big investment summit. i was also told that keir starmer found out about the possibility of some more industrial action around the transport sector and transport unions through a bbc push alert, not from anyone in government directly, and that really frustrated him. directly, and that really frustrated him. and other people argue and other people argue that she is in the sort of soft that she is in the sort of soft

left part of labour, left part of labour, and he always wanted rid and he always wanted rid of her, and i'm sure of her, and i'm sure keir starmer would deny that. keir starmer would deny that. but certainly if there but certainly if there was a reshuffle on the cards, was a reshuffle on the cards, you might think that a lot you might think that a lot of people would think that of people would think that louise haigh would be louise haigh would be somebody in danger anyway. somebody in danger anyway. because there's a lot because there's a lot of commentary in the sunday of commentary in the sunday papers about how did papers about how did the information about the information about louise haigh's spent louise haigh's spent conviction get to the press? conviction get to the press? who told who? who told who? briefing against each so never mind who knew so never mind who knew what and when. what and when. how did that information, how did that information, which led to her downfall, which led to her downfall, get to the press? get to the press? now, one of the direct now, one of the direct accusations in the papers accusations in the papers is that morgan mcsweeney told is that morgan mcsweeney told the press, which he denies the press, which he denies he being the chief of staff. he being the chief of staff. but here's the big but here's the big picture for us all. picture for us all. he's the chief of staff now. he's the chief of staff now. but it was sue grey. but it was sue grey. so in a short space of time, so in a short space of time, labour has hit roadblock after labour has hit roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. roadblock after roadblock.

louise haigh's gone, louise haigh's gone, sue gray's gone. sue gray's gone. there's obviously people there's obviously people briefing against each

of senior government way. so there we have it. they don't call it a reset. there are lots of reasons why the media would call it a reset, because it's not been a smooth landing zone for the new government, but they're calling it milestones. we heard everything that was said on the two programmes and there we leave the labour nonreset. but what about the tequila? oh yes _ in the sunday times, paddy, it was claimed by tim shipman, their chief political commentator, that the deal over these milestones, an idea i think, taken from the labour government in new zealand, was thrashed out in pat mcfadden's garden between keir starmer, pat mcfadden and morgan mcsweeney, the chief of staff, over tequila. you asked pat mcfadden about this. yes, and i think it might have been morgan mcsweeney�*s. garden was in the paper rather than the pat mcfadden's garden. i think it was pat mcfadden. ok, well, it's one of the gardens. it was a garden. and i said, was there tequila? i didn't specify which garden.

he said, no, he's never drunk tequila in his life. so this plan was not thrashed out over tequila. he added that he's more of a guinness man but never drunk tequila. also, you don't drink tequila during the daytime? no. well, it might have been an evening meeting, but also, i think it's enough. to me, tequila is what you have at the end of the night when you're already... or get the night going. there is a possible —joe and i were talking about how it could have been a mishear of... they took the idea to kier, they took it to kier. we took it to somebody. tim shipman, the journalist, has maybe misheard. took a tequila and took it. so, he flatly denied the tequila, whichjoe pike, who's a serious bbc political and investigations

editor, has asked... correspondent. ..has asked me to go into that because i was going to draw a line on it. no you weren't. i was. you love it. to be fair, i think it does make sense because i personally can't imagine those three downing tequila and... it seems strange. newscast from the bbc. the other big news this sunday from social media, which is greg wallace, the masterchef presenter who's currently stepped aside because of allegations of misconduct with female contestants, which he strongly denies through his lawyer, has taken to his instagram feed to give a really detailed account of what he thinks has happened. and he says it's middle—class women of a certain age who've come at him in the papers. only 12—13, i think, he says, despite him having

dealt with 4,000 contestants over the years. so here's a little look at what greg wallace has published himself.

but should we just go through what they claim? some of the claims are against him? yes, i think it would be useful to go back in time, because there are questions for the bbc based on, well, joe's, typically, named this big public policy question. it's, who knew what and when did they know? the timeline is very important. so you can go back in time to look at what happened and when it happened. and basically speaking, he's been the host of masterchef for 20 years, as he said, in his own way. it emerged that in 2017, emails showed that the bbc was warned about his behaviour,

back in 2017. published in the papers today is an internal emailfrom bbc executive kate phillips saying that his behaviour on set was unacceptable and cannot continue. the thrust of the claims against him are inappropriate behaviour, inappropriate sexual innuendo — all of which he denies and says, his lawyers say, he has never sexually harassed anybody. so what do we think about this video? what's it going to do? is it going to shut the story down? well, i suppose the advent of social media means that people are allowed to put their points across without us, the media choosing which clips and editing them down. it's unclear whether a pr expert advised gregg wallace to do this. certainly the central claim in that clip seems to be that the proportion of contestants who complained is relatively low. it's13 out of more than 4,000. so what's that,

less than 1%? i suppose that in itself provokes questions. did people who witnessed problems feel like they could come forward and complain? and the fact that, for example, bbc presenter kirsty wark has raised this more than a decade later suggests that maybe it wasn't that easy to complain? asma mir, who's the former bbc presenter now times radio presenter, quoted in the sunday times, linked to this email forwarded to a bbc executive in 2017. you know, she is somebody who complained and i suppose is there not a wider question — why is it prominent senior women who are complaining? why dojunior women potentially not feel that they're able to complain? and also, where are the men in all of this? surely there will be men on the production teams or male contestants. maybe they didn't witness anything, but there is perhaps a question about men coming forward when other men are allegedly inappropriate. this is exactly the point made

on broadcasting house on radio four by cathy newman, the host of channel 4 news. here she is on that question. i mean, it's fascinating. the sunday times and the sunday telegraphl on the front pages today. asma mir wrote an email to bbc bosses in 2017 alerting them - to what was going on. but to address gregg wallace's point about the allegations - being made by, quote, i a handful of middle—class women of a certain age. i mean, i'm slightly speechless hearing that, to be honest, - but it is true that it's the - women speaking up, isn't it? it's asma mir, it's - kirsty wark, producer georgia harding in the front, on the front of the sunday i telegraph. so my question is, why is it the women speaking out? i why don't the men - come forward as well? and i think that's- a question we need to ask men in the building. it is about the power structure in big companies.

if you are a junior member of staff, on a three—week or three—month contract dealing with a broadcasting behemoth of 20 years standing, there is a power imbalance, and we could say that the broadcasting behemoth can be innocent. we are not saying at the moment there has been a verdict about this, we are just saying it's difficult to come forward if you are a junior member of staff and that is well documented. and one of the reasons, asma mir said, she sent her email at the time that she did is because she she didn't, as she put it, she didn't want in the future someone to be saying, well, why did no one speak up about this? like she's seen it happen before? people feel afraid or have multiple reasons for not speaking up. so that's why she says she did it then. and there's a big question for the bbc. who knew what and when? what did you do about it? he's also attacking people who are making the accusations or raising complaints, which is obviously quite a bold thing to do.

he also didn't deny, by the way, the complaints, the 13, as he put it, that have been made against him. he has, through his lawyer, denied. but what's happening here is he's also asking us to consider how to guess how many women have come forward with sexual innuendo on his show over the years? and i'm thinking, well, actually, do i? can i imagine that? because in my career, working at radio for a lot of women don't make sexual innuendo remarks, and if they did, i think they'd be accused of being the same, doing the same mistake as a man. i'm not saying whether his intervention today was good or bad for him, but it's far more common in these circumstances for somebody like gregg wallace to say, i'm sorry if i offended people. it was not my intention. my intention. that is very much not what he's done. he's gone to attack the age and the class and the gender of the people who have been in the papers and on tv highlighting these complaints, which seems like a different

way of of responding to this accusation or these accusations, and it may or may not work for him. well, tv chef and campaigner hugh fearnley—whittingstall was on laura's show this morning on the panel and this was his reaction. i think the intervention is not wise. _ i don't know greg well. i've met him a couple of times. he's very likeable. he's a very professional screen presence. - i have a very talented i chef on masterchef right at the moment, and she's doing incredibly well, and i've - been really enjoying - watching her and enjoying gregg's presenting. i think it's likely that gregg has what we might call- a bawdy sense of humour. clearly, that's. offended people. i think one of the issues is that down the years, i people have not felt able i to tell him when he might want to rein it in a bit. and clearly he's crossed some lines in terms of how he's- going about defending himself. i understand the instinct when you feel you're - backed into a corner, - but i don't think it's smart to come out talking like that i

when at the moment he should probably be listening. i mean, there are big questions for the bbc, obviously. and not only that, is he going to be used to promote the christmas schedule? food is a large part of what we look forward to at christmas. it's an entertaining show. it's done brilliantjobs for nutrition and for the careers of chefs over the years. you know, we can be happy about that. and then we know that these allegations have got to be dealt with. but what do we know about what's going to happen with the schedule? difficult questions for bbc commissioners. difficult questions for bbc commissioners and channel execs, because these programmes are filmed, planned, people are halfway through watching masterchef. hugh fearnley—whittingstall talked about one of his own chefs who's on that programme. what does the bbc do for the sake of the viewer, but also the sake of women who claim they witnessed inappropriate behaviour? it is a bit of a conundrum for them. yeah, i mean, and finally, what i would say is that one of the things that has happened

here is that bbc news, which is editorially independent of the organisation that runs the bbc, the people who run the bbc, they made a lot of investigation to find this information out. so if it does sound like we're getting to the end of newscast talking about the bbc on the bbc, which happens too much, it's because that did actually happen. those two things can be true at the same time. so it seems like a very busy sunday and a very busy weekend for news. and we were very lucky that you made an appearance because, you know, we haven't had you here before. at the weekend. a brief cameo, a bit of low grade b—team sparkle... so we're really grateful to you for coming and telling us how to understand things and to you listening and watching. thank you very much. thank you. thanks. newscast from the bbc. hello. meteorologically speaking, sunday was the first day of winter.

now, there were a number of showers around, but it was a pretty mild day. indeed, across wales, we had temperatures of 15.4 celsius recorded at both hawarden, in flintshire, and also in cardiff — those temperatures way above the december average. and those mild weather conditions were brought to us by these southwesterly winds, which are still across a good part of the country. however, look at this band of rain sinking south across scotland. behind that, we start to see the winds turn more to a northerly direction — and it's those northerly winds that, through monday, will push this zone of colder air southwards. so, it will feel much colder as we go through the day, across northern areas in particular. so, the rain starts today — southern scotland, pushes southwards across northern england, reaches north wales and the midlands through the afternoon. brighter conditions follow, but it will be gusty around irish sea and north sea coasts, gusts of around 40—50mph. temperatures in england and wales about 8—11 celsius, so still relatively mild. through the afternoon,

it turns colder for scotland and northern ireland — temperatures here around 4—6 celsius. and then, that cold air surges southwards — monday night, a much colder night than we've been used to, with a widespread frost. so, a frosty and cold start to your day on tuesday, but with plenty of sunshine for most areas, however. band of rain is going to move in off the atlantic, so it turns wet in northern ireland, and eventually, the rain reaches western scotland, as well. temperatures really struggle — 4—7 celsius — it will be a chilly day on tuesday for most. then tuesday night, the rain starts to turn to snow — and that's especially the case in scotland, and especially for eastern areas, we could have some accumulations of snow, potentially bringing some localised disruption. but ultimately, the snow will turn back to rain, as milder air works its way in. and, as we head through wednesday, that milder weather pushes in from the west, we'll have a lot of low cloud, some mist and fog. quite a murky—looking day, perhaps turning a bit brighter as we head into the afternoon for some. but it's another day with struggling temperatures, particularly for central

and eastern areas. starts to turn a bit milder in the west. and then, thursday and friday, areas of low pressure on the way could bring some very strong gusts of wind, but certainly will be bringing some pretty wet weather our way.

live from washington. this is bbc news. protestors take to the streets once more in georgia, as the prime minister denies suspending talks to join the eu. syria's president meets the iranian foreign minister in damascus, welcoming support against a rebel offensive that's taken large parts of the country. as nations around the globe mark world aids day — the un urges world leaders to do more, in the fight to end the disease.

hello i'm... thousands of protesters are on the streets of georgia for a fourth night, in response to the government suspending talks tojoin the european union. these are the live pictures from the capital tblisi where demostrators are outside parliament. some protesters threw fireworks towards police officers crouching behind shields. the latest protests come after georgia's prime minister seemed to contradict the very comments that sparked this week's demonstrations. he denied that his government is suspending moves to join the european union. our russia editor, steve rosenberg is in tbilisi and spoke to the prime minister. he sent this report. fireworks explode. in tbilisi, now, every night is fireworks night. a fourth night of protests outside parliament, while inside, police try to keep protesters at bay.