andy verity, bbc news, southwark crown court.ncial affairs of francois fillon, the centre—right presidential candidate. he's been under increasing pressure to step down over allegations that he paid his wife a salary as a parliamentary assistant for work she did not do. as our correspondent lucy williamson reports, mr fillon was seen until recently as the favourite to win the presidential contest in may. he's hoping to hear this on election day. but francois fillon staked his campaign on his personal life, family, old—fashioned values, strong catholic faith. now, the man who wa nted catholic faith. now, the man who wanted to cut half a million public jobsis wanted to cut half a million public jobs is accused of falsely paying his wife £700,000 from public funds, claims he's called mudslinging, misogyny and an institutional coups d'etat. translation: it's not just d'etat. translation: it's notjust as they want, it's to break me, and notjust me, it's the right they want to break. over the course of the decade penelope the young was

our economics correspondent andy verity reports. yet the consumer who is being squeezed ha rd est. the consumer who is being squeezed hardest. it is the company that sells you the goods and even more so the companies that produce them. following the devaluation caused by the brexit fort, this east london brewery is being much more for the same raw materials imported from abroad. it has boosted prices by 5% but the costs have risen twice as fast. for all businesses but equally so fast. for all businesses but equally so for us, we have pensions coming in this year, huge business rate increase this year, we have leader area increase this year, we have leader are a london living wage employer so thatis are a london living wage employer so that is significant —— we are a london living wage employer. we also have the raw material prices going up have the raw material prices going up and up for raw materials imported so up and up for raw materials imported so it is a real crunch point for us. today's inflation rate is still below the bank

income raised through tax is now at its highest level in 30 years. 0ur economics correspondent andy verityore details. after having a 10% real terms cut in public service spending we've still got a deficit which is one of the highest it's been for the last 60 years. so it hasn't really helped, the national debt is still growing. the deficit is of course spending beyond our income, the government spends more than it gets in taxes, and that happens most of the time with most countries. but we've been trying to reduce the deficit, it's been the central economic policy, not with much success. and yet we are told after seven years of that it is another seven years of that. it is seven years of famine and seven years of famine. more than half of 10 to 12 year—olds who use social media now share selfies, according to a survey for the bbc‘s newsround. a fifth said that seeing images of celebrities online made them feel anxious about how they look; and many said they didn't like it when their parents posted images of them online. newsround's ricky boleto reports. with cameras in our phones and tabl

andy verity, bbc news.resident trump's first high—profile resignation, of michael flynn overnight. let's speak to our correspondent in washington, anthony zurcher. sean spicer gave a press conference a few moments ago where he said this was a matter of trust, this wasn't about any laws being broken. one suspects the democrats might have something different to say about that? the question as to whether laws are broken is hard. the law that governs something like this when private scissors and is are dealing with nations involved in a controversy with the us government, but lobbies back to 1789. on that issue, it is not illegal, more of a public relations nightmare and a matter of the national—security adviser misrepresenting what he said toa adviser misrepresenting what he said to a russian official. not only to the trump administration but in public as well. and donald trump finding out about this towards the end of january, finding finding out about this towards the end ofjanuary, finding out michael flynn

andy verity, bbc news. the car—maker vauxhall could be taken over by the french company, peugeot. giant general motors — is having merger talks with peugeot. the french compa ny‘s shares jumped 5% following the reports of discussions. rolls royce has posted one of the biggest corporate losses in history. the british aircraft engine manufacturer — which employs 23,000 people in the uk — lost £4.6 billion last year because of the instability of the pound, and penalties it had to pay uk and us authorities for bribery and corruption. our business editor told us more. rolls—royce sells engines and crucially the service contracts get on those engines for 20 years at a time and usually in dollars. the company's big risk is that the dollar falls in value and those revenues when you translate them into starling dwindle. if the opposite happens, those insurance policies and the pound has fallen sharply against the dollar, the opposite happens and you have a big charge, on paper, which propells it towards a loss but this isn't cash they‘ re handing out. so look at the underlining earnings an

andy verity, bbc news.fter the electronics giant announced it expected to post a full year loss of £2.7 billion. the company was forced to write off around £5 billion following problems with its american nuclear business. shares in the company have fallen sharply. joining us now from paris is dr paul dorfman from the energy institute at university college london and founder of the nuclear consulting group. these figures on the face of it look huge. why would any company want to stay in the nuclear business after this? it's likely that they wouldn't. it's indicative of what's happening at worldwide in terms of nuclear, we are seeing failing to construct vast overruns, vast time ove i’i’u ns construct vast overruns, vast time overruns and this is just yet another example of this general trend. the trouble with that is one of the next projects is in the uk, do you think it will go ahead?m of the next projects is in the uk, do you think it will go ahead? it is probably over, toshiba owns 60% of the corporation

andy verity, bbc news. the car maker vauxhall could be taken over by the french company, peugeot.rican car giant general motors, is in talks with peugeot about gm's european operations. the french compa ny‘s shares jumped 5% following the reports of discussions. 0ur correspondent ben ando is in luton outside one of vauxhall‘s plants for us. how much more do we know at this stage? well, at the moment not a huge amount. this is where boxall make fa ns amount. this is where boxall make fans and its sales of vans and cars that have been slowly recovering for general motors. 0pel is the company in europe that owns vauxhall and it has been struggling. general motors have formed an alliance with the company that owns peugeot and citroen as well another appear to be talks going on about what they are describing as closer links that could lead to the company that owns peugeot and citroen acquiring vauxhall and 0pel and consolidating its operations in europe. because it is such an early stage inevitably what we want to know with any potential impact on british workers? it employs a lot of p

andy verity cymru many thanks.thousands of iraqis who alleged they'd been abused by british soldiers during the iraq conflict, has been struck off. phil shiner was found to have acted dishonestly in bringing murder and torture claims against the soldiers. caroline hawley has the story. phil shiner was once regarded as one of this country's best human rights lawyers. but his firm has had to close, his reputation is in shreds, and he'll now never work as a lawyer again. it was from the aftermath of the iraq war that phil shiner rose to public prominence. suing the british army over allegations of abuse defined his career and became a personal crusade. in all, he's brought more than 2,000 claims. i don't know whether people were killed, but i think something went wrong. we need to find out who was responsible and who in command knew what on earth was going on here. they were kept naked, they were sexually humiliated. this is baha mousa, an iraqi hotel worker battered to death in british custody. this footage shows jus

parliament — that's the highest proportion for more than 30 years. 0ur economics correspondent andy veritys of austerity. a 10% real terms cut in public spending. the economy starts to grow. it does not really seem to have sorted out the public finances. we are stuck with the highest national debt since before you and i we re national debt since before you and i were born. we've got a deficit which is higher than all but 13 of the last 16 years. it has not helped to sort out public finances. some people would say we've not had enough of it. there is the question of economic growth. if you don't have the tax money coming in, your finances are going to get worse. they are predicting it is quite modest. our top story this lunchtime: john bercow is criticised by a growing number of conservatives for his opposition to donald trump addressing mps. still to come, a limit on prepay energy bills. meters will be capped to help low—income households. rafael nadal will warm up households. rafael nadal will warm upfor households. rafael nadal will warm up for wimbledon by playing in the year gone champ

there's been a fall of 19,000 in the number of workers from the eu, as our economics correspondent andy verity of machine tools for the car industry has a problem. it wants to expand to meet demand for its precision parts, but it can't grow without the staff to do the work. it has been able to draw on a supply of skilled workers from the rest of the european union who make up a quarter of its workforce, but now that supply is drying up. we are working with several recruiting agencies at the moment who have been trying to find me people for several months now. and the calibre of people that we require are just not out there. that is both indigenous population and overseas. the number of workers in the uk from the rest of the european union has been growing by hundreds of thousands per year, but to the right of this chart you can see how it stopped growing as quickly and in the last three months of 2016 the number dropped slightly. workers from poland, for instance, who were working in the uk, can buy less goods for what they earn than in their country of origin. so, you only get say, 90% of a w

income raised through tax is now at its highest level in 30 years. 0ur economics correspondent andy veritys of the highest it has been in 60 years so it hasn't helped, the national debt is still there. we are spending beyond our income, the government spends more than it has in taxes and that happens with most countries most of the time but we've been trying to reduce the deficit, it has been central economic policy, with not that much success but now we are being told after seven years, it is another years of famine. —— another seven years. surrey county council has abandoned plans to increase council tax by 15% to fund a growing demand for social care. the conservative leader of the local authority said he would now seek a rise ofjust under 5% — and hope that ministers would find a solution to the problem. the government has listened and we believe the government now understands, so we are willing to ta ke understands, so we are willing to take a risk that a solution will be found to the issues that all councils face however if there is a babe progress —— however if there is in progress,

income raised through tax is now at its highest level in thirty years. 0ur economics correspondent andy verity and it doesn't seem to be paying off. cuts in public spending in 2010 and the hope was that you cut the government budget back and private sector investment comes in to replace it in the economy grows again. it has not happened. we still have a deficit which will be higher than in all but 13 of the 60 years. at this was there because there wasn't enough austerity in recent yea rs. wasn't enough austerity in recent years. george osborne retreated from ita years. george osborne retreated from it a little bit. 0thers years. george osborne retreated from it a little bit. others will say it is down to economic growth. if you don't have the tax money coming in, it it doesn't matter how much you cut a way of spending, you won't improve it. but they have been some improvements? it has been better than the gloomy forecasts so far, but the consensus now, and be wary of the consensus, but the consensus says over the next couple of years inflation will bite. the pound's wea kness inflation will b

income raised through tax is now at its highest level in 30 years. 0ur economics correspondent andy verity‘ve had it for the last seven years. after having a 10% real terms cut in public service spending we‘ve still got a deficit which is one of the highest it‘s been for the last 60 years. so it hasn‘t really helped, the national debt is still growing. the deficit is of course spending beyond our income, the government spends more thanit income, the government spends more than it gets in taxes, and that happens most of the time with most countries. but we‘ve been trying to reduce the deficit, it‘s been the central economic policy, not with much success. and yet we are told after seven yea rs much success. and yet we are told after seven years of that it is another seven years of that. it is seven another seven years of that. it is seve n yea rs another seven years of that. it is seven years of famine and seven yea rs of seven years of famine and seven years of famine. we are focusing this week on the performance of the health service. what can we read into this pattern of spending and taxa

collapsed — and the subsequent problems which emerged in the pension fund. 0ur economics correspondent andy verityas talking about 250 million. at that point, the pensions regulator got irritated and talked about enforcement action against him, and there was a lot of opprobrium for sir philip green in parliament and the press. he has changed and moved, he said £360 million. it is still much less than the hole in the pension scheme which was £571 million when bhs went bust at the beginning of last year. sir philip green solderjust one year before. —— solve it. frank green felt that he —— frank field felt that he had a different view. it is an important first step in gaining justice for the whole bhs saga. there's no going back on this sum, and it means people going into the scheme will not suffer any cuts at all, as they would have done if they were abandoned and went into the pension protection fund. their pensions will be increased less than they would have been under the contracts that they had. there are some losers, but there is a very big sum of money that the pension regulator has got. that

the ageing population is putting pressure on the health care system. 0ur economics correspondent, andy veritycome, so we had to come back. but actually it may be growth that is the real problem. because governments continually run deficits and run up debt. it comes down when you get enough economic growth and enough tax receipts coming in, more than you are spending. swat we are looking for here —— looking at here isa looking for here —— looking at here is a deficit that is higher —— so, what we‘re looking at here is that the burden is higher than it has been... the real question as to whether austerity has worked. we need to do something else to stimulate growth because if you get an unique growth in the next few yea rs, an unique growth in the next few years, we‘re still going to be in the same position. what the government is trying to do is stimulate growth, notjust through cuts, but through capital spending. that is the strategy, and capital spending start the economy going a little better, or will the consumer be so put off spending by inflation that the economy is closed down —— econom

with me now is our economics correspondent andy verity.cause of immigration from e u a ccess largely because of immigration from eu access and states but what is interesting in the numbers is it suggests the increase in the workforce is slowing down. whereas a few months ago, i would have been telling you that the workforce had grown by 500,000, now i can tell you it has grown by more like 300,000. the number of people coming from eu access and states, non—uk nationals coming from the rest of the eu was up coming from the rest of the eu was up by coming from the rest of the eu was up by190,000, coming from the rest of the eu was up by 190,000, still coming from the rest of the eu was up by190,000, stillan coming from the rest of the eu was up by 190,000, still an increase but much less so than it was. we have not left the eu yet so why is this? no, we haven't but the office for national statistics does not give reasons for these numbers so you are left in the realms of speculation. you might suggest that perhaps the prospect of brexit migh

andy verity, bbc news.r of the north korean leader kimjong—un is reported to have been assassinated in malaysia. south korean media sources say kim jong—nam was killed at kuala lumpur airport yesterday morning. he's thought to have left north korea after being passed over for the leadership of the country. here's our diplomatic correspondent, james robbins. h is e's our diplomatic h is a . our diplomatic h is a . our dip where: h is a . our dip where publicjoy is the test of loyalty. this is currently the man loyalists must venerate, kimjong currently the man loyalists must venerate, kim jong un, currently the man loyalists must venerate, kimjong un, latest to currently the man loyalists must venerate, kim jong un, latest to the qin dynasty who have ruled north korea since the % the