damian grammaticas, thank you very much. l grammaticas, thank you very much.shared his views on the controversy during a interview on the today programme on bbc radio 4. the real roblem of programme on bbc radio 4. the real problem of today _ programme on bbc radio 4. the real problem of today is _ programme on bbc radio 4. the real problem of today is that _ programme on bbc radio 4. the real problem of today is that the - programme on bbc radio 4. the real problem of today is that the bbc - programme on bbc radio 4. the real problem of today is that the bbc has | problem of today is that the bbc has undermined its own credibility by doing this because it looks like, the perception out there is that the bbc has bowed to government pressure. 0nce bbc has bowed to government pressure. once the bbc does that then you are in real problems. bind then you are in real problems. and shadow culture secretary lucy powell spoke earlier to the bbc breakfast programme. spoke earlier to the bbc breakfast programme-— spoke earlier to the bbc breakfast rouramme. , ,., ,, pro

our political correspondent damian grammaticas reports. 0k, damian grammaticas reports. on your marks on your marks, get set, go. the promise of— ok, on your marks, get set, go. the promise of free _ ok, on your marks, get set, go. the promise of free childcare in this budget marks a major expansion in the scope of the welfare state, but already there are questions. where will the staff come from? is there enough funding?— enough funding? they are saying childcare wants _ enough funding? they are saying childcare wants to _ enough funding? they are saying childcare wants to be _ enough funding? they are saying childcare wants to be the - enough funding? they are saying childcare wants to be the best, i enough funding? they are saying i childcare wants to be the best, they want to do the best for parents, then they need to fund it and they need to put their hands in their pockets more deeply than 204 million. ., �* , pockets more deeply than 204 million. ., ~ , , ., million. from april next year, workin: million. from april next year, working parents _ million. from april next year, wo

damian grammaticas, bbc news, westminster.. one member of the community — who lost 2 friends — told the bbc that it will take years to heal. the bbc�*s, jenny hill, reports. bereaved, bewildered, a city in mourning. these jehovah�*s witnesses told us they lost a relative in the shooting. what was once a place of worship, now a shrine to the dead. we pray together. we cry together. michael tells us he�*s barely slept since the attack. too busy supporting survivors, comforting the bereaved. two of his friends were killed. it�*s hard to imagine that a group of people sitting together during an evening in their church, reading the bible, singing and praying together, and then all of a sudden, a scene of love is becoming a scene of hate and death. gunshots. the killer brought terror to this community. what makes it harder to bear, that he himself was once part of this congregation. detectives who say he left on bad terms reveal they were warned he had a gun, was mentally unstable and had a hatred of organised religion. it�*s a comm

damian grammaticas, bbc news, westminster.ng the chancellor on our website. and we will of course have live coverage on wednesday of everything that happens with expert analysis from our correspondents — dojoin us for that. more now on one of our main stories this hour — the collapse of the silicon valley bank which has played a key role in funding tech start—up companies in the us and the uk. i'm joined by dr camilla easter, the ceo of uk biotech startup oxford medical products, which banks with silicon valley bank. how are you feeling right now? tired, actually. we have been working throughout the weekend, as you can understand, to try and mitigate all the risks and uncertainty going on in the sector, and i speak as all ceos in my position at the moment, we are working incredibly hard to understand how we can meet our obligations to our staff and creditors. obligations to our staff and creditors-— obligations to our staff and creditors. ~ ., ., , ., ., ., creditors. what are you hearing from the regulators _ creditors. what

damian grammaticas, bbc news, westminster. will of course have live coverage on wednesday of everything that happens — with expert analysis from our correspondents — dojoin us for that. just a few hours to go now to the oscars — and finishing touches have been applied to the dolby theatre in hollywood, which is once again hosting the event. one of the differences keen showbiz fans may notice this year — the red carpet has been dropped — in favour of one which is described as champagne coloured. that's led to some jokes about worries of blood being shed — a reference to will smith's now infamous slap at last year's event. there will also be a crisis team working for the oscars — the organisers say it's there to mitigate any potential surprises. ican i can tell you although i can show you that the stars and the dresses have started to arrive stop. in terms of who might win — the film �*everything, everywhere, all at 0nce�* leads the field with 11 nominations. there are also more first time nominees than ever before including a n

damian grammaticas, bbc news. government was working to find a solution that will secure customers' liquidity and cashflow needs. there are warnings that the collapse of the large american bank and its british arm could have a significant impact on tech start—up businesses. it's the biggest failure of a us bank since the 2008 financial crisis. the us treasury secretary janet yellen says she was working closely with banking regulators to respond to the collapse of the bank and protect depositors, but said a major bailout was not being considered. the uk chancellor, jeremy hunt, has been meeting the governor of the bank of england, andrew bailey. he offered some reassurance. the governor of the bank of england has said that there is not a systemic risk to the financial system, so people should be reassured by that. there is a serious risk to some of our most promising companies in technology and life sciences. the prime minister, i, and the governor of the bank of england were up late last night, we've been working

damian grammaticas, bbc news, westminster.categories wide open, but everything everywhere all at once has the most nominations with 11 while all quiet on the western front has nine. but i've got to say, the biggest news is that the red carpet so far, it's not actually read, for the first time, but that's it from us. thank you so much. hello there. the snow was melting on sunday, temperatures were widely in double figures, but that doesn't mean the cold weather has gone away because we've got warnings from the met office through monday and into tuesday for snow and ice across northern parts of the uk. and it's cold in the far north of scotland, temperatures close to freezing first thing in the morning. otherwise, it is a very mild start to monday. we may well have some early sunshine across eastern parts of england before we see a few showers, other parts of the uk, more cloud, showers or longer spells of rain, and the rain in scotland is going to be turning more to snow, particularly over the hills as a northerly wind strength

conservatives have recommended that mps vote against the agreement. 0ur political correspondent, damian grammaticasdamien, this should go through because labour support it, but even so, uncomfortable for rishi sunak to be facing any kind of tory backbench rebellion? yes, a real test for mr sunak. yes, a realtest for mr sunak. mps are voting on what is called the stormont break, the mechanism mr sunak agreed with the eu to give northern ireland a say over eu laws. it is significant that those two former prime ministers have come out against it. borisjohnson and liz truss. and as you are saying, the european research group, who caused such trouble for liz truss, they are also advising conservative mps to oppose this measure. the stormont break is a break with no break_ the stormont break is a break with no break pads. it's incredibly complicated, it isn't a veto, if you look— complicated, it isn't a veto, if you look at _ complicated, it isn't a veto, if you look at the — complicated, it isn't a veto, if you look at the details. it has been sold _ look at the details. it has been sold to — look at th

let's get the latest now from our political correspondent damian grammaticas.of support for gary lineker first more expressions of support for gary linekerfirst of all that more expressions of support for gary lineker first of all that we have been hearing about in the last few minutes. take us through those. yes. minutes. take us through those. yes, there have been. _ minutes. take us through those. yes, there have been. we _ minutes. take us through those. 123 there have been. we know his fellow presenters have said they will not stand then, other footballers playing today have been approaching their union saying what happens if they don't want to take part in post—match interviews. of course we have now had political reaction and politicians weighing in and labour's shadows culture secretary has been very strong. she says the bbc have got themselves into a real mess bowing to a tory campaign to cancel somebody who disagreed with their views. part of the issue with their sound for the bbc director—general is this a spiralling and she raised directly the issue

our correspondent, damian grammaticas, is in front of the bbc headquarters outside the building herepresenters, no pundits, possibly no players talking to it, no commentators. the schedules are in disarray, aren't they? because other programmes have come off there as well. yes. they? because other programmes have come off there as well.— come off there as well. yes, so riaht come off there as well. yes, so right now _ come off there as well. yes, so right now what _ come off there as well. yes, so right now what should - come off there as well. yes, so right now what should have - come off there as well. yes, so l right now what should have been come off there as well. yes, so - right now what should have been on air wasn't, so there you had football focus which should have been mid—day, replaced by bargain hunt. finalscore been mid—day, replaced by bargain hunt. final score programme bringing all the results in later in the afternoon, that is also off air. as you say, the highlight show then later, the match of the day show, none of the pundits there. that is because all of those co

damian grammaticas, he is in front of our headquarters here in central london. for gary lineker in the last few minutes from presenters and pundits on other football programmes. yes. presenters and pundits on other football programmes. yes, exactly. so this football programmes. yes, exactly. 50 this issue _ football programmes. yes, exactly. so this issue is _ football programmes. yes, exactly. so this issue is snowballing - football programmes. yes, exactly. so this issue is snowballing fast - so this issue is snowballing fast and a real problem for the bbc�*s director general, who you heard there. he viewed it as a matter of partiality. now what we are seeing is football pundits, commentators all coming out in solidarity with gary lineker, so we have heard jason mohammed just now saying that he is not going to be taking part. so there is in the match of the day, football focus, afternoon football programmes, the round—up programmes, all of there is now in question. alex scott, another one. she has been saying today as well that she will not be taking part. ian

here's our political correspondent damian grammaticas. hello. hi, guys.government is to do what's necessary for economic stability. rememberthem, liz truss, and what became known as the kami—kwasi budget? jeremy hunt was brought in to clear up the mess. now he and rishi sunak have stabilised things this week sees his first budget. mr hunt'sjob has been to repair and restore confidence, reputations and hopefully growth. to do that, he says, he needs to get more people back into the workforce. we can make a big difference on childcare, for example, by paying people's help for childcare if you are on benefit upfront rather than in arrears. there's lots we can do, but it isn'tjust parents, by the way, it's also older people wondering whether they should retire early or not. it's people looking for work. we've got one and a half million of those. we could actually fill every single vacancyjust from that group. 0n childcare, the help will be targeted at those receiving benefits. campaign groups say that would leave hundreds of thousands of other families still

criticised the deal, saying northern ireland would remain under uk law. 0ur political correspondent damian grammaticasof this week, the key question is how much broad support he can get. crucial to that other northern irish the core of brexit supporting tory mps. they are both waiting for legal opinions, going through the text. it also, we have been waiting for borisjohnson, the figure they could rally behind. he said today he does not like the new deal. the reason, for him, brexit was about separating the uk from the eu, doing things differently, and this leaves northern ireland under eu stop of course, this is what he signed up to, and the new deal refines that to make it better, but mrjohnson came out today and said very carefully that while he would not be able to find it very hard to vote for this, he didn't explicitly say he would vote against it, that may be because senior tories who backed him and backed brexit have said they liked rishi sunak�*s deal, and mrjohnson said he could see where the political momentum is going, so he urged northern irish a way to live with it. ithink if urged northe

arriving in the uk being locked up in shoe box quarantine hotels. 0ur political correspondent damian grammaticasairport hotel, for ten days — if you arrived from a high—risk country. the cost — you paid around £2,000 per adult. the very day the policy came in, it's the tone of the text messages that's most striking. the country's most senior civil servant to matt hancock, then health secretary. "i just want to see some of the faces of people coming out of first—class and into a premier inn shoebox," says simon case. ten days later, they appear to be laughing. mr case asks, "any idea how many people we locked up in hotels yesterday?" matt hancock says, "none, but 149 chose to enter the country and are now in quarantine hotels due to their own free will." simon case replies, "hilarious." the telegraph newspaper was given the messages by isabel 0akeshott. she says publishing them is in the national interest, claiming the lockdowns and quarantines were catastrophic. she was handed the messages by matt hancock when she helped him write a book about his experience of the pandemic. mr hancock says the

i'm joined now by our political correspondent, damian grammaticas. good morning. and what realistically can we expect from this re—warming of relations? the agenda will be quite broad, the issue chris was talking about is certainly a british political priority and will be featuring at this meeting, but it is not the only thing by any means and certainly not the priority from the french side. rishi sunak once this issue of small boats, he has placed its centre of the uk political scene at the minute, his immigration bill, new legislation unveiled in parliament which seeks to take a pretty tough line on this and he is promising to reduce the numbers of migrants, refugees, crossing the channel on small dinghies and boats to get to the uk. he wants to see progress on that but he will its seams offer to extend the funding the uk already gives to french police who patrol the beaches in france and have been stopping a lot of the boats, france will talk about working with the uk there and will not it seems likely go further and agreed to accept people being sent back who

let's get the latest now from our political correspondent damian grammaticas. icians. nadine dory's conservative former culture secretary, she actually was last night on her own tv show that she has on talk tv and she was saying the gary lineker, she said, doesn't need to decide she said, is he a football presenter or a candidate for the labour party? she said it was important that public facing employees of the bbc have a responsibility to retain an element of impartiality when using social media platforms. from the other side, from the leave aside, what you heard was david lambie, he was saying that this was a chilling decision and he accused the bbc of cowering to white —— right wing fanatics. nicola sturgeon in scotland said this was indefensible by the bbc and undermining free speech in the face of political pressure and it does always seem to be right—wing pressure that the bbc caves too. the bbc director—general i think caves too. the bbc director—general ithink finding caves too. the bbc director—general i think finding himself, he says, tackling imparti

i'm joined now by our correspondent damian grammaticas.r one, on a broad level he wants to demonstrate he is the sort of prime minister gets things done, it gets agreements, who is able to secure advances in policy, things that will benefit the uk. this is part of a big push to do that and the second thing within that, what he wants to get to was a bit of a focus on what he has made an important domestic political issue for him, which is the issue of migrants, refugees crossing over from france across the narrow waters between france and the uk on small inflatable boats, trying to seek asylum, migrants trying to get into the uk. mr sunak has made a priority to stop that, says that is what he is going to do, 40,000 rivals last year, he is bringing in tough legislation here, to say that anyone who does that will be detained and deported or sent to other countries for processing. there are many hurdles with that policy, but what he wants, he already has cooperation with france with french policemen patrolling beaches in france, bonded to a la

damian grammaticas, bbc news.are just frustration and tiredness and an anger because during the time... during the peak of the crisis, myself and other campaigners were calling for the government to listen to scientific advice, take the pandemic seriously, because our concern was that people were losing their lives due to what i felt personally was maybe an overconfidence in dealing with the pandemic. it seems like these whatsapp messages are just vindicating all of the beliefs we had. just tell us again, what is your personal experience of it? what makes this so much more personalfor you? i lost my dad to covid in april 2020. he was a key worker, working throughout the first lockdown, and unfortunately he lost his life at home to covid, so it's very personal, it hurts a lot, i cannot describe the pain. it feels like having the worst day of my life trivialised by the attitude that appears to be in these whatsapp messages. we must say that matt hancock has said some of those were taken out of context and has said t

marc ashdown, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent damian grammaticas joins us now from the london newsroom the measures that are coming — drips out the measures that are coming over the coming days so we have today, — coming over the coming days so we have today, what mike was talking about _ have today, what mike was talking about there, today that focuses on these _ about there, today that focuses on these measures for getting people back to _ these measures for getting people back to work, those childcare costs that he _ back to work, those childcare costs that he was — back to work, those childcare costs that he was talking about, people on universal— that he was talking about, people on universal credit being able to get those _ universal credit being able to get those payments upfront. that fits into the _ those payments upfront. that fits into the big picture theme that the chancellor is going to want to talk about, _ chancellor is going to want to talk about, talking about this as a back to work— about, talking about this as a back to work budget. but many other things— to work bud

questions is coming up in the next half an hour i'm joined now by our political correspondent damian grammaticaschanges on immigration. it is a subject where labour are at something of a different advantage? the indications are the centres _ different advantage? the indications are the centres that _ different advantage? the indications are the centres that labour - different advantage? the indications are the centres that labour may - different advantage? the indications l are the centres that labour may want to seize on this so that in a way, they're not seen to be shying away from the issue. you're absolutely right, the labour leader has a bit of a difficulty here because the government was taking this decision, saying it's going to stop the boats and it's got its legislation coming forward have all the measures. some pretty controversial in there and a lot of questions about that but the government clearly sees to try to tackle the crossings, with 40,000 people coming last year, up to double that perhaps this year. the government maxi is a political issue that it can push to try to different

political correspondent damian grammaticas has more. february 2021, hotel quarantine.h secretary. "i just want to see some of the faces of people coming out of first—class and into a premier inn shoebox," says simon case. ten days later, they appear to be laughing. mr case asks, "any idea how many people we locked up in hotels yesterday?" matt hancock says, "none, but 1119 chose to enter the country and are now in quarantine hotels due to their own free will." simon case replies, "hilarious." the telegraph newspaper was given the messages by isabel oakeshott. she says publishing them is in the national interest, claiming the lockdowns and quarantines were catastrophic. she was handed the messages by matt hancock when she helped him write a book about his experience of the pandemic. mr hancock says the messages are being published piecemeal as part of a biased campaign to discredit government policies. and, last night, a former colleague came to his defence. there's three st james bibles' worth of messages from one man who was working 18 hours a day, seven days a week.